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Chapter 16 Personality: who we are
Michelle Schilders
Learning Objectives
16.1a Describe how twin and adoption studies shed light on genetic
and environmental influences on personality.
16.2a Describe the core assumptions of psychoanalytic theory.
16.2b Describe key criticisms of psychoanalytic theory and the central
features of neo-Freudian theories.
16.3a Identify the core assumptions of behavioural and social
learning theories of personality.
16.3b Describe key criticisms of behavioural and social learning
approaches.
16.4a Explain the concept of self-actualisation and its role in
humanistic models.
16.4b Describe key criticisms of humanistic approaches.
16.5a Describe trait models of personality, including the Big Five.
16.5b Identify key criticisms of trait models.
16.6a Describe structured personality tests, such as the MMPI-2, and
their methods of construction.
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16.6b Describe projective tests, particularly the Rorschach, and their
strengths and weaknesses.
16.6c Identify common pitfalls in personality assessment.
Challenge your assumptions
1. Is there such a thing as personality?
2. Can we reduce the enormous variation in people’s personalities to a mere handful of underlying
factors?
3. Does personality accurately predict how people will behave in a single, isolated situation?
4. Can we use responses to inkblots to infer people’s personality traits?
5. Is criminal profiling scientific?
(See end of chapter for answers.)
Have you ever listened to a radio or television talk show where ‘advice experts’ give off-the-cuff
psychological accounts for people’s behaviour? (Heaton & Wilson, 19954955; Williams & Ceci, 19984956
): ‘He murdered those people because he had an unhappy childhood’; ‘She overeats because she has low
self-esteem’; ‘He cheats on his partner because he is trying to prove his masculinity’. As appealing as
these explanations may be to some, we should treat them with a dose of healthy scepticism, particularly
when they lack supporting evidence and are based on stereotypes. We must beware of single-cause
explanations of human behaviour. When trying to uncover the root causes of people’s actions, we must
keep in mind that personality is multiply determined. Indeed, personality is the unimaginably
complicated outcome of dozens of causal influences: genetic, intrauterine (within the womb), parenting,
peer, culture, life stressors and plain old luck, both good and bad. Tempting as it is to invoke singlecause explanations, we should avoid the errors of radio and television advice experts.
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16.1: Personality: what is it and how
can we study it?
16.1a Describe how twin and adoption studies shed light on genetic
and environmental influences on personality.
In Chapter 14, we learned how our social context can profoundly influence our behaviour. There, we
met up with the fundamental attribution error, the tendency to attribute too much of others’ behaviour to
their dispositions, including their personalities, and consequently not enough to the situations they
confront and the sociocultural contexts they are in.
Even bearing this error in mind, most psychologists agree that there is such a thing as personality—
people’s typical ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. We are not exclusively a product of the social
factors that affect us at any given moment, although we are certainly influenced by them. American
psychologist Gordon Allport (19664957) defined personality as relatively enduring predispositions that
influence our behaviour across many situations. This definition has been widely supported in Western
psychology literature (John et al., 20084958; Pervin, 20034959). These predispositions, also called trait—
such as introversion, aggressiveness and conscientiousness—account for part of the consistencies in our
behaviour across both time and situations.
There are two major approaches to studying personality (Scurich et al., 20124960). A nomothetic
approach strives to understand personality by identifying general principles and laws that explain the
behaviour of all individuals. Most modern personality research, including most of the research we will
examine in this chapter, is nomothetic because it aims to identify common patterns and trends that
explain the thinking, emotions and behaviours of all peoples. Researchers who use the nomothetic
approach administer personality tests to large groups of people to collect data. They then analyse the
data to look for correlations and trends, such as connections between specific personality traits and
demographic factors. Alternatively, they may seek to identify personality traits that predict outcomes
such as job performance or academic success. This approach typically allows for generalisations across
individuals but provides limited insight into the unique patterning of attributes within one person.
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In contrast, an idiographic approach (think of the word idiosyncratic) strives to understand personality
by identifying the unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person.
Most case studies are idiographic. Allport (19654961) presented a classic example of the idiographic
approach in his book Letters from Jenny, which features an analysis of 301 letters written by one woman
over 12 years. In these letters, Allport uncovered themes that characterised Jenny’s attitudes towards her
son, Ross. When Jenny wrote about Ross in positive terms, themes of her early life often emerged; when
she wrote about him in negative terms, themes of her unappreciated sacrifices for him often appeared.
The idiographic approach reveals the richly detailed tapestry of one person’s life but allows for limited
generalisability to other people. Moreover, it generates hypotheses that are often difficult to falsify
because these hypotheses are frequently post hoc (‘after the fact’) explanations about events that have
already occurred.
Testing predictions
Can the claim be tested?
How do personality traits originate? We will first approach this deceptively complex question from the
vantage point of behavioural genetic studies of personality and move on to specific theories of
personality, including Freudian, behavioural and humanistic models, that offer competing answers to this
question. We will also grapple with the complexities of culture and question theories of personality that
claim to be universal. As we will discover, all these theories aim to explain both commonalities and
differences among people in their personalities.
Behavioural genetic methods, with which we first crossed paths previously in the text (see Chapter 4),
help psychologists disentangle the following three broad sets of influences on personality:
1. Genetic factors—personality traits that are inherited from parents or other family members.
2. Shared environmental factors—experiences that make individuals within the same family more
alike. For example, if parents and caregivers try to make all the children in their care more
outgoing by reinforcing them with attention and succeed in doing so, this aspect of their childrearing is a shared environmental factor.
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3. Non-shared environmental factors—experiences that make individuals within the same family less
alike. For example, if a parent or caregiver treats one child more affectionately than another and,
consequently, this child ends up with higher self-esteem than the other child, this part of their care
giving is a non-shared environmental factor.
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Researching personality: overview of twin and
adoption studies
To distinguish among these three sets of influences, behaviour geneticists have applied twin studies and
adoption studies to personality. Identical (monozygotic) twins are more similar genetically than fraternal
(dizygotic) twins. A higher correlation of traits among identical than fraternal twins therefore would
suggest a genetic influence, assuming that the environmental influences on both sets of twins are
comparable. In contrast, when the correlations of traits among identical twins are equal to or less than
fraternal twins, it suggests the absence of a genetic component. Instead it points to non-shared
environmental influences, such as those that make people within a family (including twins) different.
Reared-together twins: genes or environment?
From the findings of one landmark twin study of personality, presented in Table 16.1, we can see that
numerous personality traits—including anxiety-proneness, impulse control and traditionalism (the extent
to which people believe in well-established social values, such as the importance of obeying one’s
parents and teachers)—are influenced substantially by genetic factors (see the left side of Table 16.1).
Table 16.1 Comparison of correlations of twins reared together and apart for selected personality
traits
TWINS REARED TOGETHER
TWINS REARED APART
IDENTICAL
FRATERNAL
IDENTICAL
FRATERNAL
TWIN
TWIN
TWIN
TWIN
TRAIT
CORRELATION
CORRELATION
Anxiety-
0.52
0.24
0.61
0.27
Aggression
0.43
0.14
0.46
0.06
Alienation
0.55
0.38
0.55
0.38
Impulse control
0.41
0.06
0.50
0.03
Emotional
0.58
0.23
0.48
0.18
PERSONALITY
CORRELATION CORRELATION
proneness
wellbeing
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Traditionalism
0.50
0.47
0.53
0.39
Achievement
0.36
0.07
0.36
0.07
orientation
Source: Based on data from Tellegen et al., 19884962.
This study examined identical twin pairs raised together and fraternal twins who were either both male
or both female (Tellegen et al., 1988). Researchers have replicated these findings in twin samples from
intact families (Kendler et al., 20094963; Plomin, 20044964).
Replicability
Can the results be duplicated in other studies?
The results in Table 16.1 impart another lesson that is easy to overlook. If personality was solely
influenced by genetics, we would expect correlations for identical twins to be 1.0 (i.e. 100 per cent).
However, all the identical twin correlations are substantially less than 1.0, demonstrating that non-shared
environmental factors must play an important role in personality (Krueger, 20004965; Turkheimer, 2000
4966
). Regrettably, these twin findings do not provide information as to what specific non-shared
environmental influences are at play. Twin studies have also been criticised for overlooking other
explanations for stronger personality similarities among identical twins. Critics argue that because
identical twins have a matched physical appearance, they are more likely to be treated similarly by their
parents and others, spend more time together and have closer bonds, which may also enhance their
similarities rather than the similarities being due to environment (Joseph, 20024967, 20144968).
Reared-apart twins: shining a spotlight on genes
The correlations presented in Table 16.1 may tempt us to conclude that the similarities between identical
twins are primarily a result of their similar upbringing rather than their shared genes. But this
explanation is refuted by studies of identical and fraternal twins raised apart. A recent study estimates
that genetics accounts for approximately 50 per cent (correlation of 0.5) of personality (Koenig, 20204969
).
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Testing predictions
Can the claim be tested?
Furthermore, researchers at the University of Minnesota conducted an extensive investigation over two
decades, amassing a sample of 130 identical and fraternal twins who were raised apart, sometimes in
different countries (Bouchard et al., 19904970). Many had been separated almost immediately after birth
and reunited for the first time decades later in Minneapolis–St Paul Airport.
Before psychologists conducted these studies, prominent social scientists confidently predicted that
identical twins reared apart would show little resemblance in personality traits (Mischel, 19814971). This
study enabled the hypothesis to be tested. The right side of Table 16.1 displays some of the principal
findings from the Minnesota Twins study. Despite initial scepticism, the study revealed that identical
twins reared apart exhibited remarkable similarities in personality traits, far exceeding those of fraternal
twins raised separately (Tellegen et al., 1988).
Additionally, comparing results from both sides of Table 16.1, it is clear that identical twins raised apart
are nearly as similar as those raised together, indicating that shared environment has minimal influence
on adult personality. This study provided compelling evidence for the significant role of genetic
influences on personality. Behavioural genetic researchers have replicated this result in other twin
samples (Atkinson & Vernon, 20204972; Polderman et al., 20154973; Vernon et al., 20084974).
In many respects, this may be the most stunning finding in recent personality psychology (Harris, 2006
4975
; Pinker, 20024976). Throughout much of the 20th century, psychologists favoured shared
environmental influences as primary causes, presuming that significant influences pass from caregivers
to children. (Harris, 19944977). But these and other results suggest that they were mistaken (Lilienfeld et
al., 20104978).
While shared environment may affect childhood personality to some extent, its influence diminishes as
individuals mature. For example, while shared environment may correlate with antisocial traits in 5-yearold twins, this effect tends to fade by adolescence or adulthood (Tuvblad et al., 20174979). Ultimately, by
adulthood, shared environmental factors have minimal impact on personality development (Beauchaine
& Gatzke-Kopp, 20124980; King et al., 20194981; Torgersen et al., 20084982). This implies that attempts
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by parents to shape their children’s personalities through social exposure are likely to be ineffective in
the long term.
Adoption studies: further separating genes and environment
Adoption studies allow researchers to separate genetic and environmental effects by observing children
separated from their biological families at an early age. Similarity between an adopted child’s
personality and that of their biological parents indicates genetic influence, while similarity with adoptive
parents suggests shared environmental influence.
In one adoption study, researchers examined personality traits as measured by the California
Psychological Inventory, which we will discuss later in the chapter. We will focus on one such trait:
sociability, or the extent to which people enjoy being with others. As we can see in Table 16.2, the
correlations in sociability between biological parents and their adopted-away children are slightly higher
than those between adoptive parents and their adopted children, despite biological parents having
minimal contact with their children post birth (Loehlin & Horn, 20104983). Similar findings have been
replicated across various personality traits by multiple researchers (Bezdjian et al., 20114984; Polderman
et al., 2015), contradicting the notion that shared environment significantly shapes personality. Instead,
being raised together does not lead to many similarities in personality traits between parents and
offspring.
Table 16.2 Correlations among various relatives in an adoption study of sociability
RELATIONSHIP
CORRELATION
Biological mother and child
0.15
Adoptive mother and child
0.01
Biological father and child
0.20
Adoptive father and child
0.08
Source: Based on Loehlin & Horn, 2010. © Scott O. Lilienfeld.
Stop and think
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Briefly describe the logic of twin studies (both reared together and reared apart) and adoption studies
and explain how each type of study contributes distinct and valuable information regarding the origins of
personality.
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Behavioural genetic studies: a note of caution
Twin and adoption studies reveal that genes significantly influence various behaviours associated with
personality traits. These behaviours range from divorce (McGue & Lykken, 19924985) and religious
practices (Vance et al., 20104986) to political party affiliation (Hatemi & McDermott, 20124987), military
service (Miles & Haider-Markel, 20194988), television viewing habits (Plomin et al., 19904989) and
social attitudes such as opinions on the death penalty and nudist colonies (Martin et al., 19864990). For
each of these characteristics, identical twin correlations for these traits consistently exceed fraternal twin
correlations.
Do these findings imply the existence of specific genes for divorce, religiosity, political preferences,
attitudes and the like? Not necessarily. Genes encode proteins, not behaviours or attitudes directly, so
their impact on psychological characteristics such as the tendency to experience deep emotions is largely
indirect (N. Block, 19954991). While genes may play a role in traits such as emotional depth, the
environment shapes how these traits manifest. The pathways from genes to behaviour are complex. So,
if you hear reports of a ‘gay gene’, ‘alcoholism gene’, ‘conservative gene’ or ‘divorce gene’, know that
this is not supported by scientific evidence and is likely driven by stereotypes. While genetics may
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influence political views, sexual orientation and divorce, it is unlikely that a single gene directly codes
for these complex behaviours (Ganna et al., 20194992; Kendler, 20054993).
Although twin and adoption studies offer valuable insights into the heritability of personality traits, they
provide limited information on the specific genes involved. Molecular genetic studies aim to address this
by identifying genes associated with personality traits (Canli, 20084994; Montag et al., 20204995). These
studies operate on the premise that genes influence neurotransmitter function, such as dopamine and
serotonin, which in turn relates to personality traits (Gardini et al., 20094996). For instance, people with
low levels of serotonin and dopamine tend to be more impulsive and aggressive than others (Carver &
Miller, 20064997; Dolan et al., 20014998; Hennig et al., 20214999).
Most modern studies use genome-wide associations, examining thousands of genes for associations with
personality traits. However, few consistent gene–trait associations have been found (Gray et al., 20185000
; Lachmann et al., 20215001; South et al., 20185002), suggesting that hundreds of genes, each exerting a
tiny effect, contribute to variations across people in their personality traits.
Mysteries of psychological science
Where is the environmental influence?
As we have seen, non-shared environmental influences significantly impact on personality development,
yet specific factors contributing to these differences remain elusive. For example, the extent to which
parents and caregivers treat their children differently or differences in the kinds of peers with which
children interact do not seem to account for much, if any, of the differences in their personalities as
adults (Turkheimer & Waldron, 20005003).
Similarly, in psychopathology research, investigations into non-shared environmental influences have
yielded few insights, even in cases of schizophrenia when researchers have examined identical twins
where one twin has the disorder but the other does not (Dempster et al., 20115004; Imamura et al., 2020
5005
). This design cleverly controls genetic factors because identical twins share all their genes, so any
differences between them must be due to non-shared environment. Nevertheless, investigators have
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found few, if any, differences in non-shared environment influences that could account for the difference
between the twins (Wahl, 19765006). For example, differences in how the twins were raised as children
did not consistently predict which one later developed the disorder.
An alternative explanation to environment (shared and non-shared) factors and genes has been proposed
that might account for the lack of identification of specific environmental influences or genes in the role
of schizophrenia. Recently, some researchers have argued that rather than environmental or genetic
influences, schizophrenia is instead caused by an infectious agent (Toxoplasma gondii), which often
clusters in families and can be passed from parents to children (Torrey & Yolken, 20195007), or arises
from alterations in the microbiome—the bacteria in the gut (Imamura et al., 2020). These possibilities,
which have yet to be investigated systematically, imply that nomothetic approaches may never be
sufficient to understand personality; we may need to complement them with idiographic approaches,
which capture the full complexity of each person’s life history and, in this case, physiology.
Another long-time candidate for a non-shared environmental factor is birth order. Many popular books,
such as Birth Order: What Your Position in the Family Really Tells You about Your Character (Blair,
20135008) claim that first-borns are more achievement oriented, middle-borns more diplomatic and laterborns are greater risk takers. Yet in fact, most researchers have failed to uncover consistent associations
between birth order and personality (Damian & Roberts, 20155009; Dunkel et al., 20095010; Rohrer et
al., 20155011).
There is one final possibility we have not considered. Perhaps the principal non-shared environmental
influence on personality is simply luck—both good and bad (Meehl, 19785012; Turkheimer & Waldron,
2000). Some of us encounter positive events in our lives, whereas others encounter negative events, and
these largely random events may shape us in powerful ways.
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Quiz 16.1: Personality: what is it and how can we
study it?
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16.2: Psychoanalytic theory: the
controversial legacy of Sigmund
Freud and his followers
16.2a Describe the core assumptions of psychoanalytic theory.
16.2b Describe key criticisms of psychoanalytic theory and the central
features of neo-Freudian theories.
Long before researchers stepped in to conduct controlled studies of the causes of personality or had an
inkling about the role of genes in personality, psychologists, psychiatrists and many other thinkers had
generated theoretical models that sought to explain the development and workings of personality. These
models addressed three key questions:
1. How do our personalities develop?
2. What are the core driving forces in our personalities—or, more informally, what makes us tick?
3. What accounts for individual differences in personality?
We will examine and evaluate four influential models of personality, starting with Sigmund Freud’s
psychoanalytic theory. Freud (1856–1939) was trained in neurology and not psychology or psychiatry.
Largely because of his neurological background, Freud initially believed that mental disorders had
purely physiological causes. But his outlook changed dramatically after spending a year studying under
neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot in Paris. Charcot treated patients, most of them women, with a
condition then known as ‘grande hystérie’ (‘big hysteria’; a term no longer used). They exhibited an
assortment of physical symptoms: paralyses of the arms and legs, fainting spells and seizures. Despite
extensive investigations, no physical causes were found for these symptoms, some of which made little
or no physiological sense.
This and related observations led Freud to conclude that many mental disorders were produced by
psychological rather than physiological factors. He developed a theoretical model to explain these
disorders, traditionally called psychoanalytic theory, and an accompanying treatment called
psychoanalysis (see Chapter 18).
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Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality
Psychoanalytic theory rests on three core assumptions (Brenner, 19735019; Loevinger, 19875020):
1. Psychic determinism. Freudians believe in psychic determinism: the assumption that all
psychological events have a cause. Freudians believe people are not free to choose their actions
because they are at the mercy of powerful inner forces that lie outside their awareness (Custer &
Aarts, 20105021). Dreams, neurotic symptoms and ‘Freudian slips’ of the tongue can all reflect
deep psychological conflict bubbling up to the surface (see Box 16.1). Moreover, for Freudians,
many key influences on adult personality stem from early childhood experiences, especially
parenting.
2. Hidden and symbolic meaning. For Freudians, no action, no matter how trivial it may seem, is
meaningless. Freudians hypothesise that all actions are attributable to preceding mental causes.
Consider the case of a professor who writes a snarky email meant for a friend in which they
complain about a rival, yet respected, colleague. Much to their horror, the professor mistakenly
sends the email to their rival, rather than their friend. Freudians might argue that this embarrassing
error stems from a conflict between the sender’s aggressive urges towards their colleague and an
unconscious motive to be shamed for their hostile impulses. Yet even strict Freudians agree that
not all behaviours represent a hidden motive or symbolise something else, such as repressed
hostility. The professor might have been focused on their rival colleague and simply typed their
name in the address line without thinking.
3. Unconscious motivation. Freud (19335022) argued that people rarely understand the reasons
behind their actions, despite readily creating justifications for them afterwards. Some authors have
likened the Freudian view of the mind (Freud, 19235023) to an iceberg, with the unconscious
(representing the part of personality of which we are entirely unaware) being the vast and largely
uncharted area of the psyche submerged entirely underwater (see Figure 16.1). The conscious
component of the mind, the part of personality of which people are aware, is merely the ‘tip of the
iceberg’, barely visible above the water’s surface. For Freud, the unconscious is of immensely
greater importance than the conscious in the causes of personality.
Box 16.1 Examples of ‘Freudian slips’ from notes by Freud
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‘A member of the House of Commons referred to another as the honourable member for Central Hell
instead of Central Hull.’
‘A soldier said to a friend that “I wish there were a thousand men mortified on that hill” instead of
“fortified on that hill”.’
‘A lady, attempting to compliment another, says that “I am sure that you must have thrown this
delightful hat together” instead of “sewn it together”, thereby betraying her thought that the hat was
poorly made.’
‘A lady states that few gentlemen know how to value the “ineffectual” qualities in a woman, as opposed
to “intellectual”.’
Source: Freud, 19015024.
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These assumptions, especially the second and third, set this theory apart from most other personality
theories.
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The id, ego and superego: the structure of personality
Freud (19335025, 19355026) hypothesised that the human psyche consists of three agencies or
components: id, ego and superego. For Freud, the interplay among these three agencies gives rise to our
personalities, and differences in the strength of these agencies account largely for individual differences
in personality.
The id: basic instincts
The id, according to Freud, is the reservoir of our primitive impulses, a seething cauldron of passions
and desires that drives our behaviour. It operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate
gratification without regard for consequences: the word ‘no’ is not in the id’s vocabulary. The id is
entirely unconscious and is the part of the iceberg submerged underwater. It contains various drives,
notably the sexual drive (see Chapter 12) and the aggressive drive. The id wants what it wants, when it
wants it. Imagine a toddler who throws a tantrum when they can’t have what they want: that is the id in
action.
The ego: the boss
The ego is the rational aspect of our personality that mediates between the id’s impulses and the external
world. The ego’s primary task is to balance our desires with the reality, guided by the reality principle.
The reality principle strives to delay gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet. Most of the ego’s
operations are unconscious. If a toddler, who is governed by their id, finds that throwing a tantrum doesn’
t get them what they want, they start to develop their ego and learn to negotiate and compromise.
The superego: moral standards
The superego represents our internalised moral compass, shaped by societal norms and upbringing. It
acts as a judgmental authority, representing our sense of right and wrong. Freudians suggest that an
overdeveloped superego leads to guilt-proneness, while an underdeveloped one can lead to a lack of
guilt and potential psychopathic traits. The superego is partly unconscious and forms early in childhood
through interactions, especially with parents.
How the psychic agencies interact
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The id, ego and superego interact harmoniously, much like a chamber music trio playing in perfect
synchrony. Nevertheless, the agendas of these agencies sometimes collide, often with problematic
consequences for our psychological adjustment (see Figure 16.2). Freud (1935) proposed that their
conflicting agendas can lead to psychological distress. Consider this hypothetical scenario: if you are
attracted to your best friend’s partner, your id would likely be at odds with your ego and your superego.
You might fantasise about a romantic interaction with this person (id) but feel frightened about what
would happen to you (ego) and stricken with pangs of guilt about hurting your friend’s feelings
(superego) if you were to act on these impulses. For Freud, internal psychological conflict is an
unavoidable part of daily life.
For an intimate view of the three psychic agencies in action, Freud (19005027) explored the dynamics of
the id, ego and superego throughout dreams, which he called the ‘royal road to the unconscious mind’.
Freud argued that dreams reveal the id’s impulses and show how the ego and superego work together to
control these impulses. He believed that all dreams are wish fulfilments but they are often disguised to
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avoid arousing anxiety. When the superego deems the id’s desires threatening, it directs the ego to
camouflage them with symbols.
You will recall that Chapter 6 discussed the phenomena of dreams in relation to human consciousness
and in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander relational ontology. It is important to note here
that there are different understandings of dreams. Freud’s early theories are one explanation;
interestingly, many Freudians do not regard dream symbols as universal.
Anxiety and the defence mechanisms
The ego’s main role, according to Freud, is to deal with threats from the outside world and from the id.
When danger arises, the ego experiences anxiety, prompting corrective actions, such as jumping out of
the way of an oncoming car. If direct action isn’t possible, the ego resorts to defence mechanisms:
unconscious strategies to reduce anxiety. The concept of defence mechanisms has crept into everyday
language for many people (‘Stop being so defensive’). Contrary to popular belief, Freud held that
defence mechanisms are essential for psychological health. Nevertheless, relying excessively on a few is
considered pathological by Freud. Freud and his daughter Anna, who also became a prominent
psychoanalyst, outlined various defence mechanisms (Freud, 19375028). We now present a brief tour of
some of the most important of them here, bearing in mind that many psychologists today do not
subscribe to the Freudian view of them (see also Table 16.3).
Table 16.3 Major Freudian defence mechanisms and an example of each
DEFENCE MECHANISM
EXAMPLE
Repression
A person who witnesses a traumatic combat scene finds they
are unable to remember it
Denial
A parent who loses a child in a car accident insists their child
is alive
Regression
A university student starts sucking their thumb during a
difficult exam
Reaction-formation
An individual in a committed relationship who is sexually
attracted to a colleague experiences hatred and revulsion
towards the colleague
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Projection
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Someone with powerful unconscious sexual impulses
towards a particular gender complains that members of that
gender are always ‘after them’
Displacement
A tennis player throws their racquet to the ground in anger
after missing an easy volley
Rationalisation
A political candidate who loses an election convinces
themself that they did not really want the position after all
Sublimation
A child who enjoys beating up other children grows up to
become a professional boxer
Repression, the most critical defence mechanism in psychoanalytic theory, is the motivated
forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses triggered by anxiety. People forget
because they want to forget. Freud suggested people repress unhappy memories of early childhood
to avoid pain, leading to infantile amnesia (see Chapter 8), the inability to remember anything
before about age 3 (Fivush & Hudson, 19905029). However, psychologists now suggest this
explanation is unlikely, as infantile amnesia occurs in other animals too, including mice and rats
(Berk et al., 19795030; Richardson et al., 19865031). A committed Freudian might argue that mice
and other rodents also repress traumatic memories of early childhood. However, this explanation
is implausible, although scientists are still unsure about why amnesia for our very early years
occurs.
Denial, unlike repression, which deals with past events, involves refusing to acknowledge current
events, such as a serious problem in our marriage or relatives of individuals who have recently
died in a tragic accident insisting that their loved ones must somehow, somewhere, be alive.
Regression is the act of returning psychologically to a younger age, typically early childhood,
when life was simpler and safer. For example, older children who have long since stopped sucking
their thumb sometimes suddenly resume thumb sucking under stress.
Reaction-formation involves converting an anxiety-provoking emotion into its opposite. The
displayed emotion is actually the opposite of what the person feels unconsciously. Freud
suggested that we can detect reaction-formation by the intensity of the expressed emotion, which
often seems exaggerated or insincere.
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Projection is the unconscious attribution of our negative characteristics to others. According to
psychoanalysts, someone who has repressed feelings of jealousy towards a friend may project
those feelings onto the friend, accusing them of being jealous instead.
Displacement is closely related to projection and is when people direct an impulse from a socially
unacceptable target onto a safer and more socially acceptable target. For example, after a
frustrating day at work, a person might pound their fists against the punching bag at the gym
rather than lashing out at an annoying colleague.
Rationalisation offers seemingly logical explanations for irrational behaviours or failures. For
example, individuals may rationalise bizarre actions prompted by post-hypnotic suggestions (see
Chapter 6). A participant given a post-hypnotic suggestion to bark like a dog after emerging from
hypnosis may do so. When asked why they barked for no apparent reason, they may rationalise
their behaviour: ‘Hmmm … I was just thinking about how much I missed my dog, so I felt like
barking’ (see Figure 16.3). A related defence mechanism, intellectualisation, allows us to avoid
anxiety by thinking about abstract and interpersonal ideas.
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Ruling out rival hypotheses
Have important alternative explanations for the findings been excluded?
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Sublimation transforms a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired goal. George Vaillant’s
(19775032) book, Adaptation to Life, which is a 40-year longitudinal study of Harvard University
graduates, features several examples of sublimation. Among them is the story of a man who
started fires in childhood and went on to become chief of his local fire department.
Stop and think
Select three of Sigmund Freud’s defence mechanisms and give an example from your own life of when
you believe that you might have used these defence mechanisms to reduce anxiety.
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Stages of psychosexual development
Freud’s (19055033, 19245034) theory of psychosexual development, though criticised as pseudoscientific
(Cioffi, 19985035; Craddock, 20135036), remains a key reference for understanding personality
development. According to Freud, starting in infancy, personality development occurs through a series
of stages he called psychosexual because each stage focuses on a different erogenous zone. Freud argued
that successful resolution of each stage is crucial for later personality development and that individuals
can become fixated in a stage due to deprivation or excessive gratification received during that stage.
We will now examine the five psychosexual stages as Freud conceptualised them (see Table 16.4). But
bear in mind that many if not all of Freud’s ideas regarding psychosexual development are largely based
on heteronormative assumptions of gender and bodies, as well as Eurocentric and paternalistic
understandings of family structures.
Table 16.4 Freud’s stages of psychosexual development
STAGE
APPROXIMATE AGE
Oral
Birth to 12–18 months
Anal
18 months to 3 years
Phallic*
3 years to 6 years
Latency
6 years to 12 years
Genital
12 years and beyond
*
Includes Oedipus and Electra complexes.
The oral stage
The first stage of psychosexual development, the oral stage, which generally lasts from birth to 12–18
months, focuses on the mouth. During this stage, infants obtain sexual pleasure primarily by sucking and
drinking. Freud believed that adults who are orally fixated tend to react to stress by becoming intensely
dependent on others for reassurance—a form of regression, according to Freud—just as infants depend
on their mother’s breast as a source of satisfaction. These adults also are prone to unhealthy ‘oral’
behaviours such as overeating, drinking excessively or smoking.
The anal stage
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At the anal stage, which lasts from about 18 months to 3 years, children first come face to face with
psychological conflict. During this stage, children want to alleviate tension and experience pleasure by
moving their bowels, but soon discover they cannot do so whenever nature calls. Instead, they must learn
to inhibit their urges and wait to move their bowels in a socially appropriate place—ideally, the toilet. If
children’s toilet training is either too harsh or too lenient, they will become fixated and prone to
regressing to this stage during anxiety-provoking circumstances. Freudians believe that anally fixated
individuals—anal personalities—tend towards excessive neatness, stinginess and stubbornness in
adulthood.
The phallic stage
The phallic stage, which lasts from approximately 3 to 6 years, is of paramount importance to Freudians
in explaining personality. During this stage, the penis (for boys) and clitoris (for girls) become the
primary sexual zone for pleasure and, according to Freud, children develop desires for the opposite-sex
parent and rivalry with the same-sex parent. This dynamic is referred to as the Oedipus complex for
boys and, sometimes, the Electra complex for girls. Freud believed that failure to resolve these
complexes may lead to psychological issues late in life. The Oedipus complex is one of the most
criticised Freudian theories as it is based on heteronormative assumptions of people and genders that do
not account for the diversity of peoples, families and bodies, and there is little research to support the
theory.
The latency stage
The latency stage, occurring from about 6 to 12 years, follows the phallic stage. During this period,
sexual impulses are thought to lie dormant in the unconscious. According to Freud, boys and girls
typically perceive the opposite sex as unattractive during this stage.
The genital stage
The genital stage, said to begin around the age of 12 years, is when sexual impulses resurface.
Freudians believe that if development has been smooth, mature romantic relationships emerge. However,
unresolved issues from earlier stages may lead to difficulties in forming intimate attachments.
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Psychoanalytic theory evaluated scientifically
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has profoundly shaped our understanding of personality and therefore
warrants careful consideration (Kramer, 20075037). While acknowledged even by his most vocal
detractors as an ingenious thinker, his ideas face scrutiny for lacking scientific support. Here we will
examine five major criticisms.
Untestability
Critics have noted that many hypotheses derived from Freudian theory are difficult or impossible to
refute (Shermer, 20115038). For example, the concept of the defence mechanism of reaction-formation
offers a convenient escape hatch that allows many psychoanalytic hypotheses to evade falsification. If
we were to find evidence that most 5-year-old boys report being sexually repulsed by their mothers,
would this observation refute the existence of the Oedipus complex? Superficially, the answer would
seem to be yes, but Freudians could respond that these boys are engaging in reaction-formation and are
attracted to their mothers at an unconscious level.
Testing predictions
Can the claim be tested?
Freud often used ad hoc manoeuvres (see Chapter 1) to protect his hypotheses from refutation (Boudry,
20135039; Cioffi, 19985040). For example, one of Freud’s patients who disliked her mother-in-law
dreamt of spending a summer holiday with her. This dream seemingly falsifies Freud’s theory that all
dreams are wish fulfilments. Yet Freud argued that her dream supported his theory because her
underlying wish was to prove Freud incorrect (Dolnick, 19985041). Although we might marvel at Freud’
s ingenuity, this ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ reasoning renders psychoanalytic theory difficult to falsify.
Failed predictions
Although much of Freudian theory is challenging to refute, those portions that can be tested often have
been proved false (Grunbaum, 19845042). For example, Freud claimed that children subjected to
excessively harsh toilet training would develop rigid and perfectionistic personalities. However, research
indicates no significant association between toilet training practices and adult personality (Fisher &
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Greenberg, 19965043). Similarly, despite efforts to measure them (Cramer, 20155044), there is little
scientific support for defence mechanisms, including repression (McNally, 20035045). Research shows
that people are no more likely to forget negative life experiences than equally arousing but positive life
experiences (Holmes, 19745046, 19905047). Additionally, although psychotherapies based on Freudian
principles tend to be more effective than no treatment at all (Shedler, 20105048), there is no compelling
evidence that they are more effective than a variety of other psychological interventions, including those
focused on the present rather than on early childhood (Anestis et al., 20115049).
Questionable concept of the unconscious
There is growing acceptance of Freud’s claim that behaviour is unconscious, yet scepticism surrounds
his specific conceptualisation of the unconscious. Nevertheless, Freud was likely correct about two key
points: people often act without awareness of their motives and then construct plausible but erroneous
explanations afterwards. Research by Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson (19775050) illustrated how
individuals can convince themselves of false reasons for their actions. For example, investigators
randomly exposed some participants but not others to the word pair ocean–moon, embedded in a list of
word pairs. When later asked to name their favourite laundry detergent, the participants exposed to the
ocean–moon pairing were significantly more likely than those not exposed to name ‘Tide’. Yet when
asked the reasons for their choice, none came up with the correct explanation; namely, that the words
ocean and moon triggered an association to tide. Instead, participants came up with presumably false but
plausible explanations (such as ‘I recently saw a Tide commercial on television’).
Evidence suggests that subliminally presented stimuli (see Chapter 5) (i.e. stimuli presented below the
threshold for awareness) can sometimes affect people’s behaviour in subtle ways (Keith & Beins, 2017
5051
; Mlodinow, 20125052). Other highly controversial evidence derives from priming paradigms, in
which researchers observe the effects of subtle stimuli on people’s behaviour (see Chapter 8). In one
sensational US study, researchers primed some participants but not others with words relevant to old age
(such as Florida and wrinkle) in the context of a language task. After the study, primed participants
walked down the hallway more slowly than unprimed participants (Bargh & Chartrand, 19995053).
Nevertheless, several research teams have failed to replicate this and similar priming findings (Doyen et
al., 20125054; LeBel & Paunonen, 20115055), so there is ample reason to be sceptical of them.
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Replicability
Can the results be duplicated in other studies?
Some of the positive results we have described may seem to support Freudian theory because they
suggest that factors of which we are unaware influence our behaviour (Westen, 19985056). Still, they do
not provide evidence for the unconscious—a massive reservoir of impulses and memories submerged
beneath awareness (Wilson, 20025057). Freud viewed the unconscious as a ‘place’ where sexual and
aggressive energies, along with repressed memories, are housed. Research does not support the existence
of this place, let alone tell us where it is located (Kihlstrom, 19875058).
Reliance on unrepresentative samples
Many authors have charged that Freud based his theories on atypical samples but generalised them to the
rest of humanity. Most of Freud’s patients were upper-class Viennese women, a far cry from the lived
experiences and realties of, for example, a Torres Strait Islander woman, Nigerian man or Chilean nonbinary individual. Freud’s theories may therefore possess limited external validity (i.e. generalisability)
for diverse peoples and cultural contexts. Moreover, although Freud’s methods of inquiry were
idiographic, his theory was nomothetic: he studied a relatively small number of individuals in-depth but
applied his theories to virtually all of humanity—a biased and flawed assumption this text has gone to
great lengths to caution against!
Generalisability
Do these findings and conclusions reflect the diversity of the human experience?
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Flawed assumption of shared environmental influence
Many Freudian hypotheses assume that shared environment influences personality development, such as
the child mirroring the same-sex parent’s traits in the phallic stage. However, behavioural genetic studies
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reveal minimal impact of shared environment on adult personality (Lewis & Bates, 20145059; Loehlin,
20115060), contradicting a key proposition of Freudian theory.
Summary
Freudian theory has profoundly influenced modern understanding of the mind, yet much of it is
problematic from scientific and diversity standpoints. The one insight of Freud that has best stood the
test of time is that we are often unaware of why we do what we do. But this insight was not original to
Freud. Almost a millennium earlier, a Persian polymath called Ibn Sina (20095061), known as Avicenna
in Latin, discussed in The Book of Healing (published in 1027) the idea that individuals are often
unaware of the underlying reasons or causes behind their actions and behaviours. He recognised that
human behaviour can be influenced by subconscious and unconscious factors, including emotions,
desires and past experiences, which may not be fully accessible to conscious awareness.
Additionally, several scholars tried to argue that Freud’s insights are consistent with findings from
neuroscience (Schwartz, 20155062). For example, brain-imaging studies show that during dreams, our
frontal lobes (which play key roles in controlling undesirable thoughts and behaviours) become
deactivated, broadly consistent with the Freudian idea that our normally inhibited drives and impulses
become unleashed during dreams (Solms, 20135063). Yet such findings do not offer especially
compelling support for psychoanalytic views; for example, the notion that we suspend rational analysis
during dreams is hardly unique to Freud. Also, as we saw in Chapter 6, many dreams are not laden with
themes of sex and aggression but instead reflect everyday experiences, current concerns and cultural
contexts. So, it is far too early to tell whether neuroscience will vindicate most, if any, of Freud’s key
claims.
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Freud’s followers: the neo-Freudians
Largely in reaction to criticisms of Freudian theory, several theorists—many of them Freud’s own
students—broke from their mentor to forge their own models of personality. Because these thinkers
modified Freud’s views in significant ways, they are typically referred to as neo-Freudians.
Neo-Freudian theories: core features
Most neo-Freudian theories share with Freudian theory an emphasis on (1) unconscious influences on
behaviour and (2) the importance of early experience in shaping personality. Nevertheless, neo-Freudian
theories differ from Freudian theory in two key ways:
1. Neo-Freudian theories place less emphasis on sexuality as a driving force in personality and more
emphasis on social drives, such as the need for approval.
2. Neo-Freudian theories are generally more optimistic about lifelong personality growth compared
with Freud’s notably pessimistic view. Freud once wrote that the primary goal of psychoanalysis
was to transform neurotic misery into ordinary, everyday unhappiness (Breuer & Freud, 18955064).
Alfred Adler: the striving for superiority
The first major follower of Freud to defect from the fold was Viennese psychiatrist Alfred Adler (1870–
1937). According to Adler (19315065), the principal motive in human personality is not sex or
aggression, but the striving for superiority. According to Adler, individuals strive to surpass others,
aiming to achieve this through their unique style of life, which entails longstanding patterns of
superiority over peers. This drive can manifest in various endeavours such as becoming renowned
entertainers, exceptional athletes or exemplary parents.
Adler (19225066) maintained that neurotic difficulties stem from early childhood: children who are either
pampered or neglected by their parents are at later risk of an inferiority complex, a popular term
inspired by Adler. Adler believed that people with an inferiority complex are prone to low self-esteem
and tend to overcompensate for this feeling. As a result, they often attempt to demonstrate their
superiority to others at all costs, even if it means dominating them. According to Adler, most forms of
mental illness are unhealthy attempts to overcompensate for the inferiority complex.
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Adler’s hypotheses, like Freud’s, are difficult to falsify (Popper, 19655067). Critics once asked Adler to
explain how someone’s decision to become a homeless person with alcoholism supported his theory that
people always try to attain superiority over others. He responded that such a person has selected a
lifestyle that affords a convenient excuse for being unable to achieve greatness. In effect, the person can
say, ‘If only I did not drink, I would have become successful’. Today, we know that Adler’s explanation
reflects a serious misunderstanding of the causes of alcohol dependence. We also now recognise that this
theory is limited because it assumes that all individuals across cultures share the same motivation for
superiority over others. However, not all people from all cultures prioritise or value superiority in the
same way. In many cultures, collectivism and cooperation are emphasised over individualism and
competition. Additionally, cultural differences in values, norms and societal structure influence how
individuals perceive and pursue personal goals. Therefore, Adler’s theory fails to account for the
diversity of motivations and values present across different cultural contexts. However, this theory
shows that ideologies of superiority and dominance over others permeated into Western psychology,
which was harmful to some people (see Chapter 2).
Testing predictions
Can the claim be tested?
Yet, as shown in Adler’s response, with a little creativity, we can cook up an Adlerian explanation after
the fact for almost any behaviour.
Carl Jung: the collective unconscious
Another pupil of Freud, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), also diverged from Freud due
to disagreements, notably about Freud’s emphasis on sexuality. Jung (19365068) argued that in addition
to Freud’s version of the unconscious—which Jung termed the personal unconscious—there is also a
collective unconscious. For Jung, the collective unconscious comprises the memories that ancestors
have passed down to us across the generations. It is our shared storehouse of ancestral memories that
accounts for cultural similarities in myths and legends. Jung proposed innate and universally present
archetypes, such as the mother archetype representing the nurturing, caring and protective aspects
associated with motherhood. While the mother archetype is often linked to the relationship between an
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infant and their primary caregiver, it extends beyond biological mothers to include any nurturing figure
in a person’s life.
Jung further believed that the collective unconscious contains universal symbols called archetypes
which explain common emotional reactions that are found in all cultures. These include the mother
goddess, hero and mandala (circle), symbolising a desire for wholeness (Campbell, 19885069; Jung, 1950
5070
). Jung even linked flying saucer reports to a subconscious quest for unity, as they resemble
mandalas (Jung, 19585071). Some psychotherapists use Jungian sand play therapy (Steinhardt, 19985072)
to uncover children’s deep-seated conflicts by inferring archetypes from their sand drawings. However,
there are mixed opinions and research into the effectiveness of Jungian sand play therapy (Lilienfeld,
19995073; Roesler, 20135074).
Although provocative, Jung’s theory shares some limitations with those of Freud and Adler. It is difficult
to falsify as it offers few clear-cut predictions (Gallo, 19945075; Monte, 19955076). For example, it is
hard to imagine what evidence could falsify Jung’s claim that flying saucer sightings stem from an
underlying wish for wholeness with the universe. In addition, although Jung hypothesised that
archetypes are transmitted to us from our ancestral past, he may have overlooked alternative
explanations. Perhaps archetypes are somewhat universal because they reflect crucial elements of the
environment—mothers, wise elders, the sun and the moon (the sun and moon are, after all, shaped like
mandalas)—that people of all cultures experience. Shared experiences rather than shared genes may
account for commonalities in archetypes across the world (McGowan, 19945077).
Testing predictions
Can the claim be tested?
Ruling out rival hypotheses
Have important alternative explanations for the findings been excluded?
Karen Horney: feminist psychology
German physician Karen Horney (1885–1952) was the first major feminist personality theorist. Horney
challenged Freud’s gender-biased assumptions without drastically departing from his core ideas. Horney
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(19395078) criticised Freud’s concepts of penis envy, arguing that women’s feelings of inferiority stem
from their excessive dependency on men, which society ingrained in them from an early age, and not
from their anatomy. She also questioned the universality of the Oedipus complex, viewing it as a
symptom rather than a cause of psychological issues, arising when the opposite-sex parent is overly
protective and the same-sex parent is overly critical.
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Freud’s followers evaluated scientifically
Many neo-Freudian theorists tempered some of the excesses of Freudian theory. They pointed out that
anatomy is not always destiny when it comes to the psychological differences between people, and they
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argued that social influences must be reckoned with in the development of personality. By and large,
they also recognised that personality is less fixed over time than Freud had assumed. Nevertheless, as we
have seen, falsifiability remains a serious concern for neo-Freudian theories, especially those of Adler
and Jung. Consequently, their scientific standing remains almost as controversial as that of Freudian
theory.
Testing predictions
Can the claim be tested?
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Quiz 16.2: Psychoanalytic theory: the controversial
legacy of Sigmund Freud and his followers
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16.3: Behavioural and social learning
theories of personality
16.3a Identify the core assumptions of behavioural and social
learning theories of personality.
16.3b Describe key criticisms of behavioural and social learning
approaches.
We have already encountered behavioural models, including radical behaviourism (see Chapter 7). So,
why are we again crossing paths with behaviourism? After all, behaviourism is a theory of learning
rather than a theory of personality, isn’t it? Actually, behaviourism is both.
Radical behaviourists such as B. F. Skinner believed that differences in our personalities stem largely
from differences in our learning histories. Unlike Freudians, radical behaviourists reject the notion that
the first few years of life are especially critical in personality development, believing instead that our
learning histories continue to mould our personalities throughout the life span.
According to radical behaviourists, personality is a collection of habits acquired by classical and operant
conditioning. In contrast to other personality theorists, radical behaviourists do not believe that
personality causes behaviour. For them, personality consists of behaviours. These behaviours are both
overt (observable) and covert (unobservable), such as thoughts and feelings. A radical behaviourist
would not have much trouble accepting the idea that some people are extraverted or that extraverted
people tend to have many friends and attend many parties. But a radical behaviourist would strongly
dispute the conclusion that certain people have many friends and attend many parties because they are
extraverted.
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Behavioural views of the causes of personality
Radical behaviourists view personality as under the control of two major influences: (1) genetic factors
and (2) contingencies in the environment—that is, reinforcers and punishers. Together, these influences
explain why our personalities differ.
Behavioural views of determinism
Like psychoanalysts, radical behaviourists are determinists: they believe all our actions are products of
pre-existing causal influences. This is one of the precious few issues on which Freud and Skinner would
likely have agreed if we could magically bring them back to life for a debate. For radical behaviourists,
free will is an illusion (see Chapter 1). We may believe we are free to continue reading this sentence or
to stop to grab a long-awaited bowl of ice-cream, but radial behaviourists posit this is a misconception.
Rather, people’s experience of being free to select their behaviours is largely influenced by the
situational factors that trigger the behaviours (Skinner, 19745080).
Behavioural views of unconscious processing
Both Freudians and Skinnerians agree that people often do not understand the reasons for their behaviour
(Overskeid, 20075081), but they differ in their explanations. Freudian theory posits a vast unconscious
storehouse of inaccessible thoughts, memories and impulses while Skinner suggested that people are
often unaware of immediate situational influences on their behaviour (Skinner, 1974). According to
Skinner, people may not initially recognise external causes of their behaviour. For example, imagine you
start humming a song to yourself and wonder why you are doing so until you realise that the song had
been playing softly in the distance. For radical behaviourists, there is no internal unconscious; instead,
the variables influencing behaviour are considered external.
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Social learning theories of personality: the causal role
of thinking resurrected
Influenced by radical behaviourists, social learning theorists (also sometimes called social cognitive
theorists) disagreed with Skinner’s complete dismissal of the impact of thoughts on behaviour. Led by
Edward Chase Tolman and others, they emphasised the role of thinking in personality development,
arguing that our interpretations of environments affect our reactions to them. For example, if we
perceive someone as threatening, we may be hostile and suspicious in return. These theorists view
classical and operant conditioning as products of cognition, where individuals actively interpret
information, and not as automatic processes. For example, in classical conditioning, learners gradually
build expectancies about the relationship between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (Mischel,
19735082).
Social learning views of determinism
Most social learning theorists hold a more complex view of determinism than radical behaviourists do.
As we learned in Chapter 1, Albert Bandura (19865083) made a compelling case for reciprocal
determinism, a form of causation whereby personality and cognitive factors, behaviour and
environmental variables mutually influence one another. Someone with high levels of extraversion may
be motivated to introduce themself to their psychology classmates and thereby make new friends. In
turn, their newfound friends may reinforce the person’s extraversion, encouraging them to attend parties
they might otherwise skip. Attending parties may result in making additional connections and
friendships that further reinforce extraversion and so on.
Observational learning and personality
Social learning theorists proposed that much of learning occurs by watching others and the world around
us. This is consistent with the multidimensional paradigm of social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB; see
Chapter 2), which posits that learning and the formation of the relational self occurs through multiple
connections in the environment, including kinship, community, culture, Country and ancestry. As we
learned in Chapter 7, observational learning appears to be a key form of learning neglected by
traditional behaviourists (Bandura, 19655084; Nadel et al., 20115085). Observational learning greatly
expands the range of stimuli from which people can benefit. It also means that parents, caregivers,
teachers and mentors play significant roles in shaping our personalities because we acquire both good
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and bad habits by watching and later emulating them. For example, through observational learning, a
person may learn to behave altruistically by seeing their parents donate money to charities. In another
example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are more likely to learn stories and knowledge of
culture and Country through attending, observing and participating in ceremony.
Sense of perceived control
Social learning theorists emphasised individuals’ sense of control over life events. Julian Rotter (1966
5086
) introduced the concept of locus of control, the extent to which reinforcers and punishers are within
one’s control. People with an internal locus of control (‘internals’) attribute life events to their own
efforts and characteristics. In contrast, those with an external locus of control (‘externals’) attribute
events to chance or fate. For example, an internal might agree with the statement, ‘If I set my mind to it,
I can accomplish just about anything I want’, whereas an ‘external’ would likely disagree.
Rotter hypothesised that internals are less prone than externals to experience emotional distress after life
stressors because they believe they can solve problems independently. Psychological distress, including
depression and anxiety, tends to be associated with an external locus of control (Benassi et al., 1988 5087;
Carton & Nowicki, 19965088; Coyne & Thompson, 20115089). However, it is unclear whether this
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correlation indicates causation as Rotter proposed. It is possible that experiencing depression or anxiety
leads to feelings of loss of control. Alternatively, individuals who doubt their abilities may be prone to
an external locus of control and mental disorders.
Correlation vs causation
Can we be sure that A causes B?
It is important to note that locus of control can change over time, influenced by sociocultural factors
such as determinants of health. Locus of control is not static. Experiences of internal versus external
locus of control can shift depending sociocultural factors such as determinants of health (see Chapter 2).
Stop and think
Give an example of a time in your life when you relied on an external locus of control and another when
you relied on an internal locus of control. Of the two (internal and external locus of control), which do
you tend to use more often?
When people in difficult circumstances obtain a measure of control over their lives, their adjustment
improves. Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin (19765090) gave residents on one floor of a nursing home
control over several aspects of their environment. Residents on that floor had more freedom in arranging
their rooms, lodging complaints and attending movies, whereas residents on a different floor had
minimal control over these matters. Langer and Rodin found that residents afforded greater control
showed better emotional adjustment than other residents.
Ruling out rival hypotheses
Have important alternative explanations for the findings been excluded?
Remarkably, 1 year later, fewer of the residents who had greater control over their environment had died
than those who had less. Although these results seem to suggest that a heightened sense of control
enhances psychological and physical health, they are difficult to interpret. Perhaps residents given
greater control actually took advantage of it by sprucing up their rooms or voicing concerns to staff. So,
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it may not be perceived control as much as actual control that matters most. This is consistent with a
human-rights and determinants-of-health approach (see Chapter 2), which explains that facilitating
equity and self-determination is fundamental to health and wellbeing, particularly for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Behavioural and social learning theories evaluated scientifically
B. F. Skinner and his fellow radical behaviourists agreed with Freud that behaviour is determined and
denied the existence of free will, attributing behaviour primarily to external contingencies rather than
internal factors. While they are credited with putting psychology on a more scientific foundation, this
view is criticised for disregarding the evolutionary significance of human cognitive capacities. Humans
are endowed with an enormous cerebral cortex, which is specialised for problem solving, planning and
other high-level cognitive processes, suggesting that our thoughts play a causal role in behaviour. It
seems difficult to comprehend why humans have these abilities if our thoughts were merely by-products
of contingencies.
Additionally, Skinner’s focus on measurable constructs overlooked the complexity of human
experiences, neglecting internal processes such as thoughts, emotions and motivations. This fails to
consider the influence of cognitive and sociocultural factors on behaviour and personality, which are
crucial in understanding human complexity. Personality is influenced by myriad internal and external
factors, including beliefs, values, social norms, culture, religion and past experiences, which were not
considered in the theories of the behavioural and social learning theories.
Social learning theorists rekindled psychologists’ interests in cognition (thinking), emphasising
observational learning alongside classical and operant conditioning. However, social learning theory
faces criticism, particularly the claim that observational learning exerts a powerful influence over
personality, implying a strong influence of shared environment. After all, if children learn largely by
modelling the behaviours of their parents and caregivers, it follows that they are likely to become like
them. Yet, behavioural genetic studies have revealed weak or non-existent effects of shared environment
on adult personality (Harris, 20025091).
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Although social learning theorists emphasise the role of cognition in learning, scientists have observed
these processes in animals with small or even absent cerebral cortexes. For instance, classical
conditioning has been observed in honeybees (Alcock, 19995092) and starfish (McClintock & Lawrence,
19855093). Octopuses demonstrate problem-solving abilities, observational learning and maze navigation
(Borrelli et al., 20205094; Fiorito & Scotto, 19935095). Cuttlefish exhibit self-control by delaying
gratification for preferred food rewards (Schnell et al., 20215096). Additionally, there is evidence of
classical conditioning in microscopic organisms such as protozoa (Bergstrom, 19685097) and hydra
(Tanaka, 19665098), although these findings are not universally replicated (Applewhite et al., 19715099).
Replicability
Can the results be duplicated in other studies?
The fact that learning occurs in animals with quite simple nervous systems implies any one of three
things. First, social learning theorists may be incorrect that basic forms of learning depend on cognition.
Second, perhaps the thinking processes involved in these forms of learning are primitive in certain cases,
although it is questionable whether a starfish, let alone a protozoan, is capable of genuine ‘thought’.
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Third, the learning processes of simple animals may rely on different mechanisms from those of humans.
At this point, the scientific evidence does not permit a clear answer.
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Quiz 16.3: Behavioural and social learning theories of
personality
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16.4: Humanistic models of
personality: the third force
16.4a Explain the concept of self-actualisation and its role in
humanistic models.
16.4b Describe key criticisms of humanistic approaches.
Psychoanalytic, behavioural and social learning theories dominated personality psychology in the first
half of the 20th century. However, in the 1950s and 1960s, humanistic models emerged rejecting the
strict determinism of psychoanalysts and behaviourists and emphasising free will. We are perfectly free,
they maintained, to choose either socially constructive or destructive paths in life.
Many humanistic psychologists advocate for the concept of self-actualisation, the drive to fully develop
our innate potential. In contrast, Freudian theorists would argue that self-actualisation would be
disastrous for society as people’s innate drives, housed in the id, are selfish and potentially harmful if not
controlled. Freudians believe that a society of self-actualised people would result in pandemonium, with
individuals expressing their sexual and aggressive urges with reckless abandon. Humanistic theorists, in
contrast, view human nature as inherently constructive, so they see self-actualisation as a worthy pursuit.
The concept of self-actualisation is said to be heavily influenced by Eurocentric and individualistic
ideologies—that one’s individual achievement and pursuits are held in high regard. Collectivist
perspectives of actualisation tend to situate individual achievements and pursuits in the broader contexts
of community, culture and society. Research has shown that Western conceptualisations of selfactualisation cannot be universally applied to all peoples and sociocultural contexts, and that culturally
grounded understanding of individual and collective experiences of actualisation is warranted (Bear
Chief et al., 20225106; Gambrel & Cianci, 20035107; Itai, 20085108). So, when you read this section, bear
in mind that actualisation of the self is just one facet of personhood and that actualisation may be
broader than the self. For example, many religions, including Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and
Confucianism, as well as wisdom traditions, have long taught the importance of promoting virtues and
overcoming vices due to their direct impact on character and personality. In turn, rather than self-
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actualisation being the highest goal, self-transcendence is the basic principle of life where individuals
orientate themselves towards something greater than themselves, such as family legacy, spiritual
practice, social justice work or improvement of one’s community.
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Rogers and Maslow: self-actualisation realised and
unrealised
The best-known humanistic theorist was Carl Rogers (1902–1987), whose optimistic perspective on
human nature drove his belief that all individuals have the potential to achieve fulfilment if they are
provided with the right societal conditions. He emphasised the importance of empathy, authenticity and
uncontrolled positive regard in promoting personal growth.
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Rogers’ model of personality
According to Rogers (19475109), our personalities consist of three major components: organism, self and
conditions of worth.
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1. The organism is our innate genetic blueprint. Rogers viewed the organism as inherently positive
and naturally oriented towards helping others, although he did not go into great detail regarding its
composition.
2. The self is our self-concept, the set of beliefs about who we are. According to Rogers, the selfconcept can be either positive or negative and is influenced by experiences and interactions with
others.
3. Conditions of worth are the expectations people place on themselves and one another for
appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. These expectations emanate from our caregivers, culture
and society, and eventually they are believed to be internalised. Conditions of worth arise when a
person’s or group’s acceptance is conditional (i.e. dependent) on certain behaviours but not others.
From this perspective, we accept ourselves only if we act in certain ways. For instance, a child
may be discouraged from pursuing their passion for art and pressured to prioritise formal
education instead, leading to a sense of worthiness only when conforming to these expectations,
despite conflicting with their innate potential.
For Rogers, individual differences in personality stem largely from differences in the conditions of worth
imposed by others. Although in his idealistic moments Rogers envisaged a world in which conditions of
worth no longer existed, he reluctantly acknowledged that in modern society even the best-adjusted
among us inevitably harbour certain conditions of worth. Conditions of worth can create a sense of
incongruence between our self-concept and our innate genetic make-up (organism). This incongruence
arises when people act in ways that are inconsistent with their authentic self in an attempt to meet the
expectations of others.
Maslow: the characteristics of self-actualised people
Where Rogers focused largely on individuals whose tendencies towards self-actualisation were thwarted
and who therefore ended up with psychological problems, Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) focused on
individuals he deemed to be self-actualised, especially historical figures. He regarded full selfactualisation as a rare feat, one accomplished by only about 2 per cent of people. Maslow (19715110)
listed what he believed were characteristics of self-actualised people. These included:
the tendency to be creative and accepting of themselves and others
being self-confident but not self-centred
focusing on real-world and intellectual problems
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having a few deep friendships rather than many superficial ones
craving privacy and possibly appearing to be aloof
not being afraid to ‘rock the boat’ when necessary or to express unpopular opinions.
With this narrow (and Eurocentric) view of how self-actualised people think and behave, it is little
wonder Maslow claimed only 2 per cent of people achieved so-called full self-actualisation.
Among those whom Maslow controversially branded self-actualised people were Thomas Jefferson,
Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Helen Keller and Mahatma Gandhi. It is questionable whether
these individuals all portrayed the same self-actualised characteristics as purported by Maslow.
Furthermore, Maslow may have limited his search to historical figures who displayed these traits. As
such, he may have fallen prey to confirmation bias (Aronson, 20115111; see Chapter 1): because he was
not oblivious to his hypothesis concerning the personality features of self-actualised individuals, he had
no sure way of guarding against this bias. It is also questionable whether these individuals considered
themselves as self-actualised. In fact, it could be said that some of these historical individuals’
achievements are situated within a collectivist actualisation.
Ruling out rival hypotheses
Have important alternative explanations for the findings been excluded?
Stop and think
Maslow provided several historical examples of people he considered to have achieved selfactualisation. We have also explored how self-actualisation cannot be universally applied to all peoples
and sociocultural contexts. For example, some peoples and cultures may view actualisation as reflecting
individual achievements, whereas others position actualisation in the broader contexts of community,
culture and society. How might you describe the construct of self-actualisation in your own life, culture
and community?
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Humanistic models evaluated scientifically
Humanistic models of personality boldly proclaimed the importance of free will and personal choice and
appealed to a generation of young people disenchanted with the determinism of psychoanalysis and
behaviourism. Yet investigators in comparative psychology, the branch of psychology that compares
behaviour across species, have challenged Rogers’ claim that human nature is entirely positive. Their
research suggests that the capacity for aggression is inherent in our close primate cousins, the
chimpanzees, and that across very different species, including humans, mice and songbirds, aggression is
linked with similar brain circuits and high states of arousal (Lischinsky & Lin, 20205112). Although twin
studies reveal that aggression is part of humans’ genetic heritage (Anholt, 20125113; Krueger et al., 2001
5114
; Porsch et al., 20165115; Slawinski et al., 20195116), research suggests that the capacity for altruism
and cooperation is intrinsic to both chimpanzees and humans (de Waal 19905117, 20095118; Rosati et al.,
20185119; van Leeuwen et al., 20215120). Human nature, it seems, is a complex mix of self-serving and
self-sacrificing motives.
Humanistic models are also difficult to test definitively. If a study of the general population showed that
many people were self-actualised, humanistic psychologists could interpret this finding as evidence that
self-actualisation is a key influence on personality. But if this study showed that virtually no one was
self-actualised, humanistic psychologists could explain away this finding by saying that most
individuals’ drives towards self-actualisation had been stifled. Although the claim that self-actualisation
is the central motive in personality may not be testable scientifically, the principle that we should
develop our potential to the fullest may have considerable value as a philosophy of life.
Testing predictions
Can the claim be tested?
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Quiz 16.4: Humanistic models of personality: the third
force
Question 16.4.3: van Lawick-Goodall, 19715121
Question 16.4.4: Maslow, 19545122
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16.5: Trait models of personality:
consistencies in our behaviour
16.5a Describe trait models of personality, including the Big Five.
16.5b Identify key criticisms of trait models.
In contrast to most personality theorists we have reviewed, proponents of trait models are interested
primarily in describing and understanding the structure of personality. That is, they examine the
question of what makes up our personality rather than the question of what causes it. Similarly to early
chemists who strove to identify the elements of the periodic table, trait theorists aim to pinpoint the
major elements—in psychological terms, traits—of personality, which, as we have learned, are relatively
enduring dispositions that affect our behaviours across situations. Moreover, whereas the personality
theories we have reviewed are interested primarily in commonalities among people, trait psychologists
are interested largely in individual differences (see Chapter 1). They strive to answer the question: Why
do people differ from each other in their tendencies to act, think and feel in characteristic ways?
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Identifying traits: challenges and factor analysis
Invoking personality traits as causes of behaviour has its challenges. To start with, we must avoid the
circular reasoning fallacy (see Chapter 1). For instance, someone might conclude that a child who
kicks others in the playground is aggressive. But in asking how they know that the child is aggressive,
they might respond, ‘Because they kick other children in the playground’. Note that this answer merely
restates the same evidence used to infer that the child was aggressive in the first place, so the reasoning
is circular. To avoid this error in logic, it is important to demonstrate that personality traits predict
behaviours in novel situations or correlate with biological or laboratory measures.
From there, the pool of possible traits may be narrowed down. That is much easier than it sounds. As the
pioneering personality theorist Gordon Allport observed, there are more than 17,000 terms in the English
language referring to personality traits: shy, stubborn, impulsive, greedy, cheerful and on and on (Allport
& Odbert, 19365123). To reduce this enormous diversity of traits to a much smaller number of
underlying traits, trait theorists commonly use a statistical technique called factor analysis. This method
analyses the correlations among responses on personality measures to identify the underlying ‘factors’
that give rise to these correlations.
As an example, we could create a personality questionnaire with six items including being outgoing,
sociable, talkative, organised, responsible and diligent. After collecting data from participants, we can
conduct a factor analysis to determine whether the items can be grouped into themes. From the factor
analysis results we find that the first three items (being outgoing, sociable and talkative) all have strong
correlations with each other, meaning we have identified our first factor. In addition, the remaining three
items (being organised, responsible and diligent) might also have strong correlations with one another.
However, the correlations between the first set of items and the second set of items are weak or not
significant, meaning that two different themes are being measured. We could call the first three items
(factor 1) ‘extraversion’ and the second three items (factor 2) ‘conscientiousness’. By employing factor
analysis, we have been able to take six items and narrow them down to two specific themes.
The same process can be used by researchers when they study large numbers of personality factors and
then look for themes among the items to help reduce the number of factors to a smaller number of key
themes. The different traits that we will describe were derived largely from this type of statistical
analysis.
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The Big Five model of personality: the geography of
the psyche
Although there is no universal consensus among trait theorists regarding the most scientifically
supported model of personality structure, one model has amassed an impressive body of research
evidence. This model, often called the Big Five, consists of five traits that have surfaced repeatedly in
factor analyses of reasonably comprehensive personality measures.
Replicability
Can the results be duplicated in other studies?
Individuals’ handshakes tell us something about their personality traits.
(See end of chapter for answer.)
Fact or fiction: Chaplin et al., 20005124
The Big Five were uncovered using a lexical approach to personality, which proposes that the most
crucial features of human personality are embedded in our language (Goldberg, 19935125; Han et al.,
20205126; Lynam, 20125127). Here is the logic: if a personality trait is important enough in our daily
lives, it is likely that we will talk a lot about it. The Big Five emerged from factor analyses of trait terms
in dictionaries and works of literature. According to Paul Costa, Robert McCrae and their collaborators
(Costa & McCrae, 19925128; Miller, 20125129; Widiger, 20015130), these five dimensions (listed roughly
in order of their consistency of appearance across studies) are:
1. Extraversion—extraverted people tend to be social and lively.
2. Neuroticism—neurotic people tend to be tense and moody.
3. Agreeableness—agreeable people tend to be sociable and easy to get along with.
4. Conscientiousness—conscientious people tend to be careful and responsible.
5. Openness to experience (sometimes just called ‘Openness’)—open people tend to be intellectually
curious and unconventional in their interests and outlook on the world.
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We can use either of two waterlogged acronyms—OCEAN or CANOE—as handy mnemonics (memory
aids) for remembering the Big Five. According to Big Five advocates, these factors describe the
differences between people, including those with psychological disorders (McCrae et al., 20055131;
Widiger & Costa, 20125132). Each person occupies some location on each of these dimensions and
people experiencing psychological disorders tend to receive extreme scores on one or more dimension.
A person who is severely depressed, for example, is likely to be low in extraversion, high in neuroticism
and about average on the other three dimensions (Bagby et al., 19955133). Most studies that confirmed
the link between personality traits and depression were confined to Western industrial societies, thereby
raising a question regarding whether the findings generalise to diverse cultures and populations.
Researchers discovered that the same pattern of associations of personality traits with depression
emerged in a sample of Arab-Algerian peoples (Boudouda & Gana, 20205134). However, this is one
cultural group and further research in a variety of sociocultural contexts is needed to infer
generalisability.
Generalisability
Do these findings and conclusions reflect the diversity of the human experience?
The Big Five and behaviour
Research shows that the Big Five has predicted a wealth of important real-world behaviours, suggesting
that personality matters when it comes to everyday life. For example, high conscientiousness, low
neuroticism and perhaps high agreeableness are associated with successful job performance (Barrick &
Mount, 19915135; Schmidt & Oh, 20165136; Tett et al., 19915137) and good grades at school (Conard,
20065138; Heaven et al., 20075139). In a large international study representing more than 44,000
participants, neuroticism was associated with a higher risk of mortality, whereas extraversion,
agreeableness and conscientiousness were associated with lower mortality (Graham et al., 20175140).
Conscientiousness has been found to be positively associated with physical health and even life span
(Martin & Friedman, 20005141; Shanahan et al., 20145142). This may be because conscientious people
are more likely than others to engage in healthy behaviours, such as exercising regularly and not
smoking (Bogg & Roberts, 20045143; Hill & Roberts, 20115144), and be more likely to consult their
doctors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers found that higher extraversion was associated
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with reports of lower social distancing, and higher conscientiousness and agreeableness were positively
associated with preventative behaviours such as more frequent handwashing and social distancing
(Carvalho et al., 20205145; Han et al., 20215146).
The Big Five dimensions emerge in social media use too. For example, it is possible to observe social
media users’ degree of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience from
inspecting their Facebook profiles (Back et al., 20105147). However, the Big Five are no better than
chance in guessing their neuroticism levels, probably because we tend to keep the subtraits comprising
this dimension, such as anxiety-proneness and insecurity, private and hidden from others. Personality
also seems to predict the kinds of topics people write about in their Facebook profiles (Lee et al., 2014
5148
; Marshall et al., 20155149). Facebook users with high levels of extraversion tend to write more
frequently about social activities, upload photos and have more Facebook friends than other users. In
comparison, Facebook users with high levels of openness to experience tend to write about intellectual
topics more frequently than other users.
Culture and the Big Five
In seeking to address enduring questions concerning the relevance of personality in diverse cultures and
populations, researchers have identified Big Five dimensions in China, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Türkiye
and many other countries (De Raad et al., 19985150; McCrae & Costa, 19975151; Triandis & Suh, 2002
5152
; Trull, 20125153). One reason for similarities in personality types across cultures could be that
personality traits are linked with brain structures that do not vary much across cultures or geography. For
example, extraversion appears to be associated with brain structures related to processing reward
information and cortical thickness (DeYoung et al., 20105154; Li et al., 20175155; Riccelli et al., 20175156
). However, findings regarding personality types and brain structure have not been replicated
consistently, so further replication attempts using data sets composed of diverse populations are required
to settle on firmer conclusions (Avinun et al., 20205157).
Replicability
Can the results be duplicated in other studies?
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The presence of Big Five dimensions in many countries has led to the argument that the Big Five can be
considered a universal structure of personality. Nevertheless, sociocultural diversity exists within whole
countries and nations, so we still must exercise caution in inferring universality among all peoples,
cultures and diverse contexts. The conceptualisation and manifestation of personality may be shaped in
important ways by culture. Openness to experience, for example, is not evident in all cultures (Church,
20085158; De Raad & Perugini, 20025159). Extraversion predicts life satisfaction in North American
students, but the effect is weaker or absent in samples from countries including Japan, the United
Kingdom and Germany (Kim et al., 20185160).
Generalisability
Do these findings and conclusions reflect the diversity of the human experience?
Some investigators have found dimensions in addition to the Big Five. For example, personality studies
in China have revealed an additional ‘Chinese tradition’ factor that encompasses aspects of personality
distinctive to Chinese culture, including an emphasis on group harmony and on saving face to avoid
embarrassment (Cheung & Leung, 19985161). Research into the cultural applicability of the Big Five
model with the Tsimané peoples in the Bolivian Amazon found little evidence to support the model of
personality; rather, a different personality profile was evident (Gurven et al., 20135162). Gurven and
colleagues argued that a large proportion of Big Five research has been with WEIRD (Western,
educated, industrialised, rich and democratic) samples (see Chapter 2) and does not necessarily
generalise to small-scale societies with unique ontologies and epistemologies.
Generalisability
Do these findings and conclusions reflect the diversity of the human experience?
To date there have been no studies investigating the cultural relevance of the Big Five model of
personality with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. One possible explanation for this is that
the Big Five does not necessarily align with lived experiences and therefore research priorities of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (see Chapter 2). While research into applicability of the
Big Five with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would most likely add a new perspective to
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the debate regarding universality, such research would need to align with Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander research agendas. Put simply, the research into the cultural application of the Big Five would
need to be driven and wanted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, families and
communities. (See Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 for information on AIATSIS and NHMRC ethical
principles.)
In summary, while the Big Five model of personality is indeed present in many countries and societies,
claims of universality are premature and unique sociocultural contexts, epistemologies and ontologies
should be considered.
Individualism–collectivism and personality
Cross-cultural and cultural psychology researchers have devoted considerable attention to a key
dimension relevant to personality we first encountered in Chapter 11: individualism–collectivism.
People from largely individualistic cultures tend to focus on themselves and their personal goals,
whereas people from largely collectivist cultures tend to focus on their relations with others (Triandis,
19895163). People from individualistic cultures tend to report higher self-esteem than those from
collectivist cultures (Heine et al., 19995164). In addition, personality traits may be less predictive of
behaviour in collectivist than individualistic cultures, probably because people’s behaviour in collectivist
cultures is more influenced by social norms (Church & Katigbak, 20025165).
Still, we should not oversimplify the distinction between individualistic and collectivist cultures. Only
about 60 per cent of people in individualist cultures possess individualist personalities and only about 60
per cent of people in collectivist cultures possess collectivist personalities (Triandis & Suh, 2002).
With the global rise in consumption of social media and increased international travel, differences in
individualism–collectivism seem to be decreasing, although they still exist (Yi, 20185166).
Alternatives to the Big Five
The Big Five is a useful system for organising individual differences in personality. Nevertheless, there
is reason to question whether the lexical approach is sufficient for telling us everything about personality
traits, as people may not be consciously aware of all important features of personality (Block, 19955167).
Consequently, our language may not adequately reflect these features. In addition, there is no Big Five
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factor corresponding to morality (Loevinger, 19935168), despite the centrality of this variable to many
theories of personality, including those of Freud and his followers. Still, other psychologists such as
Hans Eysenck (19915169), Auke Tellegen (19825170; Tellegen & Waller, 20085171) and C. Robert
Cloninger (19875172; Cloninger & Svrakic, 20095173) maintained that three dimensions rather than five
offer the most accurate model of personality structure. According to them, the Big Five dimensions of
agreeableness, conscientiousness and (low) openness to experience combine to form one larger
dimension of impulse control or fearfulness, along with the dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism
(Church, 19945174). The ‘Big Three’ model of personality structure is a worthy alternative to the Big
Five (Harkness, 20075175; Revelle, 20165176).
Studies in Germany, Finland and several other countries sometimes suggest the presence of a factor
comprising honesty and humility in addition to the Big Five (Lee & Ashton, 20045177; Weller & Thulin,
20125178; Zettler et al., 20205179). One such model, introduced by Lee & Ashton (2004), is the
HEXACO model: Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and
Openness. What sets the HEXACO model apart from the Big Five models is that it combines elements
of religiosity/spirituality and personality into a single holistic measure. It is intriguing that this is one of
the first Western personality trait models to directly include religiosity/spirituality, even though almost
all personality theorists, including the ones in this chapter, had something to say about religious teaching.
The study of the Big Five with the Tsimané peoples in Bolivia discussed earlier illustrates the need for a
different approach to the Big Five. Instead of the Big Five, the researchers in this study found two broad
dimensions—one reflecting prosociality (a tendency to help others) and another reflecting
industriousness (a tendency to work hard; Gurven et al., 2013). This further supports arguments that the
Big Five is not universal and that alternative theories and models that consider diverse perspectives is
warranted.
A very different set of socially aversive traits called the dark triad can occur together, which some
researchers argued represents the dark or malevolent side of human nature (Paulhus & Williams, 2002
5180
). As dramatised in scary television and movie villains, the dark triad includes: (1) psychopathy (lack
of empathy, callousness); (2) Machiavellianism (manipulativeness, striving for power and control); and
(3) narcissism (self-importance, entitlement; ‘I count, you don’t’). These traits are linked––sometimes
more reliably than Big Five traits––with the desire for power, game-playing in romantic relationships,
preference for short-term relationships, motivation to be rich and powerful, risk taking for personal
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financial gains, selfishness, attitudes that condone sexual harassment and aspects of psychopathy
(Kaufman et al., 20195181; Lee et al., 20135182).
Nevertheless, some critics have questioned the extent to which dark triad traits are truly distinct from
one another; whether most of the research, which is correlational, captures causal relations between the
traits and behaviours; and how much the dark triad can contribute to our understanding of personality
beyond the Big Five (Muris et al., 20175183). So, questions remain wide open regarding whether the Big
Five traits, or any other known set of traits, adequately chart the vast terrain of personality as a construct
and whether a universal structure of personality exists.
Correlation vs causation
Can we be sure that A causes B?
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Basic tendencies versus characteristic adaptations
We have seen that personality can be characterised in very different ways. Yet personality traits do not
tell the whole story of why we differ from each other. Take the fascinating story of Jack and Oskar
(Begley & Kasindorf, 19795184). Born in 1933, Jack and Oskar were identical twins from the Minnesota
Twin study who were separated almost immediately after birth and reunited decades later. Despite not
having known each other for 40 years (they met once only briefly in 1954), Jack and Oskar have nearly
identical personalities. Their scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a personality
questionnaire that we will learn about later in the chapter, are about as similar as those of the same
person taking the test twice.
That is where the similarities ended. Jack was raised by a Jewish family in the Caribbean until age 17,
when he moved to Israel and joined a kibbutz. Oskar was raised by his maternal grandmother in a region
of the former Czechoslovakia that was under Adolf Hitler’s control during the Second World War.
Although Jack and Oskar’s underlying personalities were similar, their political attitudes were as
different as night and day. Jack was a devoutly religious Jew who enjoyed war movies that portrayed
Germans in a bad light. While in Israel, he worked with others to help build the Jewish state. In stark
contrast, Oskar was an ardent Nazi and anti-Semite who became a dedicated member of the Hitler Youth
movement as the Second World War drew to a close. So, although Jack and Oskar had similar
personalities—intense, loyal and politically engaged—they manifested them in dramatically different
ways.
The story of Jack and Oskar underscores the distinction between basic tendencies and characteristic
adaptations (Lilienfeld & Latzman, 20185185; McCrae & Costa, 19955186; Terracciano & McCrae, 2012
5187
). Basic tendencies are underlying personality traits, whereas characteristic adaptations are their
behavioural manifestations. The key point is that people can express their personality traits in
dramatically different outlets depending on their upbringing, interests and skills. In Jack and Oskar’s
case, it seems likely that the same basic tendencies—intense loyalty and devotion to social causes—were
expressed in markedly different characteristic adaptations: Jack’s Judaism and profound dislike of
Germans and Oskar’s Nazism and profound dislike of Jews.
Sensation seeking (Zuckerman, 19795188), or the tendency to seek out new and exciting stimuli, offers
an intriguing example of this distinction. High-sensation seekers enjoy parachuting from aeroplanes,
sampling spicy foods and living life in the fast lane. In contrast, low-sensation seekers dislike risk,
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adventure and novelty; when they go out to eat, they go to the same restaurant and always order chicken
parmigiana (or whatever their favourite dish might be). Like many personality traits, sensation seeking
may be a double-edged sword: it may be tied to socially constructive behaviours in some people but
socially destructive behaviours in others (Giannini & Loscalzo, 20205189; Marcus & Zeigler-Hill, 2015
5190
; McKay et al., 20185191; Ravert & Donnellan, 20215192). For example, the average sensation-
seeking scores of firefighters and prisoners are essentially identical, but the scores of both groups are
significantly higher than those of average university students (Harkness & Lilienfeld, 19975193;
Zuckerman, 19945194). Apparently, people can express tendencies towards risk taking and danger
seeking in either socially constructive (firefighting) or destructive (crime) outlets. Why some sensation
seekers end up in fire stations and others in prisons is likely determined by experiential factors unrelated
to personality (Dutton, 20125195).
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Can personality traits change?
Recent research challenges Freud’s claim that personality becomes fixed following childhood—unless
an individual undergoes prolonged psychoanalysis. Longitudinal studies (see Chapter 1) demonstrate
that personality traits are both changeable and stable, presumably as a result of life’s trials and
tribulations (Damian et al., 20195196, Nye et al., 20165197). In terms of changeability, openness,
extraversion and neuroticism tend to decline a bit from the late teens to early 30s, whereas
conscientiousness and agreeableness tend to increase a bit (Costa et al., 20195198; Srivastava et al., 2003
5199
). In comparison, stability of personality traits begins around age 30; individuals do not change much
after age 30 and changes tend to plateau after age 40 (McCrae & Costa, 19945200; Roberts &
DelVecchio, 20005201).
Although personality has a stable component, reliable change over time can still occur, and this can also
be seen across different cultures. Japanese individuals, for example, tend to shift more than Americans in
Big Five personality traits over time, but stability in traits is still the norm in both cultures (Chopik &
Kitayama, 20185202).
We do not know whether psychotherapy can change personality, although many psychologists today are
even less optimistic about this prospect than they were in Freud’s day. The past few decades have
witnessed a good deal of discussion about whether medication can change personality traits, especially
extraversion and neuroticism (Ilieva, 20155203; Jylhä et al., 20125204; Kramer, 19935205). Anecdotal
evidence suggests that among people without a mental illness, those in the experimental group ingesting
mood-altering medications, such as Prozac (fluoxetine), Paxil (paroxetine) and Zoloft (sertraline),
experienced less hostility and more interest in socialising than those in the control group ingesting a
placebo (Concar, 19945206; Knutson et al., 19885207).
In more recent studies, among people with clinical depression, Paxil and Zoloft—compared with a
placebo—increased levels of such traits as extraversion and fearlessness and decreased levels of such
traits as neuroticism and impulsivity (Dunlop et al., 20115208; Tang et al., 20095209). However, a rival
hypothesis suggests that changes in personality measures following treatment with antidepressant
medication are due more to potentially temporary decreases in demoralisation than long-term changes in
personality traits (Noordhoff et al., 20185210).
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These findings raise intriguing scientific, practical and ethical questions. On the scientific side, might
our personalities, which we think of as being an intrinsic part of ourselves, be easier to modify than we
might have supposed? On the practical and ethical sides, could the use of medication to change
personality have any important disadvantages? Evolutionary psychologists, who apply the principles of
natural selection to understand human behaviour, have long argued that many emotions serve essential
adaptive functions. Anxiety, for example, functions as a warning signal of potential danger. If we
reduced most people’s ability to experience anxiety, could we produce a civilisation of passive citizens
unconcerned about impending disaster? The questions do not lend themselves to simple answers, but
they are important for us to consider as a society.
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Trait models evaluated scientifically
Trait theory was highly influential through the early and mid-20th century. Then in a bombshell 1968
book, Personality and Assessment, Walter Mischel called the very notion of personality traits into
question, embroiling the field of trait psychology in heated controversy for well over a decade.
Walter Mischel’s argument: behavioural inconsistency
As we noted earlier, psychologists had long assumed that traits influence behaviour across many
situations. But in his review of the literature, Mischel found low correlations among different behaviours
presumed to reflect the same trait. For example, a classical study by Hugh Hartshorne and Mark May
(19285211) examined the correlations among behavioural indicators of honesty among children.
Hartshorne and May concocted situations that allowed children to behave either honestly or dishonestly,
giving them the opportunity to steal money, change answers on an exam and lie. The correlations among
children’s behaviour across these situations were low, with none exceeding 0.30. So, children who steal,
for example, are not much more likely than other children to cheat. Numerous researchers have reported
similar findings in adults for such traits as dependency, friendliness and conscientiousness (Bem &
Allen, 19745212; Diener & Larsen, 19845213; Mischel, 19685214). People, it seems, are not nearly as
consistent across situations as most of us believe.
Mischel concluded that measures of personality are not especially helpful for what they were designed to
do—forecast behaviour. Some psychologists later tried to explain the persistent belief in the predictive
power of personality traits in terms of cognitive biases, especially the fundamental attribution error (see
Chapter 14). Fundamental attribution error means we often mistakenly attribute behaviour to someone’s
personality, ignoring situational factors such as peer pressure (Bem & Allen, 1974; Ross & Nisbett, 1991
5215
). So, we might think someone is shy because of their personality, not because they are in a new
environment.
Personality traits reborn: psychologists respond to Mischel
Were Mischel’s criticisms valid? Yes and no. As Seymour Epstein (19795216) noted, Mischel was
correct that personality traits are not highly predictive of isolated behaviours, such as lying or cheating in
a single situation. Nevertheless, in several studies, Epstein showed that personality traits are often highly
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predictive of aggregated behaviours; that is, behaviours averaged across many situations. For example,
if we use a measure of extraversion to predict whether our friend will attend a party next Saturday night,
we will probably do only slightly better than chance. In contrast, we will probably do rather well if we
use this measure to predict our friend’s behaviour across many situations such as attendance at parties,
friendliness in small seminars and willingness to converse with strangers. Contrary to Mischel’s initial
conclusions, personality traits can be useful for predicting overall behavioural trends, such as whether
someone will be a responsible employee, a difficult marital partner or a dishonest student in an academic
situation (Cuadrado et al., 20215217; Kenrick & Funder, 19885218; Roberts, 20095219).
In contrast to other personality theories we have reviewed, trait models focus primarily on describing
individual differences in personality rather than explaining their causes. This emphasis on description is
both a strength and a weakness. On the one hand, these models have advanced our understanding of
personality structure and helped psychologists to predict performance in jobs. On the other hand, some
trait models do not provide much insight into the causes of personality. Although the Big Five, for
example, do a decent job of capturing personality differences among people, they do not shed much light
on the origins of these differences.
Some researchers, such as Hans Eysenck, tried to remedy this shortcoming (Revelle, 20165220). Eysenck
(19735221) argued that extraverts have an underactive reticular activating system (RAS), which controls
alertness and is responsible for keeping us awake. Extraverts tend to be habitually under-aroused and
bored and, as a result, seek out stimulation, including other people, to raise their arousal (recall the
Yerkes–Dodson law; see Chapter 12). In contrast, introverts tend to have an overactive RAS: they are
habitually over-aroused and try to minimise or shut out stimulation from the environment or other
people (Campbell et al., 20115222). Interestingly, extraverts, unlike introverts, prefer loud to soft music
(Geen, 19845223; Kageyama, 19995224) and more intense rather than less intense colours (Pazda &
Thorstenson, 20185225). Although the evidence for Eysenck’s hypothesis is not entirely consistent
(Gray, 19815226; Matthews & Gilliland, 19995227), his theorising demonstrates that trait theories can
generate fruitful hypotheses concerning the relations between personality traits and biological variables.
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Quiz 16.5: Trait models of personality: consistencies
in our behaviour
Question 16.5.5: Epstein, 19795232
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16.6: Personality assessment:
measuring and mis-measuring the
psyche
16.6a Describe structured personality tests, such as the MMPI-2, and
their methods of construction.
16.6b Describe projective tests, particularly the Rorschach, and their
strengths and weaknesses.
16.6c Identify common pitfalls in personality assessment.
Personality would not be helpful to psychologists if they had no way of measuring it. That is where
personality assessment enters the picture, with the promise of detecting individual differences in
personality in a scientifically rigorous fashion. But developing accurate tools to measure personality is
no easy task.
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Famous—and infamous—errors in personality
assessment
Personality psychology has long been plagued by a parade of dubious assessment methods, as you will
recall from our earlier discussion of phrenology that purported to detect personality traits by measuring
the patterns of bumps on people’s heads (see Chapter 4). Related to phrenology was physiognomy,
popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, which claimed to detect people’s personality traits from their
facial characteristics (Collins, 19995233). The term lowbrow, which today is a derogatory term referring
to someone who is uncultured, is derived from the old belief that most non-intellectual people have
protruding foreheads and a low brow line. This claim, like virtually all other claims of physiognomy, has
been falsified.
Testing predictions
Can the claim be tested?
Nevertheless, the negative impact of phrenology and physiognomy can still be seen today. While
masquerading as a science, phrenology created racial hierarchies that previously did not exist, and it was
not too long before it was used to justify social hierarches and discriminatory practices as well as being
used within the context of colonisation. For example, it was often used as a tool to legitimise and
rationalise colonial practices and racial hierarchies. It was also used to justify racist and sexist beliefs,
with phrenologists making unfounded claims about the intellectual, moral and personality differences
among different cultural and gender groups based on skull measurements. This is important to remember
because although phrenology in the West is no longer used nor deemed scientific, the harm of creating
biased assessments, including those to assess personality, can have long-lasting effects. In the case of
phrenology, the negative impacts are still being seen more than 100 years after it ceased being an
accepted practice.
With these errors of the past in mind, how can we distinguish scientific from unscientific or even
pseudoscientific personality assessment methods? Two key criteria for evaluating all tests, including
personality tests, are reliability and validity (see Chapter 3). Reliability, you will recall, refers to the
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consistency of measurement and validity of the extent to which a test measures what it purports to
measure. We will keep these dual criteria in mind as we survey the two major types of personality test:
structured and projective.
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Structured personality tests
The best-known personality instruments are structured personality tests. Psychologists sometimes also
call them ‘objective’ tests, although this term is somewhat misleading because responses to structured
test items are often still open to interpretation on the part of examiners. Most structured personality tests
consist of questions that respondents answer in one of a few fixed ways. By fixed ways, we mean
choosing between true and false answers or selecting options on a scale with, for example, 1 being
‘always true’, 2 being ‘somewhat true’ and so on until 5, which is ‘always false’ (these numerical scales
are called Likert formats). Structured personality tests have several advantages, including that they are
typically easy to administer and score and they allow researchers to collect data from many participants
simultaneously.
MMPI and MMPI-2: detecting abnormal personality
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) (Hathaway & McKinley, 19405234) is the
most extensively researched of all structured personality tests. Psychologists across the world use the
MMPI to detect symptoms of major psychological disorders. Developed in the early 1940s by
psychologist Starke Hathaway and neurologist J. Charnley McKinley of the University of Minnesota, the
MMPI was revised in the 1980s by James Butcher and his colleagues (Butcher et al., 19895235). This
revised test, the MMPI-2, consists of 567 true/false items.
MMPI and MMPI-2: construction and content
The MMPI-2, like its predecessor, consists of 10 basic scales, eight of which are designed to detect
symptoms of several major psychological disorders, such as paranoia, depression, schizophrenia and
personality disorders (see Chapter 17). Hathaway and McKinley developed these scales by means of an
empirical (or data-based) method of test construction. Using an empirical (or data-based) approach,
researchers begin with two or more criterion groups, such as people with and without a specific
psychological disorder, and examine which items best distinguish them. For example, the items on the
MMPI depression scale are those that best differentiate patients with clinical depression from those
assumed to represent the non-symptomatic community, with no diagnosed psychological disorder.
One consequence of the empirical method of test construction is that many MMPI and MMPI-2 items
possess low face validity. Face validity is the extent to which respondents can infer what the construct is
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that the items are measuring. In a face valid test, we can take the items on ‘face value’: they assess what
they appear to assess. The name face validity is misleading because it is not really a form of validity.
Because Hathaway and McKinley were concerned only with whether, but not why, the MMPI items
differentiated among criterion groups, they ended up with some items that bear little obvious connection
with the disorder they supposedly assess. Let’s see if you can guess which personality trait this example
item with low face validity from another widely used structural personality test assesses: ‘I think
newborn babies look very much like little monkeys’. The answer is nurturance—that is, a tendency to
care for others—with a ‘True’ answer reflecting low nurturance and a ‘False’ answer reflecting high
nurturance—although few people who take the test can figure that out (Jackson, 19715236, p. 238).
Fact or fiction?
Informal (unstructured) interviews (interviews that lack standardised questions and scoring criteria),
which are used widely to select job applicants, are a highly reliable and valid method of assessing
personality.
Fact or fiction: McDaniel et al., 19945237; Weisner & Cronshaw, 19885238; Dana et al., 20135239
Researchers do not agree on whether low face validity is an overall advantage or disadvantage. Some
believe that items with low face validity assess key aspects of personality that are subtle or lie outside of
respondents’ awareness (Meehl, 19455240). Moreover, such items have the advantage of being difficult
for respondents to fake. In contrast, other researchers believe that these items do not add to the MMPI’s
diagnostic capacity (Jackson, 1971; Paulhus & Vazire, 20075241; Weed et al., 19905242).
The MMPI-2 contains three major validity scales. These scales detect various response sets, which are
tendencies to distort responses to items (see Chapter 3). Response sets, which can compromise the
validity of psychological tests, include impression management—making ourselves look better than we
really are—and malingering—making ourselves appear psychologically disturbed. The MMPI L (Lie)
Scale consists of items assessing the denial of trivial faults (such as ‘I occasionally become angry’). If
the respondent denies many trivial faults, it is likely that they are either (1) engaging in impression
management or (2) they do not have the trivial faults that are commonly seen in most people (i.e. they
may value honesty so much that they never lie). Given that (1) is more likely than (2), psychologists
typically use scores on the L Scale to detect a dishonest approach to test taking. While this approach
would be appropriate in most cases, there is still a small chance that the respondent was truthful and they
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were incorrectly labelled as being dishonest. The F (Frequency) Scale consists of items that people in the
general population rarely endorse (such as ‘I have a cough most of the time’). High scores on F can
indicate malingering, although they can also reflect serious psychological disturbance or carelessness in
responding to items. The K (Correction) Scale consists of items that are similar to, although subtler than,
those on the L Scale; this scale measures defensive or guarded responding (Graham, 20115243).
As we can see in Figure 16.4, psychologists plot the 10 basic scales and three validity scales of the
MMPI-2 in profile form, which displays the pattern of each person’s scale scores. Although many
clinicians enjoy interpreting MMPI-2 profiles, research demonstrates that simple statistical formulas that
can be programmed into a computer yield interpretations that are equally, if not more, valid than those of
experienced clinicians (Fokkema et al., 20155244; Garb, 19985245; Goldberg, 19695246).
The MMPI and MMPI-2 evaluated scientifically
Extensive research supports the reliability of most MMPI-2 scales, as well as their validity for
distinguishing psychological disorders (Graham, 2011; Greene, 20005247; Nichols, 20115248). For
example, the MMPI-2 Schizophrenia Scale distinguishes patients with schizophrenia from patients with
other severe psychological disorders, such as clinical depression (Walters & Greene, 19885249).
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However, there are potential limitations of the MMPI-2. Many of its scales are highly correlated and are
therefore largely redundant with each other (Helmes & Reddon, 19935250), probably because they are all
contaminated with a broad dimension of emotional maladjustment. Consequently, several MMPI-2
scales largely measure the same thing; namely, overall psychological distress and low morale. To
minimise this flaw, some researchers have recently developed a briefer, ‘restructured’ version of the
MMPI-2 that contains scales that are more independent of this dimension (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008
5251
). The evidence for the validity of the restructured version of the MMPI-2 is promising (Sellbom,
20175252), although it is still too early to tell whether this version will be an improvement on the existing
version. In addition, psychologists cannot use MMPI-2 scales by themselves to make formal diagnoses
of mental disorders such as schizophrenia or clinical depression because high scores on these scales are
not specific to a single disorder. Nevertheless, in everyday practice, clinicians sometimes misuse these
scales for this purpose (Graham, 2011).
Another limitation of the MMPI-2 is that it has been criticised for not being culturally appropriate for
diverse cultural groups and, alarmingly, for appearing to pathologise the worldviews and beliefs systems
of Indigenous peoples (Hill et al., 20105253, 20125254). To date there have been no validation studies of
the use of the MMPI-2 with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and Indigenous psychologists
have criticised the use of personality tests with specific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups
(Westerman & Wettinger, 19975255).
CPI: descendant of the MMPI
An offspring of the MMPI is the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) (Gough, 19575256). Like the
MMPI, the CPI was constructed empirically. Most CPI scales are reasonably reliable over time and are
valid for assessing personality traits (Cobb et al., 20205257). However, it is important to note that the
CPI, like other personality assessments, has not been validated for use with Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples.
Unlike the MMPI, the CPI is designed primarily for assessing personality traits in the normal range, such
as dominance, flexibility and sociability, making it a popular measure in academia, industry, government
and the criminal justice system. The CPI has also been extensively used in police recruitment, where
higher scores on the socialisation, self-control and responsibility scales are associated with police
officers not having serious problems on the job, having functional job behaviours and not requiring
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disciplinary action (Cuttler & Muchinsky, 20065258; Hargrave & Hiatt, 19895259; Sarchione et al., 1998
5260
). In comparison, excessive use of force was positively associated with dominance and independence
(Roberts et al., 20195261), and sustained internal affairs complaints were associated with poor selfcontrol and work orientation scores (Fischler, 20045262). An Australian study found that physicians who
engaged in unprofessional behaviour during medical school scored highly on irresponsibility, lack of
self-improvement and poor initiative (Hodgson et al., 20075263).
CPI scores are also related to measures derived from most of the Big Five dimensions (McCrae et al.,
19935264). However, the CPI inherited some of its parent’s shortcomings; for example, many of the CPI
scales are largely redundant with each other due to being highly correlated (Megargee, 19725265).
Rationally/theoretically constructed tests
Psychologists have also developed many structured personality measures using a rational/theoretical
method of test construction. In contrast to an empirical approach, this approach requires test
developers to begin with a clear-cut conceptualisation of a trait and then write items to assess that
conceptualisation. Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (19925266) used the rational–theoretical approach to
develop the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), a widely used measure of the Big Five.
The NEO-PI-R has demonstrated impressive validity across an extensive number of studies (Gaughan et
al., 20125267; Xie & Cobb, 20205268). For example, scores on the NEO-PI-R conscientiousness scale are
negatively correlated with measures of risk taking and scores on the NEO-PI-R agreeableness scale are
negatively correlated with measures of physical aggressiveness (Trull et al., 19955269). However, as with
the other previously mentioned personality assessments, the NEO has not been validated for use with
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
While some rational–theoretical tests boast a strong track record of validity, others, like the Myers–
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) fall short in this area. The MBTI is probably the most widely
administered personality test in the world, with millions of people taking it each year. Even the fictional
character Harry Potter was assigned to his mythical house after taking a variant of the MBTI. Based
loosely on Jung’s theory of personality (Stein & Swan, 20195270), the MBTI classifies respondents into
one of four categories—introversion–extraversion, sensing–intuiting, thinking–feeling and judging–
perceiving—yielding a total of 16 personality types.
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Despite claims that the MBTI is helpful for predicting job performance and satisfaction (McCaulley,
20005271), research raises serious doubts about its reliability and validity (Pittenger, 20055272; Stein &
Swan, 2019). When retesting respondents within 4 to 5 weeks, 35 to 50 per cent of respondents obtain
the same MBTI personality type, indicating that the test has low test-retest reliability (McCarley &
Carskadon, 19835273; Myers et al., 19985274). In addition, MBTI scores often do not relate in especially
consistent ways to either the Big Five or measures of job preferences, suggesting that the test has
questionable validity (Costa & McCrae, 19985275; Hunsley et al., 20035276; Pittenger, 2005).
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Projective tests
Projective tests ask examinees to interpret or make sense of ambiguous stimuli such as inkblots,
drawings of social situations or incomplete sentences. If you have ever looked for shapes in clouds in the
sky, you have a sense of what it is like to take a projective test. Some projective techniques ask people
which colours or animals they prefer or ask them to fill in cartoon bubbles of people engaged in
hypothetical conversations.
Influenced by psychoanalytic perspectives (Westen et al., 19995277), particularly Freud’s notion of
projection, these techniques rely on the projective hypothesis (Frank, 19485278). This hypothesis
suggests that individuals project aspects of the personality onto ambiguous stimuli during interpretation.
While related to psychoanalytic projection, this process is not necessarily irrational or defensive. Test
interpreters can analyse respondents’ answers to uncover personality traits, offering more flexibility
compared to structured measures.
Proponents of projective tests view them as the ‘stealth weapons’ of the psychologist’s arsenal. By
circumventing respondents’ defence mechanisms, they presumably offer valuable information
concerning unconscious conflicts (Dosajh, 19965279). Projective tests are among the most controversial
of all psychological instruments, largely because their reliability and validity remain in dispute (Hunsley
& Bailey, 19995280; Lilienfeld, 19995281; Lilienfeld et al., 20015282).
Rorschach Inkblot Test: what might this be?
The best-known projective measure is the Rorschach Inkblot Test, developed by Hermann Rorschach
in the early 1920s. The Rorschach consists of 10 symmetrical inkblots, five in black and white and five
containing colour (e.g. see Figure 16.5). The Rorschach has never been as popular in Australia as it is in
the United States, where it is one of the most commonly used personality measures (Bender, 20205283),
administered 6 million times per year (Sutherland, 19925284; Wood et al., 20005285). While the
Rorschach caught the attention of psychological researchers in the 1970s and 1980s in Australia as a
possible avenue for psychological assessment with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, much
of this research has been discredited for its lack of cultural safety and likely bias given that
interpretations were through a Eurocentric lens (see Chapter 2).
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Today there is scant literature on current applications of the Rorschach in Australian psychological
practice, and it is generally not a measure that is recommended with Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples given its risk of interpretation bias. Nevertheless, as the Rorschach is used extensively
in many countries, including the United States, and some psychologists in Australia still use the test, we
will take a closer look at the Rorschach.
The Rorschach: scoring and interpretation
Rorschach examiners ask respondents to look at each inkblot and say what it resembles. Examiners then
score their answers for numerous characteristics supposedly associated with personality traits. For
example, people who focus on tiny details in the inkblots presumably have many obsessive–compulsive
tendencies, people who respond to colour in the inkblots are presumably emotional and people who see
reflections in the inkblots tend to be narcissistic (self-centred) (see Table 16.5). Many of these
interpretations have a certain surface plausibility, which may account partly for the Rorschach’s
popularity in some countries and among some psychologists.
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Table 16.5 Widely used Rorschach scores and their interpretation, and sample responses that
reflect them.
RORSCHACH SCORE
SAMPLE RESPONSE
TYPICAL INTERPRETATION
Pair response
‘The top middle part looks like
Self-centredness
a pair of lungs.’
Unusual detail response ‘I see a tiny spot, like a speck of Obsessive–compulsive tendencies
dust, to the left of the blot.’
Space response
‘That white area in the lower
Rebelliousness, anger
middle looks like an upsidedown bat.’
Human movement
‘The sides of the blot look like a Impulse control, inhibition
response
person raising his hands.’
These sample responses are based on the Rorschach-like inkblot in Figure 16.5.
The Rorschach evaluated scientifically
Despite the Rorschach being used extensively in the United States and by some psychologists in
Australia, it is scientifically controversial. The test-retest reliabilities of many of its scores are unknown
and their inter-rater reliabilities—the extent to which different people scoring the test agree with each
other—are often problematic (Lilienfeld et al., 2001; Sultan et al., 20065286; Wood & Lilienfeld, 1999
5287
). While psychologists may use the Rorschach for psychiatric diagnoses (Weiner, 19975288), there is
little evidence that it validly detects the features of most psychological disorders, such as anxiety, mood
or personality disorders (Wood et al., 2000), or relates to criminal traits or behaviours (Wood et al., 2010
5289
). Exceptions include conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, where the Rorschach
shows modest validity in measuring abnormal thinking (Mihura et al., 20135290; Wood et al., 20155291).
There are also few replicated associations between Rorschach scores and most personality traits, such as
impulsivity, oppositionalism, narcissism or anxiety-proneness (Wood et al., 19965292). There is also
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evidence that respondents can successfully fake schizophrenia, depression and perhaps other disorders
on the Rorschach (Schretlen, 19975293). This is a particular problem because, in contrast to the MMPI-2,
the Rorschach does not contain scales to detect malingering.
Replicability
Can the results be duplicated in other studies?
Perhaps the greatest shortcoming of the Rorschach is the lack of evidence for its incremental validity—
its ability to provide additional information beyond other, more easily obtained measures (Sechrest, 1963
5294
). Despite it taking a long time (typically about 45 minutes) to administer and even longer (1½ to 2
hours) to interpret (Ball et al., 19945295), there is little to no evidence that the Rorschach offers unique
insights compared to more efficient measures such as life history information or the MMPI (Lilienfeld et
al., 2001). In fact, adding the Rorschach to other measures may sometimes decrease the validity of
clinicians’ diagnostic judgments (Garb, 19845296; Garb et al., 20055297), probably because clinicians
prioritise invalid Rorschach data over more valid information.
TAT: tell a tale
The second most frequently administered projective test in Western countries is the Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT), developed by Henry Murray and his student Christiana Morgan (Morgan &
Murray, 19355298). The TAT consists of 31 cards depicting ambiguous situations. As a mnemonic
device, we can think of the TAT as the ‘Tell a Tale’ test because examinees construct a story based on
each card. Most clinicians interpret the TAT on an ‘impressionistic’ basis, meaning that they inspect the
content of the examinee’s stories and analyse them using clinical intuition alone (Vane, 19815299).
Despite claims to the contrary (Karon, 20005300), there is little evidence that impressionistic TAT
interpretations generate scores with adequate reliability or validity (Nissley & DeFreese, 20205301;
Ryan, 19855302). TAT scores have often failed to distinguish psychiatric patients, such as people with
clinical depression, from non-patients, or to correlate in predicted directions with personality traits
(Lilienfeld, 1999). Nor is there much evidence that TAT scores possess incremental validity beyond
other sources of information, such as the MMPI (Garb, 1984; Lilienfeld et al., 2001).
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Human figure drawings
Another popular group of projective tests is human figure drawings, such as the Draw-A-Person (DAP)
test (Machover, 19495303). The DAP requires respondents to draw a person (or people) in any way they
wish (Malchiodi, 20125304). Clinicians who administer these measures may interpret them based on
specific drawing ‘signs’ (Chapman & Chapman, 19675305; Smith & Dumont, 19955306). For example,
large eyes in drawings presumably reflect suspiciousness, while large genitalia in drawings presumably
reflect concerns about sexuality.
Nevertheless, the correlations between human figure drawing signs and personality traits are low to nonexistent (Lilienfeld et al., 20005307; Motta et al., 19935308; Swenson, 19685309). Nor is there much
evidence that self-proclaimed figure drawing experts are much better than the rest of us at inferring
personality traits from them. Perhaps most problematically, interpretations are highly influenced by
sociocultural norms and belief systems, and are therefore subject to assessment bias, which can be
harmful to the people taking such tests. For instance, scores derived from human figure drawings are
confounded with artistic ability: research suggests that people may be diagnosed as psychologically
disturbed merely because they draw poorly (Cressen, 19755310; Lilienfeld et al., 2000). This is a clear
example of how the inappropriate application of psychological theory and approaches can be harmful
and stigmatising (see Chapter 2).
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Common pitfalls in personality assessment
Imagine that as part of a research requirement for your introductory psychology class a fellow student
completed a structured personality test, such as the MMPI-2. The student looks on with anxious
anticipation as the research assistant inputs the data into a computer, which spits out the following
personality description:
Some of your hopes and dreams are pretty unrealistic. You have a great deal of unused
potential that you have not yet turned to your advantage. Although you sometimes enjoy
being around others, you value your privacy. You prize your independence and dislike being
hemmed in by rules and restrictions. You are an independent thinker and do not accept
others’ opinions without strong evidence. You sometimes have serious doubts about
whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. Despite these doubts, you
are a strong person whom others can count on in times of trouble.
After reading this description, the student turns to the research assistant with a mixture of amazement
and awe and exclaims: ‘This description fits me perfectly. You have hit the nail on the head!’.
But there is a catch. This description, the research assistant informs the student, was not based on their
test results at all. Instead, this description is identical to one that all 100 previous participants have
received. The students were victims of a devilish hoax. This example illustrates what Paul Meehl (1956
5311
) termed the P. T. Barnum effect.
The P. T. Barnum effect: the perils of personal validation
The P. T. Barnum effect is the tendency of people to accept descriptions that apply to many people as
applying specifically to them (Rosen, 20155312). This effect demonstrates that personal validation—the
use of subjective judgments of accuracy (Forer, 19495313)—is a flawed method of evaluating a test’s
validity. We may be convinced that the results of a personality test fit us to a T, but that does not mean
the test is valid.
The P. T. Barnum effect helps to explain the popularity of Western horoscopes, palmistry and crystal
ball, tea leaf and tarot card readings. These assessment methods generate highly generalised descriptions
that apply to just about everyone. However, there is no evidence for their validity (Hines, 20035314;
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Park, 19825315). People are especially likely to accept P. T. Barnum descriptions they believe are
tailored specifically to them (Snyder et al., 19775316). This finding probably helps to explain why
horoscopes—which specify the precise year, month, day and occasionally even time of the person’s
birth—are often so convincing.
Extraordinary claims
Is the evidence as strong as the claim?
In an illustration of the P. T. Barnum effect, Susan Blackmore (19835317) found that clients could not
pick out their own tarot card readings from nine other readings at better-than-chance levels. Yet when
tarot card readers gave their readings to clients on a face-to-face basis, clients found them extremely
accurate. Because each reading contained general statements that apply to everyone, clients who heard
only one reading found it believable.
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Psychomythology
Criminal profiling
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Another practice whose popularity may derive in part from the P. T. Barnum effect is criminal profiling,
a technique depicted in the Academy-Award-winning 1991 movie The Silence of the Lambs, starring
Jodie Foster. Criminal profilers at the FBI and other law enforcement agencies claim to draw detailed
inferences about perpetrators’ personality traits and motives from the pattern of crimes committed.
It is true that we can often guess certain characteristics of criminals at better-than-chance levels. If we
are investigating a homicide, we will do better than flipping a coin by guessing that the murderer was a
male (most murders are committed by men) between the ages of 20 and 29 (most murders in Australia
are committed by young adults) who suffers from psychological problems (most murderers suffer from
psychological problems). But criminal profilers purport to go considerably beyond such widely available
statistics. They typically claim to possess unique expertise and to be able to harness their years of
accumulated experience to outperform statistical formulas.
Nevertheless, their assessments sometimes echo P. T. Barnum. In late 2002, when Washington, DC, was
paralysed by random sniper shootings at service stations and in car parks, one former FBI profiler
predicted that the sniper would turn out to be someone who is ‘self-centred’ and ‘angry’ at others
(Kleinfield & Goode, 20025318)—both fairly obvious guesses that most laypeople could make.
Indeed, research demonstrates that police officers cannot distinguish genuine criminal profiles from
bogus ones consisting of vague and general personality characteristics (such as ‘they have deep-seated
problems with hostility’). This finding suggests the parsimonious hypothesis that profilers often base
their conclusions about criminals on little more than P. T. Barnum statements (Alison et al., 20035319;
Gladwell, 20075320). Moreover, although some researchers have found that profilers sometimes perform
better than untrained individuals in identifying criminal suspects, others have found that professional
profilers are no more accurate in gauging the personality features of murderers than university students
with no training in criminology are (Homant & Kennedy, 19985321; Snook et al., 20085322). In one
study, chemistry majors actually produced more accurate profiles of a murderer than experienced
homicide detectives and police officers did (Kocsis et al., 20025323). Perhaps most importantly, there is
no persuasive evidence that criminal profilers outperform statistical formulas that take into account the
psychological traits of known murderers. Finally, as you will recall from Chapter 14, great care must be
taken, as racial profiling in policing and justice systems is particularly problematic and harmful for
Black and Indigenous peoples.
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Criminal profiling may thus be more of an urban legend than a scientifically demonstrated ability. Yet
tradition dies hard, and the FBI and other crime organisations remain in the full-time business of training
criminal profilers (Jackson et al., 20115324). Despite its support in criminal matters, inaccurate and
racially biased profiling can be problematic and harmful to certain groups of people.
Addressing the shortcomings of personality assessment
Personality assessment has contributed to psychologists’ ability to detect personality traits and has
helped them predict significant real-world behaviours. Moreover, psychologists have succeeded in
developing numerous personality measures, especially structured personality tests, with adequate
reliability and validity. We should also consider that the recurring problems in the existing personality
theories and personality assessment tools pave the way for new measures to be developed and utilised.
Researchers around the world are being inspired to seek more comprehensive and psychometrically
sound models. These new models target addressing the shortcomings of the current models available,
recognise cultural diversity and aim to create psychometrically sound means to assess personality.
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Emerging ideas in personality assessment
A number of new ideas are emerging in the area of personality assessment.
Importance of culture
There is increasing recognition of the importance of cultural factors in shaping personality. Researchers
are examining how culture influences the expression and understanding of personality. This can lead to
the development of culturally informed assessment tools that align with the culture and knowledge
systems of specific cultural groups. For instance, personality from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander perspective considers conceptualisations of the relational self, or collective selfhood,
interconnected with culture, Country, community, kinship and ancestry (see Chapter 2 and Chapter 11
). Furthermore, the development and formation of the relational self is influenced by determinants of
health including cultural, social, political and historical legacies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identities are multifaceted and intersectional, reflecting
the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and cultures, as well as the dynamic
interplay between individual and collective aspects of SEWB and determinants of health.
Spirituality and religion
Closely related to culture is the importance of spirituality and religious ontology. Despite the presence of
implicit ideas about personality within spiritual and religious teachings, this aspect remains relatively
understudied in Western psychology. For instance, various religions and spiritual ontologies provide
frameworks for understanding virtues, vices, moral development and the purpose of human existence,
which can potentially shape individual behaviour and attitudes. Exploring these connections between
spiritual and religious beliefs and personality could shed light on the interplay between spiritualmindedness, values and personality development as well as psychological functioning.
Multimodal assessments
This approach aims to combine multiple assessment modalities, such as combining self-report measures
with other sources of information such as behaviour observations, interviews with family and
community members, physiological data, social media analysis and machine learning algorithms. This
approach could capture a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of personality.
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Adaptive testing
Algorithms can be used in adaptive testing approaches to tailor the assessment process to individual
respondents, presenting items that are most informative and relevant based on their previous responses.
This approach is promising as it can optimise the efficiency and precision of personality assessments.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Recent developments in AI can be incorporated in a multitude of ways in personality theory and
assessment. Some developments include automated personality assessments, personality prediction,
chatbot-based assessments, personalised feedback and recommendations, virtual avatars and virtual
reality, and data-driven personality models. These emerging developments offer new possibilities for
more efficient, personalised and data-driven approaches to understanding and measuring personality.
Technology and assessment tools
Advances in technology enable the development of innovative assessment tools, such as using mobile
apps, wearable devices and online platforms for measuring personality. These tools offer new ways of
collecting data, tracking behaviour and integrating real-time assessments into research and practice.
These emerging areas are likely to continue to contribute to the ongoing evolution and refinement of
personality theory and assessment tools. They strive to enhance our understanding of personality
dynamics, sociocultural influences and individual differences, while leveraging technological
advancements to improve measurement accuracy and utility in various contexts.
Evaluating claims
Online personality tests
The internet offers an enormous array of personality tests, including ones that claim to identify
personality based on facial features, colour preferences or responses to word association tests. Some
even claim to ‘diagnose’ personality based on preferences for movies, fictional characters, celebrities or
animals.
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Consider the following scenario: while checking your social media profile, you notice an advertisement
for ‘The Instant Personality Profile’. Here is what the advertisement says:
Take a look at the photos of the 15 animal species above. Take no more than 5 minutes to
rank-order them, with 1 being your favourite animal species and 15 being your least
favourite. Do not think too much about your responses; go with your gut. Then, just pay the
$3 fee and we will provide you with a highly accurate, verified personality profile! It will
tell you almost everything you need to know about who you really are. Five therapists we
consulted agreed that the profile fits all of their clients. And what is more, our test has a 92.3
per cent satisfaction rate among all users!
Scientific scepticism requires us to evaluate all claims with an open mind but to insist on compelling
evidence before accepting them. How do the principles of scientific thinking help us to evaluate this
claim about the effectiveness of this online personality test? Consider how the six principles of scientific
thinking are relevant as you evaluate this claim.
1 Extraordinary claims
Is the evidence as strong as the claim?
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The claim that a test can detect a broad array of personality traits merely by examining one’s animal
preferences is quite remarkable, but the ad offers no compelling reason to accept this claim.
2 Testing predictions
Can the claim be tested?
Yes, the claim that the test is valid could be falsified. If independent researchers showed that the test
results do not correlate with the results of other personality measures or predict any kind of meaningful
behaviour, it would refute the assertion that the measure is valid for detecting personality.
3 Generalisability
Do the findings and conclusions reflect the diversity of the human experience?
It is not clear exactly what sample was used to verify the test. Accordingly, it is not evident that the test
norms apply to people from diverse sociocultural contexts.
4 Replicability
Can the results be duplicated in other studies?
From the ad described, there is no evidence that the validity of the test has been examined in any
systematic studies, let alone that the evidence for its validity has been replicated in independent
investigations.
5 Ruling out rival hypotheses
Have important alternative explanations for the findings been excluded?
Definitely not. The high rates of satisfaction among users of the Instant Personality Profile could be due
largely or entirely to the P. T. Barnum effect. Clients could be satisfied with the results because they fit
just about everyone and tell people what they want to hear (e.g. ‘You are a good person with a great deal
of potential!’, ‘Despite whatever personal struggles you may be experiencing right now, you will end up
happy’). The same could be true of therapists’ claims that the profile fits their clients. Moreover, we
have no way of knowing how representative these five therapists are of other therapists.
6 Correlation vs causation
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Can we be sure that A causes B?
This principle is not especially relevant to the scenario described.
Summary
This personality test is typical of many that can be found online. It makes grand claims about detecting
personality traits in a short amount of time, often with minimal information. Given that personality traits
are extremely complex and multifaceted, we should be doubtful of assertions that they can be detected
using extremely brief tests.
We should be especially doubtful when the tests consist of items that do not directly measure
personality, in this case preferences for animals. It is very likely that our preferences for animals reflect
our culture, beliefs and life experiences at least as much as our deep-seated personality traits.
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Quiz 16.6: Personality assessment: measuring and
mis-measuring the psyche
Question 16.6.2: Costa & McRae, 19925332
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Summary: Personality
16.1: Personality: what is it and how can we study it?
16.1a Describe how twin and adoption studies shed light on genetic
and environmental influences on personality.
Twin and adoption studies suggest that many personality traits are heritable and point to a key role for
non-shared environment, but not shared environment, for adult personality.
16.2: Psychoanalytic theory: the controversial legacy
of Sigmund Freud and his followers
16.2a Describe the core assumptions of psychoanalytic theory.
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory rests on three core assumptions: psychic determinism, symbolic meaning
and unconscious motivation. According to Freud, personality results from the interactions among id, ego
and superego. The ego copes with threat by deploying defence mechanisms. Freud’s five psychosexual
stages are oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital.
16.2b Describe key criticisms of psychoanalytic theory and the central
features of neo-Freudian theories.
Psychoanalytic theory has been criticised on several grounds, including unfalsifiability, failed
predictions, questionable conception of the unconscious, lack of evidence and a flawed assumption of
shared environmental influence. Neo-Freudians share with Freud an emphasis on unconscious influences
and the importance of early experience, but place less emphasis on sexuality as a driving force in
personality.
16.3: Behavioural and social learning theories of
personality
16.3a Identify the core assumptions of behavioural and social
learning theories of personality.
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Radical behaviourists view personality as under the control of two major influences: genetic factors and
contingencies in the environment. Radical behaviourists, like psychoanalysts, are determinists and
believe in unconscious processing, but deny the existence of ‘the’ unconscious. In contrast to radical
behaviourists, social learning theorists accord a central role to thinking in the causes of personality and
argue that observational learning and a sense of personal control play key roles in personality.
16.3b Describe key criticisms of behavioural and social learning
approaches.
Critics have accused radical behaviourists of going too far in their exclusion of thinking as a cause of
personality. The social learning theory claim that observational learning plays a crucial role in
personality runs counter to findings that shared environmental influence on adult personality is minimal.
16.4: Humanistic models of personality: the third force
16.4a Explain the concept of self-actualisation and its role in
humanistic models.
In the 1950s and 1960s, humanistic models of personality rejected the strict determinism of
psychoanalysts and embraced the notion of free will. We are perfectly free, they maintained, to choose
either socially constructive or destructive paths in life. Most humanistic psychologists argue that the core
motive in personality is self-actualisation. According to Carl Rogers, unhealthy behaviour results from
the imposition of conditions of worth, which block drives towards self-actualisation. According to
Abraham Maslow, self-actualised individuals are creative, spontaneous, accepting and prone to peak
experiences.
16.4b Describe key criticisms of humanistic approaches.
Critics have attacked humanistic models for being naive about human nature and for advancing theories
that are difficult to falsify.
16.5: Trait models of personality: consistencies in our
behaviour
16.5a Describe trait models of personality, including the Big Five.
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Trait theories use factor analysis to identify groups of personality features that tend to correlate with
each other. These groupings often correspond to broader traits such as extraversion and agreeableness.
One influential model of personality is the Big Five, which predicts many important aspects of realworld behaviour, including job performance. Nevertheless, the Big Five may be limited as a model of
personality structure because people may not have conscious access to all important features of
personality.
16.5b Identify key criticisms of trait models.
In the late 1960s, Walter Mischel pointed out that personality traits rarely predict isolated behaviours
with high levels of accuracy; later research vindicated his claim but demonstrated that personality traits
are often helpful in predicting long-term behavioural trends. Some models of personality structure,
including the Big Five, are more descriptive than explanatory. The Big Five has also been criticised for
asserting universal application to all peoples when this is not necessarily the case.
16.6: Personality assessment: measuring and mismeasuring the psyche
16.6a Describe structured personality tests, such as the MMPI-2, and
their methods of construction.
Structured personality tests consist of questions that people can answer in only one of a few fixed ways.
Some, such as the MMPI-2 and CPI, were developed empirically; others, such as the NEO-PI-R, were
developed rationally/theoretically. To date there have been no measures of personality that have been
validated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, calling into question whether such
measures should be used at all when working with this population.
16.6b Describe projective tests, particularly the Rorschach, and their
strengths and weaknesses.
Projective tests consist of ambiguous stimuli that the examinee must interpret. Many of these tests lack
adequate levels of reliability, validity and incremental validity.
16.6c Identify common pitfalls in personality assessment.
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A common pitfall in personality assessment is the P. T. Barnum effect. The error highlights the need for
scientific methods as safeguards against human error.
Answers to Challenge your assumptions
1. Yes. Most psychologists agree that there is such a thing as personality—people’s typical ways of
thinking, feeling and behaving (see section 16.1).
2. No. Personality is multiply determined by a great many factors— genetic, prenatal, parenting, peer
influence and many others (see section 16.4).
3. No. Personality doesn’t predict isolated behaviours in a single situation, but it predicts much better
aggregate behaviours across multiple situations (see section 16.5).
4. No. Inkblots are not a reliable way to infer people’s personality traits (see section 16.6).
5. No. Criminal profiling doesn’t have strong scientific support (see section 16.6).
Answers to Fact or fiction?
Page 649 Individuals’ handshakes tell us something about their personality traits.
Fact. Research demonstrates that people with firm handshakes tend to be somewhat higher in
extraversion and openness to experience and lower in neuroticism than people with limp handshakes
(Chaplin et al., 2000).
Page 656 Informal (unstructured) interviews (interviews that lack standardised questions and scoring
criteria), which are used widely to select job applicants, are a highly reliable and valid method of
assessing personality.
Fiction. Different interviewers frequently disagree on their impressions of interviewees (McDaniel et al.,
1994; Weisner & Cronshaw, 1988). Moreover, the predictive validity of unstructured interviews tends to
be low. Most interviewers are convinced that such interviews are extremely valid for inferring
personality even though they are mistaken (Dana et al., 2013).
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