Widely accepted
definition:
 Involves the ability to
learn from experience,
to acquire knowledge,
to reason and to solve
problems.

INTELLIGENCE THEORIST
INTELLIGENCE THEORY
Alfred Binet
Intelligence as an age-related set
of abilities
David Wechsler
Intelligence as verbal versus
performance abilities
Howard Gardner
Multiple Intelligences
Robert Sternberg
Triarchic theory or intelligence
Cattell-Horn-Carroll
Model of psychometric abilities
Salovey and Mayer
Ability based model of emotional
intelligence
Developed the first intelligence test
 Binet was appointed by the French
government to identify children who
experienced difficulties in the classroom in
the early 1900’s
 Binet viewed intelligence as a general ability
with specific, but related mental functions
 Binet proposed that intelligence is agerelated, that is, EVERY 5 year old should be
more intelligent than 4 years olds and less
intelligent than 6 year olds.

Wechsler proposed that intelligence
involves greater abilities that are not only
relevant to school.
 He categorised verbal abilities as those
entirely language-dependent such as
vocabulary and comprehension
 He categorised performance abilities as
those that are less dependent on language
such as arranging pictures to tell a story and
arranging blocks to form a pattern.

1/ Awareness: Intelligent
behaviour is conscious and
controlled
 2/ Goal directed: Intelligent
behaviour has a purpose.
 3/ Rational: Intelligent behaviour is
consistent and appropriate
 4/ Worthwhile: Intelligent
behaviour is valued by others.
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Linguistic intelligence — use of language and words (written and
spoken)
Musical intelligence — musical competence, such as
understanding pitch, rhythm and timbre
Logical–mathematical intelligence — ordering and reordering
numbers of objects to measure their quantity, using a sequence of
logical steps in solving a problem
Spatial intelligence — mentally forming and using accurate visual
images of real objects and events, mentally rotating objects in 3Dspace
Bodily–kinesthetic intelligence — using one's body in highly
specialised and skilled ways, as seen in athletes, dancers, gymnasts
and other physical performers
Intrapersonal intelligence — ability to understand one's own
feelings and to draw on them to guide one's behaviour in an
appropriate way
Interpersonal intelligence — ability to read other people's moods,
motivations, intentions and other internal states and effectively act
upon this knowledge.
Naturalistic intelligence - involves the ability to recognise and
categorise natural objects (In 1995, Gardner added this 8th intelligence)

Two key claims of
Gardner's theory of
multiple intelligences
are that
(1) All people possess
all these intelligences
and
 (2) All individuals have
a unique combination
of the different
intelligences

Analytical intelligence: refers to the ability to
complete academic, problem-solving tasks,
such as those used in traditional intelligence
tests
 Creative intelligence: refers to the ability to
successfully deal with new and unusual
situations by drawing on existing knowledge
and skills.
 Practical intelligence: refers to the ability to
adapt to everyday life by drawing on existing
knowledge and skills. Practical intelligence is
involved when dealing with everyday
personal or practical problems.

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
Sternberg, proposes that
the three parts of
intelligence involve
abilities that are different,
separate and are not
‘fixed’; that is, they can
change (become stronger
or weaker) through
experience in everyday
life.
If a person is sufficiently
strong in each of the three
parts, then the three parts
will be ‘in balance’. When
this occurs, the person has
what Sternberg calls
successful intelligence.
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Psychometrics is a specialist area of psychology
that focuses on the measurement of
psychological abilities
Cattell and Horn worked together and
developed a theory of intelligence called the GfGc theory. The Gf-Gc theory describes
intelligence as consisting of 10 separate and
different broad cognitive abilities in an upper
stratum and 69 narrow cognitive abilities in a
lower stratum
John Carroll (1993) developed a theory of
intelligence called the three-stratum model of
human cognitive abilities, which is more
commonly known as the three-stratum theory.
The Cattell-HornCarroll model of
psychometric
abilities is a
combination of
Cattell and
Horn's Gf-Gc
theory and
Carroll's threestratum theory,
as indicated by
its name .
Salovey and Mayer define emotional
intelligence as the ability to recognise the
meanings of emotions and their
relationships, and to reason and problem
solve on the basis of emotions
 Salovey and Mayer believe that
emotional intelligence involves four
‘branches’, or areas, of abilities. The four
branches are described in their four
branch model of emotional intelligence.

-The ability to
accurately perceive
emotions in oneself
and others
-The ability to use
emotions to facilitate
(assist) thinking
-The ability to
understand
emotions;
-The ability to
manage emotions
Binet's test of intelligence
 Wechsler's tests of intelligence
 IQ and its calculation
 Mental Age: A score indicating the level
of mental functioning in years, as
measured by an intelligence test.
 Chronological Age: The actual age since
birth (In years, months, weeks or days)

STRENGTHS
LIMITATIONS
Helps us diagnose specific learning
difficulties of individuals and to
recommend special assistance to help
overcome these difficulties
Intelligence tests measure only some of
the abilities thought to be associated
with intelligent behaviour
Can provide useful information about
an individual's mental abilities
Unless they are used carefully, the
results could misrepresent the
intellectual capability of an individual
IQ should be regarded as no more than
a number that tells us how a person
performed on a particular test as
compared with others in the same age
bracket
Care must be taken to avoid
misrepresenting the intellectual
capacity of individuals in certain ethnic
or cultural groups
Caution must also be shown when
using intelligence tests to predict an
individual's potential
Standardised Tests
Culture Fair Testing
For a test to be standardised it must
first be administered to a large
sample who are representative of
the population. This is to ensure
scores on an intelligence test are to
have meaning.
- Cultural bias refers to the tendency
of a test to give a lower score to a
person from a culture different from
that on which the test was
standardised
- Culture-fair tests attempt to
provide items that will not
disadvantage or penalise a testtaker on the basis of their cultural or
ethnic background

To be useful, an intelligence (and
personality) test must be valid; that is, it
must actually measure what it is
supposed to measure.

An intelligence (and personality) test
must also be reliable. In relation to tests,
reliability refers to the ability of a test to
consistently measure what it is supposed
to measure each time it is given.

Psychologists believe that variations in
intelligence can be attributed to both
hereditary and environmental factors, but
which has the greater influence is very
difficult to judge.

Flynn effect provides very strong
evidence for the impact of environment
on intelligence.
The Flynn effect is a research
finding that IQ scores have risen
over time.

Psychologists have
defined personality in
many ways over time.
Most current definitions
refer to personality as an
individual's unique
pattern of thoughts,
feelings and behaviour
that are relatively stable
over time and across
situations.
PERSONALITY THEORIST
PERSONALITY THEORY
Sigmund Freud
Psychodynamic theory of
personality
Gordon Allport
Trait Theory: Hierarchy of traits
Raymond Cattell
Trait Theory: 16 Personality factor
model
Hans Eysenck
Trait Theory: PEN model
Paul Costa and Robert McCrae
Trait Theory: Five Factor Model
Carl Rogers
Humanistic Theory of personality
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Basic understanding of a
psychodynamic theory of
personality is that personality is
a result of unconscious
psychological conflicts.
The origin of these conflicts are
seen to be in childhood
experiences, due to the fact
that an individual’s instinctive
urges often do not match up
to what is viewed as
‘acceptable’ in society
Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)
It attempts to explain how
personality develops
throughout the lifespan
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
The Iceberg Metaphor
Freud believed that the human mind is like an
iceberg, where most of it is beneath the surface
3 different levels within the mind:
-- conscious
-- pre-conscious
-- unconscious
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The id is impulsive and represents our biological
needs. Works on the pleasure principle
The ego is realistic and considers the ‘real life’
consequences of the id’s demands. Works on the
reality principle
Superego is our judgemental conscience. Works
on the moral principle
Freud suggested that these 3 forces are constantly
in conflict and that our behaviour is produced as
a result of this interaction
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Defence Mechanisms
The ego is constantly playing the role of trying to
mediate between the id and the superego
There are many instances when this conflict is not
effectively resolved and according to Freud, this
results in individuals feeling anxiety
However, it is the ego’s role to protect us from such
anxiety.
The unconscious processes by which the ego
attempts to protect us from the anxiety arising out of
unresolved internal conflict are called defence
mechanisms
By denying, falsifying or distorting reality at an
unconscious level, our ego leads us to believe that
there is no need to feel anxious
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Denial: claiming/believing
that what is true to be
actually false.
Displacement: redirecting
emotions to a substitute
target.
Projection: attributing
uncomfortable feelings to
other people around.
Compensation: covering up
weaknesses by emphasizing
perceived strengths
Intellectualisation: Ignoring
emotions and feelings by
talking about painful events in
a ‘cold’ way
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Rationalization: creating
false but credible
justifications.
Reaction Formation:
overacting in the opposite
way to your true feelings.
Regression: going back to
acting as a child.
Repression: pushing
uncomfortable thoughts
into the subconscious.
Sublimation: redirecting
'wrong' urges into socially
acceptable actions.
Fantasy: Fulfilling
unconscious wishes by
imagining them in activities
Freud developed a theory of how our sexuality starts
from a very young age and develops through various
stages.
 Freud used the word ‘sex’ broadly to describe
anything ‘physically pleasurable’ within these stages.
 If these stages are not psychologically completed and
released, we can be trapped by them and they may
lead to various fixations to avoid the anxiety
produced from the conflict in leaving of the stage.
 He suggested that we progress sequentially through 5
stages:
-- Oral Stage
-- Anal Stage
-- Phallic Stage
-- Latency Stage
-- Genital Stage

Oral Stage (Birth to 18
months)
 During the oral stage, the
child if focused on oral
pleasures (sucking).
 Too much or too little
gratification can result in
an Oral Fixation is
evidenced by a
preoccupation with oral
activities.
 This type of personality
may have a stronger
tendency to smoke, drink
alcohol, over eat, or bite
his or her nails.

Anal Stage (18 months to
three years)
 The child’s focus of pleasure
in this stage is on eliminating
and retaining faeces.
 The child has to learn to
control anal stimulation.
 In terms of personality, after
effects of an anal fixation
during this stage can result in
an obsession with cleanliness,
perfection, and control (anal
retentive). On the opposite
end of the spectrum, they
may become messy and
disorganized (anal expulsive).

Phallic Stage (ages three to six)
 The pleasure zone switches to the genitals. Freud believed
that during this stage boy develops unconscious sexual
desires for their mother. Because of this, he becomes a rival
with his father and sees him as competition for the mother’s
affection. This is known as the Oedipus Complex
 Later it was added that girls go through a similar situation,
developing unconscious sexual attraction to their father.
This is known as the Electra Complex.
 According to Freud, out of fear and due to the strong
competition of his father, boys eventually decide to identify
with him rather than fight him. By identifying with his father,
the boy develops masculine characteristics, and represses
his sexual feelings toward his mother. A fixation at this stage
could result in sexual deviancies.

Latency Stage (age six to
puberty)
The stage begins around
the time that children
enter into school and
become more
concerned with peer
relationships, hobbies,
and other interests.
It is during this stage that
sexual urges remain
repressed and children
interact and play
mostly with same sex
peers.
Genital Stage (puberty
onwards)
 The final stage begins at the
start of puberty when sexual
urges are once again
awakened.
 Through the lessons learned
during the previous stages,
adolescents direct their
sexual urges onto opposite
sex peers, with the primary
focus of pleasure is the
genitals.
 If the other stages have
been completed
successfully, the individual
should now be wellbalanced and caring.

STRENGTHS
LIMITATIONS
Psychology has gained some useful
insights into personality
development from some of Freud’s
proposals
Relatively few contemporary
psychologists believe that
personality development proceeds
in age-related stages
Many psychologists agree with
Freud's idea that adult personality is
significantly influenced by
experiences early in life
Most psychologists also have a
view that personality development
continues throughout the entire
lifespan, and does not ‘stop’ or
‘slow down’ at five or six years of
age
There is research evidence
supporting our use of defence
mechanisms.
Freud's theory lacks scientific
research evidence, most
contemporary psychologists do not
support Freud's theory of
personality development or any of
the other psychodynamic theories.

A personality trait is a personality
characteristic that lasts over time and across
situations

Trait theories of personality focus on
measuring, identifying and describing
individual differences in personality in terms
of traits or characteristics

The trait approach emphasises traits running
on a continuum

Most personality tests are based on the trait
approach to personality

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
Gordon Allport (1897 – 1967)
Widely recognised as the first trait approach to
studying personality
Compiled a list of all the words that could be used
to describe personality and then minimised the list
by reducing synonyms and words rarely used in the
English language. This process is known as the
lexical approach.
Allport organised these traits into 3 groups:
1. Cardinal traits: traits which are seen as motivators or a
driving force in that person’s personality. Cardinal
traits are very dominant, but extremely rare
2. Central traits: traits which are present to some degree
in all individuals within a culture or society Allport
suggested that central traits are the basis of our
personality and influence our behaviour to a large
extent ( eg. independence, kindness, trustworthiness)
3. Secondary Traits: like central traits these traits too
are present to some degree in all individuals.
However, they do not influence behaviour to the
same degree (eg. Loves classical music)

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
Raymond Cattell (1905 – 1995)
Dissatisfied with Allport’s qualitative measure
Used statistical procedure called factor
analysis to reduce Allport’s list
Factor analysis is when certain pieces of
information are seen to be highly correlated
to each other and therefore are seen as a
group (or a factor).
For example, words such as happy, talkative,
friendly, outgoing correlate high with each
other. Thus, those words were grouped
together as the factor ‘extraversion’

Through factor analysis, Cattell identified 16
different factors or dimensions

Like all trait theories, an individual’s scores
were placed on a continuum for each
factor, with opposites such as reserved and
outgoing at each extreme

EG: Intelligence:
Less Intelligent
More intelligent

Cattell identified 2 levels of traits:

1. Surface trait: lies beneath the ‘surface’ of your
personality, can be observed indirectly from your
behaviour

2. Source trait: A group of surface traits that usually
occur together are considered together as a source
trait. Thus, a source trait is a ‘factor’ or dimension of
personality

Cattell’s model used 16 different factors or source
traits to describe an individual’s personality


Hans Eysenck (1916 – 1997)
Reduced Cattell’s 16 personality factors to 3 and
called them ‘dimensions of personality’
These dimensions were called:
 1. Introversion – Extraversion
 2. Neuroticism – Emotional stability
 3. Psychoticism (present to some degree
in all of individuals, added to the theory
after the first two dimensions)

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Measured these dimensions using the EPQ (160 items)
Scores indicate ‘how much’ of each dimension the
person displays

Costa and McCrae combined Allport’s lexical
approach and Cattell’s factor analysis to determine
the 5 factors
FACTOR
TRAITS INCLUDE
Openness to experience imaginative, curious, artistic, excitable, insightful,
unconventional
Conscientiousness
organised, thorough, efficient, reliable, selfdisciplined, dutiful
Extraversion
outgoing, sociable, talkative
Agreeableness
cooperative, compliant, sympathetic, kind,
affectionate, forgiving, modest and
straightforwardness
Neuroticism
tense, anxious, moody, irritable, impulsive, selfconscious and vulnerability
STRENGTHS
LIMITATIONS
Trait theories and models provide
useful descriptions of personality
and its structure
Can lead people to accept and
use oversimplified classifications
and descriptions of people’s
personality
They have provided the foundation
for the development of valid and
reliable personality assessment
devices.
Underestimate the way(s) in which
specific situations and sociocultural factors can influence
human behaviour
Can be used for a variety of
purposes, ranging from vocational
selection to diagnostic testing for
personality or neuropsychological
disorders.
They tend to underestimate the
uniqueness of each individual
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-
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-
Founder: Carl Rogers
Person centred therapy
Humanistic theories of personality
emphasize:
uniqueness of the individual
the positive qualities and potential of all
human beings to fulfill their lives (reach self
actualisation)
These theories are based on the
assumptions that:
All people are born good
All people want to strive to reach their full
potential
-
The self-image (person you think you are)
The ideal self (person you want to be)
The true self (person you actually are)
Roger’s believed that all 3 need to be fairly
similar for a healthy, well-adjusted
personality to develop
According to Rogers there is
a close connection
between a person’s mental
health and the extent to
which their ideal self, true self
and self-image match
 The Q-sort test is used mainly
during therapy to examine
the self-concept, and the
extent to which the true self
and the ideal self match (or
are mismatched).

STRENGTHS
LIMITATIONS
They have focused on the positive
dimensions of personality
Criticised for their simplistic, idealistic
and vague ideas about personality
The humanistic theories give a
complete (but not necessarily
accurate) picture of how the
healthy personality develops and
provide an explanation for the
development of an unhealthy
personality.
Encourage the individual to focus on
their own self-fulfilment or other
‘ideals’ which may not be realistic or
even appropriate in contemporary
society.
Criticised for being unrealistic in its
view of the world in that it does not
recognise human beings’ capacity
for pessimism or evil
Criticised due to its subjective
(‘personalised’) and non-scientific
basis

Genetic and
Environmental
factors

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
Longitudinal Studies
Twin Studies
Adoption Studies
Personality Tests: A personality test is an assessment
device used to evaluate or measure aspects of
personality, such as factors (dimensions) and specific
traits. The 16PF, EPQ
 Personality Inventories: A personality inventory is a selfreport, ‘paper and pencil’ or online test which has a
list of questions designed to assess various aspects of
personality
 Projective Tests: projective test attempts to uncover
an individual's unconscious wishes, desires, fears,
thoughts, needs and other ‘hidden’ aspects of
personality by asking them to describe what they see
or to make up a story from an ambiguous stimulus


The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) is a personality inventory
which categorises an individual into one of 16 personality types
depending on their preferences for how they perceive the world
and make decisions.

Extraversion (E)-Introversion (I): whether your energy is directed
outward towards the world of activity, people and other things (E),
or whether your energy is directed inward to your own thoughts
and ideas (I)
Sensing (S)-Intuition (N): whether you prefer to take in information
from the five senses (S), or whether you prefer to receive
information from the unconscious (N)
Thinking (T)-Feeling (F): whether you make decisions with your
head using logic and impersonal reasoning (T), or whether you
decide with your heart using personal feelings and evaluations (F)
Judging(J)-Perceiving(P): whether you prefer to approach your life
in a planned, orderly and organised way (J), or whether you
approach life more flexibly, being spontaneous and open to
options (P).
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Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) is a career
counselling inventory which enables a person
to identify their personality type and match it
with career preferences which suit their
personality type.
PERSONALITY
TYPE
CAREERS ATTRACTED
Realistic
is attracted to careers such as mechanic, carpenter, electrician, air
traffic controller, cook, surveyor and gardener.
Investigative
attracted to careers such as mathematician, biologist, veterinarian,
surgeon, laboratory assistant, engineer, computer programmer and
systems analyst.
Artistic
is attracted to careers such as musician, composer, photographer,
dancer, journalist, writer, architect, actor, stage director and interior
designer.
Social
is attracted to careers such as nursing, teaching, speech therapy,
occupational therapy, welfare work, religious work, police officer,
personnel manager and specialist areas of psychology that involve
counselling.
Enterprising
is attracted to careers such as management, lawyer, salesperson,
politician, travel agent, town planner, television production, financial
planner and sports promoter.
Conventional
attracted to careers such as accountant, book keeper, postal officer,
bank teller, administrative officer, payroll clerk, building inspector,
secretary, radio despatcher, switch board operator, checkout operator
and website editor.
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The Rorschach inkblot test consists of 10 stimulus
cards, initially constructed by dropping ink onto
a piece of paper and then folding the paper in
half.
Used to help identify individuals who had mental
health problems
Test-takers are asked to describe what they see
on each stimulus card
No longer used in contemporary
psychology

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
The Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT) was first introduced in 1935 as
a means of assessing personality
The test-taker is asked to tell a story
about each picture by describing
the background to what the
characters are thinking or feeling
and what the outcome will be. The
test-taker's response is recorded
word for word.
It is assumed that in creating these
stories, individuals reveal the
conflicts, moods or themes which
dominate their lives and underlie
their personality



Correlations show the existence and extent of
relationships between variables but they do
not necessarily indicate a cause–effect
relationship; that is, that one variable causes
the other.
Positive correlation means that two variables
vary, or ‘change’, in the same direction; that is,
as one variable increases, the other variable
tends to increase (and vice versa).
A negative correlation means that two
variables vary, or ‘move’, in opposite
directions; that is, as one variable increases,
the other variable tends to decrease (and vice
versa).).
Example in terms of
personality traits:
- As self esteem
increases, happiness
tends to increase. (and
as happiness decreases,
self-esteem tends to
decrease)
Example in terms of
personality traits:
-As self-esteem
increases, sadness tends
to decrease (and as
sadness increases, selfesteem tends to
decrease).

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
NORMAL HYPOTHESIS:
It is hypothesised students who study will get
better grades.
OPERATIONAL HYPOTHESIS:
It is hypothesised that Year 11 Students at William
Ruthven Secondary College who have studied 2
hours every night for 2 weeks, will perform better
on their end of year examination then students
who do not study.