Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment Quiz

Personality in Space & Time

• Personality is influenced by both individual traits and situational factors.
• Situationists believe behavior varies across situations, while trait psychologists assume consistency.
• Person-situation interactionism means personality and situation interact to influence behavior.
• Situational specificity means certain situations might provoke behavior out of character for an individual.
• Strong situations lead to similar behavior from most people, while weak situations allow personality to have a greater influence.
• Mechanisms of interaction include situational selection (choosing situations based on personality), evocation (certain traits evoking specific responses), and manipulation (intentional attempts to influence behavior).

Personality Across Situations

• Situationalists argue behavior varies across situations and that situational differences determine behavior.
• If situations control behavior, then traits may be irrelevant.
• Trait psychologists assume cross-situational consistency.

Integration (Interactionism)

• Person-situation interaction: personality and situation interact to produce behavior.

Behavior

• Behavior = f(Person x Situation)

Situational Specificity

• Certain situations can evoke behavior that might be out of character for an individual.
• People act differently in different circumstances.

Strong Situations

• Situations where most people behave similarly.

Weak Situations

• Situations where personality has a greater influence on behavior.

Mechanisms of Interaction

• Situational selection: choosing situations based on personality traits.
• Evocation: personality traits that may naturally evoke specific responses from others.
• Manipulation: ways in which people intentionally influence behavior or alter environments.

Do You "Fit" Your Environment

• Theory of person-environment fit: certain environments/situations complement specific traits and characteristics.
• Might motivate selecting specific situations or others.

Some Environments Require Specific Traits

• Some environments require specific traits to make the environment "fit" the individual.

Choosing the Right Person for the Job

• Personality tests used increasingly for job applicants.
• Examples are police officers, sales positions, etc.
• Tests like the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, California Personality Inventory, 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are used.
• Ethical concerns about using personality tests in hiring (biases).

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• Self-report assessment of personality.
• Designed to identify psychological preferences for perceiving the world and making decisions.
• Developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers.

Katherine Briggs

• Teacher interested in predicting best student career paths.
• Used Carl Jung's 8 psychological types.

Problems with MBTI

• "Types" approach assumes large differences between types, which isn't always the case.
• Some people don't fit neatly into the categories.

Aggregation

• Averaging several observations to get a better measure of personality traits.
• Averaging behavior across situations/over time.

Practical Example

• Rating current happiness levels (not necessarily reflecting true personality).

"Density Distribution" of States

• Traits are indicated by more frequent state intensities (e.g., happy people report happiness more often).

Personality Change

• Exploring personality stability and change over time.

Dunedin Study (New Zealand, 2003)

• Long-term study of 1000 three-year-olds.
• Examined five temperamental types.

Personality Change: 2 Key Qualities

• Internal changes: within a person.
• Enduring changes: long-lasting, not temporary.

Studying Personality Change

• Rank order: person's position in group.
• Change: person's trait relative to others.

Personality Change: Sensation-Seeking

• Peaks in late adolescence (16-20).
• Decreases with age.

Personality Change: Self-Esteem

• Daily fluctuations in self-esteem vary among individuals.
• Self-esteem often declines during adolescence, particularly for girls.

Personality Change: The Big Five

• Gradual increases in agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and social dominance in adulthood.
• Openness and other aspects of extraversion gradually decline.

Big Five Dimensions

• Mean-level change: average level changes over time.
• Rank-order stability: relative position in group.

Are Extreme Changes Possible?

• People tend to overestimate how much they've changed.
• While some change happens, it's generally not extreme.

Personality Coherence

• Predictable changes in personality over time, even if underlying characteristics are relatively stable.

Specific Behaviors are Changeable

• Specific behaviors, thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, values, and social roles are often mutable.
• Examples include jobs and romantic relationships that affect emotional stability.

Volitional Personality Change

• Evidence suggests personality can be changed.
• Examples include setting intentional goals and using mindfulness to reduce anxiety.

Psychedelics as Agents of Change

• Psychedelics may reduce antisocial tendencies.
• Reported benefits include emotional regulation.

Interventions

• Students in 16-week interventions reporting changes in personality.
• Biggest results often tied to changing extraversion.