Understanding Personality: Factors and Social Media

The Concept of Personality

• Dictionary definitions include the state of being a person.
• Dictionary definitions include the combination of characteristics that form an individual's character.
• The term "personality" dates back to the 1500s.
• "Personality" derives from the Latin word "persona," referring to actors' masks.
• Personality is "unique, relatively enduring internal and external aspects of a person's character."
• It influences behavior in different situations (Schultz & Schultz, 2015, p. 6).
• Factors that influence personality development:
  • Culture, different cultural beliefs about destiny.
  • Individualism vs. collectivism.
  • Child-rearing practices and early childhood experiences.
  • Self-enhancement vs. self-effacement.
  • Biological factors, social experiences, race, and gender contribute to personality.

Personality & Social Media

• Individuals generally emphasize their positive qualities on social media.
• Excessive social media use is linked to anxiety, reduced well-being, and disrupted relationships.
• There is no consistent evidence that different personality types use social media differently.
• Trolls are often male and have sadistic tendencies.

Personality Assessment

• Personality assessment is used in areas like clinical psychology, school counseling, I/O psychology, and research.
• Reliability is the consistency of results across measurements.
• Validity refers to whether an assessment tool measures its intended target.
• Personality assessment techniques include:
  • Self-report or objective techniques.
  • Projective techniques.
  • Clinical interviews.
  • Behavioral assessment procedures.
  • Thought and experience sampling.

Self-Report Personality Tests

• Individuals rate themselves on questions or statements about their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.
• Respondents rate their agreement with each item.
• Examples include NEO-FFI, MMPI.
• Advantages:
  • Objective way to assess personality.
  • Standard and quick scoring.
• Disadvantages:
  • May not be suitable for individuals unable to read or with low IQ.
  • Test-takers' answers may not accurately reflect their true selves.

Projective Techniques

• Semi-structured tests requiring subjects to interpret ambiguous stimuli.
• Relies on the assumption that people project their desires, conflicts, and fears onto the stimuli.
• Examples are the Rorschach Inkblot Test, Thematic Apperception Test, and Sentence Completion Test.
• Advantages:
  • Qualitative data as opposed to quantitative.
  • Potentially a richer source of information about a person's personality.
• Disadvantages:
  • Lacks a standard scoring system.
  • Interpretation is subjective.
  • Prone to reliability and validity issues.

Clinical Interview

• An essential component of all clinical assessments.
• Enables the interviewer to assess physical appearance, facial expression, posture, gestures, and attitude.
• It also allows insights into the person's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Behavioral Assessment

• An observer (clinician or someone who knows the person) evaluates an individual's behavior in a given situation.
• Frequently used for children and adolescents.

Thought and Experience Assessment

• Individuals systematically record their thoughts over time.
• Commonly used by cognitive-behavioral psychotherapists.

Research in the Study of Personality

• The research method depends on the aspect of personality being investigated.
• This includes behavior, thoughts, emotions, and unconscious processes.
• Major methods include the clinical, experimental, correlational, and virtual research methods.