The
personality of a person is what makes the person who they are though displaying
different behaviors, thoughts, or feelings that are unique to that person.
Personality sets a person apart from other individuals, remaining somewhat
consistent throughout a person’s lifespan. The reason people act the way they
do, how they develop personality, and why certain traits of personality develop
in a person are what personality psychologists focus on in their job. This paper will explore personality
characteristics, defining personality, detailing the different methods used to
study personality, how the methods different the information each provides, and
the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
Definition of
Personality
Cervone and Pervin
(2012), state that “personality refers to psychological qualities that
contribute to an individual’s enduring and distinctive patterns of feeling,
thinking, and behaving” (p. 7). In personalities of individuals the consistent
qualities are what appear overtime as different behaviors and characteristics
may be used in different situations. The personality psychologist will view the
different patterns of behavior, distinguishing and explaining the functioning
happening as the patterns are observed overtime in different situations with
the person (Friedman,
& Schustack, 2009). There is no strong definition for personality as it is
viewed differently by different people. Personality according to Feist and
Feist (2009), doesn’t have a single definition as everyone when attempting to
define it throws in personal biases, experiences, and what their personal
belief on what the definition is. According to Feist and Feist (2009), the most
consistent definition is that personality is a pattern of unique
characteristics and relatively permanent traits which give individuality and
consistency to an individual’s behaviors.
Case Studies Method
Case studies are a
method implored by personality psychologists to study a person’s personality
though studying an individual’s personality in different situations. During a
case study the psychologist has sufficient contact with the individual and
develops a understanding of the structures and processes psychologically that
make up the person’s personality (Cervone & Pervin, 2012). In the case
study all aspects of the person’s life and history are analyzed in order to
find patterns for behavior and causes. There are different types of case
studies that can be used such as explanatory, intrinsic, descriptive,
collective, and instrumental. The type
of case study is selected based on the researcher’s purpose and goals. Exploratory case studies for instance can be
used to gain information before a researcher develops a question or hypotheses
in which to focus on (McAdams, 2006). Case study’s rely a lot on the observer
that is watching or studying the individual and can provide information about
how individuals may react in different situations.
According to Cervone
and Pervin (2012), one of the advantages of case studies is “that they are
conducted in clinical settings, is that they overcome the potential
superficiality and artificiality of correlational and experimental methods” (p.
56). Observers are able to gain
information about how a person thinks or feels in a situation and gets a deeper
insight into a person’s life beyond what may have shown up on a survey or
questionnaire. One of the disadvantages though is that case studies are highly
subjective, often applying only to a single individual and thus unable to be
generalized to others. Additionally, according to McAdams (2006), case studies
do not provide any evidence that a psychological process may causally affect or
influence another process. Case studies rely heavily on the observer’s belief
and do not provide valid explanation of what is going on.
Correlational Designs
Cervone and Pervin
(2012), state that “a correlation coefficient is a number that reflects the
degree to which two measures are linearly related” (p.50). In studying
something researchers may look at how well a person did on one test and how
well they did on the next test, because of both tests being good researchers
may say the tests were positively correlated. Researchers will use this research
design in order to look at the relationships between variables and see if
prediction of future events is allowable given the present knowledge of the variables
relationship (Friedman,
& Schustack, 2009). In basic form the researchers will look at a variable,
drugs for instance, and how drugs impact individuals lives. If the drugs cause a person to get angry the
researchers may find that the correlation or relationship between an angry
person and drugs is high.
One advantage of the correlational method is that it allows researchers
to test for expected relationships between two or more variables and make
predictions on the results of future encounters (Friedman, & Schustack, 2009). This method can assess everyday relationships
in everyday life situations. The biggest drawback of this method is that
correlation does not prove causation. In other words just because two things
have a correlated relationship it does not prove that one variable caused the
other variable or that the variables impacted one another at all (Friedman,
& Schustack, 2009).
Experimental Designs or
True Experiments
Experimental designs
or true experiments are methods that researchers use in order to control and
manipulate variables of interest and measure the results of it (McAdams, 2006).
Experimental designs can be done in a variety of ways and are geared toward assessing
the causal impact of a manipulation on a dependent variable. Most often
according to Cervone and Pervin (2010), researchers will break participants in
randomly placed groups where a variable or more is manipulated and the
participants are studied in their reaction to the given situation.
One of the advantages
of this kind of method is that it allows for conclusions to be drawn about
causal relationships with variables. Additionally, experimental methods are one
of the most scientific forms of researcher that can be completed making the
results very reliable and valid. The
results that are produced can be tested and it can show the evidence that was
gained. On the other side though
experimental methods have a difficult time when trying to study certain aspects
of personality such as a person’s emotions, drives, or even their motivations
(McAdams, 2006). These aspects are
internal to each individual making them abstract as well as extremely difficult
to be able to measure. Additionally, in the experimental method some more
important variables may not be able to be manipulated for many reasons
including that it could be expensive as well as time consuming to do so
(McAdams, 2006).
Conclusion
The personality of a
person is what makes the person who they are though displaying different
behaviors, thoughts, or feelings that are unique to that person. Personality
sets a person apart from other individuals, remaining somewhat consistent
throughout a person’s lifespan. Personality according to Feist and Feist (2009), doesn’t have a single
definition as everyone when attempting to define it throws in personal biases,
experiences, and what their personal belief on what the definition is. Cervone and Pervin (2012), state that “personality refers to
psychological qualities that contribute to an individual’s enduring and
distinctive patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving” (p. 7). Case studies
are a method implored by personality psychologists to study a person’s
personality though studying an individual’s personality in different
situations. During a case study the psychologist has sufficient contact with
the individual and develops a understanding of the structures and processes
psychologically that make up the person’s personality (Cervone & Pervin,
2012). According to Cervone and Pervin (2012), one of the advantages of case
studies is “that they are conducted in clinical settings, is that they overcome
the potential superficiality and artificiality of correlational and
experimental methods” (p. 56). One of the disadvantages though is that case
studies are highly subjective, often applying only to a single individual and
thus unable to be generalized to others. Cervone and Pervin (2012), state that
“a correlation coefficient is a number that reflects the degree to which two
measures are linearly related” (p.50). One advantage of the correlational method is that it allows
researchers to test for expected relationships between two or more variables
and make predictions on the results of future encounters (Friedman, &
Schustack, 2009).
The biggest drawback of this method is that correlation does not prove
causation. Experimental designs or true experiments are
methods that researchers use in order to control and manipulate variables of
interest and measure the results of it (McAdams, 2006). One of the advantages
of this kind of method is that it allows for conclusions to be drawn about
causal relationships with variables. Additionally, in the experimental method
some more important variables may not be able to be manipulated for many
reasons including that it could be expensive as well as time consuming to do so
(McAdams, 2006).
Reference
Cervone,
D., & Pervin, L. A. (2012). Personality: Theory and research (12th ed.).
Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.
Friedman, H.S. & Schustack, M.W. (2009) Personality:
Classic theories and modern research (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson/Allyn &
Bacon.
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