Malcolm Ballantine

Halesworth & District

Personality Assessment What is ‘personality’?

Two Approaches Trait: Many independent descriptors

Type: Single pithy descriptor

Two Approaches - Examples ‘Trait’ approach – eg NEO PI-R

‘Type’ approach – eg Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

‘Big Five’: Development No prior theory of personality

The ‘Adjective Check List’ (Gough & Heilbrun, 1983)

List words (300) that describe temperament

Ask volunteers to rate people they know on these words

Construct correlations

Analyze for patterns of correlation (factor analysis)

Established five factors – the ‘Big Five’

Has since been replicated many times

Development of the NEO PI-R Confirm the structure of the ‘Big Five’

Extend this structure by ‘drilling down’

Construct a questionnaire to assess against this easily

NEO PI-R The Revised Version of the NEO Personality Inventory

Paul T Costa & Robert R McCrae 1985 – 1992

Five ‘domains’ (the Big Five); six ‘facets’ per domain

240 items: eight per facet

No measure dependent on just one item

Four items positively keyed; four negatively

No ‘hidden scales’ – eg to check for haphazard responses

NEO PI-R: Structure Five ‘Domains’ – the ‘Big Five’

Neuroticism

Extraversion

Openness to Experience

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Neuroticism - Facets N1 Anxiety

N2 Angry Hostility

N3 Depression

N4 Self-Consciousness

N5 Impulsiveness

N6 Vulnerability

Extraversion - Facets E1 Warmth

E2 Gregariousness

E3 Assertiveness

E4 Activity

E5 Excitement Seeking

E6 Positive Emotions

Openness to Experience - Facets O1 Fantasy

O2 Aesthetics

O3 Feelings

O4 Actions

O5 Ideas

O6 Values

Agreeableness - Facets A1 Trust

A2 Straightforwardness

A3 Altruism

A4 Compliance

A5 Modesty

A6 Tendermindedness

Conscientiousness - Facets C1 Competence

C2 Order

C3 Dutifulness

C4 Achievement Striving

C5 Self-Discipline

C6 Deliberation

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Katherine Briggs & Isabel Briggs Myers

Based on theories of Carl Gustav Jung

Key Concept: Preference

MBTI Four Preference Dichotomies

Extraversion vs Introversion

Where do you prefer to focus your attention?

Sensing vs INtuition

How do you prefer to take in information?

Thinking vs Feeling

How do you make decisions?

Judging vs Perceiving

How do you deal with the outer world?

The E-I Dichotomy Extraversion Introversion

Like variety & action

Enjoy interacting with people

Develop their ideas through discussion

Learn by talking & doing

Interested in how other people do things

Like quiet for concentration

Enjoy focussing on a task

Develop their ideas internally

Learn by reading and reflecting

Enjoy working alone without interruptions

The S-N Dichotomy Sensing Intuition

Focus on immediate issues

Provide a realistic & practical perspective

Like to perfect standard ways of doing things

Build to conclusions by collecting facts

Draw on their own & others’ experience

Follow their inspirations

Provide connections & meanings

Like solving new, complex problems

Start with the ‘big picture’, fill in the facts

Prefer change, new ways of doing things

The T-F Dichotomy Thinking Feeling

Focus on the tasks

Use logical analysis to understand & decide

Want mutual respect and fairness

Are firm-minded, can give criticism when appropriate

Apply principles consistently

Focus on people’s interactions

Use values to understand & decide

Want harmony & support

Are empathetic, prefer to accommodate to reach consensus

Apply values consistently

The J-P Dichotomy Judging Perceiving

Want to plan their work and follow their plan

Like to get things settled and finished

Feel supported by structure and schedules

Reach conclusions by deciding quickly

Focus on timely completion of work

Want to have flexibility in their work

Like to be spontaneous

Feel restricted by structure and schedules

Leave things open as long as possible

Focus on enjoying the process

Sixteen Types

ISTJ

ISFJ

INFJ

INTJ

ISTP

ISFP

INFP

INTP

ESTP

ESFP

ENFP

ENTP

ESTJ

ESFJ

ENFJ

ENTJ

Sixteen Types: This Group ISTJ

2

ISFJ

3 INFJ

0 INTJ

3

ISTP

1

ISFP

0 INFP

0 INTP

0

ESTP

1

ESFP

0 ENFP

3 ENTP

0

ESTJ

4

ESFJ

0 ENFJ

0 ENTJ

1

Interpreting the Questionnaires You are saying something about yourself

Using the framework built into the questionnaire

Which is also designed to ‘catch you off guard’

The results compare you with others

…and, for the NEO PI-R…

The scores are converted to ‘T-Scores’

ie with a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10