Chapter 1

Introduction to Personality

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, students should be able to accomplish the following objectives:
1. Define personality.
2. Differentiate theory from (a) philosophy, (b) speculation, (c) hypothesis, and (d)
taxonomy.
3. Defend the need for more than one theory.
4. Show how an understanding of various theorists’ life stories are related to their
theories.
5. Explain the relationship between theory and observations.
6. List and explain the criteria of a useful theory.
7. Explain why falsifiability is a positive characteristic of a theory.
8. Discuss various components for a concept of humanity.
9. Define reliability and validity, and explain why both concepts are important in
personality research.

I. What Is Personality?

Psychologists differ among themselves as to the meaning of personality. Most agree that
the word “personality” originated from the Latin persona, which referred to a theatrical mask
worn by Roman actors in Greek dramas. However, personality theorists have not agreed on
a single definition of personality.

Although no single definition is acceptable to all personality theorists, one can say that
personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give
both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior (Roberts and Mroczek, 2008).
Traits contribute to individual differences in behavior, consistency of behavior over time,
and stability of behavior across situations. Characteristics are unique qualities of an
individual that include such attributes as temperament, physique, and intelligence.

II. What is a Theory?

The word “theory” has the dubious distinction of being one of the most misused and
misunderstood words in the English language. In science, theories are tools used to
generate research and organize observations, but neither “truth” nor “fact” has a place in
scientific terminology.

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A. Theory Defined

A scientific theory is a set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical
deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses.

B. Theory and Its Relatives

People sometimes confuse theory with philosophy, or speculation, or hypothesis, or

taxonomy. Although theory is related to each of these concepts, it is not the same as any
of them.

First, theory is related to philosophy, but it is a much narrower term. Philosophy

encompasses several branches, one of which is epistemology, or the nature of
knowledge. Theory relates most closely to this branch of philosophy, because it is a tool
used by scientists in their pursuit of knowledge. Second, theories rely on speculation, but
they are much more than mere armchair speculation. They are closely tied to empirically
gathered data and to science. Science is the branch of study concerned with observation
and classification of data and with the verification of general laws through the testing of
hypotheses.

A good theory is capable of generating many hypotheses. A hypothesis is an educated

guess or prediction specific enough for its validity to be tested through the use of the
scientific method. A taxonomy is a classification of things according to their natural
relationships. Taxonomies are essential to the development of a science because without
classification of data science could not grow.

C. Why Different Theories?

Alternate theories exist because the very nature of a theory allows the theorist to make
speculations from a particular point of view. Theorists must be as objective as possible
when gathering data, but their decisions as to what data are collected and how these
data are interpreted are personal ones. All theories are a reflection of their authors’
personal backgrounds, childhood experiences, philosophy of life, interpersonal
relationships, and unique manner of looking at the world. Because observations are
colored by the individual observer’s frame of reference, it follows that there may be many
diverse theories.

D. Perspectives in Theories of Personality

One of the primary functions of scientific theory is to describe and explain how the world

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works. Psychologists attempt to explain how human thought, emotion, motivation, and
behavior work. Yet human personality is so complex that many different perspectives
have developed on how to best explain it.

Beginning with Freud, psychoanalytic and then the more general psychodynamic
approaches have focused on the importance of early childhood experience and on
relationships with parents as guiding forces that shape personality development.
Psychoanalysis traditionally used dream interpretation to uncover the unconscious
thoughts, feelings, and impulses as a main form of treatment of neurosis and mental
illness.

The primary assumption of the humanistic (currently known as “positive psychology”)

approach is that people strive toward meaning, growth, well-being, happiness, and
psychological health. States of positive emotion and happiness foster psychological
health and pro-social behavior.

Dispositional theorists argue that the unique and long-term tendencies to behave in
particular ways are the essence of one’s personality. These unique dispositions, such as
extraversion or anxiety, are called traits.

Behavior, thought, feelings, and personality are influenced by differences in basic genetic,
epigenetic, and neurological systems between individuals. The reason some people have
different traits, dispositions, and ways of thinking stems from differences in their genotype
and central nervous system.

All behaviors are learned through association and/or its consequences. To shape desired
behavior people must understand and then establish the conditions that bring about those
particular behaviors. The cognitive perspective argues that how people think about
themselves and other people, as well as the assumptions they make and the strategies
they use for solving problems, are the keys to understanding differences between people.

E. Theorists’ Personalities and Their Theories of Personality

Because personality theories grow from theorists’ own personalities, a study of those
personalities is appropriate. In recent years a subdiscipline of psychology called
psychology of science has begun to look at personal traits of scientists. The psychology
of science studies both science and the behavior of scientists; that is, it investigates the
impact of an individual scientist’s psychological processes and personal characteristics
on the development of her or his scientific theories and research (Feist, 1993, 1994, 2006;
Feist and Gorman, 1998; Gholson, Shadish, Neimeyer, and Houts, 1989).

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F. What Makes a Theory Useful?

A useful theory has a mutual and dynamic interaction with research data. A useful theory
(1) generates research, (2) is falsifiable, (3) organizes data, (4) guides action, (5) is
internally consistent, and (6) is parsimonious.

The most important criterion of a useful theory is its ability to stimulate and guide further
research. A useful theory will generate two different kinds of research: descriptive
research and hypothesis testing. Descriptive research, which can expand an existing
theory, is concerned with the measurement, labeling, and categorization of the units
employed in theory building. The second kind of research generated by a useful theory,
hypothesis testing, leads to an indirect verification of the usefulness of the theory.

A theory must also be evaluated on its ability to be confirmed or disconfirmed; that is, it
must be falsifiable. To be falsifiable, a theory must be precise enough to suggest
research that may either support or fail to support its major tenets.

A useful theory should also be able to organize those research data that are not
incompatible with each other. Without some organization or classification, research
findings would remain isolated and meaningless.

A fourth criterion of a useful theory is its ability to guide the practitioner over the rough
course of day-to-day problems. For example, parents, teachers, business managers, and
psychotherapists are confronted continually with an avalanche of questions for which they
try to find workable answers. Good theory provides a structure for finding many of those
answers. Without a useful theory, practitioners would stumble in the darkness of trial and
error techniques; with a sound theoretical orientation, they can discern a suitable course
of action.

A good theory will use concepts and terms that have been clearly and operationally
defined. An operational definition is one that defines units in terms of observable events
or behaviors that can be measured.

When two theories are equal in their ability to generate research, be falsified, give
meaning to data, guide the practitioner, and be self-consistent, the simpler one is
preferred. This is the law of parsimony.

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III. Dimensions for a Concept of Humanity

Personality theories differ on basic issues concerning the nature of humanity. Each
personality theory reflects its author’s assumptions about humanity. These assumptions rest
on several broad dimensions that separate the various personality theorists.

The first dimension is determinism versus free choice. A second issue is one of pessimism
versus optimism. A third dimension for viewing a theorist’s concept of humanity is causality
versus teleology. Briefly, causality holds that behavior is a function of past experiences,
whereas teleology is an explanation of behavior in terms of future goals or purposes. A
fourth consideration that divides personality theorists is their attitude toward conscious
versus unconscious determinants of behavior. The fifth question is one of biological versus
social influences on personality. A sixth issue is uniqueness versus similarities.

These and other basic issues that separate personality theorists have resulted in truly
different personality theories, not merely differences in terminology.

IV. Research in Personality Theory

The primary criterion for a useful theory is its ability to generate research. Theories and
research data have a cyclic relationship: Theory gives meaning to data, and data result from
experimental research designed to test hypotheses generated by the theory.

To improve their ability to predict, personality psychologists have developed a number of

assessment techniques, including personality inventories. For these techniques to be useful
they must be both reliable and valid. The reliability of a measuring instrument is the extent
to which it yields consistent results. Personality inventories may be reliable and yet lack
validity or accuracy. Validity is the degree to which an instrument measures what it is
supposed to measure.

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