Personality profile similarity

1. Trait And Type Theories Of Personality2. Uses Of Personality Test In Clinical, Education And Industrial Settings.3. Orientation About Scales Of Measurement To Assess Personality4. Characteristics Of Good Instrument Measuring Personality5. Profile Matching Statistical Models

Personality is the strong determinant of individual's behaviour. Therefore, understanding different principles of personality profile similarity is important for various activities like counselling, therapy, selection, training, placement and even analyzing one's economic behaviour.

Before going to understand personality profile similarity, it is important to understand the trait and type theories of personality.

Trait theory
 
 According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, Personality traits are enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range of social and personal contexts. This definition assumes that (a) traits are relatively stable over time, (b) traits differ among individuals (e.g. some people are outgoing while others are shy), and (c) traits influence behavior.

Trait theorists do not assume that some people have a trait and others do not rather, they propose that all people possess certain traits, but that the degree to which a given trait applies to a specific person varies and can be quantified. For example one can find differences in outgoing behavior among a set of individuals.

Gordon Allport assumed three categories of personality traits - cardinal, central and secondary. Cardinal trait is a single that directs most of a person's activities. For example, a totally selfless woman might direct all her energies toward humanitarian activities.

Gordon Allport

  But most people do not develop all encompassing cardinal traits. Instead, they possess a handful of central traits that make up the core of the of their personality for example honesty and sociability. Finally, secondary traits are characteristics that affect behavior in fewer situations and are less influential than central or cardinal traits. For example, a preference for ice cream or disliking modern art can be considered as secondary trait.

Allport suggested different ways to assess individual's personality like open ended interviews, attitude to life, their short and long term goals, beliefs, studying letters and diaries as well as other written material belonging to person. His approach is favored by the case study method and ideographic approach to assess personality.
  Allport is often criticized by Nomothethic theories. Nomothetic theorists assume that Allport's approach is oversimplified. If two people are aggressive, can we assume that two people are equally aggressive ? Possibly not. Aggression may be very different and be exhibited in different ways, at different times and for different reasons.

Cattell

Cattell and Eysenck attempted to identify primary traits of personality through a statistical technique known as factor analysis. Factor analysis is a method of summarizing the relationships among large number of variables into fewer, more general patterns. But they noted different traits possibly following different types of factor analysis. Cattell used oblique and Eysenck used varimax rotation.
Cattell found that 16 source traits represented the dimensions of personality. Using these source traits, he developed sixteen personality factor questionnaire or 16PF, a measure that provides scoresfor each of the source traits.

Eysenck

    Eysenck found that personality could be described in terms of just two major dimensions: introversion-extraversion and neurotic-stability. At one extreme of the introversion-extraversion dimension are the introverts and at the other extreme are extroverts. Independently of this dimension, people can be rated as neurotic versus stable. Eysenck constructed one questionnaire known as Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.



The questionnaire includes two options (yes/No) that can not do justice to predict the  complex and changeable nature of human personality. So, findings of the questionnaire must be interpreted cautiously. Eysenck's two personality traits - extraversion and neuroticism were accepted by the researchers of Big-five personality. Big-five researchers proposed five personality traits - openness to experience, neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness.

Description of NEO

NEO inventories are concise measure of five major dimensions or domains of personality. It comprises a series of closely related instruments developed over a period of 30 years from the original inventory, a measure of 18 traits grouped into the domains of Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), and openness to experience (O). Since 1985, the inventories included measures of two other basic dimensions of personality, Agreeableness (A) and Conscientiousness (C). Each domain includes 6 more specific traits. The inventory measures differences in personality traits. It is not a test of intelligence or ability and is not intended to diagnose psychiatric disorders. It gives some idea about what makes one unique in ways of thinking, feeling and interacting with others.

N-domain

Traits in the N-domain reflect different ways of reacting emotionally to distressing circumstances. Low scorers are resilent, rarely experiencing negative emotions. High scorers are anxious, generally apprehensive and prone to worry.

E-domain

The E-domain measures traits related to energy and enthusiasm, especially when dealing with people. Low scorers are outgoing and extraverts.

O-domain

Low scorers in this domain are down-to-earth and conventional; they prefer the familiar and the tried and true. High scorers are imaginative and openminded.

A-domain

This domain is concerned with styles of interpersonal interaction. Low scorers are hard-headed and competitive; high scorers are compassionate and co-operative.

C-domain

Traits in the domain describe differences in motivation and persistence. Low scorers are easygoing and not inclined to make plans or schedules. High scorers are conscientious and well organized. They are rational, prudent, practical, resourceful and well prepared.

Assessment(adult)

1. Score 60-items NEO (adult version)
2. Assign the data in  MS-excel sheet frm col. B
3. Reverse data according to manual
4. Compute total score in the following ways:

Neuroticism: =(B2+G2+L2+Q2+V2+AA2+AF2+AK2+AP2+AU2+AZ2+BE2)

Neuroticism

=C2+H2+M2+R2+W2+AB2+AG2+AL2+AQ2+AV2+BA2+BF2

Openness

=D2+I2+N2+S2+X2+AC2+AH2+AM2+AR2+AW2+BB2+BG2

Aggreableness

=E2+J2+O2+T2+Y2+AD2+AI2+AN2+AS2+AX2+BC2+BH2

Conscientious

=F2+K2+P2+U2+Z2+AE2+AJ2+AO2+AT2+AY2+BD2+BI2

5. Transform raw score into T-score according to the manusal

6. Estimate percentile position of each variable and interpret data according to the manual.

Comparison between Western and Indian Study on NEO

	McCrae and Costa (N=500)		Current study (N=105)*
Variable	Mean	S.D.	Mean	S.D.
Neuroticism	23.3	7.3	36.49	5.09
Extraversion	29.7	6.3	39.55	5.93
Openmindedness	29.1	6.8	41.27	4.68
Aggreeableness	28.2	5.8	38.48	4.63
Conscientious	27.9	6.8	45.23	5.86

* Conducted on adult by D. Dutta Roy

Type theory:
It includes categorizing people in terms of distinct features. For example, he is extraverted or introverted. It follows principles of all or none. Either he is extraverted or none. It does not consider extent of variation. It follows oversimplified principle. It is often called as conglomeration of set of personality traits. For example, If Sundarajan is extraverted, he is outgoing, talkative, social etc.

USES OF PERSONALITY TESTS

Since personality traits are found as determinants of behaviour, researchers tend to relate personality traits in different settings like clinical, education and industrial settings.

Clinical settings include psychiatric hospitals,  community mental health centres. Principal purpose of the psychological assessment is to help diagnose and classify individuals' emotional or behavioural problems. This type of information is very useful in determining the efficient treatment strategies.
 
Counselling settings include educational institutions, rehabilitation centers and a variety of industrial settings. In counselling settings, counselling psychologists work to help individuals cope with and adjust more effectively to problems in their daily life (e.g., loneliness, job dissatisfaction etc.).

Legal settings include courtrooms, prisons and law enforcement agencies. Information from personality tests is used as evidence in judicial proceedings to help determine whether a person is same and can be held responsible for criminal actions or whether an inmate is ready for probation.Personality tests also are used for selection of jury members.

Guidance settings are the high schools, colleges and vocational guidance centers. Personality assessment helps individuals to make educational and vocational decisions.


PROFILE SIMILARITY

Personality trait theory suggests that each individual possesses trait to a various extent. Possession of the different extent of trait helps in understanding profile similarity. One's different parameters of personality trait can be assumed as one's profile of personality traits. One's personality may be conveged with other individual or the group he belongs to due to role learning. Similarly, one can be diverged from other group. This convergence and divergence is important for career counselling, therapy, selection, training and placement. Norm represents group profile so one's close and distance association from the norm gives idea about classification of individual. This approach is called normative approach.


Normative model
a) Individual VS individual
b) Individual VS group
c) Group VS group

Besides norm, one can use facet theory in assessing personality profile similarity.  The widely used facet theory states that every analytical object can be decomposed into certain number of distinct dimensions or facets. Combination of different facets is called structure. The structure is the realization of possible linear combinations of facets.


Structural approach
a) Principal component analysis or factor analysis
b) Correspondence analysis
c) Cluster analysis

When the measurement scales are metric, it is better to use principal component analysis. When it is categorical in nature, correspondence analysis is useful. Cluster analysis is also useful to determine the outlier.

Predictive approach
Predictive model suggests that success in occupation depends on set of criteria. So one's association with the criterion is most important.
a) Discriminant function analysis













Correlation approach
a) Spearman rank order correlation
b)

Geometric distance approach
a) Cluster analysis

Multivariate

ANOVA approach
Factor analytic approach


Predictive model
a) Relation between individual/group profile and criterion variable
b) Discriminant function analysis

Imitative learning

Imitative learning theory is based on Social cognitive learning approach of Bandura. It assumes that one can learn through imitation. Imitation learning has following characteristics:

1. There will be one model upon which imitation will take place. For example, child imitates his parents' eating or talking  style.


2. Observing other's behaviour is important so that reciprocal determination can take place.








 3. The imitative behaviour must not be resulted in negative consequence.

4.  Repeated observation is required so that one can act without absence of model in future.

5. It includes learned expectation that one is capable of carrying out a behaviour or producing a desired outcome.