Assessing the Personality of the Participant using NEO-Five Factor Inventory-3

Write 1-2 paragraphs to introduce the topic of personality. Explain its meaning (you may write
definitions and characteristics)

Approaches to the Study of Personality

Psychodynamic Approach
The psychodynamic approach to psychology has its roots in the work of Sigmund Freud, an
Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who lived from 1856 to 1939. Freud's ideas laid the
foundation for the development of the psychodynamic approach and greatly influenced the field of
psychology. Freud's early work focused on neurology, and he developed the technique of hypnosis
as a treatment for various psychological disorders.
Freud wrote that instincts were the basic elements of the personality, the motivating forces that
drive behavior and determine its direction. He talked about two types of instincts:
1) Life instinct: The life instincts serve the purpose of survival of the individual and the
species by seeking to satisfy the needs for food, water, air, and sex.
2) Death instinct: In opposition to life instincts, Freud postulated destructive or death instincts.
Drawing from biology, he stated the obvious fact that all living things decay and die,
returning to their original inanimate state, and he believed that people have an unconscious
wish to die.
His ideas included the level of consciousness, the structure of personality, defence mechanisms
and psychosexual stages

LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The conscious world lies above this line. This includes the thoughts we are having right now, as
well as any feelings or experiences we may be having. Below our conscious world is the much
more expanded preconscious. This contains recollections that are not currently on the mind, but
why easily accessible when necessary. The unconscious, which makes up the majority of the
human mind and lies beneath the preconscious, contains ideas, desires, and impulses that we are
usually unaware of. (Baron and Misra,2002 p.393)

STRUCTURES OF PERSONALITY:
Freud asserted that the id, ego, and superego make up the majority of a person's personality.
Id:
All of our natural, primal urges are contained in the id. These include a range of physical
requirements, sexual longing, and violent tendencies. The id, according to Freud, is completely
unconscious and functions in line with what he called the pleasure principle.
Ego:
In Freud’s theory, the part of personality that takes account of external reality in the expression of
instinctive sexual and aggressive urges and the principle according to which the ego operates, in
which the external consequences of behavior are considered in the expression of impulses from the
id. It works on reality principle.
Super ego:
The final aspect of personality described by Freud is the superego. It too seeks to control the
satisfaction of id impulses; but, in contrast to the ego, it is concerned with morality—with whether
various ways that could potentially satisfy id impulses are right or wrong. (Schultz and Schultz
2013,p.48)
Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms are ways of dealing with anxiety through unconsciously distorting ones
perception of reality. ( Benjafield, 1996; A Freud,1946)
Repression “Forgetting”—or pushing from consciousness into unconsciousness— unacceptable
thoughts or impulses.
Rationalization Conjuring up socially acceptable reasons for thoughts or actions based on
unacceptable motives.
Displacement Redirecting an emotional response from a dangerous object to a safe one .
Projection Transferring unacceptable motives or impulses to others
Regression Responding to a threatening situation in a way appropriate to an earlier age or level of
development.

Psychosexual stages of development

He said that children go through five stages in their personality development, commonly referred
to as the psychosexual stage model. The stages are oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital. These
different stages are associated with the driving force in child development or libido, expressed in
different ways and parts of the body.
Various fixations of sexual urges or instinctual drives represent the psychosexual development
stages. During the growth process, other body parts become more prominent, which will be the
source of possible frustrations or pleasures.
The various stages of development were:
1)Oral Stage (Birth To 1 Year)

In the first stage of psychosexual development, the libido is centered in a baby’s mouth. During the
oral stages, the baby gets much satisfaction from putting all sorts of things in its mouth to satisfy
the libido, and thus its id demands.

2)Anal Stage (1 To 3 Years)

The anal stage is the second stage of psychosexual development happens between the ages of 18
months and three years. During the anal stage, the libido becomes focused on the anus, and the
child derives great pleasure from defecating. An example of this stage would be a child who takes
pleasure in controlling and releasing their bowels. Early or harsh potty training can lead to the
child becoming an anal-retentive personality who hates mess, is obsessively tidy, punctual, and
respectful of authority. The anal expulsive, on the other hand, underwent a liberal toilet-training
regime during the anal stage. In adulthood, the anal expulsive is the person who wants to share
things with you.” An anal-expulsive personality is also messy, disorganized, and rebellious.

3)Phallic stage(4-5 years)

The phallic stage is the third stage of psychosexual development, spanning the ages of three to six
years, wherein the infant’s libido (desire) centres upon their genitalia as the erogenous zone.
During this stage, children become more aware of their bodies and develop a fascination with their
genitals, as well as with those of the opposite sex.

4)Latency Stage (6 Years To Puberty)

The latency stage is the fourth stage of psychosexual development, spanning the period of six years
to puberty. During this stage, the libido is dormant, and no further psychosexual development takes
place (latent means hidden).

5)Genital Stage (Puberty To Adult)

The genital stage is the fifth and final stage of Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, which
begins in puberty and continues to adulthood. During this stage, individuals start to become
sexually mature and begin to explore their sexual feelings and desires more maturely and
responsibly. During this stage, individuals start to experience romantic and sexual feelings and
begin to form intimate relationships with others.

Behavioural and Social Cognitive

Learning theories of personality (Bandura, 1986, 1997; Rotter, 1982; Skinner, 1974) emphasize the
role of learning and experience in personality development. The learning approach attributes an
individual's uniqueness to their distinctive learning experiences. Consistency in behavior over time
and across situations is explained by the learning approach by noting that the responses,
associations, or habits acquired through learning tend to persist.
The learning theory was criticized as it denied the importance of any internal causes of behavior-
motives, traits, intentions, goals (Skinner, 1974). Most psychologists now believe that internal
factors, especially many aspects of cognition, play a crucial role in behavior. A prime example
This modern approach is provided by Bandura's social cognitive theory (e.g., Bandura, 1986,
1997).

Social Cognitive Theory of Personality

In the social cognitive view, behavior is governed not just by the influence of external stimuli and
response patterns but also by cognitive processes such as anticipating, judging, and memory as
well as learning through the imitation of models. The most important breakthroughs in this
approach were made by Rotter, Bandura, Mischel and Shoda.

Albert Bandura- Bandura (1989) gave the concept of reciprocal determinism, which states that the
environment, the individual's behavior itself, and personal or cognitive factors that the person
brings into the situation from earlier experiences all influence each other in a two-way causal
relationship. One of the more important personal variables that Bandura talks about is self-efficacy,
a person's expectancy of how effective their efforts to accomplish a goal will be in any particular
circumstance (Bandura, 1998). According to Bandura, people high in self-efficacy are more
persistent and expect to succeed, whereas people low in self-efficacy expect to fail and tend to
avoid challenges (Bandura, 1998. 4 factors that impact self-efficacy are- performance experiences,
observational learning, verbal persuasion and emotional arousal.

Julian Rotter- Julian Rotter (1966, 1978, 1981, 1990) devised a theory based on a basic principle of
motivation derived from Thorndike's law of effect: People are motivated to seek reinforcement and
avoid punishment. Rotter viewed personality as a relatively stable set of potential responses or
expectancies to various situations. He gave the concept of expectancy- that is our perception of
how likely certain outcomes are to occur if we engage in a particular behavior in a particular
situation. Based on his ideas on expectancy, he gave the concept of locus of control, the tendency
for people to assume that they either have control or do not have control over events and
consequences in their lives. People who assume that their own actions and decisions directly affect
the consequences they experience are said to be internal in locus of control, whereas people who
assume that their lives are more controlled by powerful others, luck, or fate are external in locus of
control (MacDonald, 1970; Rotter, 1966).

Mischel and Shoda-Mischel and Shoda (1999) gave the Cognitive Affective Personality
Systems (CAPS) that identified five personal variables. These were- encoding strategies and
personal constructs, expectancies and beliefs, goals and values, emotional and affective
components and competencies and self regulation.
The social cognitive approach is the most popular and relevant approach in understanding
personality. This is because it amalgamates the learning theory with cognitive bases. It is also
widely accepted because it is scientific in nature, can be observed and measured by the way of
empirical methods. It is application oriented, which means that the research can be applied to
enhancing daily human experience and also in therapeutic measures.

Approach Humanistic-Phenomenological
Phenomenological Approach
the Phenomenological approach emphasizes personal responsibility and innate tendencies towards
personal growth. Phenomenologists believe that human beings strive for growth, dignity. and selt-
determination. Because of their more optimistic ideas about human nature, such views are known
as humanistic theories (Maslow, 1970; Rogers, 1977, 1982). While these theories don't deny the
importance of past experience, they generally focus on the present and the immediacy of human
experience in determining our personality. Humanistic theories also propose that human beings are
innately good and tend to act in ways that help them achieve self growth. The pioneers of the
phenomenological approach are Carl Rogers, George Kelly and Abraham Maslow.

Carl Roger- He proposed that human beings strive, through the course of their life, to become a
fully functioning individual- a term he used for people who strive to experience life to the fullest,
who live in the here and now, and who trust their own feelings. He also suggested that gaps
between our self-concept (our beliefs and knowledge about ourselves) and reality lead to
maladaptive behavior. Distorted self-concept, according to Rogers can be repaired by placing
individuals in an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard, which is a therapeutic atmosphere
that communicates that a person will be respected or loved regardless of what they say or do.

George Kelly- In the 1950s, George Kelly proposed the Personal Construct Theory which
suggested that people develop personal constructs about how the world works and use them to
make meaning of their experiences and observations. He also gave the Role Construct Repertory.
He defined role as a set of behaviors that are performed by a person in response to the construction
systems and behaviors of others. The RCR identified three major roles- that of the
father figure, the best friend and the romantic partner.

Abraham Maslow- Abraham Maslow (1970) conceptualized a needs hierarchy, which suggests that
human needs exist in a hierarchy, ranging from physiological needs, on the bottom, through safety
needs, social needs, esteem needs, and finally self-actualization needs at the top.
According to Maslow, lower-order needs must be satisfied before we can turn to more complex,
higher-order needs (Neher, 1991). He also theorized the concept of Self-Actualization which is the
stage of personal development in which individuals reach their maximum potential. Self-actualized
people, according to Maslow, accept themselves for what they are; they recognize their
shortcomings as well as their strengths.

Approach Biological Approach

Biological Theory of Personality
The biological perspective on personality studies how anatomical structures located in the brain
and genetic and physiological factors contribute to an individual's personality. The biological
theory on personality consists of the evolutionary perspective which is based on the idea that all of
our human personality traits were derived over time to help us survive and reproduce. Also
important is the role of the nervous system in influencing personality. Lastly, the biological theory
includes the field of behavioral genetics which is devoted to the study of just how much of an
individual's personality is due to inherited traits.
Behavior genetics studies mainly three groups to establish linkages between genetics and
personality- Identical twins. fraternal twins and siblings. It employs twin studies and adoption
studies to find evidence for the role of nature vs nurture in defining personality.
The hereditary influences on personality were studied by studies on identical and fraternal twins.
By comparing identical twins to fraternal twins, especially when twins can be found who were not
raised in the same environment, researchers can begin to find evidence of possible genetic
influences on various traits, including personality. The results of the Minnesota twin study have
revealed that identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins or unrelated people in
intelligence, leadership abilities. the tendency to follow rules, and the tendency to uphold
traditional cultural expectations (Bouchard, 1997; Finkel & McGue, 1997). They are also more
alike with regard to nurturance, empathy, assertiveness (Neale et al., 1986), and aggressiveness
(Miles & Carey, 1997). This similarity holds even if the twins are raised in separate environments.
Eysenck's extraversion-emotional stability model attributes genetic behavior to the organization of
the nervous system. It explains personality as being structured on two major dimensions- the
introversion-extraversion scale and neuroticism-emotional stability scale.

Type
Approach
Trait Approach
Trait Approaches to Personality
Trait approaches attempt to map the structure of personality while identifying the key dimensions
along which people differ from each other. Traits are relatively enduring and consistent ways of
behaviour, thinking and emoting that distinguish an individual from others.
The trait approach also tries to make predictions about how a person will behave in different
situations. The basic idea behind this approach is as follows: Once we identify the key situations
along which people differ, we can measure how much they differ and can then such differences to
many important forms of behaviour (Baron & Misra, 2002).

Gordon A Allport-Allport (Allport & Odbert, 1936) categorized about 17953 adjectives that can be
used to describe people into 0 mats. From these categories, he identified secondary traits that exert
relatively weak and limited effects on behaviour. More important are central Traits- five to ten
traits that together account for the uniqueness of an individual's personality.
Such traits are stronger and more resistant to situational forces. Finally, Allport noted that a few
people are dominated by a single all-important cardinal trait that drives their personality. For
example, Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence or Hitler's Nazism.
Raymond Cattell- Raymond Cattell (1990) defined two types of traits as surface traits and source
traits. Surface traits are like those found by Allport, representing the personality characteristics
easily seen by other people. Source traits are those more basic traits that underlie the surface traits.
For example, the surface trait of shyness might be related to the underlying source trait of
introversion. Using a statistical technique called factor analysis, Cattell identified 16 source traits
(Cattell, 1950, 1966). In factor analysis, highly correlated words were identified and put in
mutually exclusive categories. Based on just 16 source traits, he developed his assessment
questionnaire, The Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire (Cattell, 1995).
The Big 5- Paul Costa & Robert McCrae (1994) condensed Cattell's 16 personality factors into 5
prominent higher-order dimensions of personality called the Big 5. they can be described as
follows:
1. Openness to experience: A dimension ranging from imaginative, witty, and having broad
interests at one end to down-to-earth, simple, and having narrow interests at the other.
2. Conscientiousness: A dimension ranging from well-organized, careful, self-disciplined,
responsible, and precise at one end to disorganized, impulsive, careless, and undependable at the
other.
3. Extraversion: A dimension ranging from energetic, enthusiastic, sociable, and talkative at one
end to retiring, sober, reserved, silent, and cautious at the other.
4. Agreeableness: A dimension ranging from good-natured, cooperative, trusting, and helpful at
one end to irritable, suspicious, and uncooperative at the other Neuroticism: A dimension ranging
strung, and hypochondriacal at the other.
from poised, calm, composed, and not hypochondriacal at one end to nervous, anxious, high-
5. Neuroticism: A dimension ranging from poised, calm, composed, and not hypochondriacal at
one end to nervous, anxious, high-strung, and hypochondriacal at the other.

Write 1-2 paragraphs under each approach to give its overview. You may also present
flowcharts/ tables to highlight the main features of the theories for each approach.

Five-Factor Model of Personality

Describe the theory in detail. Also add recent research on the Five-Factor Model.

Assessment of Personality
Self-report Inventories
Define self-report inventories; add advantages and limitations; briefly explain the types of
inventories: theory-guided, criterion-keyed and factor analytically-derived inventories.
Projective Techniques
Define projective techniques; add advantages and limitations; briefly explain types of projective
techniques: association, construction, completion and expression techniques.
Behavioral Assessment
Write 1-2 paragraphs on behavioral assessment.
Interviews
Write 1-2 paragraphs on assessment of personality using interviews.

History and Development of the Test

Write about the history of the NEO Personality Inventories: the year in which the inventories
were first developed, subsequent revisions and the latest publication. Also talk about the
considerations of scale construction. Refer to the manual.
Description of the Test
Talk about the number of items in the test, the two forms of the test (Form S and Form R),
materials included in the test. Also describe the five domains measured by the test. Refer to the
manual.

Standardization of the Test

Reliabilit
y Validity
Norms
Write information about the reliability, validity and norms of the test given in the manual.

Applications of the Test

Briefly write the various applications of the test given in the manual.

Limitations of the Test

Comment on the limitations of self-report inventories, in general and the NEO-FFI, in particular.

Method
Materials Required
NEO-FFI Test Booklet, NEO-Personality Inventories Test Manual, Screen, Pencil, Pen ,
notebook, consent form,

Preliminary Information
Name of the participant: Saloni Shewani
Age:18 years
Gender: Female
Course currently pursuing: B.com (Hons)
Date of administration: 6th June, 2023
Time of administration:
Place of administration: Psychology Lab 2
 Procedure
Lab Setting
Rapport
Formation
Consent
Instructions
The following instructions were given to the participant:
The questionnaire contained 60 statements. The participant was told to read each statement
carefully and for each statement, fill in the circle with the response that best represents her
opinion. The participant was asked to make sure that her answer

Administratio
n Precautions
Write a paragraph describing each of the above in sufficient detail (in past tense).

Introspective Report
Insert a scanned image of the introspective report written by the participant.

Tester’s Observation
The participant had a test just before the conduction hence she looked a little tired and in panic at
the beginning of the test but after the rapport formation, she calmed down and was quite attentive
when the instructions were given. She was quite calm after listening to the instructions and
understood them well. She started quite enthusiastically with the test and cleared her doubts at the
beginning itself. She was quite composed during the test, attempted all the questions, and did not
ask any doubts in the middle of the test. She took quite less time in completing the test and did
think very deeply about every question but did take time with some questions. After she completed
the test she looked a little tired and anxious but was also curious in knowing about the test and her
results. She looked satisfied after being briefed on what the test was about and asked for her results
before leaving the lab.

Scoring
Write all the steps you followed to complete the scoring of the test (in past tense).

Results
This section would include the following result table:
Table 1
Scores and Descriptive Categories assigned to the Participant on the Five Dimensions of
NEO-FFI

Dimension Raw score T score Percentile Rank Descriptive Category

Neuroticism 28 54.4 65.5 Average

Extraversion 30 46.1 34.5 Average

Openness 39 61.6 88.5 High

Agreeableness 28 45.9 34.5 Average

Conscientiousness 25 43.7 27.4 Low

 Interpretation and Discussion
Brief description on the test test conducted for academic purpose. Brief description of the tes and
participants preliminaries
Five dimensions that measured and what score he she got and which caqtegory does he she scored
highest and lowest in .
Explain each factor briefly what is neuroticism and write the raw score and we calculated z score
with signs and positive means he/she is above the mean and negative means below. T scores used
to calculate percentile. Expalin percentile score and what does it mean . what score participant has
got and what does the characterisitcs of each of this lies. Overall personality descriptions, during
administration whether his behaviour correlates with what you found in the test.
Personality correlates Coping defence mechanisms . conclusion that she shows this and this
characteristsics.
Conclusion
Write a brief paragraph about the descriptive categories obtained by the participant on the five
dimensions of personality, their meaning and an overview of the participant’s personality.

References
Arrange the references alphabetically by first author’s last name, and chronologically when two
or more papers have the same authors. List all authors’ last names and initials. Be sure to include
all of the papers that you cite. Note that this is not a bibliography. It should contain only those
sources that you have cited in the body of the text, not everything you have read.

Appendix

Include the signed Informed Consent form, NEO-FFI Test Booklet and NEO Summary Sheet.

Final note: Please follow APA 7 th Edition guidelines. Use proper grammar, spelling, punctuation
and paragraphing. Also, be concise and avoid slang, clichés and jargon.