Scientific Study of Personality Paper

 

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper that explores personality characteristics.

Address the following in your paper:

• How do psychologists define personality? Provide an overview of the definition of personality.
• Researchers use a number of different methods to study personality. Three of the most commonly used methods are case studies, correlational designs, and experimental designs or true experiments.
  • How do these methods differ?
  • What kind of information does each provide?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method?

 

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Scientific Study of Personality Paper

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)…

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.