UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Personality in Perspective
JOHN OSELENBALU EKORE
THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY the already known definitions originated from the
It is often said that there are no two individuals that Western cultures of Europe, America, and Asia.
are exactly alike. We commonly hear that each ,However, this does not imply that the concept of
individual is unique. This uniqueness is what personality is new in Africa. In the pre-colonial erd,
separates one person from the others, even identical individuals in African societies were very conscious
twins such as Taiwo and Kehinde. Despite being of how they are seen by others, the impression they
identical twins, it is a common knowledge that they make on others, and what separate them from
differ in their individual reactions and relations with others. This explains why people were always recidy
the environment. Hence, Taiwo is seen and regarded to fit into the norms of the society, because some
as a unique individual despite the various features characters were highly abhorred.
commonly shared with Kehinde. Similarly, we are Stories were told of how in medieval times, kings
.seen individually as a person that is unique in his or and chiefs would observe females in a family and
her own right. There are yet no known two individuals decide to choose one as wife. The question then is;
that are exactly alike wholesale. The quest for the Why would the king or chief choose Amina instead
"what", "why" and "how" about the qualities of of Fatima in the same family? This shows that they
individuals provide explanation for personality. differ in certain respects. In other words, there has
A second year Geography student taking one of always been that knowledge that people differ from
her elective courses in Psychology once asked me one another. To most traditional Africans, such
in .class to give the universally known definition of differencescould be mysterious. However, the know-
personality according to the psychology dictionary. ledge that differences exist between individuals
This student apparently spoke the minds of several provide insight as to what personality means in the
others in that class. Furthermore, the student like African perspective. People use it to refer to an
many of her colleagues might have been frustrated individual's social appeal or an individual's most
after reading through several texts without an agreed striking characteristics, or io expiain peopie's beha-
definition that is common to all the authors. viours, From that point of view, personality can be
Psychologists that have attempted to define defined as the way we are seen by others-and the
personality found themselves bornbardinq readers impression we make on them in consistent and
with a plethora of definitions that seem to add to the relatively enduring manner. Our personality is
existing ones. In order to deviate from that pattern, I reflected in our behaviour and reaction to environ-
will restrict myself in this chapter to what the concept mental stimuli.
of personality means in the African context. Most of Personality as a word may not have been used in
373
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374 PSYCHOLOGY: PERSPECTIVES IN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
pre-colonial African societies. Nevertheless, the several ways in behaviours, thoughts, and feelings.
concept in traditional terms and language across It is a causal force, which helps to explain an
ethnic groups was common with the people even individual's relations to the world. As a psychological
then. Among Africans, it has always been seen as concept, it is inextricably tied to the physical body.
the pattern of psychological and behavioural charac- One way of defining personality is to look at it as
teristics by which one person can be compared and certain behavioural mental processes that charac-
contrasted with other people. For instance, Biodun, terise the individual's interaction with the environ-
more than his elder brother, Kareem, is a man of the ment. This is the foundation for personality psycho-
people. This means that Biodun is very outgoing and logy, which involves the study of what makes a
highly sociable unlike his elder brother who is socially person unique.
evasive. Okeke is always seen ordering. people Why the word "personality"? Why is it used?
around in shops, at school, and even at parties. This Understanding the reason for using the word may
gives the impression that Okeke is quite domineering give an insight into the meaning of the word. One
and bossy. Similarly, Yohana is especially polite to reason for the usage appears to be the desire to
waiters in restaurants and has been like that every convey a sense of consistency or continuity in one's
time you had dinner with him. It can be inferred by qualities. There are several kinds of consistencies
the impression that he is quite polite. you might observe and want to imply about someone
One interesting thing about the nature of that may bring the concept of personality to mind.
personality is that unlike the clothes we wear, You may observe an individual consistently across
personality is like shadow that goes with a person situations. For instance, Ngozi talked too muchwhen
wherever he or she. goes. We do not pull it of! when you first met her, and some other time you met her
going on transfer from one location to another or dominatmq conversations. You may observe consis-
when leaving home for work. One may be tempted tency across several situations that are relatively
to conclude that the concept is so called because it different from each other. It can be seen from each
brings out the person in us. For example, Eze is like of these situations that the same person is
every other male student in several ways. It is also . undeniably perceived from one instance to another
true that there could be more than' one Eze in the because the person acts in consistent ways from
same class. It is possible as well that they have the time to time and from situation to situation. A second
same complexion, height, religion, and even .reason people have for using the word "personality"
surname. But the description that readily separates is to convey the sense that whatever the person is
Eze I from Eze II lies in their personality. Therefore, doing has internal origin (causality). In other words,
personality shows the. psychological structure in an it personifies who the person is.
individual that makes him or her a person that can
be described. APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY
Despite the. variations in definition according to Psycholoqists have offered several methods of
different authors, personality has been seen as an approachinq personality. While some have consi-
individual's unique and stable pattern of characte- dered grand theories about the nature of personality,
ristics and behaviours. The common theme that others investigated why peopie with a certain typeof
seems to run through most of the definitions is that personality act the way they do in a specific situation.
everyone has a unique and enduring set of psycho-
logical tendencies that he or she reveals in the The Psychodynamic Approach
course of interacting with the environment. The The acclaimed father of psychology, Sigmund Freud,
concept of personality rests on the assumption that was the first among the psychodynamic theorists.
individuals have distinctive qualities that are The psychodynamic approach relates personality to
relatively invariant across situations and over time the interplay of forces that are conflicting within the
(Mischel! & Shoda, 1995), which separate one individual, including those that the individual may
person from others (Kalat, 1999). consciously recognise. This simply means that
As it were, the word personality is displayed in people are being pushed and pulled by internal
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JOHN OSElENBAlU EKORE 375
forces that they do not fully understand: Freud proposed that individuals even as young
According to Freud, personality can be under- children have sexual tendencies. Children responc
stood from two models: the topographic and the sexually to stimulation of the mouth, anus, and other
structural. The topographic model looks at indivi- sensitive regions of the body. This view was based
dual's personality as comprising three domains, on his own and his clients' reconstruction of thei-
namely the conscious, pre-conscious, and uncon- childhood. He believed that people have a
scious. At the conscious domain, the individual is psychosexual energy, which he called libido (desire).
aware of forces operating that tend to exert influence From the assertion, libido is focused in an infant's
on his tendency to act in certain ways. In the mouth and flows to other parts of the body, as th"
pre-conscious domain, the forces that determine child grows older.
personality of individuals are latent and are not fully According to him, personality develops along the
in the knowledge of the individual. Forces within the line of five stages of psychosexual development,
unconscious dormain stimulate most of the indivi- each with a characteristic sexual focus that leaves
dual's daily actions, according to Sigmund Freud. its mark on the adult personality. If normal sexual
More often than not, the individual is not fully aware development is frustrated at any stage, part of the
of forces within the unconscious domain but they libido becomes fixated at that stage. That is, it will
exert much influence on their behaviours. On the continue to be preoccupied with the pleasure
other hand, the structural model sees personality as associated with that stage (Kalat, 1999). The five
a collection of three structures that are often in stages are: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital
conflict with one another. These are the id, ego and stages.
superego. The id and superego are at both extremes
of 'must' and 'must not'. Accordingly, the id asks for The Oral Stage
immediate gratification of biological urges, such as In the oral stage, from birth through the first year or
sex drive, hunger, and thirst. The id has no regard so (Freud was vague about the age limits of each
for deferment (want it now). It operates the pleasure stage), the infant derives intense psychosexual
principle. The superego counters these impulses pleasure from stimulation of the mouth, particularly
with lists of rules and values internalised from while sucking at the mother's breast. In the later part
parents, significant others, and religious leaders in of the oral stage, the infant begins to bite as well as
catechism classes, Sunday school lessons: or the suck. A person fixated at this stage continues to
Koranic school. The superego operates the moral receive great pleasure from eating, drinking, and
principle. Sometimes, the id produces sexual or other smoking and may also have lasting concerns with
motivations that the superego considers repugnant, dependence and independence.
thus evoking feelings of guilt. For example, "Good
children don't do that or children of God don't do The Anal Stage
that". The ego, on the other hand, acts as the At about 1 to 3 years of age, children enter the anal
mediator. It 'Operates the rational principle. Torn stage. At this time they get psychosexual pleasure
between the two forces of id and superego, the ego from stimulation of the anal sphincter, themuscle ihat
makes the decision about what to do. It acts to find controls bowel movements. The young child is
compromise. According to Freud, we can understand expected to go through toilet training al this stage. A
certain people's behaviour by assuming that their id person fixated at this stage goes through life 'holding
is more developed than their superego or that their things back', being orderly, stingy, and stubborn,
superego is more developed than their id. Based on miserly or may go to the opposite extreme by being
Freud's strong belief in sexual motivations, he so wasteful, messy, and destructive.
explained that personality development centres on
sexual themes, which influences nearly all aspects The Phallic Stage
of the individual's personality. Psychosexual Beginning at about age 3, in the phallic stage,
pleasure is used in a broad sense to mean all strong, children begin to play with their genitals, and,
pleasant excitement from bodily stimulation. according to Freud, become sexually attracted to the
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376 PSYCHOLOGY: PERSPECTIVES IN HUMANBEHAVIOUR
opposite-sex parent. Freud claimed that boys with A growing numbe~ of psychologists today contend
phallic fixation are afraid of being castrated; girls with that Freud imposed theories onto his data instead of
such a fixation develop 'penis envy'. These ideas drawing conclusions from the data.
have long been controversial; developmental It is possible, of course, for a visionary leader to
psychologists almost never observe castration fear induce correct theories based on weak evidence,
or penis envy in children. The effect of such fixation and Freud could have been right even if his methods
on adult personality could manifest in behaviours were faulty. How well his theories stand up today
characterising sexual deviations. depends on who you ask, but the aspects of his
theories that attract the fewest arguments are
The Latency Stage generalities such as the following:
This stage starts from about age 5 or 6 until adole- "Our behaviour is moulded by earlier experiences
scent. Most children enter a latent period in which dating back to childhood."
they suppress their psychosexual interest. At this "Every behaviour has multiple causes, and we are
time, they play mostly with peers of their own sex. unaware of many of them."
The latent period is evidently a product of the culture "Someone can react strongly to a fairly normal
and is not apparent in certain non-industrialised experience because of its symbolic significance to
societies. More attention shift to activities involving that individuaL"
elementary schoolwork and playing. "We have a variety of. ways of defending
ourselves against anxiety."
The Genital Stage "Talking about a psychological problem some-
times helps."
Beginning at puberty, young people take a strong
sexual interest in other people. This is known as the Compared to what Freud was trying to accom-
genital stage. According to Freud, anyone who has plish, however, giving him credit for such generalities
fixated a great deal of libido in an earlier stage has is 'damning by faint praise'. Freud, though he devised
little libido left for the genital stage. But people who a method to discover the contents of people's·
have successfully negotiated the earlier stages can unconscious minds through psychoanalysis, such
now derive primary satisfaction from sexual inter- inferences might sometimes be correct but reliability
course. are rarely high.
A major deviation of Freud's theory of personality
EVALUATION OF FREUD'S STAGES OF development with most African cultures lies in the
PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT explanation provided in the phallic stage. The
conclusion that children tend to hate their parent of
Freud's theory makes such vague predictions that it same sex and cherish the opposite sex parent due
is difficult to test (Grunbaum, 1986; Popper, 1986). to sexual attraction does not hold waters in Africa. A
When it has been tested, the results have been more encouraging explanation for the attraction
mostly unimpressive or inconclusive. For example, could be due to the harsh upbringing provided by
the. characteristics of being orderly, stingy, and parents to same sex children. It is a common
stubborn, which Freud described as due to anal knowledge in Nigeria as in many other African
fixation, do tend to correlate with one another. This societies for fathers to be soft to their daughters.
suggests that they are part of a single personality: They are, however, harsh to their sons because they
type. However, there is no. evidence that these expect the male child to be bold and strong. The
attributes actually result from any aspect of toilet average man in Africa would not encourage his SOil
training (Fisher & Greenberg, 1977). Undeniably, to be very gentle and soft. Permissiveness toward
Freud was a great pioneer in identifying new the male child by a father is highly discouraged in
questions. The validity of his answers is quite contro- Africa. It is seen as a way of spoiling the male child
versial. He based his conclusions on inferences he who could become fearful and lazy at adulthood. The
drew from what his patients said and did, and he had father trains the male child to be tough and the female
no sure way of testing the validity of those inferences. to be gentle and soft. On the other hand, the mother
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JOHN OSELENBALU EKORE 377
trains the female child to be hardworking, especially house, then explored its basement, and finally
with house chores. This sometimes makes the discovering that the house had a sub-basement,
female to see the mother as harsh and always run to 'began to explore that. Jung thought the dream
the father who would readily pet her. Similarly, the referred to his explorations of the mind. The top floor
mother pets the male child when scolded or beaten was the conscious mind; the basement was. the
by the father. It is a common saying in Africa that "If unconscious; and the sub-basement was still a
you spare the rod, you spoil the child". This deeper level of the unconscious, yet to be explored.
expression is mainly referred to the training of the Freud, however, insisted that the dream referred to
male child. The father would rather pet the female Jung's personal experiences and frustrations
and scold the son than the reverse. (Hannah, 1976).
Jung's own theory of personality incorporated
Neo-Freudians some of Freud's ideas but put greater emphasis on
Some psychologists, known as neo-Freudians, people's search for a spiritual meaning in life and on
have remained faithful to parts of Freud's theory the continuity of human experience, past and
while modifying other parts. One of the most present. Jung believed that every person has not
influential neo-Freudians was the German physician only a conscious mind and a 'personal unconscious'
Karen Horney (1885-1952), who believed that Freud (equivalent to Freud's unconscious'), but also a
had exaggerated the role of the sex drive in human collective unconscious. The personal unconscious
behaviour and had misunderstood the sexual represents a person's own experience. The collec-
motivations of women. She believed, for example, tive unconscious, which is present at birth,
that the conflict between a child and his or her represents the cumulative experience of preceding
parents was a reaction to parental hostility and generations. Because all humans share a common
intimidation, not a manifestation of sexual desires. ancestry, all have the same collective unconscious.
Horney contended that Freud had slighted the The collective unconscious contains archetypes,
importance of cultural influences on personality and which are vague images that we all inherit from the
that he neglected to help his patients work out ;, experiences of our ancestors. As evidenced from this
practical solutions to their problems. Still, Horney's view, Jung pointed out that similar images emerge in
views were more a revision than a rejection of the art of cultures throughout the world and that
Freud's theories. Other theorists, including Carl Jung similar themes emerge in various religions, myths,
and Alfred Adler, broke more sharply with Freud. and folklore. Those images and themes also appear
Although some psychologists call Jung and Adler in dreams and in the hallucinations of people with
neo-Freudians, the followers of Jung and Adler do severe psychological disorders.
not Each offered a very different, distinctly Given that biologists now know of genetics, Jung's
non-Freudian view of personality. ideas are hard to defend. Having an experience does
not change one's genes, and even if we did somehow
Carl Jung and the Collective Unconscious develop genes that represented common human
Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), a Swiss physician, was an experiences, those genes would certainly vary
early member of Freud's inner circle. Freud regarded among people, as other genes do. Jung was quite
,Jung as a son, the 'heir apparent' or 'crown prince' insistent that the collective unconscious was the
of the psychoanalytic movement, until their father- same for all people. Jung's alternative to a genetic
son relationship began to deteriorate (Alexander, explanation was that, perhaps, archetypes exist on
1982). At a point, Freud and Jung agreed to analyse their own, independent of time, space, and brains.
each other's dreams. Freud described one of his That is a difficult idea even to contemplate, much less
dreams, but then refused to provide the personal test. In short, Jung's views of the collective uncon-
associations that would enable Jung to interpret it; scious and archetypes are vague and mystical,
insisting that, 'I cannot risk my authority'. although a much modified version could be deve-
Jung was more forthcoming. He described a loped, which 'would be scientifically testable (Neher,
dream in which he explored the upper stories of a 1996).
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378 PSYCHOLOGY: PERSPECTIVES IN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR (
Despite the controversy on the testability of Jung's those who do manage to overcome their feelings ·Jf
view of personality, it is common across cultures in inferiority persist in their efforts to achieve.
Nigeria to describe individuals as exhibiting beha- According to Adler, everyone has a natural
viours similar to their ancestors. Culturally speaking, striving for superiority, a desire to seek personal
it is a common belief among the Edo people of excellence and fulfilment. Each person creates a
Nigeria that there is no character exhibited by an style of life, or master plan for achieving a sense of
individual that is notinherited from ancestors. Those superiority. That style of life may be directed toward
characters exist without the individual's full aware- success in business, sports, politics, or another
ness. They believe that everybody is a reincarnate competitive activity. It may also be directed toward
of someone that once lived. This view clearly 'success' of a different sort: for example, someone
supports Jung's position. who withdraws from life may gain a sense of accom-
plishment or superiority from being uncommonly
Alfred Adler and Individual Psychology self-sacrificing. Someone who constantly complains
Alfred Adler (1870-1937), an Austrian physician about real or imagined illnesses or disabilities may,
who, like Jung, had been one of Freud's early by demanding help from friends and family, win a
associates, broke with Freud because he believed measure of control or superiority over them. Some-
Freud was overemphasising the sex drive and one may commit crimes to savour the attention that
neglecting other, more important influences on they bring.
personality. They parted company in 1911, with Adler recognised that people are not always
Freud insisting that women experience 'penis envy' aware of their own style of life and the assumptions
and with Adler contending that women were more behind it, and may fail to realise that the real motive
likely to envy men's status and power. The two were behind a word or action is to manipulate others. They
never reconciled. may' engage in self-defeating behaviour because
Adler founded a rival school of thought, which he they have not admitted to themselves what their
called individual psychology; To Adler, this term did goals really are. Adler tried to determine people's real
not mean 'psychology of the individual.' Rather, it motives. For example, he would ask someone who
meant 'indivisible psychology,' a psychology of the complained of a backache, 'How would your life be
person as a whole rather than a psychology of parts, different if you could get rid of your backache?' Those
such as id, ego, and superego. Adler emphasised who said they would become more active were
the importance of conscious, goal-directed beha- presumably suffering from real ailments that they
viour and de-emphasised (though he did not deny) . were trying to overcome. Those who said they could
unconscious influences. not imagine how their life would change, or said only
that they would get less sympathy from others, were
Adler's Description of Personality presumably suffering from psychologically caused
Several of Adler's early patients were acrobats who ailments or, at least, were exaggerating their
had had an arm or a leg darnaqed by a childhood discomfort.
illness or injury. These people were determined to
overcome their disabilities, and they had worked ADLER'S VIEW OF PSYCHOLOG!C/\L
hard to develop the strength and co-ordination' they DISORDERS
needed to perform as acrobats. Perhaps, Adler Any personality based on a selfish style of life is
surmised, people in general try to overcome their unhealthy (Adler, 1964). People's need for one
weaknesses and to transform them into strengths another requires that they develop a social interest,
(Adler, 1932/1964). a sense of solidarity and identification with other
As infants, Adler pointed out, we are small, people. People with a strong social interest strive for
dependent creatures who strive to overcome our superiority in a way that contributes to the welfare of
inferiority. People who do not succeed go through life the whole human race, not just to their own welfare.
with an inferiority complex, an exaggerated feeling They want to cooperate with other people, not to
of weakness, inadequacy, and helplessness. Even compete. In equating mental health with a strong
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JOHN OSELENBALU EK:JRE 379
social interest, Adler saw mental health as a positive investigators. Previously, personality was entirely in
slate, not just the absence of impairments. the realm of philosophers and novelists. The grand
In Adler's view, people with psychological theory builders made personality a topic for research
disorders are not suffering from an 'illness; rather, and progress.
they have set immature goals, are following a faulty
style of life, and show little social interest. They are The Trait Approach
striving for superiority in ways that are useless to Whereas psychodynamic theorists try to explain the
themselves and to others. For example, one of underlying basis for personality, many contemporary
Adler's patients was a man who lived in conflict with researchers concentrate on.simple description of the
his wife because he was constantly trying to impress differences among personalities. The point of the trait
her and dominate her. When discussing his approach to personality is that people have consis-
problems, the man revealed that he had been very tent personality characteristics that can be measured
slow to mature physically and had not reached and studied. If you try to describe someone you
puberty until he was 17 years old. Other teenagers know, you will almost certainly list some personality
had ignored him and had treated him like a child. He traits, such as 'she's friendly, honest, has a good
was now a physically' normal adult, but he was sense of humour, but sometimes gets too upset by
overcompensating for those years of feeling inferior criticism'. ,Psychologists try to make these descrip-
by trying to seem bigger and more important than he tions more accurate and systematic. It would be
really was. helpful, for example, to specify how friendly or honest
Adler tried to get patients to understand their own this person is, compared to others, or to specify in
style of life and to correct the faulty assumptions on which situations he or she is friendly or honest.
which they had based their lives. He urged them to Let's start with this example: Some people match
strengthen their social interest and to strive for their gender stereotypes rather closely, being either
superiority in ways that would benefit both them- very 'masculine' men or very 'feminine' women.
s.elves and others. This view of personality may be According to the usual or stereotypical meanings of
an explanation for cultism in Nigeria. People who join the terms, masculinity includes ambitiousness, self-
cults might be striving to overcome their Ieellnq of assertiveness, and an interest in sports. Femininity
inferiority in their environment. includes an enjoyment of children, an enjoyment of
beautifying the house and garden, and a tendency
Adler's Legacy to be sympathetic to and understanding of other
Adler's influence on psychology exceeds his fame. people.
His concept of the 'inferiority complex' has become We could, therefore, identify masculinity and
part of the common culture. He was the first to talk femininity as personality traits. One of the tasks for
about mental health as a positive state rather than researchers, then, is to determine whether these are
as merely the absence of impairment. Many later really just two ends of a single continuum (just as
forms of therapy drew upon Adler's innovations, outgoingness is the opposite of isolation), or whether
especially his emphasis on the assumptions they are separate dimensions. Sandra Bem (1974)
underlying a patient's, behaviour. Humanistic proposes that it is possible to be high in both
psychologists followed Adler by urging people to take mascuiinity and femininity, or flexible enouqh to
responsibility for their own behaviour and for switch between masculinity and femininity depen-
modifying-their style of life. ding on the situation. She defines this trait as
Freud, Jung, and Adler lived and worked in an androgyny (from the Greek roots andr, meaning
earlier era that was apparently more conducive to 'man' and gyne, meaning 'woman'). According to
building major theories of how personality fits Bem, androgynous people are not limited by one'
together. It is easy to fault these theorists for jumping stereotype or the other and can combine masculine
to conclusions and for their other shortcomings. Still, strengths, such as ambition with feminine strengths,
one should admire the scope of what they were trying such as sympathy for the needs of others.
to accomplish and the influence that they had on later In the original scoring system, you would be
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380 PSYCHOLOGY: PERSPECTIVESINHUMAN BEHAVIOUR
considered androgynous if you checked about the you might consider yourself honest because you
same number of masculine items as feminine items. would always return a lost wallet to its owner and
However, one way to be equal in both categories is because you would never cheat on your income
to be very low in both. It is hard to see any advantage taxes; nevertheless, you may find yourself telling
in being unassertive, unambitious, indifferent to each of your dating partners, 'You are the only one I
children, unsympathetic to other people, and low in have ever loved'. So how useful is it to say that you
all the other masculine and feminine characteristics. are an honest person or even that you are 'more
Consequently, most investigators now define honest than 80% of other people'? It might be more
androgyny as a personality that is high in both useful to describe specific behaviours, such as
masculinity and femininity. honesty about returning a lost wallet or dishonesty
Consider a second example of personality traits: toward romantic partners. or conscientiousness in
00 you think that your successes and failures particular situations, or friendliness in particular
depend mostly on your own efforts or mostly on situations (Mischel & Shoda, 1995). Presumably,
circumstances beyond your control?Presumably, we these specific behaviours are learned. The Social
all agree that both are important, but people differ in Learning approach describes some ways in which
how much they emphasise one or the other. People we learn our personality. We learn much by imitation
who believe they are largely in control of their lives or by vicarious reinforcement and punishment. That
are said to have an internal locus of control. Those is, we copy behaviours that we know led to success
who believe they are controlled mostly by external fcr other people but avoid behaviours that led to
forces are said to have an external locus of control failure for others.
(Rotter, 1966). In Nigeria, people with this trait readily Let's illustrate this idea by applying this approach
attribute events around them to the gods or ancestral to masculinity, femininity, and androgyny. One major
intervention. part'ot those traits is gender, the pattern of behaviour
Generally, people with an internal locus of control that each person is expected to follow because of
like to choose tasks where they believe they can being male or female. A gender role is the psycho-
\
1 control the outcome, and then they persist 'at these logical aspect of being male or female, as opposed
" tasks. At the end, they take the credit lor their to sex, which is the biological aspect. We know that
.'":
successes and the blame for their failures. People gender role is at least partly learned, because certain
with 'an external locus of control are more likely to aspects of it vary strikingly among cultures. For
feel helpless (Lefcourt, 1976). example, some cultures define cooking as 'women's
Androgyny and locus of control are just two work' and others define it as 'men's work'. Men wear
personality traits; obviously, we could define and their hair short in some cultures and long in others.
measure a great many more. We describe the.sizes When we say that children learn their gender role,
of objects in terms of three dimensions of space we do not necessarily mean that anyone teaches it
(length, width, and height) and one dimension of to them deliberately or intentionally. For example,
time. How many dimensions would we need to most adults do not tell boys that they are supposed
describe people's personalities? This question shall to fight'with one another, and adults usually do what
be explored later in this chapter. they can to stop the fighting. Nevertheless. little boys
tend to -be bossy and aggressive, especially when
The Learning Approach they think no adults are watching (Powlishta &
How does someone develop a personality trait, such Maccoby, 1990). Some of that aggressiveness
as androgyny or locus of control? Genetics and other probably arises from biological tendencies, but boys
biological factors no doubt exert some influence, but may.have also learned some of it by following adults'
specific behaviours must be learned. Indeed, some examples. Boys tend to imitate men, and girls tend
psychologists have argued that the whole concept of to imitate women. In one experiment, children
,jeneral personality traits is vastly overrated, and that watched adults choose between an apple and a
most 01 our personality is learned on a situation-by- banana. If all the men chose, say, the apple and all
situation basis (Mischel, 1973, 1981). For example, the women chose the banana, the boys who were
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JOHN OSELENBALU EKORE 381
watching wanted an apple and the girls wanted a points in psychology at that time (Berlyne, 1981).
banana (Perry & Bussey, 1979). The choice of fruit Behaviourists and psychoanalysts often emphasise
is, in itself, trivial, but the study shows the potential the less noble, or at least morally neutral, aspects of
for influence on more important behaviours. people's thoughts and actions, whereas humanistic
Perhaps, even more importantly, children learn psychologists see people as essentially good and
gender roles from other children. Children have a striVing toward perfection. Also, behaviourism and
'playground culture' of their own; each cohort psychoanalysis, despite their many differences, are
teaches the slightly younger set what is expected of both rooted in determinism (the belief that every
them, and in many ways the peer group has a behaviour has a cause) and in reductionism (the
stronger influence than parents do (Harris, 1995). attempt to explain behaviour in terms of its compo-
Even parents who try to raise their sons and nent elements). Humanistic psychologists reject
daughters to be non-sexist find that their children these attempts to explain behaviour in terms of its
come back from the playground with strong preju- parts or causes. They claim that people make
dices about what boys do and what girls do. In Africa, deliberate, conscious decisions about what to do
these attitudes are learnt from peers and older with their lives. People can decide to devote them-
members of the society when they discuss. Children selves to a great cause, to sacrifice their own well-
learn a lot from adult discussions even when they do . being, and to risk their lives. To the humanistic
not take part in such discussions. psychologist, it is fruitless to ascribe such behaviour
In short, the learning approach focuses on more to 'past rewards and punishments or to unconscious
specific behaviours than does the trait approach, and thought processes. Rather, they are means of
attempts to relate specific behaviour's to specific attaining great experiences that are fulfilling for the
experiences. Some of these are the person's own . individual.
experiences with those of others whom the' person Humanistic psychologists generally study the
has imitated. LearningoccLir in the attempt to imitate special experiences of a given individual, as
qualities that are admired and found encouraging in opposed to seeking means or medians for large
others, which now become a common disposition by representative groups. For example, humanistic
individuals, especially in social settings. psychologists study growth experiences - the
moments that people identify as points of transition,
Humanistic PSYChology when they may say, 'Aha! Now I have become an
Another general perspective on personality is the adult,' or 'Now I have truly committed my life to this
humanistic psychology, which deals with conscious- goal' (Frick, 1983). They also study peak expe-
ness, values, and abstract beliefs, including spiritual riences, moments in which a person feels truly
experiences and the beliefs that people live by and fulfilled and contented. Some people report that they
die for. According to humanistic psychologists, 'feel at one with the universe' when they hear
personality depends on what people believe and how 'th'rilling' music, or take part in an emotional religious
they perceive the world. If you believe that a ceremony, or achieve a great accomplishment.
particular experience was highly 'meaningful, then it
was highly meaningful. A psycholoqist can Carl Rogers and the Goal of Self-Actualisation
. understand your behaviour only by asking you for Carl Rogers, an American psychologist, studied
your own evaluations and interpretations of the theology before turning to psychology, and the
events in your life. In theology, a humanist glorifies influence of those early studies is apparent in his
humans, generally denying or at least giving little view of human nature. .Hoqers became probably the
attention to a 'Supreme Being'. The term "hurnanlstic most influential humanistic psychologists.
psychologist" implies nothing about a person's According to Rogers (1980), human nature is
religious beliefs. basically good. People have a natural drive toward
Humanistic psychology emerged in the 1950s and self-actualisation, which means the achievement of
1960s as a protest against both behaviourism and one's full potential. According to Rogers, it is as
psychoanalysis, which were the dominant view- natural for people to strive for excellence as it is for
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382 PSYCHOLOGY: PERSPECTIVES IN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
a plant to grow. The drive for self-actualisation is the Abraham Maslow and the Self-Actualisation
basic drive behind the development of personality. Personality
Rogers' concept of self-actualisation is similar to Abraham Maslow, another of the founders of
Adler's concept of striving for superiority. Adler was humanistic psychology, proposed that people have
a forerunner of humanistic psychology. a hierarchy of needs, an idea we considered earlier.
Children evaluate themselves and their actions, The highest of those needs is self-actualisation, the
beginning at an early age. They learn that what they fulfilment of a person's potential. What kind of person
.do is sometimes good and sometimes bad. They achieves self-actualisation, and what is the result of
develop a self-concept, an image of what they really achieving it? Maslow (1971) seeks to describe the
are, and an ideal self and image of what they would self-actualisation personality. He complains that
like to be. Rogers measured a person's self-concept psychologists concentrate on disordered persona-
and ideal self by handing the person a stack of cards lities, thus reflecting the medical view that health is
containing statements such as 'I am honest' and I am merely the absence of disease. This seems to
suspicious of others'. The person would then sort the assume that all personality is either 'normal' or
statements into piles representing True of me and 'abnormal' (undesirable). Maslow insists that
Not true of me, or arranging them in a continuum from personality could differ from the normal in positive
Most true of me to Least true of me. This method is and desirable ways.
known as a Q-sort. Then Rogers would provide an To determine the characteristics of the self-
identical stack of cards and ask the person to sort actualised personality, Maslow made a list of people
them into two piles: True of my ideal self and Not true who, in his opinion had achieved their full potentials
of my ideal self. In this manner, he could determine . His list included people he knew personally as well
whether someone's self-concept was similar to his as figures from history. He then sought to discover
or her ideal self; people who perceive a great what these people had in common.
discrepancy between the two generally experience According to Maslow, people with a se '-
distress. Humanistic psychologists try to help people actualised personality show the following charac-
overcome this distress, either by improving their teristics:
self-concept or by changing..their ideal self. An accurate perception of reality. They perceive
To promote human welfare, Rogers maintained the world as it is, not as they would like it to be. They
that people should relate to one another with are willing to accept uncertainty and ambiguity when
unconditional positive regard, a relationship that necessary.
Thomas Harris (1967) describes with the phrase, 'I'm Independence, creativity, and spontaneity. Tiley
OK-You're OK.' Unconditional positive regard is the follow their own impulses.
complete, unqualified acceptance of another person Acceptance of themselves and others: They treat
as he or she is, much like the love of a parent for a people with unconditional positive regard.
child. If someone expresses anger, or even a desire A problem-centred OUtlook, rather than a se/f-
to kill, the listener should accept that as an under- centred out/oak: They think about how best to solve
standable feeling, even while discouraging the a problem, not how to make themselves look good.
person from taking certain possible actions. The They also concentrate on significant problems, such
listener must convey the message that the other as philosophical or political issues, not just the petty
person is inherently good, even though certain issues of getting through the day.
actions might be bad. This view resembles the Enjoyment of life: They are open to positive
Christian admonition to 'Hate the sin but love the experiences, including 'peak experiences.' Self-
sinner.' The alternative is conditional positive regard; actuallsed personality also includes good sense of
the attitude that 'I shall like only if ... '. People who humour.
are treated this way may feel restrained about Critics have attacked Maslow's description, on the
opening th'emselves to new ideas or behaviours, for grounds that because it is based on his own choice
fear ot-losinq someone else's esteem. of subjects.jit may simply reflect the characteristics
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JOHN OSELENBALU EKORE 383
that he himself admired. In any case, Maslow paved. must not act as if she is a male child. She is not
the way for other attempts to define a healthy expected to fight even when offended or slapped by
personality as sornethinq more than personality peer (male or female). Rather, she should report to
without disorder. parents instead of retaliating. When children go out
to play, the female child is expected to come back
In Search of Human Nature home much earlier than her male siblings.
You have no doubt heard the parable of the blind Among the Edo and Delta peoples of southern
people describing an elephant: One feels the tusks Nigeria, male children are taught not to fret or shiver
and says an elephant is like a smooth rock; another while being spoken to. They are taught to be very
feels the tail and says an elephant can emerge only bold. This could provide a possible explanation for
from the combination of narratives. Similarly, a full the aggressive behaviours readily observed among
description of personality emerges from a combina- people from that part of the country. The Hausa-
tion of research approaches. Saying that people Fulani of northern Nigeria has a practice that also
have personality traits does not necessarily conflict promotes toughness in their males. From childhood,
with saying that personality is learned, or that it has the male child is taught to withstand pain. Endurance
unconscious influences (the psychodynamic), or that :' is a highly cherished quality among the men. Ability
it is largely under conscious control (the humanistic to endure and resist pain is a major determinant in
approach). marrying a wife among the Hausa-Fulani. For
However, although these approaches are not . instance, male suitors are invited for flogging
necessarily in conflict, their advocates are not nece- (physical beating). The flogging continues until one.
ssarily in full agreement either. Various personality of thesuitors is able to endure more than the others.
theorists have sharply different views of human Therefore, the traditional male individual is trained to
nature, and much is at stake. The challenge for, be tough in view of the marriage task ahead during
personality researchers is to take such global· adulthood. It is also typical of Nigerians especially
questions about human nature and try to convert, from the southern parts to buy male children toys
them into scientifically testable hypotheses. depicting toughness and violence such as guns and
sharp objects. Female children on the other hand,
African Practices and Personality are usually bought baby dolls, plastic cooking
Development utensils and flowers, depicting nurturance. All these
There are certain cultural practices in most parts of are cultural practices that separate Nigeria from the
Africa that help to shape the characters of individuals Western societies.
from childhood. For instance, in most African Apart from rearing practice that shapes male and
societies male and female children are reared female personality differently, parents also shape
differently. While male children are trained to be children's personality through eating. For example, it
tough and domineering, assertive; competitive, selfi' is a common practice in most homes for children to
reliant, and willing to take risks, their female counter- eat foodwithout touching the meat while eating. They
parts are trained to be submissive, affectionate, are only given meat at-the end of meals. A child that
dependent, cheerful, compassionate, loyai, and cut from the meat when eating is scolded or spanked
sympathetic (Attah, 2004). Such practices prepare in some cases except with the permission of an adult
individuals for sex-roles later in life as adults. In or parent eating with him or her. The reason for this
Nigeria, for example, it is common to find parents is that children are being trained to defer gratification,
rebuking a male child beaten by his mate at school, which tbey are expected to carry to adulthood. By
or while playing with peers. Such a child is always learning to eat without touching the meat, the
reminded that if he must be a man he should not cry individual can grow up to be highly disciplined. Such
because men do not cry. In some cases, such a child an individual has a tendency to exercise restraint by
could be beaten by the parents or elder sibling fo~ not taking something within his or.her reach without
not living up to male expectation. The female child or permission. Such practices are common among
sister on the other hand, is often reminded that she Africans. These practices help in no small measure
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384 PSYCHOLOGY: PERSPECTIVES IN HUMANBEHAVIOUR
toward personality development of the African reared is to determine the distribution of scores for a large
in Africa. number of people. We need to know the mean score
and the range of scores for people in general and for
Personality Assessment various special populations, such as severely
Individuals engage in one form of personality depressed people. Given such information, it
assessment or another from time to time. Assess- becomes possible to determine whether a given
ment of personality is not limited to literate members individual's score on the test is within the normal
of the society. Everybody carries out assessment range or whether it is more typical of people with a
directly or indirectly, whether skilled or not. However, particular disorder.
the degree of bias is a major difference that Most of the tests published in popular magazines
.separates the skilled from the unskilled assessor. have never been standardised. A magazine may
As earlier mentioned in the chapter, traditional herald an article: 'Test Yourself: How Good Is Your
Africans do have profiles of neighbours. It is such a Marriage?' or 'Test Yourself: How Well Do You
profile that informs the impression people hold about Control the Stress in Your Life?' After you take the
others. For instance; Mr. Igho is seen as friendly and test and compare your answers to the scoring key,
warm, whereas his brother, Egbe, is arrogant and the article may tell you that 'if your score is greater
proud. Again, Bankole is regarded by many as too than 80, you are doing very well ... if it is below 20;
domineering, while his twin brother is very accommo- you need to work on improving yourself!' Unless the
dating. None of these individuals has been SUbjected magazine states otherwise, you can safely assume
to any standard form of personality assessment that the author pulled the scoring norms out of thin
using any of the known instruments or techniques. air and never even bothered to make sure that the
Yet, a set of characters have been ascribed to explain test items were clear and unambiguous.
their tendency to act in certain ways especially in Over the years, psychologists have developed an
social settings. The description with certain qualities enormous variety of tests to measure both normal
informs the impressions people have about one and abnormal personality. A great deal of research
another. In other words, they are described based on focused on trying to standardise their interpretation
.cursory assessment by others who may not have and measure their reliability and validity. Attempt is
knowledge of psychological principles guiding .made here to examine a few prominent examples
personality testing. and explore some creative possibilities for future
tn contemporary times, however, psychologists personality measurement.
carry out personality assessment by using three
-I·· . ", Self-Report Measures of Personality
common techniques. These are: Observation,
Standardised tests, and Projective techniques. If someone wanted to assess your personality, one
Depending on the reason and focus of assessment, possible approach would be to carry out an extensive
the trained assessor uses one or a combination of interview with you in order to determine the most
the techniques to achieve his or her goal. important events of your childhood, your social
relationships, and your successes and failures.
Standardised Personality Tests Obviously, such a technique would be extraordinarily
To devise a psychological test that not only appears costly in time and effort. Just as physicians draw only
to work but also actually does work, there is the need a small sample of your blood to test it, psychologists
to follow some elaborate procedures to design the can utilise self-report measures that ask people .
test carefully and to determine its reliability and about a relatively small sample of their behaviour.
validity. This sampling of self-report data is then used to infer
Psychologists have developed a great variety of the presence of particular personality characteristics
standardised personality tests. A stardardised test is (Conoley & Impara, 1997).
one that is administered according to specified Jules .. One of the best examples of a self-report
and whose scores are interpreted in a prescribed measure, and the most frequently used personality
fashion. One important step for standardising a test test, is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
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JOHN OSe:LEN8AlU EKORE 385
lnventory-z (MMPI'2), The original MMPI was there Is a 'lie scale' that indicates when people are
devised empirically, that Is, by trial and error falsifying their responses in order to present
(Hathaway & Mckinlay, 1940). The authors themselves more favourably (through items such as
developed hundreds of true-false questions thaI Ih'ey 'I can't remember ever having a bad nfght's sleep')
thought might be useful for Identlfylng'personallty (Butcher, ef, et., 1990; Graham, 1990; 8agby, Buls,
dimensions, They put these qUGstlons to people who & Nicholson, 1995),
were known to be. suffering from depression, How did the authors of the MMPI determine what
paranoia, arid other psychological disorders and to specific patterns of responses indicate? The
a group of hospital visitors, who wereaseumed 10 be procedure they used Is typical of personality test
psychoioqlcally normal. Thsfesearchers selected construction - a process known as test standarolsa-
those items that most of the people In a given cllnloal tlon. Todevise the test, groups of psychlatrlo patients
group answered dlfferMtly from most of the normel with a specific dlagnoslsj such as depression or
people. Their~ssumptlon was that If you answer schizophrenia, were asked to complete a large
many questions lust 8$ depressed people usually nUmb,erof Items. The test authors then determined
answer them, you are' probably depressed too, which Items best-differentiated members of these
Although the original purpose of the measure was to group,sfrom a comparison group of 'normal partlcl-
differentiate people with specific eorts ot psyche- pants, and these specific Items were Included In the
logical difficulties from those without disturbances, It final version of the test. 8y systematically carrying
has been found to predict a variety of other out this procedure on groups with different
behaviours. For instance, MMPI scores havebeet1 . diagnoses, the t~st authors were able to devise a
shown to be good predictors of whether college number of subscales that Identified different forms of
students will marry within ten years and whether they abnormal behaviour.
will get an advanced degree. Police departments use When the MMPlle used for the purposes for which
the test to measure whether police officers are prone It was devised (Identification ot personality
to use their weapons, Psychologists In the former . disorders), It does a reasonably good Job, However,
Soviet Union even administered a modified form of like other personality tests, It presents the oppor-
the MMPI to their cosmonauts and Olympic athletes tunity for abuse. For Instance , employers who use it
(Dworkin & Wldorn, 1977; HOlden, 1986; Hathaway as a screening tool for Job applicants may interpret
. & McKinley, 1989; Greene, 1991 ;8etcher,' 1995; the results Improperly, relying too heavily on the
Duckworth & Anderson, 1995), results of Individual scales Instead of taking Into
The MMPI had 10 scales - for. reporting a. account tho overallpatterns of results, which require
depression score, a paranoia score, a schizophrenia skilled Interpretation, Futharmore, critics point out
score, and others, Later, other researchers found that the Individual scale overlap, making their inter-
that they could use MMPI items to measure other pretation difficult. In sum, although the MMPI
dimensions of personality as well (Helmes &; remalns the most widely used personality test and
Beddon, 1993). The test ih'l$lf consists of a aerie a of . has been translated into more than 100 different
567 items to which a person responds 'True', "False', languages, It must be used with caution (Graham,
or 'Cannot say', the questions cover a variety of 1990; Helmes & Reddoh, 1993; Greene & Clopton,
issues, ranging from mood ('! fee! useless at times') 1994),
to opinions CPeople should try'to understand their It Is riot surprising then that the MMPI was
dreams') to physical and psychological health ('I am described as one of the most widely used personality
bothered byan upset stomach several tlmess week', tests based on simple pencll-and-papsr responses
and 'I, have ,strange and peculiar thoughts'). (Piotrowski & Keller, 19Sg). In Nigeria, too, thescale
There are no right or wrong answers, of course, has been adapted and used In reasonable measure
Instead, lnterprstatlon otresults rest on the pattern ( Brener,1998),
.of responses, The test yields sccres on ten separate Inusing the MMPI, most people with scores above
scales, plus three scales meant to measure the a certain level on the depression scala are, In fact,
validity of the respondent's answers. For example, , depressed, Some of the Items on the MMPI made
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
386 PSYCHOLOGY:PERSPECTIVES IN HUMANBEHAVIOUR
sense theoretically; some did not. For example, certain level indicates a probable difficulty.
some items on the depression scale asked about
feelings of helplessness or worthlessness, which are , The Generalisability of the MMPI
important parts of depression. But two other items Your personality is such an integral part of who you
were, 'I 'attend religious services frequently' and are. Is it really possible for one test to measure
'Occasionally I tease animals'. If you answered False personality for all kinds of people? In particular, is the
to either of those items, you would get one point on MM~I(MMPI-2 or MMPI-A) a fair measure of
the depression scale. These items were included personality for people of different ethnic and cultural
simply because more depressed people than non- backgrounds? However, some of the items were
depressed people answered False to these items. designed for American and other Western societies.
Why they did is not obvious. Perhaps depressed An example is the item that asks about 'teasing
people do not tease animals just because they do animals'. Such an item makes no serious meaning
hardly anything just for fun .. to the average Nigerian. It becomes difficult, there-
The MMPI was standardised in the 1940s. As time fore, to answer. In general, the means and ranges on
passed, the meaning of certain items, or at least of each scale are about the same for many ethnic
certaih'answers, changed. groups in the Western societies the MMP'I have been
At the time, the word 'important' meant about the used (Negy, Leal-Puente, Trainor, & Carlson, 1997).
same thing as 'famous' and people who called A few small differences in scores do occur, but they
themselves important were thought to have an could reflect either real differences in personality or
inflated view of themselves. Today, we are more differences in interpreting what certain questions
likely to say that every person is important. mean. 'Consequently, psychologists use the same
What about this item? norms for all groups, but they are slightly more
I like to play drop the handkerchief. T F cautious about interpreting the scores of racial
Drop the Handkerchief, a game similar to Tag, minorities,rural dwellers, especially those people
dropped out of popularity in the 1950s among who are most impoverished and least educated
Americans. Most people born since then have never (Gynther, 1989). In Nigeria, the scale has been
even heard of the game, much less played it. standardised for the Yoruba population by Brener
Similarly, the game is not known or popular among (1997).
Africans just like 'Teasing' animals'. These are ,
contents of the MMPI that meant different things to Detection of Deception on Standardized Tests
people in Nigeria, for instance, With6ut a revision of Suppose you were taking the MMPI or another
the items, the scale may not be. able to tap' the personality test and you wanted to make yourself
aspects of personality it intend to assess. lookmentally healthier than you really are. Could you
To bring the MMPI up to date, a group of lie on the test? Yes. Could anyone catch you in your
psychologists rephrased some of the items, lies? Probably.
eliminated some, and added new ones to deal with The. designers of the MMPI and the MMPI-2
drug abuse, suicidal ideas, Type A personality, and included in their test certain items designed to identify
other issues that did not concern psychologists in the people who consistently tell lies (Woychyshyn,
1940s (Butcher, Graham, Wiliiams & Ben-Porath, McElheran, & Romney, 1992). For exampie,
1990), Then, they tried out the new MMPI-2 on 2,600 consider the items 'I like every person I have ever
people selected to resemble the current mix of age, met' and 'Occasionally I get angry at someone', If
sex, race, and education in the United States. In you answer True to the first question and False to the
other words, the psychologists restandardised the second, you are either a saint or a liar. The test
personality test from time to time. They also authors, convinced that there are more liars than
developed a new form, the MMPI-A, intended for use saints, and would give you one point for each of these
with adolescents. The various 10 Clinical scales of answers on a special 'lie scale'. You could get too
the 'MMPI 1-2 have 32 to 78 items each, scattered at many points on the lie scale, Strangely enough,
least a few points on each scale; a score above a somepeople lie on the test to try to make themselves
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
JOHN OSELENBALU EKORE 387
look bad. The test has some special items to detect I doubt that 1 will ever be successful True
that kind of faking also. I am glad that I am alive. False
A similar method is used to detect deception on I have thoughts about suicide True
other types of tests. For example, many employees I am helpless to control the important
ask job applicants to fill out a questionnaire that asks events in my life True
them how much experience they have had with
. 'A psychologist analyses your answer sheet and
certain job-related skills. What is to prevent eager
tells you, 'Your results show indications of depre-
applicants from exaggerating or even lying about
ssion'. Yes, of course; you already knew that. In such
their experience? To find out whether applicants are
a case as this, the results can be useful - not just
lying, some employers include among the authentic
for telling you that you are depressed, (which you
items a few bogus items referring to non-existent
already knew), but for measuring how depressed you
tasks. According to the results of one study, almost
are at this moment (a basis for comparison of future
half of all job applicants claimed to have experience results).
with one or more non-existent tasks (Anderson,
Warner, & Spencer, 1984). Moreover, applicants who The 16-PF Test
claimed a great deal of experience with non-existent
tasks also overstated their abilities on real tasks. An The 16-PF Test is another widely used standardised
employer can use answers on bogus items as a personality test. The term 'PF' stands for personality
correction factor. The more skill an applicant claims factors. The test measures 16 factors, or traits, of
to have on a non-existent task, the more the personality. Unlike the MMPI, which was intended
employer will discount that applicant's claims of skill primarily to identify abnormal personalities, the
on real tasks. This is similar to frequent alteration in 16-PF test was devised to assess various aspects of
age by most applicants in Nigeria. It is notout of place normal personality. Cattell (1965) uses factor
to find a 40-year old applying fora job that specified analysis to identify the traits that contribute most
28 years as the maximum age required. One way of significantly to personality. Psychologists used factor
detecting liars under this circumstance is to look at analysis to identify major traits; Cattell found 35 and
their first and second school leaving certificates. For then narrowed them to 16 using same technique. He
instance, it is not possible for an applicant to have then developed a test to measure each of those
completed primary school at age 4 or 5 years. traits. Because of the large number of factors, the
Sometimes, some could be found lying when theirage results of his test apply to a rather wide range of
of entry into University is 10 years as against their behaviours (Krug, 1978).
reported age. Although the 16-PF test was originally designed·
to assess normal personality, it does enable .<.'
Uses of the MMPI clinicians to identify various abnormalities, such as
The MMPI is useful to psychologists who want to schizophrenia, depression, and alcoholism. Each
measure personality for research purposes. It is also disorder is associated with a characteristic person-
useful to clinical psychologists who want to learn ality profile. As with any test, this test should be used
something about a client before beginning therapy or cautiously, especially with people from different
who want an independent measure of how much a cultural backgrounds. Psychologists have translated
client's personality has changed during the course of this test into other languages, but something is often
therapy (McReynolds, 1985). . lost in translation. One study found that. Mexican-
How informative are the results to the client who Americans taking the 16-PF in Spanish had substan-
actually takes the MMPI test? In some cases, the tially different personality profiles than did Mexican-
results point out a problem to which the person had Americans taking supposedly the sarne test in
paid little attention. In other cases, however, the English (Whitworth & Perry, 1990). However, the
results do little more than restate the obvious. 16-PF has not been widely used or reported in
For example, suppose you gave the following Nigeria and most parts of Africa. This situation also
answers: applies to The Big Five personality test developed by
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 IBADAN LIBRARY
388 PSYCHOLOGY: PE;RSPECTIVeS IN HUMAN al;HAVIOUR
McCrae & Costa (1996), Though the test has been what my friend should do'. They then describe their
regarded as measuring a broad range of Individuals' . own problem. By so doing, they are 'projecting' their
personality cbaracterlstlcs acrees socletles (Macrae problem onto someone else, in Freud's sense of the
& Costa, 1996), African cultural seUlngs werenot word~ attributing their own characteristics to some-
taken Into consideration when the euthors were one else.
developing the test. Objectlve as the 6ig Five Rather than dlscouragln~ projection, psycholo-
personality test might seem.Its application In Nigeria gists oftan make U$@ of It. Projective techniques are
requires proper adaptation. deslgn@d to encourage people to project their
Nevertheless, Psycholoplsts in. Nigeria have personality characterlstlos onto ambiguous stimuli.
started constructing tests toeseess personality in This strategy helps people to reveal themselves
various settings. This became neC0SGary to ensure more fully than they normally would to a stranger, or
cultural relevance of personality tests used In even to themselves. If you were shown a shape of
Nigeria, For example, oysteso & AdanlJo (1987), and an ambiguous object (such as that of an inkblot) and
Ekore (2001). These Nigerian tests develepers ecept asked what it represented, you might not think that
same procedures used by their counterparts In your Impn.HHlions would mean vary much. But to a
Western societies where the MMPI and others . psychoanalytic theoretician, your responses to such
originated from. The strength of the Nigerian tests an ambiguous figure would provide valuable clues to
lies mainly In the cultural consideration for test thestate of your unconscious, and ultimately to your
contents and context. A'~ observed earlier on, some general personality characteristics.
Items In the MMPI do not really make much senso In The ambiguous stimuli use d in projective
their contents and context when looked at from an personality tests require a person to describe it or tell
African perspective, This h~not 3urprlslng because . a storyabcu; It. The responses are then considered
Afrlcan cultural background was not! considered to be 'projections' of what the person is like.
when the authors were developing the tests. The
inadequacy in foralgn(lmported) tests 1$ gradually The Rorschach Inkblots
challenging· psychcloqlsts in Nigeria to explore tho The Rorschach Inkblots, a projective test based on
area of test development to meet local demand, people's Interpretations of ten ambiguous inkblots, is
, probably the most famous projective technique of
Projective Techniques personality, It was created by Hermann Rorschach,
The standardlsed tests dfiil6crlb~d above and similar a Swiss peyohlatrlet, who was Interested in art and
personality tests are !1flSy to score and easy to the occult. He read a book of poems .by Justinus
handle statistically, but they restrict howa person can Kern~r, a mystic writer, who had made a series of
respond to a question. They do not give room for random Inkblots and wrote a poem about each one.
probing to uncover certain aspects of the testae that Kerner believed that anything that happens at
could be relevant in providing more Information for a random reveals the Influence of occult, supernatural
better description of the personality. To overcome . fOr00G(Kalat, 1999).
this shortcoming, psychologists davlse other means Horschaoh made his own inkblots but put them to
of asking open-ended questions that permit an a different use. He was familiar with a word-
unlimited range of responses, association test then in use where a person was
People find it scary when simply asked to 'h~1Ime givliln a word and was asked to say the first word that
about yourself'. It rarely evokes much Information, In came to mind. Combining this approach with his
fact, most people find SUch invitations threatening, inkblots, Rorschach showed people an inkblot and
Many people are not fully honest even with then asked them to say whatever came to mind
themselves, much less with a psychologist they have (Plohot, 1984).
just met. Many people find it easier to discuss their The test consists of showing a series of symme-
problems in the abstract than in the first person. For trical stimuli to people who arc then asked what the
instance, they might say, 'I have a friend with this figures represent to them. Their responses are
problem. Let me tell you my friend's problem and ask recorded, and through a complex set of clinical
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
JOHN OSELENBALLJ EKORE 389
almost everything you do, including what you say you
see, where and how you hold the cards, the length
of any pauses between your responses, and so forth
during assessment under this technique.
Sometlrnes people's answers reveal much, either
immediately or in response to a psychologist's
probes. Ordinarily, psychologists using the standar-
dised test(s) might not be able to go beyond the
contents of the test. Doing so would negate the very
essence of objectivity that standardised tests enjoy.
That would mean different psychologists asking
different questions. That alteration could hinder the
reliability and validity of objective tests as they were.
Evaluation of the Rorschach: Granted that
people's answers on the test often contain a wealth
In the Rorschach Inkblot Test, people look at a pattern of personal information, the key issue is whether
similar to this one and saywhat it looks liketo them.The psychologists can accurately interpret that informa-
underlying theory is that, In an ambiguous situation, tion. In the 19505 and 1960s, certain psychologists
anything that someone does and says will reveal the made exaggerated claims, even calling the tech-
individual's personality. nique 'an X-ray of the mind'. Those claims provoked
equally enthusiastic criticism. The trouble is partly
that the Rorschach technique provides unstructured
jUdgements on the part of the examiner, people are answers that must be interpreted by a psychologist
classified into different personality types. For who, in many cases, has preconceived notions about
instance, respondents who see a bear in one inkblot the client's problems.
are thought to have a strong degree of emotional For example, one depressed man replied as
control, according to ·lherules developed by follows to one blot: 'It looks like a bat that has been
Rorschach (Hurt, Reznlkoff, & Clarkin, 1995; Misra squashed on the pavement under the heel of a
et al, 1997; Meloy, at. al., 1997). gia~t's' boot' (Dawis, 1994). Psychologist Robyn
After testing a series of inkblots on his patients, Dawisinitiallythought that this response illustrated
Rorschaoh was impressed that their interpretations the great power of the Rorschach technique: The
of the blots differed from his own. Originally, he had client was expressing a sense of being overwhelmed
worked with a larger number, but the publisher, and crushed by powers beyond his control. However,
insisted on cutting the number t010 to save printing after further contemplation, Dawis realised that he
costs. The continuous usage of the blots by psychia- had already known the client was depressed, so he
trists and psycholoqlsts gradually developed the . interpreted the response accordingly. If a client with
Rorschach inkblot into projective technique as it is a history of violence had made the same response,
known today. the therapist would have focused on the aggressive
The Rorschach Inkblot Technique consists of 10 nature of the giant's foot stomp. if the client had been
cards. Five are black and white; five are in colour. A prone to hallucinations or to paranoia, the psycho-
psychologist administering this procedure hands you logist would have made still other interpretations.
a card and asks, 'What might this be?' The instruc- That is, Rorschach interpretations depend on the
tions are intentionally vague. The assumption is that psychologist's expectations at least as much as they
everything done by an individual in an arnblqucus or do on what the client actually says.
ill-defined situation will reveal something significant A person's responses to the Rorschach test can
about him or her more than in clearly defined baused in either of two ways, as a projective
situation. The psychologist may keep a record of technique or as an objectively scored test. The more
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
390 PSYCHOLOGY: PERSPECTIVES IN HUMANBEHAVIOUR
traditional method of using it as a projective tech- In fact, some researchers suggest that the test is
nique focuses on the content, such as themes of more useful for permitting a clinical psychologist to
violence or depression. Used in this manner, the test get to know a test-taker in the context of therapy than
faces the problem just described: The interpretations for gathering much reliable information about the
depend heavily on the therapist's expectations. test-taker's personality. Despite such problems,
Nevertheless, defenders of the technique reply that findings suggest that their reliability and validity are
they use it only as a way of starting a conversationand high enough to provide useful inferences about
getting clients talk more freely about topics they might personality (Piotrowski & Keller, 1989; Dawes, 1994;
- be reluctant to discuss (Aronow,Reznikpff,& Moreland, Wood, Nezworski, & Stejskal, 1996; Weiner, 1996;
1995). Used in that way, the Rorschach technique is Bornstein, 1996).
beyond criticism, but its limitations are clear.
- When the Rorschach technique is used as an The Thematic Apperception Test
objectively scored test, a psychologist counts The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) consists of
particular kinds of responses and compares the pictures. The subject is asked to make up a story for
results to the norms for the population. Thus, the test each picture, describing what is happening, what
is now more reliable than it once was. There is, events led up to the scene, and what will happen in
however, a difference between reliability andvalidity. the future. The stories are then used to draw
Although interpretations of test responses are now inferences about the writer's personality charac-
reasonably reliable (repeatable), their validity is less -teristics (Bellak, 1993; Cramer, 1996).
certain. The test was devised by Christiana Morgan and
Researchers have reported reasonably good Henry Murray as a means of measuring people's
results when using Rorschach technique responses needs; it was revised and published by Murray
to predict how well a client will respond in psycho- (1943) and later revised by others. There are 31
therapy (Meyer & Handler, 1997). The test is also pictures in all; no more than 20 are used with a given
reasonably valid for identifying schizophrenia and for individual. Same pictures are used for anyone being
determining that someone has a psychological assessed. The pictures are all somewhat ambiguous
problem, without necessarily identifying the problem except one (which is blank). They provide a better-
(Vincent & Harman, 1991): However,criticschargethat defined stimulus than does the Rorschach inkblot.
what the test does tell us, we could Ieam more easily - People who take the TAT are expected to identify
or with greater certainty by other means (Wood, - -with the people shown in the pictures. For this
Nezworski, & Stejskal, 1996). In short, the Horscharch reason, men are given pictures showing mostly men,
test can be useful as a conversation starterandmaybe and women are given pictures showing mostly
as a supplement to other means of assessment,but it women. People usually tell stories that relate to
should not be the sole basis for making confident recent events and concerns in their own lives,
judgement about someone. Many psychologistshave possibly including concerns that they would be
serious qualms when their colleagues use the test reluctant to talk about openly. For example, one
results to recommend that someone be committed to young man told a story. This young man had entered
a mental hospital, or to recommend for or against a divinity school, mainly to please his parents, but was
prisoner's parole (Dawis, 1994). quite unhappy there. He was wrestling with a secrel
Tests with stimuli as ambiguous as the Rorschach desire to 'escape' to a new life with greater worldly
inkblot require unusual skill and care in their inter- pleasures. In his story, he described someone doing
pretation - too much, in many critics' estimation. what he reallywanted to do but would not openly admit.
The inkblot test, in particular, has been criticised for The TAT is often used in a clinical setting to induce
requiring too much inference on the part of the clients to speak freely about their problems. It is also
. examiner, and attempts to standardise scoring have used for research purposes. An investigator might
frequently failed. Furthermore, many critics complain measure someone's 'need for achievement' by
that the Rorschach inkblot does not provide much counting all the stories that he or she tells about
valid information about underlying personality traits. achievement.The same could be done for aggression,
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
JOHN OSELENBALU EKORE 391
passivity, control of outside events, or dominance. menting with creating new techniques. One
The investigator could then use these findings to approach that a few researchers have tried is the
study the forces that strengthen or weaken various emotional Stroop test. Recall the Stroop effect:
needs. People are biased to look at a display of a kind and
When different psychologists examine the same interpret the colour after reading the words. In .the
TAT replies, they generally agree, more or less, on emotional Stroop test, a person examines a list of
their interpretations. Most studies find a correlation words, some of which relate to a possible source of
of about 0.85 between different raters' interpretations worry or concern to the person, and tries to say the
- known as the inter-rater reliability (Cramer, 1996). colour of the ink of each word.
When a given individual takes the TAT at two different As a rule, people who are known to have an
times, months apart, the test-retest reliability is anxiety about snakes have an extra-long delay in
generally lower, usually less than 0.5 and sometimes reading the colour of snake-related words - venom,
much less than that (Cramer, 1996). That instability rattler, fangs, slither, bite, and cobra. Similarly,
may not be a fault of the test, however, the test people worried about their health have long delays
indicates people's needs and motivations, which do on the disease-related words; people concerned
change over time. As it is with the Rorschach inkblot about success and failure have delays on words like
test, critics saw the TAT as too ambiguous and loser and jobless. Therefore, it is possible to measure
require unusual skill and care in its interpretation. people's delays in stating the ink colour for a variety
of words and from these results infer each person's
Less Successful Projective Techniques main worries or concerns (Williams. Mathews, &
Based 011 the theory that your personality affects Macleod, 1996). Researchers are just beginning to
everything you do, some psychologists (and others) explore the potential uses of this method.
have tried analysing people's handwriting. For
example, perhaps people who dot their i's with a dash Uses and Misuses of Personality Tests
- are especially energetic, or perhaps people who Before any drug company can market a new drug in
draw large loops above the line - as in allow- are Nigeria, National Food and Drug Administration
highly idealistic. Carefully collected data, however, Control (NAFDAC) requires that it be carefully tested.
show only random relationships between hand- If NAFDAC finds the drug safe and effective, it
writing and personality (Tett & Palmer, 1997). approves the drug for certain purposes, with a
Another projective technique is to offer children warning label that lists precautions, such as an
dolls and invite them to act out a story. The dolls advisory that pregnant women should not take it.
might be chosen, for example, to represent two After the drug is approved, however, NAFDAC
parents and a child. The idea is that a child who is cannot prevent a physician from prescribing it for an
unable or unwilling to describe physical or sexual unapproved. purpose and cannot keep it out of the
abuse might act out a story in which the adults abuse hands of people who should be taking It.
the child. The problem is with the interpretation of the Personality tests are a little like drugs. They ought
results: Suppose a child acts out sexual contact to be used with great caution and only for Ihe
between two dolls. Should we surmise that an adult purposes tor which they have demonstrable
has sexually molested the child? Maybe not; the child usefulness. They are, at a minimum,. helpful to
may have discovered sex play with other children or psychologists as an interviewing technique, to help
may have watched late-night cable-television shows. 'break the ice' and get a good conversation started.
This form of doll play tells nothing for certain about Tests can also be useful as an aid in personality
the child's own experiences (Ceci, 1995; Koocher, . assessment by a psychologist. Note the expression
et. al., 1995). 'as an aid,' not 'as a sufficient method of personality
assessment'. For example,suppose someone has
Prospects for New Personality Tests an MMPI personality profile that resembles the
Each of the current popular personality tests has profile typical for schizophrenia. Identifying schizo-
limitations, but some psychologists are expert- phrenia or any other unusual condition is a signal-
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
392 PSYCHOLOGY: PERSPECTIVES IN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
detection problem, as we discussed earlier - a ~ just to measure a few aspects that are useful for
problem of reporting a stimulus when it is present certain purposes. But we need to remember what
without falsely reporting it when it is absent. Suppose these purposea are and determine how well (or
further that a particular personality profile on tM poorly) various tests can achieve thorn. Within their
MMi='I-2 is characteristic of 95% of people with proper place, tests can be useful. The problems arise
schizophrenia and only 5% of other people, 5% of when people try to draw strong conclusions from
the normal population is a larger group than 95% of weak data.
the schizophrenic population. ThUS, if we labelled as
'schizophrenic' everyone with a high score, we would Uniqueness of lndlvlduatsIn Personality
. be wrong more often than right. Someone who Assessment
seems 'representative' of people in a rare oategory The focus of any personality assessment is deter-
does not necessarily belong to that category. mining what makes individuals to be special.
Therefore, a conscientious psychologist will look for Everyone Is a unique being in his or her own right.
other evidence beyond the test score before drawing Our needs and tendencies differ from one another in
a firm conclusion. The same, of course, should be some degrees.
said of any test, including IQ tests. 'You have a need for other people to like and
Some employers use personality tests to screen admire you.'
job applicants, selecting. only those who have the 'You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.'
'right' personality. The underlying Idea is correct; 'You hsve a great deal of unused potential that
what makes a good worker is at laaat as much a you have not turned to your advantage.'
matter of personality as it is Intelligence. A good 'Although you have some personality weak-
worker is conscientious, cooperative with other nesses, you are generally able to compensate for
workers, calm under pressure, persistent about them.'
achieving goalS, responsive to the client's needs, 'Relating to members of the opposite sex has
and so forth ~ ail personality traits. The difficulty is presented problems to you.'
not that personality is unimportant but that many 'While you appear to be disciplined and self-
personality tests do net measure the right factors ontrolled to others, you tend to be anxious and
(Hogan, Hogan, & Roberts, 1996). For example, a insecure inside.'
personality test that claims to measure an 'At times you have serious doubts as to Whether
'aggressive' personality may not measure the kind of you have made the right decision or done the right
aggressiveness that is presumably useful in i:\ sales thing.'
job. For ethical, legal, and practical reasons. 'You prefer a certain amount of change and variety
employers should use a personality test only when and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by
they have clear evidence that the results help them restrictions and limitations.'
to select among job applicants more accurately than 'You do not accept others' statements without
they could without the test. satisfactory proot.'
Trying to Measure Personality 'You have found it unwise to be frank in revaallnq
yourself to others.'
As you have been reading about personality tests,
you may have objected that no test could adequately If you think these statements provide a surpri-
describe the factors that make you the unique singly accurate account of your personality; you are
individual that you are. You are ri9ht. Just try to not alone. Many young adults think that the descrip-
imagine how long it would take to measure every- tions are tailored to suit them. In fact, the statements
thing that is worth knowing about your personality. are intentionally designed to be so vague as to be
After all, even family members who have known you applicable to just about anyone (Forer, 1949; Russo,
all your life are sometimes surprised by what you say 1981). .
and do. The ease with which we can agree with such
The goals of personality tasting are more modest . imprecise statements underscores the difficulty in
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
JOHN OSELENBALU EKORE 393
coming up with accurate and meaningful assess- of politics may confront the objectivity of science
ments of people's personalities (Johnson, et. al., when test norms are established, at least in the realm
1985; Prince & Guastello, 1990). Just as trait of tests that are meant to predict future job perfor-
theorists were faced with the problem of determining mance.ln fact, a national controversy has developed
the most critical and important traits, psychologists around the question of whether different norms'
interested in assessing personality must be able to should be established for members of various
define the most meaningful ways of discriminating societies and ethnic groups (Brown, 1994).
between one person's personality and another's. To - A typical case, is the U.S. government's 50-year-
do this, they use psychological tests, which are old General Aptitude Test Battery, a test that
standard measures devised to assess behaviours measures a broad range of abilities from eye-hand
objectively. Such tests are used by psychologists to coordination to reading proficiency. The problem that
help people make decisions about their lives and sparked the controversy is that African-Americans
understand more about themselves. They are also and Hispanics tend to score lower on the test, on
employed by researchers interested in the causes average, than members of other groups. The lower
and consequences of personality (Matarazzo, 1992; scores are often due to a lack of prior relevant expe-
Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 1997; Aiken, 1997). rience and job opportunities as a result of prejudice
Like intelligence assessments, all psychological and discrimination.
tests must have high degree of reliability and validity. To promote the employment of minority racial
Reliability, you may recall, refers to the measurement -groUps,the government developed a separate set of
consistency of a test. If a test is reliable, it yields the norms for African-Americans and Hispanics. Rather
same result each time it is administered to a given than using the pool of all people who took the test,
person or group. In contrast, unreliable tests give the scores of other African-American and Hispanic
different results each time they are administered. applicants were compared only to the scores of other
Tests also must be valid in order to draw meaning- African-Americans and Hispanics. Consequently, a
ful conclusions. Tests have validity when they Hispanic who scored in the top 20 percent of the
actually measure what they are designed to Hispanics taking the test was considered to have
measure. If a test is constructed to measure socia- performed equivalently to a White job applicant who
bility, for instance,we need to know that it actually scored inthe top 20 percent of the Whites who took the
measures sociability and not some other trait. test, even though the absolute score of the Hispanic
Finally, psychological tests are based on norms, might be lower than that of the White applicant.
standards of test performance that permit the Critics of the adjusted norming system suggest
comparison of one person's score on the test to the that such a procedure is riddled with problems.
scores of others who have taken the same test. For According to them, not only is such a system unfair
example, a norm permits test-takers to know that to White job applicants, but it fans the flames of racial
they have scored in the top 10% of those who have bigotry. The practice was challenged legally, and with
taken the test. Basically, norms are established by the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1991, race
administering a particular test to a large number of norming on the General Aptitude Test Battery was
people and determining the typical scores. It is then discontinued.
possible -to compare a single person's score to the However, proponents of race norming continue to
scores of the group, providing a comparative argue that norming procedures, which take race into
measure of test performance against the perfor- account, are an affirmative action tool that simply
mance of others who have taken the teast. The permits minority job-seekers to be placed on anestablishment of appropriate norms is not simple equal footing with White job-seekers. Furthermore,
endeavour. For instance, the specific group that is a panel of the American National Academy. of
employed to determine norms for a test has a Sciences concurred with the practice of adjusting test
profound effect on how an individual's performance norms. It suggested that the unadjusted test norms
is evaluated. However, the process of establishing are not terribly useful in predicting job performance,
norms can take on political overtones. The passions and that they would tend to screen out otherwise-
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
394 PSYCHOLOGY:PERSPECTIVES INHUMANBEHAVIOUR·
qualified minority group members. assessing the specific nature and incidence of a
Job testing is not the only area in which issues problem and subsequently allows psychologists to
arise regarding norms and the meaning of test determine whether intervention techniques have
scores. As earlier mentioned,when we discussed been successful.
racial differences in IQ scores, the issue of how to Behavioural assessment techniques based on
treat racial differences in test scores is both learning theories of personality have also made
controversial and divisive. Clearly, race norming important contributions to the treatment of certain
raises profound and intense feelings that may come kinds of psychological difficulties. Indeed, the
into conflict with scientific objectivity; and the contro- knowledge of normal personality provided by the
versy is far from over (American Psychological theories earlier discussed has led to significant
Association, 1993; Gottfredson, 1994; Sackett & . advances in the understanding and treatment of both
Wilk, 1994; Greenlaw & Jensen, 1996). physical and psychological disorders.
-The issue of establishing norms for tests is further
complicated by the existence of a wide array of CONCLUSION
personality measures' and approaches to assess- Wante~: Creative people with 'kinetic energy,'
ment. Let's consider some of these measures, which 'emotional maturity,' and the ability to 'deal with large
have a variety of characteristics and purposes. .numbers of people in a fairly chaotic situation with a, great zeal to deliver'. 'Such an individual must be
Assessing Behaviour by Observation good at managing interpersonal relationships',
If you were a psychologist subscribing to a learning Although this job description may seem most
approach to personality, you would be likely to object appropriate for certain jobs, in actuality it is part of
to the indirect nature of projective tests. Instead, you common advertorials found in National Newspapers
would be more apt to use behavloural assessment, for management-related jobs in Nigeria. To find
which are direct measures of an individual's people with such qualities, agencies involved in
behaviour used to describe characteristics indicative Selection and Placement have come to rely on
of personality. As with observational research, . developed battery of personality measures for job
behavioural assessment may be carried out natura- applicants to complete. In Nigeria, most of these
listically by observing people in their own settings: in . organisations rely on foreign designed personality
the workplace, at home, or in school. In other cases, tests to help determine who gets hired. This has
behavioural assessment occurs in the laboratory, raised a lot of questions concerning the validity and
under controlled conditions in which a psychologist reliability of the foreign tests imported into Nigeria.
sets up a situation and observes an individual's But in more developed societies like the United
behaviour. States of America, organisations develop their own
Regardless of the setting in which behaviour is tests to serve the purpose of determining who gets
observed, an effort is made to ensure that beha- hired (Hogan, Hogan, & Roberts, 1996).
vioural assessment is carried out objectively, quan- Individuals too, have come to depend on person-
tifying behaviour as much as possible. For example, ality testing to gain awareness of certain behaviours
an observer might record the number of social requiring attention in their lives. Many organisations
contact a person initiates, the number of questions also administer a battery of personality tests that
asked, or the number of aggressive acts. Another purport to steer people toward a career for which their
method is to measure duration of events; the duration personality is particularly suited. Before relying too
of a temper tantrum in a child, the length of a heavily on the results of such personality testing,
conversation, the amount of time spent working, or either in the role of potential employee, employer, or
trjie time spent in cooperative behaviour. consumer of testing services, you should keep
Behavioural assessment is particularly appro- several points in mind:
priate for observing and eventually remedying 1. Understanding what the test purports to
specific behavioural difficulties, such as increasing measure. Standard personality measures
socialisation in shy children. It provides a means of are accompanied by information that
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
"
,.,'"
i
JOHN OSELENBALU EKORE 395
discusses how the test was deve- loped, to Anderson, C.D., Warner,J.L., & Spencer, C.C. (1984)
whom it is most applicable, and how the 'Inflation bias in self-assessment examinations:
results should be interpreted. If possible, Implication for valid employee selection.
you should read the accompanying litera- APA (American Psychological Association) (1993)
Employment survey. Washington, DC: American
ture; it will help you understand the meaning
Psychological Association.
of any results. Aronow, E., Reznikoff, M., & Moreland, K. (1994) The
2. No decision should be based solely on the , Rorscharch. Technique: Perceptual Biases, Content
results of anyone test. Test results should Interpretation and Applications. Boston: Longwood.
be interpreted in the context of other infor- Attah, T. (2004) Influence of Personality and sex-role
mation: academic records, social interests,' expectation on perceived work performance. An
and the home and community activities. unpublished M.Sc project in the University of Ibadan.
Without these data, individual stores are Bagby, A.M., Buis, T., & Nicholson, A.A. (1995) Relative
relatively uninformative at best and may effectiveness of the validity scales in detecting
even be harmful. fake-bad and fake good responding: .Replication and
3. Tests are not infallible. The results may be extension. Psychological Assessment, 7,84-92.
Bellak, L. (1993) The T.A. T.CA T. and SA T. in Clinical
in error; the test may be unreliable or invalid.
a Use (5th ed.). Boston: Longwood.You may, for example; have had 'bad day' Bern, S.L. (1974) The Measurement of Psychological
when you took the test,or the person . Androgyny.' Journal of Consulting and Clinical
scoring and interpreting the test may have Psychology, 42,155-162.
made a mistake. You should not place Berlyne, D.E. (1981) Humanistic psychology as a
undue stock in the results of the single protest movement. in J.A. Royce & L.P. Mos (eds.),
administration of any test. Humaflistic Psychology: Concepts and Criticisms
New York: Plenum, pp. 261-293.
In sum, it is important to keep in mind the Bornstein, R.E (1996) Construct validation of the
complexity of human behaviour-particularly your Rorschach Oral Dependency Scale. Psychological
own. No one test can provide an understanding of Assessment, 8,200-205.
the intricacies of someone's personality without Breiner, C. (1998) Standardisation of the MMPI-2
considering a good deal more information than can, among the Yorubas in Ibadan. An unpublished
be provided in a single testing session. This is Doctoral thesis, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
necessary to minimise the bias in describing indivi- Brown. D.C. (1994) Subgroup norming: Legitimate
dual's qualities that are relatively enduring and testing practice or reverse discrimination? American
separates him or her from others especially in social Psychologist, 49,927-928.
situations. Butcher, J.N., Graham, J.R., Dahlstrom, W.G., &
Bowman, E. (1990) The MMPI-2 with college
students. Journal of Personality Assessment, 54,
1-15.
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