Psychology - History & Systems
Professor Mark Berg
Journal Entry #3 - Chapter 11
In Chapter 11, Hunt discusses the nature and origin of personality and how psychologists view it as a distinct field of psychology. Personality can be defined as the distinctive and characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior that make up an individual's personal style of interacting with the physical and social environment. "Since traits are neither visible objects nor specific actions but personal qualities, the central problem for researchers is how to measure them" (Hunt 362). You may question how personality is measured?
These are some of the major methods listed below...
- Personal documents and histories
- Interview
- Ratings by observers
- Questionnaire
Some specific examples are shown below of how personality was measured.
![]() |
RORSCHACH INKBLOT |
![]() |
THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST |
WOODWORTH PERSONAL DATA SHEET |
![]() |
![]() |
"People who score high on external locus of control tend to attribute their successes and failures to fate, luck, or the power of other people; people who score high on internal locus of control attribute their successes and failures to their own intelligence, hard work, or other personal traits" (Hunt 381). |
Hi Alexa! I think this was one of my favorite chapters we read because personality is talked about in any psychology class you take and the different ways they can measure personality. I found it interesting how they broke down the different tests and how many different ways there are to measure personality. I think your post gave a well rounded summary of this chapter and helped pull everything together!
ReplyDelete