which clients can explore their own feelings. Cognitive therapists try to change
the way their clients process information, whereas behaviorists typically struc-ture the environment so that desired behaviors increase in frequency and un-
desired behaviors decrease. Personality theory and research are also used by
psychologists working in educational, organizational, and counseling settings.
In the following chapters, you will also see what personality psychologists tell
us about religion, effective teaching, and choosing a career.
Assessment
How psychologists measure personality depends on which of the six ap-
proaches they adhere to. Many personality researchers use self-report inven-
tories, in which test takers answer a series of questions about themselves.But psychoanalytic psychologists are more interested in what people are un-
able to describe directly. They learn about some of these unconscious
thoughts by asking test takers to respond to ambiguous stimuli, which atrained psychologist then interprets. Traditional behavioral psychologists of-
ten take another tactic in assessing personality. They ’re not interested in
structures and concepts that supposedly exist within people ’s minds. To de-
termine consistent behavior patterns, these psychologists observe behavior.
A behavioral psychologist who wants to measure cooperation might observe
people working on a group task. A person who engages in a large numberof cooperative behaviors (helping others in the group, complimenting others
on their work) would be identified as a cooperative person. In short, how a
psychologist measures personality depends on what he or she thinks person-
ality is.
Research
Although the focus thus far has been on the differences among the six ap-
proaches, one feature they all have in common is that each generates a great
deal of relevant research. As you will see, sometimes this research tests princi-
ples and assumptions central to the theory. Other times researchers are inter-
ested in further exploring some of the concepts introduced by a personality
theory. You will also notice that several topics —health, relationships, depres-
sion, achievement, anxiety, aggression —surface in more than one place in the
book. This is because a full understanding of these topics requires that we ex-amine them from more than one approach. Several psychology journals are
devoted to publishing research on personality, and many more publish articlesrelevant to the topics examined here. Psychology researchers employ a large
number of methods in their efforts to uncover information about personality
(Craik, 1986; Mallon, Kingsley, Affleck, & Tennen, 1998; Tracy, Robins, &Sherman, 2009). You won ’t need a complete understanding of these proce-
dures to appreciate the research covered in this book. But it will help if you
have a grasp of the hypothesis-testing approach and a few of the common pro-
cedures used by personality researchers. These topics are addressed in the next
chapter.“Everyone else prob-
ably understands us
better than we do
ourselves. ”
Carl JungThe Study of Personality: Theory, Application, Assessment, and Research 15