Standard Area: Personality and Assessment

Standard Area: Personality and Assessment
Content Standards

After concluding this unit, students understand:
1. What is meant by personality and personality constructs
2. Personality approaches and theories
3. Assessment tools used in personality

Content Standards With Performance Standards and Suggested Performance Indicators

CONTENT STANDARD 1: What is meant by personality and personality constructs
Students are able to (performance standards):
1.1 Define personality as the individual’s unique way of thinking, feeling, and acting. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Identifying their own thoughts, feelings, and behavior in a personal experience
• Describing how personality can explain individual differences and individual consistencies
• Evaluating the influence of variables such as culture, family, and genetics on personality development
• Exploring the impact of sociocultural factors on personality development, including ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability/disability, and so on
1.2 Explain the role of personality constructs as a framework for organizing behavioral phenomena.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Describing a historical example of personality explanations
• Differentiating the situational basis for personality versus enduring aspects of personality
• Identifying their personal constructs for explaining behavioral phenomena
• Describing how personality constructs can guide research
• Speculating on the difficulties personality researchers have studying personality
• Discussing how bicultural and multicultural individuals may express different personality dimensions (e.g., "code-switching") depending on the cultural context

CONTENT STANDARD 2: Personality approaches and theories
Students are able to (performance standards):
2.1 Explain the characteristics of the psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, and trait approaches. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Comparing how different personality approaches address the influence of free will and determinism
• Analyzing how each approach would assess a case history
2.2 Identify important contributions to the understanding of personality.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Diagramming Freud’s structure of personality and describing his role in initiating study in the area of personality
• Describing the influence of external stimuli, modeling, and situational context on behavior
• Exploring the significance of self-perception and needs on an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and actions
• Classifying primary dimensions, such as emotional stability or extraversion, as a way to organize behavioral phenomena

CONTENT STANDARD 3: Assessment tools used in personality
Students are able to (performance standards):
3.1 Distinguish between objective and projective techniques of personality assessment.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Naming popularly used objective and projective tests
• Comparing and contrasting the validity and reliability of objective and projective assessment techniques
3.2 Describe tests used in personality assessment.
Students may indicate this by (performance indicators):
• Explaining key features of tests, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• Identifying the possible applications of personality assessment