Personality constructs and measures

Abstract

A psychological construct, such as personality, is an abstraction that is not directly seen but inferred through observed regularities in cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses in various settings. Two assumptions give meaning to the idea of construct validity. First, constructs represent real phenomena that exist apart from the potential ways in which they are measured. Second, constructs have a causal relation to their measures (see D. Boorsboom, G.J. Mellenbergh, & J. van Heerden, 2004). According to these twin assumptions, variation in a construct such as personality or intelligence causes individual differences in responses to items on measures; it also accounts for performance in real life settings. An alternative perspective equates a construct with the operation used for its measurement (M. Friedman, 1991) without a presumption of causality. This article elaborates on the implications of different assumptions about measurement, operation-referenced and construct-referenced, for advancing the science and practice of psychology.

If you do not know the child's temperament you do not know the child

“…However, theorists agree that temperament dispositions are early appearing and that temperament differences are present as early as infancy, thus suggesting temperament is innate or biologically rooted (Jung, 1928(Jung, /1945Rothbart, 1989;Teglasi, 1998a;Teglasi, 1998b). Differences in infants' activity levels, sociability, and emotionality reflect their temperaments (Buss, 2011;Jung (1928Jung ( / 1945Thomas & Chess, 1989) described infants' adaptation to the environment, especially how quickly they interact with objects and other people, as an early sign of extroversion.…”

Temperament-Based Learning Styles of Palestinian and US Children

“…Temperament typically is considered to be a type rather than a continuous quality (Bassett, 2005;Buss and Plomin, 1984;Hall and Lindzey, 1978;Jung, 1946;Lawrence, 1982;Macdaid et al, 1991;Plomin and Dunn, 1986;Rothbart and Jones, 1998;Teglasi, 1998b;Thayer, 1996;Thomas and Chess, 1977). Personality also can be and often is viewed as a type (McCrae and Costa, 1997).…”

“…• Temperament is considered to be relatively stable over time and displays some emotional reaction patterns. • Temperament emerges prior to and remains a component of personality (Kagan, 1994;Prior, 1992;Teglasi, 1998aTeglasi, , 1998b. • Although temperament traits are relatively stable, they may change as a function of age, gender, social and cultural experiences, personality and personal choices (Bates and Wachs, 1994;Buss and Plomin, 1984;Goldsmith and Rieser-Danner, 1986;Keirsey and Bates, 1984;Plomin and Dunn, 1986;Prior, 1992;Rothbart and Jones, 1998;Strelau, 1998;Teglasi, 1998aTeglasi, , 1998bThomas and Chess, 1977;Thomas et al, 1968).…”

“…The psychological literature describes temperament as stylistic and relatively stable traits that subsume intrinsic tendencies to act and react in somewhat predictable ways to people, events and other stimuli (Teglasi, 1998a(Teglasi, , 1998b. Temperament traits are characterized as predispositions to display behaviours, a blueprint for them, with no assurance that people, events and stimuli always will elicit the same temperament behaviours.…”

Empirical and clinical methods in the assessment of personality and psychopathology: An integrative approach for training

“…The multivariate paradigm uses factor analytic statistical procedures to measure personality traits (e.g., Big Five), temperamental dispositions (e.g., approach-avoidance), and other typologies (e.g., internalizer-externalizer) to determine individual differences along overarching dimensions (Achenbach, 2005;Measelle, John, Cowan, & Cowan, 2005;Teglasi, 1998b). The empirical method defines personality and pathology based on experimental approaches and uses empirically validated measures and group-normed standardized objective instruments (e.g., MMPI-A; Butcher et al, 1992) for diagnosing disorders (Ross, 1980).…”