Personality Assessment in Counseling

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What does personality mean when used in the assessment literature? In what ways is this meaning different from those in the daily conversation?

The course of everyday life this way or another makes us assess the personalities of people around us. Special education is not necessarily required for making attempts to understand the people around. Though different people may have a different understanding of personality, almost everyone will agree that personality is a sum of one’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Personality makes a person unique.

If we consider personality from the point of view of assessment literature it is quite logical that we will find the far more scientific investigation of this concept. Fundamental issues of personality are taken into consideration, its origin is often explained in assessment literature (for example, Derlega et al. Contemporary Theory and Research). The origin of personality traits is investigated, as well as their role in biological and social processes and the consequences they have for a person’s health (like in Matthews, G., & Deary, I. J. Personality Traits). Theories of personality, personality disorders are brought into focus in the assessment literature. Everyone interested in enlarging his or her knowledge on personality should resort to the works of the type to get a full and comprehensive picture of the problem.

What constitutes the personality factors? How may the advantages of using this conceptualization be compared with such tests as the MMPI, 16PF, or MBTI in the counseling context?

Professionals studying human character and everyone who is not indifferent to investigating the mysteries of a person’s character often make use of personality tests. This tool helps everyone engaged in the field to define character traits that do not change throughout a person’s lifetime, to investigate one’s behavior patterns, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The history of personality tests starts from Hippocrates’ model of personality, but during the 20th century, they have been significantly modified and adopted for answering numerous questions of psychological science.

One of the modifications of the personality tests is the so-called “Big Five” conceptualization. It embraces five factors or dimensions of personality derived through empirical research. Namely, these are:

Extraversion (sometimes called Surgency) – this dimension includes such traits as talkative, energetic, and assertive. Energy, positive emotions, willingness to be in the company of others characterize this dimension;
Agreeableness – this dimension implies the tendency to be compassionate and cooperative, it includes traits like sympathetic, kind, and affectionate;
Conscientiousness – a tendency to be highly organized, to set goals, and to find ways of achieving them. People are thorough and able to plan;
Neuroticism (sometimes called Emotional Instability) – is a tendency to experience negative emotions. Characteristic traits are tense, moody, and anxious;
Openness (sometimes called Intellect or Intellect/Imagination) – people are imaginative, insightful, and curious, they highly value art, appreciate emotion, adventure, original ideas, strive for various experiences.

The “Big Five” theory is a follower of the MBTI assumptions. But it goes further and has more opportunities: it has five dimensions of personality, it focuses on individual personality traits instead of the type concept and it is based on experience rather than on theory. The latter is extremely beneficial in counseling. Those who resort to counseling might have different reasons for it ranging from boredom with the occupation they are engaged in up to desire for self-improvement. The “Big Five” mechanism is a useful tool for helping people overcome their difficulties. The approach is rather simple if compared with other personality tests. But in their complex use, a counselor will succeed more in identifying factors that may be contributing to emotional or social problems and finding ways of solving them effectively.

References

Brody, N. & Ehrlichman, H. (1997) Personality psychology: The science of individuality. Prentice Hall.

Derlega, V. et al. Personality: Contemporary theory and research. Nelson Hall.

Matthews, G., & Deary, I. J. (1998). Personality traits. New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.

Pervin, L. and John, O. (1999) Handbook of personality: Theory and research, 2nd Edition. New York: Guilford.

Srivastava, S. (2008). Measuring the Big Five personality factors. Web.

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Personality Assessment in Counseling

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