Assessing Personality

The way we assess personality has changed over the years. In the past, psychology inaccurately linked physical characteristics to personality. Currently, psychologists research personality traits and their associated behaviors. One of the challenges of personality theory is correctly measuring and describing personality traits. There are thousands of words that can be used to describe traits; therefore, a major goal of personality theory involves identifying a set of core or cluster traits.

Essential Questions

• What were some of the early approaches to assessing personality?
• What behaviors have been linked to various traits according to contemporary research?