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Personality Research Methods

Psychologists use case studies, surveys, and personality inventories to investigate personality. Case studies provide an in-depth examination of a single person or group but may not generalize, while surveys can be generalized to populations but are less descriptive. Personality inventories measure traits through validated questions but explore limited traits. The key difference is that case studies produce rich descriptive data not found in other methods.

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46 views2 pages

Personality Research Methods

Psychologists use case studies, surveys, and personality inventories to investigate personality. Case studies provide an in-depth examination of a single person or group but may not generalize, while surveys can be generalized to populations but are less descriptive. Personality inventories measure traits through validated questions but explore limited traits. The key difference is that case studies produce rich descriptive data not found in other methods.

Uploaded by

bolu.ilesanmi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Describe and Compare Research Methods That Psychologists Use to

Investigate Personality
Case studies: -
 A case study is a research approach that is used to develop an in-
depth study of a single person, group, event, or community.
 The general purpose of a case study is to describe an individual
situation or a case in detail, identify the key issues of the case and
analyze the case using theoretical concepts.
 They are not very expensive and usually produce rich descriptive
data, but they may not be useful for covering a larger population
since they are usually limited to a single or a few individuals.
 Some examples of case studies are the wild boy of Aveyron who
lived the first twelve years of his life without any human interaction,
and Phineas Gage who survived a rod being pushed through his
cheek and brain, but his personality was greatly affected.
Surveys: -
 A survey is a data collection tool used to gather information about
individuals. In psychology, it is commonly used to collect self-
report data from study participants.
 The benefits of using surveys are that the results tend to be reliable
and can be generalized to the larger population, but a disadvantage
is they may be expensive.
Personality Inventories: -
 Personality inventories are objectively scored groups of questions
that ask about thoughts, interests, feelings, and behaviors aimed at
developing a general profile about a person's personality and
identifying personality dispositions.
 They are generally reliable and validated but they only explore a
limited number of traits.
 Some examples of personality inventories are The Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Sixteen
Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF).
Comparisons: -

Case studies

Personality
Surveys
Inventories

Difference between Case Studies and Surveys: - Case studies are aimed
towards an individual or a small group while surveys are aimed towards a very
large sample or an entire population. The duration of case studies tends to be
quite long while surveys are relatively faster. And the key difference between
Case studies, surveys and personality inventories is that case studies produce
rich descriptive data and the rest do not. Personality Inventories and Surveys
are more like themselves than case studies, some people may refer to one as
the other and vice versa.

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