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Personality,
Individual Differences
and Intelligence
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Personality,
Individual Differences
and Intelligence
Fifth Edition

John Maltby
University of Leicester
Liz Day
Sheffield Hallam University
Ann Macaskill
Sheffield Hallam University

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First published 2007 (print)

Second edition published 2010 (print)
Third edition published 2013 (print and electronic)
Fourth edition published 2017 (print and electronic)
Fifth edition published 2022 (print and electronic)
© Pearson Education Limited 2007, 2010 (print)
© Pearson Education Limited 2013, 2017, 2022 (print and electronic)
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ISBN: 978-1-292-31796-0 (print)
978-1-292-31802-8 (PDF)
978-1-292-31801-1 (EEB)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for the print edition is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Maltby, John, 1969- author. | Day, Liz, author. | Macaskill, Ann, author.
Title: Personality, individual differences and intelligence / John Maltby,
University of Leicester, Liz Day, Sheffield Hallam University, Ann
Macaskill, Sheffield Hallam University.
Description: Fifth Edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Pearson, [2022] | Revised
edition of the authors’ Personality, individual differences and
intelligence, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary: “The second way that this text is organised is through level of
study. We are aware that some psychology courses teach different topic
areas in personality, intelligence and individual differences in
different years (ranging from first year to final year). Therefore, we
have organised each of the three parts of the text so that the later
chapters in each part may be considered as more advanced topics of
study. In this way, there is a developmental progression in the
learning. This also means that the text should be useful across all the
years of your degree”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021058170 (print) | LCCN 2021058171 (ebook) | ISBN 9781292317960 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781292318028 (pdf) | ISBN 9781292318011
Subjects: LCSH: Personality. | Personality and intelligence. | Individual differences.
Classification: LCC BF698.9.I6 M35 2022 (print) | LCC BF698.9.I6 (ebook) | DDC 155.2—dc23/
eng/20220106
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021058170
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021058171
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
22 21 20 19 18
Cover design: Kelly Miller
Cover image: Lovely Bird/Shutterstock
Print edition typeset in 9.5/12 pt Times LT Pro Roman by Straive
Printed in Slovakia by Neografia
NOTE THAT ANY PAGE CROSS REFERENCES REFER TO THE PRINT EDITION
Dedication

For Liz
BRIEF CONTENTS

About the Authors xix

Preface xx
PART 3 Applications in Individual
Acknowledgements xxv
Differences 447

16 Optimism 448
17 Irrational Beliefs 472
PART 1 Personality and Individual 18 Social Anxiety, Shyness and Embarrassment 495
Differences 1 19 Interpersonal Relationships 522
20 Social Attitudes and Culture 553
1 Personality Theory in Context 2 21 Well-Being and Personality Disorders 592
2 The Basis of the Psychoanalytic Approach to 22 Individual Differences in Health and Illness 622
Personality 23
23 An Introduction to Psychometric Testing 645
3 Developments of Freudian Theorising 45
4 Learning Theory Perspectives on Personality 73 Glossary G1
5 Cognitive Personality Theories 103 References and further reading R1
6 Humanistic Personality Theories 127 Index I1
7 The Trait Approach to Personality 163 Publisher’s acknowledgements P1
8 Biological Basis of Personality I: Genetic
Heritability of Personality and Biological and
Physiological Models of Personality 194 The following additional material can be
9 Biological Basis of Personality II: Evolutionary found on the website
Psychology and Animal Studies of Personality 225 (go.pearson.com/uk/he/resources)

24 Academic Argument and Thinking 687

25 Statistical Terms 695
PART 2 Intelligence 253 26 Research Ethics 704

10 An Introduction to Intelligence 254

11 Theories and Measurement of Intelligence 274
12 How Intelligence Tests are Used: What Questions
Emerge from the Measurement of Intelligence? 301
13 Heritability and Socially Defined Group
Differences in Intelligence 334
14 Intelligence and the Self: Emotional Intelligence,
Creativity, and Sex Difference in Intelligence 372
15 Personality and Intelligence in Education
and Work 419
CONTENTS

About the Authors xix The structure of the personality 28

The development of personality 29
Preface xx
Defence mechanisms 32
Acknowledgements xxv Repression 32
Denial 33
Projection 33
Reaction formation 33
PART 1 Personality and Individual Rationalisation 33
Conversion reaction 34
Differences 1 Phobic avoidance 34
Displacement 34
Regression 34
1 Personality Theory in Context 2 Isolation 35
Key themes 2 Undoing 35
Learning outcomes 2 Sublimation 35
Introduction 3 Clinical applications of Freudian theory 35
General population perspectives: implicit personality Evaluation of Freudian theory 37
theories 3 Description 37
Problems with implicit theories 4 Explanation 37
How is personality defined? 4 Empirical validity and testable concepts 37
Lay definitions of personality 4 Comprehensiveness 39
Psychological definitions of personality 5 Parsimony 40
The aims of studying personality 5 Heuristic value 40
The source of the term ‘personality’ 7 Applied value 40
Approaches to studying personality: idiographic versus Final comments 40
nomothetic 8 Summary 41
Describing personality 8 Connecting up 42
Distinctions and assertions in personality research 9 Critical thinking 42
Effects of personality versus situational effects 10 Going further 42
Measurement issues 11 Film and literature 44
Strands of personality theorising 12
The clinical approach and its history 12 3 Developments of Freudian Theorising 45
Individual differences’ emphasis on personality
Key themes 45
and its history 13
Learning outcomes 45
Current conceptualisations of individual differences 13
Introduction 46
Studying personality as a personal experience 15
Individual psychology of Alfred Adler 47
Reading critically and evaluating theories 16
Inferiority feelings 47
The cultural context of personality theories 19
Personality development in Adlerian terms 48
Final comments 19
Birth order 48
Summary 20
Characteristics of the neurotic personality 49
Connecting up 20
Adlerian treatment approaches 50
Critical thinking 20
Evaluation of Adler’s individual psychology theory 51
Going further 21
Description 51
Film and literature 22
Explanation 51
Testable concepts and their empirical validity 51
2 The Basis of the Psychoanalytic Comprehensiveness 52
Approach to Personality 23 Parsimony 52
Key themes 23 Heuristic value 52
Learning outcomes 23 Applied value 52
Introduction 24 Carl Jung and analytic psychology 53
Description of Freud’s theory of personality 24 Structures within the psyche 54
Levels of consciousness 24 Jungian personality types 56
The nature of human beings and the source of Jung’s conception of mental illness and its treatment 57
human motivation 26 Evaluation of Jung’s theory 59
x CONTENTS

Description 59 Going further 101

Explanation 59 Film and literature 102
Empirical validity 59
Testable concepts 60 5 Cognitive Personality Theories 103
Comprehensiveness 60 Key themes 103
Parsimony 60 Learning outcomes 103
Heuristic value 60 Introduction 104
Applied value 60 Theory of personal constructs of George A. Kelly 105
The psychology of Karen Horney 60 The view of the person in Kelly’s theory 105
Essentials of Horney’s theoretical position 61 Concepts within Kelly’s theory 106
The development of the personality and the neurotic Personality development according to Kelly 110
personality 61 Assessing personality in personal construct theory 110
Defence mechanisms 65 Clinical applications of personal construct theory 112
Penis envy and female masochism 66 Albert Ellis and rational-emotive behaviour therapy 113
Evaluation of Horney’s theory 67 Origins of the theory of rational-emotive behaviour
Description 67 therapy 113
Explanation 67 Rational and irrational thoughts 114
Empirical validity 67 The importance of perception and the subjective
Testable concepts 68 worldview 116
Comprehensiveness 68 Development of the individual 119
Parsimony 68 The basic model of rational-emotive behaviour therapy 119
Heuristic value 68 Sources of psychological disturbance 121
Final comments 68 Applications of rational-emotive behaviour therapy 121
Summary 69 Research evidence for effectiveness of rational-emotive
Connecting up 70 behaviour therapy 121
Critical thinking 70 Contentious issues 122
Going further 71 Overall evaluation of cognitive approaches 123
Film and literature 72 Description 123
Explanation 123
4 Learning Theory Perspectives on Empirical validity 123
Personality 73 Testable concepts 123
Key themes 73 Comprehensiveness 123
Learning outcomes 73 Parsimony 123
Introduction 74 Heuristic value 124
Introduction to learning theory 75 Applied value 124
The clinical perspective within classical conditioning 76 Final comments 124
The radical behaviourism of B. F. Skinner 77 Summary 124
Attempts to apply learning theory approaches to Connecting up 125
personality 81 Critical thinking 125
The stimulus-response model of personality of Going further 125
Dollard and Miller 82 Film and literature 126
Albert Bandura and social learning theory 84
Learning within Bandura’s model 85 6 Humanistic Personality Theories 127
Personality development in social learning theory 86 Key themes 127
Self-efficacy as a self-regulatory process 87 Learning outcomes 127
Increasing self-efficacy ratings 87 Introduction 128
Measuring self-efficacy 88 Historical roots and key elements of the humanistic
Julian Rotter and locus of control 89 approach 129
The impact of locus of control on behaviour 90 Abraham Maslow and self-actualisation 129
Walter Mischel 91 Human nature and human motivation 129
The impact of Mischel 95 Hierarchy of needs 131
Evaluation of learning theory approaches 96 Discussion of basic needs 133
Description 96 Characteristics of self-actualisers 133
Explanation 96 Personality development 134
Empirical validity 97 Mental illness and its treatment in Maslow’s approach 135
Testable concepts 97 Evaluation of Maslow’s theory 135
Comprehensiveness 97 Description 135
Parsimony 98 Explanation 135
Heuristic value 98 Empirical validity 136
Applied value 98 Testable concepts 136
Final comments 98 Comprehensiveness 136
Summary 99 Parsimony 137
Connecting up 100 Heuristic value 137
Critical thinking 100 Applied value 137
 CONTENTS xi

Carl Rogers and person-centred therapy 137 The big one? The general factor of personality 186
Basic principles underlying the theory 137 The Dark Triad 188
Self-actualisation 139 Evaluation of trait approaches 189
Effect of society on self-actualisation 139 Final comments 190
Developmental impact on the child of their Summary 190
parents’ self-concept 141 Connecting up 191
The role of the actualising tendency in development 142 Critical thinking 191
Rogers’ conceptualisation of psychological problems 143 Going further 192
The principles of Rogerian counselling 144 Film and literature 193
The role of the therapist or counsellor 146
Evaluation of Rogers’ theory 149 8 Biological Basis of Personality I: Genetic
Description 150 Heritability of Personality and Biological
Explanation 150
and Physiological Models of Personality 194
Empirical validity 150
Testable concepts 150 Key themes 194
Comprehensiveness 150 Learning outcomes 194
Parsimony 151 Introduction 195
Heuristic value 151 Behavioural genetics 195
Applied value 151 Behavioural genetics: basic ideas 195
Self-determination theory 151 How the influence of genes is assessed in behavioural
The four theories of self-determination theory 152 genetics 196
Evaluation of self-determination theory 156 Methods for assessing genetic heritability of personality 197
The reward controversy and the eight criteria 156 Genetic heritability estimates and personality 198
Description 157 Considerations within behavioural genetics and
Explanation 157 personality 202
Empirical validity and testable concepts 157 Conceptions of genetic heritability and the environment 202
Applied value 157 Different types of genetic variance 203
Comprehensiveness 158 Shared and non-shared environments 203
Parsimony 158 Problems with the representativeness of twin and
Heuristic value 158 adoption studies 208
Final comments 158 Assortative mating 208
Summary 159 Changing world of genetics 209
Connecting up 160 A framework for considering heritability in personality 210
Critical thinking 160 Psychophysiology, neuropsychology and personality 212
Going further 160 Eysenck’s biological model of personality and arousal 213
Film and literature 161 Gray’s BAS/BIS theory 214
Cloninger’s biological model of personality 217
Empirical evidence for biological theories of personality 219
7 The Trait Approach to Personality 163 The central nervous system and biological personality
Key themes 163 dimensions 219
Learning outcomes 163 The autonomic nervous system and biological personality
Introduction 164 dimensions 220
Emergence of personality traits 165 Biological personality dimensions and other biological
Defining personality traits 166 and physiological systems 220
The development of trait theories within psychology 166 Consideration of biological theories of personality 221
Sheldon and somatotypes 166 Final comments 221
Early lexical approaches to personality and the lexical Summary 222
hypothesis 167 Connecting up 223
Gordon Allport 168 Critical thinking 223
Raymond Cattell and the emergence of the factor Going further 223
analytic approach 170 Film and literature 224
Types of traits 170
Contribution of Cattell 174
9 Biological Basis of Personality II:
Hans Eysenck’s trait theory of personality 174
Eysenck’s structure of personality 175
Evolutionary Psychology and Animal
Research evidence for Eysenck’s types 178 Studies of Personality 225
Psychopathology and Eysenck’s therapeutic approach 179 Key themes 225
Eysenck’s contribution to trait theorising 179 Learning outcomes 225
The five-factor model 179 Introduction 226
Evidential sources for the five-factor model 179 Evolutionary theory 226
A sixth personality factor? Expanding on the five-factor Evolutionary psychology and adaptation 226
model of personality 182 Evolutionary personality and personality and individual
The sixth factor of personality: honesty–humility? The differences psychology 231
introduction of the HEXACO model of personality 182 An introduction to evolutionary personality psychology:
Theory of the HEXACO model of personality structure 182 Buss’ theory of personality and adaptation 231
xii CONTENTS

How individual differences arise through cooperation: The birth of the psychology of intelligence: Galton
the example of leadership 233 and Binet 275
Life history and personality 235 Galton 275
Consideration of the evolutionary theory of personality 238 Binet 276
Animals and their personality 239 The search for measurement continues: the birth of ‘IQ’
Animals and personality: a historical context 239 and standardised testing 277
Within-species versus cross-species comparisons 239 Terman 277
Methods in animal personality research 240 Yerkes 278
Reliability and validity of animal personality research 240 General intelligence (g): the theory and the measurement 279
‘Said the spider to the fly’: spiders and personality 241 ‘g’ 279
Animal personality: the emergence of the five-factor Measuring ‘g’: the Wechsler and Raven’s Matrices 280
model of personality 242 Multifactor theorists: Thurstone, Cattell and Guilford 287
Animal personality: informing evolutionary theories Thurstone: ‘g’ results from seven primary mental abilities 287
of personality? 243 Cattell: fluid and crystallised intelligence 288
Consideration of animal personality research 244 Guilford: many different intelligences and many
Adaptive personality and behavioural ecology 246 different combinations 288
Definitions of personality: broad and narrow 246 Intelligence and factor analysis – a third way: the
Behavioural consistency: short-term and long-term hierarchical approach 289
variation 247 Vernon 290
The conceptual nature and function of adaptive Carroll: from the Three-Stratum Model of Human
personality traits: plasticity versus highly constrained 247 Cognitive Abilities to CHC 291
Models of adaptive personality 248 Cattell, Horn and Carroll (CHC): theory, research
Final comments 248 and practice together 291
Summary 249 Other theories of intelligence: Gardner and Sternberg 292
Connecting up 249 Howard Gardner: multiple intelligences 292
Critical thinking 250 Robert Sternberg 295
Going further 250 Final comments 297
Film and literature 251 Summary 298
Connecting up 299
Critical thinking 299
Going further 300
PART 2 Intelligence 253 Film and literature 300

12 How Intelligence Tests are Used: What

10 An Introduction to Intelligence 254 Questions Emerge from the Measurement
Key themes 254 of Intelligence? 301
Learning outcomes 254 Key themes 301
Introduction 255 Learning outcomes 301
Why does intelligence matter? 255 Introduction 302
Implicit theories of intelligence 256 Types of intelligence tests 302
Research into implicit theories of intelligence 256 The distinction between the psychometric and the
Laypersons’ implicit theories of intelligence 256 cognitive psychology approaches to intelligence
Laypersons’ implicit theories across cultures 258 testing 303
Implicit theories of intelligence across the lifespan 262 Simple biological and physiological measures of
Implicit theories about intelligence: Entity versus intelligence 303
Incremental theories of intelligence 266 Alexander Romanovich Luria 304
Entity versus Incremental theories Das and Naglieri’s cognitive assessment system
of intelligence 266 and the Kaufmans’ ability tests 306
‘Mindsets’: Entity versus Features, uses and problems surrounding intelligence
Incremental/Growth 267 tests 310
A task force in intelligence 268 Typical features of intelligence tests 310
The focus of this part of the text 269 The usefulness of intelligence tests: education 310
Final comments 270 The usefulness of intelligence tests: health 312
Summary 270 Problems and issues with intelligence tests 314
Connecting up 271 The intelligent use of intelligence tests 318
Critical thinking 271 Some concluding comments 319
Going further 271 The Flynn effect 319
Film and literature 273 How was the Flynn effect discovered? 319
Explanations of the Flynn effect 321
11 Theories and Measurement of Intelligence 274 The nutrition hypothesis versus the cognitive
Key themes 274 stimulation hypothesis 326
Learning outcomes 274 An end to the Flynn effect? 329
Introduction 275 The Flynn effect across a century – life history
speed and economic prosperity 329
 CONTENTS xiii

Final comments 331 Goleman’s model of emotional intelligence 377

Summary 331 Bar-On’s model of emotional intelligence 380
Connecting up 332 Trait emotional intelligence 381
Critical thinking 332 Comparing ability and mixed models of emotional
Going further 332 intelligence 383
Film and literature 333 Emotional intelligence in the context of a personality
system framework 384
13 Heritability and Socially Defined Group Considering different models of emotional intelligence
Differences in Intelligence 334 alongside each other 385
The application of emotional intelligence in psychology 386
Key themes 334
Critical consideration of emotional intelligence theory
Learning outcomes 334
and research 387
Introduction 335
Creativity 389
Section A – The heritability of intelligence 336
Person 390
Intelligence: the nature versus nurture debate 336
Process 390
Galton 336
Press 391
Heritability of intelligence 337
Product 391
What do we mean by heritability of intelligence? 338
Sternberg’s creative leadership theory: what
Methods for assessing genetic heritability of intelligence 338
constitutes creativity? 392
Heritability estimates of intelligence 339
Creativity and the brain 394
Considerations within behavioural genetics and
Creativity and ‘psychopathology’ 395
intelligence 341
Sex differences in intelligence 398
Estimates of the genetic heritability of intelligence 343
Sex differences on measures of general intelligence 398
Environmental influences on intelligence 343
Sex differences in specific intelligences 399
Biological variables and maternal effects 344
Looking for explanations of sex differences in measures
Family environment 347
of intelligence 402
Education and intelligence 353
Biological explanations for sex differences in intelligence 402
Culture and intelligence 354
Biological variables for sex differences in measures of
Final comments on genetic heritability and
general intelligence 402
environmental influences on intelligence 355
Summary of biological factors in sex differences in
Section B – The bell curve: group differences in
intelligence 407
intelligence based on race 356
Environmental explanations for sex differences in
The bell curve 356
intelligence 407
The bell curve: intelligence and class structure in
Stereotypes and sex differences in intelligence
American life 356
outside of education 408
The cognitive elite: looking at the higher end of
Stereotypes and sex differences in intelligence within
the bell curve 358
education 409
IQ scores and social and economic problems: looking
Interactions between technology and socioeconomic
at the lower end of the bell curve 358
status and their influence on intelligence in the
The relationship between race and IQ: implications for
classroom 410
social policy 359
A final consideration of sex differences in measures of
Criticisms of The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class
intelligence 413
Structure in American Life 360
Stereotype emphasis 413
Analysis of the assumptions used by Herrnstein and
Placing the extent of sex differences in intelligence
Murray 361
within its proper context 413
Statistical and evidence-based problems in
Interim summary for sex differences in intelligence 414
The Bell Curve arguments 365
Final comments 415
A darker side of psychology related to Herrnstein
Summary 415
and Murray’s analysis 366
Connecting up 416
Final comments 368
Critical thinking 416
Summary 369
Going further 417
Connecting up 369
Film and literature 418
Critical thinking 369
Going further 370
Film and literature 371 15 Personality and Intelligence in Education
and Work 419
14 Intelligence and the Self: Emotional Key themes 419
Intelligence, Creativity and Sex Difference Learning outcomes 419
in Intelligence 372 Introduction 420
Personality and intelligence predictors of achievement
Key themes 372 in education and the workplace 421
Learning outcomes 372 Established measures of personality and intelligence:
Introduction 373 predictors of achievement in education and work 421
Emotional intelligence 374 The difficulties with using established measures of
Salovey and Mayer’s four-branch model of emotional personality and intelligence in education and work 424
intelligence 374
xiv CONTENTS

Learning styles and experiential learning theory 426 Final comments 468
Learning processes 426 Summary 468
Learning styles 427 Connecting up 468
Application and measurement of learning processes Critical thinking 469
and styles 428 Going further 470
Critical consideration of Kolb’s theory 429 Film and literature 470
Emotional intelligence in education and the workplace 429
Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence 429 17 Irrational Beliefs 472
Emotional intelligence and leadership 429
Key themes 472
Emotional intelligence and self-learning 430
Learning outcomes 472
Emotional intelligence and achievement in the
Introduction 473
workplace 431
The basic theory of rational-emotive behaviour
Consideration of emotional intelligence in education
therapy (REBT) 474
and the workplace 431
The ABCs of human disturbance 474
Successful intelligence and leadership: wisdom and
‘Must-urbatory’ thinking and disturbance 477
giftedness 433
Irrational beliefs and mental health 480
Wisdom 433
Issues with irrational beliefs that need to be considered
Giftedness 435
and addressed 482
Giftedness, termites and IQ scores 435
The case for and against religion 483
Modern conceptions of giftedness: not just high IQ? 436
The case for and against luck: the importance of
Psychological models of giftedness 438
belief in good luck 486
Summary of giftedness 440
Superstitious beliefs 488
Working with those who have learning disabilities 440
Irrational beliefs and sport 489
Working with those who have learning disabilities:
Final comments 491
the darker historical line 441
Summary 491
Working with those who have learning disabilities:
Connecting up 492
the positive historical line 441
Critical thinking 492
Feuerstein and Structural Cognitive Modifiability 442
Going further 493
Theory and programme of structural Cognitive
Film and literature 494
Modifiability 442
Final comments 444
Summary 444 18 Social Anxiety, Shyness and Embarrassment 495
Connecting up 445 Key themes 495
Critical thinking 445 Learning outcomes 495
Going further 445 Introduction 496
Film and literature 446 Introducing social anxieties and social
anxiety disorder 497
What exactly is social anxiety disorder? 497
General symptoms, prevalence and conceptions of
PART 3 Applications in Individual social anxiety disorder 498
Definitions and diagnosis of social anxiety disorder 499
Differences 447 What causes social anxiety disorder? 501
Shyness 504
16 Optimism 448 What is shyness? 505
The consequences of shyness 506
Key themes 448 State versus trait shyness 507
Learning outcomes 448 State shyness 508
Introduction 449 Trait shyness 508
Learned optimism – explanatory style 451 Embarrassment 512
Learned helplessness versus learned optimism 451 Four theories of embarrassment 513
The ABC format 453 Re-evaluation of the embarrassment models 515
Distraction and disputation 453 Categorisation of embarrassing situations 515
Dispositional optimism 454 Embarrassment, measurement and personality 516
The Life Orientation Test: a measure of dispositional Final comments 518
optimism 454 Summary 518
Optimism and well-being 455 Connecting up 519
Coping and appraisals 455 Critical thinking 519
Benefits of optimism and well-being 457 Going further 520
Optimism: a cloud in the silver lining? 460 Film and literature 521
Situational optimism 460
Hope 462
Benefits of hope 463 19 Interpersonal relationships 522
Measurement of hope 465 Key themes 522
A consideration of false hope 465 Learning outcomes 522
Optimism versus ‘positive thinking’ 466 Introduction 523
 CONTENTS xv

Interpersonal attraction 523 Summary 588

Theories of interpersonal attraction 523 Connecting up 589
Fatal attraction 525 Critical thinking 589
Love styles 526 Going further 590
The triangular theory of love 526 Film and literature 590
Love styles (or the colours of love) 528
Individual and group differences in love styles 530 21 Well-Being and Personality Disorders 592
Romantic love and attachment styles 530
Key themes 592
Online dating and personality styles 532
Learning outcomes 592
Relationship dissolution 534
Introduction 593
The investment model 534
The structure and measurement of well-being 593
How individuals initiate the end of a relationship 536
Circumplex Theory of Affect: the structure of mood 594
How individuals react when the other person initiates
Subjective and psychological well-being 595
the end of the relationship 538
Psychological well-being as a resilience across
Introducing forgiveness 539
the life-span 600
What is forgiveness? 540
Personality, mood and well-being 600
Models of the forgiveness process 541
Personality disorders 603
The Enright model of forgiveness 541
General criteria for personality disorders:
The Worthington (pyramidal) model 544
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Forgiveness and attachment 546
Disorders (DSM-5) (American Psychiatric
Forgiveness and personality 546
Association, 2013) 604
Final comments 549
Personality disorders: Cluster A: paranoid, schizoid
Summary 549
and schizotypal personality disorders 606
Connecting up 550
Personality disorders: Cluster B: antisocial, borderline,
Critical thinking 550
histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders 608
Going further 551
Personality disorders: Cluster C: avoidant, dependent
Film and literature 552
and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders 610
Genetic, biological and environmental influences on
20 Social Attitudes and Culture 553 personality disorders 612
Key themes 553 Five-factor correlates of personality disorders 617
Learning outcomes 553 Issues with the conceptualisation and categorisation
Introduction 554 of personality disorders 617
Right-wing authoritarianism, conservatism and Final comments 618
social dominance 554 Summary 618
Authoritarianism 555 Connecting up 620
Conservatism 557 Critical thinking 620
Social dominance orientation 559 Going further 620
Theory of social dominance 560 Film and literature 621
The measurement of social dominance orientation 561
Right-wing attitudes and personality 562 22 Individual Differences in Health and Illness 622
Right-wing attitudes and Eysenck’s theory of personality 562
Key themes 622
Five-factor theory of personality and conservatism 564
Learning outcomes 622
Critical consideration of right-wing attitudes theory 565
Introduction 623
Religion 566
Defining health 624
Dimensions of religiosity 566
Personality, health and illness: how might they be linked? 626
Religion and personality 569
Personality traits and health in the five-factor model
Critical review 570
(Big Five) 627
Social media use 571
Researching the links between personality, health
Definitions of social media use 571
and illness 628
Social media use and personality 572
Type A and Type B personality 628
Culture theory and personality 574
Measurement of Type A/B personality 629
Psychological anthropology 574
Research on Type A/B personality 629
Configurationalist approach 575
Further psychological research on Type A personality 631
Basic and modal personality structure approach 576
Type D personality 632
National character 576
Individual differences in the reaction to physical illness 632
Personality and national culture: the work of Hofstede 579
Conceptualising stress 633
Integrative model of personality 582
Depression 635
Evolution and human behaviour 582
Anxiety defined 636
The dispositional signature 583
Concepts especially relevant to health psychology
Characteristic adaptations 584
covered previously 636
Life narratives and the challenge of modern identity 584
Locus of control 636
The differential role of culture 585
Self-efficacy 638
Critiques of the integrative model of personality 587
Optimism 638
Final comments 588
xvi CONTENTS

Intelligence 639 24 Academic Argument and Thinking 687

Expanding definitions of health and well-being 639
Key themes 687
Personality and well-being: the positive psychology
Learning outcomes 687
approach 639
Introduction 688
Final comments 641
The structure of arguments: premises and
Summary 641
conclusions 688
Connecting up 642
Deductive versus inductive arguments 689
Critical thinking 642
Fallacies in arguments 690
Going further 643
Fallacies of the undistributed middle 690
Film and literature 644
The fallacy of affirming the consequent 690
Argument directed at the person (argumentum
23 An Introduction to Psychometric Testing 645 ad hominem, ‘argument directed at the man’) 691
Key themes 645 Appealing to ignorance or absence of fact
Learning outcomes 645 (argumentum ad ignorantiam, ‘argument to
Introduction 646 ignorance’) 691
Types and uses of psychometric tests 646 Appeal to popular beliefs (argumentum ad populum,
Developing a psychometric test 647 ‘argument to the people’) 692
Developing items for a psychometric test 647 Appeal to emotion (argumentum ad misericordiam,
Writing items for a psychometric test 648 ‘argument to pity’) 692
Clarity of questions 649 False dilemma 692
Leading questions 650 Comparing populations 693
Embarrassing questions 650 Summary 694
Hypothetical questions 650 Going further 694
Questions with reverse wording 651
Response formats 652 25 Statistical Terms 695
Instructions 653
Key themes 695
Collecting the data 654
Learning outcomes 695
Reliability 654
Introduction 696
Internal reliability (internal consistency) 654
Tests of association 696
Using internal reliability to select items 656
Correlation coefficients 696
Computing the scale (producing an overall score) 661
Factor analysis 697
Test-retest reliability (reliability over time) 661
Multiple regression 700
Validity 663
Tests of difference 701
Advanced techniques in psychometric evaluation:
Tests of difference for two sets of scores 701
factor analysis 670
Tests of difference for more than two sets
Factor analysis 670
of scores 701
Exploratory factor analysis 672
Meta-analysis 701
Confirmatory factor analysis 678
Effect size 702
The International Personality Item Pool and
Summary 703
the Higher Education Academy in Psychology
Going further 703
practicals web page 680
Final comments 680
Summary 683 26 Research Ethics 704
Connecting up 684 Key themes 704
Critical thinking 684 Learning outcomes 704
Going further 685 Introduction 705
Film and literature 685 What do we mean by research ethics? 705
Why do we need ethical codes? 705
Glossary G1
Basic principles for ethical research 705
References and further reading R1 Research studies have to comply with all legal
Index I1 requirements 705
Research participants 706
Publisher’s acknowledgements P1 NHS, social services/social care and HMPPS research 708
Ethical principles for conducting research with
human participants (The British Psychological
The following additional material can be Society) 708
found on the website Going further 708
(go.pearson.com/uk/he/resources)
 CONTENTS xvii

Companion website
For open-access student resources specifically
written to complement this textbook and support your
learning, including three additional web-only chapters, please visit
go.pearson.com/uk/he/resources

Lecturer resources
For password-protected online resources tailored to support the
use of this textbook in teaching, please visit
go.pearson.com/uk/he/resources
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Professor John Maltby is at the University of Leicester. Professor Ann Macaskill is at Sheffield Hallam Univer-
He has over 200 publications in the area of personality and sity and is a Chartered Health Psychologist and trained in
individual differences, psychometrics, and well-being. cognitive behaviour therapy. She has over 100 publications,
with current research in individual differences, health and
Dr Liz Day is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Shef- well-being.
field Hallam University. She has over 60 publications in the
area of individual differences. She also trained as a Clinical
Hypnotherapist.
PREFACE

Introduction psychology in an integrated fashion within specific

modules.
How would you describe your personality? Are you Consequently, the overall aim of the text is to include
outgoing? Do you make friends easily? Do you worry substantial coverage of personality, individual differences
too much? Think of two or three words that best describe and intelligence, as well as their integration that is appli-
how you generally behave, think and feel. How would cable to United Kingdom/European students. We have
you describe your general level of intelligence? Are you discussed historical material and viewpoints as well as
particularly good at some things and not so good at others? including contemporary and newer debates to make the
Now think of your brothers or sisters (if you have them). material accessible and interesting to read.
Compared to everyone else you know, how similar are your We have written text with the novice in mind, and we
brothers and sisters to your personality and level of intelli- guide you through the material, from the foundations to the
gence? How like your parents are you? Are you more like more advanced material, so you can constantly build on
your mother or your father? Would you say you and your previously acquired knowledge and build up a critical
friends have similar personalities, or very different ones? understanding of each topic.
Do you respond to situations in the same way that your To help you do this, we include opportunities to reflect
family and friends respond? Do you hold similar views on the material and test your own understanding.
about the world, or very different ones? When it comes to
general approaches to life, how different are you to
everyone around you? Do you generally have a happy
disposition or find life difficult a lot of the time? Can you Structure of the text
name people who are similar in your approach to life, and
people who are very different? In psychology, personality, While writing this text, we consulted over 30 academics
individual differences and intelligence are all topics that in the United Kingdom and Europe over what it should
examine how people are similar and how they differ in their cover. We now know that people have many different ideas
behaviour, the way they think and how they feel. In this text about what constitutes personality, intelligence and indi-
we provide an overview of major theories, methods, vidual differences. We know that some courses teach all
research findings and debates in personality, individual three topics as an Individual Differences course. Other
differences and intelligence. Although the areas of person- courses see large distinctions between the different areas
ality, individual differences and intelligence cover a multi- covered; for example, personality and intelligence. With
tude of subjects, ranging from psychophysiology to socially this in mind, we have not assumed that there is a typical
learnt behaviour, you will see how these three main topics route through the text. Instead, we have sought to make
come together by using several similar approaches. the material in each chapter self-contained so that it may
Our aim is to cover the topic areas that meet the require- be taught separately. That said, you can divide the text’s
ments of the British Psychological Society qualifying exam contents in the following three ways: parts, levels and
and the Quality Assurance Agency Benchmarks for themes.
Psychology under their heading of ‘Individual Differ-
ences’. The contents of this examination help to define the Parts of the text
curriculum that is taught in psychology undergraduate
degrees accredited by the British Psychological Society. The first way that this text is organised is into three parts:
With the British Psychological Society and Quality Assur- (1) personality, (2) intelligence and (3) further debates and
ance Agency Benchmarks for Psychology curriculum applications in individual differences. It is easy to see how
requirements in mind, this text also covers aspects of the these three sections might be taught separately as topic
history of various theories and approaches. This informa- areas. Each part also has its own introduction, which serves
tion will be useful for courses that teach history of as a guide and helps you structure your learning.
 PREFACE xxi

Part 1: Personality ters to develop your ‘individual differences’ thinking by

drawing on different aspects of theory and methodology.
The aim of this part is to provide a parsimonious account For example, in the optimism chapter we will show you
of personality theories and approaches to individual differ- how it is useful to unfold a single concept to allow a number
ences. We cover the major schools of psychology (psycho- of different considerations. In the irrational beliefs chapter
analytic, learning, cognitive, humanistic, trait theorists and we will present the central idea of irrational beliefs and
biological). Theories are set in a historical context and show you how to assess the strength of this concept through
issues and debates are highlighted, always bearing in mind to a conclusion by exploring how well it applies to a
the key questions that the theories are designed to address. number of situations. In the social anxiety chapter, we
Topics covered include the nature of human beings, the consider two subject areas (shyness and embarrassment)
basis of human motivation, the generation of emotions and show you how sometimes it is useful to provide a
and cognitions and conceptions of psychological health general context to ideas. In the interpersonal relationships
and illness within the various models. Where appropriate, chapter, we show you how useful it can be to take a series
clinical applications of the various theories are also exam- of topics and try to link them together, so that you can
ined, not only to complement your learning in abnormal present an overall process and identify recurring themes.
psychology but also to appeal to those of you with an
interest in clinical psychology. Consistent criteria are used
throughout to help you to evaluate, compare and contrast
the various theoretical approaches. By the end of Part 1, Level of study
readers will have a theoretical and a research-based appre-
ciation of the sources of individual differences in behav- The second way that this text is organised is through level
iour, thinking and feeling. of study. We are aware that some psychology courses teach
different topic areas in personality, intelligence and individual
Part 2: Intelligence differences in different years (ranging from first year to final
year). Therefore, we have organised each of the three parts of
This part of the text covers theory, research, measurement the text so that the later chapters in each part may be considered
and the application of intelligence. This is a controversial as more advanced topics of study. In this way, there is a devel-
area of psychology, where there is a lot of debate. Indeed, opmental progression in the learning. This also means that the
you may already have some feelings about theories and text should be useful across all the years of your degree.
measurement of intelligence. For example, what is your
view of intelligence tests? If you haven’t a view now, you
● Personality – This topic area is presented mainly in
will have by the end of Part 2. We have given full consider- historical order. Therefore, you will see how approaches
ation to the theories and controversies in the topic of intel- and theories in individuals have developed over time. In
ligence, and we highlight classical and modern approaches this part you can compare the classical psychoanalytic,
to how intelligence is defined, debated and applied, all learning, cognitive and humanistic approaches (Chap-
within the historical context of intelligence. ters 2–6) to understanding the self with modern-day
humanistic, trait and biological approaches (Chap-
ters 7–9) in individual differences.
Part 3: Further debates and applications in
● Intelligence – In this topic area the development of
individual differences
learning focuses on a historical overview but is also a
The aim of this part is to cover a series of subjects that are comparison in terms of the complexity of arguments.
commonly covered in the personality and individual differ- We contrast everyday notions of intelligence and a
ences journals, but much less so in personality and indi- historical overview of classical and modern theories and
vidual differences textbooks. The rationale for the topics applications of intelligence (Chapters 10–12) with
chosen is to draw on influential subjects in individual controversial and modern-day considerations and appli-
differences that are contemporary and that we know excite cations of intelligence (Chapters 13–15).
students. ● Further debates and applications in individual differ-
Individual differences in optimism, irrational beliefs, ences – In this topic area the development is based on
social anxiety, personal relationships, health, well-being the number of subjects covered in the chapter. There-
and the social attitudes are important when applied in the fore, the chapters that look at single concepts, such as
individual differences literature to explain a wealth of optimism and irrational beliefs (Chapters 16 and 17),
human behaviours, feelings, thinking and reactions. These compare with the chapters that look at several topic
include explanations of our mental health, how we succeed areas surrounding social anxiety, interpersonal relation-
and fail in interpersonal relationships and how we under- ships and social attitudes and health well-being
stand the social world. We have also structured these chap- (Chapters 18–22).
xxii PREFACE

Themes within the text (Chapter 19), forgiveness (Chapter 19), positive aspects of
religiosity (Chapter 20), subjective and psychological well-
The main themes within the text reflect the British Psycho- being (Chapter 21) and positive psychology and health
logical Society qualifying exam. In line with the exam, (Chapter 22).
we have outlined the assumptions, evidence and main Finally, for this third edition of the text, there are some
approaches to emotion, motivation, the self and person- changes and additions since the last edition. As the litera-
ality and abnormal development. We consider the psycho- ture is constantly updating, we have revised all chapters to
analytic, behavioural, cultural, social learning, social- include recent and key papers. We have also provided
cognitive, radical behaviourist, humanistic-existential, substantial new sections in the biologically focused chap-
phenomenological, lexical-trait, neo-Darwinist, biological ters (Chapters 8 and 9), outlining the adaptive personality
and behavioural genetic approaches to personality. These and behavioural ecology and debates around the general
approaches can be found definitively in Chapters 1–9, but factor of personality, and introduced some further discus-
topics covering biological, cognitive and social learning sion (e.g. the Dickens/Flynn Model) around the Flynn
aspects to emotion, motivation, the self, personality and effect (covered in Chapter 12).
abnormal development are also covered in Chapters 16, 17 Additionally, in each chapter we have referred the reader
and 18. to related discussions in other areas of the text.
The influence of genetic, biological, environmental and
cultural factors on individual differences, as well as the
temporal and situational consistency of individual differ- Features of the text
ences, is addressed throughout the text from Chapter 1 to
Chapter 23. The controversies and debates regarding the There are features to the text, including within-chapter
interaction of genetic, environmental and cultural factors features and supplementary material provided on a website.
on personality and intelligence are focused on in Chapters 8
and 13.
The influence of personality, intelligence and individual Within-chapter features
differences on other behaviours, including health, educa-
Each chapter has these features:
tion, culture, relationships, occupational choice and compe-
tency, again, is a focus throughout the text from Chapters 1 ● Key themes, so you know the general areas that are
to 23. For specific examples, you may want to concentrate covered in each chapter.
on Chapters 5 and 6 as well as Chapters 12 through to 23. ● Clear chapter objectives, put in the form of learning
The history of mental and psychological testing, the outcomes, so you can check that you have covered all
nature of intelligence, contemporary approaches to intelli- the major areas.
gence and their implications for educational and social ● A series called Stop and think that asks you to think
policy are covered in Chapters 10–15. about the areas a little more, or gives you some further
We would also like to draw your attention to other information to think about. These features are provided
themes that might reflect emerging interests of students in to spur you on and to start thinking critically about the
individual differences and provide the basis of material for area you have just read.
option modules. For example, those interested in following ● Profiles that outline biographies of key thinkers or
a theme on well-being might focus on the latter part of the researchers in the topic area, so you get to know more
book (Chapters 16–22) in addition to the chapters covering about these psychologists.
Freud (Chapter 2), Jung, Adler and Horney (Chapter 3), ● A number of chapters feature Career focus interviews,
Ellis (Chapter 5), humanistic psychology (Chapter 6) and which explore the roles of different psychologists, such
self-determination theory (Chapter 6). Those interested in as clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist and organi-
statistical applications in psychology would be able to show sational psychologist, and ask how skills and knowledge
the uses of factor analysis in intelligence testing learned when studying personality and individual differ-
(Chapter 11), meta-analysis and effect sizes in comparing ences apply in these areas.
sex differences in intelligence (Chapter 14) and the use of ● Summary boxes at the end of each chapter to outline
psychometrics in developing psychological tests the main points that you should take forward.
(Chapter 23). Those interested in developing a positive ● Discussion questions containing material that might be
psychology theme should note that there is material on suitable for discussion or seminar work.
theories within humanistic psychology (Chapter 6), self- ● Essay questions that address the core material in the
determination theory (Chapter 6), wisdom and creativity chapter, allowing you to test your own knowledge and
(Chapter 15), optimism and hope (Chapter 16), love practise essays in the area.
 PREFACE xxiii

● Going further material via key texts, journals and many aspects of the debate fully. There are many contro-
established web resources. This is to get you reading versies and arguments in personality, individual differ-
more around the topic areas. ences and intelligence, and it is important that you are
● References to film and literature that reflect some of able to use argument effectively. This chapter can be
the ideas explored in the chapter. used to inform what constitutes effective and valid argu-
● Connecting up points that references material else- ment and what comprises poor argument. It will also
where in the text that links with the themes explored in give you advice on the key ideas in critical thinking that
the chapter. can be used to improve your academic work.
● Statistical analysis (Chapter 25) – This chapter
describes the statistical ideas that lie behind simple
inferential statistics (i.e. correlations and t-tests); multi-
Personality, Individual Differences variate statistics, such as factor analysis and multiple
and Intelligence Companion regression; and advanced considerations in statistics,
Website (go.pearson.com/uk/he/ including meta-analysis and effect size. This material is
needed because throughout the text we use statistical
resources) terms and concepts to outline, illustrate and support the
topics we discuss. The use of statistical terms is
In addition to the features integrated into the text, there is
common in psychology, and through your research
also a variety of valuable resources on the website for both
methods and statistics classes you will already be aware
students and lecturers.
of, or become familiar with, many of the terms we
The Companion Website for students includes:
mention. However, there may be some statistical
● Multiple choice questions – You will be able to access concepts with which you are less familiar. Whatever
over 200 multiple choice questions so you can test your your knowledge or experience of statistical terms, we
knowledge of the topics covered in the book. have included some supplementary material that will
● Essay questions – In addition to those in the text there give you an easy understanding of many of the statis-
are over 100 essay questions covering a range of topics tical terms to build your confidence with using these
so you can practise for your essay and examination concepts in the material.
assessment. ● Ethics (Chapter 26) – This chapter deals with ethics.
● Advanced reading – There are over 20 additional topic Several times in the text, we touch on issues of ethics;
areas and recent readings that can be used to supplement for example, when considering psychoanalytic and
or advance your study and act as a source for ideas for humanistic personality or psychology or psychological
your independent projects. testing in education and the workplace. This chapter,
which outlines ethical guidelines alongside those
For lecturers there are:
suggested for research participants by the British
● PowerPoint slides – These slides contain details of the Psychological Society, might prove useful in supple-
main areas and figures provided in each chapter. menting these discussions.
Also online are three supplementary chapters. These All these chapters refer to core academic skills or
provide a framework for many of the academic and tech- approaches in psychology. You might want to read through
nical terms that are commonly used in the text and should these chapters or you might like to use them as a resource
be used as reference material to support your learning. One that you can draw upon when required.
might expect to find a chapter early in the text outlining
these terms; however, we found that it distracted from the
content. We also didn’t wish to dictate certain areas of
study if the lecturer did not feel they were needed or taught
Final prefatorial comments
these aspects in different ways.
When we first started this text we thought that the topics
The three chapters are on the following topics:
of personality, individual differences and intelligence
● Academic argument (Chapter 24) – In this chapter we were important in modern-day psychology. Today we are
discuss acceptable and unacceptable forms of academic convinced that they are crucial. Not only do they serve
argument. At points within the text, you will come modern-day psychology well, but the past and the future
across academic arguments that form the basis of of psychology are bound up in these three areas. No other
discussion and debate in chapters. So this chapter on topic area in psychology has provided so many commonly
academic argument can be helpful to you to appreciate used concepts and applications to psychology. No other
xxiv PREFACE

area of psychology can provide such controversy and no other area starts with the construction of the first intel-
emotion (for example, IQ testing, socially defined race ligence test and invention of statistical tests, dabbles in the
differences in intelligence) while also providing such psycho-physiological properties of the brain and finishes
simple and eloquent answers to complicated questions (for by explaining how we love and forgive.
example, the five-factor model of personality). Most of all,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors’ acknowledgements Rajvinder Lally for allowing our continued use of the
concept and early work on the academic vindictiveness that
We would like to thank the reviewers, of this and the is used in Chapter 23. For this edition, we would like to
previous editions. We would like to thank them especially acknowledge the work of Radhika Joshi and Tamara Gheo-
for devoting their valuable time, incredible patience, and rghes for some very helpful literature reviews.
superb guidance and, not least, for always going beyond
the call of duty in their help and advice. John Maltby
Our thanks to Steven Muncer for the continued use of Liz Day
the ‘Stop and Think’ section in Chapter 23. We also thank Ann Macaskill
PART 1
Personality
and Individual
Differences
Chapter 1 Personality Theory in Context 2
Chapter 2 The Basis of the Psychoanalytic Approach
to Personality 23
Chapter 3 Developments of Freudian Theorising 45
Chapter 4 Learning Theory Perspectives on
Personality 73
Chapter 5 Cognitive Personality Theories 103
Chapter 6 Humanistic Personality Theories 127
Chapter 7 The Trait Approach to Personality 163
Chapter 8 Biological Basis of Personality I: Genetic
Heritability of Personality and Biological
and Physiological Models of Personality 194
Chapter 9 Biological Basis of Personality II:
Evolutionary Psychology and Animal
Studies of Personality 225
CHAPTER 1
Personality Theory
in Context

Key themes
● Nature of personality
● Implicit personality theories
● Definitions of personality
● Aims of studying personality
● Approaches to studying personality
● Describing personality
● Distinctions made in personality research
● Measurement issues
● Strands of theorising
● Reading critically and evaluating theory

Learning outcomes
After studying this discussion you should:
● Appreciate why psychologists study personality
● Be aware of a variety of definitions of personality
● Understand the components of psychological definitions of
personality
● Have developed an understanding of the historical roots of
personality theory
● Understand the major questions that personality theories aim
to address
● Understand the criteria that can be used to evaluate personality
theories
 CHAPTER 1 PERSONALITY THEORY IN CONTEXT 3

Introduction
One of us recently overheard two female students who humour and dull. A few students even suggested that
were discussing the merits of their friend’s boyfriend. such people are unhappy looking, and others suggested
One student concluded, ‘I don’t know what she sees in that they dress in dull clothes.
him; he has no personality whatsoever.’ The other agreed Clearly the description of ‘no personality’ does not
vehemently with this statement. What is this poor guy literally mean that the individual does not have personal
actually like? This is not an unusual comment, and characteristics of the type that we normally think of as
you may have used it yourself. Can an individual have being part of a person’s personality; rather, it implies a
no personality? How do you visualise someone who is certain sort of person. This then raises the issue of what
described as having ‘no personality’? Take a minute to we mean by personality. Firstly, following from our exam-
think about it. We tried this out on a group of students ple, we will begin by looking at how non-psychologists,
and asked them what they thought someone was like as opposed to psychologists, deal with personality. Then
who could be described as having no personality. They we will explore what psychologists mean by personality.
easily produced descriptions such as quiet, not a lot of At that point, some of the complexities of the topic area
fun, unassuming, geeky, not very sociable, no sense of will become apparent.

Source: rawpixel/123RF

chatting with us and with others, and then we use this

General population perspectives: information to help us decide what sort of person we think
implicit personality theories they are. Most of the time we are not even consciously
aware that we are doing this; it happens so frequently that
It is clear from the opening example that describing some- it becomes an automatic response. In this way, we are all
one as having ‘no personality’ conveys meaning to most psychologists collecting data based on our observations
people; and, for our students at least, there was a fairly of social situations. Human beings seem to have a natural
good consensus about exactly what it meant. This is an curiosity about why people behave as they do. We use our
example of what psychologists call implicit personality observations to construct our implicit personality theories.
theories. These are intuitively based theories of human These implicit theories are then used to explain behaviour.
behaviour that we all construct to help us to understand For example, what about the student in your seminar
both others and ourselves. We hear descriptions of indi- group who never contributes to the discussion? Is it because
viduals and we observe people going about their business, of shyness, stupidity or laziness? How would you decide?
4 PART 1 PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

We make observations and then we infer cause and effect. clear from these examples that some more reliable way of
We see the student in the bar surrounded by a large group understanding individual behaviour and classifying people
of people, obviously the centre of attention, chatting and would be useful. Psychologists have set out to do this; and,
laughing; and we may conclude that this person is not shy. as we shall see, they have developed a range of theories, all
Sometimes we discuss it with our friends to compare their attempting to meet this need.
observations with ours. Someone may tell you that the
silent seminar student won a business sponsorship to come
to university. You may conclude that this rules out stupidity How is personality defined?
as a motivator for their behaviour. Are they lazy? Perhaps
we think they are too arrogant to join in the discussion, Psychologists need to be very clear about exactly what
that they find the level of debate beneath them intellec- they are studying and define it precisely if they are going to
tually. Therefore, we may have them down as either lazy measure it effectively. One difficulty that frequently arises
or arrogant, and we look for confirmation in their subse- is that many of the words used by psychologists are already
quent behaviour in seminars. In this way, we make what part of our everyday language or have been adopted into
are called causal inferences about behaviour. This means normal language use. However, it is still important to con-
we assume that people behave the way they do because sider what the public (as opposed to psychologists) think
of the sort of people they are; it is down to their personal- that a term means so that accurate communication can
ity. Most people find it difficult to identify how they make occur. In most instances public, or lay, definitions tend to
these judgements. Think about how you do it if you find be very wide and not specific enough for psychologists to
this hard to believe. use for research purposes to define precisely what they are
examining. However, lay definitions provide a good starting
Problems with implicit theories point for developing psychological definitions.

Judging what other people are like is a skill that is valued.

Think how often you hear people saying, ‘I am a good Lay definitions of personality
judge of character’. We all like to think that we know
about people, and most of the time our implicit theories Lay definitions of personality frequently involve value
of personality appear to work quite well in our everyday judgements in terms of the social attractiveness of indi-
life – however, they are flawed in several ways. You may viduals. Sometimes the emphasis is on aspects of the indi-
notice that we said implicit theories appear to work well, vidual’s physical appearance, perhaps with some comments
but a major difficulty with them is that we seldom have on their social style. This view produces the following per-
the opportunity to check them out properly. We decide to sonality description: ‘Richard is tall and fairly attractive,
share our flat with Sarah and not Joanne, and therefore but never has much to say for himself although he can be
we never have the opportunity to see if Joanne is a good very funny with people he knows well.’ Such definitions are
flatmate. If it turns out that we get along well with Sarah essentially evaluations of individuals and include relative
as a flatmate, we congratulate ourselves on being a good judgements, in this instance about height and attractive-
judge of character. Joanne might have been even better, ness. This definition also includes some judgements about
but we will never know. In this way, our evaluation of the how Richard interacts with others: ‘never has much to say
situation is flawed. for himself although he can be very funny with people he
Implicit theories are also based on casual and non- knows well’. The elements of descriptions or judgements
random observations of individuals. By this, we mean made about the person when they are in social settings are
that they are not based on observations of behaviour that common elements. These lay definitions are commonly
have been systematically selected to portray accurately linked to the implicit personality theories that we discussed
how that person spends his or her life. Instead, we have earlier. Sometimes they include elements of folklore within
chance observations of other people. We can see this from particular cultures. This may be an assumed match between
the student seminar example. With most people, we sample a physical attribute and a personality attribute. Common
only a tiny fraction of their behaviour; yet, based on this, examples are that people with red hair also have fiery tem-
we have to make decisions about whether we are going to pers or that fat people are jolly.
pursue a friendship with them, give them a job or go out of From lay definitions of personality, it seems that person-
our way to avoid them in future. If we decide not to pur- ality is judged in a social context; that is, it has elements
sue further contact with the individual, that is usually the about how well people get on with others and their style of
end of the story. Implicit theories are not scientific theories interacting as well as comments on their appearance. Does
of personality. Exactly what constitutes a scientific theory this mean that our personality is apparent only in social
will be discussed later in the chapter. However, it should be situations? This is obviously not the case. When people are
 CHAPTER 1 PERSONALITY THEORY IN CONTEXT 5

alone, they still display individual differences in terms of given in ‘Stop and think: Defining and testing psychologi-
how they cope with solitude and their attitude towards it. cal constructs’.
For most people their personality is an integral part of their
being, which exists whether they are alone or with others.
The aims of studying personality
Psychological definitions of personality
Psychologists are interested in what people are like, why
Psychological definitions of personality differ from lay defi- they behave as they do and how they became that way.
nitions in that they define personality in terms of charac- Underlying these apparently simple issues are more pro-
teristics, or the qualities typical of that individual. Gordon found questions about human beings as a species, as we
Allport, a prominent early figure in personality psychology, shall see when we address these issues later in this text.
popularised the term ‘personality’ and provided a definition To put it in more academic language, personality theorists
in 1961. He defined personality as ‘a dynamic organisation, seek to explain the motivational basis of behaviour. Why
inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create the do individuals behave as they do? What gets us up every
person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts and morning? Why are you studying for a degree? Basically,
feelings’ (Allport, 1961, p. 11). personality theorists have to address the question of what
This dense definition requires some unpacking. Dynamic drives our behaviour. This question of motivation neces-
organisation, inside the person refers to a process that is sarily touches on crucial issues about the basic nature of
continually adjusting, adapting to the experiences we have, human beings. Do we behave in certain ways because we
changes in our lives, ageing and the like. In other words, have little choice? As a species, are we innately aggres-
personality is conceptualised as being an active, responsive sive and self-destructive? What are the basic human
system. It is conceptualised as being organised in some sort drives? Some personality theorists, such as the psycho-
of internal structural system, the details of which are not yet analyst Sigmund Freud (Chapter 2), adopt the view that
quite clear – although hypotheses abound, as you will see human nature is essentially, innately self-destructive
in later chapters. Psychophysical systems refer to the inclu- and aggressive. Other theorists such as Carl Rogers, an
sion of both our minds and our bodies in what we refer to American who is often seen as one of the founding fig-
as personality. In somewhat crude terms, the psychological ures of counselling psychology (Chapter 6), see human
elements in the mind interact with the body sometimes in nature as being benign. Rogers claims that human beings
complex ways to produce behaviour. The person’s char- are driven by positive motives towards growth and self-
acteristic patterns suggest that something relatively stable acceptance. We shall explore this in more detail later and
is being produced that becomes typical of that individual. see that there is a range of views. The quality of human
The implied stability is important; without it, all attempts at nature, however, is a fundamental question that has to
measuring personality would be futile. Behaviour, thoughts be addressed by personality theorists. Are we benign or
and feelings refer to the fact that personality is a central malevolent as a species? As yet there appears to be no
component influencing, and being discernible in, a wide definitive answer.
range of human experiences and activities. As well as addressing issues of human motivation and
While this is only one of a multitude of definitions, it the nature of human beings, personality theorists aim to
includes some important elements and is reasonably com- provide descriptions or categorisations of how individuals
prehensive. Personality theorists are still struggling to behave. This is addressed in different ways, but the aim is to
produce a universally acceptable definition of personality. understand why individuals behave as they do. Implicit here
Part of the problem arises from the concept being so wide, is some level of acceptance in most, but not all, theories that
which makes it difficult to conceptualise succinctly. It has there is a finite range of possible behaviour and that some
to embrace and account for individual differences between patterns of behaviour are shared by individuals with simi-
people, their genetic inheritance and the internal process- lar personalities. Hence types or categories of personalities
ing that occurs within individuals, leading them to behave are outlined as part of many theories. Linked to the idea of
in the ways that are characteristic of them. Despite the lack classifying types of personality is the issue of measuring
of a single agreed-upon definition, some agreement has personality.
emerged about what constitutes personality. There is con- Closely linked to this question of what people are like is
sensus that the term ‘personality’, as now used, describes the issue of how they become that way. Theories pay differ-
a psychological construct; that is, a mental concept that ent attention to this issue, with some theoretical approaches
influences behaviour via the mind–body interaction. As encompassing detailed developmental theories while oth-
an understanding of what constitutes a psychological con- ers are much more schematic in their treatment of how per-
struct and how it is identified is important for your under- sonality develops. Within developmental theories there are
standing of psychological theory, a fuller description is diverse views about the age at which personality becomes
6 PART 1 PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Stop and think

Defining and testing psychological constructs
Psychological constructs refer to concepts that are not the psychological literature. The following are the authors’
directly observable but are hypothesised to be influen- three essential steps for establishing the validity of a psy-
tial in determining or explaining behaviour. We do not chological construct.
directly observe personality, for example, but our theory
● Describe the characteristics that make up the construct
is that personality plays an important role in determin-
and suggest how they may be related to each other
ing behaviour. Our observations are of behaviour; and
based on some underlying theoretical speculation.
from these observations, we infer that the individual has
For example, take the construct of extraversion. Extra-
a certain personality characteristic or type of personal-
verted individuals are described as being outgoing,
ity. In this way personality is a psychological construct.
friendly and warm. These are all characteristics that
To determine that a particular phenomenon is a psy-
are hypothesised to promote social interaction. The
chological construct and not merely a chance observa-
theoretical speculation is that extraverts like and need
tion, it is necessary to demonstrate that it can be reliably
higher levels of social interaction.
measured and is relatively stable across time, among
● Ways of measuring the suggested characteristics of the
other things.
construct are then developed. For our example this
Lee J. Cronbach (1916–2001), Professor of Education
would involve developing measures of ‘outgoingness’,
at Stanford University in the United States, spent most
friendliness and warmth.
of his long career examining issues related to the iden-
● Finally, the hypothesised relationships are tested. In
tification and measurement of psychological concepts.
our example we would expect to find that individuals
In 1955 he published, with Paul Meehl, what has come
who scored highly on outgoingness also scored highly
to be seen as a classic seminal paper in psychology. The
on friendliness and warmth and that these individuals
authors propose a method for establishing the validity of
all liked interacting with other people. Finding these
psychological constructs in personality tests. Paul Meehl
relationships would result in a valid concept. Cronbach
(1920–2003) was a Professor of Psychology at the Uni-
and Meehl were keen to emphasise that establishing
versity of Minnesota in the United States and, like Lee
the validity of psychological concepts is an ongoing
Cronbach, he was concerned with investigating how
process that may have to be revisited as our knowl-
reliably psychologists could predict behaviour. The joint
edge within psychology expands.
paper by Cronbach and Meehl is heavily quoted within

fixed. Is your personality fixed at age 2, or is it age 5 or not really address this issue. Trait theorists and biological
older, or is change always possible? theorists tend to have more to say on genetic influences on
There are diverse views on this aspect. Even within personality.
some of the clinically derived theories, like the psychoana- Personality theory developed within psychology origi-
lytic ones that see personality development as occurring in nally to help us understand mental illness and abnormal
early childhood, change is considered to be possible but is behaviour. We will examine the details of this effort later,
assumed to be difficult to achieve. Some theorists, as you when different theorists are presented. At this point it is
will see, suggest that interventions such as psychotherapy enough to know that to study and classify the experiences
or counselling can facilitate this change. Conceptualis- of psychologically disturbed people, it is necessary to
ing therapeutic interventions in this way makes it easier have a concept of what is normal in human behaviour.
to understand why so many personality theories have been Without some idea of what constitutes the normal range
produced by psychologists and psychotherapists who are in of human behaviour, it is impossible to make judgements
clinical practice. Their interest is in understanding individu- about what is abnormal. From this early work, it soon
als so that interventions to assist in behaviour change can became apparent that there are huge individual differences
be developed. in human behaviour and we will return to this later. How-
Closely related to the development of personality is ever, some of the early personality theorists began to see
the issue of heritability versus environment. Is personal- that there are patterns in human behaviour and that it is
ity development determined more by genetic inheritance possible to classify types of human personality. This led
or environmental influences, or is it some sort of interac- to the measurement of personality and the development of
tional effect? Theories differ, as we shall see in this text, in personality questionnaires. This will be examined in detail
terms of the role they give to each, and some theories do in later chapters. As you are now aware, psychologists
 CHAPTER 1 PERSONALITY THEORY IN CONTEXT 7

?? Explain the motivational basis of behaviour

Ascertain the basic nature of human beings
?? Provide descriptions/categorisations of how individuals behave
Measure personality
?? Understand how personality develops
Foster a deeper understanding of human beings to assist in the development of
interventions to facilitate behaviour change
? Assess the effects of heredity versus environment

Figure 1.1 Summary of the aims of studying personality.

have many reasons for studying personality; we have sum- common sense understandings to sociological, philosophi-
marised these aims in Figure 1.1 to help you remember cal, ethical and legal definitions. Allport argued that many
them. of the existing terms were value-laden in the way that they
What we have not yet considered is where the term ‘per- were used. Examples would be a description of a woman
sonality’ originated. In many courses, historical aspects of of good character or a man of bad character. Within a par-
psychology are addressed within individual modules. To ticular cultural setting, this description would take on a
facilitate this approach, we will include some relevant mate- specific meaning that was generally shared. Allport felt
rial such as the history of core terms. it was necessary to develop a consensus on the use of a
word that would describe individual uniqueness without
The source of the term ‘personality’ implying an evaluation of that uniqueness. As a result of
Allport’s influence, ‘personality’ increasingly became the
The word ‘personality’ derives from the Latin persona, term used across the discipline to describe individual dif-
meaning ‘mask’ (Kassin, 2003). It was the famous, pio- ferences. A few theorists, mainly psychometricians, used
neering, American psychologist Gordon Allport who the label of ‘individual differences’, and this usage contin-
popularised the term with the publication in 1937 of Per- ues to some extent. Psychometricians are concerned with
sonality: A Psychological Interpretation. Prior to this a the development of good, accurate measures of individual
variety of terms, such as ‘character’ or ‘temperament’, differences. In these instances of ‘individual differences’,
were commonly used. Allport carried out a survey of the it is frequently really an abbreviated form of ‘individual
ways in which the concept of personality has been defined; differences in personality’ or variables related to person-
he identified over 50 different ways. These varied from lay ality. You will already be getting the idea that there are a

Is it important to understand
the basic nature of human
beings?
Source: Shutterstock
8 PART 1 PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

variety of approaches to studying and researching person- – generally called norms for variables. Individuals can then
ality; we will now look at some of them. be described as being above or below the average or norm
on a particular variable. Thus, when a friend who is very
Approaches to studying personality: outgoing and friendly is rated as being an extravert on a
personality test, it means that her score was higher than the
idiographic versus nomothetic
average on the variable called extraversion. The variable
An important distinction made by Allport in his early ‘extraversion’ is measured by asking questions about how
work on personality was between idiographic and nomo- sociable and assertive she is. This approach, while acknowl-
thetic approaches to personality. The idiographic approach edging that each person will possess different degrees of
focuses on the individual and describes the personality particular personality traits, concentrates on the similarities
variables within that individual. The term comes from in human personality. One aim of the nomothetic approach
the ancient Greek idios, meaning ‘private or personal’. is to identify a universal set of variables that will underpin
Theorists, who adopt this approach in the main, are only the basic structure of human personality. We will visit this
interested in studying individuals one at a time. They see concept in considerably more detail when we look at trait
each person as having a unique personality structure. Dif- theorists (Chapter 7).
ferences between individuals are seen to be much greater There are advantages and drawbacks to each approach,
than the similarities. The possible differences are infinite. and we have summarised these in Figure 1.2.
Idiographic approaches produce a unique understanding of There is a long-standing debate about the relative merits
that individual’s personality. of idiographic versus nomothetic approaches; it applies to
The single case study method is generally the research many subject areas within psychology, not just to personal-
method of choice for idiographic approaches to personality ity theorising. A common issue for students, however, is
theorising. The aim is to develop an in-depth understand- remembering which is which. You may find it useful to
ing of a single individual. For example, Freud used the idi- remember ‘I’ for Idiographic and Individual.
ographic approach to study his patients. He developed a Two celebrated personality researchers, Charles
detailed description of each patient based on his observa- Carver and Michael Scheier, have discussed this issue
tions of that patient during treatment. He would make notes at some length. Carver and Scheier (2000) argue that
on the patient after each treatment session, reviewing and within personality theorising, the distinction between
revising his previous notes as his knowledge of the patient idiographic and nomothetic is not clear-cut. They argue
increased. He then wrote up the session notes as a clinical that psychologists adopting the nomothetic approach still
case study describing that particular patient. accept the uniqueness of individuals. However, they do
Idiographic approaches mainly use qualitative research not accept that there is an infinite number of personal-
methodologies, such as interviews, diaries, therapeutic ses- ity variables. They see that there is an underlying com-
sions or narratives, to collect data on an individual. Some mon structure of personality with an associated finite
personality theorists do not go beyond this focus on the number of personality variables. The uniqueness of the
individual, as they truly consider each person to be unique individual comes from their particular mix of variables
and deny the existence of types of personality. Others will from the finite set. It is how these personality variables
make some generalisations about human behaviour based are combined that makes each individual unique. Some
on studying a number of case studies. They may observe idiographic researchers also go beyond the focus purely
from a series of case studies that there are similarities in on the individual. They collect sets of case studies, for
the way that some individuals behave. Freud, for example, example, and then identify common themes across these
produced his personality theory based on his observations case studies. In this way, they can generate theories and
of dozens of patient case studies. The clinical case study make predictions that can be tested, often by using nomo-
approach has been used mainly by idiographic personality thetic approaches.
researchers.
In contrast, the nomothetic approach comes from the Describing personality
ancient Greek term for ‘law’ and is based on the assump-
tion that there exists a finite set of variables that can be used Individuals are described as having certain degrees of hap-
to describe human personality. The aim is to identify these piness, activity, assertiveness, neurosis, warmth, impulsive-
personality variables or traits that occur consistently across ness and so on. Physical descriptions, unlike lay definitions,
groups of people. Each individual can then be located are rarely included in psychological definitions. The focus
within this set of variables. By studying large groups of is on identifying psychological as opposed to physical char-
people on a particular variable, we can establish the aver- acteristics on which people differ. These characteristics are
age levels of that variable in particular age groups, or in measured in specific populations, and the mean (average)
men and women, and in this way produce group averages levels of occurrence are calculated. This might be done
 CHAPTER 1 PERSONALITY THEORY IN CONTEXT 9

Feature Idiographic Nomothetic

Strategy Emphasises the uniqueness of individuals Focuses on similarities between groups of individuals.
Individuals are unique only in the way their traits
combine
Goal To develop an in-depth understanding of the To identify the basic structure of personality and the
individual minimum number of traits required to describe
personality universally
Research Qualitative methodologies to produce case Quantitative methods to:
methodology studies mainly. Some generalisation across
series of case studies is possible ?? explore the structures of personality
produce measures of personality
? explore the relationships between variables
across groups
Data collection Interviews, diaries, narratives, treatment of Self-report personality questionnaires
session data
Advantages Depth of understanding of the individual Discovery of general principles that have a predictive
function
Disadvantages Can be difficult to make generalisations from Can lead to a fairly superficial understanding of
the data any one person. Training needed to analyse personality
profiles accurately

Figure 1.2 Comparison of idiographic and nomothetic approaches to the study of personality.

separately for men and women and for different age groups. behaviour in different situations. Personality characteristics
A study might, for example, give a mean level of anxiety in this way are enduring across different social contexts.
separately for men and women aged between 20 and 29, While it is accepted that individuals can and do
another for men and women aged between 30 and 39 and so change over time, there is a contention that personality is
on. These calculations give the population norms for that relatively stable over time. People may learn from their
particular characteristic. mistakes and change their behaviour; but the more pro-
Population norms represent the mean scores that particu- found the change, the longer it generally takes. Changing
lar groups of individuals score on a specific test. For exam- aspects of ourselves is typically not easy, as counsellors
ple, they allow you to compare the test score on anxiety for and therapists will attest. It tends to take considerable time
a woman between ages 20 and 29 with the mean levels for and effort for individuals to change aspects of themselves,
her age group of women. You can then conclude that her if indeed they are successful. Expert help is frequently
anxiety score was either above or below the average for her needed from counsellors or therapists before change is
age group as well as comparing her with other individuals achieved.
in your sample. This information gives profiles of individual Related to this contention is the fact that not all differ-
differences that are then frequently used to define types of ences between individuals are considered to be equally
personalities. As we shall see (Chapter 7), trait theorists fre- important by personality theorists. The English language
quently develop population norms. allows us to make fine distinctions between individu-
als. Another contribution made by Gordon Allport was to
identify the number of words in an English dictionary that
Distinctions and assertions in describe areas where individual differences are possible.
personality research In 1936, Allport and his colleague Odbert listed 18,000
such words, suggesting that over 4,500 of these appeared
Personality is perceived to be a relatively stable, enduring, to describe aspects of personality. Of course, many of these
important aspect of the self. People may act differently were synonyms. Psychologists, through their research over
in different situations, but personality will have a major time, have identified the personality characteristics that can
influence on their behaviour. For example, someone who be reliably assessed, where differences make most impact
is classified as being extravert will behave in a more out- on behaviour and are most consistent over time. These are
going fashion than a person who is introverted, regardless considered to be the important personality characteristics,
of the social situation. The differences in social behaviour and they are listed in Figure 1.3. The figure includes what
between the two will be observable whether they are at a are considered to be the major structures of personality and
party or a funeral tea. Personality characteristics in this way the main subdivisions within each. Observant readers may
are thought to exert a relatively consistent influence on note that the first letters of major structures make up the
10 PART 1 PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Openness to new experience: Feelings, Conscientiousness: Competence, Achieve-

Ideas, Values, Actions, Fantasy, Aesthetics ment striving, Self-discipline, Orderliness,
Dutifulness, Deliberation

Extraversion: Gregariousness, Activity level, Agreeableness: Trust, Altruism,

Assertiveness, Excitement seeking, Positive Straightforwardness, Compliance, Modesty,
emotions, Warmth Tender-mindedness

Neuroticism: Anxiety, Self-consciousness,

Depression, Vulnerability, Impulsiveness,
Angry hostility

Figure 1.3 Major and subdivisions of personality that can be reliably assessed.

word ‘OCEAN’, a useful mnemonic. You will learn more public persona. Personality goes beyond physical appear-
about these characteristics and the structure of personality ance and behaviour (public persona) and refers to what we
later (Chapter 7). see as the essence of the individual.
Personality theorists make a further distinction between
the overt, observable aspects of personality and the unob- Effects of personality versus
servable aspects of personality such as thoughts, memories situational effects
and dreams. This distinction was mentioned earlier. The
psychoanalytic theoretical school goes further, making a This is an appropriate point to alert you to a lack of con-
distinction between the conscious and unconscious aspects sensus among psychologists about the concept of per-
of personality. Specific drives or mechanisms of which the sonality. Some social psychologists, especially social
individual is unaware are thought to be influential in deter- deconstructionists, claim that it is the situation that largely
mining personality. From specific examples of behaviour or dictates how we behave, whereas personality theorists
habitual styles of behaving, the existence of these personal- argue that individual personality plays a crucial role in
ity characteristics in the individual are inferred. For exam- shaping our behaviour whatever the situation. Individuals
ple, the young woman who always seems to have boyfriends do behave differently in different situations. We may be
who are very much older than her would be described, in confident and outgoing in some situations and less sure of
Freudian terms, as being motivated by an unconscious wish ourselves and more retiring in other situations, but it is not
for a father figure – or at least the properties in a boyfriend simply the situation that influences our behaviour. Even
that she associates with father figures. She wants someone in what are described as highly socially proscribed situ-
to look after her. In terms of her personality, she is seen to ations – that is, situations where the behavioural choices
be lacking in independence. In this way some theories focus open to individuals are limited as there are rules that have
much more on the unobservable influences of personality, to be followed – individual differences in behaviour can
as will become apparent as you progress through the text. be observed. A good example here is a student graduation
A further distinction is often made between what is ceremony.
called the individual’s private persona and his/her public The university largely dictates the dress code, and stu-
persona. The private persona is conceptualised as being dents are instructed to follow well-rehearsed procedures.
the ‘real’ inner person, while the public persona is the way They mount the platform when their name is called, cross
that individuals present themselves to the outside world. the platform, shake hands with the university chancellor
Measures of personality and theoretical explanations are and so on. There seems to be little opportunity for indi-
considered to define the persona. That is, they describe the vidual differences in behaviour to emerge, but emerge
kind of person that the individual really is, despite the social they do. One student rushes eagerly onto the platform,
pressures on them to behave in particular ways in various turns to the audience and waves at her family and friends,
social settings. It is this social pressure that involves the smiles at the chancellor and acknowledges the staff on
 CHAPTER 1 PERSONALITY THEORY IN CONTEXT 11

Though we know we are all

unique, personality suggests we
share common characteristics.
Source: Christian Hartmann/Reuters/
Alamy Stock Photo

the stage. The next student hesitantly mounts the stage, Measurement issues
keeps his head down and scuttles across the stage, barely
stopping to shake the chancellor’s hand, and so on. We The methods of measuring important personality characteris-
observe the first student to be outgoing, confident, some- tics have to be reliable. This is obviously important if you are
one who enjoys the limelight. The second student is seen going to use personality tests to assess individuals for training
as less confident, shy and somewhat anxious in social or further education or as a tool to aid staff recruitment in an
situations. These differences in behaviour, even in such organisation. With the organisational example, you need to
a highly structured situation, are seen to be due to dif- identify which factors are relevant to performance within the
ferences in the personalities of the two individuals. Most specific organisational context, whether these can be consist-
psychologists would accept that most behaviour results ently and reliably measured, and whether they are relatively
from an interaction between the effects of personality and enduring over time. It is not a simple exercise, as the example
the dictates of the situation. We will return to this debate on occupational testing in ‘Stop and think: Occupational test-
in some detail when we consider the work of Walter Mis- ing’ demonstrates. We shall return to issues of assessment
chel (Chapter 4). later, as it is a critical area for psychologists to get right.

Stop and think

Occupational testing
Many organisations now use psychometric testing as part decide which nurses should be offered jobs in the new
of employee selection. The underlying principles are sim- hospital and which will be made redundant. In order to
ple. If we know the demands made by a job in terms of ensure a fair process, and recruitment of the best staff,
personality and abilities, then we can test individuals and he decides to use psychometric testing. He himself has
match them against the job requirements. It is estimated recently undergone psychometric testing when he was
that somewhere between 50 and 80 per cent of compa- promoted. He locates a test on the Internet that claims
nies use some form of testing to select their employees. to measure positive emotions, assertiveness, warmth,
Testing should help to improve job selection, but there activity level and gregariousness. These seem to him to
are dangers. Consider the following example. be admirable qualities for nurses. Administering the test
An old private hospital is being closed down. Patients proves to be complex but, as he lives quite near the hos-
are being transferred to a new purpose-built private hos- pital, he drops in on several mornings. He manages to
pital nearby. Unfortunately, there are not enough jobs in test the night-shift workers when they finish their shift
the new hospital for all the nurses at the old hospital to and the day workers just before they start their shift. A
be offered employment. A senior manager is asked to few staff have been missed, however, so he sends them
12 PART 1 PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

the questionnaire to complete at home and return to him while other tests were administered at the start of the
by post. shift. Other nurses received the test by post and com-
Based on their high scores on the questionnaire, some pleted it unsupervised.
nurses are offered jobs in the new hospital and others The hospital also has no idea whether they have cho-
are made redundant. Some of the redundancy nurses sen to retain the most able staff. The test that the manager
then raise the issue with their union, which seeks advice used is a measure of the personality trait of extraversion,
from an occupational psychologist and a lawyer. Com- and its relevance to the role of nurse has not been estab-
plaints are made on the grounds that the manager is not lished. The repercussions from badly conceived personal-
a trained tester, the test is extremely inappropriate as it ity testing can be very serious. It is crucial that tests are
does not assess the required characteristics, and the test- not biased in terms of ages, gender, different ethnicities,
ing conditions were different for different nurses. Some disability, learning disability, etc. Developing and admin-
nurses were tested when tired, at the end of a night shift, istering psychometric tests demands a high level of skill.

Stop and think

Personality theorising of the Ancient Greeks
The Ancient Greek philosopher and teacher Aristotle One of the Greek Stoic philosophers, Epictetus (ad
(384–23 bce) was the first person to write about individual 55–135), wrote extensively on the characteristics and actions
differences in character and how these relate to behav- that lead to achieving a happy life. He wrote about the impor-
iour. He suggested that personality characteristics, such as tance of characteristics like imperturbability, not having a pas-
modesty, vanity and cowardice, determined how moral or sionate nature, being motivated by virtue not vice and so on.
immoral individuals were. He was very interested in how human beings become upset,
A student of Aristotle’s called Theophrastus (371– and he concluded that ‘Men are disturbed not by things, but
287 bce) went further in his description of personality by their perception of things’. This quotation is still relevant in
characteristics by describing 30 personality types. current clinical personality theorising, as we shall see.

Strands of personality theorising the method of introspection outlined in the ‘Stop and think’
box. Philosophers continued to speculate on human nature
There are two distinct strands to theorising about personal- and man’s relationship with God throughout the Middle
ity, stemming from the original research on the topic. The Ages.
first is the clinical strand that has developed from studies In terms of the psychological study of personality, it was
of the mentally ill. The second is the individual differences in the clinical area that the first developments occurred. As
strand, focusing initially on documenting differences. Later a result of the scientific revolution of the late seventeenth
this approach led to the statistical analyses of individual and eighteenth centuries, great advances in our knowledge
differences. of physiology occurred with parallel advances in medi-
cine. There was enormous interest in the study of what was
described as madness, and different treatment methods were
The clinical approach and its history being tried.
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), a Viennese physi-
Freud is frequently credited as the founding father of the clin- cian, developed a treatment based initially on the power of
ical strand of personality theory. However, interest in study- magnets. He believed that all living beings have a magnetic
ing human personality predates Freud. The Ancient Greeks fluid flowing through them and that from time to time the
produced the first recorded discourses on human personality flow gets disturbed. Blockages of the flow could be appar-
characteristics in the fourth century bce. Some of the major ent in physical or mental illnesses. Applying magnets to
contributions from these philosophers are described in ‘Stop different parts of the body, Mesmer claimed, would unblock
and think: Personality theorising of the Ancient Greeks’. the flow and return the individual to good health. Later,
This early work was based largely on philosophers’ while still using magnets, Mesmer claimed that some indi-
reflections on their own behaviour and thought processes, viduals have greater natural magnetism than others and that
 CHAPTER 1 PERSONALITY THEORY IN CONTEXT 13

this magnetism itself could be used to cure other people. was not yet in vogue. The theory became extremely popular
He treated people in groups in a dimly lit, carpeted room. in Victorian England. There were many public lectures and
His patients held hands in a circle around a tub of magnet- demonstrations, which served to introduce many sections of
ised water, called a baquet. Mesmer, wearing a long cloak, British society to these new psychological ideas about char-
would enter the room dramatically waving a sword. He acter differences. However, developments in physiology
claimed that his animal magnetism was enough to cure his did not lend support to phrenology, although the approach
patients. Many patients reported that his treatment worked. remained popular for a long time, especially with the public.
What we now know is that Mesmer was using the drama of The British Phrenological Society was only disbanded in
the setting, and his own powers of suggestion, in complex 1967, owing to a lack of interest.
ways to psychologically influence his patients. This was, The major advance in psychological research in individ-
in fact, a forerunner of hypnosis, and Mesmer is seen as an ual differences was caused by the work of Francis Galton at
important figure in the history of hypnosis. To him we owe the end of the nineteenth century; his work is outlined in the
the term ‘mesmerised’. He also acknowledged that there ‘Profile’ box below. Galton is acknowledged as being the
were individual differences in animal magnetism as well as founder of research on individual differences. He developed
in the ability of individuals to be mesmerised. a range of measures of intelligence, aptitudes and attitudes
In the course of these developments in mental illness, and, most crucially, the statistical techniques that could be
a new, more technical language of mind began to develop. used to analyse this data. Galton also developed the first
The physiologists and the medics, by labelling the phenom- questionnaires and outlined statistical methods for ensuring
ena they were identifying, began to create some of what their reliability. By collecting very large data sets from gen-
later became the language of psychology as we know it eral population samples, he produced standardised norma-
today. They also created the culture that made the scientific tive values for a range of measures. Galton’s work provided
study of the human mind increasingly acceptable and even the statistical tools of analysis that allowed the scientific
desirable. investigation and analysis of individual differences. From
The developments in mental health also created a this early work, the modern study of individual differences
demand to know more about how to define individuals so developed.
that they could be managed better in institutional settings
such as mental asylums and prisons. It is from this tradi-
tion that Freud and the psychoanalytic school emerged. We
Current conceptualisations of
will continue with this strand of theorising later in the text individual differences
(Chapter 2).
A common current view of individual differences is that
the approach considers an area, or perspective, in psychol-
Individual differences’ emphasis on ogy and then incorporates the idea of individual differences
personality and its history within it. In other words, any psychological perspective,
such as cognitive psychology, creates a theory of behaviour
The developments in medicine linked to the scientific revo- that describes how everyone acts. Individual differences
lution again provided the impetus for research on individ- approaches are then used to explain why an individual may
ual differences in personality. A Swiss priest called Johann not necessarily fit a particular theory exactly. This type of
Casper Lavater, working in the second half of the eighteenth individual differences approach is best described by Colin
century, described a theory linking facial features with char- Cooper (1998). He argues that all other major perspectives
acter traits. He termed his theory physiognomy. He made and theories of psychology are not only based on generali-
some detailed predictions, including ‘as are the lips so is the sations about how people behave but also assume that peo-
character’ and ‘the more the chin, the more the man’. Dr Gall, ple are all much the same. However, these assumptions do
a Viennese physician, further developed Lavater’s ideas. Dur- not take into account our everyday experiences that people
ing the 1790s Dr Gall carried out research in the hospitals are essentially different, or at least vary from one another.
and mental asylums in Vienna, where he developed what he After all, most of us are proud of our individual idiosyn-
called craniology (later labelled phrenology). The theory crasies, and we would not like to be thought of as exact
hypothesised that different human functions were located in replications of each other. However, within many psychol-
different structures within the brain. It was suggested that the ogy perspectives, individual theories are often generated to
relative size of these structures or areas was reflected in the apply to everyone within a particular population.
shape of the cranium. Gall claimed that an individual’s char- Cooper gives us several examples; one is developmen-
acter could be determined from the shape of his/her cranium. tal psychology, in which theory describes how people are
This can be conceptualised as the first personality theory expected to develop and go through certain stages in their
of the scientific revolution, although the term ‘personality’ life in similar ways. However, in reality, some people never
Discovering Diverse Content Through
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Over the top of an ancient, dilapidated lumber barge just a short
distance away the boys caught sight of the roof of a curious-looking
craft.
“Rah—rah!” cried Tom, as Jack broke into a run.
“The ‘Gray Gull,’ fellows.”
These words had the desired effect; even Dave began to sprint, and
presently the crowd, hot and perspiring, came to a halt upon a small,
wooden wharf.
Quite unnecessarily, Jack pointed toward a solid, substantial house-
boat which lay at the end. A bit of bunting suspended from a pole
hung limp, making the white letters on a blue ground quite
undecipherable.
“Isn’t that a dandy?” demanded Jack, with enthusiasm.
“I should say so,” answered Bob.
The house-boat was provided with a deck that extended about three
feet in front of the cabin. The interior was roomy and comfortable,
and contained bunks, several chairs, a table, cooking stove, lockers
for their supplies, and various wooden pegs upon which to hang
clothes. A bench ran around two sides. Four windows admitted light,
and, as its former owner had been a man of rather fastidious tastes,
neat curtains helped to give the interior a pleasant, homelike
appearance.
“Fall on board, and get out of this heat,” said Jack.
He leaped lightly to the deck, threw open a door, and the others
quickly followed.
“There’s plenty of room, fellows,” said Jack. “Now, really, aren’t you
going with us?”
“I’d like to the worst way,” cried Tommy.
“So should I,” admitted Bob.
“This cozy interior appeals to me,” said Dave, slowly. “My
compliments to the man who had sense enough to buy this chair.”
He sighed contentedly. “On a nice moonlight night——”
“You’d get enough inspirations for two volumes of poems,” laughed
Bob. “The gurgle and lament of restless waves, and all that sort of
thing—what’s that?”
“It’s Joe Preston!” yelled Jack; “here he comes, with the others. Oh,
Joe—here we are, old chap. Hello!”
A stamping of feet on the wharf and the sound of lusty voices which
had called forth this outburst was followed by several yells of
greeting. Then the “Gray Gull” was jarred from stem to stern by three
distinct and separate shocks.
“A waterquake,” grinned Tommy. “Yes, they’re here, all right.”
“Beat us, after all, you old scamp.”
A rather short and chunky, dark-haired lad uttered these words, as
he stepped inside, his movements materially assisted by a vigorous
push from behind.
“Joe Preston, fellows,” announced Jack.
Two other lads were now standing inside the door. The introductions
which followed were of a most informal kind. Aleck Hunt was a
square-shouldered, blue-eyed boy, while Fred Winter, the tallest of
the trio, looked quite solemn and studious, and his appearance
indicated his general character.
There was a great amount of noise and confusion in the “Gray
Gull’s” cabin until all had found places.
“Here’s where Somers and Winter meet,” gurgled Jack.
“Not bad—for you,” laughed Joe. “Say, Ramblers, Jack’s been
talking an awful lot about you lately. Let’s hear——”
“I knew it,” grinned Bob. “Dave, it’s your turn now.”
And the stout boy, lolling back in his chair, obligingly answered a
volley of questions.
Half an hour later Joe Preston exclaimed:
“That settles it! You fellows will simply have to go with us.”
“And I almost believe we shall,” laughed Bob.
The cabin shook with applause.
“Where on earth should we have been but for Mr. Marshall’s
engine?” said Aleck.
“On the water,” gurgled Joe.
“It ought to be here to-morrow morning,” went on Aleck, scorning to
notice Joe’s flippancy. “To-day’s Monday; let’s see—Tuesday,
Wednesday—Thursday we ought to start; and——”
“Dash madly up the Hudson at about three miles an hour,” laughed
Jack. “Say! Who’s going to do the cooking?”
“Oh, I heard such a bully story to-day,” interrupted Aleck Hunt. “It
was about—let me see—oh, yes; I remember——”
“Never mind the story. You can’t get out of cooking that way.”
“Honest—I don’t believe I could even boil water,” pleaded Aleck.
“We’re all feeling pretty well just now, and it wouldn’t do to take any
risks, you know. Now Joe——”
“Who said I could cook?” demanded Joe, arching his eyebrows. “If
you had mentioned Fred——”
“Yes; I’ll do it the very first day,” declared Fred, eagerly.
But Jack looked at him with a suspicious smile, and winked.
“Oh, no, my boy,” he said; “we’ll take turns; but yours won’t come the
first day. How about that story of yours, Aleck?”
“Won’t tell it now,” grumbled Aleck. “Hello! Who’s that out there?”
Some one had jumped on the deck of the boat. Next instant, the
door swung partly open and a man peered in. He was a large,
strong-looking man, and, as he pushed the door open wider, the
boys saw that he carried a basket.
“Mornin’, gents!” he said, in a very hoarse voice. “I was purty sure I
heard some one in here. Any of you want to buy a purp? I’ve got the
likeliest little fellers you ever see. Not one of ’em but hain’t got a
pedigree.” And he plunged his hand into the basket and drew forth a
small, wriggling puppy which voiced a protest to such a proceeding
in a plaintive wail.
“Look at ’em, gents. Seventy-five cents; an’ take your choice—a
bargain.” He dropped the first specimen back, then took out another
and held it up at arm’s length. “Ain’t it handsome—now, I asks you?”
“Never saw such an ugly pup in my life,” answered Joe Preston.
“It isn’t very much on shape,” laughed Jack Lyons.
“Shape?” The man’s tone was reproachful. “Well, maybe it ain’t the
purtiest-lookin’ dorg you ever see jist now, but I miss my guess if that
ain’t what it grows up to be. Not one of ’em but hain’t got a pedigree.
Now, gents, which one is it?”
“Let’s get a mascot for our trip,” remarked Joe Preston. “It’ll be lots of
fun.”
“That it will, gents. Goin’ over to Europe?” And the big man grinned.
“Maybe—if we can reach Jersey first,” answered Jack. “Hurry up,
fellows; pick out our mascot. My choice is the largest and fiercest of
the bunch.”
One with a very black spot on its nose and a very white spot on each
foot was finally chosen and placed on the table.
“You won’t never regret a-takin’ of ’im, gents,” said the man, as he
turned to leave. “He’s got as good a pedigree as any of ’em.”
“There’s one thing we might have done, Jack,” said Fred, solemnly,
when they were again alone.
“What’s that?”
“Hired that fellow for a fog-horn.”
“He has the voice for it, all right,” laughed Jack. “Now what’s to be
the name of this fierce purp?”
“Confuse-us,” suggested Joe.
“Confuse-us?” chorused the others.
“Sure! He was a Chinese philosopher. Never hear of him?”
“Oh, my, oh, my,” snickered Jack; “that’s a good one. Ha, ha! You
mean Confucius.”
“Oh, what’s the difference?” said Joe. “Confuse-us has about the
same number of letters in it. Quit your laughing, Fred Winter.”
“But I don’t see the connection,” gurgled Aleck.
“Call him Confuse-us, because he isn’t a Chinese philosopher, that’s
why,” said Joe, calmly. “And, besides, doesn’t he look confused?”
Jack laughed, and so did the others.
“It’s as good a name for him as any other,” said Fred.
And so the matter was settled.
“Now we have a mascot and an engine,” said Jack. “Hooray! I can
hardly wait for the chug-chug to begin.”
 CHAPTER II
THE ENGINE
Next morning, bright and early, the boys again met at the house-
boat. The weather still continued hot, with scarcely a breeze to ripple
the surface of the river. The glassy expanse reflected the clear blue
sky above; occasionally tugs and other passing craft sent long swells
rolling shoreward, to break with a complaining gurgle against the
sides of the boat. Smoke and steam drifted lazily upward; and the
glare of sunlight made any bit of shade refreshing.
Jack Lyons and Dave Brandon had each brought with him a
package, Dave’s quite long and Jack’s square. These excited a great
deal of comment.
But, with a stubbornness that aroused their companions’ curiosity to
the highest pitch, both refused to divulge the nature of their contents
until the house-boat was entered. Then, as they stood in the cabin,
Joe Preston spoke up:
“For goodness’ sake, fellows, let’s see what you have.”
Dave smiled in a superior sort of way.
“All right, Joe—here goes; we had this with us out west.” And, as the
others crowded around, he untied the long package.
“Gee whiz—a telescope!” cried Joe. “I was always going to get one.”
Joe was noted for his consistent intention to do something which
somebody else always did first.
“A beauty,” put in Aleck. “Let’s have a squint through it.”
“And won’t it be dandy to look at the stars!” chimed in Winter, the
studious one. “Bully for you, Dave. Now, Jack, what’s in the other?”
“Jiminy, doesn’t the bridge look near?” cried Aleck, leveling the
telescope through the open door. “Seems as if we were right on top
of it. And that little boat over there isn’t little—it’s big, and—say—
what’s this?”
Jack was holding up a small, framed picture.
“What do you think of that, fellows?” he asked, proudly. “I made it
myself. Didn’t know I could paint, eh?”
“Best picture of a hat I ever saw,” declared Joe. “Don’t know just
what style it is, but——”
“A hat?” A rather sad smile curled Jack’s lips. “A hat?” His voice
quite lost its accustomed cheeriness. “Why, that’s the house-boat—
our house-boat, you blundering pirate.”
“Why—er—honest—but now I can see it,” grinned Joe, with a wink at
nothing in particular. “Oh, yes, I was too far away. There’s the roof
——”
“And deck,” chimed in Fred, forgetting his usual solemnity, and vainly
trying to stifle a gurgle.
“And you can even read the name,” laughed Aleck. “All done by
hand, too. The water’s great.”
“It ought to be—it’s in water-color, isn’t it?” inquired Joe. “Hang it up,
Jack. Never thought you could do anything like that,” and, as Jack
looked at him suspiciously, he hastened to add, “Anything so good, I
mean.”
“And now let’s have the tube that makes little boats turn into big
boats,” said Fred, when the painting had been placed in a prominent
position.
For an hour the lads amused themselves with the telescope, and
watching the antics of “Confuse-us,” and then began to grow
impatient, fearing that some delay might prevent the engine from
reaching them that day.
Then a voice outside caused Jack to spring up.
“It’s Jim Benton,” he said, as a hail reached their ears.
The machinist, with a bag of tools, clambered on board.
“Hello, Jack!” he said. “Hello, boys! Where’s your engine?”
“Over in Jersey, I’ll bet,” answered Jack, in a disgusted tone. “Sit
down, Jim. What do you think of this—great, eh?”
“It’s swell, that’s what it is,” said Jim, slowly, as he looked around.
“Fine as most any room in town. Bless me! Wish’t I was a youngster
ag’in. I’d go with you.”
“They said the engine would be here this morning,” grumbled Jack.
“Well, the morning ain’t half over yet,” said Jim, consolingly. “Ain’t
this here b’ilin’ weather, though?”
He settled himself comfortably on the bench, and prepared to take a
good, long rest.
The morning passed. Jim ate his lunch, while the boys wandered off
in search of the nearest store. When they returned, hot and tired, the
wharf wore a deserted look.
Jim and “Confusion,” as Fred Winter had taken the liberty of calling
the pup, were taking a nap, but both promptly awoke when Joe
Preston hit the door a resounding bang with his fist.
“Sorry,” mumbled Joe, apologetically. “Such things will happen on
house-boats.”
About three o’clock, when hope had been given up, a two-horse
team rumbled over the wharf, and Jack gave a loud cheer.
“Hooray, fellows, it’s here,” he announced.
Then a wild scramble to be the first off the boat followed, greatly to
the terror of young Confuse-us.
“I feel thirsty ’nuff to drink the hull river,” announced the driver, as he
stepped down. “That’s a purty heavy injine. Wish I had a piece of
gold as big. Where d’ye want it put?”
“On the boat,” said Winter, solemnly.
“All right! Git up there! Whoa, boy! Gee-eee. Give me lots of room,
you kids. Gee-ee—whoa! If it bumps like that again, I’ll look to see it
go right through the bottom.”
When the interesting moment arrived, and preparations to unload the
heavy boxes had been completed, six newcomers, apparently
having sprung from nowhere, stood around and watched the
proceedings with all the interest which spectators generally show.
The seven boys and two men, after a great deal of tugging and
perspiring and straining of muscles, succeeded in sliding several
boxes down a pair of heavy planks to the house-boat. Then a block
and tackle and a number of thick timbers were thrown on top, and
the wagon rattled off.
The way Jack and his friends ripped and tore apart the boxes would
have been an inspiring sight to some lazy boys. They forgot the heat,
labor—everything; and never paused until a pile suitable for kindling
wood lay on the wharf.
“That was done fast, all right,” observed Jim, mopping his brow.
“Say, if my boss was to see anything like that, he’d wonder what he
was payin’ me for. Well, now, that engine is a mighty fine one.”
“We’re ready to get busy in earnest,” said Jack, impatiently.
“You’ll have to. There’s a whole lot of measurements we’ll need; and
it’s got to be done just right, you know.”
“Fire away,” was Jack’s eager reply.
“Wal,” said Jim, reflectively, walking out on deck, “we can’t do the
work here. That tree over there is just about in the right place; an’
here’s the block an’ tackle. We’ll pass a rope ’round the whole
shootin’ match. Ye’re a strong-lookin’ lot, an’ it won’t take long.”
“You bet it won’t,” said Bob Somers.
Ropes were quickly untied. Then the boys set vigorously to work with
long sweeps, and soon succeeded in propelling the unwieldy boat
toward a shelving beach.
With Jim’s aid, the heavy block and tackle was rigged to the tree, the
rope passed around the house-boat, and the five took hold.
“A long pull, a strong pull, an’ a pull all together,” commanded Jim.
“Let ’er go!”
They tugged and pulled, while the perspiration poured from them in
streams, and, after long and earnest efforts, the stern of the “Gray
Gull” was drawn up upon the beach.
“Now, what’s to be done?” cried Jack.
But it was several moments before Jim felt capable of replying. He
sighed, rubbed his aching muscles, and at length said, with
exasperating slowness, “You see that there stern-post in the middle?
Wal, a hole’s got to be bored in it for the shaft.”
“All right,” said Jack. “Where shall we place the engine?”
“We’ll make a bed frame on the cross-beams below the deck. Have
to tear up the plankin’ a bit.”
“What else?” asked Jack.
“That’s all for the present. Take it easy; a month from now you’ll forgit
how much time ye spent on puttin’ it in.” And with these words of
wisdom Jim clambered aboard, drew out his rule, and began to take
measurements.
“Right here,” he said, marking a square on the floor in the rear part of
the cabin, “ye kin take up them boards.”
The boys worked with a vim, using saw and hatchet, and soon a
large opening in the planking revealed the cross-beams beneath.
Then they stood aside, while Jim indicated where cuttings and
borings had to be made.
“Make the frame right in place?” asked Joe.
“Sure! I’m ready now to set in a couple of them there beams. It’s
goin’ to be a good, solid foundation for the bed plate.”
Jack and Joe sawed two heavy pieces of timber to the required
length, and then bored holes for the bolts.
“Tote ’em in now,” commanded Jim.
Following the mechanic’s directions, the boys soon had the pieces
resting at the proper distance apart on the cross-beams; and Jim,
after considerable labor, succeeded in bolting them securely in
place.
“Now for a couple o’ crosspieces,” he added, with a sigh of
satisfaction.
“Solid as a rock,” declared the mechanic at length, testing the
timbers with his foot. “Get the bed plate, an’ bolt it down.”
When this was done, the five took a well-earned rest; but it was for
only a few moments.
“Now we’ll lower the engine into place, fellows,” said Jack, jumping
to his feet.
By means of an inclined board and ropes, this was done; and Jim
began to verify his previous measurements.
“I got the angle o’ the propeller shaft just right, lads,” he announced,
holding a stick from the engine to a mark he had made on the stern-
post. “The propeller o’ course has to be a sufficient distance below
the water level.”
“Won’t be much pitch to that shaft, eh?” said Jack.
“No! I made it the least I could,” answered the mechanic, wiping his
face. “Too much makes the boat lose speed.”
“I’ll bore the hole in the stern-post,” volunteered Jack.
“Make it this size,” explained Jim, handing the boy an auger. “It’s
large enough to give a clearance around the shaft.”
Jim watched the boy carefully, as the hole had to be bored at exactly
the right angle. Several times he tested the slant with a long, straight
piece of wood, and by this means accuracy was assured.
No sooner had the task been accomplished than Jim straightened
himself up, and took out his watch.
“Not another stroke to-night, young uns,” he said. “It’s gittin’ on to six
o’clock, and——”
“Goodness gracious!” exclaimed Jack. “It seems as if we hadn’t
worked any time, doesn’t it? Slow job, eh?”
Jim looked pained.
“That’s a fine way to talk,” he grumbled; “an’ me with about twenty
different kind o’ aches and pains.”
Jack slapped him on the back, and laughed. “Cheer up, old man.
Now mind you get here early to-morrow morning; and we’ll finish the
job in great shape.”
“An’ me, too, I guess,” sighed Jim.
Time has a stubborn way of moving slowly when the reverse is
desired; and Joe insisted that on the following morning the sun rose
fifty minutes late and that the hours were at least twenty minutes too
long; and Jack said he was right.
But in spite of time’s apparent slowness, the seven boys at length
found themselves again on the house-boat.
After an hour of tedious waiting Jim Benton slowly approached.
“Here already?” he asked, with pretended surprise.
Some very scornful and indignant looks rewarded him; and Jim
chuckled as he stepped aboard the house-boat.
“Now,” he said, “we won’t fasten nothin’ down till it’s tested from A to
Z.”
“What comes first?” inquired Joe.
“Push the propeller shaft through the hole in the stern-post; then if
she fits, we’ll bolt the stuffing box in place.”
“What’s a stuffing box?” asked Joe.
“I know what a stuffing boy is,” laughed Aleck, as he pointed to a
sandwich from which the other was taking huge bites.
“A metal cylinder fittin’ over the shaft,” explained Jim. “It’s filled with
packin’ to keep out the water. Jack, you’re a hustler. Bet you’d never
work that hard for your livin’, though.”
When the shaft had been put in place, a coupling was attached to
the end, and this in turn bolted to a similar coupling on the engine.
“Pretty good work,” commented Jim. “Now we’ll screw on the
propeller; and then back to the water it goes.”
The gasoline tank was installed; then the batteries, spark coil, spark
plugs and carburetor; and their work now required only testing.
“Bully job,” declared Jack, enthusiastically.
“Know how the engine works?” asked Jim, stopping to wipe a very
grimy face.
“Sure thing, Jim,” laughed Jack. “This way: a mixture of gasoline
vapor and air is drawn into the cylinder from the carburetor; the
spark plug ignites it, and the piston is forced downward.”
“It’s a number of explosions, one after another,” put in Fred Winter,
solemnly.
“The only thing I know about it is this,” said Joe, with a grin; “when
the engine makes a noise, it’s going; and when it doesn’t, it’s
stopped.”
“Why doesn’t it explode straight ahead?” asked Aleck.
Jim Benton laughed heartily.
“’Cause the battery connection is broken, young un,” he said. “An
automatic arrangement lets a spark shoot across at just the right
instant.”
“Oh, I see,” said Aleck.
All but Jim Benton found it very hard to stop work.
“I’m awful glad none of you fellers ain’t my boss,” he said, dryly. “I
ain’t worked like this for many a day. Yes, I’ve ordered a tank o’
gasoline; an’ it ought to be here pretty soon.”
The fuel, however, was late in arriving; so, leaving Joe in charge, the
others set off to see about provisions for the trip. Jim Benton
accompanied them.
“Don’t see why they asked me to stay,” grumbled Joe, dangling his
legs over the wharf. “Gee whiz, here comes the stuff now.”
A wagon drew up.
“Hey!” said the driver.
“Hey yourself!” said Joe, pleasantly. “Trot off your old gasoline.”
“All right, bub!” And the man began unloading a number of cans.
Joe soon had these aboard the “Gray Gull,” and then began filling
the tank. But a little labor went a great way with Joe, and he quickly
tired. The attraction offered by his lunch box was not to be resisted.
“Must be enough in the old thing to take us to Albany,” he grumbled.
“I’ll put in some more to-night.”
When the boys appeared he greeted them by exclaiming:
“Everything’s all right, fellows.”
“Gasoline in the tank, too?” asked Jack, with satisfaction.
“You bet.”
“Shove off. We’ll soon find out how the engine works.”
A loud, long cheer went up as the fly-wheel began to revolve.
“Hooray!” yelled Jack. “Isn’t this great?”
“Going like a thing o’ life,” grinned Joe.
“Speed ’most makes a fellow dizzy,” smiled Bob.
“The only thing I’m surprised at is to find the boat going at all,”
remarked Dave Brandon, staring solemnly at the water.
After skirting the shore for a short distance Jim swung the boat
around, and she slowly chugged her way back to the starting-point.
“It’s all in good shape, young uns,” he remarked, with a smile of
satisfaction. “Wish’t I was going along.”
“Mighty glad it’s been decided that we house-boat it,” chirped Tom.
“Dandy fun. I’m glad your father didn’t object, Bob.”
“Bet you’ll scrap about the bunks,” said Jim.
“Not on your life.” Tom Clifton laughed. “Why, we’ll just roll ourselves
up in blankets and flop down in any old corner.”
“Don’t you Ramblers ever sleep in beds?” queried Jim, with a wink.
“Only sometimes,” answered Tom, loftily.
“Then we’ll start on our trip to-morrow,” declared Jack Lyons,
enthusiastically.
“To-morrow,” sighed Joe, “is an awful long way off.”
 CHAPTER III
“ALL ABOARD!”
Time did, indeed, seem to move with exasperating slowness. None
of the impatient boys slept very well that night, and each arose next
morning almost with the sun.
At an early hour, a group had assembled on the ordinarily deserted
wharf. There were, of course, all the boys, Mr. John Lyons, Sr., Mr.
George Somers, Bob’s father, little Bobby Lyons, Jack’s brother, and
Mr. Montague Winter, besides other near and distant relatives.
Mr. Lyons, jolly and smiling, examined every corner of the boat, gave
bits of useful advice, and sought to allay the fears of Mr. Winter.
“I don’t consider it a very safe trip,” exclaimed the latter, nervously.
“There is danger of their being run down by the big boats.”
“But, my dear sir, they have eyes to look out for such dangers.”
“Then, again, the Hudson is no mill-pond, and in case of storms——”
“Depend upon it, the boys will be safely anchored near shore,”
laughed Mr. Lyons. “Jack has promised me to be careful.”
“They will have to stop over night in some pretty lonely localities, and
rough characters may molest them.”
Mr. Somers smiled.
“I do not think you need have any fears, Mr. Winter,” he said,
reassuringly. “Jack and his friends are old enough to look out for
themselves, Bob is used to boats, and a trip of this sort should do
them a world of good.”
“Let us hope so, at any rate,” said Fred’s father, still a trifle nervously.
The seven boys were dressed for solid comfort, and had brought
with them boots, leggins and sweaters. The first flush of excitement
over, it was noticed that Fred Winter wore a broad-brimmed felt hat
of uncertain age.
“I say——” whispered Joe. “Why?”
“I’m not going to get my face burned to a blister—that’s why. You’ll
catch it from the sun and reflections in the water. Better chuck those
caps away, and——”
“Oh, that peaches and cream complexion!” gurgled Joe.
The supreme moment had come. The near and distant relatives
poured forth a steady stream of advice and admonition. Several
curious loungers, all wearing broad grins, added a word now and
then, and the boys had their own troubles in trying to hear as little as
possible.
“All aboard!” commanded Jack.
At last the captain of the house-boat was actually casting off the
lines.
Little Bobby Lyons almost danced with excitement.
“Jack, Jack—don’t forget that letter you’re going to send me,” he
called. “And, Jack, be sure to—oh, dear, there’s something else I
wanted to say to you, and—I can’t think of it.”
“Send a message by wireless,” laughed Joe. “Everything clear,
Jack? That’s good! Now start ’er going.”
“Looks like Miles Standish’s cabin,” remarked a bystander.
“Them there lads has plenty of go,” said another.
“That’s more’n the boat will ever have,” grinned a third.
It was an interesting moment. Captain Jack’s hand rested on the fly-
wheel, and he looked at his chums.
“Quick, give it a turn!” cried Joe, with suspense in his tone.
Jack obeyed, and a series of rapid reports immediately followed,
bringing forth a round of cheers.
No music could have sounded sweeter to the boys than the chug-
chug which was carried away on the breeze.
As the house-boat slowly swung out into the stream, the seven
shouted again. Good-byes shot back and forth; Mr. Lyons, Mr.
Somers and Mr. Winter waved their hands; the loungers shouted and
laughed—the voyage was begun.
“Isn’t this immense?” said Jack, gleefully, as he turned on full power.
“Bet some of those chaps on the wharf wish they were going. What’s
that, Joe? Sure, we’ll cross the Hudson—get right over to the Jersey
side. Keep your eyes open, fellows,—we don’t want to sink any
steamers.”
“Keep a sharp watch for icebergs,” said Bob. “Remember the
‘Titanic.’”
“Look at the land skipping by,” cried Fred. “Bet we’re going all of
three miles an hour.”
The blue water lapped and gurgled against the boat, and a gentle
breeze tempered the heat. White clouds were slowly passing across
the sky, and shadows chased each other over land and water. To
their left rose Washington Heights, and to the right another ridge of
hills was outlined against the sky. Houses dotted the landscape, and
smoke stained and streaked the horizon.
“Ja-ck, Jaa-ck!” came floating over the air; “Jaaa-ck!”
“What’s up now?” cried Jack. “Wonder what little Bobby wants.”
“Ja-a-a-ck,—Ja-a-a-a-ck!”
“Better swing around, and see,” counseled Bob Somers.
“Ja-a-a-a-ck, Ja-a-a-a-a-ck!”
“Whee, what a howl!” said Aleck.
“Settles it, anyway,” laughed Jack, as he followed Bob’s advice.
Laboriously the “Gray Gull” began to turn around, and was finally
headed for the wharf. The figures on it began to grow more distinct.
Then came Bobby’s shrill voice again:
“Jack, I remember now what I wanted—send me some picture postal
cards.”
And Joe slapped Jack on the back; and Jack laughed heartily, and
yelled back, “All right, Bobby!” And again the course of the “Gray
Gull” was changed, and soon the wharf and the figures grew faint
again.
Keeping close inshore, the “Gray Gull” was often rocked by the long
swells from passing craft. The Harlem River presented quite a busy
scene, although they were beyond the portion where the traffic is
greatest.
Occasionally, they were hailed from the deck of some barge or
schooner, and the occupants of a motor boat speeding swiftly by
gave a series of derisive yells. But the boys only laughed, and waved
their hands, feeling that they wouldn’t exchange the “Gray Gull” for
all the gasoline launches in New York.
Joe, sweeping the landscape with Dave’s telescope, uttered so
many exclamations of surprise and pleasure that Aleck promptly
wrested the glass from his hands.
“Where, which and what?” he asked.
“All three, kind sir,” answered Joe. “But that electric car on
Washington Heights looms up strangely large. Somebody on it just
dropped a coin.”
Aleck looked rather puzzled, that is until the speaker added, “Hurry
up and see if he finds it. Looked to me like a nickel of the year twelve
hundred and six.”
Aleck Hunt raised the glass to his eyes.
“Hey! Did you ever see such a wobble?” he exclaimed. “Wouldn’t like
to be on a car swinging around like that. This glass makes my arms
ache, too; and it’s all out of focus. Want it back?”
“Yes,” said Joe, incautiously.
“Then you can’t have it,” returned Aleck, as he once more raised the
telescope.
“Better keep her out a bit, Cap’n Jack,” yelled Joe Preston. “Unless
you want to climb the hill.”
And Jack, becoming a little bolder, swung the “Gray Gull” further out
into the stream. Fred presently relieved him at the tiller. Then the
others took their turns.
On the “promenade deck,” as Jack soon christened it, Confuse-us,
feeling no doubt that the occasion was one of great importance,
ambled from side to side, gazing curiously at the lapping water which
splashed and gurgled so close beneath his nose.
Time passed quickly, each moment bringing something to attract
their attention.
“Brick barges from Haverstraw,” announced Jack, presently, as a
tug, moving at a snail’s pace, puffed laboriously along. A column of
inky smoke swirled aloft, leaving a long trail to slowly dissipate itself
in the clear atmosphere above, while jets of steam gleamed in the
sunlight. Each of the clumsy barges was loaded high with bricks, and
seemed reluctant to follow the valiant little tug.
As the morning advanced, the breeze slightly increased; the white
clouds grew thicker, piling themselves up into great rounded masses,
and the swift changes over the landscape, from glancing light to
fleeting shadow, were pleasing to look upon.
“Cap’n Jack,” remarked Joe, suddenly, “are we going to stop for
lunch, or eat it on the wide waste of water?”
“No stops till the Jersey shore is reached,” answered Jack Lyons,
decidedly.
“Right you are,” said Fred. “Joe is always thinking of meal-time. But,
please, Aleck, trot out the sardines and crackers, the cheese and
home-made pickles, the pound cake and everything else we have.”
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