Comparing Costa And Mccrae

The concept of psychological evaluation covers a range of techniques and theories that have evolved and developed throughout history. Understanding and comparing a broad range of approaches to explaining behaviour is important for furthering our understanding of humans. This paper will examine Jung's analytical psychology and Costa and McCrae's trait theory in evaluating a case study. Psychodynamic theory, developed first by Sigmund Freud, attempts to explain human behaviour in relation to subconscious processes outside of the individuals awareness, that have their origins in childhood experiences (Deal and Holtz, 2007). Freud developed Drive Theory, founded on the belief that the biological impulses of the body were the driving force behind

measure of personality for its comparisons. The IPIP-NEO is a psychological personality inventory which is used to measure the five big personality traits. Personality is that pattern of characteristic thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that distinguishes one person from another and that persists over time and situation (Phares, 1991: 4). It is the combination of biologically based and learnt behaviour which forms a person's unique response to their own environment. (Ryckman, Robbins, Thornton &Cantrell 1982).The five personality traits developed by Costa and McCrae are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. These traits are a continuum with one end representing a more defined expression of the features of that trait (Costa and McCrae,

Although it primarily relies on a self report measure, overtime this measurement has been developed and proved quite reliable at determining accurate assessments. The straightforward objective nature of trait theory means it is easily implemented and reasonably intuitive which produces strong, concrete results. Its weakness is that, while strong at categorizing it does not focus on interpretation and analysis. It does not discuss how and why traits develop. It can predict indicators of how people might, or will usually, behave based on their traits however people do not always act according to this. It also does not offer much in terms of how to improve negative traits or emphasize positive ones, so as a framework for therapy it provides a strong base for why behaviour might occur but does need to be supplemented (Ben-Porath, Yossef, S., State, K., Waller, Niels G., 1992). It places too high importance on personality traits and needs to place greater emphasis on traits as a continuous dimension of personality, rather than categorizing types of people. It is of ongoing importance for trait theory to continue to substantiate the theory with sound empirical evidence to help guide clinicians on the use of the personality inventory in assessment (Ben-Porath et al.