Final answer:
In personality psychology, assessment often targets the Big Five factors: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. These traits are used to predict behavioral and thought patterns, and vary in manifestation within different cultural contexts. They are considered to be stable throughout an individual's life and have both genetic and environmental influences.
Step-by-step explanation:
The four targets of assessment in personality psychology often revolve around established models that categorize various traits and factors. While the Five Factor Model, also known as the Big Five, is widely recognized today, specific targets of assessment may vary based on different theoretical approaches within personality psychology.
The Big Five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, and they are considered to be stable personality characteristics that describe how an individual engages with the world.
Assessments such as the 16PF, developed by Raymond Cattell, diversify these traits further into 16 specific factors. These assessments may use self-report inventories or projective tests to measure personality.
Within the cultural context, personality assessment can adopt approaches like the cultural-comparative approach, the indigenous approach, and a combined approach to understand how personality factors may vary across cultures and environment.
When looking at personality, we consider how traits manifest and interact within individuals to predict behavior and thought patterns. The consistency of these traits across the lifespan and their genetic influences have been topics of considerable research in psychology.