Question

Your professor is assessing his students' personalities. He asks everyone to write a personal narrative about his or her college experiences. He is using a(n) ________ approach to personality assessment. 1)nomothetic 2)trait 3)idiographic 4)objective

Answer 1

The professor's use of personal narratives for assessing personalities is an idiographic approach, focusing on unique individual experiences, in contrast to other methods like the nomothetic or trait approaches.

Step-by-step explanation:

Your professor is using a idiographic approach to personality assessment by asking students to write a personal narrative about their college experiences. The idiographic perspective focuses on individual lives and the factors that make people unique, such as personal narratives and stories. This contrasts with the nomothetic approach, which seeks broad, general principles of personality, and the trait approach, where personality is viewed as a set of characteristics that people display consistently over time and that can be measured with instruments such as questionnaires.

Since the approach involves the detailed stories and experiences of the students themselves and aims to identify the unique aspects of each individual's personality, it aligns with the idiographic approach. Other types, such as objective personality tests like the MMPI, feature fixed questions with predetermined answers that are more impersonal and quantitatively scored.

Answer 2

The correct answer is option 3, which is idiogrophic approach. The professor using personal narratives to assess students' personalities is employing an idiographic approach, emphasizing the individual's unique experiences and personal story.

When a professor asks students to write a personal narrative about their college experiences to assess their personalities, he is using an idiographic approach to personality assessment.

This approach focuses on the individuality of the person, taking into account personal experiences and unique life stories.

It contrasts with the nomothetic approach, which seeks general laws that can be applied to all people, and the trait approach, which focuses on measuring personality traits that are believed to be consistent and enduring in individuals.

The idiographic approach emphasizes the uniqueness of an individual's personality and how it is expressed in different contexts, like their personal narrative about college life.