Reliability & Validity

For the lay person, the notion of personality is often derived from components of an individual's character or make up that has the ability to elicit positive or negative reactions from other individuals. The person who has a propensity for positive reactions from others is often thought to have a 'good' personality. Conversely, the person who tends to elicit not so favorable reactions from others may be thought to have a 'bad' personality. However, when behavioral and social scientists seek to describe and define personality, the terminology used is far more rigorous that describing simple social skills (Cohen, Montague, Nathanson & Swerdlik, 1988). As such, constructs such as personality traits, personality states and personality types have been studied as a means of provided clinically accurate ways in which to define personality.

Nevertheless, there is no one globally accepted definition of personality within the scholarly literature. McClelland (1951,...
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