W. W. Norton & Company | The Personality Puzzle, 4th ed.

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Chapter 4: Personality Traits and Behavior

Visit the web site of Dr. Lewis R. Goldberg at the Oregon Research Institute, and take a look at the International Personality Item Pool:

http://ipip.ori.org/

On this site you can read about the research and development behind one of the largest pools (universe, domain) of personality trait items that are available to the public.

Take a Five Factor Personality Test: You can take a five factor test online, at no cost, at a site developed and maintained by Dr. John A. Johnson, Penn State University:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/

Note the degree to which you are neurotic, extraverted, open to experience, agreeable, and conscientious! The scoring routine will give you your percentile rank, which refers to the percentage of people your age and your gender that score below you. For example, if I score in the 82nd percentile for extraversion that means that 82% of the population of people my age and gender score lower than me (that means I'm extraverted compared to others). Not only will you get a report on the Big 5, you will also get facet scores on each factor, a more fine-grained analysis of your personality.

When you go to take this test, or any test, make sure that you read and understand the instructions and disclaimers.

Visit the popular Social Psychology Network website link:

http://www.socialpsychology.org/social.htm

At this location you will find a comprehensive list of topics that social psychologists have addressed in their research. All of these topics represent ways that social forces might influence your behavior.

Next, visit the popular Social Psychology Network website link:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/person.htm

Here you can get a sense of the kinds of topics that personality psychologists have addressed in their research. All of these theorists and topics represent ways that relatively stable psychological differences between people might predict behavior.

One interesting note about this activity is that you will see social and personality psychology are very closely aligned in their interests and research. Maybe the person-situation debate was a case of sibling rivalry? What do you think?