Novice Counselor's blog

Donna is a 51-year-old divorced mother of Dutch descent. She has two children, ages 10 and 12. Donna is not an outwardly demonstrable mother. However, she takes pride in making sure her children do the right thing at all times, as it causes her distress if people think poorly of her or her children. Donna is highly organized. She believes efficiency is a sign of responsibility. She detests surprises and likes to contemplate how best to plan, whether for vacations or what her children will wear to school each day. She tends to focus on the present and often copes with stress by using caffeine and nicotine. She smokes at least a pack of cigarettes each day.

Theorists such as Freud and Rogers relied on their personal observations as well as analytical skill to construct their theories of personality (Pervin, Cervone, & Oliver, 2005). Trait theorists, on the other hand, use various traits, which they believe are inherent part of the individual, to describe various personalities. The five-factor model of traits relies on natural language and questionnaires to find basic units of personality. The five-factor model groups personality traits into five dimensions described by the acronym OCEAN. These dimensions include Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (Pervin, Cervone, & Oliver, 2005).

In the case of Donna, if we apply the five-factor model, we see that she scores rather high on the Neuroticism scale, evidenced by her harmful coping mechanisms of consumption of nicotine and caffeine to cope with stress, and by her anxiety about what other people think about her and her children, showing a high degree of insecurity. Similarly, Donna scores high on Conscientiousness, evidenced by her organization, her need to plan, her efficiency, and teaching her children right from wrong. Her need to be organized and plan would make her score rather low on Openness, since her organization and planning would make her less open to spontaneous events and new experiences. Donna would tend to score lower on Extraversion, since she is not demonstrative of affection to her children, and seems more worrisome than fun-loving. Likewise, Donna would not score very high on Agreeableness since she does not seem to be very trusting, shown by her worry of what other people think, and her dislike of surprizes.

Reference:

Pervin, L., Cervone, D., & Oliver, J. (2005). Theories of personality. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.