Psychology · Ch 2 — Self and Personality
Behavioural Analysis
Behavioural Analysis
Behavioural analysis is the study of a person’s actions across different situations to gather meaningful clues about their personality. The core idea is simple: what you do reveals who you are. By watching how someone behaves — not just in one setting, but in many — we can infer stable patterns that make up their personality.
Observation of behaviour is the foundation of this approach. An observer’s report, therefore, contains data gathered from watching the person in real-life contexts. This could be in a classroom, at home, during a game, or in a social gathering. The key is that the behaviour is not self-reported (as in questionnaires) but directly seen by another person.
Behavioural analysis relies on direct observation — the observer records what the person actually does, not what the person says they do. This reduces the chance of deliberate distortion or social desirability bias.
The textbook text provided here is only the opening of this subsection. It establishes that:
- A person’s behaviour across a variety of situations gives meaningful information about personality.
- Observation of behaviour is the method used.
- The observer’s report is the tool that contains this observational data. …