The Relationship Between Cognitive Styles and Personality Types
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COGNITIVE STYLES AND PERSONALITY TYPES by CAROL HUGO HARDIJZER Submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF COMMERCE in the subject INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: MR H VON DER OHE NOVEMBER 2000 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I hereby express my sincerest thanks and gratitude to the following persons for their respective contributions: Professor Frans Cilliers for his guidance during the forming stages of this dissertation; My supervisor, Mr Harmut von der Ohe, who accommodated a typical ISTP trait, namely my need to work independently; Dr Marietha Prinsloo for her guidance and support in the use of the Cognitive Process Profile; Leanie Nel for her assistance in the collation of the necessary information; Cas Coetzee for his guidance and patience during the statistical phase of this research; Dr Anna-Mart Bonthuys for painstakingly editing and proofreading this dissertation; Debbie Schoeman, who was always willing to assist with her wordprocessing skills; My two sons, Marco and Hanno, who entered their teenage years while dad was busy "studying". SUMMARY The general purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between cognitive styles and personality types in order to gain insight into the placement of leaders within the context of current and future organisational demands. The study was conducted among 123 managers within the information technology environment of a South African financial institution. Data was collected by means of the Cognitive Process Profile (CPP) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Supporting evidence, although not sufficient, indicates a probable relationship between cognitive styles and personality types. The assumption can therefore be made that the relationship between cognitive styles and personality types will be more pronounced among a more geographically distributed sample group which includes sufficient diverse respondents regarding the different cognitive styles and personality types. KEY TERMS Cognition, Cognitive Process Profile, cognitive styles, personality types, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements 1 Summary 11 Key Terms 11 List of figures Vlll List of tables Vlll List of appendices IX CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO AND MOTIVATION OF THE RESEARCH 1 1.1 BACKGROUND TO RESEARCH 1 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT 2 1.3 AIM OF RESEARCH 3 1.3.1 Primary aim 3 1.3.2 Secondary aim 4 1.4 PARADIGM PERSPECTIVE OF RESEARCH 4 1.4.1 Relevant paradigms 4 1.4.2 Metatheoretical statements 5 1.4.2.1 Industrial psychology 5 1.4.2.2 Cognitive psychology 5 1.4.2.3 Analytical psychology 6 1.4.3 Theoretical models 6 1.4.4 Conceptual description 6 1.4.4.1 Cognition 7 1.4.4.2 Cognitive styles 8 1.4.4.3 Personality 9 1.4.4.4 Personality types 12 111 1.4.5 Central hypothesis 13 1.5 RESEARCH DESIGN 13 1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14 1.6.1 Phase one: Literature review: 14 1.6.2 Phase two: Empirical investigation 14 1.7 CHAPTER DIVISION 15 1.8 CHAPTER SUMMARY 15 CHAPTER 2: COGNITIVE STYLES 16 2.1 INTRODUCTION 16 2.2 COGNITIVE THEORY 16 2.2.1 Cognition defined 19 2.2.2 Cognition and problem solving 20 2.3 THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH 21 2.3.1 History 21 2.3.2 Description of information processing 22 2.3.3 Criticism 24 2.4 COGNITIVE STYLE 25 2.4.1 Concept of style 26 2.4.2 Cognitive style defined 27 2.4.3 Cognitive style versus cognitive ability 30 2.5 COGNITIVE PROCESS PROFILE (CPP) 33 2.5.1 General description of the CPP 34 2.5.2 Cognitive Process Profile Styles 36 2.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY 38 CHAPTER 3: PERSONALITY TYPES 39 3.1 THE NATURE OF JUNG'S PERSONALITY THEORY 39 3.1.1 The structure of personality 40 3.1.2 The dynamics of personality 42 3.1.3 Development of personality 44 3.1.3.1 Jung's basic principles of lifelong development 46 3.2 JUNG'S THEORY OF PERSONALITY TYPES 48 IV 3.2.1 Attitudes 48 3.2.2 Functions 49 3.2.2.1 Two ways of perceiving 50 3.2.2.2 Two ways of judging 50 3.2.3 Personality types 51 3.3 EXTENSIONS OF JUNG'S PERSONALITY TYPE THEORY 53 3.4 DYNAMICS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPE 61 3.4.1 Lack of a Balancing Auxiliary 63 3.4.2 Lack of Balance in Attitudes 64 3.4.3 Importance of opposite 64 3.5 PERSONALITY TYPE DEVELOPMENT 65 3.5.1 Development and Midlife 67 3.6 TYPES IN ORGANISATIONS 68 3.7 TYPES AND DECISION MAKING 71 3.8 CHAPTER SUMMARY 73 CHAPTER 4: INTEGRATION OF COGNITIVE STYLES AND PERSONALITY TYPE THEORIES 74 4.1 PERSONALITY AND COGNITIVE TYPOLOGY 74 4.2 PAST RESEARCH ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COGNITION & PERSONALITY 75 4.3 PITFALLS IN THE STUDY OF COGNITION AND PERSONALITY 77 4.4 COGNITION AND PERSONALITY 77 4.5 INFORMATION PROCESSING AND PERSONALITY 79 4.6 CONCLUSION 80 4.7 CHAPTER SUMMARY 80 CHAPTERS: EMPIRICALSTUDY 81 5.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE SAMPLE POPULATION 81 5.2 MOTIVATING CHOICE OF PSYCHOMETRIC BATTERY 82 5.2.1 Cognitive Process Profile (CPP) 83 5.2.1.1 Overview of the CPP 83 5.2.1.2 General description 85 5.2.1.3 Application of CPP 86 v 5.2.1.4 Administration of the CPP 86 5.2.1.5 Metric properties of the CPP 87 5.2.2 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) 90 5.2.2.1 Development of the MBTI 91 5.2.2.2 Description of the MBTI 91 5.2.2.3 Scales of the MBTI 92 5.2.2.4 Administration of the MBTI 94 5.2.2.5 Interpretation of the MBTI 95 5.2.2.6 Validity of the MBTI 96 5.2.2.7 Reliabj.).ity of the MBTI 96 5.3 DATA COLLECTION 97 5.4 STATISTICAL METHODOLOGY 97 5.4.1 Background to statistical analysis of data 97 5.4.2 Frequency distributions and Chi-square statistics 97 5.4.3 Factor analysis of "cognitive style" variables 98 5.4.4 Comparison of means using the Analysis of Variance strategy 99 5.4.5 Correlational and Multiple Regression analyses 100 5.4.6 Level of statistical significance 100 5.5 FORMULATION OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS 101 5.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY 102 CHAPTER 6: STATISTICAL RESULTS 103 6.1 DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE IN TERMS OF PSYCHOMETRIC PROFILES 103 6.1.1 Description in terms of cognitive style factors 103 6.1.1.1 Frequency distribution of cognitive style factors 103 6.1.1.2 Mean scores of cognitive style factors 106 6.1.1.3 Factor structure of the cognitive style factors 106 6.1.2 Description in terms of the MBTI 108 6.1.2.1 Frequency distribution of the MBTI 108 6.1.2.2 Mean profile in terms of the four basic MBTI scales 112 6.2 THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE MBTI TO THE COGNITIVE STYLE FACTORS 112 6.2.1 Comparison of the MBTI versus the mean cognitive style scores 113 6.2.2 Explaining the MBTI from multiple cognitive style factors 115 6.3 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 116 VI 6.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY 117 CHAPTER 7: LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 118 7.1 LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH 118 7.2 CONCLUSION 119 7.2.1 Literature survey 120 7.2.2 Empirical study 121 7.3 RECOMMENDATIONS 122 7.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY 123 REFERENCES 124 APPENDICES 136 Vll LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 6.1 Mean scores of cognitive style variables 106 Figure 6.2 Eigenvalue plot of cognitive style factors 107 Figure 6.3 Mean scores ofMBTI combinations 112 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Cognitive styles 37 Table 3.1 General stages of development 46 Table 3.2 Brief description of the sixteen personality types 60 Table 5.1 Frequency table of sample group as per a few biographical variables 82 Table 6.1 Frequency distribution of cognitive styles 104 Table 6.2 Single and two-factor promax rotated solution for cognitive style variables 107 Table 6.3 Frequency distribution ofMBTI types 109 Table 6.4 Detailed breakdown ofMBTI preferences 110 Table 6.5 MBTI sample distribution by preference type (Extravert and Introvert separated) 111 Table 6.6 Comparison of Myers-Briggs Personality Types with regard to mean score on cognitive style factors 114 vm Table 6.7 Multiple regression analysis results 115 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1 Correlational analysis - Cognitive style (Pearson correlation coefficients) 136 Appendix 2 Correlational analysis -MBTI (Pearson correlation coefficients) 137 Appendix 3 Comparison of Myers-Briggs type indicators by preference type (Extraversion and Introversion separated) with regard to mean scores of Cognitive style factors: One-way Anova F-tests on mean scores 138 Appendix 4 Comparison of Extraversion/Introversion with Sensing/Intuition, with regard to Cognitive style factors: One-way Anova F-tests on mean scores 139 Appendix 5 Comparison of Extraversion/Introversion with Judging/Perceiving, with regard to Cognitive style factors: One-way Anova F-tests on mean scores 140 Appendix 6 Comparison of Sensing/Intuition with Judging/Perceiving, with regard to Cognitive style factors: One-way Anova F-tests on mean scores 141 Appendix 7 Comparison between Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition and Judging/Perceiving with regard to Cognitive style factors: One-way Anova F-tests on mean scores 142 Appendix 8 Comparison of personality preferences with regard to mean scores of cognitive style factors: One-way Anova F-test on mean scores 143 Appendix 9 Correlational analysis between cognitive styles and personality type categories 144 lX CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO AND MOTIVATION OF THE RESEARCH This dissertation investigates the relationship between cognitive styles and personality types.