1 - Introduction to Personality Flashcards
Why are people so interested in learning about personality?
- understanding and being able to interact with others and the world
- understanding yourself
What are the two classes of people who study personality?
Experimental psychologists (non-clinical researchers)
- look at why people behave the way they do
- purpose = understanding and predicting behaviour
Clinical therapists
- see personality as part of the foundation of mental health
- purpose = therapeutic interventions based on theories of personality
What do clinical and personality psychology share?
Clinical and personality psychology share the obligation to try and understand the whole person, not just parts of persons
What is the field of personality psychology like?
- personality psychology tends to emphasize how individuals are different from one another
- this gives the field a distinctive and humanistic mission of appreciating the uniqueness of each individual
- even behaviourism, as the person is the product of a unique learning history and therefore different from anybody else
- other areas are more likely to treat people as if they were the same or nearly the same
What is the nature vs. nurture issue in personality?
- was originally discussed as if it were one or the other
- in the late 90s, was eventually considered as a false dichotomy
- the things we experience affect our genes in a complex interaction (nature x nurture)
How does personality psychology look at human nature?
- what every human shares in common
- what makes humans different from all other creatures
What are the major issues in personality?
- nature vs. nurture
- what is human nature
- how does personality develop
- what motivates us
- conscious vs. unconscious
- person vs. situation
- group vs. individual
How does personality psychology look at personality development?
how does it develop, does it change, what’s the nature of the change, what brings about the changes
How does personality psychology look at what motivates us?
- why do we do the things we do, what do people want
- looking at motives (driving forces)
How does personality psychology look at conscious vs. unconscious?
- where does human behaviour arise from, where is personality
- conscious = we can report our own personality
- unconscious = first suggested by Freud, people do not understand their own personalities
How does personality psychology look at person vs. situation?
- is it the person or the situation that explains the behaviour
- certain situations can bring about particular expectations that shape behaviour (eg. students sitting in a classroom), and is not necessarily indicative of personality
How does personality psychology look at group vs. individual?
Nomothetic
- not interested in you as an individual, but rather as an indicator for people in general
- data and samples serve to develop a “rule-making function”
Idiographic
- interested in you as in individual
- purpose is not to generalize (humanist theories)
What is the difference between personality and other fields?
- more global and general = personality is ambitious and strives to explain a lot of behaviour
- long history of interest
- many large-scale theories (2-3 dozen different theories)
- theories don’t guide research
- theories generated/tested differently
What are the two functions of theories?
- explain reality
- guide research questions = what should we be looking at
How is the development of personality theories different than other work?
- theorists are clinicians, not scientists (clinical practice -> theory)
- influenced by theorist’s personality
- little empirical support
- non-scientific evaluation (if the theory works, it is correct)
- theories difficult to test (postdictive not predictive, vague and abstract concepts)
Why are we studying these particular theories?
- historic role in personality theory development = influential in past
- currently important = used in clinical practice and research
- nicely illustrate a particular perspective = there are multiple theories within each perspective
- intrinsically interesting = not necessarily the best or the right one
Why can’t you describe personality?
- theorists differ on what they think personality is
- it isn’t anything = hypothetical construct, no physical reality, doesn’t exist
- intellection invention to see the relationship between phenomena
What is personality about?
Consistency in our behaviour
- psychological triad
- use this consistency to predict how others will act, and to control responses
Individual differences in behaviour
- not everyone has the same consistencies
- personality psychology tries to assemble an integrated view of whole, functioning individuals in their daily environment
What are hypothetical constructs?
- observations guide constructs, which are tied together by theoretical relationships
- physics has just as many hypothetical constructs (eg. energy, gravity)
- neither one is correct
- haven’t captured the essence of reality
- it doesn’t matter that these things don’t “exist”
- they are still useful to help us understand what we are seeing
What is the type approach?
- limited number of distinct personality types
- emphasis on biological bases of personality
- built into our genes, unmanipulable
oldest approach
What are the four humours, and what do they represent?
- Hippocrates and Galen
- blood (sanguine) = optimistic
- yellow bile (choleric) = easily aggravated
- phlegm (phlegmatic) = slow, apathetic
- black bile (melancholic) = melancholic
- when there’s too much of one substance, we develop a certain kind of illness or personality type
What are some of the modern type theories?
- Sheldon’s somatotype theory = ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph
- ARC types = overcontrolled, undercontrolled, resilient
- Gerlach’s four types = average, reserved, role model, self-centered
What is the trait approach?
- personality = internal characteristics and tendencies
- emphasis on biological factors
- say little about development
What is the psychodynamic approach?
- personality = action and interaction of psychic structures
- behaviour = interaction between biology and experience
- says much about development
