Chapter 12: Personality Flashcards
Five factors model of personality
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extroversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
What is personality?
Personality refers to an individual’s unique set of consistent behavioral traits.
What is personality trait?
A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations.
Five factors model:
Openness
Low score
- not creative
- not curious
High score
- creative
- curious
Five factors model:
Conscientiousness
Low score
- lazy
- disorganised
High score
- punctual
- well organised
Five factors model:
Extroversion
Low score
- loner, quiet
- passive
High score
- talkative
- active
Five factors model:
Agreeableness
Low score
- suspicious
- ruthless
High score
- trusting
- soft hearted
Five factors model:
Neuroticism
Low score
- calm
- unemotional
High score
- self conscious
- emotional
Psycho-dynamic theories
A view that explains personality in terms of conscious and unconscious forces, such as unconscious desires and beliefs.
- Sigmund Freud
- Carl Jung
- Alfred Adler
Fred’s Psyschoanalytic Theory
Freud’s claims/ theories
- People’s behavior is governed by unconscious factors of which they are unaware [level of awareness + structure of personality]
- Defense mechanism
- Adult personalities are shaped by childhood experiences and other factors beyond one’s control, he suggested that people are not masters of their own destinies. [psychosexual stages]
Freud’s theory:
Structure of Personality
ID - the primitive, instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle
Ego - the decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle. [moderator between ID and Superego]
Superego - the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong.
Freud’s theory:
Level of awareness
- Conscious - contact with the outside world
- Preconscious - material just beneath the surface of awareness that can easily be retrieved
- Unconscious - contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behaviour.
Preconscious + Conscious = Ego
Unconscious = ID
Conscious + Preconscious + Unconscious = Superego
Freud: Defense mechanism
Conflicts between the ID, ego and superego -> anxiety
Defense mechanism: Defense mechanisms are largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety and guilt
Types of defense mechanism
- Repression: Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious (intentionally bury memories or thoughts)
- Projection: Attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or motives to another (you may hate someone but superego claims hatred is unacceptable -> you solve the prob by thinking the other person hates you)
- Displacement: Diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target
- Reaction formation: Behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite of one’s true feelings (acting like you hate someone when you actually have feeling for that person)
- Regression: A reversion to immature patterns of behavior (an adult has a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get his way)
- Rationalization: Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior
- Sublimation: Channeling unconscious, unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable or admirable activities (transforming inappropriate desire or thoughts to art/music)
Freud: Psychosexual stages
Developmental periods with a characteristic sexual focus that leave their mark on adult personality.
- Oral
- Anal
- Phallic
- Latency
- Genital
Fixation
A failure to move forward from one stage to another as expected.
Psychosexual stages:
Oral
- Ages: 0 - 1
- Erotic focus: mouth (biting, sucking)
- Key experience: Feeding
- Fixation of this stage: obsessive feeding or smoking later in life
Psychosexual stages:
Anal
- Ages: 2 - 3
- Erotic focus: Anus
- Key experience: toilet training
- punitive toilet training -> genital anxiety -> anxiety about sexual activity later in life
Psychosexual stages:
Phallic
- Ages: 4 - 5
- Oedipal complex: children manifest erotically tinged desires for their opposite- sex parent, accompanied by feelings of hostility toward their same-sex parent.
[Boys compete with their father for mother’s affections, Girls tend to develop special attachment to father]
Psychosexual stages:
Latency
- Ages: 6 - 12
- Sexuality is suppressed
Psychosexual stages:
Genital
- Ages: Puberty - onward
- Develops sexual energy toward opposite sex peers
Carl Jung’s analytical psychology
Unconscious contains two layers:
- Personal unconscious: houses material that is not within one’s conscious awareness because it has been repressed or forgotten.
- Collective unconscious: storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from people’s ancestral past.
Carl Jung: Archetypes
Jung believes each person shares the collective unconscious with the entire human race
-> these ancestral memories = archetypes
Archetypes: emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meaning.
+ ancient images derived from the collective unconscious
+ archetypal images and ideas show up frequently in dreams often manifested in a culture’s use of symbols in art, literature, and religion.
Alfred Adler’s Individual theory
- Inferiority feelings - the striving for superiority arises because as human beings we feel inferior
- Human infants are born with inferiority feelings
In order to overcome inferiority feelings, compensation involves
- Compensation: efforts to overcome imagined or real inferiority by developing one’s abilities.
- Overcompensation: an exaggerated effort to cover up a weakness that entails a denial rather than an acceptance of the real situation
Evaluation of psychodynamic theories
Strengths
- Helps us understand how our early relationships can effect our adult personality
- It’s the first approach to try and explain mental illness in psychological terms and massively influenced how it’s understood and treated
Weaknesses
- Problems with generalisation [Freud based his findings on a single individual]
- Cultural variations were not taken into account [Freud’s research is mostly done on white, middle class people]
- Subjective interpretation of research methods leads to unreliable conclusions
Behaviourism
A theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior.
Behavourism theorists (3)
- Skinner
- Bandura
- Mischel
Behaviourism: Skinner’s theory
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning involves learning through the consequences of behaviours
- Skinner believes that best way to understand behaviour is to
look at the causes of an action and its consequences
Behaviourism: Skinner’s theory
3 types of responses/ operants that can follow behaviour
- Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behaviour being repeated
- Reinforcers: responses from the environment that increases the probability of a behaviour being repeated. Reinforcers can be positive or negative
- Punisher: responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated. Punishment weakens behaviours
Behaviourism: Skinner’s theory
Reinforcement x Punishment
- Positive reinforcement: presenting the subject with something it likes
i. e Skinner rewarded his rats with food - Negative reinforcement: reward - in the sense of removing or avoiding some painful stimulus
i. e Skinner’s rats learned to press the lever in order to switch off electric current in the cage - Punishment: imposing an aversive or painful stimulus
i. e Skinner’s rats were given electric shocks
Behaviourism: Bandura’s theory
Observational learning
Observational learning: occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models. [model: a person whose behaviour is observed by others].
- Observational learning can be intentionally or accidentally
- Imitation: more likely when people see similarities between themselves and the models
i. e children tend to imitate same sex role models more than opposite sex model - People are more likely to copy a model if they observe that the model’s behaviour leads to positive outcomes
Behaviourism: Bandura’s theory
Social cognitive theory: Self efficacy
Self efficacy - refers to one’s belief about one one’s ability to perform behaviours that should lead to expected outcomes
- High efficacy: when individuals feel confident that they can execute the responses necessary to earn reinforcers
- Low efficacy: individuals worry that the necessary responses may be beyond their abilities
Behaviourism: Mischel
Person - Situation Controversy
Mischel’s social learning theory states that: people will often behave differently in different situation.
- People make responses that they think will lead to reinforcement in the situation at hand
Evaluation of behaviourism theories
- Reductionist: very limited views, as it thinks we are all blank sheets with no personality or individual thought process [dehumanising nature of radical behaviourism]
- Studies done on animals: not generalised to humans. [Skinner’s box - experiments of rats and pigeons]
- Treats the symptoms and not the cause: feat is often displaced onto other phobias
Humanism theory
Humanism: a theoretical orientation that emphasises the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth
Humanism theorists
- Carl Rogers
2. Abraham Maslow
Humanism theory
Rogers’s Self Concept
Self concept: a collection of beliefs about one’s own nature; unique qualities, and typical behaviours
- Self image: how we see ourselves [appearances - affects how a person thinks, behaves and feels]
- Self worth (self worth): what we think about ourselves [developed in early childhood, from interaction with parents]
- Ideal self: person that we would like to be [changes throughout life]
Humanism theory
Carl Rogers
Incongruences vs Congruences
Incongruences: when self image is different to ideal self
- self actualisation is hard to obtained
Congruences: when self image is similar to ideal self
- self actualisation is possible or is close to be obtained
Humanism theory
Carl Rogers’s view of humanistic personality development
- Children who receive unconditional love have less need ti be defensive, they develop mor accurate congruent self concept.
- While conditional love fosters incongruences
Humanism theory
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Hierarchy of needs: a systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in which basic needs must be met before less basic needs aroused.
Hierarchy of needs
- Self actualisation (achieved one’s full potential)
- Esteem needs (feeling of accomplishment)
- Love and affiliation needs (relationship, family, friends)
- Safety needs (security, safety)
- Physical needs (food, clothes, shelters)
Types of theories and theorists
Psychodynamic
- Sigmund Freud
- Carl Jung
- Alfred Adler
Behaviourism
- Skinner
- Bandura
- Mischel
Humanism
- Carl Rogers
- Abraham Maslow
Biological
1. Eysenck
Biological approach:
Eysenck’s three factors theory
Eysenck’s theory: personality is determined to a large extent by a person’s genes.
3 Personality traits that are determined by heredity
- Extraversion & Introversion
- Neuroticism & Emotional stability
- Psychoticism & Impulse control
Eyesenck’s study on twins shows that neuroticism seemed to be determined by genetics (80% stemming from biological factors, 20% from environmental factors)
Evaluation of biological approach
Strengths:
- Provides clear predictions -> explanations can be scientifically tested and proved
Weaknesses
- Reductionists: dehumanising nature - assuming all humans are blank sheets with no thought processes
- Do not provide enough information to fully explain human behaviour. Individuals may be predisposed to certain behaviours, but these are triggered by factors in the environment
Theorists Comparison
Carl Jung vs Sigmund Freud
Similarities:
- Both involve the conscious and unconscious
- Jung’s idea of the collective unconscious being human instincts and desires is similar to Freud’s idea of the ID
- Both analyse the meaning of dreams
- Both split up the psych/mind
Differences
- Jung splits the unconscious up into the collective and personal unconscious. Though Freud does not
- Jung believes that dreams are the way to communicate with the unconscious. Whereas, Freud believes dreams are a way for our urges to be released from our unconscious
- Jung based his theories on experiences, Freud bases his theories on sex
Theorists comparison
Skinner vs Bandura
Differences
- Bandura: learning occurs when people observe role models and learn new behavior as a result of observations
- Skinner: learning that occurs when responses are controlled by their consequences
Theories comparison
Humanism vs Behaviourism
Similarities:
- Both provide solid aspects in the study of human behavior.
Differences:
- Behaviorism focuses on the external behavior of individuals whereas humanism focuses on the individual as a whole.
- Behaviorism has a very scientific basis and uses experimentation as a means of understanding behavior
- Humanism is subjective and does not have a very scientific basis as behaviorism.
- Humanism goes beyond behavior and also focuses on the emotions of human beings.
- Humanism rejects the behaviourists’ assumption of determination and believes that humans are agents of free will.
Theories comparison
Humanism vs Psychodynamic
Similarities
- Both focus on develop ideas and methods than formally evaluate their efficacy, as it is hard to measure definitive evidence of change due to subjectivity.
Differences
- Psychodynamic: A view that explains personality in terms of conscious and unconscious forces, such as unconscious desires and beliefs. (does not value humans’ unique qualities - reductionist)
- Humanism: emphasises the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth
Theories comparison
Behaviourism vs Psychodynamic
Differences
Behaviourism:
- Emphasises the significance of behaviour over the mind
- Behaviourists believed that behaviour is learnt and is a response to external stimuli
- Laboratory experiments are extensive to form theories of classical and operant conditioning
Psychodynamic
- Emphasises the importance of the human mind, especially the role of the unconcious
- Psychodynamist believe that the unconcious motivates behaviour
- Laboratory experiment is minimal
Types of personality test
- Self report inventory
- Projective personality test
Personality test:
Self report inventory
- Psychological test in which an individual answers standardised questions about their behaviour and feelings
- The answers are then compared to established norms
Personality test:
Projective personality test
- A psychodynamic tool used to assess personality (i.e. Rorschach or TAT tests)
- Assesses the unconscious
- Used to uncover potential unconscious, deep seated emotions
- How? It provides ambiguous stimuli, and the client projects his or her motivates (thought and feelings) into the ambiguous stimuli
- It asks one to give a personal interpretation instead of “yes” or “no”
