Intro to personality Flashcards
How does personality differ from other fields?
More global and general Long history of interest Many large-scale theories Theories don’t guide research Theories generated/tested differently
Are theorists clinicians or scientists?
clinicians (therapists)
Way are personality theories difficult to test?
> Postdictive, not predictive
>vague, abstract concepts
Define postdictive
once someone has behaved a certain way a theory can explain why
What is personality?
Personality is a hypothetical construct that we use in an attempt to understand two noticeable things about human behaviour:
- within an individual, there is a consistency in behaviour from time to time and across situations.
- the pattern of consistency differs from person to person.
What is a hypothetical construct
A made up idea to help explain observations. When we discuss the theoretical relations b/w constructs we have a theory
ex. Physics - energy
What is the type approach
> limited number of personality types, which are largely genetically determine (biological basis)
ie. the 4 humours
What is the oldest approach to personality?
Type approach
What are the four humours and the types of personalities associated with each?
Blood - sanguine personality (easy going optomistic)
YellowBile - Collaric (easily aroused, assertive)
Phlegm - phlegmatic (slow, easy going)
Black Bile - Melancolar (easily depressed )
Which approach did Hippocrates and Galen work on?
The humoral approach
According to the humoral appraoch how does one get sick?
having an excess of one of the humors
what does it mean to bleed someone?
barbers cut people who were believed to have an excess of blood
What is the Trait perspective?
sees personality as consisting of a set of internal characteristics, or traits, which are substantially determined by genes (biological factors). Since personality is genetically determined, there is little to say about the development of personality.
- theorists disagree about which traits are central
What is the dominant approach ?
The trait approach beacuse traits are easily measured
What is the Psychodynamic Approach (how do they view personality and behaviour?)
> Personality = action & interaction of psychic structures operating primarily outside consciousness
Behaviour = interaction between biology and experience
Says MUCH about development
What is the Behaviourist Approach?
sees no need for theories of personality (or even for the concept), because personality is nothing more that consistent patterns of behaviour that arise through the normal processes of classical and instrumental conditioning.
> emphasize experience and learning
Who influenced the behaviourist approach?
Watson and Skinner
What is the humanist approach?
> Personality = manifestation of the Self, inner unity
Stress positive motivation and reaching of full potential
Search for personal meaning
Idiographic approach
What is an idiographic approach (part of humanism
Understanding the individual, only employed by the humanist approach
What is the Cognitive approach?
who we are is how we interpret the world around us!
sees personality as consistent ways of selecting and interpreting information about ourselves and the world around us. Like the behaviorists, cognitive theorists tend to see these consistent patterns of information processing as resulting from experience and learning.
>Often allied with behaviorist approach
What is the most recent approach?
evolutionary psychology Approach
What is the Evolutionary Psychology Approach?
> Emphasizes biological bases of personality
Focus on adaptive function of personality through evolution
Growing in influence in the field but there is yet to be a personality theory based on this approach
What are the 7 approaches we will be looking at?
Type, Trait, psychodynamic, behaviourist, humanist, cognitive and evolutionary psychology appraoch
what is the nomothetic appraoch?
stress the importance of discovering general laws than govern the development of personality in all people.
