L11 - Personality Flashcards
Personality
- Patterns of thought + behaviour that make a person react to certain situations in relatively consistent ways
- i.e. stable cognitions, emotions, behaviours
Reification
When abstract constructs are treated as if they are real or tangible
Bumps - PHRENOLOGY
Judging character by reading “bumps” on the head
Bumps - GALL argued:
Skull bumps were a sign of specific brain enlargements
Bumps - PSYCHOGRAPH
- Machine to measure bumps on head
- Gives rating for each of the 35 personality categories from the brain map
Blots
Projective tests were used to uncover hidden thought processes…
- Rorschach Inkblot = the themes ppl see across many slides/ink images, How do people compare it to the Norms
- Draw a person, Person-House-Tree
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) = Tell me a story about the image
Bodies (Draw a person test)
Head
Center for intellectual power, social balance, impulse control
- Disproportionate head:
-> suggest subject has difficulty in one of these areas (or brain damage, severe headaches) - Large head:
-> paranoid narcissistic - Small head:
-> feelings of weakness, inferiority
Bodies (Draw a person test)
Neck
Represents connection btw head and body
- Under-emphasis:
-> feeling of disconnection btw these 2 things suggesting schizophrenia or feelings of inadequacy
Bodies (Draw a person test)
Arms + Hands
- Omitted:
-> complete withdrawl from the env.
-> If male omits females arms, then is unaccepted by females or lack of confidence in social contexts
Bodies (Draw a person test)
Fingers
- Too long = overly aggressive
- Too short = reserved
Bodies (Draw a person test)
Toes
- If included, sign of aggression
- Female show painted toenails = heightened female aggression
Bodies (Fluid types)
Temperament related to 4 body fluids
- Sanguine: excess of blood
-> vigour athleticism/manic - leaching to reduce amount of blood in your body/cutting - Choleric: excess of urine
-> easily angered - Melancholic: excess of feces
-> depressed/sad - Phlegmatic: excess of mucus
-> tired/lazy
Historical Approaches - Bodies (Body somatotypes)
- Endomorph: overweight = jolly, extraverted, slow
- Mesomorph: muscular = athletic, aggressive
- Ectomorph: skinny = thinking, withdrawn, fearful
Psychoanalytic (Freud’s 3 levels of awareness)
- Conscious mind
- What you are presently aware of
- Preconscious mind
- Not presently aware of, but can gain access to
- Unconscious mind
- Part of our mind which we cannot become aware
-> Primary motivations for actions & feelings
-> Biological instinctual drives (food and sex)
-> Repressed unacceptable thoughts, memories, feelings
Id - “the original personality”
- PLEASURE PRINCIPLE (no care for consequences)
- Only part present at birth - the 2 other parts of our personality grow out of the Id
- Primitive parts of our personality in the unconscious
- Instincts for survival, reproduction, and pleasure
- Death instincts, destructive and aggressive drives detrimental to survival
Ego
- REALITY PRINCIPLE (Realistic and socially acceptable outlets for the Id’s needs)
- Starts developing during 1st year of life
- Partially unconscious (Id), partially preconscious and conscious (external world)
- Uses “defense mechanisms”: processes that distort reality and protect us from anxiety
Superego
- MORALITY PRINCIPLE
- Conscience and idealized standards/morality of behaviour in their culture
Unhealthy personalities develop when
- We become too dependent upon defense mechanisms
- When the Id or Superego is too strong (overly hedonic or overly moralistic)
- When the ego is too weak (bad mediator)
Freud’s phychosocial stages of personality development
- Oral (mouth, lips, tongue)
-> Sucking, biting chewing - Anal (anus)
-> Bowel retention/elimination - Phallic (genitals)
-> Identifying with same-sex parent to learn gender - Latency (no errogenous zone)
-> Cognitive and social development - Genital puberty to adulthood (genitals)
-> Development of sexual relationships, moving toward intimate relations
Anal retentive/expulsive personality
Develops when child reacts to harsh toilet training by withholding bowel movement
- Traits of orderliness, neatness, stinginess, and stubbornness develops
- Controlled adult
Develops when child rebels against the harsh training and has bowel movements whenever and wherever he desires
- Impulsive adult
Psychoanalytic theory made indisputable steps towards answering questions about what makes up personality
- Existence of unconscious thought
- Importance of early development
- Mind-body influence
-> Psychosomatic symptoms: stress in physical symptoms - Talking cure
-> Psychotherapy
Phallic Stage Conflicts
- Oedipus conflict:
-> little boy becomes sexually attracted to his mother and fears that his father (his sexual rival) will find out and castrate him - Electra conflict:
-> little girl is attracted to her father because he has a penis; she wants one of her own and feels inferior without one (penis envy)
Neo-Freudian Theories of Personality
- Collective Unconscious (Carl Jung)
- Striving for Superiority (Alfred Adler)
- Need for Security (Karen Horney)
Collective Unconscious (Carl Jung)
- Universal human experiences that we all share
- These experiences are manifested in ARCHETYPES
What are Archetypes
- Images & symbols of all the important themes in the history of humankind (ex. explorer, mother, hero)
- Represent personality styles (Each has a primary desire)
NOTE: Collective unconscious/archetypes can’t be empirically tested
Archetypes - Primary desires
- Provide structure to the world
- Connect with others
- Leave a mark on the world
- Yearn for paradise
Alfred Adler’s Striving for Superiority
- Adler: main motivation = “striving for superiority”
-> To overcome inferiority that we feel as infants given our helpless & dependent state - Healthy person learns to cope w feelings of inferiority and becomes competent, and develops a sense of self-esteem
- If not, they develop INFERIORITY COMPLEX
The Need for Security (Karen Horney)
- Child’s caregivers must provide sense of security for a healthy personality to develop
- If not, neurotic personality types will develop
3 neurotic personality patterns
- Moving toward people
-> A compliant, submissive person - Moving against people
-> An aggressive, domineering person - Moving away from people
-> A detached, aloof person
This theory is close to true
Humanistic Approach
- Humanistic theories developed in 1960s in reaction to Psychoanalytic theories (too deterministic) and behaviour theories (too mechanical)
- Humanistic approach emphasizes:
-> free will
-> uniqueness of individual
-> personal growth
Humanistic - Maslow
- Maslow studied lives of healthy creative ppl to develop his theory of personality
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is an arrangement of the innate needs that motivate our behaviour
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Self actualization
- Esteem
- Belongingness and love
- Safety
- Physiological (survival)
Self Actualization
Self-actualized people:
- Accept themselves, others, and the nature of
world for what they are - Independent, democratic, creative
- Have Peak experiences, (experiences of
deep insight, wonder, awe, ecstasy)
Humanistic - Carl Roger’s Self Theory
- Parents set up CONDITIONS OF WORTH: behaviours/attitudes that give us positive regard
- Ppl develop self-concept of what others think they should be based on these conditions
UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD
Acceptance and approval without conditions
Trait theories of Personality
- Personality traits are individual dimensions, a
continuum ranging from very low to very high
What do trait theorists use to tell them the number and kind of traits a person has
Factor analysis and other statistical techniques
The “Big Five”
5 basic personality traits (OCEAN)
1. Openness
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extroversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism: whether a person is unstable or prone to negative emotions & insecurity
Self-concept
The broad network of mental representations that a person has of him or herself
Working self-concept
- When situations dictate which aspects of the schema of the self get activated and brought to mind
- Guides our immediate behaviour
- Different working self-concept in different contexts
Locus of control
A person’s perception of what determines his/her outcomes:
- intrinsic (internal) characteristics or random, external forces
Learned helplessness
State of passive resignation to an aversive situation bc we have had past experience being unable to do it (think its out of our control)
Personality Disorders (PDs) - Prevalence
- 9-15% of the general pop (rates are higher in psychiatric hospitals/outpatient clinics)
- 1-5% individual PDs
PDs - Comorbidity
Comorbidity among PDs = very high
- Ppl with a PD have an average of 6 comorbid PDs
- Comorbidity with other disorders is also very high (anxiety, mood, impulse control, substance abuse)
PDs Sex Differences
- Prevalence generally higher among women
- Higher in men:
-> Antisocial
-> Narcissistic - Higher in women:
-> Dependant
-> Histronic
-> Borderline - Could be due to higher gender bias in diagnosis of PDs (Ex. histronic)
PDs Age differences
- PDs most prevalenet in early/midlife
- Women and men roughly equal in older age
PDs General Criteria
A. A pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates markedly from expectations in at least 2 of the following areas
- Cognition
- Affect
- Social
- Impulse control
B. Pattern = inflexible and pervasive across diff situations
C. It causes clinically significant distress or impairment
D. The pattern is stable and it has early onset (traced back to at least one adolescence or early adulthood)
PDs = Ego-syntonic
- Ppl feel that their PD symptoms are a part of who they are
- Often have no desire to change them
- Although they may really want to change their consequences (Ex. paranoid PD, losing job)
Most other disorders = Ego-dystonic
- The symptoms do not feel like part of the individual
- Patient = more eager to get rid of them
- Ex. Panic Disorder
PDs: DSM Disorders - Cluster A (Odd/Eccentric)
- Paranoid
-> Suspiciousness & distrust of others
-> Tendency to see self as blameless
-> Reads hidden insults in benign remarks - Schizoid
-> Detachment from social relationships
-> Low pleasure (No expressions, IDGAF, Solitary activities) - Schizotypal
-> Interpersonal problems
-> Eccentric/odd
-> Extreme social anxiety
-> Believe they have magic powers/engage in magic rituals
PDs: DSM Disorders - Cluster B (Dramatic/Erratic)
- Antisocial
-> Violate others’ rights
-> Aggressive
-> Impulsive
-> Deceitful - Borderline
-> Impulsive
-> Feel empty
-> Flash anger
-> Recurrent suicidal
behaviours - Histrionic
-> Attention- seeker
-> Very emotional
-> Dramatic/theatrical - Narcissistic
PDs: DSM Disorders - Cluster C (Anxious/Fearful)
- Avoidant
-> Social avoidance, introversion, loneliness (but don’t want to be alone)
-> Feels socially inadequate - Dependent
- Obsessive-compulsive
-> Perfectionism
-> Excessive concern for order and control
-> Does not trust others to do work
Psychopathy Checklist Factor 1
Affective/Interpersonal Components
- Glib and superficial charm
- Pathological lying
- Shallow affect
- Grandiose self-worth
- Lack of empathy + remorse
Psychopathy Checklist Factor 2
Impulsive/Antisocial Components
- Parasitic lifestyle
- Poor behavioural controls
- Unrealistic long-term goals
- Irresponsibility/Impulsivity
- Criminal
Psychopathy/ASPD relationship
Factor 1 (Affective/Interpersonal Components) = primary essence of psychopathy
Factor 2 (Impulsive/Antisocial Components) = ASPD
- Prison prevalence of ASPD = 65-85%
- Prison prevalence of Psychopathy = 15-25%
PDs: Diagnostic problems
- Might not be right to say personality is disordered
- Culture & norms are important
- Comorbidity - Are PDs distinct constructs?
- Stigma of PDs problem bc its on record
- Not otherwise specified (NOS) is most common
- Polythetic criteria: 2 people could have same PD but
share no symptoms!
