Lecture 1 - Approaches to Personality Flashcards
What is persona?
Mask worn to portray character, role/character one plays in life’s drama
What are the basic elements of personality?
F: Individual’s characteristic pattern of thought/emotions/behaviour together w/ psychological mechanisms (hidden or not) behind those patterns
C/S: dynamic organisation inside person + psychophysiological systems that create person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour/thoughts/feelings
W/R: abstractions that explain patterns of: affect/behaviour/cognition (sometimes desires) - ABCD of personality
What are the 4 overarching approaches to personality?
Nomothetic, dispositional, idiographic, situational
What is the nomothetic approach?
Individual diffs described + explained in terms of predefined attributes (eg. extraversion/brain area x)
What is the dispositional approach?
Personality seen as consistent/internal dispositions to think/act/feel in similar ways largely independent of isutation
What is the idiographic approach?
Individuals so unique that two diff people can’t be described using same concept (eg. Freud’s psychodynamic theory)
What is the situational approach?
Personality series of largely unrelated states primarily determined by situational factors, no core essence just distinct behavioural signatures (if A then B)
What do dispositional theorists think about the situation’s role?
Don’t deny role of context/situation in moderating behaviour
There is significant correlation between traits + behaviour (r = 0.4), traits also influence types of situations encountered
What is one of the early models of personality?
The Four Temperaments: origins of personality theory in ancient Greece philosophy, rooted in descriptions of physical/mental disturbance
Hippocrates: Described physical illnesses come from balance of bodily fluids
Galen (AD 130-200): applied theory to describe temperament
What are the Four Temperaments?
Phlegmatic (calm)/choleric (irritable)/sanguine (happy)/melancholic (sad), balance of bodily fluids (black bile/bile/mucus/blood levels) determines balance of temperaments
What are the contributions of the Four Temperaments theory?
Notion of personality ‘types’, temperament descriptors influenced modern theories, specifies links between biology and temperament
What is Eysenck’s PEN Theory?
Initial theory (1947): two dimensions of personality
Extraversion – Low E (introversion) vs High E (extraversion)
Neuroticism – High N (neuroticism) vs Low N (emotional stability)
Inspired by Galen’s four temperament model
What are dimensions in Eysenck’s theory?
Dimensions where everyone can be placed, orthogonal to one another (independent), normal distribution for each dimension, super traits that provide complete description, biological underpinning
What is the third dimension in Eysenck’s theory?
Added 1970
Observed individuals who were emotionally unstable (N) but w/ lower levels of fear/anxiety, lack of remose/conscience, lack of appreciation of consequences of actions –> psychopaths
Psychoticism dimension – High P (psychoticism) vs Low P (tender mindedness)
Psychoticism: major trait in Eysenck’s PEN model of personality, not normally distributed, most people have low scores
What is being a psychopath associated with?
Extreme personality associated w/ callous/deceptive/manipulative nature, inability to feel remorse/empathy/deep-seated emotions, violate social norms
What is psychosis?
Mental disturbance associated w/ break from reality (eg. Schizophrenia)
Someone w/ psychosis may be described as ‘psychotic’
How is extraversion/introversion explained by biology?
Diff activity levels in reticulo-cortical system
Ascending Reticular Activation System (ARAS) in brain stem modulates amount of electrical activity in cortex
Moderate levels of arousal preferred (Lower level = Extravert – seek out stimulation, Higher = Introvert – avoid external stimulation)
What did Gale test?
Hypothesis: in situation, extraverts will have lower levels of cortical arousal than introverts
Mixed evidence, majority support
Number of methodological issues – unsystematic use of personality measures, very high/low arousal task will cause introverts/extraverts to adapt to preferred level of cortical arousal –> obscure diffs
What did Tran/Craig/McIsaac address from Gale?
Issues: Activity measured from frontal regions of brain, older participants (22-60) bc personality isn’t stable yet until adulthood, used moderately demanding task (opening/closing eyes)
Compared mean amplitude of EEG activity, I = 4.5 microvolts, E = 6.8 microvolts, p < 0.05
How does neuroticism-stability explain diff activity levels in reticulo-limbic system?
Limbic system: involved w/ emotional processing (cingulate cortex, fornix, mammillary body, hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus
Neuroticism from greater arousal in reticulo-limbic system, psychoticism linked to male hormones/dopamine levels
How is the evaluation for Eysenck’s theory?
Good cross-cultural evidence for E + N factors, major contribution to trait/biological theories of personality, development of several personality questionnaires
(EPI, MMQ, EPQ-R, EPP)
P factor less accepted – not featured in other models, neurobiology of emotional processing thought to be more complex, too much focus on biology
What is the BAS/BIS (reinforcement sensitivity) theory?
Jeffrey Gray (1934-2004): development of alternative to Eysenck, based on work with animals (applied to all mammals)
2 separate systems + main neural components (amygdala, ventromedial hypothalamus, midbrain grey matter)
Individual diffs lie in strength of BAS + BIS
What is the behavioural activation system (BAS)?
Activates approach behaviour toward goal, motivated to seek reward, based on conditioned responses associated w/ positive events
What is the behavioural inhibition system (BIS)?
Focuses attention on potential costs, motivated to avoid harm/punishment, inhibits behaviours associated w/ negative events
