Personality Flashcards
Anna O
the first talking patient
Hysteria and Freud
Hysteria: Early psychoanalytic theory - early psychoanalysts often based their theories off of highly unstable individuals
1. Source of problem stems from the unconscious
2. The mind is a place of conflict (victorian control context)
3. Emphasis on childhood experiences
4. Emphasis on sexuality
The Topographic Model
popularised by Freud
Conscious (above surface) - thoughts and perceptions
Preconscious (slightly below surface) - memories and stored knowledge
Unconscious (deep below surface) - unacceptable sexual desire, violent motive, fears
Desires to make ends form, or to desire things to be less objectionable through:
Freudian Slip: unintentional error regarded as revealing unconscious feelings
Dreams: manifest and latent content
- thinking and doing
The Structural Model
Id - desire to do anything
- pleasure principle
- immediate gratification
- operates by “primary process”: libido and death
Ego - manages Id and Super-Ego
- reality principle
- defense mechanisms
- “secondary process”
Super-Ego - voice of conscious
- socialisation
- internalised standards and values
- conscience & guilt
The Genetic (or Developmental) Model
“psychosexual stages”
- sexuality centred on mouth, anus, genitals
fixation: staying in one stage too long
0-2- Oral, 2-4- Anal, 4-5- Phallic, 6-puberty- Latency, puberty-onward- Genital.
Limitations of Psychoanalytic Theory
topographic, structural and genetic models are based on soft evidence
- Data are not publicly available
- Objectivity is compromised
- Interpersonal expectancies
Data Supports
unconscious mental processes can influence behaviour, conflict between unconscious and conscious processes
Core Freudian ideas
- Early development is important
- Deeply rooted motives
- Body as source of pleasure and shame
- Personal conflicts
- Self-mystery
- Importance of the unconscious
Behaviourist Approach to Personality
personality is observable and measurable
- Behaviourist movement as reaction against psychology’s focus on unmeasurable phenomena, such as freud’s unconscious
- “Look into your own way of thinking to know yourself”, flawed in its extent
Radical Behaviourism
the contents of the organism are not important in explaining behaviour, the environment completely shapes the person, a personality is the sum of all their experiences (tabula rasa)
Moderate Behaviourism
the contents of the organism are important in explaining behaviour. They use terms describing activities inside the organism, such as habits, motives, drive, expectancies, thoughts
- much more consistent with modern psychology
Three Elements of Radical Behaviourism
- Stimulus
- Response
- Reinforcement/Punishment
Stimulus-response Contingencies or Classical Conditioning (Radical Behaviourism)
- Extinction
- Systematic Desensitisation
- Aversion Therapy
unconditioned stimulus –> unconditioned response
conditioned stimulus –> conditioned response
Extinction - more time with the conditioned stimulus in a safe environment will re-teach the conditioning
Systematic Desensitisation - If there is fear from thinking of the dog then the relaxation response alongside fear will lower the fear of the conditioned stimulus
Aversion Therapy - pairing stimulus with aversive stimuli that remove associations with that stimulus, nauseating substances on cigarettes creates nausea therefore cigarettes will be seen as creating nausea
Reinforcement-contingencies or Operant/Instrumental Conditioning (Radical Behaviourism)
rewards and punishments
Reinforcement: increasing probability of behaviour after change to a stimulus
Punishment: decreasing the probability of a behaviour after change to a stimulus
Positive reinforcement: increasing the frequency of a behaviour by presenting an appetitive stimulus
Negative reinforcement: increasing the frequency of a behaviour by removing an aversive stimulus
Positive punishment: decreasing the frequency by adding an aversive stimuli
Negative punishment: decreasing the frequency by adding an appetitive stimuli
Variable Ratio Reinforcement (Reinforcement-contingencies)
a partial schedule of reinforcement in which a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses. E.g. social media or gambling, highly potent surrounding addiction
Variable Ratio – Fixed Ratio – Fixed interval – Variable Interval (alters addiction to the unpredictability of the variability)
Humanistic Theories
- Carl Rogers Theory
- Abraham Maslow’s Theory
focuses on phenomenology - subjected experiences are unique to everyone, understanding an acceptance of differing views on the world
Rogers Theory of Personality
people want to behave in ways that are consistent with our real self and our ideal self.
incongruence = neurosis
The Fully Functioning Person - Rogers Theory of Personality
- Openness to Experience
- Expanded consciousness
- Able to tolerate ambiguity, not black and white
- Existential Living
- “Flow”, “flow state”, happiness: taking personal responsibility for finding meaning and enjoyment in our ongoing experiences
- Loses self-consciousness, loses a sense of time, achieves a sense of personal control, concentrate only on the task at hand - Organismic Trusting
- Allowing ourselves to be guided by things that are good as opposed to bad
4.. Experiential Freedom
- We feel free when we have choices
- Creativity
highly unmeasurable
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- physiological needs, 2. safety and security, 3. love and belonging, 4. self-esteem, 5. self-actualisation
unscientific and highly subjective on how it is determined to people
- Physiological Needs (Maslow)
- Food, water etc
- Prepotent needs, met right away
- Function of civilisation is to satisfy needs to focus on higher ones
- Safety and Security (Maslow)
- required in some mental disorders e.g. OCD, Anxiety disorders
- Security, order, health, employment
- Love and Belonging (Maslow)
- Affiliation, friends, group identification, intimate relationships,
- Often not satisfied even in affluent countries
- Unfulfilled at the root of many mental disturbances
- Need to receive and give love
Self-Esteem (Maslow)
- High regard by self and others
- Mastery, achievement, adequacy
- Met by the deserved respect of others
- Self-Actualisation (Maslow)
- Estimated 10% satisfies, not objective judgement
- Must actualise what exists inside them as potential
- Other theorists wouldn’t see this as a need
- Truth, goodness, beauty, unity, aliveness, uniqueness, perfection etc
Exceptions to the Hierarchy
Esteem over love
- Person who ignores and ruins relationships in order to achieve
No Striving after needs are met
- Psychopath who seem not to desire love
lack love, needs met
- Artists who have produced their greatest works in times of dire safety, belongingness, and physical need
- Martyrs - People who sacrifice their safety and lives for a value or ideal
Self-Determination Theory
proposes three universal needs that people are motivated to achieve
- autonomy
- relatedness
- competence
Criticisms of Self-Determination Theory
- Free will versus determinism
- Poorly defined concepts
- Some unscientific methods - selected self-actualised people based on intuition
- Humanistic therapy may not work for severe mental disorders, e.g psychopathy
4 Body Humours
- Sanguine (Blood)
- Choleric (Yellow Bile)
- Melancholic (Black Bile)
- Phlegmatic (Phlegm)
Phrenology
Bumps and indentations in the skull/head determine characteristics
Sheldon’s Body Types (1940)
- endomorphy
- mesomorphy
- ectomorphy
highly invalid
The Big Five Supertraits
openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticisms
Characteristics of the Big 5
openness to experience - imagination, emotionality, artistic interests, adventurousness, intellect
conscientiousness - self-efficacy, orderliness, dutifulness, self-discipline
extraversion - friendliness, assertiveness, activity level, cheerfulness
agreeableness - trust, cooperation, altruism, sympathy, modest, moralism
neuroticism - anxiety, anger, depression, self-consciousness
Criticisms of the Big 5
- “the big five, plus or minus two”
- five super traits or single traits best for prediction
Allele 334
- men who carry one or two extra copies of allele 334 behave differently in relationships
- bonding scores were negatively correlated with allele 334
- experiences of marital crisis or threat of divorce was higher in people with one or two 334 alleles
- 0 or 1 allele were more likely to be married
Gene and Environment Interactionism
- genes –> life path (modified by environmental encounters)
gene-environment model
MAOA the Aggressive Gene
relationship between MAOA and aggressive behaviour is strongest for those who had experienced childhood abuse
Twin Study Methodology
- helps answer the question of nature vs nurture
- as identical twins share the same genetic makeup, it is possible to assume that differences between them are due to environmental factors
- Identical (monozygotic) vs fraternal (dizygotic)
- Heritability estimate, % of variance due to genetics
Correlation between twins → difference multiplied by 2 → heritability
Correlation of Twins to Supertraits
The five supertraits are also correlated genetically as identical twins had a 99% DNA match, whereas fraternal twins had a 50% DNA match (representative of siblings), accounting for the possibilities of environmental factors
Social Darwinism (Public Policy Implications)
Survival of the fittest is representative of cultures and groups
- Misinterpreted as the weak should not survive
- Galton wants to control the selection of cultures and groups genetically, saying anti semitic and racist statements to sterilise groups for racial quality
Societies/cultures compete for survival
- Preservation and purification of the gene pool of the “elite” (eugenics)
- Immigration laws limited to northern and western Europe
- Biassed testing, intelligence etc
Eugenics
- Encourage reproduction among genetically “advantaged”
- Lower reproduction among genetically “disadvantaged” (sterilisation, abortions)
- Ethnic or religious cleansing
- The bell curve etc
Set Like Plaster Hypothesis
personality fixed by 30
in identical studies
- personality traits stopped changing in young adulthood
- personality traits were changeable even in old age
Does Personality Change Across Lifespan
- Environment channels our personality
- Fewer changes after 30 than before 30 - People select environments based on their personality
- Extraverts structure their lives around opportunities to socialise
- Conscientious people seek demanding careers
- Dominant people are put in leadership positions - Self perceptions of personality become crystalised with age
- “Executive personality” fixed sense of how you should live - Genes
- 80% of consistency in personality was due to genes - Some traits might increase consistency
- Low openness
- High conscientiousness
Interactionist Perspectives
- People choose their social environments to match their personality
- May lead to personality stability
- Trait ←→ situations
Culture as Environmental Influence
Robert Levine’s research
- Fast paced versus slow placed nations
- Observed how fast locals walked in 31 nations
- Recorded accuracy of clocks at banks
- Observed how long it took to buy a stamp at a post office
- Fastest countries were switzerland, ireland, germany, japan and italy
- Slowest countries were syria, el salvador, brazil, indonesia, mexico
- Fast countries have colder climates, higher GDP, more smokers, and death from heart diseases
Brunswik’s Lens Model
determines objective behaviour after they are perceived through social actors to emotions and cognitions
observer accuracy is determined by what an occupant really does and how they are perceived to do
observer accuracy is determined by understanding the Underlying Construct and Observer Judgement
- through the “lens” with 4 different cues
Types of Physical Information
Behavioural Residue
- remnants of behaviours induced by personality
- E.G. conscientiousness –> organise belongings –> clean workspace (residue)
Identity Claims
- remind us and others of who we are
- E.G. extraversion –> liking people –> photos of self with friends
Factors of Rogers Theory of Personality
- Actualising tendency
- motivation to develop potential to the fullest extent possible - Organismic valuing process
- Subconscious attraction to growth and aversion from growth-inhibiting experiences - Positive regard
- Experiencing love, affection, attention, nurturance, etc - Positive self-regard
- Self-esteem, self-worth, a positive self-image
- Achieved through parental unconditional positive regard, hippyish ideology - Conditional Positive Regard
