Personality Flashcards
Hippocrates (6th Century BC) and Galen (2nd Century BC)
Personality = Humours
Kant (18th Century)
Personality = Special laws
Gall (18th Century)
Personality = Lumps in brain
What is Personality?
- Ego - The Self
- Material self - Me
- Social - Me
- What is Personality?: EGO-THE SELF
- Psychoanalytic
- Existentialist
- Humanist
- What is Personality?: MATERIAL SELF-ME
- Biological
- Heuristic
- Complex systems
- What is Personality?: SOCIAL-ME
- Behavioral
- Cognitive behaviourism
Biological
- Personality is within ourselves
- Neural networks, gut biomes, genes
Environmental
- External experiences make up who we are
- Family networks, cultural norms, nationality
Nomothetic Methodologies
- Experiments to make generalisations and laws of behaviour
- Work in same way in all humans but vary in strength
Idiographic methodologies
System unique to the individual
Psychoanalytical Approach
- Freud
- Focus on unconscious and childhood issues
- Behaviour is a result of Id, ego and superego
Psychodynamic Approach
- Freud and neo-Freudians
- Focus on unconscious and social factor’s impact on individuals
Psychosexual
1.Oral
2. Anal
3. Phallic
4. Genital
See docs
Existentialism
Assumes people are neither good or bad
- Personal Growth
- Personal Experience
- Now and Here
- Personal Responsibility
- People can be good or bad
Existentialism: PERSONAL GROWTH
- Embracing the challenge of experiences
- Willingness to make decisions and confront fears
Existentialism: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Finding inner peace and the ability to adapt
Existentialism: NOW AND HERE
Being present and avoid dwelling the past or future
Existentialism: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
- Make good choices
- Search for meaning
Existentialism: PEOPLE CAN BE GOOD OR BAD
People are who they are because of choices they make
Mental Health in Existentialism
Rejects the medical model of mental illness
- Incongruence - Discrepancy between one’s experiences and their self concept leads to anxiety
- Terror Management - Awareness and response to death
Humanism
Assumes people are good
- Personal Growth
- Personal Experience
- Now and Here
- Personal Responsibility
- Inherent Goodness in People
Humanism: PERSONAL GROWTH
Encourages self-exploration
Humanism: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Embrace subjective experiences and emphasise uniqueness
Humanism: NOW AND HERE
Being present and avoid dwelling the past or future
Humanism: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Emphasise person’s autonomy and self-determination in shaping their experiences
Humanism: INHERENT GOODNESS IN PEOPLE
People are not fundamentally flawed
Existentialism: THE SELF
- Existence is full of challenge
- Challenges must be embraced to be worth living
Contributions of Existentialism and Humanism
- Gave rise to positive and transpersonal psychology
- First theory to capitalise on free will
Criticisicms of Existentialism and Humanism
Too much reliance on individual’s self reported conscious experience and introspection
Theoretical Approach
- Lack of standardisation
- Don’t know what is going on in one’s mind
Clinical Approach
- Doesn’t allow generalisation
- Biased conclusions
Behaviourism
The behaviour of a person is the product of all one has learned in the past
- Classical Conditioning
- Operant Conditioning
- Habituation
- Functional Analysis
Radical Behaviourism
Only environmental contingencies shape the person
Behaviourism: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
- Something that produces a response becomes paired with something else
- Over time, the ‘something else’ produces the same response
- Thoughts and feelings were irrelevant
Behaviourism: OPERANT CONDITIONING
- Reward or punishment make a behaviour more or less likely
- Assumption: Behavioural Hedonism: We are motivted to learn to seek pleasure and avoid pain
Behaviourism: HABITUATION
Responses reduce when stimuli repeats over
Cognitive Behaviourism
- Emotions, thoughts, behaviours are linked to each other and thus affets how they feel
- We don’t only learn through our own stimuli experiences but also learn from others
- Includes self-system which allows for observational learning
Self-System
- Attentional Processes
- Retention Process
- Production Processes
- Motivation Processes
Cognitive-Affective Account
- Internal system mediates of situational input and behavioural output
- Cognitive-Affective Personality System CAPS made up of Cognitive-Affective Units
(CAU’s
Contributions of Behavioural Approaches
Treatment of phobias, substance abuse, personality, and mood disorders
E.G. Cognitive-Behavioural therapy (CBT) and Systematic Desensitisation
Trait Theory
- Every human possess all traits, but not at the same intensity
- Trait development ends in early adulthood
- Traits constantly fluctuate
E.G. outgoing, impulsive, creative
Behavioural Genetics of Personality
- Shared Environment (Family, school, culture) = 10%
- Biological Genetics (hormones, genes, sex) = 40%
- Non-shared Environment (unique experiences) = 50%
Hierarchy
See docs
Lexical Taxonomies
Identify trait-descriptors in natural language
a. Neuroticism
b. Extraversion
c. Agreeableness
d. Conscientiousness
e. Openness
Psychobiological Taxonomy
Identifies the biological/genetic markers of traits
a. Neuroticism
b. Extraversion
c. Psychoticism