Personality Flashcards
Personality
Individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking and feeling
Self reports
Provides subject info about thoughts, feelings, behaviours via questionnaire/interview
MMPI
Clinical questionnaire assessing personality and psychological problems
What are some problems associated with measuring personality via personality inventories?
Many people reply in socially desirable ways, and are generally inaccurate in what they report about.
Measuring personality via projection techniques
Designed to reveal inner aspects of person’s personality by analyzing responses to a series of ambiguous stimuli; assumes projection of unconscious wishes/desires
Rorschach inkblot
Respondent’s inner thoughts/feelings are revealed by analysis of responses to unstructured inkblots - not designed to look like anything specifically
Thematic aperception test
Underlying motives, concerns and worldviews are revealed through analysis of stories about ambiguous pictures of people
Problems with projection techniques?
Open to biases of examiner, and have not been found to be reliable or valid
4 approaches
Trait approach, psychodynamic approach, humanistic-existential approach and social-cognitive approach
Alport’s view of traits
Traits are pre-existing dispositions that reliably triggers a behaviour but doesn’t explain it. Use of personality inventories.
Murray’s view of traits
Traits reflect motives; use of projective tests
Classification of traits using language
- Core traits found in all the adjectives used to describe personality (using factor analysis)
- Traits may be related to hierarchy
- General or abstract traits at higher levels than specific or concrete traits
Cattell
16 factor theory of personality
Eysenck
2 (and later 3) model of personality
3 factor model of personality
Each one is a continuum
Extroversion (levels of sociability and activity)
Neuroticism (levels of emotional stability)
Psychosis (levels of impulsivity and hostility)
Five-factor personality model (OCEAN)
Openness to experience Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism
Genetic influences on personality
Genetic components causes 40% variability among individuals; 60% from other factors
Gender differences?
Women and men are quite similar but differ in self-reported traits, attitudes, behaviours (NA context); men are physically aggressive, assertive and risk taking; women are verbally expressive, sensitive to nonverbal cues, nurturing
Animal personalities
Hard to measure
Extraversion and neuroticism can be measured through observational studies
Issues of anthropomorphizing (assigning human traits to nonhumans)
Traits in the brain for extraversion vs. introversion
Arise from individual differences in cortical arousal; reticular formation of extraverts is not easily stimulated; easily stimulated for introversion
Behavioural activation system
Go system activating approach behaviours for reward; highly reactive in extroverts
Behavioural inhibition system
Stop system inhibiting behaviour to avoid punishment; highly reactive in introverts
Traits in brain for neuroticism
Volume of brain regions involved with sensitivity to threat
Traits in brain for agreeableness
Processing areas for assessing mental states of others
Traits in brain for conscientiousness
Self regulation areas
Psychoanalysis
Theory of personality + method for treating patients
Psychodynamic approach
Personality is formed by needs, strivings and desires operating outside of awareness - motives that can produce emotional disorders
Structure of mind (Freud)
3 independent, interacting, conflicting systems governed by anxiety - Id, Ego and Superego
Id
Instinctual desires.
Pleasure principle
instinctive seeking of pleasure and avoiding of pain
Ego
Set of standards/guidelines/codes of conduct. Associated with reality principle: seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bring grief
Superego
Acting in a socially acceptable manner
Anxiety
Unpleasant feeling arising from unwanted thoughts/feelings; use of defense mechanisms (unconscious coping techniques that reduce anxiety e.g. rationalization)
Psychosexual stages
Early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasures from specific body areas; caregivers can redirect or interefere with these pleasures
Erotogenic zones:
Any part of the body susceptible of becoming excited, of being a seat of pleasure, is an erotogenic zone.
Fixation (Freud)
Pleasure-seeking drives become psychologically stuck
5 stages of psychosexual development
Oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital
Oral
Associated with the mouth, sucking, feeding -> issues related to fullness and emptiness, taking from others
Anal
Associated with the anus, retention and expulsion of wastes, toilet training -> rigidity, issues with control
Phallic
Associated with genitals and powerful incestuous feelings (i.e. Oedipus/Elektra complex) -> identifcation with same-sex parent
Genital
Associated with personality with love, work, relations -> issues with healthy adult sexuality and personality
Humanistic
Emphasized a positive, optimistic view of human nature that highlights people’s goodness and potential for personal growth
Existential
Focused on individual as a responsible agent who is free to create and live his or her life while dealing with meaning and reality of death
Humanistic-existential approach
Integrates both components
Humanistic + self-actualizing approach
Human motive toward realizing inner potential, need to be good, to be fully alive, find meaning in life
Flow
Engagement in tasks match one’s abilities creates a mental state of energized focus. Below abilities = boredom, above abilities = anxiety
Existential approach
Personality governed by individual’s ongoing choices in the context of realities of life and death
Anxiety of fully being
Difficulties we face in finding meaning leading to angst
Paradox of existential approach
Paradox of limitless goals but question of life’s purpose - healthier to face issues head on and learn to accept/tolerate pain of existence
Social-cognitive approach
Personality as how the person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them. Incorporates social psych, congitive psych and learning theory
What does the social-cognitive approach focus on?
1) How personality and situation interact to cause behavour
2) How personality contributes to the way people interpret situations
3) How people’s goals and expectancies influence their responses
Person-situation controversy
Is behaviour caused more by personality or situation? Patterns of personality consistency arise from the way different people interpret situations and from the ways different people pursue goals within situations
Personal constructs
Dimensions use in making sense of their experiences; different constructs (construals) lead people to engage in different behaviours
Outcome expectancies
People’s assumptions about the likely consequences of a future behaviour; combines with goals to produce a style of behaviour
Locus of control
Person’s tendency to perceive the control of rewards, as internal (they can control their own destiny) or external (outcomes are random; determined by luck or other people).
Self concept
What we think about ourselves; explicit knowledge of behaviour, traits, personal characteristics. Includes narratives about episodes in our lives and narratives in terms of traits (self schemas). Goal is to promote consistency in behaviour across situations.
Self schemas
Traits people use to define themselves.
Self esteem
How we feel about ourselves; extent to which an individual likes, values and accepts the self - involves self- evaluation
Self verification
Tendency to seek evidence to confirm the self concept - comforting to have sense of familiarity and stability in terms of who you are.
How do we gain high self esteem?
- Accepted and valued by others
- Focus on self-evaluations in specific domains
Benefits of high self esteem
- Happier and healthier life
- Cope better with stress
- More likely to persist with difficult tasks
Self serving bias
People tend to take credit for their successes and downplay responsibility for failures
Implicit egocentrism
Not aware of the influence of the sound of their name. Name-letter effect: 30% of people’s favourite letter is the first of their name. Extends to occupations, home cities, streets (doctors named Dave for example)
