Personality Flashcards
personality
characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that makes a person unique
- affects the way we interpret and react to the world
traits
characteristic ways in which we think, feel and behave
trait theory
- personality traits describe a stable form of behavior that people display in any and every situation
- traits develop over time with experience and can be used to predict future behaviors
- explains why people are different from each other
McCrae and Costa’s Big 5 Personality traits
- organizes personality traits along a continuum of 5 factors
- each factor represents a range of personality types
- factors include openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism
openness to experience
reflects a person’s degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and preference for variety and novelty
low: practical, conventional, prefers routine
high: curious, independent, prefers variety
conscientiousness
- one’s tendency towards self discipline and competence
- focuses on amount of deliberate thought a person puts into behavior
low: disorganised, lazy, irresponsible
high: organised, hardworking, responsible
extraversion
Tok found that people who are high in both openness to experience and extraversion are more likely to participate in adventure and risky sports due to their curious and excitement seeking nature
low: quiet, reserved, passive
high: sociable, talkative, outgoing
agreeableness
- one’s tendency to be compassionate and cooperative
- measure of a person’s helpful and trusting and whether that person is generally well tempered
low: irritable, suspicious, uncooperative
high: helpful, trusting, empathetic
neuroticism
- one’s degree of emotional stability and impulse control
- Watson and Clark found that people reporting high levels of neuroticism reported feeling anxious and unhappy whereas people who are low in neuroticism tended to be well tempered and calm
low: calm, well tempered, self controlled
high: anxious, unhappy, prone to negative emotions
strengths of trait theory
- able to capture people’s individuality fully as it categorises people by using more than one dimension
- easily measurable and testable
- explains why personality is stable over time as traits have genetic basis
weaknesses of trait theory
- largely differ from each other on number of dimensions
- does not explain continuity and consistency
- does not explain different personality in different situations
- relies on self report
humanistic theory
focuses on each individuals full potential and stresses importance of growth and self actualisation
- fundamental belief: people are innately good and social and mental problems are results of derivations from this natural tendency
physiological needs
- highest priority needs such as hunger, thirst, oxygen, shelter and sleep
- basic needs that should first be met before one can even consider other higher level needs
safety needs
- includes security, protection and stability
- where individuals focus on securing their physical safety and that of their immediate surroundings
- needs can be met by developing structure, setting limits and maintaining order in ones life and can be manifested through settling in safe neighbourhood, striving for job security, having a sizeable bank account and planning for retirement
beloningness and love needs
- where individuals strive to seek out friendships and groups in order to experience sense of belonging
- people devote their efforts to finding ways to be accepted or to fit in
- where most people strive for club membership, find partners, raise children and assume active roles in community
esteem needs
- needs for achievement, education, respect and competence gain more and more precedence
- individuals dedicate their efforts to adding to their achievements and gain more respect, admiration and appreciation of others
- where people usually focus on climbing professional ladder and gain more knowledge and experience and work towards achieving solid sense of self worth
self actualisation - Maslow
- entails extensive understanding of self and actualisation of ones full potential
- individuals know who they truly are and are comfortable and content in stature and place that they have established for themselves
- maslow believed that very few people ever reach this stage of development and are able to fulfil this need
people need to grow in environment that provides them with these
- genuineness: honest, open and does not put up a fake front
- acceptance: being seen with unconditional positive regard and accepts us for all our shortcomings
- empathy: sees the world from your perspective and understands how you feel
unconditional positive regard
an accepting person who is prepared to take us as we are with all our shortcomings
self actualisation - Rogers
occurs when our ideal self is congruent with our self image
- Rogers describes a person who is self actualised to be a fully functioning person
- main determinant for whether a person will self actualise is childhood
self concept
our subjective perception of who we are
- influenced by experiences of a person and our interpretation of those experiences
primary sources that influence self concept
- childhood experiences
- evaluation by others
components of self concept
- ideal self: person we would like to be
- self image: person we think we are
- true self: person we really are
Scott O’Hara
supported belief whereby they found that students whose ideal self and self image were discrepant were anxious and depressed compared to students whose ideal self and self image were a closer match
characteristics for a person to achieve self actualisation
- genuineness
- acceptance
- empathy
- unconditional positive regard
measuring humanistic theory
- self report known as q sort which consists of a stack of cards on which are statements like ‘I try hard to please others’
- Rogers used these cards when working with clients to look for match between ideal self and self image
- limitation: depends on whether client is honest and is open to share what they really believe
strengths of humanistic theory
- gives people more credit in determining and controlling their state of mental health
- takes environmental influence into account rather than focusing on our internal thoughts and desires
- focuses on healthy personality rather than troubled people
weaknesses of humanistic theory
- hard to set
- no accurate way to measure or quantify
- cannot be scientifically tested or verified
- overly optimistic and fails to take into account human capacity for evil
contributions of Maslow
- used in counselling and psychotherapy
- takes into account our upbringing, environment or social impact
social cognitive theory
- provided framework for understanding how people actively shape and are shaped by their environment
- believes that personality doesn’t determine behavior, it only influences behavior
model of reciprocal determinism
- human behavior explained as being results of interactions between behaviors, cognitive and environmental factors
- conscious, self organized goals and standards that influence thoughts, feelings and actions are important
- suggested that children play far more active and interactive roles than passive
components of model of reciprocal determinism
behavioral factors - practice, skills, self efficacy cognitive factors - attitudes, knowledge, expectations environmental factors - social norms, access to community, influence on others and environment
self efficacy
- belief in ones capabilities to organize and execute courses of actions to manage prospective situations
- perceptions of self efficacy influences peoples choices and beliefs in themselves
- belief in ones self efficacy can be the difference between whether or not the person even considers making positive changes to their life
limitations of social cognitive theory
- based solely on dynamic interplay between person behaviors and environment
- heavily focuses on processes of learning which in doing so disregards biological and hormonal predispositions that may influence behaviors regardless of past experiences and expectations
variables to consider when behaving in particular situations
competencies
- intellectual capabilities, problem solving strategies, social skills
encoding strategies and personal constructs
- deals with what you paid attention to and what meaning you attach to that situation
- what is threatening to you may be a positive challenge to another
expectancies
- how a person expects a behavior to result
subjective values
- personal values on possible outcomes of various solutions
self regulation
- our behaviors depends on intrinsic reinforcement or punishment
Walter Mischel
- believed that personality traits are purely cognitive strategies to act in certain ways that provides rewards
- personality doesn’t determine how a person will act in every situation, it only predicts how a person will act in every situation
- believed that behavior of a person depends on their traits and the situation they’re in
Mischel
- conducted a research on consistency of traits across situations
- found that students who were conscientious on one occasion were not always similarly conscientious on another
- found that personality tests only mildly predicted behavior
contribution of Mischel
- integrated both trait and social cognitive approaches to personality
- considered the characteristics of a situation that might explain apparent inconsistencies in personality in different situations
- explains impact of beliefs on how a person acts in a situation
strengths of social cognitive theory
- well grounded in scientific research and its concepts have been empirically tested
- has been very influential due to its wide applicability and robust theory
weaknesses of social cognitive theory
- does not consider unconscious influences
- assumes that change in environment automatically leads to change in person
