Situational interpersonal perspective Flashcards
What is a situational perspective on personality?
Personality is a fruit and its not real. Who we are is not the same in every situation.
viewing personality through the situational perspective is about understanding that where we are, who we are with and in what circumstance changes “who we are” or even determines who we are
What was Mischel’s critique towards broad personality traits?
that it could not explain personality since it only had a correlation of 0.3
Sometimes, the power of the situation is overwhelming! What does that mean?
Here we are talking about the Psychological situation, that is to say all the unique combination of potential behavior and values.
In short the situation could exert a lot of power to the point that it overpowers the individuals personality. a calm and rash person could be a nervous reck running for their life if a fire broke out
What are the implications for a situational perspective of personality?
Give some examples of situations that might have been overwhelming for a person.
The implications for a situational perspective of personality is that people with certain personalities behave differently and their personalities are not good predictors of their behaviors.
a person with high consensuses and low neuroticisms can still be nervous reck in the forest and forget to put their shoes on if a bear has been chasing them through the woods from their tent
What are mirror neurons? How do they function?
Why are they important for social behavior?
They are neurons in our brain that react to the behavior of others as if we ourselves would have done it. this is the basis for empathy. we can actually feal what someone else is feeling
They are important to understand for social behavior since they are quite literally proof of at least parts of the interpersonal approach since part of us is reacting to what others are doing whether we want to admit it or not
Longitudinal studies are important for the understanding of human behavior.
What could we learn from such studies that we cannot learn from cross sectional studies?
The cross sectional studies only allows us to assess a person in one instant, if we are to believe that people are the product of their interpersonal/ environmental situations this only captures part of their true behavioral pattern and not their personality as a whole.
If we instead use longitudinal studies we are able to se changes in people over time. that is to say the subjects will be able the express more of their personality patterns over time giving us a better picture of their personality.
Describe some methodological difficulties with longitudinal studies.
- Depending on the length of the study tools can become outdated
- cultural and social aspects can change which could be a confounding factor
- its hard to keep that many people engaged or even just keep track of them for that long so you may have drop outs that affect your final results, especially if that is a personality tendency
What is personality about from an interpersonal point of view?
Its a point of view that views personality as a sum of parts where the parts are our social interactions.
we should view personality not as a label that can be found out from a test but instead as the recuring social situations we encounter
The self has to be found in the eyes of others.
What is the illusion of individuality
The fact that we think we have one personality when we in fact have as many personalities as we have social encounters
if personality is a mix of our own inclinations and the social situation there can never be a fixed personality
What is the environmental press referring to, according to Murray?
Environmental press is just as it sounds. The demands from the environment that modify our individual motivations to behave in certain ways or if you will, that creates your personality in this environment
Define the two basic needs/dimensions that are central to human interpersonal behavior.
Dominance:
The need/want to rule and control what happens in a social interaction
Affiliation:
The amount of warmth and friendliness you emit onto others
What does the term “complementarity” refer to from an interpersonal point of view?
Define and explain. Give examples
Complementarity is the belief that certain personalities match with others and have the opportunity to connect.
Those that have high dominance in their behavior “complement” those that have low dominance.
Those that have High Affiliation complement those that also have high affiliation while low affiliation complement low affiliation.
Discord mod and kitten
(high affiliation with a High/Low dominance complement)
Alpha and Beta bro
(Low affiliation with High/Low dominance complement)
Define and explain the “copy processes”.
Give examples.
In short, use behavior we see and apply that in three distinct ways.
- Identification
An individual adopts characteristics, values or behaviors from another person
(abused kid wants to be a good dad so he start beating up his kid) - Recapitulation
re-enactment of earlier stages of life
a girl was abused in her last relationship but finds herself in a new relationship just like it. she only knows the role of a victim. - Introjection
The internalization of another’s opinions into ones own self-concept
(you are useless son -> I am useless T_T)
