Topic 1a - Approaches to Personality

Question 1

What is Personality?

Answer 1

Behavioural and psychological aspects of individuals
How someone chooses to present themselves

Question 2

What does Funder (1997) state about personality?

Answer 2

Psychological mechanisms - characteristic pattern of a person’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour

Question 3

What do Carver & Scheier (2000) state about personality?

Answer 3

Psychophysiological systems create characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts and feelings

Question 4

What do Wilt & Revelle (2014) state about personality?

Answer 4

Affect, behaviour, cognition and desires

Question 5

What is the Nomothetic Approach to personality?

Answer 5

Individual differences described and explained in terms of predefined attributes - same set of descriptive words can be used for everyone, E.G Extraversion

Question 6

What is the Idiographic Approach to personality?

Answer 6

Individuals are so unique that two people cannot be described using the same concepts - E.G Freud’s psychodynamic theory = our personality is a balance of unconscious and conscious needs

Question 7

What does dispositional mean? - Nomothetic Approach

Answer 7

Personality is consistent, internal dispositions to think / act / feel in certain ways - independent of situations, E.G an extraverted person will always be more outgoing.
DO NOT completely deny the role of context and situation
Extraverted people will be more outgoing at a concert and job interview but different levels due to context

Question 8

What does situational mean? - Idiographic Approach

Answer 8

Personality is a series of unrelated states - determined by situational factors. No core essence - how we respond to individual situations. E.G someone may be extraverted because they have seen someone they know

Question 9

Early model of personality - What is the history behind the Four Temperaments?

Answer 9

Ancient Greece philosophy
460-377 BC - balance of bodily fluids can lead to physical illnesses
Galen (130-200 AD) - used this to describe temperaments
Balance of bodily fluids determines the balance of temperaments
Excess of fluids = high levels of certain characteristics = mental illness

Question 10

What are the Four Temperaments?

Answer 10

• Phlegmatic = calm
• Choleric = angry
• Sanguine = happy
• Melancholic = sad

Question 11

What is Phlegmatic?

Answer 11

An excess of mucus = dull, lazy, controlled, careful

Question 12

What is Choleric?

Answer 12

An excess of bile = aggressive, volatile, impulsive

Question 13

What is Sanguine?

Answer 13

High blood levels = enthusiastic, positive, cheerful, satisfied

Question 14

What is Melancholic?

Answer 14

An excess of black bile = sad, depressed, antisocial, pessimistic

Question 15

What does the Four Temperament theory contribute to modern understandings of personality?

Answer 15

• Populated the idea of personality types
• Links between biology and personality

Question 16

Who is Hans Eysenck?

Answer 16

Eminent psychological of the 20th century

Question 17

What is Eysenck’s Personality Model?

Answer 17

The Gigantic Three - PEN Theory. Inspired by the Four Temperament Theory (Galen)
Initially 1947

Question 18

What is PEN Theory? (Eysenck)

Answer 18

Psychoticism: added in 1970s
Low = altruistic, rational, organised
High = uncaring, aggressive, cold

Extraversion:
Low = Introversion (asocial and passive)
High = Extraversion (sociable and outgoing)

Neuroticism:
Low = emotionally stable
High = anxious and pessimistic

Question 19

Are extraversion and neuroticism independent of each other?

Answer 19

Yes - ORTHOGONAL

Question 20

How was Psychoticism formed?

Answer 20

Eysenck - 1970s
Researched emotionally stable (low neuroticism) people with low fear, anxiety and lack of remorse

Question 21

What is the definition of psychosis?

Answer 21

Loss of contact with reality
Unrelated to psychopaths / psychoticism

Question 22

What is the biology behind Extraversion?

Answer 22

Reticulo-cortical system
Ascending reticular activation system in brain stem modulates the amount of electrical activity in the cortex
Extraverts = low levels of cortical arousal, seek out external stimulation to raise these levels
Introverts = high levels of cortical arousal, avoid external stimulation

Question 23

How does EEG measure cortical arousal?

Answer 23

• Low frequency, high amplitude = low cortisol arousal = extraversion
• High frequency, low amplitude = higher cortical arousal = introversion

Question 24

What are the methological issues of using EEG’s to measure cortical activity?

Answer 24

Need to ensure the task the person is completing is controlled
Too high or low arousal will cause Extraversion / Introversion traits to adapt to preferred cortisol arousal

Question 25

What did Tran et al. (2001) find? - EEG study on cortisol arousal and extraversion

Answer 25

EEG waves from frontal regions of the brain
Older PPTs - more stable personality
Moderate tasks (opening and closing eyes) not too active
Compared mean amp of EEG activity
Supported original findings about extraversion - was significant p < .05
High freq. low amp. = low cortisol = extraversion

Question 26

What is the biology behind Neuroticism?

Answer 26

The limbic system - emotional processing
Neuroticism stability explained by differential activity levels in the reticulo-LIMBIC system
Greater arousal = high neuroticism (more sensitive to emotional stimuli)

Question 27

What is psychoticism linked to?

Answer 27

Male hormones and dopamine levels

Question 28

What is Jeffrey Gray’s Biological Theory of Personality?

Answer 28

Behavioural Activation System (BAS) and Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) - based on principles of conditioning and animals (amygdala, ventromedial hypothalamus, midbrain gray matter)

Question 29

What is Behavioural Activation System (BAS)?

Answer 29

Seeking reward, activates behaviour towards goal, based on conditional responses
E.G if you enjoy talking with a large group of people, when encountering this, BAS will activate and motivate you to interact

Question 30

What is Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS)?

Answer 30

Focuses attention on potential costs, stops behaviours associated with negative events, avoids harm and punishment

Question 31

How do BAS and BIS relate to personality (Eysenck)?

Answer 31

• High anxiety driven by BIS = low extraversion and high neuroticism
• High impulsivity driven by BAS = High extraversion and high neuroticism
• Psychoticism seen as separate to BIS and BAS

Question 32

What is the FFFS system? - Walker et al. (2017) How does it relate to BIS and BAS?

Answer 32

Development of FFFS (Fight/ Flight/ Freeze System)
BIS as an evaluative comparator of response conflicts
BIS (more conscious) response to situations
BAS (more outgoing) response to situations