Understanding personality Flashcards
2 key themes characterising the psychodynamic approach to understanding personality
- Focus on the personality as a whole, rather than individual traits
- Emphasis on the unconscious as a determinant of behaviour and its conflict with the conscious elements of the psyche
What are the 3 elements of the psyche per the psychodynamic approach to understanding personality?
Id - unconscious
Ego - conscious personality
Superego - moral conscience
What is a main weakness of the psychodynamic approach to understanding personality?
Almost entire focus is on internal determinants of behaviour and not the social environment
Difficulty of testing the approach
What are the key assumptions of the trait approach to defining personality?
- Assumes traits are enduring over a variety of situations; and
- the role of situational/environmental factors is minimal
What are the 5 aspects of the Big 5 model of personality in the trait approach to defining personality?
- Neuroticism vs emotional stability
- Extraversion vs introversion
- Agreeableness
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
What is a key weakness to the trait approach of understanding personality?
Simply knowing a person’s personality traits will not necessarily help understand how they will act in a particular circumstance
Who are two key proponents of the trait approach to understanding personality and what did their contributions to the subject include?
Ray Cattell - 16 personality factor model
Hans Eysenck
- boiled down to 3 personality factors (introversion/extroversion, neuroticism/stability, psychoticism)
- some traits are highly hereditable and there is a physiological basis to some traits (e.g. extraversion and interaction with the ascending reticular activating system)
What are the two key aspects by which the situation approach to understanding personality seeks to explain behaviour?
Modelling (Observational learning); and
Feedback (social reinforcement)
Explain the key premise of the situation approach to understanding personality
Situation is a more important determinant of behaviour than traits - if the influence of the environment is strong enough the influence of personality traits is minimal
What is the key criticism of the situation approach to understanding personality?
Whilst situation can influence behaviour, individuals will react differently to the same situation
Name and explain two different theories which are learning theories to understanding personality and their key proponents
- Social learning theory (Bandura) - personality is driven by role models and learned behaviour
- Humanistic theory (Rogers and Maslow) - (I) the psychological core is what drives the individual to self-actualise (II) we learn by experiences and mistakes made as we travel through life
Explain the key premise underlying learning theories to understanding personality
Behaviour is dependent on situational factors and learned behaviours
Personality is the accumulation of learned behaviours
Explain the interactional approach to understanding personality
Personal traits and situational factors independently determine behaviour and at times interact in unique ways to determine behaviour
How effective is the interactional approach in explaining behaviour compared to other theories?
Explains twice as many behaviours as traits or situations alone (Bowers, 1973)
What is the most popular approach taken to explaining behaviour today?
Phenomenological approach (Vealey 2002)
Definition of trait?
Predisposition to behave in a certain way
Definition of affective state
Psychological state of mood - transitory in nature
Name a model for measure of affective state and what aspects of mood are measured.
Profile of mood states (POMS)
Updated to Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS)
Measures:
1. tension
2. Vigour
3. Anger
4. Depression
5. Fatigue
6. Confusion
From research carried out what influence has participation in sports been found to have on personality profile?
No evidence yet found to suggest participation affects overall personality profile
Who carried out one of the most comprehensive reviews of comparison of personality between athletes and non-athletes and what did they find?
Eysenck, Nias and Cox (1982)
Neuroticism - top level athletes have lower N scores than non-athletes (makes sense - lower N score would suggest individual less likely to want to put themselves in competitive situation)
Extraversion - greater E in top-level athletes (explained as lower arousal in extraverted person means greater need for stimulation and therefore sensation seeking behaviour but also quicker to react aggressively and more likely to infringe rules)
What personality traits have been found to consistently distinguish between athletes and non-athletes?
Some personality differences appear to distinguish between athletes and non-athletes but cannot be considered to be definitive
What personality traits have been found to distinguish between male and female athletes?
Few personality differences found, particularly at the elite level
Has evidence been found to suggest that sport involvement changes personality or that the athlete gravitates towards sport because of their personality?
The latter
Explain the iceberg profile and the criticism of this.
Successful athletes exhibit greater positive mental health than less successful athletes
Using POMS (profile of mood states) successful athletes exhibit above the norm for vigour and below the norm for neuroticism, depression, fatigue, confusion and anger
But - at best accounts for only a v. small % of performance variation
What are the characteristics of Type A behaviour?
Strong sense of urgency
Excess of competitive drive
Easily aroused hostility
What disease was found with Type A behaviour, and which aspect of the behaviour?
Cardiovascular disease
Anger-hostility
What impact has exercise been found to have on Type A behaviour and what health benefit did this have?
12 weeks aerobics programme - reduction in Type A behaviour
Helped reduce cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress
What other psychological aspect has exercise been found to benefit?
What aspect of fitness is this found to be related to?
Self concept/Self-esteem (particularly in individuals who start with low self-esteem)
Resulting from perception of improved fitness rather than actual changes in physical fitness
