Week 1 - Chapter One: Personality Theory in Context

Question 1

What are implicit personality theories?

Answer 1

These are intuitively based theories of human behaviour that we all construct to help us understand ourselves and each other.

Question 2

How are implicit theories of personality created?

Answer 2

Assumptions are made through making observations to infer cause and effect in order to explain behaviour.

Question 3

What are some issues with implicit theories? (x3)

Answer 3

1. We seldom have the opportunity con confirm our assumptions, even though they may appear to work well.
2. Based on CAUSAL, NON-RANDOM observations of behaviour that has not been systematically selected to portray how accurately this person spends their life.
3. They are NON-SCIENTIFIC theories of personality.

Question 4

How is personality defined in lay terms?

Answer 4

Value judgements in terms of the 1) social attractiveness of individuals; sometimes with an emphasis on 2) physical appearance, accompanied by comments on their 3) social style.

They are EVALUATIONS of individuals and include relative judgements e.g. height and attractiveness, and judgements about social interaction skills.

Personality is judged in a SOCIAL CONTEXT. But our personality is not only visible in social situations. It is also visible in situations in people’s ability to cope with solitude and their attitude towards it.

Question 5

How are lay definitions connected with implicit theories?

Answer 5

Lay definitions are commonly linked to personality theories. E.g. assumed match between physical attributes and personal attributes. E.x. “fat people are jolly”.

Question 6

What is a psychological definition of psychology?

Answer 6

There is no one definition that has reached a consensus. However, Allport popularised the term in 1961 and defined personality as: “a DYNAMIC ORGANISATION, INSIDE the person, of PSYCHOPHYSICAL SYSTEMS, that create the person’s CHARACTERISTIC PATTERNS of thoughts, behaviour and feelings.

Question 7

Regarding Allport 1961, what does “dynamic organisation inside the person” refer to?

Answer 7

1. a process that is continuously adjusting, adapting to the experiences we have, changes in our lives, ageing and the like.
2. Active, responsive system that is organised (in a way we don’t yet understand).

Question 8

Regarding Allport 1961, what does “psychophysical systems” refer to?

Answer 8

The inclusion of both our minds and bodies in personality.

Question 9

Regarding Allport 1961, what does “characteristic patterns” refer to?

Answer 9

Relatively stable, typical of the that individual. Implied stability is important, as without it, attempts to ‘measure’ personality would be futile.

Question 10

Regarding Allport 1961, what does “behaviour, thoughts and feelings” refer to?

Answer 10

the fact that personality is a central component influencing, and being discernible in, a wide range of human activities and experiences.

Question 11

There is a consensus that the term personality describes a psychological construct. What does this mean?

Answer 11

a mental concept that influences behaviour via the mind-body interaction.

Question 12

What are the aims of personality psychologists?

Answer 12

to provide descriptions or categorisations of how individuals behave.

understanding individuals so interventions to assist in behaviour change can be developed.

Question 13

Developmental theories of personality?

Answer 13

Diverse views on the age at which personality becomes fixed.

Question 14

Psychoanalytical theories of personality?

Answer 14

See personality development as occurring in early childhood.

Question 15

What was Sigmund Freud’s view of human nature?

Answer 15

Essentially, innately, self-destructive and aggressive.

Question 16

What was Carl Rogers’s view of human nature?

Answer 16

Benign, driven by positive motives towards growth and self-acceptance.

Question 17

Are we benign or malevolent as a species?

Answer 17

No definitive answer.

Question 18

Can you change your personality?

Answer 18

Some theorists suggest that psychotherapy or counselling can facilitate this change.

Question 19

What are the 3x essential steps for establishing the validity of a psychological construct? (Cronbach & Meehl)

Answer 19

1. Describe the characteristics that make up the construct and suggest how they may be related to each other based on some underlying theoretical speculation.

E.g. Extraversion: hypothesised characteristics = outgoing, friendly, warm. These characteristics are hypothesised to promote social interaction. Theoretical speculation is that extraverts like and need higher levels of social interaction.

2. Ways of measuring the suggested characteristics of the construct (e.g. outgoingness, friendliness, warmth).
3. Hypothesised relationships are tested. E.g. we would expect individuals who scored highly on the above characteristics would like interacting with other people

Question 20

What are the 7x aims of studying personality? EAPMUFA

Answer 20

1. Explain motivational basis of behaviour
2. Ascertain basic nature of human beings
3. Provide descriptions/categorisations of how individuals behave
4. Measure personality
5. Understand how personality develops
6. Foster a deeper understanding of human beings to assist in the development of interventions to facilitate behaviour change.
7. Assess the effects of heredity vs. environment

Question 21

Where does the term for personality come from?

Answer 21

Latin: persona, meaning ‘mask’ (Kassin, 2003)

Question 22

What terms were used instead of ‘personality’ before it was popularised?

Answer 22

character / temperament … over 50 different ways.

Question 23

Who popularised the term ‘personality’?

Answer 23

Allport

Question 24

Who popularised the term ‘personality’?

Answer 24

Allport - he argued that many of the existing terms were value laden, i.e. ‘good character’, ‘bad character’.

Question 25

What are psyshometricians concerned with?

Answer 25

Good, accurate measures of individual differences

Question 26

Define the idiographic approach to personality

Answer 26

1. Focuses on the individual (Think ‘I’ for individual)
2. Describes the personality variable within that individual
3. Comes from Greek: idios (meaning private/personal)

Question 27

Strategy of the idiographic approach?

Answer 27

Emphasises the uniqueness of individuals

Question 28

Goal of the idiographic approach?

Answer 28

To develop an in-depth understanding of the individual

Question 29

Research methodology of the idiographic approach?

Answer 29

Qualitative methodologies to produce case studies mainly. Some generalisation across series of case studies is possible.

Question 30

Data collection of the idiographic approach?

Answer 30

Interviews, diaries, narratives, treatment of session data

Question 31

Advantages of the idiographic approach?

Answer 31

Depth of understanding of the individual

Question 32

Disadvantages of the idiographic approach?

Answer 32

Can be difficult to make generalisations from the data

Question 33

Strategy of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 33

Focuses on the similarities between groups of individuals. Individuals are unique only in the way their traits combine.

Question 34

Goal of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 34

To identify the basic structure of the personality and the minimum number of traits required to describe personality universally.

Question 35

Research methods of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 35

Quantitative Methods to:

1. Explore the structures of personality
2. Produce methods of personality
3. explore the relationships between variables and across groups.

Question 36

Data collection of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 36

Self-report personality questionnaires

Question 37

Advantages of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 37

Discovery of general principles that have a predictive function

Question 38

Disadvantages of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 38

Can lead to a fairly superficial understanding of any one person. Training needed to analyse personality profiles accurately.

Question 39

Where does the word for idiographic approach come from?

Answer 39

Greek word idios meaning private or personal

Question 40

Where does the word for the nomothetic approach come from?

Answer 40

The Ancient Greek term for ‘law’

Question 41

What are population norms?

Answer 41

They represent the mean scores that particular groups of individuals score on a specific test. Trait theorists frequently develop population norms.

Question 42

How does personality affect behaviour?

Answer 42

It has a major impact on behaviour. E.g. an extravert in a social situation. Personality is thought to have a consistent influence on behaviour, that is stable across time and situations.

Question 43

What does the acronym OCEAN stand for?

Answer 43

Openness to new experience; feelings, ideas, values, actions, fantasy, aesthetics
Conscientiousness; competence, achievement-striving, self-discipline, orderliness, dutifulness, deliberation
Extraversion; Gregariousness, activity level, assertiveness, excitement seeking, positive emotions, warmth
Agreeableness; trust, altruism, straightforwardness, compliance, modesty, tender-mindedness
Neuroticism; anxiety, self-consciousness, vulnerability, impulsiveness, angry hostility

Question 44

What are the unobservable aspects of personality and how are they examined?

Answer 44

Thoughts, dreams, memories - examined by the psychoanalytical theoretical school of thought goes further, making a distinction between the conscious and unconscious mind.

Question 45

What is the private persona?

Answer 45

the ‘real’ inner person

Question 46

What is the public persona?

Answer 46

the way individuals present themselves to the outside world - affected by social pressure

Question 47

What do social deconstructionists claim?

Answer 47

it is the situation that largely dictates our behaviour

Question 48

What do personality theorists claim?

Answer 48

individual personality plays a crucial role in shaping our behaviour whatever the situation

Question 49

What are the strands of personality theorising?

Answer 49

1. Clinical strand - developed from studies of the mentally ill
2. individual differences strand - initially focused on documenting differences, later led to the statistical analyses of individual differences.

Question 50

Who was Franz Anton Mesmer? (1734-1815)

Answer 50

Viennese physician, interested in the power of magnets, believed applying magnets to parts of the body could be used to cure other people, his patients held hands in a magnetised bucket of water called a baquet and Mesmer wore a long cloak and entered the room dramatically waving a sword, claiming his animal magnetism was enough to cure his patients -> the term mesmerised. He also acknowledged that there were individual differences in magnetism, as well as the ability of individuals to be mesmerised.

Question 51

Who was Johan Casper Lavater?

Answer 51

He described a theory linking facial features with character traits. He called this theory “Physiognomy”.

Question 52

Who was Dr Gall?

Answer 52

Late 1790s, further developed Lavater’s ideas. Carried out research in mentaller asylums in Vienna, where he developed craniology (later labelled phrenology).

Question 53

What did Dr Gall hypothesise?

Answer 53

Craniology (Later Phrenology): different human functions were located in different structures in the brain. It was suggested that the size and shape of these structures was indicated by the shape of the cranium. Gall claimed that an individual’s character could be determined from the shape of his/her cranium.

Question 54

Who was Francis Galton?

Answer 54

F.Galton is acknowledged as the founder of research on individual differences. He developed a range of measures of intelligence, aptitudes and attitudes, and, most crucially, the statistical techniques that could be used to analyse data.

Question 55

What does Colin Cooper argue?

Answer 55

Cooper suggests that it is important to note that individual differences approaches are not simply about people being different. Instead they seek to establish psychological dimensions that apply to everyone, but at the same time allow for differences.

Question 56

What are the three different individual differences approaches? U/C, U/C.O., U.P.

Answer 56

1. How individual differences can be applied to improve our understanding of psychological concepts.
2. How individual differences can be applied to improve our understanding of competing or overlapping concepts.
3. How individual differences theory is applied to demonstrate its usefulness within the modern world of psychology.

Question 57

What is a consequence of the early influence of medicine on the development of psychology?

Answer 57

The focus on the individual as opposed to the differences of individuals.

Question 58

Why does understanding/learning about a psychologist’s biography improve our general understanding of theories?

Answer 58

By examining the biographies of each theorist, it is often possible to see why they have chosen to study particular characteristics. E.g. Alder + birth order.

Question 59

What are the basic criteria that a theory of personality should satisfy? DEETCPHA

Answer 59

Description - bring the behaviour into order
Explanation - help in understanding the why
Empirical validity - can it predict future events/ situational behaviour?
Testable hypothesis - can it be operationalised? (be defined precisely enough to enable it to be accurately measured)?
Comprehensiveness - should be able to encompass and explain a wide variety of behaviour
Parsimony - should be demonstrated to be necessary to explain the phenomena under study. A theory may be too parsimonious if too few concepts are included to explain the data adequately.
Heuristic value - stimulates interest and research in the area.
Applied value - practical usefulness of the theory