Week 5--> Personality Flashcards
Piaget and Vygotsky: Similarities
- Both developmental psychologists who studied how language develops in children.
- Both believed that children’s inquisitive natures give them the ability to develop language skills from an early age
- Both believed children need physical and social stimulation
- Both believed support is needed to keep children engaged (not fear)
Piaget and Vygotsky: Differences
PIAGET
- Piaget’s theory states that all children develop along similar paths, regardless of environmental influences.
- Piaget believed that brain development in the individual child allows that child to develop the skills needed for language acquisition
- Classified into structural stages (age)
- Development only in certain stages
Independant development (regardless of environment)
- Assimilation/Accommodation
- Schemas→ For with pre-existing or develop new ones→ needs to meet equilibrium
VYGOSKY
- Vygotsky’s theory posed that culture and socialization play a crucial role in child development.
- Vygotsky felt that internal development and language acquisition happen simultaneously, with both being supported by outside influences such as parents and peers.
- Zone of proximal development
- Continuous development
Believed culture and socialisation→ crucial factors on child’s development
The ‘more knowledgeable other’ → Independent learning
Personality Theory
- Personality→ enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed in different circumstances
- Personality→ influences our physical/mental health and is linked to motivation, leadership and empathy
- Understanding personality can increase self awareness, can assist in predicting behaviours and targeting interventions
- 5 major theoretical approaches to the personality study; trait, psychodynamic, social learning, humanistic and cognitive-behavioural
Type and Trait Approach to Personality
- Traits and types are qualities and characteristics of a person that distinguishes them from others
- The measurement of individual differences is a focus of these approaches to personality
- Psychologists in this area claim that out type or traits will cause us to act in a fairly similar way in a variety of situations- stable characteristics
- A trait differs from a personality type in that traits are assessed according to a continuum or degree of a characteristic; type is a categorism
Type A and Type B Personality (Friedman and Rosenman 1959 and 1974)
Type A; impatience, ambition, competitiveness, hostility and hard driving
Type B; relaxes, easy going and not easily angered
Type D; High levels of mood and high levels of social inhibition (Denollet 2005)
Big 5 model of personality (1970s by Costa and McCrae and Norman and Goldberg)
Dimensions of the big 5 model (OCEAN) OVERVIEW
- Each of the 5 stages have positive implications and are socially desirability;
- Generally speaking→ conscientiousness is linked to job performance and rated highly by employers
- Open individuals are creative and adaptive; qualities that also relate to leadership
- Emotionally stable individuals are happier
- Extraverted individuals are more likely to be successful leaders
- Agreeableness facilitates performance in people facing occupations
Big 5 model of personality: Openness to experience
- Imaginative and practical
- Conventional vs original
- Independent vs conforming
- Narrow or broad interests
- Daring vs unadventurous
Big 5 model of personality: Conscientiousness
- Careful or careless
- Organised or disorganised
- Reliable vs unreliable
- Hardworking or lazy
Big 5 model of personality: Extraversion
- Sociable vs retiring
- Fun loving vs sober
- Reserved vs affectionate
- Talkative or quiet
- Loner vs joiner
Big 5 model of personality: Agreeableness
- Soft hearted and ruthless
- Trusting or suspicious
- Cooperative vs noncooperative
- Selfish vs selfless
- Vengeful or forgiving
Big 5 model of personality: Neuroticism/emotional stability
- Calm or anxious
- Secure vs insecure
- Comfortable vs self-conscious
Contributions and limitations of trait theory: Contributions
- Traits can be measured and accessed through questionnaires
- Allowed researched to assess heritability and consistency of personality
- Provides an appropriate taxonomy for personality attributes
Contributions and limitations of trait theory: Limitations
- Big 5→ too few attributes
- Descriptive and does noe explain how personality develops or why people behave as they do
- Relies heavily on self report
- There may be cultural limitations
Validity
Extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure
Reliability
Refers to the consistency of a measure; a test is considered reliable if we get the same result each time we apply the test
Psychodynamic Theories of Personality
Theorists include; Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Erik Erikson
Major features of psychodynamic theories
- Active processes of the mind
- Importance of developmental changes across the lifespan with a particular focus on experiences of infancy and childhood
- Childhood experiences profoundly affect development of the adult personality
- Deterministic view; individual has little control over personality development and behaviour
- Unconscious processes shape personality
Freud’s main assumptions regarding personality are;
- Psychic energy is needed to motivate the mind
- Everything we think and do has a psychic cause
- People are always driven by unconscious urged (drive model)
- There is an unconscious preconscious and conscious (topographic model)
- The mind is structured into the Id, Ego and Superego (structural model)
- How psychic conflicts are resolved particularly during the psychoscexual stages shapes personality
- Defence mechanisms are used to lessen psychic paiN
Freud identifies 3 basic structures of the mind
Id- largely unconscious
Ego- largely conscious, but some preconscious and unconscious
Superego- largely unconscious
Defence mechanisms (used to deal with anxiety)
- Denial
- Repression
- Regression
- Rationalisation
- Displacement
- Intellectualism
- Projection
- Sublimation
- Reaction formation
Humanistic theories
- The major theorists are carl rogers and abraham maslow
- These theorists adopt a non-deterministic view of personality
- Major features of this personality theory;
- Conscious control of personality by the individual
- Human ability to act purposefully and shape one’s own destiny (self determinism)
- Future orientated rather than focused on the past
Rogers; self theory of personality (1902-1987)
- Person centered perspective
- Understanding personality requires emphasis on the self and each person’s perception of self
- Not the events that occurred to the person but the individual’s interpretation of those events
Perception of self beings in infancy and continues throughout life span development
- Self concept includes all aspects of self as perceived by the individual- accuracy of perceptions
- Notion of ideal self, self worth, self image
Self concept vs ideal self - Unconditional positive reward from one or more loved ones
- Humanistic theories of personality are limited by their narrow view of personality and generally a lack of substantial research base
