Week 7-Personalities Part 1

Question 1

What is personality?

Answer 1

-You define personality in terms of characteristics, or the typical qualities of an individual.
-“a dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create the person’s characteristic patterns of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings” (Allport, 1961, p.11).
-“The characteristics or blend of
characteristics that make a
person unique” (Weinberg & Gould, 1999)

Question 2

What are the aims of studying personality?

Answer 2

■ Explain the motivational basis of behaviour
■ Determine the basic nature of human beings
■ Provide descriptions / categorisations of how people behave
■ Measure personality
■ Understand how personality develops
■ Assist in the development of interventions to facilitate behaviour change
■ Assess the effects of heredity versus the environment

Question 3

What approaches are there in studying personality: the idiographic approach

Answer 3

■ Strategy: Emphasises the uniqueness of individuals.
■ Goal: Develop an in-depth understanding of the individual.
■ Research method: Qualitative methods to produce case studies.
■ Data collection: Interviews, diaries, narratives, treatment session data.
■ Advantages: Depth of understanding of the individual.
■ Disadvantages: Difficult to make generalisations from the data.

Question 4

What approaches are there in studying personality: the nomothetic approach

Answer 4

■ Strategy: Focus on traits that occur consistently across groups of people. People are unique in the way their traits combine.
■ Goal: Identify the basic/underlying structure of personality, and the minimum and
finite nr of traits required to describe personality universally.
■ Research method: Quantitative methods to:
– explore the structures of personality.
– produce measures of personality.
– explore the relationships between variables across groups.
■ Data collection: Self-reported personality questionnaires.
the nomothetic approach
■ Advantages: Discovery of general principles that have a predictive
function.
■ Disadvantages: Superficial understanding of any one person.

Question 5

What are the strands of personality theorising?

Answer 5

■ Clinical strand:
– Developed from case studies of the mentally ill.
– Sigmund Freud is considered the founder.
■ Individual differences strand:
– Documents differences in personality through research and statistical methods.
– The major advance in psychological research in individual differences was caused by Francis Galton.
■ There are many different personality theories within these two strands

Question 6

What are the strands of personality theorising?

Answer 6

■ Clinical strand:
– Developed from case studies of the mentally ill.
– Sigmund Freud is considered the founder.
■ Individual differences strand:
– Documents differences in personality through research and statistical methods.
– The major advance in psychological research in individual differences was caused by Francis Galton.
■ There are many different personality theories within these two strands

Question 7

What’s Sigmund Freud’s background?

Answer 7

■ Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian Neurologist.
■ Interested in hypnosis and ‘hysteria’, particularly what drove
patients to develop hysteria in the first place.
■ Adopted the approach of encouraging his patients to talk
about their problems while he listened.
■ Led him to start developing his own theory and psychoanalysis.
■ Regularly treated patients for 8-9 hours each day, then wrote each evening and on Sundays.
■ Founder of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychology.

Question 8

What 4 things does Freud’s theory of personality comprise of?

Answer 8

■ Levels of consciousness
■ The nature of human beings and the source of human motivation
■ The structure of personality
■ The development of personality

Question 9

What are the levels of consciousness?

Answer 9

Freud (1940) suggested that there are 3 levels of consciousness:
1. Conscious mind:
– Thoughts, feelings, memories we are aware of.
2. Preconscious mind:
– Thoughts, feelings, memories that are unconscious now, but can be recalled into our conscious mind.
3. Unconscious mind:
– Thoughts, feelings, memories, desires, fantasies we are unaware of because they are being kept in our unconscious, due to their unacceptable nature.
– Freud called the active process of keeping material unconscious repression.

Question 10

How are the levels of consciousness and the role of
dreaming linked?

Answer 10

Freud (1901) argued that a person’s dreams were a direct
route into a person’s unconscious, and that there were two elements to dreams:
■ Manifest content of dreams:
– The description of the dream as recalled by the dreamer.
– Not a true representation of a person’s unconscious mind.
■ Latent content of dreams:
– The “true” meaning of the dream, as identified by the analyst.
– Identified dream symbols that represent latent content
■ The patient would be asked to keep a dream diary and report the manifest content of the dream, and Freud would analyse this material to uncover the latent content.

Question 11

What is the nature of human beings and the source of human motivation?

Answer 11

Freud (1901) argued that three biological drives are the primary
motivators of all human behavior:
1. Sexual drives to reproduce (libido)
2. Life-preserving drives
3. Death instinct (Thanatos)

Question 12

What is the structure of the personality? (Freud, 1901)

Answer 12

1. Id
   – Develops first in the child.
   – Unconscious part of the personality, which includes instinctive/primitive behaviours.
   – Irrational and operates based on the pleasure principle..
2. Ego
   – Develops second, as the child develops.
   – Conscious and executive part of the personality, responsible for dealing with reality.
   – Rational and operates based on the reality principle.
3. Super ego
   – Develops last in the child.
   – Considered the conscience of the child.
   – Holds our values and morals learnt from parents and society.

Question 13

Define intra-psychic

Answer 13

■ The ego mediates the
impulsive demands of id and
the restraining demands of
superego. (in constant conflict)
-every decision can lead to anxiety

Question 14

The development of personality: What are the psychosexual stages? (Freud, 1940)

Answer 14

• Each stage is associated with a distinct pleasure zone, which serves as an area for stimulation/gratification.
  1. Oral stage
  2. Anal stage
  3. Phallic stage
  4. Latency stage
  5. Genital stage

Question 15

What’s the oral stage? birth to 1 year

Answer 15

— Pleasure zone is the mouth (feeding, sucking, chewing,
biting).
— Over or under-stimulation leads to fixation and abnormal
personality development.
— Over-stimulation leads to an oral receptive personality type.
— Under-stimulation leads to an oral aggressive personality
type.

Question 16

What’s the anal stage? (18 months to 3 years)

Answer 16

— Pleasure zone is the anal region (bowel and bladder elimination).
— Inappropriate toilet training leads to fixation and abnormal personality development.
— Excessive control leads to an anal-retentive personality type.
— OR an anal-expulsive personality type

Question 17

What’s the the phallic stage? (~ 3 to 5 years)

Answer 17

— Pleasure zone is the genitals.
— Boys develop the Oedipal complex, a sexual attachment to their mother.
— Girls develop the Electra complex, a sexual attachment
to their father.
— Inability to cope with sexual feelings leads to fixation and abnormal personality development.

Question 18

What’s the latency stage? (~ 5 to 12 years)

Answer 18

— Resting period in the child’s development; energies are taken up in socialisation/learning.
— The child develops defence mechanisms.

Question 19

What’s the genital stage? (~ 12 to 18 years)

Answer 19

— Puberty and mature sexual interest in others occurs.
— Conflicts left from previous stages.

Question 20

What’s Freud’s theory on
defence mechanisms?

Answer 20

■ Freud proposed that the conflicting demands of the id, ego, and superego create anxiety.
■ To cope with this anxiety, defence mechanisms are developed.
■ The purpose of defence
mechanisms is to protect us from pain.

Question 21

What are Freud’s 12 defence mechanisms?

Answer 21

1. Repression
2. Regression
3. Denial
4. Displacement
5. Reaction formation
6. Conversion reaction
7. Rationalisation
8. Intellectualisation/Isolation
9. Phobic avoidance
10. Projection
    11.Sublimation
    12.Undoing

Question 22

How empirically valid is Freud’s theory? Research on the unconscious mind

Answer 22

 Research has examined subliminal perception, suggesting it provides evidence for a dynamic unconscious (Patton, 1992).
 A review concluded that there is evidence for the operation of unconscious processes as conceptualized by Freud (Norman,
2010)

Question 23

How empirically valid is Freud’s theory? Research on the structures of personality

Answer 23

 Early studies developed measures of individual differences in ego strength, ego control, and ego resilience (Barron, 1953;
Block, 1993).
 A review concluded there is evidence to support oral and anal personalities, and weak evidence to support Oedipal / Electra complex (Fisher & Greenberg, 1996).

Question 24

How empirically valid is Freud’s theory? Research on defence mechanisms

Answer 24

 Research supports reaction formation, isolation, denial,
projection, and repression (Baumeister et al., 1998; Taylor
& Armor, 1996; Newman et al., 1997).
 Some people have a repressive coping style, underreporting feeling anxious (Myers, 2000).
 A review concluded that 20-60% of therapy clients who had suffered sexual abuse reported not being able to recall the abuse (Brewin & Andrews, 1998).
 Cognitive avoidance is similar to Freud’s defence mechanisms and is thought to operate in a similar way to protect people from anxiety (Brewin & Andrews, 1998).

Question 25

How empirically valid is Freud’s theory? Evidence for dream content

Answer 25

 Some believe Freud’s dream theory is on the right track
given findings in neuropsychology E.g., censorship in dreaming (Hobson, 1999; Solms, 2000).
 Ps instructed to suppress thoughts of a person before going
to bed dreamt more of the person (Wegner et al., 2004).
 Dreams from REM (vs. non-REM) sleep consist of more aggressive acts (Mcnamara, 2005).
 Freud could have used these findings as evidence for suppressed material (e.g., aggressive impulses) in the
unconscious mind playing out in our dreams.

Question 26

t5What are some criticisms of Freud’s theory?

Answer 26

■ Freud’s work lack empirical support, remain untested, and are unfalsifiable.
■ Criticized for having a narrow motivational basis to explain human behavior; sexual drives
the major motivation of human behavior?
■ Emphasis on biological factors in shaping personality; ignores social influences.
■ Deterministic (little free will).
■ Presents a negative view of humans.
■ Personality fully developed at age 5?
■ The view of women and non-heterosexuals in Freudian theory is problematic.
■ Freud’s work is considered out of date and is generally no longer accepted

Question 27

What’s the Rorschach test?

Answer 27

■ Inspired by Freud’s work, the Rorschach test was created in 1921 by Hermann Rorschach.
■ The test is a widely used assessment tool for projective examination of personality.
■ A psychologist shows the participant 10 ink blot cards and direct them to respond to each
with what the inkblot looks like.
■ Elements scored in the RT:
– How respondents describe the image
– Time to respond
– Location of the inkblots that triggered the response
– Determinants
– Popularity or originality of the responses
■ A standardized scoring system has been developed by John Exner for interpreting the test (the Rorschach Comprehensive System). (e.g., Exner, 1979; Kimoto et al., 2017)

Question 28

Measuring personality: The Rorschach test (e.g., Kimoto et al., 2017).

Answer 28

■ Aim: Examine the differences in responses to the Rorschach test between Dementia and Alzheimer patients.
■ Method: Dementia (n = 32) and Alzheimer (n = 26) patients, as well as controls (n = 14) were recruited. The full Rorschach test was conducted by one clinical psychologist, who scored a protocol. Quantitative and qualitative responses were obtained.
■ Key findings: 6 variables were significantly higher (e.g., gave more unusual detail), and 3
variables were significantly lower in Dementia versus Alzheimer patients.
■ Implications: Dementia patients perceive objects in the inkblot
differently from Alzheimer patients, suggesting that the Rorschach test may be used when differentiating Dementia from Alzheimer.

Question 29

How have many criticised the validity and reliability of the Rorschach test? (e.g., Wood et al., 2000)

Answer 29

■ Aim: Are Rorschach scores related to psychiatric diagnoses?
■ Method: Reviewed prior research that has examined the links between Rorschach scores and various psychiatric diagnoses.
■ Key conclusions: Only a few Rorschach scores have a well-demonstrated relationship to psychiatric disorders.
■ Implications: The Rorschach test should not be used when formulating psychiatric diagnoses (including personality disorders).

■ Wood et al. (2011) provided a provocative critique of the Rorschach test (an entire book!).
■ Surveyed more than fifty years of clinical and scholarly research.
■ Provided evidence that the Rorschach test is of questionable utility in real-life.

Question 30

How may the usability of the Rorschach test depend on demographic variables?

Answer 30

 Boys and girls score differently on the Rorschach test, and so does Iranian and non-Iranian children (Delavari et al., 2013).
 Different cultures classify objects differently (Weiner, 2003).
 Education and age (but not ethnicity and gender!) predicted differences in Rorschach scores (Meyer et al., 2015).
-Test does not generalize to different cultures, sexes, and age groups!