Week 8 Mandy's notes Flashcards
Define personality
the enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed in different circumstances
What are some theories of personality?
»Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theories »Behavioural theories »Cognitive-social theories »Trait theories »Humanist / Interpersonal theories
»Genetics
»Culture
What are the paradigms in personality assessment?
»Psychoanalytic »Interpersonal »Personological »Multivariate (trait) »Empirical »Social-cognitive »Positive psychology
Approaches to personality theories
»Deductive (items derived from theory, like face validity, but test takers can fake good or fake bad)
vs Empirical (like multivariate or trait approaches. Driven by data gathered)
»Assessments might use Objective or Projective techniques
The psychoanalytic approach
Originated in the work of Sigmund Freud
»the role of unconscious motivational process in normal and abnormal personality functioning;
»Elaborated on by a number of researchers during the
course of the twentieth century
»Anna Freud
»Erik Erikson
The Rorschach
Most infamous
»Controversial
»Based on responses to 10 bilaterally symmetrical inkblots
»The way that people organise their responses to the
images is supposed to reflect how they respond to other ambiguous situations
Weakness:
»Low predictive validity
»Low reliability of scoring systems
»Requires a lot of training
The interpersonal approach
Based on the work of Harry Stack Sullivan
»Popularised by Timothy Leary
»Proposes that personality exists only in the interaction between people
»The study of interpersonal processes is therefore central to personality assessment
Interpersonal Circumplex:
way of describing interpersonal behaviour
The personological approach
Began with the work of Henry Murray
»Focuses on (principally) psychogenic needs of the
individual
»Extent to which the environment promoted or inhibited these needs
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT
Not designed to be diagnostic
»Clinical and non-clinical uses
Weaknesses:
»Questionable reliability and validity
The multivariate (trait) approach
The oldest approach to personality »Began with early “type” approaches »Modern form: there are a number of dimensions of individual difference that people have in common and that serve to specify the individual’s personality »Allport »Cattell »Eysenck »Costa & McCrae
Trait Theorists: The Five-Factor Model (FFM)
Trait Theorists:
The Five-Factor Model (FFM)
»Openness
(open to new ideas vs. conventional & narrow in interests)
»Conscientiousness
(responsible & organized vs. irresponsible & careless)
»Extroversion
(sociable & talkative vs. withdrawn & quiet)
»Agreeableness
(trusting & good-natured vs. suspicious & ruthless)
»Neuroticism
(emotionally unstable & moody vs. emotionally stable & easygoing)
Measures of personality traits
NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae)
»Big Five Inventory (BFI; John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991
Good Reliability and Predictive validity
Limitations of the trait approach
Self-report can lead to inaccurate self-presentation
- this limitation is addressed by empirical approach.
Good face validity can lead to social desirability bias
The empirical approach
A way of constructing psychological tests
»Relies on collecting and evaluating data about how
each of the items from a pool of items discriminates between groups of respondents
»Groups who are thought to show or not show the attribute the test is to measure
What’s an example of the empirical approach?
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
Most widely used and researched standardised
“personality” test
»MMPI developed as a measure to:
- distinguish between “normal” and “abnormal” groups and
- assist in differential diagnosis of major psychiatric disorders
»California Psychological Inventory (CPI)
»Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB)
The social-cognitive approach
Key theorists:
»Walter Michel
»Albert Bandura
»George Kelly
»Unique experiences of individuals are important in
shaping consistencies in thoughts and behaviours
»(rather than motivational forces or genetically determined predispositions)
»“Person variables” are more flexible than traits
Encoding & personal relevance
Personal constructs
(Kelly, 1955)
»Mental representations of people, places, things, and
events that are significant to a person. Personal value
(Mischel, 1979)
»“The importance individuals attach to various
outcomes or potential outcomes”
(Burton, et al., 2015, p. 431)
Expectancies & competencies
Behaviour-outcome expectancy:
“a belief that certain behaviour will lead to a particular outcome” (Burton, et al., 2015, p. 431)
»
Self-efficacy expectancy:
“a persons conviction that she can perform the actions necessary to produce the desired outcome (Bandura, 1977)” (Burton, et al., 2015, p. 431)
»
Competences: skills and abilities for solving problems
Self-regulation
Setting goals, evaluating performance, and adjusting behaviour to achieve these goals in the context of ongoing feedback”
The social-cognitive approach
Assessment methods »Clinical Interview »ABCs »Formal measures of self-efficacy, specific skills, etc. »Self-monitoring of behaviours »Assessment needs to be context-specific
Positive psychology example measures
Example measures:
»General Self-Efficacy Scale (Jeruselum& Schwarzer,
1992)
»Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965)
»Hope Scale (Snyder, et al 1991)
»Life Orientation Test-Revised
»Widely used measure of optimism
»Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985)
»Usually developed using logical-content approach
