WK 8 - PERSONALITY Flashcards
Personality
Personality is the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that is organised and relatively enduring, and that influences a persons interactions with, and adaptations to, the environment
Levels of personality analysis
1) Human nature > how we are “like all others”:
2) Individual and group differences > how we are “like some others”
3) Individual uniqueness > how we are “like no others”
Domains of knowledge
Dispositional, biological, intrapsychic, cognitive-experimental, social/cultural and adjustment
Dispositional
Deals in ways in which individuals differ from one another, focus on number and nature of fundamental dispositions > goals is to identify and measure the most important ways in which individuals differ (also interests in the origin of the individual differences/how these develop over time)
Biological
Core assumption of biological approaches is that humans are a collection of biological systems, and these systems provide building blocks for behaviour, though and emotion > behavioural genetics, psychotherapy of personality and evolutionary personality psychology
Intrapsychic
Deals with mental mechanisms of personality, many of which operate outside conscious awareness > classic and modern versions of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, including work on repression, denial, projection and motives for power, achievement and affiliation
Cognitive-experimental
Focuses on cognition and subjective experience, such as conscious thoughts, feelings, beliefs and desires about oneself and others > self and self-concept, goals we set and strive to meet, emotional experiences (in general and over time)
Social and cultural
Assumption that personality affects, and is affected by, cultural and social contexts. Individual differences within cultures > how personality plays out in the social sphere, including work on sex differences and gender differences in personality processes, traits and mechanisms - at human nature level of analysis all humans have common set of concerns they struggle with in a social sphere
Adjustment
Personality plays key role in how we cope, adapt and adjust to events in daily life > personality linked with important health outcomes and problems in coping and adjustment
Personality traits
Personality trait identification: lexical approach, statistical approach and theoretical approach
Personality taxonomies
Five-factor model: surgency/extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness/intellect > empirical correlates (e.g. high on extraversion = management positions)
Person-situation interaction
Two possible explanations for behaviour: a function for personality traits and a function for situation.
Integration
Other ways in which personality and situation react to produce behaviour: selection, evocation and manipulation
Genetics and personality
Personality traits, attitudes and preferences, drinking and smoking and shared vs non-shared environments
Evolution and natural selection
Evolution psychology: humans face same problems as all other living organisms > survival and reproduction. Have cognitive mechanisms evolved overtime to help solve out various adaptive problems (e.g. fear of snakes = avoid poison, male sexual jealously = increase paternity certainty)
