Behavioral Genetics and Psychodynamics of Personality

Behavioral Genetics and Personality

• Behavioral geneticists study correlations between monozygotic (identical) and dizygotic (fraternal) twins to understand the role of genetics in personality.
• Greater similarity in personality traits suggests a stronger genetic influence.
• Twin studies highlight the importance of genetics in personality development.
• The Behavioral Activation System (BAS) motivates individuals towards rewards, making extraverts more likely to seek engaging environments.
• The Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) cautions against threats, leading introverts to avoid potentially harmful situations.
• Jeffrey Gray proposed the BAS and BIS.

Psychodynamic Approach to Personality

• This approach views personality as shaped by needs, strivings, and desires.
• Freud's structural model of personality comprises the Id, Ego, and Superego.
• Defense Mechanisms: Unconscious mental processes used to cope with anxiety and conflict.
  • Rationalization: Creating logical explanations for unacceptable feelings or actions.
  • Reaction Formation: Replacing troubling desires with exaggerated opposites.
  • Projection: Attributing one's own unacceptable feelings or impulses to others.
  • Regression: Reverting to immature behaviors or earlier developmental stages to deal with stress.
  • Displacement: Redirecting unacceptable desires or impulses toward a less threatening target.
  • Identification: Taking on the characteristics of a more powerful person to cope with anxiety.
  • Sublimation: Channeling unacceptable drives into socially acceptable activities.
• Fixation: Unresolved issues during a stage of development can affect adult personality.
• Oedipus Complex: A child's unconscious rivalry with the same-sex parent.

Humanistic Approach to Personality

• Humanistic psychologists emphasize a positive view of human nature and personal growth.
• Angst: Anxiety that arises from the difficulties of finding meaning in life and death, and the responsibility of making free choices.

Social Cognitive Approach to Personality

• This approach views personality as shaped by how people perceive and interpret their environments.
• Person-Situation Controversy: Behavior is influenced by both the situation and learned history, which can be perceived differently by individuals.
• Personal Construct Theory: Different individuals interpret situations and experiences in unique ways, impacting their personality.
• Locus of Control:
  • External Locus of Control: Believing that success is determined by luck or outside forces.
  • Internal Locus of Control: Believing that personal effort influences success.
• Self-Schemas: Sets of traits used to define the self.
• Self-Esteem: The extent to which an individual likes, values, and accepts themselves.

Social Psychology

• Social psychology studies social influences on behavior.
• Aggression:
  • Proactive Aggression: Planned, purposeful aggression to achieve a goal.
  • Reactive Aggression: Spontaneous, impulsive aggression in response to a threat or frustration .
• The Prisoner's Dilemma: A game illustrating the conflict between cooperation and self-interest.
• Deindividuation: Loss of individual awareness in a group setting.
• Diffusion of Responsibility: Reduced personal responsibility in a group setting..
• Altruism: Intentional behavior benefiting another, potentially at a cost.
• Divorce: More than a third of US marriages end in divorce.

Social Cognition

• The processing of social information.
• Stereotype Threat: Anxiety about conforming to negative stereotypes.
• Subtyping: Modifying stereotypes instead of abandoning them when faced with disconfirming evidence.
• Perceptual Confirmation: Perceiving what one expects to perceive.
• Attribution: Inferring the causes of a person's behavior.
  • Dispositional Attribution: Attributing behavior to internal qualities.
  • Fundamental Attribution Error: Overemphasizing dispositional attributions and underestimating situational attributions.
  • Actor-Observer Effect: Attributing one’s own actions to situations, but others' actions to disposition.
• Overjustification Effect: External rewards reducing intrinsic motivation.
• Reactance: Resistance to perceived control.
• Obedience: Complying with orders from authority figures.
• Persuasion:
  • Central Route: Persuasion based on logic and reasoning.
  • Peripheral Route: Persuasion based on emotion or habit.
• Cognitive Dissonance: Unpleasant feeling from inconsistent actions, attitudes, or beliefs.

Stress and Health

• Chronic Stressors: Ongoing or repeating sources of stress.
• Perceived Control: Lack of control over a situation increases stress.
• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): Three-stage stress response:
  • Alarm Phase: Initial reaction, preparing for action.
  • Resistance Phase: Body adjusts to ongoing stress.
  • Exhaustion Phase: Prolonged stress weakens the body.
• Telomeres: Protective caps on chromosomes that shorten with age.
• Telomerase: Enzyme that rebuilds telomeres.
• Chronic stress: Accelerates telomere shortening and reduces telomerase activity.
• Type A Behavior Pattern: Traits like hostility and impatience linked with increased heart attack risk.
• Primary Appraisal: Assessing if something is a stressor.
• Secondary Appraisal: Assessing ability to cope with a stressor.
• Burnout: Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion from long-term involvement.
• Coping Mechanisms:
  • Repressive Coping: Avoiding stressors and maintaining a positive viewpoint.
  • Rational Coping: Facing stressors and working to overcome them.
  • Reframing: Changing the way one thinks about a stressor to reduce stress.
• Sick Role: Socially recognized rights and obligations for illness.
• Malingering: Feigning symptoms for personal gain.

Psychological Disorders

• Mental Disorder: Persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behavior.
• Signs: Observable indicators of a disorder.
• Symptoms: Subjectively reported behaviors, thoughts, and emotions.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Excessive anxiety and worry.

Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders

• Positive Symptoms: Excesses or distortions, such as delusions and hallucinations.
• Negative Symptoms: Deficits in functioning, such as reduced emotional expression.
• Disorganized Symptoms: Disorganized thoughts and behaviors.
• Dopamine Hypothesis: Schizophrenia involves excess dopamine activity.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Difficulties with social interaction and communication.
• Conduct Disorder: Persistent pattern of antisocial behavior.

Approaches to Treatment and Therapy

• Humanistic Approach: Focus on self-actualization and personal growth.
• Existential Approach: Finding meaning in life; Gestalt therapy.
• Behavior Therapy: Changing maladaptive behaviors.
• Operant Conditioning: Reducing unwanted behavior by removing reinforcement.
• Token Economy: Using rewards for desired behaviors.
• Exposure Therapy: Confronting feared stimuli to reduce emotional responses.
• Cognitive Therapy: Identifying and correcting distorted thinking.

Prevalence of Mental Disorders

• A significant proportion (46.4%) of the US population experiences mental illness at some point in their lives.