Personality Psychology Overview

Personality Psychology: Overview

• Personality psychology studies individual differences in personality, driven by psychological factors.
• Personality comprises a unique set of characteristics influencing how individuals think, feel, behave, and interact with the environment.
• Personality's roots lie in the Latin "persona," meaning "mask," reflecting the idea of a presented self.
• Personality encompasses consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and social adjustments over time. These influence expectations, self-perception, values, and attitudes.

Theoretical Approaches to Personality

• Nomothetic vs. Idiographic: Nomothetic seeks general principles applicable to many, while idiographic focuses on unique individual aspects.
• Major Theoretical Traditions: Dispositional (trait), psychodynamic, humanistic, biological, behaviorist, evolutionary, and social learning perspectives exist. Many researchers employ an eclectic approach.
• Empirical Models: Dimensional models based on multivariate statistics like factor analysis (e.g., Big Five) are common.
• Modern Model of Personality Traits (Big Five): Conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extraversion/introversion are major personality dimensions.

Historical and Contemporary Models

• Ancient Models: Indian Buddhist Abhidharma schools used personality type models focusing largely on negative traits and corresponding meditation practices.
• Jungian & Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): Carl Jung's work influenced the MBTI, which categorized people based on preferences (e.g. thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving). Critics note potential stereotyping by profession.
• Type A and Type B Personality Theory (Friedman and Rosenman): Type A personalities (competitive, hard-driving) are associated with higher coronary disease risks; Type B personalities are more relaxed and less competitive. This research has implications for health psychology.
• Eduard Spranger's Model: Consists of six value types, outlining different motivations and interests.
• Enneagram: A typology of nine interconnected personality types used as a model for understanding behaviour but lacks scientific validation.
• Holland's RIASEC Model: A circumplex model linking personality to career choices.
• Psychoanalytic (Freud): Freud proposed the id (pleasure), ego (reality), and superego (morality) as key components of personality, developing through psychosexual stages.
• Adler and Jungian Influence: Adler explored birth order's influence on personality; while Jung explored introversion/extroversion, impacting Myers and Briggs.
• Kohut and Narcissism: Kohut extended Freud's theory; self-object transferences (mirroring, idealization) are crucial for a healthy self-concept.
• Horney and Feminist Psychology: Horney challenged Freud's views, emphasizing social and cultural factors in personality development (differentiating female from male development).
• Behaviorist Personality: Behaviorism (Skinner, Pavlov) focuses on learned responses, environmental influences and conditioning (operant and classical).
• Cognitive Theories: Bandura's social learning theory (observational learning), Baron's cognitive approaches, as well as Rotter's Locus of Control, assess the role of thought processes in determining personality.

Methods of Study

• Projective Tests: Assumes personality is largely unconscious; individuals project needs and conflicts onto ambiguous stimuli (e.g., Rorschach, TAT). These tests are empirically challenged.
• Objective Tests: Assumes personality is accessible via self-report (e.g., questionnaires); more valid and reliable than projective tests. Issues of honesty and the Forer effect (Barnum effect) are concerns in applications.
• Inner Experience: Newer methods, like Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) and Articulated Thoughts in Stimulated Situations (ATSS) explore subjective factors, complementing behavioral measures.
• Experimental Methods: Used in personality research to manipulate variables and discover causal relationships (but can have ethical and methodological limitations).
• Evolutionary Approach: Examines how personality traits evolved through natural selection.
• Biological Approach: Examines the impact of genetics and biology on personality (genes, brain structure, neurochemical processes) now understanding heritability.

Subheadings and Concepts (for easier note-taking):

• Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory: Explains human personality through two interacting systems (experiential and rational).

• Personal Construct Psychology: A theory emphasizing how individuals use constructs to understand and anticipate events.

• Humanistic Psychology: Emphasizes free will, subjective experiences, and a positive view of human potential.

• Health Psychology and Personality: Examines how personality traits relate to health outcomes, particularly cardiovascular health

• Personality Development: Exploring how personality traits develop throughout life stages

• Personality Assessment: Evaluating personality traits through various tests and methodologies.

• Twin Studies and Genetics: Comparing identical and fraternal twins to examine the role of genetics in personality

• Evolutionary Psychology & Personality: Examines how evolutionary pressures have shaped personality.

Explore the key concepts and theoretical approaches in personality psychology. This quiz covers individual differences, the significance of personality traits, and the various theoretical traditions that contribute to our understanding of personality. Test your knowledge on nomothetic and idiographic perspectives and other critical topics in this fascinating field.