Personality Psychology: Understanding Traits and Theories

Personality

Personality refers to the internal characteristics in thinking, acting, and feeling
Trait theorists use factor analysis to identify the basic personality traits needed to describe a human's personality
The Five-Factor Model of personality (OCEAN) consists of:
- Openness: curious, sensitive, open to new experiences
- Conscientiousness: responsible, prefer planned activity, require "Need for Achievement", high self-control
- Extraversion: assertive, seek excitement, sociable, action-oriented
- Agreeableness: friendly, believe people are trustworthy, emphasize social harmony
- Neuroticism: anxious, depressed, poor emotion control

Approaches to Personality

Humanistic Approach (by Maslow):
- Self-actualization is a human's maximum potential drive, built genetically
- Emphasizes the importance of freedom and potential for personal growth
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Social Cognitive Approach (by Albert Bandura):
- Studies how cognitive factors can affect personality
- Emphasizes conscious awareness, belief, goal, and expectation
- Observational learning, locus of control, and self-efficacy are key processes and factors
Psychoanalytical Approach (by Sigmund Freud):
- Explains personality problems and psychological disorders with childhood experiences, unconscious motives, and conflicts
- Solves sexual and aggressive desires
- Uses psychoanalytical theory on treating patients
- Three parts of personality: Id, Ego, and Superego

Emotions

Emotions have three components:
- Physical component: resulted from the autonomic nervous system, e.g., heart rate, breathing rate, sweating
- Behavioral component: the product of motor neurons, e.g., facial expressions, gestures
- Cognitive component: the cognitive appraisal of the situation, identifies the type of emotion
Cultural and gender differences in emotions:
- Western cultures: individualism, encourage the expression of emotions
- Asian cultures: collectivism, discourage the expression of anger
- Boys: act as protectors and strong, encourage to express anger and hostility
- Girls: tender and emotional, encourage to express sadness, shame, and guilt

Theories of Emotions

James-Lange Theory of Emotions: the perception of bodily arousal due to the stimulus provides the feeling aspect of emotions
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotions: the activation of the thalamus due to the stimulus provides the emotional feelings and bodily arousal simultaneously
Schachter's Cognitive Theory of Emotions: the perception of the bodily arousal according to the past experience and situational cue due to the stimulus provides the emotional feelings and behavioral response
Model of Emotion (by Lazarus): the facial expressions and emotional feelings do not contradict each other

Motivation

Motivation is the set of internal and external factors that energize our behavior and lead us to our goals
Model of motivation: refers to the process that initiates, sustains, and directs activities
Drive-Reduction Theory: the need produces drive, drive produces motivated behaviors which obtain the goal to eliminate the need
Incentive Theory: pulled by incentives, e.g., good grades
Arousal Theory: our behavior is motivated to obtain a certain level of arousal
Extrinsic motivation: motivated by external reinforcement, e.g., good grades, good income
Intrinsic motivation: motivated by self-enhancement and personal growth, e.g., better knowledge

Problem-Solving

Problem: refers to when people do not know how to reach a goal when there is a goal
Problem-solving steps:
1. Interpreting the problem
2. Trying to solve the problem
Blocks in solving problems:
- Interpretation blocks: fixation, functional fixedness
- Strategy blocks: over-reliance on past experience and previously successful solving strategy
Problem-solving strategies:
- Algorithm: step-by-step solving method that guarantees a correct answer
- Heuristic: relies on past experience in solving similar questions, e.g., working back heuristic, means-ends analysis heuristic

Intelligence

Intelligence refers to the problem-solving skills and cognitive abilities
Elements of a good test in psychology:
1. Standardization
2. Reliability
3. Validity
Theory of intelligence:
- Cattell and Horn: fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence
- Robert Sternburg: analytical intelligence, practical intelligence, creative intelligence
- Nature VS Nurture: both nature and nurture are important in determining our intelligence

Stress

Stress: refers to the psychological and physical body response to a changing condition, with both positive and negative events
Eustress: positive view towards stress, serves as challenges and positive motivation
Distress: negative view towards stress, anxious and worried
Stressor: refers to stressful stimuli and situations
Reaction to stress:
- Short-term stress: "fight or flight response", physical response
- Long-term stress: General Adaptation Syndrome, behavioral response, emotional response, psychological response

Sources of Stress

Environmental factors: illness, bad grades, financial burden
Psychological factors: failure, unrealistic goals
Conflicts: approach-approach conflicts, avoidance-avoidance conflicts, approach-avoidance conflicts
Change: pressure, expectations, demand

Personality and Stress-Coping

Type A personality: more easy to get angry, competitive, perfectionist, higher chance to get cardiovascular disease
Type B personality: more relaxed
Hardiness personality: takes control of their lives, treats stressors as challenges, has a positive view towards stress and goal, makes commitment

Influencing Human Behavior

Conformity: refers to the change in behavior that is caused by other people or groups
Compliance: refers to a change in behavior that is requested by others, for good social bonds
Obedience: refers to a change in behavior that is ordered by the authority directly

Group Influences

Social facilitation: individuals tend to perform better in the presence of other people
Social loafing: people tend to make less effort to achieve their goal when working in a group
Deindividuation: people lose their sense of self-awareness and perform undesirable and antisocial behavior when in a group
Groupthink: when group members accept the group consensus without critical thinking, leading to poor decision-making
Group polarization: when a group of like-minded people strengthen each other's opinions and these opinions become more extreme as they are discussed### Cultural Dimensions
Individualism vs Collectivism: individualism emphasizes personal choices and honest sharing of feelings, while collectivism values long-term group loyalty and unquestioning conformity.
Masculinity vs Femininity: masculine cultures value competitiveness, assertiveness, and quantity of life, while feminine cultures value relationships and quality of life.
Long-term Orientation vs Short-term Orientation: long-term orientation focuses on future behaviors, while short-term orientation focuses on present and past behaviors.
Interdependent vs Independent: independent self-construal focuses on the self, while interdependent self-construal focuses on others and the group.

Communication in Culture

Non-verbal Communication: includes physical distance, proximity, kinesics (facial expressions, gestures, body movements, eye contact), and paralanguage (pitch, volume, and vocally-produced sounds).
High-Context Communication: relies on oral communication with gestures, silence, internal rules, and indirect communication.
Low-Context Communication: relies on speech, clear rules, and direct expression.
Direct Communication: conveys a very direct message.
Indirect Communication: emphasizes harmonious relationships.

Reaction to Cultural Differences

Distance: avoiding things that feel different, through physical, emotional, and intellectual distancing.
Denial: minimizing the importance of unfamiliar cultures and ignoring differences.
Defensiveness: defending oneself in situations where one feels threatened.
Devaluing: feeling superiority over other cultures.
Discovery: seeking greater similarity in cultural differences.

Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice: negative attitudes towards a group of people, including prejudicial attitudes, sexism, and racism.
Cognitive Root of Prejudice: simplifying the world, overestimating similarities, paying attention to the majority, and category-based judgment.
Emotional Root of Prejudice: finding a scapegoat for frustration.
Social Root of Prejudice: ingroup (wealthy and powerful people) vs outgroup (jobless people).
Discrimination: prejudiced attitudes turned into behavior.

Stereotypes and Categorization

Stereotype: cognitive categorization of a group of people, which can accurately reflect the norm or apply the norm without allowing variation.
Categorization: quickly processing and organizing information about a group, which can help cross-cultural psychology but can also create biased judgment and unfriendly behaviors.

Reducing Prejudice

Reflecting on one's own biases.
Contact with other groups to dispel stereotypes.
Learning about other cultures to increase empathy and understanding.
Allport's conditions for positive intergroup contact: equal status, cooperative work, getting to know each other, and authority support.
4 values to maintain integration: equality, acceptance, diversity, and harmony.