Personality Traits and Theories

• Tests are usually held on Mondays
• Course is set to start in week 3

Personality Theories

• Personality traits reflect characteristic patterns of thought, feelings, and behaviors
• The trait element indicates personality maintains consistency and stability
• Someone extraverted is expected to be sociable in different situations.
• Personality refers to individual differences in patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving
• Personality represents the ways individuals think, feel, and behave
• Traits are personality characteristics that are consistent, long-lasting and occur across situations
• People differ based on environment and genetics
• Personality has a biological (genetic) base, traits are inherent in individuals at different levels
• Trait theorists have demonstrated traits are resistant to change after adulthood

Key Concepts of Trait Theories

• Personality has a genetic base.
• It is stable/consistent over time.
• Traits vary in expression for different people.

The Five Factor Model of Personality

• These traits are essentially neither good nor bad, just traits
• The five personality factors are:
• Openness to experience
• Conscientiousness
• Extroversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism
• Openness includes being imaginative, insightful, creative, curious, and having traits with wide interests
• Conscientiousness includes being organized, competent, reliable and self-disciplined
• Extroversion includes being outgoing, sociable, talkative, energetic and assertive
• Agreeableness includes being cooperative, sympathetic, kind, affectionate, and other pro-social behaviours
• Neuroticism includes traits such as anxious, moody, irritable, impulsive and vulnerable
• People high in openness are curious, have a wide range of interests and are independent
• People low in openness are practical, conventional, and prefers routine
• People high in conscientiousness are hardworking, dependable, and organized
• People low in conscientiousness are impulsive, careless, and disorganized
• People high in extraversion are outgoing, warm and seeks adventure
• People low in extraversion are quiet, reserved, and withdrawn
• People high in agreeableness are helpful, trusting and empathetic
• People low in agreeableness are critical, uncooperative and suspicious
• People high in neuroticism are anxious, unhappy and prone to negative emotions
• People low in neuroticism are calm, tempered and secure

Eysenck's PEN Theory

• Eysenck's PEN theory is rooted in the trait approach and suggests genetics influences personality
• The three dimensions are:
• Extraversion vs Introversion
• Neuroticism vs emotional stability
• Psychoticism vs impulse control
• Extraversion involves being talkative and outgoing
• Extraverts feeling comfortable in groups and enjoying being the center of attention
• Neuroticism involves higher levels of stress and anxiety
• Neurotic people worry about insignificant matters
• Neurotic people are pessimistic, perfectionistic, and feel uneasy when expectations are unmet
• A neurotic person has a sympathetic nervous system sensitive to stressors
• Psychoticism involves acting impulsively
• Psychotic people are less likely to follow accepted social norms and are motivated by immediate pleasure
• Psychotic people are less likely to be influenced by their actions' consequences when making decisions
• People with higher testosterone levels will have a higher level of psychoticism

Contributions of Trait Theories

• Easily measured by questionnaires
• Can access heritability of personality
• Relatively easier to classify and understand personalities
• Easier to label things

Limitations of Trait Theories

• Places too much emphasis on genetics/biology and ignores sociocultural influences on personality
• Provides little explanation about personality changes and developments
• Can be poor at predicting behavior
• Descriptive only
• Barnum effect (is so broad it could apply to anyone)
• Self-assessment testing tools are subjective
• Lack of situational consistency (lacking the degree to which personality or behaviour remains similar across situations)

Humanistic Theory

• States that people are born good and strive to reach their potential
• Assumes individuals are unique and tend to strive toward self-realization
• Rogers and Maslow saw personal growth and fulfillment as a basic human motive
• Each person seeks to grow psychologically and continuously enhance themselves known as self-actualization
• Self-actualization is psychological growth, fulfilment and life satisfaction

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Basic needs (deficiencies) need to be met before we desire to meet higher level needs (growth)
• Self-actualization is becoming all that one can become
• It is necessary to pass though lower levels before attaining the highest stage of self-actualisation.
• If lower needs are not met then psychological growth stops occur
• Psychological needs include air, food, water, warmth, rest, shelter
• Safety needs include protection from the elements, security, order, law, stability
• Belongingness needs include friendship, intimacy, affection, love from work group, family, lovers
• Esteem needs include self- esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige
• Self-actualisation needs include realizing personal potential, self-fulfilment, seeking personal growth

Limitations of Humanistic Theory

• Highly subjective, non-scientific, and very few studies are conducted
• Too simplistic, idealistic and vague
• Overly optimistic and unrealistic and fails to consider the human capacity for evil
• Encourages people to focus on self-fulfilment and can be unrealistic or inappropriate. This promotes self-indulgence and self-centeredness.
• Focus is on positive dimensions of personality
• Helps understand how a healthy personality develops and how an unhealthy personality develops
• Has been influential in areas like counseling, therapy, education and parenting.
• If a person reaches their full potential (becomes self-actualized) it depends on how they treat others, how they view themselves(self-concept), how they effectively deal with negativity, and their social relationships in childhood.
• Acceptance is important so, they have unconditional positive regard
• Warmth and affection given to a person which is dependent on what the person does or on whether someone deserves it

Carl Rogers' Conditions to Becoming Self-Actualized

• Experiencing acceptance, genuineness, and empathy provides the right environmental conditions to grow and become self-actualised
• Someone who is well-adjusted and happy has congruence in their self-image, ideal self and true self. A
• Congruence is consistency between people's self-concept and experiences
• Incongruence is inconsistency between your self-concept and experiences, leading to denial and the distortion of reality
• People can freely choose how to behave thus, people have a central role in personal development.
• People have the potential to grow unless an environmental factor like trauma prevents this from happening
• Trauma can be overcome with therapy, support and guidance

Classical Conditioning

• Reaction (response) to an object (stimulus) by a person/animal can be modified by learning/conditioning
• Theories assume human behavior is learned
• Learning occurs through association, consequence, and observation and social interactions
• Ian Pavlov first described it in 1899 while researching the digestive system of dogs
• Pavlov won the Nobel prize for medicine/physiology in 1904
• Classical conditioning is learning a new behavior through association between stimuli
• Three stages: before, during, and after conditioning
• Key terms: UCS, UCR, CS, CR, NS
• Neutral stimulus (NS) produces no specific response other than focusing attention
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) automatically triggers a response
• Unconditioned Response (UCR) is unlearned and occurs naturally in response to the UCS
• Conditioned stimulus (CS) triggers a CR when paired with UCS
• Conditioned response (CR) is learned to a previously neutral stimulus

The Pavlov Method

• A dog was restrained to avoid extra movement. Meat powder was placed on its tongue
• A tube was attached to the dog's cheek near a salivary gland to measure saliva flow.
• Dogs salivated not only at the sight of food but also when seeing/hearing the lab tech, was observed
• Pavlov conducted experiments providing that learning can be based on associating two different stimuli

Responding explained

• The salvation response is involuntary and becomes associated, and conditioned to, a new stimulus like the lab tech
• This process defines essence of classical conditioning

Stage One: Before Conditioning

• The unconditioned stimulus (UCS) produces an unconditioned response (UCR)
• The stimulus creates an unlearned natural response
• This stage also involves the neutral stimulus (NS)

Stage Two: During Conditioning

• Neutral stimulus (NS) associates with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), becoming a conditioned stimulus (CS)

Stage Three: After Conditioning

• Conditioned stimulus (CS) associates with the UCS to form a conditioned response (CR)

The Little Albert Experiment

• John B. Watson conducted the study in 1920 with 11-month-old Little Albert.
• Demonstrated how emotions towards things are learned
• The steps of learning were:
• Initial: NS (white rat) → No Fear
• UCS (loud noise) → UCR (Fear)
• Repeated: NS+UCS (white rat and loud noise) → UCR (Fear)
• Subsequent: CS (white rat) → CR (Fear)
• Albert generalised this fear to similar stimuli like dogs, rabbits, fur, coats, etc.

Ethics

• Informed consent: Not mentioned in Watson’s original article
• Psychological harm: Albert demonstrated vulnerability and was subjected to severe distress without intervention

Thorndike and Skinner - Operant Conditioning

• Learning through consequences
• Thorndike’s Law of Effect
• Behaviors followed by pleasant consequences are repeated
• Behaviors with unpleasant consequences stop.
• Thorndike's Method
• Cats learned pressing a lever led to favorable outcomes.

B. F. Skinner

• Experiments involving rats and pigeons started in the 1930's.
• Animals were trained to perform certain behaviors
• Food was the reward
• The behaviors became consistent after a few trials

The Skinner Box

• Provided a signal light/buzzer, response mechanisms (bar, button, lever), reward/punishment, and automatic recording.
• Advanced research on learning, allowing robust and general results
• Hundreds of animals could partake on the research

Principles of Operant Conditioning

• The desirable/undesirable is obtained to make behavior occur again
• Positive reinforcement
• Obtaining something desirable to promote behaviour again
• Negative reinforcement
• Stopping something unpleasant
• A response/behavior is strengthened by stopping/avoiding something adverse Stimuli is suppressed
• Positive punishment
• Undesirable received after a behavior to make it stop
• Negative punishment
• Something desirable is removed from behavior to make it stop.
• Reinforcement
• Strengthens/increases likelihood of response/behavior.
  • Positive: Giving a lolly after homework increases homework behavior
  • Negative: Removing/preventing an unpleasant stimulus like giving a lolly, increasing homework behavior
• Punishment weakens/decreases likelihood of response/behavior.
  • Positive punishment: negative experience after behavior, parent yelling for drawing on walls.
  • Negative punishment: Remove the toy, sibling will reduce fighting
• Elements of OC
• Extinction: response disappears when reinforcement stops.
• Spontaneous recovery: reappearance of response after a rest period.
• Generalization: triggering of behavior by similar stimulus.
• Shaping: reinforcing closer approximations to the target.

Schedules of reinforcement

• This refers to the way in which a response is reinforced/punished
• Continuous reinforcement involves the correct response being reinforced every time
• Behaviors are rapidly acquired however, it has low resistance to extinction
• Partial reinforcement involves only some responses are reinforced
• Behaviors acquired, are slower but take longer to extinguish
• Fixed interval: every 10 seconds
• Fixed ratio: every 10th response
• Variable interval: 10 seconds average, with 4-16-second variations
• Variable ratio: every 10th average, with 5th-15th response variations

Communication & Styles

• It is the transmitting of a message from one person (sender) to another (receiver).
• Communication is influenced by culture, socioeconomic background, and gender through accents and vocabulary.

Social Background

• He studied the relationship between language style and social class
• People from the working and middle classes use different language codes
• Working class people relied on preserving traditional social roles and interactions via restricted code
• Middle class - wanted to express themselves so they also used elaborated code

Contrasting language codes

• Restricted: short sentences, non-verbal information, contextual meaning, few descriptive words.
• Elaborated: complex sentences, direct meaning, descriptive words.
• Restricted: commands, present focus, abstract ideas are rare.
• Elaborated- explanations, past/future events. abstract ideas are expressed Bernstein's work
• Restricted code is efficient and contain information even with fewer words
• Restricted code relies on social inclusion for understanding due to its social construction
• Elaborated code expresses itself in full is to lack shared cultural understanding
• When language is not “restricted”, its “elaborated".
• Middle-class children used mobility-required elaborated code; familiar with 'language of school.'
• Children using restricted code had a language deficit, educational outcomes are limited

Social background : Labov (1970s)

• Labov worked in NY, with black (African American) children using African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
• He opposed language deficit and rather believed differences exist as standard english
• In 1970, Labov identified "different not deficit" and that "he doesn't know nothing" in AAVE is comparable to other variations in other European languages Labov’s Concerns Regarding AAVE in Education
• Labov was concerned about not accepting AAVE, and negative assumptions of teachers on AAVE
• Such presumptions contributing to the achievement of AAVE
• In contemporary context, prejudice exists towards AAVE, where language styles are simply a difference in use

Gender Differences

• Deborah Tannen studied gender roles in communication styles and describes it as being different cultures/Genderlect in 1990
• She describes women styles as report talk and rapport talk.
• Friction occurs because of a lack of understanding
• Women complain men don't listen and Tannen states that problems can be avoided when there is understanding from both parties

Report Talk

• A talking style for men
• This is the style to use when speaking in public
• It is a direct speaking style
• Taking the focus and will likely compete to lead
• Used in negotiating and maintain status, and prefers the use of refutable intangibles and interrupt others to increase status or regain attention
• Jokes used to enhance status, rarely comply to instruction unless status is clear
• Solution focused

Rapport Talk

• A talking style for women
• This style is based on establishing relationship and connections
• Used when focusing on developing understanding
• This style often involves negotiating differences between parties
• Often involving the parties using confirmatory noises and indirection
• Hedges and emphatic intensifiers is commonly used
• Interrupting is rare and usually only to show support or ask support

Social Skills: Robinson (2003)

• Three ways shape and show our relationships with adults being handshakes, terms of address, and politeness all being forms social convention.
• Shaking hands
• This is a human act started to show one is harmless
• People in high status would shake hands with people of equal/lower status and is common among men/formal setting. Refusing is seen as rude Shaking Hands Conventions
• Single or double-handed and either single or multi pump approach with convention on method to reach/extend palm, amount of pressure and length to apply

Handshake Types

• Vertical: equality ,palm down: dominance, palm up: submissiveness
• Limp: rudeness/disinterest, firm: intimidating/arrogant and length of time can increase if you are interested

Terms of Address

• Can vary depending on age, gender, or status
• First name (FN), title and surname (TSN)
• Learning to use right titles are important along with use of nicknames in different settings
• Can refer to our choice of language to start
• E.g., "hello sir,” “Gday Fred”
• Term categories can be formal, traditional and combined
• T/V Latin pronouns which indicate formality, familiarity, courtesy, age/insult
• Terms of Address pt 3

Terms of Address

• V: lower to higher status, upper talking to each other, and cooling converstation
• T: higher to lower status, lower to each other, addressing a God and warming a conversation.
• Mutual V is the default where power imbalance exists and V categories tend to disappear
• Starting with V then move fast to more informal versions

Communication : Politeness

• A conventional that ensures good manner when speaking
• Can be polite to one another with a model based on "saving face “ and two kinds of politeness
• Politeness (pt 2)
• Positive is a desire for connection, want the listener to feel good
• Compliments, solidarity, boost earner elf image, use “Mate”, “sibling”, “hey Eintein” and darling.
• Negative involves freedom of action and avoid requests to sound rude

Politeness summarization

• Terms (pt4) rely on relationships and social status
• Avoid to say someone will loose face and conventions are specific to it
• Negative face: avoid requests and respect the rights/freedom to act
• Positive face: use direct speech and established connection to come across as "impolite"