Psychology Chapter on Personality and Conditioning

Theories of Personality

• Personality is a fairly consistent tendency to behave in a particular way across various situations.
• Distinctiveness is also central to the concept of personality. Everyone has traits but each person is unique.
• Personality refers to an individual's unique pattern of consistent behavioural traits.

Personality Traits

• Personality traits are specific aspects of personality.
• A trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations.
• Examples of traits include: honest, dependable, moody, impulsive, suspicious.
• Some traits are more basic than others. For example, impulsiveness, restlessness, irritability, and impatience might all derive from a more basic tendency to be excitable.

The Big Five Personality Traits

• Extraversion: outgoing, sociable, cheerful, friendly, assertive. Referred to as positive emotionality.
• Neuroticism: anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure, and vulnerable. Referred to as negative emotionality.
• Openness: curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginative, artistic sensitivity, and unconventional attitudes.
• Agreeableness: sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward.
• Conscientiousness: diligent, disciplined, well-organized, punctual, and dependable.

Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Psychodynamic theories focus on unconscious mental forces.
• Sigmund Freud was a physician in neurology. He often treated people troubled by nervous problems (irrational fears, obsessions, and anxieties).
• He developed psychoanalysis, a procedure requiring lengthy verbal interactions in which he probed deeply into patients' lives.
• Freud's theory became popular, but some psychologists were uncomfortable with his theory for several reasons: his theory claimed that unconscious forces govern human behaviour, children's experiences strongly influence adult personality, and his assertions about sexual urges.

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

• Freud divided personality structure into three components: the id, the ego, and the superego.

The Id

• The id is the primitive, instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle. It houses the raw biological urges.
• The id operates according to the pleasure principle which demands immediate gratification of its urges.
• The id engages in primary-process thinking, which is primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy-oriented.

The Ego

• The ego is the decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle.
• The ego mediates between the id and the external social world, considering norms and suitable behaviour.
• The ego is guided by the reality principle, which seeks to delay gratification of the id's urges until suitable outlets and situations can be found.
• The ego engages in secondary-process thinking, which is relatively rational, realistic, and oriented toward problem-solving.

The Superego

• The superego is the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong.
• Throughout life, individuals receive training about what is good and bad behavior.
• The superego emerges out of the ego and puts pressure on the individual to live up to standards.
• In some people, the superego can become irrationally demanding.

Levels of Consciousness

• Conscious: one's awareness at a particular point in time.
• Preconscious: just below the surface of awareness.
• Unconscious: thoughts, memories, and desires that are below the surface of conscious awareness.

Freud's Conflict and Defence Mechanisms

• Behaviour is the outcome of ongoing conflicts among the id, ego, and superego.
• Freud believed that conflicts involving sexual and aggressive impulses were especially likely to have bigger consequences.
• Anxiety, distressing, leads to the use of defence mechanisms, largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from painful emotions.
• Defence mechanisms include rationalization, repression, projection, displacement, reaction formation, regression, and identification.

Freud's Theory of Development: Psychosexual Stages

• Freud argued that the foundation of an individual's personality is laid down by the age of 5.
• Psychosexual stages are developmental periods with a sexual focus.
• Fixation occurs when a person does not move forward from one stage as expected, which is caused by excessive gratification or frustration.

Behavioral Perspectives

• Behaviourism holds that scientific psychology should study observable behaviour.
• Watson argued that psychology should abandon its earlier focus on the mind and mental processes, instead focusing on overt (obvious/unconcealed) behaviour.
• Watson favoured a view of personality as a collection of response tendencies tied to various stimulus situations.
• Behaviourists see little interest in internal personality structures (e.g,. id, ego, superego).

Pavlov's Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning occurs when a neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.
• In Pavlov's experiment, a tone, initially a neutral stimulus, was paired with meat powder, a stimulus that naturally elicited salivation.
• Through repeated pairings, the tone became a conditioned stimulus and elicited salivation.
• The conditioned stimulus, through learning, elicits a conditioned response - in this case salivation.

Skinner's Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which voluntary responses are controlled by their consequences.
• Actions followed by reinforcements are more likely to occur again, whereas actions followed by punishments or neutral consequences are less likely to occur again.
• Positive reinforcement: a response is strengthened when followed by a pleasant stimulus.
• Negative reinforcement: a response is strengthened when followed by the removal of an unpleasant stimulus.
• Punishment: a response is weakened when followed by the arrival of an unpleasant stimulus.
• Extinction: the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response.

Bandura and Social Learning Theory

• Bandura's social learning theory recognises the role of cognition.
• Observational learning occurs when one individual's behaviour is influenced by observing another individual.
• Children learn by observing and imitating others (models).

Self-Efficacy

• Self-efficacy is one's belief about one's ability to perform behaviours that lead to expected outcomes.
• High self efficacy leads to confidence in executing responses.

Evaluating Behavioural Perspectives

• Well-grounded in empirical research.
• Pavlov's model sheds light on emotional responses.
• Skinner's work shows how personality is shaped by consequences.
• Bandura's theory acknowledges observation's influence on behaviour.
• However, criticism exists regarding oversimplicity.

Humanistic Perspectives

• Humanistic theory emphasizes human potential for personal growth, free will, and subjective experience.
• Humanists criticize psychodynamic and behavioural theories as dehumanizing, focusing instead on human unique qualities.
• Key figures such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow highlight the importance of self-concept.
• They believe that our subjective view of the world (our self-concept) is more important than our objective reality.

Maslow's Theory of Self-Actualisation

• Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs, arranged according to priority. Basic needs (physiological, safety) must be met before less basic needs (belongingness, esteem, self-actualization) are aroused.
• Self-actualising individuals fulfill their potential and have characteristics like being realistic, at peace with themselves, and tuned in to reality.

Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives

• Offers a refreshing perspective, highlighting the importance of subjective experience.
• Prompts consideration of subjective personal factors, such as beliefs and expectations.
• Focuses on healthy personality.
• However, criticism exists regarding less empirical support and a potentially unrealistic view of human nature.

Biological Perspectives

• This perspective emphasizes the hereditary roots of personality.
• Research on identical twins separated early in life reveals significant similarities in personality, suggesting a strong genetic influence.
• Twin studies and other research methods have explored the impact of genetics on personality and behaviour.
• Eysenck's theory highlights the role of inheritance in conditioning and personality traits.
• Evolutionary factors and adaptive behaviours explain behavioural traits. This perspective focuses on how the given personality trait contributes to the reproductive success of a given species over many generations.

Evaluating Biological Perspectives

• Well-rooted in scientific research, especially the use of twin studies, offering credible evidence.
• Useful for understanding the biological contribution to conditioning and personality traits.
• Limitations lie in inadequate theoretical grounding and empirical support. Difficulties exist in explaining intricate interactions between heredity and environment.
• Evolutionary explanations are often rather speculative.

Theoretical Diversity

• There are several competing theories attempting to explain personality.
• Different theories emphasize different aspects of behaviour, and perspectives.
• Various viewpoints offer complementary understanding of behaviour, better than a single interpretation. These different perspectives are critical for the development of a more rounded understanding of personality.