Personality Psychology Chapter 1 PDF

Personality Psychology Chapter 1 Introduction to Personality  Write down a piece of paper your definition of ‘’Personality’’ 5 minutes © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2  Generate on a sheet of paper two columns of terms...

Personality Psychology Chapter 1 Introduction to Personality  Write down a piece of paper your definition of ‘’Personality’’ 5 minutes © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2  Generate on a sheet of paper two columns of terms or phrases—one column that describes yourselves and a second column that describes a close friend. 5 minutes © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 4  What Is Personality? Personality as a word comes from “persona” Latin word for “mask” 1  What Is Personality? Personality Defined: A pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior It is hard to define personality as a concept because, human personality is a very complex structure. 1  Personality Defined  Personality is the set of (1) psychological traits  and (2)mechanisms (3)within the individual that is (4)organized and relatively enduring and (5)that influences (6)his or her interactions with, and (7)adaptations to, (8)the environment (including the intrapsychic, physical, and social environment). 2  Personality Defined  (1)Personality traits are characteristics that describe ways in which people are different from each other. Traits also define ways people are similar.  e.g. Shy, talkative, outgoing, extravert, anxiety-prone, thoughtful, dominant etc.. 3 (1)Personality traits Traits describe the average tendencies of a person. The most talkative person can have quite days or even weeks but in average she/he talks much more than the others. Research on personality traits asks four kinds of questions: How many traits are there? How are the traits organized? What are the origins of traits? What are the correlations and consequences of traits? 9 (1)Personality traits How many traits are there? Thousands or dozens of traits or merely few How are the traits organised? How one of the traits related to other traits? What are the origins of traits? Heredity or envirenmental factors (child rearing practicies) influences? What are the correlations and consequences of traits? Do traits have influences on social life, behavior experiences? E.g. Do talkative people have many friends?. 6 (1)Personality traits Psychological traits are useful to work on them because: Help to describe people and help understand the dimensions of differences between people. Help explain behavior. Actions of people might be as a result of their personality traits. Help predict future behavior. Who will tolerate stress? 11 (2)mechanisms Psychological mechanisms like traits except that the term mechanism refers more to the process of personality. Have three essential components: input, decision rules & outputs A psychological mechanism may make people more sensitive to certain kinds of information from environment (input), may make them more likely to think about specific options (decision rules)and may guide their behavior toward certain categories of action (outputs). 8 (3)within the individual Within the individual means that personality is something a person carries within himself over time and from one situation to the next. We feel that we will continue our personalities into the coming months and years. Somewhat consistent over time and over situations.. 10 (3)within the individual Within the individual means that all of our traits and psychological mechanism are activated at all times. In fact, at any point in time, only a few psychological mechanisms are activated. They are actived under particular conditions such as under threat or serious danger.. 11  (4)organized and relatively enduring Organized means that the traits and psychological mechanism, for a given person, are not simply a random collection of elements. Personality is organised because the mechanisms and traits are linked to one another in a coherent fashion. 12  (4)organized and relatively enduring Psychological traits are relatively enduring over time, especially in adulthood and are somewhat consistent over situations. e.g. Anger-prone personality is a trait. This person is becomes angry in many different situations such as at work, sport recreation etc. Although people are not perfectly consistent, there is enough consistency to warrant including this. characteristics in 13 (5)that influences Personality traits and mechanisms can have an effect on people’s lives. Personality influences how we act, how we view ourselves, how ve think about the world, how we interact with others, how we feel. Personality plays a key role in affecting how people shape their lives. 14 (6)his or her interactions with Interactions with situation include perception, selection, evocation and manipulation. Perception refers to how we see and interpret an environment. People differ in interpriting the same situation. Selection describes the manner in which we choose situations we enter. e.g.we choose friends, hobbies, careers. 15 (6)his or her interactions with Evocation are the reactions we produce in others, often quite unintentionally. We create the social environment that we inhabit. A child a high activity level may evoke in parents attemts to constrain the child, even if it in not the goal of the child. Constrain: sınırlamak 16 (6)his or her interactions with Manipulations are the ways in which we intentionally attempt to influence others. The ways in which we attempts to manipulate the behavior, thoughts and feelings of others are essential features of our personalities. Someone who is orderly may insist that every one must follow the rules and push them to follow the rules. 17 (7)adaptations A central feature of personality concerns adaptive functioning. Adaptive functioning means, accomplishing goals, coping, adjusting and dealing with the challenges and problems we face as we go through life. People who worry a lot, often recieve lots of support from others.. 18 (8)the environment The physical environment often poses challenges for people. In addition to physical environment we have social and inrapsychic environment. Our fears of heights, snakes, spiders and strangers –the most common fears of human- helps us avoid or safely interact with these environmental threats to our 19 (8)the environment The ways in which we cope with our social environment –the challenges we encounter in our struggle for belongigness, love and esteem- are central to an understanding of personality. 20 (8)the environment Intrapsychic means ‘within the mind’. Memories, dreams, desires, fantasies and a collection of private experiences. Our self-esteem depend on our assesment of the degree to which we are succeeding in attaining our goals. 21  3 Levels of Personality Analysis Personality can be analysed at three level: (1)Human Nature : like all others (2)Individual and Group Differences: like some others (3)Individual Uniqueness:like no others 22 Human Nature How we are “like all others” Traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and possessed by nearly everyone. Such as spoken language is part of the universal human nature. Personality studies try to understand the general 23 Individual and Group Differences How we are “like some others” Individual differences refer to ways in which each person is like some other people (e.g., extraverts, sensations-seekers, high self-esteem persons) 24 Individual and Group Differences Group differences refer to ways in which the people of one group differ from people in another group (e.g., cultural differences, age differences, sex differences, socioeconomic status differences) 25 Individual Uniqueness How we are “like no others” Individual uniqueness refers to the fact that every individual has personal and unique qualities not shared by any other person in the world Individuals can be studied nomothetically or ideographically 26 Individual Uniqueness Nomothetic measures are measures that are observed on a relatively large sample and have a more general outlook. The approach of investigating large groups of people in order to find general laws of behavior that apply to everyone 27 Individual Uniqueness The idiographic approach is relating to a more singular case as is done in case studies. The approach of investigating individuals in personal, in-depth detail to achieve a unique understanding of them. İnvestigate: araştırmak; incelemek; explore 28 29 A Fissure in the Field Gap within personality psychology has not yet been successfully bridged—the gap between the human nature level of analysis, and the analysis of individual and group differences Fissure: gap 30 A Fissure in the Field This translates into a gap between grand theories of personality (human nature level of analysis) and contemporary research in personality (individual and group differences level of analysis). 31 Grand Theories of Personality Attempt to provide universal account of the fundamental psychological processes and characteristics of our species Statements about the universal core of human nature lie at the center of grand theories of personality, such as Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory 32 Contemporary Research in Personality Most current personality research addresses ways in which individuals and groups differ, not human universals Personality psychologists specialize in a particular domain, such as biological aspects of personality or how culture impacts personality. 33 Bridging the Fissure: The Notion of Domains of Knowledge One way to make sense of the vast amount of research in many different areas of personality is to appreciate that this research occurs along several key domains of knowledge. 34 Domains of Knowledge Domain of knowledge is a specialty area of science and scholarship, where psychologists have focused on learning about specific and limited aspects of human nature This specialization is reasonable, but we must strive to integrate diverse domains of knowledge to get the “big picture” of personality 35 Six Domains of Knowledge Dispositional Biological Intrapsychic Cognitive-Experiential Social and Cultural Adjustment. 36 Dispositional Domain Traits the person born with or develops Deals with ways in which individuals differ from one another and, therefore, cuts across all other domains Focus on number and nature of fundamental dispositions such as habitual emotions,. 37 Dispositional Domain Goal of those working in this domain is to identify and measure the most important ways in which individuals differ from one another Also interested in the origin of individual differences and how these develop over time Biological Domain Core assumption of biological approaches to personality is that humans are collections of biological systems, and these systems provide building blocks for behavior, thought, and emotion. Behavioral genetics of personality: twin studies, adoption studies Psychophysiology of personality: neurvous system &brain studies 42 Intrapsychic Domain Deals with mental mechanisms of personality, many of which operate outside conscious awareness. Classic and modern versions of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, including work on repression, denial, projection, and motives for power, achievement, and affiliation. 40 Cognitive-Experiential Domain Focuses on cognition and subjective experience, such as conscious thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and desires about oneself and others Selfand self-concept Goals we set and strive to meet Emotional experiences, in general and over time 41 Social and Cultural Domain Assumption that personality affects, and is affected by, cultural and social contexts Much work on cultural differences between groups (e.g., in social acceptability of aggression) 42 Social and Cultural Domain Also much work on individual differences within cultures—how personality plays out in the social sphere, including work on sex differences and gender differences in personality processes, traits, and mechanisms At human nature level of analysis, all humans have common set of concerns they struggle with in the 43 Adjustment Domain Personality plays key role in how we cope, adapt, and adjust to events in daily life Personality linked with important health outcomes and problems in coping and adjustment 44 Evaluation Personality research is often informed by personality theory Theory has several key purposes Serves as a guide for researchers Organizes known findings Makes predictions about behavior and psychological phenomena that not one has yet documented or observed 45 Evaluation Five scientific standards for evaluating personality theories. Comprehensiveness Heuristic values Testability Parsimony Compatbility and integrations across domains and levels. Evaluation Comprehensiveness: Theories that explain more emprical data within their domains are generally superior to those that explain fewer findings. Heuristic values: A good personality theory will guide personality researchers to make discoveries that were previously unknown. 47 Evaluation Testability: A good personality theory will render precise enough predictions that personality psychologists can test empiracally Parsimony: A good personality theory will contain few premises and assumptions. 48 49 HAPPY END  53