Lecture 3 Personality PDF

Learning Objectives • Clarify the meaning of personality and personality traits. • Describe the five-factor model of personality and relations between the Big Five traits. • Outline Freud’s view of development. • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of biological theories of personality. • Underst...

Learning Objectives • Clarify the meaning of personality and personality traits. • Describe the five-factor model of personality and relations between the Big Five traits. • Outline Freud’s view of development. • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of biological theories of personality. • Understand ways to assess personality and link to life outcomes. Personality • An individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits OR • “A particular pattern of behaviour and thinking that prevails across time and situations, and differentiates one person from another” (Carlson et al., 2010, p. 420) • A personality trait = a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations • Honest • Moody • Friendly • Quiet Cattell: Sixteen Personality Factors Trait theory: Personality is composed of a number of dispositions • 18,000 trait words, narrowed down to 171 adjectives • Used factor analysis to identify clusters of these traits (underlying traits) • Identified 16 traits http://personalitytesting.info/tests/16PF.php • Also, used factor analysis to devise a theory of personality • 3 important factors (bi-polar dimensions) • Extraversion • High: Outgoing nature, high level of activity, like people, like socializing, spontaneous, take risks • Low: Shy, reserved, careful • Neuroticism • High: Worry, guilt, moody, unstable • Low: Even-tempered, emotional stability • Psychoticism • High: Aggressive, ego-centric, antisocial nature • Low: Kind, considerate, obedient to rules and laws • Five-factor model (Costa & McCrae, 2008): • Openness • Curious, broad-minded, artistic, insightful • Conscientiousness • Dependable, thorough, organized, efficient, responsible • Extraversion • Talkative, active, social, assertive, outgoing • Agreeableness • Cooperative, tolerant, good-natured, kind, trusting, appreciative • Neuroticism • Worried, anxious, insecure, unstable, tense Overview of several theory traditions in psychology that offer models of personality - historically important and still influential: 1. Psychodynamic 2. Biological approaches 3. Behavioral (basic learning processes) 4. Social Cognitive Personality consists of 3 independent, interacting and often conflicting systems: id, ego, superego Id • The part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires and impulses, particularly our aggressive and sexual drives (pleasure principle) Ego • The component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life’s practical demands (reality principle) Superego • Set of guidelines, internal standards and codes of conduct that regulate and control behaviour Personality development: • Freud believed that the basic elements of adult personality are in place by age 5 and result from the outcome of five psychosexual stages. • In each stage, children must cope with distinct immature sexual urges that influence adult personality. • Fixation results if the child fails to move forward from one stage to another and is usually caused by excessive gratification or excessive frustration of needs at a particular stage. Positives • Highly influential work that enhanced understanding of therapy as a “talking cure” • Integrates aspects of biological factors and the environment Criticisms 1. Poor testability: too vague, difficult to measure. 2. Depend too heavily on clinical case studies. 3. Male-centered, even sexist, view of personality. 4. Too deterministic (emphasis on childhood). Is personality a matter of genetic inheritance? • Belief that is often held by public (belief in genetic determinism; Keller, 2005) • Various academic psychological approaches, examples: • Eysenck’s views of personality • Behavioural genetics • Evolutionary theories Eysenck’s Theory • • • • Personality as a hierarchy of traits. Suggests that personality is a function of genetic differences. Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism. Special interest in explaining variations in extraversionintroversion. • Eysenck proposed that introverts are more easily aroused by events, which make them more easily conditioned than extraverts. Behavioural Genetics: Recent Research • • • Support for genetic influence on personality provided by twin studies: Researchers assess hereditary influence by comparing the resemblance of identical twins (100% genetic overlap) & fraternal twins (50% genetic overlap) on a trait – with environmental conditions being ‘constant’ versus varied. A heritability ratio: proportion of trait variability in a population that is determined by variations in genetic inheritance. Behavioural Genetics: Claims • • • Accumulating evidence from twin studies suggests that heredity is a key factor shaping personality. Identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins on all Big Five traits, even when identical twins are reared in different homes (i.e., in different environments). Heritability of each of the Personality traits is about 40% to 50% (South et al., 2013), with no evidence for gender differences in heritability. The Evolutionary Approach to Personality • Evolutionary Psychology: examines psychological processes in terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations. • Evolutionary selection process, advantage for ‘fitness’ in survival. • David Buss (1991, 1995) maintains that the Big Five traits are present across a variety of cultures because they had significant adaptive value for humans. • Daniel Nettle (2006) argues that the traits themselves are products of evolution that were adaptive in ancestral environments. Evaluation: Biological Perspective Research has supported many of the assumptions of this perspective. However, the biological perspective has also been criticized: 1. Statistical problems with the estimation of hereditary influence (e.g. Equal Environment Assumption). 2. Post-hoc functionalism: Problems with hindsight bias, the common tendency to mold one’s interpretation of the past to fit how events actually turned out. 3. What about culture? Behavioral Perspectives: Basic Learning • Behaviorism • Learning through stimulus-response configurations • Behaviour as central & objective unit • Personality is seen as a collection of response tendencies that are tied to various stimulus situations. • How in socialization response tendencies are shaped by classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. • Pavlov’s classical conditioning: A neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus. • Classical conditioning may explain how people acquire particular emotional responses such as anxiety or phobias. • Extinction is “the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency.” • A method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behaviour. • Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behaviour and a consequence (whether negative or positive) for that behaviour Reinforcement Punishment Reinforcement – increases behavior Punishment – reduces behavior Positive reinforcement – increases (desirable) behavior by adding something (e.g., a reward for studying) Positive punishment – reduces (undesirable) behavior by adding something (e.g., bad grade for not studying) Negative reinforcement – increases (desirable) behavior by removing something (e.g., increases rate of studying by removing fearful stimuli) Negative punishment – reduces (undesirable) behavior by removing something (e.g., no time with friends) • Extinction: no reinforcement -> behavior less likely to emerge. Observational Learning Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory • Observational learning: influences by the observation of others, ‘models’. • Basis for imitation • This theory is unique in that it requires that we: • Pay attention to others’ behavior • Understand the consequences that follow others’ behavior • Store this information in memory Evaluation: Behaviorism Strengths • Explanations can be scientifically tested and support with evidence • Many real life applications in treating ASD and anxiety • Links human behaviour to other animals Limitations • Ignores cognition • Does not take biology into account enough (e.g. hormones) Key Concepts in Psychological Testing • A psychological test: Standardized measure of a sample of a person’s behavior. • Standardization: Uniform procedures used to administer and score a test. • Tests norms: Provide information about where a score on a psychological test ranks in relation to other scores on that test. • Reliability: Refers to the measurement consistency of a test; between parts & retest • Validity: Refers to the ability of the test to measure what it was designed to measure. Projective tests ask individuals to respond to ambiguous stimuli in ways that may reveal aspects of their personalities. • Nature of tests may make it difficult for subjects to engage in intentional deception. • Indirect approach may make them sensitive to unconscious features of personality. Objective tests • Multiple-choice or true/false items; extent to which there is agreement • Questions are unambiguous • Rules for scoring participants’ responses more clearly specified in advance Example 1: Rorschach Test: consists of a series of ten inkblot pictures. • People describe what they see in the inkblots. • Derived from Psychodynamic theories • Individuals will ‘project’ their personalities into ambiguous situations; reduce social desirability (?) • ‘Projected thoughts’ indicate: emotional problems, disorder Example 2: Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): consists of a series of pictures of various ambiguous scenes. • Respondents must tell a story that explains what is happening in the picture. • Idea: projection of own values, interests & motives Extroversion Do you like mixing with people? Eysenck’s items Do you like bustle and excitement? Are you rather lively? Neuroticism Do you often feel fed up? Do you often feel lonely? Does your mood often go up & down? Psychoticism Do good manners and cleanliness matter to you? Do you worry about making mistakes? Do you like taking risks for fun? Example of Differences Levels of alertness: Extroverts seek out interaction in order to achieve full mental stimulation ‘Introverts’ are more sensitive to stimulation. • Five-factor model (Costa & McCrae, 2008): • Openness • Curious, broad-minded, artistic, insightful • Conscientiousness • Dependable, thorough, organized, efficient, responsible • Extraversion • Talkative, active, social, assertive, outgoing • Agreeableness • Cooperative, tolerant, good-natured, kind, trusting, appreciative • Neuroticism • Worried, anxious, insecure, unstable, tense • Measured by the NEO-PI-R (240 items) • Robust model of personality with cross-cultural applicability • Self-ratings closely agree with family member ratings Profiles positive negative correlate college grades occupational attainment occupational attainment divorce divorce entrepreneurial activity We Covered • Meaning of personality and personality traits. • Five-factor model of personality and relations between the Big Five traits and life outcomes. • Key defense mechanisms, and outline Freud’s view of development. • Strengths and weaknesses of biological theories of personality. • Strengths and weaknesses of behavioral theories of personality. • Assessment of personality Reading Required: Psychology 2e; Chapter 11: Personality https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/11-introduction Additional Joseph, J. (2002). Twin studies in psychiatry and psychology: science or pseudoscience?. Psychiatric Quarterly, 73(1), 71-82. Nettle, D. (2006). The evolution of personality variation in humans and other animals. American Psychologist, 61(6), 622.