W1 What Is Personality PDF

**LO 1.1 Define personality** Helps in understanding and predicting behaviour. Lewins formula -- behaviour explained by interaction of personality and situation. Problem w/ personality -- we often judge based on limited information. Need to know across multiple situations, time. Allport definiti...

**LO 1.1 Define personality** Helps in understanding and predicting behaviour. Lewins formula -- behaviour explained by interaction of personality and situation. Problem w/ personality -- we often judge based on limited information. Need to know across multiple situations, time. Allport definition: Personality is the *dynamic organisation* (collection of loose knit traits, changeable through time and function) within the individual of those *psychophysical systems* (subject to biological and psychological factors) that determine his characteristic patterns of thought, feelings and behaviour. Allport emphasised uniqueness of person, existence of some traits that can't be compared, role of attitude, interplay of nature and nurture. Cattell definition: Personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation. Cattell focus on what people have in common, population based characteristics. Not interested in individual differences. Cervone and pervin: Personality describes psychological qualities that contribute to an individual's enduring and distinctive patterns of feeling, thinking and behaving. **LO 1.2 Summarise the main perspectives of personality** Eight major: 1. Psychoanalytic -- Freud. Unconscious drives, instinct... Looked at sexual drives. Hard to measure unconscious -- critique. 2. Neoanalytic -- Karen Horney. Expanded on Freud. Emphasis on self and struggles to cope w/ emotions and internal drives, in addition to demands of outside others. 3. Biological -- Hans Eysenck. Neuroticism and extroversion focus. Linked to biological processes associated w/ traits, such as more neural activity. Explored tendencies and limits of biological inheritance. Ignored socialisation and some elements of context. 4. Behaviourist -- Includes Watson, Skinner. Focus on outward behaviour vs introspection (scientific analysis central). 5. Cognitive -- George Kelly. Perception, attention, language and memory. Active nature of human thought. Link to emotions and behaviour. Can be reductionist -- critique. Ignores individual differences. 6. Trait -- Allport. Current dominant framework. Looked at more immediate characteristics. Prioritised individual assessment. But does not help with understanding how personality develops. 7. Humanist -- Maslow. Focus on human worth, centrality. Spirital nature of people, dignity and self-fulfillment. Creative and spontaneous of human beings. Can be vague, culture dependent. Hard to link to psychopathology. 8. Interactionist -- Personal characteristics and immediate situations interact. Henry Murray. Relies on assumptions ( B = *f*(P,S) ). Challenge of considering free will, agency, and culture (western origins). Noting eclectism has limitations also -- no systemic framework. Need to consider -- what theory best for this client at this time. A close-up of a key strength Description automatically generated **LO 1.3 Describe the scientific basis of personality psychology** Qualitative can answer about someone, but not everyone. Includes social construction? (transcribing, coding and themes), case studies, thematic analysis. Quantitative may answer about everyone -- but not specific to one person. Includes correlations (associations, not causal), experiments.  A lot of theories in personality came from observation and reasoning, i.e., Freud. Example of deductive reasoning -- conclusions followed logic based on assumptions made. = Make observation, come up with theory based on this, and then test this for data. Inductive also used in some theories. Particularly trait theories. Gathering a lot of data and continuing to revise conclusions. Concepts developed based on data vs theory to data. \\ A diagram of a business process Description automatically generated  **LO 1.4 What makes a good theory of personality?** Having more proven facts, being testable. Theories include concepts (theoretical constructs) and statements about how they are related (theoretical propositions). Operational definitions -- what observable phenomena we associate with a construct. A diagram of a personality Description automatically generated Must be well described, clear, measurable, have predictive qualities, be testable through science, has applied value to improving human life, simple (no unnecessary complications) but not too few constructs either, suggests new ideas for future research (futility or heuristic value). Good personality theories consider context, external factors, what is possible. No single theory is comprehensive enough to be accepted universally. **LO 1.5 Outline the basic issues in personality psychology** - Unconscious elements and measuring this - Idea of the self - How do we measure what's unique about a person? - Gender -- differences in personality across gender. - Culture -- norms re personality based on white, middle class subsets.