Psychology Lecture 9 - Personality PDF

PSYC1001 PERSONALITY THEORY 2 Lecture Objectives What is personality theory Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic perspective Behavioural Humanistic Trait perspective Social Cognitive Exploring the Self Assessme...

PSYC1001 PERSONALITY THEORY 2 Lecture Objectives What is personality theory Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic perspective Behavioural Humanistic Trait perspective Social Cognitive Exploring the Self Assessment techniques 3 What is Personality? Personality ▫ characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting ▫ Relatively stable and enduring ▫ Inherited & shaped by life events and experiences 4 1  Personality Perspectives 5 Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic Developed from Sigmund Freud’s theory which proposes that ▫ childhood sexuality and ▫ unconscious motivations influence personality Three phases of Freud’s evolving theory ✓PHASE I—“affect-trauma model” ▫ Symptoms are the result of real trauma or abuse 6 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic ✓PHASE II—“topographical perspective” The conscious – awareness Preconscious or subconscious - out of awareness, but which can easily be retrieved Unconscious - out of awareness - most material resides here, forgotten, repressed information 7 2  Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic ✓PHASE III—“structural model” The mind has 3 agencies or structures (id, ego, superego) The Drives - we are motivated by: ▫ sexual - erotic component of mental activity ▫ aggressive drives - destructive component of mental activity Dives are biologically rooted and innate. 8 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic The Structure of the Personality ✓The ID Source of instinctual drives Wants immediate gratification of instinctual needs Pleasure principle – Selfish and pleasure oriented – Aim of instincts = satisfaction Only ID present at birth ▫ Baby preoccupied with fulfilment of ID wishes 9 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic ✓The Ego Develops after the ID The executive branch of the personality Mediates between the demands of the ID and the realities of the external world Reality principle 10 3  Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic ✓The Superego Emerges from the ego Moral values of society Works with ego to inhibit ID Morality principle 11 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Intrapsychic conflicts ID, Ego and Superego striving for different goals Neurosis - when Ego overwhelmed by the ID Emotional health - based on ego’s capacity to manage conflict & stay in touch with reality 12 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Psychosexual stages of development Oral stage First year - mouth principal erogenous zone Desires and gratifications oral Stimulation of mouth → gratification Too little or too much gratification → oral personality type 13 4  Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Anal stage Second year Anus main source of sexual tensions and gratifications Pleasure and non-pleasure, retention and expulsion Conflicts → anal-retentive or anal-expulsive 14 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Phallic stage 3 to 5 years Genitals main source of pleasure Gratification – sexual fantasies, fondling exhibiting genitals 15 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Latency stage 6 to 13years old Sexual motivation recedes Child concerned with other developmental tasks 16 5  Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Genital Stage Puberty and adulthood Fixation can occur at any stage if gratification not appropriate 17 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Anxiety and Defence Mechanisms Anxiety a causal factor in much psychopathology Ego Defence Mechanisms - unconscious protective methods of reducing anxiety Repression - anxiety arousing thoughts ,feelings, and memories banished from consciousness 18 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Regression ▫ individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated Projection ▫ people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others 19 6  Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Reaction Formation ▫ the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites ▫ feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety- arousing unconscious feelings are expressed 20 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Rationalization ▫ self-justifying explanations offered in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions. 21 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Displacement ▫ Sexual or aggressive impulses shifted toward a more acceptable/less threatening object or person ▫ Anger redirected toward a safer outlet 22 7  Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Denial ▫ Outright denial of an impulse, thought etc ▫ Refusal to recognize the anxiety provoking event Sublimation ▫ finding a socially acceptable outlet for sexual or aggressive urges. 23 Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Treatment - Psychoanalysis Free association Facilitation of resistance Dream analysis – dreams are the royal road to the unconscious 24 Behavioural Psychology Operant/Instrumental conditioning - BF Skinner Behaviour is shaped by reinforcement Operant conditioning ▫ Reinforcers strengthen & increase behaviour ▫ Punishers decrease behaviour 25 8  Behavioural Psychology Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner) ▫ personality is a collection of response tendencies tied to various stimulus situations. ▫ Various response tendencies are acquired through the process of shaping 26 Humanistic Psychology Beliefs/Interests ▫ Positive, not negative traits of human beings ▫ Conscious experience ▫ Human beings are determining - have free will 27 Humanistic Psychology Carl Rogers : Person-Centred Perspective Focused on growth and fulfilment of individuals Factors needed for growth and good development – genuineness – acceptance – empathy 28 9  Trait Perspective Views personality as stable and enduring behaviour patterns or traits Trait ▫ a characteristic pattern of behaviour ▫ a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self- report inventories and peer reports 29 Trait Perspective Gordon Allport - Personality = identifiable behaviour patterns Factor Analysis - statistical technique used to identify clusters of traits For example, people who are outgoing also like excitement, jokes etc. 30 Trait Perspective Hans Eysenck Personality – Allows us to predict behaviour in a given situation – Is genetically influenced – Can be explained by a few dimensions: Extraversion introversion Emotional stability emotional instability Neuroticism psychoticism 31 10  Trait Perspective The five factor model of personality(Costa & McCrae, 2006) Expanded & modified Eysenck’s work Described personality by five factors - The Big Five How Big Five was developed? factor analysis to find relationships among lists of adjectives that described people 32 Trait Perspective The big Five Personality Factors Conscientiousness - organized disorganized, careful careless, disciplined impulsive Agreeableness - soft-hearted ruthless, trusting suspicious, helpful uncooperative Neuroticism - calm anxious, secure insecure, self-satisfied self-pitying 33 Trait Perspective Openness - independent conforming, imaginative practical, preference for variety preference for routine Extraversion - sociable retiring, fun-loving sober, affectionate reserved 34 11  Social cognitive perspective - Bandura Albert Bandura (1996, 2006, 2008) We learn our behaviour by: ▫ Conditioning – classical and operant ▫ Observation – modelling  Modelling = observing & imitating behaviour 35 Social cognitive perspective - Bandura Reciprocal Determinism “Behaviour, internal personal factors & environmental influences all operate as interlocking determinants of each other” Behaviour determined by reciprocal interaction of: ▫ Cognition (thoughts, feelings) ▫ Environmental factors ▫ Behavioural factors 36 Social cognitive perspective - Rotter Rotter - Personal control Personal Control - our sense of controlling our environments rather than feeling helpless External Locus of Control - the perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate Internal Locus of Control - the perception that one controls one’s own fate 38 12  Exploring the Self 39 Exploring the Self James Marcia – Identity State All adolescents will occupy one or more of these states, at least temporarily. Each state is determined by two factors: 1. Is the adolescent committed to an identity? 2. Is the individual searching for their true identity? 40 Exploring the Self Identity Foreclosure –the adolescent blindly accepts the identity and values that were given in childhood by families and significant others. Identity Moratorium – adolescent has acquired vague or ill-formed ideological and occupational commitments; he/she is still undergoing the identity search (crisis 41 13  Exploring the Self Identity Diffusion – having no clear idea of one's identity and making no attempt to find that identity. Identity Achievement –having developed well- defined personal values and self-concepts. They are committed to an ideology and have a strong sense of ego identity. 42 Exploring the Self Spotlight Effect - overestimating others noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders Self Esteem - one’s feelings of high or low self-worth Self-Serving Bias - readiness to perceive oneself favourably 43 Assessment Techniques 44 14  Assessment Techniques Assessing the Unconscious Projective Test ▫ a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics 45 Assessment Techniques Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) ▫ a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes 46 Assessment Techniques Rorschach Inkblot Test ▫ the most widely used projective test ▫ a set of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann Rorschach ▫ seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots 47 15  Assessment Techniques Personality Inventory ▫ a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree- disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviours ▫ used to assess selected personality traits 48 The End of Lecture 49 16