PSYC1001 Personality 4 Lecture Notes PDF

PERSONALITY 4 LECTURER: CAROLINE FIELDEN Email: [email protected] Page 01  LECTURE SERIES OVERVIEW o Lecture 1: Introduction to personality o Lecture 2: Psychoanalytic & psychodynamic approaches o Lecture 3: Humanistic...

PERSONALITY 4 LECTURER: CAROLINE FIELDEN Email: [email protected] Page 01  LECTURE SERIES OVERVIEW o Lecture 1: Introduction to personality o Lecture 2: Psychoanalytic & psychodynamic approaches o Lecture 3: Humanistic & existential approaches o Lecture 4: Cognitive & behavioural approaches o Lecture 5: Psychobiological & lexical approaches o Lecture 6: Personality assessment Page 02  LEARNING OUTCOMES 1. Understand the conceptual foundations of behaviourism, cognitive-behaviourism & cognitive-affective approaches to personality 2. Be able to identify the key differences between each account 3. Understand the limitations of each approach 4. Understand the contribution of behavioural approaches in general to the ‘great debate’ in modern personality research Page 02  SOCIOCOGNITIVE & BEHAVIOURAL APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY There were objections to the (then) approach(s) to personality (e.g. psychoanalysis): The Theoretical Approach (aka armchair speculation) o Lack of standardisation or scientific bases o How can we really know what is going on in one’s mind, if we cannot directly observe and measure it? The Clinical Approach o Doesn’t allow for generalisation (cohort/selection biases) o Limited to certain cases o Conclusions may be biased/subjective (issues with deductive premises) Page 03 o Observations and interpretations of evidence without proper scientific controls  BEHAVIOURISM Behaviour as a function of experience Personality development and change is a result of experience “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train [them] to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant, chief, and yes, even [beggar] and thief, regardless of [their] talents, penchants, tendencies, vocations, and race of [their] ancestors” (Watson, 1930, p. 65) “Although personality psychologists frequently speak narrowly of traits as something roughly equivalent to the Big Five, almost everywhere else in the physical and behavioral sciences a trait is simply a relatively enduring characteristic” (p. 98) Wood, Dustin & Denissen, Jaap J. A. (2015). A functional perspective on personality trait development. Reynolds, Katherine J [Ed], Branscombe, Nyla R [Ed]. Psychology of change: Life contexts, experiences, and identities. New York, NY, US: Psychology Press, US; pp. 97-115. pp. xiv 307. Retrieved from http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=reference&D=psyc14&NEWS=N&AN=2015-00291-006. Page 04  BEHAVIOURISM Behaviour as a function of experience Radical Behaviourism: Personality doesn’t really exist Environmental contingencies can shape the person into anything and anyone Our final personality makeup is the end-product of our habit systems Systematic differences in behaviour and experience are more or less fixed by the age of 30 Behaviourism Personality is the sum of behaviours The only valid way to know a person is through directly observing their behaviour (B-data) Page 04  BEHAVIOURISM The causes of our behaviours, and thus our personality, can be found in the individual’s environment & can be directly observed The goal of behaviourist is to perform functional analyses that map out how exactly behaviour/personality is a function of one’s environmental situation When Jo goes to social events, they build good social connections When Jo behaves impulsively, When Jo exercises, they generally they tend to find new & have more energy interesting experiences People tend to respect Jo when they When Jo stays positive things stand up for themself generally turn out ok  BEHAVIOURISM: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Habit systems form through association 3 Main types of learning 1. Classical Conditioning: When something that In clip (https://youtu.be/mS7Ss8kx_CA?si=meBF12hIKaJT-GKp ): naturally produces a response (unconditioned a) Electric shock causes a withdrawal response (unconditioned stimuli- stimuli) becomes paired with something else. response pairing) Over time, conditioning b) Tasty cupcakes become paired with electric shock occurs such that the ‘something else’ produces c) The tasty cupcake elicits a withdrawal response (conditioned stimuli- that same response response pairing) Page 04  BEHAVIOURISM: OPERANT CONDITIONING Main types of learning 2. Operant conditioning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB9pRgQ4r4w When reward or punishment make a behaviour more or less likely ASSUMPTION o Behavioural hedonism: We are (primarily) motivated to learn to seek pleasure (reward) & avoid pain (punishment) Page 04  BEHAVIOURISM: HABITUATION Main types of learning 3. Habituation (non-associative learning): The process through which the intensity of behavioural responses to repeated stimuli declines or gets extinguished through time ‘getting used’ to some stimuli (https://youtu.be/Kfu0FAAu-10?si=fArXR7LjNwm5FBVx ) Page 04  BEHAVIOURISM: FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS Functional Analysis “Although personality psychologists frequently speak narrowly of traits as something roughly equivalent to the Big Five, almost everywhere else in the physical and behavioral sciences a trait is simply a relatively enduring characteristic” (p. 98) Wood, Dustin & Denissen, Jaap J. A. (2015). A functional perspective on personality trait development. Reynolds, Katherine J [Ed], Branscombe, Nyla R [Ed]. Psychology of change: Life contexts, experiences, and identities. New York, NY, US: Psychology Press, US; pp. 97-115. pp. xiv 307. Retrieved from http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=reference&D=psyc14&NEWS=N&AN=2015-00291-006. Page 04  CRITICISMS Deterministic (dehumanising – no free will) Overdependence on animal research (primarily in behavioural and instrumental approaches) Sets out to explain individual differences in experience, but doesn’t (really) propose a personality structure Simplistic o All we are is learned o Our personality is a direct response to environmental stimuli (+ Situationism) o Only (or mainly) observed behaviour is personality Largely tend to neglect unobservable thoughts, aspirations, emotions, unconscious processes, attitudes. Page 04  Cognitive behaviourism o Context matters o Individual responses to stimuli can be developed via observational (vicarious) learning. o People learn from what they see o Observational learning involves reciprocal determinism o Includes a ‘self-system’ (the individual). Perception (of ourselves) Evaluation (of our performance) Regulation (of response) o For better or worse, what is seen is modelled. https://youtu.be/faQLb_FfKWU?si=ouVcF34v3r5WhhCd  Socio-Cognitive behaviourism o The self-system (perception, evaluation & regulation) allows for observational learning via 4 processes: 1. Attentional processes determine what is selectively observed out of the profusion of modelling possibilities 2. Retention processes represent or symbolise modelled information to be retained 3. Production processes convert represented information into imitative actions, i.e., organising responses in a manner consistent with what was modelled 4. Motivation processes drive the performance of the modelled behaviour insofar as it fits with cognitions, beliefs, feelings etc.  COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE ACCOUNT Claims an internal system mediates of situational input & behavioural output o Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS – the system as a whole). CAPS made up of Cognitive-Affective Units (CAU’s) – elements of the whole. A dynamic system in which CAU’s interact in complex, probabilistic ways. Outcomes cannot be certain  COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE ACCOUNT Cognitive-Affective Units: 1. Encodings: Categories (constructs) for the self, people, events, and situations (external and internal). 2. Expectancies and Beliefs: About the social world, about outcomes for behavior in particular situations, about self-efficacy. 3. Affects: Feelings, emotions, and affective responses (including physiological reactions). 4. Goals and Values: Desirable outcomes and affective states; aversive outcomes and affective states; goals, values, and life projects. 5. Competencies and Self-regulatory Plans: Potential behaviours and scripts that one can do, and plans and strategies for organizing action and for affecting outcomes and one's own behaviour and internal states Mischel, W. & Shoda, Y. (1995). A Cognitive-Affective System Theory of Personality: Reconceptualizing Situations, Dispositions, Dynamics, and Invariance in Personality Structure. Psychological Review, 102, 246-268.  COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE ACCOUNT Complexity of interactions between CAU’s gives rise to Probabilistic Situation- specific behaviours Behavioural stability is relative to situations > Personality signatures Conditional probability The likelihood of some outcome in some condition e.g. How likely is it that someone will laugh if told a ‘Dad joke’? How likely is it that a child will lash out if denied treat?  CONTRIBUTIONS The first objective personality theories The first truly scientific theories of personality The first theories to point out the major effects the environment (situation) has on personality Major contributions to the treatment of (primarily) phobias, substance abuse, personality, and mood disorders E.g. Cognitive-Behavioural therapy (CBT) Systematic Desensitization Aversion Therapy Schema Therapy Dialectic Behaviour Therapy Rational-Emotive Therapy Free association Page 04  WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Skinner Bandura Mischel The sum of behaviours A (cognitive) self-system Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS)