PSYC1001 Personality 5 Lecture Notes PDF

PERSONALITY 5 LECTURER: CAROLINE FIELDEN E ma i l : ca ro li n e.f ie ld e n @sydn ey. ed u.a u Page 01  LECTURE SERIES OVERVIEW o Lecture 1: Introduction to personality o Lecture 2: Psychoanalytic & psychodynamic approaches...

PERSONALITY 5 LECTURER: CAROLINE FIELDEN E ma i l : ca ro li n e.f ie ld e n @sydn ey. ed u.a u Page 01  LECTURE SERIES OVERVIEW o Lecture 1: Introduction to personality o Lecture 2: Psychoanalytic & psychodynamic approaches o Lecture 3: Cognitive & behavioural approaches o Lecture 4: Humanistic & existential approaches o Lecture 5: Psychobiological & lexical approaches o Lecture 6: Personality assessment Page 02  LEARNING OUTCOMES  Know the general foundations of trait theory.  Understand the differences and similarities between lexical and biological accounts of trait theory.  Have a general knowledge of the development of the heuristic accounts of traits from lexical evaluations to statistical analyses.  Have a general knowledge of the development of biological accounts of personality traits from factor analytic approaches.  Know the developing resolution to 'the great debate'. Page 03  SUMMARY LECTURES 1-4 Page 04  ASSUMPTIONS: THE TRAIT APPROACH i o Personality exists! (heuristic realism) o Personality is a probabilistic and dynamic system o Personality has both quantitative and qualitative properties o Personality research aims to systematically describe psychological differences & similarities between (and within) individuals across time & space o Emphasises the need of a useful scientific taxonomy Personality is the dynamic & organised set of psychological characteristics possessed by every person that uniquely influences their cognitions, motivations, attitudes, behaviour, and psychobiology as a whole Page 05  ASSUMPTIONS: THE TRAIT APPROACH ii o The building blocks of personality are called Traits o Traits are general dispositions(?) that people possess that uniquely influence their psychology o E.g. outgoing, impulsive, anxious, sociable, empathic, optimistic, creative, altruistic o Traits are probabilistic o Every human possesses ALL traits, but not at the same intensity or centrality o E.g. One person may score high on extraversion, while another person may score low (i.e. be friendly) o Their development is assumed to end in early adulthood o They are relatively stable over time and situation o However, they constantly fluctuate and/or drift o Traits vs. States o Personality is dimensionally and hierarchically arranged Page 08  ASSUMPTIONS: THE TRAIT APPROACH iii Personality develops through the interplay between: o Cognition (memory, perception, thought, language, intelligence) o Temperament: characteristic, biologically-based reaction patterns (emotive or behavioural), present from an early age o Constitution or physiology (neurology, endocrinology, genetics, etc.) o Environment (both human and physical) Page 06 Page 07  ASSUMPTIONS iiii: HEIRARCHY Page 09  ASSUMPTIONS iiii: HEIRARCHY Page 10  TWO MAIN TRAIT TAXONOMIES o The Lexical taxonomy (e.g. the Big-5) Seeks to identify personality trait-descriptors in natural language o Neuroticism: The degree of a person’s emotional stability o Extraversion: The degree of a person’s social/interpersonal impact o Agreeableness: The quality of a person’s social/interpersonal impact o Conscientiousness: The degree of a person’s responsibility, dutifulness, and will to achieve o Openness: A person’s artistic tendencies, intellect, and acceptance of new ideas or change Page 12  TWO MAIN TRAIT TAXONOMIES o The Psychobiological taxonomy (Eysenck’s Big-3) Seeks to identify the biological/genetic markers of personality traits o Neuroticism (related temperament: emotionality) o A predisposition to mood and anxiety disorders o Extraversion (related temperament: activity) o A predisposition to accidents, injuries and substance abuse o It mediates the psychopathological effects of the other two dimensions o Psychoticism (tough- vs. tender-mindedness) o A predisposition to psychotic disorders and antisocial/psychopathic tendencies Page 12  LEXICAL METHODOLOGIES o Allport (1897-1967) Recognised the problem of definition in personality Sought a descriptive account of personality Not explanatory “In the measurement of intelligence we have at least the advantage of scales of performance in various mental functions standardized into age or point scale groups….. The measurement of personality, however, embraces none of these advantages. …We must strive toward a descriptive treatment rather than quantitative. Our aim is personality study and description rather than personality testing.” (Allport, psychclassics.yorku.ca/Allport/Traits/)  LEXICAL METHODOLOGIES o Identify what personality is on the basis of language and meaning o Founded on the lexical hypothesis “Those individual differences that are of the most significance in the daily transactions of persons with each other will eventually become encoded into their language” o (Goldberg, 1981, p.141-142)  LEXICAL METHODOLOGIES o Allport & Odbert (1936) identified 17, 953 o Expert judges divided terms into 4 columns: terms in the Webster’s New International 1. Neutral terms e.g. Aggressive, introverted, Dictionary (1925) sociable 4.5% of the total number of words 2. “Terms designating mood, emotional activity , or casual and temporary forms of conduct” (Allport Clear inclusion / exclusion criteria & Odbert, 1936, p. vii). E.g. abashed, gibbering, ̶ Terms needed to distinguish people in rejoicing terms of their behaviour ̶ Terms that describe common behaviours 3. Censorial & evaluative e.g. insignificant, (walking, digesting) excluded acceptable, worthy 4. Metaphorical e.g. red-headed, lean  LEXICAL METHODOLOGIES Image from: Allport, G. W., & Odbert, H. S. (1936). Trait-names: A psycho-lexical study. Psychological Monographs, 47(1), i-171.  PROBLEM Lexical accounts of personality describe traits, they don’t explain them Why do we do we behave in and experience the world as we do? What is the source of individual differences in behaviour and experience What is personality?  PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL METHODOLOGIES o Hans Eysenck ‘Father’ of modern biological approaches to personality Used lexical methodologies as a starting point ̶ i.e. the number of traits Using factor analytic methods initially identified 2 primary systems of personality: ̶ Extraversion ̶ Neuroticism Eventually added psychoticism to his model Known as the PEN model of personality  PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL METHODOLOGIES Eysenck used experimental and biological techniques to identify physiological differences between extraverts & introverts: o Extraversion = ascending reticular system (ARAS) o Neuroticism = visceral brain (or limbic system) Associated with cortical arousal Associated with fight/flight system ̶ Extraverts less easily aroused so need ̶ Neurotics more easily aroused, so more stimulation more easily panicked ̶ Introverts more easily aroused, so need ̶ Emotionally stable less easily less stimulation aroused, so less easily panicked PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL METHODOLOGIES  PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL METHODOLOGIES o Jeffrey Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) Modified Eysenck’s model to emphasise the role of behavioural reinforcement Traits explained by individual differences in sensitivity to reward, punishment & threat Proposed 3 brain systems: 1. Behavioural activation system – sensitivity to reward 2. Behavioural inhibition system – sensitivity to punishment 3. Fight, flight, freeze – sensitive to unconditioned stimuli Differences in these systems lead to differences across 4 traits: 1. Impulsivity 2. Anxiety 3. Approach 4. Avoidance  PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL METHODOLOGIES o Biological models tested using a range of methods: EEG MRI & fMRI Genetic testing Brain trauma o Multiple theories, all of which have supports for and against Inconsistent results  ASSUMPTIONS: THE TRAIT APPROACH iv o (Common) assumptions: o The personality space is made up of dimensions Sets of characteristics that together define personality o These dimensions are finite o We can discover these dimensions by categorising lexical evidence (e.g. questionnaire responses) and biological data Generally using Factor Analysis o These dimensions are linear and independent from each other Linearity means that as scores on one characteristic increases or decreases, another In reality, these dimensions are likely oblique and non-linear Page 11  Dimensionality: linearity Extraversion Extraversion? 9 10 9 10 8 8 7 7 2 3 4 5 6 Assertiveness 2 3 4 5 6 Assertiveness 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sociability Page 11 Sociability  Dimensionality: independence? Examined whether or not exraversion (E) and neuroticism (N) are independent except amongst high N scorers. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire data from 877 undergraduate psychology students were analysed to determine support for this notion of partial independence. Buckingham, R. M., Charles, M. A., & Beh, H. C. (2001). Extraversion and neuroticism, partially independent dimensions? Personality and Individual Differences, 31(5), 769–777. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00177-X Page 11  CONTRIBUTIONS o Scientific theories that are evidence-based o The current formally accepted view of personality o Clear-cut and reliable predictions o Testable o probabilistic o Cross-cultural (also gender/age) validity o Direct applications to occupational/educational psychology o Psychopathology (the foundation of Clinical Psychology) o The current formal classification of personality disorders in the ICD and the DSM manual o Evolutionary (personality) psychology, behavioural genetics, & Animal psychology Page 14 o Criminal profiling & adaptive interrogation techniques  LIMITATIONS o Can’t manage the complex, dynamic interactions between elements of personality Statistical methods of analysis currently assume linearity and independence o Lexical approach can’t identify what personality traits are o Biological approach is generally unreliable o How to account for changes in personality traits through adulthood? (see slide 6) o Theoretically weak Page 14  WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Allport Eysenck Biological structures ?