Personality

Personality

Nature/Trait
1. Distinctive – unique to the person. Not everyone behaves the same. Consistency - stable over time and across situations
2. Personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situationsFactor analysis: mathematical way of finding out which variables are related to others and which are entirely different.
McRae and Costa - The Big 5
1. The five traits listed below are dimensions so a person can be high or low on each – Extraversion – Neuroticism – Openness to experience – Agreeableness – Conscientiousness
Psychodynamic Perspectives
1. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory - Developed from working with clients who had psychological disorders •Required lengthy verbal interactions where Freud probed deeply into their lives.
2. Structure of personality
  1. Id – inactive operates according to the Pleasure Principle wants immediate gratification. Ego – decision making component and uses Reality principle – acts appropriately. Superego – considers what is right and wrong using Morality Principle (age 3-5)
  2. Levels of Awareness
    1. Conscious – what one is aware of at present – Preconscious - what you could easily bring to awareness with thought – Unconscious – thoughts, memories and desires that are well below the surface of consciousness but greatly affect behavior e.g. hidden hostility to a parent
    2. Conflict
      1. – Sex and Aggression, – Anxiety, Defense Mechanisms
Defense Mechanisms
1. Defense mechanisms ward off the resulting anxiety from these confrontations and are unconscious.
  1. •Rationalization: Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behaviour •Repression: Defense mechanism used to bury anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings in the unconscious •Projection: Dealing with unacceptable feelings or wishes by attributing them to others Displacement: Diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from original target to a substitute target
Psychosexual Development
1. Conflicts, memories, urges in unconscious mind come from experiences in childhood – Emerging sexuality/pleasure, is the focus of many stages of development – Each stage has a focus of early sexuality/pleasure – Failure to move through a stage properly leads to fixation .
Stages of Psychosexual Development
1. • First year: Oral stage – Pleasure comes from sucking, putting things in mouth –Fixation at this stage can cause overeating, smoking, nail biting • Second year: Anal stage – Pleasure comes from retaining or passing feces – Fixation at this stage can cause excessive neatness or excessive messiness
  1. •Ages 3 to 5: Phallic stage – Pleasure comes from self-stimulation of genitals – Erotic feelings directed towards opposite-sex parent – Fixation here can cause relationship, sexual problems; also Oedipus or Electra complex • Ages 5 to puberty: Latency period – Sexual feelings suppressed; energy directed towards school, social relationships • Puberty to adulthood: Genital stage – Mature sexual relationships with opposite sex
Behavioural Perspectives
1. Skinner’s views • People have consistent ways of behaving because they had certain experiences in the past that were rewarded or punished (conditioned). This leads a person to develop response tendencies according to the situation • Different people respond differently because they had different experiences in the past
2. Evaluating
  1. Pros • Based on rigorous research • Insights into effects of learning and environmental factors
  2. Cons •Over-dependence on animal research •Dehumanizing nature of Radical Behaviourism (e.g. no free will) • Fragmented view of personality
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
1. •Bandura agrees that personality is shaped through learning but states people also make goals, plan courses of action and regulate their own behaviour. They are not seen as passive responding only to environmental stimuli •In contrast to Skinners environmental determinism, Bandura prefers to see the world in terms of reciprocal determinism. The environment determines behaviour but behaviour also affects the environment and both of these affect one’s personal/cognitive factors
Mischel and the Person-Situation Controversy
1. •Mischel reviewed research and found much less consistency of personality than most believe to be the case.People who are shy in class may be outgoing at home. Mischel calls this situational specificity.
2. • The person-situation controversy – which determines behavior?
Humanistic Perspectivs
1. Theory began in the 1950s as a reaction to the ideas of Skinner who studied animals and Freud who saw behavior as dominated by animal drives. Humanists felt that neither school appreciated the unique qualities of human behavior.
  1. Approach - we must consider a person’s personal subjective experience to truly understand his/her behavior. An unattractive person who doesn’t care about appearance and is sociable will have better relationships than a person who is unattractive and shy about this.
    1. Evaluation
      1. Humanistic theories are credited with highlighting the importance of a person’s subjective view of reality. They are also applauded for focusing attention on the issue of what constitutes a healthy personality. They are criticized for lacking a strong research base, poor testability, and what may be an overly optimistic view of human nature
2. Carl Rogers - Person-centred Theory
  1. •Rogers was one of the founders of the humanistic perspective in psychology • Founded an approach called person-centered theory – interested in client’s subjective view • Roger’s view of the personality was tied up in the self or the self-concept – beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities and typical behaviour

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