Personality
Ideographic Approach
Stability
Nomothetic Approach
Learning and Cognition
Psychodynamic Study -Freud
Humanistic Approach
Id, Ego, Superego
Believed that the contrast and conflict of the id and superego led to personality
Dream analysis and pleasure was driving force
Development in children
Children developed through psychosexual stages
Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
Oedepidus Complex led to association with same sex parent
Maslow
Defense mechanisms - way to deal with anxiety #
Denial, repression, projection, reaction formation, rationalization, displacement, sublimation
Anna Freud
Not a way to suppress conflict, just a way to save face
Critics
Rogers
person-centered approach
Emphasis on subjective understandings of lives
unconditional positive regard
self actualization
Neo-Freudians
focus on object relations theory, but is largely left behind
Unable to prove
Mischel
Cognitive affective personality system - response governed by how they perceive a given situation
Rotter
Self-regulatory properties
Internal/external locus of control
Rewards are in your own control/not in your control
Kelly
Personal Contructs
Personal opinions about how the world works
Trait Approach #
Testing: Various methodologies
Testing: observation/case studies
Testing: Self reporting, questionnaires, etc
focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions
Cattell identified 16 basic dimensions of personality
Five Factor Theory
Five universal traits
Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism
Consistent across cultures, scores have been shown to predict behavior
Different traits show up on different brain areas
Provides a framework for thinking about traits
Biological Trait Theory
Author: Eysenck
Based on the Five Factor Theory
Personal traits have two major dimensions - introversion/extraversion, and neuroticism
RAS Theory
Found arousal higher in introverts and lower in extraverts
explained the behavior of people
Behavior
Gray
BAS vs BIS
BAS - pursuit of rewards
BIS - sensitivity to punishment/risk
Situationism
Mischel
Idea that situations are more influential than personality traits for behaviors
Interactionist
Consensus that a behavior consists of:
centrality of the trait
type of trait
aggregation of behaviors
Thus, central traits are more consistent than secondary
Believe that behavior is determined JOINTLY by both behavior and situation
Reciprocal action where the environment influences the individual and vice versa
Personality appears to be stable
Basic tendencies vs Characteristic adaptations
strong vs weak situations
Tendencies are dispositional traits based on biology
Adaptations are situational adjustments
Change does occur over time
Age - less neurotic, less extraverted, more agreeable and conscientious
Large life events
May be a result of environmental factors
alter lifestyles and emotions and beahviors
In general, result of expectations and experiences with age
trivial events that spark significant events also affect
Cultlure
Difference in culture might exist due to cultural norms and miscommunication during questionnaires
In general, these five traits are universal
Self reports do not match cultural stereotypes
Methodology
Projective measures #
Unconscious mind will project intentions on meaningless objects
Rorschach inkblot
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Facebook/Social Media Narcissism
California Q-Sort
sort cards to identify traits most central
Life story #
Essentially learn as much as possible about an individual
Environment
Ex: bedroom or office can tell about personality
Less accurate when analyzing ourselves than others
Also, better with bff than with stranger
Only for highly obvious traits
Biologically Rooted
Traits - pattern of thought, emotion, etc that is consistent over time
Biological factors - brain structure, genes play important role in determining personality
Genes have affects when expressed, but the environment determines if the expression occurs
Nature and nurture work together to produce personality
Twin studies - identical twins have greater similarities than fraternal, even when living apart
40-60% personality is genetic
What about adoption? No more similar than any two random strangers
Demonstrated that parenting doesn't have that huge of an impact on personality
siblings are not that close - due to differences in treatment, friends, age
Minimum levels are important -can choose which traits to nurture
no specific genes - rather thousands
personality is the reflection of the genes of both the parents
Temperaments - tendencies to feelings rooted in biology
activity level, sociability, emotionality
Childhood temperaments significantly influence behavior throughout development
Adaptations #
Natural selection has chosen which traits should be passed on
Groups with diverse traits were more likely to be chosen for survival as the diverse traits made survival easier
Animals also have traits that influence their survival
eros vs thanos