Personality
What is personality
A persons unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, emotions and behavior
Personality trait - differences among individuals in their thoughts, feelings and behavior
- Beleifs, attitudes and mental abilities are not considered personality traits
Classifying personality traits
Lexical approach
- Identify common personality0descriptive adjectives in language
- Participants rate how well they are described by the adjectives
Factor analysis
- Statistical technique examines correlations among ratings of personality-desriptive asjectives
Big five and HEXACO models
Big-5
- Five factor model; Emotionality, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openess to experience
HEXACO (6 factor model)
- Includes honesty-humility
How do psychologists use personality inventories to measure personality traits
- Questions and statements rather than checklists
- "would you steal money if you could get away with it" instead of asking if someone is just honest
- Standardized questionnaires
MMPI-2 (clinical scales)
Measure of problematic personality traits relevant to clinical psychology and psychiatry
- questions are chosen differently (i like birds)
- compare an individuals scores to those of a normative group who tool it before
- score above cut-off are clinically significant
Personality disorders
An enduring pattern of emotions, thoughts, behavior, and interpersonal functioning that deviates from cultural norms and expectations
- Causes clincally significant distress or impaairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning
Diagnosing personality disorders
- individual that shows symptoms described in the DSM5 (book desribing mental disorders)
- Diagnosed by psychiarists or psychologists
Cluster of personality disorders
Cluster A - Odd behavior (paranoid, deeply distrusting)
Cluster B - Cramatic, emotional behavior (boderline PD, extreme sensitivitt ro rejection or abandonment)
Cluster C - Anxious or fearful behavior (Perfectionism, OCD)
What are personality types
Stlye of personality defines by a group of related traits that people have in common
Genetic influences and personality
genetic facots explain 40-50% of differences between people in personality traits
- Dogs have personality traits like humans; curiosity, affection, reactivity etc
Different levels of awareness in psychoanalytic theory
- conscious
- preconscious
- unconscious
Key structures of personality in psychoanalytic theory
1. Id - operates unconsciously, resposible for unconscious, innate drives
- Eros - life instinct: survival and reproduction
- Thanatos - death instinct: aggressive urges
- Urges of the Id are rational and impulsive
2. Superego - moral principles, internalized values
- Conscious and unconscious
- Conflicts with the Id
3. Ego - mediates conflicts between Id and superego
- Delays gratification of the Id to avoid punishment
- Minimizes guilt from the superego
Conscious and unconscious
Ego defense mechanisms
Moral anxiety - Desires of Id conflict with moral standards of superego
Neurotic anxiety - Results when ego cannot gratify Id drives due to relaity principle
Example: sexual desire for someone but inappropriate to act on, makes you feel neurotic and anxious
Psychosexual development of personality
Oral - eating/breastfeeding
Anal - toilet training (eliminating waste)
Phallic - Boys' sexual desire for mother
Phallic stage
- Identification
- internalization of values (superego)
Fixation
- Unresolved conflict in psychosexual development can be due to frustration and overindulgence
- Adult personality shaped by unconscious striving to gratify Id drives of this developmental period
Projective measures of personality
- Instead of direct questions, desribe ambiguous stimuli
- ex. inkblot test
- Projection of unconscious thoughts and desires
Humanistic perspective on personality
- Minimize influence of genes or unconscious forces
- Humans have free will
- Maslow: seek ways to self-actualize which shapes personality
Carl Rogers - Self-theory
Self-image - subjective perception of who you think you are
Ideal self - person you would like to be
True self - person you actually are
Congruence vs incongruence
Incongruence:
- Discrepency between self-image and true or ideal self
- Low self-esteem, anxiety and defensiveness
- Conditional positive regard (have to conform to what other people think you should be to be loved/accepted
Congruence:
- Selves are aligned; best situation for physiological adjustment
- Your self-image is realistic
- Unconditional positive regard
How humanist psychologists assess personality
Emphasize subjective experience
- Case studies and qualitative interviews
- Standardized personality inventories miss subjective details
Behavioral perspective on personality
- Personality not determines by genetic influences or unconscious forces
- Learning
- Situational deteminants
- Learned behavior patterns from reinforcement and punishment
What are situational determinants
- External conditions that strongly influence behavior
example; red lights, agree or not, everyone stops their car at a red light because you are taught you will be punished if you dont
- Situations have an important influence on our personality
Reci[rocal determinism (Albert Bandura)
Personality traits influence the situations we experience and how we react
- People with different personalities may choose to get involved in different situations
- Personalities affect how we are treated by others
- Personalities affect how we interpret and react to events