Personality – distinctive and stable pattern of behaviors, thoughts, motives and emotions that characterize an
individual over time.
1. Dispositional – trait models
a. Dispositions = collective ways an individual usually thinks and behaves.
b. Trait = characteristic assumed to describe a person across many situations.
c. Personality type Theories
i.
Hippocrates = temperaments associated with dominant humors
1. (Bodily fluids) – yellow bile, blood, phlegm, black bile
ii.
William Sheldon = body builds effect temperament
d. Personality Trait Theories
i.
Gordon Allport
1. Cardinal traits – overwhelming importance to individuals
a. 1 trait that dominates personality (few people have)
2. Central (Global) traits = characteristic ways of behaving
a. 5-10 traits reflecting characteristic behaviors, reactions = everyone has
3. Secondary traits – more changeable aspects of personality
4. Theory is more concerned with explaining how we differ from each other than
explaining why
ii.
Raymond Cattell
1. Factor analysis (stats)
2. Surface traits – visible in words or deeds
3. Source traits – underlying causes of surface traits
iii.
Hans Eysenck
1. Factor analysis
2. Introversion vs. extroversion
3. Emotionality vs. stability (neuroticism)
4. Psychoticism (cruelty, hostility, oddness, rejection of social customs)
iv.
Robert McCrae, Paul Costa
1. The big five = supported by research as fundamental traits
2. Introversion vs. extroversion (shy vs. outgoing)
3. Neuroticism or emotional instability (the extent to which people have negative
affectivity = general emotional instability
4. Agreeableness – extent to which people are good-natured.
5. Conscientiousness – responsibility, scrupulousness
6. Openness to experience (or imagination) = originality
v.
Overall critiques
1. Personality traits do seem to be fairly consistent
2. But while useful as a descriptive of behavior, doesn’t offer explanation of
development
e. Biological Personality theories
i.
Ragan – temperamental styles
1. Inhibited = shy/timid children; react negatively to novel situations
a. Increased SNS during mildly stressful mental tasks
2. Uninhibited = talkative/spontaneous
3. Heritability = between .4 and .6
ii.
Critiques:
1. Measures of environmental influences are "crude", causing researchers to miss them
and overestimate the role of heredity
2. Many separated twins grew up in similar environments
2. Learning Theories
a. Learning Theories (behaviorists)
i.
Personality is predictable from individual’s history of reinforcement and punishment.
Inconsistencies reflect situational specificity. Minimal "free will"
ii.
B.F. Skinner: personality is the result of operant conditioning (reinforcement/punishment)
iii.
Behavior Therapy is an attempt to modify behavior through the systematic alteration of
undesired patterns of action to produce desired patterns of action to produce desired
patterns.
b. Learning theories (cognitive learning theory or social learning)
i.
Human actions are determined from without – reactions to external forces
ii.
Rotter = expectancy theory
1. Learning creates cognitive expectancies – guide behavior
2. Behavior is determined by what someone expects to happen and the value the
person places on it
3. Internal vs. external Locus of control
a. Degree to which people expect events to be controlled by their internal
efforts of external forces.
b. Internal = people control own destiny
c. External = victims of luck, fate, or others
iii.
Differences between behaviorism/cognitive/social learning
1. Cognitive social learning theories emphasize
c. Observational learning (models)
i.
Cognitive processes (perception & interpretation of events)
ii.
Motivating values, emotions, and beliefs (such as expectations of success or failure,
confidence in ability to reach goals)
iii.
Bandura = social learning theory
1. Personality is acquired behavior taking place in a social context
2. Reciprocal determinism = behavior, cognition, and environment influence one
another
3. Self efficacy = a learned expectation of success
3. Psychodynamic or Psychosexual developmental theories
a. General elements
i.
Based on forces within the mind (intrapsychic dynamics)
ii.
Adult behavior and problems determined primarily by childhood experiences
iii.
Psychological development occurs in fixed stages
iv.
Unconscious fantasies and symbols are main motivators of personality
v.
Reliance on subjective methods
b. Freud
i.
Personality based on three elements
1. Id: pleasure principle
a. Life instinct (Eros Libido) –sex
b. Death instinct (Thanatos) aggression, destruction
2. Ego: Reality principle
a. Referees ID and society
b. Reason and good sense
3. Superego = Moral principle
a. Morality and rules
b. Judges activities of Id
c. Ego ideal (Moral and social standards one learns are right)
d. Conscience (Inner voice that says you did something wrong)
ii.
Defense Mechanisms
1. Used by ego to reduce conflicts with ID and superego to guard against anxiety
caused by instinctual wishes
2. Unconscious; deny or distort reality
3. Include denial, displacement, identification, Intellectualization, others pg. 369
c. Carl Jung
i.
Analytic or Jungian psychology
ii.
Two separate unconscious regions of the mind
1. Personal unconscious = from personal experience
2. Collective unconscious = based on common human genetic heritage
iii.
Archetypes = themes and symbolic images repeatedly in myths
1. Anima = feminine Archetype in men
2. Animus = Masculine archetype in women
3. Others: hero, trickster, great mother, spiritual father, Mandala, transformation
a. The hero. From world leaders to mythic gods to gargantuan sandwiches, the
hero represents someone who rises to the occasion to conquer and vanish
with great might. Often the hero is a relatively weak individual, but one who
connects to powerful internal forces. Herein lies a blueprint for the
development of one’s own sense of individuality.
b. The Trickster. This archetype is often seen as a collective shadow figure
representing the underdeveloped or inferior traits of individuals. In
Mythology (such as many Native American folktales) the trickster is often
dull-witted but someone who typically provides positive outcomes.
c. Great Mother. The Virgin Mary = the Hindu goddess Kali, Fertility symbols,
Henry Moore sculptures, "mother earth", myths and legends of
motherhood…These are all reflections of our Archetype of one who ushers
us into existence and nurtures us.
d. Spiritual father. Our image and sense of fathers is tied to spirituality. An
obvious link, established well before Jung, is found in many Judeo-Christian
Religions.
e. Mandala. The Archetype of order, examples of this are plentiful within and
across cultures. Circles, squares, fractal forms, swastikas, wheels, yin-yang,
crosses, and numbers are a few examples.
f. Transformation. Journeys to the self, whether in mythology, dreams or
symbols, represent transformation. From Diogenes’ search for an honest
person to someone’s life-altering revelation, transformation plays a role in
human development and growth.
d. Adler
i.
Inferiority complexes
ii.
Birth Order too
e. Horney
i.
Freud = male bias
ii.
Suggested penis envy ahs male counterpart in "womb envy"
iii.
Childhood anxiety caused by sense of helplessness triggers a desire for life and security
f. Erikson
i.
Psychosocial vs. Psychosexual
4. Humanistic (Phenomenological) Theories
a. Common components
i.
Instead of focus on negative aspects, highlight positives
ii.
Humans born with a positive drive to grow and improve
iii.
People strive for self-determination and self-actualization
iv.
Self-concept reflects our subjective perception of who we are and what we like
v.
Inner-directedness as an internal force leading people to grow and improve
b. Abraham Maslow
i.
Hierarchy of needs
ii.
Self-actualization is highest psychological need and cannot be attained until basic physical
and psychological needs are met
iii.
Carl Rogers
1. "Person centered perspective"
2. Fully functioning person
3. Congruence between self-image and true feelings
a. Trusting, warm, and open to new experiences
b. Unconditional positive regard: attitude of total acceptance towards another
person
c. Conditional love: incongruence and unhappiness
4. Focused on relationship between self and organism
a. Self: your conscious view of you (self-concept = all thoughts and feelings
which answer "who am I?"
b. Organism = the sum of all your experiences, including unconscious feelings,
perceptions and wishes
5. Cognitive theories
a. View individual personality in terms of tendencies to process, interpret, and understand the
environment
b. George Kelly = personal construct theory
i.
Personality = the habitual way people make sense out of the world
ii.
Personality is thus constructed through our own cognitive processes
iii.
Fundamental postulation = people behave according to the way the will behave in similar
situations in the future is predictable from the constructs they are currently using
c. Fritz Heider
i.
Attribution theory
ii.
People make inferences about the causes of others’ behavior
iii.
Tend to locate causes either within the person or within the situation
d. Evaluate/Critique
i.
Seen as too narrow
ii.
Humans = unfeeling but thinking creatures
iii.
Behaviorists disagree with dependence on observable processes
iv.
Psychoanalytic theorists object to leaving out childhood influences.
6. Assessment techniques
a. Observation(s)
b. Interview(s)
c. Peer ratings
d. Self-report personality tests
i.
Objective tests: Standardized written format (also called self report)
1. Answer questions
2. Limited response options (T/F) Agree/neutral/disagree etc.)
3. e.g. Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI); million clinical, multi axial
inventory ( MCMI)
ii.
Projective tests: Free response format
1. Relatively unstructured stimuli, which can be perceived in many ways with no
response restrictions
2. (Theoretically) the individual "projects" personality traits onto the task
3. e.g. Thematic apperception test (TAT), Rorschach inkblot technique
Intelligence and testing
1. How to define? Different "intelligences" needed in modern day USA vs. Australian bush
a. "Lay person’s" defn: (based on surveys with people)
i.
Problem solving ability
ii.
Verbal abilities
iii. Social competence
b. Gen psychologist defn: capacity to understand the world, think rationally and use
resources effectively when faced with challenges.
c. Two factor (Spearman; oldest/widest accepted)
i.
Psychometric approach: measures (quantifies) cognitive abilities or factors thought
ii.
to be involved in intellectual performance.
2 factors:
1. G
a. General mental ability
b. Many think this is what intelligence teats measure (modern IQ=g)
2. S
a. Specific mental ability
b. Math, mechanical, or verbal
Disadvantages - Excludes other mental abilities (motor, perceptual, musical,
practical, or creative abilities)
Multiple intelligence (Gardner) – 7 kinds at least!
i.
Verbal
ii.
Musical
iii. Logical mathematical
iv.
Spatial
v.
Body movement
vi.
Intelligence to understand oneself
vii.
Intelligence to understand others
viii. Disadvantages
1. Not knowing how many kinds there are
2. Not having standard measuring techniques to access.
Triarchic (Sternberg)
i.
Analyzes the cognitive steps used in problem solving
ii.
Componential
1. Meta Components: awareness of own intellectual processes
2. Performance Components: mental operations of skills used in solving
problems or processing info.
3. Knowledge Acquisition Components: gaining new info
iii. Analytic or logical thinking skills (traditional IQ tests)
iv.
Problem solving skills (required creative thinking/learn from experience)\
v.
Contextual or Practical thinking skills (adjust & code w/ sociocultural environment)
vi.
Disadvantages: only a few tests to measure.
Fluid/crystallized (Cattell)
i.
Fluid: reasoning, memory, information, processing
ii.
Crystallized: info, skills, strategies people have learned through experience & can
apply in problem solving situations.
iii.
d.
e.
f.
2. Testing
a. Measuring intelligence
i.
Brain size (Paul Broca) - Some correlation w/ IQ scores, but little practical value
ii.
Binet-Simon intelligence scale
1. Contains items in order of increasing difficulty (measured cognitive ability)
2. Original to distinguish French "intellectually deficient" children
a. Ranged from idiots to imbeciles to morons (lowest to highest
iii.
iv.
functioning)
3. Introduced concept of "mental age"
a. Compares child’s score to scores of average children of same age
b. But did not allow for comparison across different chronological
ages
Terman’s change (Binet-Stanford)
1. Replace mental age with IQ: intelligence quotient
2. IQ= (Mental age/Chronological age) *100
Wechsler
1. Wechsler intelligence scale for children (WISC-III)
2. Wechsler adult intelligence scale—revised (WAIS-R)
3. 2 parts
a. Verbal info
b. Performance: added to measure nonverbal skills; rules out cultural
or educational problems
b. Other Kinds of Tests (NOT Intelligence)
i.
Achievement: tests level of current knowledge in a given subject area
ii.
Aptitude: predicts ability in a particular area
1. SATs are supposed to do this, but College Board has acknowledged the
problem
2. Changed "Scholastic Aptitude Test" to "Scholastic Assessment Test"
3. Problem solving
a. Four Stages
i.
Preparation: observation, defined elements
ii.
Production: rules that seem to govern
iii. Trial: test using your rule
iv.
Evaluation: see if your trial worked
b. Algorithms: specific procedure for solving a certain type of problem will work every
4.
5.
time BUT
i.
Must be correct procedure for the task
ii.
May take a long time
c. Heuristics: "Rules of thumb"
i.
Don’t guarantee a right answer, but are faster
1. EX: analogy (domino theory in int’l relations)
ii.
Representativeness heuristic
1. People make judgments about events according to the populations they
appear to represent.
2. Sample = 6 coin toss, population = infinite coin tosses
iii. Availability: estimates of frequency or probability are based on how easy it is to
find relevant events.
1. Are there more NSYNC or Barenaked Ladies fans?
a. Your answer is probably based on # you know
iv.
Anchoring & adjustment
1. Inertia in judgment: first estimate serves as cognitive anchor. As we
receive add’l info we make adjustments, but tend to remain in same
proximity.
2. Ex: growing up believing a religion or political party is "right"
d. Framing: the way wording (or context) can influence decision-making.
i.
Ex: Prolife; Prochoice
e. Factors that affect problem solving
i.
Expertise
ii.
Mental Set: tendency to respond to a new problem w/ the same approach that
helped solve similar problems.
iii. Insight: Gestalt: perception of relationships among elements
iv.
Incubation: stand back from a problem—wait for insight
v.
Functional Fixedness: tendency to view an object in terms of its name or familiar
usage
1. Box of matches, thumbtack, candle—attach to wall
Creativity: ability to do things that are novel and useful
i.
Convergent thinking: narrow in using present facts, on the single best solution to a
problem - eg Multiple Choice test
ii.
Divergent thinking: free association to generate multiple solutions to problems - eg
Essay test
Types of reasoning (transformation of information in order to reach conclusions)
a. Deductive: conclusions are "deduced" from premises. Conclusions are true if premises are
true.
b. Inductive: reason from particular facts to a general conclusion.
i.
This is liver. I got sick from liver before. Therefore I will get sick from this liver.