Define Personality
- An individual’s unique set of consistent behavioural traits
Define Personality in terms of its Consistency and Distinctiveness
- Explains the stability in one’s behaviour over time and across situations (Consistency)
- Explains behavioural differences among people reacting to the same situation (Distinctiveness)
Define Personality Traits in terms of its Dispositions and Dimensions
Personality Trait : Durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations
Factor Analysis : Statistical analysis of correlations among many variables to identify closely-related clusters of variables
- Most approaches to personality assume that some traits are more basic than others
Explain the Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits (OCEAN/CANOE) (McCrae and Costa, 1985, 1987, 1997)
- Maintain that most personality traits are derived from just 5 higher-order traits (Big Five)
1. Extraversion (Positive Emotionality) : Outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive
- Have a more positive outlook on life, motivated to pursue social contact, intimacy and interdependence
2. Neuroticism (Negative Emotionality) : Anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure, vulnerable
- Tend to exhibit more impulsiveness and emotional instability than others
3. Openness to Experience : Curious, flexible, imaginative, interested in new ideas, possess unconventional attitudes
- Tend to be tolerant of ambiguity
4. Agreeableness : Warm, sympathetic, trusting, compassionate, cooperative, straightforward
- Correlated with empathy and helping behaviour
5. Conscientiousness (Constraint) : Diligent, well-organised, punctual, dependable
- Associated with strong self-discipline and the ability to regulate oneself effectively
Explain Freud’s Psychodynamic Perspectives
- Psychodynamic theories include all the diverse theories descended from Sigmund Freud (focuses on unconscious mental forces)
- Attempts to explain personality by focusing on the influence of early childhood experiences, unconscious conflicts and sexual urges
Explain Freud’s Model of Personality Structure
- Theorised that people have 3 levels of awareness (conscious, preconscious, unconscious)
1. Id : Primitive, instinctive component of personality (Primary-process thinking)
- Houses raw biological urges (eat, sleep etc.)
Pleasure Principle - Demands immediate gratification of its urges
2. Ego : Decision-making component of personality (Secondary-process thinking)
- Considers social realities (norms, etiquette, rules, customs)
Reality Principle - Seeks to delay gratification of the id’s urges until appropriate outlets can be found
3. Superego : Moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what feels right and wrong (Moral Principle)
Explain Anxiety and Defence Mechanisms
- Unconscious conflicts between the id, ego and superego sometimes leads to anxiety, the discomfort can lead to the use of defence mechanisms (temporarily relieves anxiety)
Defence Mechanisms : Largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions (anxiety and guilt)
List the Types of Defence Mechanisms
1. Repression : Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious
E.G Soldiers have no recollection with details of a close brush with death
2. Projection : Attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings or motives to another
E.G Woman who dislikes her boss thinks she likes her boss but feels that the boss doesn’t like her
3. Displacement : Diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target
E.G A girl takes her anger out on her little brother after a parental scolding
4. Reaction Formation : Behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite of one’s true feelings
E.G A parent who unconsciously resents a child spoils the child with outlandish gifts
5. Regression : A reversion to immature patterns of behaviour
E.G Adult has a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get his way
6. Rationalisation : Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behaviour
E.G Student watches TV instead of studying and says that additional studying won’t do any good anyway
7. Identification : Bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person/group
E.G Insecure man joins a fraternity to boost self-esteem
Explain Jung’s Analytical Psychology (Collective Unconscious)
- Proposes that the unconscious consists of 2 layers
Personal Unconscious : Same version of Freud’s version of the unconscious
- Houses material that is not within one’s conscious awareness because it has been repressed/forgotten
Collective Unconscious : Storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from people’s ancestral past
- Jung states that each person shares the collective unconscious with the entire human race
- Jung calls these ancestral memories archetypes
Archetypes : Emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meaning (ancestral memories) - Often manifested in a culture’s use of symbols in art, literature and religion
Explain Adler’s Individual Psychology
- Adler developed the individual psychology approach
- The foremost source of human motivation is a striving for superiority
Compensation : Involves efforts to overcome imagined/real inferiorities by developing one’s abilities
- Overcompensation is used to deal with feelings of inferiority
Inferiority Complex : Exaggerated feelings of weakness and inadequacy
- Birth order was a factor governing personality
Explain Behaviourism
- A theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behaviour
Discuss how Skinner’s ideas apply to Personality
- Skinner’s principles of operant conditioning have affected thinking in all areas of psychology
- Determinism implies behaviour is determined by environmental stimuli
- Personality is a collection of response tendencies tied to stimulus situations
- Operant conditioning shapes human responses
- Personality development is a continuous, lifelong journey
Explain Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
- Agrees with behaviourism that personality is shaped through learning
- People actively seek out and process information about their environment to maximise favourable outcomes
- Maintains that people’s characteristic patterns of behaviour are shaped by the models they are exposed to
Discuss Mischel and the Person-Situation Controversy
- Mischel focused attention on the extent to which situational factors govern behaviour
- People make responses they think will lead to reinforcement in the situation at hand
- Mischel’s version of social learning theory predicts people will often behave differently in different situations
Explain Humanism
- Theoretical orientation that emphasises the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth
Humanistic theorists assume that :
- People can rise above their primitive animal heritage
- People are largely conscious and rational beings who are not dominated by unconscious, irrational conflicts
- People are not helpless pawns of deterministic forces
Discuss Carl Rogers’ view of personality development and dynamics
- Person-centered theory
1. The Self
Self-Concept : Collection of beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities and typical behaviour
E.G Own mental picture of yourself, collection of self-perceptions
Incongruence : Degree of disparity between one’s self-concept and one’s actual experience
2. Development of Self
- Unconditional love from parents fosters congruence, conditional love fosters incongruence
3. Anxiety and Defence
- People with highly incongruent self-concepts are especially likely to be plagued by recurrent anxiety
- Individuals often behave defensively in an effort to reinterpret their experience to appear consistent with their self-concept
- Ignores, denies and twists reality to protect and perpetuate self-concept
What is Maslow’s Theory of Self-Actualisation? (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
- A systematic arrangement of needs (basic needs must be met before less basic needs are aroused)
- Most basic needs are at the bottom of the pyramid (physiological/security needs)
- Individuals progress upward in the hierarchy when lower needs are satisfied reasonably well, but may regress back to lower levels if basic needs are no longer satisfied
What is the Need for Self-Actualisation?
- Need to fulfill one’s potential (Highest need in Maslow’s motivational hierarchy)
Explain Eysenck’s Model of Personality Structure
- Describes personality structure as a hierarchy of traits
- A few higher-order traits (extraversion) determine a host of lower-order traits, which determines a person’s habitual responses
- Personality is largely shaped by one’s genes
Discuss the Evolutionary Approach to Personality (David Buss, 1991, 1995, 1997)
- Argues that the Big Five personality traits are important across cultures because they have had significant adaptive implications
- Points out that humans historically have depended heavily on groups (protection, food)
Discuss the Evolutionary Approach to Personality (Daniel Nettle, 2006)
- Asserts that the Big Five traits themselves are products of evolution that were adaptive in ancestral environments
- Evolutionary analyses may be able to help explain the origins of individual variations on these dimensions
Define Narcissism
- A personality trait marked by an inflated sense of importance, a need for attention and admiration, a sense of entitlement and a tendency to exploit others
- Narcissists are often well-liked at first, but their popularity declines quickly
1. Grandoise Narcissism : Characterised by arrogance, extraversion, immodesty and aggressiveness
2. Vulnerable Narcissism : Characterised by hidden feelings of inferiority, introversion, neuroticism and a need for recognition
3. Collective Narcissism : Refers to an inflated belief in the greatness of one’s social grouping (country, ethnicity, religion)
- Overly sensitive to the criticism of their group, seeing it as a sign of disrespect (likely to perceive other groups as threatening)
What is Terror Management Theory (TMT)?
- Asserts that humans’ unique awareness of the inevitability of death fosters a need to defend one’s cultural worldview and self-esteem, serves to protect one from mortality-related anxiety
E.G One of the chief goals of TMT is to explain why people need self-esteem
Mortality Salience : Degree to which subjects’ mortality is prominent in their minds
- Leads subjects to engage in a variety of behaviours that are likely to bolster self-esteem to reduce anxiety
