1
Q
What is personality
A
“The pattern of characteristic thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that distinguishes one person from another and persists over time and situations
2
Q
How does the idea of personality and behaviourist conflict
A
The idea of a personality is in opposition to behaviourists idea that it’s the external environment that creates consistent patterns of behaviour vs internal attributions
3
Q
Pro trait item
A
when someone agrees, they agree with the trait presented (humble)
4
Q
Con trait item
A
when someone agrees they are disagreeing with the good trait (arrogant)
5
Q
Why use 7 point scale
A
manageable amount of differentiating without overwhelming someone
Average number of things we keep in our working memory at any given moment ( 7 + or - 2)
6
Q
- How can we reduce data of many questions to a more manageable set of characteristics
A
Principal components analysis
- Tool that allows us to group things together in terms of their similarities and differences
- Reduce into “families of characteristics”
For each “family” will tell us how much variation it explains
7
Q
Handshake study findings
A
- On average, men had ‘firmer’ handshakes
- The relationship between firmness and Openness was moderated by gender (only found for women)
People with ‘firmer’ handshakes were judged more positively (eg., rated the person as more extravert, conscientious, agreeable, stable, open
- The relationship between firmness and Openness was moderated by gender (only found for women)
8
Q
ppocrates - the pillars of temperament
A
Made a link between physiology and the nature of our temperament. Argued our personality is tied to fluids (Hot, Cold, Wet Dry)
9
Q
Galen - The four humours
A
- Personality type reflects the excess we have of the fluids hippocrates proposed
Blood - Sanguine
Black bile - Melancholic
Yellow bile - Choleric
Phlegm - Phlegmatic
10
Q
Lavater - Essays on Physiognomy
A
- Peoples faces reflects the categories Galen proposed
○ Sanguine - Cheerful
○ Melancholic - Unhappy
○ Choleric - Bad tempered
Phlegmatic - Calm
11
Q
Christian Thomasius
A
- Give people a survey in which you ask them, are you agreeable? Emotional? Reliable?
Describe the extent to which those characteristics reflect them
12
Q
Kant (18th century)
A
Split up the four personality types and proposed the characteristics of these personalities
13
Q
Wilhelm Wundt
A
- Strong and weak emotions, changeable and unchangeable
14
Q
Francis Galton
A
- Went through the dictionary to build a comprehensive list of prospective personality characteristics…
And discovered correlation analysis along the way… (how we characterise relationship between 2 sets of numbers)
15
Q
Charles Spearman
A
- Spearmen correlations - first person to work out calculation for non-parametric correlations
16
Q
Personality & characer
A
Heading into the 1900’s, ‘character’ tends to be what people talk about. This was eventually replaced with personality & self.
The language frames our understanding and study of the concept
17
Q
Gordon Allport
A
Rejects Freudian psychoanalysis (digging deep into subconscious) and behaviourism, (our behaviour controlled entirely by our environments)
- Designs an early personality measure (based on adjectives from personality)
18
Q
Factor analysis
A
- Is a fantastic tool for looking at things like the structure of personality from the data up
○ Does data cohere together in certain ways to suggest there are families of personality characteristics
19
Q
Physiological psychology as asserted by freud
A
personality and psychology can be tied to aspects of our bodies
- Believed we could reduce every aspect of psychology can be reduced 1:1 with physiology
Said our psychology can be described like geology, we can describe its bumps and troughs
20
Q
Freuds topographic model
A
Conscious = information focused on in the moment
Preconscious = Material capable of becoming conscious but not in the moment
Uncinsous = repressed urges
21
Q
Freuds structural model of personality
A
- ID = instincts, innate drive for our behaviour (sex & fun & survive) - I WANT
- Ego = I SHOULD
Superego = controls our desire, internalises societies expectations - YOU CANT
- Ego = I SHOULD
22
Q
Triebe (drives, instincts)
- Among these drives we have…
A
- Libido (desire to live & have sex)
Thanatos (desire to die) - supposed way as to why we watch boxing matches
23
Q
Freuds idea of tension reduction
A
Tension reduction
- Buildup of tension inside of us associated with tension to have sex or die, and we need to find ways to reduce this tension (smash things, rugby game etc)
No evidence to suggest these small releases actually work (frustration aggression hypothesis builds on this)
24
Q
Catharsis
A
managed to find outlet for deep sweaty desires of libido and thanatos
25
Repression
(bury deep)
26
Sublimation
(find positive outlet for desires - do smth for neighbor = catharsis)
27
Denial
(nothing wrong here)
28
Reaction formation
(reacting & doing opposite, "fuck you")
29
Intellectualization
(remove emotion, think your way through smth)
30
Projection
(no… you… - project guilty sense of self onto others)
31
Psychosexual stages of development
- Oral stage (0-18 months) - babies & eating
- Anal stage (18 months - 3 years) - toilet-training
- Phallic stage (3 years - 7 years) - realisation of genitals, gender role behaviours
- Latency stage (6 years - puberty) - mixed boys and girls (story of edipus who kills father, marries mother - love for mum, doesn’t wanna fight with father, for girls = Penis envy)
Genital stage (post puberty)
32
Freuds theory of humour
- The contents of jokes are often reflections of the things we cannot talk about openly (unconsious)
- If a particular joke is particularly threatening, you should find it funnier as it’s a way of experiencing catharsis and relief
The things we are most worried about we will ifnd jokes associated w that as more funny
33
three core assumptions of psychodynamic perspective
1. Primacy of unconscious
○ Majority of psychological processes take place outside conscious awarness
2. Critical importance of early experiences
○ Early childhood events = set in motion personality processes
3. Psychic causality
Nothing in mental life happen by chance
34
Ego defences
- Mental strategies we use automatically and unconsciously when we feel threatened
35
Object relations theory
- Personality can be understood at reflecting the mental images of significant figures we form early in life in response to familial interactions
Introjects = mental images that become a script (observe mum as warm = become warm, observe mum as harsh = become self critical)
36
Congruence (carl rogers)
self-actualization occurs when a person’s “ideal self” (i.e., who they would like to be) is congruent with their actual behavior (self-image).
37
Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow believed that human behavior is driven and guided by a set of basic needs: physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and the need for self-actualization. It is generally accepted that individuals must move through the hierarchy in order, satisfying the needs at each level before one can move on to a higher level.
38
Logotherapy
the therapy of meaning, as in finding meaning in one’s life.
39
Personal Power
Rogers defined this as the ability of individuals to make the choices necessary for actualizing their self and to then fulfill those choices.
40
Resacralization
the process of deciding what is sacred and treating certain things as sacred and important.
41
Self-Actualization
Maslow described self-actualization as the highest of the basic needs, or the Being-need. Maslow felt these were needs related to meaning, and doing or experiencing personally meaningful things in life.
42
Will-to-Meaning
Viktor Frankl believed this was the primary motivator in life, and his therapy called logotherapy helped people find meaningfulness in life.
43
Unconditional Positive Regard
According to Rogers, unconditional positive regard involves showing complete support and acceptance of a person no matter what that person says or does.
44
What is the Big Five
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Narcissism (OCEAN)
45
Three criteria to characterise personality traits
1. Consistency (in their behaviour across situations)
2. Stability (in behaviour over time)
3. Individual differences (people differ)
46
Facets
- Lower-level units of personality
No widely accepted list but generally agreed upon
47
HEXACO model
Adds Honesty-humility as 6th dimension of the OCEAN personality traits
48
Psychoanalysis
= it all dates back to your early childhood experiences
And how these experiences help you deal with you ID, mediated by ego and super ego
- The role of therapy is for the psychoanalyst to interpret YOUR unconscious
49
Superego
internalisation of what socialisation says is the right thing to do
50
The manifestation of our unconscious
When people are distressed/neurotic, the stuff the are repressed and push deep down bleed up
51
If its unconscious - how do we access them in order to help people work through their stress
Dreams, projective tests, free association, hypnosis, freudian slips, symbolic behaviour
52
Projective tests
Access to unconscious by asking people to interpret ink blots
53
Rawshark test
projection of our unconscious
- Are not very reliable
More of an indicator of ones mood
54
Thematic apperception test
- 3 primary motivations that drive peoples behaviour and you can divine personal motivations based on what you think a man is doing
- Achievement (just finished page of novel)
- Affiliation (letter to loved one)
- Power motivation (letter as a landlord)
55
Rawshark ink blots versus thematic apperception test
Thematic apperception test was used in university to Harvard 1st year students and then followed up with them 30-40 years later. People with achievement motivation were more successful, entrapeuners.
Unlike rawshark ink-blots, thematic apperception test is more reliable test of peoples motivations
56
Free Association
(Button…go)
- Freely think of words and these come out without thought
Said that these words represent something in your unconsious
57
Hypnosis
- Freud said that putting people into a different state of consciousness gives us access to things we normally wouldn't have explicit access to (and this is said to be the unconscious)
- He still acknowledged there were some people that couldn’t be hypnotised (those less suggestable)
58
Why is hypnosis maybe not so good
- Prior to a hypnosis show, people will be screened for suggestibility (do you daydream a lot?)
- The people that are most suggestable will be taken up on stage to be hypnotised as they can CONVINCE themselves they are
- Its kind of a demand characteristic
Theres no evidence to support hypnosis
59
Freudian Slips
- Say something that is not contextually appropriate but may signal something going on in your unconscious
"Dark side of your mum"
60
Symbolic Behaviour
Classic example = patient with real trouble with his mother, house is FILLED with daisies and his mother loved daises
61
Which of freuds ways into the unconsious are reliable indicators of what is below our threshold of conscious awarness
There is very LITTLE evidence to suggest that the above (dreams, projective tests, free association, hypnosis, Freudian slips, symbolic behaviour) to suggest that these things are valid & reliable indicators - OTHER THAN thematic apperception test
62
According to freud, the answers to our personality/behaviour are largely;
- Hot, sweat and dark & BAD = a rather negative, sex-obsessed view
- In the past
- Unavailable to us without therapy
63
Freuds deterministic understanding
Our personality and behaviour are largely outside of our individual control
64
Criticisms of Freuds psychoanalysis theory
Criticisms
- It wasn’t "revolutionary" - other scholars had discussed unconscious
- It wasn't testable - hard to prove
- It's not realistic that personality is fixed around age 6 (its not until around 14)
- It overemphasises innate instincts and ignore culture and environment
- Negative and pessimistic tone (without therapy you screwed)
65
Neo-Freudians
- Carl Jung
- Alfred Adler
- Karen Horney
66
Carl Jung & collective unconsious
Jung said how come do we see recurring motifs throughout therapy
- Consciousness we share with others
Provides template for our moving through the world
67
Carl jung primordial images & archetypes
- Anima and Animus (representations of masculinity and femininity)
When you think someone is hot = your preference for particular anima or animus
68
Who coined the term extraversion
Carl Jung
69
Carl Jungs four basic functions
Thinking, Feeling, Sensing, and Intuition.
He categorized Thinking and Feeling as rational or judgment functions, while Sensing and Intuition are irrational or perception functions.
70
Myers Briggs type indicator is inspired by...
Jungs basic argument of extravert, introvert, sensing, thinking
71
Alfred Adler & Striving for superiority (inferiority complexes)
What Adler believed was the driver of our behaviour (still bears truth, a lot of our self-esteem tied up with wanting to be good)
72
Alfred Adler Parental influences (pampering vs neglect)
○ 2 primary ways we go wrong
Pamper = lose opportunity to be competent, or you think you are so superior
73
The courage to be disliked
Novel inspired by Adlers work. Part of why we unhappy is we internalise expectations others have of us
We get depressed and anxious
74
Karen Horney
- Rejects a number of freuds statemets
People have different ways of dealing with neurosis
- Moving towards people (clingy)
- Moving against people (disliked)
Moving away from people (withdrawn)
- AND the idea of womb envy
75
Erich Fromm & crisis of freedom
We find ourselves free to decide course of our lives, where we live, what jobs we occupy etc for the first time
○ Can move cities
○ Can moves jobs
§ This comes with paralysing fear about doing the right thing and exercising our freedom correctly
76
Erich Fromm Mechanisms of escape from freedom (3)
- Authoritarianism - (Avoid fear of freedom by following people who will tell us what to do)
- Destructiveness - (Tear it all down, burn the world)
Automation conformity - Put ourselves into routinised, mechanical roles (helps us get over fear of freedom)
77
Erich Fromm, if you don't escape from freedom...
we can brace the challenge and try and make something of our freedom
- Freud proposed something similar, we have tensions within us and ways to possibly use them is to SUBLIMATE them (expressing nerves and tension)
- Fromm said we can embrace challenges of freedom and transcend it, use it for good
78
Erich Fromm proposed personality styles
Unproductive
- Receptive = need for constant support (emerge fromoverbearing households)
- Exploitative = willing to exploit others to get what they need
- Hoarding = cope with insecurity by never parting with anything, accumulating material goods
- Marketing = focus on social status and look at relationships based on what they can gain
Productive
- Productive = Take negative feelings and channel into productive work
○ Focus on loving, nurturing and meaningful relationships
79
Different meanings freedom can have according to Erich Fromm
- Freedom TO do things
- Freedom FROM bad things
Left/right split - left = freedom from, right = freedom to.
80
Erik Erikson vs Freud ideas of ego
Freud says ego is this thing that says "I want, I want," Erikson says it can also be a force for good
○ Ego = basis of our identity, and a foundation for MASTERY
81
Who coined the term "identity crisis"
Erik Erikson
82
What model did Erik Erikson propose
Erikson also proposed 8 "crisis" that we overcome throughout our life course
= Trust vs mistrust
= Autonomy vs. shame/doubt
= Initiative vs guilt
= Industry vs inferiority
= Identity vs confusion
= Intimacy vs isolation
= Generativity vs stagnation
= Integrity vs despair
83
_sychoanalysis & Neo Freudianism
One criticisms is the extent to which research supports Freuds inferences (neo Freudians things may have SOME support)
84
One freudian idea that did not have support (aggression)
Freuds theory that aggression is cathartic
- No reduction in violent crime after boxing match
Violent crime may even increase after boxing match
Rage room as therapy/stress relief
Research does not show this, venting may be ruminating and exacerbate anger and tension
85
How does Karen Honeys ideas link to attachment theory
Karen Honeys idea about moving towards and away fits neatly into modern understanding of adult attachment
- If you put the dimensions together they form a 2x2 (how secure are you about yourself, how secure are you about others)
86
Existential Psychology - Viktor Frankl
Inspired by existensial philosophy, Frankl's question, How do people survive this kind of trauma? How to people thrive?
- What is meaning of existence?
- The role of free will?
Uniqueness of the human being?
87
Viktor Frankl's idea of existensial anxiety
The challenge of answering existensial questions produces this existensial anxiety, the realisation of how meaningless we are in grand scheme of the universe
88
Existential therapy:
- Develops a mature approach to life (it could be empty, it could have meaning)
Emphasising freedom to choose a life that has less emptiness, anxiety, boredom
89
Logotherapy
Helping people FIND their meaning, a point to living
§ Roots in existensial philosophy and freudian psychoanalysis (talk therapy)
90
3 principles of the humanistic approach
- Personal responsibility - Humans are active shapers of their lives (cannot blame society for our problems)
- The here and now - Stop & appreciate the present moment
- The phenomenology of the individual - their lives as THEY see it
91
How does humanist theory differ to freuds
The principle of "phenomenology of the individual" - their lives as THEY see it differs to psychoanalysis where they try to ascribe meaning to peoples experiences, rather to a humanist, their experiences ARE the meaning
For the humanists, we are fundamentally good, and our drives are for self-actualisation. This differs to Freuds theory who states our drives are inherently messy and bad and evil
92
Carl Rogers, real percieved and idea self
At any one time, if we are misaligned it has consequences for our wellbeing. This misalignment comes from our childhood.
- We may not even consciously notice though, but below the threshold of consciousness we subsieve the things that are challenging to our self concept
93
Unconditional positive regard
Loved regardless of what you do
- This is what parents should do, but for many children, love is conditional
94
How do we get through incongruence between different aspects of the self
Self disclosure
95
Assessing self-concepts: Q-sort
- A forced-choice distribution task in which clients describe their real and ideal selves
- Clients sort attributes (happy, sad, mean, helpful) for real self and thenn ideal self
- Rogers then correlated the congruence over time, showing that clients real and ideal selves increasingly correlated
96
A more modern take on different selves: E. Tory Higgins
Three selves
- Actual (how I am)
- Ideal (how I want to be)
- Ought (who I should be)
97
Congruence between different ways of viewing ourselves are associated with different forms of psychological distress. these are:
Discrepancy between actual and ought = anxiety, high agitation
Discrepancy between ideal and ought = depression, low agitation
98
person-centred therapy & how it differs to psychoanalysis
- Non-directive, job of therapist is to NOT interpret what client is experiencing or saying
- More of creating a space where the client can work out answers for themselves
Different to Freuds psychoanalysis in which they INTERPRET what is going on for them
99
Abraham Maslow hierachy of needs
- Need to met basic needs before we achieve self-actualisation (looks different for different people, not strictly must satisfy each, but idea is you want to satisfy most of them)
- Don’t take rigid view, but need most
- Only 5-10% of americans are self-actualised, while 80% have lower needs met
100
Two basic motives for hierachy of needs
- Deficiency (satisfaction from attainment) "I want money"
Growth needs (satisfaction through expression) "Showing other people love to benefit their self esteem"
101
DId Maslow support or reject behaviourism
Maslow - we are so much more than just stimulus/response, so much more than behaviourism
102
Maslow's study of psychologically happy people
Maslow asks people who he thinks are self-actualised to tell him about their lives;
Found that psychologically happy people…
- Accept themselves, and admit their weaknesses
- Less bound to cultural norms, they express themselves
- Display self-actualising creativity (enculturalisation)
Peak experiences
103
'Peak experiences' - Maslow
- Sporting moments, playing music
Moments of "flow"
104
Criticisms of humanist approaches
- If it all comes down to free will, is there space for predicting behaviour (different to Freuds idea that everything has root in our past)
- Poor definition of key concepts
Supportive research open criticism
105
The trait approach to personality
- Modern, dominant understanding
The trait approach seeks to identify types or traits that can be used to understand and predict behaviour
106
Trait vs Type
Type "I am an independent person"
Trait "I am studious, zealous, friendly"
107
Gordon Allport and measuring traits
- Was interested in measuring personality/traits
- Identified 4000 adjectives in English language alone that describes personality
Unlike Freud, Allport minimised role of unconscious and believed the only way to understand personality is to study normal people
108
Problems with types
- Assumes each of us fits into one personality category and that others in that category are basically alike
Assumes that behaviour of the people in one category is distinctly different from the behaviour of people in other categories (zodiac signs, type A & B)
109
Personality as trait dimensions 2 things to do (identify, measure)
- First, identify a trait that can be represented as different points on a continuum - people can represent that thing to greater or lesser extents
Then measure enough people and we typically find a normal distribution
110
Assumptions of the trait approach to personality
- A trait is a dimensions of personality used to categorise people in terms of the extent to which they manifest a particular characteristic
○ Personality characteristics are relatively stable over time
○ Personal characteristics show relative stability across situations
Depression characteristics not stable for over two weeks = NOT A TRAIT
111
Is that trait approach to personality interested in individuals
No, we're less interested in individuals, we are more interested people who score high/low on certain traits
112
Gordon Allport - component and state
- While behaviour is influenced by the environment, its impossible to predict specifically what one person will do
- In a persons stream of activity, there is a trait like component and a state (situation) like component
113
Nomothetic approach
try to identify core set of personality traits most people have and see where people sit along (identification, measurement, and description of common traits across individuals)
114
Idiographic approach
Unique combination of personality traits for one particular person (identification of the unique combinations of traits that account for an individuals personality)
115
You come up with 10 traits for yourself, you friend comes up with ten for you. Primary, secondary, carbonyl
- 5 that you and friend came up with = primary traits
- 5 that you came up with alone (ascribe to yourself) = secondary traits
Traits that keep coming up among multiple pairs (seen widespread) = carbonyl
116
Assumptions of the trait approach to personality
- Personality characteristics relatively stable over time
- Personality characteristics show relative stability across situations
117
Raymond Cattel
- Witnessed events of first world war
Started in chemistry but moved towards psychology
- Believed in factor analysis
118
Say you measure how much of the following traits describe a large group of people, Why not run individual correlations and just compare them all
- More statistical tests you do = product of fact we have done lots of statistical tests
Inflation of the family-wise error rate
119
Divergent validity
where we put smth in we are confident will not be associated with the thing we think it measures
120
Convergent validity
the degree to which two or more measures that should theoretically be related actually are related
121
16 PF.
Cattell sought information from a variety of sources like report cards, rating by employers, daa from lifelike situations, data from many personality questionaries, and used factor analysis to developed this measure
122
Eysenck settles on 3 dimensions, these are
- Emotionally unstable vs stable
- Introvert vs extrovert
High impulse control vs low impulse control (psychoticism)
123
Introverts vs Extroverts and Lemon Juice
- People who are more extroverted produce less saliva when they taste something acidic
- Some people need more stimulation to get a buzz = extroverts
They have a higher physiological setting which affects the level of stimulation they need to get aroused
124
How much actual percent of persnality is genetic
Large no. of ppl, 50% of variation in personality across large number of those people has genetic component
125
Two tools to understand items within personality
- Factor analysis using individual items
- Factor analysis using scores for dimensions that come out (use scores for subscales along with other 15 to do a second order factor analysis
126
Eysenck ideas about extraversion and physiology
Extraversion is index to which we need stimulation to meet threshold of physiological arousal
127
Big 5 and brain areas study
Give people big 5 personality test, than put in fMRI to measure sizes of different brain structures
Identify brain structures which would theoretically be associated with each personality characteristic
- 4/5 hypotheses were confirmed… all the traits except for openness
Evidence that Freud and Eysenck were right linking physiology to personality
128
COVID and personality traits
- Significant small declines in openness, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness.
129
Why does openness decline in the context of a pandemic
Stress = adaptive response to evolutionary past
○ Leads to release of stress hormones, cortisol, noradrenaline (ready for fight flight, or freeze)
○ Also shuts down part of our brain, leading us to NOT do things we normally do
○ May explain more inhibition and lower openness
130
Changes of personality traits in pandemic for young adults
Younger adults
- Stronger effects than older people
- Became more neurotic (emotional) less agreeable, and less conscientious
These changes are likely not permanent as a lot of these changes are reinforced by the environment
- But younger adults likely to have greater effect
131
Developmental differences
refer to changes within a person or within a specific individual over time, encompassing physical, cognitive, and emotional growth
132
cohort difference
distinctions between groups of people born or experiencing a shared event in the same period
133
As people get older & personality traits
- Less extravert
- Less agreeable
- More conscientious
- Less neurotic
- Less open to experiences (quite steep gradient)
- More honest and humber
134
Criticisms of OCEAN
- What do these factors mean? Factor analysis groups factors but doesn’t tell us much beyond that
- What is the role of language? How can we translate across countries
- Culture? Differ to the extent in which they reward different types of behaviour (may effect nature of personality)
- How many factors? (Eyesenck's 3, Hexaco, big 7) AND are the factors correctly named (large degree of subjectivity)
- It's atheoretical - maybe they've arise through adaptation, or have neurological substrates, but these are predictions that post-date the development of this structure
135
Criticism of OCEAN = the person-situation debate
Walter Mischel
- Trait measures do not predict behaviour very well
- If you measure a behaviour, and have personality data, correlation are typically in a range of .3 or .4 = weak (only account for 10&% of the variance at best)
○ What about the other 90%
Limited evidence of cross-situational consistency
Do what extent do certain personality traits apply across many different situations
136
Sam Gosling's way of solving the cross-situational consistency constraints
- You should look at variety behaviours across settings that are similar
- "ie., hostel room messy, do you keep good notes, do you plan how to spend ur money"
○ States that related behaviours grouped together should be better predictor than any one alone
137
Responses to the person-situation debate
- It is ABSURD to claim no consistency (we know from our lives that people are somewhat consistent)
- We shouldn’t just focused on one measure and one behaviour, we should look at MULTIPLE examples of behavioural measures
- Identification of relevant traits - Allport's Centrality
- The importance of 10% of the variance (10% does not mean nothing)
138
Ecological momentary assessment
- Text message once every day for two weeks
More slices of behaviour over period of time
139
Extraversion example on why we need to look at multiple examples of behavioural measues
Small correlation between extraversion and social contacts on any one day may be low, but strong when looking at combined interactions over two weeks (more samples of relevant method)
140
Why is 10% of variance still important for the extent to which personality traits predict behaviour
Lots of examples where association that accounts for 10% of variance (ie., smoking and lung cancer)
141
Person-by-situation interactionism example
Milgrims study, and the finding that people who are more likely to be obedient scored higher on authoritarianism.
People higher in authoritarianism have greater capacity to obey but ONLY when in a situation that will warrant it
142
Psychology as the behaviourist sees it
-We should ignore ideas of what goes on in peoples brains or subconscious
- If we cannot see & measure it, we should assume it does not exist & only focus on observable behaviour
Almost oppositional to Freudian psychoanalysis
143
Julian Rotter - built from behaviourist
If physical behaviour can be conditioned, why couldn’t the same thing be done inside out heads
- Ie, anxiety (internal state) can be reinforced through experiences (external world)
144
Behavioural Tendency =
Expectancy (what I think will come about) + Reinforcement value (how reinforcing will the outcome be)
145
Behavioural tendency and locus of control
we move through the world + our experience lead us to develop a rule of thumb of how the world works (locus of control)
Sometimes, we might tend to pick the wrong behaviour and doesn’t result in the thing we want, and we learn the world that is out of our control
Series of experiences that produces a positive outcome, the world is within our control
146
Locus of control
indication of the extent to which you think the causes of things that happen to me are internal (in my control) or external (outside of control)
147
Reciprocal determinism
- 3 factors:
-Rewards/punishments (External factors)
- Beliefs, thoughts, expectancies (Internal factors)
- Behaviour
Idea is that its not as simple as environment = behaviour (Because our behaviour changes the way the environment works and how we understand it)
148
The Buddhist Critique of a Fixed Self (Anatman)
The idea that what we call "personality" or "self" is not a permanent, singular entity. Instead, it's a temporary collection of the Five Aggregates (body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness).
149
How does the concept of "interbeing" relate to personality?
It suggests we are not separate selves, but are deeply interconnected with all people and things. This challenges individualistic views of personality and supports collectivistic values.
150
Behavioural view of personality
Our personalities develop as a product of reinforcement and punishment
151
Behavioural tendency vs general tendency
we don’t do the behavioural tendency calculation everytime we chose a behaviour - it goes across, we develop our own locus of control (internal, external)
152
Social cognitive theory is NOT all about external reinforcement
- Many of us have particular behaviours we might engage in but never have
- We self regulate, a lot of positives, rewards, punishers we generate ourselves and do not receive
- Altruistic or prosocial behaviour (warm feeling = internal reinforcer)
- Does not HAVE to come from outside
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Self efficacy
"can we do it?" "can I bring about the things I want"
- Self efficacy MAY BE domain specific (depend on situation)
154
Outcome expectation
the extent in which we believe actions will lead to a particular outcome
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Efficacy expectations
extent of belief a person can bring about a particular outcome
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Where do Efficacy expectations come from
- Performance accomplishments "perform well on a test = I can do well on other tests"
- Vicarious expectations - know murder is bad as other people have done it and got in trouble
- Verbal persuasion - "You can do it"
- Emotional arousal - reinforcing/aversive (anxious about going to party so wont go = reinforce that anxiety)
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Bogus pipeline methodology and efficacy expectations
- Can influence beliefs about what is going inside of them
- Shows the role of arousal in our beliefs and emotions toward things
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Criticism of behavioural models
- Narrow conceptualisations of personality
- Does not consider heredity
- Limits on conditioning, humans are more complicated than animals
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What does it mean that behavioural models have narrow conceptualisations of personality
Impoverished, specifically Watson & Skinners views = reduce us to reinforce/punished people - proof that some of the things we do CANNOT be the byproduct of reinforcement and punishment, ie., language acquisition)
- Rotter and Bandura did expand but still difficult to encompass all of personality in these limitations
160
Cognitive conceptualisations of personality - George A. Kelly
- Trying to propose a thought/thinking based model of personality
- There isn't necessarily a set of traits, but rather we have an accumulation of knowledge that comes from interacting with certain people that leads us to behave in certain ways that reflects cognitive structures we build over time
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Personal construct theory
- We develop personal constructs that reflect our understanding of things in the world
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What does the cognitive view of personality mean when it compares us to little scientists
- Collect data
- Built theories about how people in the world work
- Test out theories
= This is an implicit process
This is important as the templates/constructs inside our heads help us deal with the complexity of life. The world = too complicated to deal with everything that occurs on a case by case (reinforce/punish) basis
163
How do personal constructs shape our behaviour (and thus personality)
§ Personal constructs = heuristic, rules of thumb based upon your experiences in the world
These rules of thumb inform what we can do in any situation without having to consciously collect data
164
George A Kelly (cognitive guy_ and freudian/behaviourist ideas
Rejected Freudian ideas that behaviour is motivated by unconscious
- Instead, says we wanna understand the world and the past is ONLY Important in the way in which is shapes our personal constructs and expectancy
- Dismissed behaviourist idea that behaviour is controlled by the environment - two people can have similar personalities without having had the same experiences (and vice versa)
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Cognitive structures
Networks of information in our brains (some of which are more strongly connected with some bits of information than others)
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Schemas
- Hypothetical cognitive structures that help us perceive organise, process and use information
- Are updatable (when we meet someone that does not satisfy pre-existing template, may change that template)
- Are relatively stable ways of seeing the world, lead to relative stability of individual differences in behaviour
167
Self Schemas
- Cognitive generalisations about self, derived from past experiences, that organise and guide processing of info
- If I ask if you are an independent person, and you have to stop to think about it = a sign of a not-well defined schema for 'independence'
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What is the concept of "possible selves" and how are these good
These possible selves
1. Incentivise future behaviour (Possible self = clinical psychologist so I will do things to get me there)
2. Help to interpret our behaviour and experiences
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Example: Gender Schemas
- We develop cognitive templates for what might constitute a women and men
- Women and men act differently because we have different self schemas on what it means to be each gender
○ Gender self schemas are a product of us moving through the world & our experiences in society
170
Example: Depressive schemas (multiple selfs and self-schemas)
- Depressive cognitive triad (-ve thoughts about oneself, pessimistic about future, tend to interpret experiences negatively)
- Lack of positive illusions about the world (view it more realistically)
Mood schema can influence response to stimuli in the environment (ie., faster to detect sad than happy words)
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Prototype
- Mental representation of something that we perceive as representative of a given category
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Prototype and people
- When we meet someone that appears to be a prototype of a category, we can treat them according to our template of that category (as we process them quickly as members of category)
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Social categorisation theory
- Explains universal, often unconscious process of mentally grouping people into social categories (like race, gender, or age) to simplify the social world and make quick, though often inaccurate, judgments.
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If schemas, and self schemas can change, our personalities can change SO where does the stability come from
While there is constant updating, as adults, self-schemas have taken a while to form, and in order for change to happen requires lots of information
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Strengths of cognitive model of personality
- Most of cognitive structures have been subject to extensive empirical support
- Takes the trait approach further to explain why people demonstrate similar or different personality characteristics
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Criticisms of cognitive model of personality
- Concepts are often vague (schemas? Prototype?)
- Parsimony - do we NEED cognitive concepts to account for behaviour (may be over complicated)
- Not clear YET that there is a cognitive model of personality
- Methods for assessing constructs are primarily descriptive (atheoretical)
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What is a personality disorder
- "enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range of social and personal contexts"
These enduring patterns differ from the expectations of the individuals cultural group and can cause significant personal distress and impairment in functioning
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Three core features of perosnality disorder (theodore millon)
- Functional inflexibility
- Self-defeating patterns of behaviour
Unstable functioning in the face of stress
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Who made up the concept of the correlation
Francis Galton
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Who statistically calculated the concept of correlation and created factor analysis.
Charles Spearmen
PSYC221
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