Psychology and Impact Personality Development

1. Define personality. 2. Analyze how biological, situational and mental processes impact personality development. 3. Discuss social and cultural contributions to personality development. 4. Describe the major dispositional theories of personality. 5. Describe the major process theories of personality. 6. Evaluate the major personality theories. 7. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of commonly used personality assessment techniques, validity, reliability. Define personality. Personality Is a unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel and behave * Is shaped by biological, situational, and mental processes in a sociocultural and development context * Impacts people’s cognition, motivation and behaviour Analyze how biological, situational and mental processes impact personality development. Biological * A person’s temperament results from 4 humours (ancient theory) * Blood from heart – sanguine cheerful * Choler from liver- choleric angry * Mel ancholer from spleen – melancholy depressed * Phlegm from brain- phlegmatic sluggish Frontal lobes regulates one’s basic disposition * Individual differences in temperament arise from balance of neurotransmitters * Adrenal gland, thyroid gland, pituitary gland and endocrine gland affect personality. * Kagan’s research on inherited basis of shyness on new borns * Excitable and inhibited infants became shy and introverted * Less excitable and bold infants became extraverted * â€Å"push of nature in different directions† Situational * Environment affects us through operant and classical conditioning * (1) Physical Environment It includes the influence of climatic conditions of a particular area or country on man and his living. * (2) Social Environment * The child has his birth in the society. He learns and lives there. Hence, the social environment has an important say in the personality development of the child. * E. g. one would play with an outgoing chi ld more than an inhibited one pushes inhibited child towards shyness * (3) Family Environment * Child comes in contact with his parents and other family member. His likes, dislikes, stereotypes about people, expectancies of security and emotional responses all are shaped in early childhood. The type of training and early childhood experiences play an important role in the development of personality. * Besides this, economic factors i. e. , economic condition of the family and the type of relations between the parents also influence the personality of the child. * (4) Cultural Environment * Individualism in westerners vs collectivism in Africa caused by environment * Striking difference in the universal trait of shyness caused by how each culture dealt with the child’s success and failures. Who gets credit for good grades, gets blamed for not getting them? Childcautious, low risk taker * (5) School Environment * In the school, the teacher substitutes the parents. * The school poses new problems to be solved, new taboos to be accepted into the superego and new models for imitation and identification Mental Processes * 3 kinds of process theories: * Psychodynamic/ psychoanalysis- * motivation, especially unconscious motives and the influence of past experiences on out mental health * Humanistic- consciousness and our present, subjective reality: what we think is ipt now and how we think of ourselves in relation to others * Cognitive- * Influence of learning, perception and social interaction on behaviour Describe the major dispositional theories of personality. Dispositional theories suggest temperaments, traits or types (set of personality characteristics) provide consistency to individual’s personality over time. Temperament * Biologically based personality dispositions * Apparent in early childhood, Establish foundation of personality & individual’s approach to life * Inherited temperament may set the range of your response to some life si tuation but it does not fully determine your life experiences * Affected also by family position, experiences, and sense of self * Usually refers to dominant long standing themes eg shyness/moodiness * Role of frontal lobes in regulating one’s basic disposition * Individual differences in temperament arise from balance of neurotransmitters * Influenced by learning * Heredity and environment interact with initially inherited characteristics becoming amplified * E. . one would play with an outgoing child more than an inhibited one pushes inhibited child towards shyness * E. g. observational learning Traits * Emerge from temperaments and influenced by experiences * Guides thoughts and actions under various conditions * Relatively stable * BIG 5 Traits * Openness to experience, Conscientious, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism * Has validity across cultures (but most of these studies utilized university students as respondents who are more influenced by European-American vi ews * Quite accurate Labels a person but gives no explanation on why Evaluation of Trait Theories XPortrayed personality as fixed and static rather than a process that can undergo development changes depending on experiences Xoversimplified our complex nature XDo not tell much about their source or how traits interacts X SELF-FULFILLING prophecy where ppl become influenced by the labels and it became hard for them to change the undesirable behaviour. E. g. a child labelled shy will have to struggle w both the label and the traits * Gives us ability to predict behaviour Assessing traits * Using: * MMPI-2 for clinical traits base on mental problems * Not possible to fake due to lie scales * Must be used w care in non-Western countries/ minorities cos not well represented in the samples used in developing the test * NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI) base on big 5 * Both have excellent reliability (consistent and stable scores) * Both have good validity (measure what they were designed to measure eg signs of mental disturbance) * Barnum effects: tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate * descriptions can well apply to others * reliability and validity are important attributes of good psychological tests * Finding personality type * Category that represents a common cluster of personality characteristics * MBTI – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator * Not reliable, not valid * Ppl don’t fall into different types but more along the introversion-extraversion continuum Describe the major process theories of personality.While each of the process theories sees different forces at work in personality, all portray personality as a result of internal mental processes and social interactions. Psychodynamic theories 1. Sigmund Freud psychodynamic approach * focus is on influence of unconscious forces (psychic determinism) difficult to prove * Personality is a function of 3 main themes: unconscious forces, childhood experiences, sex * Not scientific, hindsight bias ( overemphasis on childhood ), unconscious mind is not that malign and turbulent * Structure of personality Id * Unconscious reservoir * contains basic motives, drives and instinctive desires * pushes for immediate gratification * Ego * Governed by reality principle * Decision making component * Mediator btw Id and reality * Superego * Governed by morality and social standards (conscience) * An individual’s view of the kind of person he or she should strive to become * Psychosexual stages * Ego defence mechanism- largely unconscious mental strategy employed to reduce the experience of conflict or anxiety * Denial – I don’t have a problem Rationalization- I cheat because everyone does it – give socially accepted reasons for actions one think is socially unacceptable * Reaction formulation – goodie goodie act in opposite of their desire- act exactly in opposition to their unconscious desires * Displacement- kick the dog- shifting your reaction from real source of distress to a safer individual or object * Regression- cry, throw things to reduce stress- regress to earlier developmental stage * Sublimation- channel negative to positive eg sexual desires to creativity on art * Projection- attribute own unconscious desires/fears to others * Led to projective testing 2. Adler Struggle with sexual and hostile impulses not primary factor in personality development * Primary struggle: overcome inferiority feelings, develop superiority feelings in social relationships (later seen as unhealthy due to overcompensation) * Outgrow childhood inferiority, become competent adult * All born with positive motive, social interest * People’s lives governed by their goals 3. Karen Horney * Freud overemphasized sexual conflicts, penis envy, and criticized his views of women * When basic anxiety gets out of control, people become neurotic (basic desires taken to extreme eg nee d for a partner) * Ways people deal with basic anxiety: * Move towards others, against others, away from others 4. Other Neo-Freudian Theorists: * Accepted notions of psychic determinism and unconscious motivation * Did not agree on sex and death instinct or the indelible nature of early life experiences. Put greater emphasis on ego functions (ego defence,dev of self instead of on unconsciousness) * Gave social variables an impt role (culture, family instead of instinctive urges, unconscious conflicts) * Extended personality development to include lifespan (instead of only childhood) Projective testing: Diagnosis via a defense mechanism * Ambiguous pictures to probe people’s innermost feelings, motive, conflicts, and desires * E. g. Rorschach Inkblot Technique- not objective * E. g. Thematic Apperception Test(TAT)- ambiguous picture n tell story * Theme: aggression, sexual needs, rs Humanistic Perspective Main Theoretical tenants: 1) Humans have an innate drive for personal g rowth ) Humans have free will; not controlled by the environment 3) Humans are conscious and rational; not controlled by unconscious forces 4) One’s subjective view is more important than objective reality * Abraham Maslow ‘s needs hierarchy * Interested in healthy human psychology * Criticisms: Not testable, Unrealistic, Method, Culture-specific * Carl Rogers’ Person-Centred Theory * Believed that humans have one basic motive, that is the tendency to self-actualize * To achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence. * Difference may exist between a person’s ideal self and actual experience. This is called incongruence. Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists. * The larger the discrepancies between the two, the more psychological problems one experiences * Development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. * As we prefer to see ourselves i n ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may use defence mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel less threatened by some of what we consider to be our undesirable feelings. * Evaluation: * Self centered picture of personality, looking through the lens of individualistic culture * But even in collectivism, self exists * Self-esteem, a cause or effect? Bullies and drug users actually have high self esteem * Emphasis on positive achievements and pro-social behaviours * Fails to recognize its function in a world filled with evil of all kinds Social Cognitive theories: Social Learning * Cognitive learning which new responses are acquired after watching others’ behaviour and the consequences of that behaviour * Expectation of gaining reward drives us to acquire that response * We reject or accept the role model base on consequences of their actions * Reciprocal determinism is the process which cognitions, behaviour and the environment mutually influence each other * Jane likes vb (cognition), spends more time playing on campus (env) and interacting w teammates (social behaviour) rewardingthis activity will reciprocally strengthen your interest in vb. Locus of control Rotter’s theory: our behaviour depends on our locus of control * Changes from situation to situation * Internal locus of control * Good student, smart and have good grades internal in academic settings * External locus of control * Overweight and come from a family w obesity external in restaurants. Evaluation * Overemphasize rational information processing and overlook both emotion and unconscious processes * Strength lies in foundation of solid psychological research able to come up with treatments for mental disorders that often seem to involve observational learning esp anxiety- based disorders (phobias and behaviour disorders in children) Behavioural Operant and Classical conditioning ) In classical, the organism learns an association between two stimuli (the N S and UCS); in operant, the organism learns an association between the behaviour and its consequences 2) In classical, the behaviour is elicited by the stimulus (not voluntary, like a reflex); in operant, the behaviour is emitted (under the control of the organism) * Pavlov’s classical conditioning * Chrissy’s sleepover case * B. F Skinner’s Operant conditioning * Positive reinforcement & Negative reinforcement (remove negative stimuli) strengthens response, * Punishment (give unpleasant stimuli) weakens response * Behaviour is determined by situations one is in (situationism) * People behave in ways to suit their situations Behaviours cannot be consistent enough to be traits because situations change * Solution: behaviours influenced by both person and situation (person X situation interactionism) * One situation influences people in different ways Theories to understand ourselves 1. Implicit personality theories a. Assumptions about personality used to simplif y the task of understanding others, eg. Blondes are not smart b. May give bad predictions when one project his feelings onto others and assume he’s feeling the same way c. Mindset 2. Self-narratives d. Help ppl sense a thread of consistency through their personalities over time e. Redemptive self: where one overcome obstacles to help others 3. Both theories are influenced by culture Psychology and Impact Personality Development 1. Define personality. 2. Analyze how biological, situational and mental processes impact personality development. 3. Discuss social and cultural contributions to personality development. 4. Describe the major dispositional theories of personality. 5. Describe the major process theories of personality. 6. Evaluate the major personality theories. 7. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of commonly used personality assessment techniques, validity, reliability. Define personality. Personality Is a unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel and behave * Is shaped by biological, situational, and mental processes in a sociocultural and development context * Impacts people’s cognition, motivation and behaviour Analyze how biological, situational and mental processes impact personality development. Biological * A person’s temperament results from 4 humours (ancient theory) * Blood from heart – sanguine cheerful * Choler from liver- choleric angry * Mel ancholer from spleen – melancholy depressed * Phlegm from brain- phlegmatic sluggish Frontal lobes regulates one’s basic disposition * Individual differences in temperament arise from balance of neurotransmitters * Adrenal gland, thyroid gland, pituitary gland and endocrine gland affect personality. * Kagan’s research on inherited basis of shyness on new borns * Excitable and inhibited infants became shy and introverted * Less excitable and bold infants became extraverted * â€Å"push of nature in different directions† Situational * Environment affects us through operant and classical conditioning * (1) Physical Environment It includes the influence of climatic conditions of a particular area or country on man and his living. * (2) Social Environment * The child has his birth in the society. He learns and lives there. Hence, the social environment has an important say in the personality development of the child. * E. g. one would play with an outgoing chi ld more than an inhibited one pushes inhibited child towards shyness * (3) Family Environment * Child comes in contact with his parents and other family member. His likes, dislikes, stereotypes about people, expectancies of security and emotional responses all are shaped in early childhood. The type of training and early childhood experiences play an important role in the development of personality. * Besides this, economic factors i. e. , economic condition of the family and the type of relations between the parents also influence the personality of the child. * (4) Cultural Environment * Individualism in westerners vs collectivism in Africa caused by environment * Striking difference in the universal trait of shyness caused by how each culture dealt with the child’s success and failures. Who gets credit for good grades, gets blamed for not getting them? Childcautious, low risk taker * (5) School Environment * In the school, the teacher substitutes the parents. * The school poses new problems to be solved, new taboos to be accepted into the superego and new models for imitation and identification Mental Processes * 3 kinds of process theories: * Psychodynamic/ psychoanalysis- * motivation, especially unconscious motives and the influence of past experiences on out mental health * Humanistic- consciousness and our present, subjective reality: what we think is ipt now and how we think of ourselves in relation to others * Cognitive- * Influence of learning, perception and social interaction on behaviour Describe the major dispositional theories of personality. Dispositional theories suggest temperaments, traits or types (set of personality characteristics) provide consistency to individual’s personality over time. Temperament * Biologically based personality dispositions * Apparent in early childhood, Establish foundation of personality & individual’s approach to life * Inherited temperament may set the range of your response to some life si tuation but it does not fully determine your life experiences * Affected also by family position, experiences, and sense of self * Usually refers to dominant long standing themes eg shyness/moodiness * Role of frontal lobes in regulating one’s basic disposition * Individual differences in temperament arise from balance of neurotransmitters * Influenced by learning * Heredity and environment interact with initially inherited characteristics becoming amplified * E. . one would play with an outgoing child more than an inhibited one pushes inhibited child towards shyness * E. g. observational learning Traits * Emerge from temperaments and influenced by experiences * Guides thoughts and actions under various conditions * Relatively stable * BIG 5 Traits * Openness to experience, Conscientious, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism * Has validity across cultures (but most of these studies utilized university students as respondents who are more influenced by European-American vi ews * Quite accurate Labels a person but gives no explanation on why Evaluation of Trait Theories XPortrayed personality as fixed and static rather than a process that can undergo development changes depending on experiences Xoversimplified our complex nature XDo not tell much about their source or how traits interacts X SELF-FULFILLING prophecy where ppl become influenced by the labels and it became hard for them to change the undesirable behaviour. E. g. a child labelled shy will have to struggle w both the label and the traits * Gives us ability to predict behaviour Assessing traits * Using: * MMPI-2 for clinical traits base on mental problems * Not possible to fake due to lie scales * Must be used w care in non-Western countries/ minorities cos not well represented in the samples used in developing the test * NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI) base on big 5 * Both have excellent reliability (consistent and stable scores) * Both have good validity (measure what they were designed to measure eg signs of mental disturbance) * Barnum effects: tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate * descriptions can well apply to others * reliability and validity are important attributes of good psychological tests * Finding personality type * Category that represents a common cluster of personality characteristics * MBTI – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator * Not reliable, not valid * Ppl don’t fall into different types but more along the introversion-extraversion continuum Describe the major process theories of personality.While each of the process theories sees different forces at work in personality, all portray personality as a result of internal mental processes and social interactions. Psychodynamic theories 1. Sigmund Freud psychodynamic approach * focus is on influence of unconscious forces (psychic determinism) difficult to prove * Personality is a function of 3 main themes: unconscious forces, childhood experiences, sex * Not scientific, hindsight bias ( overemphasis on childhood ), unconscious mind is not that malign and turbulent * Structure of personality Id * Unconscious reservoir * contains basic motives, drives and instinctive desires * pushes for immediate gratification * Ego * Governed by reality principle * Decision making component * Mediator btw Id and reality * Superego * Governed by morality and social standards (conscience) * An individual’s view of the kind of person he or she should strive to become * Psychosexual stages * Ego defence mechanism- largely unconscious mental strategy employed to reduce the experience of conflict or anxiety * Denial – I don’t have a problem Rationalization- I cheat because everyone does it – give socially accepted reasons for actions one think is socially unacceptable * Reaction formulation – goodie goodie act in opposite of their desire- act exactly in opposition to their unconscious desires * Displacement- kick the dog- shifting your reaction from real source of distress to a safer individual or object * Regression- cry, throw things to reduce stress- regress to earlier developmental stage * Sublimation- channel negative to positive eg sexual desires to creativity on art * Projection- attribute own unconscious desires/fears to others * Led to projective testing 2. Adler Struggle with sexual and hostile impulses not primary factor in personality development * Primary struggle: overcome inferiority feelings, develop superiority feelings in social relationships (later seen as unhealthy due to overcompensation) * Outgrow childhood inferiority, become competent adult * All born with positive motive, social interest * People’s lives governed by their goals 3. Karen Horney * Freud overemphasized sexual conflicts, penis envy, and criticized his views of women * When basic anxiety gets out of control, people become neurotic (basic desires taken to extreme eg nee d for a partner) * Ways people deal with basic anxiety: * Move towards others, against others, away from others 4. Other Neo-Freudian Theorists: * Accepted notions of psychic determinism and unconscious motivation * Did not agree on sex and death instinct or the indelible nature of early life experiences. Put greater emphasis on ego functions (ego defence,dev of self instead of on unconsciousness) * Gave social variables an impt role (culture, family instead of instinctive urges, unconscious conflicts) * Extended personality development to include lifespan (instead of only childhood) Projective testing: Diagnosis via a defense mechanism * Ambiguous pictures to probe people’s innermost feelings, motive, conflicts, and desires * E. g. Rorschach Inkblot Technique- not objective * E. g. Thematic Apperception Test(TAT)- ambiguous picture n tell story * Theme: aggression, sexual needs, rs Humanistic Perspective Main Theoretical tenants: 1) Humans have an innate drive for personal g rowth ) Humans have free will; not controlled by the environment 3) Humans are conscious and rational; not controlled by unconscious forces 4) One’s subjective view is more important than objective reality * Abraham Maslow ‘s needs hierarchy * Interested in healthy human psychology * Criticisms: Not testable, Unrealistic, Method, Culture-specific * Carl Rogers’ Person-Centred Theory * Believed that humans have one basic motive, that is the tendency to self-actualize * To achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence. * Difference may exist between a person’s ideal self and actual experience. This is called incongruence. Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists. * The larger the discrepancies between the two, the more psychological problems one experiences * Development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. * As we prefer to see ourselves i n ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may use defence mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel less threatened by some of what we consider to be our undesirable feelings. * Evaluation: * Self centered picture of personality, looking through the lens of individualistic culture * But even in collectivism, self exists * Self-esteem, a cause or effect? Bullies and drug users actually have high self esteem * Emphasis on positive achievements and pro-social behaviours * Fails to recognize its function in a world filled with evil of all kinds Social Cognitive theories: Social Learning * Cognitive learning which new responses are acquired after watching others’ behaviour and the consequences of that behaviour * Expectation of gaining reward drives us to acquire that response * We reject or accept the role model base on consequences of their actions * Reciprocal determinism is the process which cognitions, behaviour and the environment mutually influence each other * Jane likes vb (cognition), spends more time playing on campus (env) and interacting w teammates (social behaviour) rewardingthis activity will reciprocally strengthen your interest in vb. Locus of control Rotter’s theory: our behaviour depends on our locus of control * Changes from situation to situation * Internal locus of control * Good student, smart and have good grades internal in academic settings * External locus of control * Overweight and come from a family w obesity external in restaurants. Evaluation * Overemphasize rational information processing and overlook both emotion and unconscious processes * Strength lies in foundation of solid psychological research able to come up with treatments for mental disorders that often seem to involve observational learning esp anxiety- based disorders (phobias and behaviour disorders in children) Behavioural Operant and Classical conditioning ) In classical, the organism learns an association between two stimuli (the N S and UCS); in operant, the organism learns an association between the behaviour and its consequences 2) In classical, the behaviour is elicited by the stimulus (not voluntary, like a reflex); in operant, the behaviour is emitted (under the control of the organism) * Pavlov’s classical conditioning * Chrissy’s sleepover case * B. F Skinner’s Operant conditioning * Positive reinforcement & Negative reinforcement (remove negative stimuli) strengthens response, * Punishment (give unpleasant stimuli) weakens response * Behaviour is determined by situations one is in (situationism) * People behave in ways to suit their situations Behaviours cannot be consistent enough to be traits because situations change * Solution: behaviours influenced by both person and situation (person X situation interactionism) * One situation influences people in different ways Theories to understand ourselves 1. Implicit personality theories a. Assumptions about personality used to simplif y the task of understanding others, eg. Blondes are not smart b. May give bad predictions when one project his feelings onto others and assume he’s feeling the same way c. Mindset 2. Self-narratives d. Help ppl sense a thread of consistency through their personalities over time e. Redemptive self: where one overcome obstacles to help others 3. Both theories are influenced by culture