Personality and Individual Differences

2nd year module - BSc Psychology, University of Nottingham

How many different definitions of personality did Allport (1937) identify before creating his own?

49

Most common definition of personality in most textbooks

The set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organised and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and adaptions to, the intrapsychic, physical and social environments

5 different domains of study of personality

1. Psychodynamic/intra-psychic

2. Cognitive-social learning

3. Humanistic-existential

4. Biological and evolutionary

5. Dispositional trait

Psychodynamic or intra-psychic domain

Argues for internal mental processes that influence how we interact with our environment

Cognitive-social learning domain

How our cognitive and social processes influence and reinforce who we are

Humanistic-existential domain

How people aspire to be the best version of themselves

Dispositional trait domain

Narrowing focus to core traits that define personality which are fundamental to the human condition

3 levels of personality analysis (Kluckhohn and Murray, 1948)

1. Human nature

2. Individual and group differences

3. Individual uniqueness

Intrapsychic

A focus on fundamental internal human instincts or needs that shape individuals’ thoughts, emotions and behaviours, sometimes outside of conscious awareness

What was Sigmund Freud heavily influenced by in his creation of the psychoanalytic approach?

His reading of natural selection

What does the psychoanalytic approach argue the development of personality is based on?

How a person resolves the conflicts between their innate instincts and living in a regulated civilised society

How can personality be viewed from a lens of studying motives?

Differences between people in the strength and intensity of fundamental human needs

What did Murray (1938) argue about human needs?

Each person has a unique hierarchy of needs and this influences their perception of situations and behaviours

What are the human needs that have received the most attention from researchers?

Achievement, power, affiliation and autonomy

What is human personality due to, according to the cognitive approach?

Differences between personal histories of reinforcement and we all interact with the world differently

What did Bandura (2001) argue that individuals’ behaviour is determined by?

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy

The extent to which people believe they can exercise control over events in their lives

How is self efficacy enhanced?

Mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion

Mastery experiences

Successful past experiences

Hierarchy of needs (in order)

Physiological needs, safety needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs, self-actualisation needs

What shapes human behaviour according to Maslow (1971)?

Deprivation of needs - when self-actualisation needs are met, all humans will express the same characteristics

What did Buss (1991) suggest that personality is?

An adaptive mechanism to promote survival and reproduction (deterministic view)

Buss (1991) core adaptive personality dimensions (5)

1. Surgency/extraversion

2. Agreeableness

3. Emotional stability

4. Conscientiousness

5. Openness to experience

Personality trait definition (Larsen et al, 2017)

The set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organised, relatively enduring and influence their interactions with, and adaptions to, the intrapsychic, physical and social environment

Properties of a personality trait (6)

1. Temporal stability

2. Cross-situational consistency

3. Internal (biological) basis attributed to within the person

4. Predictive validity

5. Minimal overlap of characteristics within traits

6. Inter-individual differences

5 ways to evaluate the biological underpinning of traits

1. Physiological substrate - personality related to different brain regions

2. Hereditary or genetic contribution - should see similarities within families

3. Similar traits in non-humans (especially primates)

4. Cross-cultural evidence

5. Temporal stability

Descriptive summaries view of causality of personality traits

The trait describes an expressed behaviour, but no attributions of the cause are made

Structure of personality traits (in order)

Domains → facets → behaviours

4 key questions in trait approach to personality

1. How many personality traits are there?

2. How are personality traits structured and organised?

3. What are the origins of personality traits?

4. What are the correlations and consequences of personality traits on human behaviour?

What did Mischel (1968) conclude about behavioural consistencies within personality traits?

They were not robustly observed e.g. for trait of honesty, correlation was very low - cheating on an exam did not correlate to cheating in basketball, for example

What did Mischel (1968) claim personality psychologists should focus on?

Situationism - explaining behaviour in terms of situational differences

How can interactionism be expressed? (Shoda et al, 1994)

In terms of ‘if, then’ statements - B = f(P x S) - considers interaction of personality and situation

Three methods of self-report questionnaire development

1. Lexical - traits expressed in natural language

2. Statistical - factor analysis to identify clusters

3. Theoretical - a priori theory on most important traits

Issues with self-report questionnaires (3)

1. Carelesness when answering questions

2. Faking or concerns of desirability

3. Barnum statements that apply to everyone