9 - intro to psych - personality

what are two types of individual difference

personality

intelligence

what are individual differences

the distinct variations among people in terms of their cognitive abilities, personality traits, motivation, emotional responses, and learning styles.

how is studying individual differences important in education

Tailored Teaching

Assessment Design

Student Support

Promotes Equity

what is personality according to allport

the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics behaviour and thought

what are the 2 ways of studying personality

the idiographic approach - studying unique individuals

the nomothetic approach - focusoing on dimensions of traites that people share

what are the 5 approaches to studying personality

•Psychodynamics

•Behaviourism

•Social cognitive theory

•Humanistic

•Traits and psychometric theories

how is personality explained by the psychodynamic approach

freud believes that personaility is in 3 parts the Id (impluses) superego (morality) and the ego (decision making )

the unconsious instincts drive childhood experiences

personality is formed and stable by 5yo

personaility is based on how id and superego balance

what are the limitations of the psychodynamic approach

lack of academic rigor

lack of empirical evidence - unfalsifiable

how is personality explained by behaviourism

personality is formed by interaction between individual and environment

conditioning and punishment

what are limitations of the behaviourist approch to personality

•Focus on observable behaviour alone - lack ecological validity

•Mediational processes missing

how is personality explained by social cognitive theory

self system that observes a behviour then evaluates and then regulates

highlights the mental processes

what are limitations of social cognitive theory

•Assumes environmental changes MUST result in changes to an individual

•Theory is slightly ‘fuzzy’ on the balance between person/behaviour/environment

•disregards biological and hormonal predispositions

•Does not consider emotion or motivation in the moment

how is personality explained by the huministic approach

free will and ability to chooce behvaiour and personality

want to reach self actualisation - maslows hierarchy of needs

comes from wanting to acvhive our full potental - genuinness of environment , acceptance and empathy

what are the strengths and limitations of the humanistic approach

rich data collected

holistic

however

•Untestable concepts

•Ethnocentric

which approch of personality is most conetmpory

traits and psychometric theory

how is personality explained by the traits and psychometric theory

assume behaviour is determined by relatively stable traits which are fundamental units of one’s personality

introversion/extroversion as a key trait

traits come from biology (genetics) and experience (life history)

what is a trait

an internal psychological disposition that remains largely unchanged throughout the lifespan and determines differences between individuals

what are types in relation to personality

a group of traits that occur together in some individuals

what are limitations of the traits and psychometric theory

questioned - do people really not change over time

interpratation of anaysis can be subjective

what is the myers-briggs type indicator

a type of personality testing basedon 4 fundamental dimensions of individal difference

Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I)

Sensing (S) – intuition (N)
Thinking (T) – Feeling (F)
Judging (J) – Perceiving (P)

what is the 5 factor model

openness to experience

conscientiousness- thoughful , goal driven

extraversion - socialbility

agreeableness - cooprative, trustworthy

neuroticism - tendency towards unstable emotions

what are the limitaions of the myers briggs test

Based on Jungian psychology- no experimental testing

creators had no formal training in psychology

Questions are all binary yes/no answers and categorise people as one or other on the traits

Low predictive validity

Low repeat validity

limitaions of the big 5 personality indicator

•Relatively good at predicting patterns of behaviour – not individual instances

•Limited in explanatory scope (56% of personality variation, Boyle et al., 1995) – ignores many other facets of personality

•Static structure was statistically rather than theoretically driven

•Still culturally bound