CHAP 1 Theoretical models in personality

Theoretical models in personality

Three theoretical models of what determines individual behavior.

• Internalist,

• Situationist,

• Interactionist.

Internalist (or organismic) model

• consistency

• Individual behavior is determined by personal variables (active organism).

• Behavior demonstrates consistency across different situations and temporal stability (organizied & configured by different components)

• the final structure is not merely the sum of its constituent parts.

Aim of the study of Internalist (or organismic) model

• To analyze the person as an integrated whole.

• To explore the subjective (or not directly observable) aspects of personality

Methodology Internalist (or organismic) model

• Clinical or correlational methodology is used.

• Measures of personal variables on which behaviour depends are valid predictors of behaviour.

Theories related to Internalist (or organismic) model

• PROCESS THEORIES

• STRUCTURAL THEORIES

• PROCESS THEORIES

They consider that the personal variables that determine behaviour and enable its prediction are of a “dynamic nature”, such as affective and/or cognitive states and mechanisms, existing in the individual.

• Approach linked to clinical practice.

• Responding to problems observed in patients.

Psychologists who approached to PROCESS THEORIES

• Freud's psychoanalytic theory

• Rogers' phenomenological theory

• Kelly's theory of personal constructs

STRUCTURAL THEORIES

• considers personal variables to be "structural in nature”, referring to them as stable behavioural traits or dispositions, whose peculiar organisation and structuring shapes an individual's personality.

• Traits: relatively stable and enduring dispositions that exert pervasive effects on behavior.

• Thus, behavior is stable and consistent.

Psychologists who approach to STRUCTURAL THEORIES

• Cattell's 16-factor model of personality

• Eysenck: Three-factor model or PEN model (Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism)

• Costa and McCrae: Big Five Factor Model (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to experience) 

Situationist (or mechanistic) Model

• It proposes that the causes that initiate and guide behavior lie outside of it, making behaviour more reactive than active “in contrast to the previous model”.

• Inconsistency, behavior learned/reactive

Important in itself in Situationist (or mechanistic) Model

• A product of learning.

• Personality and behavior are similar.

• Personality: A repertoire of behaviors that a person possesses and exhibits

How Situationist (or mechanistic) Model emphasises behaviour?

• Behavior = SITUATIONAL VARIABLES

Methodology used in Situationist (or mechanistic) Model

Experimental

Psychologists who approached to Situationist (or mechanistic) Model

• Skinner

• Watson

• Bowers

Bowers

• behavioral inconsistency

• Individual differences occur due internal dispositions

• experimental method is more appropriate method

Interactionist (or dialectical) Model

• Interaction between personal characters & situational variables

• Cognitive/emotional factors, perceived situation key

• Both methods are used (Clinical/correlational & Experimental)