PSYCH 1XX3 - Personality

5 main approaches to study personality

• Psychoanalytical

• Behavioural

• Cognitive

• Trait

• Biological

3 parts of the mind

• the id

• the ego

• the superego

The id

• Is unconscious and focused on pleasure 

• The instinctive part of the mind

• Wants to satisfy desire for food, sleep, and sex + avoid pain

• No sense of right and wrong, not patient

• Is in the unconscious mind but we feed its desires and influences consciously 

• Exists from birth, earliest part of the mind to develop

• The primitive and unconscious part of the psyche, operating on the pleasure principle and seeking immediate gratification.

  • Present from birth

  • composed of sexual/life energy (libido) and aggressive energy (thanatos)

  • Driven by libido: the energy related to instinctual drives, especially those related to pleasure, focused on preserving life. It is associated with sexual urges and all other constructive human activity. about the preservation of life

  • Thanatos: the energy related to and destructive tendencies, energy that motivates aggression and risky behaviours

The superego

• Unconscious and focused on morality

• All about morality

• Our conscious and encompasses values learned from parents and society

• Cares that you do the right thing

• Exists in the unconscious mind, small part is conscious (allows us to list what is good and evil)

• Not present from birth

  • Develops in formative years (develops around age 4)

• Begins to develop at 4

• The moral and ethical component of the mind, internalizing societal norms and values.

• represents the moral standards of society, which are taught to us by our parents and others

• tries to ensure that we always act according to our morals—resisting the Id’s impulses. 

• is partially conscious

The ego

• Conscious and mindful of reality

• Balances id and superego

  • Find compromise between the id and the super ego

• In both the conscious and unconscious mind

• Most accessible to consciousness

• Determines what we actually do

• Directs us to behaviour that give pleasure over long term than short term

• The rational part of the mind, mediating the demands of the Id, Superego, and external reality. 

  • responsible for employing defense mechanisms.

  • first develops when an individual is a toddler 

  • is concerned with seeking pleasure

  •  restricts the Id’s impulses and ensures that the individual does not receive punishment or social scorn in their pursuit of pleasure. 

  • Both conscious and unconscious

Freudian slips

reveal unconscious desires and conflicts

Psychoanalytic - Dreams

reveal unconscious desires and conflicts

• Have manifest content (what they are literally about)

• Have latent content (hidden meaning)

Defense mechanism

automatic mental strategies that function to relieve us of anxiety by distracting us from stressors or by disguising their true nature

Denial

• Rejecting the facts of a situation 

• ego reduces psychological anxiety by insisting it’s not happening

Repression

Prevents information from being consciously processed

Rationalization

• Uses logic to justify behaviour 

• Allow the Id to take over, and rationalize it

• Logical train of thought follows a decision to do something

Projection

Labels others as having your own unconscious views

Sublimation

• Involves finding outlets for unconscious impulses

  • Find a socially acceptable outlet for desires of the id otherwise problematic 

• Labelled as a mature defense mechanism

Behavioural approach

• Focuses on observable behaviours

• Focuses on how personalities develop and change (believe we are born with no particular personality type, who we become depends on what the environment teaches us)

• Investigate how contingency patterns shape our personality

• Learning shapes our personality

• Rewards and punishments cause long lasting changes to personality

Cognitive Approach

• 4 main components

  • We observe actions of others, model the behaviour (following positive reinforcement) → cognition shapes final actions (wight pros and cons)

  • Observation, reinforcement, modelling, cognition

The trait approach

• personality is the combo and interaction of various traits

  • Affixes labels to particular dimensions of psychological variance and qualifying degrees to which people express specific traits

• The Big Five

trait

a personality characteristic that is consistent, stable, and that varies from person to person

The Big Five

OCEAN

• Openness

  • Openness to experience -- encompasses level of creativity and adventure

  • High openness = embrace new experiences, inquisitive, pursue new creative endeavours

  • Low openness = favour tradition, routine, and find change difficult

• Conscientiousness

  • Level of thoughtfulness and diligent

  • High = high self control, create concrete plans, goal oriented, near and organized → outlive low score counterparts

  • Low = live in the moment, casual, unschedule, unrestricted

• Extroversion

  • Enthusiasm and sociability

  • Level of sociability, assertiveness, excitement seeking

  • High = outgoing, energized by company, talkative

  • Low (introvert) = reserved, introspectuive, enjoy alone time

• Agreeableness

  • Compassion and politeness

  • Ability to put others’ needs above their own

  • High = compassite, polite, wellliked, trusting and helpful

  • low= antagonistic, competitive, secretive, suspicious

• Neuroticism

  • Volatility and withdrawal

  • Level of emotional stability and resilience

  • High = not desirable; experience psychological distress; hypersensitive, anxious, self conscious, insecure

  • Low = relaxes, self assured, stable

• Your position on each traits continuum relative to same age peers, stays consistent as you age

• Values of big 5 traits follow characteristic lifetime patterns of change

  • Children higher levels of extroversion

  • Conscientiousness starts low in childhood, dips lower in early teen years, climbs consistently with age

The biological approach

Considers neuroanatomy, genetics and evolutionary theory. How brain structures, neurotransmitter levels, genes contribute to personality, and personalities evolutionary origin

• brain regions

• neurotransmitters

more active amygdala personality

• The amygdala

  • especially active in shy and pessimistic individuals

The frontal lobe lateralization personality

• The frontal lobe

  • Neuroticism and stability are related to lateralization in the frontal lobe

  • High levels of left frontal lobe activity = emotional stability and optimism, anger

  • High levels of right brain activity = neurotic

dopamine impact on personality

• More dopamine = more extraversion and openness

serotonin impact on personality

• High serotonin = high conscientiousness and agreeableness, low neuroticism

Heritability of personality

• the degree to which genetic differences correlate with variation in traits

most heritable trait

Openness

least heritable trait

Agreeableness

Self report measures pros and cons

• Are extremely common

• Asking questions about yourself 

• Cheap and easy to administer, fun

• Reasonably accurate 

• Are not perfect 

  • Purpose behind the questions may be obvious

  • People want to present themselves favourably → social desirability bias may lead to skewed self assessment

  • You may be unaware of your own personality traits (eg. narcissists)

Behavioural measures pros and cons

The Myers-Briggs test pros and cons

• Very widely used

• Low reliability and validity

  • Binaries are too restrictive

  • Questions are not comprehensive

MMPI (multiphasic minnesota personality inventory)

• Highly accurate

• Most widely used clinical assessment of personality

• Self resort tool, has only true and false questions

• Questions not specifically written to probe at particular aspects of personality

• Questions used to see if someone is lying or being inconsistent 

3 criteria of personality traits

• Consistency (behaviour/attitude needs to be a part of all parts of life)

• Stability (stable over adult life, in childhood personality is developing)

• Individual differences 

Personality

characteristic set of behavioural, emotional and cognitive ways that people display over time and across situations ; the study of people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, along with the mechanisms behind those patterns

the psychological triad

• The trio of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that form the core components of personality

The preconscious

• Information that is not currently in awareness but can easily be brought to awareness. The Ego and Superego partially reside in the preconscious.

  • where facts, memories, and emotions that are not actively engaged by our conscious mind—but still easily accessible for recall—reside

Reaction Formation

Anxiety-producing thoughts and impulses are replaced with their opposite.

Intellectualization

Anxiety-producing and threatening situations are translated into intellectual terms devoid of emotion.

Displacement

forbidden impulses are re-directed to a safer target

Humanistic approach

• approach to the study of personality that emphasizes personal growth, self-actualization, and the inherent goodness of individuals.

Maslows hierarchy of needs

• Physiological needs: The lowest tier, representing basic requirements for survival, such as food, water, and shelter/warmth

• Safety needs: second lowest tier representing shelter, health, and security

• Belongingness and love: The need for social connections, relationships, and a sense of belonging,

  • represents the human desire for interpersonal connections → love, friendship, trust, and a sense of belonging. 

  • Sometimes can override the need for safety. 

• Esteem needs: The desire for recognition, self-respect, and achievement, higher in the tier

• Self actualization: The pursuit of personal growth, fulfillment, and the realization of one's potential, according to the Humanistic approach.

  • the pinnacle/a person's potential

Experiment with infant albert

• aimed condition fear in him, at baseline showed no fear to any of the animals presented. Was later repeatedly shown a white rat and played with it and then he scared him with a loud noise

  • began to associate the white rat with the noise and show fear to the white rat even when no noise was made → generalized this response and showed fear to white rabbits and other fluffy and white objects 

• Behavioural, believed people were born with no particular personality

Self-efficacy

An individual's belief in their capability to accomplish specific tasks and goals.

reciprocal determinism

the way that our personal factors (including cognition), environmental factors, and behaviours all influence each other

Cattells 16 personality factors

identified 16 dimensions that he believed could adequately describe one’s personality. For each dimension, people can be ranked along a continuum

Eysenck's personality factors

believed that personality could be described using introversion/extroversion and neuroticism/stability. → combination gives rise to your individual personality

Easy temperament

• A temperament characterized by adaptability, regularity in biological functions, and a generally positive mood.

  • can adapt to new situations and are typically in a good mood.

  • easily find ways to soothe themselves when they are in a negative mood. 

  • When upset, uncomfortable, or hungry, babies with an easy temperament react mildly. 

  • have a consistent sleep/wake cycle. 

  • 40% of babies

Slow-to-warm up temperament

• A temperament characterized by initial hesitancy and cautiousness in new situations.

  • withdraw from new individuals or experiences and are often perceived as shy

  • often become overstimulated

  • adapt to new situations gradually

  • carefully watch what is going on around them. 

  • 10% of babies.

Difficult temperament

A temperament characterized by intense emotional reactions, irregular biological functions, and a generally negative mood.

• Incredibly fussy

• When uncomfortable or hungry, they cry loudly and intensely. 

• incredibly difficult to soothe and may not respond well to being held or rocked. 

• light sleepers and are constantly physically active. → These babies are usually unpredictable, without consistent sleep patterns or feeding schedules.

• 15% of babies. (35% of babies cannot be easily categorized into these three temperaments and are “uncategorized”.)

• THEIR DEVELOPMENT

  • babies with difficult temperaments were at a greater risk of being socially anxious as a teenager → this was not found when these individuals had secure bonds with their parents