McMaster Personality 2B03

9.1 How might personality be inherited according to genetics?

- Genotypes: genetic structure
- Heritability tells us that genes matter, but we cannot tell what % it determines
- Genes provide the blueprints
- Our parents have personalities, and we inherit part of these
- More than 99% of all human genes are identical, 98% are also found in chimps
o Behavioral genetics focus on >1% of the human genome. MZ twins are effectively the same in all of these varying genes; DZ twins share about half of them
- Parents and offspring also usually share half

9.2 How do genes & environment interact?

1. Genes provide design/blueprints

2. There must be an environment for there to be behaviour

3. Environments can affect heritability
a. Ex. height and intelligence can only be reached in the proper environment

4. Social environment can affect behaviour
a. Someone who is bullied may encounter long-term personality change

5. Choice of environments (niche picking) can affect behaviour
a. Ex. someone who inherits a sensation of seeking may take dangerous drugs, which could change his personality

6. People can react differently to the same environment
b. Neuroticism comes from a series of complex transactions. Ex. poor parenting, lack of a warm environment, etc. these create a general inability to handle stress

9.3 How might personality develop according to evolutionary theory?

- Focus is on human nature and adaptation
- Diversity is necessary for adaptation
- Human nature is flexible - ex. less-developed nations have more kids and earlier

- Individual differences
1. Behavioural patterns evolved as reactions to particular environmental experiences
2. Several possible behaviour strategies evolved
3. Some behaviours may be frequency dependant

9.4 Are there differences among the genders with respect to male selection preferences?

- Evolutionary theory of sex differences predicts that men should prefer mates younger than themselves, this is true in all cultures
- Men tend to be warriors, rulers, and controls of economic resources
- Differences between men and women in mate selection are built-in through biological evolution

10.1 What are the key ideas of psychoanalysis?

1. Psychic Determinism
- All psychological events have a cause. Miracles, freewill, and random events don't exist
- Contradictions between thoughts and behaviours can be resolved
- Leads to the idea of the unconscious
2. Structure of Personality
o Freud thought the mind contained 3 parts
1. Id: basic instincts, operates on pleasure
2. Ego: the main decision maker
3. Superego: concerned with morals
3. Psychic Conflict and Comprise
- Occurs when one part of the mind is in conflict with another
- Compromise Formation: different parts of the brain have to come to a compromise
- The ego's main job. The result is conscious thought and behaviour
4. Mental Energy (libido)
- Assumption is the mind needs energy, and that it is fixed and finite
- Modern thought: information-processing capacity is limited rather than energy

10.2 What is Freud's theory of psychological/psychosexual development?

1. Oral Stage: a newborn can meaningfully interact with the environment with its mouth. Mouth is the first-place psychic energy is focused. Babies hands are not developed to use them for exploration
- Dependency: dependant on other for everything they need to live
- Passive: little they can do for themselves
o Baby may develop a basic mistrust of other people and never be able to deal adequately with others
o Baby's needs are fulfilled so instantly that it never realizes the world could respond differently
o One extreme we have independent souls who refuse help from anyone, and determined to go alone always
o The other extreme are the passive individuals who wait around forever for their ships to come in
- The baby is all id. The baby wants everything now.


2. Anal Stage: child is expected to do some things for themselves - control their emotions, follow orders, control their bowels.
- Self-control: with potty training
- Obedience: learn how much power the parents have if they test them.
o If parents have demands which the child is not capable of meeting, the result can be psychological trauma with long-lasting consequences
o Never demanding that the child control their urges can be problematic
o One extreme is someone who is so organized around control issues - they become obsessive, orderly, and subservient to authority. They try to control every aspect of their life
o The other extreme is someone who has no self-control, no time management, be disorganized, and chaotic. Need to defy authority

3. Phallic Stage: boys and girls are different and coming to terms with sex differences.
- Gender identity and sexuality
- An over or underdeveloped superego yields the adult type of the phallic character. Someone who has developed a rigid moral code and breaks no rules, who lacks a moral code, r someone who is asexual, may all be a phallic type
- Oedipal Crisis: little boys fall in love with their moms and are afraid that their dads will cut their penises off. The little boy has to come to realize that their mother is not an attainable romantic object, and that dad is not to be feared

4. Genital Stage: after puberty, a person should develop a mature attitude about sexuality and other aspects of adulthood. The organs become not just for pleasure, but for reproduction and giving life.
- Creation, enhancement of life, and maturity. Includes children, but can also include other kinds of creativity, like intellectual, artistic, etc.
- The genital character is psychologically well adjusted and balanced

10.3 What is Freud's theory of how the mind is structured?

Secondary Process Thinking
- Secondary because it is the second to develop and second important
- Rational, practical, and prudent
- How the conscious part of the ego thinks
- Develops second, is the less important role
Primary Process Thinking
- The way the unconscious mind operates
- Does not contain the idea of 'no'
- Goal is immediate gratification
Displacement: where we place one idea or image with another one, ex. feelings towards your father, might influence how we feel about other authority figures
Condensation: several ideas are compressed into one, ex. cookies and old woman on tv, get compressed to memory of grandmother
Symbolization: where one thing stands for another
- 3 are seen in very young children, during delirium and dreams, and psychotics

Level of Consciousness: topographic model
Conscious Mind
- Can observe when you turn your attention inward
- Less important, some of the ego
Preconscious
- Ideas that we are not thinking of right now, but can be brought into awareness
Unconscious
- Most important, difficult to bring to the surface
- All of the id, mostly all the superego and most of the ego

10.4 What is anxiety (According to Freud) and what are defense mechanisms?

- Anxiety can come from different paces: the outside or internal conflict
- To prevent anxiety, we deploy a defense mechanism: behaviour or thought to shield anxiety
Denial
Prevent perception of source of anxiety
"No! That's not possible!"
Repression
Prevent recall of anything that might remind one of the sources of anxiety
"I forgot"
Reaction formation
Protect against a forbidden thought or impulse by instigating the opposite
"Pornography is the biggest menace to humanity there is!"
Projection
Attribute an unwanted impulse or attribute in oneself to other people
"I'm surrounded by morons!"
Rationalization
Create a seemingly logical reason for doing something shameful
"You have to be cruel to be kind."
Intellectualization
Translate a threatening situation into cold, intellectual terms
"After a prolonged period of discomfort, the patient expired."
Displacement
Redirect forbidden impulse onto a safer target
Someone who loves fires, becomes a fire-fighter instead of an arsonist
Sublimation
Convert base impulse into a noble cause
High art, other occupational choices

10.5 Discussion: How do the different parts of your psyche (id, ego, superego) play a part in decision making?

- The three parts do not always agree with one another
- The id is driven on pleasure, which wants immediate gratification. If these needs are not met, the result is anxiety or tension
- The ego operates on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id in realistic and socially acceptable ways. It weights the costs and benefits before deciding on an action
The superego holds moral standards and ideals that are achieved from society and our parents. The superego tries to perfect and civilize our behaviour

12.1 What are the main issues of humanistic psychology? (phenomenology, existentialism, experience, bad faith, authenticity, etc.) an example and then which is it?

1. Phenomenology: the study of conscious experience. In other words, how it feels to be alive
o the center of humanity, it is all about awareness
o Construal: an individual's own experience of the world or way of interpreting reality
2. Existentialism: approach that focuses on conscious experience, free will, the meaning of life, and other basic questions of existence
3. Experience
a. Biological experience (umwelt): consists of your biological experiences. Pleasure, pain, heat, cold, bodily sensations
b. Social experience (mitwelt): what you think and feel as a social being. Experience of love, fear, or admire
c. Inner, psychological experience (eigenwelt): the experience of experience itself, consists of your psychological experiences. How you feel and think when you try to understand yourself, your mind, and your existence. Introspection: the task of observing one's own mental process
4. Bad faith: not facing your fears, rejecting responsibility, etc. As humans, we should face unpleasant experiences directly. It is your existential responsibility, and it requires existential courage
a. Optimistic Toughness: the courage to face morality and the apparent meaninglessness of life
5. Authenticity: the degree to which a person's actions are congruent with his or her beliefs and desires, despite external pressures to conformity. Courageously come to terms with the facts that you are mortal, your life is short, but you are the master of your own destiny

12.2 What is optimistic humanism?

- People have free will and are basically good: They seek to relate closely with one another, and they have an innate need to improve themselves and the world
1. Self-Actualization: the goal of existence is to maintain and enhance one's own life
2. Hierarchy of needs: basic, safety, love, esteem, self-actualization
3. Fully functioning person: clearly aware of reality and yourself. Allows you to face to world without fear, self-doubt, or neurotic defenses
o Unconditional positive regard: treated positively in an unconditional way
o Conditions of worth: limits your freedom to act and think. Not always explicitly said, ex. a child achieving a certain grade in school
4. Psychotherapy: emphasizes the development of human potential and belief that human nature is basically positive
o Goal is to help the client become a fully functioning person
o Stress importance of assuming responsibility and living in the present
o Try to increase awareness and heightened self-acceptance
§ To ensure a positive outcome, therapists must: be authentic and genuine, express unconditional positive regard, show empathic understanding
§ This will cause people to; think more realistically, become more tolerant of others, engage in more adaptive behaviours

12.3 What is self-actualization?

Self-Actualization: the goal of existence is to maintain and enhance one's own life

12.4 What are personal constructs?

- Personal Construct: bipolar mental template, consisting of something and its perceived opposite. Ex. safety vs. adventure, where safety is seen as boring
o Use these to make sense of their observations and experiences

12.5 What are the main concepts in positive psychology and the study of happiness? (virtues, mindfulness, flow, awe, happiness)

- The rebirth of humanistic psychology focuses on uniquely human capacities, the meaning of life, and overall positive phenomena
1. Virtues: character strengths. Core virtues: courage, justice, humanity (compassion), temperance, wisdom, transcendence
2. Mindfulness: a way of orienting your mind. Can help reduce stress, enhance creativity, improve memory, and free people from thoughts
3. Flow: an experience so enjoyable that time feels like it is speeding up or slowing down
§ Autotelic Activities: activities that are enjoyable for their own sake
o Tremendous concentration, total lack of distractibility, thoughts concerning only the activity at hand
o Mood is slightly elevated, time seems to pass quickly, when challenge matches skill
4. Awe: feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder
o Engaging with the world around you and noticing what is beautiful
o Some people are more prone to experience awe
o Leads to a balanced view of one's strengths and weaknesses
5. Happiness: three components of happiness
1. Overall satisfaction with life
2. Satisfaction with how things are going to particular life domains
3. High levels of positive emotion and low levels of negative emotion
o Hedonic Well-being: seeking happiness. We seek to maximize pleasure. Leads us to exclude goals (should be limited)
o Eudaimonic Well-being: seeking a meaningful life. May have unhappy times during it
Three sources of happiness
1. Individual set point: an average amount of happiness we bounce around
2. Objective life circumstances
3. Intentional activity
Consequences of Happiness
Positive Consequences of happiness
- Good health, occupational success, supportive relationships
- More confident, optimistic, likeable, sociable, and energetic
Potential dark sides of too much happiness
- Failure to recognize risky situations
- Pouring excessive energy into unproductive pursuits
- Harm to other people
- May lead to the individual's downfall, etc.

14.1 What is behaviourism and how does it relate to personality?

Behaviourism: how people's behaviour is a result of their environment. Personality is an adaption to the environment
- Habituation: a decrease in responsiveness every time we are exposed to it
- Affective forecasting: tendency to overestimate the emotional impact of events
- Classical Conditioning: learning that one stimulus is a warning or signal for another
- Learned Helplessness: someone has a belief that nothing I do matters. Giving up. Highly related to depression and neuroticism
- Operant Conditioning
o Respondent (classical / passive) vs. operant conditioning (learns to operate the world to gain some advantage / active)
o Reinforcement: increases behaviour
o Punishment: decreases behaviour
o Shaping: rewarding successive approximations (reward behaviours that are similar to the end result we want). Ex. training a dog to catch

14.2 What is social learning theory and how does it relate to personality?

- Social Learning Theory: a theory of learning process and social behavior which proposes that new behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others
- Emphasizes the interaction between personal traits and environment and their mediation by cognitive processes

14.3 What is motivation?

- Idiographic Goals: unique to the individual that are pursing them
a. Current Concerns: motivations to do things. Sit in your mind until complete
o Ex. make a healthy dinner tonight
b. Personal Projects: larger efforts put towards goals
o Ex. shopping for holidays
c. Personal Strivings: long-term goals that organize broad areas of life.
o Ex. get along with others, be a good person, etc.
- Nomothetic Goals: small number of motivations that we have. Essential motivations that everyone pursues. May bring order to idiographic goals
- Judgment Goals: look to validate an attribute. Ex. kids who sit in the front and answer every question.
- Development Goals: desire to improve yourself
- Lead to different outcomes:
o Mastery outcome: try hard after failing. Associated with development goals
o Helplessness: give up after we fail. Associated with development goals
- Entity Theories: we believe our personality qualities are unchangeable. Fixed mindset
- Incremental Theories: we believe we can change our qualities. Growth mindset
- Defensive Pessimism: they think the worst will happen and protect their emotional experience.
Primary Motivations
- McClelland's 3: need for achievement, affiliation/intimacy, and power
- Emmons's 5: self-assertion, esteem, interpersonal success, and avoidance of negative affect
- Kaiser and Ozer's 2: work and social interaction

14.4 What is emotion?

Emotion: a type of procedural knowledge; a set of mental and physical procedures
- Basic stages: appraisal, physical responses, facial expressions, nonverbal behaviour, motives
- Core emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust
- Circumplex model: model focused around aroused-unaroused vs. negative-postive
- Alexithymia: little emotional awareness. Cannot put a label on their mood
- Emotional experience
o Preference for emotions: some emotions are preferred more than others
o Affect intensity: experience emotions stronger than others. women experience this more than men. Prone to depression
o Rate of change: how much one fluctuates

14.5 What are the two cognitive theories of personality (CAPS/BEAT)?

Cognitive Theories of Personality: (CAPS)
Cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS) by Mischel: behaviour is best predicted form an understanding of the person, the situation, and the interaction
- The most important aspect of many systems of personality and cognition is their interaction
- Is rooted in Watson's S-R connection theory
If / then contingences: repertoire of actions that are triggered by particular stimulus situations. Ex. if one gets insulted, they walk away, when another might start a fight
Our personality is a pattern of behaviour Signature = patterns of if / then contingencies
- Could use if / then contingencies to replace personality traits - they are more specific
- Use to integrate trait conceptions of personality with social learning and cognitive conceptions

Cognitive Theories of Personality: (BEATS)
Beliefs, emotions, and action tendencies - Dweck
- Have 7 needs
o Basic needs: trust, control, self-esteem/status
o Emergent needs: predictability, acceptance, and competence
o 6 combine to create: self-coherence
- We have psychological needs that lead us to create goals. When trying to accomplish these goals, we develop mental representations is the form of beliefs, emotions, and action tendencies (BEATS)
- Basic motivations lead to goals; goals create BEATS

14.6 Discussion: Do you think that people who observe behaviour which is rewarded are more likely to engage in those behaviours?

- Yes, social learning theory shows that we can learn new behaviours by watching others

15.1 What is the content of the self?

William James (1890) - the self can have two meanings
1. The ME or epistemological self: an object which can be described - "I am friendly." The me also includes everything we hold dear; our body, home, loved ones, etc.
2. The I or ontological self: an object which can be describing / self-awareness
- Recent research focuses on the me
- Psychological self: our abilities and personalities
o Influences behaviour
o Organizes memories and impressions and judgments of others
o Organizes knowledge

15.2 What is the purpose of the self?

1. Self-regulation: regulate behaviour to restrain impulses and stay focused on long term goals
2. Information-processing filter: pay attention to important information
3. Help us to relate to others: empathy
4. Identity: our position in family/community. Peacemaker, troublemaker, volunteer, etc.

15.3 What are the two types of self-knowledge (declarative/procedural)?

1. Declarative Knowledge: facts stored in memory that you know
a. Self-esteem: overall opinion of good/bad
b. Everything you know about your traits and abilities
§ Ex. an introvert may know they are an introvert
2. Procedural Knowledge: cannot express through words
a. Relational self: styles of relating to others
b. Implicit self: unconscious self-knowledge
§ ex. a shy person is avoidance
o best way to change procedural knowledge is practicing and feedback

15.4 How can self-knowledge be acquired and changed?

- changing requires more than advice, lectures, or even well-meaning, conscious intentions to change
- Only way to change procedural knowledge is by doing, specifically practicing and feedback
- must have the courage to change behavior and countervail experiences that eventually generate a new behavioral style and outlook on life
- With enough practice, you might even be able to change your personality

15.5 Discussion: Are there gender differences in self-esteem?

1. Discussion: Are there gender differences in self-esteem?
- Men typically have higher self-esteem than women, especially in western cultures
- Girls self-esteem drops between age 9 - 13

17.1 What are personality disorders?

1. Unusually extreme personality attributes
o In terms of cultural context
o Denial or distortion of reality
2. Problematic
o For the person: anxiety, depression, confusion
o For others
3. Affect social relationships and interactions
4. Stable over time
o Can begin in adolescence or childhood
o Difficult to change with therapy or other means
5. Ego‐syntonic
o Symptoms are seen as normal and valued aspects of personality by the person with the disorder
o They think others are the ones with a problem

17.2 How are they diagnosed?

Old way
- Counting up the number of indicators that are present or absent and making a yes or no decision
New Way (DSM-5) Three steps
1. Assess whether or not the client's "personality functioning" is seriously impaired and, if so, rate the degree of dysfunction
2. Assess whether or not at least one of the six defined types of personality disorder is present
3. Assess the degree to which the client is characterized by each of the five maladaptive personality traits
- No sorting into a single diagnostic bin

17.3 What are the characteristics of the disorders?

1. Schizotypal Personality Disorders
- Socially isolated
- Unusual behaviours: suspicious, odd beliefs, magical thinking
- Usually think that people are always thinking about them
- Ideas of reference
- Similar to schizophrenia, but without hallucinations and delusions
- Only a small proportion of individuals with schizotypal personality disorder go on to develop schizophrenia

2. Narcissistic PD
- Think highly of themselves, and it is beyond their real ability
- Self‐importance, attention, exploitative
- Unreasonable self‐importance
- Lack sensitivity and compassion
- Envious and arrogant
- Hard to treat because it is ego-syntonic

3. Antisocial PD
- Illegal activities
- Impulsive and risky behaviors
- Irritable, aggressive, and irresponsible
- Problems caused to others do not bother them
- Associated with low economic status and urban settings
- Much more common in men

Psychopathy
- Develop these because of a biological difference
- non‐DSM‐5 ‐ The diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder are more liberal than those for psychopathy
- Similar to antisocial PD, but less emphasis on overt behaviour; indicators include superficial charm, lack of remorse
- Psychopaths rarely commit spontaneous "hot‐blooded" murders - they usually have a selfish purpose
- Psychopaths are at greatly elevated risk for criminal and antisocial behaviours, but some have few or no legal or interpersonal difficulties
- IQ might differentiate who is in criminal justice system

4. Borderline Personality Disorder
- "border" of psychosis and neurosis
- Characterized by instability in emotion
- Intense mood swings, turbulent relationships, poor self‐image, self‐injury, suicide
- Can occur at the same time as eating disorders and substance use disorders
- Dialectical behavioral therapy has been effective for treating BPD
- Are prone to "splitting" the ways they view other people in their lives
- Associated with the endogenous opioid system

5. Avoidant Personality Disorder
- Sensitive to others' opinions
- Low self‐esteem + fear of rejection = limited friendships and dependence
- Interpersonally anxious
- Part of the social anxiety spectrum (most extreme manifestation)
o Unlike SAD, APD extends to intimate relationships and familiar situations

6. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
- Not OCD
- Preoccupation with details, perfectionism ◦ Rigidity
- Poor social relationships
- Workaholics

17.4 What are some negative outcomes of labelling disorders?

- Can be misleading and limit further understanding
- Not an explanation

17.5 How is personality related to mental health?

- Improving mental health requires an understanding of normal and adaptive personality, not just mental illness and personality disorders