Chapter 12: Personality and Individual Differences

lecture & textbook

personality

person’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, emotions and behaviour

personality traits

differences among individuals in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, that are stable over a variety of situations and a fairly long period of time

psychological concepts not considered to be personality traits

skills, abilities, motives and goals

lexical approach

first step used to find a small set of personality traits that can provide a complete description of the key aspects of our personalities

factor analysis

statistical technique that places specific personality traits into a small number of general categories, depending on how the traits correlate with one another

source traits/factors

small set of basic, underlying traits

surface traits

specific traits that correlate with one another

major difference between big-5 and HEXACO

hexaco has 6 factors and includes honesty/humility

which personality factor is most likely to change following therapy?

emotionality/neuroticism

which personality factor is most likely to change following therapy?

emotionality/neuroticism

which personality factor is associated with antisocial behaviour and criminality?

honesty/humility

what is in the big 5?

openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism/emotionality (OCEAN)

what is in the HEXACO model?

openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extroversion, emotionality/neuroticism, honesty/humility

personality inventories

measure personality traits and factors

typical features of personality inventories

standardized questionnaires, likert scales, self-report/other report inventories

MMPI-2

(Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2nd edition)

used to measure problematic personality traits that are relevant to clinical psychology and psychiatry on 10 clinical scales

MMPI-2 compared to big 5/HEXACO

narrower range of traits, questions are chosen differently

norms (MMPI-2)

individual’s scores are compared to normative group

clinically significant (MMPI-2)

score on clinical scale is statistically much higher than most other scores in the normative group; may need clinical attention

personality disorders

• an enduring pattern of emotions, thoughts, behaviour, and interpersonal functioning that deviates from cultural norms and expectations

• causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other areas of functioning

difference between personality disorders and traits

disorders deviate from cultural norms and expectations and cause clinically significant distress

what do clinicians document to assess personality disorders

interview to determine personality disorder symptoms described in the DSM-5

who makes decisions about personality disorders?

psychiatrists or psychologists

what does it mean to say that personality disorders are categorical diagnoses?

you’re either diagnosed or are not

cluster A personality disorders

odd/eccentric behaviour e.g. paranoid PD

cluster B personality disorders

dramatic, emotional, or erratic behaviour e.g. borderline PD

cluster C personality disorders

anxious/fearful behaviour e.g. obsessive compulsive PD

what personality trait does job performance correlate with?

high conscientiousness

what personality trait does happiness and well-being correlate with?

high extraversion

what personality trait does longevity correlate with?

high conscientiousness

what personality traits does relationship satisfaction correlate with?

low emotionality, high agreeableness, high conscientiousness

validity (personality)

degree to which a personality inventory measures the traits it was designed to assess

twin study evidence

identical twins have more similar personalities than fraternal, supporting that genes contribute to similarities and differences in our personality traits

natural selection

traits that helped our ancestors to survive and reproduce would be more likely to be passed to later generations through inherited genes

why is there no such thing as good/bad personality traits?

adaptive trade-offs

levels of awareness

conscious, preconscious, unconscious

id

• generates unconscious, innate drives

• seeks pleasure and wants to avoid pain

• eros and libido

• drives of id demand immediate gratification - impulsive and irrational

• ex. baby cries when hungry, no practical consideration

eros

id drive that operates according to pleasure principle; life instinct because seeking pleasure aids survival (hunger, thirst, reproduction)

superego

operates according to moral principles that come from internalized values

what 2 emotions does the superego influence behaviour through?

• guilt (when you violate your morals)

• pride (when you act according to your morals)

ego

moral principles of superego often conflict with id’s immediate gratification demands, so the ego mediates the conflicts between the two

3 concepts of the ego

• follows the reality principle (delays gratification of id due to practical concerns)

• must satisfy life instincts of the id (find appropriate way to gratify urges of id because they represent life instincts)

• must minimize guilt from superego (must strike balance)

ego defense mechanisms

employed to manage conflict between id and superego

moral anxiety

desires of id conflict with moral standards of superego

neurotic anxiety

results when ego cannot gratify id drives due to reality principle

how do ego defense mechanisms manage anxiety?

• distort, deny, or block reality to lessen anxiety

• self-deception

defense mechanisms

denial, displacement, rationalization, sublimation, reaction formation, projection

denial

refusing to believe reality that makes you anxious

e.g. ignore evidence of romantic partner cheating

displacement

shifting unacceptable urges to less threatening person/object

e.g. yelling at spouse after bad work day

rationalization

reasonable explanation to hide unacceptable feelings/motives

e.g. disguise sexual attraction by saying “we’re just friends”

sublimation

channel unacceptable urges into socially acceptable activites

e.g. channel anger into sports

reaction formation

changing unacceptable desires into their opposites

e.g. being mean to someone you’re attracted to

projection

disguising unacceptable impulses by attributing them to others

e.g. think your friends bf dislikes you, when you dislike him

psychosexual development of personality

stages that are developmental periods in which different areas of the body called erogenous zones are primary sources of id drives

oral stage

• birth - 18 months

• primary id drive: eating/breast feeding

anal stage

• 18 months - 3 yrs

• primary id drive: elimination of waste (toilet training)

phallic stage

• 3 - 6 yrs

• primary id drive: boys “sexual” desire

example of conflicts in anal stage

child’s id wants to go to the bathroom anywhere to satisfy id, but must delay gratification with ego

castration anxiety (phallic stage)

fear of punishment from father for desiring mother

identification (phallic stage)

ego defense mechanism; form alliance with powerful father

internalizing father’s moral values (phallic stage)

enables development of superego

oedipus complex

intrapsychic conflict children experience at phallic stage

frustration (psychosexual development)

unresolved conflict due to parents preventing child’s gratification of id in harsh way

overindulgence (psychosexual stages)

parents make little to no effort to restrain/delay child’s id

fixation

occurs when there’s unresolved conflict in one of the psychosexual stages of development

what personality type can fixation lead to?

anal-retentive personality - stubborn, cheap, orderly, controlling

projective measures

require respondents to describe ambiguous stimuli like inkblot from Rorschach test

theoretical approach to projective measures

projection of unconscious thoughts/desires, way to get around defensiveness

thematic apperception test

type of projective measure that uses storytelling procedure

why is psychoanalytic theory difficult to evaluate empirically and scientifically?

no testable predictions; not that specific

situational determinants

external conditions that strongly influence behaviour e.g. traffic lights and funerals

behavioural perspective on personality

personality differences being due to how learning influences behaviour in different situations e.g. operant conditioning

social learing theory: cognitive behaviourism

personality isn’t just due to our history of reinforcement and punishment in a situation, but how we interpret the situation

psychological situation (social learning theory)

how the person defines/interprets a situation

reinforcement value (social learning theory)

subjective value that reinforcement has for a particular person

reciprocal determinism (bandura)

personality traits affect the situations we get ourselves into and how we react to them, which influences learning that shapes our personality

3 ways personality traits can influence peoples’ experiences in situations

• people with different personalities may choose to get involved in different situations

• personalities affect how we are treated by others

• personalities affect how we interpret and react to events

situational testing

used to assess personality from behavioural/social learning perspective - observing behaviour in simulations

humanistic perspective on personality

reject idea that personalities are determined by unconscious forces

free will (humanism)

we can decide what kind of people we want to be

self-actualization (humanism)

use free will to self-actualize and choose meaningful goals to achieve personal growth

subjective experiences (humanism)

emphasizes self-perceptions

carl roger’s self theory

personality is the product of one’s self-concept

3 aspects of self (carl roger’s)

• self-image - who you think you are

• ideal self - who you want to be

• true self - who you truly are

incongruence (carl rogers)

discrepancy between self-image and true or ideal self

congruence (carl rogers)

3 aspects of self are aligned

development of congruence (carl rogers)

• unconditional positive regard from parents

• organismic valuing

• self-actualizing

development of incongruence (carl rogers)

• conditional positive regard from parents

• decreases positive self-regard

• conditions of worth

what methods do humanist psychologists use to assess personality?

• case studies and qualitative interviews

• life stories reveal subjective details

• standardized personality inventories or other report questionaries miss what makes someone unique

temperament

general pattern of attention, arousal, and mood evident from birth

self-concept

subjective appraisal including ideas/feelings about who you are

personality theory

system of concepts, assumptions, ideas, principles to understand and explain personality

psychoanalytic theory

freudian theory of personality that emphasizes unconscious forces and conflicts

psyche

mind, mental life, whole personality

libido (id)

pleasure oriented force that energizes personality

eros (id)

life instincts

thanatos (id)

death instinct, or today, impulse towards aggression

unconscious

beyond awareness, especially impulses and desires

conscious

mental contents a person is aware of

preconscious

between unconscious and conscious, info that can be voluntarily recalled