Psychology Chapter 2: Self and Personality

Personality

The relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize a person, along with the psychological processes behind those characteristics

How does the idea of self emerge in a child?

A newly born has no idea of self and is developed with age. Parents, teachers, friends and others play key roles in the development of self.

What is the basis of self?

Interactions with other people and the meaning we give to them.

The structure of it is modifiable in light of own experiences and experiences with other people.

Personal identity

One's sense of being a unique individual that make a person different from others

Social identity

Refers to those aspects of a person that link them to their culture or society or are derived from it.

Self

Totality of an individual's conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts and feelings with regard to themselves.

Dual nature of self

i) Self can be defined both as a subject and an object.

ii) The subject is the knower, it engages in the process of knowing itself

iii) The object is the known, it gets observed and comes to be known.

Formation of Self

It is formed as a result of one's interactions with our physical and socio cultural environment.

Biological self

i) One's physical being; it refers to everything related to the body or the biological processes

ii) It is in the context of the socio-cultural environment and so modifies itself

Personal self

It is the orientation in which one is primarily concerned with oneself

eg- personal freedom, comfort, etc.

Social self

It emerges as a relation to others and emphasizes aspects of life such as cooperation, unity, sharing, etc.

It values family and social relationships and hence is also referred to as the familial or relational self.

Cognitive Aspects of Self

i) Self concept

ii) Self esteem

Behavioural Factors of self

i) Self efficacy

ii) Self regulation

Self-concept

i) It is how one perceives themselves and what ideas they hold about their competencies and attributes.

ii) it can be positive or negative

iii) The most frequent way of inquiry used is to ask the person about themselves

Self-esteem

i) How much one values themselves; a value judgment and can be high or low

ii) By the age of 7, children develop self-esteem in four areas

a) academic competence

b) social competence

c) physical or athletic competence

d) physical appearance

iii) It has a strong relation to everyday behavior. Children with low self-esteem often combat anxiety and depression and increase antisocial behavior. Warm and positive parenting helps counter this as opposed to parents who help even when it's not required.

Self-efficacy

i) One's belief in their own ability and control over their life.

ii) It is based on Bandura's social learning theory. (children and adults learn behavior due to imitation and their expectations of the result would also determine the behavior they would engage in)

ii) A strong sense of efficacy allows people to select influence and even build up the circumstances of their own life.

iii) Parents, positive experiences help develop a strong sense of efficacy.

Self-regulation

i) The ability to organize and monitor one's own behavior.

resistance to external and situational pressures is only possible through willpower.

ii) Delaying or deferring the gratification of needs which is called self-control

iii) Vrata and Roza are Indian examples to help build up self-control

Psychological techniques of self control

i) Observation of our own behavior provides us with the necessary information that may be changed or modified.

ii) Self-instruction, we instruct ourselves on what to do and behave that way

iii) Self-reinforcement we reinforce good behavior.

Western view of self

i) Clear boundaries and dichotomy between self and others, man and nature, subjective and objective

ii) Self and Group exist as two different entities

iii) Characterised as individualistic

Indian view of self

i) No clear boundaries or dichotomies between Self and Other

ii) Self and Group remain in harmonious co existence

iii) Characterised as collectivistic

Characteristics of Personality

i) Physical and Psychological Components

ii) Expression in terms of behaviour is fairly unique in a given individual

iii) Main features do not change with time

iv) Dynamic in the sense that some of its features may change due to internal or external situational demands; thus personality is adaptive to situations.

Temperament

Biologically based characteristic ways of reacting.

Trait

Stable, persistent and specific way of behaving.

Disposition

Tendency of a person to react to a given situation in a particular way.

Character

The overall pattern of regularly occurring behaviour.

Habit

Overlearned modes of behaviour

Values

Goals and ideals that are considered important and worthwhile to achieve

Type Approach

Attempts to comprehend human personality by examining certain broad patterns in observed behavioral characteristics of individuals.

Hippocrates' Typology of Personality

Based on Fluid or Humor; classified people into four types- Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholic and Choleric.

Indian Typology of Personality

India's Charak Samhita, a treatise on Ayurveda classifies people on the basis of Vata, Pitta and Kapha on basis of three humoural elements called Tridosha, which refer to the temperament (prakriti, basic nature) of a person.

Typology of personality based on Trigunas:

All three gunas are present in each and every person in different degrees. Dominance of one may lead to a particular kind of behaviour.

i) Sattva Guna: Attributes like cleanliness, truthfulness, dutifulness, detachment, discipline, etc.

ii) Rajas Guna: Intensive activity, desire for sense gratification, dissatisfaction, envy, etc.

iii) Tamas Guna: Anger, arrogance, depression, laziness, etc.

Sheldon's Typology

On the basis of body build and temperament, Sheldon classified people into:

i) Endomorphic: Fat, soft and round, relaxed and sociable.

ii) Mesomorphic: Strong Musculature, rectangular with Strong body build.

iii) Ectomorphic: Thin, long and fragile, brainy, artistic and introverted.

Jung's Typology

i) Introverts: People who prefer being alone, tend to avoid others, withdraw themselves in the face of emotional conflict and are shy.

ii) Extraverts: Sociable, outgoing, drawn to occupations that allow dealing directly with people, react to stress by trying to lose themselves among people and social activity.

Friedman and Rosenman's Classification

Type-A Personality: Possess high motivation, lack patience, feel short of time, always burdened with work. Such people find it difficult to slow down and relax. More susceptible to problems like hypertension and coronary heart disease (CHD)

Type-B Personality: Absence of Type- A traits; Lack of motivation, patient, unburdened and can slow down and relax.

Type- C Personality (Suggested by Morris): Cooperative, unassertive and patient; prone to cancer

Type- D Personality: Proneness to Depression.

Trait Approaches

Mainly concerned with the description or characterization of basic components of personality; "building blocks" of personality; Attempt to identify primary traits of people.

Trait

Relatively enduring attribute or quality on the basis of which individuals differ. They include a range of possible behaviours that are activated according to the demands of the situation.

Nature of traits

i) Traits are relatively stable over time

ii) Traits are generally consistent across situations

iii) Their strengths and combinations vary across individuals, leading to individual differences in personality.

Allport's Trait Theory

i) Gordon Allport (Pioneer of trait approach)

ii) Proposed that individuals possess a number of traits which are dynamic in nature.

iii) Determine behaviour in a manner where an individual approaches different situations with similar plans.

iv) The traits integrate stimuli and responses which otherwise look dissimilar.

v) Allport argued that the words people use to describe themselves and others provide a basis for understanding human personality.

vi) Allprt considered traits to be intervening variables that occur b/w stimulus situation and response of the person, meaning any variation in traits would elicit different response from same situation.

Allport's Characteristics of Traits

i) Cardinal Traits: Highly generalized dispositions; goal around which a person's entire life seems to revolve.

ii) Central Traits: Less pervasive in effect but still quite generalized dispositions; Often used in writing a testimonial or job recommendation.

iii) Secondary Traits: Least generalized characteristics of a person (eg. liking mangoes, prefers ethnic clothing)

Cattell's Personality Factors

i) Raymond Cattell believed that there is common structure on which people differ.

ii) This structure could be determined empirically

iii) He tried to identify primary traits from huge array of descriptive adjectives found in language

iv) Applied statistical technique called factor analysis to discover common structures.

v) Found 16 primary or source traits

vi) Described source traits in terms of opposing tendencies

Source Traits

Stable, building blocks of personality

Surface Traits

Result of Interaction of source traits

Test developed by Cattell

Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)

Eysenck's Theory

Proposed by H.J. Eysenck, states that personality can be reduced to two broad dimensions- biological and genetic.

Neuroticism vs. Emotional Stability

Degree to which people have control over their feeling.

Traits of Neurotic People

Anxious, moody, touchy, restless and lose control quickly.

Traits of Emotionally Stable People

Calm, even tempered, reliable, remain under control.

Extraversion vs. Introversion

Degree to which people are socially outgoing or socially withdrawn.

Traits of Extraversion

Active, gregarious, impulsive and thrill seeking.

Traits of Introversion

Passiveness, quietness, caution and reserved.

Psychoticism vs. Sociability

Interacts with other two dimensions

Traits of Psychoticism