Personality Week 1

Orientation to Personality

Personality Psychology

Characteristics of the person that description and explain consistent patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving. (Has many aspects and definitions)

Person (from personality psychology definition)

Intraindividual (internal) vs. situational (external) causes. Power of the situation: crying at a funeral or success on an easy exam.

Describe (from personality psychology definition)

classify, measure the “what”

Explain (from personality psychology definition)

account for the “how” and the “why”

Consistent Patterns (from personality psychology definition)

Recurring regularities vs. one-shot feelings, thoughts, or behaviors. Consistency in responses to different but functionally similar events and situations.

Feeling (from personality psychology definition)

Affect, emotions, and motivations

Thinking (from personality psychology definition)

Cognition, beliefs, and expectations

Behaving (from personality psychology definition)

Action and doing

Frequent Behavior Change

May not be indicative of personality, sometimes it is, and coherence in the pattern of change may be another key component of personality

Predicting and Understanding Behavior

Identifying consistent, stable individual differences is important, because it makes it possible to both describe people and try to predict their future behavior.

Personality Should

Show continuity, stability, and coherence. Be expressed in many ways. Be organized (disorganization is a sign of disturbance). Influence how the individual relates to the social world. Link with physical and biological characteristics.

Early “Big Picture” Theory

Hippocrates philosophized about basic human temperaments. Aristotle postulated the brain to be the seat of the rational mind. In 1900’s Freud founded a controversial comprehensive theory of personality.

Trait-Dispositional Level

Tries to identify consistencies in the basic expressions of personality, conceptualized as stable personality characteristics.

Trait-Dispositional Level Examples

What am I like as a person? How do I differ from others? When/how is my behavior influenced by the situation?

Biological Level

Explores the biological bases of personality, including the role of heredity, the brain, and evolution.

Biological Level Examples

What in my personality comes from nature vs. nurture? Can my experiences change my biology? Why is my personality so dislike/alike to my siblings?

Psychodynamic-Motivational Level

Probes the motivations, conflicts, and defenses - often unconscious - that may underlie diverse aspects of personality

Psychodynamic-Motivational Level Examples

Does what I do sometimes puzzle me? How can I explain irrational fears and anxieties? How much of what I do is unconscious?

Behavioral Conditioning Level

Analyzes specific behavior patterns that characterize individuals, and identifies the conditions that regulate their occurrence.

Behavioral Conditioning Level Examples

How is what a person does linked to what happens to them when they do it? How are important behavior patterns learned?

Phenomenological-Humanistic Level

Focuses on the inner experiences of the person and their way of seeing and interpreting the world.

Phenomenological-Humanistic Level Examples

Who am I really? Who do I want to become? How do I see my parents? What do I feel about myself when I don’t meet my parents’ expectations?

Social Cognitive Level

Focuses on the distinctive patterns of thoughts, expectations, beliefs, goals, values, emotional reactions, and self-regulatory efforts characterizing the person.

Social Cognitive Level Examples

How does what I know, thing and feel about myself influence what I do and becomes? How much of who and what I am and do is “automatic”? How much is open to “willpower” and self-regulation?

Levels Analysis

The different aspects that go into a personality

Integration of Levels

Each level provide concepts and strategies for seeking information about people and for constructively changing maladaptive behavior. Increasingly comprehensive view of the person is emerging that incorporates each level of analysis.