Personality Psychology Notes

Personality Psychology

What is Personality?

  • Definition: A person’s relatively consistent pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
  • Characteristics: Long-lasting patterns in behavior and thought.
  • Key Questions in Research:
    • What are the basic ways in which individuals differ?
    • How does personality develop over time?
    • How do biology and experience shape personality?

Psychoanalytic Perspective (Sigmund Freud)

  • Sigmund Freud, MD: A physician who proposed that personality is determined by unconscious drives affecting our behavior.
  • Main Contributions:
    • Concept of the unconscious mind.
    • Psychosexual stages of development.
    • Defense mechanisms used to alleviate anxiety.

Personality Structure

  • Three Components:

    • Id: Completely unconscious; focuses on basic needs and desires (Pleasure Principle).
    • Ego: Mostly conscious; balances the desires of the id with the demands of the superego (Reality Principle).
    • Superego: Unconscious and partially conscious; represents moral standards and ideals learned from society and parents.

  • Role Descriptions:

    • Id: Driven by pleasure; primary goal to seek satisfaction and avoid discomfort.
    • Superego: Operates as our conscience, judging actions against moral values.
    • Ego: Mediates conflicts between id and superego, making socially appropriate choices.

Defense Mechanisms

  • Definition: Mental processes to reduce anxiety by manipulating, denying, or distorting reality, operating unconsciously.
  • Examples:
    • Denial: Refusing to acknowledge uncomfortable truths (e.g., an addict unaware of their addiction).
    • Rationalization: Making excuses for behaviors (e.g., blaming others for job loss).
    • Reaction Formation: Transforming an impulse into its opposite (e.g., overconfidence masking inadequacy).
    • Projection: Attributing personal feelings to others (e.g., believing a partner is unhappy due to one's own feelings).

Personality Development (Freud’s Stages)

  • Oral Stage (0-18 months): Focus on oral stimulation; fixation leads to dependency issues.
  • Anal Stage (18-36 months): Control over potty training; fixation can result in a perfectionistic or disorganized personality.
  • Phallic Stage (3-6 years): Exploration of genital organs; development of the superego and issues like Oedipus complex.
  • Latency Stage (6-11 years): Sexual impulses are subdued; focus is on social and academic achievements.
  • Genital Stage (12 years and older): Maturity in sexual relationships; shapes adult personality.

Criticisms of Freud

  • Overemphasis on parental influence and gender identity.
  • Concepts are often seen as sexist.
  • Ideas such as penis envy are untestable.
  • Nonetheless, credit given to:
    • Existence of unconscious thought.
    • Importance of early development on personality.
    • Influence of cognitive processes on behavior.

Trait Theories

  • Gordon Allport: Defined personality as a continuum of traits rather than fixed types.
  • Lexical Hypothesis: Important human behavioral differences are encoded in language; Allport identified ~18,000 trait words.
  • Five Broad Trait Categories:
    • Big Five Model (OCEAN):
    • Openness: Creativity and openness to experiences.
    • Conscientiousness: Organization and dependability.
    • Extraversion: Sociability and assertiveness.
    • Agreeableness: Compassion towards others.
    • Neuroticism: Stability of emotions.
  • The Big Five is stable over time and predicts significant life outcomes (e.g., academic success, relationship quality).

Self-Esteem

  • Definition: A person’s appraisal of their overall worth.
  • Sociometer Theory: Self-esteem reflects perceived social value; correlates with feelings of inclusion/exclusion.
    • High self-esteem: Linked to willingness to connect.
    • Low self-esteem: Associated with self-protection and reluctance to rely on others.

Behavioral Genetics

  • Heritability: Variation in traits attributed to genetics vs. environment.
  • Twin Studies:
    • Identical Twins (MZ): 100% genetic similarity.
    • Fraternal Twins (DZ): 50% genetic similarity.
  • Adoption Studies: Show adoptees align more with biological parents than adoptive ones.
  • Heritability of Personality Traits
    • Openness: 0.43
    • Conscientiousness: 0.40
    • Extraversion: 0.52
    • Agreeableness: 0.49
    • Neuroticism: 0.51

Gene-Environment Interactions

  • Gene-Environment Correlations: Genetic similarities lead to similar environments, affecting personality development.
  • Gene-Environment Interactions: The impact of genes can change depending on environmental contexts.

Personality Neuroscience

  • E.g., the RAS system influencing levels of stimulation and determining introversion vs. extraversion.

Person-Situation Debate

  • Situationism: Highlights that behavior can be more a result of situational context rather than fixed personality traits.
  • IF-THEN Relationships: Behavior may change based on environmental cues.

Measuring Personality

  • Self-Report: Easy to collect, but subjective biases and memory distortions can occur.
  • Informant-Report: Gathering observations from people familiar with the individual can offset some biases, yet also has limitations.
  • SOKA Model: Identifies when self-ratings or informant ratings are more accurate based on trait characteristics.
  • Observation: Direct behavior observation in natural settings, though interpreting behaviors can be complex.
  • Biographical/Archival Data: Useful for real-world outcomes, but often imprecise due to the complexity of events.