Chapter_12.Part2

Chapter 12: Personality

Introduction

  • Defines personality as the individual’s consistent pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

  • Discusses measurement through various approaches in psychology.

Chapter Outline

  • Personality: What It Is and How It Is Measured

  • The Trait Approach: Identifying Patterns of Behaviour

  • The Psychodynamic Approach: Forces That Lie Beneath Awareness

  • The Humanistic–Existential Approach: Personality as Choice

  • The Social–Cognitive Approach: Personalities in Situations

  • The Self: Personality in the Mirror

The Psychodynamic Approach: Forces That Lie Beneath Awareness

  • Introduced by Sigmund Freud.

  • Key Concepts:

    • Personality is formed by unconscious needs, desires, and motives.

    • These hidden elements can lead to emotional disorders.

    • The mind includes unknown memories, instincts, and an internal struggle for control over these forces.

The Structure of the Mind: Id, Ego, and Superego

  • Three Systems:

    • Id: Instinctual drives, operates on the pleasure principle.

    • Ego: Mediator that operates on the reality principle, balancing the demands of the id and the superego.

    • Superego: Represents internalized societal standards and moral judgments.

Conflict and Defense Mechanisms

  • Anxiety arises from conflicts among the id, ego, and superego.

  • Defense Mechanisms:

    • Repression: Pushing distressing thoughts to the unconscious.

    • Rationalization: Justifying behaviors with reasonable explanations.

    • Reaction Formation: Converting unwanted impulses into their opposites.

    • Projection: Attributing one’s unacceptable thoughts to others.

    • Regression: Reverting to older behaviors when stressed.

    • Displacement: Redirecting emotions to a safer target.

    • Identification: Adopting traits from others for coping.

    • Sublimation: Channeling unacceptable drives into socially acceptable activities.

The Humanistic–Existential Approach: Personality as Choice

  • Focus on healthy choices contributing to personality development.

  • Humanistic Psychologists:

    • Emphasize positive growth and potential.

  • Existentialists:

    • View individuals as responsible creators of their lives, negotiating meaning in the face of death.

Human Needs and Self-Actualization

  • Self-Actualizing Tendency: Motivated realization of personal potential.

  • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Sequential levels of needs leading to self-actualization.

  • Environmental effects influence individual personality differences.

Growing Up in a Distressed Neighborhood

  • Research indicates harsher life outcomes (education, health) for individuals from disadvantaged neighborhoods compared to wealthier ones.

Flow Experience

  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept:

    • Engagement in tasks aligned with capabilities results in an optimal state of focus called "flow".

  • Described the balance between boredom and anxiety experienced during challenges.

Personality as Existence

  • Existential Approach:

    • Personality shaped by choices in the context of life and death realities.

  • Concept of Angst: Anxiety related to existence and responsibility for choices.

The Social–Cognitive Approach: Personalities in Situations

  • Personality understood through interaction with situations encountered:

    • Key Factors: Perception of environment, behavior response.

    • Approaches combined from social psychology, cognitive psychology, and learning theory.

Consistency of Personality Across Situations

  • Person–Situation Controversy: Is behavior more driven by personality traits or situational contexts?

  • Walter Mischel’s Argument:

    • Personality traits may not reliably predict behavior across different situations.

    • Situational factors and personality insights influence behavior prediction.

Personal Constructs

  • Personal Constructs: Dimensions used by individuals to interpret experiences.

  • Different perspectives lead to variations in personality based on responses to situations.

Personal Goals and Expectancies Lead to a Characteristic Style of Behaviour

  • Personal goals influence behavior through outcome expectancies: assumptions about future behavior consequences.

  • Locus of Control (Julian Rotter):

    • The perception of control over rewards can be internal (self-driven) or external (environment-driven).

Social Influence on Personality

  • Personality and behavior are susceptible to changes depending on social contexts.

  • Interactions may result in subtle shifts aligned with perceived similarities or social affiliations.

The Self: Personality in the Mirror

  • Self-recognition begins around 18 months.

  • Recognizing self in mirrors aids reflexive thinking and helps form personal ideas about identity.

Self-Concept

  • Self-Concept: Individual awareness of traits and characteristics.

    • “Me” represents the known self; “I” is the experiencing self influencing behavior.

Self-Concept Organization

  • Self-Narratives: Stories that form the basis of self-concept.

  • Self-Schemas: Traits that individuals identify as defining aspects of themselves.

  • Personal traits used in self-judgment typically stick in memory.

Self-Concept in the Brain

  • Brain areas are implicated in self-referential processing.

Self-Concept Organization Challenges

  • Self-narratives may not always align with behavior, reflecting inconsistencies in self-representation.

Causes and Effects of Self-Concept

  • Constructed through relationships, feedback shapes one's self-concept.

  • Stability in self-concept fosters consistent behavior across situations.

  • Self-Verification: Seeking confirmation of one’s self-concept.

Self-Esteem (part 1)

  • Self-Esteem: An individual’s subjective evaluation of their worth.

  • Measured through questionnaires evaluating self-perception.

  • Sources include feedback from significant others and self-comparisons.

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

  • Measures self-esteem based on individual agreement with comprehensive statements.

Self-Esteem (part 2)

  • Desire for a positive self-image may be driven by various factors:

    • High social status, evolutionary advantages, security, and a drive to perceive oneself as above average.

  • Self-Serving Bias and Narcissism: Tendencies that affect self-perception.

Implicit Egotism

  • Implicit Egotism: Unconscious preference for aspects related to the self (e.g., name preference).

  • The Name-Letter Effect: Individuals prefer letters that match the first letter of their name, influencing preferences in cities, streets, and jobs.