PSYCHOLOGY NOTES

Personality is: 

The psychology of personality deals with how and why people differ 

• Personality is a socially and culturally constructed concept: 

• E.g., American and Asian conception of self is different: 

• American: brought up to be independent, define themselves in terms of personal attributes, abilities, accomplishments, possessions 

• Asian: brought up interdependent, don’t stand out from crowd, define themselves in terms of groups they belong to, be modest about achievements, don’t put others down 

• Personality refers to the enduring patterns of: 

•  Thought 

• Feeling  

• Motivation 

• Behaviour 

That are expressed in different circumstances 

• Culture may also influence the expression of personality and what personality traits are valued 

• Western cultures are more individualistic. People who live in individualistic cultures tend to believe independence, competition and personal achievement are important 

• Individuals who live in countries in Asia, Africa and South America score high on collectivism. People who live in collectivist cultures value social harmony, respectfulness, and group needs over individual needs. 

Different conceptions of personality: 

Psychodynamic: 

• Approaches that take account of the unconscious mind 

Psychoanalytical Theory: Sigmund Freud 

Freud’s theories largely based on influence of the unconscious component of the human mind and the notion that humans are driven by sexuality 

Concept 1: The human psyche (mind) comprises 3 levels – conscious (ego), preconscious and unconscious (ID) 

• Unconscious (ID): 

• Makes up 75% of personality. The underlying urges, feelings and ideas tied to anxiety conflict and pain. Influences actions and conscious awareness. E.g., traumatic memories 

• Considered to be self-protector of the psyche, repressing all information that could cause psychological distress if it were to move to the conscious mind 

• Freud suggested that the ego’s defences are lowered in dreams so some repressed materials come through to awareness. The psych disguises true nature of distress/confronting material in dreams and presents it in a more acceptable and less confronting way 

• Preconscious: 

• Medium 15% 

• Memory store 

• Things stored here can be readily brought into consciousness 

• Conscious (Ego): 

• Small 10% 

• Part of mind that holds what you’re currently aware of 

Concept 2: The psyche/personality (totality of human mind, conscious and unconscious) is made up of 3 parts: 

• The ID: 

• Present from birth, acts according to the pleasure principle 

• No consideration of reality 

• Self-serving, irrational 

• ID is brought into line through socialisation and development oof ego and superego. Where id is the prominent component, dominant personality characteristics can be impulsiveness, selfish, reckless, disorganised and often lacking morals 

• In children, that is often displayed in aggressive behaviours, inability to reason with peers 

• The Ego: 

• Develops at 3 yrs of age 

• Operates on reality principle, mediator between demands of the ID and morals of the superego 

• Understands others have needs 

• Component of personality considered as ‘true self’ 

• The Superego: 

• Develops at age 5 

• Works in contradiction to the ID, strives to act in a socially appropriate manner (moral standards that dictate right and wrong) 

• Punished by guilty feelings when moral standards not met 

• If Super-ego is dominant component, results in personality characteristics such as: being very strict, controlling, rigid, and often neurotic.  

• Dominance of super-ego also responsible for the strength of an individual’s sense of guilt 

• The id and superego are in constant conflict due to their opposing demands, which often results in a sense of anxiety of threat to the ego. Ego resolves this by unconsciously utilising defence mechanisms which help protect the ego from unpleasant emotions and distress 

 Defence Mechanisms: 

Concept 3: Psycho-sexual theory 

Consists of 5 stages: Oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages 

Oral Stage: 

Birth – 18 months 

• Fixation can occur due to over or under stimulation of mouth 

• In adults, fixation would result in oral character 

• Oral personalities tend to be optimistic, generous, gregarious, or aggressive, ambitious, selfish 

• Adults would seek satisfaction via the mouth (e.g., talk/drink to much, overeat, smoke, bite nails, etc) 

• Oral fixations: Attributed to range of psychological disorders e.g., drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders and other obsessions that seek oral stimulation e.g., smoking, nail biting, over-eating, sarcasm and being talkative 

Anal Stage: 

18 months – 3 years  

• Fixation can occur due to toilet training being too strict/controlling or too relaxed 

• Successful approach to toilet training results in a balance of self-control and/or obedience  

• Baby learns to control urges and behaviour through toilet training 

• Fixation results in adults who are anally retentive or expulsive: 

• Anally retentive – an individual being rigid, overly organised and subservient to authority. Results from parents being too controlling when toilet training, could result in OCD and other anxiety based disorder 

• Anally expulsive – if parents are too relaxed about toilet training – individual is messy, disorganised, has little self control and may be defiant/rebellious 

Phallic stage: 

3/4 – 6/7 years 

• Discovery of sex difference and develop gender identity 

• Children (according to Freud) have sexual feelings for the opposite-sexed parent 

• Children may become hostile to same-sex parent due to those feelings not being socially acceptable 

• Children cope with threatening feelings by repressing them and trying to become more their like rival parents 

• Emotional conflicts are resolved by eventually identifying with the same sex parent 

• Fixation results in an adult who could be: 

• Promiscuous and amoral 

• Narcissistic, proud, exhibitionist 

• Puritanical (prim, prude, strict moral attitude towards self-indulgence or sex) 
   

• Oedipus Complex theory: The emotions ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious via dynamic repression, that concentrates on child’s desire to have sexual relations with the parent of the opposite sex (i.e. males attracted to their mothers, females to their fathers) 

• Oedipal complex: Refers to boy’s attachment to his mother. A man fixated at this stage may become preoccupied with demonstrations of his manhood (acting “macho”) 

• Electra complex: Refers to girl’s attachment to her father. Women fixated at this stage are attracted to older men (father figures), seducing them to demonstrate their powers and relieve feelings of inferiority. This theory was later rejected by Freud (many believe he was just appeasing the public) 

Latency stage: 

6/7 – puberty 

• Sexual urges are dormant 

• Focus on development of same sex friendship 

• Children learn to socialise with peers, develop values, engage in hobbies and intellectual interests 

Genital stage: 

Puberty – adulthood 

• Explains teenage behaviours 

• Individuals develop sexual feelings towards the opposite sex 

Humanistic approach: 

• Focus on the whole person and personal growth 

• Behaviour is motivated by self-concept and our tendency to self-actualize 

• Human nature is basically ‘good’ 

• The first psychologists to examine and learn from psychologically healthy individuals instead of clinical cases 

Humanistic theory – Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: 

• Stressed importance of focusing on positive qualities in people 

• Proposed that human motives are organised into hierarchy of needs according to priority, where basic needs must be met before less basic needs are aroused 

• Areas of need categorised into deficiency needs and growth needs  

• Levels from most basic to least: physiological needs, safety and security, love and belonging, self-esteem, self-actualization. All below self-actualization is deficiency need, self-actualization growth need 

Trait theory: 

• Personality trait is an enduring psychological characteristic of a person that influences their behaviour in a particular domain 

• Cardinal traits apply to wide range of situations (lacking self-awareness) 

• Secondary traits are more specific (e.g., empathy towards others) 

• Traits describe/predict behaviour 

• Perceives and explain the behaviour of others on the traits that they have 

Five Factor Model, McRae & Costa: 

5 basic personality traits (OCEAN) 

• Openness: whether a person is open to new experiences  

• Conscientiousness: whether a person is disciplined/responsible 

• Extraversion: whether a person is sociable, outgoing, affectionate 

• Agreeableness: whether a person is cooperative trusting, helpful 

• Neuroticism: whether a person is unstable and prone to insecurity 

Personality Testing: 

Personality testing/assessments are designed to measure patterns of characteristics/traits that people demonstrate in various situations.  

Modern uses: 

Personality assessments can be used to clarify a clinical diagnosis of a mental health disorder or personality disorder. May provide guide for the types of therapy best suited to a client requiring professional treatment and are most helpful at predicting how people may respond in different situations 

Reliability: 

• Any assessment of personality must have reliability 

• Reliability = consistency and stability of results 

• A way to measure reliability is to resit the test. If test is reliable, we should get similar scores for the same individual at different times 

• Consistency in process help reliability – different professionals should score/interpret the test in the same way 

Validity: 

• Test measures what it is supposed to measure 

• Internal validity: Extent to which undesirable influences have been excluded from influencing the outcome 

• External validity: the extent to which the measure generalises to situations outside the experimental setting. E.g., high extroversion score does not equate to good social skills 

• Situational/participant variables may influence the way a person responds 

• Situational variables: comfort of the room, background noise, interaction with test administrator 

• Participant variables: motivation, social desirability, demand characteristics 

Standardisation: 

• Test is administered the same way every time it is used 

• Instructions, time constraints, scoring procedures reman identical from one user to the next 

• Uncontrolled factors will not influence scores 

Types of Personality Assessments:  

• Self-Report Inventories 

• Projective Tests 

• Interviews 

• Behavioural Observation 

Ethical issues associated with personality assessments: 

• Crucial for administrator to consider risk of harm or distress to client base on results when conducting personality assessments in clinical or non-clinical practice. Personality assessment should only be conducted by a trained psychologist to manage this risk effectively 

• Concerns have been raised regarding inappropriate use of tests/assessment technique, confidentiality, cultural bias, invasion of privacy and the continued use of tests despite lacking validity 

• Regarding use in the workplace: 

• Concerns regarding personality assessment for workplace purposes potentially causing challenges for individuals if results are shared with employers without professional discussion regarding what results mean for worker and employer 

• Concerns raised around exclusion of promotion, employment and discrimination based on the results 

Self-report measures/inventory: 

• Relies on information provided directly by participants about themselves or beliefs through question-and-answer format 

• Typically use multiple-choice items, true or false, or numbered scales that represent a range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) 

• They are a subjective quantitative measure 

• Used with both clinical and nonclinical settings for a variety of reasons. E.g., diagnostic purposes, helping with career guidance. 

• Often asks direct questions about symptoms, behaviours and personality traits associated with one or many mental disorders or personality types in order to easily gain insight into a patient’s personality or illness 

The Big Five – NEO Personality Inventory Revised (NEO PI-R): 

• Designed to measure personality traits using the 5-factor model 

• 5-factor model: 5 dimensions of personality lies along a continuum of opposing poles, includes ‘Openness to Experience’, ‘Conscientiousness’, ‘Extroversion’, ‘Agreeableness’, ‘Neuroticism’ 

• Provides systematic assessment of emotional, interpersonal, experiential, attitudinal and motivational styles 

• Generally had good predictive validity 

• The inventory available in 2 parallel versions, each containing 240 items: 

• Form S -self-report measure for use with adult men and women 

• Form R -observer report measure written in third person for peer, spouse, or expert ratings 

• The NEO PI-R has useful application in industrial/organisational psychology, counselling, clinical psychology, psychiatry, behavioural medicine and health psychology, career counselling, and educational and personality research 

• Standardised 

• Restricted to psychologist use only 

MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator): 

• 16 personality types that result from the Myers Briggs model 

• Based on work of Carl G. Jung (1971) 

• Jung emphasized roll of unconscious mind in human personality, his psychodynamic psychology revolved around the archetypes within the collective unconscious, as well as personal unconscious and the ego 

• MBTI based on Jung’s ideas about perception and judgment, and the attitudes in which these are used in different type of people 

• Theory of psychology type comes from Jung’s theory that ‘what appears to be random behaviour is the result of differences in the way people prefer to use their mental capacities’ E.g., some people prefer to take information in (perceiving it) whilst others prefer organize information and come to conclusion (judging). Likewise, some people are energized by the external world (extraverts) whilst others are energized by internal world (introverts) 

• Myers Briggs highlights general themes or similarities between people based on Jung’s ‘psychological types’ 

• Myers Briggs model of personality based on 4 preferences: 

• Introverts-Extraverts 

• Judgers-Perceivers 

• Thinkers-Feelers 

• Sensing-Intuition 

• MBTI help promote personal growth due to wide application of the measure. Application of the results can help people understand their emotions and why they respond in certain ways in various circumstances  

• Criticisms: 

• Findings largely based around self-report measures, often yielding inaccuracies in results (reduction in validity) due to participants not answering accurately for variety of reasons e.g., social desirability bias 

• Validity also questioned because questions contained are vague and could often be applied to range of personality types 

• Reliability of test limited as individual could answer questions differently on different occasions leading to different results 

• This is inconsistent with ideas of trait theory as traits should be consistent and enduring, not susceptible to change. Results should be consistent regardless of influences such as mood which can affect results of MBTI 

 Clinical Interviews: 

• Can be structured or unstructured 

• Unstructured: interviewers get impressions and pursue hunches. People can expand on information that may disclose personality characteristics 

• Structured: Specific questions are asked, or interviewer follows a set of procedures so that person is evaluated more objectively.  

• Person asked to give history of their problems over the course of their lives 

• Patterns or themes would assist the psychologist to make a diagnosis 

• Use of open ended to encourage people to talk about themselves 

Ethics 

• Questions need to be valid 

• Confidentiality 

• Unstructured interviews can get the patient to think in depth about topics that were not anticipated, and topics participant would normally avoid 

Behaviour Observation 

• Objective psychological assessment tool used for observing, describing, explaining and predicting behaviour 

• An informal way in which personality of a person is described/evaluated 

• Process if a scientific procedure: 

• Look for examples of specific behaviours and follow a careful set of guidelines 

• Psychologist gains valuable insights into client’s personality via careful observation 

• Use of behavioural checklists – observing how many times particular behaviours are exhibited (e.g., aggression) 

• Measuring frequency of behaviours to determine whether they occur in excess or not often enough. 

• Value of behavioural observation depends on the behaviours selected for observation. E.g., to detect tendency toward depression, responses recorded should be those relevant to that tendency such as degrees of smiling, extent of motor activity, amount of talking 

• Behavioural assessment can generate more valid results if participants unaware of being observed 

Ethics: 

• Does psychologist have permission from client or parent of client to observe 

• Confidentiality of results with whoever the client/parent gives permission to share results with