Personaility Unit 1 Study Guide .docx

Chapter 1: What is Personality?

Personality: A branch of psychology devoted to studying the factors that make people unique individuals. It focuses on "individual differences" and seeks to answer fundamental questions:

• • What does it mean to be a person?
  • How do we understand people as unique individuals?
  • What is the nature of the "Self?"

Eight Basic Aspects of Personality

• Unconscious Aspects: Factors outside of awareness.
• Ego Aspects: Factors providing a sense of identity or "self."
• Biological Aspects: Genetic, physical, physiological, or temperamental factors.
• Learning & Conditioning:
• Cognitive Aspects: Patterns of thinking that influence behavior.
• Traits, Skills & Predispositions
• Spiritual & Existential Aspects
• Person-Situation Interactions

Scientific Approach to Personality

• Personality psychology employs a systematic and mathematical approach:
  • Form broad theories to explain patterns of behavior.
  • Derive specific hypotheses from those theories.
  • Conduct studies and experiments to test hypotheses.
  • Measure aspects of personality and analyze data statistically.
  • Draw conclusions and either support or reject hypotheses

Correlation in Personality Studies

• Correlation Coefficient: An index of association between two variables, ranging from -1.0 to 1.0.
  • Positive Correlation: As one variable increases, the other also increases (e.g., Dominance & Extraversion).
  • Negative Correlation: As one variable increases, the other decreases (e.g., Shyness & Extraversion).
  • No Correlation: Indicates no relationship between the variables.
  • Important note: Correlations do NOT imply causation

Historical Context

• Empirical Tradition:
  • Mid 1800s early sensation and perception by physiologist (biologist) germans Johannes Muller, Gustav Fechner, Ernst Weber, Herman Helmholtz
  • Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory for studying mental processes in 1879, marking the beginning of modern psychology
  • founded the first laboratory for studying “mental processes” Emphasized empirical research methods.
• Psychometric Tradition:
  • Franz Gall was a German anatomist known for developing phrenology, which proposed a relationship between mental characteristics and the shape of the head. This early form of psychological assessment involved reading bumps and variations on the skull to assess personality traits.
  • Charles Darwin, a UK naturalist, published Origin of Species in 1859, introducing the concept of natural selection. He argued that variation occurs within and between species, favoring certain characteristics for survivability, which laid the groundwork for the theory of evolution
  • Sir Francis Galton, Darwin's cousin, conducted early research on intelligence in 1883. He applied Darwin's ideas to study the inheritance of individual differences in intelligence and developed early "mental tests," which involved systematic collection of behavior samples in response to standard stimuli
  • Alfred Binet, a French psychologist, is best known for creating the first practical intelligence test, the Binet-Simon Scale, which was later revised by Lewis Terman
  • Lewis Terman, at Stanford University, revised the Binet-Simon Scale to create the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test in 1916, which remains widely used today
  • James McKeen Cattell, a student of Wundt, established the study of "sensorimotor tests of mental ability" in the early 1900s. He founded "The Psychological Corporation," which continues to produce psychological tests

Forerunners to Psychoanalysis

• In the early to mid-1800s, European physicians focused on treating "hysteria." Franz Mesmer introduced "animal magnetism," a precursor to modern hypnosis, while Jean Marie Charcot used hypnosis to treat hysteria and conversion disorders. Pierre Janet studied dissociation and symptoms of hysteria, emphasizing the importance of bringing dissociated aspects of the self into awareness

The Clinical Tradition

Sigmund Freud proposed that personality develops from unconscious conflicts between instinctual drives and societal demands. His views laid the groundwork for psychoanalysis.

Psychological Assessment Grows

• During WWI, there was a need to measure the intelligence and emotional stability of military recruits.
  • This led to the development of the Army Alpha and Beta Tests, which were group-administered intelligence tests for literates and illiterates, as well as the
  • Personal Data Sheet (Woodworth Psychoneurotic Inventory) to detect emotional and behavioral problems

Modern Personality Theory and Early Trait Psychology

• From the 1930s to the 1950s, early trait psychology emerged, with notable figures like Gordon Allport and Raymond Cattell.
  • Kurt Lewin introduced Field Theory, emphasizing person-situation interactionism, summarized by the formula B=f(P,E)
  • Henry Murray viewed traits as "needs," which influenced contemporary approaches to personality

Chapter 2: Personality Assessment & Measurement

Response Sets

• Patterns of biased responding to self-report test items, that are unrelated to the personality characteristic being measured.
• Random responding: answering randomly.
• Acquiescence: tendency to agree with most anything.
• Social desirability: answering so as to present oneself in a favorable light.
  • Defensiveness or “faking good”: denying any indicators of social or psychological maladjustment.
• Exaggerating or “faking bad”: endorsing items indicating maladjustment inaccurately.
• All contribute to “measurement error.”

Types of Personality Measures

• Self-Report Tests
  • Ss respond to paper-and-pencil items, designed to measure a characteristic (i.e., questionnaires).
  • Most common type of personality measure.
  • Easy to administer.
  • Inexpensive to administer.
  • Reliability and validity must be carefully evaluated.
  • Results can be negatively influenced by Ss inaccurately reporting about their own behavior (i.e., inaccurate response sets).
  • Examples:
    • BFI & NEO-PI-3.
    • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory – 2 (MMPI-2).
• Q-Sort Tests
  • Ss are given a stack of cards listing various characteristics.
  • Ss sort cards into piles based on a relevant dimension:
    • Not at all like me.
    • Somewhat characteristic of me.
    • Very characteristic of me.

More active than self-report questionnaires.

• Ratings & Judgments by Others
  • Other people rate Ss on a characteristic of interest.
  • “Others” include: Spouses, partners, friends, parents, teachers, etc.
  • Ratings can also be made by independent observers not known to the Ss.
  • Some personality tests are actually completed by someone who knows the person, rather than the person themselves.
  • Can sometimes provide more accurate assessment of the trait or behavior.
• Biological Measures
  • Measures of physiological responses:
    • Skin conductance: a.k.a., Galvanic skin response (GSR).
    • Heart rate.
    • Blood pressure.

Measures of brain structure:

(CT/CAT) scan.

(MRI).

Postmortem analysis: histological staining.

Measures of brain activity:

(EEG): electrical impulses at scalp.

(PET) scan: metabolism of glucose in the brain.

(fMRI): uses magnetic fields to measure blood oxygenation in the brain.

• Behavioral Observations
  • Direct measurement of actual behavior, based on direct observation.
  • Frequency: how many times a behavior occurs within a period of time.
  • Intensity: the strength of a behavior.
  • Duration: the length of time for which the behavior occurs.
• Interviews
  • An interviewer asks questions, according to a set protocol.
  • Some responses may trigger follow-up questions; also according to a set protocol.
  • Responses are subjected to a scoring system.
• Document Analysis
  • Examination of personal documents and records.
  • Records are treated as a behavior sample.
  • Variables are defined that represent personality characteristics of the person.
  • Variables are then coded and scored for each person in the study, based on examination of the personal records.
  • Example: criminal behavior.
    • Examination of criminal records and coding number of convictions for Ss in the study.
• Projective Tests
  • Ss is presented with set of ambiguous stimuli and asked to respond.
  • Responses are scored, using a standardized scoring system.
  • Scores are derived for variables that reflect or are related to personality characteristics.
  • Assumes that Ss “project” aspects of themselves onto the stimulus.
  • Examples:
    • Rorschach Inkblot Test. Thematic Apperception Test. Draw-a-Person Test.
• Demographic Variables
• Age. Gender. Ethnicity. Socioeconomic status (SES). Education level.

Chapter 3 :Psychoanalytic Theory

Founding theoretician: Sigmund Freud (late 1800s-early 1900s). Physician in Vienna, Austria.

• Theory grew out of work with hysteria.
  • Various forms of mental illness involving high emotionality and pseudo-physiological symptoms w/o organic basis.
  • Less common today.
• Techniques used included:

Hypnosis.

Free association.

Dream analysis.

• Much emphasis on the unconscious.
  • Portion of the mind that is outside awareness; not accessible to conscious thought.

Id:

Present at birth.

Contains “psychic energy” (“libido”) that motivates behavior (i.e., instinctual drives).

Operates on “pleasure principle;” seeks immediate gratification.

Ego:

Develops over time.

Operates on “reality principle;” negotiates between Id impulses and demands of reality.

Superego:

Also develops over time.

Operates on “morality principle;” represents teachings of family/culture, re: ethics, morals, values.

Psychosexual Stages of Development (1)

• Freud described five stages of development, from infancy through puberty. Each characterized by a dominant means of achieving gratification.
• Fixation at each stage can occur from overgratification or undergratification.

Either leads to extreme personality dispositions in adulthood.

Defense Mechanisms

Freud’s basic postulate: human behavior is motivated by conflict btw:

Instinctual impulses (sexual & aggressive), and

Demands of reality and those imposed by society (reason, social norms, morality).

• That conflict produces anxiety, which is uncomfortable.
• Person develops defense mechanisms to manage that anxiety.
• Level 1: Primitive defenses. Often severely pathological.
  • Denial: Refusal to accept external reality.
  • Distortion: Grossly reshaping external reality to meet needs.
• Level 2: Immature defenses. Common among adolescents; less among healthy adults.
  • Fantasy: Retreat into fantasy.
  • Projection: Attributing one’s own unacceptable motives and characteristics to others.
  • Somatization: Transform negative emotion into physical illness / Sxs.
  • Passive-Aggression: Retribution against others in passive or indirect ways.
  • Idealization: Perceiving another as having more positive qualities than they actually have.
• Level 3: Neurotic defenses. Common among adults. Provide short-term coping but can negatively affect relationships if overly used.
  • Displacement: Discharging sexual or aggressive impulse toward a less threatening target.
  • Rationalization: Using (often flawed) reasoning to excuse unacceptable motives or behavior.
  • Reaction Formation: Preventing awareness of unacceptable desires by exaggerated adoption of opposite behavior.
  • Repression: Preventing unacceptable or painful thoughts from entering conscious awareness.
  • Regression: Temporarily revert to behavior from earlier stage of development, rather than handling unacceptable impulses in mature ways.
• Level 4: Mature defenses. Most common among healthy adults.
  • Altruism: Constructive service to others.
  • Humor: Finding humor in otherwise unpleasant or unacceptable matters.
  • Sublimation: Expressing negative impulses in positive, socially acceptable ways.