The definition of the term personality- what are the main components? Pick one Personality Approach. Define it, and explain what appeals to you abo
- The definition of the term personality- what are the main components?
- Pick one Personality Approach. Define it, and explain what appeals to you about this approach and why.
The Psychology of the Person
Chapter 1 Introduction
Personality vs. Human Behavior
- The term “personality” refers to an “invisible”, hypothetical entity
- We cannot see what is going on “inside” the person
- We assess “what is going on inside” on the basis of behavioral observations
- Behaviors that are consistent along time and across situations seem to reflect one’s personality
Why Study Personality?
We often want to explain the behavior of other people
Especially when this behavior is unexpected
We need to explain in order to be able to predict (and possibly to protect ourselves)
The ability to predict provides us with a sense of safety
Examples of Attempting to Predict Behavior
- Dating services: Studies have shown that similarity in personal tendencies, interests, etc is a good predictor of the success of t he relationship
- In the job-market: some jobs may require, in addition to the technical skills, some personality dispositions, e.g. the ability to work under stress
The Person vs. the Situation
- One of the enduring questions in psychology:
- Is our behavior shaped by the situation we are in (external), or by the type of person we are (internal)?
- Both the person and the situation contribute to our behavior. On the one hand, we know that we do not act the same way in all situations, but on the other hand we also know that in similar situations, under the same conditions, different people act differently.
Personality variables vs. Situational Variables in Affecting our behavior
- The term “Personality” originates from the Greek word Persona, meaning a mask
- In the ancient Greek theater, the actors carried a mask attached to a stick, it represented the character they played
Are we putting on a mask?
- The term personality means a mask in Greek, and further linguistic analysis points to “per sonare” to sound through the mask, meaning, to pretend you are someone else
- Under what conditions might this be true?
- One example is job interview, where we want to present ourselves in a favorable light
- Another example is in a court of law, when we have committed a crime and want to present ourselves as incompetent to stand trial (“insane”)
How do the fields of personality and social psychology differ?
The Study of Individual Differences
- Social psychologists are interested in how people typically behave in respond to situational demands.
- Personality psychologists accept that there might be typical responses in certain situations, but their main interest is what makes one person different from the other.
- The study of individual differences, that is- consistent individual differences across situations- for example, why are some people outgoing and others are shy?
Definition of “Personality”
- There is no single definition to the term
- Friedman suggests that personality can be defined as consistent behavioral patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within the individual.
- Note elements of this definition: personality is consistent, along time and across situations. Personality is our intrapersonal processes (not interpersonal) —our emotional, motivational, and cognitive processes that affect how we feel and how we act.
Six approaches to studying personality
- What are the sources of consistent behavioral patterns, and intrapersonal processes?
- There are six approaches, or perspectives, that attempt to answer the question. Each approach aims to identify and explore an important aspect of human personality.
Five blind men meet an elephant
- They each perceive it differently
The main point of each perspective
Psychoanalysis (Freud)
- The psychoanalytic approach focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in affecting behavior.
- Freud used the analogy of the iceberg
- The unconscious stores desires, impulses, drives, painful memories- of which we are not aware
Psychoanalysis (cont-d)
- We are not aware of the motivations for our behavior- we do not have “free will”
- A deterministic perspective
The Trait Approach
- The term “trait” refers to a hypothetical construct, some inner “factor” that is not a physical entity, that is abstract
- However, we assume that we have inner traits that are reflected in our behavior
- We say that someone is shy, anxious, friendly, etc on the basis of behaviors
The Trait Approach (cont-d)
- A trait is perceived as a “dimension” or a continuum, ranging from less “amount” of the trait to a lot of the trait
- Less__________________________More
- By assessing traits (e.g. a test to assess shyness) each person can be identified in terms how much of the trait he/she posses
- This enables comparison across people (e.g. when you want to determine who among the applicants for a job has more of the trait needed)
The Biological Approach
- The biological approach points to inherited dispositions, and physiological processes as affecting human behavior
- The Human Genome Project identified all the genes on the human chromosome
- Brain imaging techniques enable us to watch physiological activity in the brain as the brain processes information.
The Biological Approach (cont-d)
- The neuron
The biological Approach (cont-d)
- Every cell in the human body has 46 chromosomes, arranged in 23 pairs (one from your mother and one from your father) made of DNA
- The humanistic approach identifies personal responsibility, the drive for self-actualization and self-acceptance as key factors in personality.
The Biological Approach (cont-d)
- We do not come into the world a blank slate (tabula rasa)
- Biology means our familial heritability
- Biology means our shared evolutionary history
- Biology means the physiology underlying our mental processes
The Humanistic Approach
- Main concepts of this approach is free will, self-actualization, self-acceptance
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is an important theme of this approach
- It sees human beings as motivated to grow and to become the best we can
The Humanistic Approach
The Behavioral-Learning Approach
- The behavioral/social-learning approach explains personality differences among people as results of conditioning, learning and expectations, and other environmental influences
- This approach is deterministic- we are not always aware of the causes for our behavior, because we are manipulated by environmental forces
The Cognitive Approach
- The Cognitive approach looks at the way different people process information to explain differences in behavior.
What might be the relationships between the six approaches?
Although sometimes the six approaches differ only in focus, in many instances the explanations of two or more approaches are entirely incompatible.
For example: The Behavioral approach is deterministic (we may not be aware of the way we have been “conditioned”), whereas the Humanistic approaches believes in Free Will.
How are the Psychoanalytical and the Behavioral Approaches Similar?
- Both present a deterministic perspective
- We are not in charge of our behavior, but rather operate along the influence of “forces” that we are not aware of
- In the psychoanalytic view it is the unconscious mind
- In the behavioral view our behavior is shaped by learning principles that we might not be aware of (e.g. commercials create an association between a product and a desired result, so we buy the product).
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Why Study Personality?
- We hope to identify personality traits, so we can predict how the person will behave
- In hiring decisions, the job may require some personality characteristics
- Dating services operate on the basis of the research finding that similarity in traits and tendencies predict the success of the relationship
- In the legal system, the lawyers want to assess the tendencies of prospective jurors.
How the 6 approaches view aggression
- The psychoanalytic: points to an unconscious death instinct. According to this point of view, we all posses an unconscious drive to self-destruct. However, since people with healthy personality do not hurt themselves, this death wish is turned outward, and expressed as aggression against others. Another psychoanalytic suggestion is that aggression results from frustration—when our goal-directed movement is blocked.
- The trait approach focuses on individual differences among people in aggression, and the stability of this behavior along time and across situations.
(cont-d)
- The biological perspective is also interested in stable patterns of aggressive behavior in people, and point to the genetic predisposition to act aggressively as one reason for this stability. Evidence supports the genetic basis of aggression- it seems to be running in families.
- Another facet of the biological perspective is the evolutionary explanation: In terms to our prehistory, the more aggressive members of the species had a higher chance to survive, to live long enough in order to mate and to pass on the aggressive genes to their offspring. Testosterone levels were also implicated in aggression.
(cont-d)
- The humanistic approach views aggression as the result of unfulfilled needs to grow in a healthy manner.
- The behavioral/social learning perspective: aggression is learned on the basis of rewards and reinforcement, and also on the basis of observing aggressive models being rewarded.
- Cognitive psychologists view aggression from the perspective of information-processing. We respond to situations of the basis of our interpretation of the situation.
Personality and Culture
- Individualistic cultures place great emphasis on individual needs and accomplishments
- Collectivist cultures are concerned about group belongingness and group needs.
- Concepts that are studied by Western personality psychologists can take on very different meanings when people from collectivist cultures are studied. For example, the Western notion of self-esteem is based on assumptions of personal goals and feeling of uniqueness that may not be appropriate to people in collectivist, group-oriented cultures.
- Similarly, the Western definition of achievement and success is not universal. In collectivist cultures success means cooperation and groups accomplishments.
The study of personality: Theory, Application, Assessment, and Research
- Theory: each approach to understanding personality begins with a theory. The theory is an attempt to explain the mechanisms that underlie human personality and how these mechanisms are responsible for creating behaviors unique to a given individual. Also each theory attempts to emphasize a different aspect of personality, each theory must wrestle with several issues relating to the nature of human personality.
Issues along which the theories differ
- Genetic vs. environmental influences: Is our personality the result of inherited (genetically-based) dispositions, or is it shaped by the environment, as we grow up?
- Conscious vs. unconscious determinants of behavior: To what extent are people aware of the causes of their behavior? There is some agreement today that much information processing takes place at a level below awareness.
- Free will vs. determinism: To what extent do we decide our own fate, and to what extent are our behaviors determined by forces outside our control? This is an issue that has spilled from philosophy. Radical behaviorism, as represented by Skinner, argued that our behavior is not freely chosen, but rather the result of environmental stimuli to which we are exposed. Psychoanalysis also stresses innate needs and unconscious mechanism that leave much of human behavior outside of our control. At the other end of the spectrum are humanistic theorists, who identify personal responsibility as the cornerstone of mental health.
Application
- Application: The most obvious application of personality theories is in psychotherapy. Many of the major pioneers in the study of personality were clinicians, who developed their ideas about human nature of the basis of their work with clients. Psychotherapy comes in many styles, reflecting the assumptions the therapist makes about the nature of personality.
Assessment
- Since the concept of “personality” implies some internal “structures” that are invisible and non-physical, how do we measure it?
- The psychoanalytic approach attempts to get to the unconscious mind by presenting a person with ambiguous stimuli
- In the absence of clear meaning, the person is expected to “project” onto the stimulus unconscious sentiments.
Assessment (Cont-d)
- Many personality researchers, especially of the trait approach, use self-report inventories
- Behavioral psychologists use direct observations of behavior to assess the existence of a given trait “inside” the person.
Research
- Research: Each of the theories we will examine generates a great deal of research. Sometimes this research tests principles and assumptions central to the theory. Other times researchers are interested in further exploring concepts introduced by the theory.
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