PSYC 1315 1st Edition Lecture 26 Outline of Last Lecture I Personality II Psychodynamic perspective III Defense mechanisms IV Freud s Psychosexual Stages V Critics of Freud VI Revisionists VII Humanistic perspectives VIII Trait perspectives IX Five factor model of personality Outline of Current Lecture I Personological approach II Life story approach III Social cognitive perspectives IV Biological perspectives V Personality assessments VI Personality types Current Lecture I Personological Approach a Personology the study of the whole person These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute II III b Henry Murray i Worked for the Office of Strategic Service during WWII ii Believed motived were largely unconscious iii Developed Thematic Apperception Test TAT 1 Describe a scene projection technique Life Story Approach a Dan McAdams i Our life story is our identity ii Focused on conscious thought iii Study narratives and personal interviews iv Introduced intimacy motivation 1 Enduring concern for warm relationships v Ex studied parents of new born Down syndrome babies and their experience b Evaluating Life Story Approach i Contributions 1 rich record of an individual s experience ii Criticisms 1 difficult and time consuming 2 extensive coding and content analysis 3 prone to bias 4 not easily generalized Social Cognitive Perspectives a Emphasis is on conscious awareness beliefs expectations and goals i Not concerned with broad traits b Albert Bandura i Observation learning is key ii Personal control we do not always reciprocate what we observe iii Self efficacy your believe in your competence c Reciprocal Determinism Describe the way behavior environment and person cognitive factors interact to create personality d Allport Gordon i argued that a person should behave consistently in behavior e Walter Mischel i Concerned with pattern of behavior over time ii Ex kids who waited to eat the marshmallow correlated to better academic performance over time iii Situationalism behavior and personality vary considerably across context iv CAPS Model of Personality 1 stability over time rather than across situations 2 interconnections among cognitions and emotions affect our behavior f Evaluating Social Cognitive Theory IV V i Contributions 1 focuses on interactions of individuals with their environments 2 suggests people can control their environment ii Criticisms 1 too concerned with change and the situation 2 ignores the role of biology 3 very specific predictions hinder generalization Biological Perspectives a Hippocrates Four humors influence personality b Personality and the Brain i brain damage alters personality ii brain responses correlate with personality iii Ex Phineas Gage c Biology of Personality Theories i Henry Eysenk s Reticular Activation System Theory 1 We all have an optimal level of arousal 2 Focused on reticular formation area wakefulness and arousal 3 Extraverts below optimal arousal level a The seek out loud music friends to increase arousal 4 Introverts above optimal arousal level a Spend time alone keep distractions to a minimum to decrease arousal 5 However RAS baselines are similar blood flow differs 6 There are actually difference in blood flow to the striatium produces dopamine 7 Extraverts lower levels of blood flow less dopamine a Seek out pleasure to increase dopamine 8 Introverts higher levels of blood flow more dopamine a Do not actively seek out pleasure ii Jeffrey Gray s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory 1 Proposed the behavioral activation system BAS and the behavioral inhibition system BIS influence our personality 2 These systems respond to rewards and punishments 3 BAS is sensitive to rewards predisposes the feeling of positive emotions underlies extraversion 4 BIS is sensitive to punishments involved in avoidance learning and predisposes one to feeling of fear underlies neuroticism d Role of Neurotransmitters i growth of dopamine receptors stimulated by warm care givers ii disposes person to reward sensitivity extraversion iii serotonin in circulation leads to negative mood neuroticism Personality Assessments a Self report test VI i Most commonly used ii Beware of social desirability iii Empirically keyed tests used to get around social desirability problem 1 Compare two groups 2 test takers do not know what is being measured 3 test items not related to purpose of test b Projective test presents individuals with an ambiguous stimulus and asks them to describe it or tell a story about it in other words to project their own meaning into a stimulus i Roschach Inkblot Test ii Thematic Apperception Test TAT Personality Types a Discovered by two cardiologist Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman 1950 b Type A personality excessively competitive hard driven impatient and hostile Correlated with greater risk of coronary disease c Type B personality relaxed and easy going linked to better health d Type D personality generally distressed experience negative emotions and are socially inhibited Also linked to coronary disease