Psych 301 10 1 3 PERSONALITY How has personality been studied Psychodynamic theory Unconscious forces influence behavior Topographical model shows three levels of consciousness Subconscious Preconscious Conscious Early childhood experiences have a major impact on personality Psychosexual stages Stages correspond to pursuit of specific libidinal urges Structural model of personality Id Acts on impulses and desires Follows the pleasure principle Superego Internalization of parental and societal standards of conduct the conscience Ego Tries to satisfy id superego and outside demands Defense mechanisms Unconscious mental strategies used to protect the mind from conflict and distress Humanistic approaches Emphasize personal experience and belief systems Self actualization people are motivated to fulfill their human potential Maslow s theory of motivation Desire to become self actualized is the highest human goal Rogers humanistic theory Person centered approach Highlights importance of parental treatment in child s personality development Unconditional positive regard Atmosphere of acceptance under which children develop most effectively Separate approval of behavior from approval of child Type and trait approaches Personality types Discrete categories based on global personality characteristics Implicit personality theories The tendency to assume that personality characteristics go together Allow people to predict others behavior in new situations Predictions made on minimal evidence The trait approach Study of personality by focusing on relatively stable behavioral dispositions Factor analysis Statistical technique for studying responses to personality questionnaires Groups items with correlated responses to extract latent variables traits Trait models Eysenck s hierarchical model Multiple levels of organization Responses Habits Traits Superordinate traits Introversion extraversion Emotional stability Constraint earlier Psychoticism The Big Five trait model View that there are five central personality traits Each trait is composed of several lower order traits Learning and cognition in personality Personal constructs Kelly People s interpretations and expectations about their social world Constructs influence behaviors Locus of control Rotter People differ in beliefs about the effectiveness of their own actions Internal locus of control External locus of control Self efficacy Bandura The extent to which people believe they can achieve specific goals People develop expectancies through observational learning CAPS Cognitive Affective Personality System Mischel Responses determined by how a person perceives a situation the skills to deal with the situation expected outcome of planned actions How is personality assessed and what does it predict General approaches to personality Idiographic approaches Person centered Focus on individual lives How characteristics are integrated in a unique person Nomothetic approaches Focus on characteristics common to all people Individual variation along trait dimensions Objective and projective techniques Projective measures Personality tests where a person interprets an ambiguous stimulus Thematic Apperception Test TAT Rorschach inkblot test Objective measures Self report questionnaires and observer ratings of behavior People do make subjective judgments Implicit explicit Consistency of personality traits Friends tend to be better predictors of our behavior than we ourselves are People are inconsistent in behavior Situationism The theory that situations determine behavior more than traits Interactionism The theory that behavior is jointly determined by underlying dispositions and by situations Behavior interaction of personality and situations
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