Psychology and Impact Personality Development

1. posit reputation. 2. Analyze how biological, situational and intellectual processes feign record suppuration. 3. cover social and ethnical contributions to nature development. 4. cast the major dispositional theories of mortalality. 5. Describe the major process theories of personality. 6. Evaluate the major personality theories. 7. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of commonly used personality assessment techniques, lustiness, reliability. Define personality. disposition Is a unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel and take * Is shaped by biological, situational, and affable processes in a sociocultural and development context * Impacts peoples cognition, motivation and conduct Analyze how biological, situational and mental processes impact personality development. Biological * A persons temperament results from 4 humours (ancient theory) * Blood from heart sanguine cheerful * Choler from liver- choleric angry * Melancholer from short te mper melancholy depressed * Phlegm from brain- phlegmatic soggy Frontal lobes regulates anes basic disposition * Individual differences in temperament elevate from offset of neurotransmitters * Adrenal gland, thyroid gland, pituitary gland and hormone gland affect personality. * Kagans research on inherited basis of shy(p)ness on bran-new borns * Excitable and suppress infants became shy and introverted * little excitable and bold infants became extraverted * push of nature in different directions Situational * milieu affects us finished operant and classical conditioning * (1) Physical Environment It includes the influence of climatic conditions of a particular area or country on man and his living. * (2) well-disposed Environment * The child has his birth in the society. He learns and lives there. Hence, the social purlieu has an authoritative say in the personality development of the child. * E. g. one would play with an come forthcoming child to a greater extent t han an control one pushes inhibited child towards shyness * (3) Family Environment * Child comes in contact with his parents and other family member. His likes, dislikes, stereotypes about people, expectancies of security and worked up replys all are shaped in too soon childhood. The type of training and early childhood assures play an important habit in the development of personality. * anyways this, economic factors i. e. , economic condition of the family and the type of call foring among the parents also influence the personality of the child. * (4) Cultural Environment * Individualism in westerners vs collectivism in Africa caused by environment * Striking difference in the universal trait of shyness caused by how each coating dealt with the childs success and failures. Who gets identification for good grades, gets blamed for non getting them? Childcautious, beginning risk taker * (5) School Environment * In the school, the teacher substitutes the parents. * The sc hool poses new problems to be solved, new taboos to be sure into the superego and new models for imitation and identification amiable Processes * 3 casts of process theories * Psychodynamic/ psychoanalysis- * motivation, especially unwitting motives and the influence of past experiences on out mental wellness * Humanistic- consciousness and our present, subjective reality what we think is ipt at a time and how we think of ourselves in relation to others * cognitive- * Influence of learning, perception and social interaction on behaviour Describe the major dispositional theories of personality. Dispositional theories suggest temperaments, traits or types (set of personality characteristics) suffer consistency to individuals personality over time. Temperament * Biologically base personality dispositions * presumable in early childhood, Establish foundation of personality & individuals approach to vitality * Inherited temperament may set the range of your response to some life situation but it does not fully determine your life experiences * Affected also by family position, experiences, and sense of self * Usually refers to superior long standing themes eg shyness/moodiness * Role of facade lobes in regulating ones basic disposition * Individual differences in temperament arise from balance of neurotransmitters * Influenced by learning * Heredity and environment interact with initially inherited characteristics becoming amplified * E. . one would play with an outgoing child more than an inhibited one pushes inhibited child towards shyness * E. g. data-based learning peculiaritys * Emerge from temperaments and influenced by experiences * Guides thoughts and actions under various conditions * Relatively stable * BIG 5 Traits * receptiveness to experience, Conscientious, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism * Has validity across cultures (but most of these studies utilized university students as respondents who are more influenced by European-Ameri can views * Quite accurate Labels a person but gives no explanation on why Evaluation of Trait Theories XPortrayed personality as fixed and static rather than a process that can undergo development diverges depending on experiences Xoversimplified our complex nature XDo not itemise much about their source or how traits interacts X SELF-FULFILLING prophecy where ppl give way influenced by the labels and it became hard for them to change the undesirable behaviour. E. g. a child labelled shy will have to struggle w both the label and the traits * Gives us ability to predict behaviour Assessing traits * Using * MMPI-2 for clinical traits base on mental problems * non possible to fake due to lie scales * Must be used w anxiety in non-Western countries/ minorities cos not well equal in the samples used in developing the test * NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI) base on big 5 * Both have splendiferous reliability ( reconciled and stable scores) * Both have good validity (measure wha t they were designed to measure eg signs of mental disturbance) * Barnum effect tendency for people to undertake very ecumenic or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate * descriptions can well apply to others * reliability and validity are important attributes of good psychological tests * determination personality type * Category that represents a common cluster of personality characteristics * MBTI Myers-Briggs Type Indicator * Not reliable, not valid * Ppl dont surrender into different types but more along the introversion-extraversion continuum Describe the major process theories of personality.While each of the process theories sees different forces at work in personality, all present personality as a result of internal mental processes and social interactions. Psychodynamic theories 1. Sigmund Freud psychodynamic approach * focus is on influence of unconscious forces (psychic determinism) difficult to prove * Personality is a function of 3 mai n themes unconscious forces, childhood experiences, sex * Not scientific, hindsight bias ( overemphasis on childhood ), unconscious mind is not that reproach and turbulent * Structure of personality Id * Unconscious reservoir * contains basic motives, drives and replete(predicate)ive desires * pushes for immediate gratification * ego * Governed by reality principle * Decision qualification component * Mediator btw Id and reality * Superego * Governed by morality and social standards (conscience) * An individuals view of the kind of person he or she should strive to be reckon * Psycho sexual defends * Ego defence mechanism- largely unconscious mental strategy employed to reduce the experience of conflict or anxiety * Denial I dont have a problem Rationalization- I cheat because everyone does it give socially accepted reasons for actions one think is socially unacceptable * response formulation goodie goodie act in opposite of their desire- act exactly in opposition to their unconscious desires * Displacement- bound the dog- shifting your reaction from real source of suffering to a safer individual or object * Regression- cry, throw things to reduce stress- regress to earlier developmental stage * Sublimation- channel negative to positive eg sexual desires to creative thinking on art * Projection- attribute own unconscious desires/fears to others * Led to projective testing 2. Adler Struggle with sexual and hateful impulses not primary factor in personality development * Primary struggle overcome inferiority feelings, develop superiority feelings in social relationships (later seen as unhealthy due to overcompensation) * Outgrow childhood inferiority, become competent adult * All born with positive motive, social interest * Peoples lives governed by their goals 3. Karen Horney * Freud overemphasized sexual conflicts, penis envy, and criticized his views of women * When basic anxiety gets out of control, people become neurotic (basic desires taken to extreme eg need for a partner) * Ways people deal with basic anxiety * Move towards others, against others, away from others 4. new(prenominal) Neo-Freudian Theorists * Accepted notions of psychic determinism and unconscious motivation * Did not agree on sex and death instinct or the indelible nature of early life experiences. Put greater emphasis on ego functions (ego defence,dev of self instead of on unconsciousness) * Gave social variables an impt role (culture, family instead of instinctive urges, unconscious conflicts) * Extended personality development to include lifespan (instead of only childhood) Projective testing Diagnosis via a defense mechanism * evasive pictures to probe peoples innermost feelings, motive, conflicts, and desires * E. g. inkblot test Inkblot Technique- not objective * E. g. Thematic Apperception Test(TAT)- ambiguous picture n tell story * Theme aggression, sexual needs, rs Humanistic Perspective Main Theoretical tenants 1) globe have an innate drive for personal growth ) Humans have free will not controlled by the environment 3) Humans are conscious and rational not controlled by unconscious forces 4) Ones subjective view is more important than objective reality * Abraham Maslow s needs power structure * Interested in healthy human psychology * Criticisms Not testable, Unrealistic, Method, Culture-specific * Carl Rogers Person-Centred Theory * Believed that humans have one basic motive, that is the tendency to self-actualize * To achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence. * Difference may exist mingled with a persons ideal self and actual experience. This is called incongruence. Where a persons ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists. * The larger the discrepancies between the two, the more psychological problems one experiences * Development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. * As we favor to see ourselves in ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may use defence mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel little threatened by some of what we consider to be our undesirable feelings. * Evaluation * Self centered picture of personality, looking through the lens of individualistic culture * But even in collectivism, self exists * Self-esteem, a cause or effect? Bullies and drug users actually have high self esteem * strain on positive achievements and pro-social behaviours * Fails to recognize its function in a world filled with evil of all kinds Social Cognitive theories Social Learning * Cognitive learning which new responses are acquired after observance others behaviour and the consequences of that behaviour * Expectation of gaining reward drives us to acquire that response * We reject or accept the role model base on consequences of their actions * interactional determinism is the process which cognitions, behaviour and the environment mutually influence each other * Jane li kes vb (cognition), spends more time vie on campus (env) and interacting w teammates (social behaviour) rewardingthis activity will in return strengthen your interest in vb. Locus of control Rotters theory our behaviour depends on our locus of control * Changes from situation to situation * interior(a) locus of control * Good student, smart and have good grades internal in academic settings * outside(a) locus of control * Overweight and come from a family w obesity external in restaurants. Evaluation * Overemphasize rational information processing and vault both emotion and unconscious processes * Strength lies in foundation of solid psychological research able to come up with treatments for mental disorders that often seem to involve observational learning esp anxiety- based disorders (phobias and behaviour disorders in children) behavioural Operant and Classical conditioning ) In classical, the organism learns an association between two stimuli (the NS and UCS) in operant, t he organism learns an association between the behaviour and its consequences 2) In classical, the behaviour is elicited by the stimulus (not voluntary, like a reflex) in operant, the behaviour is emitted (under the control of the organism) * Pavlovs classical conditioning * Chrissys sleepover case * B. F Skinners Operant conditioning * Positive wages & Negative reinforcement (remove negative stimuli) strengthens response, * Punishment (give unpleasant stimuli) weakens response * Behaviour is determined by situations one is in (situationism) * People behave in ways to suit their situations Behaviours cannot be consistent enough to be traits because situations change * ascendant behaviours influenced by both person and situation (person X situation interactionism) * One situation influences people in different ways Theories to understand ourselves 1. Implicit personality theories a. Assumptions about personality used to simplify the task of understanding others, eg. Blondes are not smart b. may give bad predictions when one project his feelings onto others and collide with hes feeling the same way c. Mindset 2. Self-narratives d. Help ppl sense a ribbon of consistency through their personalities over time e. saving(a) self where one overcome obstacles to help others 3. Both theories are influenced by culturePsychology and Impact Personality Development1. Define personality. 2. Analyze how biological, situational and mental processes impact personality development. 3. Discuss social and cultural contributions to personality development. 4. Describe the major dispositional theories of personality. 5. Describe the major process theories of personality. 6. Evaluate the major personality theories. 7. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of commonly used personality assessment techniques, validity, reliability. Define personality. Personality Is a unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel and behave * Is shaped by biological, situational, and mental processes in a sociocultural and development context * Impacts peoples cognition, motivation and behaviour Analyze how biological, situational and mental processes impact personality development. Biological * A persons temperament results from 4 humours (ancient theory) * Blood from heart sanguine cheerful * Choler from liver- choleric angry * Melancholer from spleen melancholy depressed * Phlegm from brain- phlegmatic sluggish Frontal lobes regulates ones basic disposition * Individual differences in temperament arise from balance of neurotransmitters * Adrenal gland, thyroid gland, pituitary gland and endocrine gland affect personality. * Kagans research on inherited basis of shyness on new borns * Excitable and inhibited infants became shy and introverted * Less excitable and bold infants became extraverted * push of nature in different directions Situational * Environment affects us through operant and classical conditioning * (1) Physical Environment It includes the in fluence of climatic conditions of a particular area or country on man and his living. * (2) Social Environment * The child has his birth in the society. He learns and lives there. Hence, the social environment has an important say in the personality development of the child. * E. g. one would play with an outgoing child more than an inhibited one pushes inhibited child towards shyness * (3) Family Environment * Child comes in contact with his parents and other family member. His likes, dislikes, stereotypes about people, expectancies of security and emotional responses all are shaped in early childhood. The type of training and early childhood experiences play an important role in the development of personality. * Besides this, economic factors i. e. , economic condition of the family and the type of relations between the parents also influence the personality of the child. * (4) Cultural Environment * Individualism in westerners vs collectivism in Africa caused by environment * Str iking difference in the universal trait of shyness caused by how each culture dealt with the childs success and failures. Who gets credit for good grades, gets blamed for not getting them? Childcautious, low risk taker * (5) School Environment * In the school, the teacher substitutes the parents. * The school poses new problems to be solved, new taboos to be accepted into the superego and new models for imitation and identification Mental Processes * 3 kinds of process theories * Psychodynamic/ psychoanalysis- * motivation, especially unconscious motives and the influence of past experiences on out mental health * Humanistic- consciousness and our present, subjective reality what we think is ipt now and how we think of ourselves in relation to others * Cognitive- * Influence of learning, perception and social interaction on behaviour Describe the major dispositional theories of personality. Dispositional theories suggest temperaments, traits or types (set of personality characterist ics) provide consistency to individuals personality over time. Temperament * Biologically based personality dispositions * Apparent in early childhood, Establish foundation of personality & individuals approach to life * Inherited temperament may set the range of your response to some life situation but it does not fully determine your life experiences * Affected also by family position, experiences, and sense of self * Usually refers to dominant long standing themes eg shyness/moodiness * Role of frontal lobes in regulating ones basic disposition * Individual differences in temperament arise from balance of neurotransmitters * Influenced by learning * Heredity and environment interact with initially inherited characteristics becoming amplified * E. . one would play with an outgoing child more than an inhibited one pushes inhibited child towards shyness * E. g. observational learning Traits * Emerge from temperaments and influenced by experiences * Guides thoughts and actions under various conditions * Relatively stable * BIG 5 Traits * Openness to experience, Conscientious, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism * Has validity across cultures (but most of these studies utilized university students as respondents who are more influenced by European-American views * Quite accurate Labels a person but gives no explanation on why Evaluation of Trait Theories XPortrayed personality as fixed and static rather than a process that can undergo development changes depending on experiences Xoversimplified our complex nature XDo not tell much about their source or how traits interacts X SELF-FULFILLING prophecy where ppl become influenced by the labels and it became hard for them to change the undesirable behaviour. E. g. a child labelled shy will have to struggle w both the label and the traits * Gives us ability to predict behaviour Assessing traits * Using * MMPI-2 for clinical traits base on mental problems * Not possible to fake due to lie scales * Must be used w care in non-Western countries/ minorities cos not well represented in the samples used in developing the test * NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI) base on big 5 * Both have excellent reliability (consistent and stable scores) * Both have good validity (measure what they were designed to measure eg signs of mental disturbance) * Barnum effects tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate * descriptions can well apply to others * reliability and validity are important attributes of good psychological tests * Finding personality type * Category that represents a common cluster of personality characteristics * MBTI Myers-Briggs Type Indicator * Not reliable, not valid * Ppl dont fall into different types but more along the introversion-extraversion continuum Describe the major process theories of personality.While each of the process theories sees different forces at work in personality, all portray personality as a re sult of internal mental processes and social interactions. Psychodynamic theories 1. Sigmund Freud psychodynamic approach * focus is on influence of unconscious forces (psychic determinism) difficult to prove * Personality is a function of 3 main themes unconscious forces, childhood experiences, sex * Not scientific, hindsight bias ( overemphasis on childhood ), unconscious mind is not that malign and turbulent * Structure of personality Id * Unconscious reservoir * contains basic motives, drives and instinctive desires * pushes for immediate gratification * Ego * Governed by reality principle * Decision making component * Mediator btw Id and reality * Superego * Governed by morality and social standards (conscience) * An individuals view of the kind of person he or she should strive to become * Psychosexual stages * Ego defence mechanism- largely unconscious mental strategy employed to reduce the experience of conflict or anxiety * Denial I dont have a problem Rationalization- I c heat because everyone does it give socially accepted reasons for actions one think is socially unacceptable * Reaction formulation goodie goodie act in opposite of their desire- act exactly in opposition to their unconscious desires * Displacement- kick the dog- shifting your reaction from real source of distress to a safer individual or object * Regression- cry, throw things to reduce stress- regress to earlier developmental stage * Sublimation- channel negative to positive eg sexual desires to creativity on art * Projection- attribute own unconscious desires/fears to others * Led to projective testing 2. Adler Struggle with sexual and hostile impulses not primary factor in personality development * Primary struggle overcome inferiority feelings, develop superiority feelings in social relationships (later seen as unhealthy due to overcompensation) * Outgrow childhood inferiority, become competent adult * All born with positive motive, social interest * Peoples lives governed by t heir goals 3. Karen Horney * Freud overemphasized sexual conflicts, penis envy, and criticized his views of women * When basic anxiety gets out of control, people become neurotic (basic desires taken to extreme eg need for a partner) * Ways people deal with basic anxiety * Move towards others, against others, away from others 4. Other Neo-Freudian Theorists * Accepted notions of psychic determinism and unconscious motivation * Did not agree on sex and death instinct or the indelible nature of early life experiences. Put greater emphasis on ego functions (ego defence,dev of self instead of on unconsciousness) * Gave social variables an impt role (culture, family instead of instinctive urges, unconscious conflicts) * Extended personality development to include lifespan (instead of only childhood) Projective testing Diagnosis via a defense mechanism * Ambiguous pictures to probe peoples innermost feelings, motive, conflicts, and desires * E. g. Rorschach Inkblot Technique- not objectiv e * E. g. Thematic Apperception Test(TAT)- ambiguous picture n tell story * Theme aggression, sexual needs, rs Humanistic Perspective Main Theoretical tenants 1) Humans have an innate drive for personal growth ) Humans have free will not controlled by the environment 3) Humans are conscious and rational not controlled by unconscious forces 4) Ones subjective view is more important than objective reality * Abraham Maslow s needs hierarchy * Interested in healthy human psychology * Criticisms Not testable, Unrealistic, Method, Culture-specific * Carl Rogers Person-Centred Theory * Believed that humans have one basic motive, that is the tendency to self-actualize * To achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence. * Difference may exist between a persons ideal self and actual experience. This is called incongruence. Where a persons ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists. * The larger the discrepancies between the two, the more psychological problems one experiences * Development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. * As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may use defence mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel less threatened by some of what we consider to be our undesirable feelings. * Evaluation * Self centered picture of personality, looking through the lens of individualistic culture * But even in collectivism, self exists * Self-esteem, a cause or effect? Bullies and drug users actually have high self esteem * Emphasis on positive achievements and pro-social behaviours * Fails to recognize its function in a world filled with evil of all kinds Social Cognitive theories Social Learning * Cognitive learning which new responses are acquired after watching others behaviour and the consequences of that behaviour * Expectation of gaining reward drives us to acquire that response * We reject or accept the role mod el base on consequences of their actions * Reciprocal determinism is the process which cognitions, behaviour and the environment mutually influence each other * Jane likes vb (cognition), spends more time playing on campus (env) and interacting w teammates (social behaviour) rewardingthis activity will reciprocally strengthen your interest in vb. Locus of control Rotters theory our behaviour depends on our locus of control * Changes from situation to situation * Internal locus of control * Good student, smart and have good grades internal in academic settings * External locus of control * Overweight and come from a family w obesity external in restaurants. Evaluation * Overemphasize rational information processing and overlook both emotion and unconscious processes * Strength lies in foundation of solid psychological research able to come up with treatments for mental disorders that often seem to involve observational learning esp anxiety- based disorders (phobias and behaviour diso rders in children) Behavioural Operant and Classical conditioning ) In classical, the organism learns an association between two stimuli (the NS and UCS) in operant, the organism learns an association between the behaviour and its consequences 2) In classical, the behaviour is elicited by the stimulus (not voluntary, like a reflex) in operant, the behaviour is emitted (under the control of the organism) * Pavlovs classical conditioning * Chrissys sleepover case * B. F Skinners Operant conditioning * Positive reinforcement & Negative reinforcement (remove negative stimuli) strengthens response, * Punishment (give unpleasant stimuli) weakens response * Behaviour is determined by situations one is in (situationism) * People behave in ways to suit their situations Behaviours cannot be consistent enough to be traits because situations change * Solution behaviours influenced by both person and situation (person X situation interactionism) * One situation influences people in different way s Theories to understand ourselves 1. Implicit personality theories a. Assumptions about personality used to simplify the task of understanding others, eg. Blondes are not smart b. May give bad predictions when one project his feelings onto others and assume hes feeling the same way c. Mindset 2. Self-narratives d. Help ppl sense a thread of consistency through their personalities over time e. Redemptive self where one overcome obstacles to help others 3. Both theories are influenced by culture