Lecture 1

Question 1

What 5 things does the person/personality constitute?

Answer 1

1. Experiences and acts (present - core)
2. Context (surrounds the core)
3. Person (or personality, affects the core)
4. Development (past, influences core)
5. Goals and motivation (future, motivators and results for the core)

Question 2

The 5 constitutors of people/personality equate a model, fill in this model with an example

Answer 2

1. Core (experiences/acts) = depressive feelings
2. Context = Lack of connection, working without joy
3. Person = Lack of identity, preoccupation with others
4. Development = Past learning experiences like no room for your emotions
5. Goals/motivation = Things learned in therapy that made the person want to start again & do things with passion

based on the Naomi client case

Question 3

How do the 5 constituters tie in with the question of what personaltiy theories are about?

Answer 3

They are about the stories where people discover certain patterns, developments, etc.

so just the whole of a person and their story

Question 4

How can personality theories (or life stories) become scientific theories/part of research? In other words, what is the use?

Answer 4

Basically, seeing the patterns in people’s story when they enter therapy, when they leave can be very useful for research

that is the only info given

Question 5

How are history and narratives intertwined (4)?

Answer 5

• Groups get cultural histories due to the continued transmissions of conventions (rules, traditions, etc.)
• Cultures develop oral and then written traditions and stories about who “we” are and how “we” came to be
• By telling these stories and reflecting on them we change our understanding of who we are
• The histories of individuals can be located within these larger histories of the multiple “we’s” (aka how does the individual story fit within the stories around them)

last point most important

Question 6

There are different origins of personalities, which are these and what do they mean? (3)

Answer 6

• Natural Origins (e.g., being mammals or last common ancestor)
• Cultural origins (e.g., past artifacts from ancient cultures)
• Individual origins (that is the present and the process of personality development)

these also constitute different perspectives

Question 7

What are the three perspectives on personality and what do they mean?

Answer 7

• Universal human nature = a new organism in nature (no full self/personality, but reactive patterns to context)
• Particular human cultures = a new person in a culture (development of personality)
• A singular human life = a new subject of an individual life (the self/personality)

Different aspects of personality, distinct but also complementary

Question 8

What is meant with the common mistake of “naturalizing cultural categories”?

Answer 8

Because of the three perspectives, cultural perspectives can be taken as a “natural kind”, even if it is not (race is also a good example)- these are just cultural expectations

Question 9

What is meant with the common mistake of reducing every aspect to cultural narratives?

Answer 9

Overestimation of the effects of social constructs and reduction of the other perspectives on personality

Question 10

What is meant with the common mistake of forgetting about the cultural/subjective position from where the author speaks?

Answer 10

Personal bias is present within narratives and the author also influences the narrative (e.g., Western speakers will be taken more seriously, on average)

Question 11

What is meant with the common mistake of treating all accounts as equally subjective opinions?

Answer 11

I think that certain narratives have more support (e.g., more arguments or broader perspective integration), but honestly I’m confuzzled

Question 12

What are two (theorized) main differences in humans and other ancestors?

Just name them

Answer 12

• Obligative collaborative foraging
• Group mindedness

Question 13

What is obligative collaborative foraging?

also seen in chimpanzees

Answer 13

The very strong skill for collaboration as a whole

Question 14

How is obligative collaborative foraging seen in children?

the two terms here are important, so the def is needed to know

Answer 14

Through joint intentionality (sees a larger goal and joins the larger goal) and great capacity for shared goals and shared mental states (intersubjectivity)

important terms

Question 15

What is group-mindedness?

Answer 15

Development of a capability for conventions (possible because of shared intentionality)

Question 16

How is group-mindedness important for children/personality theory?

Answer 16

Because it thus assumes that children are born in a world full of pre-existing conventional structures- thus they are introduced into a pre-existing symbolic order (universe of signs and meanings typical for human societies)

Question 17

Of which personality perspective are group-mindedness and collaboration a part?

Answer 17

Universal human nature (as these are seen as pretty much intrinsic)

Question 18

What is meant with “our individual life story becomes a story of first and second nature”?

Answer 18

That the individual life story (or person/learning history, etc.) is a product of the universal human nature (first) and the particular cultural histories (second)

universal human nature also affects particular cultural history

Question 19

What is the psychological self?

McAdams

Answer 19

It is a cycle of the first person perspective and messages from others which evolves and expands over the course of ones life

“reflexive arrangement” as termed in the paper

Question 20

How does the self develop according to McAdams?

name the stages + brief description; order is important here

Answer 20

1. Actor (0>): there are traits and roles that you need to fulfill
2. Agent (6>): Goals and values of your own
3. Author (18>): Life narratives, like who you’ve been and what you want for the future, etc.

ages are estimates

Question 21

Describe the “self as actor” concept

(4)

Answer 21

Focuses on the present
- “repeated performances on the social stage of life”
- Not fulfilling these equates a bad response
- Appearance/masker/character = the way one appears to others and may be disconnected from subjective experience

Question 22

Describe the “self as agent” concept

(4)

Answer 22

Focuses towards the future
- Making choices and moving forward in life because of it
- Intention, will, goals, personal control, etc.
- Understanding of being an agent does not exist at infancy, but comes later

Question 23

Describe the “self as author” concept

Answer 23

Integrating/reflecting on past, present and future
- I becomes autobiographical and me becomes the story told
- i.e., the narrative identity (aka the above integration of all the small stories of life)

I = storyteller, me = outward potrayal