Personality Flashcards
Galen (ca. 180 BC)
- 4 humours
- Impalance in the humours determine personality type as well as inclinations toward certain illnesses
- Galen’s theory has classified personality types into four types
- Sanguinis (blood = cheerful and confident)
- Choleric (yellow bile = fiery and energetic)
- Melancholy (black bile = sad, fearful)
- Plegmatis (Phlegm = slow, quiet)
Freuds tripartite model of personality (1923)
- Freud proposed that the mind is divided into three components: id, ego, and superego, and that the interactions and conflicts among the components create personality
- According to Freudian theory, the id is the component of personality that forms the basis of our most primitive impulses.
Allports concept of trait
- Traits are not theoretical structures or constructs but are real and
found within the individual - Traits guide and direct behaviour and enable the individual to
behave in a particular manner - Traits are verified empirically
- Different traits are not absolutely independent of each other but
have overlapping functions - Stable traits can also change over time
Allport - the proprium
According to Allport, proprium is the highest in the personality
structure which consists of all aspects of personality and brings
about inward unity and consistency in the person
* Proprium develops through stages, from development of sense of
body to self-identify, self-esteem, and so on
* In the final stage, the individual is able to look back on his varied
experience in life, and then strive for internal satisfaction and a
sense of fulfillment
Murray
- Murray
viewed personality as constituted by (conscious and
unconscious) conflicting voices - The primary motivational construct is need, which
interacts with “press” (situation). - Primary needs – arising from internal bodily states and include needs
required for survival as well as sex and sentience needs
Secondary needs – concerned with emotional satisfaction and include
most of the needs on Murray’s original list - Needs differ in prepotency: unsatisfied needs are more urgent and
dominate behavior, taking precedence over all other needs
Murray - personality development
- Murray recognized that childhood events can affect the development of
specific needs - Later in life, needs can be activated by specific situations, known as press
– because they press the individual to act a certain way - Through early childhood experiences thema is formed, which combines
personal factors (needs) with the environmental factors that pressure or
compel our behavior (presses) - A dominant thema, called a unity thema, organises or gives meaning to a
large portion of the individual’s life, and becomes a powerful force in
determining personality
Cattell - 16 trait dimensions
Cattell differentiated between surface traits, which represent
clusters of manifest variables, and source traits which are
underlying factors that determines surface manifestations
* Building on Allport’s work, Cattell (1943) collated 4500 trait
names, and finally reduced these to 171 key trait names. He
collected ratings of these words and factor-analysed the ratings
* In 1970, Cattell, Eber & Tastuoka published the Sixteen
Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF) which measured 16 trait
dimensions
e.g. reserved - outgoing
and less intelligent - more intelligent
Eysencks hierarchical model of personality
At the lowest level are the specific responses – any behavioural
responses of individuals to their environment
* Specific responses that are found together in the individual make
up habitual responses – the ways that individuals typically behave
in a situation
* Collections of habitual responses that the individual produces
make up traits – relatively stable, long-lasting characteristics of
the individual
* Using factor analysis, Eysenck found certain personality traits that
he believed were fundamental, referred to as super traits
