Personality Flashcards
(41 cards)
Personality
those relatively stable, permanent characteristics that are unique to an individual and influence the way they think, feel and behave
Trait
a personality characteristic that endures over time and across different situations
What are the assumptions of trait theories?
1) stable and thus predictable over time
2) stable across situations
3) personality consists of different traits and you have more or less of each
4) some traits are more closely interrelated
Eysenck
2 main personality factors; extraversion and neuroticism based on levels of cortical arousal + testosterone levels
PEN
McCrae and Costa Big 5
openness to experience conscientiousness extraversion agreeableness neuroticism
Openness to experience
degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity, imaginative and independent. Appreciation for art, adventure and abstract concepts
HIGH: creative, open to new things, accepts abstract concepts
LOW: dislikes changes/new ideas, not imaginative
Conscientiousness
ones tendency towards self discipline, competence, thoughtfulness, how much deliberate intention/thought person puts into behaviour.
HIGH: attention to detail, set schedule, spend time preparing
LOW: dislike structure, makes messes, procrastinates important tasks
Extraversion
high energy/positive emotions/sociability
HIGH: centre of attention, starts convo, says before thinks, energised when around people
LOW: prefer solitude, difficulty making convo
Neuroticism
characterised by tendency to experience unpleasant emotions (emotional ability and impulse control)
HIGH: dramatic mood shifts, experiences stress, feels anxious
LOW: emotionally stable, rarely sad/depressed, handles stress
Agreeableness
tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic
HIGH: care about others, feels empathy and concern
LOW: little interest in others, insult and belittle others
what are the strengths of mccrae and costa?
- empirically tested and validated
- flexible descriptions of personality and its structure
- provides foundation of valid personality assessments
- environmental and biological causes
- traits relatively stable their study on adults over 6 yrs showing 0.63 correlation
what are the weaknesses of mccrae and costa?
- mask individual differences ‘pigeon hole’ into simple description
- underestimate socio-cultural/ contextual influences
- traits poor predictors as changes situationally
- Mischel argued doesn’t explain how personality changes over time, predicting only 10% or less of behaviour can be accounted to scores on personality tests
Humanistic Theories
approach which studies the whole person and uniqueness of each individual
Is a rebellion against the limitations of behaviourist and psychodynamic psychology
believes that all people are born good and are striving to each their full potential
Assumptions of Humanistic theories
1) people have free will
2) people are good and have innate need to improve
3) people are motivated to achieve potential and self actualise
4) subjective/conscious experiences of individual is most important
5) rejects scientific methodology
6) rejects comparative psych ( to animals)
According to carl rogers, what are the three factors that influence self actualisation?
- the way others treat them
- the way they view themselves
- how they deal with negative influences
what is self concept
perceptions and beliefs people have about themselves. built up over time through interactions and the environment
3 parts of self concept
1) self worth: what we think about ourselves developed in childhood (attachment relationships) and later in significant others (POSITIVE REGARD)
2) self image: how we see ourselves; affects how we think, feel and behave and our inner personality
3) ideal self: person we like to be
Positive Regard and 2 types
how other people evaluate and judge us in social interaction
1) Unconditioned Positive Regard: parents, significant others, humanistic therapist offer love, acceptance regardless of mistakes leading to confidence/growth
2) Conditioned Positive Regard: praise, positive feedback depends on displaying appropriate behaviour
Self Actualisation + congruence
ideal self = self image, we have basic motive to self actualise and fulfil ones potential and achieve highest level of human being ness we can.
Main determinant whether reached is childhood experiences
Only occur in state of congruence, we want to feel, experience and behave in way that is consistent to our self image and ideal self ( if aligned self worth increases)
Incongruence = when some of their experience is unacceptable to them or denied in the self image = may use defence mechanisms to cope
Fully functioning person
An individual who is ‘actualising’ is a fully functioning person. Ideal and one that people do not ultimately achieve (ever changing)
- Open to Experience
2: Existential Living - Trust feelings
- Creativity
- Furfilled life
Maslow’s 5 needs + Summary
physiological/ safety (basic) love and belonging/ esteem (psychological needs) self actualisation (self fulfilment needs)
- humans motivated by hierarchy of needs
- organised in order of prepotency basic needs must me more or less met (not all or none) before higher needs
- order not rigid but flexible based on external circumstances and individual differences
Maslow on Self Actualisation
Studied 28 people he considered to be self actualised ie Einstein and Lincoln and identified 15 characteristics
- spontaneous in thought and action
- able to look at life objectively
- concerned for welfare of humanity
- accept themselves and others for what they are
Strengths of Humanistic theories
- positive
- looks at all qualities of an individual/ complete picture of development
- strong link to social influence on development
- considers psych and client relationship as paramount to successful resolution
Limitations of Humanistic theories
- romantic and simple
- focus on self fulfilment
- doesnt recognise evil
- difficult to generalise to minorities
- methodological flaws
- people can move up without meeting lower needs
