week 5

Question 1

historical development of personality

Answer 1

Galen (180c)
Earliest goes back to anciet greece
Personality is driven is domiance of different humours (blood, yellow bile, black bile,phlegm)

Question 2

early conceptualisations of personality

Answer 2

Freuds tri partite model of personality (1923)
Personality, control inner desires and ego is situational

Question 3

birth of personality psychology

Answer 3

Pre-1930s: Personality in social and abnormal psychology
Dominance of experimental, behaviorist U.S. psychology
Emphasis on observable responses
Personality psychology focused on whole person, individual differences
1930s: Emergence as a distinct discipline
Shift to holistic understanding of individual differences

Question 4

grand personality system theory

Answer 4

1. proposed multiple constructs organised on multiple levels
2. viewed the person as a unified and organized totality, e.g. emphasising “self” or “ego”
3. emphasised motivation that explains behaviours
   emphasised personality development, especially during childhood

Question 5

gorden allport

Answer 5

Book “Personality: A Psychological Interpretation” (1937) formalized personality psychology.
Defines personality as the dynamic organization of psychophysical systems shaping unique environmental adjustments.
Allport’s concept of traits: Real, guiding elements that determine behavior, empirically verified, with overlapping functions.
Traits aren’t absolute; stable traits can change over time.
Introduces the “proprium” as the highest level in personality structure, fostering inward unity and consistency.
Proprium development spans stages from a sense of body to self-identity.
Final stage involves reflecting on life experiences, striving for internal satisfaction and fulfillment.

Question 6

henry murray

Answer 6

1938: Published “Explorations in Personality.”
Murray’s perspective contrasts with Allport’s unified self, seeing personality as conflicting conscious and unconscious voices.
Primary motivational construct is “need,” interacting with “press” (situation).
Introduces “unity thema,” a dominant pattern of need-press interaction shaping a person’s biography.

Question 7

murray psychogenic needs

Answer 7

Murray, influenced by Freudian theory, distinguishes primary (survival, sex) and secondary needs (emotional satisfaction).
Stresses prepotency: unsatisfied needs drive urgent behavior.
Researches 20 needs, advancing understanding of personality motivation.

Question 8

murrays view on personality dev

Answer 8

Childhood events impact specific needs development.
Needs activated in adulthood by situational triggers termed “press.”
Early childhood shapes “thema,” merging personal factors (needs) with environmental influences (presses).
Dominant “unity thema” organizes and profoundly influences personality.

Question 9

cattel

Answer 9

Cattell revolutionized personality psychology with conceptual and methodological innovations.
Introduced traits as the fundamental unit, defining traits as co-variation and underlying factors.
Traits are mental structures inferred from observed behavior for explaining consistency.
Differentiated surface traits (manifest variables) from source traits (underlying determinants).
Compiled 4500 trait names, reduced to 171, and factor analyzed ratings.
In 1970, published the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire.

Question 10

development of psychometric methods

Answer 10

By 1946, core concepts in personality psychology were established.
Early 20th-century success in intelligence testing prompted the measurement of personality through scales.
Ongoing refinement of statistical methods for scale construction became more sophisticated.
Over time, personality psychology shifted from interpretive studies of unique individuals to psychometric analysis of dimensional differences among people

Question 11

factor analytic studies of traits

Answer 11

By mid 1930s, psychologists were showing a lively intrest in factor analytic studies of personality based on lexical approach- analyzing personality descriptors laypeople use
Approach assumes that:
1. People encode in their everyday languages all those individual differences that they perceive as most salient and socially relevant
2. Frequency of use of personality descriptors corresponds with importance
3. The number of words in a language that refer to each trait will be related to how important that trait is in describing personality

Question 12

hierachal model of personality

Answer 12

Behavior begins with specific responses to the environment.
Specific responses grouped together form habitual responses, representing typical behavior.
Collections of habitual responses create traits, enduring characteristics.
Eysenck identified fundamental traits using factor analysis, known as super traits.

Question 13

supertraits

Answer 13

Extraversion: Extraverts are sociable, impulsive, and drawn to excitement, focusing on external reality. Introverts are introspective, quiet individuals preferring order and oriented towards inner reality.
Neuroticism: Neurotics are emotionally unstable, exhibiting unreasonable fears, obsessions, or impulsive symptoms related to objects, places, animals, or people.

Question 14

psychoticism

Answer 14

Two traits insufficient, so introduced third super trait: Psychoticism.
Psychotics exhibit severe psychopathology, often showing insensitivity, hostility, cruelty, and a need to ridicule others.
Identification based on observations, noting a lack of anxiety and fear, prevalent in prison populations.

Question 15

PEN model

Answer 15

Assessed by Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.
Argued that about two-thirds of personality development variance is due to biological factors.
High scores on neuroticism and psychoticism linked to predisposition for clinical neurosis and psychosis.
PEN model combines descriptive and causal aspects, differing from many trait theories.
Comprehensive hierarchy with clear distinctions, facilitating comparison with other trait theories.
Experimental approach by Eysenck enhances testability of the model.

Question 16

evaulation of eysenck

Answer 16

EPQ’s neuroticism and extraversion scales reliably predict various behaviors.
Psychoticism scale’s reliability questioned, particularly its predictive value for clinical psychosis.
Analyses suggest Eysenck’s model is better explained by a 5-factor model of personality.

Question 17

five factor model of personality

Answer 17

Debate on the number of personality factors emerged from factor-analytic studies using the lexical approach.
By the 1990s, a consensus suggested personality could be described by five uncorrelated factors.
Numerous studies, with diverse samples and languages, consistently reported a five-factor personality solution.

Question 18

costa and mcraes big five factors

Answer 18

• Key proponents of FFM described as five factors as: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion
• Developed the 240 item neuroticism, extraversion, openness personality inventory to these personality dimentsions
• The shorted 60 item NEO five factor inventory is also available

Question 19

potential problems of ffm

Answer 19

• Big five is a hierachal model with each of big five factors consisting of six facets or subordinate traits
• Big five is data derived as opposed to theoretically based
  Big five traits are essentially descriptive and may suffer from problem of circular explanation

Question 20

HEXACO model

Answer 20

Despite widespread acceptance of the Five-Factor Model (FFM), recent research proposes an additional factor.
Ashton, Lee, and Son (2000) identified a sixth factor, “Honesty-Humility,” across various studies in multiple countries.
Critiques by Saucier (2002) indicate correlations with agreeableness and suggest other independent constructs as potential sixth factors.

Question 21

general factor model of personality

Answer 21

Musek (2007) factor-analyzed data from Slovakian adults, revealing a single factor explaining a significant portion of variance in scores.
Further analysis combined the Five-Factor Model into Stability (conforming and stable) and Plasticity (openness and capacity for change/non-conformity).

Question 22

interpretation of big two and one

Answer 22

DeYoung, Peterson, and Higgins (2001) propose the Big Two as fundamental personality dimensions.
Stability linked to neurophysiological functions of the ascending rostral serotonergic system; Plasticity linked to the central dopaminergic system.
Conformity positively related to Stability and negatively to Plasticity.
Musek (2007, 2017) suggests General Factor of Personality (GFP) reflects a psychobiological disposition contributing to overall social and personal adjustment.
Critiques:

Ferguson et al. (2011) argue correlations between Five Factor Model domains may result from self-report measures.
Musek (2017) contends that even after controlling for social desirability, loadings on GFP remain consistent, and social desirability itself may be more of a personality trait than a response style.

Question 23

why individual differences?

Answer 23

Contemporary personality psychology explores traits, attitudes, emotions, motivations, and self-regulation.
Advanced methods study needs, unconscious processes, and neurobiological foundations.
Focus on in-depth analysis of personality traits to explain individual differences.
Provides a comprehensive understanding of human personality by examining various elements.

Question 24

reading

Answer 24

Trait theory assumes stability across situations, aiming for basic structure and reliable measurement.
Sheldon’s somatotypes link physique and temperament.
Lexical hypothesis suggests individual differences encoded as single-word terms.
Allport’s idographic approach identifies cardinal, central, and secondary personality traits.
Cattell’s structure includes ability, temperament, and dynamic traits.
Eysenck attributes two-thirds of variance in personality to biological factors.