INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND PERSONALITY

Jelina Mae A. Lopos Kathleen Ritchelle Lubi George Romeo Liz

PERSONALITY
(Reported by: Jelina Mae A. Lopos)
-There is no single definition to the term -Burger (our author), suggests that personality can be defined as consistent behavioral patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within the individual. -Note elements of this definition: personality is consistent, a long time and across situations. Personality is our intrapersonal processes (not interpersonal) our emotional, motivational, and cognitive processes that affect how we feel and how we act. -A distinctive and relatively stable pattern of behaviour, thoughts, motives, and emotions characterizes an individual that

-The totality of thoughts, emotions, intentions, and behaviors that a person exhibits consistently as he or she adapts to his or her environment. -A consistent multiple-year pattern of thinking, feeling, valuing, believing, and behaving. What it means -Refers to an individuals characteristic patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms (hidden or not) behind those patterns -Even though we share similarities as humans, each person is unique - that uniqueness is your personality!

SHAPING OF PERSONALITY
GENETIC INFLUENCE Research shows that reliable differences can be observed among infants beginning at about 3 months of age. Such characteristics are activity level, attention span, adaptability to changes in the environment & general mood. Such mood related personality characteristics, called temperament are building blocks for the individuals later personality. The early appearance of such characteristic suggests that they are determined in part by genetic factors and are inherited from the parents. ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE Most psychological theories of development assumes that forces acting early in life have more influence in shaping our personalities than do later forces. Child differs from one another in the degree to which they form secure attachments to their primary caregivers in the 1st year of life. Those who form such attachments are observed in later childhood to approach difficult problems with enthusiasm and persistence, to be self-directed and eager to learn & to be social leaders among their peers. In contrast, children who are less securely attached at the end of their first year are more easily frustrated, are more dependent on adults and tend to be socially withdrawn. The failure to form secure attachments in the early years has been related to an inability to develop close personal relationships in adulthood.

CULTURAL INFLUENCE Western cultureIndependent Self-assertive Motivated to achieve Non-Western culture Interdependence of persons with others in the community Children are encourage to be part of functioning community -Parents in non-Western culture punish wrong behaviour & do not explicitly praise or reward good behaviour. How do we study Personality? -Humans are incredibly complex and multifaceted; we cant study everything at oncethus -We try to limit what we look at by searching for specific patterns using a basic approach or theory -Six Theories/Approaches: Psychoanalytical, Trait, Biological, Humanist, Behavioral/Social Learning, and Cognitive -Each theory/approach is a systematic, self-imposed limitation of studying personality -Each theory/approach correctly identifies and examines an important aspect of human personality Why Study Personality? -We hope to identify personality traits, so we can predict how the person will behave -In hiring decisions, the job may require some personality characteristics -Dating services operate on the basis of the research finding that similarity in traits and tendencies predict the success of the relationship -In the legal system, the lawyers want to assess the tendencies of prospective jurors.

SIX APPROACHES IN STUDYING PERSONALITY

Psychoanalytical approach
-Sigmund Freud is the most famous proponent of this view. Freuds psychoanalytic theory begins with the idea that the mind exists on two basic levels: conscious and unconscious. Freud believed that the mind has three basic structures: Id: unconscious irrational source of primitive impulses. -isnt bound by logic or reality; it follows the pleasure principle; its aims are to avoid pain, reduce tension, and indulge; it is made of urges, wishes, needs, and wants; it is the original source of the personality. Ego: conscious and realistic (respects reality principle) - emerges from the id to satisfy the demands of society; it is the part of the mind that balances personal needs with available resources; its goal is to ensure the health and survival of the self. It uses reason, planning, and delayed gratification; it operates according to the reality principle. Superego: both conscious and unconscious. Based on rules and prohibitions we have internalized.

-emerges as the self learns moral values and norms and forms a conscience, which is concerned with right and wrong, and develops as a result of punishments and rewards in childhood; the super-ego (1) suppresses impulses, (2) modifies the egos realistic goals with moral constraints, and (3) motivates the person to strive for excellence. When the inner battle between the id and superego, refereed by the ego, gets out of hand, the result is Anxiety. The ego protects itself (you) by using Defense Mechanisms Defense Mechanisms - reduce/redirect anxiety by distorting reality Repression blocks threatening thoughts and feelings from consciousness, and it underlies all other defense mechanisms) Regression retreating to an earlier stage of development Reaction Formation when the ego makes unacceptable impulses appear as their opposites Projection denying faults by seeing them in others Rationalization creating self-justifying explanations to hide your true motivations and intentions Displacement diverting potentially harmful impulses away from the real target toward a nonthreatening person or object Sublimation transforming unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities such as art - Points to an unconscious death instinct. According to this point of view, we all posses an unconscious drive to self-destruct. However, since people with healthy personality do not hurt themselves, this death wish is turned outward, and expressed as aggression against others. Another psychoanalytic suggestion is that aggression results from frustrationwhen our goaldirected movement is blocked. -This approach looks at the workings of the unconscious mind and the nature and resolution of internal mental conflict Example: This person is outgoing to please their inner voice (they may not be aware of this). Their inner voice developed in relation to their early life experience and society.

Trait Approach
-This approach focuses on the way people differ from each other and how these differences can be conceptualized and measured as personality characteristics Example: We would look at the behavior of this person and describe their outgoing personality as extroverted - as compared with introverted.

Biological Approach
-The biological perspective is also interested in stable patterns of aggressive behavior in people, and point to the genetic predisposition to act aggressively as one reason for this stability. Evidence supports the genetic basis of aggression- it seems to be running in families. Another facet of the biological perspective is the evolutionary explanation: In terms to our prehistory, the more aggressive members of the species had a higher chance to survive, to live long enough in order to mate and to pass on the aggressive genes to their offspring. Testosterone levels were also implicated in aggression.

-This approach tries to understand personality in terms of the body such as anatomy, chemistry, physiology, genetic inheritance, the brain, and shared evolutionary characteristics Example: Our person genetically inherited their outgoing personality, in other words, they were born with an outgoing personality.

Humanistic Approach
-The humanistic approach views aggression as the result of unfulfilled needs to grow in a healthy manner. -This approach explores the individuals conscious experience with the world, the ways people have free will strive for self-acceptance Example: Our person has decided to be outgoing because it will help me be the person I want to be.

Behaviorist/Social Learning
-The behavioral/social learning perspective: aggression is learned on the basis of rewards and reinforcement, and also on the basis of observing aggressive models being rewarded. -The ways in which people change as a result of experience (the rewards and punishments or consequences they encounter) and how the social environment influences personality Example: Our person has been rewarded for being outgoing and has learned to be outgoing from the observation of other outgoing people.

Cognitive
-Cognitive psychologists view aggression from the perspective of information-processing. We respond to situations of the basis of our interpretation of the situation. -How the cognitive processes of perception, memory and thought affect behavior and personality Example: Our person has a perception of him/herself as an outgoing person.

Personality Assessment
(Reported by: Kathleen Lubi)

Personality assessment is conducted through behavioral observations, paper-and-pencil tests, and projective techniques. To be useful, such assessments must be constructed using the established criteria of standardization, reliability, and validity. The information can be used in several areas, including clinical work, vocational counseling, education, and research.

Behavioral observations. Most people use behavioral observations to form impressions of

others. Such observations are also an important part of clinical assessments by clinical psychologists and other professionals. Interviews, during which subjects' behaviors are observed, may be structured or unstructured. The examiner may ask a standardized set of questions ( structured interview) or engage in a conversational interchange with the subject ( unstructured interview). During the interview, the examiner forms an opinion about personality characteristics (as is done, for example, also in the nonclinical setting of a job interview).

Paper-and-pencil tests. The many and various paper-and-pencil tests are used for a variety
of purposes. To be useful, such tests must be reliable (that is, they must yield very close scores each time they are administered to a particular individual) and valid (that is, they must measure what they are designed to measure). The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) ( multiphasic, many phased, because the test simultaneously measures a number of personality dimensions) is widely used to identify personality problems. The California Personality Inventory (CPI) is also used extensively, generally with people who do not have personality problems. Some tests assess personality as defined by a particular theory. For example, Cattell's 16 PF (personality factor) questionnaire assesses the personality traits defined in Cattell's trait theory.

Projective techniques. Projective techniques assess personality by presenting ambiguous

stimuli and requiring a subject to respond, projecting his or her personality into the responses. The ambiguous inkblots in the well-known Rorschach inkblot test, developed by Hermann Rorschach, are perceived differently by different people, and those perceptions are believed to be related to the subjects' problems. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), developed by Henry Murray, consists of a series of ambiguous pictures, which the subject is requested to describe and tell a story about. The test is used to identify a person's emotions, motives, and problems. Scoring and interpreting projective tests requires special training, but the tests can be very helpful in identifying personality problems.