SLK chapter 12: The nature of personality & psychodynamic perspectives
THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY
- What is personality
• Personality has been described or defined in many ways.
• Its individuals unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling and
behaving.
• Personality has been dominated by many theories that attempt to explain
many facets of behaviour, these include:
• Freud (Psychodynamic theory) which focus on:
- The influence of unconscious mental processes
- The importance of sexual and aggressive instincts
- The enduring consequences of early childhood experiences
• Skinner (Behavioural theory)
• Carl Rogers (Humanistic theory) which focuses on:
-People are innately good
-Self-Concept belief that one has about their own nature/behaviour (Key piece
of persons personality)
-People are motivated to achieve full potential, otherwise known as self-
actualisation
• Abraham Maslow (Humanist)
-Believed in Self- actualization (you realising your full potential)
-Known for Hierarchy of needs (see needs in chapter 10)
• Albert Bandura (Social Cognitive)
-Created the concept of self- efficacy (Feeling of confidence or doubt that
one brings to a specific situation)
• Julian Rotter (Social Cognitive)
-Locus of Control:
o Persons personal power that is key to how a person approaches a
problem.
o Internal Locus of Control- Accepting of personal responsibility for
their life
, o External Locus of Control- Believing that most things in life depend on
luck and chance.
CONSISTENCY AND DISTINCTIVENESS PERSONALITY
• Consistency- in behaviour across situations is described as one of the core-
concept of personality e.g., Optimistic personality (always cheerful and
hopeful)
• Distinctiveness personality-When people act differently in similar situations
e.g. (People stuck in a lift)
• There can be varied reactions to the same situation because each person has
a different personality.
• Thus, each person has traits that are seen in other people, but each has his or
her own distinctive set of personality traits that make up who they are.
• Therefore, concept of personality is used to explain:
• a) the stability in a person’s behaviour over time and across situations is
(consistency)
• b) the behavioural differences among people reacting to the same situations
(distinctiveness)
Personality refers to an individual’s unique set of consistent behavioural
traits
EARLY TRAIT THEORIES
• Gordon Allport developed a list of about 4,500 adjectives to describe
specific personality traits:
-Cardinal traits- dominate/shape a persons outlook
-Central traits- Influence most of our behaviour
-Secondary traits- Only seen in certain situations
• Raymond Cattell used factor analysis to shorten the 171 terms then into 16
factor traits
-’16 personality factor questionnaire’
PERSONALITY TRAITS
,• A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in particular way in a
variety of situations. There are different
descriptive statements that refer to personality traits (Honest, dependable,
moody, friendly, suspicious, anxious, domineering etc.
• A number of psychologists have taken a challenge of identifying the basic
traits that form the core personality such as Raymond Cattell (1950-1990,
Gordon Allport (1937).
• They used a statistical procedure of factor analysis to reduce a list of 171
personality traits to 16 basic dimensions of personality
• Factor analysis is used to identify hidden factors.
• In factor analysis of personality traits these hidden factors are viewed as
basic, higher-order traits that determine less basic, but more specific traits.
• Cattell concluded that an individual’s personality can be described
completely by measuring just 16 dimensions to assess these traits
THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY TRAITS
• Robert McCrae and Paul Costa used factor analysis to arrive at a much
simpler, five factor model of personality which came to be known as the Big
Five. (Developed Raymonds theories’ These are:
• Extraversion
• Neuroticism
• Openness to experience
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
Extraversion
• People who score high in extraversion are characterised as.
• Outgoing, sociable, friendly, talkative and enthusiastic
• Positive emotionally
• More positive outlook on life and are motivated to pursue social contact,
intimacy and interdependence
, • Low scores relate to carelessness, being impulsive and undependable
Neuroticism
• People who score high in neuroticism tend to be.
• Anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure and vulnerable
• They tend to overreact more in response to stress than others
• Tend to show more impulsiveness and emotional instability than others
• Low scores point towards being calm, easy going and emotionally stable
Openness to experience
• Openness is associated with.
• Curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity and
unconventional attitudes
• Tend to be tolerant of ambiguity and have less need for closure on issues
• Intellectually curious, sensitive to beauty and open to experience
• Low scores mean you tend to be a conventional thinker who prefers
straightforward answers
Agreeableness
• They tend to be:
• Sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward.
• Associated with constructive approaches to conflict resolution, making
agreeable people less quarrelsome than others
• It is correlated with empathy and helping behaviour
• If you score low you are suspicious, argumentative and uncooperative
THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY
- What is personality
• Personality has been described or defined in many ways.
• Its individuals unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling and
behaving.
• Personality has been dominated by many theories that attempt to explain
many facets of behaviour, these include:
• Freud (Psychodynamic theory) which focus on:
- The influence of unconscious mental processes
- The importance of sexual and aggressive instincts
- The enduring consequences of early childhood experiences
• Skinner (Behavioural theory)
• Carl Rogers (Humanistic theory) which focuses on:
-People are innately good
-Self-Concept belief that one has about their own nature/behaviour (Key piece
of persons personality)
-People are motivated to achieve full potential, otherwise known as self-
actualisation
• Abraham Maslow (Humanist)
-Believed in Self- actualization (you realising your full potential)
-Known for Hierarchy of needs (see needs in chapter 10)
• Albert Bandura (Social Cognitive)
-Created the concept of self- efficacy (Feeling of confidence or doubt that
one brings to a specific situation)
• Julian Rotter (Social Cognitive)
-Locus of Control:
o Persons personal power that is key to how a person approaches a
problem.
o Internal Locus of Control- Accepting of personal responsibility for
their life
, o External Locus of Control- Believing that most things in life depend on
luck and chance.
CONSISTENCY AND DISTINCTIVENESS PERSONALITY
• Consistency- in behaviour across situations is described as one of the core-
concept of personality e.g., Optimistic personality (always cheerful and
hopeful)
• Distinctiveness personality-When people act differently in similar situations
e.g. (People stuck in a lift)
• There can be varied reactions to the same situation because each person has
a different personality.
• Thus, each person has traits that are seen in other people, but each has his or
her own distinctive set of personality traits that make up who they are.
• Therefore, concept of personality is used to explain:
• a) the stability in a person’s behaviour over time and across situations is
(consistency)
• b) the behavioural differences among people reacting to the same situations
(distinctiveness)
Personality refers to an individual’s unique set of consistent behavioural
traits
EARLY TRAIT THEORIES
• Gordon Allport developed a list of about 4,500 adjectives to describe
specific personality traits:
-Cardinal traits- dominate/shape a persons outlook
-Central traits- Influence most of our behaviour
-Secondary traits- Only seen in certain situations
• Raymond Cattell used factor analysis to shorten the 171 terms then into 16
factor traits
-’16 personality factor questionnaire’
PERSONALITY TRAITS
,• A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in particular way in a
variety of situations. There are different
descriptive statements that refer to personality traits (Honest, dependable,
moody, friendly, suspicious, anxious, domineering etc.
• A number of psychologists have taken a challenge of identifying the basic
traits that form the core personality such as Raymond Cattell (1950-1990,
Gordon Allport (1937).
• They used a statistical procedure of factor analysis to reduce a list of 171
personality traits to 16 basic dimensions of personality
• Factor analysis is used to identify hidden factors.
• In factor analysis of personality traits these hidden factors are viewed as
basic, higher-order traits that determine less basic, but more specific traits.
• Cattell concluded that an individual’s personality can be described
completely by measuring just 16 dimensions to assess these traits
THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY TRAITS
• Robert McCrae and Paul Costa used factor analysis to arrive at a much
simpler, five factor model of personality which came to be known as the Big
Five. (Developed Raymonds theories’ These are:
• Extraversion
• Neuroticism
• Openness to experience
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
Extraversion
• People who score high in extraversion are characterised as.
• Outgoing, sociable, friendly, talkative and enthusiastic
• Positive emotionally
• More positive outlook on life and are motivated to pursue social contact,
intimacy and interdependence
, • Low scores relate to carelessness, being impulsive and undependable
Neuroticism
• People who score high in neuroticism tend to be.
• Anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure and vulnerable
• They tend to overreact more in response to stress than others
• Tend to show more impulsiveness and emotional instability than others
• Low scores point towards being calm, easy going and emotionally stable
Openness to experience
• Openness is associated with.
• Curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity and
unconventional attitudes
• Tend to be tolerant of ambiguity and have less need for closure on issues
• Intellectually curious, sensitive to beauty and open to experience
• Low scores mean you tend to be a conventional thinker who prefers
straightforward answers
Agreeableness
• They tend to be:
• Sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward.
• Associated with constructive approaches to conflict resolution, making
agreeable people less quarrelsome than others
• It is correlated with empathy and helping behaviour
• If you score low you are suspicious, argumentative and uncooperative
