Personality Lecture Notes
Professor: Stephane Gaskin
Chapter 1:
What is Personality?
• Personality can be defined as consistent behaviour pattern and intrapersonal process
originating within the individual
• Personalities of people are generally constant and consistent
• Intrapersonal processes include all the emotional, motivational and cognitive processes
that goes on inside the brain of a person
6 approaches to personality:
1. Psychoanalytic approach: unconscious mind are responsible for daily behaviour
2. Trait approach: person have different personality traits
3. Biological approach: inherited dispositions through heredity
4. Humanistic approach
5. Behavioural approach
6. Cognitive approach
Why not use all of the approaches together?
• Sometimes two or more approaches may be entirely incompatible
Depression:
• Sigmund Freud, said that depression is anger turned inwards
• These angry feelings are turned inward and people take it out on themselves
• This process takes place at an unconscious level
• It is possible to inherit a genetic susceptibility to depression
• Humanistic personality theorists explain depression in terms of self esteem, accepting self
as it is with flaws
• Self esteem is established while growing up
• It develops from experiences with aversive situations over which people have little
control over
• Depressed people can easily recall unhappy experiences and are ready to view the world
in the most depressing terms possible
• Cognitive approach best for aggression
• Humanistic approach for depression
,Personality and culture:
• People and their personalities exist within a cultural context
• Individualistic cultures have ore emphasis on individual needs and accomplishments
• Collectivist cultures are more concerned about belonging together
• Personality psychologist need to consider a person's culture before determining their
personality
,Chapter 2:
Personality Research Methods:
• Personality research begins with a theory
• Theory: a general statement about the relationship between constructs or events
• They focus on topics like: relationship between a parent's behaviour and their child's self
esteem
• Hypothesis: a formal prediction about the relationship between two or more variables
that is logically derived from the theory
• Predictions are made and they can be tested
• Theories are never proved or disproved, the more they confirm a prediction makes it
accurate
A good theory:
1. Parsimonious: should have the easiest and best explanation of a theory
2. Usefulness: should be testable, if not testable probably are incorrect
HYPOTHESIS TESTING APPROACH:
Experimental variables:
1. Independent variable:
• How groups are divided in the experiment
• Manipulated by the experimenter
• Each groups created by the IV receive different treatment
• It is also known as treatment variable
2. Dependent variable:
• Measured by the experimenter
• Used to compare the experimental group
Manipulated vs non-manipulated independent variables:
• Sometimes participants are randomly assigned to different conditions
• It is difficult to determine cause and effect relationship with manipulated independent
variables, researchers prefer to manipulate variables
Prediction VS Hindsight:
• Researchers are expected to make predictions about the stud before data collection
• Researcher generates a theory and makes hypothesis and collects data to verify it
, Replication:
• The more often an effect is found in research, the more confidence we have
• It reflects genuine relationship between variables
THE CASE STUDY METHOD:
• In depth evaluation of a single individual
• The researcher records in great detail the person’s history, current behavior, and changes
in behavior over the course of the investigation, which sometimes lasts for years. Case
study data are usually descriptive
Problems of this method:
1. Generalizing: comparing individual to crowd
2. Cause and effect: individual differences
3. Accuracy: questionable
When to use it?
1. Rare case
2. Illustrate a treatment
Statistical analysis of data:
• Common tests are: analysis variance, a chi square, correlation coefficient
• Statistical tests do not provide a yes or a no answer to our questions
• They tell us the likelihood that has the difference between the group was caused by
chance
• Correlation coefficient is the appropriate statistical test when we want to understand the
relationship between two measures
• After conducting the appropriate statistical test, we can reduce the data from our study
to a single number called a correlation coefficient
• This number can range from 1.00 to −1.00
• .00 means no correlation
• .60 means positive correlation
• -.60 means negative correlation
Personality assessment:
• Valid and reliable assessment is a key component of personality research
• Examining reliability and validity is important
Professor: Stephane Gaskin
Chapter 1:
What is Personality?
• Personality can be defined as consistent behaviour pattern and intrapersonal process
originating within the individual
• Personalities of people are generally constant and consistent
• Intrapersonal processes include all the emotional, motivational and cognitive processes
that goes on inside the brain of a person
6 approaches to personality:
1. Psychoanalytic approach: unconscious mind are responsible for daily behaviour
2. Trait approach: person have different personality traits
3. Biological approach: inherited dispositions through heredity
4. Humanistic approach
5. Behavioural approach
6. Cognitive approach
Why not use all of the approaches together?
• Sometimes two or more approaches may be entirely incompatible
Depression:
• Sigmund Freud, said that depression is anger turned inwards
• These angry feelings are turned inward and people take it out on themselves
• This process takes place at an unconscious level
• It is possible to inherit a genetic susceptibility to depression
• Humanistic personality theorists explain depression in terms of self esteem, accepting self
as it is with flaws
• Self esteem is established while growing up
• It develops from experiences with aversive situations over which people have little
control over
• Depressed people can easily recall unhappy experiences and are ready to view the world
in the most depressing terms possible
• Cognitive approach best for aggression
• Humanistic approach for depression
,Personality and culture:
• People and their personalities exist within a cultural context
• Individualistic cultures have ore emphasis on individual needs and accomplishments
• Collectivist cultures are more concerned about belonging together
• Personality psychologist need to consider a person's culture before determining their
personality
,Chapter 2:
Personality Research Methods:
• Personality research begins with a theory
• Theory: a general statement about the relationship between constructs or events
• They focus on topics like: relationship between a parent's behaviour and their child's self
esteem
• Hypothesis: a formal prediction about the relationship between two or more variables
that is logically derived from the theory
• Predictions are made and they can be tested
• Theories are never proved or disproved, the more they confirm a prediction makes it
accurate
A good theory:
1. Parsimonious: should have the easiest and best explanation of a theory
2. Usefulness: should be testable, if not testable probably are incorrect
HYPOTHESIS TESTING APPROACH:
Experimental variables:
1. Independent variable:
• How groups are divided in the experiment
• Manipulated by the experimenter
• Each groups created by the IV receive different treatment
• It is also known as treatment variable
2. Dependent variable:
• Measured by the experimenter
• Used to compare the experimental group
Manipulated vs non-manipulated independent variables:
• Sometimes participants are randomly assigned to different conditions
• It is difficult to determine cause and effect relationship with manipulated independent
variables, researchers prefer to manipulate variables
Prediction VS Hindsight:
• Researchers are expected to make predictions about the stud before data collection
• Researcher generates a theory and makes hypothesis and collects data to verify it
, Replication:
• The more often an effect is found in research, the more confidence we have
• It reflects genuine relationship between variables
THE CASE STUDY METHOD:
• In depth evaluation of a single individual
• The researcher records in great detail the person’s history, current behavior, and changes
in behavior over the course of the investigation, which sometimes lasts for years. Case
study data are usually descriptive
Problems of this method:
1. Generalizing: comparing individual to crowd
2. Cause and effect: individual differences
3. Accuracy: questionable
When to use it?
1. Rare case
2. Illustrate a treatment
Statistical analysis of data:
• Common tests are: analysis variance, a chi square, correlation coefficient
• Statistical tests do not provide a yes or a no answer to our questions
• They tell us the likelihood that has the difference between the group was caused by
chance
• Correlation coefficient is the appropriate statistical test when we want to understand the
relationship between two measures
• After conducting the appropriate statistical test, we can reduce the data from our study
to a single number called a correlation coefficient
• This number can range from 1.00 to −1.00
• .00 means no correlation
• .60 means positive correlation
• -.60 means negative correlation
Personality assessment:
• Valid and reliable assessment is a key component of personality research
• Examining reliability and validity is important
