Persoonlijkheidsleer
Introduction to Personality Toward an Integrative Science of the Person
H1 – Introduction
Part 1: H3
Part 2: H5&6
Part 3: H7&9
Part 4: H10
Part 5: H12
Part 6: H14
CH1: Orientation to Personality
What is Personality Psychology?
Stable, Coherent Individual Differences
Personality refers to qualities of individuals that are relatively stable. Coherence in the pattern of
change in an individual’s behavior may be another key component of personality.
Predicting and Understanding
The term ‘personality’ usually implies continuity or consistency in the individual. Identifying
consistent, stable individual differences is an important goal for personality psychologists because it
makes it possible both to describe people and to try to predict their future behavior.
Two goals of personality psychologists, are:
- Identifying consistent, stable individual differences.
- Try to understand what it is that underlies these differences.
Defining Personality
Individual differences are always a core part of the definition of personality psychology. Personality
includes the person’s unique patterns of coping with, and transforming, the psychological
environment.
Five aspects of personality, are:
- Personality shows continuity, stability and coherence.
- Personality is expressed in many ways – from overt behavior through thoughts and feelings.
- Personality is organized. In fact, when it is fragmented or disorganized it is a sign of
disturbance.
- Personality is a determinant that influences how the individual relates to the social world.
- Personality is a psychological concept, but it also is assumed to link with the physical,
biological characteristics of the person.
,Theory and Levels of Analysis in Personality Psychology
From Grand Theories to Levels of Analysis
In the first half of the 20th century, personality psychology was inspired by grand theories of
personality that were being developed by several ‘big picture’ innovators.
Scientific shortcomings of broad theories of personality (grand theories):
- Most of the grand theories of personality did not lend themselves to precise scientific testing
that allowed them to be either supported or disconfirmed clearly on the basis of empirical
studies.
o Difficulty of specifying the theoretical premises in testable terms.
o Experimental and statistical limitations in conducting and evaluating the test results.
- Grand theories often function more like general guidelines or orientations for studying
personality and interpreting the results from a particular perspective or framework. Thus it is
difficult to firmly reject or support a given theory on the basis of empirical studies.
In contrast, in the current scene there are numerous encouraging signs of integration and
constructive syntheses of the insights coming from theorists and researchers that are working at
different levels of analysis, addressing different aspects of personality. It is increasingly seen that
each level has its legitimacy and usefulness, and each requires distinctive methods and concepts.
Levels of Analysis: Organization of this Book
Personality is studied at six levels:
- Trait-Dispositional Level
- Biological Level
- Psychodynamic-Motivational Level
- Behavioral-Conditioning Level
- Phenomenological-Humanistic Level
- Social Cognitive Level
The Trait-Dispositional Level
Trait-Dispositional Level: seeks to identify the types of stable psychological qualities and behavioral
dispositions that characterize different individuals and types consistently.
- ‘What am I like as a person? How am I different from other people on the whole? In what
general ways are people different from each other?’
- Studies at this level also examine the stability and consistency of traits and types over the
course of time throughout the life span.
The Biological Level
Biological Level: an important goal of personality study at the biological level is to try to specify the
role of genetic determinants and of the social environment in shaping who and what we become.
- How much of personality reflects nature, and how much nurture.
, - ‘To what extent does my personality come from my parents and the genes I inherited from
them? To what extent is my personality a reflection of my life experiences? To what extent
does my personality reflect my basic biological predispositions?’
- A goal at this level of analysis is to examine how aspects of personality may have evolved in
response to the evolutionary pressures and history that shaped our species over time.
The Psychodynamic-Motivational Level
Psychodynamic-Motivational Level: probes the motivations, conflicts, and defenses, often without
one’s awareness, that can help explain complex consistencies and inconsistencies in personality.
- ‘Does what I do sometimes puzzle me? How and why? What are the real motives that drive or
underlie my behavior? How can I explain irrational fears and anxieties? How do I try to
protect myself against getting hurt psychologically?’
- The kind of insight needed to understand someone’s behavioral and emotional
inconsistencies is at the heart of the psychodynamic motivational level of analysis.
The Behavioral-Conditioning Level
Behavioral-Conditioning Level: analyzes specific patterns of behavior that characterize individuals
and the situations or conditions that seem to regulate their occurrence and strength. It studies the
determinants of learning and applies learning principles to modify problematic patterns of behavior,
including emotional reactions like fears.
- Behavioral analyses focus on a specific, problematic or otherwise important behavior – such
as the stutter of a person suffering from public speaking anxieties, or one’s inability to stay
concentrated on studying before exams. Then they analyze the situations or conditions that
seem to control that behavior, that is, the conditions in which the stutter or the studying
becomes worse or improves. Finding the conditions in which the problem improves becomes
the basis for designing treatments to modify the behavior to help reduce or eliminate the
problem.
- Behavioral analyses have helped us understand the conditions through which behaviors
relevant to personality are learned and can be modified.
- ‘How are important behavior patterns, including emotions and fears, learned? How does
what I do and feel depend on my earlier experiences? How can my behavior and feelings be
modified by new learning experiences?’
- Focus is on the ways in which the person’s behavior reflects and is shaped by his or her
learning history and present life conditions.
The Phenomenological-Humanistic Level
Each person sees the world subjectively in his or her own personal ways. To understand this privately
experienced side of personality, we must examine the nature of subjective experience; we have to
try to see how people perceive their world.
Phenomenological-Humanistic Level: work at this level begins by listening closely and trying to
understand the individual’s experience as he or she perceives it. The focus is on subjective
experience, feelings, the personal view of the world and the self. The focus is also on people’s
positive strivings and their tendencies toward growth and self-actualization.
, - ‘Who am I really? Who do I want to become? How do I see myself? How do I see my parents?
What do I feel about myself when I don’t meet my parents’ expectations?’
- It is addressing the processes through which each person develops a sense of self and
identity – a conception of who one is and wants to be.
The Social Cognitive Level
Social Cognitive Level: the focus of personality research at the social cognitive level includes the
person’s social knowledge of the world, and how people make sense of other people and
themselves and cope as they negotiate their interpersonal lives.
- ‘How does what I know, think, and feel about myself and the social world influence what I do
and can become? What can I do to change how I think and feel?’
- The social cognitive level examines individual differences in how social knowledge is used in
dealing with the world, in the construction of the self, in self-regulation, and in self-control.
- The specific focus is on the individual’s characteristic ways of thinking and processing
information, both cognitively and emotionally, as determinants of his or her distinctive and
meaningful patterns of experience and social behavior.
Introduction to Personality Toward an Integrative Science of the Person
H1 – Introduction
Part 1: H3
Part 2: H5&6
Part 3: H7&9
Part 4: H10
Part 5: H12
Part 6: H14
CH1: Orientation to Personality
What is Personality Psychology?
Stable, Coherent Individual Differences
Personality refers to qualities of individuals that are relatively stable. Coherence in the pattern of
change in an individual’s behavior may be another key component of personality.
Predicting and Understanding
The term ‘personality’ usually implies continuity or consistency in the individual. Identifying
consistent, stable individual differences is an important goal for personality psychologists because it
makes it possible both to describe people and to try to predict their future behavior.
Two goals of personality psychologists, are:
- Identifying consistent, stable individual differences.
- Try to understand what it is that underlies these differences.
Defining Personality
Individual differences are always a core part of the definition of personality psychology. Personality
includes the person’s unique patterns of coping with, and transforming, the psychological
environment.
Five aspects of personality, are:
- Personality shows continuity, stability and coherence.
- Personality is expressed in many ways – from overt behavior through thoughts and feelings.
- Personality is organized. In fact, when it is fragmented or disorganized it is a sign of
disturbance.
- Personality is a determinant that influences how the individual relates to the social world.
- Personality is a psychological concept, but it also is assumed to link with the physical,
biological characteristics of the person.
,Theory and Levels of Analysis in Personality Psychology
From Grand Theories to Levels of Analysis
In the first half of the 20th century, personality psychology was inspired by grand theories of
personality that were being developed by several ‘big picture’ innovators.
Scientific shortcomings of broad theories of personality (grand theories):
- Most of the grand theories of personality did not lend themselves to precise scientific testing
that allowed them to be either supported or disconfirmed clearly on the basis of empirical
studies.
o Difficulty of specifying the theoretical premises in testable terms.
o Experimental and statistical limitations in conducting and evaluating the test results.
- Grand theories often function more like general guidelines or orientations for studying
personality and interpreting the results from a particular perspective or framework. Thus it is
difficult to firmly reject or support a given theory on the basis of empirical studies.
In contrast, in the current scene there are numerous encouraging signs of integration and
constructive syntheses of the insights coming from theorists and researchers that are working at
different levels of analysis, addressing different aspects of personality. It is increasingly seen that
each level has its legitimacy and usefulness, and each requires distinctive methods and concepts.
Levels of Analysis: Organization of this Book
Personality is studied at six levels:
- Trait-Dispositional Level
- Biological Level
- Psychodynamic-Motivational Level
- Behavioral-Conditioning Level
- Phenomenological-Humanistic Level
- Social Cognitive Level
The Trait-Dispositional Level
Trait-Dispositional Level: seeks to identify the types of stable psychological qualities and behavioral
dispositions that characterize different individuals and types consistently.
- ‘What am I like as a person? How am I different from other people on the whole? In what
general ways are people different from each other?’
- Studies at this level also examine the stability and consistency of traits and types over the
course of time throughout the life span.
The Biological Level
Biological Level: an important goal of personality study at the biological level is to try to specify the
role of genetic determinants and of the social environment in shaping who and what we become.
- How much of personality reflects nature, and how much nurture.
, - ‘To what extent does my personality come from my parents and the genes I inherited from
them? To what extent is my personality a reflection of my life experiences? To what extent
does my personality reflect my basic biological predispositions?’
- A goal at this level of analysis is to examine how aspects of personality may have evolved in
response to the evolutionary pressures and history that shaped our species over time.
The Psychodynamic-Motivational Level
Psychodynamic-Motivational Level: probes the motivations, conflicts, and defenses, often without
one’s awareness, that can help explain complex consistencies and inconsistencies in personality.
- ‘Does what I do sometimes puzzle me? How and why? What are the real motives that drive or
underlie my behavior? How can I explain irrational fears and anxieties? How do I try to
protect myself against getting hurt psychologically?’
- The kind of insight needed to understand someone’s behavioral and emotional
inconsistencies is at the heart of the psychodynamic motivational level of analysis.
The Behavioral-Conditioning Level
Behavioral-Conditioning Level: analyzes specific patterns of behavior that characterize individuals
and the situations or conditions that seem to regulate their occurrence and strength. It studies the
determinants of learning and applies learning principles to modify problematic patterns of behavior,
including emotional reactions like fears.
- Behavioral analyses focus on a specific, problematic or otherwise important behavior – such
as the stutter of a person suffering from public speaking anxieties, or one’s inability to stay
concentrated on studying before exams. Then they analyze the situations or conditions that
seem to control that behavior, that is, the conditions in which the stutter or the studying
becomes worse or improves. Finding the conditions in which the problem improves becomes
the basis for designing treatments to modify the behavior to help reduce or eliminate the
problem.
- Behavioral analyses have helped us understand the conditions through which behaviors
relevant to personality are learned and can be modified.
- ‘How are important behavior patterns, including emotions and fears, learned? How does
what I do and feel depend on my earlier experiences? How can my behavior and feelings be
modified by new learning experiences?’
- Focus is on the ways in which the person’s behavior reflects and is shaped by his or her
learning history and present life conditions.
The Phenomenological-Humanistic Level
Each person sees the world subjectively in his or her own personal ways. To understand this privately
experienced side of personality, we must examine the nature of subjective experience; we have to
try to see how people perceive their world.
Phenomenological-Humanistic Level: work at this level begins by listening closely and trying to
understand the individual’s experience as he or she perceives it. The focus is on subjective
experience, feelings, the personal view of the world and the self. The focus is also on people’s
positive strivings and their tendencies toward growth and self-actualization.
, - ‘Who am I really? Who do I want to become? How do I see myself? How do I see my parents?
What do I feel about myself when I don’t meet my parents’ expectations?’
- It is addressing the processes through which each person develops a sense of self and
identity – a conception of who one is and wants to be.
The Social Cognitive Level
Social Cognitive Level: the focus of personality research at the social cognitive level includes the
person’s social knowledge of the world, and how people make sense of other people and
themselves and cope as they negotiate their interpersonal lives.
- ‘How does what I know, think, and feel about myself and the social world influence what I do
and can become? What can I do to change how I think and feel?’
- The social cognitive level examines individual differences in how social knowledge is used in
dealing with the world, in the construction of the self, in self-regulation, and in self-control.
- The specific focus is on the individual’s characteristic ways of thinking and processing
information, both cognitively and emotionally, as determinants of his or her distinctive and
meaningful patterns of experience and social behavior.
