Transcript Chapter 12 Personality Section 4 Personological & Life

CHAPTER 12 PERSONALITY
SECTIONS 4 THROUGH 8
LEARNING GOAL FOUR: DISCUSS THE
PERSONOLOGICAL AND LIFE STORY PERSPECTIVE.
PERSONOLOGICAL AND LIFE STORY
PERSPECTIVES
• The personological and life
story perspective stresses that
the way to understand an
individual is to focus on their
life story; that is, the aspects
that distinguish them from
others.
MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGICAL
APPROACH
• Murray came up with the term personology to refer to
the study of the whole person. He believed that in order
to understand an individual, the individual’s history had
to be understood.
• During World War II, Murray was asked to develop a
psychological profile of Adolf Hitler. This began what is
currently used as criminal profiling.
• Murray believed that an individual’s motives are largely
unknown to them.
• Three unconscious needs have been the focus of current
research: the need for achievement, the need for
affiliation, and the need for power.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5hizSYiWIU
THE LIFE STORY APPROACH TO
IDENTITY
• Dan McAdams developed what is known as the life
story approach, which says that all individuals have
their own life story that is full of ups and downs. The
stories represent memories that make an individual
who they are.
• Life stories provide an excellent opportunity for the
researcher. However, they are very time consuming
and difficult. Also, in order for the life story study to
be worthwhile, it must tell something more than
what could be found in a much easier way.
LEARNING GOAL FIVE: EXPLAIN THE
SOCIAL COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES.
• Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
• Where Skinner saw behavior as being caused by a
situation, Albert Bandura saw the individual causing
situations,. He postulated that sometimes the
definition of the situation itself depends on the
individual’s belief about it.
• Bandura believed that behavior, environment, and
both personal and cognitive factors are all
important in understanding personality. He came
up with the term reciprocal determinism to describe
the way all of these interact to create personality.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
• Through observational learning, an individual forms ideas
about the behavior of others and then possibly adopts
this behavior themselves.
• Personal Control- An individual can regulate and control
one’s own behavior despite the changing environment.
• Self-efficacy is the belief that an individual can master a
situation and produce positive outcomes. It determines
whether people can even try to develop healthy habits,
how much effort they expend in coping with stress, how
long they persist in the face of obstacles, and how much
pain and stress they experience.
MISCHEL’S CONTRIBUTIONS
• Mischel examined the research on trait prediction of behavior
and found something missing. He concluded that there was
no evidence for cross-situational consistency in behavior.
• He believed that personality often changes according to a
given situation. His view is often called situationism, which
means that personality and behavior often vary considerably
from one context to another.
• The question is not whether personality predicts behavior, but
how and when it does so, often in a combination with
situational factors. Individuals select which situations they are
in.
• Research findings suggest that the more limited a trait is, the
more likely it will predict behavior; some people are consistent
on some traits, while others are consistent on different traits;
and personality traits exert stronger influences when situational
factors are less powerful.
CAPS THEORY
• The cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) theory,
states that an individual’s thoughts and emotions about
themselves and the world affect their interactions with
the environment and become linked together in ways
that matter to behavior.
• It is considered a bottom-up approach, meaning it is
consistent with how personality works, not what it is.
• It focuses on the way people behave in different
situations and uniquely interprets situational features.
• CAPS tends to lead to a very specific prediction for each
individual in any given situation. (A Problem)
LEARNING GOAL SIX: DISCUSS THE
BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES.
• There has been a clear association between the
brain and personality, noted since the story of
Phineas Gage.
• New research is focusing on which brain activity is
associated with which personality traits.
EYSENCK’S RETICULAR ACTIVATION
SYSTEM THEORY (RAS)
• Recall that the RAS plays a role in wakefulness and
arousal.
• Extraverts and Introverts show a different baseline level
of arousal in this system.
• Extroverts wake up in the morning under-aroused, which
requires them to behave in ways that demonstrate
extraversion in order to bring their arousal up to its
optimal level.
• Introverts wake up in the morning over-aroused, which
requires them to behave in ways that demonstrate
introversion in order to decrease their arousal level to its
optimal baseline.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDLLDJhFtto
GRAY’S REINFORCEMENT SENSITIVITY
THEORY
• Gray posited that two neurological systems, the
behavioral activation system (BAS) and the behavioral
inhibition system (BIS), are underlying personality.
• Organisms sensitive to rewards are more likely to learn
associations between the behavior and the reward and
demonstrate sensation-seeking behaviors.
• In contrast, organisms sensitive to punishers in the
environment will learn such associations and be more
likely to avoid such consequences.
• The BAS underlies the extraversion trait.
• The BIS is involved in avoidance learning and associated
with the trait of neuroticism.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jneJUgo_tFQ&list=PL0aJxVnt
dO1VQF8ksr8E31e1u4vrcAcNW
THE ROLE OF NEUROTRANSMITTERS
• Neurotransmitters have been implicated in the role
of personality that fits Gray’s model.
• Dopamine is a factor in the BAS or extraversion trait.
• Serotonin has a strong link with neuroticism and is
implicated in aggressive behavior.
PERSONALITY AND BEHAVIORAL
GENETICS
• Behavioral genetics is the study of the inherited
underpinnings of behavioral characteristics.
• Twin studies using identical siblings are often times
compared to see what factors of personality are
derived from genes and what factors are
influenced from the environment.
• The role of genetics and personality is largely
complex, with the intertwining of environmental and
biological influences difficult to tease apart.
• Most traits are probably influenced by multiple
genes, making the task of identifying specific links
very challenging.
EVALUATING THE BIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVES
• The link to biological factors and personality is
evident. Through the work of animal learning
models, advanced brain imaging, and evolutionary
theory a picture of biological influences in
personality is emerging.
• Biology can be the effect, not the cause of
personality.
• Whether personality is plastic, or able to change, is
an important consideration in how biology impacts
the shape of our personality. If personality is
“caused” by biological processes, does it mean it is
“fixed” or permanent?
PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT
LEARNING GOAL SEVEN: CHARACTERIZE THE MAIN
METHODS OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT.
• A self-report test is also called an objective test and
directly asks individuals whether specific items
describe their personality trait.
• An empirically keyed test presents a host of
questionnaire items to groups of people that are
already known to be different in some central way.
SELF-REPORT TESTS
• 1.
MMPI
• The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is
the most widely used. The most recent version of the test,
the MMPI-2, assesses personality and predicts outcomes.
• 2. Assessment of the Big Five Factors
• The Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Personality
Inventory—Revised is a self-report test geared at
assessing the five factor model. It also examines six
subdimensions that make up the five factors. These items
have face validity, meaning that on the surface they
seem to fit the trait in question.
PROJECTIVE TESTS
• 1. A projective test is one that presents individuals with
an ambiguous stimulus and then asks them to describe it
or tell a story about it. They are projecting their meaning
onto the stimulus.
• 2. The Rorschach inkblot test is a projective test. It uses
an individual’s perception of the inkblot to determine
their personality.
• 3. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a test
designed to elicit stories that reveal something about an
individual’s personality. It consists of a series of pictures
and the person taking the test is asked to tell a story
about each of the pictures.
OTHER ASSESSMENT METHODS
• 1. Behavioral assessment is based on observing
the individual’s behavior directly. It assumes the
behavior cannot be evaluated outside of the
environment.
• 2. When direct observation is not possible then the
psychologist may ask the individual to make their
own assessment of behavior.
• 3. Cognitive assessment in personality evaluation is
discovering what thoughts underlie the individual’s
behavior.
PERSONALITY AND PHYSICAL HEALTH
GOAL EIGHT: SUMMARIZE HOW PERSONALITY RELATES TO HEALTH AND
WELLNESS
.
• Personality can affect the health indirectly by leading to behaviors that are either
good or bad.
• Conscientious people tend to do all the things they are told are good for their
health.
• Having a sense of personal control can reduce the experience of stress during
difficult times. It can lead to the development of problem-solving strategies to
cope with stress. It may also help people avoid health-compromising, risky
behaviors.
• Self-efficacy is related to success in a variety of positive life changes. Having a cando attitude is important in solving problems and living a positive, healthy lifestyle.
• Optimism is viewed as a matter of how a person explains the cause of bad events.
They are due to external, unstable, and specific causes. Optimists generally
function more effectively and are physically and mentally healthier than pessimists.
PERSONALITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
WELL BEING
• There is a strong relationship between personality
and well-being. Neuroticism is associated with lower
levels of well-being, whereas extraversion is related
to higher levels of well being.
• A person’s assessment of his or her level of positive
and negative affects and evaluation of his or her
life in general is known as subjective well-being.
• Traits are enduring characteristics. States are more
acute and time-limited experiences.