(L1) 29.09.2021 Social and Personality Psychology It attempts to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings etc. are influenced by the actual, imagined presence of other human beings. Personality psychologist - focuses on individual differences. Social psychologist - focuses on social context. Person-situation controversy Person-situation debate: Do you behave as you do because of the situation you are in or because of your personality? PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY Mischel (1968): personality traits are not good at predicting how people behave in a given situation. Personality traits are assumed to be relatively stable, but little evidence that behaviour is consistent across situations. Responses to Mischel: · Personality traits are broad dispositions. · Not good at predicting single behaviours. · But good at determining general tendencies of behaviour. Persons and situations People vary in behaviour according to the situation, but may still differ in these situations because of their personality. Study on social interactions with opposite 2 1 sex partner - twice. There is a 0 Out with friends At work How talkative they are in these situations 7 6 5 4 3 -Introverted -Extraverted At church
correlation between session 1 and session 2. Considerable cross-situational consistency - 45 out of 62 features were significantly correlated across session 1 and session 2. Substantial situational change - 20 of the 62 features significantly differed in average occurrence. This shows that both personality and the situations are important. Behaviour is unlikely to be determined purely by the situation or purely by the person. 4 However, another possibility is that they interact to explain behaviour. 6 External attribution for result (e.g., luck) 8 -Low Self-Esteem -High Self-Esteem 7 5 Different types of people react 4 differently to different situations. 3 2 Success The influence of persons on situations. Situations influence behaviour, but people influence situations as well. People have freedom about the situation they put themselves in. Choose situations that match their personality. Failure Situation evocation - unintentional alteration of situation by one's own presence. Weak vs Strong situations: Personality may be more useful in predicting behaviour in different situations - situational strength. Strong situations are which demands are likely to cause everyone to behave in the same way. Personality is less likely to predict behaviour. For example, lockdown.
Weak situations in which appropriate behaviour is not obvious and people are free to decide what to do. Personality is more likely to predict behaviour. Personality is better at understanding behaviour over a considerable period of time. History of social and personality psychology 1890 - 1930 Freud - Psychoanalytic theory It is a theory of personality organisation and the dynamics of personality development that guides psychoanalysis. Id: The id is an unconscious part of the personality, the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality. The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth. The id is an impulsive part of you that just does what it wants, and it wants things really intensely and doesntit really think about the