PS2050 Personality and Individual Differences Trait VS State Nature VS Nurture Malleability Intelligence Personality and Psychopathology We are like all others = Human Nature We are like some others = Individual Differences We are like no others = Individual Uniqueness Personality The study of personality can be understood as the study of the masks that people wear. These are the inner parts of the self that people project and display. This is the psychological experience that we call the 'self'. Continuity, Consistency, Uniqueness Allport's Personality Formal definition: "a dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychological systems that create the person's characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts and feelings" Dynamic organisation: Ongoing readjustment, adaption to experience, NOT static Inside the person: Internal storage of patterns, supporting the idea that personality influences behaviours Psychophysical systems: Physical/Biological factors are also involved in 'who we are'. Characteristic pattern: Consistency/Continuity which uniquely identify and individual. Behaviour, thoughts and feelings: Indicates that personality includes a wide range of psychological experience or manifestations: that personality is displayed in many ways.
History: Freud: behaviour is driven by unconscious forces, unconscious forces need active suppression, the organisation is driven by early childhood experiences, levels of consciousness, conscious, preconscious and unconscious. ID EGO SUPEREGO Freudian Stages: Oral, Anal stages, Phallic stage, Latency, Gential Problems with Freud: poor use of evidence, unpublished case studies, very vague, all very individualistic, is childhood really significant ?? Unclear about unconscious process problems with personality e.g. social anxiety are because of a specific parenting style at a particular time. Maslow: Our human nature is inherently good, this is related and shaped by higher motives related to free will and responsibility. Maslow's hierarchy of needs: SelfflActualisation (When do you actually feel actualised?tt Esteem needs Belongingness needs Safety needs Physiological needs Watson: Classical Conditioning, Watson + Little Albert 1. No response to rat 2. Used loud noise as aversive stimulus in combination with a rat 3. Learned to fear all small furry things Skinner: Operant Conditioning, behaviour which is reinforced tends to be repeated, behaviour which is not reinforced tends to die out or be extinguished. Learning could account for what we see as personality, problems with personality e.g. social anxiety is just a faulty reinforcement schedule. Pavlov: Classical Conditioning could explain many emotional reactions. Anxiety can be Learned rather than resulting from fundamental aspects of personality. 2
FREUD Main focus of analysis Can personality change? Internal vs external processes Development of personality Personality structures 3 LEARNING HUMANISTIC Can personality be learnt? Reinforced behaviour =