COURSE NOTES: Personality

denotes a term that you should know how to define, and to recognize and give examples. denotes an important person. You should remember this person's name and what (s)he has done. denotes an important research finding. denotes an issue that you should be able to discuss or explain.

Chapter 1: 

Introduction to Personality Theory

Advice for psychobiography assignment...

• Is there sufficient information?
• Is the information unbiased?
• Do you have biased ideas about the person?
• Are you very interested in the person?
• Can you complete the analysis in time?

Personality: The Study of Individuals

personality: the underlying causes within the person of individual behavior and experience

a trait of extraversion
a fixation from childhood conflict

method of science (rather than literature, authority, etc.)

Brief discussion [in-class supplement]

"Scientist" brings a lot of associations to mind; do you have any questions about personality that you would ask a scientific expert?
Let's list some questions...
If you didn't think of any questions, does this trigger any? [clipart]

We might ask (for example) ...
How much hostility does this man have?
Why is he so angry?
Did something in his childhood make him this way?

3 kinds of questions

description: How much hostility does this man have?
dynamics: Why is he so angry?
development: Did something in his childhood make him this way?

Major Issues that Are Addressed by Personality Theories:

descriptive issues

dynamic issues

developmental issues

Descriptive Issues

Individual Differences

• What are the traits that distinguish people?
• How can these traits be measured?
• Should we look at what people say, or what they do, to describe how they are unique?
• Are people consistent?

Dynamic Issues

Adaptation and Adjustment

• How do people adapt to life’s demands?
  
• How does a mentally healthy person act?
  
• What behaviors or thoughts are unhealthy?

Cognitive Processes

• Do our thoughts affect our personality?
  
• What kinds of thoughts are important for personality?
  
• Do unconscious processes influence us?

Culture & Society

• How does culture influence our functioning?
  
• Does culture affect us by its expectations for men and women? for different races and classes?

Developmental Issues

Biological Influences

• How do biological processes affect personality?
  
• Is personality inherited?

Child Development

• How should children be treated?
  
• What do children learn that matters for personality?
  
• Does childhood experience determine adult personality?

Adult Development

• Do adults change? Or has personality been determined earlier?
  
• What experiences in adulthood influence personality?

DESCRIPTION OF PERSONALITY

• Differences between People: Groups or Gradations?
  
• Comparing People or Studying Individuals: Nomothetic and Idiographic Approaches
  

[Table 1.1 from the text]

type: a category of people with similar characteristics

• ancient Greek temperament types (sanguine, melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic)
  
• diagnostic categories

Types

• Type membership is an “all or nothing” thing (a qualitative variable). A person belongs to one and only one category.
  
• Theoretically, a small number of types describe everyone.
  
• A person fits into only one type
  

Ancient Greek Model of Types

• sanguine: optimistic, hopeful
  
• melancholic: sad, depressed
  
• choleric: irascible, temperamental
  
• phlegmatic: apathetic, unemotional
  

trait: personality characteristic that makes one person different from another and/or that describes an individual’s personality

• shy
  
• conscientious
  
• creative
  

traits

• Trait scores are continuous (quantitative) variables. A person is given a numeric score to indicate how much of a trait the person possesses.
  
• Theoretically, there are a great many traits to describe everyone.
  
• A person can be described on every trait.
  
• Notice that we can graph a "profile" of a person's trait scores. [graphic presented in lecture]

factor: a statistically derived, quantitative dimension of personality that is broader than most traits

• extraversion
  
• neuroticism
  

factors

• Factor scores are also continuous (quantitative) variables. A person is given a numeric score to indicate how much of a factor the person possesses.
  
• Theoretically, a small number of factors describe everyone.
  
• A person can be described on every factor.
  
  
• Some of the words used to describe traits (e.g., extraverted, neurotic) have been found, by statistical analyses, to be so broad that they can be considered factors.
  

nomothetic: involving comparisons with other individuals; research based on groups of people

• comparing various people’s scores on the Five Factor Inventory
  
• taking a personality test and seeing if you scored higher or lower than most people
  
  

• comparisons based on group data
  
• studies "variables" rather than whole person
  
• includes scores on personality tests
  

idiographic: focusing on one individual

• an intensive case study of Mother Teresa
  
• a clinical report about an unusual psychiatric patient
  
• studies one individual
• studies the "whole person"
• Idiographic data includes your diary.
  
• But if we analyze many people's diaries, using content coding procedures, and compare them, that would be nomothetic data.

PERSONALITY DYNAMICS

• Adaptation and Adjustment
  
• Cognitive Processes
  
• Culture

dynamics: the motivational aspect of personality

• libidinal motivation described by Freudian psychoanalysis
  
• seeking career goals and other cultural values
  

DEVELOPMENT

• Biological Influences
  
• Experience in Childhood and Adulthood

temperament: consistent styles of behavior and emotional reactions present from early life onward, presumably caused by biological factors

• an emotionally calm baby
  
• a very active baby
  
• a inhibited type temperament

Experience in childhood and adulthood also influences development.

THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

• Theory
• Criteria of a Good Theory
• Relationship Between Theory and Research

scientific method: method of knowing based on systematic observation

• conducting an experiment to see whether an intervention increases self-esteem
  
• correlating defense mechanisms with reports of childhood experience

determinism: the assumption that phenomena have causes that can be discovered by empirical research

• neurotransmitter causes of experience
  
• thoughts that influence moods and choices

Determinism... as in neurotransmitters? societal constraints? blaming mom and dad?
theory

• theoretical level
• theoretical constructs
• theoretical propositions
• observable level
• operational definitions
  

[diagrams: see text] Levels of Thinking in Theory; and Levels of Thinking in Theory: Another View

[diagram] Hypotheses Derived From a Theoretical Proposition

[diagram] Theory level (top) and observable level (bottom)

CRITERIA OF A GOOD THEORY

verifiability

It can predict correctly or incorrectly.

comprehensiveness

It applies to a variety of phenomena.

applied value

It helps improve life.

applied research vs. basic research

Additional criteria:

• parsimony
• heuristic value

(Scientific psychology is not a philosophy of life. We should not select a theory simply because it is "optimistic.")
There is a complementary relationship between theory and research.

implicit theories of personality: ideas about personality that are held by ordinary people (not based on formal theory)

• assuming that attractive people are warm and trustworthy
  
• assuming that HIV positive people look different from HIV negative people
  

PERSONALITY MEASUREMENT

• reliability
• validity
• measurement techniques

reliability: repeatability, as when a measurement is repeated at another time or by another observer, with similar results

• a correlation between assessment of extraversion once and a month later shows good agreement
  
• two raters assess a person’s behavior, with similar results

test-retest reliability

• one form of test
  
• given Day 1 and Day 2
  

alternate forms reliability

• two forms of test
  
• Form 1 given on Day 1
  
• Form 2 given on Day 2
  

split-half reliability

one form of test


given only once


2 subscores are computed (odd & even items)

The reliability criterion means that a person gets essentially the same score, on various days and/or with various forms.

validity: desirable characteristic of a test, indicating that it actually does measure what it is intended to measure

• a trait of extraversion
  
• a fixation from childhood conflict

predictive validity
construct validity

The validity criterion means that the score is accurate. It measures what we intend it to measure.

construct validity: the usefulness of a theoretical term, evidenced by an accumulation of research findings

• the construct "extraversion" with its many correlates in research
  
• doubts about the construct validity of "psychic energy" based on research

measurement techniques

• direct self-report measures
• indirect methods

  open-ended questions

  projective tests

• behavioral measures

direct self-report

"How important is achievement to you?" (on a 10-point scale)

indirect methods

• open-ended questions
  

  "What would you look for in an ideal job?"
  

  "What 3 adjectives best describe you?"
  

• projective tests
  

• TAT tests
  
• inkblots
  
• Draw a Person
  

behavioral measures

• How often does the person choose to spend time alone instead of with other people?
  
• How often does the student turn in assignments late?
  

CORRELATIONAL STUDIES

• relationships among 2 or more variables
• factor analysis
• does not prove causation.

correlational research: research method that examines the relationships among measures

• research that correlates intelligence measures with career success
  
• research that correlates maladjustment with childhood abuse
  

• manipulating exposure to television violence to determine effect on aggressive behavior
  
• subliminal exposure to stimuli to determine effect on symptoms

EXPERIMENTATION

• studies cause-effect relationships
• independent & dependent variables
• experimental & control groups

Manipulate the variable thought to be a "cause," called the "independent variable.“

• for example, violent vs. nonviolent TV
  
• experimental group watches violent TV
  
• control group watches nonviolent TV
  
• Does the "effect" (dependent variable) change?

Does the "effect" change?
Experimental Control

• everything constant except the cause
• random assignment to control 3rd variables

  random assignment (to groups)

  random selection is not necessary

CASE STUDIES & PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY

• case study
  

  an intensive investigation of a single individual
  

  e.g., clinical observation of one person
  

• psychobiography
  

  the application of a personality theory to the study of an individual’s life
  

  theoretical emphasis

One Theory or Many? Eclecticism and the Future of Personality Theory

eclectic: combining ideas from a variety of theories

• accepting symbolic interpretation of dreams (psychoanalytic) and also effect of reinforcement on behavior (learning)

paradigm: a basic theoretical model, shared by various theorists and researchers

• behavioral perspective
  
• humanistic perspective
  
• evolutionary perspective
  
• [Note that there is debate whether these are truly “paradigms.”]

Reasons for many approaches:

• two cultures of psychology
  
  • scientific (experimentation; nomothetic)
    
  • humanistic (less methodologically rigorous; emphasizes individuals)
    
• different areas of usefulness
  
• different influences on personality

Could we be moving toward an integrated, a multi-level paradigm?

• genetics and neurotransmitters
  
• attachment
  
• reactions to punishment
  
• self
  
• social context
  

Personality is a "young" science. Some building blocks have been found.

• http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Cronbach/Disciplines/
  Cronbach, L. J. (1957). The two disciplines of scientific psychology. American Psychologist, 12, 671-684. [Famous attempt to reconcile the aims experimental and correlational psychology.]
• http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Cronbach/construct.htm
  Cronbach, L. J. & Meehl, P. E. (1955). Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52, 281-302. [The origin of the term "construct validity."]

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