COURSE NOTES: Personality
Chapter 16:
Conclusion
Based on the following textbook, with supplements and modifications by the author:
Cloninger, S. (2004). Theories of Personality: Understanding Persons (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NY: Prentice Hall.
Instructors who have adopted this text may obtain supplementary Powerpoint presentations from the publisher.
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Chapter 16:
Conclusion
Contributions of the Theories to Various Topics
Individual Differences
- difference or similarity?
- individuals or nomothetic?
- what to measure? (behavior, interviews, projective tests, or what?)
Adaptation and Adjustment
- adjustment
- reaching full potential (humanists)
- unity (integration) vs. conflict
- contribution to society
- consciousness
- true self
- learning interventions
- expectancies
Cognitive Processes
- person variables
- consciousness / unconscious
- cognitive functions or styles (Jung)
- intelligence
- language
- personal constructs
Society
- society vs. focus on the individual
- models (e.g., in child rearing)
- predominant problems of a society
- gender roles
- cultural diversity
- individualistic bias
Biological Influences
- underlying biological motivations
- heredity
- collective unconscious
- temperament
- environmental fit
Child Development
- importance of early years
- stages
- family: parents, siblings
- identification or modeling
- self
- ideals
Adult Development
- stability or change
- adult stages
- external influences
- internal motivation for change
Choosing or Combining Theories
Eclecticism
- combining ideas from a variety of theories
- a popular position
Pluralism
- the coexistence of various theories without attempting to combine them
- avoids premature integration of theories
Unified Theory
- a theory that combines diverse aspects from various approaches, indicating how they are organized and related
- a later stage in theoretical development
Criteria of a Good Theory: Revisited
- verifiability
- comprehensiveness
- applied value
Theories as Metaphors
The Mechanistic Metaphor
The Organic Metaphor
The Information Processing Metaphor
The Narrative Metaphor
The Metaphor of the Emergent Self
The Metaphor of the Transcendent Self
Pepper's Root Metaphors with Examples from Personality Theory (See Table 16.1 in the Cloninger text on page 476.)
teleological: viewing phenomena in terms of their overall purpose, design, or intent (rather than in terms of the mechanisms by which they occur)
- the emergent self metaphor of a self-directed, willful personality
emergent determinism: causation or determinism from higher mental processes, such as thought, in contrast to lower order determinism, such as fro neurological process
- believing you are worthwhile, and so making that happen
- believing you will always fail, and so not trying
contrast between teleological approach and mechanistic approach
What Lies Ahead?
paradigm: a general framework that provides direction to a field of science, within which theoretical concepts are extended and empirical work is conducted
- psychoanalysis
- behaviorism
- humanism
- [Though some philosophers consider these perspectives "pre-paradigmatic."]
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