TOPIC 1

Personality

INTRODUCTION
1. personality is not just an accumulation of bits and pieces.It has organization.
2.personality is not passively doing nothing.It is actively influencing processes.
3. personality is a psychological concept.It is linked to the physical body.It has a biological basis.
4. personality is a causal influence.It determines how a person relates to the world,behaves and feels.There is a
direction of effects.
5.personality shows up in patterns occurrences and consistencies
6.personality is displayed not just in one way but in many ways,in behaviors, thoughts and feelings.

Personality in a continuum )(mini lecture)

-a normal distribution describes the frequency of something that is being measured on a continuum,the center is the
average or mean,with the variance on either side of it.In the middle of a normal distribution,we have the most common
scores,and on either side, we have the more extreme values.
Eg:Let's think about this in terms of anxiety, for example,say, for example,I gave a very large sample of people a measure
of anxiety,I would expect to find this normal distribution with most people's scores being similar and clustering around the
mean,as well as a few people who are extremely anxious,and some who are not at all anxious.What's important about this
is that the scores are relative to other people in the sample.What is normal is relative to other people.
-This idea of a continuum has been applied to mental health,and also has applications to personality
-In terms of mental health,it is considered that we have two continuums that dictate our mental well being,mental illness,
and mental health.
Mental Illness -relates to whether or not we have a diagnosed mental health condition,such as depression, or anxiety.
Mental Health -relates to the current situation around us that may influence the appearance of symptoms of
depression,and or anxiety.
-The key concept here is that mental illness is something that is stable whereas mental health can be influenced by many
different factors.
Eg:I can be someone who has no diagnosis of anxiety disorder,but the current situation,for example, delivering a lecture to
a large audience,influences my mental health and results in me feelingand behaving in an anxious manner.In contrast, I
could be someone with a diagnosis of anxiety disorder,but I have a good support network and have been engaging in
mindfulness and so my mental health is optimal.
-In terms of personality,we can think about personality traits in an analogous way.Here, we can think about us having
stable personality traits,or being influenced by a certain state.
Eg:I could be someone who is naturally extroverted,I enjoy being in the company of othersand seek stimulation,this is my
personality traits,and I mostly behave in accordance with that.However, there may be certain times places or states in
which I do not behave as would be expected in terms of extraversion.For example, when I am experiencing high stress.

Textbook:
Chapter 1-Introduction to personality

-implicit personality theories- These are intuitively based theories of human

behaviour that we all construct to help us to understand both others and ourselves.Happens unconsciously.We make
observations and then we infer cause and effect.

Definition of personality:‘a dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create the person’s
characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts and feelings’ (Allport, 1961, p. 11).
-Dynamic organisation, inside the person refers to a process that iscontinually adjusting, adapting to the experiences we
have,changes in our lives, ageing and the like. In other words,personality is conceptualised as being an active, responsive
system. It is conceptualised as being organised in some sort of internal structural system.
-Psychophysical systems refer to the inclusion of both our minds and our bodies in what we refer to as personality.
the psychological elements in the mind interact with the body sometimes in complex ways to produce behaviour.
The implied stability is important; without it, all attempts at measuring personality would be futile.
-Behaviour, thoughts and feelings refer to the fact that personality is a central component influencing, and being
discernible in, a wide range of human experiences and activities.

Another definition -the term ‘personality’, as now used,describes a psychological construct; that is, a mental concept that
influences behaviour via the mind–body interaction.

-Personality theories aim to explain the motivational basis of behaviour, the basic nature of human beings,the
developmental experiences that help to shape
personality and categorisations of types of human personality that can be used to predict behaviour.

Approaches to studying personality:

-The idiographic approach to studying personality adopts case study types of methodology, studying individuals and
stressing the uniqueness of each individual.
nomothetic approach studies groups of individuals aiming to identify similarities.
-Individual differences approaches are not simply about. people being different; instead, they seek to establish
psychological dimensions that apply to everyone, but at the same time allow for differences
-individual differences researchers attempt to understand the nature of individual differences by addressing two separate
but interrelated issues; to do so, they have developed structural and process models.
Structural models consider the nature of individual differences, asking questions such as ‘how’ do
individuals differ?
Process models consider the questions of ‘why’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ do people differ, and give depth to understanding the
‘how’.

Jungian approach to personality

-Jung (1965) saw the psyche as a complex network of opposing forces in which the aim of development is to create
harmony with the structures of the personality.
-He called the total personality the psyche.
-Jung adopted Freud’s idea of psychic energy or libido as the motivating force behind our behaviour but used it in a
much broader sense.
-This life-process energy resulted from the conflicts between the different forces within the psyche. Every choice we make
involves some possible conflicts.Potential conflicts within the structures of the psyche was infinite.
-He termed this system of creating life-process energy within the psyche the principle of opposites. For example, he
suggested that conscious and unconscious forces are continually opposed to each other and thereby create
energy. He talked about love and hatred for the same person co-existing within the psyche.
-He believed that the past and future goals influenced our behaviour.He termed this teleology.
-Teleology-the idea that our behaviour is lead on by our ideas about a future state by things like purposes,meanings
,values and so on.
- We are continuously working towards achieving our potential, our own unique nature; and in doing so, we come
to accept ourselves. This sense of accepting oneself and feeling at peace with oneself is the endpoint of our develop
ment and is termed self-realisation.
- psyche operates according to the principle of equivalence.
-Principle of equivalence- this means that if the activity increased in one part of the psyche it would decrease
correspondingly in another part.eg: If you become more focused on achieving success at work, you might become less
focused on enjoying your social life.
-Principle of entropy- operates in the psyche. This is a drive to create balanced energies across the psyche so that we
express more of ourselves in our behaviour. Eg:the party-loving student who starts to get bored by the constant social
whirl and looks for some more meaningful,serious things to do.

Structures within the Psyche

- four main aspects: 1.the ego,
2.the personal unconscious
3.the collective unconscious
4.archetypes
Ego :
-The ego is described by Jung as being a unifying force in the psyche at the centre of our consciousness.
-It contains the conscious thoughts and feelings related to our own behaviour and feelings, and memories of our previous
experiences.
- The ego is responsible for our feelings of identity and continuity as human beings.
- you are aware that as a child, you were different in many ways, but there is still a sense of being uniquely you. In the
future, you know that you may change, but there will still be an inner sense of your own identity.

Personal Unconscious:
-next to the ego
- contains all our personal experiences that have been blocked from our awareness because they are unacceptable in
some way(same conceptualisation of the unconscious that Freud outlined, containing repressed material that can be
brought into our consciousness in psychoanalysis or hypnosis).

Collective Unconscious:
-lies deeper within the psyche.It is innate.
- It is a repository of inherited instincts and what he termed archetypes or universal symbols or themes, going beyond
personal experience.
- It is the stored memories of our human and even pre-human ancestry. No matter how unique each mind may be, Jung
suggested that it still has striking similarities to other minds because of our shared collective unconscious.These innate
ideas in our collective unconscious result in human beings as a species tending to organise their worlds in innately
predetermined ways.

Archetypes: (table 3.3,pg55)

-Archetypes are universal themes or symbols that lie with the collective unconscious in the psyche and under certain
conditions may be projected onto our current experiences.
- For example, a man may project his anima archetype onto his relationship with a woman. He may need to see her as the
universal mother or the ultimate expression of caring femininity,regardless of how she actually is. This results in him
perceiving her initially as he would wish her to be rather than as she is. When experience leads to his misperceptions
being uncovered, the relationship breaks down. The same argument would hold for a woman projecting her animus
onto a male.
Jungian personality types
- Jung concluded that there must be at least two different personality types – one that focuses more on the external
world, extraversion, and one that is more internally oriented, introversion.
- individuals are never wholly one or the other but incorporate aspects of both,although usually one type predominates in
certain aspects of an individual’s functioning.
- In extraversion,Jung said, the flow of psychic energy is outward;that is, the contents of consciousness refer mainly to
external objects in the world.
- In introversion, the contents of consciousness refer more to the individual themselves;that is, to what is within the
person.
- To address the differences that he felt existed within groups of introverts and extraverts, Jung classified the ways in
which people can relate to the world, suggestingthat four approaches were possible:
1.sensing- This is where we experience stimuli without any evaluation.
2.thinking- This is interpreting stimuli using reason and logic.
3.feeling- This involves evaluating the desirability or worth of what has been presented.
4.intuitive- This is when we relate to the world with a minimum of interpretation and reasoning; instead we form hunches
or have premonitions.

‘Sensation tells you that something exists; thinking tells you what it is; feeling tells you whether it is agreeable or not; and I
intuition tells you whence it comes and where it is going’ (Jung, 1968, p. 49).

-Jung says that thinking and feeling are opposites, but he calls them both rational functions, as they both involve the
cognitive processes we use to form conclusions or make judgements. Thinkers use logic and analysis, while feelers use
values,attitudes and beliefs.
- sensation and intuition are described as being irrational opposites.These are less planned activities but tend to happen
more reflexively. Sensors respond reflexively to situations based on what they perceive to be happening with little
reflection or evaluation,while the intuitor also responds reflexively, looking for meaning in terms of past or future events.
- From these two major attitudes, introversion and extraversion, and the four functions – sensing, thinking, feeling and
intuiting- Jung developed a classification of 16 possible psychological types, but he focused on eight types, as outlined in
Table 3.4.
Jung’s conception of mental illness and treatment
- Jung saw mental illness as resulting from one-sided development in the psyche.eg: From examples, we have seen
that this could be the male who has problems in relationships because of repressing his anima. This results in him being
extremely insensitive to the feelings of other people.The extremely chauvinistic man would be an example of this, or the
sort of person who never shows any emotion and considers the display of emotions to be unmanly.

Treatment method
- Jung used dream analysis and word association tests to help him to explore his patients’ unconscious to locate where the
imbalances were.
-he practiced art therapy. saw them as a way that patients could express their unconscious thoughts and feelings.
- For Jung (1968), there were four stages in therapy:confession, elucidation, education and transformation.
- Firstly, the patient working with the therapist comes to admit to having problems, termed confession; then they
come to understand the nature of their problems -elucidation.Next, the patient becomes educated about their problems
and possible ways forward to develop their personality and gain more satisfaction from life -education.
-Finally, the patient comes to achieve balance between the opposing forces within their psyche; and they may achieve
self-realisation, which, as we saw earlier, is the final goal of personality development for Jung.

• Trait approach to personality

- Trait theorists employ the nomothetic approach to personality.
- The aim is to identify those personality variables or traits that occur consistently across groups of people. Each individual
can then be located within this set of variables. The aim is to identify the main traits that usefully distinguish between
types of people. In achieving this, they hope to uncover the basic structure of personality.
- Hippocrates(460–377 bc), described physical illness as being caused by the balance of bodily fluids, or humours, as he
labelled them. These fluids included blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm.
- An Ancient Greek, a physician named Galen (ad 130–200), expanded on Hippocrates’ theory of the humours and applied
it to describe human temperament or personality:When the humours were in balance, an equitable temperament was
the result. If the humours were out of balance, then physical illness and mental disturbance occurred.
melancholic temperament -An excess of black bile resulted in a melancholic temperament, associated with depressed
mood and feelings of anxiety.
choleric temperament -Strong activity in the body fluids resulted in an individual with strong emotions described as being
of choleric temperament meaning that they had a tendency to become angry easily.
phlegmatic temperament -Individuals of phlegmatic temperament were calm, as
there was low humorous activity,
sanguine temperament- individuals of sanguine temperament were confident and optimistic.
-Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) revisited the humoural temperaments and produced a description of four personality
types.These were based on the strength of the individual’s feelings and how active the person was:
Melancholic individuals had weak feelings, while sanguine individuals had strong feelings.
Phlegmatic individuals had low levels of activity, while choleric individuals had much higher levels of activity.
(all of them described types of personality but not personality traits)
Personality types describe discrete categories into which individuals can be placed.
Personality traits are continuous dimensions, and individuals can be positioned along the dimension depending on how
much of the trait they possess.
-Wilhelm Wundt(1874)- changed the categorical types of personality into trait dimensions. Reclassifying the old types in
two dimensions based on their mood stability and the strength of their emotions. Individuals could then be placed along
the dimensions of mood stability and strength of emotions rather than being simply placed in one category.(table 7.1 pg
165)

Defining personality traits

- According to Burger (1997), ‘A trait is a dimension of personality used to categorise people according to the degree to
which they manifest a particular characteristic.
-2 assumptions underlie trait theory:
1. The first assumption is that personality characteristics are relatively stable over time; the second is that traits show
stability across situations.
2. personality traits influence behaviour.

-Circular arguments: Trait theorists have to be able to make a distinction between the internal qualities of the individual
and the way they behave. The causal relationship between the two then has to be explained if we are to avoid circular
arguments. To say that individuals become angry easily because they have an angry disposition does not get us very far.
We need to know where their angry disposition has come from and how it influences their day-to-day behaviour.
-trait theorists take the trait continuum and provide descriptions of how groups of people at different points on the
continuum might be expected to behave. Eg:they might compare a group high in aggression with a group with low scores
on the same trait and observe how they behave in a debate.
-They are interested in typical group behaviour. It is frequently a descriptive rather than an explanatory approach.

Summary:
-Traits are considered the fundamental units of personality. They represent dispositions to respond in certain ways.
- It is now generally accepted that,while situational factors will affect behaviour, dispositional effects on that behaviour
will still be observable.
- Mischel(1999) suggests that a trait is the‘conditional probability of a category of behaviours in a category of contexts’.
Hence, if a person is an extravert,then degrees of extraverted behaviour will be observable from that person in a variety of
situations.

Lexical approach(based on trait approach)

- Several of the early researchers used dictionaries or Roget’s Thesaurus to try to identify and count the number of words
that describe personality traits.
- Galton (1884) provides the first documented source of a dictionary and/or thesaurus being used to elicit words
describing personality. He suggested that the most meaningful personality descriptors will tend to become encoded in
language as single words.(table 7.2 pg 168)
- He suggested that the most meaningful personality descriptors will tend to become encoded in language as single words.
This approach has come to be known as the lexical hypothesis. This approach suggests that it is the individual difference
between people that are important that become encoded as single terms.
-two criteria in this approach:
1.frequency of use corresponds to importance- the words we use most to describe personality will be labelling the
aspects of personality that we think are most important.
2. the number of words in a language that refer to each trait will be related to how important that trait is in describing
human personality.

Summary : To summarise, it states that,:

-if individual differences between people are important, there will be words to describe them;
-the more frequently a personality descriptor is used, the more important the personality characteristic;
-the more synonyms of the word there are, the more important the difference.

- One of the first psychologists to produce such a list was the American Gordon Allport (1897–1967).
- He acknowledged that there is variability in everyone’s behaviour, but that there is also some constancy.Personality
traits constitute this constant portion of behaviour.
-Allport adopted a unified approach to personality, suggesting that it is the way that the component traits come together
that is important. It is how the traits come together that produces the uniqueness of all individuals.
- Allport felt that change is a component part of the personality system that is necessary to allow us to adapt to new
situations and grow to cope with them.He adopted a positive outlook on human nature.

-He made the distinction between the nomothetic and idiographic approaches to the study of personality:
The nomothetic approach-
- comes from the ancient Greek term for ‘law.
- The aim is to identify these personality variables or traits that occur consistently across groups of people. Each individual
can then be located within this set of variables.By studying large groups of people on a particular variable,we can establish
the average levels of that variable in particular age groups, or in men and women,and in this way produce group averages,
generally called norms, for variables. Individuals can then be described as being above or below the average or norm on a
particular variable.
-The nomothetic approach concentrates on the similarities between individuals.
The idiographic approach:
- term comes from the ancient Greek idios, meaning ‘private or personal’.
- idiographic approach focuses on the individual and describes the personality variables within that individual.
- only interested in studying individuals one at a time. They see each person as having a unique personality structure.
-Differences between individuals are seen to be much greater than the similarities. The possible differences are infinite.
-Idiographic approaches produce a unique understanding of that individual’s personality. These approaches are usually
based on case studies of individuals.
• Allport felt that both approaches bring unique insights into our understanding of personality.
-Personal Disposition (Allport,1961)
- The personal disposition represents the unique characteristics of the individual. This approach emphasises
the uniqueness of each person.

-Personality traits were further classified into cardinal,central and secondary traits.

Cardinal traits- Cardinal traits are single traits that may dominate an individual’s personality and influence their
behaviour.These may be obsessions or ruling passions that produce a need that demands to be fulfilled.

Central traits- Central traits are the five to ten traits that Allport felt best describe an individual’s personality.

Secondary traits -are more concerned with an individual’s preferences and are not a core constituent of their personality.
Secondary traits may only become apparent in particular situations – unlike central traits, which have a more general
applicability.
The concept of self (Allport)
- He hypothesised that children are not born with a concept of self, but that it gradually develops. it is a lifelong process of
development.
- The child first becomes aware of the separateness of themselves from others in their environment and from this comes
their sense of self-identity.
- As a result of their experiences while becoming integrated into their family and wider society, they develop self-esteem.
- He used the term proprium as a synonym for the self, suggesting that the term represented all the constituent parts that
go to make up the concept of self.

Limitations of the trait approach as suggested by Allport:

- He raised the issue about the relative influence of personality and situation in determining behaviour.

Raymond Catell and the factor analytic approach to measuring personality.

-Cattell was keen to apply empirical methods to discover the basic structure of personality.
- From the lists of personality traits, he noted that many traits are very similar, and he argued that the existing lists could
be reduced to a much smaller number of traits. This smaller number of traits would represent the basic components of
Personality.
- the procedure involves identifying lists of the most frequently used sets of words that seem to describe aspects of
personality; large samples of individuals are then asked to rate the degree to which the attributes apply to them. This data
set is then factor-analysed to identify which attributes cluster together. Clusters are composed of items that correlate with
each other. So, for example, you might have the variables ‘determined’, ‘persistent’, ‘productive’and ‘goal-directed’ that
turn out to be highly correlated with each other and thus form a cluster or factor that you could perhaps call achievement-
oriented. What this method gives you is a general measure of some ability. in this instance, achievement orientation – that
you obtain by measuring the individual’s ratings of their determination,persistence, productivity and goal-directedness.
- Cattell (1965) defined personality as being the characteristics of the individual that allow prediction of how they will
behave in a given situation.
Types of traits(Catell)

• Constitutional traits -The genetically determined traits

• Environmental-mold traits -the environmentally induced traits
(nurture vs nature)
MAVA (MULTIPLE ABSTRACT VARIANCE ANALYSIS)-Cantell came up with this to try to establish the relative contribution of
genetics and environment to various personality traits.

Cattell defines three different types of traits:ability, temperament and dynamic traits.
Ability traits: determine how well you deal with a particular situation and how well you reach whatever your goal is in that
situation.
Temperament traits -styles that people adopt when they are pursuing their goals.
Dynamic traits-motivate us and energise our behaviour. three

types of dynamic traits: attitudes, sentiments and ergs

Attitudes-hypothetical constructs that express our particular interests in people or objects in specific situations.Attitudes
help to predict how we will behave in a situation.
Sentiments -complex attitudes that include our opinions and intereststhat help determine how we feel about people or
situations.
Ergs-are innate motivators. He suggested that ergs are innate drives. They cause us to recognise and attend to some
stimuli more readily than others, and to seek satisfaction of our drives.
Further division of traits:
• Common traits-shared by many.(eg:intelligence,sociability)
• Unique traits-traits that are rarer and specific to individuals
• Surface traits- collections of traits descriptors that cluster together in many individuals and situations. For example,
individuals who are sociable also tend to be carefree, hopeful and contented. when you measure individuals on each of
these surface traits, you find that their scores on each one are correlated with all the others.eg: if an individual scores
highly on sociability, they also score highly on the carefree trait, the hopefulness trait and the contentedness trait
• Source traits- an underlying trait, that is responsible for the observed variance in the surface traits.eg: Extraversion is
measured by the scores of the surface traits of sociability, carefreeness, hopefulness and contentedness.
- The source traits are identified using the statistical technique of factor analysis.
-Source traits are important as they represent the actual underlying structure of personality. If psychologists can identify
the basic structure of personality, then they will be better able to predict behaviour. This has become the main
quest for trait theorists
-First Catell used Allport’s list of 4500 trait names.Removed all the synonyms.This left him with a list of 171 names.he
reduced the list further to 36 surface traits.10 other surface traits were identified from further tests on personality.
Thus,he concluded that 46 traits are sufficient to describe individual differences in personality.
- Beginning with these 46 surface traits, Cattell used a variety of approaches to uncover the source traits of personality.
-The aim was to factor-analyse measures of all the 46 surface traits collected from large samples of individuals.
- From the factor analyses of huge data sets gathered using these different procedures, Cattell identified 16 major source
factors.
- his best-known measure of personality, the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) questionnaire uses these 16 factors.
-At one end,individuals possess extremely high levels of the factor; at the other end, their levels are extremely low.(see pg
173 for the 16 source traits).

Eysenck’s approach to personality

- Eysenck (1982a) claimed that about two-thirds of the variance in personality development can be attributed to
biological factors.
-He deduced that it was environmental experiences, particularly parenting styles, which largely influenced the
development of personality.
-see table 7.2 pg176
- specific responses that are found together in the individual make up habitual responses, and collections of habitual
responses that the individual produces make up the next level of personality traits. This collection of traits then forms a
supertrait or personality type. Each supertrait represents a continuum along which individuals can be placed, depending
on the degree of the attribute they possess.
-Eysenck suggested 3 super traits:Extraversion -table 7.3 pg176
Neuroticism-table 7.4 pg 177
Psychoticism-table 7.5pg 177
-He was a behaviourist and therefore suggested that healthy and abnormal behaviour is a result of the way that
individuals respond to the stimuli in env.
- Eysenck suggested that the human brain has two sets of neural mechanisms, excitatory and inhibitory. The excitatory
mechanism relates to keeping the individual alert,active and aroused, while the inhibitory mechanism relates to inactivity
and lethargy.
- the individual seeks to maintain a balance between the excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms,
-this balance is regulated by something identified as the Ascending Reticular Activating System (ARAS).
- The ARAS, which is located in the brain stem, connects to the areas of the brain such as the:
Thalamus – manages and relays nerve impulses in the brain.
Hypothalamus – regulates the body’s metabolic processes, by which substances (i.e. food) are broken down
to provide the energy necessary for life, and the autonomic process (heart rate, digestion, respiration and
perspiration).
Cortex – is responsible for sophisticated neural processing.
-The ARAS manages the amount of information or stimulation that the brain receives and maintains individuals’
waking and their sleep, and keeps individuals alert and active.
-Within Eysenck’s theory, this information and stimulation process is known as arousal.
-Two circuits are thought to manage arousal within the individual:
the reticulo-cortical and reticulo-limbic
- The reticulo-cortical circuit- controls the cortical arousal generated by incoming stimuli
The reticulo-limbic circuit-controls arousal to emotional stimuli
-Eysenck suggests that arousal is a central variable allowing personality to be linked to a number of responses.
- Eysenck linked arousal to two of his personality dimensions:extraversion and neuroticism.
- Neuroticism comprises personality traits such as anxiety, worry and moody traits.
Extraversion comprises personality traits such as sociability,sensation-seeking and being carefree and optimistic.
-extraversion–introversion personality traits are related with the arousal of the reticulo cortical circuit (incoming stimuli)
-an introvert would have an ARAS that provides a lot of arousal,
an extravert would have an ARAS that does not provide a lot of arousal.
- when an individual’s ARAS continually makes them overly aroused, they will then attempt to avoid stimulation because
they already have a lot of it. Consequently, this person will be introverted because they will avoid stimulation and exciting
situations. On the other hand, when an individual’s ARAS continually makes them under-aroused, they will seek
stimulation. This person will be extraverted because they will always be seeking stimulation and exciting situations.
- Neuroticism is related with the arousal of the reticulo limbic circuit.
- neurotics become more aroused owing to emotional stimulation via the reticulo-limbic circuit, whereas people who are
not neurotic(emotionally stable) will be less aroused. Eysenck suggested that this difference would be most obvious in
stressful situations.

Gray’s BAS/BIS theory

-UK psychologist Jeffrey A. Gray introduced reinforcement sensitivity theory.
- began as a modification to Eysenck’s theory.
- is the view that biological mechanisms move towards things they desire,and away from things that worry them or they
fear.
- Gray proposes that personality is based on the interaction between three basic systems in the brain: the behavioural
approach system (BAS), the behavioural inhibition system (BIS) and the flight/flight system (FFS).

The behavioural approach system(BAS)-comprises motivations to approach. This system causes the individual to be
sensitive to potential rewards(eg:happiness,enjoyment) and to seek those rewards. Therefore, motivations arise from
reward-seeking and are used to explain attractions to other people, certain objects and events, as they are seen by the
individual as comprising rewards.
The behavioural inhibition system(BIS)- comprises motivations to avoid based around theconcept of anxiety. Within this
system are motivations that have been conditioned (e.g. learnt) that make the individual sensitive to potential
punishment or non-rewarding stimuli in situations.
-With the potential for punishment or no reward in a situation, this potentially causes anxiety within the individual, and
thus the individual will avoid situations or be inhibited in those situations that have those consequences. Therefore within
this system, individualsmay avoid certain situations, because they have learnt that they may create negative emotions
such as anxiety.

the Fight–Flight–Freeze system (FFS)-reflects a natural mechanism in humans to reactions of rage(e.g. fight) and panic
(flight or to freeze). That is stimuli to which they have not necessarily learnt a reaction (though
may comprise conditioned and unconditioned responses),but rather the system represents a more natural response to
aversive stimuli to which the individuals shows a fight response to the aversive stimuli, or a fear response. This system is
often referred to as the threat system, as it provides an understanding of motivations following a threat, in terms
of does the individual show a tendency to fight, take flight or freeze to threats.

BIA/BAS scales
- Carver and White produced a 24-item questionnaire measure (BIS/BAS scales) of the behavioural approach system and
the behavioural inhibition system, but Heym and her colleagues updated the scoring of the behavioural inhibition system
so all three systems could be assessed.
- Questions that measure an individual’s behavioural approach system include ‘I go out of my way to get things I want’,
‘I’m always willing to try something new if I think it will be fun’ and ‘When good things happen to me, it affects me
strongly’.
-Questions that measure an individual’s behavioural inhibition system include ‘I feel pretty worried or upset when I think
or know somebody is angry at me’, ‘Criticism or scolding hurts me quite a bit’ and ‘Iworry about making mistakes’
-Questions that measure an individual’s Fight–Flight–Freeze (threat) system include ‘If I think something unpleasant is
going to happen I usually get pretty worked up’ and ‘Even if something bad is about to happen to me I rarely experience
fear or nervousness’.
*read pg 215 for examples*
- The point to highlight from Gray’s theory is how the notions of reward and punishment relate to impulsive and anxious
individuals. Impulsive people respond well to rewards, and not well to punishment. Anxious individuals respond well to
punishment and not to rewards
The five-factor model

-There are three evidential sources for the five-factor model:

-The lexical approach
-Factor analysis evidence for the five-factor model
-Other evidence in support of the five-factor model of personality

Lexical Approach
-Lexical hypothesis-the hypothesis that it is the differences in personality that are important for social interaction and
human societies have labelled these differences as single terms.
- lexical approaches produce descriptive models of personality traits
- Saucier and Goldberg (2001) have described the lexical approach to investigating whether the five-factor structure is
universally applicable as an emic approach to research.
- Basically, what the researchers do is to use the personality terms that are found in the native language of the
country.They contrast this with what they call the etic approach, which uses personality questionnaires translated from
another language that in practice tends to be English.
- there is a necessity for the further study of cultural differences in personality trait use that are being found
using emic approaches as a core part of the search for the universal structure of personality.(because it may be different
from the original questionnaire based in English)

Factor analysis evidence for the five-factor model of personality

-Costa and McCrae (1985) are the most influential researchers in this area and their factor solution is called the Big Five
Model.
- The Big Five factors are OCEAN
Openness- openness to new experiences. It includes the characteristics of showing intellectual curiosity, divergent thinking
and a willingness to consider new ideas and an active imagination.
Conscientiousness- our degree of self-discipline and control.
Extraversion-measure of the individual’s sociability
Agreeableness – characteristics of the individual that are relevant for social interaction. Individuals with high scores are
trusting,helpful, soft-hearted and sympathetic. Those with low scores are suspicious, antagonistic, unhelpful, sceptical
and uncooperative.
Neuroticism- measures an individual’s emotional stability and personal adjustment.

- Each factor represents a continuum along which individuals can be placed according to their scores.
- Within each of the main dimensions there are more specific personality attributes that cluster together and all contribute
to the category score. These subordinate traits are sometimes called facets.
-The NEO-PI-R is the standard questionnaire measure of the five-factor model.(an etic study)
- Goldberg (1993) compared the five-factor model with Eysenck’s three factor model and concluded that two of the
factors – extraversion and neuroticism – are very similar, and that psychoticism can be subsumed under agreeableness
and conscientiousness.
- To summarise, Costa and McCrae (1992) claim that the five factors represent the universal structure of personality based
on all the evidence we have discussed. The factors are found in different languages, ages of people and races.
 What type of approach What factors and/or dimensions
Briefly, what is the theoretical and/or
or approaches are a part of personality are a part of the
historical background of the model?
of the model? model?

• extraversion
• introversion
• sensing
• thinking • Informed by Freud and Adler’s work.
Jung’s model
• psychodynamic • feeling He wanted to reconcile their theories.
of
approach • intuitive • Argues people incorporate aspects of
personality
NB: The Myers–Briggs Type being extraverted and introverted.
Indicator (MBTI) was based on
this approach and measures
these dimensions.

• From the temperaments, to the

humours, to factor analysis.
• openness
• conscientiousness
• The lexical approach → The most
• extraversion
meaningful personality descriptors
The five- • agreeableness
• trait approach would become encoded in language,
factor model • neuroticism
• factor analytic and so we should use the dictionary
of NB: The Neuroticism,
approach to establish personality traits. The
personality Extraversion, Openness
more important a personality trait is,
Personality Inventory (NEO-PI)
the more often it will be used and the
was based on this approach and
more words we will have to describe
measures these factors.
it.
 • Allport → Informed by the lexical
approach. Identified 4,500 personality
traits from 18,000 words.

• Cattell and factor analysis→ Made

use of this statistical technique to
cluster lists of personality traits
together. This is based on
participants’ ratings of the degree to
which attributes apply to them. Using
these methods, sixteen factors of
personality were identified.

• Costa and McCrae → Large samples

completed two personality
questionnaires, factor analyses were
then done on the results, which
consistently uncovered five factors of
personality.

Eysenck
• Extraversion
includes: sensation-
Eysenck and • Eysenck stressed the importance of
• trait approach seeking, sociable, carefree,
Gray’s model genetic inheritance in personality, and
• biological lively, dominant, active,
of that there was a biological
approach surgent, assertive and
personality determinant to personality.
venturesome.
• Also used factor analysis to arrive at
the three personality types.
 • Neuroticism • Variations in extraversion and
includes: tense, anxious, neuroticism are due to balancing
irrational, depressed, shy, excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms
guilty feelings, moody, low in the Ascending Reticular Activating
self-esteem and System (ARAS).
emotional. • Extraversion → variations in
extraversion are due to regulating
• Psychoticism: arousal in the reticulo-cortical
includes: impulsive, circuit in the ARAS. Over arousal =
aggressive, unempathic, introversion (people are
cold, creative, egocentric, overstimulated and therefore are
tough-minded, antisocial overwhelmed by additional stimuli
and impersonal. and so seek to avoid stimulation and
NB: The Eysenck personality exciting situations. Under arousal =
questionnaire was based on this extraversion (people are under
approach and measures these stimulated and so are always seeking
types. stimulation and exciting situations).
• Neuroticism → variations in
neuroticism are due to regulating
arousal in the reticulo-limbic circuit in
the ARAS. Over arousal = neuroticism
(emotional instability because they
are more aroused by emotional
stimulation). Under arousal =
emotional stability.
Gray’s BAS/BIS theory
 • Began as a modification to Eysenck’s
theory, and similar in that personality
is due to variations and interactions
between three biological systems: the
Behavioural Approach System (BAS);
the Behavioural Inhibition System
(BIS); and the Fight/Flight System
(FFS).
• BAS → motivates us to be sensitive to
rewards and to seek them. May result
in impulsivity.
• BIS → motivates us to avoid, based on
anxiety and sensitivity to punishment.
May result in anxiety.
• FFS → motivates natural mechanisms
of reactions of rage or panic.

• Psychodynamic approach-emphasizes unconscious psychological processes and contends that childhood experiences
are crucial in shaping adult personality.
• Trait approach-based on the idea that people differ from one another based on the strength and intensity of basic trait
dimensions.3 criteria that characterize personality traits:1)consistency,2)stability,3)individual differences.
-to have a personality trait,individuals must be somewhat consistent across situations in their behaviours related to the
trait.
• Biological approach-personality is influenced by genetic and biological factors.
Reading criticically and evaluating personality theories:
- The traditional approach to evaluating theory by examining the weight of research evidence to support it is often difficult
in the area of personality.
- the concepts are difficult to define and measure accurately
CRITERIA:
-Description- A theory should bring order into the complexity of behaviours that have been observed and/or measured. It
should help to simplify, identify and clarify the important issues that need to be addressed.
- Explanation – A theory should help in understanding the ‘why’ of behaviour.
- Empirical validity – A good theory will generate predictions so that it can be empirically tested and shown to be valid.
- Testable concepts – Linked to prediction is the question of whether the concepts included within the theory can be
operationalised so that they can be tested
- Comprehensiveness – A good theory should be able to encompass and explain a wide variety of both normal and
abnormal behaviour. What tends to happen in practice is that a consensus emerges within researchers,and it is often
supported by statistical judgements about how common a particular behaviour is.
-Parsimony – A good theory should be economical in terms of the number of explanatory concepts it includes.All concepts
included should be demonstrated to be necessary to explain the phenomena under study.
- Heuristic value – A good theory stimulates interest and research in an area
- Applied value – This criterion sets the theory in a wider context. Under this criterion, the practical usefulness of a theory
is judged. Does it lead to beneficial changes in the environment, for example, or better control of unwantedmbehaviours?
Or, does it provide a qualitative leap in knowledge in a particular area? Does the theory lead to new approaches to solving
problems?

https://www.simplypsychology.org/personality-theories.html

Evaluation of Jung’s theory

Description:
-doesn’t describe personality in detail.
-was interested in the development of personality in middle age.his therapy assisted people to reach self-realisation.
-his work sounds mystical
-his theory is confusing and complex.his writing was confusing and lacking a logical flow.

Explanation:
-his theory provides good explanations of behaviour
- The concept of the shadow acknowledges the possibility of wrongdoing and dark thoughts within all of us.
-complexity of the psyche makes it difficult to identify precisely why certain behaviours occur.
-some behaviour produced by a principle of synchronicity- two events may occur at the same time without one causing
the other. For example, a woman dreams of her mother’s death and then hears the next day that her mother has died.
Clearly, dreaming about her mother’s death did not cause the death, neither did the death cause her to dream about it.
He felt the 2 events are related in a meaningful way.

Empirical validity:
difficult to test

Testable concepts:
-concepts employed are difficult to define precisely and therefore impossible to measure.
- archetypes were impossible to define precisely as they were always changing over time and always had to be interpreted
Anew.

Comprehensiveness:
-While Jung did address a huge range of phenomena, including religion, education, relationships, cultural issues,
and even the occult, coverage was often quite superficial.
Parsimony:
- Jung’s theory is certainly not parsimonious. He describes a huge range of structures within the personality, many with
overlapping functions, and it is unclear how they relate toobserved behaviour. He uses a lot of different concepts to
explain similar behaviour. If you become really angry and quite aggressive at something that seems quite innocuous,
it could be the influence of your shadow, the unpredictable forces within your collective unconscious, the influence of
one of many archetypes and so on. Jung makes no attempt to describe exactly how the archetypes exert their influence
on behaviour and in what order.

Heuristic value:
-Jung’s theory has been influential in many disciplines –especially his work on spiritual concerns and religion, as he felt
that spiritual concerns were the highest human values.

Applied value:
-In relation to applied value, Jung’s theory has been very influential. it continues to provoke interesting debate in many
disciplines other than psychology.
- there is the development of the MBTI and its continued use in occupational testing.
-Eysenck adopted Jung’s concepts of introversion and extraversion,as previously mentioned.
- He was the first to introduce a form of art therapy, as we have seen, and he was influential in developing Alcoholics
Anonymous.
- In therapy, Jung introduced the idea of shorter treatments or brief therapies, as they have come to be called.
-His idea of complexes appears to provide such a valid description of an aspect of human personality that it has been
incorporated into our everyday language, as have introversion and extraversion.

Evaluation of Trait approaches

- there is still some level of disagreement about the exact nature of each of the five factors. Indeed,Saucier and Goldberg
(1998) and Saucier (1995) argue that research should look for solutions beyond the current five-factor models.
- There is some debate about how the factors should be labelled. Labelling factors depends on the researcher’s judgement
about the best descriptor for the cluster of correlated traits.
-the measures that are included in a questionnaire crucially affect the final factors produced.
- They point out that five-factor models tend not to include evaluative traits like moral/immoral. If evaluative traits are
included, Almagor et al., (1995) have suggested that a seven-factor solution emerges.
- the model is data driven and was not derived from a theoretical base.
- One of the more general criticisms of trait approaches to personality is related to how the various measures are
interpreted and used. many of these measures are largely descriptive and do not predict behaviour particularly well.
-Mischel(1968)-personality trait measures statistically account for about 10% of the variance observed in behaviour.
Mischel’s criticism of the overreliance on trait measures to assess individuals has had beneficial effects in work settings.
The practice currently is to use multiple measures of personality assessment in work settings. Psychometric assessments,
individual and group tasks and interviews are frequently used together as an assessment package, and this prevents
overreliance on the psychometric tool.
*see summary pg 189 and 190*

Consideration of biological theories of personality (Eysenck and Gray)

- the main problem with biological theories of personality is the lack of consistent evidence supporting these theories.Very
little evidence that neuroticism is related to arousal.results from EEG are not strong enough.
-they oversimplify the complicated biological processes of the brain.
- While Eysenck emphasises the ARAS and arousal, Gray emphasises two separate systems, the behavioural approach
system (BAS) and the behavioural inhibition system (BIS), and Cloninger links the personality to dopamine, serotonin and
norepinephrine.
each theory represents an oversimplification of the brain processes, and a combination of the different brain systems and
activities identified by these theorists may best explain a biological basis to personality.
Summary
• Eysenck proposes that extraversion–introversion personality traits are related to the arousal of the reticulo-cortical
circuit, and that, for extraverts and introverts, the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) operates in different
ways, particularly in terms of arousal.
• Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory proposes that personality is based on the interaction between two basic
systems in the brain: the behavioural approach system (BAS) and the behavioural inhibition system(BIS). Gray linked
this theory to two personality variables:impulsivity and anxiety.
• Cloninger identified four temperaments (novelty seeking,harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence) and
three characters (self-directedness,cooperativeness and self-transcendence). Cloninger links the personality
dimensions to dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine.
 The five-factor model of
Jung’s model of
personality and the trait Eysenck’s and Gray’s model of personality
personality
approach

There is an aim here to

provide a comprehensive
description and
Minimal description of
explanation of
how the personality
personality.
develops.
Description and explanation of how and
Description This model is a-
Rather than bringing order why we have variation in personality.
theoretical – is it okay to
and simplicity, the theory
provide description after
is frequently confusing
the model has been
and very complex.
developed? It is data-
driven, not theory driven
(Briggs, 1988).

Jung was happy, at times, Is the lexical hypothesis a

to conclude that the valid start point for
whole concept of explanation? Do the
Important psychological mechanisms are
explanation was pointless: factors represent
Explanation drawn on to explain different dimensions
if behaviour is difficult to linguistic categories
of personality.
explain, it is simply rather than the underlying
because we are wired structure of personality
that way. (Digman, 1990)?
 Difficult to test.
There is a lack of consistent supporting
With a large enough
evidence. For example, when you consider
Low test-retest reliability sample testing a range of
the electroencephalography (EEG) studies
for Myers–Briggs Type different measures of
looking at Eysenck’s personality
Empirical validity Indicator (MBTI). personality, we could
dimensions, the relationship between
reach a consensus – five
arousal (as measured by EEG) and
Alternative number of factors occur again and
neuroticism is relatively weak (Matthews
factors generated by again.
and Gilliland, 1999).
factor analysis from MBTI.

Clear factors with precise definitions (is

Personality types have
psychoticism as precise?)
been operationalised and Clear personality factors
Testable concepts
measured with some and facets.
Widely used questionnaire forms have
success.
operationalised these factors.

There is some debate

over this: Mischel (1968)
demonstrated that, on
Over twenty volumes,
average, personality trait Are three factors enough to describe a
Comprehensiveness addressing a huge range
measures statistically personality?
of phenomena.
account for only 10% of
variance in observed
behaviour.

Describes such a wide An aim of the factor

Parsimony range of structures within analytic approach is Appears to be a parsimonious model.
personality, many with parsimony.
 overlapping functions – it
is unclear how they relate:
don’t be fooled by the
clarity of the MBTI!

While his work has not

stimulated much
psychological research, it
has been very influential
in the disciplines of
literature, history, art,
Synthesised a large body
anthropology and
of research on Provided one of the first links between
religion.
personality. personality and biology.
Heuristic and applied
value The MBTI is widely used.
One of the most widely Widely used by personality theorists and
used research tools for neuroscientists alike.
Eysenck adopted the
personality.
concepts of introversion
and extraversion

Many clinical therapists

still train and practise as
Jungian analysts.
 HOW TO PLAN AN ESSAY

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