Social Cognition Practice Test Revision



PERSONALITY

Key Ideas

Knowledge and understanding should be relevant to the following key ideas:

Although every individual is distinctive, we perceive some people to be more alike than others in the ways in which they engage with their social and physical worlds. These patterns of similarities and differences are the province of personality. Personality refers to the complex network of emotions, cognitive processes, and behaviours that provide coherence and direction to a person’s life. Our personality affects our goals, how we feel, how we act, and how we see ourselves and other people.

Personality is a socially and culturally constructed concept.

o Personality tests in the past may have contained culture bias, also contain, gender bias, class bias, racial bias etc.

o Research has been done to identify links between culture and personality – do people from different cultures have different personality traits

▪ Recent research to suggest that American and Asian conception of the self is different

• Americans brought up to be independent, and define themselves in terms of their personal attributes, abilities, accomplishments, possessions

• Asians brought up interdependent, don’t stand out from the crowd, define themselves in terms of groups they belong to, be modest about achievements, don’t put others down

Many different descriptions of the structure of personality have been proposed.

Freud proposed a Psychodynamic theory of personality

Maslow proposed a Humanistic theory of personality

Eysenck proposed a Trait theory of personality

OVERVIEW OF THE PERSONALITY TOPIC

| |Psychodynamic |Trait |Humanistic |

|Theorist |Freud |Eysenck |Maslow |

|Basic philosophy |Unconscious influences our personality. |Genetic component that influences |A good environment is needed to nurture a person’s |

| |(refer to Iceberg theory to explain |personality |inner potential. Based on the hierarchy of needs. |

| |unconscious) | |Need to achieve the lower levels before the next |

| | | |level can be satisfied |

|Theory of |Id, Ego and Superego. Id operates according |Personality traits are enduring |Personality is influenced by the unique potential |

|personality |to the pleasure principle, ego is the |psychological characteristics that |within each of us. |

| |decision making component, superego is the |influence behaviour | |

| |moral component |Consistency of traits through time and in |Each person is striving to achieve their full |

| | |different situations |potential (self actualisation) |

|What makes a |A person who has successfully developed |A healthy personality is one that is |A healthy personality exists in a fully functioning |

|healthy |through the psychosexual stages and not |balanced in the traits of extraversion, |person and someone who is self-actualised – good |

|personality? |repressed undesirable memories in the |stability and impulse control. |self esteem and striving to reach their potential |

| |unconscious. | | |

|Criticisms of |Unscientific as it is impossible to |This theory does not explain why a person’s|Difficult to scientifically test – personal growth |

|conception |scientifically test the concepts of the |behaviours can differ in different |and self-actualisation are difficult to measure |

| |unconscious mind, and id, ego etc. |situations (at home v at school) Trait’s |Such an optimistic theory is an unrealistic view of |

| | |theoretically should be consistent. |human nature. This theory fails to explain why some |

| |Research relies on patients clinical |Also assumes that traits are consistent |people have good lives, yet turn “bad”. |

| |evidence, not scientifically provable. |through time, so does not explain how |Unrealistic view of human nature, Maslow found |

| | |personality can change or develop with age.|self-actualising people hard to find. |

| |Freud suggests that personality development |Does not address development of personality|Insufficient evidence – not enough empirical |

| |finishes after puberty. It does not explain |throughout the lifespan |evidence found |

| |how personality develops during adulthood. |No means of changing personality | |

|Strengths of |Freud was one of the first theorists to |Testable theory – can generate personality |Idea of self-concept has been adopted by other |

|conception |explain personality – well respected in his |tests to measure specific traits |theorists |

| |time |Can identify traits and target them for |Positive approach to personality – sees the good in |

| |Freud attempted to explain how personality |career guidance |all people |

| |developed through childhood and why |Useful to understand behaviour and predict |Led to the emergence of positive psychology |

| |personalities are different |future behaviour |Believes in Free Will – the ability to make free |

| |Other researchers agree that personality is | |choices, how they choose to find meaning determines |

| |influenced by experiences early in life | |personality |

|Comparisons |Pessimistic view of human nature. Presumes |Doesn’t try and explain human nature simply|Optimistic view of human nature, presumes we are all|

| |that we are driven by the evil “id”. Sees |describe it |born good with a potential for self actualisation |

| |that conflict and repression are inevitable | | |

| |Believes experiences in childhood influence |Believes traits are present in childhood |Believes experiences in childhood and throughout |

| |our personality |and consistent throughout life |life influence our personality |

| |Believes we are influenced in our choices by |Believes we are influenced by genetics and |Believes we have free will |

| |our unconscious |temperament. Extraversion is a associated | |

| | |with low levels of arousal in the brain, | |

| | |therefore they seek excitement and | |

| | |stimulation. | |

|Treatment |Psychodynamic therapy |EPQ Personality Questionnaire not really a |Client-centred therapy |

| |Aimed at looking at a person’s past and |therapy , but a method for explaining |Aimed at the present teaching the person to know |

| |resolving conflicts |people’s traits |themselves well enough to understand their problems |

| | | |Based on empathy |

FREUD

MIND:

• Conscious – thoughts we are aware of

• Preconscious - not conscious, but can be made conscious through a cue

• Unconscious – inaccessible to our consciousness, cannot become aware of these thoughts, feelings

PERSONALITY:

• Id – unconscious instincts – born with our id, gets basic needs met

• Ego – deals with the demands of reality and uses reasoning to make decisions, takes reality into consideration

• Superego – the moral branch, develops by the age of 5 “conscience”

o In a healthy person the ego is the strongest so that it can satisfy the needs of the id, not upset the superego and still take into consideration the reality of the situation

DEFENCE MECHANISMS:

▪ Used to resolve the conflict between the id, ego and superego

DEVELOPMENT:

▪ Psycho-sexual stages

• Psychodynamic, humanistic, and trait conceptions of personality:

Psychodynamic perspective (Freud)

o Theory of structure of the mind: (pg 114-115)

▪ Conscious – thoughts we are aware of

▪ Preconscious - not conscious, but can be made conscious through a cue

▪ Unconscious – inaccessible to our consciousness, cannot become aware of these thoughts, feelings

o Theory of personality:

▪ Id – unconscious instincts – born with our id, gets basic needs met

▪ Ego – deals with the demands of reality and uses reasoning to make decisions, takes reality into consideration

▪ Superego – the moral branch, develops by the age of 5 “conscience”

• In a healthy person the ego is the strongest so that it can satisfy the needs of the id, not upset the superego and still take into consideration the reality of the situation

o Defence mechanisms (pg 116)

▪ the ego resolves the conflict among id, ego and superego through defence mechanisms

• Repression – scary thoughts are kept from awareness

• Denial – refusal to acknowledge reality

• Intellectualisation – not focusing on personal aspects of a problem, (eg organising funeral arrangements, no emotion)

• Projection – unacknowledged feelings are attributed to others

• Reaction formation – turn unacceptable feelings into their opposite

• Sublimation – unacceptable feelings are turned into socially acceptable actions

• Rationalisation – actions or feelings are explained away

• Displacement – unacceptable feelings are directed towards another target

• Passive aggression – socially unacceptable angers expressed via a lack of cooperation

o Theory of personality development (Psychosexual development)

▪ Oral stage – birth – 18 months child is fixed on oral pleasures

• too much or too little can results in oral fixation

▪ Anal stage – 18 months – 3 years the child is fixed on bowel movements

• Anal fixation can result in obsession with cleanliness and control

▪ Phallic stage – 3-6 child is fixed on the genitals

▪ Latency stage – 6-puberty – sexual urges remain repressed, interact with same sex peers

▪ Genital phase – begins at puberty – resurgence of sex drive in adolescence

NB – Freudian theories have little relevance in clinical psychology since his death.

o Object relations theory – a more relevant theory

▪ Focuses on interpersonal relationships in the family situation especially between mother and child

▪ Past relationships are thought to shape and influence emotions and behaviour

▪ A persons problems might be traced to maladaptive interpersonal relationships in early childhood

FREUD’S DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

Freud proposed that the development of an individual’s personality is derived from the dynamics of the unconscious mind where one’s past experiences is the major determinants of future behaviour. He saw people’s personality as based on desire [id] rather than on reason [ego & supereo] stemming from his theory of the Pyschosexual Stages of Behaviour, developed in childhood.

Freud proprosed the theory of Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development. These five stages [oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital] must be developed. Interruption, or incompletion of each of these stages during childhood would result in ‘fixation’ [that is a preoccupation with a particular stage throughout life] or ‘neurosis’ resulting from repression. These repressions result in defence mechanisms, such as regression, sublimation, displacement, projection, etc. Coping or defence mechanisms begin to develop as children attempt to avoid failure or rejection in the face of life’s growing expectations and demands.

The Id, operates mainly, during the first 3 Psychosexual stages. These instincts, or irrational needs, require immediate gratification. Development, therefore, is partially dependent on the transformation of the so-called animal desires into socially acceptable rational behaviour and this is achieved through the maturity of the ego and superego. It contains the basic motivation derives for our physiological needs such as food , water, sex and warmth. All emotions are housed in the Id as well as all unconscious forces. The Id also operates on the pleasure principal. This drives the person toward instant gratification and is seen in infants who have not yet developed their ego and superego. It operates on the ‘gimme, gimme’ level, wanting everything immediately. Freud believed that sex and aggression are the two most predominant instinctive drives of the id.

The ego is the servant of the id. The ego’s purpose is to satisfy the desires or demands of the id but restrains the id’s demands until they can be met according to the norms of society. The ego is equivalent to the self - the ‘you’ within you.

The superego appears when the child is approximately 5 years old. It operates on the perfection principle. The superego consists of the morals taught by society. It exercises control over the ego and id’s urges. It makes the individual feel good for having behaved according to societies morals.

Behaviour, according to Freud, then, can be defined as the result of the interaction of these three personality components. For example, when the Id signals the ego that the body is in need of fluids, the ego, evaluating reality, attempts to choose an appropriate form of behaviour to satisfy the id. This would be accomplished by conforming to acceptable social behaviours. [such as not drinking from a puddle or stealing soda] meeting the standards of the superego.

If there is struggle between the id, ego and superego Freud proposes that the ego tries to resolve this conflict. Often it resolves the conflict via defence mechanisms, which are repressions that prevent disturbing anxiety provoking thoughts to come into the conscious whilst the conflict occurs. Although repressed they are usually channelled into our behaviours which we cannot see [they are unconscious]. If the Id, ego and superego are out of balance neurosis may result.

MASLOW

Believed in:

SELF ACTUALISATION:

▪ The ability to reach ones full potential

▪ confident, accepting of oneself, independent, spontaneous, reality centred

Conception is optimistic and based on the notion that all people are born with the potential to be good.

We need to be given the right sort of environment to achieve self actualisation.

Maslow focussed on fulfilling one’s basic needs and psychological needs to reach self actualisation. He believed were arranged in a hierarchy. People must satisfy their basic needs before they can satisfy the higher order needs.

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o He also described peak experiences where we feel at one with the universe – go beyond the limitations of ourselves

He believed in:

PERSONAL GROWTH:

They both believed that humans have an innate drive towards personal growth.

He believed in:

ENVIRONMENT:

They both believed that an individual needs the right sort of environment in order to achieve self-actualisation.

Maslow:

Growth and behaviour are motivated by a number of needs.

Humanistic conceptions of personality

The focus is on the healthy personality rather than abnormalities.

•

•

• Abraham Maslow believed:

o We should aim for peak experiences where we feel at one with the universe – go beyond the limitations of ourselves

o Hierarchy of human needs based on two areas

• Deficiency needs and growth needs

• Needs at the bottom of the hierarchy must be met before higher needs can be fulfilled

1. physiological needs – hunger, thirst, comfort, health

2. safety and security – shelter, no fear, protection

3. belonging and love – affiliating with others, family friends

4. esteem needs – achieving, being competent, gaining approval

5. self actualisation – personal fulfilment and growth

a. need to know and understand

b. need for aesthetic beauty

c. realising own potential and

d. transcendence – helping others reach their potential (these later levels were added after the original theory)

Maslow has set up a hierarchy of five levels of basic needs. Beyond these needs, higher levels of needs exist. These include needs for understanding, aesthetic appreciation and purely spiritual needs. In the levels of the five basic needs, the person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on. Maslow's basic needs are as follows:

Physiological Needs

These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.

Safety Needs

When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.

Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness

When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

Needs for Esteem

When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.

Needs for Self-Actualization

When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.

ESYENCK:

A personality trait is an enduring (lasting) psychological characteristic of a person that influences their behaviour.

EYSENCK’S DIMENSIONS OF PERSONALITY:

This method of analysing personalty Eysenck named Factor analysis – analysing a number of factors or dimensions of personality. People’s personalities fitted on a sliding scale somewhere between each of these extremes.

Psychotic - Impulse control

Troublesome Conventional

Hostile Altruistic

Uncooperative Socialised

Withdrawn Empathic

Extraversion – Introversion

Friendly Quiet

Outgoing Reserved

Optimistic Shy

Popular

Sociable

Neurotic- Stable

Worried Calm

Anxious Even tempered

Unstable Carefree

Moody Emotionally Stable

Eysenck believed that these were genetically based – ie traits are characteristics we are born with and are consistent throughout our life time and consistent in different situations.

Eysenck’s EPQ (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) is still used today.

Trait conceptions of personality

A trait is an enduring psychological characteristic of a person that influences their behaviour.

Trait theories are the most influential approach to describing types of personalities

Identifying traits has two functions

1. to describe a persons behaviour

2. to be able to predict future behaviour

Eysenck

• Claimed there were 3 major personality dimensions

1. Extraversion – Introversion

• Sociability, liveliness, activity, assertiveness, dominance

2. Neuroticism – Stability

• Anxiety prone, depression prone, guilt, low self esteem

3. Psychoticism – Impulse Control

• Aggressiveness, coldness, lack of empathy, unconventional thinking

Eysenck attempted to find a link between brain function and traits – eg suggesting that extraverts have under-aroused brains therefore sought out activities which would enhance arousal.

Neuroticism - Stability

Neuroticism is the name Eysenck gave to a dimension that ranges from normal, fairly calm and collected people to one’s that tend to be quite “nervous.”  His research showed that these nervous people tended to suffer more frequently from a variety of “nervous disorders” we call neuroses, hence the name of the dimension. But understand that he was not saying that people who score high on the neuroticism scale are necessarily neurotics -- only that they are more susceptible to neurotic problems.

Eysenck was convinced that, since everyone in his data-pool fit somewhere on this dimension of normality-to-neuroticism, this was a true temperament, i.e. that this was a genetically-based, physiologically-supported dimension of personality. He therefore went to the physiological research to find possible explanations.

Extraversion-introversion

His second dimension is extraversion-introversion. By this he means something very similar to what Jung meant by the same terms, and something very similar to our common-sense understanding of them: Shy, quiet people “versus” out-going, even loud people. This dimension, too, is found in everyone, but the physiological explanation is a bit more complex.

Eysenck hypothesized that extraversion-introversion is a matter of the balance of “inhibition” and “excitation” in the brain itself.  These are ideas that Pavlov came up with to explain some of the differences he found in the reactions of his various dogs to stress.  Excitation is the brain waking itself up, getting into an alert, learning state. Inhibition is the brain calming itself down, either in the usual sense of relaxing and going to sleep, or in the sense of protecting itself in the case of overwhelming stimulation.

Psychoticism – Impulse Control

Eysenck came to recognize that, although he was using large populations for his research, there were some populations he was not tapping. He began to take his studies into the mental institutions of England. When these masses of data were factor analyzed, a third significant factor began to emerge, which he labeled psychoticism.

Like neuroticism, high psychoticism does not mean you are psychotic or doomed to become so -- only that you exhibit some qualities commonly found among psychotics, and that you may be more susceptible, given certain environments, to becoming psychotic.

As you might imagine, the kinds of qualities found in high psychoticistic people include a certain recklessness, a disregard for common sense or conventions, and a degree of inappropriate emotional expression. It is the dimension that separates those people who end up institutions from the rest of humanity!

The Big FIve Model (Five factor model) is the most modern trait theory. It combined previous research findings and found that of all the traits, five recurred over and over. These five dimensions of personality are often called “The Big Five”

• Openness

• Conscientiousness

• Extraversion

• Agreeableness

• Neuroticism (emotional stability)

Each factor is made up of lower order factors

|PERSONALITY TRAIT |HIGH SCORES |LOW SCORES |

|Openness |Original, imaginative, curious, artistic, open to new |Conventional, down to earth, not artistic |

| |ideas | |

|Conscientiousness |Responsible, organised, self-disciplined, achieving |Lazy, impulsive, irresponsible, careless, undependable|

|Extraversion |Outgoing, sociable, talkative, fun loving, |Quiet, passive, reserved, withdrawn |

| |affectionate | |

|Agreeableness |Warm, gentle, good natured, trusting, helpful |Argumentative, ruthless, uncooperative, suspicious, |

| | |vindictive |

|Neuroticism |Insecure, anxious, guilt ridden, worriers, moody |Stable, easy going, relaxed, calm, even-tempered |

| |Psychodynamic |Humanistic |Trait |

|Criticisms of: |Small sample size |Small sample size |Too fixed |

| |Out dated |Too positive, doesn’t take into |Doesn’t explain why personalities |

| |Age stages too restrictive |consideration bad behaviour |change |

| | |Doesn’t explain why some who are |Suggests personality set a birth |

| | |missing lower levels achieve |3 dimensions is too limiting |

| | |excellence | |

FORMS OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT

• The main forms of personality assessment used today, including standardised self-report inventories, clinical interviews and behavioural observations

Standardised Self Reports (Subjective Quantitative Assessment)

Presented in the form of a series of up to 200 questions

These are self report paper and pencil tests (or computer) questions with responses on a rating scale that seek to measure a broad range of variables. Usually they are carefully constructed and standardised and are used to measure both mental disorder and normal personality. The subject undergoing a personality assessment provides a self assessment.

1. Myers-Briggs Type Inventory

▪ Makes judgements about roles and work environments

o Extroversion – introversion

o Sensing – intuition

o Thinking – feeling

o Judging – perception

2. 16PF designed by Cattell

▪ Factor analysis method – used for personnel selection

▪ Divided into 5 areas – self control, anxiety, extroversion, independence, tough mindedness

3. MMPI-2

▪ Used in clinical psychology (psychopathology)

▪ Used to diagnose mental health disorders and decide on treatment methods

▪ Scales include depression, hysteria, paranoia, schizophrenia

4. Big Five – NEO PI R

▪ Best current model for identifying personality traits

▪ Extroversion – introversion

▪ Neuroticism – emotional stability

▪ Agreeableness

▪ Conscientiousness

▪ Intellect – openness (to new experiences)

|Advantages of |Disadvantages of |

|Standardised Self Report Inventories |Standardised Self Report Inventories |

|Researcher bias is reduced as the subject provides the information themselves |Only suggests potential strengths and weaknesses – shouldn’t be used to make |

| |decisions about hiring or promoting people based solely on the results of a |

| |personality test |

|Able to be used for job matching / personnel selection and assisting people to |Validity and Reliability are not particularly high as people may answer with |

|work more effectively together |socially desirable questions in order to impress a supervisor |

|Helps people identify their own strengths and weaknesses and provide areas for |Predictive / external validity – their behaviour in real life may not match the |

|development in their work role. |behaviours they indicate about themselves on a standardised test. |

Projective Tests (Qualitative Assessment)

• Rorschach inkblot tests

• TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)

Clients talk about something that comes spontaneously from the self without conscious awareness of editing.

Many see projective tests as a means to get information that may not be at the surface level or to prompt an individual to think about something they may have forgotten or supressed.

Therapists use these tests to learn qualitative information about a client.

|Advantages of |Disadvantages of |

|Projective Tests |Projective Tests |

|Inability to give socially desirable answers because the stimuli – the inkblots |Current method of scoring the Rorschach is based on analysing and making |

|or TAT pictures are ambiguous and have no right or wrong answers. They are |judgements about so many different variables (such as content, theme, colour, and|

|difficult to fake. |detail of the cards) that disagreements often arise over interpretation and |

| |classification |

|Some clinicians believe that they do successfully assess a client’s hidden and |Low validity and reliability due to researcher bias – each researcher bringing |

|unconscious thoughts and desires of which he or she is normally unaware. |their own preconceived ideas about what the client is saying. |

Clinical Interviews (Qualitative Assessment)

In the form of a one:one interview with a client and a psychologist

• Person asked to give a history of their problems over the course of their lives

• Patterns or themes would assist the psychologist to make a diagnosis

• Use of open ended questions to encourage people to talk about themselves

|Advantages of |Disadvantages of |

|Clinical Interviews |Clinical Interviews |

|Information about person’s thoughts, feelings as well as current and past |Interviewer characteristics may affect how the individual responds (need a |

|relationships, experiences and behaviour can be discussed |relationship to start with to feel comfortable to disclose personal information) |

| |this may decrease the validity of the information gained during the interview |

|Additional information can be observed by the psychologist from non-verbal |Subjective data – given by the client – is unverifiable |

|behaviours during the interview. |Client honest and willingness to respond may reduce the validity of the data. |

Behavioural Observations (Objective Quantitative Assessment)

Conducted in a real life situation, at home, work, school or socially (may be conducted by video observation)

• Use of behavioural checklists – observing how many times particular behaviours are exhibited (eg aggression)

• Measuring the frequency of behaviours to determine whether they are in excess or not occurring often enough

|Advantages of |Disadvantages of |

|Behaviour observations |Behaviour observations |

|Use of behavioural checklists result in objective reliability if several |Training of observers is required to that they follow a proper coding system when|

|observers are able to see the same behaviours |behaviour is observed. |

|Quantitative data is obtained, which is more precise, verifiable and objective | |

|Able to measure the frequency of a behaviour to determine whether they are in | |

|excess or not occurring often enough | |

Ethical Issues

Ethical issues in the area of personality are generally involved in personality testing.

▪ Wellbeing – people may end up with unwanted self knowledge about themselves (responsibility of the Psychologist to full debrief the person when the results are provided)

▪ Tests must be conducted by professional psychologist and not released to the general public (they lose validity)

▪ Results must be disclosed to the subject, and not used for further research without the persons permission (Informed Consent and Confidentiality)

▪ If results are to be disclosed to others (judge, employer) then the person must know this at the start (informed consent)

▪ Tests should be undertaken voluntarily (unless ordered by court order – ethical concern if an employer requires it to be done – breaches voluntary participation)

▪ Tests are generally self report therefore lead to social desirability (lack validity therefore not ethical to base decisions on test results)

▪ Validity and Reliability of tests is questionable, therefore decisions made on the basis of a personality test may not be ethical (eg getting a job or not, goes to prison, or receives treatment - misdiagnosis)

Validity

▪ Face Validity – the extent to which a test appears to measure what it claims to measure

▪ Internal Validity – undesirable variables are eliminated – test conditions are valid

▪ External Validity – to what extent can the test be generalised outside the test situation

▪ Predictive Validity – the extent to which test scores can predict future performance

Reliability

• Scoring consistently each time you take the test

▪ Ways to ensure reliability

• Test – retest

• Alternate form test

▪ Psychological principles concerning personality in everyday experiences and events (eg character depictions in the popular media) and in psychological interventions, including assertiveness training

Psychological Interventions

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)

▪ Combination of cognitive therapy

o which is aimed at reducing negative, harmful thoughts through journals, breathing exercises, becoming aware of thoughts

▪ Behaviour therapy

o Aimed at changing behaviour in small steps, analysing behaviours, creating a plan to overcome the inappropriate behaviours

▪ Used for treating Anger management issues

o Very effective in teaching people to recognise when they are angry, or getting aggressive and providing alternative paths of action

Assertiveness Training

▪ ROR = rehearse, overlearn, repeat

▪ Know your rights

▪ Be aware of techniques others use to avoid your requests

▪ Don’t back down

▪ Defusing – lets take a minute to think about this

▪ Practice non-verbal assertiveness – eye contact, relaxed and open body posture

▪ Use I statements

I – Statements

When you ……………………………..(non-blame description of other person’s behaviour)

I feel………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Because …………………………………….(real effects of the other person’s behaviour to me, e.g. cost me time, money, causes pain………………….)

I would like …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Example

When you leave my tools out after you have used them I feel annoyed because I have to find and organise them before I can start work. I’d prefer you to put them in their places when you have finished using them.

When you look away while I’m talking, I imagine you are not interested in what I am saying and I feel hurt.

I’d like to talk about this.

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• Application of these psychological principles to social issues , (eg personality disorders, the relationship between culture and personality)

Personality Disorders

• DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychological Association) identifies 10 personality disorders

1. Paranoid personality disorder – distrust of others

2. Schizoid personality disorder – detachment from relationships

3. Schizotypal personality disorder – odd beliefs, social deficiencies

4. Antisocial personality disorder – fails to conform, aggressive, deceitful

5. Borderline personality disorder – instability of relationships, self image, suicidal

6. Histrionic personality disorder – excessively emotional, attention seeking, inappropriate sexually seductive

7. Narcissistic personality disorder – need for admiration, self important

8. Avoidant personality disorder – feelings of inadequacy, avoids social situations

9. Dependent personality disorder – need to be taken care of, clinging, fear of separation, need others to take responsibility

10. Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder – preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, need for control

Most of us are classified as ‘normal’, meaning that we have a range of feelings thoughts and behaviours that fluctuate from day to day or moment to moment. We have moods. Sometimes we are ecstatically happy and at other times, angry, jealous, resentful or sad. We feel good about ourselves and then feel we’re not good enough at other times. We go through periods of sadness after a broken relationship where someone has rejected us and we can feel energised when we feel we can attain a dream. We adjust to life’s difficulties and grow and mature adapting new perceptions and behaviours along the way.

The individual with a Personality Disorder can not adapt smoothly to the normal give-and- take of everyday life. They are INFLEXIBLE and fixed in their behaviours. They expect the world and people to change for them rather than being able to adjust to changing environments. They don’t mature or grow within themselves. They have social and relationship problems as a consequence displaying the same rigid behaviours over and over again, never understanding why people are always in the wrong.

People with Personality Disorders can only see their point of view, their reality and are usually self-serving. They are self-absorbed.

The core of the problem is that they usually have never developed a sense of ‘real self’; that is they have an impaired sense of normal personality development.

Criminals

▪ Little evidence to suggest that all criminals have similar personality types

▪ Eysenck identified that criminals tended to score highly on extraversion, neuroticism and psychotocism, extensive research has failed to support this idea

▪ 10-15% of criminals have personality disorders, tend to be antisocial, borderline and histrionic

Anger and Aggression

▪ An individual may have higher or lower trait anger, more likely to get annoyed, physically tensed up, impulse to retaliate than others

▪ Relationship between high levels of anger and disease – high blood pressure, heart attacks

▪ Some genetic connection in temperament may be partly the cause and childhood experiences are also likely to contribute to anger

▪ Cognitive causes – the way people think about the world contribute also to aggression

▪ Anger management can be effectively treated through CBT.

• Investigation designs and methods of assessing psychological responses used to study social personality including validity and reliability.

| |Experimental |Quantitative Observational |Qualitative |

|Objective Quantitative |Numerical data gathered from an |Numerical data gathered from |- |

| |experiment |behavioural observations – counting | |

| |-eg showing graphic film and |number of people with traits | |

| |measuring responses to emotions | | |

|Subjective Quantitative |Self report inventories measuring |Self Report Inventories |- |

| |effect of one variable on the |Myers Briggs | |

| |measure (eg fear) |16PF | |

| | |MMPI-2 | |

| | |NEO PI R | |

|Qualitative |- |- |Delphi Technique or Data Collection |

| | | |from focus group |

| | | |Clinical Interview with a |

| | | |psychologist |

| | | |Projective Tests – Rorschach and TAT|

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Extended Response: Psychodynamic

Students in a psychology class were asked to list words or phrases that describe personality using psychodynamic conceptions. One student prepared the following list:

controlling quiet and unsociable curious

critical excessively neat and tidy pleasure seeker

overly efficient moralistic creative

sensitive attachment to one parent extremely rational

always feels guilty childish instinctive

affectionate represses memories hero

nurturing rebellious hostile

• Describe how two of the responses listed above relate to a psychodynamic conception of personality.

• Describe one strength and one weakness of psychodynamic conceptions of personality.

• Describe one form of personality assessment.

• Discuss validity, using personality assessment as an example

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2015 Extended Response

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2016 Extended Response

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EXTENDED RESPONSE

Michelle is an outgoing person with a busy lifestyle. She is employed as a salesperson and regularly socialises with friends. Michelle plays various sports, including A-grade cricket and tennis. Michelle enjoys playing these sports but also loves to win. As an employee of a large retail company, Michelle has been one of the two top salespeople for the last six months. She still worries about doing better and seeks constant reassurance about her own performance. She intends to apply for a promotion to the position of assistant manager. She becomes frustrated regularly by co-workers who she believes do not work as hard as she does.

Discuss conceptions of personality. Your response should include a description of:

• One trait conception of personality (note: theory question, not related to Michelle)

• Two of Michelle’s personality traits that illustrate the trait conception of personality you described above;

• Michelle’s personality in terms of one humanistic conception of personality

• One psychodynamic conception of personality (note: theory question, not related to Michelle)

A recommended approach to writing this response is 2 well made points per dot point – 4 marks each, plus 4 marks for communication

(20 marks)

One trait conception of personality it that of Eysenck who believed that personality can be measured using three factors with opposite components. He belived that every person possess some extent of each of these factors and that explaining these traits assists in understanding our personality. Eysenck identified the Extraversion – Introversion factor which identify’s people as being either outgoing or shy. He identified the Neuoticism – Stability factors which identifys people as worriers and stressors or calm and relaxed. The final factor is the Psychoticism – Impulse control factor which states that people may posess unreliable, hostile characteristics or altruistic characteristics.

Michelle socialises regularly as she is an outgoing person with a busy lifestyle. Eysenck’s factor analysis would suggest that she is Extroverted rather than Introverted. Michelle also worries about becoming a better sales person. According to Eysenck this suggests anxiety and stress which he would consider as being on the Neurotic scale rather than stable.

Maslow proposed a humanistc conception of personality based around the notion that all people are striving to achieve their full potential. He believed that if people were able to have their basic needs met such as physiological needs, food, air and water, safety needs, a place to live and feel secure, their love and belonging needs, then their self esteem that they would reach their full potential. He called this self actualisation: being the best we can be. Michelle’s personality would be developing at the self esteem level. Considering she works it can be assumed her first 2 levels are met, she has friends and plays various supports therefore has a sense of belonging and love. Her self esteem is not full y developed as she is constantly seeking reassurance, but there is evidence that she is striving for her full potential – going for the promotion.

Freud proposed a Psychodynamic conception of personality based around the idea that the unconscious part of our mind influences our personality. He believed that within each person’s unconscious existed the Id, Ego and Superego which were able to influence our decision making and therefore determined our personality. He proposed that the Id is driven by needs, for example I want to go to a party. That the Superego was the moralistic component of our personality and would determine that it is morally wrong to go to a part when there is study to be done. The ego works on the reality principle and would determine that after 2 hours study, then you may got to the party. Freud concluded that depending on which force you listened to more closely, determined your personality.

PERSONALITY TEST

PERSONALITY (24 marks)

1. Personality can be examined from different theoretical perspectives.

Psychodynamic conceptions of personality emphasise the importance of the unconscious mind.

(a) Describe how the unconscious mind works to influence personality according to ONE psychodynamic theorist that you have studied.

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(b) Describe one criticism of the psychodynamic conception of personality.

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3. Describe one difference between humanistic conceptions of personality and psychodynamic conceptions of personality.

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4. Describe one criticism of humanistic conceptions of personality.

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5. In order to collect data about someone’s personality, a psychologist would usually get the person to undergo a personality assessment. A number of different forms of personality assessment are used today.

(a) State one form of personality assessment that could be described as a ‘subjective quantitative’ method.

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(b) Describe what is involved in this form of personality assessment.

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(c) Describe what is meant by validity in terms of personality testing.

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(d) Describe what is meant by reliability in terms of personality testing.

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6. Describe what the psychological intervention “assertiveness training” teaches people to do.

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PERSONALITY TEST SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

PERSONALITY (24 marks)

1. Personality can be examined from different theoretical perspectives.

Psychodynamic conceptions of personality emphasise the importance of the unconscious mind.

(a) Describe how the unconscious mind works to influence personality according to ONE psychodynamic theorist that you have studied.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory emphasises the importance of the unconscious mind.

Freud theorised that there are three main components of the personality; the id, the ego and the superego.

The id is entirely unconscious. It is responsible for the biological urges, sex drive and the drive for aggression. Whether we behave according to our id, or whether it is influenced by the moral or right thing to do from the ego or superego is reflected in our personality.

Past experiences, traumatic events, fears and secret desires can be repressed into the unconscious mind according to Freud’s iceberg theory. This theory states that only a small portion of things stored in memory is in our conscious mind, the rest is stored in our preconscious or unconscious. He states that our adult personality may be influenced by unconscious memories that have been suppressed for example finding it difficult to remain in a relationship as a result of traumatic events in our childhood.

(b) Describe one criticism of the psychodynamic conception of personality.

• The unconscious mind may be less sexually and aggressively oriented than Freud originally thought

• There is no scientific evidence to back up Freud’s theory. It is purely subjective based on the clinical evidence provided by Freud’s own patients. Hence it is outdated and not supported by many psychologists today.

• Freud suggests personality development finishes at puberty, which doesn’t take into account changes in personality during adulthood, therefore it is inaccurate.

3. Describe one difference between humanistic conceptions of personality and psychodynamic conceptions of personality.

• Humanistic conception is more optimistic in its approach to describing human personality. It focuses on the healthy personality rather than abnormalities and the pessimistic view that people suppress negative memories in their unconscious mind as is the case in psychodynamic conceptions.

• Psychodynamic perspectives assume that a healthy personality is one that balances conflicts between conscious and unconscious forces while humanistic perspectives assume that a healthy personality is one that is full functioning and self actualised.

• Humanistic approach presumes people have free will to make choices about their future and as long their needs are met they can achieve self actualisation. In contrast psychodynamic conceptions believe humans are influenced in their choices by their unconscious.

• They psychodynamic approach believes that personality develops one step at a time through psychosexual stages, whereas humanistic approach focuses on the environmental needs being satisfactory to achieve our development to a health personality.

• The treatment for psychodynamic approach focuses on looking into people’s past and resolving past conflicts, whereas treatments under humanistic conceptions are focused on the present and encourage people to know themselves so they can resolve their own problems.

4. Describe one criticism of humanistic conceptions of personality.

• It is difficult to scientifically test humanistic conceptions of personality as they are simply theories based on the subjective data obtained by the theorists.

• Humanistic theories are criticised as they do not satisfactorily explain how a person can have all their needs met yet still have an unhealthy personality or vice versa, that they reach self actualisation despite not having safety and belonging needs met.

• Humanistic theories are criticised as being an unrealistic view of human nature – they lack a consideration for the human capacity for evil which appears as a trait is some people.

5. In order to collect data about someone’s personality, a psychologist would usually get the person to undergo a personality assessment. A number of different forms of personality assessment are used today.

(a) State one form of personality assessment that could be described as a ‘subjective quantitative’ method.

Self report inventories for example EPQ, 16PF, MBTI, MMPI

OR Projective Tests for example TAT, Rorschach Inkblot Test

(b) Describe what is involved in this form of personality assessment.

EPQ, 16PF, MBTI, MMPI – comes as a questionnaire which is completed and scored in order to determine the degree to which the person is described by the various traits or other factors measured in the test. Eg EPQ – measure traits such as extroversion or introversion.

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TAT, RIT, fantasy material is written or questions answered about an ambiguous picture. Fantasy material is scored and interpreted in order to construct a personality profile.

(c) Describe what is meant by validity in terms of personality testing.

• Validity means whether the personality assessment actually measures the personality characteristic it sets out to measure. If it is claiming to measure assertiveness then questions need to measure assertiveness and not some other trait such as aggressiveness.

(d) Describe what is meant by reliability in terms of personality testing.

Reliability means whether personality assessment arrives at similar results on different occasions – ie results are consistent each time the test is used, and should produce similar results.

6. Describe what the psychological intervention “assertiveness training” teaches people to do.

Assertiveness training teaches you to:

• Develop an ability to communicate your needs, feelings opinions and beliefs in an open and honest manner without violating the rights of others

• Be prepared with facts when needing to speak to someone in an assertive manner

• Rehears and role play so that you know what to say and how to say it. It gets you to work with a friend or group to practice appropriate phrases.

• Develop self confidence

• State your point of view without being hesitant or apologetic (ie in a passive manner)

• Prevent others from imposing their values and beliefs

Assertive communication skills can be learned

• Feelings, needs, wants are stated appropriately

• Speaking clearly and using appropriate gestures, standing tall, maintaining eye contact

• Being an active listener, learning to say no and being decisive

Learning to use assertive statements

• Keeping to the facts and using “I” statements to assertively communicate your own thoughts, feelings and opinions

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[pic]BASIC NEEDS

PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS

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