Psychology: PersonalityExtending Beyond Psychodynamics

How Our Personal Identity is Formed

Personality, What is it? Personality

It is an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

IOW it is comprised of characteristics/behaviours that make everyone unique

Personality is shaped by our environment & genetics Our past experience shapes our personality & specifically how we respond in

specific situations

All people demonstrate traits Traits are predispositions to behave in a certain way in a given situation

Animals appear to demonstrate personality traits however, they act according to the conditioning they undergo Conditioning is a type of learning in which the subject responds to a

stimulus in a way that normally does not bring about that response Conditioning will be discussed more specifically during our next lesson on

Behaviourism

Categorizing PersonalityCategorizing personality

types began in ancient GreeceCategorized in terms of the

humors (aka body fluids)Greeks classified personality

according to the idea that ppl had excessive amounts of 1

Modern psychologists have their own theories & use tests to categorize personality

Blood = optimistic

Yellow = irritableBlack = depressed

Phlegm = calm/unemotional

Jung on Personality Jung categorized all PPL based on

the following;Introverted or ExtrovertedFunction Types (4)

Thinking (uses reason) Feeling (uses emotions) Sensation (uses the senses) Intuition (uses perception)

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was a test developed to determine personality based off of Jung’s ideas

In fact, you probably already did one in GR 10 Careers Either the CDN Personality

Dimensions or US True Colors Tests

Take Out Your iPadGo to

http://www.humanmetrics.com/CGI-WIN/JTYPES1.HTM

Or Google – Human Metrics Personality Test

What type of Personality do you have?

Criticisms of the MBTI & other TestsMBTI is believed to be accurate in determining the

introversion/extroversion portion of personalityLess accurate relating to its other scales, WHY?Think about your responses

PPL can fake themPPL can rush through instead of reflecting properlyPPL can misread/misunderstand questions

Tests need to take this into consideration when they are developed to determine if answers could be faked or exaggerated

A closer look at our VERTEDnessExtroversion: directing one’s interests

outward, especially towards social contacts

Introversion: directing one’s interests inward, away from social contacts

Neuroticism: is a personality trait that describes a person’s stability in terms of their ability to deal with stress, anxiety, moodiness, jealousy & envy.

The Big Five TheoryContemporary theorists believe that every individual

posses a mix of each of the following traits however, one side is more dominant than others. Which are you?

THE BIG FIVE

Trait Dimension Description

Openness Imaginative/independent vs. practical/conforming

Conscientiousness Organized/careful vs. disorganized/careless

Extroversion Outgoing/energetic vs. shy/reserved

Agreeableness Friendly/helpful vs. cold/unkind

Neuroticism Anxious/insecure vs. calm/secure

The Big Five TheoryOften people are classified as Type A or Type B – the following are the two prototypical personality types. People are a mix of these traits though

Personality Type A Personality Type B Unstable

Worrying, vulnerable, self-pitying, impatient

Extrovert Sociable, fun loving, talkative,

spontaneous Open to Experience

Imaginative, independent, curious, broad interests

Agreeable Courteous, selfless, trusting, co-

operative Undirected

Careless, undependable, lax, aimless

Stable Calm, hardy, self-satisfied, patient

Introvert Reserved, sober, quiet, self-

controlled Not open to Experience

Unimaginative, conforming, incurious, narrow interests

Antagonistic Rude, selfish, suspicious, unco-

operative Conscientious

Careful, reliable, persevering, ambitious

Let’s Assess this Guy

The Big Five TheoryWhat would personality theorists say about Cookie Monster’s personality?

Personality Type A Personality Type B Unstable

Worrying, vulnerable, self-pitying, impatient

Extrovert Sociable, fun loving, talkative,

spontaneous Open to Experience

Imaginative, independent, curious, broad interests

Agreeable Courteous, selfless, trusting, co-

operative Undirected

Careless, undependable, lax, aimless

Stable Calm, hardy, self-satisfied,

patient Introvert

Reserved, sober, quiet, self-controlled

Not open to Experience Unimaginative, conforming,

incurious, narrow interests Antagonistic

Rude, selfish, suspicious, unco-operative

Conscientious Careful, reliable, persevering,

ambitious

Determining Personality & BehaviourPsychologists use a technique called factor

analysis

Factor analysis: a statistical technique that identifies patterns of related test items (factors)

Subjects respond to a series of written questions that ask how they would react in a hypothetical situation

Psychologists look for patterns when analyzing the data

Using these patterns, they make predictions of how personality & behaviour are linked