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Individual Differences Lecture Notes
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These are the all the notes I took down for the individual differences module for year 2 , enjoy :)
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PY 2024 – Individual DifferencesLecturer: Dr. Matt Gobel (MJ Room 128) office hours: wed 11-12
Assessment: 90 minute exam (100%): 30 MCQ and 3 questions
Book: personality, individual differences and intelligence (John maltby)
Learning Objectives:
Approaches to the study of personality
A historical review
Defining “personality”
What is personality?
GORDON ALLPORT- “ a dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create the person’s characteristic pattern of
behaviour, thought and feelings”
Personality is a statistical regularity of a finite number of behaviours that we can measure.
Personality is the understanding of what people are like, how and why they behave in a certain way.
In bell curve:
- majority in the centre as it’s the average
Approaches in personality:
Individual differences approach (statistical analysis of individual differences) VS Clinical observation approach (studies based on observations of
patients)
Structural models of personality (focus on ‘how’ people are different) VS Process models of personality (focus on ‘why’ people are different)
Critical discussions in personality:
Nature vs nurture – a discussion of whether personality and human behaviour is determined by genetic or environmental influences.
Stability (trait) vs malleability (state) – another discussion focuses on the determination of human behaviour through personality or social
situations.
,Hippocrates (4th BCE) – Personality traits and human behaviours are based on 4 separate temperaments associates with 4 fluids (humors)
Galen – personality differences could be explained by imbalance in humors and each person exhibits ¼ temperaments
Immanuel Kant & Wilhelm Wundt:
Lecture 2 – Psychodynamic approaches to personality
SIEGMUND FREUD – psychosexual stages of personality
CARL JUNG – extraversion & introversion
ALFRED ADLER – birth order effect
“Are we the masters of our thoughts or the slave of our unconscious?”
OUTLINE :
1. THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALTY (ED, EGO, SUPEREGO)
2. STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
3. DEFENCE MECHANISMS ( PROJECTION & FALSE CONSENSUS EFFECT)
FREUD’s psycho-analytic approach:
Behaviour is driven by motives - motives are conceptualised as unconscious forces (drives) that make it difficult to know our true self.
Every child is born with a fixed amount of mental energy called libido, which after development becomes the basis of adult sexual drive.
A lot of psychological energy is taken up with defence mechanism (eg. Projection) to keep material unconscious as it would cause us anxiety.
FREUD’S – The structure of personality:
The ID – unconscious, mostly primitive drives or urges (death and sex) and operates on “pleasure principles” – our instincts.
The superego – develops as a child interacts with others and acts as our conscience (right and wrong). Strives for perfection and operates on rule-
based – our moral compass.
The ego – rational part of our personality balances the demans of the id and superego in the context of reality and operates on “reality principles”
– our self.
Eg:
The ID – “I am tired I want to stay in bed”
The superego – “that isn’t ok you should go to your lecture”
The ego – compromise? Skip shower to sleep a little more then go to lecture
, Defence mechanisms - 8 Ways of dealing:
Reaction formation – reducing anxiety by adopting beliefs contrary to your own beliefs
Projection – attribution unacceptable desire to others
Denial – refusing to accept thereal events because they are unpleasant
Regression – returning to copy strategies for less mature stages of development
Rationalisation – justifying behaviours by substituting acceptable reasons for less-acceptable real reasons
Sublimation – redirecting unacceptable desires through socially acceptable channels
Repression – suppressing painful memories and thoughts
Displacement – transferring inappropriate urges or behaviours onto more acceptable or less threatening target
What is false consensus effect?
ROSS – overestimating the percentage of people who share traits, opinions, preferences.
Criticism:
Methodological problems and unscientific practice – truthfulness and validity of data is questioned
Some vagueness in his theory – eg sufficient oral stimulation, but what does it mean?
Overemphasis on sexual drive
Concept of defence mechanism most valuable contribution
Comprehensive theory of both normal and abnormal behaviour
Significant advancement in treatment of patients with mental disorders
JUNG – on the path to self- realisation:
Jung argued that behaviour is motivated by future goals
He was the first to think that personality development continues throughout the life
The aim is realising one’s potential
His therapy aimed to assist patients to achieve self-realisation, the final stage of personality development
Structure of human psyche:
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