Lecture notes
4PAHPDFF: Psychology and the Individual revision notes
- Institution
- Kings College London (KCL)
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1.1: Understand the Differential psychology= understanding that humans are differentaims of differential Might look at world from ‘normal distribution’ i.e. traits distributed across a normal
psychology distribution—expect most people to be in the middle, but also people to be on extreme
ends
1.2: Understand the PERSONALITY= ‘A dynamic organization inside the person of psychophysical systems that create
concept of the person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts and feelings’—Gordon W. Allport
personality Suggestion that personality= shapes who we are
Is personality hardwired?
Suggestion personality PREDICTS patterns of behaviour + our engagement with the
world
1.3: Describe five JUNG:
approaches to - Psychoanalyst, early supporter of Freud, interested in unconscious
personality, - Ideas developed from: psychoanalysis, Freud + clinical observation
summarizing the - Jung’s work stems from Freud’s earlier work looking at the interaction between
theoretical instinctual drives (genetic) + developmental experiences (environment)
background, central - Jung’s work was also influenced by Adler’s work who stressed the importance of the
ideas and the role of social context i.e. how our place in society influences how we think and how
application of the we look at the world
model. We will look - He looked at different dimensions (dichotomies) of personality:
at the work of Jung, Extroversion vs introversion
Eysenck, Gray, Costa Sensing vs intuition
& McCrae and the Thinking vs feeling
learning approach Judging vs perceiving
- He suggested you can only be one or the other (i.e. a dichotomous approach) rather
than traits being placed on a spread (e.g. I am slightly introverted)
- Rather than using scientific method, he used observations of the world + conversations
he had with people to distinguish categories of personality
HANS EYSENCK:
- Split concept of personality into three categories:
Emotionally stable vs unstable
Introversion vs extroversion
Psychoticism vs impulse control (this was added onto the original model evolved
from conscious thinking)
- Model derives from biological theory—suggestion that personality derives from an
‘ascending reticular activating system’
Ascending reticular
activating system
system
Reticulo cortical Reticulo limbic
system
High Low arousal= High arousal to Low arousal to
arousal=introvert extrovert emotional stimuli= emotional stimuli=
neurotic emotionally stable
- Introversion + extroversion based on level of activity in each system—Eysenck suggests
, individuals differ in basic levels of arousal
- Ambivert= someone who has traits of both extroversion and introversion
- Suggests an introvert needs less external stimulation to have optimal performance
whilst an extrovert has a low level of arousal and would therefore need more mental
stimulation for optimal performance
- Geen (1984)—ppts filled out questionnaire and responses to external stimulation were
tested—ppts asked to pick volume of music they would like to listen to
- FINDINGS Introverts listen to lower levels of music whilst extroverts listen to louder
vol. of music
- Introverts were then exposed to volume of noise that extroverts preferred and vice
versa—findings demonstrate a general group difference pulse rate of introverts was
higher in both conditions
- Task performance findings show introverts who heard louder music performed worse
on tasks compared to when they were able to choose music volume + likewise for
extroverts
GRAY:
- Adopted a learning theory approach to personality
- Proposed personality= based on interaction between reinforcement sensitivity theory
aka behavioural approach system (BAS) AND the behavioural inhibition system (BIS)
- BAS looks at reward seeking tendencies whilst BIS looks at avoiding punishment
FFFS BIS BAS
fight-flight-fear Behavioural Behavioural
system inhibition activation
Active Regulates balance
avoidance from desire to flee Sensitivity to
response aversive situation reward
+ seeking rewards
COSTA & MCCRAE:
- Combines a series of approaches
- Composed the ‘Big Five’ (OCEAN) questionnaire—suggests there are 5 main personality
factors/traits
[O]peness
[C]onscientiousness
[E]xtroversion
[A]greeableness
[N]euroticism
- Each label has a ‘facet’ next to it (e.g. low score of neuroticism indicates individual is
calm, even tempered and secure, whilst a high score indicates person is anxious,
unhappy and prone to negative emotions)
1.4: Explain the Psychoanalytic approach= Based on theoretical reflections of Jung, Freud + Vienna
difference between psychoanalytic society
a psychoanalytic
,approach (e.g., Lexical approach (Galton)—suggests personality traits that matter to us will be in a
Jung), a lexical dictionary
approach, a factor - Allport used lexical approach to identify 1800 words which described 4500 personality
analytic approach traits
and a biological
approach to Factor analysis= ‘a multivariate data reduction technique that allows us to simplify
personality. correlational relationships between a number of variables’
Biological approach= Neurophysiological defined + developed with empirical testing
1.5: Understand Requirements of a model of personality:
how models of BASIC CRITERIA—
personality can be - Does model provide good description and explanation of thoughts feelings and bhvr
evaluated; apply present in individual
this framework to - Empirical validity—i.e. can we test aspects of model?
evaluate models of - Testable concepts
personality. - Comprehensiveness—i.e. does it capture all the different types of personality factors to
help understand how individuals differ
- Parsimony—i.e. does the model have the right no. of factors (is it parsimonious?)
- Value
I
1.6: Understand the RELIABILITY= free from unsystematic error—i.e. the degree to which an assessment tool
importance of produces stable and consistent results
validity and - Test-retest reliability—does test give similar results at different times
reliability in - Parallel forms—do equivalent tests form yield the same answer
psychometric - Split-half reliability—Cronbach’s alpha: tests all possible halves and calculates the
testing. average correlation between halves
VALIDITY= free from systematic error—i.e. how well does the test measure what it is
supposed to measure?
- Face validity—Does test measure what it claims to measure?
High face validity can leave a test vulnerable to social desirability bias: so, is face validity
a good thing?
- Construct validity—extend to which test captures specific theoretical construct/trait
- Predictive validity—does test accurately predict criterion that will occur in future?
, 2.1: Describe the key components of Behavioural psychology implies bhvr is learnt suggest individual
Pavlovian or Classical conditioning. differences= result of different learning experiences ppl have had +
situations in which they find themselves in
Suggestion our experiences shape our expectations—cues in environment
may stimulate an emotional response e.g. feeling hungry around
lunchtime
PAVLOVIAN/ CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
When CS (initially neutral) is paired w/ UCS—an association is formed
e.g. Pavlov—studied reflexes of digestion—
BEFORE CONDITIONING: UCS (food) UCR (salivation)
DURING CONDITIONING: UCS (food) + NS (bell) UCR (salivation)
AFTER CONDITIONING: CS (bell) CR (salivation)
Factors affecting if association occurs:
- Contiguity= how close together in space/time do the stimulus and
outcome occur
- Simultaneous conditioning = when CS occurs at same time as UCS
- Delay conditioning= when CS if followed immediately by UCS
(produces strongest type of conditioning as you can see a strong
predictive relationship)
- trace conditioning= CS occurs first then delay period occurs before
UCS
Watson and Rayner (1920)
2.2: Understand how Pavlovian Watson= impressed by earlier work of Pavlov
conditioning is applied to the Conducted study on Little albert—found that human emotional responses
development of anxiety. could be manipulated using classical conditioning
UCS (loud sound) UCR (fear)
UCS (loud sound) + NS (rat) UCR (fear)
CS (rat) CR (fear)
Study shows generalisation conditioned fear of white rats generalised to
other white furry objects (i.e. things similar to initial stimulus evoking
similar response)
Cohen Kadosh (2015) modern day experiment demonstrating CC on anxiety
Teenagers completed computer screen—shown different rooms (context)
and every few slides there was image of woman either screaming or not
screaming
Conditions:
- Predictive scream condition= every time lady came on screen= scream
occurred
- Unpredicted scream condition= scream did not occur at the same
time
- No scream condition= scream never occurred
Results show when scream is predictable—ppts demonstrate startled
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