The following document contains notes/summary of personality psychology for a second year psychology course (PSYC2020A).
It covers 6 topics which include:
- Personality: What is it and why should you care?
- Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis
- Carl Jung: Analytical psychology
- Trait theories
-...
*The following document contains notes/summary of personality psychology for a second year psychology course (PSYC2020A).
*The mentioned module was completed at University of Witwatersrand but information will not differ greatly if you are at a different
university. Personality psychology contains the same content regardless.
Below is a list of the topics covered.
Topic 1: Personality: What is it and why should you care?
- Define personality
- Describe how social media influences our personality
Topic 2: Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis
- Instincts: The propelling forces of the personality
- The levels of personality
- The structure of personality
- Psychosexual stages of personality development
Topic 3: Carl Jung: Analytical psychology
- Aspects of personality
- The development of the personality
- The self and the tendency towards actualisation
- The experiential world
- The development of the self in childhood
Topic 6: A South African historical context and African perspectives of personality psychology
- Historical context for theorising personality in South Africa
- The “African personality”
- World-view influences on personhood
- The African personhood in context
Information was adapted from the following textbooks and/or academic sources:
Schultz, S. E., & Schultz, D.P. (2017). Theories of personality (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Chapter 2: Nicholas, L. (2021). A historical context for South African personality psychology research. In L. Nicholas (Ed.), Personality
psychology (2nd ed., pp. 14-33). Oxford University Press.
Chapter 3: Ntinda, K., & Mpofu, E. (2021). African perspectives of personality psychology. In L. Nicholas (Ed.), Personality psychology
(2nd ed., pp. 34-54). Oxford University Press.
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,Personality Psychology – Stuvia
Topic 1: Personality: What is it and why should you care?
Define personality
- The state of being a person
- The characteristics and qualities that form a person’s distinctive character
- The sum total of a person’s physical , mental, emotional, and social characteristic
How does your personality develop?
- Are we born with our personality (temperament)
- Do we learn with our personality from our parents?
- Is our personality unconscious ?
- Can our personality change as we age?
Ways of looking at personality?
- Unique characteristics
- Way we see ourselves
- Way others see us
- Our stable predictable characteristics
Describe how social media influences our personality
Do people present their real selves on social media? (link to OCEAN)
- Persona/mask on social media?
- Do our social media representations show an idealised self-image?
- Is social media an accurate representation of our personality?
Does the use of social media influence or change one’s personality? (link to OCEAN)
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, Personality Psychology – Stuvia
- Use of online social networking sites can shape (and reflect) our personalities.
- Excessive internet use increases levels of depression and anxiety (Lam & Peng, 2010)
- High levels of social media use reduces psychological well-being & decreases quality of relationships with friends and partners.
- Greater loneliness, anxiety & conflict in their relationships with their parents for those who communicated via social networking
sites.
- Excessive social media use – more lonely, introverted, low self-esteem, risk for online addiction, changes in brain structure linked
to depression & irritability.
Does the use of social media differ with different personalities? (link to OCEAN)
- Social networking sites can reflect our personalities.
- Research in both Eastern and Western cultures: Those high on extraversion and narcissism more likely to use FB. Narcissistic
teenagers more likely to update FB status more frequently.
- High use of social networking sites more common among people who are extraverted, open to new experience, lower in self-
esteem and socialisation skills, less conscientious, lower in emotional stability.
- Extraverts spent more time making calls, changing ring tones and wallpaper.
- Those more neurotic and less conscientious spent more time texting
*The Big 5* - OCEAN
Openness vs closed-mindedness
Conscientiousness vs disorganisation
Extraversion vs introversion
Agreeableness vs disagreeableness
Neuroticism vs emotional stability
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