Persoonlijkheidsleer – Begrippen + Summary
Introduction to Personality Toward an Integrative Science of the Person
H1 – Introduction
Part 1: H3
Part 2: H5&6
Part 3: H7&9
Part 4: H10
Part 5: H12
Part 6: H14
CH1: Orientation to Personality
Behavioral-Conditioning Level: analyzes specific patterns of behavior that characterize individuals
and the situations or conditions that seem to regulate their occurrence and strength. It studies the
determinants of learning and applies learning principles to modify problematic patterns of behavior,
including emotional reactions like fears.
- Behavioral analyses focus on a specific, problematic or otherwise important behavior – such
as the stutter of a person suffering from public speaking anxieties, or one’s inability to stay
concentrated on studying before exams. Then they analyze the situations or conditions that
seem to control that behavior, that is, the conditions in which the stutter or the studying
becomes worse or improves. Finding the conditions in which the problem improves becomes
the basis for designing treatments to modify the behavior to help reduce or eliminate the
problem.
- Behavioral analyses have helped us understand the conditions through which behaviors
relevant to personality are learned and can be modified.
- ‘How are important behavior patterns, including emotions and fears, learned? How does
what I do and feel depend on my earlier experiences? How can my behavior and feelings be
modified by new learning experiences?’
- Focus is on the ways in which the person’s behavior reflects and is shaped by his or her
learning history and present life conditions.
Biological Level: an important goal of personality study at the biological level is to try to specify the
role of genetic determinants and of the social environment in shaping who and what we become.
- How much of personality reflects nature, and how much nurture.
- ‘To what extent does my personality come from my parents and the genes I inherited from
them? To what extent is my personality a reflection of my life experiences? To what extent
does my personality reflect my basic biological predispositions?’
- A goal at this level of analysis is to examine how aspects of personality may have evolved in
response to the evolutionary pressures and history that shaped our species over time.
Phenomenological-Humanistic Level: work at this level begins by listening closely and trying to
understand the individual’s experience as he or she perceives it. The focus is on subjective
,experience, feelings, the personal view of the world and the self. The focus is also on people’s
positive strivings and their tendencies toward growth and self-actualization.
- ‘Who am I really? Who do I want to become? How do I see myself? How do I see my parents?
What do I feel about myself when I don’t meet my parents’ expectations?’
- It is addressing the processes through which each person develops a sense of self and
identity – a conception of who one is and wants to be.
Psychodynamic-Motivational Level: probes the motivations, conflicts, and defenses, often without
one’s awareness, that can help explain complex consistencies and inconsistencies in personality.
- ‘Does what I do sometimes puzzle me? How and why? What are the real motives that drive or
underlie my behavior? How can I explain irrational fears and anxieties? How do I try to
protect myself against getting hurt psychologically?’
- The kind of insight needed to understand someone’s behavioral and emotional
inconsistencies is at the heart of the psychodynamic motivational level of analysis.
Social Cognitive Level: the focus of personality research at the social cognitive level includes the
person’s social knowledge of the world, and how people make sense of other people and
themselves and cope as they negotiate their interpersonal lives.
- ‘How does what I know, think, and feel about myself and the social world influence what I do
and can become? What can I do to change how I think and feel?’
- The social cognitive level examines individual differences in how social knowledge is used in
dealing with the world, in the construction of the self, in self-regulation, and in self-control.
- The specific focus is on the individual’s characteristic ways of thinking and processing
information, both cognitively and emotionally, as determinants of his or her distinctive and
meaningful patterns of experience and social behavior.
Trait-Dispositional Level: seeks to identify the types of stable psychological qualities and behavioral
dispositions that characterize different individuals and types consistently.
- ‘What am I like as a person? How am I different from other people on the whole? In what
general ways are people different from each other?’
- Studies at this level also examine the stability and consistency of traits and types over the
course of time throughout the life span.
SUMMARY
What is Personality?
Personality: implies stable and coherent individual differences that can be described or
predicted.
Personality in personality psychology: refers to the person’s unique patterns of coping with
and transforming the psychological environment.
Personality psychologists study how personality dispositions and psychological and
biological-genetic processes influence people’s distinctive patterns of behavior.
, Theory and Levels of Analysis
In the first half of the last century, grand theories of personality developed, introducing many
lines of research and therapeutic practices.
Work in personality psychology can now be grouped into six different major levels of
analysis.
These six levels provide an overview of the many complex and diverse aspects of human
personality.
Trait-Dispositional Level: tries to identify consistencies in the basic expressions of
personality, conceptualized as stable personality characteristics.
Biological Level: explores the biological bases of personality, including the role of heredity,
the brain, and evolution.
Psychodynamic-Motivational Level: probes the motivations, conflicts, and defenses – often
unconscious – that may underlie diverse aspects of personality.
Behavioral-Conditioning Level: analyzes specific patterns of behavior that characterize
individuals and identifies the conditions that regulate their occurrence.
Phenomenological-Humanistic Level: focuses on the inner experiences of the person and his
or her way of seeing and interpreting the world.
Social Cognitive Level: shares the focuses with the Psychodynamic, Behavioral, and
Phenomenological Levels, but places greater emphasis on scientifically rigorous analysis of
the patterns of thoughts and feelings and the role of situational contexts on them.
CH3: Types and Traits (Trait-Dispositional Level)
Ability traits: (Cattell): traits concerned with effectiveness in gaining the goal.
Act trends: (behavioral trends): in this view, dispositions are natural categories made up of various
acts. The acts within a category differ in the degree to which they are prototypical or ideal members.
Most importantly, this view of dispositions emphasizes that dispositions do not provide explanations
of behavior; instead, they are summary statements of behavioral trends that must themselves be
explained.
Agreeableness: good natured, helpful, trusting.
Big Five Structure: identified five primary dimensions of personality through factor analysis:
o Neuroticism
o Extraversion
o Openness to new experience
o Agreeableness
o Conscientiousness
Cardinal traits: highly generalized dispositions that influence most aspects of someone’s behavior.
For example, if a person’s whole life seems to be organized around goal achievement and the
attainment of excellence, then achievement might be his or her cardinal trait.
