PSY257 notes 1 PDF

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First lecture notes for PSY257 taught by Kelsey Blum....

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Intro to Personality What is personality?  A set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring o Aka the average tendencies that tend to occur over time Traits are useful for…  Describing people and their differences  Explaining behavior  Predicting future behavior Psychological Mechanisms- information processing model Input

Decision Rules (If this…Then I will do…

Output

Danger

If courageous, then face danger If cowardly, then run

Confront Source Run from Source

Personality is…  Within the individual and mostly stable across time and situations  Organized- usually follows information processing model  Enduring- emotions and actions are consistent across situations  Dependent on environmental interactions o Selection- choice of situation is reflective of personality o Evocation- the reactions we cause in others and vice versa  Ie: you may scare someone without trying o Manipulation- intention to influence others  Ie: if you’re anxious, you might try to convince your friends not to do something dangerous Adaption: our personality can help us adapt through coping, accomplishing goals, dealing with challenges and more Levels of Personality Analysis 1. Human Nature/Survival Needs a. Ie: language 2. Individual and Group Differences a. Some people like big parties, some like small (individual difference) b. Old people like old shows, young people may not (group difference) 3. Individual Uniqueness Grand Theories of Personality

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Dispositional- how individuals differ Biological- humans and biological systems come first Intrapsychic- mental mechanisms that operate outside consciousness Cognitive- experiential, thought processes and subjective experience Social and cultural- cultural background and who we hang out with Adjustment- how we adjust to problems and traumatic experiences

Theory and Evaluation  Good theories provide… 1. a guide for research 2. a way to organize and explain findings 3. accurate predictions for behavior  Standards for evaluation 1. Comprehensive- does the theory explain facts and observations in the domain? 2. Heuristic Value- does the theory guide to new discoveries? 3. Testability- does the theory provide empirically testable predictions? 4. Parsimony- does the theory contain view, premises, and assumptions? 5. Compatibility Across Domains- the theory should not violate principles in other domains Assessment, Measurement, and Design Types of Measurement  Self Report (S-Data)  Observer Report (D-Data)  Test Data (T-Data)  Life Outcome (L-Data) Important for a study to have…  Reliability- does it do what it needs to do?  Validity- is it accurate?  Generalizability- can it represent the population? Types of Studies  Experimental- manipulating variables, can make causal relationships  Correlational Studies- no causal relationships o Ie: smoking and lack of sleep are positively correlated  Case Studies

Intrapsychic Domain (lotta Freud) Psychoanalytic approaches to personality  Focus on unconscious memory/repressed traumatic experiences  Conscious mind doesn’t know about the unconscious Sigmund Freud  Believed in unconscious, that it talked to us through dreams  Interpretation of Dreams o Dreams contained innermost secrets and psychic energy  Psychic energy: motivation for doing the things we do o If energy is shifted, we experience a personality change o Comes from basic instincts; sex and aggression o Energy can be redirected to be used for particular instincts or behaviors we want at the time  The Mind o Conscious: all the thoughts and feelings that you are presently aware of o Preconscious: any info you are not presently thinking about but that could be retrieved and made conscious with effort

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o Unconscious: unacceptable information hidden from conscious view and that an individual cannot bring to their conscious awareness Motivated Unconscious: autonomous activity of the unconscious breaking through o Shows through mistakes/ “Freudian Slips” o There is a reason for every mistake we make o Anna O  Developed symptoms-body not working, strange cough, trouble drinking fluids-after her father died who she cared for  She was diagnosed with hysteria by a doctor who followed Freud  Recalled her memories with talk therapy and how they connected to her symptoms  Later developed the “talking cure” Structure of Personality o Id: Reservoir of psychic energy  Source of desires and urges; no filter, instant gratification o Ego: Executive of personality  Gatekeeper of what is appropriate to do/say and not; self-awareness o Superego: upholder of societal values and ideals  Kind of like your true self Types of Anxiety o Objective: expected anxieties caused by real external threats; if you’re being chased or have a big test o Neurotic: conflict between Id and Ego, your desires and secrets are being pushed back by your ego; having an intense crush on someone and thinking about it constantly but not wanting to say it in the present moment o Moral: conflict between Ego and Superego, guilt or shame over not acting as expected or reaching goals set up for you; wanting to have sex before marriage Defense Mechanisms o Repression: process of preventing unacceptable or negative thoughts o Denial: refusing to see the facts o Displacement: unacceptable impulse that is channeled or redirected from its original source to a non-threatening target  Ie: Getting mad at your boss but expressing it at your family once you’re home instead o Rationalization: generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that might otherwise appear socially unacceptable  Ie: doing poorly on a test but blaming the professor o Reaction Formation: experiencing a flurry of behavior that indicates the opposite impulse when experiencing an unacceptable urge  Ie: when you’re angry at someone but act painfully nice to them instead of mean o Projection: seeing the traits that upset us about ourselves in other so we attribute our own unacceptable qualities onto others

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 Ie: judging others for spending money when you do the same thing o Sublimation: channeling of unacceptable sexual or aggressive instincts into socially desired activities  Ie: experiencing anger and going to the gym to lift instead of being mean towards people Psychosexual stages of personality development o Oral stage: fetus-18 months  Areas of pleasure (what is most important during this age) are mouth lips and tongue  If things go wrong in those areas, you create a fixation that is represented in our personalities (things like smoking or binge eating) o Anal stage: 18 months to 3 years  Area of pleasure is anal sphincter o Phallic stage: 3-5 years  Discover genitals  By this age, Freud believes our personalities are mostly set in place and developed o Latency stage: 6 years-puberty (11-12)  Start taking on roles we need to become an adult o Genital stage: after puberty  When we start resolving all of our fixations and problems from other stages Psychoanalysis: goal is to learn about the client’s past and how they may be hiding certain things o Free association o Dream interpretation o Dreams o Projective Techniques...