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PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders Lecture 2 Is the individualism/ collectivism dichotomy and its implications for personality too simplistic? -

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Define individualism and collectivism o Collectivist culture = group o Individualist culture = self/individual Bring in Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural difference: o bipolar and uni-dimensions of cultural differences where any culture differs along this dimension of collectivism and individualism. Describe the implications for personality o Implicit/unconscious influences such as attitudes, assumptions, role models o Socialisation and early learning experiences o Media influences and norms o Values and ethics Cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism are related to patterns of selfdevelopment, or self-schema. o Individualist gives rise to independent self-schema  Primary referent is the individual’s own thoughts, feelings and actions  There definition of self is free from social context o Collectivist culture gives rise to interdependent self-schema  Interaction with others produces a sense of self as connected to, related to, or interdependent with others  Definition of self is tied to social context Individualism and collectivism are cultural dimensions Independent and interdependent are personality dimensions Bandura is saying that individualism/collectivism dichotomy is too simplistic and that the evident suggests that logically you could be both independent and interdependent. o personal efficacy is relevant to all cultures o group agency still requires personal efforts o even in a collectivist culture you require individuals working together o individuals can have collective identity, but each retains a sense of individual identity/self/agency o doesn’t explain intracultural diversity, there are collectivist in individualistic cultures and individualist in collectivist cultures Studies that support Bandura: o Brewer & Chen, 2007 – Individualism and Collectivism shouldn’t even be on the same dimension o Freeman & Bordia 2001 - possible to be collectivist with family, but individualist with nation

PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders -

Critically evaluate - argue that you agree with Bandura and although it may be too simplistic in certain domains, there might be other ways of extracting value in relationship to this

Lecture 3 Universal Personality theories? -

Although there is individual difference, UPT explains universal human tendencies and nature. Evolutionary vs Trait Psych

How does trait accounts address cultural differences? -

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Definition: enduring tendencies to think, feel and behave consistently Nomothetic approach: what people have in common Nature over nurture Lexical (words) hypothesis: the words we use to describe one another should indicate the major individual differences are that people vary upon Five Factor Model OCEAN: o Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism Traits are biologically fixed human universals. Traits shouldn’t change unless there is a change in our biology The five factor theory states that there is no transfer from culture and life experiences to basic personality traits Cross cultural research: o Translate NEO (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, words used to describe each other) into other languages o Showed that the same 5 factors emerged o Tested over 50+ societies and most of the evidence suggest the FFM to be true Geography of personality o Use the FFM and see if extraversion can explain east and west culture differences and culture differences of collectivism/individualism o Result showed that Eastern cultures (collectivism) tend be more introverted o Cultures that tend to be more individualistic tend to be more extraverted o Cluster analysis showed that using FFM, countries that are geographically close in proximity have similar profiles on FFM o Multidimensional scaling showed that Euro-American cultures have high extraversion and openness, Asian-African cultures have high introversion and closeness o Could be due to shared genes, culture and physical environment Personality differences exist across countries but it is very small It is possible that the patters could be differences in self report, cultures may differ in response styles or self-presentational strategies

Critically discuss whether evolutionary psychology successfully accounts for cross-cultural differences in personality

PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders -

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Define evolutionary psychology and its major premisses o Universally evolved preferences/mechanism Darwin’s theory of natural selection o Survival/reproductive success o Psychological adaptations: preferences, biases o Distal vs proximal explanations o Interactionist framework o Environment of evolutionary adapted-ness (who we are is a product of the past) It is hypothesised that we have clear male and female gender roles related to women: pregnancy and lactation Buss 1995: o In the past women faced problem of securing resources through pregnancy and lactation and it is hypothesised that because of this they preferred mates who show ability to accrue resources and provide Buss 1989: o Across 37 countries women prefer men with status and resources in long term, male prefer women with looks in short term and long term Limitations to the evidence: o Does not account for cross-cultural differences?  Bussey’s work with Bandura 1999 – EP can’t account for cultural diversity in gender roles  Gender roles appear more nurture than nature (trait not EP)  cultural preferences in beauty: human sexual arousal is driven more by the mind through cultural construction of attractiveness than by physical universals  gender roles have been changing and gender differences have been diminishing over the past decade, too short to be genetically determined  introduction of contraception has allowed women to control their reproduction practices which led to changes in lifestyle, brought by technology not biology According to evolutionary psychology we are hard wired for preferences related to health indicators: o Facial symmetry is a universal health/fitness indicator and beauty indicator how can EP explain cultural diversity and sex differences? o contrast between evoked and transmitted culture and how pathogen prevalence might account for cultural differences. o Evoked culture: cultural; differences evoked (drawn out, triggered) by different environments (pathogens) o Transmitted culture: cultural differences transmitted across individuals/groups (ideas/beliefs)

PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders o Buss 2001 - In cultures with great prevalence of pathogens, physical appearance becomes an especially important mate selection criterion o Gangestad et al (2006) – parasite prevalence predicts preference for physical attractiveness better than gender equality

Lecture 4 Describe DSM Personality disorders and critically evaluate the DSM categorical approach -

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DSM personality disorders definition o Enduring patterns of thinking/feeling/acting/relating o Culturally deviant o Pervasive and inflexible o Lead to distress or social impairment Initially DSM looked at PDs as distinct categorical model: distinct clinical entities o disease model and PD categories (DSM/ICD) o PDS are thought as problems within the person, alike to a physical disease such as asthma o Categorical models have been dissatisfying for those who work in the field. Sometimes it is highly problematic to classify people into specific disorders o Often when 1 person has 1 category of disorder, they have multiple PDs o Extreme heterogeneity (9 symptoms of BPD and you require 5 symptoms to have BDP = 256 different ways to have BDP) o The most common diagnosis of PD is PD not otherwise specified (NOS). They meet the criteria for PD but don’t fit in a category o Poor overlap in diagnosis. 1 clinician believes a patient has BDP and another will think different DSM IV to V o Proposed a dimensional mode: copy the FFM, a version of personality traits o DSM V ended up keeping the categorical approach with the same 10 personality disorders o New model was too complex for clinical practice o Old Axis model meant that conceptually some people were untreatable o New DSM recognises the possible effects of enduring personality characteristics on the treatment of more transient clinical cases and removed the Axes. PD cluster o A: Paranoid, Schizoid and Schizotypal (weird, odd, eccentric) o B: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic and Narcissistic (wild, dramatic, emotional) o C: Avoidant, Dependent and Obsessive-compulsive (anxious and fearful) Paranoid = distrust, suspicious, misinterpret others’ actions Schizoid = social detachment, limited emotion prefers isolation

PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders -

Schizotypal= acute discomfort in close relations, magical thinking Antisocial = pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that begin early childhood and continue Borderline = instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, emotions, impulsive, fear of abandonment/age, identity disturbance (emptiness), self-harm Histrionic = excessive emotionality and attention seeking, self-dramatization, over reaction to minor events, irrational angry outburst Narcissistic = pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy Childhood abuse or neglect increases likelihood for PD by 4 times

Describe and critically evaluate trait approaches to personality pathology -

Continuum (dimensional)/trait approach o Having a normal range for what is considered adaptive personality functioning in relationship to traits, but in the extremes, we have maladaptive functioning

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PDs involve: o Criterion A: impaired personality functions/traits – disturbances in self and interpersonal functioning  Moderate or greater impairment in identity, self-direction, empathy, and intimacy o Criterion B: pathological personality functions/traits  Neuroticism (negative affectivity), Extraversion (detachment), Openness (psychoticism), Agreeableness (antagonism) and Conscientiousness (disinhibition) o Creates a hybrid model of using functioning and traits to identify specific PDs

PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders

Critically discuss the relevance of culture for differentiating normal and disorder personality -

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Disorders and cultural changes o 1800s-1900s: women would be diagnosed with hysteria, might have paralysis but with hypnosis they could move again, suggests that it’s a psychosomatic illness. No evidence of hysteria now o Homosexuality (DSMII) dropped as a disorder in 1973 Cultural deviance criterion: PD reflects difficulties in how an individual behaves and is perceived to behave by others in the social field and this of necessity brings into play cultural values related to what is expected, valued, and devalued in a person Poor cross-cultural data on PS (Mulder, 2012), only Antisocial, borderline and not otherwise specified PDS used cross culturally o BDP and ASPD increased in US past 30 years and US has more ASPD than Taiwan  Estimating true prevalence is very difficult  More resources and studying on ASPD done in US than Taiwan o 2001-2002 national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions showed that 15% of US adults have at least one personality disorder PD categories treated as disease: impersonal phenomenon separated from social and cultural values (like cancer) But there are indications that the disease model is not always the best method, PD could be a result of a person – environment (culture) mismatch (Leising et al, 2009) Chen et al (2009) in Confucian culture dependent PD may be adaptive not maladaptive US vs Turkish undergrad students (individualist vs collectivist) o Showed that collectivist people in individualist cultures and vice versa reported more PDs What is normal personality? o Normality = natural (normal to walk on 2 legs) o Statistical: average modal – how everyone reacts o Medical = absence of pathology (normal heart is free of disease) Alternative model for DSM 5 o Optimal personality functionality: o self

PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders Identity: experience of oneself as unique, with clear boundaries between self and others; stability of self esteem and accuracy of selfappraisal; capacity for and ability to regulate a range of emotional experience  Self-direction: pursuit of coherent and meaningful short term and life goals; utilisation of constructive and prosocial internal standards of behaviour; ability to self-reflect productively o Interpersonal:  Empathy: comprehension and appreciation of others experiences and motivations; tolerance of differing perspectives; understanding the effects of one’s behaviour on others  Intimacy: depth and duration of connection with others; desire and capacity for closeness; mutuality of regard reflected in interpersonal behaviour Can we make sense of normal personality and PD without culture? o Use abnormal levels of distress as a symptom of PD?  Distress can be from community  Homosexual person in a hostile environment will feel distress and may internalise  Person culture clash, you can’t remove the person from the culture  Absence of distress will also only be noticeable in a stressful environment Wakefield (2007): we should remove focus from disease or illness o Focus on Disorder = Harmful disfunction o Harmful disfunction caused by a failure of an internal mechanism which it was evolutionarily designed o Livesley and Jang (2005) supports this o There is a value component, negative or harmful behaviour is determined by cultural values Leisin et al (2009): o PD is a personality pattern that is  At odds with natural personality functioning and negatively valued o What is natural personality functioning? o Meeting universal life tasks? Like eating, sleeping, socialising Life task: o Stable and integrated representation of self and others o Capacity for intimacy o Adaptive functioning in the social group 

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PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders

Lecture 6 Describe and critically evaluate the DSM approach to trauma and PTSD -

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Trauma = wound, in terms of psychology being overwhelmed by emotions and stress Although trauma is ubiquitous, individuals show unique reactions to traumatic events based on the unique ecology they live in 19th Century women suffered from hysteria o Pierre Janet (1889): hysteria reflected a diathesis (vulnerability) stress (environment) reaction  Believed that some people were born weaker minded which was the diathesis, necessary for trauma/hysteria but without the stress (environment) it will not occur PTSD did not exist until WW1: o Shell shock was the first type of PTSD o Identified as a type of traumatic neuroses = overwhelming emotions of terror in the war front also conflict between order to march to death vs desire to flee which will lead to execution. Death vs death no solution o Unresponsive: Dazed, apathetic, lethargic, unresponsive, and very responsive: fearful and easily startled DSM III: PTSD initially an anxiety disorder o PTSD was considered a response to a traumatic stressor: event outside of normal range of experience (intense fear, terror, helplessness) o PTSD: reexperience of trauma, nightmares, avoidances/numbing, hyperarousal

PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders

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DSM III: threat to life/physical integrity (self/family) e.g., warm natural disasters car accident, rape DSM IV: expand to include developmentally inappropriate experiences without violence or injury DSM 5: PTSD no longer an anxiety disorder o Removes reference to subjective response (intense fear, etc found not to predict PTSD) o Add to symptoms: persistent negative alteration of mood and cognition o Firsthand repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event, (not via media) such as Police workers and social workers o PTSD can occur at any age after the first year of life o Usually within the first 3 month after trauma o Delayed onset trauma after many months/years o Delayed expression: delayed in meeting the full criteria for PTSD Criticism: o Haslam (2016): concept creep: Concern for definition of trauma being watered down, trivialised o 2 ways to concept creep:  Vertical expansion: wider range of milder conditions new meet diagnostic threshold  Horizontal expansion: include new concepts Difficulty with trauma research o Difficult to show causality, mostly correlation due to long period of time of people experiencing PTSD to traumatic event

PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders

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o Retrospective study, the patient has to explain what the trauma was, based on memory o Very difficult to predict specific outcomes, people experience and respond to trauma differently Ecology of Trauma model o Understand the person, the traumatic event, and the environment o The person(s) experiences the event within a larger context (environment) which includes the role of community, social, cultural, and political factors Psychological trauma involves: o The stressor itself o The factors of the individual and how they appraise the situation and their emotional response o The impact of the event on the person Different responses to Trauma o Severity, duration and proximity of the event o Single large event (car accident), several smaller events (witness abuse), multiple prolonged events o repeated and intrusive interpersonal trauma (domestic violence) vs sudden nonpersonal trauma (earthquake) interpersonal trauma and childhood: deliberately happen to you, victim of abuse o violation of social norms o 1/3 of children suffer physical abuse o ¼ girls and 1/5 boys suffer sexual victimisation Variety of child victimisation o Familial physical, sexual, emotional abuse and incest o Community, peer, and school-based assault. Molestation and severe bullying o Severe physical, medical, and emotional neglect o Witness domestic violence o Effects of caregiver mental illness, substance abuse, criminal involvement, or abrupt separation or traumatic loss

Describe attachment theory and its relation to complex trauma -

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John Bowlby (1969, 1973, 1980): attachment theory founder Ethological approach: behaviours within an evolutionary framework o Infancy and survival o Responsive caregiving o Socio-emotional development o Impact upon personality and later relationship Universality hypothesis: all infants with normal brains will be motivated to seek proximity with 1 or more specific caregivers Normative hypothesis: majority of infants will develop secure attachment with their caregivers

PSYU 3336 – Personality and its Disorders -

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Sensitivity hypothesis: the security of the attachment is dependent on the sensitivity from the caregiver, see and act upon the needs of the child Competence hypothesis: secure attachment leads to positive child outcomes Attachment theory is stating that attachment bonds and relationship children form due to evolution early in life are very important for self and emotional development and later interactions with others Is attachment theory universal or just western? o Alloparents: multiple caregivers beyond biological relations in certain cultures o In most cultures alloparenting is considered the norm o Cross culturally there seems to be evidence supporting attachment theory Attachment Theory, risk, and prospective factors: o Internal worki...