INTRODUCTION AND APPROACH TO PERSONALITY

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Jamil bin Hj. Yaacob,

AM (Mal), MD, M.Med (Psych), M.Sc (London)
Lecturer, Dept of Psychiatry, USM

CONTENT

Definition of personality Shaping of personality

Genetic influences Environmental influences Cultural influences

Continuity of personality Consequences of personality Approach in understanding personality

PERSONALITY
Definition
Personality traits are enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself, and are exhibited in a wide range of important social and personality context.
(American Psychiatric Association, 1987)

PERSONALITY
The characteristic patterns of thought, emotion and behaviour that define an individuals personal style and influence his/her interactions with the environment.

SHAPING OF PERSONALITY

Genetic influences

Environmental influences

Cultural influences

GENETIC INFLUENCE
Research shows that reliable differences can be observed among infants beginning at about 3 months of age.

GENETIC INFLUENCE
Such characteristics are activity level, attention span, adaptability to changes in the environment & general mood.

GENETIC INFLUENCE
Such mood related personality characteristics, called temperament are building blocks for the individuals later personality.

GENETIC INFLUENCE
The early appearance of such characteristic suggests that they are determined in part by genetic factors and are inherited from the parents.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE
Most psychological theories of development assumes that forces acting early in life have more influence in shaping our personalities than do later forces.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE
Attachment Child differ from one another in the degree to which they form secure attachments to their primary caregivers in the 1st year of life.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE
Those who form such attachments are observed in later childhood to approach difficult problems with enthusiasm and persistence, to be self-directed and eager to learn & to be social leaders among their peers.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE
In contrast, children who are less securely attached at the end of their first year are more easily frustrated, are more dependent on adults and tend to be socially withdrawn

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE
The failure to form secure attachments in the early years has been related to an inability to develop close personal relationships in adulthood.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE
Childrearing
Accepting/Responsive/Child centered

practice
Rejecting/Unresponsive/Parentcentered

Demanding Controlling

Authoritative

Authoritarian

Undemanding Not controlling

Indulgent

Neglecting

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE
Types of childrearing practices 1. Authoritative
2. Authoritarian

Individual (child) personality

Increase level of control, warmth & able to use 2-way communication Competent & capable individual BUT might lack of spontaneity & social withdrawal. Accepting, responsive, have positive mood BUT too much indulgent will create immature individual, lack of impulse control, lack of social responsibility & self-reliance. Neurotic, abuse substances

3. Indulgent

4. Neglecting

CULTURAL INFLUENCE
Western culture independent self-assertive motivated to achieve Non-Western culture Interdependence of persons with others in the community Children are encourage to be part of functioning community

CULTURAL INFLUENCE
Parents in non-Western culture punish wrong behaviour & do not explicitly praise or reward good behaviour.

CONTINUITY OF PERSONALITY
Evidence for continuity
2 studies: 1. Barkeley Guidance Study conducted at Inst. Of Human Dev. At U California. 2. Oakland Growth study Result: 1. There was strong continuity of personality from early to later adolescence. 2. The strongest continuities related to intelligence & intellectual interests. 3. Personality variables like extraversion, emotional stability & impulse control are next. 4. Political attitude & measures of self-opinion are last.

CONSEQUENCES OF PERSONALITY
Example: Childhood ill-temperedness Poor education
Low occupational status Erratic worklife

Approaches To Personality
A) Trait Approach B) Psychobiological Approach C) Social Learning Approach D) Psychodynamic Approach E) Humanistic Approach

The Big Five

The English vocabulary contains nearly 20,000 trait terms. But there is a lot of redundancy among them (sociable, outgoing).
Decades of research on similarities between traits have yielded five clusters: Neuroticism Extroversion Openness Agreeableness Conscientiousness

These tendencies mix in different proportions to create different personalities.

Psychobiological Approach

Focuses on the role of biology in determining personality. There are a number of ways to look at the role of biology in personality. One way is to look at the heritability of personality traits.
Another way is to look at the effect of brain damage on personality.

Psychobiological approach

Focuses on the role of biology in determining personality. There are a number of ways to look at the role of biology in personality. One way is to look at the heritability of personality traits.
Another way is to look at the effect of brain damage on personality.

Optimum-Level Theory

Some personality traits like extroversion and thrill seeking, produce behaviour that increases arousal. Could it be that such people are trying to raise their natural low level of arousal to an optimal level? Optimal Level Theory states that: There is an optimal level of arousal for motivated action. When arousal is low, we feel bored and unmotivated. When arousal is very high, we feel tense and fearful.

Social Learning Approach

States that our personality is shaped by what we learn from our experiences.
We develop expectations about the outcome of our behaviour in certain situations. One particularly interesting effect of such expectations is reflected in what is known as self-handicapping.

Self-Handicapping

Making excuses for ones performance before the fact. Sometimes this is done by saying things that suggest that one is not at ones best (I have a headache, I slept terribly, etc.) At the extreme one may actually engage in behaviour that will handicap ones performance (getting drunk the night before a competition). Self-handicapping is an attempt to protect ones self-esteem. Research shows that people who self-handicap do not cope well with stress.

Psychodynamic Approach

According to this approach, diverse sources of psychic energy interact dynamically in each of us.
Sigmund Freud is the most famous proponent of this view. Freuds psychoanalytic theory begins with the idea that the mind exists on two basic levels: conscious and unconscious. Freud believed that the mind has three basic structures: Id: unconscious irrational source of primitive impulses. Ego: conscious and realistic (respects reality principle) Superego: both conscious and unconscious. Based on rules and prohibitions we have internalized.

Defense Mechanisms

The conflicts created by the ids strong impulses and the inhibitions imposed by the ego and superego can be very upsetting.
Defense mechanism: Repression Reaction Formation Projection Sublimation Rationalization Conversion

Personality Disorders

According to Psychodynamic theory, problems during early personality development can result in personality disorders in later life. Narcissism is a sense that others are there to serve the self.
Narcissists love attention and praise, but respond to criticism with extreme anger.

Humanistic Approach

Humanism emphasizes the individuals potential for growth and change.

Abraham Maslow proposed that personality is shaped by motivation to satisfy a hierarchy of needs:
Self-actualization Aesthetic needs Cognitive needs Esteem needs Attachment needs Safety needs Physiological needs

Carl Rogers proposed that people seek to be fully functioning.

Personality Assessment

Projective tests such as the Rorschach Inkblot Test assess how people project unconscious conflicts in their responses to nonspecific or ambiguous stimuli.

Standardized Personality Tests

Standardized Personality tests use a set of items and have been screened for psychometric properties such as reliability and validity.