Personality cont.

Psychologists studying personality are studying how people differ: why they behave differently when exposed to the same situation

A person’s unique set of consistent behavioral traits

Sociability ( would like to be around other people at every waking movement/ others don’t want to be around people)

Irritability

Energy level ( talks fast, walks fast)

Depression

Rigidity ( it’s my way or the high way, never interested in other peoples opinions)

Test-retest realiability indicates that a personality is not just measuring temporary states

•Case studies

Finding out as much as you can about the person, their family members and friends to find out why that person has the unique personality that he/she does

• Coding Behaviors
• Writing everything down and categorizing it

• Projective test
• Asking what they see in the pictures
• You are projecting your personality based on how you describe the image
• They say that it shows traits that they are not even aware of

• Self-report questionnaires
• People may not tell the truth
• -The problem of Response sets
• Answering personality questions on an basis instead of the truth

• Social desirability
• Giving the answer that sounds good
• Acquiescence
• Saying “ Yes” to everything

• Faking Bad
• To get attention
• To get them out of trouble

• •Hard-driving competitiveness
• Chronic sense of time urgency
• Addiction to work
• Perfectionism
• Need for control
• Quick temper

People with these characteristics are 3 to 5 times more likely to die of a heart attack than people without these characteristics

• •A balanced approach to life
• Enjoys work but says “no” to overwork
• Does not live life in a hurry

Locus of Control is the degree to which you generally expect to control outcomes in your life.

External Locus of control on GUAM



GPA: “We’re not here to determine who’s at fault. In our view, the snake was at fault”

• •More successful in school and work
• More active coping with problems

Active- meeting the problem head on


Take more responsibility for their health

• Start and stay with exercise programs
• Regular medical and dental check-ups

Able to quit smoking or drinking (or never start)

• •More psychological disorders
• Higher suicide rates
• Fatalistic reasoning

Usually caused by exposure to sever, uncontrollable stressors

•Psychodynamic Theory

• Unconscious, unresolved, trauma early in life cause maladaptive behavior, or neuroses, in adult life
• Defense Mechanisms- unconscious ways of dealing with unacceptable feelings and thoughts
• Type A behavior as a defense mechanism : displacing anger

Are angry because of things that happened earlier in life

External Locus of Control and learned helplessness as emotional fixation in infancy: the External LOC person wants others to meet his/her needs

Learning Theories and personality

• Stress-magnifying behavior is learned, like most other behaviors
• People who show Type A behaviors have been reinforced for them, and/or punished for Type B behavior
• To reduce stress, change to a situation that rewards Type B behavior
• People can learn to surrender to stress, if others reward them for it
• Type A behavior and External LOC can also be learned by observing the wrong role models

Biological Theories of Personality

Stress-prone traits like Type A behavior and External LOC behavior are largely inherited

Humanistic Theories of Personality

• Type A people believe they have to earn other people’s love and respect by being perfect
• The cure: Unconditional Love