Major Approaches to Personality: Traits, Learning, and the Humanistic Perspective

1. CHAPTER 4 Self and Personality

2. Personality • Personality: • The specific pattern of traits and dispositions that make each of each unique as a person (and different from others). • The consistent expression of our traits and dispositions across time and across situations in ways that make our behavior predictable and “familiar” to those who know us.

3. Major approaches to personality • The trait approach: the search for basic traits • Allport: cardinal traits, central traits, secondary traits • Adult personality traits: the “Big Five” • The social learning approach: classical and operant conditioning, observational learning • The humanistic approach: positive growth and self-actualization • The cognitive approach: Mischel’s “person variables”

4. Traits are hierarchically structured (trait, habit pattern, specific surface behavior)

5. Major approaches to personality • The trait approach: the search for basic traits • Allport: cardinal traits, central traits, secondary traits • Adult personality traits: the “Big Five” • The social learning approach: classical and operant conditioning, observational learning • The humanistic approach: positive growth and self-actualization • The cognitive approach: Mischel’s “person variables”

6. Gordon Allport: The father of personality psychology • Cardinal traits • Central traits • Secondary traits

7. Major approaches to personality • The trait approach: the search for basic traits • Allport: cardinal traits, central traits, secondary traits • Adult personality traits: the “Big Five” • The social learning approach: classical and operant conditioning • The humanistic approach: positive growth and self-actualization • The cognitive approach: Mischel’s “person variables”

8. The Big Five personality factors

9. Historical identification of the Big Five personality dimensions

10. Major approaches to personality • The trait approach: the search for basic traits • Allport: cardinal traits, central traits, secondary traits • Adult personality traits: the “Big Five” • The social learning approach: classical and operant conditioning, observational learning • The humanistic approach: positive growth and self-actualization • The cognitive approach: Mischel’s “person variables”

11. Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning (aka “signal learning”) • Classical conditioning begins with an existing stimulus-response (S-R) association. • Pavlov, a Russian physiologist who was studying the process of digestion in dogs, was astute enough to recognize the importance of the fact that the dogs learned to salivate even before they were given the food. • Understanding that there was an existing S-R association between the food (S) and the dog’s salivation, he quickly perceived that there might also be a learned or “conditioned” association between cues associated with feeding (S) and the dog’s salivation (R). • Using the sound of either a bell or a tuning fork as his conditioned stimuli, he found that he could indeed “condition” the response of salivation to the sound of a bell or a tuning fork.

12. Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning (aka “signal learning”) • Once the new S-R association is established, it can be used to condition yet another S-R association in a process called second-order conditioning. • For example, once the dog is reliably salivating to the sound of the bell, the bell can be paired with a green light and soon the dog will salivate whenever the green light comes on. • Both first-order and second-order classical conditioning are subject to extinction.

13. Operant (instrumental) conditioning (aka “consequence learning”) • Operant conditioning concerns the effect certain kinds of consequences have on the frequency of behavior. • A consequence that increases the frequency of a behavior is called a reinforcement. • A consequence that decreases the frequency of a behavior is called a punishment. • Whether a consequence is reinforcing or punishing varies according to the person and the situation. • There are two basic strategies for increasing the frequency of a behavior: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. • There are two basic strategies for decreasing the frequency of a behavior: extinction and punishment.

14. Operant conditioning procedures

15. Major approaches to personality • The trait approach: the search for basic traits • Allport: cardinal traits, central traits, secondary traits • Adult personality traits: the “Big Five” • The social learning approach: classical and operant conditioning, observational learning • The humanistic approach: positive growth and self-actualization • The cognitive approach: Mischel’s “person variables”

16. Humanistic psychologists: Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, and Fritz Perls

17. Key elements of the humanistic approach • The positive aspects of personality • Personal responsibility and “free will” • The here and now • The phenomenology of the individual • Personal growth

18. Major approaches to personality • The trait approach: the search for basic traits • Allport: cardinal traits, central traits, secondary traits • Adult personality traits: the “Big Five” • The social learning approach: classical and operant conditioning, observational learning • The humanistic approach: positive growth and self-actualization • The cognitive approach: Mischel’s “person variables”

19. Cognitive-affective units in Mischel’s personality system • Encodings: Categories (constructs) for encoding information about one’s self, other people, events, and situations • Expectations and beliefs: Expectations about what will happen in certain situations, about outcomes for certain behaviors, and about one’s personal efficacy • Affect: Feelings, emotions, and emotional responses • Goals and values: Individual goals, values, and life projects • Competencies and self-regulatory plans: Perceived abilities, plans, and strategies for changing and maintaining one’s behavior and internal states.

20. The impact of personality in work settings • The Type A / Type B dimension • The Type A pattern and health • The Type A pattern and performance • Four types rather than two? • Achievement motivation • Task and goal orientation • Preference for moderate levels of risk • Desire for self-diagnostic performance feedback • Drawbacks: unwillingness to delegate; impatience

22. Type A behavior in first-year medical students under stress: An increase in intensity

23. The impact of personality in work settings • The Type A / Type B dimension • The Type A pattern and health • The Type A pattern and performance • Four types rather than two? • Achievement motivation • Task and goal orientation • Preference for moderate levels of risk • Desire for self-diagnostic performance feedback • Drawbacks: unwillingness to delegate; impatience

24. Modifications of Type A / Type B: Two types or four? (Friedman, Hall, & Harris, 1985)

25. The impact of personality in work settings • The Type A / Type B dimension • The Type A pattern and health • The Type A pattern and performance • Four types rather than two? • Achievement motivation • Task and goal orientation • Preference for moderate levels of risk • Desire for self-diagnostic performance feedback • Drawbacks: unwillingness to delegate; impatience

26. The self-concept: How we see ourselves • Development of the self-concept • Social interaction • Social comparison • Social information • Self-observation • Self-esteem: some major effects (morale, motivation, productivity; effective job search: networking, direct application, interviewing well) • Self-concept: gender differences • Self-concept: cross-cultural differences Self-concept

27. Personality testing in the workplace • Interest tests: Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory • Aptitude tests: General Aptitude Test Battery (verbal ability, math ability, motor coordination, dexterity, etc.) • Personality tests: extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness (assertiveness, courtesy, persistence) • Integrity tests: explicit and implicit • Lie detector tests and drug tests: too intrusive?

28. Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory