Friends, welcome back to this lecture number
18 in the series on Human Behavior, what
we did in the last lecture is we looked at
another interesting variable which affects
human
behavior and that interesting variable was
Personality.
What we will do today is continue
with that variable, look at the several theories
of personality and then look at how to
measure personality and now by discussing
the impact of personality on human behavior.
But before we jump there as we have been doing
in other lecture as well in order to
maintain continuity, let’s focus a little
bit back to when we started the lecture.
So, what I
will do is, I will do a quick very quick review
of how we started and how did we reach here?
So, I started off by describing what is human
behavior and then describing why we should
study human behavior.
I looked at the science of psychology which
is used for studying
human behavior.
I also described a number of problems in studying
of human behavior
and some of the basics question which lie
in the study of human behavior, one of these
basic questions is the nature and nurture
problem and several other basic questions
in the
study of psychology.
We looked at how psychology developed as a
science and how its roots came from
philosophy and physiology.
We looked at the history of psychology several
schools of
psychology, several approaches of doing psychology
and newer schools of psychology.
Then we focused on tools and methods with
psychology provide us to study human
behavior.
Once we were done with that, we moved on to
the idea of how information from the
external world changes in the external world
are captured by humans.
So, we looked at
those devices and processes which capture
changes in external world into the
psychological medium, into the psychological
realm.
We describe the primary
characteristics of sensory systems looked
at sensitivity and sensory coding.
We looked at how the process of signal detection
eliminates noise or unwanted signals
from external stimuluses which have been encoded
through the sensory system.
Then we
looked at a model system, which is the human
eye and how does the human eye function?
And as whatever theory we had actually proposed
we next moved to the idea of perception
which is making meaning out of sensory knowledge
which has been gathered by the
sensory system.
We looked at the 5 basic principles of perception
starting from attention to localization the
process of pattern matching or recognition.
And then two basic processes of abstraction
and constancy which are used by the human
brain to make meaning out of sensory
impulses sensory information which has been
encoded by the sensory processes or the
sensory system.
Once a meaning has been generated, this meaning
has to be kept somewhere it has to be
updated or it has to be included into the
already present knowledge and the process
of
including this meaning into the already present
representations or knowledge is called
learning.
So, we looked at what is learning?
We looked at the associative in the non
associative forms of learning, we looked at
classical conditioning instrumental
conditioning and observation learning in detail
and we looked at all parameters, functions
principles, factors which governed the learning
principle.
Once something is learned its stored for later
use, the process of memory is what we dealt
next, where we discussed how information is
stored which has been learned.
We looked at
the parallel processing model and the attenuatization
(Time:5:39) model of memory, we
looked at what is working memory and we also
looked at the long term memory, we
looked at what information is stored in memory,
what kind of information manipulations
happens in long term memory and the various
factors and parameters which guide
memory.
Once you have memory of information which
has been captured by sensory system and
interpreted by the perceptual systems, this
has to be communicated to other people as
well;
also we need to gather some information from
other people through the use of language.
So, the next focus was on discussing what
is language?
How information is transferred
between intelligent beings.
We looked at the English language and described
how
language is used to communicate between people
and transfer ideas between people.
We looked in detail some of the principles
of language and some of the issues of language,
we then moved on to the idea of thinking which
is the language of the mind.
We looked at
how thinking progresses, how meaning generated
by perceptual systems are evaluated and
decisions made out of it.
So, we looked at reasoning process which is
evaluating meaning
and this making decisions through it, we looked
at inductive and deductive reasoning
processes.
Further, we also looked at the process of
categorization and concept formation
which is used for organizing stimuli together
and generating meaning out of it, we looked
at the process of problem solving which is
how we solve day to day and special problems.
Once done with it, we focus our attention
on to higher order cognitive processes; we
looked at what is intelligence because intelligence
has been termed as a factor which
affects human abilities.
We described several models of intelligence
different content
models contrasted those models looked at how
intelligence is measured, looked at the
various parameters of intelligence, various
factors affecting intelligence.
And the end of it
took a model system which is emotional intelligence
and creativity and looked at how
these models are studied all intelligence
is studied and what kind of effect would it
have on
human behavior.
We looked at the idea of emotion because emotions
do affect our human behavior, we
looked at various theories of emotion and
how these theories proposed how emotions are
generated.
Further to it, we looked at the classical
model of emotion the various processes
in it and how it leads to a response.
We looked at how responses emotional responses
are
controlled and manipulated by humans and we
looked at the effect of emotion on thinking
memory judgment problem solving and so, on
and so forth, which is basically how
emotions control human behavior.
The last in this section is personality so,
the last section we looked at what is personality
and how does personality affect human behavior?
We looked at the definition of
personality; we looked at whether it is real
or not.
And then we discussed a classical theory
of personality which is the Freud psychoanalytic
theory.
Today, what we are going to do is
we are going to extend this discussion into
other theories of personality and towards
the
end of this session we will look at various
measures of measuring personality.
So, if you remember from the last class personality
is defined as a relatively stable pattern
of behavior of people which is consistent
across situations.
Freud define this personality
coming from the unconscious and his idea of
personality is divided into four terms which
is the knowledge about the unconscious of
how conscious; unconscious and subconscious
processes in the mind shape personality.
His idea of what is the id, ego and the super
ego
and how the fight between them leads to changes
in personality and personality
characteristics.
The idea of how defense mechanisms lead to
the development of
personality and the idea of how getting stuck
or passing on through several stages of
development lead to personality.
We also looked at the idea of collective unconscious,
striving for success introvert
extrovertness and the idea of birth order
which you are all given by either young and
older,
which are the new Freudian and how these processes
affect personality.
We will start
today afresh with the humanistic theory of
personality.
so, let’s get on to our humanistic
theory of personality.
Now Freud’s idea of personality evolved
from the concept of human understanding or
medical science which believes that human
beings are evil by nature, they are disordered
to start with.
And so, why would you go and meet a doctor,
no doctor would actually say
that you are disordered in well in any way
they will find out some disorder.
Similarly, psychologists if you go meet them
they will say that you have some personality
problem or some other problem.
So, these sciences these approaches believe
that human
beings to start with have disorders or they
are a little bit evil on the evil side and
this
evilness or disorderness come from the fight
for existence.
So, all their propositions start
by looking at cures for personality problems.
The humanistic psychologists believe that
this few is not correct, they believe that
human
beings are born good and always strive or
always try to become good.
Their idea of
personality stems from the fact that human
beings are not only born good, but they work
all the lives to actually do good things.
So, what is the humanistic approach then?
The
main proponent of humanistic approach or the
main idea behind a humanistic approach is
that alternatives to psychoanalytic and behavioural
approaches.
The humanistic approach is an alternative
to the psychoanalytic and behavioural
approaches.
And the main interest is persons subjective
experiences, what the humanistic
psychologists believe, that personality stems
from the idea that people are born good and
personality cannot be measured through the
ways that Freud had suggested.
Personality
comes from personal experiences and if you
want to study personality, we need to
understand or reveal this personal subjective
experiences of people.
People’s personal experiences with the world
actually, lead to the idea of personality
there
is nothing to do with the fight between inconsistent
or nonexistent parts like id, ego and
super ego.
Neither it is to do with the idea that there
is an unconscious where everything
that you don’t want three wheels, what humanistic
theories believe is that people are born
good and they want to be good.
And so, if you want to study personality you
have to look
at people’s personal meaning people subjective
experiences about situation.
Now, two of the main theorist in the humanistic
domain, where Carl Rogers and Gordon
Allport.
So, one of the famous theorists of humanistic
psychology main proponents of
humanistic psychology was Carl Rogers.
Now Carl Rogers was a medical person and so,
he is practiced medicine and he defined for
the first time a type of theory which is called
the client centered therapy, where he focused
on the idea that personalities or personality
problems can be studied by looking at peoples
experiences with the world.
Personality
problems arises from something called the
idea of self and so, we look into how this
self
develops personality.
So, the basic force motivating humans is actualizing
tendency a person’s motivation to
enhance oneselves.
Carl Rogers believed that people are born
good and people want to be
good.
And so, what motivates people to do things
is the actualizing tendency, what is the
actualizing tendency?
The actualizing tendency is a tendency where
people want to
achieve the highest possible stage, highest
possible point that they can attain in their
life.
They want to actualize they want to work towards
strive towards success, they want to
achieve the unachievable and that is the actualizing
tendency they want to actualize
themselves.
And people’s ability or peoples motivation
how motivated someone is to achieve this
actualizing tendency is plays a key role into
their personality dynamics.
Now, Carl Rogers
believed that each person is composed of a
self; he gave the idea of self.
Now, what most
people when we introduce ourselves we use
something called borrowed notions we are
never aware of the self that we have.
If I ask you today, who are you?
You will tell me
myself this and this and I come from this
and this.
So, we use borrowed perceptions or we
use borrowed meanings from other institute.
For example, if I say I am so and so, from
IIT what I am actually doing is I am borrowing
the glory of IIT with me.
Most people are not aware of who they are
and so, Carl Rogers
for the first time define the idea of self;
self is something that you feel when you stand
before a mirror and ask who you are, not the
name, not whom you are associated with, not
where you come from, not what you like or
you don’t like, not what you have achieved.
So, self according to Carl Rogers is the ideas
perceptions and values that characterize me
and this perceive self influences persons
perceptions or the world and behavior.
So, what
called Rogers says is that, the idea of self
is perceptions values and ideas that people
have
about themselves about me.
When I ask who you are or when you describe
yourself the perceptions that you describe
the values that you relate, that you tell
you own or you have.
The ideas that you have about
who you are is actually what is the self is
and this perceive self then influences persons
perception of the world and their behavior.
The more self aligned you are the more aware
you are about yourself the better you will
actually succeed in this world.
Now, Carl Rogers define this self or divided
this self into three parts, there is something
called the ideal self, there is something
called actual self and there is something
called the
real self.
Now of course, in this particular example
we are using the actual self and the real
self together and what Carl Rogers means is
that people at all points of time are pretending,
they are pretending because they want to be
liked with people, they are pretending they
call because they want to be something they
don’t reveal their true selves.
This true self is only evident to that person.
So, real self is what you actually are actual
self
is what you pretend to be nobody actually
shows their real self.
So, example let us say that
I am weak in mathematics, but in a mathematics
class I will try to do all those actions all
those acts which you prove that, I am a good
student in mathematics.
So, the copying that
I do or the behavior that I show in that particular
class just to be in par with other students
who are good in mathematics is what is the
actual self, but my real self is that part
which is
I know that I am weak in mathematics.
Ideal self on the other hand is the self that
I want to be I want to be very good in
mathematics, but I am not.
So, what I do is, I do pretentious the more
different there is
between who you are and who you want to be
or who you are and who you pretend to be
these differences is, what is the cause of
personality problems or personality
characteristics.
So, what Carl Rogers says is that the discrepancy
between self and ideal self results in
anxiety, when you know who you are when you
know who you really are and who you
want to be and the more the difference is
said say I am very normal in mathematics,
but I
want to be very good in mathematics and I
know I cannot be because those numbers and
values cannot or do not take make meaning
for me.
The more the difference between I
pretend that I am a my ideal self and move
away from my real self I pretend through
certain acts that I am good in mathematics,
but I know that I am not good in mathematics.
The more the difference between the more I
accept my pretensions and don’t accept my
real self that I weak in mathematics, this
will lead to more anxieties and these anxieties
will lead to more personality problems.
Now, children need to grow up with something
called unconditional positive regard in order
to function effectively, now how does these
discrepancies between the ideal self and the
real self actually come up.
One of the reasons that Carl Rogers suggest
is how children not brought up or how they
are
treated when they are going, what Carl Rogers
suggests is that children should be brought
up or when they are growing they should be
treated with something called unconditional
positive regard.
What is unconditional positive regard?
In unconditional positive regard
parents actually love the children no matter
who they are.
So, even if the children are not
doing good, they are loved the there is no
limitation there is no condition put in their
love.
For example, if you pass only then I love
you, that kind of a thing is not there and
so, there
has to be a balance between this you cannot
be loving your children too much.
So, that
even if he does something bad you love them,
but even if the children do not do good you
do not hate them.
So, unconditional positive regard is a type
of parenting in which people
are encouraged to bring up their children
by loving them no matter who they are, but
within certain boundaries right.
So, even if they do bad in test, exams they
are still given hope saying that okay, you
can do
good tomorrow, but I love you for that you
do not hate people on the other hand you do
not
be too lenient so, that they do anything and
you love them.
So, this kind of if you bring
your children up through unconditional positive
regard here the discrepancy between ideal
self and real self will be very less.
Also measuring real self congruence so, how
is real self
measure it is measured so, something called
the Q sort method where correlations between
two sorts reveals the degree of incongruence
between real and ideal self can represent
Q
sorts to effectively in therapy.
Now, there is a method of Q sort which will
not since it is a little bit technical so,
will not
be doing it.
But a Q sort method is used and correlations
between real and ideal self
between two sorts or between two personality
dynamics which are put on paper on cards
the two sorts.
So, your personality dynamics are put on cards
and your personalities or
values or features are put on cards and then
they are sorted in a Q and so, from there
you
have to pick something and so, there is a
Q sort method in the more the correlation
then.
So,
that defines your ideal self and the real
self, but will not go into two details of
how this is
measured.
As you can see there is in congruence in congruence,
the more the difference between the
ideal self and the real self, the more the
anxiety, the more the problems.
The lesser the
congruence in congruence between real self
here a large part is overlapping and so, here
the anxiety is less.
So, in this case when it is incongruent the
self image is different from
the ideal self, there is only little overlap
to self actualization will be difficult.
Still it will
not achieve what they want to achieve because
they do not feel safe that is a difference
between ideal self and real self.
In this case the self image is similar to
the ideal self is
more overlap and the person can actually self
actualize a children will achieve what they
want to achieve.
The next theory in the humanistic domain is
called the Abraham Maslow theory which
propose a hierarchy of needs.
It’s a very simple theory, what Abraham
Maslow says is that
most people actually moved above this triangle
and until and unless they move from the
one stage of this triangle to the next what
needs are satisfied in any of these sectors
within
the triangle the person will never move to
the higher level.
For example, let us look at the
first need that people have is to physiological
needs let us look at a beggar.
Now, the first thing that he wants his food,
water, a place to live now if he gets these
for
today only then he can think about safety
only then he can think about having security
and
so, on and so forth.
Otherwise he will still think of getting food
today, assuming that you
gave this beggar food and security and you
tell him that tomorrow also you will get food.
Then he can think about belongingness and
love and talking to people and making social
friends and so, on and so forth.
Given the fact that he has made friends, he
has been promised food through work and then
his physiological needs has been satisfied.
He can now think about things like self achieve
self esteem to achieve to be competent to
be gaining approval and recognition only then
he
can come here until and unless he has made
friends, he had has safety and he had had
food
he cannot come here.
Once he has achieved this need of esteem he
can think of cognitive
needs so, understanding and exploring the
world and once he have achieved this need
he
actually then looks at aesthetic things.
And only then once he is done he moves to
the idea
of self actualization which basically means
that here nothing has matters from him he
needs to fulfill and realize his true potential.
So, people move from these needs one after
another and whenever these needs are satisfied
within any of this bracket people move to
the next bracket most people actually get
stuck
in these needs and never move above the self
esteem need or the cognitive need for that
matter very few people actually self actualized.
And what Maslow says is that, the more
easily you move through this pyramid the better
self actualization you require and the
better their personality tends to be.
Personalities at the lowest level the personality
problems are the highest and the higher
level the personality problems are to the
lowest sense of principles personality is
defined
by where in this block are we stuck.
The humanistic approach which is the portrait
of human nature, it does not dispute the
influence of biological environment on behavior,
but emphasizes the individuals own role
in defining and creating his own destiny.
What the humanistic approach says is that?
It
does not say that biology and environment
has no role to play in personality what it
says is
that individuals own role and his own destiny
defines his personality.
Now, evaluation of this theory says that succeeded
in devising new methods for assessing
self concept and emphasizing that they need
important problems.
So, humanistic theory
for the first time was able to move away from
Frauds concept of personality and they
devised a system of self and a system of measuring
this self and studying newer problems
of personality.
Critics questioned the quality and evidence
of criticizing building theories solely on
relatively healthy people.
Now since humanistic theories only worked
on healthy people;
people who are good, people who were born
good and never looked at people who had
actually problems critics have been criticizing
this theory on that point.
Another theory
that is relevant here is called the trait
theory.
Now, what is the trait theory?
The trait theory believes that personality
is governed by
certain traits.
What are traits?
These are stable dimensions of personality
along which
people vary from low to very high.
So, trait is a dimension trait is a property
of a person or
persons across which they move; now this strong
tendency to think about others in terms
of specific characteristics is reflected in
trait theory of personality.
So, trait is a stable dimension it’s a stable
characteristic of personality across which
most
people vary.
For example, let us say temperament, now cross
temperament people vary,
some people are hot tempered, some people
are low tempered.
Similarly nervousness,
anxiety these are certain traits across which
people vary and these traits stable dimensions
these are and these traits are what are the
parts of trait theory.
Now, Allport and Cattell where the first two
people who actually started looking for the
idea of trait and trait defining personality.
Now Allport concluded that personality traits
can be divided into several categories based
on the importance.
So, how did Allport and
the Cattell actually come up with the idea
of trait, what they did was?
They used a
technique which is called factory analysis
and these fact analysis when they did on a
number of traits.
So, at one point of time a number of traits
had appeared which seemed to
define personality.
There were a number of researchers and these
number of researchers gave a large number
of traits, revealed a large number of dimensions
across which personalities can vary.
So,
what Allport did was he did use a technique
statistical technique a fact analysis which
looks at inter correlation between items and
based on them group items having similar
correlation into chunks, into categories.
And that’s what the fact analysis method
does or
meaningful categories.
So, looking at inter item correlations or
looking at within item correlations Allport
came to
define that there are three basic categories
of traits which exist in psychology.
One of these category is called the secondary
trait so, what is the secondary trait?
These
are the least important and exert relatively
weak and limited effects on behavior.
Secondary traits are those traits which are
the least important trait, these are the traits
that
you gain through experience these are the
traits which actually change they are relatively
permanent so, they keep on changing.
For example, laziness is a trait so, once
you are in
school you are lazy, but then you move ahead
in college you become less lazy start doing
work, job when you have to be there for 9
to 6 you become lesser and lesser lazy and
so, on
and so forth.
So, these are traits which have been acquired
and these are traits which are
easy to change.
Then there are something called the central
traits and what are the central traits?
These are
the most important and they are five to ten
traits that are put together account for
uniqueness of individual personality.
Central traits are the traits which define
a person and
it remains with a person throughout their
life, they are generally 5 or 6 5 to 10 central
traits
which are prominent in people and these traits
don’t vary.
For example, nervousness is one of those traits,
temperament is one of those traits the trait
of altruism.
Now all these traits are although acquired
altruism is an acquired trait or the
trait to be nervous for that matter is a trait
which has been acquired is a central in nature
and so, the person who is nervous or who is
temperament this behavior will be shown this
temperament will be shown across several situations.
So, these traits are central because they
are consistent and they are there with the
person all
across their life and generally they are five
to ten in number.
Now there is something called
a cardinal trait Allport defined the idea,
Allport and Cattell defined the idea something
called cardinal trait and what is cardinal
trait?
There are few people who are dominated by
a single all important cardinal trait.
Cardinal trait is an important trait which
defines a person’s behavior or a person’s
doing
and there very few people in the world who
was defined by one generic trait, there not
many people in the world who can be defined
by one trait.
And this trait is so, dominant
that it is prevalent, that it is effective,
that it is shown in all his behavior.
For example, look
at Napoleon the trait that he had was called
ambition, no matter what he did for the
ambitions Napoleon is doing for no ambition.
Now, look at Florence Nightingale the one
trait that this lady was known with is empathy
and so, no matter what she did?
Wherever she went empathy was one thing or
Mother
Teresa again empathy was something which is
related to her and so, these people were
known with one trait.
Now, Allports concept of functional autonomy
patterns of behavior that are initially
acquired under one set of circumstances and
we satisfy one set of motives may later be
performed for very different reasons.
So, Allport gave the idea of something called
functional autonomy and functional
autonomy is a pattern of behavior that one
acquires for some other reason at some point
of
time, but at a later point of time this behavior
is performed for very different reasons let
us
say that when you were small.
Now at that point of time you were given chocolates
and
food and all kind of bribing for studying.
So, through that you started studying, the
motive
there when you were small the motive for studying
were the rewards which are given to
you whether chocolates which you were waiting
and slowly; slowly you developed a
liking for eating.
Now, at a later age you buy novels you buy
books and read them for no other reason, you
do not get chocolates for reading books or
you don’t get any kind of appreciation for
reading a book and gathering knowledge.
Now one the behavior that you were doing
earlier for some chocolates or other motives,
now turns out to be a behavior that you
actually like, the process of reading itself,
the process of gaining it knowledge itself
or the
idea of gaining knowledge is the motivating
factor and this is what is called functional
autonomy.
And so, what Allport says is that functional
autonomy is one of the major
important parts of trait theory.
Raymond Cattell another psychologist from
the trait theory background gave another trait
theory and what he says is he identifies sixteen
source traits, dimensions of personality that
underlie differences in many others, less
important surface traits.
Now what Raymond
Cattell said that, he also did his own fact
analysis and according to him he found out
two
group of traits he said there are something
called source traits the dimensions personality
that underlie differences in many other less
important.
So, there are certain primary traits which
are source trait and then there are certain
less
important traits which are called surface
traits.
So, source traits are the one which shows
highest correlation among themselves and surface
traits are the one which shows weak
correlation among themselves.
So, source traits are the primary trait that
any person has
and surface traits are the secondary traits
that people have.
Now, these traits that Cattell has name is
traits like cool versus warm, traits like
easily
upset versus calm and stable and so, these
are the traits that Raymond Cattell actually
came
up with.
Mccrae and Costa came up with their own idea
of traits or trait theory and they mean
something called the big five factor dimensions
of personality.
Now what Mccrae and
Costa came up with is called five factor it’s
called the Neo PI or the five factor personality
theory.
What does the theory suggest?
This theory basically suggests the Neo PI
or the five
factor personality theory suggests that there
are five different dimensions of personality
and people vary across these dimensions.
These dimensions are extraversion,
agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional
stability and openness to experience.
Now these are the different traits as you
can see given by Allport and Cattell.
And these are the different traits which are
defined by so, these traits are the Neo PI
traits.
Now let us look at neuroticism for example,
the trait neuroticism people have in
neuroticism would be low on they will be unflappable
people whereas, they will be very
high on anxiousness and stress.
So, people having high on neuroticism will
be very high on anxiety and very low on
flappability.
Similarly, the potential to threats and dangers
are very high the relevant
situation is that in situations of potential
threats and dangers they will show very high
anxiety and low on unflappability and the
region of the brain which produces this trait
is
called the amygdala and then neuro transmitter,
which is responsible for it it’s called
the
serotonin.
Similarly, people on the openness trait so,
on both this neuroticism is a bivariate trait.
So,
basically there are two ends to it people
can be high or neuroticism and can be also
low on
neuroticism.
Similarly, openness the openness what does
it mean?
People who are open
they have low scores on practical, they are
less practical and less concrete people, but
then
they are highly imaginative people and metaphysical
people.
So, concreteness they are very low concreteness,
but very high imaginability very high
metaphysicality and so, on and so forth.
Relevant situations in which they can form
are
words and ideas, this imaginability can be
explicitly displayed in terms of words the
ideas
they show imaginability, they show metaphysicality,
they show lesser concreteness and so,
on and so forth.
And mental association mechanism is the mechanism
of the brain which is
not self or the highness or lowness of this
trait.
Similarly, you have the trait of conscientiousness
which is related to low on spontaneity
and high on discipline.
People who are conscientiousness they are
highly disciplined
people, but very less spontaneous and this
is generally demonstrated in situations of
planning or achieving a goal.
And the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is
the area which is
responsible for generating this trait.
Similarly, the agreeableness trait in this
trait people, low on this trait are unempathetic
and
people high on this trait are empathetic.
Similarly, this trait is commonly displayed
when
people interact with other people and the
theory of the mind mechanisms or different
mind
mechanisms are responsible will producing
this trait.
Then we have the trait of
extraversion and people who are low on these
traits are quite and stoical whereas, people
high on this trait are outgoing and enthusiastic.
Similarly, in potential reward situations
is then this trait show itself and the midbrain
dopaminergic reward system is the one system
which is responsible for this trait.
So, these
are five different traits and what I have
here is low scores on this straight, what
do they
mean high scores on this straight, what this
mean and in which situation this trait is
prevalent?
Also I have different brain mechanisms, which
is responsible for creating this
kind of a trait.
Let’s do an evaluation of this trait theory.
So, what is the evaluation?
Trait theory
approach is largely descriptive in nature;
it does not determine how various traits actually
develop and how they influence the behavior
and why they are important.
So, one of the
main criticisms of trait theory is that, it’s
very difficult to define what is a trait,
how do you
discover traits, how do they develop trait?
So, it is descriptive in nature there is no
way to know what is the trait, how do we come
up
with a trait, how do we generate a trait and
how the traits actually influence behavior?
So,
those things are not available to us.
Similarly despite several decades of careful
research
there is still no final agreement concerning
the basic traits that are most important in
the
most basic, also one of the problems with
trait theory is that decades of research has
gone
into it, but people are still not clear as
to what are the basic traits and what are
the non basic
traits?
Also people have not agreed on to one trait
to be a basic trait and so, the question is
whether a 5 or 7 traits are basic or 6 or
10 traits are basic and then other traits
a subsidiary?
So, people do not actually know what is a
trait and how do you define these things?
There
is another set of theory which is called the
learning set of theories which defined
personality and what is the learning theories
all about?
Let us look at the learning theories.
Now, any learning theory suggests that any
personality theory has to account for
uniqueness and consistency, now personalities
are unique and consistent.
So, mostly
reserved personality which defined personality
has to account for this uniqueness and this
consistency as I says that personality are
stable patterns of behavior which is unique
to a
person.
So, this uniqueness of a person’s personality
has to be accounted by any theory of
personality which actually tries to express
it.
Similarly, we have looked at the consistency
which basically says that any theory of
personality is consistent so, we have to also
acquire for that consistency I want to also
give
reasons for that consistency.
So, any personality theory has to account
for uniqueness and
consistency of human behavior.
Freud explained it in terms of the internal
factors where as
learning theory explains that in terms of
learning and experience.
So, what Freud says is that this uniqueness
and consistency of behavior can be expressed
in terms of internal factors, internal fights
that happens between the id ego and super
ego.
At the unconscious level the fight between
the id ego and super ego is what relates to
the
uniqueness of personality that people have
and the consistency that they have of these
personality dementia cross situations.
Whereas, Freud considers these internal factors
responsible for personalities different personalities
in the world, what learning theory
suggest, is that it is the learning experiences
and the other different experiences that people
have in their life is responsible for this
consistency and this uniqueness of personality
dimensions.
Now, early learning theories took extreme
views and determine the importance of denied
the importance of any internal factors motive
traits etcetera, but recent theories take
into
account the many aspects of cognition in shaping
personality.
The earlier theory is the first
theories of personality actually never took
account of internal factors as motives and
traits
to be responsible for personality.
They believed that personality dimensions
or personality comes from simple stimulus
obsession relation, what they believe is that
if a particular stimulus leads to a particular
response a person learns this that is called
the learn response and that is why he starts
behaving in this particular way.
We basically means that let us say somebody
learns that
by getting angry he can make people do for
him whatever he wants.
So, he learns this and then he displays this
traits over and over again to the point that
is
rewarded.
So, basically this says that it is a simple
stimulus reaction thing, this person once
he once he got angry and he could make himself
get rewarded by getting angry he could
get whatever he wanted by getting angry he
learned this response and so, this response
is
repeated in similar situations.
But then later personality theories said that
it is not so, automatic there are something
called traits, there are something called
motives, there are something called other
internal
factors which cognitive factors which play
a role in personality or role in stable
dimensions of patterns of behavior that people
display across situations.
Uniqueness, the learning approach contends,
reflects our distinctive life experiences.
Learning approaches says that the uniqueness
in people’s behavior comes from the
distinctive life experiences that people have,
each person goes through the life or venture
through their life in many different formats.
They have different experiences in life and
these different experiences that they go through
actually produces the uniqueness of
behavior that people have.
Consistency is explained by persistence of
response, association and habit acquired during
learning.
Consistency is explained by the learning theory
as those actions that people tend
to do which rewards them when they do a particular
behavior and so, this consistency
comes with the persistence of a response.
If they give a response again; again for example,
by being angry reward someone so, he does
this act again and again and associating this
leads to habit formation.
So, initially he learns that being angry gives
him a reward later on it becomes his habit
to
become angry the first thing response to any
kind of situation and that leads to the
consistency of behavior.
Then there is something called the social
cognition theory, the model your personality
and
what does the theory actually say?
Now it places great emphasis on the self system,
the
cognitive processes by which a person perceives,
evaluates, and regulates his or her own
behavior so, that it is appropriate in a given
situation.
So, this theory says suggest that the self
system the idea of self as proposed by Carl
Rogers
is responsible for personality dynamics, what
it says is the cognitive process by which
a
person perceives or evaluates and regulates
his or her own behavior so, that it becomes
appropriate in several situations actually
leads to personality.
So, how you see yourself
and how you control yourself how you control
your behavior in different situations?
So, that the situation becomes adaptive to
you, the situation becomes productive to you
is
what leads you or what leads to your stable
pattern of behavior consistent pattern of
behavior across different situations.
People generally do’nt just respond to reinforcements,
but also engaged in self reinforcement patting
themselves on their back when they achieve
a goal.
So, it is not that people just look at external
reinforcements, if that has been true
then why would people who gain position two
and three in a race would actually run.
People also self pat themselves although the
first person in a race gets a gold medal,
but
people who come 4 or 5 in a race why do they
run?
They run because they self pat
themselves, they self reinforce themselves
saying that okay, not this time maybe next
time
I did good and next time I will do much better.
And so, this is one of the reasons why
people develop different personalities and
different ways of behavior.
So, self patting or self commanding oneself,
self motivating oneself can be one of the
responses that people do and that leads them
to the consistent pattern of personality that
they develop.
Observation learning is another important
factor which plays a wide role range of human
activities.
Observation learning is also responsible for
certain kind of personality
dimensions a certain kind of behavioral personality
dimensions.
In essence any time humans observe others
they can learn from the experiences which
in
turn shape their own behavior.
So, basically people also learn from other
people if you go
to a restaurant and you do not know how to
use the fork and the knife we actually look
at
other people and when you do that and when
you try how other people are eating and that
eases your pain or somehow comforts in ways
or that eases the way you eat certain things
you learn that behavior, then that defines
your behavior and you start behaving in a
certain
manner.
So, by copying other people and copying those
behavior, which are rewarding that is also
how people develop their behavior or develop
certain consistent patterns of responding
which is actually called the personality.
Another important concept of this theory solves
something called self efficacy an individuals
believe that he or she can perform some
behavior or task successfully.
Self efficacy is defined as a person’s belief
in himself whether he can do a job or how
well
he can do a job.
And self efficacy is another factor which
can lead to consistent patterns of
behavior the more self efficient you are self
efficacious you are, the more you tend to
do a
work and the more the chances of success for
you because you pay more attention to it.
The less self efficacy you have the lower
your personality dimensions are the lower
more
proximally problems you feel and so, on and
so forth.
Julian Rotter gave a social learning theory
of personality which suggests that the
likelihood that a given behavior will occur
in a specific situation depends on individual’s
expectancies concerning the outcome and the
behavior will produce and on the
reinforcement value they attach to such outcomes,
the degree to which they prefer to
reinforce over another.
So, Julian Rotter believes that peoples likelihood
of giving a particular behavior or
producing a particular behavior depends upon
their expectations of what the outcome will
be and also what kind of reinforcement value
they put to this behavior.
The lower the
reinforcement value they put to this behavior
the lower the chances this behavior will
repeat it the higher the reinforcement value
they put to this behavior the higher the chances
of doing that particular behavior, also people’s
behavior is also dependent on what
expectancies do people have if people have
very low expectancies from a certain situation,
then what will happen is, they will behave
in certain manner, but people have higher
expectancies from certain situations and then
the reward that is given is low then the
behavior will be different.
So, if people expect high and high reward
is given the behavior is repeated, but if
expectancy is low and a low reward is given
it doesn’t matter to people, but a low
expectancy and a high reward will lead to
very high forms of that behavior and so, this
is
what Julian Rotter’s idea of social learning
theories.
So, behavior is also dependent on
your expectancies from certain behavior and
also the reinforcement that you get out of
that
particular behavior.
Rotter terms person who strongly believe that
they can shape their own destinies internals
and those who believe that the outcomes are
largely determined by results of forces outside
as externals.
So, Rotter says that there are two type of
people; one are called the internals
who actually believe that the outcomes or
the destinies that people acquire are dependent
on their internal self.
In comparison to them there are some one called
or people call
externals who believe that external factors
outside of them is responsible for whatever
behavior that they are doing or whatever acts
that they are doing.
Evaluation of the learning approach so, let
us quickly look at the evaluation of the learning
approach or how the learning approaches has
function up till now.
The existence of
Oedipus complex or attainment of self actualization
are facts with a lot of controversy.
Self actualization which is the highest form
of achievement that any person can acquire
in
his lifetime which was the proponent given
by the humanistic theory or Oedipus and
Electra complex which are complexes generated
during certain stages of development
which is generates from the love towards the
other sex parent.
These are concepts which
have been provided by the psychoanalytic theory
or the humanistic theory.
These are facts, but this they are in lot
of controversy because there has not been
proved.
In
contrast virtually all the psychologists agree
that the importance of learning in acquiring
and modifying behavior.
So, what other theories, what the humanistic
theories or what the
psychoanalytic theory propose?
The dimensions that they proposed the concepts
that the
proposed are somewhat shaky, are somewhat
controversial because they cannot be proved,
but the idea that learning and motivation
learning and modification of behavior can
lead to
people doing acquiring better personalities
has been accepted by many psychologists.
Cognitive factors are or equally viewed in
shaping behavior and in turn determining
personality.
So, personality is not only affected by learning
and acquiring and modifying
behaviors; learning and modifying behaviors
is the on not only the one reason of peoples
personalities one reason behind peoples different
personalities, but cognitive factors like
the thinking process, like the disease in
process, like the evaluation process is another
factor which is responsible for defining different
personalities.
Learning theories ignore the importance of
inner conflict and the influence of unconscious
thoughts and impulses on behavior.
Learning theory believes that it is always
cognitive
peoples behavior is always cognitive and so,
once a behavior is rewarded people think
over it.
And then do that behavior again and again,
but where they fall lack is the idea of
inner conflicts the conflicts, that goes on
in the unconscious the mental conflicts that
goes
on and that shapes our behavior sometimes
emotion shapes are behavior.
But not a lot of focus has been done on these
factors emotions or irrationality or some
other
inner conflicts can also actually shape people’s
behavior, depression can shape peoples
behavior, but these things are not been considered
by the learning theories.
Now, only learning theories did not credit
cognitive factors for their role on shaping
behavior.
The first generation learning theories actually
did not even think about thinking
and problem solving to be or cognitive factors
to be responsible for any behavioral
changes or any kind of personality dimensions
which is existing.
How do we measure personality?
Up till now we have looked at theories of
personality.
Now comes the question of how do you measure
personalities, there are three different
ways which we will look into here; one is
the question and matter the other is called
the
psycho dynamical or psycho analytical method
and the third is called the biological
method.
So, we will start with looking at the personality
inventories; personality inventories are
certain questionnaires which are given to
people now these questionnaires have certain
themes or certain basic dimensions under which
there are certain questions the people
have to rate these questions from 1 to 5,
1 to 7, 1 to 9 depending on type of personality,
one
being the least and 7 9 or 5 being the most.
So, certain questions are there I will show
you a personality questionnaire.
So, people have
to read the questions and based on the ratings
that they gave at the rating the personalities
can be defined.
Now one of these questionnaires is the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality
Inventory the MNPI so, I will describe that
in detail.
So, questionnaires that assess
personality by self report of reactions and
feelings in certain situations.
So, these questionnaires have certain situations
defined and people rate these situations on
certain questions and that defines personality.
The minnesota multiphasic personality
inventory is one such questionnaire, what
does this questionnaire have?
They use criteria
key method for test construction; items are
selected on basis of correlation with external
criteria.
So, basically here questions are taken and
these questions are formed in terms of a
criteria.
So, remember validity and criteria related
validity that we did intelligence so, we use
the
criteria method for selecting questions on
this test.
Now the current version contains
clinical and validity skills, the current
version of the MMPI has something called the
clinical scales which defines personality
problems and the validity skills which are
used
for light detection.
Clinical scales relate to various forms of
psychological disorders, these psychological
disorders could be neurotic or psychotic in
general it is not for use for psychosis, but
it is
used for neurotic.
So, it could be personality problems or neurotic
problems and these
clinical disorders actually can very easily
tell the type of disorder personality or type
of
psychological disorder a person has.
Validity scales are designed to determine
whether or
not to the, what extent do people fake their
answers on the test.
So, certain questions are put there in such
a way certain questions are repeated or certain
questions are reframed.
Now why this is done?
This is done that if people are giving the
same answers or different answers to the same
question it is very easy to catch that they
are
lying, if people are doing it just for fun
it is very easy to.
For example, a question is how
anxious do you feel, how often do you feel
anxious?
Is one question and so, you put two
here.
Then question is say that I feel anxious always
and in this question suppose you say
it’s 6, then the answers are difficult because
you very agreeing with it, on the other hand
you did not agree with it not too often and
so, the two answers are different and so,
this can
detect a lie.
There is another form of questionnaire which
is called the Million Clinical Multi Axial
Inventory the MMCI, items here are close to
the MMPI’s scale so, it is very similar
to the
MMPI scale and there is something called the
NEO PI.
So, we looked at the NEO PI
factors this another questionnaire which is
their, which measures aspects the personality
that are not directly linked to the psychological
disorders.
So, there are different kind of
skills which have been used and these scales
are also used for measuring personality.
So, let us look at a the MMPI for that matter,
this is called the MMPI 2 as you can see these
are the clinical scale.
So, you have the lie scale, you are the frequency
scale and you are the
correction scale.
You have a personality problem for example,
hypochondriasis,
depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviate,
masculinity feminity, paranoia, schizophrenia,
hypomania social introversion.
The content skills are anxiety, fears, obsession
depression,
health, concerns and so, on and so forth.
And supplementary skills are Welsh anxiety
and
MacAndrew alcoholism and so, on and so forth.
So, these are the different scales which have
been used in this, there is also a lie scale,
a
frequency scale and the correction scale.
Similarly, you have the NEO PI in which you
have under neuroticism things like anxiety,
hostility, depression self consciousness
impulsiveness and vulnerability is measured.
In extraversion warmth, gregariousness,
assertiveness, activity, excitement and so,
on and so forth, in where and you have openness
to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness
and within that there are several other
concepts.
So, these are the constructs within these
concepts are measured.
Then there are something called the projective
test or the psychoanalytic tests.
Now what
are the projective tests?
The projective test presents an ambiguous
stimuli to which a
person can respond to as he or she wishes
and resembles fraud’s idea of free association,
remember a free association that we deal.
Now what are the test is called the Rorschach
Inkblot test, what does it has?
It has 10 cards with symmetrical ink blots
which are 5 black
and white, 3 multicolored and 2 black, white
and red.
Responses are scored as either pair
of objects and reflections and movements or
color shading and inkblot so, there is an
Exner
system.
So, here it is there is an Exner system for
measurement and scoring.
So, basically a card is given to you and this
card is symmetrical link for example, look
at
these cards these are card number 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
So, different cards are there
you can see there is a symmetry.
So, if you look here this is the symmetry
these are
symmetrical cards and this card is given to
you person holds this card and then what they
can do is they can move this card around.
And the questions are asked that what do you
see here?
The kind of movement that you do
with the card, the kind of responses that
you do, the kind of answers that you give
to this
card actually reveals your personality and
so, there are 5 cards which are black and
white,
2 cards which are black white and red and
then there are 3 cards which are multicolored
in
nature.
Let us look at one of these cards so, when
you can do it yourself if you look into it
this
particular picture what do you see.
So, you can give me answers and these answers
will
actually define what your personality is.
Similar to this there something called a Thematic
Apperception Test the TAT and so, TAT
consists of 21 cards with card number 11 which
is blank and each card has a theme to
which the story has to be narrated.
Scoring is done in following the something
called a
need press theory, the defense mechanism manual
or social cognition and object relation.
So, here a theme like this is given a photo
like this is given and the job of the person
being
this card has to tell three things first,
what is happening now?
What has happened before
this situation and what will happen after
this situation?
So, based on these three parameters you have
to write a story a half page story maybe a
one
page story and based on the themes, based
on the words that you use, based on the
language that you use certain themes are used,
certain needs are extracted from your story
and your personalities followed or personality
is measured using these cards.
Now, there is
something also called the draw a person test
which requires to draw a person and
interpretation is based on the way the person
is not so, this is generally used for smaller
children.
So, example something like this and in this
small children draws the mother and father
and
based on the length of a ear the number of
eyes, mouth, nose, neck or the type of clothing,
opposite thumbs, correct number of fingers,
legs etcetera.
Some kind of interpretation is
done of this child’s personality.
Personality can also be measured through other
methods, one of the other methods of
measuring personality.
So, in addition to self report questionnaire
and projective
techniques several new measures are available
for measuring personality for example,
there is something called the experience sampling
method.
Now what happens in the
experience sampling method is that electronic
pages are used this method.
So, a patient who comes to measure personality
patient whose personality is to be
measured is given a pager.
Now individuals are beeped at predetermined
times and made
to record their behavior.
So, individuals who carry these pagers they
are sent a message at
different points of time and what these people
have to do is to report what they are feeling
or what they are doing at that appropriate
time, when the pager actually is beep or the
pager
beeping or the pager is done.
This method can reveal stable personality
patterns.
So, looking at people’s behavior over a
vast period of time over a vast period of
behaviors will they will then tell you so,
because
what they will do is they will at different
points will beep them.
So, they will say that they
I am in this situation I am doing this, now
collecting this data for a month or maybe
for few
months will reveal certain personality dimensions,
will reveal the fact that these people
this person will go into similar situations
right across time.
And so, his behavior will reveal certain definite
or fixed patterns and you can generate
those switched patterns or you can extract
those switched patterns and then define what
this personality what this persons personality
is all about or how is relating to this
personality?
There is also interview method for measuring
personality and how it is then they can be
of
two types structured and unstructured.
So, in an interview method in the structured
interview method certain questions over regarding
peoples personality are asked and these
people have to give this question for example,
how angry structured questions could be
how anxious do you feel right now?
How sleepy do you feel right now or how many
times
do you feel negative in this world?
Or this kind of questions are then with you
have to
answer between one and five.
So, five is the highest and one is the lowest
so, here you have to answer within a certain
range that is one thing.
Now in unstructured interviews questions are
open ended questions
are asked for example, how do you feel right
now?
In a negative situation how do you feel?
What do you do in a negative?
Here all kinds of responses can be generated.
So, in one sense in structured questions;
question is there are fixed answers and people
have to give answers within these fixed
limits whereas, an unstructured question interviews
any kind of answer can be given and
these answers are then read back frequency
analysis of word analysis is done and certain
kind of aspects are pulled out from the interviews
and personality dimensions can be
studied.
Responses on items can reveal aspects of personality
so; the kind of response that
you give to different kind of items will reveal
your personality.
And then there is a biological measure of
personality and what is this biological measure
of personality?
PET scans and patterns of brain activity can
reveal personality.
For
example, there are certain people who are
criminal, certain people who are narcissistic
or
do heinous crimes.
Now these people have different kind of brain
responses to different
kind of situations for example, brain fingerprinting
is one term which has been used for
measuring personality dimensions and so, people
who are narcissistic in personality or
who are less a sadist in personality or who
do heinous crime they have a different brain
activity altogether to certain situations.
Now, if I do a PET scan if I do a brain scan
their brain will reveal a different pattern
all
together and this different patterns can reveal
different personality types or different kind
of people.
So, that is how a disordered personality a
sociopath or a psychopath will be
differentiated from a normal person.
Also hormone levels can also predict personality;
hormone level analysis is newer level of analysis
which is also used for measuring
personality.
Certain hormones actually are excreted at
very higher levels or release at very
higher levels and these higher levels of hormone
release or hormone count can also define
certain kind of personalities or can also
reveal certain kind of people who do certain
kind
of facts and so, does person personality types
are linked to it.
So, basically what we did today, in today’s
lecture is that we continued on from what
we
were doing in the last class.
We looked at what is personality in the last
class and we
continued by more theories of personality
like, the humanistic theory which focuses
on the
goodness of human beings looking at the trait
theory of personality which believes that
personality is governed by certain stable
patterns of behavior and then by looking at
social
learning theory or learning theories the personality
which believes that personality is a
output of how people learn and how they are
rewarded.
We looked at an evaluation of these theories
and towards the end of this section we looked
at how personality is measured not only by
using questionnaire method, but also by using
projective methods and newer methods for example,
like the experience and sampling
methods the interview and the biological measures.
Personality plays a big role in how
people behave or how human beings behave and
understanding human beings can be lot
easier if we can categorize people or if we
are able to decipher people, based on their
personalities.
In the next section, when we meet we will
be looking at social dimensions or how other
people around us make us behave in different
ways and up till we do that meet next and
do
that and look at what is the effect of social
world around us on our behavior and our
behavior on the social world how we influence
them as well I will say goodbye from here.
Thank you.
