Personality Development

1
Personality Development

• Dr Ros Weston
• Psychology

2

• Definition
• Child (1968)
• More or less stable, internal factors that make
  one persons behaviour consistent
• from one time to another, and different from the
  behaviour other people would
• manifest in comparable situations
• Stable
• Internal
• Consistent
• Different
• Personality is INTERNAL
• Freuds theories on Personality Development
• Change and development are the key words
  internal process past experiences
• The dynamics of behaviour which is what
  distinguishes this theory from the cognitive
• (Glassman, 1995)

3

• Innate drives early experiences
• id ego super ego pleasure
  principle defence mechanisms
• Anna Freud
• defence against instinct
• The child learns
• defensive behaviours to
• control id
• Defence Mechanisms
• 1 Repression
• 2 Displacement
• 3 Projection
• 4 Denial
• 5 Intellectualisation

• Psycho - sexual Development
• Energy - libido
• Eros Thanatos
• Oral
• Anal
• Phallic (Oedipus Electra complexes)
• Latency
• Genital

4

• Other Defence Mechanisms
• Fixation
• Affective strategies in personality
  development
• Regression
• Case studies Anna O
• Little Hans
• Myers Brewin (1994) Childhood Memories
• Williams (1994) Sexual Abuse
• McGunnies (1949) Perception defence
• things are likely to be ignored if they are
  unpleasant or
• emotionally threatening
• Levinger Clarke (1961) supported this using
  emotionally
• provoking words. (they recalled the words that
  had neutral
• associations)
• (Evaluatory comment on each of these and on
  Freuds theory of personality
• development)

5

• Neo - Freudians
• Erikson (1959)
• Conflict
• WAR
• natural processes expectations of
• of maturation society

Parents friends teachers employers norms values
6

• Chart of Eight Stages
• Evaluatory Comments
• Used clinical evidence (therapist case studies
  using Freuds clinical method)
• theory imprecise anecdotal
• experimental research provides indirect support
  for Erikson
• (Ainsworth Bell 1970) (Bowlby, 1952)
• Stage 4 has been supported by work of Damon
  Hart (1988)
• (older children used more internal
  psychological terms. Younger children focused on
  concrete tangible )
• Strengths - focuses on social process ego
  development
• - the facing of developmental tension /
  conflicts
• - most of the conflicts lie with the
  family (Freud also said When
• you are looking at a sick
  (mentally) or disturbed person you often
• dont have to look far for a cause.
  (that does not mean the parents are to
  blame. It is the conflict that is problematic)
• Does not give detail of how you move from one
  stage to another
• Dwaretzky (1996) feels there is little convincing
  evidence for E theory
• Hard to test this theory
• The evidence is correlational
• It gives a very tidy account of development

7

• Social Learning Theory
• Key term Significant others
• Social Modelling
• Attention
• Retention
• Reproduction
• Motivation
• Conditioning
• Banduras work
• What would help a child learn self - efficacy?
• -? -? -? -?
• Continue

Classical Operant Observation internalisation
Vicarious reinforcement
Reciprocal determination
This is exact opposite of learned helplessness
Self efficacy (self - image belief in self
8

• Evidence - Bobo doll
• - Harter Monsour (1992)
• - Bandura Cervone (1983)
• Evaluatory Comment
• - More than one self? (Baars, 1997)
• - Not a development theory

9

• Situationalism
• Bandura suggested that personality is not a
  stable trait of an individual
• Mischel Peakes theory (1982) suggest a
  consistency paradox. Research failed to show
  consistency
• Behavioural specificity (M P, 1982)
• We think it is a stable trait because we see
  people in similar situations
• Individual differences (M P, 1993)
• Person variables
• Cognitive behavioural
• Encoding personal constructs
• Expectancy
• Subjective stimulus value
• self - regulatory systems plans
• Evidence
• Context - dependent learning research (Abernety,
  1940)
• Generalising learning
• Lack of fragmentation

10

• What is gender?
• (as part of personality)

Gender
Sexual identity
Sex
Gender identity
Behaviour
Situation (upbrining social context)
Gender role
Gender stereo types
See - Debates and all the work we did on real
and perceived differences -
Psychoanalytical theory - Social
learning - Cognitive (Kohlberg)
- Behaviourist - Humanistic (Carl Rogers
Erikson)
11

• Kohlbergs (1966) Cognitive - developmental theory
  (1966)
• The child actively constructs his own
  experiences and they are not products of social
• training
• Basic - gender identity (2-3½)
• Gender stability (3½ - 4½)
• Gender consistency (4½ - 7yrs)
• (fits with Piagets notion of conservation)
• Evidence
• Munroe, Shimmin Munroe (1984)
• These stages are cross - cultural.
• Slaby Frey (1975) - attending to some sex
  models.
• Ruble, Balabon Cooper (1981) Adverts
  gender consistency.
• Evaluatory Comments
• Cross cultural
• interactivity
• gender identity - increases gender role
• How they interact in the world requires gender
  identity
• Criticism gender role behaviour - depends on
  gender consistency
• Contradictions

12

• Gender Schema Theory
• An organised set of beliefs about the sexes
  (Martin et al, 1987)
• in group, out group schema
• our gender schema
• children are not passive
• gender - schemas help them pay attention to
  interpret the world what they remember
• gender schemas structure experience
• Evidence (Martin et al, 1987)
• (Bradbard et al, 1986)
• (Masters et al, (1979)
• Evaluatory Comment
• seems to explain fit with other theories of
  child development specially cognitive
• individualistic
• schemas are overaggerated
• should be able to change schemas. As Durkin
  (1995) found it is easier to change concepts
• Continued...

13

• Now
• Compare social learning theory yourself using
  biological social
• biological theory by explaining
• Theory (giving)
• evidence (including)
• evaluatory comment

14

• Theories of Adolescent Development

What evidence is there that these are important
Relationship with parents Relationship with peers
Cultural differences
The Isle of Wight Study (1976) Rutters large
scale study. What factors cause disturbance in
young people? What is the problem of
retrospective data?

• Marcias theory (1966-1980)
• Alternatives to choose from
• Have fun commitment been made
• Four possible identity statuses
• Identity diffusion
• Foreclosure
• Moratorium
• Identity achievement
• Evidence to support Meilman (1979)
• Evidence against (Munroe Adams (1977)

Delinquency

• Eriksons theory (1902, 1994)
• Identity diffusion
• Identity crisis
• Counter evidence
• Support evidence

Intimacy Diffusion Diffusion of industry Negative
identity
Gender individual differences alpha beta bias
Colemans focal theory (1974) Storm Stress