Measuring Personality: Crash Course Psychology #22

CrashCourse
14 Jul 201411:07
EducationalLearning
32 Likes 10 Comments

TLDRThis video explores different theories of personality and the concept of 'self' throughout history, from Freud's psychoanalytic perspective to the empirically-driven trait and social cognitive theories. It discusses various methods to measure personality, from projective tests like Rorschach inkblots to modern questionnaires, as well as the interaction between our traits and situations. It also examines the notion of 'possible selves', the balance between our ideal and feared selves that motivates us. While the enduring question of 'who or what is the self' remains unresolved, the video provides an insightful overview of perspectives on personality and identity.

Takeaways
  • 😀 There are many theories on what makes up personality, from Freud's psychoanalysis to Allport's trait theory.
  • 🧠 Trait theory focuses on stable, lasting behavior patterns to describe personality, categorized into the Big Five traits.
  • 😊 The social cognitive perspective says personality arises from the interaction between our traits and social context.
  • 📝 Personality tests like Rorschach inkblots or the MMPI questionnaire aim to quantify personality differences.
  • 👪 Bandura's social cognitive theory emphasizes how our environments shape our personalities.
  • 🌈 Humanistic theorists like Maslow believe measuring self-concept is key to understanding personality.
  • 🎭 Projective tests use ambiguous images to reveal unconscious thoughts based on your interpretations.
  • 🧐 The concept of 'possible selves' balances our ideal best and worst selves.
  • 🔬 Empirical, test-based approaches became popular as alternatives to psychoanalysis and humanism.
  • ❓ Defining the nature of 'self' remains an open and complex philosophical question.
Q & A

  • What was Gordon Allport's view of Freud's psychoanalytic approach to understanding personality?

    -Allport thought that Freud focused too much on the unconscious influences from one's past childhood experiences. Instead, Allport was more interested in describing present conscious traits and motives that influence behavior.

  • What are the Big Five personality traits?

    -The Big Five personality traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. These are considered stable characteristics that predict behavior and attitudes.

  • What does reciprocal determinism refer to?

    -Reciprocal determinism refers to the interaction between a person's traits and their social context. It is the idea that people and situations work together to create behavior.

  • What is the difference between internal and external locus of control?

    -Someone with an internal locus of control believes they control their own fate and make their own luck. Someone with an external locus of control feels guided by forces beyond their control.

  • How does the Rorschach inkblot test attempt to measure personality?

    -The Rorschach test tries to infer information about someone's inner concerns, motivations, and unconscious processes based on how they interpret ambiguous inkblot images.

  • How do trait personality tests tend to measure personality?

    -Trait personality tests often involve answering a standardized series of true/false or agree/disagree questions related to different personality characteristics.

  • What is the Thematic Apperception Test?

    -The Thematic Apperception Test presents evocative but ambiguous images and asks the person to tell stories about them, which supposedly reveals information about inner concerns and motivations.

  • How does the social cognitive perspective differ from the trait perspective?

    -The social cognitive perspective looks at behavior in context instead of just assessing stable traits. It also emphasizes perceptions of control over situations.

  • How do humanistic theorists like Maslow tend to measure personality?

    -Humanistic theorists often use interviews and questionnaires asking people to describe both their ideal and actual self. The closer these are, the more positive the self-concept.

  • What is the concept of possible selves?

    -Possible selves refer to the contrast between our hoped-for ideal future self and our feared worst-case self. This motivates behavior.

Outlines
00:00
🤔 Theories on Personality and the Concept of 'Self'

This paragraph introduces various historical theories about personality, including Hippocrates' four humors, Chinese medicine's five elements, Freud's id/ego/superego, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and BuzzFeed quizzes. It notes the long history of people characterizing one another and the enduring question of 'who or what is the self'.

05:03
🚶‍♂️ Allport, Trait Theory and the 'Big Five' Personality Traits

This paragraph covers Gordon Allport's meeting with Freud and origins of trait theory focusing on conscious motives and observable behaviors rather than the unconscious. It introduces the 'Big Five' traits - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism - explaining each on a spectrum and noting they predict average behavior.

10:06
🌀 Social Cognitive Perspective: Reciprocal Determinism

This paragraph explains Alfred Bandura's social cognitive perspective which emphasizes the interaction between traits and social contexts. It introduces 'reciprocal determinism' - the idea that people and situations create behavior, but also choose environments reinforcing their personalities. A key concept is 'locus of control'.

Mindmap
Keywords
💡traits
Traits refer to stable, lasting patterns of behavior and conscious motivations that comprise personality according to trait theorists like Gordon Allport. The script discusses trait theory as one of the major empirical approaches to conceptualizing personality in terms of measurable characteristics.
💡unconscious
The unconscious mind is a key part of Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, which posits that behaviors and motivations are influenced by past experiences and memories that exist outside conscious awareness. The script contrasts Freud's focus on the unconscious with Gordon Allport's view that conscious traits and motives are more relevant.
💡social cognitive perspective
Proposed by Albert Bandura, this theory emphasizes the interaction between personality traits and social/environmental influences. It introduces the concept of reciprocal determinism - how personalities shape situations and vice versa.
💡locus of control
This refers to one's perception of control over life events. Having an internal locus of control means believing you control your fate, while an external locus of control means feeling guided by outside forces. This concept is important in Bandura's social cognitive perspective.
💡projective tests
Used by psychodynamic psychologists, projective tests like the Rorschach inkblot test and Thematic Apperception Test aim to uncover the unconscious by having subjects interpret ambiguous images. This contrasts with empirical questionnaires used by trait researchers.
💡self-concept
One's conception and evaluation of oneself. Humanist theorists like Maslow reject standardized tests and instead measure personality via interviews/questionnaires assessing self-concept - e.g. comparing ideal vs actual self.
💡possible selves
This refers to images of potential future selves, including hoped-for and feared selves. The script states these motivate behavior - e.g. the desire to avoid becoming one's feared self.
💡reciprocal determinism
Bandura's concept outlining the mutual interaction between personality traits, behavior, and situational/environmental factors. Personalities shape situations and vice versa in a two-way causal relationship.
💡Big Five
The five broad trait dimensions in the predominant empirical model of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Trait theorists like McCrae and Costa developed and popularized this model.
💡empirical
Empirical means based on observation, measurement, and testing rather than theory alone. The script discusses the origins of trait theory in efforts to study personality empirically/quantitatively as opposed to psychoanalysis's subjective methods.
Highlights

First significant research finding

Introduction of new theoretical framework

Notable contribution to field

Transcripts

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