Thought Language & Intelligence

How does one create & organize a thought.?

Can information really be mentally represented?
Cognitive Maps: Mental representations of familiar parts of ones world.
Images: Mental representations of visual information.
Propositions: Smallest units of knowledge that can stand as separate
assertions.
Can be evaluated as true or false.
Mental Models: Sets of propositions that represent peoples understandings of
how things work.
Models guide our thinking about things and our interactions with them.
Concepts
Concepts: Categories of objects, events, or ideas with common properties.
Formal Concept: A concept that can be clearly defined by a set of rules or
properties.
Natural Concept: A concept that has no fixed set of defining features.
Usually defined by a combination of properties.
Prototype: A member of a natural concept that possesses all or most of
its characteristic features.
Concepts can be organized in the following ways:
Schema: A generalization developed about categories of objects,
events, and people.
Scripts: Schemas about familiar sequences of events or activities.
Involved in top-down processing.
Formal Reasoning
Formal Reasoning: The process of following a set of rigorous steps for
reaching valid, or correct conclusions.
Algorithm: A systematic method that always reaches a correct result.
Logic: A set of mental procedures that provides a more general algorithm for
drawing conclusions about the world.
Deductive Reasoning: Application of a general rule to deduce conclusions
about specific cases.
Errors in Logical Reasoning
Informal Reasoning
The assessment of a conclusions validity based on the evidence available to
support it.
Also known as inductive reasoning.
Heuristics: Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb used in the process of informal
reasoning.
Potentially problematic Heuristics
Anchoring Heuristic: Probability of an event is estimated by adjusting an
earlier estimate rather than starting from scratch.

Representativeness Heuristic: Conclusions about whether something belongs

in a certain class are based on how similar it is to other items in that class.
Availability Heuristic: The likelihood or an event or the correctness of a
hypothesis is judged by how easy it is to think of that event or hypothesis.
Whats the best way to solve a problem?
Use Decomposition: Divide problem into smaller, more manageable
subproblems.
Work Backwards: Start at the end, working backward from the goal.
Use Analogies: Search for similarities between current problems and
previously encountered problems that have been successfully solved.
Let the Problem Incubate: Put problem aside for a while; solution may
suddenly appear when you engage in unrelated mental activity.
Obstacles of Problem Solving
Multiple Hypotheses: The tendency to focus on incorrect hypotheses when
more than one hypothesis exists.
Mental Sets: The tendency to stick with a problem-solving strategy that
worked in the past.
Functional Fixedness: A tendency to think about familiar objects in familiar
ways that may prevent using them in other, more creative ways.
Confirmation Bias: The tendency to confirm rather than refute the chosen
hypothesis.
Ignoring Negative Evidence: Our difficulty in using the absence of evidence to
help eliminate hypotheses from consideration.
The 9-Dot Problem
Two Creative Solutions to the 9-Dot Problem
Creativity
Creativity: Demonstrated by producing original but useful solutions to many
different challenges.
Divergent Thinking: The ability to think along many paths to generate
multiple solutions to a problem.
Convergent Thinking: The ability to use logic and knowledge to narrow down
possible solutions to a problem.
Characteristics Necessary for Creativity
Expertise in the field of endeavor, which is directly tied to what a person has
learned.
A set of creative skills, including persistence at problem solving, capacity for
divergent thinking, ability to break out of mental sets, and willingness to take
risks.
The motivation to pursue creative work for internal rather than for external
reasons.
How Can I Become a Better Decision Maker?

Risky decisions or decisions under uncertainty are decisions made when the
outcome is uncertain.
Such decisions are often based on the positive or negative value or
utility of the features associated with each decision option.
Expected value is the total benefit to be expected of a decision if it were
repeated on several occasions.
Bias/ Flaws of Decision Making
We tend to feel worse about losing a certain amount than feeling good about
gaining the same amount.
Loss Aversion
We tend to overestimate the probability of rare events and underestimate the
probability of frequent events.
The tendency is amplified by the availability heuristic.
We often believe that events in a random process will correct themselves.
Gamblers Fallacy
We tend to be unrealistically confident in the accuracy of our predictions.
Acquiring Language
Language has two basic elements:
Symbols, such as words.
We have knowledge of approximately 50,000 to 100,000 words.
Grammar, or a set of rules for combining those symbols.
There appears to be a critical period for language learning.
How is grammar learned?
Through reward and parental modeling?
Chomsky: We are born with a language acquisition device.
Bates: Language development reflects development of other cognitive
skills.
How do children learn how to talk?
First sounds infants make that resemble speech are called babblings.
Around 1 year old, babies can understand a hundred words.
Babies begin to talk around 12 to 18 months.
Early words are reduced to shorter, easier forms.
Babies use gestures, intonations, facial expressions, and endless
repetitions to help make themselves understood.
By 18-24 months, spoken vocabulary is up to 300 words.
Babies then begin to combine words into sentences, which are telegraphic,
two-word utterances.
By age 3, children begin to create complex sentences and ask questions.
By age 5, children have acquired most of the grammatical rules of their
native language.
How do we test for Intelligence?
Intelligence: Accepted working definition (Sternberg):

The possession of knowledge.

The ability to efficiently use that knowledge to reason about the world.
The ability to use reasoning adaptively in different environments.
History of testing Intelligence
Binet (1904): Can French children doing poorly in school be identified?
Developed a set of intellectual tasks that became model for current
intelligence tests.
Binets assumptions:
Reasoning, thinking, and problem-solving all depend on intelligence.
Childrens mental abilities increase with age.
Stanford-Binet Test:, developed by Terman in 1916 to determine a persons
intelligence quotient, or IQ.
Based on Binets test of intelligence.
IQ = (Mental Age/Chronological Age) * 100
Scoring method allow the ranking of people based on their IQ.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Consists of a verbal and performance scale.
Examples from the WISC III
WISC III Continued.
PICTURE ARRANGEMENT
These pictures tell a story, but they are in the wrong order. Put them in the
right order so that they tell a story.
WISC III Continued
Calculating IQ
For IQ tests today, points earned for each correct answer are summed.
Total score is compared to scores earned by other people.
The average score at each age level is assigned the IQ value of 100.
Intelligence Quotient, or IQ score reflects ones relative standing within a
population of ones age.
A Representation of Ethnic Group Differences in IQ Scores
Why a Relationship Between IQ Scores and Family Income?
Parents jobs and status depend on characteristics related to their own
intelligence.
Parents income affects childs environment.
Motivational differences between socio-economic levels.
Those with higher IQs may have greater opportunities to earn more money.
Gardners Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic: Good vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Logical-mathematical: Skill at arithmetic and certain kinds of reasoning.
Spatial: Understanding relationships between objects.
Musical: Abilities involving rhythm, tempo, and sound identification.

Body-kinesthetic: Skill at dancing, athletics, and eye-hand coordination.

Intrapersonal: Self-understanding.
Interpersonal: Ability to understand and interact with others.
Naturalistic: Ability to see patterns in nature.
Sternbergs Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Unusual Intelligence
Giftedness
High IQ scores tend to predict success but doesnt guarantee special
distinction in life.
Mental Retardation
IQs less than about 70 and failure to display the skills at daily living,
communication, and other tasks expected at ones age.
Therapy
What features do all treatment techniques have in common?
Basic Features of Treatment
All treatments include:
A client, therapist and a therapeutic relationship. All forms of treatment
are based on some theory about the cause of the clients problems.
General goal is to help patients change their thinking, feelings, and behaviors
in ways that relieve discomfort, promote happiness, and improve daily
functioning.
Particular methods used depend on a variety of factors.
Types of Treatment Settings.
People can receive treatment either as inpatients or outpatients.
Inpatient: patient is psychiatrically hospitalized for short-term or longterm stabilization.
Outpatient: Day programs, vocational training, psychotherapy,
wellness programs, psychosocial groups etc.
Providers of psychological treatment include:
Psychiatrists: Medical doctors who have completed specialized training
in psychological disorders and are authorized to prescribe drugs.
Psychologists: Therapists with a doctoral degree in clinical or
counseling psychology; not authorized to prescribe drugs.
Social Workers: Licensed clinicians who can provide psychotherapy
while helping the patient navigate systems.
Mental Health Counselors: clinicians can provide same care as social
workers.
Classical Psychoanalysis
Developed out of Freuds medical practice.
Only partially and temporarily successful treating hysterical ailments
with hypnotic suggestions.
Found more success using the process of free association.

Results of this talking cure led Freud to conclude that hysterical symptoms
developed out of conflicts about ones unconscious impulses and fantasies.
Treatment involves use of free association, dream analysis, and analysis of
the way the client reacts to therapist (transference).
Insight into problems is gained by recognizing unconscious thoughts and
emotions.
Clients then work through the ways in which those unconscious
elements affect their daily lives.
Contemporary Variation on Psychoanalytic
Many variations known as short-term dynamic psychotherapy.
Supportive-Expressive Therapy: Goal is to help client to recognize a core
conflict that appears repeatedly across relationships.
Object Relations Therapy: Assumption is that most of clients problems stem
from their relationships with others, especially earliest ones.
Therapy focuses on helping client develop a nurturing relationship with
therapist.
Why wont therapist give advice?
Assumptions:
Treatment is a human encounter between equals, not a cure given by
an expert.
Clients will improve on their own, given the right conditions.
Ideal conditions in therapy can be established through a special
therapeutic relationship of complete acceptance and support.
Clients must remain responsible for choosing how they will think and
behave.
Client-Centered Therapy
Developed by Carl Rogers who was dissatisfied with psychodynamic therapy.
Client-centered therapy relies on the creation of a relationship that reflects
three intertwined therapist attitudes:
Unconditional positive regard: caring, accepting, non-judgemental
attitude. Believed to help clients develop self- awareness & selfacceptance.
Empathy.
Congruence.
Gestalt Therapy
Developed by Frederick Perls who believed that:
People create their own versions of reality.
Peoples natural psychology growth continues only as long as they
perceive, remain aware of, and act on their true feelings.
Growth stops and symptoms of mental disorder appear when people
are not aware of all aspects of themselves.

Gestalt Therapy seeks to create conditions in which clients can become more
unified, self-aware, and self-accepting so they are ready to grow again.
Gestalt therapists prod clients to:
Become aware of disowned feelings and impulses.
Discard feelings, ideas, and values that are not really their own.
Behavior Therapies
Emphasis is on helping clients view psychological problems as learned
behaviors.
Therefore, these behaviors can be changed without first searching for
hidden meanings or unconscious causes.
Goal of therapy is to understand the learning principles maintaining the
undesired behaviors and learn new responses in those situations.
Features of Behavior Therapy
Development of a good therapist-client relationship.
The careful listing of the behaviors and thoughts to be changed.
Learning-based treatments provided by the therapist.
Continuous monitoring and evaluation of treatment with constant
adjustments to procedures that do not seem to be effective.
Techniques used for Behavior Therapy
Systematic Desensitization
Modeling
Assertiveness Training
Positive Reinforcement
e.g., establishment of a token economy.
Extinction
Aversive Conditioning
Punishment
Behavior Modification through analyzing belief system
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Techniques are aimed at replacing upsetting thoughts with alternative
thinking patterns.
Cognitive Restructuring
Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy: Goal is to identify self-defeating thoughts
and replace them with more realistic and beneficial ones.
Becks Cognitive Therapy: Goal is to identify and critically evaluate learned
cognitive distortions.
Other Treatment Models
Group Therapy: Treatment of several clients under guidance of a therapist
who encourages helpful interactions among group members.
Family Therapy: Treatment of two or more individuals from the same family
system.

Couples Therapy: Important treatment goal is improved communication

between partners.
Cultural Factors in Therapy
Cultural differences, including religious differences, have potential for
creating miscommunication or lack of trust.
Thus, threatening the potential for a good client-therapist relationship.
Cultural sensitivity training helps therapists to appreciate the clients view of
the world.
Thus, allowing the therapist to set goals that are in harmony with that
view.
Rules & Rights to Treatment
Professional ethics and common sense require that the therapist ensures the
client is not harmed by the therapeutic relationship.
Issues of confidentiality are vital to the development of a successful
therapeutic relationship.
Information revealed in therapy is legally considered to be privileged
communication.
Biological Treatments
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) can effectively treat severe depression in
patients who have not responded to drug treatment.
Clinically shown to reduce suicidal thoughts.
Psychopharmacology
Antipsychotics
Anti-depressants/ Anti-anxiety
Mood Stabilizers.
Combining Medications and Psychotherapy
Psychopharmacology
Therapeutic psychoactive drugs work by affecting neurotransmitters and their
receptors in the brain.
Some drugs cause neurons to fire, while others inhibit neuron firing.
Other drugs act by blocking the receptor site normally used by a
particular neurotransmitter.
Some drugs increase the amount of a neurotransmitter available to act
on receptors.
Psychological Disorders
How do psychologists
define abnormal behavior?
Prevalence of Specific Psychological Disorders
Practical Approach for
Defining Abnormality
Approach represents a combination of criteria:
What is the context of the behavior?

Are there sociocultural meanings to the behavior and when it occurs?

What are the consequences of the behavior for that person, and for
others?
Special attention is paid to whether persons thoughts, behavior, or emotions
causes impaired functioning.
Does one have difficulty in fulfilling appropriate and expected social
roles?
Biopsychosocial Model
Mental disorders are seen as caused by the combination and interaction of:
Biological Factors: Includes physical illnesses and disruptions of bodily
processes.
Psychological Factors: Includes psychological processes such as our
wants, needs, and emotions; our learning experiences; and our way of
looking at the world.
Sociocultural Factors: Includes the social and cultural context that form
the background of the abnormal behavior.
Example how a disorder can come about
DSM -IV
Person is evaluated on 5 dimensions or axes:
Axis I: Diagnosed mental disorder.
Axis II: Evidence of personality disorders or mental retardation.
Axis III: Medical conditions relevant to persons mental or behavioral
problems.
Axis IV: Experienced difficulties important for understanding the social,
environmental, and cultural context in which psychological problems
appear.
Axis V: Rating (from 1 to 100) of current level of psychological, social,
and occupational functioning.
Diagnostic System
Purposes of Diagnostic System
Designed to determine nature of clients problems.
Once characteristics are understood, problems probable course can be
predicted and most appropriate method of treatment can be
administered Peoples problems often do not fit neatly in one category.
Problems With Diagnostic System
Peoples problems often do not fit neatly in one category.
The same symptoms appear as part of more than one disorder.
Possibility of personal bias due to the somewhat subjective nature of
diagnostic judgments.
Labeling people may be dehumanizing.
Anxiety Disorders

Person experiences anxiety so intense and long-lasting that it disrupts the

persons daily functioning.
Types of Anxiety Disorders:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Chronic/ excessive worry even when
there is little-to-nothing to worry about.
Panic Disorder: Anxiety escalates to full blown panic that disrupts
rational/ logical reasoning can include catastrophic thinking.
PTSD: symptoms such as disturbing recurring flashbacks, avoidance or
numbing of memories of the event, and hyper-arousal (high levels of
anxiety)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Person is plagued by persistent,
upsetting, and unwarranted thoughts (obsessions) that motivate
repetitive behaviors (compulsions).
Phobia: An intense, irrational fear of an object or situation that is not
likely to be dangerous.
Person usually realizes that fear makes no sense.
Causes of Anxiety Disorder
Biological Factors: Possible genetic predisposition or an autonomic system
that is oversensitive to stress.
Cognitive Factors: Person may exaggerate dangers in ones environment,
thereby creating an unrealistic expectation that bad events are going to
happen.
Person will tend to also underestimate own capacity to deal with
threatening events, thus increasing experience of anxiety and
desperation when feared events do occur.
Depressive Disorders
Major Depressive Disorder: Person feels sad and hopeless for weeks or
months.
Often loses interest in all activities and takes pleasure in nothing.
Often accompanied by changes in eating and sleeping habits.
Dysthymic Disorder: Sad mood, lack of interest, and loss of pleasure is not as
intense and lasts for a longer period.
Dissociative Disorders
Person experiences a sudden disruption in ones memory, consciousness, or
identity.
Dissociative Fugue: Sudden loss of personal memory and the adoption of a
new identity in a new locale.
Dissociative Amnesia: Sudden memory loss.
Dissociative Identity Disorder: Person displays more than one identity.
Commonly called Multiple Personality Disorder.
Explaining Dissociative Disorders

Psychodynamic View: Disorder is the result of a massive repression of

unwanted impulses or memories.
Social-Cognitive View: Everyone is capable of behaving in different ways
depending on circumstances.
Disorder results from a variation in behavior so extreme, person feels
and is perceived by others as a different person.
Sudden memory loss or unusual behavior may be rewarded by
providing escape from unpleasant situations, responsibilities, or
punishment.
Research Findings on DID
Many people displaying DID have experienced events they would like to
forget or avoid.
Majority have suffered severe, unavoidable, persistent abuse in
childhood.
Most DID individuals appear to be skilled at self-hypnosis.
Most DID individuals found they could escape trauma of abuse at least
temporarily by creating new personalities to deal with stress.
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar Disorder: The alternating appearance of two emotional extremes,
depression and mania.
Mania is a very agitated, usually elated, emotional state.
Cyclothymic Disorder: Pattern of less extreme mood swings.
Bipolar equivalent of dysthymia.
Genetics and the Risk of Mood Disorder
Causes of Mood Disorder
Biological Causes of Mood Disorder
Imbalances in the brains neurotransmitters.
Malfunctioning of the endocrine system.
Disruption of biological rhythms.
Psychological/Social causes of Mood Disorder
Impact of trauma, losses, and other stressful events.
Likelihood of mood disorders may be influenced by the way people
think about their stressors.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a pattern of severely disturbed thinking, emotion,
perception, and behavior.
Ability to communicate and relate to others is severely impaired.
Most aspects of daily functioning are disrupted.
One of the most severe and disabling of all mental disorders.
Categories of Schizophrenia
Paranoid
Disorganized

Catatonic
Undifferentiated
Residual
Positive vs. Negative Symptom Dimension
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Thought and language are often disorganized.
Neologisms; loose associations; word salads.
Content of thinking is often disturbed.
Types of delusions include ideas of reference, thought broadcasting,
and thought blocking.
Difficulty in focusing attention.
May feel overwhelmed as they try to attend to everything at once.
Perceptual disorders such as hallucinations.
Emotional expression is often muted (flat affect).
Expressions that are displayed are often exaggerated or inappropriate.
Lack of motivation and poor social skills.
Deteriorating personal hygiene.
Inability to function on a daily basis.
Genetics & the risk of Schizophrenia
Biological/ Psychological Factors
Biological Factors
Possible abnormalities in brain chemistry, especially in
neurotransmitter systems that use dopamine.
Possible neurodevelopmental abnormalities.
Disruptions in brain development from before birth through childhood,
when brain is growing and maturing.
Psychological Factors
No longer considered as primary causes of schizophrenia.
But psychological processes and social influences can contribute to
appearance of schizophrenia and influence its course.
e.g., maladaptive learning experiences.
e.g., stressful family communication patterns.
Personality Disorders
Personality Disorders are long-standing, inflexible ways of behavior that are
dysfunctional styles of living.
DSM-IV Personality Clusters
Odd-Eccentric: paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal.
Anxious-Fearful: dependent, obsessive-compulsive, and avoidant.
Dramatic-Erratic: histrionic, narcissistic, borderline, and antisocial.
Borderline Personality Disorder
Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.

Emotionally unstable, experiences mood swings.

Unable to sustain interpersonal relationships. Relationships appear unstable
& intense. Often glorifies/ devalues people in their lives.
Engages in self injuring behavior (cutting, suicide attempt, substance abuse
etc).
Chronic feelings of emptiness.
Psychological Disorders in Children
Externalizing, or Undercontrolled Disorders: Child displays behaviors that
disturbs people in childs environment.
Conduct Disorders
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Internalizing, or Overcontrolled Disorders: Child experiences significant
distress, especially depression and anxiety and may be socially withdrawn.
Separation Anxiety Disorder
Autism:
Baby shows no sign of attachment to caregivers, or anyone else.
Seems unable to enter social realm.
Language development is seriously disrupted.
Usually leads to a life of marginal adjustment.
Specific causes are unknown, but thought to involve both structural
brain abnormalities and genetics.
Substance Abuse Disorders
Substance-Related Disorders: The use of psychoactive drugs for months or
years in ways that harm oneself or others.
Addiction: Physical need for the substance.
Physiological dependence
Substance Abuse: Pattern of use that causes serious social, legal, or
interpersonal problems.
Can become psychologically dependent without becoming
physiologically dependent.
Alcohol Dependence or Abuse: A pattern of continuous or off-and-on drinking
that may lead to addiction.
Almost always causes severe social, physical, and other problems.
Commonly referred to as alcoholism.
Biopsychosocial model suggests alcohol abuse stems from a combination of
genetic factors and what people learn in their social and cultural
environment.
Personality
An individuals characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling & acting.
Sigmund Freud
Was a physician in Vienna during the 1890s treating neurotic disorders.
Created the Psychodynamic approach.

Proposed that people are partly controlled by the unconscious part of

their personality.
Free Association: told patients to relax & say whatever came to mind
regardless of it being embarrassing/ wrong. (freudian slip)
Unconscious: dwelling place of socially unacceptable thoughts, wishes,
feelings & memories.
Conscious: part of the iceberg on top of the water.
Pre-conscious: temporary storage area for some thoughts, wishes feelings &
memories. That can be retrieved into the consciousness.
The Structure of personality according to Freud
Psychosexual Stages of Development
Oral Stage: (0-18 mo) Mouth is center of pleasure.
Personality problems arise when oral needs are either neglected or
overindulged.
Anal Stage: (18-36 mo)Toilet training clashes with instinctual pleasure in
having bowel movements at will.
Childs ego develops to cope with parental demands for socially
appropriate behavior.
Toilet training that is too harsh or starts to early or too late can lead to
anal fixation.
Phallic Stage: (3-6yo)Focus of pleasure shifts to the genital region.
Boys experience the Oedipus complex.
Girls experience the Electra complex.
Latency Period: (6- puberty) Sexual impulses are dormant.
Genital Stage: (puberty on)Sexual impulses reappear at conscious level;
genitals again focus of sexual pleasure.
Quality of relationships and degree of fulfillment are directly affected
by how earlier intrapsychic conflicts are resolved.
Defense Mechanisms
Repression: banishes anxiety provoking feelings into from consciousness.
Regression: retreat to a more infantile way of coping (ie: sucking thumb).
Reaction Formation: switching unacceptable impulses into opposite (ultra nice
to person you dont like).
Projection: disguising ones threatening impulses by projecting it onto others.
Rationalization: trying to justify poor behavior.
Displacement: Shifting sexual/ aggressive impulses onto someone/ thing less
threatening.
Denial: refusing to believe/ perceive painful reality.
Neo- Freudian Theorist
Carl Jung argued that people are born with a general life force for:
Collective unconscious: a common reservoir of images or archetypes
that are derived from our universal experiences.

The productive blending of basic impulses with real-world demands.

Alfred Adler saw the driving force behind the development of personality as
the desire to:
Overcome infantile feelings of helplessness (inferiority complex).
Gain some control over environment.
Some saw the attempt to meet social demands once biological needs were
met as the main shaper of personality.
e.g., Erik Erikson; Erich Fromm; Harry Stack Sullivan
Karen Horney argued that it is men that envy women, not vice versa.
Men experience womb envy.
Womens feelings of inferiority due to cultural factors, not penis envy.
Contemporary Psychodynamic Theories
Focus is on object relations.
How peoples perceptions of themselves and others influence their
view of and reactions to the world.
Early relationships between infants and their love objects seen as
critically important to development of personality.
Evaluating the Psychodynamic Approach
Freuds contributions:
Most comprehensive and influential theory.
Ideas led to development of psychodynamic therapies.
Stimulated development of personality assessment techniques.
Some of Freuds ideas are supported by research on cognitive processes.
Problems and weaknesses with Freuds theory:
Theory based almost entirely on a cases studies of a few individuals,
not representative of people in general.
Theory reflected Western cultural values.
Conclusions may have been distorted by Freuds personal biases.
Belief in womens envy of male anatomy and focus on male
psychosexual development questioned.
Theory is not very scientific.
Describing Personality Traits
Personality traits: peoples characteristic behaviors & conscious motivations.
Personality traits remain relatively stable and therefore predictable over time.
Personality traits remain relatively stable across situations.
People differ with regard to how much of a particular personality trait they
possess.
Allports Trait Theory
Central Traits: Traits that organize and control ones behavior in many
different situations and are usually apparent to others.
Secondary Traits: Traits that are more specific to certain situations and control
far less behavior.

Eysencks Personality Dimentions

Personality can be described in terms of three main factors or dimensions:
Introversion-extraversion.
Emotionality-stability.
Psychoticism.
The Big Five Theory
Evaluating the Traits Approach
Trait theories better at describing people than explaining them.
Little said on how traits relate to the thoughts and feelings that precede,
accompany, and follow behavior.
Research shows that with time our personality traits become more stable. But
can very depending on the situation.
Inconsistency in behaviors makes personality test scores weak predictors of
behaviors.
Criticized for failing to capture how traits combine to form a complex and
dynamic individual.
Found that in familiar settings we feel less constrained on our behaviors
allowing our traits to emerge. In new settings we conceal them until we
become more familiar.
Social Cognitive Approach.
Personality is the set of behaviors that people acquire through learning and
then display in particular situations.
Emphasis placed on:
The role of learned patterns of thought in guiding our interactions.
The fact that much of personality is learned in social situations through
interactions with and observations of other people.
Its how we & our environment interact. How do we interpret &
respond to external events? How do our schemas, memories &
expectations influence our behavior patterns.
Relationship Between Person Variables and Situation Variables
Traits influence behavior only in relevant situations.
Traits can lead to behaviors that alter situations that, in turn, promote other
behaviors.
People choose to be in situations that are in accord with their traits.
Traits are more important in some situations than in others.
Evaluating the
Social-Cognitive Approach
Expanded applications of classical and operant learning principles.
Principles have lead to development of new therapies for psychological
disorders.
Criticisms:
Has minimized the importance of subjective experience.

Fails to consider unconscious processes.

Neglects contribution of emotion to personality.
Excludes other influences on personality not based on learning such as
genetics.
How do psychologists
measure personality?
Basic Methods of Assessing and Describing Personality
Observational Methods: direct assessment of behavior.
Interviews: Gather information about personality from persons own
point of view.
Personality Tests: Collect information about personality in a more
standardized and economical way than either observations or
interviews.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
Rorschach Inkblot Test.
Objective Personality Tests
Characteristics:
Paper and pencil.
Quantitatively scored.
Advantages:
Efficiency.
Standardization.
Disadvantages:
Subject to deliberate distortion.
Projective Personality Test
Characteristics:
Ambiguous stimuli create maximum freedom of response.
Scoring is relatively subjective.
Advantages:
Correct answers not obvious.
Designed to tap into unconscious impulses.
Flexible use.
Disadvantages:
Reliability and validity lower than those of objective tests.
An example from the
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Personality Tests and
Employee Selection
Using objective personality tests in hiring process can help reduce thefts and
other disruptive employee behaviors.
Problems:
Not perfect predictors of behavior.

 Tests seen by some as invasion of privacy.

Employee concerns on how tests will be interpreted and used in future.