PSYC200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Joint Attention, Identity Formation, Personality Development
SELF AND PERSONALITY
Lecture 7
Overview
• Development of self, competence & self-esteem in:
• Infancy
• Childhood
• Adolescence
• Identity formation across the lifespan
• Theories of personality
Development of self
• From:
• Physical self-recognition and self-awareness
• To:
• Self-description and self-evaluation
• To:
• Knowledge of standards and emotional response to wrong-
doing
Exercise
• How would you determine when infants can recognise themselves?
• What kind of research would you do?
Infant self-recognition
• Recognition of images of self (consistently by 24 months) - look into
mirror and knowing that its them moving and not another person by
placing something on their head (lipstick) and touch themselves and
not the mirror
• Why does it take up to 2 years for this to occur? Cognitive
development needs to take place and social interactions from
parents
• Self-recognition based on face vs. other body parts
• Uniquely human ability?
Development of competence
• 19-30 months children use words to describe themselves - in terms
of physical characterists (little, hair, eyes)
• Most two-year-olds show increased appreciation of standards and
expectations
• They know when they or someone else has done something
wrong - toys broken, daddy fix, dirty
• Evaluative language (good, bad) - I'm naughty I did something
wrong. That’s naughty word
• Satisfaction shown when initiating challenging activities
• Deciding to build a big tower of blocks
Development of competence & self- esteem in infancy
• Trust
• Autonomy is made possible by a child’s secure and basically
trustworthy relationships with their primary caregivers
• Competence — skill and capability — develops as a result of the
child’s natural curiosity and desire to explore the world and the
pleasure they experience in successfully mastering and controlling
that world
• Self-esteem - develops and influenced with the caregivers
(AUTHORITIVE PARTENT STYLE)
Development of competence and self- esteem in infancy
A socially competent toddler is likely to display capabilities in the
following areas:
1. Getting and holding the attention of adults - joint attention
2. Using adults as resources - Daddy lift
3. Expressing affection and mild annoyance to adults
4. Leading and following peers
5. Expressing affection and mild annoyance to peers
6. Competing with peers
7. Showing pride in personal accomplishments
8. Engaging in role play or make-believe activities
Social competence
• Rules for behaviour change as the toddlers get older
• Safety, possessions, basic social niceties (please and
thankyou), delayed gratification (marshmellow experiment)
• Family routines, self-care, independence
• Don’t embarrass us
• Influenced by parent-toddler relationship
• Support and encourage their toddlers’ curiosity and desire to
explore the world
• Responsive to their child’s needs and interests & use age
appropriate language
• Guide and praise achievement
• Compliance
• Compliant - Authoritative parenting (control and guidance,
warmth)
• Defiance - Authoritarian parenting (power assertive)
Sense of self
• A sense of self is the way an individual actively thinks about
themselves as a person, as distinct or separate from other people
• A sense of self develops principally as a result of social interaction
and the experiences individuals have with others
• Erikson: stages of psychosocial development
Erickson’s Psychosocial Development Theory
Development of self in childhood
• Knowledge of gender & age
• Self-constancy is achieved in early school years
• First, children base their ideas of self on observable features and
their overt behavioural characteristics
• Next, psychological traits are incorporated into children’s self-
descriptions
• During middle childhood, the sense of self becomes more complex
and better organised
• Social description and comparison
• At the end of middle childhood, children are better able to integrate
different traits and ideas about themselves
• Gender identity
Development of self during adolescence
• The idea of self or self-concept becomes more complex and abstract,
in line with formal operational thought
• Qualifiers rather than comparison
• Increasing capacity for abstract thought plays a central
role in the process of self-understanding
• Able to view themselves from different perspectives, and can
distinguish their own self-view from the view that other people might
have of them or how they behave
• Adolescent egocentrism
• Personal fable
• Imaginary audience
• Role related selves and inconsistency
Self-esteem
• Overall view the individual has of their worth as a person and how
satisfied they feel with themselves
• Peak level is experienced in late childhood then decreases
• Why?
• Parenting: Authoritative vs authoritarian
• Girls experience lower self-esteem than boys
• Why?
Global self-esteem
• Made up of an aggregate of domains:
• Physical appearance
• Academic performance
• Athletics
• Behavioural conduct
• Morality/ethics
• Social acceptance
• Family
• Affect
Gender differences
• Boys: Physical appearance and athletics
• Girls: Behavioural conduct and morality
• Similar: academic, social acceptance, family & affect
• How do you improve self-esteem?
• Long term consequences of good/poor self-esteem
Identity development during adolescence
• Who am I?
• New ability to critically consider their existence
• I am a unique individual
• Imaginary audience
• Testing of ideas about the self against external criteria
• Hormonal changes
• Roles and values for intimate relationships
• Cultural & vocational expectations
Erikson: Identity vs. role confusion
Conflict to overcome: Identity vs. Role Confusion
•
Primary objective at this stage: discover own identity as member
of a wider society
•
• If do not find identity, experience role confusion
• Tackling this crisis requires trust, autonomy, initiative and
industriousness
• Identity diffusion: no idea where they are going or who they are
Process of identity formation
• Experimentation with different roles and activities what fits their
personality and what does not
• Actively reconciling inconsistent and alternative roles
• Balancing changing personal perspectives and social demands
• In the process of experimentation, identity evaluation occurs
• Situational specificity
• Period of psychological moratorium
• Gap year
Marcia’s identity status model
Marcia’s identity status model
Classified into four identity categories:
• Identity achievement – characterised by period of crisis in
which adolescents explore different alternatives
• Identity moratorium – indicated when adolescents have begun
process of exploring different roles but are yet to make
commitments
• Identity foreclosure – individual arrives at committed identity
without thorough exploration
• Identity diffusion – adolescents have not taken steps in
identity formation process
Factors affecting identity development
• Gender
• Process rather than outcome
• Peers
• Parents
• Personality
• Psychological/physical state
• Motivation, self-esteem, moral reasoning
• Identity diffused least psychologically healthy
• Societal factors
• Unemployment, poverty, recession, political instability, war
• Culture
• Ethnic identity
Psychodynamic theories of personality
Psychodynamic theories of personality
• Psychodynamic theories: development is an active, dynamic process,
influences by inborn biological drives and conscious and unconscious social
and emotional experiences
Sigmund Freud •
Erik Erikson •
Social cognitive theories
• Social cognitive theory was first proposed from work undertaken by
Miller and Dollard (1941)
• They believed that learning occurred through observation and
imitation, complemented with positive reinforcement
• Expanded upon by Albert Bandura
• Learning occurs within a social context and involves
observational learning
Social cognitive theories - Bandura
Two key terms relevant to Bandura’s work:
• Imitation: involves being reinforced for copying an action of
someone; process of what is occurring is more important than the
content
• Modelling: involves a child learning the behaviours and
attitudes of the adults around them indirectly
• Vicarious reinforcement
• Self-regulation and self-efficacy
Humanist theories
• Underpin group of learning theories known as ‘new age’ theories of
development (1960s)
• Key theorists:
• Abraham Maslow
• John Holt
• Malcolm Knowles
• Theories about what could or should occur rather than what does
occur
Based on belief that people are inherently good and have in-built
capacity and desire to learn
Trait theories
• Trait: a characteristic way of thinking, feeling and acting
• Trait theories categorised within ‘Big Five’
• Eysenck suggested ‘three traits’:
1. Introversion/extraversion
2. Neuroticism/emotional stability
3. Psychoticism
The Big Five Personality Test - Scoring
• E=20+(1)___-(6)___+(11)___-(16)___+(21)___-(26)___+ (31) ___ -
(36) ___ + (41) ___ - (46) ___ = _____
• A=14-(2)___+(7)___-(12)___+(17)___-(22)___+(27)___- (32) ___ +
(37) ___ + (42) ___ + (47) ___ = _____
• C=14+(3)___-(8)___+(13)___-(18)___+(23)___-(28)___ + (33) ___ -
(38) ___ + (43) ___ + (48) ___ = _____
• N=38-(4)___+(9)___-(14)___+(19)___-(24)___-(29)___- (34) ___ -
(39) ___ - (44) ___ - (49) ___ = _____
• O=8+(5)___-(10)___+(15)___-(20)___+(25)___-(30)___ + (35) ___ +
(40) ___ + (45) ___ + (50) ___ = _____
The Big Five Personality Test – Interpretation
• Extroversion (E) is the personality trait of seeking fulfilment from
sources outside the self or in community. High scorers tend to be very
social while low scorers prefer to do things alone.
• Agreeableness (A) reflects how much individuals adjust their
behaviour to suit others. High scorers are typically polite and like
people. Low scorers tend to 'tell it like it is'.
• Conscientiousness (C) is the personality trait of being honest and
hardworking. High scorers tend to follow rules and prefer clean
homes. Low scorers may be messy and cheat others.
• Neuroticism (N) is the personality trait of being emotional.
• Openness to Experience (O) is the personality trait of seeking new
experience and intellectual pursuits. High scores may day dream a lot.
Low scorers may be very down to earth.
Genetic influences
Research has focused on:
1. Genetic bases for stability of certain personality dimensions
2. Evidence suggesting that the most influential environmental
sources of variation are those not jointly experienced by family
members
3. Continuing controversy regarding the convergence of genetic
results for different assessment strategies and different
developmental periods
Cultural influences
• Culture = shared patterns of behaviours and interactions, cognitive
constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a
process of socialization
• These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while
also distinguishing those of another group
• Language and modelling
Normative personality change in adulthood
Mid-life crisis?
Three types of change among women in midlife:
1) Normative change
2) Change associated with different personality types
3) Change associated with roles
Personality development in late adulthood
• Personality traits are remarkably stable in adulthood
1. Intellect
2. Agreeableness
3. Satisfaction
4. Energetic
5. Extroversion
• Erickson’s final stage: Integrity vs. despair
Week 7 Lecture
Wednesday, 18 April 2018
9:07 AM
SELF AND PERSONALITY
Lecture 7
Overview
• Development of self, competence & self-esteem in:
• Infancy
• Childhood
• Adolescence
• Identity formation across the lifespan
• Theories of personality
Development of self
• From:
• Physical self-recognition and self-awareness
• To:
• Self-description and self-evaluation
• To:
• Knowledge of standards and emotional response to wrong-
doing
Exercise
• How would you determine when infants can recognise themselves?
• What kind of research would you do?
Infant self-recognition
• Recognition of images of self (consistently by 24 months) - look into
mirror and knowing that its them moving and not another person by
placing something on their head (lipstick) and touch themselves and
not the mirror
• Why does it take up to 2 years for this to occur? Cognitive
development needs to take place and social interactions from
parents
• Self-recognition based on face vs. other body parts
• Uniquely human ability?
Development of competence
• 19-30 months children use words to describe themselves - in terms
of physical characterists (little, hair, eyes)
• Most two-year-olds show increased appreciation of standards and
expectations
• They know when they or someone else has done something
wrong - toys broken, daddy fix, dirty
• Evaluative language (good, bad) - I'm naughty I did something
wrong. That’s naughty word
• Satisfaction shown when initiating challenging activities
• Deciding to build a big tower of blocks
Development of competence & self- esteem in infancy
• Trust
• Autonomy is made possible by a child’s secure and basically
trustworthy relationships with their primary caregivers
• Competence — skill and capability — develops as a result of the
child’s natural curiosity and desire to explore the world and the
pleasure they experience in successfully mastering and controlling
that world
• Self-esteem - develops and influenced with the caregivers
(AUTHORITIVE PARTENT STYLE)
Development of competence and self- esteem in infancy
A socially competent toddler is likely to display capabilities in the
following areas:
1. Getting and holding the attention of adults - joint attention
2. Using adults as resources - Daddy lift
3. Expressing affection and mild annoyance to adults
4. Leading and following peers
5. Expressing affection and mild annoyance to peers
6. Competing with peers
7. Showing pride in personal accomplishments
8. Engaging in role play or make-believe activities
Social competence
• Rules for behaviour change as the toddlers get older
• Safety, possessions, basic social niceties (please and
thankyou), delayed gratification (marshmellow experiment)
• Family routines, self-care, independence
• Don’t embarrass us
• Influenced by parent-toddler relationship
• Support and encourage their toddlers’ curiosity and desire to
explore the world
• Responsive to their child’s needs and interests & use age
appropriate language
• Guide and praise achievement
• Compliance
• Compliant - Authoritative parenting (control and guidance,
warmth)
• Defiance - Authoritarian parenting (power assertive)
Sense of self
• A sense of self is the way an individual actively thinks about
themselves as a person, as distinct or separate from other people
• A sense of self develops principally as a result of social interaction
and the experiences individuals have with others
• Erikson: stages of psychosocial development
Erickson’s Psychosocial Development Theory
Development of self in childhood
• Knowledge of gender & age
• Self-constancy is achieved in early school years
• First, children base their ideas of self on observable features and
their overt behavioural characteristics
• Next, psychological traits are incorporated into children’s self-
descriptions
• During middle childhood, the sense of self becomes more complex
and better organised
• Social description and comparison
• At the end of middle childhood, children are better able to integrate
different traits and ideas about themselves
• Gender identity
Development of self during adolescence
• The idea of self or self-concept becomes more complex and abstract,
in line with formal operational thought
• Qualifiers rather than comparison
• Increasing capacity for abstract thought plays a central
role in the process of self-understanding
• Able to view themselves from different perspectives, and can
distinguish their own self-view from the view that other people might
have of them or how they behave
• Adolescent egocentrism
• Personal fable
• Imaginary audience
• Role related selves and inconsistency
Self-esteem
• Overall view the individual has of their worth as a person and how
satisfied they feel with themselves
• Peak level is experienced in late childhood then decreases
• Why?
• Parenting: Authoritative vs authoritarian
• Girls experience lower self-esteem than boys
• Why?
Global self-esteem
• Made up of an aggregate of domains:
• Physical appearance
• Academic performance
• Athletics
• Behavioural conduct
• Morality/ethics
• Social acceptance
• Family
• Affect
Gender differences
• Boys: Physical appearance and athletics
• Girls: Behavioural conduct and morality
• Similar: academic, social acceptance, family & affect
• How do you improve self-esteem?
• Long term consequences of good/poor self-esteem
Identity development during adolescence
• Who am I?
• New ability to critically consider their existence
• I am a unique individual
• Imaginary audience
• Testing of ideas about the self against external criteria
• Hormonal changes
• Roles and values for intimate relationships
• Cultural & vocational expectations
Erikson: Identity vs. role confusion
Conflict to overcome: Identity vs. Role Confusion
•
Primary objective at this stage: discover own identity as member
of a wider society
•
• If do not find identity, experience role confusion
• Tackling this crisis requires trust, autonomy, initiative and
industriousness
• Identity diffusion: no idea where they are going or who they are
Process of identity formation
• Experimentation with different roles and activities what fits their
personality and what does not
• Actively reconciling inconsistent and alternative roles
• Balancing changing personal perspectives and social demands
• In the process of experimentation, identity evaluation occurs
• Situational specificity
• Period of psychological moratorium
• Gap year
Marcia’s identity status model
Marcia’s identity status model
Classified into four identity categories:
• Identity achievement – characterised by period of crisis in
which adolescents explore different alternatives
• Identity moratorium – indicated when adolescents have begun
process of exploring different roles but are yet to make
commitments
• Identity foreclosure – individual arrives at committed identity
without thorough exploration
• Identity diffusion – adolescents have not taken steps in
identity formation process
Factors affecting identity development
• Gender
• Process rather than outcome
• Peers
• Parents
• Personality
• Psychological/physical state
• Motivation, self-esteem, moral reasoning
• Identity diffused least psychologically healthy
• Societal factors
• Unemployment, poverty, recession, political instability, war
• Culture
• Ethnic identity
Psychodynamic theories of personality
Psychodynamic theories of personality
• Psychodynamic theories: development is an active, dynamic process,
influences by inborn biological drives and conscious and unconscious social
and emotional experiences
Sigmund Freud •
Erik Erikson •
Social cognitive theories
• Social cognitive theory was first proposed from work undertaken by
Miller and Dollard (1941)
• They believed that learning occurred through observation and
imitation, complemented with positive reinforcement
• Expanded upon by Albert Bandura
• Learning occurs within a social context and involves
observational learning
Social cognitive theories - Bandura
Two key terms relevant to Bandura’s work:
• Imitation: involves being reinforced for copying an action of
someone; process of what is occurring is more important than the
content
• Modelling: involves a child learning the behaviours and
attitudes of the adults around them indirectly
• Vicarious reinforcement
• Self-regulation and self-efficacy
Humanist theories
• Underpin group of learning theories known as ‘new age’ theories of
development (1960s)
• Key theorists:
• Abraham Maslow
• John Holt
• Malcolm Knowles
• Theories about what could or should occur rather than what does
occur
Based on belief that people are inherently good and have in-built
capacity and desire to learn
Trait theories
• Trait: a characteristic way of thinking, feeling and acting
• Trait theories categorised within ‘Big Five’
• Eysenck suggested ‘three traits’:
1. Introversion/extraversion
2. Neuroticism/emotional stability
3. Psychoticism
The Big Five Personality Test - Scoring
• E=20+(1)___-(6)___+(11)___-(16)___+(21)___-(26)___+ (31) ___ -
(36) ___ + (41) ___ - (46) ___ = _____
• A=14-(2)___+(7)___-(12)___+(17)___-(22)___+(27)___- (32) ___ +
(37) ___ + (42) ___ + (47) ___ = _____
• C=14+(3)___-(8)___+(13)___-(18)___+(23)___-(28)___ + (33) ___ -
(38) ___ + (43) ___ + (48) ___ = _____
• N=38-(4)___+(9)___-(14)___+(19)___-(24)___-(29)___- (34) ___ -
(39) ___ - (44) ___ - (49) ___ = _____
• O=8+(5)___-(10)___+(15)___-(20)___+(25)___-(30)___ + (35) ___ +
(40) ___ + (45) ___ + (50) ___ = _____
The Big Five Personality Test – Interpretation
• Extroversion (E) is the personality trait of seeking fulfilment from
sources outside the self or in community. High scorers tend to be very
social while low scorers prefer to do things alone.
• Agreeableness (A) reflects how much individuals adjust their
behaviour to suit others. High scorers are typically polite and like
people. Low scorers tend to 'tell it like it is'.
• Conscientiousness (C) is the personality trait of being honest and
hardworking. High scorers tend to follow rules and prefer clean
homes. Low scorers may be messy and cheat others.
• Neuroticism (N) is the personality trait of being emotional.
• Openness to Experience (O) is the personality trait of seeking new
experience and intellectual pursuits. High scores may day dream a lot.
Low scorers may be very down to earth.
Genetic influences
Research has focused on:
1. Genetic bases for stability of certain personality dimensions
2. Evidence suggesting that the most influential environmental
sources of variation are those not jointly experienced by family
members
3. Continuing controversy regarding the convergence of genetic
results for different assessment strategies and different
developmental periods
Cultural influences
• Culture = shared patterns of behaviours and interactions, cognitive
constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a
process of socialization
• These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while
also distinguishing those of another group
• Language and modelling
Normative personality change in adulthood
Mid-life crisis?
Three types of change among women in midlife:
1) Normative change
2) Change associated with different personality types
3) Change associated with roles
Personality development in late adulthood
• Personality traits are remarkably stable in adulthood
1. Intellect
2. Agreeableness
3. Satisfaction
4. Energetic
5. Extroversion
• Erickson’s final stage: Integrity vs. despair
Week 7 Lecture
Wednesday, 18 April 2018
9:07 AM
SELF AND PERSONALITY
Lecture 7
Overview
• Development of self, competence & self-esteem in:
• Infancy
• Childhood
• Adolescence
• Identity formation across the lifespan
• Theories of personality
Development of self
• From:
• Physical self-recognition and self-awareness
• To:
• Self-description and self-evaluation
• To:
• Knowledge of standards and emotional response to wrong-
doing
Exercise
• How would you determine when infants can recognise themselves?
• What kind of research would you do?
Infant self-recognition
• Recognition of images of self (consistently by 24 months) - look into
mirror and knowing that its them moving and not another person by
placing something on their head (lipstick) and touch themselves and
not the mirror
• Why does it take up to 2 years for this to occur? Cognitive
development needs to take place and social interactions from
parents
• Self-recognition based on face vs. other body parts
• Uniquely human ability?
Development of competence
• 19-30 months children use words to describe themselves - in terms
of physical characterists (little, hair, eyes)
• Most two-year-olds show increased appreciation of standards and
expectations
• They know when they or someone else has done something
wrong - toys broken, daddy fix, dirty
• Evaluative language (good, bad) - I'm naughty I did something
wrong. That’s naughty word
• Satisfaction shown when initiating challenging activities
• Deciding to build a big tower of blocks
Development of competence & self- esteem in infancy
• Trust
• Autonomy is made possible by a child’s secure and basically
trustworthy relationships with their primary caregivers
• Competence — skill and capability — develops as a result of the
child’s natural curiosity and desire to explore the world and the
pleasure they experience in successfully mastering and controlling
that world
• Self-esteem - develops and influenced with the caregivers
(AUTHORITIVE PARTENT STYLE)
Development of competence and self- esteem in infancy
A socially competent toddler is likely to display capabilities in the
following areas:
1. Getting and holding the attention of adults - joint attention
2. Using adults as resources - Daddy lift
3. Expressing affection and mild annoyance to adults
4. Leading and following peers
5. Expressing affection and mild annoyance to peers
6. Competing with peers
7. Showing pride in personal accomplishments
8. Engaging in role play or make-believe activities
Social competence
• Rules for behaviour change as the toddlers get older
• Safety, possessions, basic social niceties (please and
thankyou), delayed gratification (marshmellow experiment)
• Family routines, self-care, independence
• Don’t embarrass us
• Influenced by parent-toddler relationship
• Support and encourage their toddlers’ curiosity and desire to
explore the world
• Responsive to their child’s needs and interests & use age
appropriate language
• Guide and praise achievement
• Compliance
• Compliant - Authoritative parenting (control and guidance,
warmth)
• Defiance - Authoritarian parenting (power assertive)
Sense of self
• A sense of self is the way an individual actively thinks about
themselves as a person, as distinct or separate from other people
• A sense of self develops principally as a result of social interaction
and the experiences individuals have with others
• Erikson: stages of psychosocial development
Erickson’s Psychosocial Development Theory
Development of self in childhood
• Knowledge of gender & age
• Self-constancy is achieved in early school years
• First, children base their ideas of self on observable features and
their overt behavioural characteristics
• Next, psychological traits are incorporated into children’s self-
descriptions
• During middle childhood, the sense of self becomes more complex
and better organised
• Social description and comparison
• At the end of middle childhood, children are better able to integrate
different traits and ideas about themselves
• Gender identity
Development of self during adolescence
• The idea of self or self-concept becomes more complex and abstract,
in line with formal operational thought
• Qualifiers rather than comparison
• Increasing capacity for abstract thought plays a central
role in the process of self-understanding
• Able to view themselves from different perspectives, and can
distinguish their own self-view from the view that other people might
have of them or how they behave
• Adolescent egocentrism
• Personal fable
• Imaginary audience
• Role related selves and inconsistency
Self-esteem
• Overall view the individual has of their worth as a person and how
satisfied they feel with themselves
• Peak level is experienced in late childhood then decreases
• Why?
• Parenting: Authoritative vs authoritarian
• Girls experience lower self-esteem than boys
• Why?
Global self-esteem
• Made up of an aggregate of domains:
• Physical appearance
• Academic performance
• Athletics
• Behavioural conduct
• Morality/ethics
• Social acceptance
• Family
• Affect
Gender differences
• Boys: Physical appearance and athletics
• Girls: Behavioural conduct and morality
• Similar: academic, social acceptance, family & affect
• How do you improve self-esteem?
• Long term consequences of good/poor self-esteem
Identity development during adolescence
• Who am I?
• New ability to critically consider their existence
• I am a unique individual
• Imaginary audience
• Testing of ideas about the self against external criteria
• Hormonal changes
• Roles and values for intimate relationships
• Cultural & vocational expectations
Erikson: Identity vs. role confusion
Conflict to overcome: Identity vs. Role Confusion
•
Primary objective at this stage: discover own identity as member
of a wider society
•
• If do not find identity, experience role confusion
• Tackling this crisis requires trust, autonomy, initiative and
industriousness
• Identity diffusion: no idea where they are going or who they are
Process of identity formation
• Experimentation with different roles and activities what fits their
personality and what does not
• Actively reconciling inconsistent and alternative roles
• Balancing changing personal perspectives and social demands
• In the process of experimentation, identity evaluation occurs
• Situational specificity
• Period of psychological moratorium
• Gap year
Marcia’s identity status model
Marcia’s identity status model
Classified into four identity categories:
• Identity achievement – characterised by period of crisis in
which adolescents explore different alternatives
• Identity moratorium – indicated when adolescents have begun
process of exploring different roles but are yet to make
commitments
• Identity foreclosure – individual arrives at committed identity
without thorough exploration
• Identity diffusion – adolescents have not taken steps in
identity formation process
Factors affecting identity development
• Gender
• Process rather than outcome
• Peers
• Parents
• Personality
• Psychological/physical state
• Motivation, self-esteem, moral reasoning
• Identity diffused least psychologically healthy
• Societal factors
• Unemployment, poverty, recession, political instability, war
• Culture
• Ethnic identity
Psychodynamic theories of personality
Psychodynamic theories of personality
• Psychodynamic theories: development is an active, dynamic process,
influences by inborn biological drives and conscious and unconscious social
and emotional experiences
Sigmund Freud •
Erik Erikson •
Social cognitive theories
• Social cognitive theory was first proposed from work undertaken by
Miller and Dollard (1941)
• They believed that learning occurred through observation and
imitation, complemented with positive reinforcement
• Expanded upon by Albert Bandura
• Learning occurs within a social context and involves
observational learning
Social cognitive theories - Bandura
Two key terms relevant to Bandura’s work:
• Imitation: involves being reinforced for copying an action of
someone; process of what is occurring is more important than the
content
• Modelling: involves a child learning the behaviours and
attitudes of the adults around them indirectly
• Vicarious reinforcement
• Self-regulation and self-efficacy
Humanist theories
• Underpin group of learning theories known as ‘new age’ theories of
development (1960s)
• Key theorists:
• Abraham Maslow
• John Holt
• Malcolm Knowles
• Theories about what could or should occur rather than what does
occur
Based on belief that people are inherently good and have in-built
capacity and desire to learn
Trait theories
• Trait: a characteristic way of thinking, feeling and acting
• Trait theories categorised within ‘Big Five’
• Eysenck suggested ‘three traits’:
1. Introversion/extraversion
2. Neuroticism/emotional stability
3. Psychoticism
The Big Five Personality Test - Scoring
• E=20+(1)___-(6)___+(11)___-(16)___+(21)___-(26)___+ (31) ___ -
(36) ___ + (41) ___ - (46) ___ = _____
• A=14-(2)___+(7)___-(12)___+(17)___-(22)___+(27)___- (32) ___ +
(37) ___ + (42) ___ + (47) ___ = _____
• C=14+(3)___-(8)___+(13)___-(18)___+(23)___-(28)___ + (33) ___ -
(38) ___ + (43) ___ + (48) ___ = _____
• N=38-(4)___+(9)___-(14)___+(19)___-(24)___-(29)___- (34) ___ -
(39) ___ - (44) ___ - (49) ___ = _____
• O=8+(5)___-(10)___+(15)___-(20)___+(25)___-(30)___ + (35) ___ +
(40) ___ + (45) ___ + (50) ___ = _____
The Big Five Personality Test – Interpretation
• Extroversion (E) is the personality trait of seeking fulfilment from
sources outside the self or in community. High scorers tend to be very
social while low scorers prefer to do things alone.
• Agreeableness (A) reflects how much individuals adjust their
behaviour to suit others. High scorers are typically polite and like
people. Low scorers tend to 'tell it like it is'.
• Conscientiousness (C) is the personality trait of being honest and
hardworking. High scorers tend to follow rules and prefer clean
homes. Low scorers may be messy and cheat others.
• Neuroticism (N) is the personality trait of being emotional.
• Openness to Experience (O) is the personality trait of seeking new
experience and intellectual pursuits. High scores may day dream a lot.
Low scorers may be very down to earth.
Genetic influences
Research has focused on:
1. Genetic bases for stability of certain personality dimensions
2. Evidence suggesting that the most influential environmental
sources of variation are those not jointly experienced by family
members
3. Continuing controversy regarding the convergence of genetic
results for different assessment strategies and different
developmental periods
Cultural influences
• Culture = shared patterns of behaviours and interactions, cognitive
constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a
process of socialization
• These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while
also distinguishing those of another group
• Language and modelling
Normative personality change in adulthood
Mid-life crisis?
Three types of change among women in midlife:
1) Normative change
2) Change associated with different personality types
3) Change associated with roles
Personality development in late adulthood
• Personality traits are remarkably stable in adulthood
1. Intellect
2. Agreeableness
3. Satisfaction
4. Energetic
5. Extroversion
• Erickson’s final stage: Integrity vs. despair
Week 7 Lecture
Wednesday, 18 April 2018 9:07 AM
Document Summary
Overview: development of self, competence & self-esteem in, infancy, childhood, adolescence, identity formation across the lifespan, theories of personality. Development of self: from, physical self-recognition and self-awareness, to, self-description and self-evaluation, to, knowledge of standards and emotional response to wrong- doing. That"s naughty word: satisfaction shown when initiating challenging activities, deciding to build a big tower of blocks. Development of competence and self- esteem in infancy. Global self-esteem: made up of an aggregate of domains, physical appearance, academic performance, athletics, behavioural conduct, morality/ethics, social acceptance, family, affect. Gender differences: boys: physical appearance and athletics, girls: behavioural conduct and morality, similar: academic, social acceptance, family & affect, how do you improve self-esteem, long term consequences of good/poor self-esteem. Factors affecting identity development: gender, process rather than outcome, peers, parents, personality, psychological/physical state, motivation, self-esteem, moral reasoning, identity diffused least psychologically healthy, societal factors, unemployment, poverty, recession, political instability, war, culture, ethnic identity.
