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Phenomenological Approaches. Phenomenological Approaches. Propose that the individual’s subjective experience is important and unique The self actively shapes reality and personality Idiographic approach to the study of personality. Two main Approaches.
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Phenomenological Approaches • Propose that the individual’s subjective experience is important and unique • The self actively shapes reality and personality • Idiographic approach to the study of personality
Two main Approaches • Kelly 1905-1967 Personal Construct Theory • Rogers 1902-1987 Person Centred Theory • These theories have had a considerable impact on counselling. • Also other linked theories such as Maslow 1908 - 1968
Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory 1955 Kelly suggests that each person operates like a scientist, making observations performing inductive reasoning to try to formulate rules that explain how the world works. The model can be discarded and adapted along the way. There are 3 basic steps: • observing behaviour, • trying to understand what is going, • testing whether this mental model actually works
Kelly II People develop different systems of constructs • Different people will tend to notice different characteristics about others in order to interpret and predict their behaviour. • People differ in the way in which they use language • People’s own backgrounds and values will influence the way in which they construe behaviours
Kelly III When construct systems fail to work Our models or constructs about people do not always turn out to be accurate. For instance if we believe that an ideal partner is funny, good-looking and thoughtful. We may expect a stranger who had these characteristics to be a good partner. However when this does not occur and there is a discrepancy with our mental model we can: • Re-evaluate the person and their characteristics • The model can be expanded. Other characteristics may also make someone good partner • The model may be abandoned – other characteristics may need to be considered. (Abandoning the mental model can lead to feelings of threat and fear).
Kelly IV • Core Constructs: constructs that are used to understand oneself and one’s actions • Disruption to these constructs can lead to unpleasant emotional consequences: • Guilt • Threat • Fear • Hostility • Anxiety • Aggression
Problems with Kelly’s approach • Assumes people are generally self-aware and rational • It is difficult to view another’s world through their construct system • An individual may have a self-view which others do not agree with • Some individuals may not use the same distinctions
Repertory Grid Technique Kelly developed the repertory grid as a means of formalising individuals’ systems of personal constructs. Though – he believed in the use of good listening skills.
Repertory Grid Technique • Element - an individual within their life eg brother, mother, partner • Psychological way in which elements differ from each other – not physical features or background • How are each of the elements construed? – rate the elements on a five point scale
Questions? • What constructs does an individual use? • How does the individual construe certain key ‘elements’ in his or her life? • What are the relationships between the constructs? • What are the relationships between the elements?
The analysis of repertory grids • Possibilities are endless • Eyeballing – give a general picture Most analysis: • Patterns of similarities between the constructs • Similarities between the elements
Applications of Repertory Grids • Occupational studies: understand how occupational groups view their professional environment. For instance General Practitioners (GPs) start with concepts such as ‘a good GP’, ‘a bad GP’, ‘myself as a good GP’ and perform same/different analysis to develop vocabulary. • Food research: compare different foods to elicit descriptions • Counselling: ‘myself as an alcoholic’, ‘myself as a I would like to be’
Person Centred Theory - Rogers • It is the subjective experiences of the individual - the internal reality rather than the external reality that plays the key role in determining a person's behaviour. • The most important concept in Rogers’ theory is the ‘self’. Rogers thought that an individual had a unified mental picture of themselves which could be consciously examined and evaluated – the self-concept. Individuals want to get to know their true self – to stop behaving as they felt they ought to behave and just fulfilling demands of others.
Rogers II • Roger’s believed that a psychologically healthy individual is one who is in touch with their own emotional experiences, who ‘listens’ to their emotions and can express their true feelings openly and without distortion. • Roger’s believed that an individual’s personality can be best understood through building up an understanding of how they see the world • The most useful way of obtaining this understanding is through a careful clinical interview
Rogers III • Within all of us is an innate motivation an active, controlling drive toward fulfillment of our potentials. • The actualizing tendency has both a biological and a psychological aspect. The biological includes basic survival drives - need for water, food, and air. The psychological involves the development of potentials.
Rogers’ Client-centred Approach • Carl Rogers (1902–1987) • self-concept • an individual’s thoughts and feelings about himself or herself in relation to others • ideal self • the self-concept we would most like to possess • happy people have a smaller discrepancy between their self-concept and their ideal self than those less happy • Q-sort method • a way of quantifying this discrepancy.
Rogers’ Client-centred Therapy (continued) • Congruence • no discrepancy between self-concept and ideal self. • Self-actualisation • full realisation of our potential as human beings. • Incongruence causes anxiety • denial • distortion. • Parental regard • unconditional positive regard • conditions of worth.
Q-Sort • Can be used to assess the self concept, the impact of person-centred therapy, explore a particular issue. • The items or statements can be made up by a sensitive clinician, they can be from a standard personality questionnaire but the tendency is to use a standard set of items (the California Q-set) to cover most of the standard feelings about the self. • Items are self-referent statements e.g “I usually like people, ‘I don’t trust my emotions’, I am afraid of what other people may think of me.
Comparisons • More emphasis on feelings and emotions than Kelly • Ideas of being in touch with, able to express feelings • Interested in how the individual views the world – like Kelly
Evaluation • Rogers highlighted the importance of self-esteem. • Development of client-centred therapy. • It is difficult to evaluate the theory since it is more philosophical and less concrete. • Unconscious processes were not systematically explored. • Little evidence for the search of self-actualisation.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Self- Actualization Esteem Belongingness and Love Safety Physiological
Maslow • People have two basic sets of needs that are rooted in their biology: • deficiency or basic needs • growth or meta needs. • B-cognition state - these are non-judgemental, self-validating, nonstriving and temporary. • D-cognition experiences - judging, condemning, and approving and disapproving of ourselves and others. • Few individuals reach self-actualisation. • Characteristics include - tolerance of others, spontaneity, a life mission, detachment, avoidance of fashions, peak experience • B-cognition is not permanent - D-cognition is necessary for survival.
Theory • People have a tendency towards personal development, emphasis on potential for and striving towards growth and fulfilment. • There is a trend towards self-fulfilment or self-actualisation across the lifespan. • Little evidence.
Behavioural/Social-Cognitive Approaches Bandura’s triadic reciprocal determinism. • Cognitive (and other individual factors) • Behaviour • Environment
Various causal models of the determinants of behaviour. Based on Bandura (1999)
Albert Bandura • Triadic reciprocal causation • personal factors, the environment, and behaviour all influence each other. • Observational learning • modelling is learning by observing someone else’s behaviour • vicarious reinforcement • when someone observes another person’s behaviour being rewarded or punished.
Evidence • Bandura et al. (1963) • children were much more likely to imitate the behaviour of a model when the model’s behaviour was rewarded than when it was punished.
Evaluation • Observational learning and vicarious reinforcement are both important phenomena. • Observational learning helps us to understand individual differences. • Other factors may influence learning such as genetics. • It is hard to decide whether the observer’s behaviour embodies the same rule as the model’s behaviour or is it just mimicry?
Self-efficacy • Bandura (1977) • the ability to cope with a particular task or situation and achieve the desired outcome • an individual’s sense of self-efficacy in any given situation is determined by four factors • the individual’s previous experiences in that situation • relevant vicarious experiences • verbal or social persuasion • emotional arousal.
Evidence • Dzewaltowski (1989) • self-efficacy measures predicted success in an exercise programme. • Dennis and Goldberg (1996) • self-efficacy played a major role in successful weight loss. • Stajkovic and Luthans (1998) • self-efficacy strongly associated with work-related performance. • Caprara et al. (1998) • the amount of self-efficacy predicted academic achievement, but the Big Five factors did not.
Evaluation • Self-efficacy and performance are strongly associated. • Self-efficacy plays an important role in motivation. • Self-efficacy ignores unconscious motivation. • It is difficult to infer causality between self-efficacy and performance.
Self-regulation • Bandura (1986) • the use of one’s cognitive processes to regulate and control one’s own behaviour • the use of self award if a given standard is achieved • the processes involved • self-observation • judgemental processes • self-reaction.
Evidence • Kitsantas (2000) • people using self-regulation strategies generally perform better than those who make less use of such strategies • overweight students who didn’t lose weight used fewer self-regulation strategies than than those who did lose weight • overweight students who didn’t lose weight also had lower levels of self efficacy • see next slide.
Trait Approaches to Personality • Early trait approach Galen perceived temperament as melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic and sanguine. • Suggests that a number of traits are basic to personality • Typically assessed by questionnaire. • Trait measures prove to be one of the most reliable and stable instruments in psychology.
Factor Analysis • Uses information about the correlations of items from questionnaires or other measures. • If items correlate highly with each other • it is assumed that they measure the same factor or trait. • Criticisms – real factors or statistical artifacts
Allport • “Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behaviour and thought”. • Allport’s (1937) trait theory aimed to synthesise a nomothetic, explanatory theory of common traits with an idiographic account of individual traits. He saw personality as unified, as constantly evolving and changing, and as caused by forces within the person. Although situational influences have an effect it is the individual’s own perception of these forces that determines his or her behaviour. • Allport’s view of personality emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual and the internal cognitive and motivational process that influence behaviour.
Cattell's 16 factor theory • One step towards a taxonomy of personality traits grew out of an examination of the language used to describe personality attributes (Allport and Odbert, 1936). • Advocates of this procedure argue that the adjectives we use to describe people embody the accumulated observations of many previous generations. A systematic sifting of such trait adjectives night therefore give clues about individual differences. • This line of reasoning led to the development of a widely used personality inventory by Raymond Cattell (1957).
Cattell’s Trait Theory • Fundamental lexical hypothesis • any major language will contain words describing all the main personality traits • BUT which adjectives will describe personality? • Allport and Odbert (1936) found over 4,500 words in the dictionary of relevance to personality. • Adjectives in themselves can mean different things depending on context how can they be used to describe personality?
Cattell 16PF • Cattell (1946) • Believed that all scientific advances depend on exact measurement • reduced adjectives to 16 source traits by using the technique of factor analysis • Formed the Cattell 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire. • 16PF has a massive popularity. • However the 16 factors have not been replicated • Barrett and Kline (1982) • obtained between seven and nine factors • these factors generally did not relate closely to those proposed by Cattell.
Sample items from the 16PF • I would rather work as: • An engineer • A social science teacher • I could stand being a hermit • True • False • I am careful to turn up when someone expects me • True • False • I would prefer to marry someone who is • A thoughtful companion • Effective in a social group • I would prefer to read a book on: • National social service • New scientific weapons • I trust strangers • Sometimes • Practically always
Evaluation • Cattell’s method a suitable way of identifying traits. • Cattell’s method thorough and systematic. • The approach is lacking in theory • Difficulty with replications • Cattell's scheme involves narrow traits. • It is possible to reduce Cattell's factors down - and they may interestingly be reduced to five.
