PSYA02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Behaviorism, Determinism, Serotonin Transporter
PSYA02 Lecture 2: Personality Traits over the lifespan
- Temperaments: Represent a natural biological foundations upon which personality is
built
o Research shows stability in our personalities over time
▪ Infant studies showed that infants possess different temperaments right
from birth
• They display temperamental differences in activity levels, mood,
attention span and distractibility all based on their genes
• Infant temperaments predict adult personality traits of
neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness
- Is Personality Stable Over Time?
o Numerous behavioural and biological factors make personality stable over time
▪ Personality traits leading to behaviours that receive positive
reinforcement are more likely to become stable characteristics of the
person
• Eg high conscientious ppl are very organized and thus more likely
to get good grades. As they experience this, they are more likely
to remain highly conscientious over time
▪ Neurons that fire together wire together
• The more ppl to a certain skill, the more their brains are trained to
be good at that skill
• Eg ppl that practise being open minded train their brains to
function in that way
o Research shows personality is most stable over 50 and least stable for uoung
children
o Research also shows personality can change, mainly in adolescence and early
adulthood
▪ One likely explanation is that our environments change over time as well
as the roles we play in those environments
- Personality Traits and States
o State: Temporary physical or psychological engagement that influences
behaviour
▪ Eg your calm friend curses at other drivers bc he is upset with his bad gpa
▪ Ppl that seem highly consistent in their personalities will not behave the
same way across all situations
▪ We generally understand that traits and states work together
• Traits desrie a perso’s geeral persoality tedeies
• States describe what person is like in a specific scenario
o There are 4 general aspects of situations most likely to influence our behaviour
▪ 1: Location (home, school, work etc)
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Document Summary
Psya02 lecture 2: personality traits over the lifespan. Temperaments: represent a natural biological foundations upon which personality is built: research shows stability in our personalities over time. Infant studies showed that infants possess different temperaments right from birth: they display temperamental differences in activity levels, mood, attention span and distractibility all based on their genes. Infant temperaments predict adult personality traits of neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness. Behaviourist perspective: behaviourist would note identifiable patterns of behaviour and then try to find out how that behaviour was caused by specific environmental condition. Skinner believed personality is a description of the response tendencies that occur in different situations. Focus on how past experiences predict future behaviours. Social-cog(cid:374)iti(cid:448)e perspe(cid:272)ti(cid:448)e: fo(cid:272)used o(cid:374) (cid:272)og(cid:374)itio(cid:374) a(cid:374)d a perso(cid:374)"s i(cid:374)(cid:374)er su(cid:271)je(cid:272)ti(cid:448)e interpretation of circumstances. Ppl actively extract meaning out of their circumstances and then make choices to behave in ways that affect those circumstances.
