PSG 584 [PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGY]

LECTURE THREE: PERSONALITY AND MOTIVATION

Objective of study

At the end of the study students should be able to describe the followings:

1. Definition of personality traits

2. Types of traits
3. Origin of personality
4. Trait changes
5. Key Principles in personality research

What Are Personality Traits?

Traits are typically defined as the different characteristics that make up an

individual's personality.

A set of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive tendencies that people display over time and across
situations and that distinguish individuals from one another.

•TRAITS (constant, continuum)

•STATES (temporary)
•SITUATIONS (contexts)

Trait theory

Suggests that our personalities are made up of a number of different broad traits. For example,
extroversion (often known as extraversion) is a personality dimension that describes how people
interact with the world. Some people are very extroverted (or extraverted) and outgoing, for
example, while others are more introverted and reserved.

Until fairly recently, it was believed that personality traits changed very little over the course of
a lifetime.

Some newer longitudinal studies have revealed that traits are a bit more nuanced than
previously believed and that some personality changes can and do occur over time.

Types of Traits

What would you say if someone asked you to list the personality traits that best describe you?
You might rattle off a variety of traits such as kind, aggressive, polite, shy, outgoing, or ambitious.
If you were to make a list of every personality trait, it would probably include hundreds or even
thousands of different terms used to describe different aspects of personality.

Psychologist Gordon Allport once created a list of personality traits that included more than 4,000
terms.

The question of how many personality traits exist? has been the subject of debate throughout
much of psychology's history, but many psychologists today rely on what is known as the

Big five model of personality.

According to the big five model, personality is composed of five broad dimensions. Individual
personalities may be either high, low, or somewhere in between on each of the five core traits.

The five traits that make up personality are (OCEAN):

i. Agreeableness: trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors

ii. Conscientiousness: high levels of thoughtfulness, good impulse control, and goal-directed
behaviors
iii. Extroversion: sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness, and excitability
iv. Neuroticism: sadness, moodiness, emotional instability, worries about many different
things
v. Openness: creative, open to trying new things, happy to think about abstract concepts

Most of the characteristics you might use to describe your own personality fall under one of
these broad headings. Personality traits such as shy, outgoing, friendly, and sociable are aspects
of extroversion while traits such as kind, thoughtful, organized, and ambitious would be part of
the conscientiousness spectrum.

Tabular summary of Big Five Personality Dimensions

Big Five Dimensions Facet (and correlated trait

adjective)
O Openness versus closeness to experience Ideas (curious)
Fantasy (imaginative)
Aesthetics (artistic)
Actions (wide interests)
Feelings (excitable)
Values (unconventional)
C Conscientiousness versus lack of Competence (efficient)
 direction Order (organized)
Dutifulness (not careless)
Achievement striving
(thorough)
Self-discipline (not lazy)
Deliberation (not impulsive)
E Extraversion versus introversion Gregariousness (sociable)
Assertiveness (forceful)
Activity (energetic)
Excitement-seeking
(adventurous)
Warmth (outgoing)
A Agreeableness versus antagonism Trust (forgiving)
Straightforwardness (not
demanding)
Altruism (warm)
Compliance (not stubborn)
Modesty (not show-off)
Tender-mindedness
(sympathetic)
N Neuroticism versus emotional stability Anxiety (tense)
Angry hostility (irritable)
Depression (not contented)
Self-consciousness (shy)
Impulsiveness (moody)
Vulnerability (not self-
confident)

Genes vs. Environmental effect on personality

What matters more when it comes to personality?

NATURE OR NURTURE?

Just how much does your DNA influence your personality? Researchers have spent decades
studying family, twins, adopted children and foster families to better understand how much of
personality is genetic and how much is environmental.

Both nature and nurture can play a role in personality, although a number of large-scale twin
studies suggest that there is a strong genetic component.
One study, the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, studied 350 pairs of twins between 1979
and 1999. Participants included both identical and fraternal twins who were either raised
together or apart. Results revealed that personalities of identical twins were similar whether
they were raised in the same household or apart, suggesting that some aspects of personality
are influenced by genetics.

This certainly does not mean that the environment does not play a role in shaping personality.
Twin studies suggest that identical twins share approximately 50% of the same traits, while
fraternal twins share only about 20%.

Personality traits are complex and research suggests that our traits are shaped by both
inheritance and environmental factors. These two forces interact in a wide variety of ways to
form our individual personalities.

Personality Trait Changes

When it comes to some of the broad, dominant traits, change tends to be difficult. When it does
occur, these changes tend to be very subtle.

A very extroverted person, for example, might become somewhat more reserved over time. This
does not mean that they will transform into an introvert. It simply means that a subtle shift has
occurred and the person's extroversion has been slightly modified. The individual is still outgoing
and gregarious, but they might find that they also enjoy solitude or more quiet settings on
occasion.

An introvert, on the other hand, may find themselves becoming somewhat more extroverted as
they grow older. This does not mean that the individual suddenly develops a desire to be the
center of attention or to spend every Friday night at a large party. However, this person may find
that they begin to enjoy social events a bit more and feel less exhausted and drained after they
spend time socializing.

In both of these examples, the individual's core personality trait has not changed altogether.
Instead, changes over time, often the result of experiences, have led to subtle shifts in these
central traits.

Key Research Principles

Roberts and his colleagues describe a few basic principles that have been derived from
personality research:
 Identity development principle: People develop a stronger identity as they age and
maturity brings a greater commitment to and maintenance of this sense of self. During
the younger years of life, people are still exploring different roles and identities. As people
age, they begin to feel stronger loyalty to the identity they have forged over the course of
their life.
 Maturity principle: People tend to become more agreeable, emotionally stable, and
socially dominant as they grow older.
 Plasticity principle: While personality traits tend to be stable, they are not set in stone.
They are subject to environmental influences at any stage of life.
 Role continuity principle: It is the consistency of roles that leads to continuity in
personality traits rather than consistency in environments.
Brain regions in which local volume was significantly associated with (a) Extraversion, (b)
Conscientiousness, (c) Neuroticism, and (d) Agreeableness
Motivation and Emotion

Defining Motivation

Motivation is the urge to move toward one’s goals, whatever they may be. It provides an
energetic push toward accomplishing tasks, such as getting dinner, getting rich, and getting lucky.
Motivation encompasses needs, drives, and motivated behavior. Motives involve anything that
energizes or directs behavior.
Needs are states of cellular or bodily deficiency that compel drives. These are what your body
seeks. For example, the need of water, food and oxygen.
Drives are the perceived states of tension that occur when our bodies are deficient in some need
and creating an urge to relieve the tension.
An incentive is any external object or event that motives behavior.

Models of Motivation
Psychologists propose many explanations for motivation. Some models of motivation
focus more on internal drives, some more on external incentives and others on both.

The Evolutionary Model - This theory looks at internal drives to explain why people do what they
do. Biologically speaking, the purpose of any living organism is to perpetuate itself. The
processes of natural and sexual selection have shaped motivation over time to make all animals,
including humans, want those things that help them survive and reproduce.

The Drive Reduction Model - to drive reduction is the idea of maintaining

physiological balance or the homeostasis. The term implies that all organisms are
motivated to maintain physiological equilibrium around an optimal set point, defined as the
ideal, fixed setting of a particular physiological system

The Hierarchical Model

Another model of motivation, which combines drives and incentives, is Abraham
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. The essence of this is simple: Needs range from the most basic
physiological necessities to the highest, most physiological needs for growth and fulfillment. As
seen in the figure, there are five levels; at the top level is the self-actualization,
defined as the full realization of one’s potentials and abilities in life.

Motivation in the workplace - Motivation to work comes in three kinds: extrinsic

motivators, intrinsic motivators, and organizational support. Extrinsic Motivation comes from
outside the person and usually involves rewards, money, positive feedback and praises. Intrinsic
motivation happens when you want to do something simply because of pleasure, joy, challenge,
and autonomy. Organizational support is a belief that the company cares about you and
your well-being.

Drive
Hunger, Sex, Pain

Hunger: Survival of the Individual

Hunger - is a basic drive that ensures that we take in sufficient nutrition to survive.
Internal signals of hunger include sensations of the stomach and blood glucose levels, both of
which are coordinated by sensors in the brain; external signals for hunger include the sight and
smell of food as well as culturally influenced preferences.
Eating disorders are complex and dangerous outcomes of a culture obsessed with thinness. At
the same time, rates of obesity have increased dramatically over the last 50 years.

Sex: Survival of the Species

Without food, we would starve to death. Without sex, individuals would not die, but if everyone
went without sex, our species would die.
Sexual behavior defined as actions that produce arousal and increase the likelihood of orgasm.
Sexual desire results from complex interplay of both biological and social force.
The hypothalamus plays an important role in sexual arousal.

Defining Emotion
Emotions are brief, acute changes in conscious experience and physiology that occur in response
to a personally meaningful situation. Emotions emerge from our interactions with the world
around us. They are triggered by situations that are relevant to our personal goals, physical safety
or well-being.
Emotion regulation is an umbrella term for anything we do to try to change or otherwise
manipulate the emotions we experience.

Theories of Emotion
The James-Lange Theory of Emotion - The James-Lange theory is one of the best-known
examples of a physiological theory of emotion. Independently proposed by psychologist William
James and physiologist Carl Lange, the James-Lange theory of emotion suggests that emotions
occur as a result of physiological reactions to events. According to this theory, you see an
external stimulus that leads to a physiological reaction. Your emotional reaction is dependent
upon how you interpret those physical reactions.

The Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion - Another well-known physiological theory is the Cannon-
Bard theory of emotion. This theory states that we feel emotions and experience physiological
reactions such as sweating, trembling and muscle tension simultaneously. More specifically, it is
suggested that emotions result when the thalamus sends a message to the brain in response to a
stimulus, resulting in a physiological reaction.

Schachter-Singer Theory - Also known as the two-factor theory of emotion, the Schachter-Singer
Theory is an example of a cognitive theory of emotion. This theory suggests that the
physiological arousal occurs first, and then the individual must identify the reason behind this
arousal in order to experience and label it as an emotion.
Neurocultural Theory of Emotion - Ekman’s explanation that some aspects of emotion, such as
facial expressions and physiological changes associated with emotion, are universal and others,
such as emotion regulation are culturally derived.
Stress
Stress results when we appraise the demands of a situation as exceeding our ability to cope with
or manage those demands. Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel
threatened or upset your balance in some way.
Researchers often define stress in terms of events or our physiological responses to certain
events.

Assignment
Write a term paper on
i. Varieties of Mind-body Dualism
ii. Varieties of Mind-Body Materialism