psychology

•Want to be/look like someone else

•Always worrying what others might think

•Pessimism

Ideal Self (what you'd like to be)

3. The Gender

Definition: Gender refers to the behavioral, cultural, and psychological traits typically associated with one sex.

Gender identity is how someone feels about their gender assignment.

Theories of Gender Development

The psychoanalytic approach

Freud‘s Work:

 Psychoanalytic perspective has viewed gender, sex, and sexuality in an essentialist light

Freud‘s psychoanalytic perspective has been ―popularized‖ and has become part of our social consciousness

Structuralist—mind has an inherent structure (id, ego, superego; unconscious, preconscious, conscious)

―Instincts‖ drive our personalities—life/sexual and death/aggressive Psychosexual stages ―track‖ our development

•Oral

•Anal

•Phallic

•Latent

•Genital

Cognitive Developmental Theory

Lawrence Kohlberg (1966, 1969) suggested that children had made a cognitive judgment about their gender identity before they selected same sex models for sex typed behaviors.

The three stages of Kohlberg's Cognitives-Developmental Theory

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Basic gender identity. The child knows that he or she is a male or a female, but the child fails to realize that gender is a constant attribute. Most three year olds had reached this stage.

Gender stability. The child knows that their gender is stable over time. A child in this stage knows that boys will grow up to be men and that girls will grow up to be women.

Gender consistency. The child knows a person gender stay the same regardless of changes in the person's activities or appearance. For example, A 6 or 7 year old who had reached this stage knows a person gender stay the same when a person dress up like a member of the other sex or when a person does cross-sex activities.

Definition: Gender schema theory refers to the theory that children learn about what it means to be male and female from the culture in which they live. According to this theory, children adjust their behavior to fit in with the gender norms and expectations of their culture.

Social Learning Theory of Gender

Social learning theoryconcerning gender involves how both males and females learn behavior and inherent cultural roles regarding their gender. Although not a complete list, essential components influencing this social learning include observational learning, labeling theory, cultural influences, social control theory-and-mass media's influences and the socialization process.

Observational Learning a component of social learning theory, involves learning by watching, observing and being aware of the actions and behaviors of others.

Labeling theory is a component of social learning influencing a person's behavior and identity. ("men are better at math and women are better at English" )

CulturalInfluences

Social learning theory pertaining to gender involves cultural influences-- shared values, customs and belief systems a community upholds specific to expectations in how males or females are supposed to act.

Social control theory pertaining to gender involves influences from the mass media.

Socialization involves a person assimilating and assuming collectively shared values, habits and norms specific to a family, community or an entire society.

Questions:

1.What is Freud‘s psychosexual theory? How adequate is it as an account of personality development?

2.Define self-concept. Describe some of the factors involved in its development during childhood.

3.How do individuals with high self esteem differ from those with low selfesteem?

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4. Describe some of the differences in self-concept between members of individualistic and collectivistic cultures.

Practical Task Exercise 1 Pattern Recognition

You can almost trace the history of psychology by looking for changes in the way the field has viewed individuality and differences between peoples and groups of people. At times, psychology has assumed that we are a blank state$ that everything we are and know is a result of our experience. At other times, science works with the assumption that we are a product of our traits and inherited features and that experience makes no significant modification to our personality. Most of the time the truth lies somewhere in between.As these views work their way into the common culture, they influence everything from literature to educational practices. Below are some clichés and popular sayings. Evaluate each one, deciding which represent the assumption that life history determines who we are (nurture) and which assume that we are shaped by our heredity (nature).

―Sugar and spice and everything nice, that‘s what little girls are made of…‖ ―Handsome is as handsome does‖

―Like father, like son‖

―You can‘t teach an old dog new tricks‖

―Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise‖ ―Boys will be boys‖

―You are what you eat‖ ―Blood will tell‖

―All men are created equal‖

Can you think of your own examples?

Literature:

Gonic, L.&Wheelis, M. (1991). The Cartoon Guide to Genetics. New York: HarperPerennial.

Hayes, N. (1993). A First Cource in Psychology. London: Nelson.

Beal, A. & Sternberg, R.J. (1993). The Psychology of Gender. London: Guildford Press.

Burr, V. & Butt, T. (1992).Invintation to Personal Conctruct Psychology. London: Whurr.

Eysenk, H. (1985). Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Fransella, F. (1981). Personality: Theory, Measurement, and Practice. London: Methuen.

Mischel, W. (1986). Introduction to Personality: a New Look. New York: CBS.

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Theme 5: Theories of personality

Content

1.Three main schools of psychological theories of personality.

2.Zone of Proximal Development

3.Trait Theory of Personality

4.Eysenck‘s Three Dimensions of Personality.

5.Humanistic school

1.Personality theories in general have tended to arise as a result of psychologists being involved in clinical work, dealing with people who have psychological problems of one kind or another. There are roughly three main schools of psychological theories of personality.

1) These are thepsychoanalytic schoolof Sigmund Freud and his followers; 2) the psychometric school, of whom perhaps the most well-known is Hans Eysensk;

3) andthe humanistic school, involving the theories put forward by Carl Rodgers and other psychologists with a similar approach.

2.The work of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) has become the foundation of much research and theory in cognitive development over the past several decades, particularly of what has become known as Social Development Theory.

Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition Vygotsky, 1978), as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning."

According to Vygotsky (1978), much important learning by the child occurs through social interaction with a skillful tutor. The tutor may model behaviors and/or provide verbal instructions for the child. Vygotsky refers to this as cooperative or collaborative dialogue. The child seeks to understand the actions or instructions provided by the tutor (often the parent or teacher) then internalizes the information, using it to guide or regulate their own performance.

The concept of the More Knowledgeable Other is integrally related to the second important principle of Vygotsky's work, the Zone of Proximal Development.

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This is an important concept that relates to the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner.

For example, the child could not solve the jigsaw puzzle (in the example above) by itself and would have taken a long time to do so (if at all), but was able to solve it following interaction with the father, and has developed competence at this skill that will be applied to future jigsaws.

Vygotsky (1978) sees the Zone of Proximal Development as the area where the most sensitive instruction or guidance should be given - allowing the child to develop skills they will then use on their own - developing higher mental functions.

Vygotsky also views interaction with peers as an effective way of developing skills and strategies. He suggests that teachers use cooperative learning exercises where less competent children develop with help from more skillful peers - within the zone of proximal development.

3. Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory

In 1936, psychologist Gordon Allport found that one English-language dictionary alone contained more than 4,000 words describing different personality traits.1 He categorized these traits into three levels:

Cardinal Traits: Traits that dominate an individual‘s whole life, often to the point that the person becomes known specifically for these traits. People with such personalities often become so known for these traits that their names are often synonymous with these qualities.

Central Traits: These are the general characteristics that form the basic foundations of personality. These central traits, while not as dominating as cardinal traits, are the major characteristics you might use to describe another person. Terms such as intelligent, honest, shy and anxious are considered central traits.

Secondary Traits: These are the traits that are sometimes related to attitudes or preferences and often appear only in certain situations or under specific circumstances. Some examples would be getting anxious when speaking to a group or impatient while waiting in line.

3. Temperament

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, in psychology, temperament is the aspect of personality concerned with emotional dispositions and reactions and their speed and intensity; the term often is used to refer to the prevailing mood or mood pattern of a person. The notion of temperament in this sense originated with Galen who developed it from an earlier physiological theory of four basic body fluids (humours): blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. According to their relative predominance in the individual, they were supposed to produce, respectively, temperaments designated sanguine (warm, pleasant), phlegmatic (slow-moving, apathetic), melancholic (depressed, sad), and choleric (quick to react, hot tempered).

Eysenck’s Three Dimensions of Personality.

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British psychologist Hans Eysenck developed a model of personality based upon just three universal trails:

Introversion/Extraversion:

Introversion involves directing attention on inner experiences, while extraversion relates to focusing attention outward on other people and the environment. So, a person high in introversion might be quiet and reserved, while an individual high in extraversion might be sociable and outgoing.

Neuroticism/Emotional Stability: This dimension of Eysenck‘s trait theory is related to moodiness versus even-temperedness. Neuroticism refers to an individual‘s tendency to become upset or emotional, while stability refers to the tendency to remain emotionally constant.

Psychoticism:

Later, after studying individuals suffering from mental illness, Eysenck added a personality dimension he called psychoticism to his trait theory. Individuals who are high on this trait tend to have difficulty dealing with reality and may be antisocial, hostile, non-empathetic and manipulative.

5.The humanistic school

Humanistic psychology was instead focused on each individual's potential and stressed the importance of growth and self-actualization. The fundamental belief of humanistic psychology is that people are innately good and that mental and social problems result from deviations from this natural tendency.

Rogers believed that every person could achieve their goals wishes, and desires in life. When they did so self-actualization took place. For Rogers (1961) people who are able be self-actualize, and that is not all of us, are called fully functioning persons. This means that the person is in touch with the here and now, his or her subjective experiences and feelings, continually growing and changing.

In many ways Rogers regarded the fully functioning person as an ideal and one that people do not ultimately achieve.

It is wrong to think of this as an end or completion of life‘s journey; rather it is a process of always becoming and changing.

Rogers identified five characteristics of the fully functioning person:

1.Open to experience: both positive and negative emotions accepted. Negative feelings are not denied, but worked through (rather than resort to ego defence mechanisms).

2.Existential living: in touch with different experiences as they occur in life, avoiding prejudging and preconceptions. Being able to live and fully appreciate the present, not always looking back to the past or forward to the future (i.e. living for the moment).

3.Trust feelings: feeling, instincts and gut-reactions are paid attention to and trusted. People‘s own decisions are the right ones and we should trust ourselves to make the right choices.

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4.Creativity: creative thinking and risk taking are features of a person‘s life. Person does not play safe all the time. This involves the ability to adjust and change and seek new experiences.

5.Fulfilled life: person is happy and satisfied with life, and always looking for new challenges and experiences.

For Rogers, fully functioning people are well adjusted, well balanced and interesting to know. Often such people are high achievers in society. Critics claim that the fully functioning person is a product of Western culture. In other cultures, such as Eastern cultures, the achievement of the group is valued more highly than the achievement of any one person.

Questions

1.Describe the humanistic approach. What are its strengths and weakness?

2.What is Kelly‘s personal construct theory? Evaluate its usefulness.

3.Describe two trait theories of personality. What do the have in common? How do they differ?

Practical Task

1.Put one of the following words into its correct place in the passage below.

Social learning theory is a mix of various (1)….. to psychology. Because it develop out of (2)…., it tends to be highly empirical and (3)… on detailed observation. However, unlike Skinner and many other behaviorist, Bandura and his colleagues place considerable (4)…. on mental processes.

Like the behaviorists, Bandura sees reinforcement as being essential for human behaviors, but he does not see reinforcement as being the only (5)….. of the development of these behaviors in the first place. He developed from his laboratory studies the idea of observational (6)….. We can learn by observing the consequences of others‘ behavior and by imitating them (7)… reinforcement is not only determinant of behavior .We also (8)…. our performance according to our internal standards.We constantly (9) ….and (10)… our behavior in order to see how well we (11)…. with situations in life according to our standards.

According to Bandura we do not do that because we need to maintain control of our own internal processes and of the (12)….

2. There are some aspects of our self which are known or unknown to us and known and unknown to others. Fill in the gaps in the sentences with the words given in the Jonhari Window.

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1.When we meet, my age, sex and so on are in the _________ Pane of the Window, as they are known to both of us.

2.In the__________ Pane are those things I know about, but I don‘t want you to know about – maybe my irrational fear of heights etc.

3.In the ________ Pane are those aspects of my self that I don‘t know about, but you do – for example, that I am quick-tempered, noisy and etc.

4.In the_________ pane are my characteristics which neither of us know about – for example a history of childhood sexual abuse, which I have so successfully repressed that I have no memory of it.

Literature:

Gonic, L.&Wheelis, M. (1991). The Cartoon Guide to Genetics. New York: HarperPerennial.

Hayes, N. (1993). A First Cource in Psychology. London: Nelson.

Beal, A. & Sternberg, R.J. (1993). The Psychology of Gender. London: Guildford Press.

Burr, V. & Butt, T. (1992).Invintation to Personal Conctruct Psychology. London: Whurr.

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Theme 7: Personality and student group psychology

Content:

1.Definition of Group and Social Facilitation

2.Group Development. Cohesion.

3.Roles and Small Group Communication

1.Groups

In sociological terms, a group is any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who regularly and consciously interact. Groups play a vital part in a society‘s social structure. Much of our social interaction takes place within groups and is influenced by their norms and sanctions.

Group is:

•two or more people who share a common definition and evaluation of

themselves and behave in accordance with such a definition (Vaughan & Hogg, 2002, p. 200)

•a collection of people who interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members and who share a common identity.

•A group is two or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other person (Shaw 1971).

For a collection of people to be defined as a group, the members must:

interact with one another

be socially attracted to each other

share goals or objectives

have a shared identity which distinguishes them from other groups

Criteria for a group include:

•formalsocialstructure

•face-to-faceinteraction

•2 ormorepersons

•commonfate

•commongoals

•interdependence

•self-definitionasgroupmembers

•recognitionbyothers

•Societies can be seen as large groups consisting of a myriad of subgroups.

Social Facilitation:

Norman Triplett, way back in 1898, noticed that people in bicycle races went faster when they were competing against each other directly than when they were racing individually (e.g., an individual time trial).

•This observation was the basis for social facilitation, which states that people perform certain tasks better when they are in the presence of other people.

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• This is true for simple tasks, tasks people are good at already, or already learned tasks, but not for difficult or novel tasks.

2. Group development

The development of a group normally goes through the following stages

(Tuckman 1965):

•Forming - the group gets together and a level of formality is common

•Storming- heightened tension associated with competition for status and influence

•Norming - rules and standards of behavior are agreed

•Performing - group matures to a point where it is able to work together as a team

Cohesion

This is the extent to which members of a group exhibit a desire to achieve common goals and group identity.

Research (Townsend 1968 tends to support the view that high interaction teams need high task cohesion to be consistently successful, whereas for moderate or low interaction teams cohesion is less important to success.

Carron (1980) defined a cohesive group as having the following characteristics:

•a collective identity

•a sense of shared purpose

•structured patterns of communication

Loafing is the tendency for individuals to lessen their effort when they are part of a group - also known as Ringelmann effect (Kravitz 1986. Causes of loafing in a team have been attributed to individuals:

1.perceiving others to be working less hard than themselves thereby giving them an excuse to put in less effort

2.believing that their own efforts will have little effect on the outcome

3.disliking hard work and assuming that their lack of effort will not be noticed

4.feeling "off form" and believing team mates will cover for their lack of

effort

Group Interaction

Group interaction means collaborating effectively with others. Groups are often able to achieve more than individuals in time, expertise, and learning. Effective group interaction means that students should be able to:

1.Create shared understanding and expectations.

2.Understand and choose roles and tasks.

3.Make decisions and track progress collaboratively.

4.Negotiate consensus, compromise and conflict.

3 Roles and Small Group Communication

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