2017 Personality 01: Introduction

课程介绍

这一部分介绍了课程的基本信息和教材。

课程摘要和教材

• 讲师会在下课之前再次给出网址，学生可以在上面找到课程摘要。

• 课程摘要包含了学生需要知道的全部信息。

• 教科书是一本旧书，但其中包含了很多我们将会讲到的理论。

• 教科书编选了很多书籍里的重点篇章，非常适合作为阅读材料。

人格与其定义

这一部分探讨了人格的定义以及人格研究的困难性。

定义人格

• 探讨人类相关话题时，区分开人格与其他方面并不简单。

• 因此，从几个角度来切入讨论人格是比较好的方式。

研究人格

• 由于人类极其复杂，因此有关人格的研究是大胆、无望又复杂的。

• 人类大脑里神经连接模式的数量比全宇宙的亚原子粒子数还要多，因此了解自己的概率非常低。

• 尽管如此，学习不同理论学家的观点仍然有意义，因为他们之间存在共同点。

理论学家与其观点

这一部分介绍了不同理论学家及其观点。

不同理论学家

• 学习不同理论学家和他们的思想是有意义的。

• 尽管这些理论学家之间有相似之处，但他们的理论还是非常不同的。

理论观点

• 由于人格研究尚未达到一个毫无争议的统一理论，因此我们需要从多个角度来探讨人格。

• 人格学本来就是一个多领域的学科，既包含科学又包含工程。

理论学家的挑战

这部分讲述了临床理论学家所面临的挑战，他们试图构建和治愈精神疾病，但由于精神健康与否是社会审判和道德判断领域的一部分，因此科学并不能很好地定义精神疾病。

构建事物

• 理论学家试图构建事物。

• 他们依据理论将想法付之于行动。

• 大多数初期理论家都是临床理论家。

治愈精神疾病

• 理论学家试图治愈精神疾病或不幸福。

• 定义精神疾病从科学角度来看并不简单，因为它涉及到社会审判和道德判断领域。

道德判断领域

• 健康状态既属于社会审判又属于道德判断领域。

• 理想状态更属于道德判断领域或哲学层面的判断，而不是科学判断的范畴。

探索人类灵魂

这部分讲述了在探索这门课时，应该将自己想像成人类灵魂的工程师。我们同时塑造自己和他人的人格，并一同努力想要达成和创造什么。

人类灵魂的工程师

• 探索这门课时，应该将自己想像成人类灵魂的工程师。

• 要成为他人灵魂的工程师，需要与他们交流并传达你想要和不想要的东西。

塑造个性

• 我们同时塑造自己和他人的个性。

• 我们共同努力想要达成和创造什么。

达不到理想后失败感

这部分讲述了每个人都曾经体会过达不到理想后的失败感，以及弗洛伊德如何将其概念化为超我对本我的审判。

达不到理想后的失败感

• 每个人都曾经体会过达不到理想后的失败感。

超我对本我的审判

• 弗洛伊德将其概念化为超我对本我的审判。

The Second Half of the Class

This section focuses on the second half of the class, which concentrates more on physiology.

Conscientiousness and Grades

• Conscientiousness is correlated with grades at about 0.4, making it the second-best predictor after intelligence.

• Conscientious people are industrious and orderly, which makes them schedule their time efficiently.

Industriousness

• There is no laboratory measure that shows industrious people perform better than others.

• There are no animal models of industriousness either. It remains a mystery in trait psychology whether it's a human-specific category or not.

Strategies for Success

• Students should come up with a plan of attack for the course and use a scheduler to treat their university career like a full-time job to succeed.

• Using Google Calendar or something similar to organize a schedule for the entire semester at the beginning can be invaluable, especially if you're not very industrious.

• People who are industrious come up with a strategy for solving problems ahead of them and stick to it as much as possible.

Effective Studying Techniques

• Cramming for 10 hours before an exam is ineffective because people rarely study for that long, and it's hard to concentrate intensely for such prolonged periods.

• Spacing out studying sessions by sleeping between them helps remember material better than cramming.

• Practicing remembering by summarizing what you've read without opening the book helps with recall memory more than just going over things repeatedly.

The Importance of Family in Clinical Psychology

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of analyzing a client's family dynamics when diagnosing and treating mental health issues.

Family Dynamics and Mental Health

• Clients may exhibit symptoms of anxiety or depression due to their family dynamics.

• It is important to analyze how a client is embedded in their family to understand the root cause of their mental health issues.

• Families can be both a source of support and a source of pathology for individuals.

• Sometimes, the fundamental problem with a client is not the client themselves but rather their family dynamics.

Freudian Theory and Independence

• According to Freudian theory, part of positive psychological development involves becoming an independent individual free from interfering elements of the family.

• The creation of an independent individual capable of acting independently is an implicit ideal that underlies clinical presuppositions across classic psychologists.

Hero Story and Psychoanalytic Theory

• Psychoanalytic theory suggests that individuals learn through voluntary contact with what frightens or disgusts them.

• This process involves encountering forgotten or repressed elements of oneself in order to redeem them and become stronger as a result.

• This process is similar to how human beings learn - by recognizing where they are wrong.

The Importance of Getting What You Want

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the importance of getting what you want and how it validates your model of how to act.

Validating Your Model of How to Act

• Getting what you want indicates no error on the part of your model.

• When you don't get what you want, it suggests that there is something wrong with the way you are construing the world.

• Making a mistake can lead to negative emotions and confusion.

Journey into the Belly of the Beast

• Making an error requires facing negative emotions and confusion.

• This is like a journey into the belly of the beast, where things have fallen apart.

• The hero is someone who makes a voluntary journey to collect what's been languishing down there.

The Motif in Psychoanalytic Theory

In this section, Dr. Peterson talks about how psychoanalytic theory uses the motif of making a journey to collect what's been languishing down there.

Clinical Practice

• Finding out what people are afraid of and avoiding is part of clinical practice.

• Breaking it down into smaller pieces helps them devise strategies for approach and mastery.

• This improves their personality and helps them avoid making mistakes repeatedly.

Building Better People

• Being a personality psychologist is like being an engineer trying to build better people.

• Having more tools at your disposal increases your ability to manage things properly.

Developing Yourself as a Person

In this section, Dr. Peterson emphasizes the importance of developing your character and personality to succeed in life.

Understanding Yourself and Others

• Your character and personality are crucial to your success in life.

• The more sophisticated you are in relationship to yourself and others, the more likely it is that you will proceed through life in a manner that will make you pleased to exist.

Reading Assignments

• The readings provided in this course are a series of sophisticated conceptual tools that will help you understand yourself better.

• Keeping up with the readings will make the course much richer for you.

Understanding the Course

In this section, the instructor provides an overview of the course structure and requirements.

Course Structure

• The course requires completion of a personality analysis exercise that is pass/fail.

• The exercise helps students do a modified Big Five analysis of their own personality, focusing on virtues and faults.

• Essays are broken down into multiple types across the entire semester.

• Students should sign up for limited slots for each topic sooner rather than later to help organize themselves.

Who Should Not Take This Course

• If you did not like this lecture, then this course may not be suitable for you as lectures will be similar in nature.

• There is a lot of reading involved in the course, particularly hard science in the last half and philosophical/psychological elements in the first half.

• If you are not interested in investigating philosophical underpinnings of clinical theories or if you are purely interested in science without clinical elements, then this course may not be suitable for you.