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PersonalityWhy many perspectives? Each is good about addressing certain ideas to understand personality but is poor at others Goal: explain the whole person Limit what you look at (perspectives) and look deeply into it (piece of a puzzle) Put the parts or pieces together to complete the person/ crea...

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Personality Why many perspectives? -

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Each is good about addressing certain ideas to understand personality but is poor at others Goal: explain the whole person Limit what you look at (perspectives) and look deeply into it (piece of a puzzle) Put the parts or pieces together to complete the person/ create an integrated whole

4. Trait Perspectives - more concerned with the characteristics themselves Psychodynamic/ Psychoanalytic Theory -

Sigmund Freud

Personality

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Four Perspectives in Study of Personality 1. Psychoanalytic - focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in the development of personality 2. Behavioristic (including Social Cognitive Theory) - effects of environment on behavior 3. Humanistic - focuses on the role of the individual’s conscious life experience and choices in personality development

founder of the Psychoanalytic movement in Psychology. - Grew up in Vienna before moving to England to escape the Nazis Victorian Age - Age of sexual repression where intercourse was seen only in the light of procreation - Men as having difficulty controlling “animalistic” desires. - A good Victorian husband would father several children with his wife and then turn to a mistress for sexual comfort, leaving his virtuous wife untouched. - Women (esp from upper classes) were seen as having to remain virtuous/ were not supposed to have sexual urges Clients - Upperclass women who were seen to manifest abnormal behaviors -

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the unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel, and behave (e.g., extroversion, conscientiousness, openness) Character - value judgments of a person’s moral and ethical behavior; can be measured in virtues like honesty and compassion Temperament - the enduring characteristics with which each person is born; based on genetic and prenatal influences (e.g., intensity of emotion, reactivity)

emphasizes the importance of childhood experiences, unconscious or repressed thoughts that we cannot voluntarily access, and the conflict between the conscious and unconscious force that influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

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Levels of Consciousness

Divisions of Consciousness 

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Conscious mind - level of the mind that is aware of immediate surroundings and perceptions Preconscious mind - level of the mind in which information is available but not currently conscious Unconscious mind - level of the mind in which thoughts, feelings, memories, and other information that are not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness are kept o can be revealed in dreams and Freudian slips of the tongue

Structure of Personality

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Superego - part of the personality that acts as a moral center  ego ideal - part of the superego that contains the standards for moral behavior  conscience - part of the superego that produces guilt or moral anxiety when you did something wrong Ego - part of the personality that develops out of a need to deal with reality; mostly conscious, rational, and logical  reality principle - principle by which the ego functions; the satisfaction of the demands of the id only when negative consequences will not result.

Defense Mechanisms

Freud’s Theory: Parts of Personality 

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Id - part of the personality present at birth and completely unconscious pleasure principle - principle by which the id functions; the immediate satisfaction of needs without regard for the consequences

1. Psychological defense mechanisms - unconscious distortions of a person’s perception of reality that reduce stress and anxiety 2. Denial - the person refuses to acknowledge or recognize a threatening situation - E.g., A pregnant woman who had a miscarriage refuses to accept that her baby is dead. 3. Repression - the person refuses to consciously remember a threatening or unacceptable event, instead pushing those events into the unconscious mind - E.g., A college student that was sexually abused as a child cannot remember the abuse at all (fainting always)

4. Rationalization - a person invents acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior - E.g., An otherwise principled man tells himself that it’s still okay to steal from people because his child’s life is at stake 5. Projection - unacceptable or threatening impulses or feelings are seen as originating with someone else - usually the target of the impulses or feelings; placing one’s unacceptable thoughts unto others - E.g., A guy who wants to leave his current partner accuses his partner of wanting to abandon him. LO 6. Reaction formation - a person forms an opposite emotional or behavioral reaction to the way he or she really feels in order to keep those true feelings hidden from self and others - E.g., You like a girl but cheesiness is yucky so you leave her to get her attention. 7. Displacement - redirecting feelings from a threatening target to a less threatening one - E.g., An executive who was reprimanded by his boss takes out his anger on his secretary and girlfriend. 8. Regression - a person falls back on childlike patterns of responding in reaction to stressful situations - E.g., A soldier that was newly installed in combat starts wetting his bed (e.g., enuresis) 9. Identification

a person tries to become like someone else to deal with anxiety - E.g., an insecure and awkward teenager starts looking and acting like the bad boy Puck from Glee or Joffrey from Game of Thrones 10. Compensation (substitution) - a person makes up for deficiencies in one area by becoming superior in another area - E.g., A boy who is not as smart as his gifted older sister puts all his energies to becoming a talented athlete 11. Sublimation - channeling socially unacceptable impulses and urges into socially acceptable behavior - E.g., A man with strong sexual urges becomes an artist who paints nude models -

Psychosexual stages -

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five stages of personality development proposed by Freud and tied to the sexual development of the child Erogenous zone area of the body that produces pleasurable feelings; source of conflict

Fixation -

disorder in which the person does not fully resolve the conflict in a particular psychosexual stage, resulting in personality traits and behavior associated with that earlier stage

Freud’s Theory: Stages of Personality Development

1. Oral stage (birth to 1 or 1½ years) - first stage, the mouth is the erogenous zone and weaning is the primary conflict; Id dominated/ Id develops - Sucking, feeding, and making noises with the mouth give you pleasure  Over weaning - too soon or too late can result in too little or too much satisfaction of the child’s oral needs - Orally fixated activities and personality - overeating, drinking too much, chain smoking, talking too much, nail biting, gum chewing, too dependent and optimistic (overindulged), too aggressive and pessimistic (denied oral needs)

2. Anal stage ( 1 or 1½ - 3 y.o.) - second stage; the anus is the erogenous zone and toilet training is the source of conflict; ego develops  anal expulsive personality - a person fixated in the anal stage who is messy, destructive, and hostile  anal retentive personality - a person fixated in the anal stage who is neat, fussy, stingy, and stubborn

3. Phallic stage (3 – 6 y.o.)  Electra complex - father is the target of the girls’ affections and their mother as their rival - Penis envy for girls  Fixation would lead to

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heavily reliance on masturbation, flirtatiousness, strong sex drive, exhibit promiscuous sexual behavior, very vain, mama’s boy, looking for sugar daddy (for girls)

4. Latency (6 y.o. – puberty) - occurring during the school years, in which the sexual feelings of the child are repressed while the child develops in other ways  focus of conflict - school, play, same-sex friendships  focus of pleasure - social and intellectual skills - Difficulties at this stage lead to difficulty getting along with others

5. Genital (from puberty onwards) - sexual feelings reawaken with appropriate targets (adolescent, movie stars, music stars, and other object of adoration)  focus of pleasure - sexual behavior  Focus of conflict - sexual relationship with partner  Difficulties at this stage lead to - immature love or indiscriminate hate, inability to work

archetype of wisdom and meaning in life, sound sensible and wise to others 5. Anima - feminine side of a man; represents irrational moods and feelings 6. Animus - masculine side of a woman; symbolic of thinking and reasoning -

Neo-Freudians followers of Freud who developed their own competing theories of psychoanalysis - Carl Jung developed a theory of a collective unconscious. Personal unconscious - Jung’s name for the unconscious mind as described by Freud -

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Neo-Freudians

Collective unconscious Jung’s name for the memories shared by all members of the human species; physical contents are inherited and pass from one generation to the next; active and influence a person’s thoughts, emotions, and actions Archetypes - Jung’s collective, universal human memories; predispose us to perceive, experience, and react to the world in a certain way Persona - the side of personality that you show to the world Shadow - the dark side in you, the “devil”; qualities we do not wish to acknowledge but attempt to hide from ourselves and others Hero - powerful person, sometimes part god who fights against great odds to conquer or vanish evil in the form of dragons, monsters, etc.; frees us from feelings of impotence and misery Wise Old Man -

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ALFRED ADLER proposed feelings of inferiority as the driving force behind personality and developed birth order theory. Compensation - to overcome feelings of inferiority in one area of life by striving to be superior in another area Birth Order Theory - influences your personality First born - born leader, nurturing, protective, highly anxious (responsibilities) , critical, superiority complex, tend to be an overachiever or compensating for feelings of inferiority after being dethroned by younger sibling Middle child - cooperative, great negotiator, handle disappointments better, can be very competitive Youngest child - inferiority feelings, pampered, protected. ambitious, affectionate, performer, rule breaker, dependent on others Only child - socially mature if surrounded by adults ( can be immature, too), feelings if superiority, low cooperation -

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Karen Horney developed a theory based on basic anxiety and rejected the concept of penis envy. Womb envy - the need for men to compensate for their inability to bear children by excelling in their careers basic anxiety - anxiety created when a child is born into the bigger and more powerful world of older children and adults neurotic personalities - maladaptive ways of dealing with relationships in Horney’s theory Erik Erikson developed a theory based on social rather than sexual relationships, covering the entire life span. Social relationships are important in the formation of identity and personality (Psychosocial Theory)

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uniquely human, such as subjective feelings and freedom of choice or to choose one’s own destiny developed as a reaction against the negativity of psychoanalysis and the deterministic nature of behaviorism

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 

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Assumption - Motivation affects the whole person and is usually unconscious , continual and applicable to all People are continually motivated by one need or another All people everywhere are motivated by the same basic needs Needs can be arranged in a hierarchy

Modern Psychoanalytic Theory 

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Current research has found support for - defense mechanisms - the concept of an unconscious mind that can influence conscious behavior Other Freudian concepts cannot be scientifically researched or are difficult to test and unverifiable (e.g., Oedipus complex)

Humanistic Theories of Personality 

Humanistic perspective - emphasize an individual’s capacity for personal growth, development of our potential, and freedom to choose our destiny - focuses on those aspects of personality that make people

Characteristics of Self-actualizing People -

They perceive reality accurately They are independent and autonomous They prefer to have a deep, loving relationship with only few people They focus on accomplishing their goals They report peak experiences, which are moments of great joy and satisfaction

Carl Rogers’s Theory of Personality 

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Self-actualizing tendency - the striving to fulfill one’s innate capacities and capabilities Self-concept - the image of oneself that develops from interactions with important, significant people in one’s life Self - your awareness of your own personal characteristics and level of functioning

Real and Ideal Selves -

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the self-concept includes the real self and the ideal self. The real self is a person’s actual perception of traits and abilities, whereas the ideal self is the perception of what a person would like to be or thinks he or she should be. When the ideal self and the real self are very similar (matching), the person experiences harmony and contentment. When there is a mismatch between the two selves, the person experiences anxiety and may engage in neurotic behavior

Rogers’s Theory of Personality 

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Unconditional positive regard - positive regard that is given without conditions or strings attached Conditional positive regard - positive regard that is given only when the person is doing what the providers of positive regard wish Fully functioning person - a person who is in touch with and trusting of the deepest, innermost urges and feelings

Behaviorism and Personality Behaviorists define personality as a set of learned responses or habits. Habits - in behaviorism, sets of well-learned responses that have become automatic - Personality is determined by external factors (environmental reinforcers) and can change throughout life B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning - personality is learned through rewards and punishment - Has scientific proof, too simplistic because it does not take into account mental processes Social cognitive learning theorists - theorists who emphasize the importance of both the influences of other people’s behavior and of a person’s own expectancies on learning Social cognitive view - learning theory that includes cognitive processes such as anticipating, judging, memory, and imitation of models -

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Reciprocal determinism

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Bandura’s explanation of how the factors of environment, personal characteristics, and behavior can interact to determine future behavior

Self-efficacy - an individual’s perception of how effective a behavior will be in any particular circumstance (not the same as self-esteem) - the belief that a person can produce desired effects by their actions; belief in one’s ability to perform a task Self-esteem - person’s overall sense of worth or personal value

Trait Theories of Personality theories that endeavor to describe the characteristics that make up human personality in an effort to predict future behavior trait - a consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving - Gordon Allport first developed a list of about 200 traits and believed that these traits were part of the nervous system. Raymond Cattell reduced the number of traits to between sixteen and twentythree with a computer method called factor analysis. Surface traits

aspects of personality that can easily be seen by other people in the outward actions of a person Source traits - the more basic traits that underlie the surface traits, forming the core of personality - e.g. introversion: dimension of personality in which people tend to withdraw from excessive stimulation -

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Cattell’s Self-Report Inventory -

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an example of personality profiles based on Cattell’s 16PF self-report inventory. The two groups represented are airline pilots and writers. Notice that airline pilots, when compared to writers, tend to be more conscientious, relaxed, selfassured, and far less sensitive. Writers, on the other hand, are more imaginative and better able to are think abstractly.

The Big Five Theory Five-factor model (Big Five) - model of personality traits that describes five basic trait dimensions 1. openness one of the five factors; willingness to try new things and be open to new experiences 2. conscientiousness the care a person gives to organization and thoughtfulness of others; dependability 3. extraversion dimension of personality referring to one’s need to be with other people extraverts o people who are outgoing and sociable introverts o people who prefer solitude and dislike being the center of attention 4. Agreeableness the emotional style of a person that may range from easygoing, friendly, and likeable to grumpy, crabby, and unpleasant 5. Neuroticism degree of emotional instability or stability 

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Measuring Personality 1. Interview - method of personality assessment in which the professional asks questions of the client and allows the client to answer, either in a structured or unstructured fashion

Clients can distort the truth, misremember or can give a socially acceptable answer; interviewer can be biased in interpretations  Halo effect - tendency of an interviewer to allow positive characteristics of a client to influence the assessments of the client’s behavior and statements 2. Projective tests  Projection - defense mechanism involving placing, or “projecting,” one’s own unacceptable thoughts onto others, as if the thoughts actually belonged to those others and not to oneself  Projective tests - personality assessments that present ambiguous visual stimuli to the client and ask the client to respond with whatever comes to mind a. Rorschach inkblot test - projective test that uses ten inkblots as the ambiguous stimuli - A person being tested is asked to tell the interviewer what he or she sees in an inkblot similar to the one shown. - Answers are neither right nor wrong but may reveal unconscious concerns. b. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) - uses twenty pictures of people in ambiguous situations as the visual stimuli c. Draw A Person Test (DAP), HouseTree-Person Test (HTP), Sentence Completion Test (SCT)  Subjective - concepts and impressions that are only valid within a particular person’s perception and may be influenced by biases, prejudice, and personal experiences -

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this is a problem with projective tests

3. Behavioral Measures  Direct observation - assessment in which the professional observes the client engaged in ordinary, day-to-day behavior in either a clinical or natural setting  Rating scale - assessment in which a numerical value is assigned to specific behavior that is listed in the scale  Frequency count - assessment in which the frequency of a particular behavior is counted 4. Personality Inventory - paper and pencil or computerized test that consists of statements that require a specific, standar...