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Personality: Vive la Difference!

Personality: Vive la Difference!. How would you define personality. Describe your best friend’s personality. Some questions that are addressed in the study of personality. Are you born with a certain personality or is your personality learned?

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Personality: Vive la Difference!

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  1. Personality:Vive la Difference!

  2. How would you define personality • Describe your best friend’s personality

  3. Some questions that are addressed in the study of personality • Are you born with a certain personality or is your personality learned? • Is your behavior governed by conscious thoughts or by motives that you may not be conscious of? • Does your personality stay constant or does it change in different situations? • Are people basically good or basically bad? • Is your early history more important to the formation of your personality or is your recent history more important? • What is a “healthy” personality?

  4. The book’s definition of Personality A set of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive tendencies that people display over time and across situations

  5. What is a theory of personality • An explanation of how we got the personalities that we have. • A theory that addresses many of the questions that I raised in the first slide.

  6. Freud’s theory: Assumptions • Determinism • Major forces: Sex drive and aggressive drive • People basically bad and must strive to overcome bad instincts.

  7. Freud: Consciousness • Conscious level • Normal awareness • Preconscious level • Easily brought to consciousness • Unconscious level • Hidden thoughts and desires

  8. Freud: Structural Model • The id • Unconscious level • Present at birth • Home to sexual and aggressive drive • Governed by the pleasure principle • Think Homer Simpson

  9. Freud: Structural Model • The superego • Preconscious and unconscious levels • Develops in childhood • Home to morality and conscience • Governed by the ego ideal • Think Ned Flanders

  10. Freud: Structural Model • The ego • Conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels • Develops in childhood (before superego) • Acts as a referee between id and superego • Governed by the reality principle • Think Lisa Simpson or maybe Marge

  11. Freud: Personality Development • We must pass through psychosexual stages successfully • Each stage focuses on how we receive pleasure • Failure to pass through a stage leads to fixation • In times of stress, we regress to that stage

  12. Freud: Psychosexual Stages • Oral stage (birth to 1 year) • Anal stage (1 to 3 years) • Phallic stage (3 to 6 years) • Oedipus and Electra complexes • Latency period (6 to puberty) • Genital stage (puberty onward)

  13. Freud: Defense Mechanisms Unconscious attempts prevent unacceptable thoughts from reaching conscious awareness • Denial • Intellectualization • Projection • Rationalization • Reaction formation • Repression • Sublimation • Undoing

  14. Freud’s Followers • Carl Jung • Collective unconscious • Archetypes • Alfred Adler • Strive for superiority • Inferiority complex • Karen Horney • Basic anxiety • Privilege envy (not penis envy)

  15. Critiques of Freud • Not scientific • Hard to test • Too broad • Claims are hard to falsify • Based on limited sample • Female patients • Upper class • 19th-century Vienna

  16. Humanistic Theories • Humanists focus on people’s positive aspects: their innate goodness, creativity, and free will • Reaction to Freud’s emphasis on… • Hedonic tendencies • Unconscious basis of behavior

  17. Humanistic Theories • Abraham Maslow • Hierarchy of needs • Self-actualization • Carl Rogers • Unconditional positive regard • Criticisms • Difficult to test • Idealistic view

  18. Is there really such a thing as a personality?Shyness? With your friends? Classmates? Teachers?Honesty? Would you return change found in the phone machine? Would you steal from a store?

  19. Personality:Traits or Situations? • Trait view • We think and behave consistently across situations • Situationist view • Our thoughts and behaviors change with the situation • Interactionist view • Both traits and situations affect thoughts and behavior

  20. Extraversion WithdrawnOutgoing Neuroticism Stable Unstable Agreeableness Low High Conscientiousness UndependableDependable Openness to experience Closed Open Trait Theories: The Big Five

  21. Extraversion Withdrawn Outgoing Neuroticism StableUnstable Psychoticism/Nonconformity Low High Trait Theories: Eysenck’sThree-Factor Model

  22. Measuring Personality:Interviews and Observation • Interviews • Structured set of questions (can be modified) • Focuses on specific thoughts and behaviors • Hard to generalize beyond interview • Observation • Focuses on behaviors, not thoughts • Works best if judge knows participant

  23. Measuring Personality:Inventories • Questionnaires (paper or computer) • Produce a personality profile • Easy to score and statistically analyze • Social desirability

  24. What do you see? Measuring Personality: Projective Tests • Include Rorschach and TAT • Concerns about validity and reliability

  25. Myers-Briggs • http://www.personalitytest.net/types/index.htm

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