Personality and Its Assessment Chapter 12

1. Personality and Its AssessmentChapter 12

2. Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits, dispositions, or characteristics that leads to some consistency in a person’s behaviour What Is Personality?

3. Psychodynamic theories focus on how unconscious processes direct day-to-day behaviour The most famous of these approaches was the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud Freud was an Austrian physician who developed his theory while treating people with physical and mental problems Psychodynamic Theories

4. Psychodynamic Theories • From his work with these patients, Freud began to formulate a theory that centred on early childhood experiences and fantasies

5. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory rests on several assumptions: Human experience takes place on three levels of consciousness Human functioning is influenced by three basic structures of the mind The foundation of personality is shaped by early childhood experiences Psychodynamic Theories

6. Parental punishment of a child’s sexual and aggressive behaviours results in repression of part of these experiences and leads to psychological conflict Conflict creates anxiety, and people protect themselves against anxiety with defence mechanisms Psychodynamic Theories

7. Freud said that mental life occurs on three levels: Consciousness occupies a minor place in the theory and refers to those experiences we are aware of at any given moment Freud: Levels of Mental Life

8. Freud: Levels of Mental Life • The preconscious is the level that contains experiences not currently conscious, but which can become so • The unconscious contains experiences that are beyond the realm of awareness

9. Figure 12.1 Freud’s View of Mental Forces

10. Freud: Structures of the Mind • The idis the source of a person’s instinctual energy either sexual or aggressive and works by the pleasure principle • The ego seeks to satisfy an individual’s instinctual needs in accordance with reality • The superego provides an egoideal and a conscience

11. Development of Personality • Freud argued that people pass through five stages of personality development that are associated with conflicts with erogenous zones

12. First stage is the oral stage From birth to age 2, the infant’s instincts focus on the mouth as the primary pleasure center Adults who remain attached to the oral stage or revert to it during intense anxiety display traits of an “oral” personality that include biting objects, smoking, or overeating Development of Personality

13. Stage two is the anal stage (age 2 to 3) Children learn to control the immediate gratification they obtain through defecation They learn to respond to some of parents’ and society’s demands Adults who had difficulty in the stage tend to have problems with orderliness (or lack of it) Development of Personality

14. The third stage is the phallic stage (age 4 – 7) During this stage children pass through what Freud termed the Oedipus complex that involves unconscious wishes to have sexual intercourse with one parent During the Oedipus complex the child wants to replace the other parent Development of Personality

15. This rivalry produces castration anxiety During the same stage girls develop penis envy The Oedipus complex is resolved by identifying with the same sex parent This leads to acquisition of a superego Development of Personality

16. The fourth stage is latency (from age 7 to puberty) During latency, sexual urges are inactive (latent) Development of Personality

17. Stage five is the genital stage Begins with the onset of puberty Failure to pass through earlier stages successfully may lead to unresolved conflicts throughout adulthood Development of Personality

18. Freud felt behaviour was energized by two basic instinctual drives The drive toward life, expressed through sexual energy The drive toward death, expressed through aggression Freud’s theory focused mainly on the energy of the sexual instinct, libido Sex and Aggression

19. The ego adopts one or more defense mechanisms to defend itself against the anxiety brought about by conflicts Freud assumed that when carried to extremes, defense mechanisms may lead to compulsive, unhealthy behaviour Defence Mechanisms

20. Repression occurs when an anxiety-laden experience is forced into the unconscious Rationalization is reinterpreting undesirable feelings or behaviours to make them seem acceptable Fixation is an excessive attachment to another person or object that was appropriate only at an earlier stage of development Defence Mechanisms

21. In regression, people move backward to an earlier stage of development In projection, people attribute their own undesirable traits to others During a reaction formation, people act in ways opposite of their anxiety-provoking feelings Defence Mechanisms

22. Displacement diverts sexual or aggressive feelings for one person onto another During denial, people refuse to accept reality or recognize the true source of anxiety During sublimation, people redirect socially unacceptable impulses toward acceptable goals Defence Mechanisms

23. Adler and Individual Psychology • Alfred Adler was one of the original members of Freud’s Vienna Psychoanalytic Society before having a falling out with Freud • Adler chose the term “individual” to suggest that personality must not be divided into levels of consciousness or regions of the mind

24. Adler felt people are motivated by feelings of inferiority that leads people to strive for superiority or success Striving for superiority or success involves adoption of a style of life All people seek to compensate for feelings of inferiority, but may overcompensate and strive in a rigid manner Individual Psychology

25. Adler: Unity of Personality • Adler felt all of our thoughts, feelings, and actions serve a single purpose • This purpose is consistent with the final goal we set at age 4 or 5 years

26. Adler’s major concept is social interest, a feeling of oneness with all humanity Adler said the potential for social interest is acquired during the early parent-child relationship Adler: Social Interest

27. Adler acknowledged the role of heredity and environment in furnishing the building materials of personality Adler called the ability to shape our own personality creative power Adler: Creative Power

28. Adler believed one can learn about personality by studying family constellations First-borns are pushed by parents toward success, leadership, and independence, and have a high need for achievement Second-borns are more relaxed about achievement Youngest children tend to be pampered Adler: Family Constellations

29. Jung and Analytical Psychology • Another important theorist to break from Freud was Carl Jung • Jung believed people are motivated to attain self-realization or perfection

30. Analytical Psychology • The collective unconscious is a shared storehouse of primitive ideas and images • These inherited images are called archetypes • One important archetype is the shadow, the dark side of our personality

31. A man must recognize his anima (feminine side), and a woman her animus (masculine side) Two other archetypes are the great mother and wise old man The most important archetype is the self The self represents completion and wholeness Analytical Psychology

32. The ultimate symbol of the self is the mandala, a mystical symbol, generally circular in form Analytical Psychology

33. The Power of Learning • Behaviourists do not look within the psyche • Behaviourists believe personality is acquired through reinforcement, natural selection and cultural evolution

34. A trait is any readily-identifiable, stable quality that characterizes an individual from other individuals Types are personality categories in which broad collections of traits are loosely tied together and interrelated Traits and Types

35. Allport’s Personal Disposition Theory • Gordon Allport suggested that each individual has a unique set of personality traits called personal dispositions • Cardinal trait is a trait so dominant that a person’s entire life revolves around it • Central traits are qualities that characterize a person’s daily interactions

36. Secondary traits are characteristics that are exhibited in specific situations Personal Disposition Theory

37. Cattell’s Trait Theory • Raymond B. Cattell used factor analysis to study traits • Factor analysis is a statistical procedure which analyzes groups of variables to detect which are related • Cattell termed obvious, day-to-day traits, “surface traits” • He called higher-order, “deep” traits, source traits

38. Eysenck’s Factor Theory • Hans Eysenck focused on higher levels of trait organization called these types that incorporate lower-level elements (traits) • Each trait incorporates even lower-order qualities (habits)

39. Eysenck argues that all personality traits can be grouped under three bipolar dimensions: Extraversion-Introversion (E) Neuroticism-Stability (N) Psychoticism-Superego Function (P) Eysenck’s Factor Theory

40. The Five Factor Model • Many theorists agree there are five broad categories of traits • These categories have become known as the Five Factor Model, or Big Five (McCrae and Costa) • Researchers think of the five factors as “supertraits”

41. The Five Factor Model • Extraversion-introversion • Agreeableness-antagonism • Conscientiousness-undirectedness • Neuroticism-stability • Openness to experience

42. Two major humanistic theorists are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers Humanistic theories assume people are motivated to achieve personal goals by internal forces Humanistic Psychology

43. Humanistic theories usually take a phenomenological approach that focus on the individual’s unique experiences and ways of interpreting the world Humanistic Psychology

44. Maslow and Self-Actualization • Abraham Maslow was one of the founders of the humanistic approach • Maslow conceives of motives as forming a hierarchy • Lower needs, such as those for food and water, are at the bottom of the hierarchy

45. Self-actualization is the final level of psychological development Self-actualized individuals accept themselves, others, and nature Maslow and Self-Actualization

46. Rogers and Self Theory • Carl Rogers made three basic assumptions about behaviour: • Behaviour is goal-directed • People have the potential for growth • How individuals see the world determines how they behave

47. Rogers felt motivation was due to an inborn tendency toward fulfillment, a tendency toward actualizing one’s essential nature attained only if certain conditions are met Rogers and Self Theory

48. Empathy (accurate perception of one’s feelings by another person) Unconditional positive regard (complete acceptance by the other person) Congruence (when the other person is psychologically healthy) Rogers and Self Theory

49. Rogers: Self and Ideal Self • Roger’s theory is structured around the concept of the self, the view one has of oneself and relationships with other people • One’s self-concept is how one sees one’s own behaviour • An ideal self is a picture of what one would like to be

50. Rogers: The Fully-Functioning Person • People who receive empathy and unconditional positive regard from a congruent partner become a “fully-functioning person”