Personality Theories and Assessment

1. 12 Personality Theories and Assessment

2. Personality Theories and Assessment Personality • Definition • Sum total of all typical ways of acting, feeling, and thinking that makes a person different from all others

3. Personality Theories and Assessment Personality • Trait theories • Traits are characteristics, aspects of personality • Allport: traits can be ranked • Motivational traits related to one’s values • Cardinal traits dominate one’s life (ie: desire for social justice) • Central/secondary traits are more common (ie: obtaining sexual gratification)

4. Personality Theories and Assessment Personality • Trait theories • Five-factor model of personality traits • Five dimensions measured in personality tests • Neuroticism (anxious, worrisome) • Extraversion (outgoing, social) • Openness (creative, daring) • Agreeableness (selfless, forgiving) • Conscientiousness (reliable, hardworking)

5. Personality Theories and Assessment Personality • Validating personality traits • Eysenck’s introverts and extraverts • Brain’s neural systems may work different • Tests: • Classical conditioning • Functional MRI

6. Personality Theories and Assessment Human Diversity • Personality and culture • Personality influenced by culture • Individualistic culture (ie: U.S.) – emphasize individual rights and characteristics • Feeling of pride, superiority • Seek own goals over those of others • More willing to use embarrassment and aggression to prove oneself right • Free time often spent in solitary pursuits

7. Personality Theories and Assessment Human Diversity • Personality and culture • Collective cultures (ie: Japan, China, India) – emphasize individual in terms of rights, duties, and expectations as member of a group • Leisure time more often spent with family • Less aggressive in conflict; say things to avoid embarrassment of others • Characterized as having close ties, respectful, and friendly

8. Personality Theories and Assessment Human Diversity • All personality theories must consider effects of culture • People of different cultures tend to differ in some important ways • There is tremendous variation within cultures • Collective and individualistic traits are found among members of all cultures

9. Personality Theories and Assessment Psychoanalytic Theory • Freud’s theory and views • Original interest in conversion disorder • Case of Anna O. • Three levels of consciousness • Mind is iceberg; conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind are levels • Repression pushes thoughts into unconscious

10. Conscious Contact with outside world Preconscious Material just beneath surface of awareness Ego Reality principle Secondary process thinking Unconscious Well below surface of awareness; difficult to retrieve Superego Moral imperatives Ideals Id Pleasure principle Primary process thinking

11. Personality Theories and Assessment Psychoanalytic Theory • Freud’s theory and views • Personality has 3 parts • Displacement • Sometimes, ego must substitute a goal of the id • Sublimation – best kind of displacement • Identification • Superficial act of imitation

12. Primary process thinking Life and death instincts Reality principle Ego Ideal Libido Id Ego Superego Sexual, aggressive urges Pleasure principle The conscience The executive The selfish beast Freud: Personality has 3 parts

13. Personality Theories and Assessment Freud: Psychosexual Theory • Fixation – stuck in one stage • Five stages of developmental theory: • Oral stage (birth to 1 year) – • Erogenous zones • Oral dependentoral personality • oral aggressive personality • Anal stage (1 to 3 years) • Anal retentive personality • Anal expulsive personality

14. Personality Theories and Assessment Freud: Psychosexual Theory • Phallic stage (3 to 6 years) • Oedipus complex • Castration anxiety • Electra complex • Phallic personality • Latency stage (6 to 11 years) • Genital stage (11 years on)

15. Personality Theories and Assessment Theories Derived from Psychoanalysis • Carl Jung • Questioned Freud’s sexual motivation emphasis • Opposites in all elements of mind (ie: selfish and generous, good and evil) • Known for introversion and extraversion • Personal unconscious: motives, conflicts, information repressed as threatening • Collective unconscious: all humans born with it

16. Personality Theories and Assessment Theories Derived from Psychoanalysis • Alfred Adler • Struggle with sexual and hostile impulses not primary factor in personality development • Primary struggle: overcome inferiority feelings, develop superiority feelings in social relationships (later seen as unhealthy) • Outgrow childhood inferiority, become competent adult • All born with positive motive, social interest • People’s lives governed by their goals

17. Personality Theories and Assessment Theories Derived from Psychoanalysis • Karen Horney • Unconscious conflicts – source of most human misery and maladjustment • Freud overemphasized sexual conflicts, penis envy, and criticized his views of women • Conflicts result from inadequate child-rearing experiences (love and security produce no conflicts, positive personality results)

18. Personality Theories and Assessment Theories Derived from Psychoanalysis • Others • Erich Fromm, Harry Stack Sullivan, Erikson • Revised Freud’s image of women • De-emphasized importance of sexual and aggressive motivation • Emphasized positive aspects of personality • Asserted importance of adequate social relationships

19. Personality Theories and Assessment Social Learning Theory • Social learning: sum total of all ways one to act, think, and feel as s/he does • Albert Bandura • People play active role in selecting behavior • Cognition is important in personality • Reciprocal determination (ie: social learning) • Personality is learned behavior • Behavior influences future learning experiences

20. Personality Theories and Assessment Role of Cognition in Personality • Helping others makes one more reliable and less stingy? • Self-efficacy: subjective perception of what one is capable of • High self-efficacy: accepts more challenges • Bandura: emphasizes learning of personal standards (self-regulation) of reward and punishment from experience and watching others

21. 100 100 Did not find a dime Found a dime 75 75 50 50 Percent stopping to help Percent stopping to help 25 25 0 0 Female Male Female Male Subjects Subjects Percentage of subjects stopping to help after finding a dime

22. Personality Theories and Assessment Situationism and Interactionism • B.F. Skinner – • argued against idea of traits; behavior determined by situations one is in (situationism) • People behave in ways to suit their situations • Behavior cannot be consistent enough to be traits because situations change • Solution: behavior influenced by both person and situation (person X situation interactionism) • One situation influences people in different ways

23. 90 80 70 60 Percent of pedestrians stopping to help 50 40 30 20 10 Low noise High noise Percentage of pedestrians stopping to help man in high and low noise conditions

24. Personality Theories and Assessment Humanistic Theory • Third force in psychology; historically deep roots in philosophy (lack of unity) • Inner-directedness (innate internal force pushing for growth); positive view of humans • Personality develops from this and can only be understood by the individual (subjective reality) – everyone’s views are different • Self-concept (subjective perception) is central to Roger’s personality theory

25. Self the person I think I am Ideal self the person I think I am Roger’s Self-Concept Congruence – consistencies between the two The larger the discrepancies between the two, the more psychological problems one experiences

26. Personality Theories and Assessment Humanistic Theory • Feelings and information are mentally symbolized • Reactions of others create one’s conditions of worth • Self-actualization • Maslow’s ultimate level of growth • High level of moral development • Open, honest, have courage • Accurate and positive view of life • Maslow’s peak experiences

27. Personality Theories and Assessment Comparing the Theories

28. Personality Theories and Assessment Psychological Methods • Interviews and observations • Projective personality tests • Thematic Apperception test (TAT) • Rorschach Inkblot Test • Objective Personality Tests • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI and MMPI-2) • Evaluation of personality tests

29. Assaults Aggressive crimes Wife beating Rapes Amount of aggression Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Relationship between types of physical aggression and the month of the year

30. Personality Theories and Assessment 12 The End