Personality Theories

1. Personality Theories

2. In your own words, what is personality? • Write down 5 traits/characteristics to describe YOUR personality.

3. Describe your best friend’s personality. • Explain why your friend is “the way he/she is”. For example, if she is shy…why? If he always is the center of attention…why?

4. Traits  aspect of personality that is considered to be reasonably stable • Shy • Outgoing • Humorous • Trait theorists  assumed traits are fixed & unchanging • Where do they COME from?

5. Hippocrates • Ancient Greeks believed the body contains fluids called humors • Traits are a result of different combinations of these bodily fluids • FOUR basic: • Yellow bile • Blood • Phlegm • Black bile • Certain diseases/disorders are a result of a lack of balance in these humors

6. Allport • 1930s – searched through a dictionary to find every term that could describe a person • Found 18,000 human traits • Traits can be inherited & are fixed in the nervous system • Traits are the building blocks of personality

7. Cattell • Studied groups of people • Tried to find the number of basic traits human personality boils down to • Surface traits – obvious traits • Source traits – one trait gives rise to others in cluster • 16PF p. 510

8. Esyenck • Focused on relationships between 2 personality dimensions Introversion – extroversion Emotional stability – instability • McCrae & Costa: THE BIG 5 – [CANOE or OCEAN] Conscientiousness – carelessness Agreeable – disagreeableness Emotional stability – instability (neuroticism) Openness to experience – new experience close-mindedness Introversion – extroversion

9. The “Big Five” Personality Factors Trait Dimension Description Emotional Stability Calm versus anxious Secure versus insecure Self-satisfied versus self-pitying Extraversion Sociable versus retiring Fun-loving versus sober Affectionate versus reserved Openness Imaginative versus practical Preference for variety versus preference for routine Independent versus conforming Extraversion Soft-hearted versus ruthless Trusting versus suspicious Helpful versus uncooperative Conscientiousness Organized versus disorganized Careful versus careless Disciplined versus impulsive The Trait Perspective

10. The Trait Perspective • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) • the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests • originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use) • now used for many other screening purposes

11. Psychoanalytic Approach • All people undergo inner struggles • People born with certain biological drives  aggression, sex, need for superiority • Drives may conflict with social rules/moral codes Behavior = inner contests between drives & rules

12. FREUD (again?) • Conscious ideas and feelings occupy only a small part of the mind • Deepest thoughts, fears, and urges remain out of awareness  unconscious part of brain • Psychoanalysis – “talking cure” • Encouraged to talk about anything that comes to mind • Dream analysis – unconscious wishes • Hypnosis – better access to unconscious thoughts

13. Ego Conscious mind Unconscious mind Superego Id Personality Structure • Freud’s idea of the mind’s structure

14. The Mind’s 3 Basic Psychological Structures • Id – basic drives; demands pleasure through instant gratification and pays no attention to laws and rules • Pleasure principle • Ego – “stands for reason and good sense” • Reality principle – can’t always get what we want • Seeks to satisfy the id in ways that are consistent with reality • Most conscious but also acts as censor that screens/represses indecent/improper id impulses • Superego – moral sense; moral principle • Conscience/floods ego with feelings of guilt and shame when we think or do something that society defines as wrong

15. Ego is caught between id’s demands and superego’s warnings Healthy ego = healthy personality (find the balance)

16. Defense Mechanisms Method the ego uses to avoid recognizing ideas of emotions that may cause personal anxiety • Repression • Rationalization • Displacement • Regression • Projection • Reaction formation • Identification • Sublimation Compensation – Adler Denial

17. Stages of Development • Individual’s personality develops beginning at birth through adolescence • People instinctively seek to preserve/extend life • Instinctive forces are aided by psychological energy labeled libido “desire” Oral – anal – phallic – latent – genital • Conflicts at each stage; if not resolved  fixated • Adult psychological problems  unresolved childhood conflicts

18. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Stage Focus Oral Pleasure centers on the mouth-- (0-18 months) sucking, biting, chewing Anal Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder (18-36 months) elimination; coping with demands for control Phallic Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with (3-6 years) incestuous sexual feelings Latency Dormant sexual feelings (6 to puberty) Genital Maturation of sexual interests (puberty on) Personality Development

19. Oral (age 1) – explore world through mouth; main source of pleasure • Fixations – smoking, overeating, excessive talking, nail biting • Anal (age 1 ½ - 2 ½ ) – learn can control bodily functions; self-control vital issue • 2 sets of personalities – anal-retentive & anal-expulsive • Phallic (age 3) – discover physical differences; may develop strong attachment to parent of opposite sex; same-sex rival • depression, excessive guilt, anxiety • Latency (age 5-6) – represses aggressive urges; “hidden” • Genital (puberty) – aware of own gender identity; conflicts of earlier development stages resurface

20. Oedipus – Greek Mythology • Oedipus was born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta. In the most well-known version of the myth, Laius wished to thwart a prophecy saying that his child would grow up to murder his father and marry his mother. Thus, he fastened the infant's feet together with a large pin and left him to die on a mountainside. The baby was found on Kithairon by shepherds and raised by King Polybus and Queen Merope in the city of Corinth. Oedipus learned from the oracle at Delphi of the prophecy, but believing he was fated to murder Polybus and marry Merope, he left Corinth. Heading to Thebes, Oedipus met an older man in a chariot coming the other way on a narrow road. The two quarreled over who should give way, which resulted in Oedipus killing the stranger and continuing on to Thebes. He found that the king of the city (Laius) had been recently killed and that the city was at the mercy of the Sphinx. Oedipus answered the monster's riddle correctly, defeating it and winning the throne of the dead king and the hand in marriage of the king's widow, his mother, Jocasta. • Oedipus and Jocasta had two sons (Eteocles and Polynices) and two daughters (Antigone and Ismene). In his search to determine who killed Laius (and thus end a plague on Thebes), Oedipus discovered it was he who had killed the late king: his father. Jocasta also soon realized that she had married her own son and Laius's murderer, and she hanged herself. Oedipus seized two pins from her dress and blinded himself with them. Oedipus was driven into exile, accompanied by Antigone and Ismene. After years of wandering, he arrived in Athens, where he found refuge in a grove of trees called Colonus. By this time, warring factions in Thebes wished him to return to that city, believing that his body would bring it luck. However, Oedipus died at Colonus, and the presence of his grave there was said to bring good fortune to Athens.

21. Personality Development • Identification • the process by which children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos • Fixation • a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were unresolved

22. Defense Mechanisms • Defense Mechanisms • the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality • Repression • the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness

23. Defense Mechanisms • Regression • defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

24. Defense Mechanisms • Reaction Formation • defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites • people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings

25. Defense Mechanisms • Projection • defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others • Rationalization • defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions

26. Defense Mechanisms • Displacement • defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person • as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet

27. Review • What is at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy? • “My heart is racing, I must be anxious.” – Who’s theory would this statement align with? • What nervous system is activated by emotion? • What part of the brain is involved in emotion? • Lucy cries when her mom gives her two chicken nuggets because she wants more than her sister has. Her mom cuts the chicken nuggets in half and Lucy is happy. What milestone has Lucy not reached yet? • “Out of sight, out of mind” refers to what developmental milestone? • Bob has a terrible habit of smoking – Freud would say what about Bob? • Erikson developed the __________ stages of development. • Barbara can’t stop eating, there is likely a problem with what part of her brain? • Timmy walks into the Apple store and sees the newest cell phone. He has bills that are past due but he buys the phone anyway. What mind structure is at work here? • Lyndsay dyed her hair blue last week but now it’s purple. She often changes her style of dress – preppy to goth and back again. Erikson would most likely say that Lyndsay is in what stage of development? • Most psychologists agree that we have _______ personality traits.

28. Assessing the Unconscious • Projective Test • a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) • a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

29. Assessing the Unconscious--TAT

30. Assessing the Unconscious • Rorschach Inkblot Test • the most widely used projective test • a set of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann Rorschach • seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Fe2OIpJMI • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w

31. NEO-FREUDIANS…Jung, Adler, Horney • THINK ABOUT IT… • Genuine and consistent love can temper the effects of even the most painful childhoods. • Do you agree or disagree? Why?

32. Jung • Analytic psychology – greater emphasis on the influences of mysticism and religion on human behavior • Intrigued by unconscious • People have personal AND collective unconscious (shared by all people across culture) • Archetypes – components of collective unconscious • Ideas/images of the accumulated experiences of all human beings (supreme being, fairy godmother, young hero) • These images remain unconscious but appear in our dreams and influence our thoughts/feelings • Form foundation on which personality develops • Sense of self – unifying force of personality that gives people direction and completeness (individuation)

33. Adler • People motivated by a need to overcome feelings of inferiority • Inferiority complex – physical problems; sibling rivalry (birth order) • Self-awareness  plays major role in personality formation • Creative self  self-aware and strives to over come obstacles and develop the individual’s unique potential

34. HORNEY - Childhood experience - Social relationships – greatest influences - Importance of parent-child relationships • Basic anxiety – develops when children are treated with indifference by their parents • Issue with Freud’s assertion that men have stronger superegos • Womb envy ERIKSON • 8 stages named after traits that may develop • Mother-infant relationship; basic trust - Seek self-enhancement and intellectual pleasures

35. Humanistic Perspective • Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) • studied self-actualization processes of productive and healthy people (e.g., Lincoln)

36. Humanistic Perspective • Self-Actualization • the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved • the motivation to fulfill one’s potential

37. Humanistic Perspective • Carl Rogers (1902-1987) • focused on growth and fulfillment of individuals • genuineness • acceptance • empathy

38. Humanistic Perspective • Unconditional Positive Regard • an attitude of total acceptance toward another person • Self-Concept • all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in an answer to the question, “Who am I?”

39. Rogers • “self-theory” • Shape personalities through free choice and action • Self-concept  view of oneself as an individual • Guiding principle behind both personality and behavior • Recognizing one’s values and establishing relationships • Key to happiness  congruence between self-concept & experience • Self-esteem • Positive regard (unconditional) • Touch with genuine feelings

40. Social-Cognitive Perspective • Social-Cognitive Perspective • views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons and their social context • Reciprocal Determinism • the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors

41. Social-Cognitive Perspective

42. Social-Cognitive Perspective • Personal Control • our sense of controlling our environments rather than feeling helpless • External Locus of Control • the perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate

43. Social-Cognitive Perspective • Internal Locus of Control • the perception that one controls one’s own fate • Learned Helplessness • the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

44. Uncontrollable bad events Perceived lack of control Generalized helpless behavior Social-Cognitive Perspective • Learned Helplessness

45. Social-Cognitive Perspective • Positive Psychology • the scientific study of optimal human functioning • aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive

46. Exploring the Self • Spotlight Effect • overestimating others noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders • Self Esteem • one’s feelings of high or low self-worth • Self-Serving Bias • readiness to perceive oneself favorably

47. Exploring the Self • Individualism • giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications • Collectivism • giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly

48. Value Contrasts Between Individualism and Collectivism Concept Individualism Collectivism Self Independent Interdependent (identity from individual traits) identity from belonging) Life task Discover and express one’s Maintain connections, fit in uniqueness What matters Me--personal achievement and We-group goals and solidarity; fullfillment; rights and liberties social responsibilities and relationships Coping method Change reality Accommodate to reality Morality Defined by individuals Defined by social networks (self-based) (duty-based) Relationships Many, often temporary or casual; Few, close and enduring; confrontation acceptable harmony valued Attributing Behavior reflects one’s personality Behavior reflects social behaviors and attitudes and roles Exploring the Self

49. The Modern Unconscious Mind • Terror-Management Theory • Faith in one’s worldview and the pursuit of self-esteem provide protection against a deeply rooted fear of death

50. Behaviorism • Watson/Skinner • Discarded ideas of personal freedom • Socialization Sociocultural - Individual vs. collective • Social-learning • Importance of learning by observation • People act intentionally to influence the environment