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Personality

Personality. Today. Review Where we are at Where we be going Personality theories. Attribution Attribution error Stereotypes. Schemata Biases Stereotypes Social comparison Social identity. Review. Social facilitation Social interference Social loafing. Social conformity

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Personality

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  1. Personality

  2. Today • Review • Where we are at • Where we be going • Personality theories

  3. Attribution Attribution error Stereotypes Schemata Biases Stereotypes Social comparison Social identity Review

  4. Social facilitation Social interference Social loafing Social conformity Asch’s experiment Bystanders Obedience Milgram’s studies Review

  5. Personality defined • The organization of enduring characteristics or behavior patterns that often serve to distinguish us from one another.

  6. Perspectives on personality 1 The trait perspective 2 Freud’s psychodynamic perspective 3 Humanism 4 Socio-cognitive perspective

  7. Personality as a set of behavioral dispositions or traits • Trait theories • Biological foundations • Twins raised apart

  8. The Trait Perspective • Trait • A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act • Trait theories of personality assume that an individual’s dispositions and behaviors are fairly stable across time and situation

  9. Trait Perspective • Types • Greek “humors” (fluids) • Melancholy, ... • Depressed, Cheerful, Unemotional, Irritable • Body types • Endomorph (“fat and happy”) • Mesomorph (muscular; bold and physical) • Ectomorph (slender; high strung and solitary) • 1970s • “A” vs. “B” • A = intense • B = laid back

  10. How many types of traits are there? • 2? 4? Eysenck • 5? “The big five” • 4? 8? Myers-Briggs

  11. Eysenck & Eysenck’s Dimensions • extraversion-introversion • emotional stability-instability

  12. The “Big Five” • Emotional stability • Extraversion • Openness • Agreeableness • Conscientiousness • Personality psychologists here at K State are keen on the Big Five

  13. Myers-Briggs • A bastardization of Jung • Personality defined along 4 dimensions • introversion/extraversion • sensing/intuition • thinking/feeling • judgment/perception

  14. How do personality psychologists assess traits? • Personality Inventories • Ex. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) • empirically derived. • “I like mechanic’s magazines” • Very complicated • Self-report questionnaires • “Do you usually value logic more than sentiment or vice versa?” • Peer-report

  15. Is this a valid assumption? • Trait theories of personality assume that an individual’s dispositions and behaviors are fairly stable across time and situation • Do dispositions change with time? • Do behavior patterns change under different circumstances or over time?

  16. Perspectives on personality • 1 The trait perspective • 2 Freud’s psychodynamic perspective • Personality as a mental process • 3 Humanism • 4 Socio-cognitive perspective

  17. Sigmund Freud • Trained as a medical doctor, specializing in neurological disorders • He could not explain some of his patients’ disorders through medical means • He hypothesized a three-fold framework of mind

  18. Freud’s three-fold theory of mind • Conscious mind • Preconscious mind • Unconscious mind

  19. Conscious mind • The mechanism for perceiving psychic events • The only portal to psychic energy • All the things we are aware of at any given moment are made available by conscious mind

  20. Unconscious mind • The residue of psychic experience, especially childhood trauma, sexual drives, and wishes • Unconscious wishes and drives are ways active • They are always seeking expression via consciousness

  21. Preconscious mind • The filter that protects the conscious mind from unconscious wishes and drives • Responsible for the displacement of wishes and their consolidation into images in dreams

  22. Unconscious wishes and drives • Freud believed that thoughts and drives etc. have energy • Hence, a psycho-dynamic theory of mind • The vast majority of psychic energy is unconscious • Everything experienced • Every wish • Every desire • Every drive

  23. Conflict • Much of the unconscious psychic energy express wishes and desires and drives that are socially unacceptable • Killing your father • Acting like the lizard king • This creates a real, ongoing, never-ending psychic conflict

  24. Freud: Personality stems from Conflict • Basic conflict: to express desires in ways that bring satisfaction without punishment or guilt • 3 interacting systems • ID • SUPEREGO • EGO

  25. ID • Expresses of unconscious wishes, drives, and desires • Seeks to satisfy basic drives • Homeostasis = survival • Aggression • Sex • Immediate gratification is good • Pleasure principle

  26. SUPEREGO • The voice of reason, the “conscience” • An individual’s assimilation of socially acceptable norms on behavior

  27. EGO • The executive • Seeks to satisfy the unconscious wishes and drives in socially acceptable (non-problematic) ways • Tries to balance ID and SUPEREGO • The balancing act generates anxiety

  28. Anxiety and defense mechanisms • Freud believed that aspects of our personality stemmed from our attempts to reduce anxiety • He called these ways of reducing anxiety “defense mechanisms”

  29. Re- defense mechanics • Repression • push thought/feeling from consciousness • Regression • revert to more infantile stage of development • “eating when mad” • Reaction Formation • unacceptable looks like opposite • “inadequacy or bravado”

  30. More defense mechanisms • Projection • attributing impulses to others • “you hate me” • Rationalization • generating self-justifying explanations • “I’m a social drinker” • Displacement • diverting impulses toward a more acceptable object • “taking it out on someone else”

  31. Freud’s psychoanalytic approach • He surfed the Unconscious using hypnosis and free association • Freud asked patients to speak freely about themselves and the onset of their symptoms

  32. How to access and assess the Unconscious? • Free Association • Projective tests (ambiguous stimuli) • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) • Rorschach inkblot test

  33. Oral (0 - 18 months) Pleasure centers on mouth Anal (18 - 36 months) Pleasure centers on bowel and bladder. Phallic (3 - 6 years) Pleasure centers on genitals (Oedipus) Latent (6 to puberty) Dormant sexual feelings. Genital (puberty on) Maturation of sexual interests. FYI Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Freud believed personality developed during childhood

  34. The Humanistic Perspective

  35. Humanistic Perspective • Maslow (the “hierarchy of needs” guy) • studied healthy, creative people • as opposed to Freud’s patients • he believed these people to have “self-actualized” • reported that they were: • self-aware • self-accepting • open and spontaneous • loving and caring • self-secure • problem-centered • & enjoyed a few deep relationships

  36. Humanistic Perspective • Rogers • believed that people were basically good and had self-actualizing tendencies • genuineness • acceptance • “unconditional positive regard” • empathy • He believed if we did these things, everyone could self-actualize

  37. Humanistic Perspective • So, everyone has the potential of developing a self-actualized personality. • The work of these psychologists created the concepts of: • “self-esteem” - a good thing • “self-concept” - another good thing

  38. How does one assess the ‘self’? • Rogers • “describe your ideal self and your current self” • Standardized assessment is too impersonal to delve into the personality of an individual

  39. Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective • Its influence has been widespread • Criticisms • vague and subjective • Traits of self-actualization refer to Maslow’s heroes • Rampant individualism can lead to selfishness and erosion of morals • Are people really good? (look around)

  40. The Social-Cognitive Perspective • A “positive” psychology that aims “to measure, understand, and build the human strengths and virtues”

  41. The Social-Cognitive Perspective • The doctrine of reciprocal determinism: • Personality stems from the interaction of: • Our behavior • Our predispositions • Our environment • Bandura, 1986

  42. External locus of control: believe chance or outside forces control our destinies Internal locus of control: believe we control our own destinies People with internal loci are more likely to: be successful in school act more independently feel less depressed Locus of Control

  43. Evaluating the S-C perspective • Positives • acknowledges environmental effects • built from cognitive and learning research • Negatives • sometimes it overemphasizes the environment

  44. Summary of Perspectives on Personality • Trait • describes important aspects of personality • Psychoanalytic • stresses unconscious and irrational aspects of personality • Humanistic • stresses our “self” and our potential for self-actualization • Social-Cognitive • relates what we know about social, learning and cognitive psychology to how people respond in context

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