Chapter 11: Personality: Theory, Research, and Assessment

1. Chapter 11: Personality: Theory, Research, and Assessment

2. Defining Personality:Consistency and Distinctiveness • Personality Traits • Personality refers to an individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits. • A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations. • The concept of personality is used to explain the stability in a person’s behavior over time and across situations (consistency) and the behavioral differences among people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness).

3. Defining Personality:Consistency and Distinctiveness • The Five-Factor Model • Extraversion - outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive, and gregarious. Some trait models refer to this as positive emotionality. • Neuroticism - anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure, and vulnerable. Some models call this negative emotionality. • Openness to experience - curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity, and unconventional attitudes. • Agreeableness - sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward. • Conscientiousness - diligent, disciplined, well organized, punctual, and dependable. Some models refer to this trait as constraint. It is related to high productivity in a variety of occupational areas.

4. Psychodynamic Perspectives • Freud’s psychoanalytic theory - focuses on the influence of early childhood experiences, unconscious motives and conflicts, and the methods people use to cope with sexual and aggressive urges • Structure of personality • Id & the Pleasure principle- the primitive, instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification and engages in primary-process thinking (primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented). • Ego - Reality principle - the decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle, seeking to delay gratification of the id’s urges until appropriate outlets can be found, thus mediating between the id and the external world. • Superego – Morality - the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong. The superego emerges out of the ego at around 3-5 years of age. • Levels of awareness • Conscious • Unconscious • Preconscious

5. Psychodynamic Perspectives • Freud saw behavior as the outcome of an ongoing series of internal conflicts between the id, ego, and superego. • Freud’s psychoanalytic theory • Conflict • Sex and Aggression • Anxiety • Defense Mechanisms

6. Figure 11.2 Freud’s model of personality structure

7. Table 11.1 Defense Mechanisms, with Examples

8. Freud on Development:Psychosexual Stages • Freud believed that the foundation of personality is laid by the age of five. He theorized that the ways in which children deal with immature sexual urges (sexual used as a general term meaning physical pleasure) during different stages of development shape personality. • Psychosexual stages • Oral, • Anal, • Phallic, • Latency, • Genital • Fixation = a failure to move forward from one stage to another as expected. Fixation can occur due to excessive gratification or frustration during a particular stage • Fixation leads to an overemphasis on the psychosexual needs prominent during the fixated stage in adulthood

9. Table 11.2 Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

10. Other Psychodynamic Theorists • Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology • Personal and collective unconscious: the unconscious mind is composed of two layers: the personal unconscious, which houses material that is not within one’s conscious awareness because it has been repressed or forgotten; and the collective unconscious, which houses latent memory traces inherited from people’s ancestral past. • Archetypes - emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meaning, such as the mandala. • Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology • Striving for superiority - – a universal drive to adapt, improve oneself, and master life’s challenges • Compensation - everyone feels some inferiority and works to overcome it, a process he called compensation.

11. Figure 11.4 Jung’s vision of the collective unconscious

12. Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspectives • Pros • The unconscious • The role of internal conflict • The importance of early childhood experiences • The use of defense mechanisms • Cons • Poor testability • Inadequate empirical base • Sexist views

13. Behavioral Perspectives • Skinner’s views • similar to his views on all other human behavior; • it is learned through conditioning.

14. Behavioral Perspectives • Bandura’s social cognitive theory • Observational learning - behavior is shaped by exposure to models, or a person whose behavior they observe. • Self-efficacy – which referrw to one’s belief about one’s ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes. • He believes that self-efficacy (or lack thereof) influences which challenges people tackle and how well they perform. • Researchers believe that self-efficacy is fostered by parents who are stimulating and responsive to their children.

15. Evaluating Behavioral Perspectives • Pros • Based on rigorous research • Insights into effects of learning and environmental factors • Cons • Over-dependence on animal research • Fragmented view of personality • Dehumanizing views

16. Humanistic Perspectives • Carl Rogers’s person-centered theory • Self-concept - a collection of beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities, and typical behavior, a person’s mental picture of himself or herself. Self-concept may not be consistent with reality. • Incongruence and anxiety - When self-concepts don’t match reality (incongruence), they are threatened, and anxiety results.

17. Conditional/unconditional positive regard • - When parents make their affection conditional, that is, dependent on a child’s living up to expectations, the child may block out of their self concept those experiences that make them feel unworthy of love. • - Unconditional love is based in assurances that a child is worthy of • affection, no matter what they do.

18. Humanistic Perspectives • Abraham Maslow’s theory of self-actualization • Hierarchy of needs - a systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in which basic needs must be met before less basic needs are aroused • Maslow focused on the healthy personality and argued that humans have an innate drive toward personal growth, culminating in the need for self-actualization, which is the need to fulfill one’s potential (the highest need in his hierarchy). “What a man can be, he must be.” • Self-actualizing persons are people with personalities marked by continued personal growth. • Maslow found that these people are tuned in to reality and at peace with themselves. They are open and spontaneous and sensitive to others’ needs

19. Figure 11.9 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

20. Figure 11.10 Maslow’s view of the healthy personality

21. Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives • Pros • Recognized the importance of individual’s subjective views in determining behavior and attitudes • Recognized importance of self-concept • Laid foundation for positive psychology • Cons • Many aspects of theory are difficult to test • Unrealistic optimism • More empirical research needed

22. Biological Perspectives • Eysenk’s theory • Determined by genes • Extraversion-introversion • Behavioral genetics • Twin studies - indicate that identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins in personality characteristics • Heritability estimates – 40% • The evolutionary approach • certain traits and the ability to recognize them may contribute to reproductive fitness

23. Figure 11.11 Eysenck’s model of personality structure

24. Evaluating Biological Perspectives • Pros • Convincing evidence for genetic influence • Cons • Too much reliance on heritability estimates • No comprehensive biological theory

25. Culture and Personality • Independent self - . American culture fosters an independent view of self in which children are encouraged to see themselves as autonomous and self-reliant. • Interdependent self - some East Asian cultures seem to foster a view of self in which children are encouraged to see themselves in relation to others, as part of a social unit.