House Water Road Fence Tree Snake. What is Personality? Personality –an individual’s...

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What is Personality?• Personality

– an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

– four basic perspectives• Psychoanalytic• Trait• Humanistic• Social-cognitive

The Psychoanalytic Perspective

• From Freud’s theory which proposes that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality

Personality Structure– Freud-a reservoir of mostly

unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories

– Contemporary-information processing of which we are unaware

– information that is not conscious, but is retrievable into conscious awareness

– a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy

– strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives

– operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification

– the part of personality that presents internalized ideals

– provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations

– the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality

– mediates among the demands of the id, superego and ego

– operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain

Id

Superego

Ego Conscious mind

Unconscious mind

Defense Mechanismsanxiety

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

Defense Mechanisms

• Regression – defense mechanism in which an

individual retreats, when faced with anxiety, to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated

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

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

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

Personality Development• Psychosexual Stages

– the childhood stages of development during which the pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

Libido– pleasure-seeking energies

Erogenous Zones--part of body that experiences pleasure

• Fixation – a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking

energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were unresolved

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Stage Focus Personality Characteristics

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• Identification

– the process by which children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos

• Gender Identity – one’s sense of being male or female

• Fixation – a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at

an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were unresolved

Neo-Freudians

• Alfred Adler– importance of childhood social tension

• Karen Horney– sought to balance Freud’s masculine biases

• Carl Jung– emphasized the collective unconscious

• concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history

Assessing the Unconscious

• Freudian Slip

• Free association

• 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

Assessing the Unconscious- TAT

TAT Test

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

Assessing the Unconscious- Rorschach

The Trait Perspective• Trait

– a characteristic pattern of behavior– a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-

report inventories and peer reports

• Personality Inventory – a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-

disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors

– used to assess selected personality traits

The Trait Perspective

• Hans and Sybil Eysenck use two primary personality factors as axes for describing personality variation

UNSTABLE

STABLE

cholericmelancholic

phlegmatic sanguineINTROVERTED EXTRAVERTED

MoodyAnxious

RigidSober

PessimisticReserved

Unsociable

Quiet

SociableOutgoing

TalkativeResponsiveEasygoing

LivelyCarefree

Leadership

PassiveCareful

Thoughtful

Peaceful

ControlledReliable

Even-temperedCalm

TouchyRestlessAggressive

ExcitableChangeable

ImpulsiveOptimistic

Active

The Trait PerspectiveThe “Big Five” Personality Factors (OCEAN)Trait Dimension DescriptionEmotional Stability Calm versus anxious(Neuroticism ) 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

Agreeableness Soft-hearted versus ruthless Trusting versus suspicious Helpful versus uncooperative

Conscientiousness Organized versus disorganized Careful versus careless Disciplined versus impulsive

• One common criticism is that the Big Five does not explain all of human personality. Some say it neglects other important factors

• Some Trait theories describe as many as 18 different factors, and some (Like Eysenck) as few as two.

How are items created/chosen?

• Religiosity,• Manipulativeness/Machiavellianism,• Honesty, • Self-Awareness, • Thriftiness, • Conservativeness, • Critical Judgement, • Masculinity/Femininity, • Snobbishness, • Sense of humour,• Identity, • Self-concept, • Motivation.

Myers Briggs Factors

• Introversion/extroversion

• Sensing/Intuiting

• Thinking/feeling

• Perceiving/Judging

Myers Briggs Personality Inventory

• Extraversion or introversion (E/I)

• Extraverts are quick to speak and slow to listen.

• Extraverts “recharge” their batteries through interaction with others

• 75% of population is considered “extraverted”

E/I

• Introverts are quick to listen and slow to speak

• Should not be confused with “shyness”

• Introverts “recharge their batteries” during solitary activities.

Sensing or iNtuition

• Can be thought of as difference between introspection and observation.

• 85% of population considered to be Sensors• Sensors observe what is going on around them.

They look, listen, touch , taste. They respond to the outer environment and pay attention to what is going on around them

• They “don’t miss much”• They want to deal with the facts of a situation

Inuition

• Introspective• Pay attention to inner world.• Make inferences, imagine, daydream,

muse, wonder about things not in our immediate presence

• Miss a lot of what’s going on around them• Can be considered flighty, impractical and

unrealistic

Thinking or Feeling (T/F)

• “Tough-minded” v. “Tender minded” or “Friendly”• Thinkers often accused of being inhuman,

hearltess, stone-hearted, remote, of having ice in their veins.

• They actually have feelings, but consider the expression of them to be embarassing and hide feelings rather than be seen as losing self-control

T/F

• Feelers accused of being too soft-hearted, too emotional, bleeding-hearts, muddleheaded, fuzzy-thinkers and for wearing their heart on their sleeve.

• They tend to make their emotions and wishes visible and audible, so others consider them capable of deep feeling.

Judgment or Perception

• “Schedulers or Probers”• Judgers make agendas, timetables,lists,syllabi,

calendars, outlines, etc. for themselves and others to follow

• They tend to believe that their work comes first.• They tend to be neat and orderly• Described as driven, uptight, stressed-out, slave

driving, rigid and inflexible (by perceivers)

J/P

• Perceivers Keep their eves open for chances to do things they want to, for opportunities and alternatives.

• They look upon deadlines as alarm clocks, which are easily turned off or ignored while they catch some more sleep.

• Deadlines are more of a signal to start projects than to finish them.

• They have a lot of tolerance for disorder in physical environment

• Can be accused of being indecisive, foot-dragging, aimless, lazy, sloppy

J/P

• Judgers stop looking for alternative and option and so may never know what they’re missing.

• They get things done and are willing to do preparation, maintenance, and cleaning up afterwards just to get job done.

J/P

• Perceivers are likely to miss deadlines and leave things undone.

• They are good at spotting opportunities and lay out alternatives.

The Trait Perspective

• Empirically Derived Test– a test developed by testing a pool of

items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups

– such as the MMPI

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

Evaluating the Trait Perspective

• Situational influences on behavior are important to consider

• People can fake desirable responses on self-report measures of personality

• (15.24/15.7)

• Averaging behavior across situations seems to indicate that people do have distinct personality traits

Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Reciprocal Determinism – the interacting

influences between personality and environmental factors

Internal personal/cognitive factors

(liking high-riskactivities)

Behavior(learning to

bungee jump)

Environmentalfactors

(bungee-jumpingfriends)

Maximizers v. Satisficers

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L O C U S O F C O N T R O L

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• Personal Control– our sense of controlling our

environments rather than feeling helpless

– External Locus of Control

– Internal Locus of Control• Less depressed, achieve more in school,

act more independently

Learned helplessness and personal control

• Learned Helplessness

– the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

“Self control weakens after exertion, replenishes after rest, Strengthens with exercise”

• Optimist- bad outcomes are temporary, reversible; independent of self-esteem and locus of control– Life orientation test– reverse # 3,8,9,12– elim 2,6,7,10– 0-32, Mean=21

• Excessive/Illusory optimism -can blind us to taking sensible precautions – questionnaire numbered 1-8– add (be sure to use signs correctly!) and divide by

8 to get average chances

• Pessimist- Bad outcomes are inevitable

• Defensive pessimism -protect ourselves; manage anxiety– eliminate #’s 3,5,9,11,13– reverse 2 and 16– scores between 12-84

• Realism -realistic anxiety over future failure can fuel effort

Success requires enough optimism to Success requires enough optimism to inspire hope, but enough pessimism to inspire hope, but enough pessimism to prevent complacencyprevent complacency

Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Built from research on learning and cognition

• Fails to consider unconscious motives and individual disposition

• Today, cognitive-behavioral theory is perhaps predominant psychological approach to explaining human behavior

Humanistic Perspective

• Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)– studied self-actualization processes of

productive and healthy people (e.g., Lincoln)

• 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

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

• Actualization :Self fulfillment cognitive needs

• Esteem : Strength, Reputation, confidence, Importance

• Social : Affection, Belongingness

• Safety : Security & stability, Dependency, Protection Freedom from Fear.

• Physiological : Hunger and Thirst, Sex

Humanistic Perspective

• Carl Rogers (1902-1987)– focused on growth and fulfillment of individuals

• requires three conditions:– genuineness

– acceptance - unconditional positive regard

– empathy

• Unconditional Positive Regard– an attitude of total acceptance toward another

person

Humanistic Perspective

• Self-Concept– all our thoughts and feelings about

ourselves, in an answer to the question, “Who am I?’

• Self-Esteem – one’s feelings of high or low self-worth

• Self-Serving Bias – a readiness to perceive oneself favorably

Humanistic Perspective

• 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

Humanistic Perspective

Morality Defined by individuals Defined by social networks (self-based) (duty-based)

Attributing behavior Behavior reflects one’s personality Behavior reflects social norms and attitudes and roles

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 uniqueness Maintain connections, fit in

What matters Me--personal achievement and fulfillment; We--group goals and solidarity; rights and liberties social responsibilities and

relationships

Coping method Change reality Accommodate to reality

Relationships Many, often temporary or casual; Few, close and enduring; confrontation acceptable harmony valued

Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective

• Concepts like self-actualization are vague

• Emphasis on self may promote self-indulgence and lack of concern for others

• Theory does not address reality of human capacity for evil

• Theory has impacted popular ideas on child-rearing, education, management, etc.

Personality- Summary

The Four Perspectives on Personality

Perspective Behavior Springs From Assessment Techniques Evaluation

Psychoanalytic Unconscious conflicts Projective tests aimed at A speculative, hard-to-test between pleasure-seeking revealing unconscious theory with enormous cul-

impulses and social restraints motivations tural impactTrait Expressing biologically (a)Personality inventories A descriptive approach crit- influenced dispositions, such that assess the strengths icized as sometimes under-

as extraversion or introversion of different traits estimating the variability (b)Peer ratings of behavior of behavior from situation patterns to situation

Humanistic Processing conscious feelings (a)Questionnaire A humane theory that about oneself in the light of assessments reinvigorated contemporary

one’s experiences (b)Empathic interviews interest in the self; criticized as subjective and sometimes naively self-centered and

optimistic

Social-cognitive Reciprocal influences between (a)Questionnaire assessments Art interactive theory that in- people and their situation, of people’s feelings of control tegrates research on learning,

colored by perceptions of (b) Observations of people’s cognition, and social behavior, control behavior in particular criticized as underestimating

situations the importance of emotions and enduring traits