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Chapter 11

Personality: Theory and Measurement

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Introduction to Personality

Personality = stable patterns of emotions, motives, and behavior that distinguish one person from another.

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Theories of Personality: Psychodynamic Perspective

Sigmund Freud characterized personality as conflict, a dynamic struggle. Drives like sex and aggression conflict with

social rules and moral codes. The conflict is between opposing inner

forces.

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Figure 11.1 The Human Iceberg According to Freud According to psychodynamic theory, only the tip of human personality rises above the surface of the mind into conscious awareness. Material in the preconscious can become conscious if we direct our attention to it. Unconscious material tends to remain shrouded in mystery.

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Theories of Personality: Psychodynamic Perspective

The Structure of Personality. Psychic structures or mental structures that

are the clashing forces of personality. Id Ego Superego

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The Trait Perspective

Traits are reasonably stable elements of personality that are inferred from behavior. Gordon Allport catalogued

approximately 18,000 human traits from dictionaries.

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The Trait Perspective

Hans Eysenck’s Trait Theory. Eysenck focused his research on two

personality traits: Introversion-extraversion Emotional stability-instability (neuroticism).

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Figure 11.2 Eysenck’s Personality Dimensions and Hippocrates’ Personality Types Various personality traits shown in the outer ring fall within the two major dimensions of personality suggested by Hans Eysenck. The inner circle shows how Hippocrates’ four major personality types—choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholic—fit within Eysenck’s dimensions.

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The Trait Perspective

The Five-Factor Model (The Big Five). Recent research has focused on five basic

personality factors: Extraversion Conscientiousness Agreeableness Openness Neuroticism

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The Trait Perspective

The Five-Factor Model (The Big Five) continued. The factors are related to basic

temperaments and are largely inborn. Personalities tend to mature rather than be

shaped by environmental conditions. Personalities are affected by culture.

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The Trait Perspective

Evaluation of the Trait Perspective. Trait theorists have focused much attention

on the development of personality tests. Trait theory has tended to be more

descriptive than explanatory.

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Learning-Theory Perspectives

Personality is “plastic” -> situational and environmental influences shape preference and behaviors.

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Learning-Theory Perspectives

Social-Cognitive Theory: Bandura. person variables and situational variables

interact to influence behavior Reciprocal determinism: people

influence their environment just as their environment influences them.

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Figure 11.3 Person Variables and Situational Variables in Social–Cognitive Theory According to social–cognitive theory, person variables and situational variables interact to influence behavior.

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Learning-Theory Perspectives

Social-Cognitive Theory Observational Learning (modeling).

Acquiring knowledge by observing others. Our expectations stem from our observations of

what happens to ourselves and other people.

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Evaluation of the Learning Perspective

Emphasized the importance of publicly observable behaviors and environmental conditions as determinants of behavior.

Behaviorism is limited in its ability to explain personality and may not pay enough attention to genetic variation.

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The Humanistic-Existential Perspective

Focus on: the meaning of life self-awareness free choice self fulfillment/actualization

Existentialism: giving personal meaning to things and making personal

choices. Maslow argued that people have a conscious

need for self-actualization: to become all that they can be.

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The Humanistic-Existential Perspective

Carl Roger’s Self Theory. Rogers wrote people shape themselves

through free choice and action. Defined the self as the center of experience.

Choices are made on the basis of your

values.

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The Humanistic-Existential Perspective: Carl Rogers Self

Theory Self-esteem and Positive Regard.

Unconditional positive regard: accept people as having intrinsic merit regardless of their behavior at the moment.

Conditional positive regard: I am valued/loved/accepted only if/when I behave how you want me to behave.

As a result of conditional regard, we deny our feelings or disown aspects of ourselves, distorting the self concept and resulting in anxiety.

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The Humanistic-Existential Perspective: Carl Rogers Self

Theory Self-actualization requires getting in touch

with our genuine feelings, accepting them, and acting upon them.

Rogers believed that we have Self-ideals: mental images of what we are capable

of becoming. We are motivated to reduce the discrepancy

between our self-concepts and our self-ideals.

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Evaluation of the Humanistic-Existential Perspective

Emphasized the importance of personal experience, free choice and personal freedom.

Difficult to test because conscious experience is private and subjective.

Humanistic-existential perspective has little to say about the development of traits and personality types.

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The Sociocultural Perspective

Some psychologists believe that personality cannot be understood without reference to the sociocultural perspective. Aspects of culture, religion, race should be considered.

Individualism Versus Collectivism. Individualists:

tend to define themselves in terms of their personal identities and to give priority to their personal goals.

Collectivists: tend to define themselves in terms of the groups to which

they belong and to give priority to the group’s goals.

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The Sociocultural Perspective

Evaluation of the Sociocultural Perspective. The sociocultural perspective provides

valuable insights into the roles of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status in personality formation.

The sociocultural perspective enhances our sensitivity to cultural differences.

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Measurement of Personality

Personality Assessment take a sample of behavior to predict future

behavior. Behavior-rating scales: trained observers check

off each occurrence of a specific behavior within a certain time frame.

Aptitude assessment aids in gaining insight into whether individuals are suited for certain occupations.

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Measurement of Personality

Objective Tests. Objective tests present respondents with a

standardized group of test items in the form of a questionnaire.

Best example: The MMPI.

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Measurement of Personality

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) contains hundreds of items in a true-false format. Used to diagnose psychological disorders. Most widely used personality measurement in

psychological research. MMPI scales are based on actual clinical data, not on

psychological theory.

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Table 11.3 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality

Inventory (MMPI) Scales

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Measurement of Personality: Projective Tests

People are shown ambiguous stimuli and asked to say what they look like. People project their own personalities into their

responses. Examples:

The Rorschach Inkblot Test. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

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Figure 11.5 A Rorschach Inkblot The Rorschach is the most widely used projective personality test. What does this inkblot look like to you? What could it be?