Fact of Falsehood?

Chapter 13: Personality Defined: unique and

relatively consistent pattern of thoughts, feelings and actions

Is personality stable across a lifetime? Situations?

Why study personality?

Personality Assessment Self-Report Inventories: Questionnaires given to

individuals pursuing what characteristics an individual find to be true (ex: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)

Projective Tests: use ambiguous stimuli to assess personality (ex: Rorschach ink blots, TAT)

Observations: psychologists watch interactions with others to see personality traits

Freud Believed childhood experiences determine adult

personality. Personality disturbance is due to: - unmet needs of self - species preservation (Eros) and - aggression and destruction (thanatos)

Unconscious mental processes determine adult behavior Conflict causes most human behavior

Freud: Parts of the Mind Id: the pleasure-seeking,

instinctual part of personality INSTANT Gratification, Libido, irrational

Ego: the reality-seeking part of personality

Super-Ego: the element of personality serves as your conscience Morality, Ideal standards of parents, society

Freud: Part of Mind model

Defense Mechanisms- coping with anxiety Repression- when anxious thoughts are pushed into the

unconscious

Projection- attributing unwanted thoughts and feelings to other people

Denial- refusal to acknowledge an anxiety-provoking experience

Rationalization- replacing unacceptable thoughts with socially acceptable ones

Reaction Formation- defeating anxiety by acting out in an opposite manner than one’s own feelings

Displacement- placing one’s feelings on a less threatening person than the one who caused the feelings

Sublimation- a form of displacement that involves aiming an aggressive impulse toward a socially acceptable object

Regression- returning to behaviors used at an earlier level of development

Examples:

Defense Mechanisms diagram

Psychosexual Stages Biological stages driven from birth by sexual

instinct Different zones become sources of pleasure A strong conflict could FIXATE the person’s

sexual seeking energy

Oral Stage (0-18 months)

Sucking, biting, and chewing Weaning is main conflict Traits- smoking, eating, drinking, sarcasm,

demanding

Anal Stage (18-36 months)

Elimination and retention of feces Toilet training is main conflict Anal retentive- overly neat and organized Anal expulsive- disorganized and messy

Phallic Stage (3-6 years) Self stimulation of genitals Oedipus (males) and Electra (females) is conflict.

Unconscious desire for opposite sex parent and fear and jealousy of same sex parent.

Children repress feelings and identity with same-sex parent to help provide gender identity and superego.

Traits- Flirting, promiscuity or overly modest, timid

Latent & Genital Stages

Latency (6-12)• Sexual repression• Social contacts outside of the family

Genital (puberty - on)• Intimate sexual relations with others.

Neo-Freudians Carl Jung

• broke from Freud

• believed in the collective unconscious, archtypes

Alfred Adler• believed people were driven by a need for superiority,

birth order

Karen Horney• believed that personality disturbances are caused by

anxiety- family relationships

Humanistic Personality Theories

Carl Rogers• Unconditional positive regard• People’s self-concept are distorted by outside influence• Healthy personality is when self-concept is consistent with

your ideal self-concept

*free will, potential

Abraham Maslow• Suggested that personality is determined by a hierarchy

of needs• Basic needs must be met before higher needs.• The goal is self-actualization

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Learning Theories and Personality B. F. Skinner (Behaviorist)

• Believed that personality and behavior are determined by past experience with reinforcement and punishment

Social-Cognitive Theorists• Albert Bandura

– reciprocal determinism– self-efficacy-your beliefs about your ability to perform a task

• Julian Rotter• Proposed Social Learning Theory• Behavior is determined by expectancies and whether you have

an internal or external locus of control• Locus of Control

Bandura’s Reciprocal Determinism model

Traits

Write down as many traits as you can in two minutes.

Trait Theorists- Allport and Cattell Gordon Allport

• Set out to compose a list of critical personality traits• In the end, he composed a list of over 4500 words (its

usefulness is questioned)• Central, Secondary, Cardinal (dominates life)

Raymond Cattell• collapsed data from a large number of personality

measures (FACTOR ANALYSIS) to identify sixteen personality traits and a range of each.

Cattell’s 16 Factor

Questionnaire

Trait Theorists- Eysenck

Hans Eysenck• Identified three basic traits

(collapsed categories for personality lists)

• extraversion- how much people focus on external stimuli and are outgoing in their approach to life

• neuroticism- a measure of emotional instability

• psychoticism- a measure of impulsiveness and aggression

Trait Theories- the “Big Five” This theory believes that personality can be

broken down into five basic traits• openness to experience- creative and adventure seeking• conscientiousness- responsible and dependable• extraversion- outgoing• agreeableness- someone who is trusting, warm, giving

and tolerant• neuroticism- negative, anxious, and poor self-esteem

Four Views of Personality model

Biological Foundations of Personality Twin studies indicate that some personality

characteristics are inherited Evidence suggests that some personality

characteristics may be related to varying levels of certain neurotransmitters• (ex: decreased levels of serotonin are correlated with

aggressiveness)

Personality Correlations