Personalitycrash course

a person’s pattern of thinking, feeling and acting

AP Exam • Personality (5–7%)

• In this section of the course, students explore major theories of how humans develop enduring patterns of behavior and personal characteristics that influence how others relate to them. The unit also addresses research methods used to assess personality.

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:• Compare and contrast the major theories and approaches to explaining personality (e.g., psychoanalytic,

humanist, cognitive, trait, social cognition, behavioral)

• • Describe and compare research methods (e.g., case studies and surveys) that psychologists use to investigate personality.

• Identify frequently used assessment strategies (e.g., the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory [MMPI], the Thematic Apperception Test [TAT]), and evaluate relative test quality based on reliability and validity of the instruments.

• • Speculate how cultural context can facilitate or constrain personality development, especially as it relates to self-concept (e.g., collectivistic versus individualistic cultures).

• • Identify key contributors to personality theory (e.g., Alfred Adler, Albert Bandura, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers).

Psychoanalyze Yourself

Read the following questions, imagining the scenes in your mind, and write down the FIRST thing that you visualize. Do not think about the questions excessively.

1. You are not alone. You are walking in the woods. Who are you walking with?

2. You are walking in the woods. You see an animal. What kind of animal is it?

3. What interaction takes place between you and the animal?

4. You walk deeper in the woods. You enter a clearing and before you is your dream house. Describe its size?

5. Is your dream house surrounded by a fence?

6. You enter the house. You walk to the dining area and see the dining room table. Describe what you see on AND around the table.

7. You exit the house through the back door. Lying in the grass is a cup. What material is the cup made of?

8. What do you do with the cup?

This has been a relational psychology test. The answers given to the questions have been shown to have a relevance to values and ideals that we hold in our personal lives. The analysis follows:

1. The person who you are walking with is the most important person in your life.

2. The size of the animal is representative of your perception of the size of your problems.

3. The severity of the interaction you have with the animal is representative of how you deal with your problems. (passive/aggressive)

4. The size of your dream house is representative of the size of your ambition to resolve your problems.

5. No fence is indicative of an open personality. People are welcome at all times. The presence of a fence indicates a closed personality. You'd prefer people not to drop by unannounced.

6. If your answer did not include food, people, or flowers, then you are generally unhappy.

7. The durability of the material with which the cup is made of is representative of the perceived durability of your relationship with the person named in number 1. For example, Styrofoam, plastic, and paper are all disposable, Styrofoam, paper and glass are not durable, and metal and plastic are durable.

8. Your disposition of the cup is representative of your attitude towards the person in number

Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

• Sigmund Freud• Idea of the Libido

moving to different parts of our body

• Stages of Psycho-Sexual Development

1. Oral2. Anal3. Phallic4. Latent5. Genital6.All relates to your

childhood!

What’s on our minds!!!

Freud’s View of Consciousness

• Conscious- things we are aware of right now

• Preconscious- things we can be aware of if we wanted to be

• Unconscious- deep hidden reservoir that holds the true “us”; all of our desires and fears

Freud’s Concept of Personality (Psyche)

• Id

• Ego

• Superego

Id• Exists entirely in the

unconscious (so we are never aware of it)

• Our hidden true animalistic wants and desires

• Works on the Pleasure Principle– avoid pain and receive

instant gratification

Ego• Develops after the Id• Works on the

Reality Principle• Negotiates between

the Id, the environment, and Superego

• In our conscious and unconscious minds

• It is what everyone sees as our personality

Superego• Develops last;

about age 5• It is our conscience

(tells us the difference between right and wrong)

• The Ego often mediates between the Superego and Id.

Defense Mechanisms

• The Ego protects us from threatening thoughts in our unconsciousDefense Mechanisms

oOur conscious self is unaware of the use of defense mechanisms

Richard is dating Jasmine. Jasmine dumps Richard and starts dating Andrew.

Andrew Richard Jasmine

Repression

• Pushing thoughts into our unconscious

• When asked about Jasmine, Richard may say “Who?, I have not thought about her for awhile.”

• Why don’t we remember our Oedipus and Electra complexes?

Denial

• Not accepting the ego-threatening truth.

• Richard may act like he is still together with Jasmine. He may hang out by her locker and plan dates with her.

Displacement

• Redirecting one’s feelings toward another person or object.

• Often displaced on less threatening things

• Richard may take his anger/frustration out on another kid by bullying

Projection

• Believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself.

• Richard insists that Jasmine still cares for him.

Reaction Formation

• Expressing the opposite of how one truly feels

• Cootie stage in Freud’s Latent Development

• Richard claims he hates Jasmine.

Regression

• Returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior.

• Richard begins to sleep with his favorite childhood stuffed animal.

Rationalization• Coming up with a

beneficial result of an undesirable situation

• Richard thinks he will find a better girlfriend. “Jasmine was not all that great anyway!”

• “I really didn’t want to go to _______ anyway, it was too ________.”

Intellectualization• Undertaking an

academic, unemotional study of a topic.

• Richard starts doing a research paper on failed teenage romances.

Sublimationreview quiz

• Channeling one’s frustration toward a different goal.

• Sometimes a healthy defense mechanism

• Richard learns how to play the guitar and writes songs (or starts to body build).

Criticisms of Freud

• He really only studied wealthy woman in Austria.

• His results are not empirically verifiable (really hard to test).

• No predictive power• Scientific/research

problems with defense mechanisms (i.e. repression)

Neo-FreudianPsychodynamic Theories

• Carl Jung - concept of the “collective” unconscious (a common reservoir of memory traces).

• Alfred Adler - studied superiority and inferiority (inferiority complex).

• Karen Horney - said Freud was sexist and countered “penis envy” with “womb envy”; childhood anxiety triggers desire for love and security

Psychoanalysis, Past & Present

• Hypnosis• Dream Interpretation• Free Association

(having patients talk to themselves…and then interpreting the conversation)

• Projective Tests (tests that delve into the unconscious)Examples are TAT and

Inkblot Tests.

TAT Test(Thematic Apperception Test)

• Give the subject a picture that is ambiguous (can have several meanings) and ask him what is occurring.

• His answers are the manifest content, supposedly revealing the latent content.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

• The most widely used projective test• A set of ten inkblots designed to

identify people’s inner feelings, thoughts, etc

• Subjects are asked to interpret what they see in the inkblots.

Humanistic Psychologycrash course; start @ 9:53

• In the 1960’s people became sick of Freud’s negativity, trait psych’s objectivity, and behaviorist psych’s determinism.

• Along came psychologists who wanted to focus on “healthy” people and how to help them strive to “be all that they can be”.

• Key Figures: A. Maslow / C. Rogers

Humanistic Personality Theory

• Rejects determinism (your actions are dictated by your past).

• Humans have free will (ability to choose their own destiny).

• Humans are innately good and as long as their self-esteem and self-concept are positive, they will be happy.

Abraham Maslow

• Hierarchy of Needs• Humans ultimately

seek self- actualization (the process of fulfilling our potential; becoming our ideal self).

Carl Rogers• The objective of humans

is to become self-actualized.

• Compared human potential to that of acorns

• For Humans to “grow” they need:• Genuineness• Acceptance (Unconditional

Positive Regard)• Empathy

Criticism of Humanistic Psychology

• Reflects Western Cultural Values

• Extreme Individualism leads to Narcissism

• Fails to Account for Immense Evil (People are basically good?)

Trait Theory of PersonalityMyers-Briggs personality inventory

crash course

• Describe people’s personalities by specifying their main characteristics (traits – patterns of behavior or disposition to feel/act).

• Traits like honesty, laziness, ambition, outgoing are thought to be stable over the course of your lives.

• Often use Personality Inventories (Factor Analysis is used to cluster items and score personality “tests”.

• First developed by Gordon Allport (interviewed Freud).

Trait Theory of Personality• MMPI – Minnesota Multiphasic Personality

Inventory – most widely researched/used trait personality inventory

• Introversion-Extroversion/Emotional Stability Scale (Eysenck)

• BIG FIVE Personality Traits:• Big Five Personality test

1. Extraversion (how outgoing or shy one is)2. Agreeableness (how easy to get along with one is)3. Conscientiousness (hardworking, responsible,

organized)4. Openness to Experience (creativity, curiosity, etc.)

5. Neuroticism (Emotional Stability; consistency of mood)

Trait Theory Criticism• Person-Situation

Controversy – while there’s been some evidence of persistence of traits with age, they seem to vary by situation and circumstance

• Consistency of Expressive Style – some traits seem more easily judged or pervasive than others

Personality Inventory• Myers-Briggs– based on the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory• Introversion (I) vs. Extroversion (E)• Intuitive (N) vs. Sensing (S)• Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)• Judging (J) vs. Prospecting (P)

• On which theory of personalities is this test based?• What variables might impact the results of this test

other than someone’s traits?• Do you agree with the test’s analysis of your

personality?

Social-Cognitive Personality Theories

crash course start @ 5:00• Focuses on how we interact with our culture and environment

• Albert BanduraReciprocal Determinism (traits, environment,

and behavior all interact and influence each other to form personality)

• Rotter - “Locus of Control”– External Locus of

Control– Internal Locus of

Control

• Seligman - “Learned Helplessness”, Optimism, & Positive Psychology

Social-Cognitive Personality Theorieslocus of control inventory

Behaviorist Perspective on Personality Theories

• The way most people think of personality is meaningless.

• Personality changes according to the environment (reinforcers and punishments).

• If you change environment then you change the personality.

Biological Perspective on Personality Theories

• What % of personality variance can be attributed to genetics (heritability)?

• We are not sure BUT temperaments do seem to be stable from infants to old age.

Somatotype Theory• An early biological

theory by William Sheldon.

• Endomorphs (Fat) tend to be friendly and outgoing.

• Mesomorphs (muscular) tend to be more aggressive.

• Ectomorphs (thin) tend to be more shy and secretive.

• Sheldon’s research was coorelative only and has not been replicated.

Beware of the Barnum Effect !

• People have the tendency to see themselves in vague, stock descriptions of personality.

• Horoscopes, astrologists, psychics, and short “personality tests” all take advantage of this tendency.

What kind of shape are

you?

What your favorite color

says about you!!!

You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a great deal of unused capacity, which you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others statements without satisfactory proof. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. At times you are extroverted, sociable , while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.

Exploring the Self• Markus & “Possible Selves”

Research

• Spotlight Effect – overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating one’s appearance, performance, etc.

Exploring the Self

• Self-Esteem – one’s feelings of high or low self worth– High self esteem correlates with better

sleep, more resistance to peer pressure, less drug use, persistence, happiness, etc.

Exploring the Self

• Self-serving Bias – a readiness to perceive oneself favorably– People accept responsibility more

readily for their successes than failures– People view themselves as better than

average

• Finish this sentence… – “I am....”

• Individualism – emphasis on one’s own goals and defining one’s identity in terms of self rather than the group– KEY WORD – “ME”

• Collectivism – emphasis on one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly– KEY WORD – “WE”

Exploring the SelfCulture & Self

---and “self efficacy” is----

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrzzbaomLmc&feature=related

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IHA5gEbusE

• You are talking quietly with some friends at a restaurant when all of a sudden a new student at your school, Dave, sits down at your table. Dave immediately starts to tell a loud, funny story to everyone at the table while he gobbles french fries from your plate.

Use the following personality theories or concepts to explain or describe aspects of Dave's behavior or thinking:

– Psychoanalytic Perspective– Trait Perspective– Humanistic Perspective– Social Cognitive Perspective– Internal or External Locus of Control– Individualism or Collectivism