Personality

Unit

Who am I? What do we know

about why people are the

way they are?

Pers

onalit

y is

defined a

s:

One’s characterisitc pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.”

Journal #13

How would you describe your personality?

What things have made you the way you are?

Theorists and PerspectivesSigmund Freud

Psychoanalytic

Martin SeligmanSocial-

Cognitive

Gordon AllportTrait

Albert BanduraSocial-Cognitive

Carl RogersHumanistic

Carl JungPsychoanalytic

Carol Myers-Briggs Trait

We w

ill be stu

dyin

g th

ree

diff

ere

nt p

ersp

ective

s of

perso

nality:

-Humanisitic

-Trait

-Social-Cognitive

(Perspectives are like different

lenses we can use to look at

different phenomena.)

THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

There are two main humanistic psychologists whose names you’ll need to know:

HUMANISTS BELIEVE:

1.That people are naturally good, but some environments are bad, and that can lead people to make bad choices.

2.That people should be treated with dignity and respect.

3.When the environments people come from are healthy, then people will be free to become their best selves.

ABRAHAM MASLOW

1908-1970

"What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-

actualization."

Studied healthy, creative people rather than troubled clinical cases

Personalities develop as we struggle to get our needs met

All needs are equal

Most basic needs must be met before we will seek to fulfill the more complex needs

If a person’s needs go unmet, the person will get stuck at that level and will not progress to higher levels

The graphic he used to represent the relationship between needs is a triangle

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Physiological Needs- Need to satisfy hunger and thirst

Safety-Need to feel that the world is organized and predictable; need to feel safe, secure, and stable

Love & Belonging-

Need to love and be loved, to belong and be accepted; need to avoid loneliness and alientation

Esteem-Need for self esteem, achievement, competence, and independence; need for recognition and respect from others

Self-Actualization-

Need to live up to one’s fullest and unique potential

Self-Transcenden

ce-Need to have one’s life benefit others

Examples

Physiological Needs-

Safety-

Love & Belonging-

Esteem-

Self-Actualization-

Self-Transcenden

ce-

Breathing, sleep, water, food, shelter, exercise

Security of body, health, resources, morality, employment, family, property

Friendship, family, religion

Self esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others

Morality, spontaneity, creativity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts

Service to Others, making a difference in someone else’s life

“When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic. ”

CARL ROGERS

1902-1987

CARL ROGERS SAID THERE WERE SOME CONDITIONS THAT MUST BE MET IN ORDER FOR US TO GROW

INTO OUR “TRUE SELVES”.(AND THAT THE GOAL OF LIFE IS TO GROW UP TO BECOME THE PERSON

YOU REALLY ARE.)

WE NEED TO BE IN A GROWTH-PROMOTING CLIMATE SURROUNDED

BY PEOPLE THAT GIVE US THE FOLLOWING 3 CONDITIONS-

ExampleCondition1. Genuineness- being open with their own feelings, dropping facades, and being transparent and self-disclosing

2. Acceptance- Unconditional Positive Regard. This means that we are valued even though our loved one knows our failings

3. Empathy- the sharing and mirroring of our feelings

Friends and family that are ‘REAL’- write the name of a person(s) who is in your life that does this for you

People that we can confess our worst feelings to and show all our ‘warts’ to and they still love us- write the name of a person(s) who is in your life that does this for you

People who share and mirror our feelings and reflect our meanings- write the name of a person(s) who is in your life that does this for you

Carl Rogers says:

Genuineness, Acceptance, and Empathy are the

Sun

Moon

Nutrients

That enable people to grow like oak trees

HUMANISTIC ASSESSMENT:

In other words, how do we test personality according to this perspective…

1. Self-Concept Questionnaire

2. Personal Interviews

3. Self Report

NOT EVERYONE BELIEVES IN THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECITIVE…

People who criticize this perspective say…1.

2. It’s concepts are too vague and subjective.

3. It could encourage a selfish focus on meeting one’s needs while ignoring the needs of other’s.

4. It merely provides a picture of the qualities that Maslow valued.

It is too optimistic about human nature. Not everyone is good, not everyone is striving for self-actualization.

The Trait Theory

A trait is

One major trait theorist is Gordon Allport.

a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self report inventories and peer reports

He said that a good theory of personality wouldn’t be as concerned with ___________ why someone acted a certain way, but should instead _______________ how people actually act.

Trait theorists also believe that __________ play a huge part in why we are the way we are.

explaining

describe

genetics

Personality inventories-

a questionnaire (often true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; which are used to assess selected personality traits.

Assessing Traits

MMPI- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventoryo Most commonly used test

today

Assessing Traits

To ensure they are accurate they make them

Empirically Derived-A test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups

Assessing Traits

If a personality inventory is a good one it will have high _______________, meaning that the same person taking the same inventory at different times will have very _______________ scores.

A well-designed inventory will also have high _____________, meaning that people who score high on a certain trait will actually ________________ that behavior in most situations.

reliability

similar

validity

demonstrate

Some critics dislike Trait theory for the following reasons:

1. They feel it is de-humanizing to reduce people to pre-defined categories

2. They feel it overlooks how people came to act the way they do, and that is too important to disregard

3. People with certain traits will not always express that trait. Environmental situations play a big part in how we act. Ex. A typically calm person may get nervous when in large crowds and act anxious.

Evaluating the Trait theory

Journal #14 What parts of each of the tests’ results did you

most agree with?

Were there any parts you disagreed with? If so, why did you disagree?

Which test do you think gave a more accurate portrayal of your personality? Why?

Which theory (Trait or Humanisitc) do you find most interesting/accurate? Why?

How does taking these tests influence your own thinking about yourself and/or your future life? Let the students discuss some of their insights as time allows.

The Social-Cognitive Perspective(environment matters)

Important Social-Cognitive Psychologists:

Social Cognitive Perspective-

views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons (and their thinking) and their social context

Albert Bandura

Martin Seligman

Reciprocal Determinism:

The interacting influences between personality and environmental factors.

3 ways in which individuals and environments interact:

Different people choose different environments- you choose your environment and it then shapes you

Our personalities shape how we interpret and react to events- glass half empty/glass half full

Our personalities help create situations to which we react- how we view and treat people influences how they in turn treat us

Internal Cognitive Factors

(thoughts and feelings about risky

activities)

Environmental Factors

(bungee-jumping friends)

Behavior(learning to

bungee jump)

Internal vs. External Locus of control:

Internal Locus of ControlDefinition:

Personality Results:

External Locus of ControlDefinition:

Personality Results:

People that believe they control their own fate

o Achieve more in schoolo Act more independentlyo Enjoy better healtho Feel less depressedo Better able to delay gratificationo Better able to cope with stress

People that believe chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate

o Blame academic performance on teacher

o Actions dependent on actions of those around them

o Impulse control problemso Stressedo depressed

Learned Helplessness: Learned Helplessness is a passive

attitude that happens when people are faced with an unavoidable negative event. This hopelessness makes them unwilling to try to change their situation.

Example:Prisoners in prison that are told what to do every minute of the day and how to do it.

Optimism• Attributional Style- the way we

characteristically explain negative and positive events.

Is the glass ½ full or ½ empty?

Advantages of Optimism

• Higher success professionally and at school

• Better health• Better self-discipline• Better relationship quality• More general happiness

However unbridled optimism can cause complacency, poor decision making, and excessive risk taking.

The key then is to adopt a realistic optimism- enough optimism to provide HOPE, but enough pessimism to prevent COMPLACENCY.

No specific assessments

Best predictor of future behavior is past behavior

Assessing Social-Cognitive

Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective What do critics say about this

perspective?

• Behavior is not just caused by environmental influences, but we do seem to have fairly consistent personality traits

Self-EsteemList some ways Self-Esteem influences personality:

• Happier• Less likely to conform• More persistent at difficult tasks• Less shy and lonely• Less likely to see rejection where none exists• Etc….

CulturesIndividualistic Cultures

Collectivist Cultures

Cultures that give priority to one’s own goals over group goals, and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

Cultures that give priority to the goals of one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly