AP Psychology Amador Valley High School/Emerson

The Four Major Theoretical Perspectives on Personality

Perspective Key Theorists Key Themes & Ideas Assessment Techniques Evaluations-Criticisms

Psychoanalytic Draws our attention to the

unconscious and irrational aspects of human existence.

Sigmund Freud

Carl Jung (neo-Freudian)

Karen Horney

(neo-Freudian)

Alfred Adler (neo-Freudian)

Influence of unconscious psychological processes; conflicts between pleasure-seeking impulses & social restraints; lasting effects of early childhood experiences; defense mechanisms The collective unconscious, archetypes, and psychological harmony. Importance of parent-child relationship; defending against basic anxiety; womb envy. Striving for superiority, compensating for feelings of inferiority.

Projective tests aimed at revealing unconscious motivations: • Rorschach • TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)

Speculative, hard-to-test theory with huge cultural impact; sexist. Very controversial during Freud’s lifetime and continues to be today. Neo-Freudians believed in importance of unconscious and early childhood experiences, but disagreed with other aspects of Freud’s theory.

Trait

Describes & classifies important components of

personality; biologically influenced dispositions; traits are

generally stable over time

Raymond Cattell

Hans Eysenck

Robert McCrae & Paul Costa, Jr.

Emphasis on measuring & describing individual differences; 16 source traits of personality Three basic dimensions of personality; introversion/extraversion, neuroticism/emotional stability, psychoticism Five-factor model: five basic dimensions of personality: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, & conscientiousness

Personality inventories that assess the strengths of different traits. Self-report Inventories: • MMPI • Calif. Personality Inventory • 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) • Myers-Briggs Type Inventory

A descriptive approach criticized as sometimes underestimating the variability of behavior from situation to situation. Useful is describing individual differences and in predicting behavior, but has been criticized for failure to explain human personality and the development of individual differences.

Humanistic

Importance of self and our potential for self-

actualization.

Carl Rogers

Abraham Maslow

Emphasis on self-concept, psychological growth, free will, and inherent goodness Behavior as motivated by hierarchy of needs and striving for self-actualization; focus on psychologically healthy people

Questionnaire assessments of self-concept

A theory that reinvigorated contemporary interest in the self; criticized as vague & subjective and sometimes naively self-centered and optimistic.

Social-Cognitive

We act in the context of situations we help create.

Albert Bandura

Martin Seligman

Julian Rotter

Reciprocal interaction of behavioral, cognitive, and environmental factors; emphasis on conscious thoughts, self-efficacy beliefs, self-regulation, and goal-setting. (reciprocal determinism) Learned helplessness Locus of control (internal – external)

Correlational and experimental studies of people’s feelings of control.

An interactive theory that integrates research on learning, cognition, and social behavior; criticized as underestimating the importance of emotions and enduring traits and focusing too much on the situation.

Sources: Myers, Psychology (sixth edition), 2001 and Hockenbury & Hockenbury, Psychology (second edition), 2000.