Theories of Personality Copyright 2007 Horizon Textbook Publishing

Theories of Personality

Copyright 2007 Horizon Textbook Publishing

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved

Personality

Personality - the unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel, and behave.

Character - value judgments of a person’s moral and ethical behavior.

Temperament - the enduring characteristics with which each person is born.


Four Perspectives inthe Study of Personality

Psychoanalytic.Behavioristic (including social cognitive

theory).Humanistic.Trait perspectives.


Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis– Freud’s term for his theory of personality and his

therapy for treating psychological disorders

The conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious– Freud believed that there are three levels of

awareness in consciousness: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious

– ConsciousThe thoughts, feelings, sensations, or memories of which a

person is aware at any given moment



The conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious (continued)– Preconscious

The thoughts, feelings, and memories that a person is not consciously aware of at the moment but that may be brought to consciousness

– UnconsciousFor Freud, the primary motivating force of behavior,

containing repressed memories as well as instincts and wishes that have never been conscious



The id, the ego, and the superego– Feud proposed three systems of personality

Id– The unconscious system of the personality, which

contains the life and death instincts and operates on the pleasure principle

Ego– In Freudian theory, the rational, largely conscious

system of personality, which operates according to the reality principle

Superego– The moral system of the personality, which consists of

the conscience and the ego ideal


Figure 1.2 Freud’s Conception of the Personality


Neo-Freudians

Neo-Freudians - followers of Freud

who developed their own competing

theories of psychoanalysis.– Carl Jung developed a theory of a collective

unconscious.Personal unconscious - Jung’s name for the

unconscious mind as described by Freud.Collective unconscious – Jung’s name for the

memories shared by all members of the human species.

Archetypes - Jung’s collective, universal human memories.


Neo-Freudians

Adler proposed feelings of inferiority as the driving force behind personality and developed birth order theory.

Horney developed a theory based on basic anxiety and rejected the concept of penis envy.– Basic anxiety - anxiety created when a child is

born into the bigger and more powerful world of older children and adults.

– Neurotic personalities – maladaptive ways of dealing with relationships in Horney’s theory.

Erikson developed a theory based on social rather than sexual relationships, covering the entire life span.


Learning Theories and Personality

Social-cognitive theory– Reciprocal determinism

Bandura’s concept that behavior, cognitive factors, and environment all influence and are influenced by each other

– One of the cognitive factors Bandura considers especially important is self-efficacy

– Self-efficacyA person’s belief in his or her ability to perform

competently in whatever is attempted


Social-Cognitive Perspective

Reciprocal Determinism – the interacting

influences between personality and environmental factors

Internal personal/cognitive factors

(liking high-riskactivities)

Behavior(learning to

bungee jump)

Environmentalfactors

(bungee-jumpingfriends)


Learning Theories and Personality

Locus of control– Proposed by Julian Rotter– A concept used to explain how people account for

what happens in their lives-people with an internal locus of control see themselves as primarily in control of their behavior and its consequences; those with an external locus of control perceive what happens to be in the hands of fate, luck, or chance


Humanistic Personality Theories

Two humanistic theories– Abraham Maslow

Found self-actualizers to be accurate in perceiving reality-able to judge honestly and to spot quickly the fake and the dishonest

Self-actualization– Developing to one’s fullest potential

– Carl RogersConditions of worth

– Conditions on which the positive regard of others rests



Two humanistic theories (continued)– Carl Rogers

Believes our parents set up conditions of worthFor Rogers, a major goal of psychotherapy is to enable

people to open themselves up to experiences and begin to live according to their own values rather than according to the values of others in order to gain positive regard

Calls his therapy “person-centered therapy”Unconditional positive regard is designed to reduce threat,

eliminate conditions of worth, and bring the person back to tune with his or her true self



Self-esteem– One source of variations in self-esteem arises from

comparisons of actual to desired traits– Developmental psychologists have found that self-

esteem is fairly stable from childhood through the late adult years

– So, the self-worth beliefs we adopt in childhood can affect us for a lifetime


Trait Theories

Hans and Sybil Eysenck use two primary personality factors as axes for describing personality variation

UNSTABLE

STABLE

cholericmelancholic

phlegmatic sanguineINTROVERTED EXTRAVERTED

MoodyAnxious

RigidSober

PessimisticReserved

Unsociable

Quiet

SociableOutgoing

TalkativeResponsiveEasygoing

LivelyCarefree

Leadership

PassiveCareful

Thoughtful

Peaceful

ControlledReliable

Even-temperedCalm

TouchyRestlessAggressive

ExcitableChangeable

ImpulsiveOptimistic

Active


Trait Theories

Early trait theories– Gordon Allport

Claimed that each person inherits a unique set of raw materials for given traits, which are then shaped by experiences

– Raymond CattellReferred to observable qualities of personality as surface

traitsFound certain clusters of surface traits that appeared

together time after timeBelieved these were evidence of deeper, more general,

underlying personality factors, which he called source traits


Trait Theories

Early trait theories (continued)– Raymond Cattell

Found 23 source traits in normal individuals, 16 of which he studied in great detail

Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, commonly called the 16 PF, yields a personality profile

Factor models of personality– Five-factor theory

The most influential proponents of the five-factor theory are list in the following chart


Trait Theories


Trait Theories

Factor models of personality (continued)– Costa and McCrae

Developed the NEO Personality Inventory and, more recently, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory which are used to measure the Big Five dimensions of personality

The NEO and other measures of the Big Five are currently being used in a wide variety of personality research studies


Trait Theories

The situation versus trait debate

– Walter MischelInitiated the situation-trait debate, an on-going

discussion among psychologists about the relative importance of factors within the situation and factors within the person that account for behavior

Later modified his original position and admitted that behavior is influenced by both the person and the situation

Views a trait as a conditional probability that a particular action will occur in response to a particular situation


Trait Theories

The situation versus trait debate (continued)

– McCrae and CostaStudied personality traits of

subjects over time and found them to be stable for periods of 3 to 30 years


Trait Theories

Factor models of personality (continued)– Costa and McCrae

Developed the NEO Personality Inventory and, more recently, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory which are used to measure the Big Five dimensions of personality

The NEO and other measures of the Big Five are currently being used in a wide variety of personality research studies

Thanks for your attention!


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Theories of Personality Copyright 2007 Horizon Textbook Publishing