Traits

Characteristics assumed to describe a person across many

situations

Brainstorm

List five of your most dominant traits…

• So how does personality develop?

• Lets take a look at 2 theories

Freud & Personality

• His theory is known as psychodynamic– Emphasizes the movement of psychological

energy within the person in the form of attachments, conflicts, and motivation

– Today’s theories are different but all focus on unconscious processes going on in the mind

• Freud’s theory consists of 3 major systems: the id, ego, superego

• Id-inherited psychic energy, sexual & aggressive instinct

• Ego-represents reason, good sense, & rational self control

• Superego-represents conscience, morality, and social standards

• According to Freud a healthy system keeps all 3 in balance.

• If a person feels anxious or threatened when the wishes of the id conflict with social rules, the ego has weapons at its command to relieve the tension….these weapons are defense mechanisms….

Defense Mechanisms

• Repression– Pushing painful memories or unacceptable

thoughts and motives that causes the ego too much anxiety

• Projection– Inner feelings are thrown outside– Saying that people don’t like you, when in

reality you may not like yourself.

• Reaction formation– Involves replacing an unacceptable feeling or

urge with its opposite– Women who are very strong but lessen their

power to please the men in her life

• Regression– Going back to an earlier and less mature pattern

of behavior, usually when under a lot of pressure, act in ways that worked for them before

– Throwing temper tantrums

• Denial

• Displacement– Occurs when the object of an unconscious wish

provokes anxiety– Wanting to hit your father out of anger but hit

your brother instead

Jung’s psychodynamic approach

• Believed that all human beings shared “a vast collective unconscious” that contains universal memories, symbols, images, and themes called archetypes.

• Example of an archetype is the Wicked Witch (meaning of evil)

• People are motivated by past but also future goals and a desire to fulfill themselves….

Object Relation Theory• Developed by Melanie Klein and D. W.

Winnicott

• Central problem in life is to find balance between the need for independence and the need for others

• The we react to finding this balance is traced back to our 1-2 year of life.

Nice theories but how do you evaluate them?

• Most see theories as metaphors not scientific explanations

• Psychodynamic theories are guilty of:– Violating the principle of falsifiability– Drawing universal principles form the

experience of a few– Basing theories of retrospective accounts and

fallible memories

Modern Study of Personality

• Type A, Type B, Type T

• Personality Tests

Allport’s Trait Theory

Individual traits make people unique

*Central traits--characteristic ways of behavior (5-10; ways of behaving; ways of dealing with others; reacting to situations; views on the world; etc.)

*Secondary traits--the more changeable aspects of personality (music preferences; habits; casual opinions, etc.)

The Big Five

While psychologists argue whether or not there anywhere from three to nine central personality traits, most agree

on these five:

1. Extroversion vs. Introversion

2. Neuroticism (negative emotionality) vs. Emotional Stability

3. Agreeableness vs. Antagonism

4. Conscientiousness vs. Impulsiveness

5. Openness to Experience vs. Resistance to New Experience

Rate Your Traits

• Take the personality test of page 51 to evaluate your BIG 5….

Personality Tests

• Unscientific test of personality types:– How people will work – Whether they will get along with others – Whether they will be successful leaders– Matchmaking – Roomates in college

Reflect on your own personality type…

• Take the General Personality Test – see handout

Personality Tests- measures of personality traits that are scientifically valid and useful…

Objective Tests

*Standardized questions with written responses

*Scales in which people rate themselves

Factor Analysis

*Statistical method that measures intercorrelations

*Clusters of measures that are scored to measure the same underlying trait

Genetic Influences on personality

• Genes

• Temperaments

• Behavioral genetics– Studies concerned with the genetic bases of

individual differences in behavior and personality

Environmental Influences on Personality

• Social-cognitive theory– Personality traits result from a person’s

learning history and his expectations, beliefs, perception of events and other cognitions

Parental Influence• There was the belief that parents were the

sole determining factor of a child’s behavior however new evidence suggests other wise:– The shared environment of the home has little

if any influence on personality– Few parents are consistent in child rearing

styles– Even with consistency, there may be little

relation btw what they do and how the children turn out.

Peer Influence

• The way kids act at home is different from the way they act around friends…

• Non shared environments often leads kids to act differently.

• Are you a “different person” when you are alone, with your parents, hanging out with friends, in class, or at a party? If so, in what ways? Do you have a “secret self” that you do not show your family?

Cultural Influence on Personality

• What is culture?– Shared rules that govern behavior of members

and set values, beliefs and attitude

• Individualist v. collectivist– Individual goals are prized about duty and

relations with others v. self is in harmony with one’s group and prized above individual goals

Approaches to Personality

• Humanist psychology-emphasizes personal growth, resilience, and the achievenment of human potential

• Maslow’s hierachy of needs and self-actualiztion

• The “inner peace” experience