What is Personality?What is Personality?• Unique & relatively consistent patterns of

thinking, feeling & behaving• Personality Theories – attempt to explain

why people are similar/different/unique– Psychoanalytic: importance of

unconscious processes and childhood experiences

– Trait: description and measurement of specific personality differences among individuals

Sigmund Freud & the Sigmund Freud & the Psychoanalytical TheoryPsychoanalytical Theory

• Psychoanalysis: focus on unconscious, sexual & aggressive instinctual urges & enduring effects of early childhood

• Unconscious: thoughts, feelings, drives, wishes that operate below conscious awareness

• Free association: spontaneously report all thoughts, feelings and images

Freud’s Structure of PersonalityFreud’s Structure of Personality

Structural Concepts of the Structural Concepts of the PersonalityPersonality

• Id: part of the unconscious that contains needs, drives, instincts and repressed material– Pleasure principle; devil on the shoulder

• Ego: part that is in touch w/ reality & strives to meet the demands of id & superego in socially acceptable ways– Reality principle; balance

• Superego: part that is source of conscience and inhibits the socially undesirable impulses of the id– Moral principle; angel on the shoulder

Defense MechanismsDefense Mechanisms• Ways in which the ego unconscious-

ly protects itself against unpleasant impulses or circumstances (anxiety)

• Distort reality– Rationalization: making up acceptable

excuses for behaviors that cause us to feel anxious

– Repression: pushing thoughts into the unconscious

– Denial: refuse to accept the reality of something that makes you anxious

– Projection: inner feelings are projected outside the self and on to others

• Regression: going back to an earlier and less mature pattern of behavior

• Displacement: take out anger on another unrelated person

• Sublimation: redirecting a forbidden desire into a socially acceptable desire

• Reaction Formation: replace unacceptable feelings with opposite ones

• Undoing: neutralizing an unacceptable action or thought with a second action or thought

Trait TheoriesTrait Theories• Focus on identifying, describing and

measuring individual differences• Trait: relatively stable, enduring

disposition to consistently behave in a certain way– Eysenck – extraverts need stimulation;

introverts are satisfied & don’t need it– The BIG FIVE personality trait dimensions– Universal structure of human personality!!!

Trait Theories (cont’d.)Trait Theories (cont’d.)• Cattell:16 source traits• The BIG FIVE!!!

Humanistic TheoryHumanistic Theory– Goodness of people, human potential, self-

actualization, healthy development– Importance of conscious, subjective

perception of self– Carl Rogers: self-concept– Abraham Maslow: hierarchy of needs– Criticisms:

• Hard to test scientifically• Too optimistic

Neo-FreudiansNeo-Freudians

• Carl Jung– More positive view of human nature– Distinguished between personal

unconscious and collective unconscious (inherited instincts, urges and memories common to all)

– Archetypes: inherited ideas based on experiences of ancestors

• Alfred Adler– Inferiority complex: a pattern of

avoiding feelings of inadequacy rather than trying to overcome their source

Nature v. NurtureNature v. Nurture

1. Body build2. Intelligence3. Personality4. Mathematical ability5. Baldness6. Handedness7. Height8. Musical ability9. Longevity

Learning TheoriesLearning Theories

• Behaviorism: study of behavior; diff. learning exp = diff. personalities

• Contingencies of reinforcement – occurrence of reward/punishment after behavior

• Social-cognitive theory: personality acquired by imitation and obser-vational learning

Purpose of TheoriesPurpose of Theories• Organize characteristics you know

about yourself and others• Explain differences among individuals• Explore how people conduct their lives• Determine how life can be improved• Theories guide research