Personality and the Trait, Humanistic, and Social Cognitive Perspectives

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Personality and the Trait, Humanistic, and Social
Cognitive Perspectives

• Pg. 513 picture

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The Humanistic Perspective

• The two founders of the Humanistic Perspective
  are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
• The Humanistic Perspective focuses on the growth
  potential of healthy people. They focus on the
  power of free will and how people view themselves
  as a whole in pursuit of growth (did not believe
  in determinism)
• Criticized Freud for being too negative

Maslow
Rogers
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Abraham Maslows Self Actualizing Person

• Hierarchy of Needs

• Ultimately seek self- actualization (the process
  of fulfilling our potential).

• Maslow developed his ideas by studying what he
  termed healthy people.

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Self-Actualized People

• Problem centered rather than self-centered.

Focused their energies on a particular task.
Few deep relationships, rather than many
superficial ones.
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Carl Rogerss Person-Centered Perspective

• People are basically GOOD.

• We are like Acorns

Need Water, Sun and Nutrients to Grow into a big
Oak Tree.
We need genuineness, acceptance and empathy for
us to grow.
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Unconditional Positive Regard

• Unconditional Positive Regard

An attitude of acceptance regardless of
circumstances.
Accepting yourself or others completely.
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Self-Concept

• All of thoughts and feelings about ourselves
  trying to answer the question.

WHO AM I?
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Self-Esteem

• Ones feelings of high or low self-worth.

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Carl Rogers Idea of Self Actualization (Self
Acceptance)

• Rogers believed the key to self-actualization, a
  term he called becoming fully-functioning, was to
  learn to accept ourselves and unite our ideas of
  the real self and the ideal self.
• When we lack unconditional positive regard it
  leads to incongruence perceived difference
  between real and ideal self.

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Self-Serving Bias

• A readiness to perceive oneself favorable.

• People accept more responsibility for successes
  than failures.

• Most people see themselves as better than average.

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Rogers vs. Freud on Human Nature

• Rogers

• Freud

• People are positive, forward-moving,
  constructive, realistic, trustworthy
• People are innately good
• We gravitate towards behavior that furthers the
  human race (free will)

• Pessimistic
• Believed aggressive urges were innate
• Society would collapse were it not for superego
  and societal restraints
• Restraints cause neuroticism, make us unhappy (id
  vs. superego)

What do you think?
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Criticism of Humanist Perspective

• Maslows concepts are vague and might just be his
  own values.
• Too much focus on individual?
• Ignores human capacity for evil.
• Not easily testable

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The Trait Perspective

• The father of the trait perspective of
  personality is Gordon Allport.
• Patterns of behavior or disposition to feel or
  act as assessed by self-reported inventories or
  peer reports.
• It focuses on describing and measuring the
  numerous ways in which people differ from each
  other.

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Method used For Measuring Personality for Trait
Perspective

• Personality Inventory a questionnaire that is
  usually true/false in which people respond to
  items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings
  and behaviors used to assess selected
  personality traits.
• Uses factor analysis
• Weakness of This Measuring Device?

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Example of Personality Inventory (Trait
Perspective)

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
  (MMPI) most widely used personality test.
  Purpose was to identify emotional disorders but
  is also now used for screening purposes for
  employment.
• Test is an example of being an empirically
  derived test having pool of test questions that
  discriminate between groups. (Ex Looking for
  differences in answers between a clinically
  depressed group and a normal group)
• Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) Neo-Freudian
  personality inventory based of Jungs theories
  attempts to measure how people perceive the world
  and make decisions

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Eynsencks 2 Dimensions of Personality (Trait
Perspective)

• Through factor analysis, Hans Eynsencks reduced
  the dimensions of personality down to two. They
  were introverted (keep to yourself) / extroverted
  (outgoing) and stable/unstable.

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The Big Five Personality Traits Are Measured in A
Inventory Called the NEO PI-R (Trait Perspective)

• 1. Openness (to experience) imaginative/practic
  al, variety/routine, independent/conforming
• 2. Conscientiousness organized/disorganized,
  careful/careless, disciplined/impusive
• 3. Extraversion sociable/retiring,
  fun-loving/sober, affectionate/reserved
• 4. Agreeableness soft-hearted/ruthless,
  trusting/suspicious, helpful/uncooperative
• Neuroticism calm/anxious, secure/insecure,
  self-satisfied/self-pitying
• These traits will be stable over time, and one
  can predict another.

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Major Weakness of the Trait Perspective?

• Doesnt take into account the person-situation
  controversy (traits change based on the
  situation
• Doesnt explain human personality simply labels
  predispositions (genetic)

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Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Individualism
• giving priority to ones own goals over group
  goals and defining ones identity in terms of
  personal attributes rather than group
  identifications
• Collectivism
• giving priority to the goals of ones group
  (often ones extended family or work group) and
  defining ones identity accordingly

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Value Differences
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Social Cognitive Perspective

• Father of Social Cognitive Perspective is Albert
  Bandura.
• Social Cognitive Perspective emphasizes the
  importance of external events (society) and how
  we interpret them (cognition).

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Personality is Made Up of Interlocking Forces

• Reciprocal Determinism personality and
  environment interact
• The same environment can have completely
  different effects on different people because of
  how they interpret and react to external events.

Cognitive factors
Behavioral factors
Environmental factors
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Reciprocal Determinism

• Different People choose different environments.

The TV you watch, friends you hang with, music
you listen to were all chosen by you (your
disposition)
But after you choose the environment, it also
shapes you.
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Reciprocal Determinism

• Our personalities help create situations to which
  we react.

If I expect someone to be angry with me, I may
give that person the cold shoulder, creating the
very behavior I expect.
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Reciprocal Determism

• Example
• My parents are liberal. I identify with my
  parents. I therefore choose a more liberal
  college to attend. This makes me even more
  liberal. In attending this college however, I
  make the students (my friends) there more
  liberal. I leave school and I take a job working
  for liberal causes. Can you see how my
  environment affects me and how I have an affect
  on my environment?

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Reciprocal Determism

• Example
• A thrill seeker would probably be friends with
  fellow thrill seekers, and therefore, would be
  more likely to take bungee jumping lessons. Of
  course, this person would also be pushing his
  friends to thrill seek.

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Self Efficacy (NOT IN YOUR BOOK!)

• A persons belief in his/her ability to succeed
  in a specific situation.
• These beliefs influence how people feel, think
  and behave.

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Self Efficacy (NOT IN YOUR BOOK!)

• People with a strong sense of self-efficacy
• View challenging problems as tasks to be
  mastered.
• Develop deeper interest in the activities in
  which they participate.
• Form a stronger sense of commitment to their
  interests and activities.
• Recover quickly from setbacks and
  disappointments.
• People with a weak sense of self-efficacy
• Avoid challenging tasks.
• Believe that difficult tasks and situations are
  beyond their capabilities.
• Focus on personal failings and negative outcomes.
• Quickly lose confidence in personal abilities
  (Bandura, 1994).

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Julius Rotters Theory of Personal Control and
Locus of Control

• Internal Locus of Control idea that one
  controls their own destiny. Achievement is
  highest under this level. Ex Hard work gets
  rewarded.
• External Locus of Control idea that ones fate
  is outside of their personal control and
  determined by luck. Ex People get promotions
  b/c they know right people.

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External Locus of Control Can Lead to Learned
Helplessness

• Learned Helplessness hopelessness and passive
  resignation an animal or human learns when unable
  to avoid repeated aversive events.
• Ex Dog being uncontrollably shocked for period
  will not later escape when time arrives.

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Evaluating the Social Cognitive Perspective

• Most widely accepted approach by current
  psychologists since it takes aspects from
  learning and cognition.
• Criticized by some because it fails to consider
  possible unconscious motives and focuses too much
  on environment not enough on inner traits.

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Know Summary of Perspectives