Chapter 11: Personality: Theory, Research, and Assessment

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Chapter 11 Personality Theory, Research, and
Assessment
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Defining PersonalityConsistency and
Distinctiveness

• Personality Traits
• Personality refers to an individuals unique
  constellation of consistent behavioral traits.
• A personality trait is a durable disposition to
  behave in a particular way in a variety of
  situations.
• The concept of personality is used to explain the
  stability in a persons behavior over time and
  across situations (consistency) and the
  behavioral differences among people reacting to
  the same situation (distinctiveness).

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Defining PersonalityConsistency and
Distinctiveness

• The Five-Factor Model
• Extraversion - outgoing, sociable, upbeat,
  friendly, assertive, and gregarious. Some trait
  models refer to this as positive emotionality.
• Neuroticism - anxious, hostile, self-conscious,
  insecure, and vulnerable. Some models call this
  negative emotionality.
• Openness to experience - curiosity, flexibility,
  vivid fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic
  sensitivity, and unconventional attitudes.
• Agreeableness - sympathetic, trusting,
  cooperative, modest, and straightforward.
• Conscientiousness - diligent, disciplined, well
  organized, punctual, and dependable. Some models
  refer to this trait as constraint. It is related
  to high productivity in a variety of occupational
  areas.

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Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Freuds psychoanalytic theory - focuses on the
  influence of early childhood experiences,
  unconscious motives and conflicts, and the
  methods people use to cope with sexual and
  aggressive urges
• Structure of personality
• Id the Pleasure principle- the primitive,
  instinctive component of personality that
  operates according to the pleasure principle,
  which demands immediate gratification and engages
  in primary-process thinking (primitive,
  illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented).
• Ego - Reality principle - the decision-making
  component of personality that operates according
  to the reality principle, seeking to delay
  gratification of the ids urges until appropriate
  outlets can be found, thus mediating between the
  id and the external world.
• Superego Morality - the moral component of
  personality that incorporates social standards
  about what represents right and wrong. The
  superego emerges out of the ego at around 3-5
  years of age.
• Levels of awareness
• Conscious
• Unconscious
• Preconscious

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Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Freud saw behavior as the outcome of an ongoing
  series of internal conflicts between the id, ego,
  and superego.
• Freuds psychoanalytic theory
• Conflict
• Sex and Aggression
• Anxiety
• Defense Mechanisms

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Figure 11.2 Freuds model of personality
structure
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Table 11.1 Defense Mechanisms, with Examples
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Freud on DevelopmentPsychosexual Stages

• Freud believed that the foundation of personality
  is laid by the age of five. He theorized that
  the ways in which children deal with immature
  sexual urges (sexual used as a general term
  meaning physical pleasure) during different
  stages of development shape personality.
• Psychosexual stages
• Oral,
• Anal,
• Phallic,
• Latency,
• Genital
• Fixation a failure to move forward from one
  stage to another as expected. Fixation can occur
  due to excessive gratification or frustration
  during a particular stage
• Fixation leads to an overemphasis on the
  psychosexual needs prominent during the fixated
  stage in adulthood

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Table 11.2 Freuds Stages of Psychosexual
Development
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Other Psychodynamic Theorists

• Carl Jung Analytical Psychology
• Personal and collective unconscious the
  unconscious mind is composed of two layers the
  personal unconscious, which houses material that
  is not within ones conscious awareness because
  it has been repressed or forgotten and the
  collective unconscious, which houses latent
  memory traces inherited from peoples ancestral
  past.
• Archetypes - emotionally charged images and
  thought forms that have universal meaning, such
  as the mandala.
• Alfred Adler Individual Psychology
• Striving for superiority - a universal drive to
  adapt, improve oneself, and master lifes
  challenges
• Compensation - everyone feels some inferiority
  and works to overcome it, a process he called
  compensation.

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Figure 11.4 Jungs vision of the collective
unconscious
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Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Pros
• The unconscious
• The role of internal conflict
• The importance of early childhood experiences
• The use of defense mechanisms
• Cons
• Poor testability
• Inadequate empirical base
• Sexist views

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Behavioral Perspectives

• Skinners views
• similar to his views on all other human behavior
• it is learned through conditioning.

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Behavioral Perspectives

• Banduras social cognitive theory
• Observational learning - behavior is shaped by
  exposure to models, or a person whose behavior
  they observe.
• Self-efficacy which referrw to ones belief
  about ones ability to perform behaviors that
  should lead to expected outcomes.
• He believes that self-efficacy (or lack thereof)
  influences which challenges people tackle and how
  well they perform.
• Researchers believe that self-efficacy is
  fostered by parents who are stimulating and
  responsive to their children.

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Evaluating Behavioral Perspectives

• Pros
• Based on rigorous research
• Insights into effects of learning and
  environmental factors
• Cons
• Over-dependence on animal research
• Fragmented view of personality
• Dehumanizing views

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Humanistic Perspectives

• Carl Rogerss person-centered theory
• Self-concept - a collection of beliefs about
  ones own nature, unique qualities, and typical
  behavior, a persons mental picture of himself or
  herself. Self-concept may not be consistent with
  reality.
• Incongruence and anxiety - When self-concepts
  dont match reality (incongruence), they are
  threatened, and anxiety results.

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• Conditional/unconditional positive regard
• - When parents make their affection conditional,
  that is, dependent on a childs living up to
  expectations, the child may block out of their
  self concept those experiences that make them
  feel unworthy of love.
• - Unconditional love is based in assurances that
  a child is worthy of
• affection, no matter what they do.

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Humanistic Perspectives

• Abraham Maslows theory of self-actualization
• Hierarchy of needs - a systematic arrangement of
  needs, according to priority, in which basic
  needs must be met before less basic needs are
  aroused
• Maslow focused on the healthy personality and
  argued that humans have an innate drive toward
  personal growth, culminating in the need for
  self-actualization, which is the need to fulfill
  ones potential (the highest need in his
  hierarchy). What a man can be, he must be.
• Self-actualizing persons are people with
  personalities marked by continued personal
  growth.
• Maslow found that these people are tuned in to
  reality and at peace with themselves. They are
  open and spontaneous and sensitive to others
  needs

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Figure 11.9 Maslows hierarchy of needs
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Figure 11.10 Maslows view of the healthy
personality
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Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives

• Pros
• Recognized the importance of individuals
  subjective views in determining behavior and
  attitudes
• Recognized importance of self-concept
• Laid foundation for positive psychology
• Cons
• Many aspects of theory are difficult to test
• Unrealistic optimism
• More empirical research needed

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Biological Perspectives

• Eysenks theory
• Determined by genes
• Extraversion-introversion
• Behavioral genetics
• Twin studies - indicate that identical twins are
  more similar than fraternal twins in personality
  characteristics
• Heritability estimates 40
• The evolutionary approach
• certain traits and the ability to recognize them
  may contribute to reproductive fitness

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Figure 11.11 Eysencks model of personality
structure
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Evaluating Biological Perspectives

• Pros
• Convincing evidence for genetic influence
• Cons
• Too much reliance on heritability estimates
• No comprehensive biological theory

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Culture and Personality

• Independent self - . American culture fosters an
  independent view of self in which children are
  encouraged to see themselves as autonomous and
  self-reliant.
• Interdependent self - some East Asian cultures
  seem to foster a view of self in which children
  are encouraged to see themselves in relation to
  others, as part of a social unit.