Personality

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Personality
Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychoanalytic Techniques
Projective tests
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- Rorschach Inkblot Test
- unconscious feelings/desires influence the
interpretation of ambiguous stimuli
- Reliability? Validity?
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Personality
Psychoanalytic Theory
The Early Neo-Freudians
Alfred Adler
- emphasis on social factors in childhood
- the 'inferiority complex'
Karen Horney
- gender bias in Freud's theories
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Personality
Psychoanalytic Theory
The Early Neo-Freudians
Carl Jung
- the 'collective unconscious'
- mythology and symbolism
- significant experiences are inherited
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Personality
Psychoanalytic Theory
Current Views
Psychodynamic Theory
- the unconscious is real and important
- childhood experience can affect personality and
attachment
- inner conflict (individual desire vs social
rules) does cause problems
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Personality
Psychoanalytic Theory
Current Views
Criticisms
- little scientific evidence for repression
- psychoanalytic techniques ? false memories??
- gender bias in Freud's original work
- doesn't generate testable hypotheses
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Personality
Trait Theory
Personality as the result of characteristic
patterns of behavior and conscious motives/desires
- there have been many attempts to categorize
personality traits
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Personality
Trait Theory
Two Factor Theory (Eysenck Eysenck)
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Personality
Trait Theory
- are 2 dimensions enough to fully capture the
variation in personality?
'The Big Five'
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Personality
Trait Theory
The Big Five
- stability?
- heritability?
- universality?
- predictive validity?
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Personality
Trait Theory
Trait Assessment
- the MMPI
- standardized on large population of 'normal'
and 'disordered' subjects
- self-report measure
- inclusion of 'validity scales'
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The MMPI Profile
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Personality
Humanistic Theory
- focus on 'healthy', rather than 'sick'
thought/behavior
Maslow Self-Actualization
- at the top of the 'Hierarchy of Needs'
- are you fulfilling your full potential?
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Personality
Humanistic Theory
The Self-Actualized Person
- self-aware / self-accepting
- open/spontaneous
- loving/caring
- internal locus of control
- "mission in life"
- spirituality / peak experiences
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Personality
Humanistic Theory
Rogers the Self-Concept
- everyone has the potential for goodness,
growth, fulfillment
- 3 conditions that promote personal growth
- genuineness
- acceptance (UPR)
- empathy
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Personality
Social-Cognitive Theory
- emphasis on external/environmental factors and
our interpretations of them
- "reciprocal determinism"
- personality influences choice of environments
- personality guides interpretation
- personality shapes environment
- past/current behavior as best predictor
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Personality
Social-Cognitive Theory
Locus of Control
- internal vs external
- attributional style
- learned helplessness
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Personality
Social-Cognitive Theory
Optomism / Pessimism
- in general, optomists are happier and healthier
than pessimists
- pessimists may, however, have a more accurate /
realistic world view
- risk assessment