Title: Personality Theory, Research, and Assessment
1PersonalityTheory, Research, and Assessment
2Personality
- Consistent
- tendency to respond in the same manner in a
variety of circumstances - Distinctive
- tendency for one person to respond to a
particular situation in a different manner than
others - PERSONALITY refers to ones unique constellation
of consistent behavioral traits
3Personality Theories
- Psychodynamic Theories
- Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory
- Jungs Analytical Psychology
- Adlers Individual Psychology
- Behavioral Perspectives
- Skinners Operant Conditioning Theory
- Banduras Social Learning Theory
- Humanistic Perspectives
- Rogers Person-Centered Theory
- Maslows Theory of Self-Actualization
4Psychodynamic Theoriesof Personality
- Include all the diverse theories descended from
the work of Sigmund Freud that focus on
unconscious mental forces - Freuds psychoanalytic theory
- Jungs analytical psychology
- Adlers individual psychology
5Sigmund Freud
- Born 1856, Vienna, Austria
- Raised in middle-class Jewish family
- Climate of era was marked by
- sexual repression
- aggressive hostilities (WWI, anti-Semitism)
- Physician specializing in neurology
- often treated nervous problems such as
irrational fears, obsessions, anxieties
6Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory
- Attempts to explain personality, motivation, and
psychological disorders by focusing on influence
of - early childhood experiences
- unconscious motives and conflicts
- methods used to cope with sexual and aggressive
urges - Theory offended many because
- it emphasized childhood sexual urges
- implied we are not masters of our destinies
7Structure of Personality
- Freud conceptualized personality as interaction
of three components - ID
- EGO
- SUPEREGO
- Behavior is governed by outcome of interactions
between these components
8ID
- The primitive, instinctive component of
personality that operates according to the
pleasure principle - pleasure principle means it demands immediate
gratification of its urges - Houses raw biological urges
- to eat, sleep, defecate, copulate
- Engages in primary process thinking
- primitive, illogical, irrational,
fantasy-oriented
9EGO
- The decision-making component of personality that
operates according to the - reality principle
- seeks to delay gratification of the ids urges
until appropriate outlets and situations are
found - Mediates b/t the desires of the id and the
expectations of the social world - Engages in secondary-process thinking
- relatively rational, realistic, oriented toward
problem-solving - allows for achievement of long-range goals
10SUPEREGO
- Moral component of personality that incorporates
social standards about what represents right and
wrong - Develops by internalizing what is learned during
childhood about what constitutes good and bad
behavior - Emerges around ages 3-5
- May become irrationally demanding in striving for
moral perfection (guilt)
11Discovering the Unconscious
- Freud inferred the existence of the unconscious
based on observations - slips of the tongue
- dreams that expressed hidden desires
- insights uncovered through psychoanalysis that
helped patients discover feelings and conflicts
they were previously unaware of
12Levels of Awareness The Iceberg
- Conscious
- whatever one is aware of at a particular point in
time - Preconscious
- contains material just beneath the surface of
awareness that can easily be retrieved - Unconscious
- thoughts, memories, and desires that are well
below the surface of consciousness, but that,
nonetheless, exert great influence on behavior
13Internal Conflict Sex and Aggresssion
- Behavior is the outcome of an ongoing series of
internal conflicts between the id, ego, and
superego - Emphasized sex and aggression b/c
- social norms governing sex and aggression tend to
be subtle and inconsistent - they tend to be thwarted or inhibited more
regularly than other urges (thirst/hunger)
14Anxiety
- Most internal conflicts b/t id, ego, and superego
are quickly resolved - Some linger for days to years unresolved in the
unconscious - Lingering conflicts may produce anxiety that
slips into conscious awareness - Arousal of anxiety is crucial component to
Freuds theory of personality functioning
15Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms
- Because anxiety is distressing, people try to rid
themselves of it - According to Freud, this is done through the use
of defense mechanisms - Defense Mechanisms
- largely unconscious reactions that protect a
person from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety
and guilt - work through self-deception
16Defense Mechanisms
- Rationalization
- creating false but plausible excuses to justify
unacceptable behavior (everybody does it) - Repression
- most common and basic
- keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried
in unconscious - Projection
- attributing ones own thoughts, feelings, and
motives to another - Displacement
- diverting emotional feelings (anger) from their
original source to a substitute target (kick the
dog phenomenon)
17Defense Mechanisms
- Reaction formation
- behaving in a way thats exactly opposite of
ones true feelings - Regression
- a reversion to immature patterns of behavior
(boastful exaggerated bragging) - Identification
- bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or
real alliance with some person or group
18Psychosexual Stages of Development
- Foundation of personality established by age 5
- Stage theory emphasizes how children deal with
their immature sexual urges - term sexual refers to many urges for physical
pleasure - Psychosexual stages
- developmental periods with a characteristic
sexual focus that leave their mark on adult
personality
19Psychosexual Stages
- Each stage has its own challenge/task
- Manner in which each challenge/task is handled
shapes personality - Fixation
- a failure to move forward from one stage to
another as expected - may be caused by
- excessive gratification
- excessive frustration
- leads to an overemphasis on needs prominent
during the fixated stage
20Psychosexual Stages
- Oral (0-1)
- Anal (2-3)
- Phallic (4-5)
- Latency (6-12)
- Genital (puberty onward)
21Oral Stage
- Age
- First year of life
- Erotic Focus
- Stimulation of mouth (sucking, biting)
- Key Tasks and Experiences
- Feeding and weaning
- Result of fixation
- obsessive eating, smoking, nailbiting
22Anal Stage
- Age
- 2-3
- Erotic Focus
- Anal (expulsion or retention of feces)
- Key Tasks and Experiences
- Toilet training
- Result of fixation
- anal retentive personality
- generalized hostility toward images of trainer
23Phallic Stage
- Age (4-5)
- Erotic Focus
- Genitals (masturbation self-stimulation)
- Key Tasks and Experiences
- Coping with Oedipal complex
- children manifest erotically tinged desires for
their opposite-sex parent, w/ feelings of
hostility toward their same-sex parent - Result of fixation
- poor identify formation b/c of lingering
identification with same-sex parent
24Latency
- Age
- 6-12
- Erotic Focus
- None (sexually repressed)
- Key Tasks and Experiences
- Expanding social contacts beyond family
- Impact of prior fixations may hinder healthy
socialization in this stage
25Genital Stage
- Age
- Puberty onward
- Erotic Focus
- Genitals (interpersonal sexual intimacy)
- Key Tasks and Experiences
- Establishing intimate relationships
- Contributing to society through working
- Impact of prior fixations may hinder healthy
functioning in this stage
26Psychosexual Stages
- Foundation for adult personality is solidly
defined by during childhood - Future developments are rooted in these early
formative experiences - Theoretical disputes led to emergence of other
theories that deemphasized Freuds focus on
sexuality
27Jungs Analytical Psychology
- Like Freud, Jung emphasized unconscious
- Theorized that the unconscious consists of two
layers - Personal unconscious
- houses material not within ones awareness
- Collective unconscious
- deeper layer that is the storehouse of latent
memory traces inherited from peoples ancestral
past - each person shares the collective unconscious
with the entire human race
28Collective Unconscious and Archetypes
- Collective unconscious contains the whole
spiritual heritage of mankinds evolution, born
anew in the brain structure of every individual - Archetypes
- emotionally charged images and thought forms that
have universal meaning - magic circle symbol shows up across cultures as
representation of wholeness - Notion of a collective unconscious influenced
anthropology, philosophy, art, and religious
studies more than psychology
29Jungs Impact on Psychology
- First to describe a major facet of personality
- Introverts (inner-directed)
- tend to be preoccupied with the internal world of
their thoughts, feelings, and experiences - contemplative, aloof, reclusive
- Extraverts (outer-directed)
- tend to be interested in the external world of
people and things - outgoing, talkative, friendly
30Adlers Individual Psychology
- Foremost source of human motivation is a striving
for superiority - Striving for superiority
- a universal drive to adapt, improve oneself, and
master lifes challenges - All young children feel weak and helpless in
comparison to more competent older children and
adults - Early feelings of inferiority motivate one to
acquire new skills and develop new talents
31The Inferiority Complex
- Compensation
- process of striving to overcome imagined or real
inferiorities by developing ones own abilities - this process is normal
- Inferiority complex
- exaggerated feelings of weakness and inadequacy
that may develop when feelings of inferiority
become excessive - Overcompensation
- perversion of normal compensation where ones
masks inferiority through attempts to achieve
status, gain power over others, and acquire
markers of success (clothes, cars, etc.)
32Role of Sibling Order
33Behavioral Perspectives of Personality
- Behaviorism
- theoretical orientation based on the premise that
scientific psychology should study only
observable behavior - initially focused on learning with little
attention to personality - Skinners theory
- Banduras social learning theory
- Mischels person-situation controversy
34B.F. Skinner
- American psychologist
- 1904-1990
- Spent most of career at Harvard
- Renowned for research on learning in rats and
pigeons - Principles of operant conditioning not intended
as explanation of personality
35Personality According to Skinner
- Determinism
- Behavior and personality are fully determined by
environmental stimuli - Personality is conglomeration of ones response
tendencies acquired through prior experiences - These tendencies may change with new experiences,
but tend to be enduring enough to create
consistent personality
36Development of Personality as a Product of
Conditioning
- Personality develops through repeated responses
to operant conditioning - Operant Conditioning
- environmental consequences like reinforcement,
punishment, and extinction determine peoples
pattern of responding - If behavior leads to positive consequences it is
more likely to occur - negative consequences, less likely to occur
- Because responses are constantly being
strengthened or weakened with new experiences,
Skinner views personality development as a
continuous lifelong journey
37Banduras Social Learning Theory
- Bandura
- early work explored causes of aggression
- added a cognitive flavor to behaviorism
- emphasized notion that humans are conscious,
thinking, and feelings beings - Social Learning Theory
- personality is largely shaped through learning
- people seek out and process information about
their environment to maximize favorable outcomes
38Social Learning Theory
- Observational learning
- occurs when an organisms responding is
influenced by the observation of others - Model
- person whose behavior is observed by the
learner - many behaviors are the product of imitating
others - children learn to be assertive, conscientious,
self-sufficient, dependable by observing parents,
teachers, relatives, peers
39Social Learning Theory
- Aspects of personality govern behavior
- Self-efficacy
- refers to ones belief about ones own ability to
perform behaviors that should lead to expected
outcomes - high self-efficacy leads to confidence
- low self-efficacy leads to self-doubt
- perceptions about self-efficacy can influence
which challenges people tackle and how well they
perform
40Humanistic Perspectives
- Emerged in the 1950s as a backlash against
behavioral and psychodynamic theories - Humanism
- emphasizes the unique qualities of humans,
especially their freedom and their potential for
personal growth - people can rise above primitive animal heritage
and control biological urges - people are largely rational beings who are not
dominated by irrational needs/conflicts - ones subjective view is more important than
objective reality
41Rogers Person-Centered Theory
- Self-Concept
- collection of beliefs about ones own nature,
unique qualities, and typical behavior - your own mental picture of yourself
- Incongruence
- the degree of disparity between ones
self-concept and ones actual experience - too much incongruence weakens psychological
well-being
42Rogers Person-Centered Theory
- Development of the Self
- Childhood experiences promote congruence or
incongruence - Conditional affection
- affection from parents depends on childs
behavior and ability to live up to parental
expectations - Unconditional affection
- parents assure children that they are worth of
affection, no matter what they do - Unconditional love from parents fosters
congruence conditional love from parents fosters
incongruence
43Rogers Person-Centered Theory
- As individuals grow up, they become more loyal
or committed to their self-concept - Becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
- one tends to behave in ways that match his/her
self-concept - Person becomes resistant to information that
contradicts the self-concept
44Rogers Person-Centered Theory
- Anxiety and Defense
- Experiences that threaten peoples self-concept
result in anxiety - the more inaccurate ones self-concept, the more
likely one is to have experiences that clash with
self-concept - To ward off anxiety, one will respond defensively
to reinterpret experience so that it matches
self-concept
45Maslows 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 - needs at base of pyramid are most basic
- physiological - hunger, thirst
- safety/security - long-term survival and
stability - when basic needs are satisfied, this satisfaction
activates needs at the next level
46Maslows Theory of Self-Actualization
- Hierarchy of needs
- needs at higher levels are growth needs
- Need for self-actualization
- the need to fulfill ones potential
- Self-actualizing persons
- people with exceptionally healthy personalities,
marked by continued personal growth - accurately tuned in to reality
- at peace with themselves
- sensitive to others