Personality

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Personality
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What is Personality?

• People differ from
• each other in
• meaningful ways

• People seem to show some consistency in behavior

Personality is defined as distinctive and
relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling,
and acting
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Personality

• Personality refers to a persons unique and
  relatively stable pattern of thoughts, feelings,
  and actions
• Personality is an interaction between biology and
  environment
• Genetic studies suggest heritability of
  personality
• Other studies suggest learned components of
  personality

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Four Theories of Personality

• 1. Trait
• 2. Psychoanalytic
• 3. Humanistic
• 4. Socio-Cognitive

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The First Trait Theory

• Two Factor Trait Theory of Personality

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Personality Traits

• Traits are relatively stable and consistent
  personal characteristics
• Trait personality theories suggest that a person
  can be described on the basis of some number of
  personality traits
• Allport identified some 4,500 traits
• Cattel used factor analysis to identify 30-35
  basic traits
• Eysenck argued there are 3 distinct traits in
  personality
• Extraversion/introversion
• Neuroticism
• Psychotocism

Allport
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Overview of the Big 5
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Assessing Traits An Example

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
  (MMPI)
• the most widely researched and clinically used of
  all personality tests
• developed to identify emotional disorders

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MMPI examples

• Nothing in the newspaper interests me except the
  comics.
• I get angry sometimes.

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Evaluating Trait Theory

• Trait theory, especially the Big 5 model, is able
  to describe personality
• Cross-cultural human studies find good agreement
  for the Big 5 model in many cultures
• Appear to be highly correlated not only in
  adulthood, but also in childhood and even late
  preschoolers
• Three dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism and
  agreeableness) have cross-species generality
• Problems with trait theory include
• Lack of explanation as to WHY traits develop
• Issue of explaining transient versus long-lasting
  traits

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Psychoanalytic Theory

• Psychoanalytic theory, as devised by Freud,
  attempts to explain personality on the basis of
  unconscious mental forces
• Levels of consciousness We are unaware of some
  aspects of our mental states
• Freud argued that personality is made up of
  multiple structures, some of which are
  unconscious
• Freud argued that as we have impulses that cause
  us anxiety our personality develops defense
  mechanisms to protect against anxiety

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Freudian Theory

• Levels of consciousness
• Conscious
• What were aware of
• Preconscious
• Memories etc. that can be recalled
• Unconscious
• Wishes, feelings, impulses that lies beyond
  awareness

• Structures of Personality
• Id
• Operates according to the pleasure principle
• Ego
• Operates according to the reality principle
• Superego
• Contains values and ideals

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Freudian Theory

• Anxiety occurs when
• Impulses from the id threaten to get out of
  control
• The ego perceives danger from the environment
• The ego deals with the problem through
• coping strategies
• defense mechanisms

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Defense Mechanisms

• Defense mechanisms refer to unconscious mental
  processes that protect the conscious person from
  developing anxiety
• Sublimation person channels energy from
  unacceptable impulses to create socially
  acceptable accomplishments
• Denial person refuses to recognize reality
• Projection person attributes their own
  unacceptable impulses to others
• Repression anxiety-evoking thoughts are pushed
  into the unconscious

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Defense Mechanisms

• Rationalization Substituting socially
  acceptable reasons
• Intellectualization Ignoring the emotional
  aspects of a painful experience by focusing on
  abstract thoughts, words, or ideas
• Reaction formation Refusing to acknowledge
  unacceptable urges, thoughts or feelings by
  exaggerating the opposite state
• Regression Responding to a threatening
  situation in a way appropriate to an earlier age
  or level of development
• Displacement Substituting a less threatening
  object for the original object of impulse

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Assessing the Unconscious

• Projective Tests
• used to assess personality (e.g., Rorschach or
  TAT tests)
• How? provides ambiguous stimuli and subject
  projects his or her motives into the ambiguous
  stimuli

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Assessing the Unconscious -- Rorschach

• Rorschach Inkblot Test
• the most widely used projective test
• a set of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann
  Rorschach

Rorschach
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Assessing the Unconscious--Rorschach
used to identify peoples inner feelings by
analyzing their interpretations of the blots
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Assessing the Unconscious--TAT

• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• people express their inner motives through the
  stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

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PsychoanalyticNeo-Freudian

• Alfred Adler
• Humans are motivated by social interest
• Takes social context into account
• First Born
• Privileged until Dethroned
• Second Born
• In shadow of 1st Born ? inferiority, restlessness
• Youngest
• Pampered, dependent
• Only Child
• Higher intellect, timid, passive, withdrawn

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PsychoanalyticNeo-Freudian

• Carl Jung
• A collective unconscious is represented by
  universal archetypes
• Two forms of unconscious mind
• Personal unconscious unique for each person
• Collective unconscious consists of primitive
  images and ideas that are universal for humans

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Humanistic Theory

• Humanistic personality theories reject
  psychoanalytic notions
• Humanistic theories view each person as basically
  good and that people are striving for
  self-fulfillment
• Humanistic theory argues that people carry a
  perception of themselves and of the world
• The goal for a humanist is to develop/promote a
  positive self-concept

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Humanistic Perspectives

• Carl Rogers
• We have needs for
• Self-consistency (absence of conflict between
  self-perceptions
• Congruence (consistency between self-perceptions
  and experience)
• Inconsistency evokes anxiety and threat
• People with low self-esteem generally have poor
  congruence between their self-concepts and life
  experiences.

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Humanistic Perspectives

• Abraham Maslow emphasized the basic goodness of
  human nature and a natural tendency toward
  self-actualization.

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Social/Cognitive Perspective

• Proposed that each person has a unique
  personality because of our personal histories and
  interpretations shape our personalities
• Albert Banduras social-cognitive approach
  focuses on self-efficacy and reciprocal
  determinism.
• Julian Rotters locus of control theory
  emphasizes a persons internal or external focus
  as a major determinant of personality.

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Locus of Control (Rotter)

• Internal locus of control
• Life outcomes are under personal control
• Positively correlated with self-esteem
• Internals use more problem-focused coping
• External locus of control
• Luck, chance, and powerful others control behavior