Personality

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Personality

• Theory Assessment

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Personality Perspective

• A group of theories that share a basic view of
  human beings.

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Perspectives on Personality

• Psychodynamic
• Behavioral / Cognitive-Behavioral
• Humanistic
• Trait Theories
• Biological

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Psychodynamic Perspective

• Unconscious conflicts that originate in childhood
  determine our personality and behavior
• Most conflicts revolve around sex and aggression
• Freud first theorist to develop a full theory
  of normal personality development and how
  abnormality might develop
• Psychoanalysis his theory and the treatment he
  developed the talking cure

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Psychodynamic Perspective continued

• Medical model doctor knows best
• Very difficult to test scientifically
• Very subjective interpretations of behavior,
  conflicts and resolutions, with professional
  assumed to know what is right
• Basic personality traits are determined by how
  early childhood conflicts were resolved
• e.g, toilet training

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Behavioral Perspective

• Arose in response to the lack of scientific
  standards among psychodynamic theory and practice
• Applied learning theory all behavior is learned
• Insisted on making psychology a science by
  limiting its scope to measurable, observable,
  objective behavior
• Refused to accept the concept of personality
• Humans behave differently in different
  environments the setting shapes our behavior
• Pavlov, Watson, Skinner

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Cognitive/Behavioral Perspective

• Added the cognitive learning components to the
  principles of behaviorism
• Observational Learning
• Latent Learning
• Reciprocal Determinism
• Self-Efficacy
• Emphasized the importance of how thoughts mediate
  learning
• Bandura
• The most effective treatment techniques for many
  disorders
• Depression
• Anxiety

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Humanistic Perspective

• Most positive view of humans
• Wanted to restore humanity into psychology
• Psychodynamic sex and aggression
• Behaviorist compared us to animals
• Subjective and phenomenological each
  experiences his/her own reality
• Humans are innately good and prosocial
• We have a natural tendency/drive towards
  self-actualization (attempts to maximize our
  experience and enhance our lives and learn)
• Less than positive human behavior is the result
  of our self-actualization tendency being blocked

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Trait Theories

• Personality can be broken down into a set of
  basic traits or characteristics
• Opposed to the behavioral idea that we do not
  have a personality
• Person-situation debate both influence behavior
• Trait theorists and behaviorists are on opposite
  ends of debate
• Very well supported by research
• Personality traits are somewhat genetically
  determined
• Personality traits are stable throughout life

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Current Trait Theory Big 5

• Extroversion sociable and outgoing
• Neuroticism easily upset, emotionally
  unstable
• Agreeableness willingness to help, go with the
  flow, easy-going, flexible, etc.
• Conscientiousness dependability, responsibility
• Openness to Experience willingness to try new
  things, open-mindedness, creativity

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Support for the Big 5

• First 2 factors are highly genetic
• Same five factors are found by research
• Across cultures
• Despite language spoken
• Across gender and age groups
• Regardless of how the traits are measured
• Across the life-span

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Biological Theories

• Look for structural and functional brain
  differences and how these influence behavior
• Look for genetic influences on behavior
  personality

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Personality Assessment

• Interviews
• History and Background
• Screening for intellectual deficits
• Screening for neurological deficits
• Consider medical issues
• Personality testing
• Objective personality tests
• Projective personality tests

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Objective Personality Tests

• Present a clear, obvious question
• Give a limited option of answers
• True/False
• Multiple Choice
• Matching
• Place yourself on a scale of 1 to 7

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Objective Test MMPI

• Almost 600 true/false questions
• I like mechanics magazines.
• I get angry sometimes.
• I get up feeling fresh and rested most mornings.
• I would like the work of a florist.
• My soul sometimes leaves my body.

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MMPI continued

• Looks at the pattern of answers
• Compares your pattern of answers with those of
  the thousands of people in the norm group
• Predicts, bases on the pattern of your response,
  that you will be like others who answer similarly
• Initially developed for use in psychiatric
  populations
• Now norms are available for college students,
  police officers, job applicants, etc.

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Projective Tests

• Present vague stimuli
• Open-ended questions allow a wide range of
  responses
• Require that we project our issues onto the
  stimuli
• Originate from the psychodynamic perspective
• Meaning of answers is open to the interpretation
  of the examiner

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Projective Test Rorschach

• Inkblot test
• Same 10 inkblots are shown to all examinees
• Person tells examiner what they see in the
  inkblot
• Examiner determines the meaning of the responses

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Projective Test TAT

• Examinee is given a number of cards with drawings
• Task is to tell a story about the scene on each
  card
• Examiner determines the meaning of the responses

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Projective Test Drawings

• Examinee is asked to draw a picture
• Usually asked to draw a person, a house, a tree,
  etc.
• Examiner interprets the importance and meaning of
  different aspects of the drawings
• Size, Shading, Emphasis, etc

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