Chapter 12: Personality: Theory, Research, and Assessment

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Chapter 12Personality Theory, Research, and
Assessment
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Defining PersonalityConsistency and
Distinctiveness

• Personality Traits
• Dispositions and dimensions
• The Five-Factor Model
• Extraversion
• Neuroticism
• Openness to experience
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness

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Figure 12.1 The five-factor model of personality
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Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Freuds psychoanalytic theory
• Structure of personality
• Id - Pleasure principle
• Ego - Reality principle
• Superego - Morality
• Levels of awareness
• Conscious
• Unconscious
• Preconscious

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Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Freuds psychoanalytic theory
• Conflict
• Sex and Aggression
• Anxiety
• Defense Mechanisms

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Figure 12.2 Freuds model of personality
structure
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Figure 12.3 Freuds model of personality dynamics
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Table 12.1 Defense Mechanisms, with Examples
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Freud on DevelopmentPsychosexual Stages

• Sexual physical pleasure
• Psychosexual stages
• Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital
• Fixation Excessive gratification or frustration
• Overemphasis on psychosexual needs during fixated
  stage

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Table 12.2 Freuds Stages of Psychosexual
Development
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Other Psychodynamic Theorists

• Carl Jung Analytical Psychology
• Personal and collective unconscious
• Archetypes
• Introversion/Extroversion
• Alfred Adler Individual Psychology
• Striving for superiority
• Compensation
• Inferiority complex/overcompensation
• Birth order

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Figure 12.4 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
• Cons
• Poor testability
• Inadequate empirical base
• Sexist views

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Behavioral Perspectives

• Skinners views
• Conditioning and response tendencies
• Environmental determinism
• Banduras views
• Social leaning theory
• Cognitive processes and reciprocal determinism
• Observational learning
• Models
• Self-efficacy
• Mischels views
• The person-situation controversy

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Figure 12.5 A behavioral view of personality
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Figure 12.6 Personality development and operant
conditioning
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Figure 12.7 Banduras reciprocal conditioning
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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 Rogers
• Person Centered Theory
• Self-concept
• Conditional/unconditional positive regard
• Incongruence and anxiety
• Abraham Maslow
• Self-actualization theory
• Hierarchy of needs
• The healthy personality

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Figure 12.9 Rogerss view of personality
structure
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Figure 12.10 Rogerss view of personality
development and dynamics
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Figure 12.11 Maslows hierarchy of needs
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Figure 12.12 Maslows view of the healthy
personality
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Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives

• Humanistic theories are credited with
  highlighting the importance of a persons
  subjective view of reality. They are also
  applauded for focusing attention on the issue of
  what constitutes a healthy personality.
• They are criticized for lacking a strong research
  base, poor testability, and what may be an overly
  optimistic view of human nature (Maslow had a
  hard time finding live people who had
  self-actualized).

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Biological Perspectives

• Eysenks theory
• 3 higher order traits
• Extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism
• Determined by genes
• Twin studies
• Novelty seeking and genetics
• The evolutionary approach
• Traits conducive to reproductive fitness

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Figure 12.14 Twin studies of personality
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Evaluating Biological Perspectives

• Pros
• Convincing evidence for genetic influence
• Cons
• Conceptual problems with heritability estimates
• Artificial carving apart of nature and nurture
• No comprehensive biological theory

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Contemporary Empirical ApproachesTerror
Management Theory

• Conflict between self-preservation and ability to
  foresee death
• Culture and self-esteem
• Anxiety buffer

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Figure 12.15 Overview of terror management theory
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Contemporary Empirical ApproachesTerror
Management Theory

• Increasing subjects mortality salience causes
  them to
• Punish moral transgressions more harshly,
• Be less tolerant of criticism of their country,
• Give greater rewards to those who uphold cultural
  standards,
• And respect cultural icons more.

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Personality Assessment

• Self-Report Inventories
• MMPI
• 16PF and NEO Personality Inventory
• Strengths
• objective and precise
• extensive comparative data
• Weaknesses
• deliberate deception
• social desirability bias
• response sets

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Personality Assessment

• Projective Tests
• Rorschach test (inkblot)
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• Strengths
• not transparent to respondents
• sensitive to unconscious features of personality
• Weaknesses
• scientific evidence is unimpressive
• susceptible to intentional deception
• techniques rather than tests

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Figure 12.21 The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
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Personality Testing on the Internet

• Self-report inventories are increasingly being
  administered over the Internet
• Advantages
• completed quickly
• data unavailable from traditional test
• deliver assessment services to rural clients
• Disadvantages
• security is an issue for some tests
• verifying the identity of the respondent
• equivalency to paper-and-pencil format