PERSONALITY

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CHAPTER 15
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• PERSONALITY
• long-lasting distinctive
• beh.s,
• thoughts,
• motives emotions
• how we react adapt to people/situations

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Sigmund Freud Psychoanalytic Theory

• All behavior is
• meaningful,
• unconscious forces
• controlled by
• digging below the surface to uncover the roots of
  personality

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Freud

• Psychoanalysis method for treating people with
  emotional problems
• Unconscious
• impulses are sexual and aggressive in nature.
• cannot accept them in our conscious
• thoughts find their expression in dreams/ slips
  of the tongue/free association

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The core of ones personality was set w/in the
first 5/6 yrs. of life
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Psychoanalytic Theory

• Unconscious Motivation
• influence of repressed thoughts, desires, or
  impulses on our conscious thoughts beh.s
• Hidden Desires cesspools of hidden desires
• Unresolved Childhood Conflicts cause fixations
  in later life. (Stages)

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• Discovering the Unconscious

• Free Association (Talking Cure)
• Uncensored talk
• provide clues to unconscious mind

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• Dream Interpretation

• dreams contain
• symbols that provide clues to unconscious
• thoughts desires

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• DREAM CONTENT

• Manifest
• Storyline of the dream
• Latent
• hidden or disguised meanings

Freudian Slips

• mistakes / slips of the tongue

• They reflect unconscious thoughts or
• wishes (true feelings come out)

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Battles of the Mind

• ID
• 1st division of the mind
• 2 biological drives Sex Aggression
• totally unconscious

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ID (cont.)

• innate instinctive
• Freudian instincts
• EROS- (Life Instinct)
• are drives that promote self-preservation.
• Thanatos (Death Instinct)
• opposes Eros
• A desire to give up the struggle of life
  embrace death
• Thanatos to be just as strong as Eros.

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• Pleasure Principle
• Childish side
• IDs Goals
• satisfy ones drives
• avoid pain
• Immediate gratification
• no morals
• dont care what society thinks

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SUPEREGO

• Moralistic Guardian Angel
• develops from the EGO during early childhood
• Moral part (consciousJiminy Cricket)
• Goal keep the ID in check
• Causes guilt/pride
• If it dominates, youll likely be quiet fearful

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EGOReality Principle

• Develops from the ID during infancy
• rational, thoughtful, realistic part of your
  personality
• Negotiator/Judge
• Between ID Superego
• Goal
• to negotiate between the IDs wants the
  Superegos inhibitions

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• Anxiety
• uncomfortable feeling
• inner conflicts between the desires of the ID
  the morals of the Superego

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• Defense Mechanisms

• Ego uses when it cant resolve personality
  conflicts
• Commonly used for psychological well-being
• Overuse not solving ones problems

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• Types of Mechanisms
• Rationalization (make excuses)
• acceptable excuses for beh.s
• explain away a problem
• dont have to accept the blame
• EX. Failed a test / worked last night

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• Denial (to not admit)
• refusing to admit theres a problem
• No problem Nothing bad has happened
• common 1st response to a tragedy

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• Repression (to forget)
• pushing unacceptable or threatening feelings into
  the unconscious
• Ex. abused children / rape victim

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Reaction-Formation

• expressing the opposite of what we feel
• Ex. Jr. high interactions

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You know what? Im happy
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• Projection (point the finger)
• attributing your own inner feelings on someone
  else
• Ex. many people feel that others dont like them,
  when in reality they hate themselves
• Regression (to go backward)
• childish beh. / tantrum
• senior whining, bedwetting, any Bobby Knight
  episode

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• Displacement (redirect anger)
• sometimes called misplaced aggression
• transferring feelings from their true source to
  another source
• person take out frustration on innocent
  bystanders
• Ex. Man / boss / wife

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• Sublimation
• a type of displacement
• redirection of a threatening or forbidden desire
• usually sexual/aggressive into a socially
  acceptable one
• Ex. Aggressive people play football, wrestle,
  etc

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Psychosexual Stages

• 5 developmental periods
• marked by potential conflicts between parent
  child
• conflicts arise as a child seeks pleasure from
  diff. body areas that are associated w/ sexual
  feelings
• fixation (can occur during any of the 1st 3
  stages)
• an individual may be locked into a particular
  psychosexual stage b/c of his/her wishes

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• 1.) Oral Stage (breast/bottle fed)
• infancy to 18 months

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• infants pleasure seeking is centered on the
  mouth (ex. sucking, chewing, biting, drinking,
  licking, etc)
• Fixationat this stage b/c our oral wishes were
  gratified too much or too little
• Adultgum chewing, smoking, overeating,
  nail-biting, overly demanding or mouthing off

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• 2.) Anal Stage (Toilet training)

• 1 ½ - 3 yrs.
• infants pleasure
• seeking is centered
• on the anus its
• functions of elimination
• Fixation as adults
• Retentive (anal)

• behaviorally rigid
• neat, stubborn, or stingy
• Hyperorganized
• Compulsive

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• Elimination
• being generous, messy, or be-
• having very loosely or carefree
• Expulsive
• rebellious / destructive

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• 3.) Phallic Stage
• 3 6 yrs.
• childs pleasure seeking is centered on the
  genitals
• Oedipus Complex
• child competes w/ the parents of the same sex for
  the affections pleasures of the parents of the
  opposite sex
• Problems
• Boysfear of castration
• Girlspenis envy (Electra Complex)

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• 4.) Latency Stage
• 6 to puberty
• child represses sexual thoughts engages in
  non-sexual activities, such as developing social
  intellectual skills

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• 5.) Genital Stage
• puberty through adulthood
• renewed sexual desires
• Dating/seeks marital partner
• earlier conflicts reappear

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Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective
Modern Research
1. Personality develops throughout life and is
not fixed in childhood. 2. Freud underemphasized
peer influence on the individual, which may be as
powerful as parental influence. 3. Gender
identity may develop before 5-6 years of age.
4. There may be other reasons for dreams
besides wish fulfillment. 5.
Verbal slips can be explained on the basis of
cognitive processing of verbal choices.
6. Suppressed sexuality leads to psychological
disorders. Sexual inhibition has decreased, but
psychological disorders have not.
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Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective

• The scientific merits of Freuds theory have been
  criticized. (repression)
• The majority of children, death camp survivors,
  and battle-scarred veterans are unable to repress
  painful experiences into their unconscious mind.
• Psychoanalysis is meagerly testable.

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Assessing Unconscious Processes

• Projective Tests reveal the hidden unconscious
  mind.

• require individuals to look _at_ some meaningless
  object or ambiguous photo describe what they
  see
• People project both their conscious unconscious
  feelings, needs, motives onto the stimulus

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Rorschach Inkblot Test
The most widely used projective test uses a set
of 10 inkblots and was designed by Hermann
Rorschach. It seeks to identify peoples inner
feelings by analyzing their interpretations of
the blots.
Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, Inc.
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Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

• Developed by Henry Murray, the TAT is a
  projective test in which people express their
  inner feelings and interests through the stories
  they make up about ambiguous scenes.

Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, Inc.
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Projective Tests Criticisms

• Critics argue that projective tests lack both
  reliability (consistency of results) and validity
  (predicting what it is supposed to).

1. When evaluating the same patient, even trained
   raters come up with different interpretations
   (reliability).

2. Projective tests may misdiagnose a normal
individual as pathological (validity).
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• Neo-Freudians / Psychodynamic Approach
• broke away from biological drives focused on
  soc. cultural influences in the unconscious
• Carl Jung
• 1865 1961
• a disciple of Freuds
• disagreed w/ Freuds emphasis on the sex drive

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• believed the unconscious is a well of mystical
  religious beliefs that controls
• our beh.
• Archetypes
• term for inherited (universal) human concepts
  (hero, mother, wisemen, God, etc

• Collective Unconscious
• the portion of a person that contains ideas
  (archetypes) shared by the whole human race
• consists of ancient memory traces symbols that
  are passed on by birth shared by all people in
  all cultures

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• Jung claimed that in the process of trying to
  become like these mythical people, we hide our
  real feelings our real personalities
• The fake personality
• that we then develop
• is called a Persona

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• Persona
• a mask people wear to hide what they really are
  feeling
• Ex. Smiled been pleasant around someone who is
  irritating you
• George Lucas

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GOOD EVIL
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• Alfred Adler (1870 1937)
• soc. relationships shape personality
• main factors influencing a childs development
  were sibling influences child-rearing practices
• biggest problem people face? We want to feel
  worthwhile important

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• Inferiority Complex
• avoiding feelings of inadequacy insignificance
• we all have this
• Ex. Bullies

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• Parents
• have a chance to raise children to be confident
  self-reliant dont over-pamper or neglect them
• Sibling Rivalry
• conflict between brothers sisters
• competition
• Birth Order

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Oldest Middle Youngest
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• Karen Horney (1885 1952)
• personality development can be found in
  parent-child soc. interactions
• disagreed w/ Freud
• on the importance
• of penis envy
• Womb envy

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• human feels most helpless, anxious, lost in
  life around issues of getting enough love
• so we often go along w/ people when we dont want
  to in order to not get rejected by them

• Erik Erikson
• (1902 1994)
• 8 Psychosocial
• stages
• See chart in bk.
• (pg. 170)

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Humanistic Perspective

• By the 1960s, psychologists dont like
• Freuds negativity
• mechanistic psychology of the behaviorists.

http//www.ship.edu
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
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• Maslow individuals are motivated by a hierarchy
  of needs
• Goal self-actualizationfulfilling our potential

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• Carl Rogers (self theory)
• 2 major assumptions
• self-actualized tendency
• positive regard

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• Self-actualizing tendency
• inborn tendency to develop all our capacities in
  ways that best maintain benefit our lives
• Self-concept
• refers to how we see/describe ourselves

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• Real Self vs. Ideal Self
• Real Self
• based on our actual experiences
• how we really see ourselves
• Ideal Self
• based on our hopes/wishes
• how we would like to see ourselves
• Congruence
• Consistency between ones self-concept ones
  experience
• It leads to a healthy self-concept

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• How does the Self develop?
• Positive Regard
• love, sympathy, warmth acceptance, respect
  which we crave from family, friends, people
  important to us
• is essential for the healthy development of ones
  self as well as for successful interpersonal
  relations

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• 2 Kinds
• Conditional Positive Regard
• pos. regard we receive if we behave in acceptable
  ways
• such as meeting the standards of others

• Unconditional Positive Regard
• attitude of acceptance of others despite their
  failings

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Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective
1. Pervasive impact on counseling, education,
child-rearing, and management. 2. Concepts are
vague and subjective and lack scientific
basis. 3. Values individualistic and
self-centered. 4. Assumptions naively optimistic
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• Trait
• stable enduring tendency to behave in a
  particular way
• basic unit for measuring personality
• provide shorthand descriptions of people
  predict certain beh.s
• How many traits are there?

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The Trait Perspective
An individuals unique constellation of durable
dispositions and consistent ways of behaving
(traits) constitutes his or her personality.
Examples of Traits
Honest Dependable Moody Impulsive
Allport Odbert (1936), identified 18,000 words
representing traits.
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Exploring Traits

• Factor analysis- statistical approach used to
  describe and relate personality traits.
• Cattell used this approach to develop a 16
  Personality Factor (16PF) inventory.

Raymond Cattell (1905-1998)
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Personality Dimensions
Hans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that personality
could be reduced down to two polar dimensions,
extraversion-introversion and emotional
stability-instability.
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• Myers Briggs Type Indicator
• Classifies according to Jungs personality types
• Introversion, Extroversion, Thinking, Feeling,
  Perceiving, Sensation, Judging, Intuition.
• Personality types, assessed by measures such as
  the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, consist of a
  number of traits.

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• For example, a feeling type personality is
  sympathetic, appreciative, and tactful. More
  research is needed on this popular tests
  validity.

Feeling Type Personality
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The Big Five Factors / CANOE or OCEAN
Todays trait researchers believe that Eysencks
personality dimensions are too narrow and
Cattells 16PF too large. So, a middle range
(five factors) of traits does a better job of
assessment.
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness
Extraversion
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Questions about the Big Five
Quite stable in adulthood. However, they change
over development.
1. How stable are these traits?
2. How heritable are they?
Fifty percent or so for each trait.
These traits are common across cultures.
3. How about other cultures?
Yes. Conscientious people are morning type and
extraverted are evening type.
4. Can they predict other personal attributes?
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Assessing TraitsObjective Tests

• Personality inventories
• are questionnaires (often with T/F or
  agree-disagree items) designed to gauge a wide
  range of feelings and behaviors assessing several
  traits at once.

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
  (MMPI)
• most widely researched and clinically used of all
  personality tests.
• originally developed to identify those with
  personality or emotional disorders, now also used
  for many other screening purposes.

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• The MMPI was developed by empirically testing a
  pool of items and then selecting those that
  discriminated between diagnostic groups.

• MMPI-2
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory2
• T/F self-report test
• 567 statements describing a wide range of normal
  abnormal beh.s
• Is revisedstill scores individuals on 10 scales

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Evaluating the Trait Perspective
The Person-Situation Controversy Walter Mischel
(1968, 1984, 2004) points out that traits may be
enduring, but the resulting behavior in various
situations is different. Therefore, traits are
not good predictors of behavior.
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• Changeable Stable Personality Traits
• McCrae Costa (1994, 1997, 1999)
• most change before age 30
• personality may go thru major changes
• b/c adolescents young adults are more willing
  to adopt new values attitudes/revise old ones
• most stability after 30
• personality is relatively fixed difficult to
  change
• but adults do continue to grow in their ideas,
  beliefs, attitudes

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Consistency of Expressive Style
Expressive styles in speaking and gestures
demonstrate trait consistency.
Observers are able to judge peoples behavior and
feelings in as little as 30 seconds and in one
particular case as little as 2 seconds.
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Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Bandura (1986, 2001, 2005)
• personality is the result of an interaction
  between a person and their social context.

Albert Bandura
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Reciprocal Influences
The three factors, behavior, cognition, and
environment, are interlocking determinants of
each other.
Bandura called the process of interacting with
our environment reciprocal determinism.
Stephen Wade/ Allsport/ Getty Images
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Individuals Environments

• Specific ways in which individuals and
  environments interact

The school you attend and the music you listen to
are partly based on your dispositions.
Different people choose different environments.
Our personalities shape how we react to events.
Anxious people react to situations differently
than calm people.
Our personalities shape situations.
How we view and treat people influences how they
treat us.
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Personal Control (J. Rotter 1990)

• Personal control- whether we control the
  environment or the environment controls us.

• External locus of control- perception that chance
  or outside forces beyond our personal control
  determine our fate.

• Internal locus of control- perception that we can
  control our own fate.

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• Self Efficacy
• how capable we think we are in controlling
  events/situations is determined by combining 4
  sources of info

1.) use of previous success failure experiences
to estimate performance on new tasks 2.) compare
your capabilities w/ those of others 3.) listen
to what others say about your capabilities
4.) use feedback from your body to assess your
strength, vulnerability, capability
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Learned Helplessness (M. Seligman 1975, 1991)

• When unable to avoid repeated adverse events an
  animal or human learns helplessness.

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Optimism vs. Pessimism

• An optimistic or pessimistic attributional style
  is your way of explaining positive or negative
  events.
• Students who express an attitude of hopeful
  optimism tend to get better grades than those who
  have a negative attributional style.
• But excessive optimism can foster feelings of
  invincibility that expose us to unnecessary
  risks.
• Positive psychology aims to discover and promote
  conditions that enable individuals and
  communities to thrive.

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Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective

• pay a lot of attention to the situation and pay
  less attention to the individual, his unconscious
  mind, his emotions, and his genetics.

Exploring the Self

• The self organizes thinking, feelings, and
  actions and is a critical part of our personality.

1. Research focuses on the different selves we
   possess. Some we dream and others we dread.
2. Research studies how we overestimate our concern
   that others evaluate our appearance, performance,
   and blunders (spotlight effect).
3. Research studies the self-reference effect in
   recall.

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Self-Serving Bias

• We accept responsibility for good deeds and
  successes more than for bad deeds and failures.
• Defensive self-esteem is fragile and egotistic
  whereas secure self-esteem is less fragile and
  less dependent on external evaluation.