What Personality Theories Try To Do:

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What Personality Theories Try To Do

• To provide a way of organizing the many facts
  about yourself and about other people.
• To explain the differences between individuals.
• To provide a set of guidelines to live by. (These
  will help us to be free of emotional problems and
  decide how a good, healthy person might respond
  to situations in life).

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Theory

• An hypothesis, not proven wrong.
• An idea which is supportable.
• An idea applicable to a wide variety of
  situations.
• An educational explanation of an occurrence.

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Personality

• The unique or individual pattern of a persons
  life.
• Sum total of all that a person is.
• Reaction to environment.

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Jelly Bean Game

• Select a jelly bean that is your favorite color.

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Color Denotes Prediction
Red Temper Soon to quarrel with a friend
Blue or Violet Moody Will be unhappy soon
White Love unstained Great love affair is awaiting
Green Envious Soon to envy another person in the room
Black Bad disposition Which must improve immediately.
Yellow Cheery Soon to experience good fortune---maybe tomorrow
Brown or pink Voisy Soon to find self in a noisy throng.
Orange Changeable Person will change mind soon about an important deal in the near future.
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• What are some of the effects of such a theory?
• How can one avoid negative consequences?
• How is this similar to stereotyping?

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Describe your Personality

• Do one of the three experiences described below
• Find a picture in a magazine that you fell
  represents you in some way. Write a paragraph
  explaining why this picture represents you.
• One simple experience to help you understand
  yourself is to think of yourself as an animal.
  The animal you choose may reflect the char. which
  you see in yourself. Identify the animal and
  explain the ways in which the animal represents
  you as a person. Write a paragraph explaining
  your answer.
• Choose a famous person, dead or alive, whom you
  admire. Identify the person and the qualities in
  that person that are similar to qualities you
  possess. In what ways are you like that person
  or you try to be like that person? Write a
  paragraph explaining why this picture represents
  you.

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Psychoanalytic Perspectives

• 1. Personality is unconscious (beyond awareness)
  and heavily colored by emotion.
•  
• Theorists believe that behavior is what is seen
  on the surface and to understand someones
  personality, we have to look at the meanings of
  behavior and inner workings of the mind.

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Sigmund Freuds Theory

• 1. Medical doctor specializing in neurology.
• 2. Developed theory from his work with neurotic
  patients.
•  

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3. He viewed the mind as an iceberg with a
large part below the surface being the
unconscious part.
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Structure of Personality

• Freud believed that personality has three
  structures id, ego and superego.
• The id wants what it wants right now. It has
  contact with reality and consists of instincts.
• The ego has the job of getting things done and
  dealing with reality. It makes decisions.
• The superego is concerned with right and wrong
  or the conscience

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• The unconscious mind holds the key to
  understanding behavior
• Freudian slips are when trivial behaviors are
  significant when the unconscious reason for them
  is revealed.

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Resources

• 1. Human Adjustment Book by Jane S. Halonene
  and John Santrock
• 2.Ciadvertising.org/sa/spring04/adv382/
  karaz/personality
• 3. Person to Person by Sasse

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Freuds Journal Keep a running diary of your
behavior for 2 days. Categorize the behaviors in
the three columns.
ID Ego Superego
Day 1 See food at store and want it NOW. Go through the Check outline and pay for food at grocery store. Pay for food at the store
Day 2