PSYCHOLOGY

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PSYCHOLOGY

• PERSONALITY

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PERSONALITY

• How do psychologists define and use the concept
  of personality?
• What do the theories of freud and his successors
  tell us about the structure and development of
  personality?
• What are major aspects of trait, learning,
  biological and evolutionary, and humanistic
  approaches to personality?
• How can we most accurately assess personality?
• What are the major types of personality measures?

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How do psychologists define and use the concept
of personality?

• Personality refers to the relatively enduring
  characteristics that
• Differentiate one person from anther
• Lead them to act in a consistent and predictable
  manner.
• Both in different situations and over extended
  periods of time.

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The theories of the structure and development of
personality

• According to psychoanalysts, much of behavior is
  caused by parts of personality that are found in
  the unconscious and of which we are unaware.
• Freuds theory suggest that personality is
  composed of the id, the ego, and the superego.
• The id is the unorganized, inborn part of
  personality whose purpose is to immediately
  reduce tensions relating to hunger, sex,
  aggression, and other primitive impulses.

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The Theories Of Structure And Development Of
Personality

• The ego restrains instinctual energy in order to
  maintain the safety of individual and to help the
  person to be a member of society.
• The superego represents the rights and wrongs of
  society and consists of conscience and the
  ego-ideal.
• Freuds psychoanalytic theory suggests that
  personality develops through a series of stages,
  each of which is associated with a major
  biological function.

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The Theories Of Structure And Development Of
Personality

• The oral stage is the first period, occurring
  during the first year of life.
• Next comes the anal stage, lasting from
  approximately age 1 to age 3.
• The phallic stage follows, with interest focusing
  on the genitals.

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The Theories Of Structure And Development Of
Personality

• At age 5 or 6 near the end of the phallic stage,
  children experience the Oedipal conflict, a
  process through which they learn to identify with
  the same-sex parent by acting as much like that
  parent as possible.
• Then follows a latency period lasting until
  puberty, after which people move into the genital
  stage.

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The Theories Of Structure And Development Of
Personality

• Defense mechanisms, used for dealing with anxiety
  relating to impulses from the id, provide people
  with unconscious strategies to reduce anxiety .
• The most common defense mechanisms are
  repression, regression, displacement,
  rationalization, denial, projection, and
  sublimation.

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The Theories Of Structure And Development Of
Personality

• Freuds psychoanalytic theory has provoked a
  number of criticisms.
• Lack of supportive scientific data.
• The theorys inadequacy in making predictions.
• Its reliance on a highly restricted population.
• Still, the theory remains a pivotal one.

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Major aspects of personality approaches

• Approaches are
• Trait.
• Learning.
• Biological and evolutionary.
• Humanistic.
• The major personality approaches differ according
  to unconscious v conscious, nature v nurture,
  freedom v determinism, stability v modifiability
  of personality.

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Major aspects of personality approaches

• Trait approaches
• Have tried to identify the most basic and
  relatively enduring dimensions along which people
  differ from one another-dimensions known as
  traits.
• There are three kinds of traits (cardinal,
  central, secondary).
• Factor analysis used to identify 16 traits and
  three dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism, and
  psychoticism).

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Major aspects of personality approaches

• Learning approaches
• Concentrate on observable behavior.
• Personality is the sum of learned responses to
  the external environment.
• In contrast, cognitive-social approaches
  concentrate on the role of cognitions in
  determining personality.
• Attention to self-efficacy and reciprocal
  determinism in determining behavior.

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Major aspects of personality approaches

• Biological and evolutionary approaches
• Focus on how personality are inherited.
• For example, studies of childrens temperament
  suggest that there is a distinction between
  inhibited and uninhibited children, which is
  reflected in differences both in biological
  reactivity and in shyness.

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Major aspects of personality approaches

• Humanistic approaches
• Emphasize the basic goodness of people.
• They consider the core of personality in terms of
  a persons ability to change and improve.
• Concept of the need for positive regard suggests
  that a universal requirement to be loved and
  respected underlies personality.

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Personality assessment

• Psychological tests are standard assessment tools
  that objectively measure behavior.
• They must be
• reliable, measuring what they are trying to
  measure consistently, and
• valid, measuring what they are supposed to
  measure.

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Major Types Of Personality Measures

• Self-report measures ask people about a sample
  range of their behaviors.
• These reports are used to infer the presence of
  particular personality characteristics.
• The most commonly used self-report measure is the
  Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
  Inventory-2(MMPI-2).
• MMPI-2 designed to differentiate people with
  specific sorts of psychological difficulties from
  normal individuals.