Unit Ten:

1
Unit Ten

• Personality

2
What is Personality?

• Definition
• A relatively enduring set of behavioral,
  emotional and mental characteristics
• remains relatively stable over time
• makes each of us unique

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3
Enduring Issues in Psychology

• Nature vs. Nurture
• Is personality genetically encoded or learned?

4
Enduring Issues in Psychology

• Unconscious or Conscious?
• Do you know why you do what you do?

5
Enduring Issues in Psychology

• Fixed vs. Situational
• Is personality stable or does it change from
  situation to situation?

6
Sigmund Freud Background
Hot.

• Victorian Era
• A time of repression
• Rigid gender roles - separate spheres for males
  and females
• Clothing restricted movement and covered head to
  toe
• Rumors said people were even scandalized by bare
  table and piano legs!

Queen Victoria of England
7
Sigmund Freud Background

• Personal History
• Remarriage of his father
• Older half-brothers
• Young, doting mother
• Golden Sigi
• Favored over his other siblings

ABOVE Freud and his Dad. BELOW Freud and his
Mom
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Sigmund Freud Three Main Beliefs

• Childhood experiences determine the adult
  personality
• Unconscious mental processes influence everyday
  behavior
• Conflict causes most human behavior

9
Sigmund Freud 3-Part Theory of Personality
Structure

• Part 1 The Id
• Born with this intact
• Governed by Pleasure Principle
• Houses unconscious drives of sex (libido) and
  aggression
• Selfish, irrational, seeks instant gratification

DO IT NOW!
10
Sigmund Freud 3-Part Theory of Personality
Structure

• Part 2 The Superego
• Develops during childhood (6 years)
• Governed by Judicial or Moral Principle
• The internalized parent
• Seeks to do what is right and good (conscience)
• Causes us to feel guilty for our desires/id
  impulses

Behave!
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Sigmund Freud 3-Part Theory of Personality
Structure

• Part 3 The Ego
• Develops during childhood (6 months)
• Governed by Reality Principle
• Seeks to gratify Id urges at an appropriate time
• Inherits inevitable anxiety produced by
  Id-Superego conflict

?
12
Sigmund Freud Evidence for Existence of the
Unconscious

• Dream Interpretation
• Dreams allow unconscious urges to leak out
• Dreams allow unconscious wishes to be fulfilled
  in a safe way
• Dreams are symbolic and may be interpreted

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Sigmund Freud Evidence for Existence of the
Unconscious

• Slip of the tongue
• AKA Freudian Slip
• Your unconscious thoughts leak out and you say
  something you did not mean to

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Sigmund Freud Evidence for Existence of the
Unconscious

• Free Association
• Freudian therapeutic technique
• Say whatever comes to mind without censorship
• Unconscious comes to the surface

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Sigmund Freud Evidence for Existence of the
Unconscious
Sup.

• Tip of the Iceberg
• Freudian saying that implies we are unaware of
  most of what motivates us
• What is conscious is just the tip of the
  iceberg
• A LOT more is beneath the surface

What we are aware of at any given time.
What we can easily retrieve
What we are unaware of and is deeply buried
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Sigmund Freud The Psychosexual Stages

• Oral Stage (0-1.5)
• Erogenous ZoneMouth
• Libido satisfied by breast feeding
• Major conflict weaning
• Failure to resolve the issue leads to an oral
  fixation
• Suck/chew things for security
• Smoking, obsessive eating, nail biting, pen
  chewing, drinking
• Sarcasm, aggressiveness

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Sigmund Freud The Psychosexual Stages

• Anal Stage (1.5-3)
• Erogenous ZoneAnus
• Libido satisfied by defecating
• Major conflict toilet training
• Failure to resolve the issue leads to an anal
  fixation
• Anal Retentive - tightly controlled, OCD, fear of
  dirt, obsessed with punctuality
• Anal Expulsive - messy, disorganized, rebellious,
  overly giving, obsession with bathroom humor

I refuse!
18
Sigmund Freud The Psychosexual Stages
HA!

• Phallic Stage (4-6) BOYS
• Erogenous ZonePenis
• Libido satisfied by genital stimulation
• Oedipus Complex
• Boy desires mother, wants to eliminate father
• Resolved through castration anxiety, where boy
  fears father will find out about his plan and cut
  it off
• Boy relinquishes desire for mom and befriends dad
  out of fear

WT!!
AHA!!
Uh-oh
19
Sigmund Freud The Psychosexual Stages

• Phallic Stage (4-6) GIRLS
• Erogenous ZoneClitoris
• Libido satisfied by genital stimulation
• Oedipus Complex
• Resolved FAST due to PENIS ENVY
• Girl then seeks penis through father during
  Electra Complex
• Girl resolves this by replacing her desire for a
  penis with her desire for a baby and plays with
  dolls

MUAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA!
WHAT!? Take That!
Nope. You dont have one.
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Sigmund Freud The Psychosexual Stages

• Phallic Stage (4-6)
• Major conflict relinquishing desire for opposite
  sex parent
• Failure to resolve the issue leads to fixation
• Excessive masturbation, overly flirtatious
• Excessive modesty, or excessively timid
• Overly proud
• Promiscuous
• Fetishes

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Sigmund Freud The Psychosexual Stages

• Latency (7-11)
• Erogenous ZoneNONE
• Child goes to school
• Sexual feelings repressed
• Child develops academic, social and
  extracurricular skills
• Typically plays in same-sex play groups

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Sigmund Freud The Psychosexual Stages

• Genital (puberty on)
• Erogenous ZonePenis/Vagina
• Libido satisfied through sex
• Begins when child hits puberty/sexual maturity
• Normal sexual relationships occur at this stage

Hi, Im your dad!
No hes not.
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Sigmund Freud The Defense Mechanisms

• The inevitable conflict between id and superego
  produces anxiety.
• This anxiety is inherited by the ego, which uses
  the defense mechanisms to better manage it.

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Sigmund Freud The Defense Mechanisms

• Denial (Negation)
• Refusal to acknowledge a painful reality
• Repression
• Unpleasant thoughts are excluded from
  consciousness motivated forgetting
• Projection
• Attributing ones own feelings, motives, or
  wishes to others
• Identification
• Taking on the characteristics of other to avoid
  feeling incompetent
• Regression
• Reverting to childlike behavior
• Rationalization
• Making up a logical explanation for an
  emotionally painful event rather than dealing
  with the pain

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Sigmund Freud The Defense Mechanisms

• Intellectualization
• Thinking about stressful problems in an abstract
  way to detach oneself from them
• Reaction formation
• Expression of exaggerated ideas and emotions that
  are opposite of true feelings
• Displacement
• Shift repressed motives from an original object
  to a substitute object
• Sublimation
• Redirecting repressed motives and feelings into
  socially acceptable activities
• Undoing
• After-the-fact defense mechanism involving
  making up for guilt-producing actions

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Neo Freudians General Themes

• The Neo-Freudians were a group of psychologists
  who followed Freuds teachings and were often his
  best and brightest students.
• They eventually had some minor disagreements with
  Freud about his theory, and developed theories of
  their own.
• Freud had little patience for these dissenters,
  and quickly kicked them to the curb.

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Neo Freudians Alfred Adler

• He was the younger, weaker son in his family
• Inferiority was the key to understanding
  personality
• Inferiority complex
• Fixation on feelings of personal inferiority that
  can lead to emotional and social paralysis
• Fictional Finalism
• Setting long-term goals that may never be
  reached, but help you to achieve a sense of
  satisfaction along the way

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Neo Freudians Alfred Adler

• Birth Order
• Oldest
• Middle
• Youngest
• Only
• Dethronement
• When the next child is born, the older one is
  forced to share parental attention
• Compensation
• Our efforts to win back parental love after
  dethronement

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Neo Freudians Karen Horney (Horn-EYE!)

• One of the first female psychoanalysts to study
  with Freud.
• Got divorced to pursue her career rare at the
  time!
• Viewed anxiety as a powerful motivating force
• Environmental and social factors important seen
  as being as important as unconscious sexual
  conflict

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Neo Freudians Karen Horney

• Developed Coping Mechanisms to deal with
  insecurity
• Compliance moving toward others
• Aggression moving against others
• Withdrawal moving away from others
• Neurotic trends
• Irrational strategies for coping with emotional
  problems

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Neo Freudians Carl Jung

• One of Freuds best students his surrogate
  son
• Freud was said to have fainted in his presence
  several times!
• Believed in the collective unconscious, in
  addition to the personal unconscious
• Collective unconscious was comprised of
  archetypes
• Anima and Animus?

32
Neo Freudians Erik Erikson

• Another of Freuds best students and biggest
  advocates
• Strayed from Freuds theory due to disagreement
  with the psychosexual stages
• Erikson believed in the psychosocial stages which
  involved a series of conflicts that lasted
  throughout the entire lifespan
• Trust vs. mistrust
• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
• Initiative vs. guilt
• Industry vs. inferiority
• Identity vs. role confusion
• Intimacy vs. isolation
• Generativity vs. stagnation
• Ego integrity vs. despair

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Personality AssessmentPsychodynamic Theories

• Projective tests
• Ambiguous stimuli presented to subject/client
• Open-ended no correct answer
• Answers are interpreted by therapist for
  underlying meaning
• Preferred by psychodynamic theorists to unleash
  the unconscious
• Examples
• Rorschach test
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

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Personality AssessmentThematic Apperception
Test (TAT)

• Developed by Henry Murray in 1935
• Examiner chooses 10 cards with ambiguous
  black-and-white drawings of people in various
  situations
• Subjects must tell a story about each card
• Results analyzed based on need for achievement,
  affiliation, and aggression
• Heroes, needs, themes and outcomes of the stories
  provide insight
• Relies too much on the examiners interpretation
  little reliability/validity

35
Personality AssessmentRorschachTest

• Developed by Hermann Rorschach in 1921
• 10 inkblots 5 color, 5 bw
• Subjects describe all 10 inkblots
• Examiner then goes through cards again and asks
  questions for clarification/detail
• Provides subject with considerable freedom to
  respond, but lacks reliability and validity.

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Assessing Psychodynamic Theories of Personality

• Criticisms
• Not testable
• Data to support this theory comes primarily from
  case studies based on the memories of clients,
  which we know can be flawed
• Pessimistic outlook on human nature
• Sexist/biased against women

• Strengths
• Early experiences shape personality and these
  should be studied from a developmental
  perspective
• Human emotion and motivation are important in
  understanding personality
• Concept of the unconscious
• Therapeutic techniques

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Humanistic Theories

• As you already know, these theories stress the
  potential for human goodness and the natural
  desire to achieve personal goals
• Unlike psychodynamic theories, humanistic
  theories
• give individuals the power to control their own
  destiny (self determinism)
• Are much more optimistic about human nature
• Emphasize immediate subjective experiences that
  are unique to each of us
• Representatives include Abraham Maslow and Carl
  Rogers

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Humanistic TheoriesAbraham Maslows Theory of
Self Actualization

• Self-actualized people
• use their ability to their fullest potential
• accurately perceive reality
• accept themselves and others
• have a good sense of humor
• have frequent peak experiences (insightful,
  meaningful)

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Humanistic TheoriesCarl Rogers Person-Centered
Approach

• Behavior is goal-directed and worthwhile
• Positive Regard
• Conditional you are only loved when you conform
  to others wishes
• Unconditional you are loved no matter what
  choices you make
• Positive regard impacts personality and happiness
• Real self who we are based on our experiences
• Ideal self who we truly want to be
• Should have some overlap you will if you get
  unconditional positive regard!
• Maladjustment results from discrepancy between
  real and ideal selves

REAL SELF
IDEAL SELF
REAL SELF
IDEAL SELF
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Humanistic TheoriesAn Evaluation

• Strengths
• Impact of these ideas on understanding happiness
  and fulfillment
• Positive self-concept, empathy, optimistic
  outlook on human nature are things most agree are
  important in finding happiness
• Weaknesses
• Subjective concepts not scientific
• Individualism encouraged by humanistic theorists
  can lead to self-indulgence and selfishness
• Does not explain real examples of evil in humans

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Trait and Type Theories

• Personality is best explained in terms of
  descriptive adjectives and categories comprised
  of related qualities
• Earliest of all types of personality theories
• Representatives include Hippocrates, Eysenck and
  Allport

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Trait and Type TheoriesThe Four Humors

• The oldest theory of personality structure dating
  back to the Classical period (400 BCE)
• Personality can be explained by the amounts of
  the four body fluids you have at a given time
• A healthy personality meant a balance of these
  body fluids (humors)

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Trait and Type TheoriesThe Four Humors

• Image from the Middle Ages depicting the
  personality types associated with the four
  humors.
• Top Left (A) Melancholic (Black Bile) moody,
  glum
• Top Right (B) Choleric (Yellow Bile) irritable
  and hot tempered
• Bottom Right (C) Phlegmatic (Phlegm) slow and
  droopy
• Bottom Left (D) Sanguine (Red Bile) happy,
  energetic, passionate

A
B
D
C
44
Trait and Type TheoriesHans Eysenck

• Eysenck evaluated personality based on 3 major
  dimensions
• Stable vs. Unstable (Neurotic)
• Are you predictable?
• Are you sponteneous?
• Introverted vs. Extroverted
• Are you social and outgoing?
• Are you reserved?
• Psychoticism
• Are you EXTREMELY stable, unstable, introverted
  or extroverted?

45
Trait and Type TheoriesGordon Allport

• Allport perused the dictionary to extract every
  possible adjective that could be used to describe
  personality
• After finding several thousand words, he decided
  this task wasoverwhelming
• He decided to describe personality in terms of
  three types of traits
• Cardinal Traits DEFINING trait
• Central Traits top 8-10 descriptives
• Secondary Traits situational descriptives

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Trait and Type TheoriesBig Five

• The Big Five traits currently thought to be
  central to describing personality (OCEAN)
• Openness
• Will you try new things? Do you keep an open
  mind? Are you intelligent?
• Conscientiousness
• Are you goal directed and driven?
• Extroversion
• Are you outgoing?
• Agreeableness
• Are you a peace-maker or a trouble-maker?
• Neuroticism/stability
• Are you predictable? Do you enjoy routine?

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Trait and Type TheoriesBig Five
Why not try eating spiders?

• Open to new experiences
• NOT open

Im not eating that! Hmpf!
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Trait and Type TheoriesBig Five
I am working til its DONE!

• Conscientious
• Undirected

Whatever
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Trait and Type TheoriesBig Five
I hate people.

• Introvert!
• Extrovert!

Yeeeehaw!
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Trait and Type TheoriesBig Five
Break it up!

• Agreeable
• Antagonistic

I am gonna kick your a!
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Trait and Type TheoriesBig Five
Did someone touch my book!?!?!?!

• Stable, Predictable
• Unpredictable, Neurotic

I may fetchthen again, I may maul you to death
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Personality Assessment and Evaluation of Trait
and Type Theories

• Objective tests are preferred by trait and type
  theorists
• Standardized, closed-ended questions
• Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire
  (Cattells 16PF)
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
  (MMPI-2)
• Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory
• Factor Analysis statistical procedure used to
  identify clusters of intercorrelated traits for
  example, someone may possess the related traits
  of being spontaneous, friendly, and outgoing and
  be labeled extroverted.
• Neuropsychological Assessments such as PET scans
  may be used to identify brain activity associated
  with certain traits as well!
• Strength is that TT theories provide simple,
  empirically-based assessment techniques and
  simple ways to organize peoples traits and types
• Weakness is that they do not account for
  situational factors

53
Behaviorist Theories

• Behaviorist theories claim that personality is
  formed through environmental stimuli
  reinforcement and punishment.
• Example psychologists include Albert Bandura,
  John Watson and B.F. Skinner

54
Behaviorist TheoriesAlbert Bandura

• Bandura believed people will imitate what they
  see others doing without being directly
  reinforced.
• He called this theory observational learning
  theory
• His famous study was called the Bobo Doll Study
  pictured here

55
Behaviorist TheoriesClassical Conditioning

• Some behaviorists like Watson and Pavlov believed
  aspects of personality could be learned simply by
  pairing stimuli together
• Watson proved this in his Baby Albert experiment

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Behaviorist TheoriesOperant Conditioning
You will NOT swear, Johnny!

• Some behaviorists like Skinner believed that
  personality could be learned by being reinforced
  or punished for certain behaviors.

!_at_!
57
Behaviorist TheoriesAn Assessment

• Strength is that they account for environmental
  influence upon how we turn out we do, on some
  level, learn to be who we are
• Weaknesses
• Take individual control out of the personality
  equation we are only a product of our
  environment
• Do not account for underlying causes of behavior
  that are not observable and measurable

58
Socio-Cognitive Theories

• Cognitive theorists believe that personality is
  primarily a function of thoughts and thought
  processes as well as how situations influence our
  behavior
• Example cognitive theorists include Bandura,
  Rotter and Mischel

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Cognitive TheoriesJulian Rotter

• Rotter was a cognitive theorist who developed the
  concept of locus of control.
• People tend to have either an internal or
  external locus of control.
• Internal Locus of Control things that happen in
  your life are a result of your own actions.
• E.g. I made varsity because I spent the whole
  off-season training to do so!
• External Locus of Control things that happen in
  your life are a result of forces beyond your
  control.
• E.g. I made varsity because my horoscope said I
  would have a lucky day!

60
Cognitive TheoriesAlbert Bandura

• Bandura, who also could be considered a
  socio-cognitive theorist, believed that self
  efficacy was important in understanding
  personality.
• Self efficacy is defined as ones belief that
  they will be successful in the things they do.
• Individuals with a higher sense of self efficacy
  tend to be happier and more successful.
• Interestingly, girls sense of self efficacy
  tends to drop when they hit puberty. Why?

61
Cognitive TheoriesAlbert Bandura

• Also believed in reciprocal determinism, where
  personality is determines by the interaction of
  our traits, our environment and our behaviors

62
Cognitive TheoriesWalter Mischel

• Mischel believed in the concept of
  self-regulation.
• This accounts for the fact that people often
  change their personality depending on the
  situation they are in.
• In the process of self-regulation, people change
  their actions and responses on the basis of past
  experiences as well as an assessment of the
  current situation.

63
Socio-Cognitive Personality Assessment

• The personal interview/Assessment interview
• 1 to 1 direct questioning
• Direct observation/Naturalistic Observation
• As previously discussed, can get very honest
  information
• Self Monitoring
• Method of personality regulation used when you
  want to change an aspect of your personality
• Record all thoughts and behaviors surrounding a
  behavioral pattern you want to change to try to
  eliminate triggers

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Socio-Cognitive TheoriesEvaluation

• Strength is that they take into consideration the
  dual influence of personal and environmental
  factors
• Weakness is that they place too much emphasis on
  the situation and not enough on the persistence
  of certain personal traits across situations

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Exploring the Self

• In summary, the self can be defined as the center
  of personality all characteristics, conscious
  and unconscious, mental and physical.
• We tend to be very self-focused, leading to the
  spotlight effect, overestimation of others
  noticing and focusing on us
• Having a high self-esteem is important for our
  mental (and physical) health, but we can be blind
  to the reality of our shortcomings, resulting in
  a self-serving bias