Personality

Chapter 11, PSY 121

DTCC
Slide Presentation Adapted from Hockenbury & Hockenbury
Personality

An individual’s unique and

relatively consistent patterns of
thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Personality Theory

Attempt to describe and explain

how people are similar, how they
are different, and why every
individual is unique
Personality Perspectives
1. Psychoanalytic—importance of
unconscious processes and childhood
experiences
2. Humanistic—importance of self and
fulfillment of potential
3. Social cognitive—importance of beliefs
about self
4. Trait—description and measurement
of personality differences
Psychoanalytic Approach
 Developed by Sigmund Freud
 Psychoanalysis is both an
approach to therapy and a theory
of personality
 Emphasizes unconscious
motivation – the main causes of
behavior lie buried in the
unconscious mind
A Little About Sigmund Freud
 Freud studied medicine, was a physician who originally
practice as a neurologist.
 Was influenced by Joseph Breuer – Joe used hypnosis to
address emotional problems in his women patients.
 Sigmund dropped the hypnosis and developed his own
technique of free association.
 Breuer and Freud published several of their case studies,
“Studies on Hysteria.” Did you ever wonder about the derivation
of the word “hysteria?”
 Around 1900 Freud published two popular books, “The
Interpretation of Dreams” and “The Psychopathology of
Everyday Life.”
Freud’s Dynamic Theory of Personality

 Personality and behavior a resulting from a

constant interplay between conflicting
psychological forces that operate at three
different levels of awareness.
1. Conscious level – thoughts, feelings, and sensations
we are aware of.
2. Preconscious level – information which you are not
current aware but can easily be brought into you
conscious.
3. Unconscious level – thoughts, feelings, and
sensations we are not aware of but they influence our
behavior.
Psychoanalytic Approach

 Conscious
– all things
we are
aware of
at any
given
moment
Psychoanalytic Approach

 Preconscious –
everything that
can, with a little
effort, be
brought into
consciousness
Psychoanalytic Approach

 Unconscious –
inaccessible
warehouse of
anxiety-
producing
thoughts and
drives
Psychoanalytic
Divisions of the Mind
 Id—instinctual drives present at birth
 does not distinguish between reality and fantasy
 operates according to the pleasure principle
 Ego—develops out of the id in infancy
 understands reality and logic
 mediator between id and superego
 Superego
 internalization of society’s moral standards
 responsible for guilt
Id: The Pleasure Principle
 Pleasure principle—drive toward
immediate gratification, most
fundamental human motive
 Sources of energy
 Eros—life instinct, perpetuates life
 Thanatos—death instinct, aggression, self-
destructive actions
 Libido—sexual energy or motivation
Ego: The Reality Principle
 Reality principle—ability to postpone
gratification in accordance with demands
of reality
 Ego—rational, organized, logical, mediator
to demands of reality
 Can repress desires that cannot be met in
an acceptable manner
Superego: Conscience
 Internalization of societal and parental
values
 Partially unconscious
 Can be harshly punitive using feelings of
guilt
Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious mental processes

employed by the ego to reduce
anxiety
Defense Mechanisms

 Repression—keeping anxiety-
producing thoughts out of the
conscious mind
 Reaction formation—replacing an
unacceptable wish with its
opposite
Defense Mechanisms

 Displacement—when a drive
directed to one activity by the id is
redirected to a more acceptable
activity by the ego
 Sublimation—displacement to
activities that are valued by society
Defense Mechanisms

 Projection—reducing anxiety by
attributing unacceptable impulses to
someone else
 Rationalization—reasoning away
anxiety-producing thoughts
 Regression—retreating to a mode of
behavior characteristic of an earlier
stage of development
Psychosexual Stages

 Freud’s five stages of personality

development, each associated
with a particular erogenous zone
 Fixation—an attempt to achieve
pleasure as an adult in ways that
are equivalent to how it was
achieved in these stages
Oral Stage (birth – 1 year)

 Mouth is associated with sexual

pleasure
 Weaning a child can lead to
fixation if not handled correctly
 Fixation can lead to oral activities
in adulthood
Anal Stage (1 – 3 years)

 Anus is associated with pleasure

 Toilet training can lead to fixation
if not handled correctly
 Fixation can lead to anal retentive
or expulsive behaviors in
adulthood
Phallic Stage (3 – 5 years)

 Focus of pleasure shifts to the

genitals
 Oedipus or Electra complex can
occur
 Fixation can lead to excessive
masculinity in males and the need for
attention or domination in females
Latency Stage (5 – puberty)

 Sexuality is repressed
 Children participate in hobbies,
school, and same-sex friendships
Genital Stage (puberty on)

 Sexual feelings re-emerge and

are oriented toward others
 Healthy adults find pleasure in
love and work, fixated adults have
their energy tied up in earlier
stages
Post-Freudian
Psychodynamic Theories

 Carl Jung’s collective unconscious

 Karen Horney’s focus on security
 Alfred Adler’s individual psychology
Carl Jung
 More general psychic energy
 The drive to succeed, self realization and
psychic wholeness.
 Universality of themes—archetypes
 Universal human instincts
 Collective unconscious—human collective
evolutionary history
 First to describe introverts and extraverts
 Developing through out the life span
Karen Horney
 Looked at anxiety related to security and
social relationships
 Basic anxiety—the feeling of being
isolated and helpless in a hostile world
 Moving toward, against, or away from
other people
Alfred Adler
 Most fundamental human motive is striving
for superiority
 Arises from universal feelings of inferiority
that are experienced during childhood
 Overcompensation may cause superiority
complex where person exaggerates
achievements and importance
Evaluation of Psychoanalysis
 Evidence is inadequate—data are not
available or able to be reviewed
 Theory is not testable—lack of operational
definitions. Good at explaining past but not
at prediction
 Sexism—believed that women were weak
and inferior. Used male psychology as
basis for all people
Humanistic Perspective
 Free will
 Self-awareness
 Psychological growth
 Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination
 Abraham Maslow
 Carl Rogers
 Ed Deci and Richard Ryan
Carl Rogers
 Client-Centered Therapy
 Individual’s Phenomenal Field
 Actualizing tendency—innate drive to maintain
and enhance the human organism
 Self-concept—set of perceptions you hold
about yourself
 Positive regard—conditional and unconditional
Abraham Maslow’s Psychology of Being

 Humanistic personality theory

 Self-actualization is the fundamental human
striving to achieve maximum potential
 Individuals have a hierarchy of needs
 Psychological Needs
 Safety Needs

 Belongingness and Love Needs

 Esteem Needs

 Self-Actualization Needs

 B-Cognition (being cognition)

Self-Determination Theory: Proposed by
E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan

 Optimal human functioning can occur only if the

psychological needs of autonomy, competence
and relatedness are met.
 Intrinsic motivation is the desire to engage in
tasks that the person finds satisfying
 Extrinsic motivation consist of external factors
such as rewards, social evaluations, rules and
responsibilities and are detractors from
accomplishments.
Self-Determination Theory

People who have satisfied the needs for

competence, autonomy and relatedness
activities internalize and integrate
different external motivators as part of
their identity and values.
Self-Determination Theory

 Competence—need to effectively learn

and master challenging tasks
 Autonomy—need to determine, control,
and organize one’s own behavior and
goals
 Relatedness—need to feel attached to
others
Competence and Achievement

 Competence motivation—behavior aimed

at demonstrating competence and

exerting control in a situation

 Achievement motivation—behavior
aimed at excelling, succeeding, or
outperforming others at some activity
Evaluating Humanism

 Difficult to test or validate scientifically

 Tends to be too optimistic, minimizing
some of the more destructive aspects of
human nature
Social Cognitive Perspective

 Social cognitive theory—the importance of

observational learning, conscious cognitive
processes, social experience, self-efficacy and
reciprocal determinism in personality
 Reciprocal determinism-model that explains
personality as the result of behavioral,
cognitive, and environmental interactions
 Self-efficacy—belief that people have about
their ability to meet demands of a specific
situation
Reciprocal Determinism—
Albert Bandura
Evaluation of Social Cognitive
Perspective

 Well grounded in empirical, laboratory

research
 However, laboratory experiences are
rather simple and may not reflect the
complexity of human interactions
 Ignores the influences of unconscious,
emotions, conflicts
Trait and Type Theories
 Trait—relatively stable predisposition to
behave in a certain way
 Surface trait—characteristic that can be
inferred from observable behavior
 Source trait—Most fundamental
dimensions of personality; relatively few
Theorists
 Raymond Cattell—16 PF
 Hans Eysenck—Three factor model
 McCrae and Costa—Five factor model
Raymond Cattell
 Used factor analysis to come up with 16
basic personality traits also called source
traits
 16-PF test that was developed to measure
these traits
 Generally considered as too many traits
Hans Eysenck
 Similar method to Cattell
 Had 3 different source traits
 Introversion-extraversion

 Neuroticism-stability

 Psychoticism

 Generally considered as too few traits

Five Factor Model

 Described somewhat differently among

researchers
 Factors—usually rated from low to high
 Extraversion

 Neuroticism

 Openness to Experience
 Agreeableness

 Conscientiousness
Behavioral Genetics
 Interdisciplinary field that studies the
effects of genes and heredity on behavior
 Heredity seems to play a role in four of the
“big five” personality traits—extraversion,
neuroticism, openness to experience, and
conscientiousness
Evaluation of Trait Perspective
 Don’t really explain personality, simply
describe the behaviors
 Doesn’t describe the development of the
behaviors
 Trait approaches generally fail to address
how issues such as motives, unconscious,
or beliefs about self affect personality
development
Personality Assessment

Projective Techniques

 Interpretation of an ambiguous image

 Used to determine unconscious motives,
conflicts, and psychological traits
Rorschach Inkblot Test

 Presentation and interpretation of a series

of black and white and colored inkblots
 Numerous scoring systems exist
Thematic Apperception Test
 Series of pictures depicting ambiguous
scenes
 Subject is asked to create a story about
the scene
 Answers are scored based on themes,
motives, and anxieties of main character
Drawbacks to Projective Tests
 Examiner or test situation may influence
individual’s response
 Scoring is highly subjective
 Tests fail to produce consistent results
(reliability problem)
 Tests are poor predictors of future
behavior (validity problem)
Self-Report Inventory

 Psychological test in which an individual

answers standardized questions about
their behavior and feelings
 The answers are then compared to
established norms
MMPI
 Most widely used self-report inventory
 Originally designed to assess mental
health and detect psychological symptoms
 Has over 500 questions to which person
must reply “True” or “False”
 Includes “lying scales”
Strengths of Self-Reports
 Standardized—each person receives
same instructions and responds to the
same questions
 Use of established norms: results are
compared to previously established norms
and are not subjectively evaluated
Weaknesses of Self-Reports

 Evidence that people can “fake”

responses to look better (or worse)
 Tests contain hundreds of items and
become tedious
 People may not be good judges of their
own behavior