Personality• The distinctive and relatively enduring ways of

thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize a person’s responses to life situations.

• Study of personality is guided by the psychologist’s perspective, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand how they are all studying the same thing.– It seems hard to believe that all the theorists are

talking about the same creature, who is now angelic, and now depraved, now a black-box robot shaped by reinforcers and now a shaper of its own destiny, now devious… and now hardheadedly oriented to solid reality. (Stone and Church, 1968)

Evaluating Theories• Truth, in personality studies, is often less

important than usefulness. – after all, the study design and results interpretation

is itself influenced by the personality of the psychologist

• A theory is only useful in so far as it1. Provides a comprehensive framework within which

known facts can be incorporated2. Allows us to predict future events with some

precision3. Stimulates the discovery of new knowledge

Personality Theories

Psychodynamic

Psychoanalytic

(Freud)

PsychoanalyticTheor

ies

Analytic Psy

c(Jung)

Individual

Psyc

(adler)

Ego Psychologists

Psychosocial Theory

(Erikson)

Neo-

Freudian

Humanistic

Unconditional

Positive Regard

(Rogers)

Self-Actualizati

on(Maslow)

Trait Theories

Cardinal Traits(Allport)

Surface and Source Traits

(Cattell)

Introversion/Extroversion(Eysenck)

Learning Theories

Social Learning Theory

Bandura

Rotter

Mischel

Radical Behaviorism

(Watson/Skinner)

Biological Theory

Personality TheoriesIs Human Nature Good or Evil?

Is Man Rational or Irrational?

Is Man’s behavior Determined or Free?

Psychodynamic Evil Irrational Determined

Behavioristic and Social-cognitive

Neutral Neutral Determined

Humanisitic Good Rational Free

Psychoanalytic Theory

Personality Theories

Psychodynamic

Psychoanalytic(Freud)

PsychoanalyticTheories

Analytic Psyc(Jung)

Individual Psyc(adler)

Ego Psychologists

Psychosocial Theory(Erikson)

Neo-Freudian

Freudian Theory: Psychic Energy

Superego

Ego

Id

• Altruism Principle: what is best for others?

• Reality Principlewhat is best for everyone involved?

• Pleasure Principle: what is best for me?

Ego“Joe Normal”

SuperEgo“The Saint”

Id“All About Me!”

Freudian Theory: Psychic Energy• Id: Develops first; exists in

unconscious mind; wants immediate gratification– Instincts and Energy

• Eros: life instincts (sexual desire)• Thanatos: death instincts (aggression)• Libido: energy that directs life instincts

• Ego: Develops second; negotiates between the desires of the Id, and the limitations of the environment– Exists in conscious mind and the unconscious mind

• Superego: conscience; determines what is right, and what is wrong– Exists in conscious mind and the unconscious mind

Freudian Theory• Personality is how we resolve the three psychic

energies.– Use of Defense Mechanisms

• Essentially set in childhood based on relative success during Psychosexual Stages of development.– Oral (birth-2 years) – Anal (2-3 years)– Phallic (4-5)– Latency (5-12 years) no effect– Genital (12-19+ years)

Freudian Theory: Development Normal Development

– Oral– Anal– Phallic– Latency– Genital

[Toward Normal Adulthood]

Abnormal Development:

– Oral– Anal– Phallic– Latency– Genital

Regression: satisfies earlier stages

The Breakup

• Muffy, the captain of the high school cheerleading squad, decides to leave her boyfriend of two years, Biff, the star wide receiver of the football team, for Alvin, the star of the school’s chess team.

• Needless to say, Biff is devastated, but his ego can choose from a variety of defense mechanisms with which to protect him.

Defense Mechanisms I• Acting Out: Reducing anxiety aroused by forbidden

desires by permitting their expression– Biff begins serial-dating. (Dating multiple girls at the same

time.)• Displacement: Redirecting one’s feelings toward another

person or object. Negative emotions are often displaced onto less threatening people.– Biff could displace his feelings of anger onto his little brother,

pet hamster, or football.• Projection: Believing that the feelings one has toward

someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself.– Biff insists that Muffy still cares for him.

Defense Mechanisms II• Emotional Insulation: Reducing self-involvement by

withdrawing into passivity to protect the self from hurt.– Biff stops going out with friends, and begins missing football games

to stay at home.• Reaction Formation: Expressing the opposite of how one

truly feels.– Biff claims he loathes Muffy.

• Regression: Returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior.– Biff begins sleeping with his favorite childhood stuffed animal, “Mr.

Fuzzy”• Rationalization: Coming up with a beneficial result of an

undesirable occurrence.– Biff believes that he can now find a better girlfriend, after all, Muffy

isn’t really that pretty/smart/fun to be with.

Defense Mechanisms III

• Repression: Blocking thoughts out from conscious awareness.– When asked how he feels about the breakup, Biff replies, “Who?

Oh, yeah, I haven’t thought about her in a while.”• Denial: Not accepting the ego-threatening truth.

– Biff continues to act as if he and Muffy are together. He waits by her locker, calls her, and plans their future dates.

• Intellectualism: Undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic.– Biff embarks on an in-depth research project about failed teen

romances.• Sublimation: Channeling one’s frustration toward a

different goal. – Biff devotes himself to writing poetry and publishes a small

volume before he graduates high school.

Psychodynamic Theory:Neofreudians

• Carl Jung: Believed Unconscious consisted of two parts– Personal: painful/threatening memories that are repressed

(complexes)– Collective: archetypes passed down through the species,

explaining similarities between cultures• Ex: universal fear of the dark; importance of the circle

• Alfred Adler: focused on the conscious role of the ego, believed people were motivated by two things:– Inferiority: fear of failure– Superiority: desire to achieveAlso, first to research the importance of birth order on personality

and development.

Activity! Woo!

Humanistic PsychologyPersonality Theories

Psychodynamic

HumanisticUnconditional

Positive Regard(Rogers)

Self-Actualization(Maslow)

Humanistic Psychology: Basic Principles

1. Man operates on the assumption that he has some measure of control over his destiny.

2. Man is capable of both good and evil, rational and irrational, active and reactive behaviors. These qualities are opposites on a continuum, allowing man to retain the possibility of reaching both.

3. Individuality is paramount!! – “Each individual, by virtue of his

great potential for learning and his own particular background of experience, is unique.”

4. Focus:• Values• Personal Growth• Fulfillment of Potential

5. Motivation: Self-Actualization 6. Mental Illness: caused by a disparity between one’s

perceived self and environment, and one’s image of the “ideal-self” and “ideal environment”

BAD GOOD

Humanistic Psychology:Carl Rogers

1. Each individual exists in a private world of experience of which he—the I, me, or myself—is the center.

2. The most basic striving of the individual is toward the maintenance, enhancement, and actualization of the ‘self’ (Freud’s ‘ego’)

3. The individual reacts to situations in terms of his unique perceptions of himself and his world—he reacts to reality as he perceives it and in ways consistent with his self-concept.

4. Perceived threat to the self is followed by defense—including the narrowing and rigidification of perception and coping behaviors/defense mechanisms.

5. The individual’s inner tendencies are toward health and wholeness, and under normal conditions he behaves in rational and constructive ways, and chooses pathways toward personal growth and self-actualization.

Carl Rogers:Positive Regard

We All Need Somebody… to like us!• Unconditional Positive Regard

– Typically between parent and child, necessary for the child to learn that he or she is worthy of being loved

• Conditional Positive Regard– Dependent on how the child behaves; usually not given

exclusively- can lead to resentment and fluctuating self-esteem• Positive Self-Regard

– Desire to feel good about ourselves- fueled by Unconditional Positive Regard, hampered by conditions of worth

– Self-Verification: need to confirm your self-concept– Self-enhancement: need to gain and preserve a positive self-

image• Strategies found across cultures• Example:

– I succeed: this is due to my awesome skill and intelligence!– I fail: I just didn’t get enough sleep/time/help from others.

Humanistic Psychology:Abraham Maslow

Self-ActualizationNeeds

Self-Esteem

Needs

Belongingness Needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs

Food, etc.

Shelter, Feeling free from danger

Belonging, Friendship, closeness

Respecting oneself; Feeling Pride

Realizing one’s full potential

George Kelly: Personal Construct Theory

• Primary focus: how people construct reality• Personal constructs determine personalities

and can be used to predict behavior as they dictate how a person sees the world.

• Examples: a couple breaks up: different people react differently, reactions/explanations include:

1. “simple incompatibility”2. One was “jilted” by the other3. Broke up because of “outside factors”4. “a blessing in disguise”5. “Terrible tragedy”

George Kelly:Personal Construct Theory

• Therapy: understanding how a person views the world can help a therapist guide the patient to a new type of understanding.

• Constructions are hypotheses, not facts!• Fixed-role therapy: within a therapy

setting, patients are asked to follow a role description that is different from their preconceived self-concept

Rogers’ Person-Centered Approach

• Take a sheet of colored paper, write your name on the “back.”

• Fold the sheet of paper in half.• Label the left side “Perceived Self”

Perceived Self

Roger’s Person-Centered Approach

• Label the right side of the page “Ideal Self”• It’s Fantasy Time! Describe who you

would like to be.

Rogers and Maslow

Self ConceptExperience

ExperienceSelf Concept

ExperienceSelf Concept

Trait TheoriesPersonality Theories

Trait Theories

Cardinal Traits(Allport)

Surface and Source Traits

(Cattell)

Introversion/Extroversion(Eysenck)

Trait Theories• Operate on the principle that we can describe

people’s personalities by specifying their main characteristics or traits.

• Are more concerned with describing behavior/personality than with explaining it.

• Traits are stable, and motivate behavior in keeping with the trait.– Ex. A ‘friendly’ person acts in a friendly manner

across different situations and times.

Trait TheoriesFounding Ideas:• Hans Eyesenck: introversion/extroversion theory• Raymond Cattell: Personality Factor test (16 traits)

Current Interpretations:• Factor Analysis, the “Big 5:”

sliding scales of personality concerned with: – extraversion,– agreeableness,– conscientiousness, – openness to experience, – emotional stability

• Idiographic theory: having one set of terms for all people is impossible. Look at each person’s best few traits instead.

Trait Theories• Gordon Allport: believed common traits were

useful, but a full understanding of someone’s personality requires looking at three different types of personal traits.1. Cardinal Dispositions: a single trait that is so

influencing in some people, that they play a pivotal role in virtually everything they do

2. Central Dispositions: traits that have a broader, but vital role in a person’s personality

3. Secondary Dispositions: traits that have a limited, but important influence on a personality

Biological Personality Theory

• Genes, chemicals, and body types determine who a person is.– Evidence points to genetic influence on

temperament, but not hereditability of personality

Personality Theories

Biological Theory

Biological Personality Theory• Tellegen’s twin study: compared four groups of

twin pairs on 14 different personality traits• Personality variation attributable to genetic,

familial environment, and unique environment was calculated for each personality characteristic. – Genetic factors: 40-50%– Familial Environment: ~10%– Unique Environment: 40-50%

Introversion and Extraversion

• Eysenck (from Trait theory): Two-dimensional theory using brain function to explain personality traits– Customary Arousal:

• introverts are chronically overaroused (too electrically active)

• Extraverts are chronically underaroused– Shifts in Arousal:

• Stability/Instability: greater the instability, the more likely a person is to experience emotional problems or disorders

Eysenck’s Model

Eysenck• Research is proving his point: twin studies and

brain mapping establishing that brain activation patterns are linked to introversion/extraversion, and temperament as well– Neural bases, however, go beyond Eysenck’s theory

to include brain structures• Amygdala: linked to flight/fight response, hormonal controls,

and to temperament, specifically inhibition• Temperament: individual differences in

emotional and behavioral style– Twin studies: more highly correlated in identical twins

than fraternal, suggesting a genetic link

Behaviorist TheoriesPersonality Theories

Learning Theories

Social Learning Theory(Social-Cognitive)

Bandura

Rotter

Kelly

Radical Behaviorism(Watson/Skinner)

Social-Learning Theory• Meld behaviorist theory and

cognitive psychologists’ theories.

• Albert Bandura: personality created by an interaction between the person (traits), the environment, and the person’s behavior.– Triadic reciprocality: (reciprocal

determinism) each of the factors influences the others

– Self-efficacy (level of optimism about one’s abilities) has a powerful effect on a person’s actions.

Environme

nt

Behavior

Traits

Social-Cognitive Theory

• George Kelly: personal-construct theory– In their attempts to understand the world,

people develop their own, individual systems of personal constructs• Constructs consists of pairs of opposites (fair-

unfair, smart-dumb, exciting-dull)• Fundamental postulate: behavior is influenced by

cognition; knowing how people have behaved in the past, we can predict their future actions

Social-Cognitive Theories

• Julian Rotter: a person can be described as having either an internal or external locus of control– Internal: people feel that they are in control of

what happens to them– External: people believe that luck and outside

forces control their destiny

Cultural InfluencesHistory of prejudice and oppression Cultural Values about: Poverty achievementLanguage and Art human natureSociopolitical Background social relationsChild-Rearing Beliefs individuality

Social Environment/Community Influences

Family Characteristics, Child-rearing Practices

Assessing Personality• Interviews

– Pro: personal contact– Con: Interviewer may influence responses

• Reports (by others)• Personality Scales

– Pro: objective– Con: people lie

• Behavioral Assessment– Pro: objectivity, consistency– Con: difficult to train

• Remote Behavior Sampling– Pro: can collect long-term patterns of behavior

• Responses on Projective Tests (Rorschach)– Pro: no prompting – Con: little uniformity in scoring

Rorschach Tests

AFTER THE TEST

When you finish your test, or tonight:

• Take the Human Metrics’ Typology Test: A short-form Myers-Briggs/ Jung Personality Test

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Go there! Take the Assessment!Follow the link to the Kiersey Personality explanation. How accurate do you think it is?