Personality

PersonalityCharacteristic patterns of emotional responses, thoughts, and behaviors that are relatively stable over time and across situations.

 Need to consider enduring aspects of behavior…“not one time at bat in baseball but the season’s hitting average, not a evening’s flirtation or adventure but marriage or an enduring relationship.” (A. H. Buss, 1989, University of Texas)

• Thinking• Feeling• Behaving

Allport

• Personality is…• The dynamic organization within the

individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought

More Freud…

Personality Development• Psychosexual stages of

developmentStages Physical

focusPsychological theme

Adult character

Oral stage: Birth - 18 mos.

Mouth, sucking

dependency Dependent/ independent

Anal Stage: 18 mos. - 3.5 yrs

Anus (elimination)

self-control Uptight vs impulsive

Phallic Stage: 3.5 - 6 yrs.

Penis morality and sexuality identification

Amoral vs very rigid morals

Latency Stage: 6 yrs. to puberty

Period of

relative calm Genital stage: post puberty

Genitals Maturity and creation/enhancement of life

Balance of love

and work

Defense Mechanisms

Regression

defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

Reaction Formation defense mechanism in which the

ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites

people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings

Projection defense mechanism by which people

disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Rationalization defense mechanism that offers self-

justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions

Displacement defense mechanism

that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward another object or person

Sublimation Channeling

unacceptable impulses into constructive behaviors

Skinner’s view of personality• Skinner showed us that reinforcement

contingencies could influence behavior. In fact, Skinner thought personality was essentially the product of a person’s history of reinforcement

Humanistic Perspective

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) focused on growth and fulfillment of

individuals genuineness acceptance empathy

I love you IF…

Carl Rogers’ Personality

Theory

Love the sinner,

hate the sin

Traits• Gordon Allport wrote the influential book,

“Personality” in 1937. He developed his ideas about “traits” viewing these as the basic structural elements of personality.

• Traits were defined as a predisposition to respond in a particular way to a broad range of situations. So an even-tempered person remains calm across a broad range of situations. The situations or stimuli are rendered “functionally equivalent” - opportunities to exercise restraint. Each person has a certain expressive and adaptive style that they bring to the situation.

Big 5 personality test

Extroversion

Extroverted people

• Energetic • Enthusiastic • Dominant • Sociable• Talkative

Introverted people

• Shy• Retiring• Submissive• Quiet

Agreeableness

High Agreeableness

• Friendly• Cooperative• Trusting• Warm

Low Agreeableness

• Cold• Quarrelsome

Conscientiousness

Conscientious• Cautious• Dependable• Organized• Responsible

Impulsive• Careless• Disorderly• Undependable

Neuroticism

Emotionally unstable

• Nervous• High-strung• Tense• Worrying

Emotionally stable

• Calm• Contented

Openness

High on Openness

• Imaginative• Witty• Original• Artistic

Low on Openness

• Down to earth• Conventional• Conformist• Simple

Big Five personality dimensions Openness to Experience(intellect, imagination, curiosity, creativity) Conscientiousness(order, duty, deliberation, self-discipline) Extraversion(sociability, assertiveness, activity, positive emotions) Agreeableness(trust, nurturance, kindness, cooperation) Neuroticism(anxiety, depression, moodiness,vulnerability to stress)

Type and Trait Approaches Describe Behavioral Dispositions

• “Personality Types” are discrete categories into which we place people

• Personality “traits” are dispositional: they predispose persons to behave, think, and feel in enduring patterns across situations

• Type and trait approaches describe but do not explain patterns

Personality Reflects Learning and Cognitive Processes

• Cognitive perspectives include:– Personal constructs:– Expectancies and value:– Beliefs in “locus of control”

Personality Refers to Both Unique and Common Characteristics

• Gordon Allport distinguished two approaches:

– Idiographic approaches are “person centered”

– Nomothetic approaches examine characteristics common to all persons, but on which people vary, and focus on differences between persons

We Can Use Objective and Projective Methods to Assess

Personality• Assessment methods often vary with

theoretical preferences– Psychodynamic theorists like projective

methods more than Trait theorists, who use objective methods

• Objective methods use self-reports• Projective methods purport to tap the

unconscious using ambiguous stimuli

Assessing the Unconscious

Thematic Apperception Test

• Projective Test – Thematic

Apperception Test (TAT)

– Based on Freud’s defense mechanisms (repression, projection)

Animals do have personality & it can be assessed

Personality Is Rooted in Genetics

• Adoption Studies show:

– Adopted siblings are no more alike in personality than randomly selected persons are

– Personalities of adopted children are largely unrelated to their adoptive parents

• Are there specific genes for personality?

Personality Is Rooted in Genetics: Twin Studies

Cortical Arousal Differences

• Eysenck (1967)– He suggests that the difference between

introverts and extroverts depends on the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS)•Causes introverts to be “stimulus shy”•Causes extroverts to be “stimulus

hungry”

Eysenck Arousal ExplanationPerf

orm

an

ce

Arousal

Low Moderate High

High

Low

Introverts Extraverts

Why are there personality differences?

• Should natural selection make people more similar?–Random variation

• Frequency dependent selection–Inheritance of alternative strategies

• Group selection?

Personality Test

• http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/ipipneo300.htm