Chapter 10 Personality
Dec 28, 2015
Chapter 10Personality
Important qualities of personality
– Consistency: thinking, feeling, and acting in the same way
– Distinctiveness: acting in ways different from others
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
• Sigmund Freud is arguably the most recognizable person in the field of psychology.
• Freud was a neurologist
– He frequently discovered that neurological symptoms seemed to originate from emotional trauma.
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
• Freud’s theory
• childhood sexuality
• unconscious motivations
Glove Anesthesia
Psychoanalytic Theory Asserts That the Unconscious Mind Controls Behavior
Freud sought advice from neurologist Jean Charcot, who treated patients using hypnosis.
• Freud also sought advice from psychiatrist Joseph Breuer, who used a “talking cure” therapy in which patients reported whatever came to mind.
• Freud adapted these two techniques to his own emerging theory of the human mind.
Psychoanalytic Theory
• Freud’s model of the mind proposed that it was mostly hidden, like an iceberg:
– Conscious mind: relatively small part of the mind the person is aware of at the moment (like the tip of an iceberg)
– Preconscious mind: mental processes that are not currently conscious but could become so (just below the surface)
– Unconscious mind: thoughts, desires, feelings, and memories that are not consciously available to us but nonetheless shape our everyday behavior (hidden section of the iceberg
Psychoanalytic Theory Asserts That the Unconscious Controls Behavior
• Freud’s theory of the mind challenged the prevailing notion that our consciousness—the part of our mind that we identify as ourselves—was the determining factor in the management and control of our lives.
Freud’s Model of Personality Structure
Freud’s Divisions of the Personality
Id: unconscious portion of the mind, contains the basic drives
Ego: develops out of the id
Superego: develops later in childhood
• Each structure has different operating principles and different goals that often conflict with the others’ goals.
Freud’s Divisions of the Personality
• The id: unconscious portion of the mind, contains the basic drives
• Operates on the pleasure principle—it consistently wants to satisfy whatever desire is currently active
Freud’s Divisions of the Personality
• The ego: develops out of the id• Guided by the reality principle—it seeks to
delay gratification of desires until appropriate
Freud’s Divisions of the Personality
• The superego: develops later in childhood
• Several functions, including the task of overseeing the ego and making sure that it acts morally.
Personality Development Occurs in Psychosexual Stages
– Each stage is characterized by a part of the body, called an erogenous zone, through which the id primarily seeks sexual pleasure.
– Critical elements of the personality are formed during each of these stages.
Personality Development Occurs in Psychosexual Stages
– If children experience conflicts when seeking pleasure during a particular psychosexual stage, and if these conflicts go unresolved, they will become psychologically “stuck”—or fixated—at that stage.
– Fixation is a tendency to persist in pleasure-seeking behaviors associated with an earlier psychosexual stage where conflicts were unresolved.
Personality Development Occurs in Psychosexual Stages
• Freud’s psychosexual stages:– Oral stage: encompasses first year of life– Anal stage: encompasses ages 2–3
• Toilet training becomes an area of conflict between children and parents.
– Phallic stage: encompasses ages 4–5• A shift in the erogenous zone to the genitals and pleasure is
being derived largely through self-stimulation. • Accompanying this interest is the association of this
pleasure with the other-sex parent.
Personality Development Occurs in Psychosexual Stages
– Latency stage: encompasses ages 6–11• A psychological period of relative calm
– Genital stage: encompasses puberty and onward• Many of the issues of earlier stages re-emerge
and can be reworked to a certain extent.
Ego Defense Mechanisms Reduce Unconsciously Caused Anxiety
• Repression: automatically banishing unacceptable thoughts, desires & memories from consciousness
• Rationalization: offering logical, self-justifying explanations for actions that are not true
• Reaction formation: expressing the opposite of unacceptable feelings or ideas
Ego Defense Mechanisms Reduce Unconsciously Caused Anxiety
• Displacement: diverting their sexual or aggressive urges toward more acceptable objects
• Regression: psychologically retreating to a more infantile developmental stage where some psychic energy remains fixated.
• Projection: perceiving one’s own aggressive or sexual urges in others
The Psychodynamic Perspective
Variations of Psychoanalytic Theory
• Adler’s individual psychology• Downplayed importance of sexual motivation • Stressed social factors and people striving for superiority
• Jung’s analytical psychology• De-emphasized the sex motive• People motivated by a desire for psychological growth and
wholeness, called the need for individuation• Besides personal unconscious, we also have a collective
unconscious, which is that part of the unconscious mind containing inherited memories shared by all human beings.
• Horney’s neo-Freudian perspective• Social factors play a much larger role in personality development
than sexual influences• Personality problems caused by interpersonal relationships
during childhood
Projective Tests
• Designed to reveal inner feelings, motives, & conflicts
• Ask people to respond to ambiguous stimuli or situations/
• Assume this will reveal unconscious motives and desires– Rorschach Inkblot Test: 10 symmetrical
inkblots– Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): make up
stories about ambiguous pictures
Assessing the Unconscious--Rorschach
Evaluating Psychoanalytic Theory
– A major limitation of his theory is that it is not based on carefully controlled scientific research.
– Despite these limitations Freud’s ideas still have an influence within psychology
The Humanistic Perspective
• In the 1950s, the humanistic perspective arose largely due to dissatisfaction with both behaviorism and psychoanalysis.
• This “third wave” in psychology emphasized peoples’– Innate capacity for personal growth – Ability to consciously make choices
Human Nature: Judeo-Christian View
Human NaturePotentially Good Potentially Evil
Image of God Fall of man
Conflict between good & evil
Restoration to good:Redeemed by God (Savior) (repentance/belief)
Willingness to obey God (new nature)
Human Nature: Freudian View
Human Nature
Desire to be good Tendency for Evil
social acceptance selfish desires
Conflict between good & evil
Restoration to good:Internalization of social rules
Understanding/insight
Human Nature: Humanist View
Human Nature
Innately Good Warped by society
Conflict between desire to actualize
Self and pleasing others/society.
Restoration to good:Receive unconditional positive regard
Self-actualize (realize potential)
Carl Roger’s Person-Centered Theory
• Self-Realization emphasized
• People are basically good
• People are full of potential (and we all are working toward becoming the best that we can be).
• People need unconditional positive regard to achieve their potential. – many of us are frustrated in our potential growth
because we receive conditional positive regard.
Roger’s Person-Centered Theory
• Conveying unconditional positive regard to
others involves three characteristics:
– Genuineness (being open and honest) – Warmth (being caring and nurturant) – Empathy (accurately identifying what the
person is thinking and feeling)
Humanistic Perspective
• Self-Concept– all our thoughts and feelings about
ourselves
– Real vs. ideal self
– Behave according to who we think we are and not who we really are
Maslow’s Self-Actualization Theory
• self-actualization - reaching one’s full potential
Stresses Maximizing Potential
Maslow’s Self-Actualization Theory
• Maslow contended that self-actualized people:– Were secure in the sense of who they were,– Were loving and caring,– Often focused their energies on a task they regarded
as a life mission, and– Reported having peak experiences, which are fleeting
but intense moments of joy, ecstasy, and absorption, in which people feel extremely capable.
.
Criticisms of The Humanistic Perspective
• Overly optimistic
• Fails to acknowledge:– That many people engage in mean-spirited
and even cruel behavior on a fairly regular basis, and
– That some of the forces shaping behavior are outside conscious awareness.
Criticisms of The Humanistic Perspective
• This perspective has not:– Produced a substantial body of testable
hypotheses,
– Clearly defined concepts, or
– Used carefully controlled scientific studies to test the validity of its theories.
The Social-Cognitive Perspective
• Social-cognitive perspective: a psychological perspective that examines how people interpret, analyze, remember, and use information about themselves, others, social interactions, and relationships
Reciprocal Determinism• The belief that personality emerges from an
ongoing mutual interaction among people's cognitions, their actions, and their environment.
• Basic principle of the social-cognitive perspective
• Most important cognitive factor in reciprocal determinism is self-efficacy
Reciprocal Determinism
Self-efficacy
– Perceptions of self-efficacy are largely subjective and tied to specific kinds of activities.
– Success in an activity heightens self-efficacy, while failure lowers it.
– Success breeds self-efficacy, which, in turn, breeds further success.
Feelings of Personal Control or Helplessness
• Julian Rotter contended that through our surroundings we develop beliefs about ourselves as controlling, or controlled by, our environment.
• Locus of control: degree to which we expect that outcomes in our lives depend on our own actions and personal characteristics versus the actions of uncontrollable environmental forces
Locus of Control
• People who believe that outcomes occur because of their own efforts are identified as having an internal locus of control.
• People who believe that outcomes are outside their own control are identified as having an external locus of control.
• Internals tend to be more successful in life than are externals.
• Externals are less independent than internals, and they are also more likely to be depressed and stressed
Evaluation of The Social-Cognitive Perspective
• Complex view of human personality
• Testing its theories using the scientific method.
• Best at explaining rational behavior that is “thought through” - less able to explain behavior that is spontaneous or irrational.
Objective Personality Tests
• ask direct, unambiguous questions about a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior
• Many objective tests measure only one specific component of personality
• Others assess several traits simultaneously.
Trait Theories Describe Basic Personality Dimensions
• A trait is a relatively stable tendency to behave in a particular way over time and across situations.
• Trait perspective is more concerned with describing
how people differ from one another than in explaining why they differ.
• Trait perspective is not based on specific assumptions about human nature.
Factor Analysis Is Used to Identify Personality Traits
• Factor analysis: a statistical technique that allows researchers to identify clusters of variables that are related to—or correlated with—one another.
• Raymond Cattell—the first trait theorist to use factor analysis to identify general traits, or source traits
Factor Analysis Is Used to Identify Personality Traits
• Hans & Sybil Eysenck, using factor analysis, concluded that there are three genetically influenced dimensions of personality:
• Extraversion,• Neuroticism• Psychoticism.
The Trait Perspective
• Hans and Sybil Eysenck use two primary personality factors as axes for describing personality variation
UNSTABLE
STABLE
cholericmelancholic
phlegmatic sanguineINTROVERTED EXTRAVERTED
MoodyAnxious
RigidSober
PessimisticReserved
Unsociable
Quiet
SociableOutgoing
TalkativeResponsiveEasygoing
LivelyCarefree
Leadership
PassiveCareful
Thoughtful
Peaceful
ControlledReliable
Even-temperedCalm
TouchyRestlessAggressive
ExcitableChangeable
ImpulsiveOptimistic
Active
The Five-Factor Model: Five Basic Personality Traits
– Neuroticism: People differ in being anxious, insecure, and self-pitying versus being relaxed, composed, secure, and content.
– Extraversion: Extraverts are confident, energetic, bold, and optimistic, and easily handle social situations, while introverts are shy, quiet, and reserved.
– Openness to experience: People differ in being adventurous, open to new experiences, sensitive and passionate versus being traditional, hardworking, and down-to-earth.
The Five-Factor Model Specifies Five Basic Personality Traits
– Agreeableness: People differ in being good-natured, soft-hearted, courteous, and sympathetic versus being irritable, ruthless, rude, and tough-minded.
– Conscientiousness: People differ in being well organized, dependable, hardworking, and ambitious versus being disorganized, undependable, lazy, and easygoing.
• Most studies find that personality traits are remarkably stable over the adult years but somewhat less so during childhood.
Critics Challenge Whether Traits Reliably Predict Behavior • Walter Mischel argued that:
– Personality is not really stable over time & situations – The situation is a much stronger determinant of behavior
• This viewpoint is called situationism:– It asserts that behavior is not determined by stable traits, but is
strongly influenced by the situation.
• Many personality researchers now acknowledge that:• Situations do indeed shape behavior, and• How we behave is often determined by an interaction of personal
and situational factors.
Objective Personality Tests
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): an objective personality test consisting of true-false items that measure various personality dimensions and clinical conditions such as depression
• Critics contend that the MMPI has not kept pace with recent advances in personality.
The Trait Perspective
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) test profile
Hysteria(uses symptoms to solve problems)
Masculinity/femininity(interests like those of other sex)
T-score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 30 40 50 60 70 80
Hypochondriasis(concern with body symptoms)
Depression(pessimism, hopelessness)
Psychopathic deviancy(disregard for social standards)
Paranoia(delusions, suspiciousness)
Psychasthenia(anxious, guilt feelings)
Schizophrenia(withdrawn, bizarre thoughts)
Hypomania(overactive, excited, impulsive)
Social introversion(shy, inhibited)
Clinicallysignificant
range
After treatment(no scores
in the clinicallysignificant range Before
treatment(anxious,
depressed,and
displayingdeviant
behaviors)
What Shapes Personality?
• Is it nature?
• Is it nurture?
• Is it an interaction of the two (epigenesis)?
• Is it the soul?