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Slide 1
Personality Theories and Assessment
12
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 2
Personality
• Definition– Sum total of all typical ways of acting,
feeling, and thinking that makes a person different from all others
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 3
Personality• Trait theories
– Traits are characteristics, aspects of personality
– Allport: traits can be ranked
• Motivational traits related to one’s values
• Cardinal traits dominate one’s life (ie: desire for social justice)
• Central/secondary traits are more common (ie: obtaining sexual gratification)
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 4
Personality• Trait theories
– Five-factor model of personality traits• Five dimensions measured in personality tests
– Neuroticism (anxious, worrisome)
– Extraversion (outgoing, social)
– Openness (creative, daring)
– Agreeableness (selfless, forgiving)
– Conscientiousness (reliable, hardworking)
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 5
Personality
• Validating personality traits– Eysenck’s introverts and extraverts
• Brain’s neural systems may work different– Tests:
• Classical conditioning• Functional MRI
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 6
Human Diversity
• Personality and culture– Personality influenced by culture – Individualistic culture (ie: U.S.) – emphasize
individual rights and characteristics• Feeling of pride, superiority• Seek own goals over those of others• More willing to use embarrassment and
aggression to prove oneself right• Free time often spent in solitary pursuits
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 7
Human Diversity• Personality and culture
– Collective cultures (ie: Japan, China, India) – emphasize individual in terms of rights, duties, and expectations as member of a group
– Leisure time more often spent with family– Less aggressive in conflict; say things to avoid
embarrassment of others– Characterized as having close ties, respectful,
and friendly
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 8
Human Diversity• All personality theories must consider effects
of culture
• People of different cultures tend to differ in some important ways
• There is tremendous variation within cultures
• Collective and individualistic traits are found among members of all cultures
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 9
Psychoanalytic Theory
• Freud’s theory and views– Original interest in conversion disorder– Case of Anna O.– Three levels of consciousness
• Mind is iceberg; conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind are levels
• Repression pushes thoughts into unconscious
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 10
SuperegoMoral imperatives Ideals
EgoReality principleSecondary process thinkingUnconscious
Well below surfaceof awareness; difficult to retrieve
ConsciousContact with outside world
PreconsciousMaterial just beneath surface of awareness
IdPleasure principlePrimary process thinking
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Slide 11
Psychoanalytic Theory
• Freud’s theory and views– Personality has 3 parts– Displacement
• Sometimes, ego must substitute a goal of the id
• Sublimation – best kind of displacement– Identification
• Superficial act of imitation
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 12Freud: Personality has 3 parts
SuperegoId Ego
Life and death instincts
Sexual, aggressive
urges
The selfish beast
Libido
The executive
Pleasure principle
Primary process thinking
Ego Ideal
The conscience
Reality principle
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Slide 13
Freud: Psychosexual Theory• Fixation – stuck in one stage • Five stages of developmental theory:
– Oral stage (birth to 1 year) – • Erogenous zones• Oral dependent oral personality• oral aggressive personality
– Anal stage (1 to 3 years) • Anal retentive personality• Anal expulsive personality
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 14
Freud: Psychosexual Theory
– Phallic stage (3 to 6 years)• Oedipus complex• Castration anxiety• Electra complex• Phallic personality
– Latency stage (6 to 11 years)– Genital stage (11 years on)
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 15
Theories Derived from Psychoanalysis
• Carl Jung– Questioned Freud’s sexual motivation emphasis– Opposites in all elements of mind (ie: selfish and
generous, good and evil)– Known for introversion and extraversion– Personal unconscious: motives, conflicts,
information repressed as threatening– Collective unconscious: all humans born with it
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 16
Theories Derived from Psychoanalysis• Alfred Adler
– Struggle with sexual and hostile impulses not primary factor in personality development
– Primary struggle: overcome inferiority feelings, develop superiority feelings in social relationships (later seen as unhealthy)• Outgrow childhood inferiority, become
competent adult– All born with positive motive, social interest– People’s lives governed by their goals
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 17
Theories Derived from Psychoanalysis• Karen Horney
– Unconscious conflicts – source of most human misery and maladjustment
– Freud overemphasized sexual conflicts, penis envy, and criticized his views of women
– Conflicts result from inadequate child-rearing experiences (love and security produce no conflicts, positive personality results)
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 18
Theories Derived from Psychoanalysis
• Others– Erich Fromm, Harry Stack Sullivan, Erikson
• Revised Freud’s image of women• De-emphasized importance of sexual and
aggressive motivation• Emphasized positive aspects of personality• Asserted importance of adequate social
relationships
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 19
Social Learning Theory• Social learning: sum total of all ways one to
act, think, and feel as s/he does• Albert Bandura
– People play active role in selecting behavior– Cognition is important in personality – Reciprocal determination (ie: social learning)– Personality is learned behavior– Behavior influences future learning experiences
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 20
Role of Cognition in Personality• Helping others makes one more reliable
and less stingy?– Self-efficacy: subjective perception of what
one is capable of• High self-efficacy: accepts more challenges
– Bandura: emphasizes learning of personal standards (self-regulation) of reward and punishment from experience and watching others
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 21
Percentage of subjects stopping to help after finding a dime
25
50
75
100
0Female Male
Subjects
Perc
ent s
topp
ing
to h
elp
Found a dime
Perc
ent s
topp
ing
to h
elp
25
50
75
100
0Female Male
Subjects
Did not find a dime
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Slide 22
Situationism and Interactionism• B.F. Skinner –
– argued against idea of traits; behavior determined by situations one is in (situationism)
– People behave in ways to suit their situations– Behavior cannot be consistent enough to be traits
because situations change– Solution: behavior influenced by both person and
situation (person X situation interactionism)– One situation influences people in different ways
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 23
Percent of pedestrians stopping to help
Low noise
High noise
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
10
Percentage of pedestrians stopping to help man in high and low
noise conditions
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Slide 24
Humanistic Theory
• Third force in psychology; historically deep roots in philosophy (lack of unity)– Inner-directedness (innate internal force
pushing for growth); positive view of humans• Personality develops from this and can only
be understood by the individual (subjective reality) – everyone’s views are different
– Self-concept (subjective perception) is central to Roger’s personality theory
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 25
Roger’s Self-Concept
Ideal self the person I think I am
Self the person I think I am
The larger the discrepancies between the two, the more psychological problems one experiences
Congruence – consistencies
between the two
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Slide 26
Humanistic Theory• Feelings and information are mentally
symbolized• Reactions of others create one’s conditions
of worth – Self-actualization
• Maslow’s ultimate level of growth– High level of moral development– Open, honest, have courage– Accurate and positive view of life
• Maslow’s peak experiences
Personality Theories and Assessment
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Slide 27
Comparing the Theories
Personality Theories and Assessment
Personality Psychoanalytic Humanistic Social Learning
unconscious yes yes noLearn what is good yes yes yesInnate knowledge of good and bad
yes yes yes
Innate selfishness yesInnate goodness yes
Innate: neither good or bad
yes yes
Society influences yes yes yes yes
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Slide 28
Psychological Methods• Interviews and observations• Projective personality tests
– Thematic Apperception test (TAT)– Rorschach Inkblot Test
• Objective Personality Tests– Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI and MMPI-2)• Evaluation of personality tests
Personality Theories and Assessment
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Slide 29
Amount of aggression
Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov DecJan
Aggressive crimes Wife beatingRapes
Assaults
Relationship between types of physical aggression and the month of the year
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Slide 30
The End
12Personality Theories and Assessment