Erikson + Trait Theories

Individuality

Is the conscious sense that there are unique, separate, and distinct entity in everyone’s inner state

Wholeness and synthesis

The sense of integrating all the individuals self-image into a whole

Sameness and continuity

Is the unconscious striving for a sameness to feel a sense of consistency

Social solidarity

Is the feeling of having the support and recognition with others’ ideals and values

Identity confusion

Involves feeling of inner fragmentation, little or no sense of purpose, and an inability to gain the support provided by a social role or vocation

Gordon Allport

Paid more attention to conscious or visible motivations

Traits

Describe relatively stable characteristics

States

Describes temporary characteristics

Cardinal traits

Are the eminent characteristic or dominant

Central traits

The 5 to 10 most outstanding characteristics around which a persons life focuses

Secondary traits

They are so weak that only a close friend would notice evidence of them

Functional autonomy

Allport’s most distinctive and most controversial hypothesis. Are the countless human motives that seemingly are not accounted for by driven reduction principles.

Perseverative functional autonomy

A level of functional autonomy that relates to low level and routine behaviors. This is one behavior continue under their own without any external reward or purpose.

Propriate Functional autonomy

Is the level of functional autonomy that relates to values, self image, and lifestyle. This happens when the ego chooses which motives will be continued or not. This refers to those self sustaining motives that are related to the proprium.

Bodily self

In this stage, Infants become aware of their own existence and distinguish their own bodies from objects in the environment

Self identity

Children realize that their identity remains intact despite the many changes that are taking place

Self-esteem

Children learn to take pride in their accomplishments

Extension of self

In this stage, children come to recognize the objects and people that are part of their own world

Self image

Children develop actual and idealized image of themselves and their behavior and become aware of satisfying parental expectations

Self as rational coper

Children began to apply reason and logic to the solution of everyday problems

Propriate Striving

Young people begin to formulate long range goals and plans

Adulthood

Normal mature adults are functionally autonomous, independent of childhood motives. They function rationally in the present and consciously create their own lifestyles.

Raymond Cattell

personality enables to predict what a person will do in a given situation for they are relatively permanent reaction tendencies that explain personality

Ability traits

Our skills and abilities, determine how well we can work towards our goals

Temperament traits

Our emotions and feelings help determine how we react to the people and situations in our environment

Constitutional traits

Source traits that have biological origins such as the behaviors that result from drinking too much alcohol

Environmental mold traits

Source traits that have environmental origins such as the behavior that results from the influence of our friends, work, environment, or neighborhood

Dynamic traits

The forces that underlie are motivations and drive our behavior

Surface traits

Characteristics composed of any number of source traits or behavioral elements; They may be unstable and impermanent, weakening or strengthening in response to different situations. Considered as the basic factor of personality

Ego strength

Tends to be higher among children whose parents prefer reasoning to punishment

Dominance

Is more common among children whose parents are authoritarian and enforce strict discipline

Super ego strength

Is higher among children whose parents are warm, prefer reasoning to punishment, and do not criticize their choice of friends

Guilt proneness

Tends to be higher in children discipline by physical punishment

High self-sufficiency

Is more common among children whose parents are happily married

L-data, Q-data, T-data

Are the three measurements of personality according to Raymond Cattell

Hans Eysenck

• To him factors have a greater impact on subsequent behavior than do childhood experiences.

• He argued that the personality dimensions that resulted from factor analytic methods are stereo and meaningless, unless they have been shown to possess a biological existence.

• The key for Eysenck was that the individual differences in peoples personalities were biological and not merely psychological aspects of personality