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Latin ‘persona’
Where did personality originated?
theatrical mask worn
What does persona means?
Personality
a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior.” (Roberts & Mroczek, 2008).
Traits
are enduring, stable qualities or attributes that influence how individuals think, feel, and behave across various situations.
Characteristics
are broader and can encompass traits but also include other attributes such as temporary states, behaviors, and situational responses. They can be more fluid and may change depending on the context or circumstances.
scientific theory
set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses.
Theories
not immutable laws; they are built, not on proven facts, but on assumptions that are subject to individual interpretation.
because the very nature of a theory allows the theorist to make speculations from a particular point of view.
Why does alternate theories exist?
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES
Focused on the importance of early childhood experience and relationship with parents as guiding forces that shape personality development.
Conscious awareness
The unconscious mind and motives are more powerful than _____________________________________
Psychoanalysis
traditionally used dream interpretation to uncover the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and impulses as a main form of treatment for mental illness
Freud
Adler
Jung
Klein
Horney
Erikson
Fromm
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIST
HUMANISTIC-EXISTENTIAL THEORIES
Currently known as ‘positive psychology’, the assumption is that people strive toward meaning, growth, well-being, happiness, and psychological health.
Existential theorists
Who assume that not only are we driven by a search for meaning, but also that negative experiences such as failure, awareness of death, death of a loved one, and anxiety, are part of the human condition and can foster psychological growth.
Maslow
Rogers
May
HUMANISTIC-EXISTENTIAL THEORIST
DISPOSITIONAL THEORIES
Argue that the unique and long-term tendencies to behave in particular ways are the essence of our personality. These unique dispositions, such as extraversion or anxiety, are called traits.
The field has converged on the understanding that there are five main trait dimensions in human personality. Traits serve the function of making certain behaviors more likely in some people.
Traits
What do you call the unique disposition such as extraversion or anxiety?
Allport
McCrae & Costa
DISPOSITIONAL THEORIST
BIOLOGICAL-EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES
Behavior, thought, feelings, and personality are influenced by differences in basic genetic, epigenetic, and neurological systems between individuals. Because they are based on evolved brain systems, human thought, behavior, and personality have been shaped by forces of evolution (natural and sexual selection) over millions of years
BIOLOGICAL-EVOLUTIONARY THEORIST
Eysenck
Buss
LEARNING THEORIES
All behaviors are learned through association and/or its consequences (whether it is reinforced or punished). To shape desired behavior, we must understand and then establish the conditions that bring about those behaviors.
In short, what personality we have is shaped by how we think and perceive the world.
Skinner
Bandura
Rotter & Mischel
Kelly
LEARNING THEORIST
Generates research
Is Falsifiable
Organizes Data
Guides Action
Is internally consistent
Is parsimonious
WHAT MAKES A THEORY USEFUL?
Generates research
Without an adequate theory to point the way, many of science’s present empirical findings would have remained undiscovered. A useful theory will generate two different kinds of research: descriptive research and hypothesis testing.
Is Falsifiable
A theory must also be evaluated on its ability to be confirmed or disconfirmed. To be falsifiable, a theory must be precise enough to suggest research that may either support or fail to support its major tenets.
Organizes Data
A useful theory of personality must be capable of integrating what is currently known about human behavior and personality development. It must be able to shape as many bits of information as possible into a meaningful arrangement.
Guides Action
Its ability to guide the practitioner over the rough course of day-to-day problems. Without a useful theory, practitioners would stumble in the darkness of trial-and-error techniques; with a sound theoretical orientation, they can discern a suitable course of action.
Is internally consistent
An internally consistent theory is one whose components are logically compatible. Its limitations of scope are carefully defined, and it does not offer explanations that lie beyond that scope.
Is parsimonious
Simple, straightforward theories are more useful than ones that bog down under the weight of complicated concepts and esoteric language.
DETERMINISM VS FREE CHOICE
Are people’s behaviors determined by forces over which they have no control, or can people choose to be what they wish to be?
PESSIMISM VS OPTIMISM
Are people doomed to live miserable, conflicted, and troubled lives, or can they change and grow into psychologically healthy, happy, fully functioning human beings?
CAUSALITY VS TELEOLOGY
Do people act as they do because of what has happened to them in the past, or do they act as they do because they have certain expectations of what will happen in the future?
CONSCIOUS VS UNCONSCIOUS
Are people ordinarily aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it, or do unconscious forces impinge on them and drive them to act without awareness of these underlying forces?
BIOLOGICAL VS SOCIAL INFLUENCES
Are people mostly creatures of biology, or are their personalities shaped largely by their social relationships? A more specific element of this issue is heredity versus environment; that is, are personal characteristics more the result of heredity, or are they environmentally determined?
UNIQUENESS VS SIMILARITIES
Is the salient feature of people their individuality, or is it their common characteristics? Should the study of personality concentrate on those traits that make people alike, or should it look at those traits that make people different?
