Chapter 11 Personality

Personality

Traits and Patterns that pushes individuals to think feel and behave in a specific way

Hippocrates (370 BCE)

Theorized that personality and behaviors are based on temperaments associated with the body

Choleric

Yellow bile from liver (Bold)

Melancholic

Black bile from kidney (Unhappy)

Sanguine

Red blood from heart (Joyful)

Phlegmatic

White phlegm from lungs (Calm)

Galen

Believed both diseases and personality differenced explain the humors that every one has

Franz Gall (1780)

Proposed bumps on skull show personality of person

Immanuel Kant (18th century)

Agreed with Galen and categorized traits

Wilhelm Wundt (19th century)

Personality could be describing major axes

Emotional/Non-emotional

Separated strong emotions from weak emotions

Changeable/unchangeable

Divided the changeable from unchangeable

Sigmund Freud (1st comprehensive theory of personality)

Unconscious driven by sex and childhood experiences

Neo-Freudians

The unconscious is driven more by the social environment and cultural and less by sex

Unconscious

Mental activity that we are unaware of and are unable to access

Freudian slip

Slips of the tongue are urges accidentally slipping out of unconsciousness.

ID

Primitive urges that operate in a pleasure principle (sex and hunger)

Superego

Develops interactions with others and learning rules and cues

Ego (Self) (Rational)

Attempts to balance ID and Superego (which is the personality that is seen by others)

Oral stage (Birth-1 year)

Mouth

Anal stage (1-3 years)

Toilet training

Phallic stage (3-6 years)

The desire for opposite-sex parent

Oedipus complex (boys)

Mother’s attention

Electra complex (Girls)

Father’s attention

Adult fixation

Vanity and over-ambition

Latency stage (6-12 years)

Sexual feelings inactive due to school and study focus

Genital stage (12+)

Sexual urges activated

Alfred Adler

Focused on the drive to compensate feelings of inferiority

Inferiority complex

A person’s feelings lack worth & don’t measure up to the standards of others or of society (birth)

Erik Erikson

Personality develops throughout the lifespan (Psychosocial theory development)

Carl-Jung

Focused on working to balance conscious and unconscious (Analytical psychology)

Collective unconscious

Universal version of personal unconscious

Archetypes

Patterns exist in our collective unconscious across cultures

Persona

A mask that we consciously adopt

Karen Horney

Agreed with Jung and believed the goal of Analytical should focus toward health self

Moving Toward people

Affiliation & dependence (Need for love)

Moving against people

Aggression & assertiveness (exploit others)

Moving away from people

Detachment & Isolation (avoid friendship & love)

Social-cognitive theory (Bandura)

Emphasizes both learning & cognition of personality

Reciprocal determinism

Cognitive processing & context interaction

Observational Learning

Learning by observing behaviors

Self-efficacy

Level of confidence in own abilities through experiences

Locus of control

Beliefs about the power we have over our life

Internal locus of control

Tend to believe that most of our outcomes are direct results of effort (Study => Pass)

External locus of control

Tend to believe that outcomes are outside of our control (Luck, Chance)

Mischel’s Findings

Behaviors were inconsistent across different situations but were consistent within situations

Marshmallow Study

Ability to delay gratification

Abraham Maslow

Studied healthy, creative people (showed similar characteristics)

Carl Rogers

Linked personality to self concept

Ideal self

Person you would like to be

Real self

Person you are

Heritable traits (Minnesota twin study)

Identical twins => had similar personalities (whether living together or apart)

Reactivity

How we respond to new challenging stimuli

Self-Regulation

Ability to control responses

William H. Sheldon

Body type linked to personality

Endomorphs

Relaxed, comfortable, and tolerant

Mesomorphs

Adventurous and fearless

Ectomorphs

Anxious, quiet and private

Gordon Allport

Language to describe people

Cardinal traits

Dominates entire personality (rare)

Central traits

Makes up our personality

Secondary traits

Less obvious and under circumstances

Selective migration

People choose to move to places that are compatible with their personalities and needs

Rorschach Inkblot test

Individual interprets a series of unconscious feelings and struggles

Thematic Apperception test (TAT)

Insight to social world and goals

Rotter incomplete sentence Blank (RISB)

Reveal desires and fears

Cultures

Beliefs and customs