Chapter 15: Personality

Personality

Personality

can be defined as a person’s enduring general style of dealing with others and with the world around them

Sigmund Freud

those who followed his basic beliefs and practices typify psychoanalytic theories of personality.

psychodynamic

means a psychological approach based on a marriage of Freudian concepts, such as the unconscious, with more modern ideas.

free association

a therapist actively listens, while the patient relaxes and reports anything that comes into his mind, no matter how absurd it might seem.

id

is the source of mental energy and drive.

pleasure principle

which is the desire to maximize pleasure while minimizing pain.

superego

is the internal representation of all of society’s rules, morals, and obligations.

ego

according to Freud, is the part of the mind that allows a person to function in the environment and to be logical.

Repression

is the process by which memories or desires that provoke too much anxiety to deal with are pushed into the unconscious

Displacement

is a defense mechanism that directs anger away from the source of the anger to a less threatening person or object.

Reaction formation

is another defense mechanism by which the ego reverses the direction of a disturbing desire to make that desire safer or more socially acceptable.

Compensation

making up for failures in one area through success in others

Rationalization

creating logical excuses for emotional or irrational behavior

Regression

reverting to childish behaviors

Denial

the refusal to acknowledge or accept unwanted beliefs or actions

Sublimation

the channeling or redirecting of sexual or aggressive feelings into a more socially acceptable outlet

basic anxiety

or the feeling of being alone in an unfamiliar or hostile world, is a central theme in childhood.

Carl Jung

formulated another theory of personality that was, in part, a response to Freud’s theory.

Self

Jung believed that all of the opposing forces and desires of the mind were balanced by a force called the

personal unconscious

comprised of repressed memories

collective unconscious

of behavior and memory common to all humans and passed down from our ancient and common ancestors.

Archetypes

are the behaviors and memories in the collective unconscious.

Alfred Adler

like other psychoanalytic psychologists, believed that childhood is the crucial formative period.

Humanistic

theories of personality emphasize the uniqueness and richness of being human.

Self-actualization

is becoming, in a creative way, the person you are capable of being.

self-concept

is our mental representation of who we feel we truly are

conditions of worth

other people’s evaluations of our worth, distort our self-concept.

collectivistic and individualistic cultures

Humanistic theories also address the distinction between

Social-cognitive theories

of personality are based on the assumption that cognitive constructs are the basis for personality.

Albert Bandura

A representative example of a social-cognitive theory of personality was developed by

Self-efficacy

refers to a person’s beliefs about his or her own abilities in a given situation.

explanatory styles

ways in which people explain themselves or react in different situations.

Julian Rotter

proposed that the extent to which people believe that their successes or failures are due to their own efforts plays a major role in personality.

internal locus of control

believe that successes or failures are a direct result of their efforts

external locus of control

are more likely to attribute success or failure to luck or chance.

Trait Theories

personality provide quantitative systems for describing and comparing traits or stable predispositions to behave in a certain way.

nomothetic

traits such as the Big Five are thought to be universal.

Idiographic trait

are those that are unique to the individual, such as openness or curiosity.

Gordon Alport

Trait theories

Cardinal

traits that override a person’s whole being

central

the primary characteristics of the person

secondary

traits that constitute interests

Raymond Cattell

saw traits differently because he believed that 16 source traits were the basis of personality.

Walter Mischel

recognized that traits are not necessarily consistent across various situations but often vary depending upon the circumstances.

Eysenck Personality Inventory

a questionnaire designed to examine people’s personalities based on their traits.

(Personality Factor) Questionnaire

signifying the 16 traits or personality factors it measures.

Self-concept

refers to how we view ourselves

self-esteem

refers to how much we value ourselves.

The physical self

our bodies, names, and the like

The active self

how we behave

The social self

how we interact with others

The psychological self

our feelings and personalities

halo effect

which refers to the error by which we generalize a high self-evaluation from one domain to another.

Temperament

is the early appearing set of individual differences in reaction and regulation that form the “nucleus” of personality.

Mary Rothbart

temperament is generally assessed on three scales: surgency (amount of positive affect and activity level), negative affect (amount of frustration and sadness), and effortful control (ability of a child to self-regulate moods and behavior).

Jerome Kagan

work on the physiology of young children showed that children classified as low in effortful control were more likely to have higher baseline heart rates, more muscle tension, and greater pupil dilation.