Psychology Chapter 13 - Theories of Personality

MCQ: What do Maslow’s and Roger’s theories have in common?

Being of the humanistic perspective (believe in free will, self-actualization/self-actualizing tendency)

MCQ: What defense mechanism involve justifying through logic one’s own inappropriate behavior or impulse?

Rationalization

MCQ: According to Hofstede, what cultures are more assertive and competitive?

Masculine cultures

MCQ: What is the central idea of psychoanalytic theory?

How past experiences and relationships, along with unconscious conflicts and motivations, affect current behavior

MCQ: According to Rogers, what creates a negative effect on self-concept?

Conditional positive regard, unattainable ideal self, distorted view of self

MCQ: In the Five Factor Model, what factor shows imagination and curiosity?

Openness

SAQ: Five Factor Model (FFM/Big Five)

Openness to experience

Conscientious

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Openness to experience (Big 5 trait)

imagination, feelings, actions, ideas, willingness to try new things and have new experiences

High score for openness

curious, wide range of interests, independent

Low score for openness

practical, conventional, prefers routine, resists change

Conscientiousness (Big 5 trait)

competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven, organization, motivation

High score for conscientiousness

hardworking, dependable, organized, ambitious

Low score for conscientiousness

impulsive, careless, disorganized, spontaneous

Extraversion (Big 5 trait)

sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression, optimism

High score for extraversion

outgoing, warm, seeks adventure

Low score for extraversion

quiet, reserved, withdrawn

Agreeableness (Big 5 trait)

cooperative, trustworthy, good-natured, tendency to be forgiving and tolerant of others

High score for agreeableness

helpful, trusting, empathetic

Low score for agreeableness

critical, uncooperative, suspicious

Neuroticism (Big 5 trait)

tendency toward unstable emotions

High score for neuroticism (low emotional stability)

anxious, unhappy, prone to negative emotions

Low score for neuroticism (high emotional stability)

calm, even-tempered, secure

SAQ: What makes a human being—nature, nurture, or some combination? Is your life choice or fate?

Some combination. Biopsychology leans nature while humanism and behaviorism lean nurture. Psychoanalytic approach features the innate drives of id (nature) while also highlighting our social upbringing during childhood to develop ego and superego (nurture). Cognitive psychology is somewhere in the middle by focusing on both instinctual information processing abilities and schemata

Personality

The unique way individuals think, feel, and act, different from but including character and temperament

Temperament

Behavioral characteristics that are fairly well established at birth, such as being “easy,” “difficult,” or “slow to warm up”; the enduring characteristics with which each person is born

Character

Value judgments of a person’s moral and ethical behavior

Conscious (Divisions of the Mind)

Contact with the outside world

Preconscious (Divisions of the Mind)

Material just beneath the surface of awareness

Unconscious (Divisions of the Mind)

Difficult to retrieve material; well below the surface of awareness

Id

Part of the personality present at birth and completely unconscious; works on the pleasure principle

Ego

Part of the personality that develops out of a need to deal with reality; mostly conscious, rational, and logical. Works on the reality principle

Superego

Part of the personality that acts as a moral center, containing the conscience, and is the source of moral anxiety

Defense Mechanisms

The conflicts between the demands of the id and the rules and restrictions of the superego lead to anxiety for the ego, which uses defense mechanisms to deal with that anxiety

Denial

Refusing to recognize or acknowledge a threatening situation

Repression

“Pushing” threatening or conflicting events or situations out of conscious memory

Rationalization

Making up acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior

Projection

Placing one’s own unacceptable thoughts onto others, as if the thoughts belonged to them and not to oneself

Reaction Formation

Forming an emotional reaction or attitude that is the opposite of one’s unacceptable or threatening thoughts

Displacement

Expressing feelings that would be threatening if directed at the real target, onto a less-threatening substitute

Regression

Falling back on childlike patterns as a way of coping with stressful situations

Identification

Trying to become like someone else to deal with anxiety

Compensation (Substitution)

Trying to make up for areas in which a deficit is perceived by becoming superior in some other area

Sublimation

Turning socially unacceptable urgers into socially acceptable behavior

Oral stage

Id dominated. The first stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring in the first 18 months of life, in which the mouth is the erogenous zone and weaning is the primary conflict

An*l stage

Ego develops. The second stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring from about 18 to 36 months of age, in which the anus is the erogenous zone and toilet training is the source of conflict

Phallic stage

Superego develops. The third stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring from about 3 to 6 years of age, in which the child discovers sexual feelings

Latency

Period of sexual repression. The fourth stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring during the school years, in which the sexual feelings of the child are repressed while the child develops in other ways

Genital stage

Sexual feelings reawaken with appropriate targets. The final stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages; from puberty on, sexual urges are allowed back into consciousness and the individual moves toward adult social and sexual behavior

Oedipus/Electra Complexes

Sexual “crushes” on the opposite-sex parent create anxiety in the phallic stage, which is resolved through identification with the same-sex parent

Fixation

Conflicts are not fully resolved during a stage, resulting in adult personality characteristics reflecting childhood inadequacies

Neo-Freudians

Changed the focus of psychoanalysis to fit their own interpretation of the personality, leading to the more modern version known as the psychodynamic perspective. Generally moved away from the original emphasis on biology and sex

Carl Jung (Neo-Freudian)

Developed a theory of a collective unconscious

Collective Unconscious (Jung)

Memories shared by all members of the human species

Archetypes (Jung)

Collective, universal human memories

Personal Unconscious (Jung)

Jung’s name for the unconscious mind as described by Freud

Alfred Adler (Neo-Freudian)

Proposed feelings of inferiority as the driving force behind personality and developed birth order theory

Karen Horney (Neo-Freudian)

Developed a theory based on basic anxiety and rejected the concept of penis envy

Basic Anxiety (Horney)

Anxiety created when a child is born into the bigger and more powerful world of older children and adults

Erik Erikson (Neo-Freudian)

Developed a theory (Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development) based on social rather than sexual relationships, covering the entire life span

Modern View on Freudian Theory

Current research has found support for the defense mechanisms and the concept of an unconscious mind that can influence conscious behavior, but other concepts cannot be scientifically researched

Behaviorism

Define personality as a set of learned responses or habits. In its traditional form, has scientific support but is criticized as being too simplistic

Social Cognitive Learning Views of Personality

The social cognitive theory of Bandura and the social learning theory of Rotter account for the influences of individual cognitive processes and social influences on personality

Social Cognitive View/Theory (Bandura)

Includes the concept of reciprocal determinism, in which the environment, the characteristics of the person, and the behavior itself all interact, and self-efficacy

Self-Efficacy (Bandura)

A characteristic in which a person perceives a behavior as more or less effective based on previous experiences, the opinions of others, and perceived personal competencies

Social Learning Theory (Rotter)

Personality is a relatively stable set of potential responses to various situations, depending on what is reinforced and becomes a pattern of behavior. Includes locus of control, expectancy, and reinforcement value

Locus of Control (Rotter)

A determinant of personality in which one either assumes that one’s actions directly affect events and reinforcements one experiences (internal) or that such events and reinforcements are the results of luck, fate, or powerful others (external)

Expectancy (Rotter)

A person’s subjective feeling that a particular behavior will lead to a reinforcing consequence

Reinforcement Value (Rotter)

An individual’s preference for a particular reinforcer over all other possible reinforcing consequences

Humanism

Developed as a reaction against the negativity of psychoanalysis and the deterministic nature of behaviorism

Carl Rogers (Humanist)

Proposed that self-actualization depends on proper development of the self-concept

Self-Concept (Rogers)

Includes the real self and the ideal self. When these two components do not match or agree, anxiety and disordered behavior result

Unconditional Positive Regard (Rogers)

Comes from important others in a person’s life; helps the formation of the self-concept and the congruity of the real and ideal selves, leading to a fully functioning person

Humanistic Theory’s Pros and Cons

• Some aspects of humanistic theory are not easy to evaluate through research

• Despite noted challenges, humanistic theory approaches have been effective in therapy situations

• The theory has also led to therapies promoting self-growth and increased understanding of self and others

Trait Theory

Describe personality traits in order to predict behavior

Gordon Allport (Trait Theorist)

First developed a list of about 200 traits and believed that these traits were part of the nervous system

Raymond Cattell (Trait Theorist)

Reduced the number of traits to between 16 and 23 with a statistical method called factor analysis, creating the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)

Surface Trait (Cattell)

Easily seen by other people in our outward actions

Source Trait (Cattell)

More basic traits that underlie surface traits, forming the core of personality

Predictive Ability of Traits

• May be used to predict a variety of life outcomes, including occupations, success in school and work, physical health, and mental health

• Specific traits appear to be related to different aspects of cognition and intelligence, leading to the Openness/Intellect label used by some five-factor researchers

Trait-Situation Interaction (Mischel)

Some researchers believe the expression of some traits will differ based on situation or context

HEXACO Model

Honesty-Humility

Emotionality

EXtraversion

Agreeableness (vs Anger)

Conscientiousness

Openness to Experience

Behavioral Genetics

Study of the relationship between heredity and personality

Twin Studies

Studies with both identical and fraternal twins, either raised together or raised apart, assist researchers in investigating the role of genetics and environment on the development of personality. Identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins or unrelated people in many facets of personality

Adoption Studies

Those studying twins have confirmed that genetic influences account for a great deal of personality development regardless of shared/non-shared environments

Personality Neuroscience

Based on the premise that persistent variations in dimensional aspects of personality must be based on consistent patterns of functioning in the brain.

Brain structure differences associated with aspects of the Big Five dimensions of personality have been identified using both structural and functional neuroimaging methods

Approaches include the Cybernetic Big 5 Theory and Affective Neuroscience

Heritability of Personality

Studies of twins and adopted children have found support for a genetic influence on many personality traits, including intelligence, leadership abilities, traditionalism, nurturance, empathy, assertiveness, neuroticism, and extraversion

Heritability of Personality Across Cultures

Cross-cultural research has found support for the FFM of personality traits in a number of different cultures; FFM factors have nearly a 50% heritability rate across cultures, and variations of personality are about 30-50% inherited

Interviews

Used primarily by psychoanalysts and humanists and can include structured or unstructured interviews

Disadvantages of Interviews

Includes the halo effect and bias in the interpretation on the part of the interviewer, as well as social desirability/self-reporting bias

Behavioral Assessment

Used primarily by behaviorists and include direct observation of behavior, rating scales of specific behavior, and frequency counts of behavior

Behavior Assessment Disadvantages

Includes the observer effect, which causes an observed person’s behavior to change, and observer bias on the part of the person doing the assessment

Personality Inventories

Typically developed by trait theorists and provide a detailed description of certain personality traits. The NEO-PI-3 is based on the FFM, whereas the MMPI-3 is designed to detect atypical personality

Personality Inventories Disadvantages

Include validity scales to prevent minimization or exaggeration of symptoms, or “faking bad,” but such measures are not perfect

Projective Tests

Based on the defense mechanism of projection and are used by psychoanalyst. Projective tests include the Rorschach inkblot test and the Thematic Apperception Test

Projective Tests Disadvantages

Can be useful in finding starting points to open a dialogue between therapist and client but have been criticized for being low in reliability and validity

Individualism/Collectivism (Hofstede’s Four Dimensions of Cultural Personality)

Autonomy, change, youth, individual security, equality

VS.

Duty, order, tradition, respect for the elderly, group security, respect for group status and hierarchy

Power Distance (Hofstede’s Four Dimensions of Cultural Personality)

Degree to which the less powerful members of a culture accept/expect that power is held by a select few rather than evenly distributed

Masculinity/Femininity Hofstede’s Four Dimensions of Cultural Personality)

“Masculine” cultures are more assertive and competitive while “feminine” cultures are more modest and caring

Uncertainty Avoidance (Hofstede’s Four Dimensions of Cultural Personality)

Cultures that do not tolerate uncertainty, ambiguity, and unstructured situations have stricter rules, security, and laws, while cultures that do are more accepting of fewer rules and different opinions and religions