PERSONALITY PSYC 002

Hippocrates

Hippocrates

Physiology of the body underlies temperament and personality

Four humors:

• Yellow = bile from liver

• Black = bile from kidneys

• Red = blood from heart

• White = phlegm from lungs

Galen

believe both diseases and personality differences were explained by imbalances in the humors

• Choleric (yellow bile)= passionate, ambitious, bold

• Melancholic (black bile)= reserved, anxious, unhappy

• Sanguine (blood) = joyful, eager, optimistic

• Phlegmatic (phlegm)= calm, reliable, thoughtful

Kant

divided the four temperaments into two categories

Feeling:

• Sanguine (optimistic) = strong but short lasting feelings

• Melancholic = weak but enduring feelings

Activity:

• Choleric (grumpy) = intense but not persistent activity

• Phlegmatic (calm ) = inactive but enduring

Wundt

Emotional/non-emotional

• separated strong emotions (melancholic/choleric) from the weak emotions (phlegmatic, sanguine)

Changeable/unchangelable

• divided the changeable temperaments (choleric, sanguine) from the unchangeable ones (melancholic, phlegmatic)

Phrenology

Franz Joseph Gall

• bumps on surface of skull reflect brain surface and related personality traits and abilities

Reforms in the Treatment of Mental Illness

Psychiatrists were divided into two
camps: the somatic and the psychic
• Emmanuel movement: talk therapy
session for the mentally ill
• Hypnosis used as a therapeutic
technique
• Physicians began to think in terms
of curing emotional disturbances by
treating the mind instead of the body

Was it Only a Dream?

Little Freuds dream:

• mother is carried into a room

• people carrying her are not human, extremely tall, dressed in strange clothing, bird like faces

30 years later : dream is still highly emotional for Freud

• superficial meaning: little boy afraid of losing his mother

• True meaning : symbolizes sexual longing of a 7 yr old boy for his mother????

Levels of Consciousness

Unconscious

• mental activity that we are unaware of and are unable to access

According to FREUD

• we are only aware of small amount (1/10) of our minds activities and most of it remains hidden from us in our unconscious

• unacceptable urges & desires are kept in our unconscious through repression.

• information in our unconscious affects our behavior

FREUDIAN SLIP

• saying a word you did not intend to say are sexual/aggressive urges accidentally slipping out of our unconscious

Psychoanalysis as a System of Personality

Instincts

• mental representation of internal stimuli that motivate personality and behaviors

• Life instinct (libido)

• death instinct

Levels of Personality

• conscious vs. unconscious

• Id

• Ego

• Superego

Anxiety

• warning that the ego is being threatened

• Defense mechanisms: behaviors that represent unconscious denials or distortions of reality adopted to protect the ego

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT (SIGMUND FREUD)

• stages of childhood centering on erogenous zones

Competing Factors

Psychoanalysis later split into factions that disagreed on basic points

• Alfred Adler

• Erik Erikson

• Carl Jung

• Karen Horney

• Abraham Maslow

• Carl Rogers

The Neo-Freudians and Ego Psychology

• loyalists who called for an expansion of the concept of the ego

• ego seen as having a more extensive role

• ego was more independent of the id, possessed its own energy not derived from the id, had functions separate from the id

• suggested that the ego was free of conflict produced when id impulses pressed for satisfaction

• less emphasis on biological forces as influences on personality

Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology

Adler’s theory of personality that incorporates social as well as biological factors

Social interest

• innate potential to cooperate with other people to achieve personal and societal goals

• believed we are more strongly affected by our plans for the future

• striving for goals or anticipant coming events can influence peresent behavior

Adler’s Individual Psychology #2

• drive for superiority or perfection = universal

• ppl have capacity to determine our own personality as as unique style of life

Birth Order

relationship between both order and personality because of how one is treated in relation to others in family

• First Borns = perfectionist, achiever, leader, bossy, responsible. motivated, conscientious, controlling, reliable

• Middle Borns = adaptable, independent, go-between, people pleaser, rebellious, left out, peacemaker, social

• Last Borns = social , charming, outgoing, uncomplicated, manipulative, seeks attention, self centered, fun

• Only Child = confident , conscientious, responsible, perfectionist, center of attention, mature for age, seeks approval, sensitive, leader

Inferiority Complex

condition that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings

• proposed that a feelings of inferiority is a motivating force in behavior

• helplessness & dependence on other people awaken this sense of inferiority in infancy

Fundamental Life Tasks

Occupational Tasks

• careers

Societal Tasks

• friendship

Love Tasks

• finding intimate partner

Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory

• the social nature of development

• personality development takes place across lifespan

• based on belief that social interactions affect our sense of self (ego identity)

• psychosocial task we must master in order to feel a sense of competence

Carl Jung

• surrogate son & heir to psychoanalytic movement

• Analytic Psychology : Jung’s theory of personality (opposition to Freud’s work)

Jung’s Analytic Psychology

• no place for Oedipus complex

• sex played small roll in human motivation

• The Libido: generalized life energy of which sex was only a part

• believed we are shaped by past, goals, hopes, aspirations

• Personality is not fully determined by experiences during the first five years of childhood & could be changes

Two Levels of The Unconscious Mind

Personal Unconscious

• reservoir of material that once was conscious but has been forgotten or suppressed

Collective Unconscious

• deepest level of psyche containing inherited experiences of human & prehuman species

Extroversion & Introversion (Jung)

Jung’s greatest contribution to personality psychology was the idea of different attitudes towards life = Introverts & Extroverts

Psychological Types: functions & attitudes

• thinking

• feeling

• sensing

• intuiting

Myers Briggs Personality Types

• test discovering personality type

Karen Horney

• early feminist

• culturally based personality differences between men and women

Basic Anxiety

• pervasive loneliness and helplessness are feelings that give rise to neuroses

• result from parental actions such as dominance, lack of protection and love and erratic behavior

• believed personality develops in early childhood years (Freud)

Neurotic Needs

Gives rise to three personality types:

• Compliant Personality

• Detached Personality

• Aggressive Personality

Idealized self image : provides person with false picture of personality or self

Skinner’s Behavioral Perspectives

learning approaches to personality focused on observable, measurable phenomena

• we LEARN to behave in particular ways

• behavior is environmentally determined

Personality

• shaped by reinforcements and consequences in environment (operant conditioning)

• develops over our entire life and can vary as we experience new situations

Keller and Marians Breland “The IG Zoo”

• apply psychological conditioning techniques to animal behaviors

• used basic conditioning techniques learned from B.F. Skinner

• ran 140-trained-animal shows at major tourist attractions

Sociobehaviorism: The Cognitive Challenge

• third stage of behaviorism

• Leaders = Bandura and Rotter

• return to study of mental or cognitive processes: reflection of the broader cognitive movement in psychology as a whole

Social Cognitive Theory

• both learning and cognition as sources of individual difference in personality

• though processes such as beliefs, expectations, and instructions influence external reinforcement schedules

Factors in Personality Development

• Reciprocal Determinism - behavior, cognitive processes, situational context all influence each other

• Observational Learning

• Self Efficacy - confidence in own abilities & how we approach challenges

Julian Rotter

First Psychologist to use the term “Social Learning Theory”

• argued that we learn primarily through social experiences

Cognitive Processes

• we perceive ourselves as conscious being capable of influencing the experiences that affect our lives

• internal cognitive states determine the effects of different external experiences

Locus of Control

Rotter’s idea about the perceived source of reinforcement

• Internal locus of control = reinforcement depends of ones OWN BEHAVIOR

• External locus of control = reinforcement depends on OUTSIDE FORCES

ppl with internal locus of control tend to be physically & mentally healthier than those with an external locus of control

Self- Regulation (Will Power)

• ability to delay gratification

• “Marshmallow Test”

• Children with more self control (waited for two marshmallows) in preschool were more successful in high school

• Children with less self control (took one marshmallow) in preschool were more likely to have academic & behavioral problems

The Person-Situation Debate

Behavior

• Inconsistent across different situations

• more consistent within situations

• consisten in equivalent situations

Theory that personality traits are consistent across situations not supported

People use cognitive processes to assess situations and behave in accordance with that interpretation

Humanistic Approach

• how healthy people develop

• emphasized human strengths, positive aspirations, conscious experience, free will, fulfillment of human potential, and belief in the wholeness of human nature

Abraham Maslow

Studied ppl he considered health, creative, productive

• albert Einstein, Eleanor roosevelt, thomas jefferson, abraham lincoln

• found they all shared similar characteristics : open, creative, loving, spontaneous, compassionate, concerned for others, accepting of themselves

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Self- Actualization

• desire to become the most that one can be

Hierarchy of needs

• full development of ones abilities and the realization of ones potential

Carl Rogers

Personality is shaped by the PRESENT and how we CONSCIOUSLY PERCEIVE it

• self concept (thoughts/feelings ab ourselves)

Ideal Self

• person we would like yo be

Real Self

• person we actually are

High congruence → greater sense of self-worth, healthy, productive life
• Incongruence → maladjustment

Qualities of Psychologically Health Persons

• openness to and a freshness of appreciation of all experiences

• lives fully in every moment

• ability to be guided by their instincts rather than by reason or opinions of others

• sense of freedom in thought and action

• high degree of creativity

• continual need to maximize potential

The Jim Twins

The Jim Twins
• Jim Lewis and Jim Springer were identical twins raised apart
from the age of 4 weeks.
• Reunited at the age of 39 in 1979
• Both suffered from tension headaches, were prone to nail biting,
smoked Salem cigarettes, drove the same type of car, and even
vacationed at the same beach in Florida.

Minnesota Study of Twins Raised Apart

• identical twins, whether raised together or apart, have very similar personalities

• suggests heritability of some personality traits

Somatotypes (Sheldon’s theory)

believed body types could be linked to personality

Endomorphs – relaxed, comfortable, good-humored, even-tempered, sociable, tolerant
Mesomorphs – adventurous, assertive, competitive, fearless
Ectomorphs – Anxious, self-conscious, artistic, thoughtful, quiet, private

Discredited but even people unaware of the theory are still influenced in their assessments of personality by body type

Trait Theories of Personality

People have certain basic traits and it is the strength and intensity of those traits that account for personality differences

• Allport’s trait theory

• Cattell’s 16 factor personality model

• Eysenck’s three-dimensional model

• The five factory model

Allports Trait Theory

Cardinal Traits

• single trait which dominates (rare)

Central Traits

• general characteristics

Secondary Traits

• less obvious or consistent, only present under certain circumstances

Cattell’s 16-factor Personality Model

Eysneck’s Three-Dimensional Model

Hands and Sybil Eysenck focused on temperament and believed that personality traits are influenced by genetic inheritance

FIVE FACTOR MODEL

Each trait is scored on a continuum

• O- Openness to experience

• C - Conscientiousness

• E - Extroversion

• A - Agreeableness

• N- Neuroticism

(OCEAN)

HEXACO Model

Trait:

(H) Honesty-Humility

(E) Emotionality

(X) Extraversion

(A) Agreeableness

(C)Conscientiousness

(O) Openness

Cultural Influences on Personality

Culture — beliefs, customs, arts, traditions of a particular society

• most important environmental influences on personality

Universal and culture specific aspects account for variation in personality

Individualistic and Collectivist Cultures

Individualist Cultures

• value independence, competition, personal achievement

• display more personally oriented personality traits

Collectivist Cultures

• value social harmony, respectfulness, group needs over individual needs

• display more socially oriented personality traits