Unit 5 Psych: Personality, Motivation, Emotion, and Stress

Personality

• A person’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting

• It is who we are and how we react, interact, and respond to the world

Sigmund Freud

(1856-1939)

• Proposed the psychoanalytic theory

• Theories were heavy into sex and aggression

• When it came to personality, he believed our personalities are based on: 

  • Childhood experiences

  • Your unconscious

  • Your sexual and aggressive impulses 

  • Your defense mechanisms

Psychodynamic Approach to Personality (1. Id 2. Ego 3. Superego)

• Descended from Freud’s psychoanalytic theory (without the sex and aggression stuff) 

• Concerned with the human personality and the mind 

• Still focused on the unconscious mind but put more emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in interpreting and coping with environment around us

Psychodynamic theorists believe the conscious mind is the part of personality that is our sense of right and wrong

Psychodynamic theorists believe the unconscious mind is what we REALLY use to make decisions and what controls our behavior 

1.

• Earliest part of our personality to develop

• Seeks immediate gratification

  • Operates on the pleasure principle- the drive to achieve pleasure and avoid pain 

2.

• Completely in your unconscious

• Develops early childhood

• Tries to act as the mediator between the Id and the superego

• Helps us understand the consequences of the decisions we make 

  • Call the reality principle 

3.
Develops around age 5

• Found in both conscious and unconscious, it will become our conscious

• Operates on the morality principle

• It makes us do the right thing

Defense Mechanisms (Repression, Regression, Rationalization, Projection, Denial, Displacement, Reaction-Formation, Sublimation)

1. Pushing unwanted memories that are stressful/painful into your unconscious 

2. Reverting back to infantile behavior 

3. Giving a logical reason to justify an unacceptable feeling or behavior 

4. Disguising your real feelings by attributing them to others 

5. Refusing to recognize a painful reality 

6. Shifting your anger or aggression from the real target to something less threatening 

7. Having an unacceptable impulse and acting the opposite way  

8. Aggressive impulses are channeled into something acceptable 

Projective Tests (Rorschach Inkblot Test and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT))

a personality test that provides ambiguous images designed to evoke responses that uncover feelings, desires, and conflicts that are in the unconscious mind

1. The most widely used projective test uses a set of 10 inkblots. It seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots 

and

2. The TAT is a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about an ambiguous scene

used by psychodynamic

Humanistic Approach to Personality (Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers), (Unconditional positive regard and self concept)

Instead of focusing on your past and unconscious forces that drive you, Humanistic approach focuses on your future, your free will and your sense of self

Centers on the idea that people are basically good and that they have free will to determine their own destinies. Focuses on our growth and our potential 

1. Believed in growing and reaching your true potential. Personality is shaped by our growth and quest for self-esteem and self-actualization( our ability to become the best version of our self)

and

2. Belief that people are basically good and have self-actualization tendencies. Believed you nurture growth by:

   • Being acceptancing of others

   • Being genuineness

   • Showing empathy towards others

Key Vocab

• a caring, accepting, non judgemental attitude which will help you develop self- awareness and self acceptance

and

• It's a combination of our self-image, self esteem, and our ideal self. 

Trait Theory Approach to Personality  (The Big Five theory)

• Trait theories focus on observable and measurable traits that determine how we behave

  • Traits = stable personality characteristics of behavior, thought processes and emotions

  • Emphasizes that traits are relatively consistent over time and across situations. 

• Theorists believe that combinations of traits form our unique personalities

  •  They focus on how to identify and measure individual personality characteristics 

The [_] of personality proposes that the following traits make up our personalities 

• Agreeableness

• Openness to experience

• Extraversion,

• Conscientiousness

• Emotional Stability (neuroticism)

The Big Five Traits are: Stable in adulthood, Influenced by genetics, and Predictive of behavior

Objective Tests (MMPI-2: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI))

• Use self-report personality inventories

• Easy to score and not subject to interpretation (like projective tests)

Utilizes factor analysis-a statistical technique used to analyze multiple factors to identify clusters of traits that are related to each other

1. The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests.  Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes 

and

2. Self report inventory designed to identify a person's personality, strengths and preferences)

used by trait theory

Social Cognitive Approach to Personality  (Reciprocal Determinism, Self-Efficacy, )

Emphasizes BOTH learning and cognition are important factors in personality development

Reciprocal determinism, observational learning, and self-efficacy all play a part in personality development. Our thoughts and social experiences will impact our self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy

1.

• A person’s behavior both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the social environment

  • Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and environment all influence each other in determining a person’s actions in a situation 

2.

• Our level of confidence in our own abilities through our social experiences

  • It’s how we approach challenges and reach our goals 

• high self efficacy

  • Believe goals are within reach and have a positive view of challenges by seeing them as tasks to be mastered 

• low self efficacy

  • Avoid challenging tasks because they doubt their ability to succeed

3. 

Cognitive factor that affects personality development 

• Refers to our beliefs about the power we have over our lives.  

• Internal locus of control

  • We believe that our outcomes are direct result of our efforts

• External locus of control

  • We believe our outcomes are outside of our control

Motivation

A psychological process that directs and maintains a behavior towards a goal. It drives our behavior, influencing our actions and decisions

Drive-Reduction Theory 

• We have needs - - leads to a drive to meet them - - because we want balance - - so we act to reduce them

• Our basic physiological needs (food, water, shelter, etc.) create tension when not met 

  • this tension is called a drive

• These drives (tensions) cause us to seek homeostasis (balance) in our bodies

  • we do activities that will get rid of (reduce) the tension (drives) in our bodies

• If we skip breakfast, we feel hungry.  The need drives us to find food to get rid of the hunger (thus bringing homeostasis)

Arousal Theory  and Yerkes-Dodson Law

• Too little stimulation makes us bored

• Too much stimulation makes us anxious

   We each have our own “sweet spot” of arousal -  we seek to find the right amount of stimulation

AND

States that there is a level of arousal that helps performance but only to a point 

• Very low arousal= poor performance (you’re too sleepy or bored)

• Very high arousal= poor performance (you’re too stressed or anxious)

• Medium arousal= best performance (you are alert and focused)

Example- Think about getting ready for your SATs.  If you are too pumped up, your nervous system kicks in and it's hard to concentrate.  If you are not aroused at all, you won’t put your all in and still not perform well 

Incentive Theory (and its strengths and limits)

• Not only are we pushed by our needs to reduce our drives, we are pulled by incentives

  • incentives- a positive or negative stimulus that motivates us to act

• We learn to associate some stimuli with rewards and others with punishment

  • Most of us are motivated to seek rewards 

  • Depends on their incentive value or pull

Strengths
Easily identify external pulls on behavior 

Limitations

Does not explain altruistic behaviors or compassion 

Self-Determination Theory (INTRINSIC Motivations and EXTRINSIC Motivations)

People are motivated by internal or external motivations 

Perform a behavior for its own sake

AND

Perform a behavior because of a promised reward or threat of punishment 

Sensation-Seeking Theory (Experience Seeking, Thrill Seeking, Disinhibition, and Boredom Susceptibility)

Human motivation comes from the desire for new or exciting experiences. They are driven by a need for novel activities

Looking for new experiences,

Wanting to engage in risky or exciting activities,

Seeking situations that lower self control or social norms,

AND

Finding it hard to tolerate repetitive or dull situations 

Instincts 

• Many non-humans are motivated by instincts (unlearned fixed patterns of behavior in response to a certain stimuli 

  • Examples- 

    • Imprinting in birds, 

    • salmon swimming upstream to spawn

    • Baby turtles moving towards the ocean after hatching 

• Humans don’t show many true instinctive behaviors because most behavior is

  • Learn through experience

  • Culturally passed between generations

  • Influenced by conscious thought and decision making 

Lewin’s Motivational Conflicts (Approach-Approach Conflict, Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict, and Approach-Avoidance Conflict)

Our motivation comes from conflicts we experience when making choices. Conflicts arise because every decision involves weighing different options 

You have to choose between 2 desirable options,

You have to choose between 2 UNdesirable options,

AND

One option has both positive and negative aspects 

Hunger Motivation (Internal Signals and External Influences)

Eating is a complex motivated behavior that shows how physical and mental processes work together

Hormonal influences:

• Hormones like ghrelin and leptin control feelings of hunger and fullness

  • These hormones are regulated by the hypothalamus through the pituitary gland 

AND

The presence of food can prompt eating, the time of day plays a role as well, and Social gatherings also affect eating behavior 

Emotions

• complex psychological states that involves 3 components

  • Subjective experience

  • Physiological response

  • A behavioral or expressive response