Chapter 13: Personality

What were the results of Milgram’s obedience experiment? (3)

• 65% administered the highest level of shock.

• 35% stopped at some point.

• 12.5% refused to go beyond 300 volts.
  This shows that not everyone obeyed—raising questions about personality differences as a factor in behavior

What central question does Milgram’s experiment raise about personality?

Why do people behave differently when placed in the same situation? The source of this variation is explored through the concept of personality

How does attribution theory connect to personality in Milgram’s experiment?

Personality helps explain why 35% disobeyed. Traits like assertiveness or empathy may influence disobedience

Why are personality and social psychology combined in one journal?

Both disciplines overlap in explaining behavior—personality focuses on internal traits, while social psychology emphasizes external influences. Together, they provide a more complete view of human behavior

What does this chapter identify as the domains of knowledge in personality psychology?

The chapter introduces domains of knowledge about human nature, suggesting personality psychology spans biological, psychological, and social dimensions

How is personality defined in psychology? (3)

• An individual’s unique and consistent behavioral traits.

• Explains both stability across situations and differences between individuals.

• A personality trait is a durable disposition to act a certain way across situations.

What are the two core questions in personality psychology? (2)

1. Why are people not the same?

2. In what ways are people different?

What major theories are introduced in the personality chapter? (4)

• Big-Five Model (trait-based, data-driven)

• Psychodynamic Theory (Freud)

• Humanistic Theory (Maslow, Rogers)

• Cognitive Theories (Kelly, Rotter)

What is the Big-Five Factor Model of personality?

It’s a trait theory identifying five broad personality traits that are consistent across cultures and over time:

1. Openness

2. Conscientiousness

3. Extraversion

4. Agreeableness

5. Neuroticism

   *Easy to remember as “OCEAN”

Big-Five Factor Model: Openness

Creative, intellectual, open-minded, curious, flexible, unconventional, empathetic, etc.

Big-Five Factor Model: Conscientiousness

Organized, responsible, cautious, diligent, punctual, dependable, self-disciplined, etc.

Big-Five Factor Model: Extraversion

Talkative, energetic, assertive, outgoing, sociable, friendly, gregarious, upbeat, assertive, etc.

Big-Five Factor Model: Agreeableness

Sympathetic, kind, affectionate, warm, trusting, compassionate, cooperative, modest, etc.

Big-Five Factor Model: Neuroticism

Anxious, unstable, insecure, hostile, self-conscious, sensitive, vulnerable, impulsive, etc.

How are high poles and low poles described in the Big-Five Factor Model? (poles = scores)

High poles are characterized by strong presence of traits, while low poles indicate their absence or minimal presence

What is the lexical hypothesis in personality psychology?

It’s the idea that important personality traits become encoded in language. The more socially relevant a trait is, the more likely it is to have a word in a language

How were the Big Five traits discovered?

Researchers analyzed the structure of language and found that thousands of adjectives describing behavior could be clustered into five categories—the Big Five

What method was used to identify these clusters?

Factor analysis, a statistical method that groups correlated traits

Are personality traits binary or continuous?

Traits exist on a spectrum. For example, extraversion ranges from introverted to extroverted, not either/or

Are personality traits stable across the lifespan? (2)

Research shows the Big Five traits are relatively stable after age 30, with some small changes

• Neuroticism and extraversion may decrease with age

• Conscientiousness and agreeableness often increase

How do Big Five traits predict life outcomes? (5)

• Openness → creativity, adaptability

• Conscientiousness → academic & job success

• Extraversion → social success and happiness

• Agreeableness → better relationships

• Neuroticism → linked to poorer mental health

How do personality traits interact with situations?

Behavior is a result of both personality traits and situational context (i.e. even an extrovert may act quiet in a funeral setting)

What is the neurotransmitter & biological basis of personality traits? (2)

Traits like extraversion and neuroticism are linked to neurotransmitter systems and brain regions.

• Extraversion → linked to dopamine pathways

• Neuroticism → associated with amygdala activity

What are the strengths of the Big Five model? (3)

Strengths:

• Empirically supported

• Predicts real-world outcomes

• Universal across cultures

What are the weaknesses of the Big Five model? (3)

• Weaknesses:

• Descriptive, not explanatory

• May miss culturally unique traits

• Doesn’t explain why traits emerge

What is the core idea of the psychodynamic perspective?

Personality is shaped by unconscious forces, early childhood experiences, and inner conflicts

Who pioneered the psychodynamic theory?

Sigmund Freud, later expanded by Jung, Adler, and others.

What are Freud’s three components of personality? (3)

The id, ego, and superego.

Id

unconscious, instinctual, pleasure-seeking

Ego

reality-oriented, mediates between id and superego

Superego

moral conscience, internalized societal rules

How does Freud’s personality iceberg illustrate the id, ego and superego? (3)

• Id below surface (unconscious)

• Ego at surface (conscious)

• Superego spanning both

How did Freud divide the mind?

Into three levels:

1. Conscious

2. Preconscious

3. Unconscious (largest hidden portion)

Conscious

current awareness

Preconscious

accessible memories

Unconscious

hidden drives, fears, desires

What are defense mechanisms according to Freud?

Unconscious mental strategies the ego uses to reduce anxiety from conflicts between id and superego

Examples of Freud’s Defense Mechanisms: (5)

• Repression

• Denial

• Projection

• Displacement

• Sublimination

Defense Mechanism: Repression (2)

• Blocking painful memories

• It is a form of selective forgetting

Defense Mechanism: Denial

Refusing to accept reality

Defense Mechanism: Projection (2)

• Seeing one’s own thought/fault in others

• Seeing one’s own goal as the goals of others too

Defense Mechanism: Displacement

Redirecting anger to a safer target

Defense Mechanism: Sublimation

• Channeling urges into socially acceptable behavior

• Positive expressions of negative thoughts & behaviours.

• •Expressing a painful experience in disguise

What are the stages in Freud’s theory of development? (5)

1. Oral (0–1 yr): mouth focus

2. Anal (1–3 yrs): toilet training

3. Phallic (3–6 yrs): Oedipus/Electra complex

4. Latency (6–12 yrs): repression, social growth

5. Genital (12+): adult sexuality and maturity

*Often presented as a staircase or linear chart across ages and body zones

What is fixation in psychosexual theory?

Being stuck in a stage due to unresolved conflict (e.g., oral fixation = smoking, nail biting)

What is regression?

Returning to behaviors from earlier stages during stress (e.g., thumb sucking in adulthood)

What are critiques of Freud’s psychodynamic theory? (4)

• Lacks scientific evidence

• Focuses heavily on sexuality

• Overemphasis on childhood

• Difficult to test empirically

What are strengths of Freud’s psychodynamic theory? (3)

• Recognized importance of childhood

• Introduced unconscious motivation

• Influenced modern therapy and thought

What were Carl Jung’s main contributions? (3)

• Collective unconscious: shared ancestral memories

• Archetypes: universal symbols (e.g., hero, shadow)

• Introduced introversion vs. extraversion

What were Alfred Adler’s core ideas? (3)

• People are driven by a striving for superiority, not sexual desires

• Inferiority complex: when individuals feel inadequate

• Compensation: overcoming weaknesses by developing strengths

What impact did the psychodynamic theory have on modern psychology? (3)

• Shifted focus to inner conflict and the unconscious

• Influenced talk therapy

• Inspired later theories on attachment, emotion, and trauma

What do humanistic theories emphasize in personality?

They highlight the innate potential for growth, personal responsibility, and conscious experience. They contrast psychodynamic and behaviorist views by focusing on self-actualization and positive human nature

What concept is Maslow best known for in personality theory? (5)

The Hierarchy of Needs — a motivational framework suggesting people are driven to fulfill needs in order:

1. Self-Actualization (at the top)

2. Ego

3. Social

4. Security

5. Physical

What traits are common in self-actualized individuals according to Maslow? (7)

• Realistic perception of world

• Acceptance of self/others

• Problem-centered

• Spontaneous

• Independent

• Deep relationships

• Peak experiences

Name a few people Maslow considered self-actualized

Einstein, Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt

What is Carl Rogers’ major contribution to personality theory?

He emphasized the self-concept and the need for unconditional positive regard to achieve self-actualization

What determines congruence in Rogers’ theory?

Congruence exists when the self-concept matches experience. Incongruence leads to anxiety and defensive behavior

What is unconditional positive regard?

Love and acceptance without conditions—vital for developing congruence

What happens with conditional positive regard?

Leads to incongruence, where people hide true selves to gain approval

What are the strengths of humanistic theory? (3)

• Highlights personal growth

• Emphasizes conscious experience

• Promotes positive view of human potential

What are the criticisms of humanistic theory? (3)

• Concepts are vague/unmeasurable

• Overly idealistic

• Lacks empirical support

How do trait and humanistic theories differ? (2)

• Trait theories focus on identifying consistent characteristics

• Humanistic theories focus on personal experience and subjective well-being

What is the core idea of Bandura’s theory?

Personality is shaped by interaction between behavior, environment, and personal factors (reciprocal determinism)

• Behavior ↔ Environment ↔ Cognition

What role does observational learning play in Bandura’s theory?

People learn behaviors by watching others and modeling them (e.g., Bobo doll experiment)

What is self-efficacy?

One’s belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations—crucial for motivation and persistence

What did Walter Mischel argue about personality?

That behavior is not consistent across all situations; traits alone can’t predict behavior

What was the significance of Mischel’s research?

He emphasized situational influences and cognitive-affective responses, launching the person-situation debate in personality psychology

What are behavioral signatures?

Stable patterns of behavior in response to specific situations (i.e. a person may be outgoing at work but shy at parties)

What is identification as a defense mechanism?

A strategy where a person boosts self-worth by associating with someone else (i.e. a sports team or political figure)

What is another meaning of identification?

Imitating a threatening figure to reduce fear (e.g., abused children becoming abusive adults)

What are the strengths of the social-cognitive approach? (3)

• Focus on cognitive processes

• Emphasizes learning, modeling, and self-regulation

• Empirically supported and testable

What are the weaknesses of the social-cognitive approach? (2)

• May underemphasize emotional/motivational factors

• Less attention to biological influences

Reaction Formation

Preventing dangerous desires from being expressed by endorsing opposing attitudes and types of behaviour and using them as “barriers” (i.e. Someone who really dislikes you may pretend to adore you)

Rationalization

Attempting to prove that one’s behavior is “rational” and justifiable and thus worthy of the approval of self and others (finding excuses)

Rationalization: DeSantis Observational Study (5)

DeSantis (2003) studied how smokers rationalized their smoking by putting himself in a cigar shop (2 days per week, 2 hours per visit, for a period of 3 years)

He found five recurring rationalizations:

• Things done in moderation won’t hurt you

• Cigar smoking is actually beneficial to one’s health through stress reduction

• Cigars are not as bad as cigarettes

• Research linking cigar smoking to health consequences is flawed and therefore invalid

• Other hazards in life are far more dangerous than cigar smoking

How are ego defence mechanisms evaluated in personality psychology? (3)

• They are considered a normal part of personality functioning

• Some theorists view them as an adaptive evolutionary feature

• However, excessive use is maladaptive and can contribute to psychological disorders

Psychic determinism

The assumption that all mental and behavioral reactions (symptoms) are determined by earlier experiences

Fixation

Inability to progress normally to the next stage of development, due to either too much gratification or too much frustration at one of the early stages of psychosexual development

Psychic Energy (4)

• A source of energy within each person that motivates the person to do one thing or another (or not another)

• Operates according to the law of conservation of energy

• The amount of psychic energy is constant throughout an individual’s lifetime

• The id is a reservoir of psychic energy

Psychodynamic theory

theory that describes how psychic energy is redirected (analogous to energy transformation in physics)

Psychoanalysis: Techniques for Revealing the Unconscious (3)

• Mental illness, problems with living, and unexplained physical symptoms can all be viewed as the result of unconscious conflicts

• Thoughts, feelings, urges, or memories have been forced into the unconscious because of their disturbing or threatening nature.

• These conflicts or restrained urges may slip out of the unconscious in ways that causes trouble (analogous to volcano eruption).

The goal of psychoanalysis is to make the unconscious conscious, how?

• Free association

• Dream analysis

• Projection

Free Association (2)

• A psychoanalytic technique where a patient speaks freely about their thoughts, feelings, and memories without censorship, allowing unconscious material to emerge

• Limitation: This is like looking for a needle in a haystack

Dream Analysis

A psychoanalytic technique that involves interpreting the content of dreams to uncover unconscious thoughts and feelings, revealing underlying conflicts

Two types of Dream Contents

• Manifest content

• Latent content

Manifest Content

the original contents in a dream (e.g., a child climbing out of a bathtub)

Latent Content

The true meaning of a dream lies hidden and is only expressed in symbols (e.g., bathtub = womb of the mother; latent content is that the dreamer wishes to have a child)

Case History of the Wolfman (3)

• The night before his 4th birthday, Pankejeff dreamed that he was lying in bed when all of a sudden the window swung open

• Peering out, he saw six or seven white wolves sitting in the tree outside his bedroom, their eyes fixed on him. Terrified by their gaze, he woke up screaming

• He made a sketch of the dream for Freud, and in later life produced several paintings of it, two of which are on display in the Freud Museum, London

Case History of the Wolfman: Psychoanalysis and Reconstructing the Past (3)

• Pankejeff was in a state of complete mental collapse. A nervous breakdown some years earlier, followed by the suicides of his father and sister, had left him severely depressed

• He was unable to travel alone, or even to dress himself, and felt as though he was cut off from the world by a veil

• Beginning with his dream, Freud analyzed the symbolic meanings of the Wolfman’s childhood experience. The climax of the story is the reconstruction of the primal scene; the event that had led to the patient’s disorders.

What made the George Franklin, Sr. trial in 1990 a landmark case?

His daughter, Eileen, testified against him based on recovered memories of a murder she allegedly witnessed as a child over 20 years earlier. Her repressed memory was the central evidence

ow did Eileen Franklin’s repressed memory begin to resurface?

In January 1989, during a moment with her children, a question from her daughter triggered a vivid memory of witnessing Susan Kay Nason’s murder

What specific details did Eileen recall about the murder? (5)

• Seeing her father sexually assault Susie in a van

• Hearing Susie plead, “No, don’t” and “Stop”

• Her father saying “Now Susie” in a distinct tone

• Her father striking Susie with a rock

• Susie’s body lying with a smashed silver ring on her finger

When did the jury deliver the verdict, and what was the outcome? (3)

• The jury began deliberation on November 29, 1990

• Returned a guilty verdict the next day

• Franklin was convicted of murder in the first degree

What is the basic assumption behind projective techniques in personality assessment?

That individuals project their own personality traits and internal conflicts onto ambiguous stimuli, such as inkblots or pictures, revealing unconscious aspects of the self

What are examples of ambiguous stimuli used in these tests?

Inkblots (e.g., Rorschach Test) or ambiguous images (e.g., Thematic Apperception Test)

What is the Word-Fragment Completion Task, and how is it used in personality research? (3)

• It's a projective technique used to test unconscious memory

• Participants fill in missing letters from word fragments (e.g., SHA_E → SHAPE, SHADE, etc.)

• The words participants generate may be influenced by prior exposure, even if they don’t consciously recall it

hy is the word-fragment completion task considered scientific? (2)

• It uses controlled conditions, measurable outcomes, and replicable results—key traits of scientific methodology.

• Unlike Freud’s case studies, it avoids subjectivity and anecdotal evidence, which lack experimental control.

What did the Warrington & Weiskrantz (1970) study show about unconscious memory? (3)

• Amnesic patients were worse at free recall and recognition than healthy individuals.

• However, both groups performed equally well on the word-fragment task.

• This shows that amnesic patients had unconscious (implicit) memory of the words despite lacking explicit recall.

How does the Five-Factor Model differ from the Psychodynamic Model of personality? (3)

• The Five-Factor Model focuses on measurable traits such as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

• The Psychodynamic Model emphasizes unconscious processes and early childhood experiences.

• The first relies on empirical measures, whereas the second involves the interpretation of internal conflicts

What is self-actualization?

Self-actualization is the realization of one's unique creative, intellectual, or social potential (person and occurs after self-esteem needs are fulfilled and involves accepting oneself fully)