Psych 111.2 L12 (Personality)

Personality

Relatively enduring characteristics of individuals that account for their consistent patterns of responses to situations

Personality Psychology

The science of why and how we develop into the people we are. Our particular characteristics and habits, peculiarities and foibles, neuroses, etc.

Can we change?; Nature vs. nurture; unique vs. personality pattern

Sigmund Freud

Created psychoanalytic theory; Most recognized psychologist but controversial; Was a practicing physician because too poor to do research; Addressed instances of mass hysteria

Case Study Fraulein Elizabeth Von R

Case study on hysteria conducted by Freud, Elizabeth had intense pain in leg

• Freud noticed she was experiencing conflicting emotions – ambivalence because couldn’t do both things (live and care for family)

  • Went out on date and father had gotten much worse by the time she was back

• Relapsed after sisters death

Freud Early Patient Patterns

• Emotional conflict - wishes vs guilt → hysteria

• Traumatic triggering event

• No memory of how they felt in situations – revealed through talking with Freud (repression)

• Psychologically-related symptoms – ex. Fraulein Elizabeth’s father used to rest his feet on her thighs where she felt she lost sensation

The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)

Freud theory of the mind, split it into 3 parts;

• Conscious--part of the mind we can directly access-- open to awareness.

• Preconscious--part of the mind that is not in consciousness currently, but can be accessed.

• Unconscious--vast portion of the mind to which we have no direct access, but it does influence behavior.

Topographical (Iceberg) Model

Freud’s Parts of the Mind

Freudian Therapy

To become aware of the unconscious; Took a very long time, but could raise unconscious feeling to the conscious so you can address them

1. conflicting feelings in unconscious

2. years of therapy lead to conscious examination of feelings

3. conflicting feelings in unconscious

The Unconscious

Contains powerful motivators but not the reasoning part of your mind; push things down to the unconscious if they are too painful, still effect us but we actively keep it out of consciousness

Contains Wishes, Fears, Desires, Fantasies, and Emotions

Freud’s Structural Model (1923)

Consists of the Id, Superego, and Ego

Id

In the unconscious; What you are born with, “animal nature” - libido (provides our energy); seeks immediate gratification; pleasure principle

Only knows what it wants; primary process thinking - can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality bc it ignores consequences

Libido

Desire to gratify basic biological needs

Primary Process

Ignores consequences and logistics — can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality

Pleasure Principle

Works to satisfy its wants without considering consequences

Ego

Referee between the id and the world — Wants same thing Id wants but recognises limits; Constrained by the reality principle: Pragmatic (does what is feasible); Confronted by the reality that there are things we cannot get; Libido becomes frustrated and develops ego; Secondary process

Helps rationalize things, works to satisfy super ego and id

Secondary Process

Thinking discriminates between reality and fantasy, practical

Superego

The moral self: (1) The Conscience (prohibitions, knows what is bad, and punishes behavior); (2) The Ego Ideal (knows what is good, and rewards behavior).

• Comes from parents, society, and conscience

• Idea of how you should behave

• Moral, civilized, and righteous

• Demanding, impatient, impractical

• Also doesn’t care about consequences

When Id Slips through Ego

Ego compromises: Ego must find “safe” way to let Id’s impulses out, cannot be denied

Freudian slips, dreams, symbolic symptoms, anxiety; defense mechanisms

Freudian Slips

• Slip when tired, multitasking, or fatigued

• Slips past ego and into unconscious behavior

• Say one thing and mean another bc unconscious

Dreams

• Express unacceptable wishes in the form of dreams - ego lets off steam; wish-fulfillment

• Hidden messages and symbols from the superego through symbolism

• Manifest content - story line

• Latent content - important symbolism

  • Dream interpretation helps you understand

Symbolic Symptoms

ex. Fraulein Elizabeth’s pain in her leg — where her father would rest

Manifest Content

Conscious content, “literal”meaning

Latent Content

Unconscious, “figurative” meaning; Interpretation can help you unlock the true meaning of your dreams

Dream Data

95 percent remember at least some of their dreams.

 64% of dreams associated with sadness, fear, or anger.

 Aggressive acts outnumbered friendly acts by 2:1

 18% of dreams were happy or exciting, 29% of dreams were in

color.

Common Fears

Falling, chased, try to do something and fail

Common Dreams

Flying, unprepared or late, naked in public, dying (28%), celebrities (45%)

Freud’s Theory of Personality Development

Personality is shaped early in life by 5 stages of psychosexual conflict, which you must resolve or can result in issues later on

1. Oral Stage

2. Anal Stage

3. Phallic Stage

4. Latency Period

5. Genital Stage

Oral Stage

Pleasure; Key conflict is about weaning and doing things with their mouth; Must eventually eat sold food

Anal Stage

Conflict on waste elimination and toilet training

Phallic Stage

Pleasure center on the genitals

• Oedipus conflict - boys go through this conflict

  • Based off story of Oedipus - desire their mom and see father as competition

  • Fear of castration because can’t compete with dad

•  Electra conflict - girls

Latency Stage

Hang out with same-sex friends

Genital Stage

Deal with adult urges

Fixation

Stunted growth if fail to resolve stages of psychosexual conflict, problems you don’t solve early on will effect you for the rest of your life

Oral Fixation

If weaned too early, become FIXATED and indulge oral habits (ex. biting nails). Also seek symbolic forms of gratification (passive, dependent, demanding like a nursing infant.)

Anal Fixation

Toilet trained in harsh way might become stubborn, rigid, (anal-retentive) OR, conversely, -- messy, disorganized (anal expulsive)

Phallic Fixation

From too much or too little masturbation: Self- centered, vain, arrogant, need attention

Ego Defenses

All different Freudian defense mechanisms for dealing with anxiety, use defense mechanisms to protect themselves from painful emotions

Ex. Repression, regression, denial, projection, rationalization, displacement, reaction formation

Repression

Fundamental defense mechanism, underlies all others - actively press distressing thoughts and feelings down into the unconscious

Ex. Traumatized soldier pushes down near-death experience

Projection

Attribute own thoughts and feelings to another person

Ex. thinking someone doesn’t like you when you don’t like them

Displacement

Redirection of emotional conflict towards a different target

Ex. Yell at children instead of boss

Reaction Formation

Behave in way opposite to feelings, often exaggerate

Ex. Parent unconsciously resents kids so smothers them with affection

Regression

Reversion to immature patterns of behaviors

Ex. adult had a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get his way

Rationalization

Create false (but plausible) excuses to justify unacceptable behavior

Ex. student watching TV because studying “wouldn’t help anyway”

Identification

Bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group

Ex. an insecure man joins a frat to boost his self-esteem

Denial

Refusing to accept that a feeling is present or that an event occurred

Ex. Preschoolers will convince themselves they didn't do something they wish they hadn't.

Sublimation

One of most effective; channel aggression into another outlet (like a sport) because it is acceptable

• Responsible for many of our achievements

Problems with Freud’s Theories

• Small sample

• Explains much but predicts little

• Key portions not supported by data

  • Repress painful memories not always the case – often times people can’t stop thinking about traumatic events (ex. connecting toilet training to later personality, repression of painful memories)

Freud Major Contributions

• discovery of unconscious processes

• emphasis on childhood experiences

• the “talking cure”

• Defense mechanisms (coping devices)

Humanistic Theory of Personality

Rogers (and Maslow); View human nature as essentially positive; Self-Actualization; Hierarchy of Needs

Self-actualization

Maslow; The tendency of individuals to fulfill or realize their potential, very few people (5%) do this; “pinnacle of development”

Characteristics: Realism and acceptance, spontaneity, problem centering, autonomy, continued freshness of appreciation, peak experiences

Realism and acceptance

Self- actualized people have accurate perceptions of themselves, others, and external reality

Spontaneity

Self-actualized people are spontaneous, natural, and open in their behavior and thoughts; can easily conform to conventional rules and expectations when necessary

Problem Centering

Self-actualized people focus on problems outside of themselves; dedicate themselves to a larger purpose in life

Autonomy

Accept and enjoy other people but have a strong need for privacy and independence

Continued Freshness of Appreciation

Self-actualized people continue to appreciate the simple pleasures of life with awe and wonder

Peak Experiences

Self-actualized people commonly have peak experiences or moments of intense ecstasy, wonder, and awe during which their sense of self is lost or transcended

Hierarchy of needs

Hierarchal division of motivation into levels that progress from basic physical needs, to psychological needs, to self-fulfillment needs

Carl Rodgers

Person centered perspective; Actualizing potential, essentially good tendencies; 3 conditions to facilitate growth: Genuineness, Acceptance, and Empathy

The Self

Maslaw and Rodgers; The key to handling the discrepancy between the real self and the ideal self

Idea that how parents dealt with child and how they react to behavior is how they will react to behavior and see themselves

Real Self

Your beliefs/perceptions of what you are really like

Ideal Self

Your beliefs/perceptions of what you would ideally like to be

Parental Positive Regard

Children internalize the responses of the people who raise them.

Unconditional positive regard: When affection is given independent of the person's behavior - Separate kid from behavior

Conditional positive regard: When affection is dependent or conditional on behavior

Incongruence

Not true to yourself (real self and ideal self don’t match)

• Not in touch with your feelings, are lying to yourself, interferes with self-actualization

Congruence

Still true to yourself; don’t lie, even if real self does not = ideal self

• Accept yourself and your shortcomings

• If your parents didn’t do this, it will interfere with your natural tendency to do this

Trait Theories of Personality

Describe personality traits that people have -- consistent patterns of behavior across times and situations

Traits are fairly stable, they are easier to change earlier on, high heritability (.61-.41)

5 Factor Model of Personality

• CANOE: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to experience, Extraversion

  • Various descriptions of personality show where you fall on these spectrums

  • There are statements that are found to indicate positive or negative correlation with traits

Conscientiousness

reliable, disciplined, ambitious

Agreeableness

selfless concern for others

Neuroticism

prone to anxiety and depression

Openness

receptive to new experiences and ideas

Extraversion

seek stimulation, activity, social interaction

Heritability of Traits

Openness: 0.61

Extraversion: 0.53

Conscientiousness: 0.44

Neuroticism: 0.41

Agreeableness: 0.41

Person-situation controversy

Critiques trait theory; Hartshorne & May (1928); found that lying is situational, may lie in some situations/to some people but not others

Cognitive Social Learning

Albert Bandura: Modeling: people can learn by watching and imitating others, learning is a social process; Classical and operant conditioning; interactive view of behavior and personality; called reciprocal determinism

Learned Hopelessness

Hopeless and passive resignation; an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

If a person or an animal learns they cannot do something they learn to be passive, even once the situation changes 

Learned Helplessness Dog Study

• Test on dogs, shock in 3 groups - group 3 could not control it, group 1 was the control, group 2 could stop the shocks

• Then transfer to a shuttle box, saw if they would jump over partition in box to stop the shocks

• Learned helplessness, 75% in group 3 did not escape and jump partition, 0% group 2 did not escape, 12.5% control group did not escape

External Locus of Control

The perception that chance or outside forces determine one’s fate.

uncontrollable bad events → perceived lack of control → generalized helpless behavior

Internal Locus of Control

The perception that one controls one’s own destiny.

If you think you can make a difference, more likely to put effort in 

Ex. Gambler’s fallacy

Self Efficacy Theory

Bandura; If you feel you have the ability to do well, you will put in more effort, and success is more likely, reinforcing your belief you will do well (positive feedback loop)

If you don’t believe you will do well, you are more likely to put in less effort/ be less persistent and give up and fail, reinforcing your belief you will do poorly in the future (negative feedback loop)

Traits

Described as characteristics or patterns of behavior

• assessed by self-report inventories and/or peer reports

Factor Analysis

Aims to identify factors that tend to cluster together

▪ Using factor analysis, Hans and Sybil Eysenck found that many personality traits actually are a function of two basic dimensions along which we all vary

▪ Research supports their idea that these variations are linked to genetics

Eysencks’ Personality Dimensions

Personality type from stable → unstable and introverted → extraverted