Theories of Personality and Psychological Disorders

Psychoanalytic Theory

 Sigmund Freud was a neurologist and went to study hypnosis, but this turned him to medical psychopathology.

Psychology as we knew it was unknown before his work.

 Psychoanalytic theory says personality is shaped by a person’s unconscious thoughts, feelings, and past

memories (particularly in childhood).

 2 instinctual drives motivate human behavior: libido (motivation for survival, growth, pleasure, etc.) and

death instinct (drives aggressive behaviours fuelled by unconscious wish to die or hurt oneself/others).

Individual influences on behaviour: projection (projecting own feelings of inadequacy on another), reaction formation

(defence mechanism where someone says or does exact opposite of what they actually want/feel), regression (defence

mechanism where one regresses to position of child in problematic situations), sublimation (defence mechanism where

unwanted impulses are transformed into something less harmful).

 Central to his theory is libido. Libido is natural energy source that fuels the mechanisms of the mind.

 When this energy is stuck/fixated at various stages of psychosexual development, conflicts can occur that

have lifelong effects.

 Fixation at a particular stage is what predicts adult personality.

 Ex. someone fixated at oral stage (first stage) might have oral personality characteristics, such as smoking

habits/overly talkative when they grow up.

3 parts (like an iceberg):

Top of iceberg is the conscious part of mind, and unconscious.

1) Id at the bottom, it’s the unconscious part. It develops after birth and demands immediate gratification.

2) Ego – part of conscious & uncons. Inv. in our perceptions, thoughts, judgements, & seeks long-term gratification.

3) Superego – develops around 4, and it’s our moral conscience. Also part of conscious and unconscious.

 Our libido impulses are what want to be gratified – when overgratified or partially/not gratified at all,

fixation occurs at a certain stage. Face conflict/anxiety. It’s a conflict between these 3 mental structures –

ego, id, and superego. They’re all competing for demand, so in conflict.

 Ex. Id is on one shoulder and it’s not getting immediate gratification, then we have superego on other

shoulder, preaching to id about what’s moral, and ego is in middle.

 Id wants gratification, and is going back and forth with superego, so ego here is trying to gratify the id

but it also has to take into account what the superego is saying. It’s moral oversight.

 The ego is part of the conscious and unconscious mind, so it acts as mediator between the unconscious

desires of the id and the moral demands of the superego.

 Ex. a Freudian slip is example of mental conflict. Ex. financially stressed patient, please don’t give me

any bills – meant any pills.

Especially problematic when there’s a problem with development at a particular psychosocial stage

Humanistic Theory

The humanistic theory (developed by Carl Rogers) focuses on healthy personality development, and humans are

seen as inherently good. The most basic motive of all people is the actualizing tendency (self-actualization), innate

drive to maintain and enhance oneself. Person will grow towards self-actualization as long as there are no obstacles.

 Primary difference between Freud’s psychoanalytical theory is Freud’s theory was deterministic – behaviour is

determined by unconscious desires.

 Humanistic Theory focuses on the conscious, and says people are inherently good, and we are self-motivated to

improve (so we can reach self-actualization).

First theorist of this theory was Maslow, who formed hierarchy of needs.

 Must first fulfill physiological needs of pyramid and work our way up, then safety, then love, self-esteem, and

finally self-actualization.

 Self-actualization is rarely achieved, only 1% of people ever reach it.

Carl Rogers says qualities Maslow described are nurtured early in life, self-actualization is a constant growth process

nurtured in a growth-promoting process.

 In order for this climate to help someone reach self-actualization, 2 conditions that need to be met:

 Growth is nurtured by when individual is genuine, one has to be open and revealing about themselves

without fear of being wrong.

 Second is growth is nurtured through acceptance from others – allows us to live up to our ideal selves.

 Central feature of our personality is self-concept, achieved when we bring genuineness and acceptance together

to achieve growth-promoting climate.

 When there’s discrepancy between conscious values and unconscious true values leads to tension, must be

resolved.

 Genuine + acceptance = self-concept

 Importance of congruency between self-concept and our actions to feel fulfilled.

Biological Theory

Many variations to this theory, some relate to the brain and some to behaviour instead of traits

 Ex. Evolutionary psychology theorizes that males + females have dif mating strategies that influence cost of

passing on genes. Males can have many mates, females more selective due to cost of pregnancy.

The biologic theory suggests important components of personality are inherited, or determined in part by our

genes.

 Hans Eysenck proposed extroversion level is based on differences in the reticular formation – introverts are

more easily aroused and therefore require less.

 Jeffrey Alan Gray proposed personality is governed by 3 brain systems, such as the fight-or-flight system.

 C. Robert Cloninger linked personality to brain systems in reward/motivation/punishment, such as low

dopamine correlating with higher impulsivity.

 Researchers always try to look at identical twins, because used to tease out environmental vs. genetic

characteristics – same genetic makeup.

 Results show even if twins reared separately, still had similar personalities.

 Social potency trait – the degree to which a person assumes leadership roles in social situations. Common in

twins reared separately.

 Traditionalism – tendency to follow authority also shown to be common in twins.

 Weaker genetic traits – achievement, closeness

 Specific genes that relate to personality, people with longer dopamine-4 receptor gene are more likely to be

thrill seekers.

 But of course, just because you have gene doesn’t mean you’ll express it – depends on environment.

 Temperament – innate disposition, our mood/activity level, and is consistent throughout our life.

 Important takeaway – our inherited genes to some degree leads to our traits, which leads to our

behaviour/personality.

Behaviourist Theory

The behaviourist theory says personality is the result of learned behavior patterns based on a person’s environment

– it’s deterministic, in that people begin as blank states and the environment completely determines their

behavior/personalities.

 Focuses on observable and measurable behaviour, rather than mental/emotional behaviours.

 The psychoanalytic theory would be the most opposite of this theory (focuses on mental behaviour).

1. Skinner – strict behaviourist, associated with concept of operant conditioning. Uses rewards/punishment to

increase/decrease a behaviour.

2. Pavlov – associated with classical conditioning, ex. the Pavlov dog experiment. Places a neutral stimulus with an

unconditional stimulus to trigger an involuntary response. Ex. ringing a bell in presence of food causes dog to start

salivating.

 People have consistent behaviour patterns because we have specific response tendencies, but these can

change, and that’s why our personality develops over our entire lifespan.

 What connects the observable to mental approach? The cognitive theory, a bridge between classic

behaviourism and other theories like psychoanalytic. Because cognitive theory treats thinking as a behaviour,

and has a lot in common with behaviour theory.

Trait Theory

A personality trait is a stable predisposition towards a certain behavior. Straightforward way to describe personality

– puts it in patterns of behavior.

 Surface traits are evident from a person’s behavior, while source traits are factors underlying human personality

(fewer and more abstract).

 What is a trait? A relatively stable characteristic of a person that causes individuals to consistently behave in

certain ways. Combination of traits forms the personality.

1) Gordon Allport – all of us have different traits. Came up with list of 4500 different descriptive words for traits.

From those he was able to come up with 3 basic categories of traits: cardinal, central, and secondary traits.

 Cardinal traits are characteristics that direct most of person’s activities – the dominant traits. Influence all of our

behaviours, including secondary and central traits.

 Central trait is ex. honesty, sociability, shyness. Less dominant than cardinal.

 Secondary trait is love for modern art, reluctance to eat meat – more preferences/attitudes.

Trait Theory Contd

2) Raymond Cattell – Proposed we all had 16 essential personality traits that represent basic dimensions of

personality. Turned this into the 16 personality factor questionnaire, or 16 PF.

3) Hans Eysenck – We have 3 major dimensions of personality, which encompass all traits we all possess, but the

degrees to which we individually express them are different. Allport said we have dif unique subsets, Eysenck says

we all have them but just express them in different degrees. These 3 are extroversion, neuroticism (emotional

stability), and psychoticism (degree to which reality is distorted). However, Eysenck said not all necessarily have

psychoticism.

4) 5 Factor Model (Big 5) – found in all people of all populations.

 Openness (independent vs. conforming, imagining vs. practical),

 Conscientiousness (careful vs. careless, disciplined vs. impulse, organized or not),

 Extroversion,

 Agreeableness (kind vs. cold, appreciative vs. unfriendly),

 Neuroticism.

 Use acronym OCEAN

Cattell, Eysenck, and Big 5 all use factor analysis – a statistical method that categorizes and determines major

categories of traits. Allport’s theory did not, he used different methods.

Observational Learning: Bobo Doll Experiment and Social Cognitive Theory

 Observational learning (aka social learning/vicarious learning) is learned through watching and imitating others –

such as modeling actions of another.

 Mirror neurons found that support this.

 Social Cognitive Theory is theory of behaviour change that emphasizes interactions between people and their

environment. Unlike behaviourism (where environment controls us entirely), cognition is also important.

 Social factors, observational learning, and environmental factors (ex. opinions/attitudes of friends and

family) can influence your beliefs.

 Albert Bandora studied it – and did the Bobo Doll Experiment. Cited when people debate if they should ban

violent video games. It’s a blow-up doll you can punch.

 Had group of children doing arts and crafts, but in middle of it suddenly man appeared and started hitting

this inflatable doll. Also screaming “kick it, hit it, etc”. Did for 10 minutes straight. Some children observed it,

others weren’t fazed.

 Then man left, and researchers gave kids an impossible puzzle to solve to frustrate them. Researched how

the kids reacted to frustration. In the room was a bobo doll. Many children would come up to the doll and

hit it, and ones hitting it were yelling kick it, hit it. Revealed that kids can observe and learn from it.

 Why people use this to argue to ban violent games and movies.

 But learning behavior vs. performing it is different. Many of the kids were aggressive to the doll, others

weren’t. So how come some kids different?

 Did second experiment, set up TV that showed a bobo doll and someone being aggressive to it. But

difference here was video showed afterwards that person was punished. Some of the kids again walked up

to bobo doll and hit it. What about kids that didn’t?

 Researchers bribed kids, offered them stickers/juice to imitate behavior. Kids were able to imitate.

Concept called learning-performance distinction – learning a behaviour and performing it are 2

different things.

 Not performing it doesn’t mean you didn’t learn it!

 Am I motivated to learn something?

 Attention, Memory, Imitation, Motivation

 Ex. Want to teach you to draw a star. In order to learn it, need a long enough attention span, the memory to

remember it, and be able to imitate it. Question is, are you motivated enough to do it? If so, you do it.

Mental Disorders

 Major public health problem, affects the higher functions of the brain including cognition, mood, and behaviour.

 Biomedical vs. biopsychosocial models.

 Bio = biological, physical abnormalities.

 Psychosocial = psychological and cultural/social factors.

 Difficult to categorize mental disorders

 2 classification systems: ICD-10 and DSM-5

 ICD-10 is International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision. System from the WHO.

 DSM-5 is Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, from the American Psychiatric

Association (APA).

 According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), each year in the USA about 25% will meet criteria for 1

mental disorder, and 6% will have a serious mental illness that cause severe disability/distress.

Categories of Mental Disorders

 Types of mental disorders – enormous #, many with overlapping features.

 Not due to use of medication, drugs, other medical conditions, etc. Also cultural differences.

 Usually causes distress/disability. Key point because person who’s unusual/eccentric does not have

psychological disorder.

 We’ll go through DSM-5

20 top-level categories

1. Neurodevelopmental Disorders – involve distress/disability due to abnormality in development of nervous

system. Includes intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders, and ADHD.

2. Neurocognitive Disorders – Loss of cognitive/other functions of the brain after nervous system has developed. Big

categories within this, one is delirium (reversible episode of cognitive/higher brain problems, many causes –

drugs/blood/infections). Dementia and its milder versions are usually irreversible and progressive.

3. Sleep-wake Disorders result in distress/disability from sleep-related issues. Include insomnia and breathing-

related sleep disorders.

4. Anxiety Disorders – abnormal worry/fear. Some are specific to certain stimuli like phobias, while others are not

specific to certain stimuli, including generalized anxiety disorder. Panic disorder involves panic attacks.

5. Depressive Disorders – abnormally negative mood. Mood refers to long-term emotional state. Mood is also

subjective experience person has of their experience. High risk of suicide.

6. Bipolar and Related Disorders – abnormal mood, but these may have periods of abnormally positive mood called

mania. Leads to social/legal problems.

7. Schizophrenia Spectrum and other Psychotic Disorders - involves distress/disability from psychosis. Psychosis

involves delusions (not explainable by experiences/culture), hallucinations.

8. Trauma/Stressor-Related Disorders - occurs after stressful/traumatic events. Post-traumatic stress disorder,

common after wars.

9. Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders – distress/disability form use of substances that affect mental

function. Include alcohol, caffeine, cannabis, hallucinogens, opioids, etc.

10. Personality Disorders – related to personality. Involves long-term mental and behavioural features characteristic

of a person, huge spectrum of personality types considered acceptable. Personality disorders involve ones outside

those accepted of societal norms.

 Cluster A odd/eccentric,

 Cluster B intense emotional/relationship problems,

 Cluster C is anxious/avoidant/obsessive

11. Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders – inability to control inappropriate behaviours

12. Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders – compulsions are unwelcome thoughts that occur repeatedly. Ex.

obsession with hands being dirty, compulsion to wash them many times a day.

13. Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders - Distress/disability from symptoms similar to those that may occur to

illness unrelated to mental disorder, but of psychological origin. Example is someone that has abdominal pain,

caused by stress.

14. Feeding and Eating Disorders – behavioural abnormalities related to food, ex. anorexia, bulimia.

15. Elimination Disorders – urination/defecation at inappropriate times.

16. Dissociative Disorders – abnormalities of identity/memory. Multiple personalities, or lost memories for part of

their lives.

17. Sexual Dysfunctions – abnormalities in performance of sexual activity.

18. Gender Dysphoria – caused by person identifying as a different gender

19. Paraphilic Disorders – having sexual arousal to unusual stimuli

20. Other Disorders – any person that appears to have a mental disorder causing distress/disability but doesn’t fit

into other categories. Rare.

Biological Basis of Schizophrenia

 Prototype of psychotic category of disorders. Rare disorder with both biological and environmental etiology.

 Abnormal perceptions of reality – hallucinations, delusions.

 3 categories of symptoms:

 cognitive (attention, organization, planning abilities),

 negative (blunted emotions),

 positive (hallucinations, delusions)

Our understanding of the cause is very limited.

 Cerebral cortex seems to have decreased size, in frontal and temporal lobes.

 Some features of schizophrenia also involve abnormalities in dopamine (increase); medications affect

dopamine transmission often improve symptoms

 The mesocorticolimbic pathway. Meso = VTA in the midbrain, cortico = cortical cortex, they project to

frontal and temporal lobe, and limbic – inside of brain involved in emotions/motivations/etc. Abnormal

activity here. One way of thinking about schizophrenia is abnormal activity is:

 Mesocorticolimbic pathway leads to dysfunction in parts of frontal cortex that cause cognitive

symptoms

 limbic structure causes negative symptoms

 temporal cortex causes positive symptoms.

Causes: genes, physical stress during pregnancy, and psychosocial factors (negative family interaction styles affect

development of brain).

Biological Basis of Depression

 Feelings of hopelessness, loss of interest in activities. Our understanding of cause is limited. No consistent

abnormalities in brain tissues, but scans have suggested functional abnormalities.

 Areas with abnormal activity involve the frontal lobe and limbic structures. Decreased activity in frontal

lobe and increased activity in limbic lobe.

 Ex. Stress hormones like cortisol are controlled by the hypothalamus, which communicates with limbic and

frontal lobe. Hormones affect the brain themselves too.

 Abnormal pathways in depression.

 One starts in the raphe nuclei of the brainstem responsible for serotonin release.

 Also the locus coeruleus, which sends long axons to cerebrum and releases norepinephrine.

 Also the VTA sends long axons to different areas of cerebrum, supplies dopamine.

 Medications that affect serotonin, NE, and dopamine often improve symptoms. Ex. monoamine oxidase

inhibitors (increase amount of monoamines in synapse)

 Monoamines include adrenaline, norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, and melatonin (involved in onset of

darkness).

 Another newer idea is may be abnormalities of neural plasticity - brain changes in response to behaviour. But

unclear if cause or effect.

 May include genetics, but psychosocial factors can also be linked to childhood stress, etc. So likely combination

of biological and psychosocial factors.

Biological Basis of Alzheimer’s Disease

 Most common disorder in dementia category, or neurocognitive disorders. Loss of cognitive functions. Memory

also decreases. But normal motor functions are fine until later stages where they lose basic activities of daily

living (ADL) – toileting, eating, bathing, etc.

Cause of disease is limited.

 Brain tissue has decreased in size significantly – shrivelled up, atrophy.

 It’s the cerebrum that often dramatically decreases in size. Severity of atrophy correlates with severity of

dementia.

 Starts in temporal lobes, important for memory.

 Later, atrophy spreads to parietal and frontal lobes. Many other cognitive functions.

Biological Basis of Alzheimer’s Disease contd

Under microscope, 3 main abnormalities:

 loss of neurons,

 plaques (amyloid, because plaques are made of beta-amyloid. Occur in spaces between cells, outside of

neurons in abnormal clumps),

 and tangles (neurofibrillary tangles, clumps of a protein tau. Located inside neurons. Develop proteins

normally in the brain, but changed so it’s abnormal and causes them to clump together).

 Not clear if they’re what’s killing neurons, or if they’re a by-product.

 Group of neurons at base of cerebrum, called the nucleus basalis is often lost early in course of Alzheimer’s.

Important for cognitive functions – send long axons to cerebral cortex and through cerebrum, and release

acetylcholine. Contribute to cognitive functions of disease.

 Synapses appear to not function clearly long before disease.

 Also genetic mutations, many involved in processing of amyloid protein.

 Also ApoE4 involved in metabolism of fats is strongly related to AD.

 Also, high blood pressure increases risk of disorder too.

 Things that decrease it – higher education, challenging jobs with difficult thinking.

Biological Basis of Parkinson’s Disease

 Progressive neurological disorder involving motor abnormalities and neural too. A tremor, increased muscle

tone, abnormal walking, and poor balance. Muscles are stiffer and slow with tremor. Later in disease when

motor abnormalities are severe, patients may not be able to care for themselves.

 Brains of patients have abnormalities visible to naked eye – in brainstem, the substantia nigra is less dark or not

dark at all. Loss of ONLY dopaminergic neurons observed, suggesting 1 type involved. Motor abnormalities

related to this.

 Dopaminergic neurons in other areas are lost as well.

 Substantia nigra is part of the basal ganglia, major role in motor functions and some mental functions.

Receives info from many places in NS, and basal ganglia processes that info and sends it back to areas of

cerebral cortex to influence areas such as motor cortex.

 SN also projects to area called striatum, and loss of DA neurons causes most of neural abnormalities. Can

see diseased neurons. Many contain lewy bodies in DA neurons, which contain a protein alpha synuclein, a

normal protein in brain cells but in PD it appears clumped together.

 Risk factors: genetic mutations in families with inherited form of disease, agricultural chemicals.

 Leading candidate for treatment with stem cells since only 1 type of cell affected.