L8: Personality & the Self [PSYC1001 -1A]

People’s personalities (similar & different)

Origins of personality:

• Biological basis

• Childhood experiences

Personality predicts future behaviour

• Evolutionary adaptivity

Freud’s psychoanalytical theory

• Id

  • The animalistic self that we’re born with & follows the pleasure principle

• Superego

  • Moral principles acquired through socialisation

• Ego

  • Deals with the reality in the conflicts between “Id” & “Superego”

What is the “ego” can'‘t resolve conflicts?

• We have other defence mechanisms:

  • Repression

  • Regression

  • Displacement

  • Denial

  • Reaction formation

  • Rationalisation

  • Projection

  • Sublimation

Repression

Expulsion from awareness of unacceptable ideas or motives

Regression

The return of behaviour that’s typical of earlier stages of development

Displacement

The transfer of acceptable impulses away from their original objects onto safer or less threatening objects

Denial

Refusal to recognise a threatening impulse or desire

Reaction formation

Behaving in a way that’s opposite of one’s true wishes or desires to keep them repressed

Rationalisation

Use of self-justifications to explain away unacceptable behaviour

Projection

Imposing one’s own impulses or wishes onto another person

Sublimation

Transforming the anger into something productive

Freud's Theory of Psychosexual development

1. Oral

2. Anal

3. Phallic

4. Latency

5. Genital

Oral [Birth to 12-18 months]

Erogenous zone	Source of Sexual Pleasure	Source of Conflict
Oral cavity	Sucking, biting & mouthing	Weaning

Anal [18 months to 3 years]

Erogenous zone	Source of Sexual Pleasure	Source of Conflict
Anal zone	Retention & release of bodily waste	TPoilet training

Phallic [3 to 6 years]

Erogenous zone	Source of Sexual Pleasure	Source of Conflict
Penis in boys; clitoris in girls	Masturbation	Masturbation; Oedipus complex

Latency

Erogenous zone	Source of Sexual Pleasure	Source of Conflict
None	None (focus on play & school activities)	None

Genital

Erogenous zone	Source of Sexual Pleasure	Source of Conflict
Genitals (penis in men; vagina in women)	Return of sexual interests espressed in mature relationships	None

Fixations at Psychosexual Stages

• Weaning at the oral stage — “I am not a baby anymore”

• Potty training at the anal stage — “I can control myself”

• Oedipal complex at the phallic stage — “I will become my father” (identification)

Psychodynamic

A theory put forward by Freud, in which psychic energy is moved along the compartments of the [Id, Ego & Superego].

Criticism’s of Freud’s Theory [Positive]

• Innovative views about human development and personality

• Concepts continue to influence current psychology (unconsciousness, psychoanalysis, defence mechanisms)

Criticism’s of Freud’s Theory [Negative]

• Unscientific premises

• Unnecessary premises on sex drives

• Androcentrism

Neo-freudism

A psychoanalytic approach that builds upon Sigmund Freud's work but deemphasises his focus on biological instincts and sexuality, instead prioritising the role of social and cultural factors in shaping personality

The Behaviourist approach

• Personality is a consistent pattern of response tendencies

• The pattern is shaped by past reinforcement & punishment

• It’s modifiable & not constrained by any developmental stages

The Humanistic approach

• Human’s aren’t animals — we have unique needs & values

• Personality results from whether people fulfil their innate need for personal growth

• The sense of self comes from:

  • The need for self-actualisation

  • The need for positive regard

Carl Roger’s Humanistic Theory of Personality

• Centres on the idea that individuals have an innate drive toward self-actualisation (fulfilling one’s potential).

• Achieving that goal depends on the response of other people (family, friends, society) to the self

[Maslow’s] Hierarchy of human needs

Trait(s)

A stable personality characteristic

Types of traits

• It isn’t easy to compare people of distinct types

• Traits as continuous dimensions

  • People are different, but the differences can be captured on some common dimension with a central tendency

  • Physical traits — height, weight, eye colour

  • Personality traits

The Psycho-lexical approach

A method for identifying the most important personality traits or values by studying the natural language people use to describe themselves and other.

Factor Analysis Identifying Clusters of Personality Traits

The statistical technique of factor analysis allows psychologists to identify factors that positively correlate/cluster together, as well as strengths of those relationships.

• The 5 clusters:

  • Extroversion

  • Anxiety

  • Self-control

  • Independence

  • Receptivity

The Big Five Theory of Personality (five-factor model [FFM])

Identifies 5 traits [O.C.E.A.N]:

• Openness to experience

• Conscientiousness

• Extroversion (surgency)

• Agreeableness

• Neuroticism

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

Proposed by Albert Bandura, explains how people learn and change their behaviour within a social context. Works through reciprocal determinism.

• Personal Factors: Your internal thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes (e.g., your self-efficacy, or the belief in your ability to succeed).

• Behavioural Factors: Your actions and skills.

• Environmental Factors: External influences like social norms, the actions of others (observational learning/modelling), and available resources,

Reciprocal determinism

The idea that our behaviour, personal characteristics (like thoughts and beliefs), and environment all interact and influence each other in a continuous loop

Social Cognitive Theory — explainations

• The direct experience of reinforcement/ punishment is not always necessary to (de)motivate behaviour – people do develop a mental representation of the outcomes through observational learning.

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• We can control our impulses through active, cognitive means (not necessarily punishment). For example, a child may distract themselves from the temptation of a marshmallow by imagining it as a rock

• Beliefs in the self (self-efficacy) are more important than reinforcement history

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• It is an oversimplification to expect people of certain traits to behave in the same way across different situations. An introvert can be talkative when it comes to his/her subject!

Biology & Personality

From temperament to personality

• Heritability of personality is not as high as that of temperament

• Social input (e.g, sensitive & caring parenting)

• Skills development (SCT)

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Personality & the brain

• The case of Phineas Gage

Biological ‘explanations’ of personality

Personality traits are constructs that are not based on any real biological systems – just that we are differentiated into extroverts and introverts does not mean that there is a specific biological system that encodes extra/intro-version.

Personality assessment

Guided by theoretical premises.

• Personality is a result of unconscious conflicts

• A result of reinforcement & punishment history

• A result of the interaction between cognitive beliefs and social environment

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Personality are latent personality traits that can only be inferred indirectly

Projective [Personality] tests — Bypassing the defence mechanism

• Rorschach Inkblot Test

• Thematic Apperception Test

Locus of control

A psychological concept that describes how much you believe you have power over the events in your life.

• If you have an internal locus of control, you tend to think your actions shape your outcomes.

• If it’s external, you’re more likely to see luck, fate, or other people as in charge.

Self-efficacy

A person's belief in their ability to succeed in a specific situation or to achieve a particular goal

Temperament

A child’s pattern of mood, activity, or emotional responsiveness linked to later personality

Reinforcement sensitivity theory (RIST)

A biopsychological framework that suggests individual personality differences stem from variations in the sensitivity of the brain's motivational systems to rewards and punishments. 

Bottom-up approach to Personality [Brain structure & Brain function]

It’s perhaps more realistic to conceptualise individual differences based on basic biological systems.

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The Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) identifies 3 primary systems:

• Behavioural Approach System (BAS)

• Fight-flight freeze system (FFFS)

• Behavioural inhibition system (BIS)

Behavioural Approach System (BAS)

• A motivational system in psychology that drives goal-oriented and reward-seeking behaviour.

• It is sensitive to signals of reward, hope, and positive feelings, and it prompts a person to move toward achieving desirable outcomes.

Fight-flight freeze system (FFFS)

• A neurobiological system that is responsible for an organism's reactions to all aversive (punishing or threatening) stimuli.

• It is a survival mechanism designed to help an individual escape or avoid danger and is associated with the primary emotion of fear. 

Behavioural inhibition system (BIS)

• A motivational system responsible for an individual's sensitivity to cues of punishment, threat, and non-reward.

• When activated, it causes a person to stop ongoing behaviour and increase their attention to the environment to avoid potential negative outcomes. 

Evaluations of the assessments in personality

• The issues of reliability (consistent) & validity (measures what it’s supposed to)

• Objectivity — the scores are interpreted without subjective biases

  • The NEO-PI that assesses the FFM has a standardised scoring system

  • Projective tests are highly dependent on the experiences of the interpreter

• Ethics

Subjective experiences of the self

• Patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions we perceive in our own minds

• The sense of self changes depending on external environments

• The self experience may not align closely with the personality assessment

Self-concepts

• Like LTM, our self-concepts are organised in a schematic activation network

  • Core self-concepts are most readily activated (“I am…”)

• The self-reference effect

  • We encode information input according to our self-concept (we tend to remember information relevant to us)

Self-awareness

• Our self-awareness is heightened when we see our own reflections in the mirror

  • Often leads to a higher sense of morality

• De-individuation

  • When our identity is masked, self-awareness decreases

Self-esteem

• Sense of self-worth

• It’s a useful gauge for self-acceptance, which is why we seek to restore it after experiencing social rejection

• Self-esteem protection

  • Upward or downward social comparison

  • Self-serving biases

Why personality psychology?

• Psychologists aim to explain and predict human behaviour

• Personality may serve these 2 objectives

• Caution

  • Circular reasoning

  • Social / environmental output

    • Sometimes social situations can override our sense of self

Circular reasoning

A fallacy where the conclusion is used as a premise to support itself, creating a loop without providing independent evidence.

• He loves looking in the mirror ⇄ He is narcissistic