Chapter 12: Personality

Personality

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Concept of Personality

It is used to explain

1. the stability of a person’s behavior over time and across situations (consistency)

2. the behavioral differences among people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness)

Freud’s Personality Theory

Personality is mediating between all of the ego, supergo and the ID

ID

operates on pleasure principle (immediate gratification); unconsciously strives to satisfy sexual and aggressive drives. develops at birth

Ego

operates on reality principle; seeks to realistically gratify id’s impulses to bring long term pleasure; contains perceptions, thoughts, judgements and memories. develops in the first few years

Superego

focuses on ideal behavior; strives for perfections; acts as moral conscience. develops by age 5 and as a response to parents punishment and approval

Defense Mechanisms

unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety, generated by threats from unacceptable impulses (mental homeostasis)

defense mechanisms

repression, rationalization, reaction formation, projection, regression, displacement, denial, sublimation

Repression

removing painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from the conscious mind

Rationalization

supplying a reasonable sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behavior to conceal one’s underlying motives or feelings

Reaction formation

unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of their opposite

Projection

attributing one’s threatening feelings, motives, or impulses to another person or group

Regression

reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development, to deal with an internal conflict or perceived threat

Displacement

shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less threatening alternative

Denial

people in denial may block external events or circumstances from the mind so that they don’t have to deal with the emotional impact

Sublimation

channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities

Projective Tests

tests designed to reveal inner aspects of personalities by analysis of response to ambiguous stimuli. NOT RELIABLE OR VALID AS STAND ALONE TESTS

Thematic Apperception Test

type of projective test that involves describing ambiguous scenes to learn more about a person’s emotions, motivations, and personality. a person is projecting their feelings

Rorschach Test

projective test that analyzed interpretations of inkblots

Personality Inventories

objective tests that use multiple choice (forced choice)

Self Report Personality Inventories

series of answers to a question for an individual to indicate the extent to which a set of behaviors accurately describes their behavior or mental state

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

an example of objective test for clinical use. well researched, empirically driven clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems with T/F scale

Myers-Briggs Personality Inventories

MBTI is the most popular inventory but not a research instrument

Barnum Forer Effect

when individuals believe that generic information, which could apply to anyone, applies to specifically themselves

Trait Theory

• describes differences in personality

• strength and intensity of those traits explain differences in people

• argues stable traits causes people to act in certain ways consistently

• gives little weight to the role of our environment and explaining our behavior

Trait

a stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way

Factor Analysis

statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables. best used to simplify complex data sets with many variables

Five Factor Model of Personality

the Big 5 is now the most valid, widely accepted and used model of personality

the Big Five

Openness

Neuroticism

Conscientiousness (most highly sought after personality attribute for job applicants)

Extraversion

Agreeableness (second most prized personality trait)

Criticism

underestimate variability of traits in different situations

Heritability

the measurement of how much the variations in people’s DNA can explain the variations in their traits. 0% means genetics explain nothing about the trait. 1% means genetics explain everything about the trait

Social Cognitive Theory of Personality

views personality in term of how the person thinks of the situation

Reciprocal determinism

your cognition, behavior, and environment act as interlocking determinants of each other. explores self concept and self efficacy contribute to self concept

Self Efficacy

one’s belief about one’s ability to perform a task

Self esteem

a person’s overall confidence and satisfaction with themselves

Self Concept

beliefs, attitudes and opinions of oneself (mental picture of yourself)

if this is positive, we perceive the world as positive and our role within it

Personal Constructs

perspective of self and our sense of control is reflected in personal goals

External Locus of Control

Believe that chance or outside forces control their fate

Internal Locus of Control

Believe they control their own destiny

Self Serving Bias

describes our tendency to attribute positive outcomes and successes to internal factors like our personal traits, skills, or actions but attribute negative results to external factors, shifting the blame to situations factors beyond our control

Self Actualizing Tendency

humans motive toward realizing their inner potential. individual personality differences arise form the environment; attempts to satisfy psychological needs

Humanistic Psychologists

emphasize a positive, optimistic view of human nature; emphasize goodness and potential for growth

believed that self concept was a central feature of personality

Humanistic-Existential Approach

personality as choice

this integrates these insights with a focus on how a personality can become optimal

Carl Rogers: Person Centered Perspective

people are good with self actualizing tendencies unless they live in an inhibiting environment

Conditions for Growth Promoting Environment

1. genuiness: open with feelings, transparent and self-disclosing

2. empathy: sharing and mirroring others’ feelings, relaxing and fully expressing one’s true self

3. acceptance: offering unconditional positive regard (an attitude of total acceptance toward another person in which value is shown despite failings)