Study Notes on Personality

Personality: A person’s characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors.
- Some personality psychologists primarily focus on understanding whole persons.
Personality trait: A pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that remains relatively consistent over time and across situations.

Identical twins tend to receive more similar treatment from their environment than other siblings, which can explain a portion of the similarity in their personality.

Figure 13.3: Correlations for personality traits based on twin studies.
- Monozygotic twins show higher correlation than dizygotic twins across traits:
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism

Children who are not biologically related but raised in the same household as adopted siblings tend to have personalities no more alike than any two strangers.
The personalities of adopted children show no significant relationship to those of their adoptive parents.
Environmental factors are important alongside genetic factors:
- Peer relationships
- Exposure to stress hormones during pregnancy
- Other variables that may influence personality development.

Genes code for proteins, not behaviors. They predispose individuals to have certain personality traits linked with behavioral tendencies.
- Typically involves multiple genes, which interact with individual environments to produce general dispositions.
Some evidence suggests specific genes can be linked to particular personality traits:
- A gene linked to a dopamine receptor correlates with novelty-seeking among individuals.
- Certain serotonin-related genes correlate with emotional stability.
- Overall, thousands of genes influence a person’s personality intricately.

Sigmund Freud developed substantial theories of personality through the observation of his patients, believing their problems were psychogenic (psychological causes rather than physical).
Psychodynamic theory: A Freudian theory positing that unconscious forces govern behavior.

Freud maintained that conscious awareness is only a small portion of mental activity; the bulk of mental processes remain unconscious.
Levels of consciousness:
- Conscious: Thoughts individuals are currently aware of.
- Preconscious: Content not presently in awareness but can be accessed.
- Unconscious: Material not easily retrievable by the mind.

Personality consists of three interacting structures, each varying in access to consciousness:
- Id: The unconscious component that operates on the pleasure principle, asserting "if it feels good, do it."
- Superego: Represents the internalization of societal and parental standards of conduct.
- Ego: The component that mediates between the id and superego, operating on the reality principle.

Early childhood experiences significantly impact personality development.
Psychosexual stages according to Freud correlate with distinct libidinal urges:
- Oral stage (birth to 18 months): Infants seek pleasure through the mouth.
- Anal stage (2–3 years): Focused on bowel control areas.
- Phallic stage (3–5 years): Focused on genitals; includes the Oedipus complex.
- Latency stage: Suppression of libidinal urges.
- Genital stage: Adolescence/adulthood focus, leading to mature sexual relationships and societal contributions.
Fixation: Individuals can become fixated at stages leading to specific personality types such as oral or anal-retentive personalities.

Conflicts between the id and the superego can induce anxiety.
Defense mechanisms: Unconscious strategies to protect against anxiety. Significant contributions come from Anna Freud.

Denial: Refusal to acknowledge the source of anxiety.
Repression: Exclusion of the anxiety source from awareness.
Projection: Attributing one's unacceptable qualities to someone else.
Reaction formation: Overemphasizing the opposite of an uncomfortable thought.
Rationalization: Crafting a logical excuse for potentially shameful behavior.
Displacement: Shifting emotional response from one object to another.
Sublimation: Channeling socially unacceptable impulses into constructive behaviors.

Projective measures: Tests assessing unconscious processes by having subjects interpret ambiguous stimuli, revealing hidden aspects of personality such as motives or conflicts.
- Rorschach inkblot test: Individuals describe what they perceive in an inkblot.
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Individuals construct narratives about ambiguous pictures.

Many personality assessments involve self-report questionnaires, focused on the individual's own perceptions without probing hidden conflicts.
- Objective measures might consist of inventories assessing a wide trait range:
- NEO Personality Inventory: 240 items assessing the Big Five personality factors.
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): Originates from the 1930s with 10 scales for various psychological disorders (e.g., paranoia, depression).
- California Q-Sort: Participants sort 100 statements into piles based on how accurately they describe themselves.

Researchers employing idiographic approaches may analyze individual case studies through interviews and biographical data.
- An example includes Murray studying Adolf Hitler’s childhood experiences and motivations to explain his later behavior in Nazi Germany.

The accuracy of personality assessments made by acquaintances is notable as personality influences behavior significantly.
Research by Vazire: Investigating the correlation between self-judgments and how friends describe individuals reveals that accuracy depends on:
- Trait observability
- The motivation of individuals being assessed to present themselves positively.
Accuracy of self-ratings often aligns with traits that are less observable, reducing bias due to neutrality.