Personality, Emotions, and Motivation

Personality, Emotions, and Motivation

Personality

An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Personality Types

  • Type A:

    • Competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, easily angered.

    • High tension and difficulty waiting for appointments.

    • Pushed by deadlines and hates delays.

  • Type B:

    • Easygoing and relaxed.

    • Very “chill,” lower stress levels; enjoys games but is comfortable without focusing on winning.

Psychodynamic Theories

  • Developed by Sigmund Freud.

  • The theory that unconscious forces determine behavior and influence personality.

  • Mind is separated into three levels of consciousness:

    • Consciousness: One’s sense of reality; the smallest part of the mind.

    • Preconscious: Forces that drive personality operate below immediate awareness, where memories and un-repressed emotions can be recalled.

    • Unconscious: Largest part; beyond awareness, where most actions take place.

The Structure of Personality

Freud identified three components:

  • Id:

    • Exists at birth, containing primal instincts and energy (libido).

    • Functions on the Pleasure Principle, seeking immediate gratification.

  • Ego:

    • Mediator between id and superego, understands reality and logic.

  • Superego:

    • Represents moral standards and internalization of society’s rules.

Techniques to Unlock the Unconscious

  • Hypnosis: Accessing repressed memories or unconscious motives.

  • Dream Interpretation:

    • Manifest Content: Summary of the dream.

    • Latent Content: Hidden meaning of the dream.

  • Free Association: Relaxation and saying whatever comes to mind.

  • Projective Tests: Reveal inner dynamics (e.g., Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test, Szondi Test).

Role of Defense Mechanisms

Strategies used by the ego to protect against anxiety from competing forces:

  • Repression: Blocking impulses/memories from consciousness.

  • Regression: Reverting to an earlier developmental stage.

  • Displacement: Redirecting aggressive urges toward a less threatening target.

  • Projection: Attributing one's repressed feelings to another.

  • Denial: Refusal to accept reality to avoid anxiety.

  • Reaction Formation: Transforming unacceptable impulses into their opposite.

  • Rationalization: Distorting behaviors/impulses into socially acceptable excuses.

  • Sublimation: Redirecting unacceptable urges toward socially acceptable outlets (e.g., art, sports).

Trait Theories

  • Focus on observable and measurable traits of personality (surface traits vs. source traits).

    • Surface traits: what we observe and think of as personality. These are actions and behaviors.

    • Source traits: more fundamental that drive personality and result in the observable surface traits.

  • Hans and Sybil Eysenck:

    • Used factor analysis to identify three genetically influenced dimensions of personality (temperaments):

      • Extraversion/Introversion: Need for stimuli.

      • Neuroticism/Stability: Emotional stability.

      • Psychoticism/Socialization: Aggression and nonconformity.

The Big Five

  • Developed by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae; consist of five key traits:

    • Conscientiousness: Organized vs. Disorganized.

    • Agreeableness: Trusting vs. Suspicious.

    • Neuroticism: Calm vs. Anxious.

    • Openness: Imaginative vs. Practical.

    • Extraversion: Reserved vs. Affectionate.

MBTI

  • Developed by Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs-Myers, measures four bipolar factors:

    • Introversion vs. Extraversion

    • Intuitive vs. Observant

    • Thinking vs. Feeling

    • Prospecting vs. Judging.

Humanistic Theories

  • Focused on human potential and self-actualization.

  • Abraham Maslow: Proposed the hierarchy of needs, motivating individuals to achieve self-actualization:

    • Ideal personality: self-aware, ethical, spontaneous, and focused on a greater mission.

  • Carl Rogers: Person-centered perspective; emphasizes:

    • Acceptance: Unconditional positive regard for personal growth.

    • Self-concept: Understanding oneself in response to “Who am I?”

    • Genuineness and Empathy: Essential for fostering self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Social-Cognitive Perspective

  • Albert Bandura: Emphasizes the interaction between personal factors and social context.

  • Key Questions:

    • How do we interpret and respond to events?

    • What influences shape behavior patterns?

    • Reciprocal Determinism: Interaction of behavior, cognition, and environment.

    • Self-concept: Image of oneself.

    • Self-efficacy: Beliefs about ability to complete tasks.

    • Self-esteem: Self-judgment of personal abilities.

Motivation

Defined as a need or desire energizing behavior toward a goal. Influences on motivation include:

  • Current observations of behavior

  • Past behavior

  • Influences from others

Types of Motivation

  • Physiological Motivation: Driven by biological needs (hunger, thirst, sleep).

  • Psychological Motivation: Driven by emotional/intellectual needs (love, creativity).

  • Mixed Motivation: Driven by both physiological and psychological needs (e.g., sexual behavior, altruism).

Theories of Motivation

  • Instinct Theory: Innate behavior patterns performed similarly across species.

  • Drive Reduction Theory: Motivation stems from internal deficiencies creating drives toward homeostasis.

    • Homeostasis: the body's tendency to maintain a balanced internal state, ensuring physiological processes operate effectively, which is essential for overall health and functioning.

  • Self-Determination Theory: Motivated by intrinsic or extrinsic factors.

  • Incentive Theory: Motivation driven by external incentives and internal drives.

  • Arousal Theory: Desire to maintain optimal arousal levels (Yerkes-Dodson Law).

Complex Motivations

  • Sensation-Seeking Theory: Individual differences in desired stimulation. Four types include thrill-seeking activities.

  • Lewin’s Motivational Conflict Theory:

    • Approach/Approach Conflict: Choices between two appealing options.

    • Avoidance/Avoidance Conflict: Choices between undesirable options.

    • Approach/Avoidance Conflict: Attracted and repelled by the same goal.

Physiology of Hunger

Complex relationship among the stomach, hormones, and brain.

  • Hypothalamus's Role: Monitors glucose levels and sends signals for appetite stimulation.

    • Ghrelin: Increases appetite.

    • Leptin: Decreases appetite.

Setpoint Theory

  • A person’s body weight may drift from its healthy weight, ignored biological signals may lead to obesity or extreme weight loss.

Biopsychosocial Model & Eating

  • Biological Influences: Hormones, hunger signals, attraction to taste.

  • Psychological Influences: Food appearance, variety, stress.

  • Social-Cultural Influences: Cultural preferences for food and appearance.

Emotion

Facial Feedback Hypothesis: Facial expressions influence emotions.

  • Components of Emotion:

    • Physiological arousal

    • Expressive behaviors

    • Conscious experience

Theories of Emotion

  • Broaden and Build Theory: Positive emotions lead to broadened thinking, while negative emotions narrow focus, affecting problem-solving abilities.

  • Emotional Expression: Includes crying, smiling, and body language (e.g., microexpressions).

Cognitive Appraisal

Cognitive appraisal is the process of evaluating and interpreting emotional responses to stimuli or situations, influencing how emotions are experienced and expressed.

Key Components:

  1. Primary Appraisal: Initial evaluation of a situation to determine its significance, categorized as:

    • Threat: Viewed as harmful or a potential loss.

    • Challenge: Seen as an opportunity for growth.

    • Irrelevant: Holds no significance.

  2. Secondary Appraisal: Assessing available resources and coping strategies to handle the situation.

Implications:

  • Cognitive appraisal can change emotional reactions; viewing a challenge as an opportunity may lead to excitement rather than anxiety.

  • Explains individual differences in emotional responses to similar situations.

  • Crucial for understanding stress and coping mechanisms.

Paul Ekman & Emotions

  • Identified universal emotions and facial expression codes.

  • Facial Actions Coding System (FACS): Catalogs distinct facial expressions, revealing emotional states.

  • Display Rules: Culturally determined norms for emotional expression (ex: masking emotions).