personality

Personality

• Definition of Personality:

  • A person's unique, fairly consistent pattern of feeling, behaving, and thinking.

  • Approaches to study personality differ with respect to:

  • Cognitive Processes: The ways in which thought and perception influence personality.

  • Subjective Experience: Individual perceptions and interpretations of one’s experiences.

  • Biological Factors: Genetic and physiological influences on personality traits.

  • Unconscious Motivation: Influences from unconscious desires and fears.

  • Learning Influence: The impact of learned behaviors and experiences on personality development.

The Psychoanalytic Approach

• Structure of Personality:

  • According to Freud, there are three structures of personality:

  1. Id:

     • Represents inborn biological drives.

     • Obeys the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification.

  2. Ego:

     • Directs the expression of biological drives in socially acceptable manners.

     • Follows the reality principle, balancing the id and the superego.

  3. Superego:

     • Serves as the moral guide, incorporating societal values and norms.

  • The personality is the product of the conflict and balance among these three structures.

  

• Defense Mechanisms:

  • Distortions of reality that allow individuals to escape from feelings of anxiety.

  • Regression: Reversion to immature coping behaviors that previously reduced anxiety.

  • Rationalization: Justifying inappropriate behavior with acceptable reasons.

  • Displacement: Redirecting emotions from a threatening object to a less threatening one.

  • Projection: Attributing one’s own undesirable feelings to others.

  • Reaction Formation: Behaving in the opposite manner to one's actual feelings.

  • Sublimation: Channeling unacceptable impulses into socially accepted activities.

Adler's Individual Psychology

• Individual Psychology:

  • Introduced by Alfred Adler, emphasizing the unique motivations of individuals.

  • Inferiority Complex:

  • A psychological condition driving individuals to seek superiority when feeling inferior.

  • Social Interest:

  • A key component where striving focuses on societal contributions as a healthy way to overcome inferiority.

  • “I began to see clearly in every psychological phenomenon the striving for superiority.”

  

Jung's Analytical Psychology

• Key Concepts:

  • Personal Unconscious: Contains repressed memories unique to the individual.

  • Collective Unconscious:

  • Shared unconscious mind among all humans, filled with ancestral archetypes.

  • Archetypes:

  • Fundamental symbols and imagery that influence humanity’s dreams, art, and cultural expressions.

  • Extraversion and Introversion: Distinction between personality orientations.

  

Horney's Feminine Psychology

• Critique of Freudian Theory:

  • Argued that Freud's theories were too culturally and socially myopic.

  • Described concepts like:

  • Basic Anxiety: Emotional and physical dependence leads to insecurity in childhood.

  • Basic Hostility: Children suppress anger to gain parental love.

  • Coping Styles: In response to anxiety and hostility, individuals adopt one of three styles:

  1. Moving Towards Others: Seeking approval and acceptance.

  2. Moving Against Others: Using aggression or conflict.

  3. Moving Away from Others: Withdrawing from relationships.

  

Psychoanalytic Assessment of Personality

• Tools and methodologies to evaluate personality based on psychoanalytic principles.

• Includes projective tests designed to uncover unconscious thoughts and feelings.

The Rorschach Test

• Definition:

  • A projective test where individuals interpret inkblots.

  • Composed of 10 symmetrical inkblots.

• Origin: Developed by Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922).

  

Thematic Apperception Test

• Creators: Developed by Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan.

• Structure:

  • Comprises 19 cards depicting ambiguous situations and 1 blank card.

  • Participants narrate stories regarding the scenarios presented in the cards.

  • Participants also create stories based on the blank card.

  

Influence of the Psychoanalytic Approach

• Despite limited empirical support, psychoanalytic concepts highlight:

  • Many behaviors are driven by unconscious motives.

  • Critical importance of childhood experiences for later personality development.

The Dispositional Approach

• Traits:

  • Enduring characteristics inferred from behavior that are consistent across different situations.

Trait Theories

• Gordon Allport's Trait Theory:

  • Identified three types of traits:

  • Cardinal Traits: Dominant traits affecting all aspects of life.

  • Central Traits: Pervasive but less dominating than cardinal traits.

  • Secondary Traits: Affect only limited aspects of life.

  

Eysenck’s Three-Factor Theory

• Hans Eysenck (1916-1997):

  • German psychologist known for factor analysis in personality dimensions.

  • Three Dimensions Identified:

  • Neuroticism

  • Psychoticism

  • Extraversion

  • Suggests a genetic basis for these dimensions in personality.

  

Five-Factor Model

• Big Five Personality Traits:

  • Dimensions:

  • Openness to experience

  • Conscientiousness

  • Extraversion

  • Agreeableness

  • Neuroticism

  • Predictive of various outcomes, including procrastination, eating disorders, and marital adjustment.

Dispositional Assessment of Personality

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator:

  • Utilizes various personality characteristics and presents response pairs for participants to select the most descriptive.

  • Validity: satisfactory; applicable in research contexts.

  • Example statement: “At parties, do you (a) sometimes get bored or (b) always have fun?”

Tests of Personality Traits

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI):

  • Developed by Hathaway and McKinley.

  • Aims to diagnose psychological disorders through standardized scales.

  • Tests include 10 clinical scales for personality traits and are used for assessments in various fields.

Influence of Dispositional Approach

• Effective in describing personality differences but less effective in explaining them.

• Research supports the universality of the five-factor model, particularly the introversion/extraversion dimension.

Cognitive-Behavioral ApproachSocial-Cognitive Theory

• Albert Bandura's Contributions:

  • Focused on the influence of reinforcement and punishment in personality development.

  • Importance of cognitive processes in shaping behavioral responses.

  

Key Principles

• Reciprocal Determinism:

  • The interdependence of behavior, environmental factors, and personal traits.

• Self-Efficacy:

  • The belief in one’s own ability to perform actions needed for anticipated outcomes.

• Collective Efficacy:

  • The shared belief that a group can achieve desired outcomes through collaborative effort.

Cognitive-Behavioral Assessment of Personality

• Experience-Sampling Method:

  • Participants use beepers to record real-time experiences and behaviors throughout the day.

• Locus of Control Scale:

  • Developed by Julian Rotter to measure the perceived control over behavioral outcomes.

  • Distinguishes between Internal (belief that outcomes result from one's own actions) and External (belief that outcomes are influenced by outside forces).

  • Utilizes 29 pairs of statements for assessment.

Social Learning

• Behavioral Consistency and Variability:

  • While traits are generally stable, situational context can lead to variations in behavior based on:

  • Reinforcement: Rewards for certain behaviors.

  • Punishments: Consequences for inappropriate behaviors.

  • Ignoring: Situational neglect influences behavior.

Humanistic ApproachSelf-Actualization Theory

• Abraham Maslow's Theory:

  • Defines self-actualization as a person’s inherent tendency to fulfill their potential.

  • Closely linked to psychological well-being.

  • Characteristics of self-actualized individuals include:

  • Self-acceptance and acceptance of others.

  • Strong, intimate relationships.

  • Creative and autonomous behavior.

  • Realistic perspective on life.

  

Self Theory

• Carl Rogers' Contributions:

  • Asserted that self-actualization requires accepting one’s self-concept.

  • Noted that incongruence between self-concept and experiences may lead to anxiety.

  • Coping strategies to manage incongruence include:

  1. Altering one’s self-concept.

  2. Reinterpreting personal experiences.

  • Excessive incongruence can result in psychological disorders.

  

Humanistic Assessment of Personality

• Personal Orientation Inventory:

  • Evaluates alignment of an individual's values with Maslow's self-actualized characteristics.

  • Operates as a forced-choice inventory.

• Q-Sort Method:

  • Designed to measure congruence between actual self and ideal self.

  • Involves sorting description cards from most to least characteristic, both for actual and ideal selves.

  • Greater overlap indicates higher congruence.

Genes and PersonalityHeredity and Traits

• Behavioral-Genetic Research:

  • Demonstrates consistent data supporting the heritability of personality traits.

  • The heritability estimate for the Big Five traits is approximately 0.5.

  • Research has replicated findings across various national contexts.

Heritability Estimates for the Big Five

Heredity and Temperament

• Variability in Infants:

  • Examination of infant temperaments showed differences in:

  • Activity level

  • Mood

  • Responsiveness

  • Heart rate

  • Attention span

  • These differences were observed regardless of prenatal influences.

Temperaments

• Definition:

  • Temperaments are stable traits that have a significant influence on personality development.

  • Jerome Kagan's Research:

  • Discovered 20% of children are either highly reactive or nonreactive, while 80% are intermediate.

Reactive vs. Nonreactive Infants

• Differences include:

  • Physiological reactions (higher cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine levels).

  • Elevated heart rates during mildly stressful tasks.

  • Increased neural activity.