Ch 10 psyc

Chapter 10: Personality and Its Assessment

Chapter 10 Overview

• Introduction to personality, including vibrant exploration of theories and assessments.

• Key Topics:

  • What is Personality?

  • The Psychodynamic Approach to Personality

  • Learning Theory and Personality

  • Trait and Type Theories of Personality

  • The Humanistic Approach to Personality

  • The Cognitive Approach to Personality

  • Personality Assessment

What is Personality?

• Definition:

  • Personality is a set of relatively enduring traits, dispositions, or characteristics that provide consistency to an individual's behavior.

• Personality & Culture:

  • The influence of culture on personality has gained attention, with studies focusing on both universal and cross-cultural traits.

The Psychodynamic Approach to Personality

• Sigmund Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory:

  • Emphasizes unconscious processes directing behavior.

  • Structure of the Mind (Iceberg Model):

    • Conscious

    • Preconscious

    • Unconscious

  • Key Elements of Personality:

    • Id: Instinctual component (pleasure principle) present from birth.

    • Ego: Rational component (reality principle) that seeks to balance the id and superego.

    • Superego: Moral component formed from ego ideal and conscience.

Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

• Stages focused on specific gratifications linked to body regions

  • Oral Stage (0-2 years): Gratification through oral activities.

  • Anal Stage (2-3 years): Learning control over bodily functions.

  • Phallic Stage (4-7 years): Oedipus complex involvement.

  • Latency Stage (7-puberty): Sexuality becomes dormant.

  • Genital Stage (adolescence): Revisiting sexual conflicts, aiming for maturity.

• Critique: No scientific validation found for Freud’s theories.

Defense Mechanisms

• Ego’s Unconscious Techniques to Reduce Anxiety:

  • Repression: Involuntarily pushing undesirable thoughts into the unconscious.

  • Rationalization: Reinterpreting feelings in acceptable terms.

  • Fixation: Excessive attachment to earlier behaviors.

  • Regression: Reverting to earlier stages of development.

  • Projection: Attributing undesirable traits onto others.

  • Reaction Formation: Acting opposite to true feelings.

  • Displacement: Misdirecting feelings from one target to another.

  • Denial: Refusal to accept reality.

  • Sublimation: Redirecting unacceptable impulses toward acceptable goals.

Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology

• Emphasizes integrated personality, striving for superiority, social interest, and family dynamics.

Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology

• Introduces concepts like collective unconscious and archetypes, focusing on finding personal meaning beyond sexual motivations.

Learning Theory and Personality

• Focuses on observable behavior and environmental learning rather than internal drives.

• Basis of personality from reinforcement and punishment experiences.

• Changeable traits throughout life, not fixed in childhood.

Behavioral Analysis by B.F. Skinner

• Emphasizes personal learning histories and behavior shaped by reinforcement and evolutionary pressures.

Trait and Type Theories of Personality

• Definition of Traits: Stable characteristics differentiating individuals.

• Types: Groupings of related traits.

• Examples of Theories:

  • Gordon Allport’s Personal Disposition Theory: Unique dispositions categorized into cardinal, central, and secondary traits.

  • Raymond Cattell’s Trait Theory: Identifies surface and source traits using factor analysis.

  • Hans Eysenck’s Factor Theory: Classifies traits into extroversion-introversion, neuroticism-emotional stability, and psychoticism-superego function.

  • Five-Factor Model: Widely accepted model with traits like Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

The Humanistic Approaches to Personality

• Focus on positive human qualities and self-determination.

• Key Theorists:

  • Abraham Maslow: Self-actualization as the highest human need.

  • Carl Rogers: Central ideas of potential for growth and the importance of empathy and unconditional positive regard.

The Cognitive Approaches to Personality

• Interaction between thoughts and behavior.

• Cognitive theories view thoughts as pivotal in shaping personality.

• Examples:

  • Kelly: Personal constructs guide understanding of reality.

  • Rotter: Locus of control influences behavior perceptions.

  • Bandura: Self-efficacy impacts behavior execution.

  • Mischel: Cognitive-affective personality system analyzing situational influences on behavior.

Personality Assessment

• Definition: Evaluating individual differences through tests and observations.

• Purpose: Research, diagnosis, and classification of behavioral issues.

• Types of Tests:

  • Projective Tests: Assess unconscious thoughts through ambiguous stimuli (e.g., Rorschach, TAT).

  • Personality Inventories: Structured questionnaires predicting behaviors (e.g., MBTI, NEO-PI-R, MMPI-2).

Specific Personality Inventories and Their Critiques

• Rorschach Inkblot Test: Limited in diagnostic utility.

• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Questions about personality consistency in scoring.

• MBTI: Assesses personality modalities with limited predictive power.

• Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor Test: Multi-item test providing comparative scores.

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2): Diagnostic utility based on normed scores.