Theories of Personality

Personality

• Personality- the unique and relatively stable ways in which each individual thinks, feels, and behaves

Psychoanalytic Theory: Freud

• Conscious mind- immediate awareness of surroundings and perceptions

• Preconscious mind- information is available but not currently conscious

• Unconscious mind- thoughts, feelings, memories not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness

Psychoanalysis: Structure of Personality

• Id- present at birth and unconsciousness

1. Libido- psychic energy that my conflict with society’s standards for behavior

2. Pleasure principle- immediate satisfaction of needs without regard for consequences

• Ego- develops out of need to deal with reality; mostly conscious, rational, logical

1. Reality principle- realistic and practical satisfaction of id demands

• Superego- moral center

1. Ego ideal- contains standards for moral behavior

2. Conscience- produces pride or guilt depending on the match between behavior and the ego ideal

Table 13.1

Psychoanalytic Stages of Personality Development

• Psychosexual stages- five stages marked by biological needs for gratification and societal expectations

• Fixation- unresolved conflict within a particular stage, results in immature traits associated with stage

• Oral stage- 1st year, mouth the erogenous zone, weaning the primary conflict. Id dominated.

• All psychic energy controlled by the id; humans are basically selfish and must be socialized

• Anal stage- 1 to 3 years, anus the erogenous zone, toilet training source of conflict. Ego develops.

• Anal expulsive personality- messy, destructive, hostile

• Anal retentive personality- neat, fussy, stingy, stubborn

• Phallic stages- 3 to 6 years, child discovers sexual feelings. Superego develops.

• Oedipus complex- child develops sexual attraction to opposite-sex parent and jealousy of same-sex parent

• Identification- child becomes like same-sex parent to “share” opposite sex parent

• Latency- school years, sexual feelings repressed while child develops interpersonal skills.

• Genital- adolescence through adulthood, sexual feelings reawaken with appropriate targets.

• Healthy personality- to work and love

13.4 The Neo-Freudians

Modern Psychoanalytic Theory

• Current research has found support for:

• Defense mechanisms

• Concept of the unconscious mind that can influence conscious behavior

Behaviorism and Personality

• Behaviorists “personality” comprised of learned responses or habits

• Habits- automatic sets of well-learned responses

• Social cognitive view- focuses on cognitive processes such as anticipating, judging. Memory, and imitation of models

• Neo-Freudians- followers of Freud who developed their own competing psychodynamic theories

• Personal unconscious- Jung’s name for the unconscious mind as described by Freud

• Collective unconscious- Jung’s name for the memories shared by all members of the human species

• Archetypes- Jung’s collective, universal human memories

• Basic anxiety- anxiety created when a child is born into the bigger and more powerful world of older children and adults

• Neurotic personalities- personalities typified by maladaptive ways of dealing with relationships in Horney’s theory

• Social cognitive learning theorists- theorists who emphasize the importance of both the influences of other people’s behavior and of a person’s own expectancies on learning

• Reciprocal determinism- environment, personal characteristics, and behavior interact to determine future behavior (Bandura).

• Self-efficacy- individual’s expectancy of success when they attempt something; ex. child expects she will earn an A on a math test (NOT the same as self-esteem) (Bandura).

• Locus of control- the tendency for people to assume that they either have control or do not have control or do not have control over events and consequences in their lives

• Expectancy- a person’s subjective feeling that a particular behavior will lead to a reinforcing consequence

Figure 13.2

Roger’s Theory of personality

• Positive regard- warmth, affection, love, and respect that come from one’s significant others

• Unconditional positive regard- positive regard given without coercion or strings attached

• Conditional positive regard- positive regard given only when person is doing what the providers of positive regard wish

• Self-actualizing tendency- striving to fulfill one’s innate capacities

• Self-concept- self image develops from interactions with significant people

• Self- an individual’s awareness of his or her own personal characteristics and level of functioning

• Real self- one’s perception of actual characteristics, traits, and abilities

• Ideal self- one’s perception of whom one should be

• Anxiety and neurotic behavior occur when there exists remarkable discrepancy between real and ideal self

• Caused by repeated exposure to conditions of worth (versus more health unconditional positive regard)

• Fully functioning person- a person who is in touch with and trusting of the deepest, innermost urges and feelings

Figure 13.3

Trait Theories of Personality

• Trait theories- describe characteristics that comprise human personalities

• Trait: consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving

• Purposes: describe and predict behavior (versus explaining it)

• Factor analysis- identifies items that cluster together to form factors that represent “traits”

• Surface traits- aspects of personality that can easily be seen by other people in the outward actions of a person

• Source traits- the more basic traits that underlie the surface traits, forming the core of personality

• Trait-situation interaction- the assumption that the particular circumstances of any given situation will influence the way in which a trait is expressed

• Introversion- dimension of personality in which people tend to withdraw from excessive stimulation

• Extroverts- people who are outgoing and sociable

• Introverts- people who prefer solitude and dislike being the center of attention

Cattell’s 16 Traits

The Big Five Theory

Five-factor model (Big Five)- five basic trait dimensions discovered by factor analysis

1. Openness- amenable to new experiences

2. Conscientiousness- organized and thoughtful of others

3. Extraversion- one’s news to be with other people

4. Agreeableness- easygoing, friendly, and likable; or opposite

5. Neuroticism- degree of emotional instability or stability

Table 13.4

Humanistic perspective- the “third force” in psychology that focuses on those aspects of personality that make people uniquely human, such as subjective feelings and freedom of choice

Behavioral genetics- studies impact of heredity and environment on personality

Measuring Personality: Behavioral Measures

• Direct observation- professional observes client engaged in ordinary behavior in either a clinical or natural setting

• Rating scale- observer assigns numerical values to specific behaviors listed in the scale

• Frequency count- frequency of a particular behavior is counted

De Leon Al. (1997)

Measuring Personality: Projective Tests

• Projection- placing unconscious wishes, attitudes, motivations, and emotional reactions onto ambiguous stimuli

• Projective tests- present ambiguous stimuli within an open-ended response format

• Ambiguous- unclear and can be interpreted in more than one way

• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)- 20 interpersonal scenes to which person reports creative stories

• Interview- method of personality assessment on which the professional asks questions of the client and allows the client to answer, either in a structured or unstructured fashion

• Personality inventory- paper-and-pencil or computerized test that consists of statements that require a specific, standardized response from the person taking the test

• Halo effect- tendency of an interviewer to allow positive characteristics of a client to influence the assessments of the client’s behavior and statements

• Rorschach inkblot test- projective test that uses 10 inkblots as the ambiguous stimuli