Chapter 13: Personality - The Uniqueness of the Individual

Defining Personality

• Personality Definition: A unique and relatively enduring set of behaviors, feelings, thoughts, and motives that characterize an individual.

• Key Characteristics of Personality:    

  • Individual Differences: Focuses on the unique variations among people.

  • Consistency: Persistence across different times and varying situations.

  • Composition: Includes traits, motives, thoughts, self-concept, and feelings.

  • Distribution: Personality characteristics are normally distributed across populations.

  • Behavioral Connection: Directly connected to how an individual behaves in their environment.

Perspectives on Personality: A Comparative Overview

• Psychoanalytic Perspective:     

  • Assumptions:
      - Personality resides primarily in the unconscious.
      - Adult personality foundation is laid during early childhood experiences.

  • Sigmund Freud:
      - Focused on the Unconscious, Preconscious, and Conscious mind.
      - Developed the structural model of Id, Ego, and Superego.

  • Alfred Adler:
      - Concepts of striving for superiority.
      - Compensation for perceived weaknesses.
      - Inferiority complex.
      - Influence of birth order.

  • Carl Jung:
      - Distinguished between the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious.
      - Introduced Archetypes, including the shadow, anima (feminine side of men), and animus (masculine side of women).

  • Karen Horney:
      - Focused on social motivations.
      - Basic hostility and basic anxiety.
      - Defenses used against that anxiety.

• Humanistic-Positive Perspective:     

  • Assumptions:
      - Individuals possess a natural interest in becoming the best version of themselves.

  • Abraham Maslow:
      - Emphasized the hierarchy of needs and the strive toward self-actualization.

  • Carl Rogers:
      - Focused on growth and fulfillment through unconditional positive regard and the distinction between the real self and the ideal self.

• Social-Cognitive Perspective:   

  • Assumptions:
      - Behavior is fluid and changes depending on the specific situation.

  • Walter Mischel:
      - Argued behavior results from the interaction of internal cognitive/emotional qualities and the specifics of the situation.

• Trait Perspective:     

  • Assumptions: Traits are the major driving force behind personality.

  • McCrae and Costa: Developed the Five-Factor Model (Big Five).

  • Gordon Allport: Focused on identifying and categorizing personality traits.

  • Theoretical Framework: Includes basic tendencies (biologically based) and characteristic adaptations (culturally based).

• Evolutionary-Biological Perspective:     

  • Assumptions:
      - Personality has a biological foundation and is a product of both heredity and environment.

  • Hans Eysenck:
      - Proposed three dimensions: Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism.

  • David Buss:
      - Explored the evolutionary roots of traits.

  • Biological Basis:
      - Differences in genetics, neurochemistry, and the Central Nervous System (CNS) cause personality variations.

Humanistic-Positive Psychological Theories

• Focus of Study: Humanistic psychology aims to study people at their best rather than focusing on pathology.

• Abraham Maslow and Self-Actualization:     

  • Hierarchy of Needs: A framework leading to self-actualization.     

  • Characteristics of Self-Actualized Individuals:         

    • Spontaneity, Simplicity, and Naturalness: Being authentic and unpretentious.         

    • Problem-Centered: Focusing on tasks or missions outside of oneself.         

    • Creativity: Possessing original and inventive thought processes.         

    • Deep Interpersonal Relations: Forming profound, meaningful connections with others.         

    • Resistance to Enculturation: Maintaining independence from social pressures and cultural norms.

• Carl Rogers and Person-Centered Theory:     

  • Unconditional Positive Regard: The complete acceptance of another person regardless of their specific behavior; considered essential for growth and fulfillment.     

  • Real Self vs. Ideal Self: Personality is influenced by the gap between who we actually are (real) and who we want to be (ideal).

• Positive Psychology:     

  • Differs from humanistic psychology by being more research-based.     

  • Focuses on positive states and experiences such as hope, optimism, creativity, spirituality, and positive emotions.

Social-Cognitive Learning Theories

• Situational Influences (Walter Mischel):     

  • Behavior is not just a trait; the probability of a specific behavior (e.g., hostility) varies significantly depending on the situation.     

  • Evidence suggests that Person A and Person B may react differently to the same situation, or the same person may react differently across situations $(1-9)$.

• Reciprocal Determinism: The theory that personality is the result of interacting influences between behavior, internal cognition, and the environment.     

  • People choose different environments based on their traits.     

  • Personalities shape how individuals interpret and react to external events.     

  • Personalities help create the very situations to which the individual then reacts.

• Personal Control:     

  • The extent to which people perceive they have control over their environment.     

  • External Locus of Control: The perception that fate is controlled by chance or outside forces beyond personal control.     

  • Internal Locus of Control: The perception that individuals control their own fate.     

  • Benefits of Internal Locus: Associated with higher school achievement, more independent action, less depression, lower hypertension, and lower rates of obesity.

• Self-Control:     

  • The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification to achieve greater long-term rewards.     

  • Predictive Value: Predicts better adjustment, improved grades, and social success.

  • Depletion: Practicing self-control can be exhausting (making one "tired"), making it more difficult to exercise self-control again until after a rest period.

• Learned Helplessness (Seligman, 1967):     

  • Definition: The state of hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when they are unable to avoid repeated aversive events.     

  • Impact: A perceived lack of control leads to lower morale and higher stress levels.     

  • The Choice Paradox: Conversely, having too much choice can also result in negative consequences.

Trait Theories and the Five-Factor Model

• Trait Definition: A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways.

• The Big Five (Five-Factor Model): Used to describe personality (though it does not necessarily explain it).     

  • 1. Openness to experience: Curiosity, imagination.     

  • 2. Conscientiousness: Organization, dependability.     

  • 3. Extraversion: Sociability, assertiveness.     

  • 4. Agreeableness: Compassion, cooperativeness.     

  • 5. Neuroticism: Emotional instability, anxiety.

• McCrae & Costa’s Two Components:     

  • Basic Tendencies: The essence of personality, including the Big Five dimensions, talents, aptitudes, and cognitive abilities. These have biological underpinnings.     

  • Characteristic Adaptations: External expressions and behaviors shaped by the interaction of basic tendencies and the environment.

Origins of Personality: Genetics and Development

• Genetic Influences:     

  • Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL): A method of looking for the location of genes associated with specific behaviors.     

  • Continuum of Behavior: Behaviors like anxiety, thrill-seeking, and impulsivity are expressed on a quantitative continuum.     

  • Dopamine Link: Individuals naturally low on dopamine are theorized to seek thrills to compensate.

• Twin-Adoption Studies:     

  • Shared Environment: Living conditions and experiences individuals have in common.     

  • Non-Shared Environment: Unique individual experiences that are not common among family members.

• Temperament and Fetal Development:     

  • Gestation (36 weeks): High heart rate at this stage is related to being slower to adapt to new people/situations and irregular eating/sleeping patterns at $3$ and $6$ months of age.     

  • Birth Weight: Low birth weight babies tend to be more cautious, shy, and risk-averse.

  • Prenatal Stress: High maternal stress during pregnancy leads to impaired infant stress function, higher baseline stress hormones, and stronger physiological reactions to stress.

Personality and Culture

• Universality: The Big Five factors are generally observed across various cultures.

• Lifespan Changes (Early to Middle Adulthood):     

  • People tend to become less anxious and extraverted.     

  • People tend to become more open, agreeable, and conscientious.

• Cultural Differences:     

  • Asian Cultures: Emphasize interpersonal relatedness.     

  • Collectivism vs. Individualism:

    • Collectivist Cultures: Generally score higher on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and lower on Openness to experience.