Ch 12 - Personality.pptx

Personality (Ch. 12)
- Different theories explaining personality:
  - Trait Theories
  - Psychodynamic Theories
  - Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
  - Learning Theories
  - Behaviourism
  - Social Cognitive Theories
  - Humanistic Theories
  - Carl Rogers

What is Personality?
- Defined as a unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
- Key characteristics:
  - Distinctiveness
  - Consistency

Trait Theories
- Assumptions:
  - Behavior results from underlying traits.
  - Traits are stable and enduring.
- Goals of Trait Theories:
  - Identify basic traits.
  - Measure traits accurately.
- Cattell's Approach:
  - Used statistics to identify 16 “source” traits.
- Five Factor Model:
  - Framework for understanding personality traits.

The Big Five Personality Traits (Costa & McCrae, 1989):
- Conscientiousness:
  - Ethical, dependable, productive.
- Agreeableness:
  - Sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, warm.
- Neuroticism:
  - Anxious, insecure, self-conscious.
- Extroversion:
  - Talkative, sociable, fun-loving.
- Openness:
  - Daring, imaginative, broad interests.

Evaluating Trait Theories:
- Lots of research support, but limitations exist:
  - Only predicts a limited range of behavior.
  - Underestimates the situational role in behavior.
  - Debate on whether five traits are sufficient to explain personality.

Psychodynamic Perspectives:
- Freud's contributions:
  - Much of motivation is below awareness (Iceberg metaphor).
  - Early experiences shape personality.

Structures of Personality:
- Id:
  - Pleasure principle; satisfies basic drives immediately.
- Ego:
  - Reality principle; mediates between id and reality.
  - Acts as a decision-maker.
- Superego:
  - Morality principle; seeks perfection.

Anxiety and Internal Conflict:
- Internal conflicts lead to anxiety.
- Defense Mechanisms:
  - Unconscious strategies to protect the self.
  - Involve self-deception.

Defense Mechanisms:
- Repression:
  - Thoughts or feelings buried in the unconscious.
- Projection:
  - Attributing one’s feelings to another person.
- Displacement:
  - Redirecting feelings to a safer substitute.
- Reaction Formation:
  - Experiencing the opposite of true feelings.
- Rationalization:
  - Creating socially acceptable reasons for unacceptable behaviors.
- Denial:
  - Refusal to acknowledge anxiety-inducing facts.
- Sublimation:
  - Channeling feelings into socially acceptable behavior.

Evaluating Psychodynamic Theory:
- Significant influence in psychology.
- Criticisms include:
  - Poor testability of concepts.
  - Over-reliance on case studies.
  - perceived biases, particularly against women (e.g., Penis envy).

Learning Theories: Behaviorist Perspectives (B.F. Skinner):
- Personality defined as behavior; emphasis on observable actions.
- Unique history of reinforcement creates distinctiveness.
- Consistency arises from regular reinforcement patterns; reflects environmental determinism.

Learning Theories: Social-Cognitive Perspectives (Albert Bandura):
- Incorporates both environmental factors and internal variables.
- Reciprocal determinism explains interplay between internal factors, behavior, and environment.

Self-Efficacy:
- Belief in one’s capabilities affects behavior outcomes.
- Importance in behavior change strategies:
  - Achieve through mastery experiences and observational learning.

Humanistic Perspectives:
- Focus on the internal world of a person.
- Emphasis on perception of experiences in shaping personality.
- Carl Rogers’ Self Theory:
  - Actualization:
    - Drive to maintain and enhance life on physical and psychological levels.
    - Leads to becoming a fully functioning person.

Importance of Childhood Experience (Rogers):
- Unconditional Positive Regard:
  - Acceptance with no conditions.
- Conditional Positive Regard:
  - Conditions of worth: perceived approval based on specific thoughts and behaviors.
  - Leads to conditional self-regard.

Self-Concept:
- Beliefs about oneself shaped by types of regard.
- Congruence:
  - Consistency between self-concept and experiences leads to an accurate self-concept.
  - Discrepancies can result in distorted self-concept based on conditional regard.