CH. 10 - Personality

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• Overview of key perspectives on personality:

  • Psychodynamic Perspectives.

  • Humanistic Perspectives.

  • Trait Perspectives.

  • Social Cognitive Perspectives.

  • Biological Perspectives.

  • Personality Assessment.

Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Definition of Personality: A pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world.

• Key Features of Psychodynamic Perspectives:

  • Theoretical views emphasize that personality is primarily unconscious (beyond awareness).

  • Behavior is only a surface characteristic; deeper forces drive behavior.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Structure of Personality

• Three Structures:

  • Id: Represents unconscious drives; operates on the pleasure principle.

  • Ego: Deals with the demands of reality; mediates between the id's demands and the reality of the world.

  • Superego: Serves as the judge of the individual’s behavior; akin to the conscience.

Iceberg Analogy

• Conscious vs Unconscious Mind:

  • Conscious mind: Part above water, representing awareness.

  • Unconscious mind: Part below water, holding repressed memories and instincts.

  • Id: Completely unconscious; ego and superego function at both conscious and unconscious levels.

Defense Mechanisms

• Definition: Tactics the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

  • These mechanisms are typically not unhealthy and operate unconsciously.

  • Types of Defense Mechanisms:

  • Denial: Refusal to accept reality or facts.

  • Displacement: Transferring emotional responses from a true source to a different target.

  • Sublimation: Channeling impulses into socially acceptable actions.

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

  • Reaction formation: Adopting behaviors that are the opposite of one’s true feelings.

  • Repression: Blocking out unacceptable thoughts and feelings from consciousness.

Stages of Personality Development

• Freud believed people progress through universal stages of personality development:

  • Each stage focuses on sexual pleasure from different parts of the body, creating conflicts between pleasure and reality.

  • Stages of Development:

  • Oral Stage: First 18 months; pleasure centers on the mouth.

  • Anal Stage: 18 to 36 months; pleasure involves bowel and bladder control.

  • Phallic Stage: Ages 3 to 6; focus on genitalia.

  • Latency Period: Ages 6 to puberty; sexual interests subside.

  • Genital Stage: Adolescence and adulthood; sexual pleasure shifts to outside the family.

Oedipus Complex

• During the phallic stage, boys experience:

  • Intense Desire: To replace their fathers and take their mothers' affections.

  • Associated anxieties: Castration anxiety for boys and penis envy for girls.

Fixation in Developmental Stages

• Freud posited that fixation occurs if an individual is either underindulged or overindulged in any stage.

  • Fixation: Effects of childhood experiences potentially coloring adult personality.

Table of Defense Mechanisms and Fixations

Critics and Revisionists of Psychodynamic Theory

Main Critiques

• Critics argue:

  • Sexuality is less pervasive than Freud suggested; Oedipus complex is not universal.

  • Importance of experiences after the first 5 years.

  • Role of ego and conscious processes is greater than Freud believed.

  • Sociocultural factors play a significant role in personality.

Karen Horney

• Sociocultural approach:

  • Emphasis on security rather than sexuality as the prime motivator.

  • Hypotheses must be supported with observable data.

Carl Jung

• Analytical Theory:

  • Collective Unconscious: Shared unconscious among all humans based on common ancestry.

  • Archetypes: Emotionally charged symbols and ideas shared across cultures (e.g., anima, animus, persona).

Alfred Adler

• Individual Psychology:

  • Individuals are motivated by goals, with a focus on perfection rather than pleasure.

  • Concept of compensation: Overcoming perceived inferiority.

  • Importance of warm relationships (social context) and birth order on personality.

Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspectives

Shared Principles

• Personality is influenced by early and current experiences.

• Personality development is a process shaped by various experiences.

• Unconscious motives have a role in behavior.

• Conflict between inner desires and outer demands produces anxiety.

Criticisms

• Too focused on early experiences without considering adaptability.

• Overemphasis on the unconscious and sexuality.

• Empirical testing of concepts is complex, although some studies have emerged.

Humanistic Perspectives

• Humanistic Perspectives: Emphasize human capacity for personal growth and positive qualities.

  • Focus on individual control and striving towards personal desires.

Maslow’s Approach

• Self-Actualization: Motivation to reach full potential; characterized by spontaneity, creativity, and peak experiences.

  • Maslow’s emphasis was skewed towards successful individuals predominantly from Western cultures.

Rogers’s Approach

• Carl Rogers: Believed in the innate potential within individuals for fulfillment.

  • Emphasis on requirements for positive growth: unconditional positive regard, empathy, and genuineness.

Explaining Unhappiness

Key Concepts

• Unconditional Positive Regard: Acceptance and valuing of individuals regardless of behavior.

• Conditions of Worth: Standards individuals believe they must meet to gain positive regard, potentially harming self-concept.

Relationship Qualities for True Feelings

• To reconnect with true feelings, require:

  • Unconditional Positive Regard

  • Empathy

  • Genuineness

Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives

Strengths

• Offers a holistic view that emphasizes positive human experiences and potential.

Criticisms

• Considered overly optimistic; may neglect accountability and self-discipline.

• Some argue it promotes excessive self-love.

Trait Perspectives

• Definition: Traits are stable characteristics that influence behavior, forming the basis of personality.

• Dominant approach for two decades, stressing the broad, enduring traits that lead to characteristic responses.

Trait Theories

• Propose that individual traits explain consistent behavior across various situations.

• Gordon Allport's Contributions:

  • Emphasized uniqueness and adaptation of individuals based on traits.

  • Developed Lexical Approach: Identified 4,500 traits through dictionary analysis, condensed by W. T. Norman into five core factors.

The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Overview

• Five broad traits define main dimensions of personality, extensively researched.

  • Openness to Experience: Creativity and interest in novelty; high openness values novel ideas and experiences.

  • Conscientiousness: Reliability and dependability characterized by organization and goal-directed behavior.

  • Extraversion: Sociability and enthusiasm; extraverts are outgoing and energized by social interactions.

  • Agreeableness: Kindness and trust; agreeableness suggests helpfulness towards others.

  • Neuroticism: Associated with emotional instability; reflects anxiety and insecurity.

Role of Traits in Different Situations

• The influence of traits varies by situation, exhibiting strengths or weaknesses in different contexts.

• Extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness appear consistently across cultures.

Personality Traits in Animals

• Some traits, like the big five, are observable in animals, such as domestic dogs.

Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Well-Being

Relationship with Well-Being

• Higher levels of extraversion are linked to greater happiness, while neuroticism correlates with lower happiness.

• Subjective Well-Being: Assessment includes positive and negative affects relative to overall life evaluation.

Impact of Extraversion

• Extraverts maintain higher well-being even when high in neuroticism; traits influence overall life satisfaction.

Evaluating Trait Perspective

• Insights regarding personality relate to health, cognition, career success, and interpersonal relationships.

• Criticisms focus on overly generalizing individuals without accounting for situational variability.

Social Cognitive Perspectives

Key Features

• Focus on conscious awareness, beliefs, goals, and individual interpretations of experiences.

• Distinct from trait perspectives, emphasizing specific cognitive factors influencing behavior.

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

Core Components

• Reciprocal Determinism: Interaction of behavioral, environmental, and cognitive factors shapes personality.

Observational Learning

• Individuals observe and potentially adopt the behavior of others, influenced by beliefs and personal control (internal vs external locus of control).

Self-Efficacy

• The belief in one’s capability to master a situation and effect positive change is crucial to behavior.

Mischel’s Contributions

Situationism

• Proposed that behavior varies significantly across contexts, challenging the notion of stable personalities.

Delay of Gratification

• Defined as postponing immediate pleasures for future rewards, influencing individual behavior and decision-making.

Cognitive-Affective Processing Systems (CAPS)

• A framework describing how thoughts and emotions about oneself and external circumstances inform behaviors.

Evaluating Social Cognitive Perspectives

Strengths

• Highlights behavior observation and cognitive influences in shaping personality.

Weaknesses

• Potentially neglects biological factors and overemphasizes situational influences.

Biological Perspectives

Historical Context

• The idea of physiological influence over personality has historical roots; Hippocrates noted bodily fluids' role in personality traits.

Eysenck’s Arousal Regulation Theory

• Proposes that extraverts and introverts manage emotional arousal differently, though findings regarding baseline arousal require further exploration.

Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory

• Distinguishes between:

  • Behavioral Activation System (BAS): Reacts to rewards.

  • Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS): Reacts to punishments.

Neurotransmitter Influences

• Extraversion linked to dopamine while neuroticism relates to amygdala activation and serotonin levels.

Personality and Behavioral Genetics

Behavioral Genetics Definition

• Studies genetic contributions to personality traits.

• Twin studies suggest approximately 50% heritability on big five traits, indicating genetic influence while being modifiable.

Evaluating Biological Perspectives

• Biological processes may both shape and be shaped by personality traits, highlighting a complex relationship.

Personality Assessment

Overview

• Diverse methods exist for assessing personality, essential for clinical evaluations and career counseling.

Self-Report Tests

• Self-Report Test Definition: Directly queries individuals about their traits, though with issues like social desirability bias.

• Empirically Keyed Tests: Compare responses from differing characteristic groups to improve accuracy; includes MMPI.

• NEO-PI-3: Assesses five-factor model and its facets, aiming for clear face validity.

Projective Tests

• Projective Test Definition: Individuals respond to ambiguous stimuli revealing underlying personality traits.

• Examples:

  • Rorschach Inkblot Test: Analyzes perceptions of inkblots.

  • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Elicits narratives to explore unconscious motives.

Other Assessment Methods

• Personality evaluation may include:

  • Direct behavior measurement.

  • Cognitive assessments.

  • Peer or friend ratings.

  • Psychophysiological methods and brain imaging.

  • Selection varies with theoretical perspective.