Personality Notes (Chapter 11)

Personality is... A hypothetical construct that refers to an individual's unique, consistent, behavioral traits 

Trait Theories of Personality

Raymond Cattell

• Used factor analysis ( where correlations are used to identify clusters of variables)  to reduce 171 personality traits to 16 basic traits of personality

The Big 5 (OCEAN)

• Openness

• Conscientiousness

•  Extraversion

•  Agreeableness

•  Neuroticism

Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytical Theories

All theories were started by Sigmund Freud and focus on the unconscious and early childhood experiences

• Developed psychoanalysis to treat mental disorders

• Focused a lot on sex and aggression

• The ID Is the primitive structure of personality/desire

• The Ego Is the decision-making component that functions as a reality principle

• The Superego Is the moral component (developed at 3-5 yrs)

 Levels of Awareness 

• Conscious 

• Preconscious (material underneath  the surface that can be easily retrieved)

• Unconscious (material underneath the surface that influences behavior)

Defense Mechanisms 

1. Repression

2.  Denial

3.  Displacement

4.  Projection

5.  Rationalization

6.  Reaction Formation

7.  Progression

8.  Sublimination

9.  Identification

10.  Fantasy

Carl Jung’s Theory of Personality 

A Former student of Freud, Jung came up with the idea of Analytical Psychology, a new-age version of Freud's psychoanalytical theories. He did not focus as heavily on sexual urges but instead on things like creativity and growth. 

• The Personal Unconscious Holds repressed or forgotten material that is unique to an individual

• The Collective Unconscious Is a storehouse of memory from the ancestral past

• Defined introverts and extroverts 

• Defined anima (feminine side) and animus (masculine side) 

  • Individuals look for partners who balance each other

• Persona is the mask shown to the outside world 

• A complex is something in the personal unconscious that is fixated on and manifests into the outside world

Archetypes are emotionally charged images and thoughts that have universal meaning 

• Ex: mother, hero, sage

Behavioral Perspectives

B.F Skinner Believed behavior is fully determined by environment ( AKA determinism) 

•  reinforcement, punishment, and extinction determine behavior

Albert Bandura created the Social Cognitive Theory which stated that cognitive thought and behavior impact personality

• Personality is shaped through learning 

• Reciprocal determinism claims environment determines behavior and vice versa 

• Observational learning

• Self-efficacy Is the belief that you can accomplish what you set out to do

• Internal locus of control means someone believes they are responsible for what happens to them

• External locus of control means someone believes they do not have control over their life

Humanistic Perspectives

Carl Rogers Believed a child's upbringing, love, affection, and acceptance determined the development of self-concept.

•  self-concept is a collection of beliefs about oneself

•  when there are differences between self-concept and reality it is called incongruence

  • parental love is unconditional → congruence

  • Parental love is conditional → incongruence 

Abraham Maslow created the hierarchy of needs

• Self actualized people have health personalities characterized by growth 

Biological Perspectives

Hans Eysneck’s Trait Theory states that people have three higher order traits: extraversion, neuroticism (anxious, tense, moody), and psychoticism (egocentric, impulsive, cold)

• People are born with a predisposition towards a certain personality

• Researched to twins to support the idea that personality traits are largely inherited

Personality Assessment (Testing) 

1. The Personal Interview 

   1. Unstructured or structured

2. Observation 

   1. Preferred by behavioral and social learning theorists

   2.  most valuable with young children

   3.  open to interpretation, expensive, and time consuming

3. Objective Tests

   1. Also called a self-report inventory

   2. Administered and scored by standard procedure

   3. Most common

   4. EX: MMPI or Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory used to diagnose psychiatric disorders

4. Projective Tests

   1. Most consist of simple ambiguous stimuli that elicit an unlimited number of responses

   2. EX: Rorschach Test (ink blots) 

   3. EX: TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) where subject tells a detailed story based on cards depicting humans in various poses