WEEK 7 PSYCH002

By the end of this lecture, students will be able to:

Define the term personality in their own words.
Recognize some historical perspectives in the study of personality.
Explain the contributions of Sigmund Freud and the Neo-Freudians.
Recognize the behavioral, social-cognitive, and biological perspectives on personality.
Explain several techniques to assess or capture personality.

Definition of Personality:
- Long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in particular ways.

Theorized that personality traits are based on four temperaments associated with bodily fluids (humors):
- Choleric: Yellow bile from the liver.
- Melancholic: Black bile from the kidneys.
- Sanguine: Red blood from the heart.
- Phlegmatic: White phlegm from the lungs.

Believed that diseases and personality differences could be explained by imbalances in these humors, and that each person exhibits one of the temperaments:
- Choleric: Passionate, ambitious, bold.
- Melancholic: Reserved, anxious, unhappy.
- Sanguine: Joyful, eager, optimistic.
- Phlegmatic: Calm, reliable, thoughtful.

Proposed Phrenology: The distances between bumps on the skull reveal personality traits and mental abilities.
This theory was discredited due to lack of empirical support.

Developed the first comprehensive theory of personality known as the Psychodynamic Perspective.
Emphasized how aggression and childhood sexuality influenced personality, focusing on the unconscious mind.
Introduced the concept of Freudian Slip: Accidental slip of the tongue indicating underlying sexual/aggressive urges.

Id (Impulse):
- Contains primitive urges (hunger, thirst, sex).
- Operates on the pleasure principle: Seeks immediate gratification.
Superego (Morality):
- Develops through social interactions; moral compass based on rules.
- Leads to feelings of pride or guilt.
Ego (Self/Reality): {Comprimise of symptoms}
- Balances the demands of id and superego.
- Operates on the reality principle: Satisfies desires realistically.
- The portion of personality observable by others.
- Might look like someone whose frozen by guilt

Balanced id and superego: Results in a healthy personality.
Imbalanced id and superego: Can lead to neurosis (negative emotions, anxiety disorders) or unhealthy behaviors.

Defense Mechanisms: Unconscious behaviors to reduce anxiety, used by the ego to restore balance.
Types:
- Denial: Refusal to accept unpleasant realities. Example: Kaila's alcohol problem.
- Displacement: Redirecting emotions towards a less threatening target. Example: Mark's abuse of a restaurant server.
- Projection: Attributing unacceptable desires to others. Example: Chris cheats due to suspicions of cheating by her partner.
- Rationalization: Justifying behavior with logical reasons. Example: Kim attributes his failure to the professor's bias.
- Reaction Formation: Adopting contrary beliefs to reduce anxiety. Example: Nadia's niceness to a coworker she resents.
- Regression: Returning to earlier coping mechanisms. Example: Giorgio cuddling a toy after academic failure.
- Repression: Suppressing painful memories. Example: LaShea forgetting her grandfather's death.
- Sublimation: Channeling unacceptable desires into socially acceptable activities. Example: Jerome joining a support group.

Focused on childhood influences and social environment on personality.
Proposed the collective unconscious: Shared memory patterns across humanity. Universal version of personal unconscious, holding mental patterns or themes common to all individuals, influencing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors throughout different cultures and epochs.
Introduced archetypes: Universal patterns inherent in the collective unconscious that reflect common experiences.
Ex creator, innocent, wise, explorer, rebel, wizard, hero, lover, jester, friends, caregiver, ruler
Persona: The social mask people wear that mediates between true self and societal expectations.

Traits:
- Extroverts: Energized by social interaction, seeks attention, speaks quickly, prone to jumping topics.
- Introverts: Energized by solitude, prefers quiet, tends to think before speaking, focuses on one topic.

Focuses on observable behaviors and their reinforcement.
Asserts that personality develops from reinforcement experiences, is shaped throughout life, and varies with new situations.
Introduces B.F. Skinner's concepts of reinforcement.

Positive Reinforcement: Adding a stimulus that strengthens a behavior.
Negative Reinforcement: Removing a stimulus that strengthens a behavior.
Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement: Infrequent reinforcement leading to slower acquisition but greater resistance to extinction.

Developed by Albert Bandura: Emphasizes both observed behavior and cognition as factors in personality.
Observational Learning: Acquiring behavior by observing the consequences of others' actions.
- Recognizes acceptable and unacceptable behaviors!
Reciprocal Determinism: Interaction of cognitive processes, behavior, and context determines personality.

Suggests personality is inherited and influenced by physiological processes.
Identical twins exhibit strong similarities in personality traits, indicating genetic influence.
Key findings from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart suggest about 50% of the variance in personality is hereditary.

Issues included lack of informed consent, non-disclosure regarding the nature of the study, and miscommunication regarding the purpose of home visits.

These traits can predict behaviors and are seen as stable across the lifespan. They also indicate individuals' health, job performance, and social relationships.

Objective Personality Questionnaires: Include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Big Five Inventory.
Projective Personality Tests: Involve interpreting ambiguous stimuli.
Research highlights the need to evaluate the stability and heritability of personality traits over time and across cultures.