Chapter 13: Personality Alexis Caroline Monica Kate
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Perspectives of Personality Psychoanalytic perspective :
Childhood sexuality, unconscious motives, and dreams influence
personality Humanistic Perspective: Focused on our inner capacities
for growth and self-fulfillment Sigmund Freud- Psychoanalytic Carl
Rogers- Humanistic
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Psychoanalysis (Freud) Personality and therapeutic technique
that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and
conflicts. Patients free association, resistances, dreams and
transferences release previously repressed feelings allowing
patient to gain insight.
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Free Association Psychoanalysis; a method of exploring the
unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to
mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing
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Unconscious Unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and
memories (things you are unaware of feeling).
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Thoughts Some of these thoughts we store temporarily in a
preconscious area, from which we can retrieve them into conscious
awareness.
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Freud and Repression Freud was the mass of unacceptable
passions and thoughts that he believed we repress, or forcibly
block from our consciousness because they would be too unsettling
to acknowledge.
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Iceberg Theory
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Dreams Manifest Content- the remembered content of a dream
(story or plot line) Latent Content- the meaning of a dream
(dreamers unconscious wishes)
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ID, Ego, Superego ID - Reservoir of unconscious psychic energy
that strives to satisfy the basic sexual and aggressive drives Ego
- Executive part of personality (mediates demands of ID and ego;
focuses on reality). Superego - Represents internalized ideals and
standards for judgment (future aspirations).
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Cartoon ID says that fifty is plenty but superego wants him to
have more but the ego mediates between the two
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Psychosexual Stages
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Erogenous Zones & Phallic Stage Erogenous zones: pleasure
sensitive areas that the pleasure seeking energies focus on Phallic
stage: when males seek genital stimulation
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Electra & Oedipus Complex Electra Complex : Girls sexual
desire for their father and envy of mother Oedipus Complex: Boys
sexual desire for mother and hatred towards father
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Psychosexual stages and Identification Psychosexual stages:
Childhood stages of development during which the IDs pleasure
seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones Identification:
Process in which children incorporate their parents values into
superegos
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Gender Identity and Fixate Gender Identity: Our sense of being
male or female Fixate: A lingering focus of pleasure seeking
energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were
resolved
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Defense Mechanism Defense Mechanism : the egos protective
methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting
reality
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Repression and Regression Repression: the basic defense
mechanism that banishes anxiety- arousing thoughts, feelings, and
memories from consciousness Regression: in which an individual
faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage,
where some psychic energy remains fixated
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Reaction Formation & Projection Reaction Formation: when
the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their
opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite
of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings Projection: defense
mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses
by attributing them to others
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Rationalization & Displacement Rationalization: defense
mechanism that offers self- justifying explanations in place of the
real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for ones actions
Displacement: defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive
impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or
person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet
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Denial Denial: defense mechanism by which people refuse to
believe or even to perceive painful realities
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Neo-Freudians They accepted: Freuds basic ideas like the
personality structures of id, ego, and superego; the importance of
the unconscious; the shaping of personality in childhood; and the
dynamics of anxiety and the defense mechanisms. The disagreed: Neos
focused more on conscious minds role in interpreting experience and
in coping with the environment. Also doubted that sex and
aggression were all-consuming motivations
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Adler and Horney Adler and Horney agreed with Freud that
childhood is important. But they believed that childhood social,
not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality formation.
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Penis Envy Horney countered Freuds assumptions that women have
weak superegos and suffer penis envy, and she attempted to balance
the bias she detected in this masculine view of psychology.
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Carl Jung Jung believed that the unconscious contains more than
our repressed thoughts and feelings. He believed we also have a
collective unconscious, a common reservoir of images derived from
our species universal experiences. Collective Unconscious: concept
of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species
history
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Drew Westen Most contemporary dynamic theorists and therapists
are not wedded to the idea that sex is the basis of personality.
They do not talk about ids and egos, and do not go around
classifying their patients as oral, anal, or phallic
characters.
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Assessment Tests Personality assessment tools are useful to
those who study personality or provide therapy.
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Personality Tests Projective Tests: a personality test, such as
the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to
trigger projection of ones inner dynamics. Thematic Apperception
Test: a projective test in which people express their inner
feelings and interests through the stories they make up about
ambiguous scenes. What do you see?
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Rorschach Inkblot Test Rorschach inkblot test: the most widely
used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann
Rorschach; seeks to identify peoples inner feelings by analyzing
their interpretations of the blots.
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New findings contradicting with Freud Todays developmental
psychologists see our development as lifelong, not fixed in
childhood. They doubt that infants neural networks are mature
enough to sustain as much emotional trauma as Freud assumed. Some
think Freud overestimated parental influence and underestimated
peer influence (and abuse). They also doubt that conscience and
gender identity form as the child resolves the Oedipus complex at
age 5 or 6.
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Argument that repression is a myth In one survey, 88 percent of
university students believed that painful experiences commonly get
pushed out of awareness and into the unconscious Ditto for the
worlds literature, report a Harvard team that offered $1000 to
anyone who could provide a pre-1800 medical or even fictional
example of a healthy person who had blocked out a specific
traumatic event and retrieved it a year or more later
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Anthony Greenwald Many now think of the unconscious not as
seething passions and repressive censoring but as cooler
information processing that occurs without our awareness.
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Power of the unconscious the schemas that automatically control
our perceptions and interpretations the priming by stimuli to which
we have not consciously attended the parallel processing of
different aspects of vision and thinking the emotions that activate
instantly, before conscious analysis the self-concept and
stereotypes that automatically and unconsciously influence how we
process information about ourselves and others
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False Consensus Effect false consensus effect: the tendency to
overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and
behaviors. Freud called this projection
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Terror Management Theory Terror-management theory: a theory of
death-related anxiety; explores peoples emotional and behavioral
responses to reminders of their impending death. How it isnt
pro-social: For example, death anxiety increases prejudicecontempt
for others and esteem for oneself
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Being pro-social when faced with death The prospect of death
promotes religious sentiments, and deep religious convictions
enable people to be less defensiveless likely to rise in defense of
their worldviewwhen reminded of death
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Seligmans thoughts on Freud Freuds premises may have undergone
a steady decline in currency within academia for many years, but
Hollywood, the talk shows, many therapists, and the general public
still love them.
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Humanistic vs. Freuds study on sick people In contrast to
Freuds study of the base motives of sick people, these humanistic
psychologists focused on the ways healthy people strive for self-
determination and self-realization.
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Third force perspective Created by Maslow and Rogers emphasized
human potential
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Self-Actualization and Self- Transcendence Self-Actualization:
self- actualization: one of the ultimate psychological needs that
arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and
self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill ones potential.
Self-Transcendence: purpose, and communion beyond the self.
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Maslow Studied healthy, creative people rather than troubled
clinical cases
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Maslows Discovery Discovered similar qualities between Lincoln,
Jefferson, and Eleanor Roosevelt. They were self-aware and
self-accepting, open and spontaneous, loving and caring, and not
paralyzed by others opinions. Secure in their sense of who they
were, their interests were problem-centered rather than
self-centered. They focused their energies on a particular task,
one they often regarded as their mission in life.
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Peak Experiences Peak experiences: spiritual or personal
experiences that surpassed ordinary consciousness.
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People with mature adult qualities People who have learned
enough about life to be compassionate, to have outgrown their mixed
feelings toward their parents, to have found their calling, to have
acquired enough courage to be unpopular, to be unashamed about
being openly virtuous. E. Roosevelt.
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Maslows work Maslows work with college students led him to
speculate that those likely to become self- actualizing adults were
likable and caring.
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Rogers thoughts on Maslow Rogers believed that people are
basically good and are endowed with self- actualizing tendencies.
Unless thwarted by an environment that inhibits growth, each of us
is like an acorn, primed for growth and fulfillment
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Rogers Beliefs Rogers believed that a growth- promoting climate
required three conditions genuineness, acceptance, and
empathy.
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How to nurture someone Rogers believed that you need to nurture
someones growth by accepting
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Unconditional Positive Regard An attitude of total acceptance
toward another person
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Being Empathetic Being empathetic is an attitude of grace that
values us knowing our failures
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Most potent force of change Listening with unconditional
positive regard Genuineness, acceptance, and empathy
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Secret of life To show unconditional positive regard
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Self-Concept All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in
an answer to the question, Who am I?
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Negative or positive self- concept If our self-concept is
negative, we will do everything negatively If our self-concept is
positive, we will do everything positively
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Description of self Rogers asked people to describe themselves
both as they would ideally like to be and as they actually are
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Humanistic views Some humanistic psychologists believed that
any standardized assessment of personality, even a questionnaire,
is depersonalizing.
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Maslow and Rogers Maslows and Rogers ideas have influenced
counseling, education, child- rearing, and management.
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Criticism of humanistic view Concepts are vague Concepts are
also subjective, not specific enough
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Theories based off heroes After starting to study the heroes,
the psychologist would begin to think that self- actualizing people
are underrated by others needs and opinions. They are also
comfortable with power and motivated to achieve.
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First step towards loving others Becoming secure about
yourself, become non- defensive, and self- accepting
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Nave? People think humanistic psychology is nave because it
fails to appreciate the reality of human capacity
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Traits Characteristics in a pattern of behavior A disposition
to feel and act, as assessed by self- report inventories and peer
reports
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Allport Counted words to describe someone and found 18,000
Defined personality as your sense of the person
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MBTI the most widely researched and clinically used of all
personality tests originally developed to identify emotional
disorders (still considered its most appropriate use) now used for
many other screening purposes
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Criticism of MBTI Remains as counseling tool not research
instrument It is absent of scientific data When assessing workers,
you can make yourself seem better
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Factor Analysis Statistical procedure to identify clusters of
test questions
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Jon Steward caption Jon Stewart: The extravert Trait labels
such as extraversion can describe our temperament and typical
behaviors.
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Extraversion vs. Introversion Outgoing vs. Shy Extraverted
people are more likely to explore their surroundings while
introverted people keep to themselves
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Stability vs. Instability Stable people are more likely to be
calm in stressful situations Instable people tend to react on their
emotions and not make logical decisions
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The Eysencks Believe that the factors of Extraversion-
introversion, stability-instability are key to personality
variation and defining specific traits
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Eysencks chart
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Extraverts and Stimulation Extraverts seek stimulation because
their normal brain arousal is low For example, PET scans show that
a frontal lobe area involved in behavior inhibition is less active
in extraverts than in introverts. Dopamine and dopamine-related
neural activity tend to be higher in extraverts.
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Shyness and autonomic nervous system Jerome Kagan, for example,
has attributed differences in childrens shyness and inhibition to
their autonomic nervous system reactivity. Given a reactive
autonomic nervous system, we respond to stress with greater anxiety
and inhibition. The fearless, curious child may become the
rock-climbing or fast- driving adult.
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Bird Example In lean years, bold birds are more likely to find
food; in abundant years, shy birds feed with less risk. This
relates to humans because the more extraverted are more likely to
inspect new things but shyer people are more likely to keep to
themselves
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Personality Inventories A questionnaire (often with true-false
or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed
to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess
selected personality traits.
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Profiling Some profile a persons behavior patternsoften
providing quick assessments of a single trait, such as
extraversion, anxiety, or self- esteem.
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MMPI Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: The most
widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests.
Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still
considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for
many other screening purposes.
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Scales in MMPI-2 Work attitudes Family problems Anger
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Empirically Derived A test (such as the MMPI) developed by
testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate
between groups.
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Flaw of MMPI MMPI for employment purposes can give socially
desirable answers to create a good impression. But in so doing they
may also score high on a lie scale that assesses faking (as when
people respond False to a universally true statement such as I get
angry sometimes).
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Scale to test lies For example, individuals taking the MMPI for
employment purposes can give socially desirable answers to create a
good impression. But in so doing they may also score high on a lie
scale that assesses faking (as when people respond False to a
universally true statement such as I get angry sometimes). The
objectivity of the MMPI has contributed to its popularity and to
its translation into more than 100 languages.
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Trait factors Todays trait researchers believe that simple
trait factors are important but dont tell the whole story
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Trait factors vs. Eysencks view Todays trait researchers
believe that simple trait factors, such as the Eysencks
introverted-extraverted and unstable-stable dimensions, are
important, but they do not tell the whole story. A slightly
expanded set of factorsdubbed the Big Fivedoes a better job.
Error Graphologists make Graphologists will often perceive a
correlation between handwriting and personality when there is
none.
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Techniques used by mind readers and palm readers Read clothing,
physical features, non verbal gestures, and reactions.
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Barnum Effect A general statement that you can connect to
yourself Quote: Theres a sucker born every minute.
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Relating to readings When mediums cannot see the person who has
come to them, their clients cannot recognize the reading that was
meant for them from among other readings.
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Big Five Predictions They predict other personal attributes,
for example, conscious people are more likely to earn better high
school and university grades. They are also more likely to be
morning types. People who prefer the night or evening are more
extraverted.
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Michel de Montaigne There is as much difference between us and
ourselves, as between us and others. Quote shows we can have
contradicting thoughts or multiple personalities
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JRR Tolkien and Pirandello Our behavior is influenced by the
interaction of our inner disposition with our environment.
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Person-Situation Controversy When we explore this
person-situation controversy, we look for genuine personality
traits that persist over time and across situations.
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Considering Friendliness If we are to consider friendliness a
trait, friendly people must act friendly at different times and
places.
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Stability vs. change Interests may change the avid collector of
tropical fish may become an avid gardener. Careers may change the
determined salesperson may become a determined social worker.
Relationships may changethe hostile spouse may start over with a
new partner. But most people recognize their traits as their
own.
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Traits Although our personality traits may be both stable and
potent, the consistency of our specific behaviors from one
situation to the next is another matter.
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Walter Mischel Pointed out that people do not act with
predictable consistency.
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Situations Peoples average outgoingness, happiness, or
carelessness over many situations is predictable.
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Rating personality When rating someones shyness or
agreeableness, we look at: Music preferences Dorm and Room offices
Personal Websites E-mail
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Unfamiliar situations In unfamiliar, formal situationsperhaps
as a guest in the home of a person from another cultureour traits
remain hidden as we carefully attend to social cues.
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Expressiveness vs. Inexpressiveness Inexpressive people, even
when feigning expressiveness, were less expressive than expressive
people acting naturally.
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Change in situation A quick change in situation can bring out
our traits and show our true personality
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Quote Traits exist. We differ. And our differences matter. This
quote shows how traits stay the same but we act differently in
different situations
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Social-Cognitive Perspective Views behavior as influenced by
the interaction between peoples traits (including their thinking)
and their social context. Proposed by Albert Bandura
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Social-Cognitive theorists They emphasize the interaction of
our traits with our situations. Much as nature and nurture always
work together, so do individuals and their situations. They view
behavior as influenced by the interaction between peoples traits
(including their thinking) and their social context.
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Reciprocal Determinism The interacting influences of behavior,
internal cognition, and environment.
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Ways people interact with their environments Different people
choose different environments. Our personalities shape how we
interpret and react to events. Our personalities help create
situations to which we react.
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Behavioral influences At every moment, our behavior is
influenced by our biology, our social and cultural experiences, and
our cognition and dispositions.
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The biopsychosocial approach to the study of personality As
with other psychological phenomena, personality is fruitfully
studied at multiple levels.
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Personal Control A sense of controlling your environment rather
than feeling helpless.
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Studying personal control One: correlate peoples feelings of
control with their behaviors and achievements. Two: experiment, by
raising or lowering peoples sense of control and noting the
effects.
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External and Internal locus of control External: the perception
that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control
determine your fate. Internal: the perception that you control your
own fate.
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Julian Rotter People with an internal locus of control are
happier
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Self-Control The ability to control impulses and delay
gratification In the long-run, self-control requires attention and
energy.
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Lowering risk for depression Students who plan their days
activities and then live out their day as planned are also at low
risk for depression.
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Increasing performance In one experiment, hungry people who had
resisted the temptation to eat chocolate chip cookies gave up
sooner on a tedious task. People also become less restrained in
their aggressive responses to provocation and in their sexuality
after expending willpower on laboratory tasks.
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Learned Helplessness The hopelessness and passive resignation
an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive
events.
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Nursing Home Study Measures that increase controlallowing
prisoners to move chairs and control room lights and the TV, having
workers participate in decision making, offering nursing home
patients choices about their environment noticeably improve health
and morale.
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Personal Freedom Under conditions of personal freedom and
empowerment, people thrive.
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Tyranny of Choice It brings information overload and a greater
likelihood that we will feel regret over some of the unchosen
options.
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Attribution Style Perhaps you have known students whose
attributional style is pessimistic who attribute poor performance
to their lack of ability (I cant do this) or to situations
enduringly beyond their control (There is nothing I can do about
it).
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Positive Psychology The scientific study of optimal human
functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues
that enable individuals and communities to thrive.
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Three Pillars 1. Positive emotions 2. Positive character 3.
Positive groups, communities, and cultures
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Quote I didnt think it couldnt happen to me. This is showing
how when you are too optimistic you dont think about things that
could really happen
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Ignorance of ones incompetence Phenomenon that it takes
competence to recognize competence Example: If your grammar is poor
you might think your grammar is good because you dont know what
good grammar is.
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Low Scoring Students Students that score low but think they did
well on the exam are ignorant of their grade because they dont know
the right answers.
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Social-Cognitive Social-cognitive psychologists explore how
people interact with situations.
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Donald Trump Assessing behavior in situations Reality TV shows,
such as Donald Trumps The Apprentice, may take show me job
interviews to the extreme, but they do illustrate a valid point.
Seeing how a potential employee behaves in a job-relevant situation
helps predict job performance.
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Assessing Faculty Members Colleges assess potential faculty
members by observing them teach
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Quote The social- cognitive perspective on personality
sensitizes researchers to how situations affect, and are affected
by, individuals.
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Critics of Social-Cognitive Critics charge that the social-
cognitive perspective focuses so much on the situation that it
fails to appreciate the persons inner traits.
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Self In contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of
personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and
actions.
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Spotlight effect Overestimating others noticing and evaluating
our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a
spotlight shines on us).
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Hazel Markus Hazel and colleagues created possible selves Your
possible selves include your visions of the self you dream of
becomingthe rich self, the successful self, the loved and admired
self. They also include the self you fear becomingthe unemployed
self, the lonely self, the academically failed self.
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Dreams University of Michigan students in a combined
undergraduate/medic al school program earn higher grades if they
undergo the program with a clear vision of themselves as successful
doctors. Dreams do often give birth to achievements.
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Self-focused perspective Our self-focused perspective may
motivate us, but it can also lead us to presume too readily that
others are noticing and evaluating us.
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Self-esteem Ones feelings of high or low self- worth Todays
self- esteem sometimes predicts tomorrows achievements.
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Low Self-Esteem Down sides to having low self- esteem are you
lack confidence and tend to have a peccimistic out look
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Self-Serving Bias A readiness to perceive oneself
favorably.
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Carl Rogers Once objected to the religious doctrine that
humanitys problems arise from excessive self-love, or pride. He
noted that most people he had known despise themselves, regard
themselves as worthless and unlovable.
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Better than average When people rate themselves, most of the
time they rate themselves better than average In several studies,
90 percent of business managers and more than 90 percent of college
professors rated their performance as superior to that of their
average peer. In Australia, 86 percent of people rate their job
performance as above average, and only 1 percent as below
average.
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Quote To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.
Saying that when you treat yourself with respect and have positive
actions toward yourself, you will create more opportunities in your
life that will make you love yourself more
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John Powell & Self-serving bias All of us have inferior
complexes, those who seem not to have such a complex are only
pretending.
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Large Egos People with large egos put others down and act/react
violently Affects wars by making them more likely to begin and less
likely to end
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High self-esteem The dark side of high self-esteem is having a
big ego Also can increase amount of aggression
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Compared to others? When we compare ourselves to others and
they seem superior, it makes a loss understandable and a victory
noteworthy All of us at one point in time will feel inferior to
another person
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Types of Self-esteem Defensive self-esteem is fragile. It
focuses on sustaining itself, which makes failures and criticism
feel threatening. Secure self-esteem is less fragile, because it is
less contingent on external evaluations. To feel accepted for who
we are, and not for our looks, wealth, or acclaim, relieves
pressures to succeed and enables us to focus beyond ourselves.