General PsychologyPSYC 200

Personality

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Sources and Credibility

• How do we decide what is credible?

“Since this anthology discusses psychology, a science based on a lot of assumptions, it cannot be considered reliable information”

Outline

What is Personality?

How do We Measure it?

Trait Approach

Psychodynamic Approach

Humanistic Approach

Social-Cognitive Approach

I What is Personality?

• An individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling

• Across time, across situations

• Trait: A relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way

Across different situations?

• Trait vs. Situation

• Long time controversy

I How Do We Measure It?

• Self-Report: Just ask people– MMPI

• Projective Tests– Standard set of ambiguous stimuli that elicit

unique responses

What do you see?

Figure 12.1 Sample Rorschach InkblotSchacter, Gilbert and Wegner: Psychology, First EditionCopyright © 2009 by Worth Publishers

Figure 12.2 Sample TAT CardSchacter, Gilbert and Wegner: Psychology, First EditionCopyright © 2009 by Worth Publishers

I How Do We Measure It?

• Self-Report: Just ask people– Drawback: self-reports can be limited

• “Are you conceited?”

• Projective Tests– Drawback: Don’t work (can’t predict behavior)

Four Major Approaches

• differ dramatically • methods used• questions asked• assumptions made• current popularity

II Trait Approach

• identify core traits• enduring predispositions• e.g., introverted, conscientious, helpful

• focus on description• not explanation

• self-report methodology• personality inventories• MMPI

“Oh, God! Here comes little Miss Perky.”

“Big Five”

• leading personality inventory• Avoids overlap, captures variation

• reliable• stable over time, different data

• valid• e.g., high conscientiousness and low neuroticism are

correlated with successful job performance

• cross-cultural validity

My Big Five

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

• www.outofservice.com

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?oR=0.725&cR=0.722&eR=0.312&aR=0.861&nR=0.188

OCEAN

• Openness• Conscientiousness• Extraversion• Agreeableness• Neuroticism

• Openness to Experience• curious; vivid imagination• like variety and unusual ideas; unconventional• like the abstract, ambiguous, and subtle

• Conscientiousness• self-disciplined and dutiful; prefer order• prefer planning over spontaneity; detail-oriented; careful and exact

• Extraversion• get energy from being with others• energetic and enthusiastic; talkative

• Agreeableness• compassionate and cooperative; value harmony• friendly, generous; feel others’ emotions; soft-hearted

• Neuroticism• anger prone; anxious and irritable• unstable, moody; often depressed and stressed

Nature or Nurture?

• surprisingly high heritability rates for many personality traits

• e.g., introversion/extraversion

• evidence for genetic basis to personality• twin studies• adoption studies• family patterns

• Does environment matter too?

V Psychodynamic Approach

• historical value• personality is shaped by desires and needs that

are outside of our awareness• power of the unconscious

• psychic determinism• assumption that all psychological events have a cause• no free choice

• primary methodology involved projective tests• Rorschach Test

It’s just a simple Rorschach ink-blot test, Mr. Bromwell, so calm down and tell me what each one suggests to you.”

• Freudian slips

Freud

• first comprehensive theory of personality• late 1800s

• physician specializing in neurotic disorders• no known physical cause

• unconscious motivations• sex• aggression

• mind is like an iceberg• mostly hidden

Id

Superego

Ego Conscious mind

Unconscious mind

Structure of the Mind

• tensions among the id, ego, and superego shape our personality

• pleasure = id• reality = ego• morality = superego

• anxiety is a driving force• defense mechanisms help relieve anxiety

• unconscious coping mechanisms

Defense Mechanisms

• repression• blocking emotionally threatening memories or impulses

• projection• attributing your own unacceptable feelings or impulses to someone

else

• displacement• directing an unacceptable impulse onto a safer and more socially

acceptable target

• reaction formation• transforming an anxiety-provoking emotion into its opposite

• regression• returning to younger stages of development

• rationalization• providing a reasonable sounding explanation for an

unreasonable behavior

• denial• refusing to admit that something unpleasant or taboo is

happening

• sublimation (+)• transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired

goal

Defense Mechanisms• Elise accuses other women of talking too much when she is really the

one who talks too much.

• John got in a lot of fights as a child. When he started high school he channeled that hostility into playing football.

• Mr. Egosi forgot to mail the letter inviting his mother-in-law to spend the winter with them.

• After failing an exam, Kenny slams the door as he leaves the classroom.

• Lisa dresses in provocative clothes and uses suggestive language although she actually fears that she is unattractive.

Personality Development

• which conflicts we have when shape our unique personalities

• fully formed by age 6• 6 psychosexual stages

• differentiated by area of the body

Stage Focus

Oral Pleasure centers on the mouth--(0-18 months) sucking, biting, chewing

Anal Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder (18-36 months) elimination; coping with demands for

control

Phallic Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with (3-6 years) incestuous sexual feelings

Latency Dormant sexual feelings(6 to puberty)

Genital Maturation of sexual interests(puberty on)

Oedipus Complex

Psychosexual Stages

Oedipus Complex

• phallic stage• boys• develop powerful attraction to Mommy

• see Daddy as rival

• castration anxiety• eventually give up and identify with Daddy

• If you can’t beat him, join him

Electra Complex

• girls• attracted to Daddy• fantasize about getting rid of

Mommy• develop penis envy (??)

• feel inferior to boys

• girls never get over their penis envy entirely unless they give birth to a boy

Fixations

• “stuck”• too much or too little gratification; can’t resolve

conflicts• manifest as distinct personality characteristics or

flaws• oral fixation → eating disorders, excessively needy• anal fixation → stubborn, obsessive-compulsive• phallic fixation → jealous, sex-role identity problems

Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Approach

• biased case studies• vague terms• gender, race, and

cultural biases• just plain wrong about

many things

• unparalleled impact• emphasized talk

therapy• got us thinking

about the unconscious

IV Humanistic Approach

• 1960s-70s• emphasized free will

• personality shaped by our choices

• emphasized potential for growth• reaching optimal states of being

• upbeat, positive about human nature• core motives are good, not evil• optimistic to the point of being naive

Self-Actualization• Abraham Maslow• living up to one’s fullest potential• MLK, Helen Keller, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas

Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln

Unconditional Positive Regard• Carl Rogers• necessary for optimal, healthy personality development• individual differences stem from different conditions of

worth imposed on us• impact on parenting

Social-Cognitive Approach

• Personality: How we think about situations and behave in response to them

• emphasizes the interaction of our traits with our situations– Mischel : Traits alone often don’t predict behavior– Also Mischel – marshmallow study

• and the importance of mental processes• how we interpret and respond to events• how we view ourselves and our place in the world

• locus of control• do we view ourselves as controlling, or as controlled by, our

environment

Locus of Control

Internal• what happens is result

of our actions• high sense of control• self as effective and

powerful• take credit for

successes and responsibility for failures

• “can do” mentality

External• what happens is result

of chance, fate, luck, other forces

• low sense of control• feel less powerful or

effective• tend not to take credit

for successes or failures