PERSONALITYPERSONALITYFast Track Chapter 10

(Bernstein Chapter 14)Fast Track Chapter 10

(Bernstein Chapter 14)

PERSONALITY• the unique and consistent pattern of behavior,

thinking, and feeling that makes up an individual

• Major Research Approaches

• Psychodynamic (Freud, Jung, Adler, Horney)

• Trait (Allport, Cattell, Eysenck, Costa, McCrae)

• Social-Cognitive (Rotter, Bandura)

• Humanistic (Rogers, Maslow)

PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

• Sigmund Freud believed personality was influenced by the unconscious (made up of wishes, inner conflict, and memories we are unaware of but still affect our behavior)

• This influence enters conscious and preconscious awareness through symbolic thoughts, events, and actions.

• conscious awareness includes all the mental processes a person is aware of at any given moment

• preconscious awareness consists of memories and information that are not presently in conscious awareness but can easily be recalled.

PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

• Freud believed psychological energy produced three distinct components of personality: the ID, the EGO, and the SUPEREGO.

The Development of Personality

• ID the unconscious portion of the personality present at birth

• primitive and unaffected by values, morals, and ethics

• governed by the pleasure principle which demands immediate gratification

• energy comes from two opposing instinctual drives Freud called Eros and Thanatos

• Eros purpose is to preserve life by alerting an individual to hunger, thirst, and sexuality (libido--psychological energy that is provided by the sex drive)

• Thanatos the death instinct responsible for aggressive and destructive behavior

PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

• EGO emerges from the psychological energy of the id

• partly conscious and represents the rational, decision-making part of the personality

• relies on the reality principle which (when necessary) delays the demands and needs of the id until a more appropriate time

• SUPEREGO emerges around age 5 or 6 and represents the internal voice of reason

• comparable to a person’s conscience

• violating the demands of the superego leads to guilt and anxiety

• governed by the perfection principle

The Development of Personality

PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

Types of Ego Defense MechanismsThe role of the ego is to mediate intrapsychic conflicts between the id and superego.

This conflict can lead to anxiety.

To reduce this anxiety and protect itself against unpleasant impulses and circumstances, the ego relies on defense mechanisms.

(SEE HANDOUT FOR FULL LIST)

PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

• Freud believed personality development hinged on successful completion of five distinct psychosexual stages.

• Each stage is unconsciously associated with an area of pleasure (erogenous zone) in which the unconscious tries to achieve satisfaction.

• If the unconscious does not adequately satisfy the needs associated with a particular stage, then fixation occurs.

• fixation defense mechanism that occurs when an individual remains locked in an earlier developmental stage because his/her needs were either under- or over-gratified during that stage

• This can negatively affect an individual in adulthood if he/she unconsciously attempts to achieve pleasure through adult activities that were denied him/her in childhood.

Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development

PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACHPsychosexual Stages of Personality Development

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PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

• Carl Jung

• introvert v. extrovert, collective unconscious

• Alfred Adler

• childhood inferiority complexes, compensation as adults

• Karen Horney

• social restraint and female inferiority, womb envy, and defensive personality styles (toward, against, away)

Neo-Freudian View of Personality

TRAIT THEORIES

• Personality Traits internal characteristics that are stable, consistent over time, and displayed through multiple situations

• predict how people will act or think based on their specific traits

• e.g., a person described as caring will be caring in the classroom as well as caring at home.

• no two people display the same list of traits

• TRAITS v. TYPES

• traits--specific descriptors used to describe a person

• types--address whether a person “fits” a particular type or group of characteristics; more vague and general than traits

TRAIT THEORIES• Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory

• central (source) traits, secondary (surface) traits

• Raymond Cattell

• factor analysis, Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire

• Hans Eysenck (Biological Trait Theory)

• factor analysis & introversion-extroversion, emotionality-stability

• Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (The Big Five Model)

• factor analysis & openness (to experience), conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

SOCIAL-COGNITIVE APPROACH

• explains personality by showing how conscious thoughts influence a person’s actions (and vice versa)

• specifically believe personality to be the interaction of cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors

• SOCIAL situations affect the way people think (COGNITION)

SOCIAL-COGNITIVE APPROACH

• Julian Rotter

• internal/external locus of control

• Albert Bandura

• reciprocal determinism, self-efficacy beliefs

HUMANISTIC APPROACH

• explains personality by describing how people differ in terms of:

• self-awareness

• creativity

• decision-making

• responsibility

• believes all people have an innate drive that promotes and directs personal growth

• This growth process influences how a person will go about achieving his or her full potential.

HUMANISTIC APPROACH

• Carl Rogers

• actualizing tendency, self-concept, unconditional positive regard, congruence

• Abraham Maslow

• self-actualization, deficiency orientation v. growth orientation

EVALUATING THE DIFFERENT APPROACHES

• difficult to prove existence and influence of the unconscious; case studies cannot be generalized to a larger population

• does not explain why a person acts a certain way

• does not discuss how how the unconscious affects personality

• too naïve and optimistic; does not factor in the role played by the situation

• brought about additional research on personality that could be quantified

• excellent at labeling behavior

• includes cognitive, behavior, and environmental factors in describing personality; helps explain how social circumstances influence thought processes and the way a person acts

• sees each person as unique and inherently good

PSYCHODYNAMIC

TRAIT

SOCIAL-COGNITIVE

HUMANISTIC

PROS CONSAPPROACHES

PERSONALITY TESTING

• personality tests better assessment tool than interviews due to tendency of subjects to distort answers in the presence of researchers

• interviews more time-consuming and expensive

• standardized personality tests--improves validity, easy to administer and score, time-saving

• two kinds of tests--objective or subjective (projective)

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Card V (Rorschach Inkblot Test) is an easily elaborated card that is not usually perceived as threatening, and typically instigates a "change of pace" in the test, after the previous more challenging cards. Containing few features that generate concerns or complicate the elaboration, it is the easiest blot to generate a good quality response about.

Thematic Apperception Test Sample Images