Personality

Unit

Who am I? What do we know

about why people are they

way they are?

Pers

onalit

y is

defined a

s:

One’s characterisitc pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.”

We w

ill be stu

dyin

g

thre

e d

iffere

nt

persp

ective

s of

perso

nality:

-Humanisitic

-Trait

-Social-Cognitive

(Perspectives are like different

lenses we can use to look at

different phenomena.)

THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

There are two main humanistic psychologists whose names you’ll need to know:

ABRAHAM MASLOW

1908-1970

"What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-

actualization."

“When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic. ”

CARL ROGERS

1902-1987

HUMANISTS BELIEVE:

1.That people are naturally good, but some environments are bad, and that can lead people to make bad choices.

2.That people should be treated with dignity and respect.

3.When the environments people come from are healthy, then people will be free to become their best selves.

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

CARL ROGERS SAID THERE WERE SOME CONDITIONS

THAT MUST BE MET IN ORDER FOR US TO GROW INTO OUR

“TRUE SELVES”.(AND THAT THE GOAL OF LIFE IS TO GROW UP TO BECOME

THE PERSON YOU REALLY ARE.)

Example1. “I’m fine.” Being

open with others about how we feel.

2. Parents know our failings, but they love us anyway

3. When a friend feels bad, we feel bad, too.

Condition1. Genuineness- openness about feelings

2. Acceptance- unconditional positive regard

3. Empathy- sharing and mirroring feelings

HUMANISTIC ASSESSMENT:

In other words, how do we test personality according to this perspective…

1. Self-Concept Questionnaires

2. Personal Interview

3. Self Report

NOT EVERYONE BELIEVES IN THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE…

People who criticize this perspective say…1. Too optimistic about basic human nature

2. Concepts are too vague and subjective

3. Could encourage selfish meeting of one’s needs while ignoring needs of others

4. Only a picture of qualities Maslow valued

The Trait Theory

A trait is a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self report inventories and peer reports.

One major trait theorist is Gordon Allport.

He said that a good theory of personality wouldn’t be as concerned with explaining why someone acted a certain way, but should instead describing how people actually act.

Trait theorists also believe that genetics play a huge part in why we are the way we are.

Personality inventories-

Questionnaires covering a wide range of feelings and behaviors

Empirically derived-

They test a pool of people and only choose questions that show a difference between groups

Assessing Traits

Some critics dislike Trait theory for the following reasons:

1. De-humanizing to reduce people to pre-defined categories

2. Overlooks why people act the way they do, which is too important to overlook

3. Traits are not always expressed

Evaluating the Trait theory

The Social-Cognitive Perspective(environment matters)

Important Social-Cognitive Psychologists:

Albert Bandura

Martin Seligman

Reciprocal Determinism: The interacting influences between

personality and environmental factors.

Internal vs. External Locus of control:

Internal Locus of ControlDefinition:People control their own fate

Personality Results:

External Locus of ControlDefinition:Chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate

Personality Results:

Learned Helplessness: Learned Helplessness is a passive

attitude that happens when people are faced with an unavoidable negative event. This hopelessness makes them unwilling to try to change their situation.

Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective What do critics say about this

perspective?

Individualistic Cultures Collectivist Cultures