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Psychology 305B: Theories of Personality

Lecture 8

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Lecture 8

Analysis of the Personality of a Serial Killer

Jeffrey DahmerDiscussion Questions

1. How would you expect Jeffrey Dahmer to score on the personality dimensions identified by (a) Eysenck, (b) Wiggins, and (c) Big 5 theorists?

2. Can a diathesis-stress model be used to explain the onset of Jeffrey Dahmer’s antisocial behaviour?

3. What needs do you think motivated Jeffrey Dahmer’s behaviour? Consider both Murray’s needs and the “Big Three.”

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Discussion Questions, continued

4. Can evolutionary psychology offer explanations for antisocial behaviour, psychopathy, cannibalism, and/or necrophilia?

5. Which characteristics do you think Jeffrey Dahmer may have inherited?

6. How do you think Jeffrey Dahmer would score on the temperaments identified by Buss and Plomin (i.e., activity level, sociability, and emotionality)?

7. Speculate upon the physiological causes of antisocial personality disorder or psychopathy (e.g., the role of the BAS, the BIS, MAO, testosterone).

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Eysenck’s Major Personality Dimensions

Emotionally Stable Emotionally Unstable

Introvert PassiveThoughtfulPeaceful AControlledReliableCalm

QuietPessimisticUnsociable BMoodyAnxiousReserved

Extravert SociableOutgoingTalkative CResponsiveEasygoingCarefree

ActiveOptimisticImpulsive DExcitableAggressiveRestless

A = Phlegmatic; B = Melancholic; C = Sanguine; D = Choleric

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Wiggins’ Interpersonal Circle

Warm-agreeable

Cold-hearted

Unassured-submissive

Assured-dominant

Aloof-introverted

Unassuming-ingenuous

Gregarious-extraverted

Arrogant-calculating

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Extraversion:

Conscientiousness:

Agreeableness:

Openness to Experience:

Neuroticism:

Low

High

Low

Low

Low

The Big 5 Dimensions

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Some Heritable Personality Characteristics

• The Big 5: H

Extraversion …………………………………………… .50

Conscientiousness…………………………………….. .49

Agreeableness ………………………………………... .48

Openness to Experience ………………………….…. .48

Neuroticism ……………………………………………. .49

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• Characteristics related to psychopathy: H

Fearlessness …………………………………………… > .95

Carefree Nonplanfulness (i.e., impulsiveness)……... .94

Machiavellianism (i.e., enjoys manipulating others)... .74

Social potency (i.e., skilled at influencing others) …. .66

Aggressiveness ……………………………………….. .67

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Contemporary Measures of Psychopathy:

1. Psychopathic Personality Inventory

Self-report measure.

187 items, scored with a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (false) to 4 (true).

Consists of 8 factors: Machiavellian egocentricity, social potency, fearlessness, coldheartedness, impulse nonconformity, blame externalization, carefree nonplanfulness, and stress immunity.

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2. Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)

Instrument used by trained clinicians.

Assesses 20 symptoms associated with psychopathy. Each symptom is scored from 0 – 2 (0 = definitely does not apply to the person, 2 = definitely does apply to the person).

Consists of 2 factors: Affective/interpersonal features and behavioural features.

Maximum score: 40. A score of 30 is indicative of the presence of psychopathy.

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3. Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised Screening Version (PCLR: SV)

Instrument used by trained clinicians.

Assesses 12 symptoms associated with psychopathy. Each symptom is scored from 0 – 2 (0 = not present; 2 = item definitely applies).

Consists of 2 factors: Affective/interpersonal features and behavioural features.

Maximum score: 24. A score of 18 is indicative of the presence of psychopathy.

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DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria forAsperger’s Disorder

A. Impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least 2 of the following:

1. Marked impairment in the use of nonverbal behaviours (e.g., eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures).

2. Failure to develop peer relationships.3. Lack of spontaneous seeking to share interests,

enjoyment, or achievements with other people.4. Lack of social or emotional reciprocity.

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Criteria for Asperger’s Disorder, continued

B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least 1 of the following:

1. Restricted patterns of interest that are abnormal either in intensity or focus.

2. Inflexible adherence to nonfunctional routines or rituals.

3. Repetitive and stereotyped motor mannerisms.4. Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects.

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Criteria for Asperger’s Disorder, continued

C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

D. There is no clinically significant delay in general language.

E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or the development of age-appropriate self-help skills.

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Questions That Will be Answered in Today’s Lecture

Psychoanalytic Perspective on Personality

1. Who was Sigmund Freud and what events in his life influenced his thinking about personality?

2. According to psychoanalytic theory:(a) what are the major components of the mind?

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Who was Sigmund Freud and what events in his life

• Born in Austria in 1856, at the end of the Romantic Period and the start of the Victorian Era.

• Romantic Period

influenced his thinking about personality?

Characterized by rejection of reason, order, and concern for common good.

Emphasized “passionate living.”

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• Victorian Era

Characterized by a scientific and rational view.

Emphasized morality (in particular, repression of sexuality), duty, and a need for social reform.

• The ideals of both the Romantic Period and the Victorian Era appear to have had a substantial influence on Freud’s thinking.

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• Consistent with the ideals of the Romantic Period, Freud suggested that people experience emotional and irrational impulses—in particular, emotional and

irrational impulses related to sex and aggression.

• Consistent with the ideals of the Victorian Era, Freud suggested that the emotional and irrational impulses that people experience must be restrained or expressed indirectly in order for society to function effectively.

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• Indeed, the 2 aspects of human experience that Freud emphasized in psychoanalytic theory are:

(a) the emotional and irrational impulses that people experience.

(b) the mechanisms that people use to restrain or redirect these impulses.

• There are 7 individuals who had a noteworthy impact on Freud’s thinking:

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Amalie Freud

Freud’s mother.

Freud described his feelings for his mother as the purest and least ambivalent of all of his emotional experiences.

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Jacob Freud

Freud’s father.

Freud described his feelings for his father as highly ambivalent, characterized by both love and hate.

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Freud’s unfettered love for his mother and ambivalence for his father are likely to be the source

of his ideas regarding the Oedipus Complex (will discuss later in class).

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Ernst Brucke

A physician and physiologist under whom Freud studied when he began university (1873).

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Brucke introduced Freud to the mechanist perspective. According to this perspective, biological

systems are best represented by machine models (i.e., models that use energy).

Freud adopted this perspective: Freud theorized that the mind is a system that transforms raw psychic energy into work (i.e., thought and behaviour).

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Josef Breuer and Jean-Martin Charcot

Breuer Charcot

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Unconventional scientists who studied “hysteria.” This condition is characterized by symptoms such as paralysis, visual/speech/auditory disturbances, hallucinations, and multiple personalities.

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Charcot demonstrated that hysteria had psychological origins (e.g., demonstrated that the symptoms could be created or removed under hypnosis).

Breuer discovered that the symptoms could be removed by talking about their origins. Breuer referred to this remedy as the “talking cure.”

Freud adopted Charcot’s procedure for inducing hypnosis and Breuer’s talking cure in his own work with hysterical patients.

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Emmy Von N.

A patient of Freud’s who suffered from hysteria.

Freud attempted to treat her symptoms using hypnosis and the talking cure but was unsuccessful.

During treatment, Emmy Von N. suggested that Freud allow her to speak freely, without interruption.

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On the basis of Emmy Von N.’s suggestion, Freud developed the therapeutic technique of free

association, the “fundamental rule” of psychoanalysis.

Following from his work with patients such as Emmy Von N., Freud co-authored “Studies in Hysteria,” in which he

argued that hysterical symptoms are caused by problems in memory associated with traumatic childhood events.

Many scholars believe that this book marks the birth of psychoanalytic theory.

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Wilhelm Fleiss

Freud’s closest confidant in the early 1900s.

In early correspondence with Fleiss, Freud wrote extensively about seduction theory. In this theory, Freud argued that the symptoms associated with hysteria are the result of repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse.

Later, however, Freud abandoned seduction theory, arguing that the sexual abuse of children was not common enough to account for the high prevalence of hysteria.

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After abandoning seduction theory, Freud came to believe that, in many cases, hysterics fantasized that they had engaged in sexual relations as children.

Many scholars believe that this revelation marks the point at which Freud began to explore the dynamics of the unconscious mind.

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According to psychoanalytic theory, what are the major

components of the mind?

• Freud believed that the mind is comprised of 3 major components or regions. The 3 components reflect different levels of consciousness.

• The 3 components are represented in Freud’s Topographical Model of the Mind. According to this

model, the 3 components are as follows:

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1. The conscious component of the mind

Makes up the surface area of the brain.

Contains information that an individual is currently

aware of.

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2. The preconscious component of the mind

Below the conscious component of the mind.

Contains information that an individual is not currently aware of but can readily retrieve and bring into conscious awareness.

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3. The unconscious component of the mind

Below the preconscious component of the mind.

Contains information that an individual cannot readily retrieve—information that has been actively repressed because it is too threatening to bring into

conscious awareness.

This information is expressed largely in symbolic form (e.g., through dreams). Thus, the information continues to influence the individual.

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Psychoanalytic Perspective on Personality

1. Who was Sigmund Freud and what events in his life influenced his thinking about personality?

2. According to psychoanalytic theory:(a) what are the major components of the mind?

Questions That Were Answered in Today’s Lecture