Prologue to Chapter 12

Prologue to Chapter 12 • This chapter is about personality theories and assessment of personality • What is personality? Why are we all different? Why are some people or friends and some people our enemies? • What makes us uniquely us? Why are we like the way we are? • These are questions of personality Psych 101 Chapter 12

Definition of personality • Personality is the sum total of the typical ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that makes each person unique. • Everyone has a uniquely different way of viewing the world, other people, and themselves. • There is not “one reality” but rather a sharing of partial common realities among people. Psych 101 Chapter 12

Psychoanalytic Views of Personality Psych 101 Chapter 12

Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud • Psychoanalytic view of consciousness: 3 levels of consciousness • the conscious mind • the preconscious mind • the unconscious mind • Psychoanalytic view of the personality • triparite personality structure: 3 parts • id, ego, and superego Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Id • The Id is the “selfish beast” part of the personality • It is contained in the unconscious part of the mind • The Id uses the “primary process” to satisfy its needs • The Id operates according to the “pleasure principle” Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Superego • The superego is the conscience and ego ideal • The superego is a “relentless policeman” and continues to insist that we do the “right thing” • The superego opposes the desires of the Id • The superego enforces moral restrictions and battles against Id impulses Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Ego • The ego is the executive of the personality • The ego uses its cognitive abilities to manage and control the Id and balance its desires against the restrictions of reality and the superego • The ego operates according to the “reality principle” • The ego defends itself from Id-Superego struggles via various defense mechanisms Psych 101 Chapter 12

Defense mechanisms • Displacement and sublimation: becoming a member of society • displacement: an ego defense mechanism and the process of substituting an acceptable goal for an unacceptable goal of an id motive • in displacement, the ego resolves a conflict between the Id and Superego in the real world by making an acceptable compromise Psych 101 Chapter 12

Defense mechanisms • Sublimation: the process of substituting a socially desireable goal for a socially harmful goal • teenagers often sublimate their sexual energy into sports • adults may throw themselves into their work rather than to pursue a divorce Psych 101 Chapter 12

Defense mechanisms • The ego uses many other defense mechanisms to protect it from id-superego conflicts. These defenses include: • denial, projection, and identification • intellectualization, reaction formation, and regression • there are about 20 various defense mechanisms used by the ego Psych 101 Chapter 12

Defense mechanisms • Everyone uses defense mechanisms from time to time • Excessive use of defense mechanisms will, over time, result in the ego becoming increasingly detached from reality and, in time, can cause psychological disorder • Psychoanalysis involves effort to understand defenses and unconscious motives driving self-destructive behaviors Psych 101 Chapter 12

Psychosexual development • Growing up, as viewed by the psychoanalytic theory, is a passage through 5 psychosexual stages • The 5 stages are: • the oral stage: 0-1 year of age • the anal stage: 1-3 years of age • the phallic stage: 3-6 years of age • the latent stage: 6-11 years of age • the genital stage: 12+ years of age Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Oral Stage • This stage lasts from birth to the first year • Id gratification is focused on the mouth • The mouth is the main “erogenous zone” • Much effort directed toward stimulation of the mouth • Fixations can occur at any of the 5 stages • retentive fixations • expulsive fixations Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Anal Stage • The stage lasts from 1 to 3 years of age • Potty training, control, and delayed gratification are issues during this time • Erogenous zone is the sphincter muscles of the anus and urinary tract • Fixations at this stage • anal retentive personality • anal expulsive personality Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Phallic Stage • This stage lasts from age 3 to 6 years • The genital region becomes the primary source of id gratification • Children will be observed to be handling their genitals (“pocket pool”) and parents should accept this as normal • Fixations can occur at this stage • phallic retentive fixation • phallic expulsive fixation Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Latent Stage • This stage lasts from age 6 to age 11 years • Sexual desires are strongly suppressed during this time through resolution of the Oedipus (male) and Electra (female) complexes • Interests shift toward social interaction and there is no major shift in erogenous zones • The “troubled child” will be seen to have their problems seemingly disappear Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Genital Stage • This stage begins about age 12 and continues throughout a person’s life • Sexual and romantic interests become directed toward one’s peers • “Normal” adult heterosexuality emerges that is an other-sex-directed pursuit of genital erogenous zone stimulation Psych 101 Chapter 12

Criticism of Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory • Many individuals had concerns about Freud’s focus on sexuality as the key factor in personality development • As a result of this criticism, the “Neo-Freudians” began to develop their own theories concerning personality development. We will examine a few neo-Freudians and their views about personality. Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Neo-Freudians • Carl Gustav Jung: Jungian psychology • contributed the concepts of introversion and extroversion to understanding of personality • contributed the concepts of “personal unconscious” and “collective unconscious” to understanding of personality • archetypes, racial memories, and the collective unconscious • Jung influenced by the occult Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Neo-Freudians • Alfred Adler: Adlerian psychology • Adler felt the primary struggle in personality development was the overcoming of feelings of inferiority • Adler contributed the notion of the “inferiority complex” in the understanding of personality • Personality development strives toward acceptance of self and recognition of one’s self worth Psych 101 Chapter 12

The Neo-Freudians • Karen Horney: Hornian psychology • Horney felt that anxious insecurity stemming from inadequate child-rearing experiences are the major source of personality conflicts and personality disturbances • Horney is considered to be the first “feminist” of psychology • Other neo-Freudians include Henry Stack Sullivan and Erik Erikson Psych 101 Chapter 12

Social Learning Theory and Humanistic Theory Psych 101 Chapter 12

Social Learning Theory • Albert Bandura is the founder of this school of thought in psychology • Social learning theorists believe that personality is the sum of all the ways that we have LEARNED to act, think, and feel • The role of learning in personality development • modeling from parents and others • direct and vicarious reinforcement Psych 101 Chapter 12

Humanistic Theory • Major names associated with humanistic theory include Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow • Humanistic theory is called the “3rd force” in psychology (psychoanalysis and behaviorism being the other 2 forces) • Personality development is driven by internal forces toward growth Psych 101 Chapter 12

Humanistic Theory • Humanistic theory makes certain assumptions about people: • humans are basically “good” and not evil nor neutral; this is contrary to psychoanalytic theory which assumes humans are “evil” and behavior theory which assumes people are “neutral” • reality, in humanism, is “subjective” and not “objective” • there is no single “real world” Psych 101 Chapter 12

Humanistic Theory • The self-concept and personality development • our self-concept is our own subjective perception of who we are and what we are like • self-concept is our own making based on our own perception of ourselves • changing the subjective nature of reality by altering perceptions can improve one’s self-concept Psych 101 Chapter 12

Humanism compared • Humanism compared to psychoanalytic theory and social learning theory • psychoanalytic theory: we are basically evil, hostile, and selfish (Id impulse driven) • social learning theory: we are basically neutral and learn to be what we are like from our environment • the philosophical underpinnings of each of the 3 forces in psychology are quite different Psych 101 Chapter 12

Assessing Personality • Traits and situations: Describing the consistencies of personality • Traits are relatively enduring ways of behaving • Trait theories of personality; we’ll discuss: • Allport’s trait theory • Cattell’s trait theory • The 5-factor Model of Personality Traits • Situationism and Interactionism Psych 101 Chapter 12

Allport’s Trait Theory • Gordon Allport believed that the most important traits of personality were those related to our values • Allport distinguished between 3 categories of value-related traits • cardinal traits • central traits • secondary traits Psych 101 Chapter 12

Cattell’s Trait Theory • Raymond Cattell believed there were three types of traits useful to describe personality • “dynamic” traits • “ability” traits • “temperament” traits • Cattell also distinguished between “surface” and “source” traits Psych 101 Chapter 12

The 5-factor Model of Personality Traits • Many personality theorists generally agree that there are 5 basic personality traits that should be considered in assessing personality • These five traits are: • neuroticism • extroversion • openness • agreeableness • conscientiousness Psych 101 Chapter 12

Situationism and Interactionism • Situationism: suggests that our behavior is determined by the situation and not by some internal traits • we do that which is expedient at the moment • we respond to the moment and not based on a collection of traits • Interactionism: holds that behavior is influenced by a combination of characteristics of person and the situation Psych 101 Chapter 12

Personality Assessment: Taking a measure Psych 101 Chapter 12

Personality Assessment • How does one measure another’s personality? Methods include: • interviews and observation • projective personality tests • objective personality tests • We will now discuss each of these in some depth Psych 101 Chapter 12

Interviews and Observation • Interviews consist of dialogue with the person in an effort to detect their ideas, beliefs, and values • when you first meet someone you have likely engaged in this method of personality assessment • Observation consists of watching the person in various situations over time in an effort to discern their ideas, beliefs, values, and behavior patterns Psych 101 Chapter 12

Projective Personality Tests • These are based on the belief that the unconscious mind contains the roots of personality • They are based on a psychoanalytic view of personality • Types of projective tests include: • Rorshach Inkblot test • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) • Word- and free-association tests Psych 101 Chapter 12

Objective Personality Tests • Objective tests attempt to overcome the subjectivity of interviews and projective tests by using paper-pencil multiple choice tests • Examples of objective personality tests include the PF-16 (Cattell) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Psych 101 Chapter 12

Evaluation of Personality Tests • Results of research on personality tests suggest caution in relying exclusively on the interpretations of personality tests • Results suggest that personality tests are useful, but that results from these tests should be used to confirm other data gathered on a person and not used as the sole assessment tool Psych 101 Chapter 12

Application of Psychology • Situational influences on personality in everyday life • situations in our lives have a powerful influence on our general behavior • situations can, if extreme, radically change our general way of behaving • would you ever consider eating another human? • would you ever consider drinking urine? • would you ever kill, lie, or commit adultery? Psych 101 Chapter 12

Questions? • Any questions over Chapter 12? Psych 101 Chapter 12

Prologue to Chapter 12