Chapter 11: Personality

1. Chapter 11: Personality Dr. M. Davis-Brantley

2. What is Personality? • Personality • An individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving • Personality Theory • Attempt to describe and explain how people are similar, how they are different, and why every individual is unique

3. Personality Perspectives • Psychoanalytic—importance of unconscious processes and childhood experiences • Humanistic—importance of self and fulfillment of potential • Social cognitive—importance of beliefs about self • Also, Behaviorism (discussed extensively in Chap 5)

4. Psychoanalytic Approach • Developed by Sigmund Freud • Psychoanalysis is both an approach to therapy and a theory of personality • Emphasizes unconscious motivation – the main causes of behavior lie buried in the unconscious mind

6. Psychoanalytic Approach: Conscious Forces • Conscious – all things we are aware of at any given moment • Wishes, desires, or thoughts we are aware of , or can recall, at any given moment

7. Psychoanalytic Approach: Preconscious Forces • Preconscious – everything that can, with a little effort, be brought into consciousness

8. Psychoanalytic Approach: Unconscious Forces • Unconscious –inaccessible warehouse of anxiety-producing thoughts and drives • Represents wishes, desires, or thoughts that, because of their disturbing or threatening content, we automatically repress and have difficulty accessing

9. Psychoanalytic Divisions of the Mind • Id—instinctual drives present at birth • does not distinguish between reality and fantasy • operates according to the pleasure principle • Ego—develops out of the id in infancy • understands reality and logic • mediator between id and superego • Superego • internalization of society’s moral standards • responsible for guilt

10. Id: The Pleasure Principle • Pleasure principle—drive toward immediate gratification, most fundamental human motive • Libido—sexual energy or motivation • Id’s psychological energy is derived from two conflicting drives Eros (life instinct) and Thanatos (death instinct)

11. Ego: The Reality Principle • Reality principle—ability to postpone gratification in accordance with demands of reality • Ego—rational, organized, logical, mediator to demands of reality • Can repress desires that cannot be met in an acceptable manner

12. Superego: Conscience • Internalization of societal and parental values • Partially unconscious • Can be harshly punitive using feelings of guilt

13. Classroom Demonstration 3 Volunteers

14. Defense Mechanisms Unconscious mental processes employed by the ego to reduce anxiety

17. Psychosexual Stages • Freud’s five stages of personality development, each associated with a particular erogenous zone • Fixation—an attempt to achieve pleasure as an adult in ways that are equivalent to how it was achieved in these stages

19. Neo-Freudian Psychodynamic Theories • Carl Jung • Karen Horney • Alfred Adler • Erik Erikson

20. Eriksonian Psychosocial Stages of Development • Trust vs. Mistrust—babies learn to trust others will care for their basic needs (birth to 1 year) • Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt—child learns that they can be self-sufficient (1-3 years) • Initiative vs. Guilt—children learn to undertake many adult activities or be punished by parents and made to feel guilty (3-6 years) • Industry vs. Inferiority—child learns to be competent and productive or unable to do anything (6-11 years) • Identity vs. Role Diffusion—Begin to understand/figure out “Who am I”? Or are confused about who they are (adolescence) • Intimacy vs. Isolation—Person seeks companionship and love or can become isolated because of fear of rejection or disappointment (Young adulthood) • Generativity vs. Stagnation—Person explore contribution to next generation such as meaningful work, raising a family, etc…(Middle Adulthood) • Integrity vs. Despair—Person tries to make sense of life and sees it as meaningful or not goal-directed (Older adulthood)

21. Evaluation of Psychoanalysis • Evidence is inadequate—data are not available or able to be reviewed • Theory is not testable—lack of operational definitions. Good at explaining past but not at prediction • Sexism—believed that women were weak and inferior. Used male psychology as basis for all people

22. Humanistic Perspective • Free will • Self-awareness • Psychological growth • Abraham Maslow • Carl Rogers

23. Carl Rogers • Actualizing tendency—innate drive to maintain and enhance the human organism • Self-concept—set of perceptions you hold about yourself • Positive regard—conditional and unconditional

25. Evaluating Humanism • Difficult to test or validate scientifically • Tends to be too optimistic, minimizing some of the more destructive aspects of human nature

26. Social Cognitive Perspective • Social cognitive theory—the importance of observational learning, social experience, self-efficacy and reciprocal determinism in personality • Reciprocal determinism-model that explains personality as the result of behavioral, cognitive, and environmental interactions • Self-efficacy—belief that people have about their ability to meet demands of a specific situation

27. Social-Cognitive Cont’d Reciprocal Determinism—Albert Bandura

28. Cognitive Social-Learning Theory • Developed by Albert Bandura • Reciprocal Determinism • Complex interaction of individual factors (person variables), behavior, and environment stimuli • Person Variables • Factors within the person that influence behavior such as expectancies, competencies, attitudes, beliefs, or prior Sr+ history • These variables are in addition to your effect on the environment and the environment’s effect on you • Ex: Beginning an exercise regimen • Reciprocal Determinism: Person—Environment—Behavior

29. Evaluation of Social Cognitive Perspective • Well grounded in empirical, laboratory research • However, laboratory experiences are rather simple and may not reflect the complexity of human interactions • Ignores the influences of unconscious, emotions, conflicts