Exploring Personality: From Freud to the Big Five Factors

1. Introduction to Psychology Personality

2. Psychodynamic Views of Personality • Freud invoked a role of unconscious processes in the control of behavior • Based on his observations of clients • Topographical model: argued for 3 levels of consciousness • Conflict occurs between the different aspects of consciousness • Requires compromise formation • Id, ego, superego

3. Freud’s Developmental Model • Human behavior is motivated by two drives • Aggressive • Sexual • Libido refers to pleasure-seeking and sensuality as well as desire for intercourse • Libido follows a developmental course during childhood • Stages of development • Fixed progression of change from stage to stage • Notion of fixation at a particular libidinal stage

4. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages STAGE AGE CONFLICTS AND CONCERNS

5. Ego Defense Mechanisms • Defense mechanisms are unconscious mental processes that protect the conscious person from anxiety • Repression: anxiety-evoking thoughts are kept unconscious • Denial: person refuses to recognize reality - Projection: person attributes their own unacceptable impulses to others

6. Ego Defense Mechanisms • Reaction Formation: person converts an unacceptable impulse into the opposite impulse • Sublimation: person converts an unacceptable impulse into a socially acceptable activity • Rationalization: person explains away their actions to reduce anxiety • Displacement: diverting emotional feelings from their original source to a substitute target

7. Projective Tests • Projective tests assume that persons presented with a vague stimulus will “project” their own impulses and desires into a description of the stimulus • Rorschach Inkblots • Thematic Apperception Test "I see a …..”

8. Other Psychoanalytic Theorists • Jung’s Analytical Psychology • Adler’s Individual Psychology • Anna Freud • Erik Erikson • Harry Sullivan

9. Evaluation of Freud’s Contributions to Personality Theory • Contributions • Emphasis on unconscious processes • Identification of defense mechanisms • Importance of childhood experiences in shaping adult personality • Limitations • Theories are not solidly based on scientific observation • Excessive emphasis on drives such as sex and aggression

10. B.F. Skinner (1904-1990): Radical Behaviorism • scientific analysis of behavior • personality a collection of behavior patterns • black box theory • explanatory fictions (e.g., freedom, “the self”)

11. Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory Observational (Vicarious) Learning • people learn by merely observing what others do and what happens to them • two processes: • acquisition • acceptance/performance • consequences are an important influence

12. RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM PERSON (cognitions, expectations) BEHAVIOUR ENVIRONMENT (contingencies)

13. Albert Ellis: RationalEmotive Therapy (RET) • Assumes that all humans have fundamental goals, purposes and values (e.g., stay alive, be satisfied) • if people choose to stay alive & try to be happy/satisfied they are acting “rationally” • when people think/emote/behave in a way that interferes with these goals, they act “irrationally”

14. Evaluation of Cognitive-Social Personality Theory • Contributions • Provided emphasis on the role of thought and memory in personality • Limitations • Overemphasis of rational side of personality • Avoidance of explanations of unconscious processes in personality

15. Humanistic Personality Approaches • Humanistic personality theorists reject the behaviorist and psychodynamic notions of personality • Humanists emphasize the notion that each person has a potential for creative growth • The intent is to assist the person in developing to their maximal potential

16. Roger’s Person-Centered Approach • Rogers believed that humans are good by nature (in contrast to psychodynamic view of human nature) • Rogers emphasized the notion of self-concept • Each person has multiple selves: • True-self: the core aspect of being • False-self: the self that is created by distortions from interpersonal experiences • Ideal-self: what the person would like to be

17. Evaluation of Humanistic Personality Theory • Contributions • Focus on how humans strive to determine the meaning of life • Limitations • Humanistic approach is not a complete theoretical account of personality • The approach has not generated a body of testable hypotheses and research

18. Trait Approach TRAIT: Consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, or actions that distinguish people. • ASSUMPTION 1: traits are stable over time • ASSUMPTION 2: traits are stable across situations • people differ on continuous variables or dimensions • traits exist on a continuum • basic differences between people are quantitative • traits are used to understand and predict behaviour • emphasizes measurement of traits through tests

19. The Big Five Factors of Personality • Openness to experience • Conscientiousness • Extroversion • Agreeableness • Neuroticism • OCEAN...

20. Genetics of Personality • Biological relatives are more similar in personality than are strangers • Twins raised together and raised apart provide evidence for a genetic aspect of personality Raised Apart Raised Together MZ DZ MZ DZ .48 .18 .58 .23 .29 .30 .57 .24 Genetic effect Well-being Social Closeness Environmental effect