Chapter 10 Personality

1. Chapter 10 Personality

2. Chapter Preview Psychodynamic Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Trait Perspectives Personological and Life Story Perspectives Social Cognitive Perspectives Biological Perspectives Personality Assessment

3. Personality • Pattern of enduring, distinctive . . . • Thoughts • Emotions • Behaviors • . . . that characterize how an individual adapts to the world

4. Psychodynamic Perspectives • Emphasize that personality is primarily unconscious, or beyond awareness • Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory • Sexual Drive • Most important human motivator • Main determinant of personality • Hysteria • Physical symptoms that have no physical cause • Hysterical symptoms as overdetermined, or having multitude of causes in unconscious

5. Structures of Personality • Id • Consists of unconscious drives • Reservoir of sexual energy • Works according to pleasure principle • Ego • Deals with demands of reality • Abides by reality principle • Superego • Evaluates morality of behavior • Reflected in “conscience”

6. Iceberg Model

7. Defense Mechanisms • Tactics ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality • Displacement • Directs unacceptable impulses at less threatening target • Repression • Pushes unacceptable back into unconscious mind • Foundation for all psychological defense mechanisms • Sublimation • Transforms unconscious impulses into beneficial activities

8. Psychosexual Stages • Universal stages of personality development • Erogenous Zones • Parts of body that have especially strong pleasure-giving qualities at particular developmental stages • Adult personality as determined by way conflicts resolved between early sources of pleasure and demands of reality

9. Psychosexual Stages • Oral Stage (first 18 months) • Pleasure centers around mouth • Chewing, sucking, biting reduce tension • Anal Stage (18 to 36 months) • Pleasure centers around anus and urethra and their functions • Toilet training • Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years)

10. Phallic Stage • Pleasure focuses on genitals • Discovery that self-stimulation is enjoyable • Oedipus Complex • Boy’s intense desire to replace father and enjoy affections of mother • Castration Anxiety • Boy’s intense fear of being mutilated by father • Identifying with father and adopting male gender role to reduce conflict, as foundation for superego • Without experience of castration anxiety, girls cannot develop superego like boys

11. Psychosexual Stages • Latency Period (6 years to puberty) • Setting aside all interest in sexuality • No real development, according to Freud • Genital Stage (puberty to adulthood) • Sexual reawakening • Source of sexual pleasure outside family • Fixation • Particular psychosexual stage colors adult personality

12. Defense Mechanisms & Freudian Stages

13. Critics & Revisionists • Sexuality not pervasive force behind personality • Oedipal complex not universal • First five years not as powerful in shaping adult personality • Ego and conscious thought more dominant • Ego with separate line of development from id • Sociocultural factors more important

14. Horney’s Sociocultural Approach • Freud’s hypotheses lacking support of observable data • Sociocultural influences on personality development • Both sexes envy attributes of other • Women  Status bestowed upon men • Men  Reproductive capabilities of women • Need for security, not sex, as prime motive

15. Jung’s Analytical Theory • Collective Unconscious • Impersonal, deepest layer of unconscious mind • Shared by all human beings because of ancestral past • Archetypes • Emotionally-laden ideas and images that have rich and symbolic meaning for all people • Anima & Animus • Mandala • Persona

16. Adler’s Individual Psychology • People motivated by purposes, goals • Perfection, not pleasure, as key motivator • Compensation • Attempt to overcome inferiorities by developing abilities • Style of Life • Each person’s unique striving for superiority • Birth order • Could influence success of striving for superiority

17. Psychodynamic Perspectives Personality determined by current and early life experiences Personality as developmental (stages) Mental transformation of experiences for meaning Mind as not all conscious Inner world conflicting with outer demands of reality, creating anxiety Personality and adjustment as psychology topics

18. Psychodynamic Perspectives • Criticisms • Overly negative and pessimistic views • Too much faith in unconscious mind • Too much importance on sexuality • Not a theory that can be tested empirically • Contributions • Childhood as crucial to later functioning • Development understood in terms of stages • Unconscious processes playing a significant role

19. Humanistic Perspectives • Person’s capacity for personal growth • Positive human qualities • Ability to . . . . • control our lives • achieve what we desire • Abraham Maslow (1908-1870) • Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

20. Maslow’s Approach • Humanistic psychology as ‘third force’ • Focus on very best examples of human beings: Self-actualizers • Motivated to develop full potential as human beings • At optimal level of existence • Capacity for ‘peak experiences’ • Maslow’s list of self-actualized individuals as biased, in terms of gender and culture

21. Rogers’ Approach • Unconditional positive regard • Being accepted, valued, and treated positively • Conditions of worth • Standards to meet to receive positive regard from others • Self-concept • Representation of who we are and who we wish to be • Healthy human relations • Unconditional positive regard • Empathy • Genuineness

22. Humanistic Perspectives • Perceiving self and world as essential element of personality • Consider whole person and positive bent of human nature • Emphasis on conscious experience • Criticisms • Too optimistic, overestimating freedom and rationality • Promoting excessive self-love and narcissism • Not holding people accountable for behaviors

23. Trait Perspectives • Broad, enduring dispositions (traits) that tend to lead to characteristic responses • Gordon Allport (1897-1967) • Focus on healthy, well-adjusted individuals • Uniqueness of each person and capacity to adapt • Traits • Mental structures that make different situations same • Lexical approach & factor analysis

24. Five-Factor Model Supertraits thought to describe main dimensions of personality Neuroticism (Emotional Instability) Extraversion Openness to Experience Agreeableness Conscientiousness

25. Five-Factor Model

26. Five-Factor Model • Evidence of five factors of personality in . . . • Different cultures • Animals • Strong relationship between personality traits and well-being • Extraversion  Higher levels of well-being • Neuroticism  Lower levels of well-being

27. Five-Factor Model • Subjective well-being • Person’s assessment of own level of positive affect • Traits, as enduring characteristics • States, as briefer experiences, such as mood • Enhancing positive mood • Spending more time with loved others • Savoring • Attending to positive experiences and appreciating them

28. Trait Perspectives • Practical value of personality traits • Connections between personality traits and . . . • Health • Ways of thinking • Career success • Relations with others • Criticisms • Missing importance of situational factors • Painting personality with very broad strokes

29. Personological Approach • Henry Murray (1893-1988) • Personology • Study of the whole person • “The history of the organism is the organism.” • Analysis of Hitler as first “offender profile” • Thematic Appercetion Test (TAT) • Measure of motives, which are largely unknown

30. Life Story Approach • Dan McAdams • Our life stories are our identities. • Life Story Interviews • Coded for themes relevant to life stages and transitions • Intimacy Motive • Enduring concern for warm interpersonal encounters • Psychobiography • Means of inquiry that applies personality theory to single person’s life

31. Life Story Approach • Extraordinarily rich opportunity for researcher • Criticisms • Difficult and time-consuming • Collecting interviews and narratives • Extensive coding and content analysis • Psychobiographical inquiries . . . • More prone to biases • May not serve scientific goal of generalizability

32. Social Cognitive Perspectives • Emphasize . . . • conscious awareness • beliefs • expectations • goals • Incorporate principles from behaviorism • Explore ability . . . • to reason • to think about past, present, and future • to reflect on self

33. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory • Reciprocal Determinism • Interaction of behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors to create personality • Observational Learning • Personal Control • Internal Locus of Control • External Locus of Control • Self-Efficacy • Belief that one can master situation and produce positive change

34. Reciprocal Determinism

35. Mischel’s Contributions • Critique of consistency in behavior • No evidence of cross-situational consistency • Situationism • Personality and behavior often vary from one context to another • Controversial among personality psychologists • CAPS Theory • Cognitive Affective Processing Systems • Thoughts and emotions about self/world affect behavior • Concerned with how personality works: “It depends”

36. Social Cognitive Perspective • Focuses on interactions of person with environment • Highlights observation of behavior • Emphasizes influence of cognitive processes • Criticisms • Too concerned with change and situational influences, rather than enduring qualities of personality • Ignores role of biology in personality • Tends to lead to very specific predictions, making generalizations impossible

37. Biological Perspectives • Hippocrates • Personality based on bodily fluids, or humours • Freud • Connection between mind (personality) and body • Allport • Traits as “neuro-psychic,” personality as “psychophysical” • Murray • “No brain, no personality”

38. Eysenck’s RAS Theory • Reticular Activating System (RAS) • Located in brain stem • Plays role in wakefulness or arousal • Eysenck’s Theory • All share optimal arousal level • RAS of extraverts and introverts may differ in baseline levels of arousal, with behaviors aimed at regulating arousal around these baselines • But introverts may just be more sensitive to stimuli

39. Eysenck’s RAS Theory • Reticular Activating System (RAS) • Located in brain stem • Plays role in wakefulness or arousal • Eysenck’s Theory • All share optimal arousal level • RAS of extraverts and introverts may differ in baseline levels of arousal, with behaviors aimed at regulating arousal around these baselines • But introverts may just be more sensitive to stimuli

40. Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity • Behavioral approach system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) underlie personality • Differences in sensitivity to rewards and punishers • BAS • Sensitive to rewards • Predisposition to positive emotion • Underlies extraversion • BIS • Sensitive to punishers • Predisposition to fear • Underlies neuroticism

41. Role of Neurotransmitters • Dopamine • Function in experience of reward • Factor in BAS or extraversion • Serotonin • Related to neuroticism • Less serotonin  More negative mood • Inhibition of serotonin reuptake . . . • Decreases negative mood • Enhances feelings of sociability • Does not tell us about potential causal pathways

42. Behavior Genetics • Study of inherited underpinnings of behavioral characteristics • Twin Studies • Genetic factors explain differences in big five traits • Autobiographical memories influenced by genetics • Role of genetic factors enormously complex • Genes and environments intertwined • Traits influenced by multiple genes

43. Biological Perspectives • Tie personality to . . . • Animal learning models • Advances in brain imaging • Evolutionary theory • Cautions • Biology can be effect, not cause, of personality • Issue of whether personality can change throughout life

44. Personality Assessment Rigorous methods for measuring mental processes Assess personality for different reasons Self-Report Tests Projective Tests Other Assessment Methods

45. Self-Report Tests • Directly ask people whether different items describe their personality traits • Social Desirability • Motivates individuals to respond in ways that make them look better • To address social desirability . . . • Give questionnaire designed to tap into tendency • Design scales so it is impossible to tell what is being measured • Use empirically-keyed test to distinguish known groups

46. Self-Report Tests • MMPI • Most widely used and researched empirically-keyed self-report personality test • Used to assess personality and predict outcomes • NEO-PI-R • Geared toward assessing five-factor model • Includes items with face validity

47. Projective Tests Present individuals with ambiguous stimulus Ask them to describe it, or tell a story about it Especially designed to elicit unconscious feelings and conflicts Theoretically aligned with psychodynamic perspectives on personality

48. Projective Tests • Rorschach Inkblot Test • Ten inkblots, when described, scored for indicating underlying psychological characteristics • Reliability and validity criticized • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) • Designed to elicit stories that reveal personality • Higher reliability and validity

49. Rorschach Inkblot Test

50. Thematic Apperception Test