What is personality?

• An individual’s unique patterns of

thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that
persists over time and across situations
Classes of Personality Theories

• Trait theories
• Psychodynamic theories
• Humanistic theories
• Cognitive
Cognitive--Social Learning theories
 Trait Theories

• Personality Traits:
Traits: Dimensions or
characteristics on which people differ in
distinctive ways.
• Trait theories focus on describing one’s
current personality (less emphasis on how
the personality developed).
 Personality Traits as observed in
Ancient Greek Thought

• Phlegmatic
• Choleric
• Sanguine
• Melancholic

Hippocrates
The four humours were four fluids that were
thought to permeate the body and influence
its health. The concept was developed by
ancient Greek thinkers around 400 BC and
was directly linked with another popular
theory of the four elements (Empedocles
Empedocles).
).
Paired qualities were associated with each
humour and its season
season.. The four humours,
their corresponding elements, seasons and
sites of formation, and resulting
temperaments alongside their modern
equivalents are:
Phlegmatic - phlegmatic person is calm and
unemotional. Phlegmatic means pertaining to
phlegm.. While phlegmatics are generally self-
phlegm self-
content and kind, their shy personality can often
inhibit enthusiasm in others and make
themselves lazy and resistant to change. They
are very consistent, relaxed, and observant,
making them good administrators and diplomats.
Like the sanguine personality, the phlegmatic
have many friends, but is more reliable and
compassionate, making the phlegmatic a more
dependable friend.
Phlegmatic
Sanguine - optimistic, cheerful, even
even--
tempered, confident, rational, popular, fun-
fun-
loving; the temperament of blood
Choleric - It corresponds to the fluid of
yellow bile
bile,, the season of summer, and the
element of fire.
fire. A person who is choleric is
easily angered or bad tempered.
Melancholia was caused by an excess of black
bile;; hence the name, which means 'black bile'
bile
(Greek µελας, melas
melas,, "black", + χολη, kholé
kholé,,
"bile"); a person whose constitution tended to
have a preponderance of black bile had a
melancholic disposition – dark, sad, depressed
 Personality Traits as observed in
Physical Characteristic

The somatotypes is a theory based on the

assumption that different body types are
associated with human temperament types,
formed during the 1940s by the American
psychologist William Sheldon.
Sheldon.

•Endomorphic
•Mesomorphic
•Ectomorphic
The endomorphic body type is centered
around the digestive system and is easily
overweight.. The endomorphic person also has
overweight
a visceral temperament, which means that they
are tolerant, love comfort and luxury, and are
extroverted - in short he or she loves food and
people.
The mesomorphic body type is centered
around muscle and the circulatory system and
has well developed muscles. The mesomorphic
person has a somatotonic temperament, and is
courageous, energetic, active, dynamic,
assertive, aggressive, competitive, and often a
risk taker.
The ectomorphic body type is centered
around the brain and nerves
nerves.. These people
are slim. The ectomorfic person has a
cerebrotonic temperament, and is artistic,
sensitive, apprehensive and introverted
introverted..
Another way to put it is that he or she is highly
self--aware and socially restrained.
self
Trait Theories - Criticisms

• Often oversimplified descriptions of people

• We do not observe traits, but infer them
from behavior, overlook the influence of
context upon behavior
• Stereotyping – not all physical traits
correspond to actual personalities
 Psychodynamic Theories

• Personality is the result of unconscious

motivations and conflicts.
– Sigmund Freud
– Carl Jung
– Alfred Adler
– Karen Horney
– Erik Erikson
Freud’s 3 Levels of Consciousness

• conscious: Ideas, thoughts, and feelings of

which we are aware.
• preconscious: material that can be easily
recalled.
• unconscious: All the ideas, thoughts, and
feelings of which we are not and normally
cannot become aware.
Freud’s Structure of Personality
• id: The collection of unconscious urges and
desires that continually seek expression.
• ego: The part of the personality that
mediates between the demands of reality, the
id, and superego.
• superego: The social and parental standards
the individual has internalized.
Freud’s Structure of Personality
 Id

• source of all energy

• functions entirely in unconscious
• libido
libido:: A form of psychic energy; the
energy generated by the sexual drive.
• pleasure principle:
principle: The way the id seeks
immediate gratification of an instinct.
Ego

• operates at all 3 levels

• reality principle:
principle: The way in which the
ego seeks to satisfy instinctual
demands safely and effectively in the
real world.
Superego

• operates at all 3 levels

• The Superego is the moral part of us
and develops due to the moral and
ethical restraints placed on us by our
caregivers. Many equate the superego
with the conscience as it dictates our
belief of right and wrong.
Jung’s 2 Levels of the Unconscious

• personal unconscious: contains the

individual’s repressed thoughts, forgotten
experiences, and undeveloped ideas
• collective unconscious: the part of the
unconscious that is inherited and common to
all members of a species
Archetypes

• The thought forms common to all

human beings.
• Archetypes are stored in the
collective unconscious.
Archetypes
• persona: our public self
• anima: The female archetype as it is
expressed in the male personality.
• animus: The male archetype as it is
expressed in the female personality.
•mother: a protective presence
•hero: one who overcomes
•Wise Old Man: uses personal knowledge of
people and the world, to help tell stories and offer
guidance
Jung’s 2 General Attitude Types

• extrovert: One who focuses more on

social life and the external world instead
of his/her own thoughts and feelings.
• introvert:: One who focuses on his/her
own thoughts and feelings.
Jung’s 2 Types of Individuals

• rational: One who regulates his/her

actions by thinking and feeling.
• irrational: One who bases her/his
actions on perceptions, either through
the senses or unconscious processes
(intuition).

stressed people’s rational & spiritual qualities

development only comes to fruition during
middle adulthood
Alfred Adler

• compensation: one’s effort to overcome

imagined or real personal weaknesses
• inferiority complex: fixation on feelings of
personal inferiority that results in
emotional and social paralysis

we can control our own fate

view of individual: striving for perfection;
develops socially constructive goals
Karen Horney

• anxiety: The individual’s reaction to

real or imagined threats.
• neurotic trends: Irrational strategies for
coping with emotional problems and
minimizing anxiety.

personality is shaped by environmental &

social factors
nonsexual factors play a larger role in
personality development
Humanistic Personality Theory

• Any personality theory that asserts

the fundamental goodness of
people and their striving toward
higher levels of functioning.
Carl Rogers
• actualizing tendency: The drive of every
organism to fulfill its biological potential and
become what it is inherently capable of
becoming.
• self-actualizing tendency: The drive of
human beings to fulfill their self-concepts.
• fully functioning person: An individual
whose self-concept closely resembles
his/her inborn potentials.
Cognitive-Social Learning Theories

• Behavior is viewed as the product

of the interaction of cognitions,
learning and past experiences, and
the immediate environment.
Albert Bandura
• expectancies: What a person
anticipates in a situation or as a result of
behaving in certain ways.
• self-efficacy: The expectancy that one’s
efforts will be successful.
• performance standards: Standards that
people develop to rate the adequacy of
their own behavior in a variety of
situations.
Julian Rotter
Locus of Control
locus of control: An expectancy about
whether reinforcement is under
internal or external control.
• internal: One can control his/her own
fate.
• external: One’s fate is determined by
chance, luck, or the behavior of
others.