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Theories Personality & Assessment: Modified by Elizabeth T Santosa, M.Psi, Psi
Theories Personality & Assessment: Modified by Elizabeth T Santosa, M.Psi, Psi
& Assessment
Modified by
Elizabeth T Santosa, M.Psi, psi.
+
Definition of Personality?
Personality refers to the relatively enduring
characteristics that differentiate one person
from another and that lead people to act in a
consistent and predictable manner, both in
different situations and over extended periods
of time.
Personality is defined as: the enduring or
lasting patterns of behavior and thought (across
time and situation).
+ Personality
Specialized in Nervous
Disorders : Some patients’ disorders
had no physical cause.
(1856-1939)
+ Sigmund Freud
Repression
Banishing unacceptable
thoughts and passions to
unconscious:
Dreams and Slips
+ Psychoanalysis:
Freud’s Theory of Personality
Three levels of consciousness:
Conscious mind:
mind
things we are
focusing on.
Preconscious mind:
mind
things are are not
currently aware of
but which we could
focus on.
Unconscious mind:
mind
that which we are
unaware of.
+ Psychoanalysis:
Freud’s Theory of Personality
Freud’s theory suggest that personality is composed of
the id,
id the ego,
ego and the superego.
superego
id:
id the unorganized, inborn part of personality whose
purpose is to immediately reduce tensions relating to
hunger, sex, aggression, and other primitive impulses.
ego:
ego restrains instinctual energy in order to maintain the
safety of the individual and to help the person to be a
member of society.
superego:
superego the rights and wrongs of society and consists
of the conscience and the ego-ideal.
+Freud and Personality Structure
Id - energy constantly striving to satisfy basic drives
Pleasure Principle
The energy for the id’s instincts comes from the libido,
libido (the
energy storehouse).
+ Freud’s Theory:
“the Ego”
Definition:
Definition An defense mechanism is a psychology
tendency that the ego uses to help prevent people from
becoming overwhelmed by any conflict (and resulting
anxiety) among the id, the ego, and the superego.
Defense mechanisms operate at an unconscious
level:
level
We are not aware of them during the time that we are
actually using them.
However, we may later become aware of their
previous operation and use.
+ Freud’s Theory:
Defense Mechanisms
Repression:
Repression pushing unacceptable and anxiety-
producing thoughts into the unconscious; involves
intentional forgetting but not consciously done; repressed
material can be memories or unacceptable impulses.
A rape victim cannot recall the details of the attack.
Regression:
Regression acting in ways characteristic of earlier life
stages/earlier stage of personality.
A young adult, anxious on a trip to his parents/ home,
sits in the corner reading comic books, as he often did
in grade school.
+ Freud’s Theory:
Defense Mechanisms
Reaction formation:
formation replacing an anxiety-producing
feeling with its exact opposite, typically going
overboard; repressed thoughts appear as mirror
opposites.
A man who is anxious about his interest in gay men
begins dating women several times a week.
Rationalization:
Rationalization creating false but believable excuses
to justify inappropriate behavior; real motive for
behavior is not accepted by ego.
A student cheats on an exam, explaining that cheating
is legitimate on an unfair examination.
+ Freud’s Theory:
Defense Mechanisms
Denial:
Denial claiming and believing that something which is
actually true is false.
A person disbelieves that she is age, asserting that “I
am not getting older.”
Displacement:
Displacement redirecting emotional feelings (e.g.,
anger) to a substitute target; involves directing
unacceptable impulses onto a less threatening
object/person.
A husband, angry at the way his boss treated him,
screams at his children.
Instead of telling your professor what you really think
of her, you tailgate and harass a slow driver on your
way home from school.
+ Freud’s Theory:
Defense Mechanisms
Projection:
Projection attributing one’s own unacceptable feelings
or beliefs to others; perceiving the external world in
terms of one’s own personal conflicts.
An employee at a store, tempted to steal some
merchandise, suspects that other employees are
stealing.
Sublimation:
Sublimation substitute socially acceptable behavior for
unacceptable impulses.
Playing video games instead of getting in a fight.
+ Freud:
Stages of Personality Development
Psychosexual Stages
Oral (0-18 mos) - centered on the mouth
Anal (18-36 mos) - focus on bowel/bladder elim.
Phallic (3-6 yrs) - focus on genitals/“Oedipus Complex”
(Identification & Gender Identity)
Latency (6-puberty) - sexuality is dormant
Genital (puberty on) - sexual feelings toward others
During the latency period, little girls and little boys try
to socialize only with members of their own gender.
Freudposits that children do this so as to help
minimize the awareness of “sexuality.”
Thus, they continue the process of sexual repression
that began in the previous stage (for those who
successfully made it through the Oedipal
Complex/Electra Complex).
+
(5) Genital Stage:
They begin searching for a marital mate, with whom they can
share sex and intimacy.
+
Summary of Freud (on personality):
Maslow’s Roger’s
Self-Actualizing Person-Centered
Person Perspective
Self Concept:
Concept central feature
of personality (+ or -)
+
Humanistic Personality Theories:
Carl Rogers
Self-concept:
Self-concept our image or perception of ourselves
(Real Self versus Ideal Self).
Self)
We have a need for positive regard/
regard approval from others.
Conditions of worth or conditional positive regard.
The conditions under which other people will approve of
us.
We change our behavior to obtain approval.
What we need is: Unconditional positive regard.
regard
Anxiety signifies that we are not being true to our ideal self.
Well-adjusted persons: self-concept & experience.
Poorly adjusted person: self-concept & experience.
+ Maslow’s Hierarchy of human motives:
one must satisfy lower needs before one
satisfies higher needs.
Humanistic Personality Theories:
+
Abraham Maslow
Self-actualization
is the culmination of a lifetime of inner-
directed growth and improvement:
• Challenging ourselves to the fullest.
• Can you identify a self-actualized individual?
• Characteristics of the self-actualized person:
person
Creative and open to new experiences.
Committed to a cause or a higher goal.
Trusting and caring of others, yet not dependent.
Have the courage to act on their convictions.
(3)
+ Trait Personality Theories:
Also:
Surface Traits: Less important to personality.
Source Traits: More important basic underlying
traits.
Cattell identified 16 basic traits.
• He developed the 16PF to measure these traits.
+(3) Trait Personality Theories (cont):
• Sociable/Retiring
Extraversion
• Fun Loving/Sober
• Imaginative/Practical
Openness
• Independent/Conforming
• Soft-Hearted/Ruthless
Agreeableness
• Trusting/Suspicious
• Organized/Disorganized
Conscientiousness
• Careful/Careless
+
Trait Theories of Personality:
Summary
Traits:
Traits
Characteristicsor typical ways of acting:
Consistency:
across situations, over time.
Distinctiveness:
each personality is unique.
Personality Inventories
MMPI:
• most widely used personality inventory.
• assess psychological disorders
(not normal traits).
• empirically derived - test items selected based
upon how well they discriminate between
groups of traits.
+
Do traits exist?
The Trait-Situation Debate
Walter Mischel (1968) argued that:
Behavior is not consistent across time or situation.
If no consistency, not much point in arguing for “personality.”
Thus, “personality” is an illusion.
Situationism:
Mischel believed that behavior is influenced more by the situation than
any internal “trait.”
Interaction of
Environment and Intellect
+ Social-Cognitive Personality
Theories:
Social Learning Theory
Bandura:
Bandura Theoretical origins in behaviorism.
Emphasizes the role of learning in personality.
Classical Conditioning.
Operant Conditioning .
Modeling.
Environment
Behavior
Factors
Internal
Internal World
World ++ External
External World
World == Us
Us
+ Social-Cognitive Personality Theories:
Reciprocal Determination
+ Social-Cognitive Personality Theories:
Personal Control
Internal Locus of Control:
You pretty much control your own destiny
Methods of Study:
• Correlate feelings of control with behavior.
• Experiment by raising/lowering people’s sense of
control and noting the consequences and effects.
+ Social-Cognitive Personality Theories:
Outcomes of Personal Control
Learned Helplessness:
Uncontrollable Perceived Generalized
bad events lack of control helpless behavior
Important Issues:
• Nursing Homes
• Prisons
•Colleges
+
Comparison of Personality
Theories
+
Personality Assessment
Personality assessment involves the techniques for
systematically gathering information about a person in
order to understand and predict behavior.
Goal of personality assessment:
assessment to obtain reliable,
valid measures of individual differences that will
permit the accurate prediction of behavior.
+
How do we measure “Personality”?
(1)
Interview:
Interview
Ask the person about themselves.
Obtain information that reveals personality.
(2)Behavioral Observation:
Observation
Watch the individual’s behavior in an actual or simulated
situation.
Personality Tests:
Tests
(3) Objective tests (questionnaire tests).
(4) Projective tests.
+
How do we measure personality?
(2) Behavioral assessment
THE END