1.

ABRAHAM MASLOW: HOLISTIC-DYNAMIC THE HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

THEORY
BIOGRAPHY OF MASLOW
 Place: New York City
 Date: 1908
 Mother: Harbors lifelong animosity toward mother
 Oldest of seven children of Russian-Jewish
immigrants
 Received a PhD in 1934 in psychology from University
of Wisconsin where he worked with HARRY
HARLOW
 Returns to New York in 1935 and works with E. L.
THORNDIKE at Columbia University
 Met and was influenced by Alfred Adler, Erich
Fromm, and Karen Horney
 He score 195 in an IQ test
 In 1951, became chairperson of the psychology
department at Brandeis University
 President of American Psychological Association
1967-1968
 Died in 1970 of a heart attack
HOLISTIC-DYNAMIC THEORY
 Assumes that the whole person is constantly being
motivated by one need or another and that people
have the potential to grow toward psychological
health; prepotency
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF THE AVERAGE
 What we call “normal” in psychology is really a
psychopathology of the average, so undramatic & so
widely spread that we don’t even notice it ordinarily
MASLOW’S APPROACH
 We need to study psychologically healthy people to
understand human nature, not psychopathological
ones
 Identified colleagues & historical figures that he
considered psychologically healthy (reaching “full
potential”)
 Ex: George Washington, Albert Einstein
 Looked for common elements & identified self-
actualizing qualities
 Persons must pass through various lower levels
before attaining this highest stage
 Lower level needs have prepotency over higher
level needs; that is, they must be satisfied or mostly
satisfied before higher level needs become
activated.
 If lower needs are not met, then growth stops
 CONATIVE NEEDS: characteristic of needs; they
have a striving or motivational character
1. PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
 only needs that can be completely satisfied or even
overly-satisfied
 they have a recurring nature; most prepotent of all
2. SAFETY NEEDS
 cannot be completely satisfied
 produces basic anxiety if not satisfied
3. LOVE AND BELONGINGNESS NEEDS
 includes some aspect of sex and human contact as
well as the need to both give
4. ESTEEM NEEDS
 has two levels
 REPUTATION: in the eyes of others
 SELF-ESTEEM: own feelings of worth and
confidence
5. SELF-ACTUALIZATION NEEDS
 includes self-fulfillment, the realization of all
potentials, and a desire to be creative in the full
sense of the world
 TRANSCENDENCE: which is the need to help other
people to achieve self-actualization

VIEW OF MOTIVATION
1. holistic approach to motivation;
2. motivation is usually complex;
3. people are continually motivated by one need or
another;
4. all people everywhere are motivated by the same
basic needs; and
5. needs can be arranged on a hierarchy
THREE MAIN PRECONDITIONS FOR A PERSON TO BE
ABLE TO SELF-ACTUALIZE:
1. No restraints imposed by others on what you can do;
2. Little or no distraction from deficiency needs;
3. An ability to know yourself very well
OTHER NEEDS
1. AESTHETIC NEEDS: the need for beauty and
aesthetically pleasing experiences
2. COGNITIVE NEEDS: desire to know, to solve
mysteries, to understand, and to be curious; blocking
these needs leads to threat to satisfaction of conative
needs
3. NEUROTIC NEEDS: lead only to stagnation and
pathology whether satisfied or not; nonproductive
needs that are opposed to the basic needs
REVERSED ORDER OF NEEDS
 If we understood the conscious motivation
underlying the behavior, we would recognize that the
needs are not reversed.
 Ex: When an individual prioritizes esteem needs
before love and belongingness.
UNMOTIVATED BEHAVIOR
 Maslow believed that even though all behaviors have
a cause, some behaviors are not motivated. In other
words, not all determinants are motives.
 Some behavior is not caused by needs but by other
factors.
 Ex: conditioned reflexes, maturation, or drugs
EXPRESSIVE AND COPING BEHAVIOR
 EXPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR: often unmotivated
 COPING BEHAVIOR: always motivated and aimed at
satisfying a need
INSTINCTOID NEEDS
 Needs that are innately determined but that can be
modified through learning.
 The frustration of instinctoid needs leads to various
types of pathology.
 Ex: Sex is a basic physiological need, but the
manner in which it is expressed depends on
learning.
DEPRIVATION OF NEEDS
 Lack of satisfaction of any of the basic needs leads
to some kind of pathology
 METAPATHOLOGY: deprivation of self-
actualization needs
LOVE, SEX, AND SELF-ACTUALIZATION
 Self-actualizers are capable of B-LOVE
 B-LOVE: mutually felt and shared and are not
motivated by a deficiency or incompleteness within
the lover
 D-LOVE: Deficiency love or affection (attachment)
based on the lover’s specific deficiency and the
loved one’s ability to satisfy that deficit.
SELF-ACTUALIZATION
 Humanistic psychologists believe that every person
has a strong desire to realize his or her full potential
 Represents growth of an individual toward fulfillment
of the highest needs; those for meaning in life, in
particular
 To become everything that one is capable of
becoming
 PERSONAL ORIENTATION INVENTORY (POI): Test
designed by E. L. Shostrom to measure Maslow’s
concept of self-actualizing tendencies in people.
CRITERIA FOR SELF-ACTUALIZATION
1. Free from psychopathology
2. Had progressed through hierarchy of needs
3. Embraced of the B-values
4. Full use of talents, capacities, and potentialities
VALUES OF SELF-ACTUALIZERS
 B-VALUES OR BEING VALUES: indicators of
psychological health including beauty, truth,
goodness, justice, wholeness, and the like
 ETERNAL VERITIES or B-VALUES: “Being” values
are indicators of psychological health
 METANEEDS: ultimate level of needs
 METAMOTIVATION: motives of self-actualizing
people
 DEFICIENCY NEEDS which motivate non-self
actualizers
 DESACRALIZATION: The process of removing
respect, joy, awe, and rapture from an experience,
which then purifies or objectifies that experience
 RESACRALIZATION: The process of returning
respect, joy, awe, and rapture to an experience in
order to make that experience more subjective and
personal.
 TAOISTIC ATTITUDE: Noninterfering, passive,
receptive attitude that includes awe and wonder
toward that which is observed.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SELF-ACTUALIZING PEOPLE
1. MORE EFFICIENT PERCEPTION OF REALITY
 Seeing the world accurately
 Judging people accurately/detecting deception
2. MORE ACCEPTING
 More accepting of themselves & others
3. SPONTANEITY, SIMPLICITY, AND NATURALNESS
4. PROBLEM-CENTERING
 Not self - centered; focus on problem’s outside of and belongingness needs and thereby acquires
themselves feelings of confidence and self-worth.
 Ex: environmental concerns  A healthy interpersonal relationship between client
5. NEED PRIVACY (SOLITUDE) and therapist is therefore the best psychological
6. AUTONOMY medicine.
7. CONTINUED FRESHNESS OF APPRECIATION
8. PEAK EXPERIENCES “If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the
 Intense experiential states of harmony, joy, beauty nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And
9. GEMEINSCHAFTSGEFÜHL I’d despise the one who gave up.”
10. ENJOY INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS - Abraham Maslow
11. DEMOCRATIC CHARACTER STRUCTURE
12. DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN MEANS AND ENDS
13. CREATIVENESS 2. CARL ROGERS: PERSON-CENTERED THEORY
14. HUMOUR  Personality is an organized, consistent pattern of
15. RESISTANCE TO ENCULTURATION perception of the “I” or “me” that lies at the heart of
 Non - conformists an individual’s experiences.

14 B-VALUES BIOGRAPHY OF ROGERS

1. Truth  Place: Oak Park, Illinois
2. Goodness  Date: 1902
3. Beauty  Dream: Farmer
4. Wholeness or the transcendence of dichotomies  Fourth of six children of upper-middle class, devoutly
5. Aliveness or spontaneity religious parents
6. Uniqueness  Briefly attends seminary, intending to become a
7. Perfection minister in 1924
8. Completion  Turned to psychology and earned his Ph.D. from
9. Justice and order Columbia
10. Simplicity
 Spent nearly a dozen years working as a clinician in
11. Richness or totality
Rochester
12. Effortlessness
 Published The Clinical Treatment of the Problem
13. Playfulness or humor
Child in 1939.
14. Self-sufficiency or autonomy
 Took a position at Ohio State University in 1940,
THE JONAH COMPLEX where he elucidated his views on therapy
 An abnormal syndrome defined as the fear of being  President of American Psychological Association in
or doing one’s best. 1946-1947
 Probably all of us have some timidity about seeking  Published Client-Centered Therapy in 1951
perfection or greatness.  In 1964, moves to California and helps found Center
 People allow false humility to stifle creativity, and for Studies of the Person
therefore they prevent themselves from becoming  Died in 1987 following surgery on broken hip
self-actualizing.
BASIC TENET
GOAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY  Rogers focused on uniquely human issues such as:
 The aim of the therapy would be for the clients to the self, health, hope, love, creativity, nature, and
embrace the being values. individuality.
 Clients must be free from their dependency on others  Believed in innate goodness – born good
so that their natural impulse toward growth and self-  Derived somewhat from existentialism: a strong belief
actualization could become active. in free-will and conscious rational decision-making
 Psychotherapy should be directed at the need level  Arose in reaction to behaviorism and
currently being thwarted, in most cases love and psychodynamic theory
belongingness needs.  The theory of Rogers is stated in an IF-THEN
 The therapy is largely an interpersonal process. FRAMEWORK. (Ex: If certain conditions exist, then
 Through a warm, loving, interpersonal relationship a process will occur; if this process occurs, then
with the therapist, the client gains satisfaction of love certain outcomes can be expected.)

FORMATIVE TENDENCY
 Tendency for all matter, both organic and inorganic, to
evolve from simpler to more complex forms.
ACTUALIZING TENDENCY
 Tendency within humans to move toward completion
or fulfillment of potentials.
 The directional trend which is evident in all
organism and human life – the urge to expand,
extend, develop, mature – the tendency to express
and activate all capacities of the organism, or the
self.
 SELF-ACTUALIZATION: tendency to actualize the
self as perceived in awareness
 EXISTENTIAL LIVING: Rogers’s term indicating a
tendency to live in the moment.
SELF SUB-SYSTEMS
1. ORGANISMIC SELF: A more general term than self-
concept; refers to the entire person, including those
aspects of existence beyond awareness.
 ORGANISMIC VALUING PROCESS (OVP): Process
by which experiences are valued according to
optimal enhancement of organism and self; natural
instinct directing us towards the most fulfilling
pursuits
2. SELF-CONCEPT: all aspects of one’s being and
one’s experiences that are perceived in awareness by
the individual
3. IDEAL SELF: one’s view of self as one wishes to be
NEEDS
 MAINTENANCE NEEDS: Those basic needs that
protect the status quo. They may be either
physiological (Ex: food) or interpersonal (Ex: the
need to maintain the current self-concept)
 ENHANCEMENT NEEDS: The need to develop, to
grow, and to achieve.
POSITIVE REGARD
1. POSITIVE REGARD
 need to be loved, liked, or accepted by another
person
 first process in becoming a person is to make
contact with another person
2. POSITIVE SELF-REGARD
 experience of prizing or valuing one’s self
 receiving positive regard from others is necessary
for positive self-regard, but once positive self-regard
is established, it becomes independent of the
continual need to be loved
CONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD
 Not unconditional love
 Acceptance only if provide something in return
 "Strings" attached to acceptance and love from
others
 Can be Internalized
 Distorts Self Concept
RELATED TO PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
 General Maladjustment
 Tension/Anxiety
 Extreme Incongruence Leads to
Disorganization/Psychosis
 Link to Conditional Positive Regard
BARRIERS TO PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH /
PSYCHOLOGICAL STAGNATION
CONDITIONS OF WORTH / NEGATIVE SOCIALIZATION
1. Children accepted by parents when ‘good’ and
rejected ‘bad’
2. We develop the view: ‘I ought to be good’, ‘I have to be
good’
3. We lose touch with our true nature (‘real self’ and
actualizing tendency)
4. Develop an ideal self
INCONGRUENCE
 an unhealthy personality marked by a wide gap
between the self-concept and ideal self
 Discrepancy between organismic self and self-
concept
 “I am this but I should be that‟
 Psychopathology & defense mechanisms
 Defensive masks (False selves)
 ANXIETY: Feelings of uneasiness or tension with an
unknown cause.
 THREAT: Feeling that results from the perception of
an experience that is inconsistent with one’s
organismic self.
 VULNERABLE: A condition that exists when people
are unaware of the discrepancy between their
organismic self and their significant experiences.
Vulnerable people often behave in ways
incomprehensible to themselves and to others.
DEFENSIVENESS
 protection against anxiety and threat
 DISTORTION: we misinterpret an experience in order
to fit it into some aspect of our self-concept
 DENIAL: we refuse to perceive an experience in
awareness, or at least we keep some aspect of it from
reaching symbolization
DISORGANIZATION
 when defenses fail, behavior becomes disorganized
LEVES OF AWARENESS
 EXTERNAL EVALUATIONS: People’s perception of
other people’s view of them.
1. IGNORED OR DENIED: below the threshold of
awareness
2. ACCURATELY SYMBOLIZED: freely admitted to the
self-structured and consistent with the existing self-
concept
3. DISTORTED: reshaping of experiences that are not
consistent with our view of self
GOALS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY / ROGERIAN THERAPY
 Approach to psychotherapy originated by Rogers,
which is based on respect for the person’s capacity
to grow within a nurturing climate
CONDITIONS
 Rogers (1959) postulated that in order for therapeutic
growth to take place, the following conditions are
necessary and sufficient.
1. First, an anxious or vulnerable client must come
into contact with a congruent therapist who also
possesses empathy and unconditional positive
regard for that client.
2. Next, the client must perceive these characteristics
in the therapist.
3. Finally, the contact between client and therapist
must be of some duration.
CONDITIONS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL/ THERAPEUTIC
GROWTH
6. COUNSELOR CONGRUENCE: to be congruent
means to be real or genuine, to be whole or
integrated, to be what one truly is
7. UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD
 A feeling of total love and acceptance – like that of a
child for a parent, or a pet to its owner. No matter
what you say or do, you will be loved and accepted.
 Rogers believed if a child received unconditional
positive regard, he/she would be able to self-actualize
and become his/her ideal self.
 If self-actualization is blocked, mental illness would
ensue.
8. EMPATHIC LISTENING: exists when therapists
accurately sense the feelings of their clients and are
able to communicate these perceptions so that
clients know that another person has entered their
world of feelings without prejudice, projection, or
evaluation.
PROCESS
 If the conditions of therapist congruence,
unconditional positive regard, and empathy are
present, then the process of therapeutic change will
be set in motion.
 Rogers saw the process of therapeutic change as
taking place in seven stages:
1. clients are unwilling to communicate anything about
themselves;
2. they discuss only external events and other people;
3. they begin to talk about themselves, but still as an
object;
4. they discuss strong emotions that they have felt in
the past;
5. they begin to express present feelings;
6. they freely allow into awareness those experiences
that were previously denied or distorted; and
7. they experience irreversible change and growth
OUTCOMES
 When client-centered therapy is successful, clients
become more congruent, less defensive, more open
to experience, and more realistic.
 The gap between their ideal self and their true self
narrows and as a consequence, clients experience
less physiological and psychological tension.
 Finally, clients' interpersonal relationships improve
because they are more accepting of self and others.
PERSON OF TOMORROW / FULLY FUNCTIONING
PERSON
 The psychologically healthy individual in the
process of evolving into all that he or she can
become.
 A goal for people who receive the three necessary
and sufficient conditions for psychological healthy
person
 Rogers listed seven characteristics of the person of
tomorrow.
1. Persons of tomorrow would be more adaptable and
more flexible in their thinking.
2. They would be open to their experiences, accurately
symbolizing them in awareness rather than denying or
distorting them.
3. Tendency to live fully in the moment, experiencing a
constant state of fluidity and change.
4. Persons of tomorrow would remain confident of their
own ability to experience harmonious relations with
others.
5. They would be more integrated, more whole, with no
artificial boundary between conscious processes
and unconscious ones.
6. Persons of tomorrow would have a basic trust of
human nature.
7. They would enjoy a greater richness in life than do
other people.

“It seems to me that at bottom each person is asking, “Who
am I, really? How can I get in touch with this real self,
underlying all my surface behaviour? How can I become
myself?”
“I am not perfect… but I am enough.”
“Humans’ ability to grow is infinite… when they feel safe.”
- Carl Rogers
3. ROLLO REESE MAY: EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY
HIGHLIGHTS IN HIS BIOGRAPHY
 May’s approach was not based on any controlled
scientific research but rather on clinical experience.
 Saw people as living in the world of present and
ultimately responsible for whom they become.
 May believed that healing is an active process.
WHAT IS EXISTENTIALISM?
 EXISTENCE: talks about change and growth
 ESSENCE: talks about finality
1. Existence takes precedence over essence.
2. People are both subjective and objective and must
search for truth by living active and authentic lives.
3. People search for some meaning in their lives.
4. Existentialists hold that ultimately each of us is
responsible for who we are and what we become.
5. Existentialists are basically anti-theoretical.
BASIC CONCEPTS OF EXISTENTIALISM
1. BEING IN THE WORLD / DASEIN: to exist in the
world
 ALIENATION is the illness of our time, and it
manifests itself in three areas: (1) separation from
nature, (2) lack of meaningful interpersonal
relations, and (3) alienation from one’s authentic
self
FOUR SIMULTANEOUS MODES
 UMWELT: environment around us; includes
biological drives, such as hunger and sleep, and
such natural phenomena as birth and death.
 MITWELT: relations with other people
 EIGENWELT: relationship with our self
 UBERWELT: relationship with our supreme being
2. EXISTENTIAL NONBEING
 The awareness of the possibility of one’s not being,
through death or loss of awareness.
 DEATH is not the only avenue of nonbeing, but it is the
most obvious one; one fact of life which is not
relative but absolute, and awareness of this gives
existence in what we do each hour an absolute
quality
 Our nonbeing can also be expressed as blind
conformity to society’s expectations or as
generalized hostility that pervades our relations to
others.
 The fear of death or nonbeing often provokes us to
live defensively and to receive less from life than if
we would confront the issue of our nonexistence.
ANXIETY
 A constructive force which helps us in daily life
 Can spring either from an awareness of one’s non-
being or from a threat to some value essential to
one’s existence
 NORMAL ANXIETY: which is proportionate to the
threat, does not involve repression, and can be
confronted constructively on the conscious level
 NEUROTIC ANXIETY: a reaction which is
disproportionate to the threat, involves repression
and other forms of intrapsychic conflict, and is
managed by various kinds of blocking-off of activity
and awareness
GUILT
 An ontological characteristic of human existence
arising from our separation from the natural world
(Umwelt), from other people (Mitwelt), or from oneself
(Eigenwelt)
 ONTOLOGICAL: they refer to the nature of being
and not to feelings arising from specific situations or
transgressions
 Arises when people deny their potentialities, fail to
accurately perceive the needs of fellow humans, or
remain oblivious to the natural world
 SEPARATION GUILT: similar to Fromm’s Human
Dilemma
 EIGENWELT GUILT: striving to become better and
better even when one can never really reach the
fullest potential
INTENTIONALITY
 Gives meaning to experience and allows people to
make decisions about the future; action and
intentionality are inseparable
 Without this, people cannot choose nor act
CARE, LOVE, AND WILL
1. CARE: to care for someone means to recognize that
person as a fellow human being, to identify with that
person’s pain or joy, guilt or pity; source of love and
will
2. LOVE: “delight in the presence of the other person
and an affirming of value and development as much
as one’s own”
3. WILL: the capacity to organize one’s self so that
movement in a certain direction or toward a certain
goal may take place
FORMS / KINDS OF LOVE
1. SEX: biological function, can be satisfied through
sexual intercourse or release of sexual tensions
2. EROS: seeks procreation through an enduring union
with a loved one; salvation of sex; built on the
foundation of philia
3. PHILIA: intimate nonsexual friendship between two
people
4. AGAPE: “altruistic love”, it is disinterested and
unconditional love; esteem for the other, the
concern for the other’s welfare beyond any gain that
one can get out of it; love of God
FREEDOM
 It is the capacity to know that he is the determined
one
 entails being able to harbor different possibilities in
one’s mind even though it is not clear at the moment
which may one must act
 EXISTENTIAL FREEDOM: freedom of doing
 ESSENTIAL FREEDOM: freedom of being
DESTINY
 Death is the ultimate destiny
 The design of the universe speaking through the
design of each one of us
THE POWER OF MYTH
 Conscious and unconscious belief systems that
provide explanations for personal and social
problems.
 People communicate through myths.
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
 APATHY AND EMPTINESS: are the malaises of
modern times. When people deny their destiny or
abandon their myths, they lose direction.
 Without a goal or destination, people become sick
and engage in a variety of self-destructing behavior.
GOALS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
 May believed that the purpose of psychotherapy is to
set people free.
 Healthy people challenge their destiny, cherish their
freedom, and live authentically with other people
and with themselves.
 They recognize the inevitability of death and have
the courage to live life in the present.
 Basic to Rogers and May’s notion is that therapy is a
human encounter; that is, an I-THOU
RELATIONSHIP with the potential to facilitate
growth within both the therapist and the patient.
 Another technique May used was the suggestion that
the patient must hold a fantasy conversation with
his dead mother. In this conversation, the patient
must speak for himself and his mother.
TRAIT THEORY
 is a way to describe/predict but it is not a theory of
development
 Practically all personality theorists are concerned with
TRAITS. After all, traits are what make us who we are;
they are the relatively permanent aspects of each of
us evidenced by the consistency in our interactions.
DIFFERENCE WITH OTHER THEORIES
1. While most theories represent attempts at better
understanding the development of personality, trait
theorists typically talk very little about development.
2. Predicting a person's behavior in a given situation is
also not a concern for trait theorists.
3. Unlike many other theoretical orientations, trait theorists
are interested in the comparison of people through
based on not just aspects, but also degrees.
4. Does not inherently provide a medium of personality
change.
TWO DIFFERENT METHODS OF RESEARCH
 IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH: defines traits by studying
individuals in depth and focuses on the distinctive
qualities of their personalities (Gordon Allport)
 NOMOTHETIC APPROACH: studies groups of
people in the attempt to identify personality traits that
tend to appear in clusters. This approach uses the
statistical technique called FACTOR ANALYSIS
(Raymond Cattell)
PERSONALITY IN TRAIT THEORY
 The dynamic organization within the individual of
those psychophysical systems that determine his
unique adjustments to the environment
 Personal is neither exclusively mental nor neural
(biological).
 It is influenced by both heredity and the
environment.
 Personality is always an organized whole that is
constantly changing and growing (dynamic).
 Healthy people are integrated.
 Unhealthy people fail to integrate.
 PERSONAL DISPOSITIONS: traits/dispositions that
are peculiar to an individual
 STYLISTIC TRAITS: traits that guide our actions but
don’t initiate them
1. GORDON ALLPORT: PSYCHOLOGY OF THE
INDIVIDUAL
BIOGRAPHY
 Place: Indiana
 Youngest of four boys
 As a child he felt different from others including his
brother, both in his childhood play and his interests.
 After high school followed his older brother Floyd
through the same educational path. They went to the
same undergraduate program, both attended Harvard
for graduate school, and both majored in psychology.
 Floyd made a name for himself in Social Psychology,
but Gordon felt like an outsider in this arena.
 Gordon was interested in personality, and at the
time, personality was not a formal sub-discipline of
psychology and it certainly was not as fashionable as
social psychology.
 He completed his doctorate, began studying
psychology.
 It is said that he was the first professor to teach a
college level course on personality theory, a course
that today is required by nearly all undergraduate
psychology majors.
 It was during this meeting, after being probed by Freud
for unconscious motives, that Allport wrote that
psychologists should give full recognition to
manifest motives before delving into the
unconscious.
 Considered patterns of traits to be the unique
attributes of individuals.
 Developed a model of personality based on 4500
trait-like words
 Allport conducted thorough and detailed studies of
individuals in depth, often through long-term CASE
STUDIES.
 His IDIOGRAPHIC RESEARCH led him to conclude
that all people have certain TRAITS, or
DISPOSITIONS, that are the building blocks of
personality.
 MORPHOGENIC SCIENCE: Allport’s concept of
science, which deals with various methods of
gathering data on patterns of behavior within a
single individual.
 Allport believed that whatever happened in the past
such as during toilet training, schooling, or some other
childhood crisis; this no longer current and does not
explain adult behavior unless it exists as a current
motivating force.
PROPRIUM
 Organizing structure of personality; one’ self; the
core
 Responsible for self-esteem
 Self-identity
 Self-image
 Begins developing in infancy and continues through
adolescence
FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY OF MOTIVES
 Our motives become independent of their childhood
origins
 Probably a reaction to Freud; Allport didn’t agree that
childhood experiences continue to influence us so
strongly as adults
 E.g. Child cleans room to please parent. As an
adult, values being neat and tidy.
 (1) Basal Motivations, (i.e. hunger, self-satisfaction,
affection, etc.), (2) Behavior (i.e. exercising, dieting,
etc.), (3) Lose weight and inches, (4) General
satisfaction with physical fitness becomes a functionally
autonomous motivation
TWO LEVELS OF FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY
 PERSEVERATIVE FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY
 Concerned with such behaviors as addictions and
repetitive physical actions such as habitual ways of
performing some everyday task.
 The behaviors continue or persevere on their own
without any external reward.
 PROPRIETY FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY
 Propriety functional autonomy is the level of functional
autonomy that relates to our values, self-image, and
lifestyle.
 Allport considered propriety functional autonomy more
important than perseverative functional autonomy
and is essential to the understanding of adult
motivation.
 Our propriate functioning is an organizing process
that maintains our sense of self. This determines
how we perceive our world, what we remember from
our experiences, and how our thoughts are directed.
 his is an organizing process that includes organizing,
mastery and competence, and patterning which
describes a striving for consistency and integration
of the personality.
 PROPRIATE STRIVINGS: Motivation toward goals
that are consistent with an established proprium and
that are uniquely one’s own.
PERSONAL DISPOSITIONS
 a generalized neuropsychic structure (peculiar to the
individual), with the capacity to render many stimuli
functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide
consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and stylistic
behavior
 REACTIVE: Term for those theories that view people
as being motivated by tension reduction and by the
desire to return to a state of equilibrium
 PROACTIVE: Concept that presupposes that people
are capable of consciously acting upon their
environment in new and innovative ways, which then
feed new elements into the system and stimulate
psychological growth.
THREE-TRAIT LEVELS
1. CARDINAL TRAITS
 Pervasive
 Stingy with money, time, compliments, or person
 Few people have it
 Traits that are so much a part of who the person is,
you can define the person by the trait
 Ex: Honest Abe Lincoln
2.CENTRAL TRAITS
 Represent dispositions that are more limited in rage
 Broadly consistent but perhaps not always
 Major characteristics of our personality such as:
sensitivity, honesty, and generosity. These traits are
quite generalized and enduring, and it is these traits
that form the building blocks of our personality.
Allport found that most people could be characterized
by a fairly small number of central traits (usually five to
ten).
 Qualities that characterize a person’s daily
interactions.
 To understand a person, one should look at the
pattern of central traits.
3. SECONDARY TRAITS
 Less generalized and far less enduring traits that
affect our behaviors in specific circumstances.
Examples include our dress style preferences.
 Secondary traits are more easily modified than central
traits.
 Ex: Likes Coca Cola; prefers Italy to France
THE PSYCHOLOGICALLY HEALTHY PERSONALITY
1. Extension of the sense of self
2. Warm relationship with others
3. Emotional security or self-acceptance
4. Realistic view of the world
5. Insight and humor
6. Unifying philosophy of life
“Personality is far too complex a thing to be trussed up in a
conceptual straight jacket.”
“We cannot know the young child’s personality by studying
his systems of interest, for his attention is as yet too labile,
his reactions impulsive, and interests unformed.”
- Gordon Allport
2. HANS EYSENCK: BIOLOGICALLY-BASED FACTOR
THEORY
 “Human personality is largely the product of genetics
and not environment.”
BIOGRAPHY
 Place: Berlin
 Date: 1916
 Mother: Starlet
 Father: Actor, Singer, Comedian
 Occupation: Psychologist
HIGHLIGHTS
 Hans J. Eysenck, as a teenager, moved to London to
escape Nazi tyranny.
 He was trained in the psychometrically oriented
psychology department of the University of London,
from which he received a bachelor’s degree in 1983
and a Ph.D. in 1940.
 The most prolific writer of any psychologist in the
world, and his books and articles often stirred
worldwide controversy.
 DIATHESIS-STRESS MODEL: Eysenck accepted this
model of psychiatric illness, which suggests that
some people are vulnerable to illness because they
have both genetic and an acquired weakness that
predisposes them to an illness.
DIFFERENCE
 Cattell used an INDUCTIVE METHOD; Eysenck used
a DEDUCTIVE METHOD.
 Cattell used THREE different MEDIA OF
OBSERVATION to examine people from as many
angles as possible (L-data, Q-data, T-data); Eysenck’s
THREE BIPOLAR FACTORS are limited to responses
on questioners.
 Cattell divided traits into COMMON TRAITS (shared
by many) and UNIQUE TRAITS (particular to one
individual). Cattell has larger traits (16PF). EYSENCK
PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE yields on only
three personality factors or traits.
HIERARCHY OF BEHAVIOR ORGANIZATION
1. Specific Acts or Cognitions
2. Habits
3. Traits
4. Types or Superfactors
IDENTIFYING AND MEASURING THE MAIN
DIMENSIONS OF PERSONALITY
 Eysenck’s definition of personality: more or less stable
and enduring organization of a person’s character,
temperament, intellect and physique, which
determines his unique adjustments to the
environment.
 TYPOLOGY: means of classifying behavior through
the use of continuous, highly abstract concepts
(types) that encompasses clusters of correlated
traits.
 Explanation of behavioral indifferences on the basis
of inhibitory cortical processes that hinder nervous
system arousal
1. PSYCHOTICS VS. SOCIALIZED
 HIGH PSYCHOTISM: egocentric, cold, non-
conforming, impulsive, hostile, aggressive,
suspicious, psychopathic, and antisocial
 LOW PSYCHOTISM: caring, empathic, conventional,
altruistic, and cooperative
2. EXTRAVERTS VS. INTROVERTS
 HIGH EXTRAVERSION: characterized primarily by
sociability and impulsiveness; the primary cause of
indefferences in on the cortical arousal level
 LOW EXTRAVERSION: described as quiet, passive,
unsociable, careful, reserved, thoughtful, pessimistic,
peaceful, sober, and controlled
3. NEUROTICS VS. STABILITY
 HIGH NEUROTICISM: often have a tendency to
overreact emotionally and to have difficulty
returning to a normal state of emotional arousal
FOUR SPECIFIC PERSONALITY TYPES
 PHELGMATIC: Low N, Low E
 SANGUINE: Low N, High E
 CHOLERIC: High N, High E
 MELANCHOLIC: High N, Low E
AROUSAL THEORY
 CORTICAL AROUSAL: state of the cortex during
periods of perceptual of cognitive ability
 AROUSAL THEORY: explanation of behavioral
differences in terms of the interactions between
inherited levels of nervous system arousal and levels
of environmental stimulation.
 ASCENDING RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM
(ARAS): part of the central nervous system located
in the lower brain stem; it is involved in the arousal
of the cerebral cortex.
 AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM: part of the
peripheral nervous system usually not under the
individual’s voluntary control that regulates the
operation of internal organs and glands; it consists of
sympathetic and parasympathetic subsystems.
 EXTRAVERTS: brains have lower innate levels of
arousal and less responsive to stimulation and high
sensory threshold
 INTROVERTS: brains have higher innate levels of
arousal and are more sensitive to stimulation and low
sensory threshold
 AUTONOMIC ACTIVATION AND NEUROTICISM
 VISCERAL BRAIN: parts of the brain that underlie
emotional feelings and expression; also known as the
LIMBIC SYSTEM
 NEUROTICS have lower thresholds for activity in the
visceral brain and greater responsivity of the
SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (division of the
autonomic nervous system that mobilizes the body’s
resources for action); thus, neurotics overreact to
even mild forms of stimulation.
CONTRIBUTIONS
 People are born with certain innate predispositions to
respond in particular ways to the environment.
 INTELLIGENCE is a major personality factor; largely
genetic; but can be shaped by learning environment
(EVOKED POTENTIALS)
 BEHAVIOR THERAPY: multifaceted approach to the
treatment of disorders based on the principles of
learning
3. MCCRAE AND COSTA: FIVE FACTOR TRAIT
THEORY
BIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT R. MCCRAE
 Place: Maryville, Missouri
 Date: 1949
 Youngest of three children
 Completed PhD in psychology at Boston University,
where he was referred to Paul Costa
 Began collaborating with Costa in 1976
BIOGRAPHY OF PAUL T. COSTA, JR.
 Place: Franklin, New Hampshire
 Date: 1942
 He received his PhD in human development from the
University of Chicago in 1970
 The collaboration between McCrae and Costa has
been fruitful, producing over 200 joint publications
 While different theorists may use different terminology,
five factors or personality traits have shown up in a
rather consistent pattern
BIG FIVE/FIVE-FACTOR MODEL (1970-1980’S)
 BASIC TENDENCIES: McCrae and Costa’s term for
the universal raw material of personality.
 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES: Knowledge, views, and
evaluations of the self.
 CHARACTERISTIC ADAPTATIONS: Acquired
personality structures that develop as people adapt
to their environment.
 DYNAMIC PROCESSES: McCrae and Costa’s term for
the interconnectedness of central and peripheral
components of personality.
 SELF-CONCEPT: The knowledge, views, and
evaluations of the self.
 OBJECTIVE BIOGRAPHY: All experiences of a
person across the lifespan.
 These five traits, according to many, make up the
OCEAN of human personality, as the acronym goes,
and are often considered to be the basic traits under
which all other aspects of personality fall.
 Based on:
1. Diverse samples of data
2. Different measures
3. Multiple cultures and languages
 Still some disagreement about what the factors are
 Five basic dimensions that are very broad
 6 facets within each dimension (which are more
specific)
OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE
 Interested in variety of routine
 Independent or conforming
 Most disagreement about what this factor is and what
to call it.
 Imaginative, intellectually curious, sensitive to
aesthetics and feelings …. Down to earth, practical,
conventional
 Not a measure of intelligence
 OPENNESS FACETS: (1) Artistic Interest, (2)
Liberalism, (3) Imagination, (4) Emotionality, (5)
Adventurousness, (6) Intellect
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
 Organized or disorganized
 Careful or careless
 Disciplined or impulsive
 Deliberate in actions, controlled, planful
 Low: impulsive
 CONSCIENTIOUSNESS FACETS: (1) Self-efficacy,
(2) Orderliness, (3) Dutifulness, (4) Achievement
Striving, (5) Self-discipline, (6) Cautiousness
EXTRAVERSION
 Sociable or retiring
 Fun-loving or somber
 Energetic or reserved
 Enjoy being with others
 Tendency to experience positive emotions
 Low scorers: Quiet, less engaged in social world;
NOT shyness or depression
 EXTRAVERSION FACETS: (1) Friendliness, (2)
Assertiveness, (3) Activity Level, (4) Excitement-
Seeking, (5) Gregariousness, (6) Cheerfulness
AGREEABLENESS
 Softhearted or ruthless
 Trusting or suspicious
 Helpful or uncooperative
 Social harmony, ability to get along with others
 Low: mistrustful of others, difficulty getting along
with other
NEUROTICISM / EMOTIONAL STABILITY
 Calm or anxious
 Secure or insecure
 Self-satisfied or self-pitying
 Tendency to experience negative (unpleasant)
feelings
 Emotionally reactive, intense
 On other end: calm, emotionally stable, free from
persistent negative feelings
LONGITUDINAL STABILITY
1. Good evidence for stability over long periods in
adulthood.
2. Small but significant age effects:
 Older adults lower on N, E, and O
 Older adults higher on C and A
 Cohort effect?
 Some occur across cultures: C increases with age
3. Temperamental characteristics develop into E and N
REACTIONS TO “BIG 5”
 Support from Eysenck and his camp
 More robust and replicable than any other taxonomy
 Is a well-established basis on which to build
 Research for additional factors is not compelling
and the factors are not relevant to personality
(attractiveness)
 Is a framework for phenotypic attributes of
personality based in human language
 OPPOSITION
 There may be more factors (sexiness, attractiveness,
faithfulness, spirituality)
 Does not capture underlying personality processes
APPLICATION OF TRAIT THEORY
 One of the most obvious applications of
understanding human traits is our ability to then
measure these traits.
 Most of the assessment devices that result from trait
theory are self-report type tests.
 In other words, the person being tested responds to
questions and these responses may or may not be
accurate.
 People can lie on a test, they can fake bad or fake
good, or they can purposefully try to manipulate the
results.
CRITICISMS
 POOR PREDICTOR OF FUTURE BEHAVIOR: While
we may be able to say, in general that a person falls
on the high end or low end of a specific trait, trait
theory fails to address a person's state. A STATE is
a temporary way of interacting and dealing with the
self and others. For example, an introvert may be
quiet, reserved, intellectual, and calm in most
situations. When around close friends, however, he
may seem quite outgoing, fun loving, and excitable.
The same could be said for the extrovert who, when
presented with a job interview, may act more
introverted, shy, reserved, and intellectual.
 DOES NOT ADDRESS DEVELOPMENT. While
statistics may be a strength of trait theory, it may
also be its biggest criticism. Because it is based on
statistics rather than theory, it provides no
explanation of personality development. Where
most theories argue for the development (past), the
current personality (present) and provide a means for
change (future), trait theory is stuck in the present.
 NO MEANS OF CHANGE. Perhaps because trait
theory does little to offer ideas about trait development,
it also provides little or no guidance in the changing
of negative aspects of a trait. Without
understanding how a trait develops, how do we then
change that trait? Many argue that the application of
trait theory is significantly reduced because it lacks
a means for change.