Personality:

Theory and
Measurement 10
 -comes from the Latin word

Personality persona
-in the ancient world, a persona was a
mask worn by an actor
 -refers to the long-standing traits and
patterns that propel individuals to
consistently think, feel, and behave in

Personality specific ways

-a pattern of relatively permanent traits and
unique characteristics that give both
consistency and individuality to a
person’s behavior
 History of Personality

Hippocrates
-theorized that personality traits and
human behaviors are based on four
separate temperaments associated with
four fluids (“humors”) of the body
History of Personality

Galen
-suggesting that both diseases and
personality differences could be explained
by imbalances in the humors and that each
person exhibits one of the four
temperaments
History of Personality

Franz Gall
-proposed that the distances
between bumps on the skull reveal a
person’s personality traits,
character, and mental abilities
 History of Personality

Wilhelm Wundt
- suggested that a better description of
personality could be achieved using two major
axes: emotional/nonemotional and
changeable/unchangeable
History of Personality

Sigmund Freud
- his psychodynamic perspective of
personality was the first comprehensive
theory of personality, explaining a wide
variety of both normal and abnormal
behaviors
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Psychoanalytic Theory
Levels of Mental Life:
1. Unconscious
-contains all those drives, urges or instincts that are beyond our
awareness but that nevertheless motivate most of our words,
feelings and actions Sigmund
2. Preconscious
-contains all those elements that are not conscious but can
Freud
become conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty
3. Conscious
-mental elements in awareness at any given point in time
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Psychoanalytic Theory
Provinces of the Mind:
1. Id
-not-yet-owned component of personality; the id has no contact
with reality, yet it strives constantly to reduce tension by
satisfying basic desires because its sole function is to seek
pleasure
Sigmund
2. Ego Freud
-the only region of the mind in contact with reality
3. Superego
-has no contact with the outside world and therefore is unrealistic
in its demands for perfection
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Individual Psychology
-presents an optimistic view of people while resting heavily on the
notion of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all
humankind

Alfred
Adler
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Individual Psychology
Tenets of Adlerian Theory:
1. The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the striving
for success or superiority
2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and
personality Alfred
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent
4. The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint Adler
of social interest
5. The self-consistent personality structure develops into a
person’s style of life
6. Style of life is molded by people’s creative power
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Individual Psychology
External Factors in Maladjustment:
1. Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies
-whether congenital or the result of injury or disease, are not
sufficient to lead to maladjustment
2. Pampered Style of Life
-have weak social interest but a strong desire to perpetuate the Alfred
pampered, parasitic relationship they originally had with one
or both their parents Adler
3. Neglected Style of Life
-children who feel unloved and unwanted are likely to borrow
heavily from these feelings
-more suspicious and more likely to be dangerous to others
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Analytical Psychology Carl Jung
-rests on the assumption that occult phenomena can and do
influence the lives of everyone
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Analytical Psychology Carl Jung
Levels of Psyche:
1. Conscious
-plays a minor role in analytical psychology and an overemphasis
on expanding one’s conscious psyche can lead to psychological
imbalance
2. Personal Unconscious
-embraces all repressed, forgotten or
subliminally perceived experiences of one particularly individual
3. Collective Unconscious
-emotionally toned experiences inherited from our ancestors;
those elements that we have never experienced individually but
which have come down to us from our ancestors
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Analytical Psychology Carl Jung
Archetypes -ancient/archaic images that derive from the
collective unconscious

Psychological Types:
Attitudes -a predisposition to act or react in a characteristic
direction

A. Introversion -the turning inward of psychic energy with an

orientation toward the subjective
B. Extraversion -the attitude distinguished by the turning outward
of psychic energy so that a person is oriented toward the
objective
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Analytical Psychology Carl Jung
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Analytical Psychology Carl Jung
Functions:

A. Thinking
-enables them to recognize its meaning
B. Feeling
-tells them its value or worth
-the evaluation of every conscious activity, even those valued as indifferent
C. Sensing
-receives physical stimuli and transmits them to perceptual consciousness
D. Intuiting
-allows them to know about it without knowing how they know
-involves perception beyond the workings of consciousness
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Neurotic Trends:

1. Moving toward people

-Compliant manner = feelings of helplessness
-to protect oneself against feelings of helplessness
-neurotics = “a whole way of thinking, feeling,
acting - a whole way of life”
-normal = friendly and loving Karen
Horney
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Neurotic Trends:

2. Moving against people

-Aggression = hostility of others
-by appearing tough or ruthless
-normal = ability to survive in a competitive society

Karen
Horney
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Neurotic Trends:

3. Moving away from people

-Detached = feelings of isolation
-compulsively putting emotional distance between
themselves and other people
-normal = autonomous and serene
Karen
Horney
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE
Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Karen
Horney
BEHAVIORAL
PERSPECTIVE
-Behaviorists do not believe in biological determinism: They do not
see personality traits as inborn. Instead, they view personality as
significantly shaped by the reinforcements and consequences
outside of the organism. In other words, people behave in a
consistent manner based on prior learning.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE
PERSPECTIVE
-emphasizes both learning and cognition as sources of individual
differences in personality
-the concepts of reciprocal determinism, observational learning,
and self-efficacy all play a part in personality development
SOCIAL COGNITIVE
PERSPECTIVE
Reciprocal Determinism
-in which cognitive processes, behavior, and context all
interact, each factor influencing and being influenced by
the others simultaneously
SOCIAL COGNITIVE
PERSPECTIVE
Observational Learning
-a suggested that whether we choose to imitate a
model’s behavior depends on whether we see the model
reinforced or punished
-through it, we come to learn what behaviors are
acceptable and rewarded in our culture, and we also
learn to inhibit deviant or socially unacceptable behaviors
by seeing what behaviors are punished
SOCIAL COGNITIVE
PERSPECTIVE
Self-efficacy
-our level of confidence in our own abilities, developed
through our social experiences. Self-efficacy affects how we
approach challenges and reach goals
-in observational learning, it is a cognitive factor that affects
which behaviors we choose to imitate as well as our success
in performing those behaviors
HUMANISTIC
PERSPECTIVE
-as the “third force” in psychology, it is touted as a
reaction both to the pessimistic determinism of
psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on psychological
disturbance, and to the behaviorists’ view of humans
passively reacting to the environment, which has
been criticized as making people out to be
personality less robots
HUMANISTIC
PERSPECTIVE
-does not suggest that psychoanalytic
behaviorist, and other points of view are incorrect but argues that
these perspectives do not recognize the depth and meaning of
human experience, and fail to recognize the innate capacity for
self-directed change and transforming personal experiences
BIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
-believe that inherited predispositions as well as
physiological processes can be used to explain
differences in our personalities

Heritability -refers to the proportion of difference among

people that is attributed to genetics
TRAIT THEORISTS
-believe personality can be understood via the approach
that all people have certain traits, or characteristic ways of
behaving
TRAIT THEORISTS
 PERSONALITY
ASSESSMENT
Personality Test -related to the overt and covert dispositions of the individual

1. Self-report Inventories
-a kind of objective test used to assess personality
-typically use multiple choice items or numbered scales, which represent a
range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)
 PERSONALITY
ASSESSMENT
Personality Test -related to the overt and covert dispositions of the individual

2. Projective Tests
-provides an ambiguous test stimulus; response requirements are unclear
-this kind of test relies on one of the defense mechanisms proposed by Freud
—projection—as a way to assess unconscious processes
PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISORDERS
-a condition characterized by abnormal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
-according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), a
psychological disorder is a condition that is said to consist of the
following:
1. There are significant disturbances in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
2. The disturbances reflect some kind of biological, psychological, or
developmental dysfunction
3. The disturbances lead to significant distress or disability in one’s life
4. The disturbances do not reflect expected or culturally approved
responses to certain events
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Anxiety Disorders
-are characterized by excessive and persistent fear and anxiety, and by
related disturbances in behavior
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS
Obsessive-compulsive
and related Disorders
-a group of overlapping disorders that generally involve intrusive,
unpleasant thoughts and repetitive behaviors
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Mood Disorders
-are characterized by severe disturbances in mood and emotions—most
often depression, but also mania and elation
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS
Schizophrenia
-a devastating psychological disorder that is characterized by major
disturbances in thought, perception, emotion, and behavior
-considered a psychotic disorder, or one in which the person’s thoughts,
perceptions, and behaviors are impaired to the point where she is not able
to function normally in life
-the main symptoms include: hallucinations, delusions, disorganized
thinking, disorganized or abnormal motor behavior, and negative symptoms
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS
Schizophrenia
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Dissociative Disorders
-characterized by an individual becoming split off, or dissociated, from her
core sense of self
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS
Personality Disorders
-people with these disorders exhibit a personality style that differs markedly
from the expectations of their culture, is pervasive and inflexible, begins in
adolescence or early adulthood, and causes distress or impairment
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Neurodevelopmental
Disorders
-involve developmental problems in personal, social, academic, and
intellectual functioning