Personality

Personality
• A distinctive pattern of behavior, • From Psychodynamic to Genetic
mannerisms, thoughts, motives
and emotions that characterize • Psychodynamic Theory
an individual across time and
across situations
• This may be subdivided into • ‘Repression’ ‘Displaced’
‘traits’ habitual subcomponents aggression. These terms all derive
of thinking, behaving and feeling. from psychodynamic theory

• Dynamics refers to the

distribution and flow of
psychological energy

• Modern PD theories all agree on

unconscious processes and the
importance of early childhood
 Personality
• Freud
• Unconscious motives so introspection and
reflection are incomplete and misleading
• Revealed in slips of tongue, dreams, art
• Structure of Personality
• Id: Present at birth. Reservoir of unconscious
energies. Pleasure principle. Libido, Mortido
• Wish fulfilment, fantasy, unbidden thoughts,
physical symptoms
• Ego: Referee between Id and reality. Reality
principle. Both conscious and unconscious
and follows common sense and reason
• Super Ego: Conscience, Morality and parental
authority. Last to develop. Pride and
satisfaction vs. guilt and shame
• Rigid, moralistic and bossy vs. impulsive,
selfish and immoral
• Weak ego: personal needs, social duties,
realistic expectations
• Ego defense mechanisms distort reality but
defend us against tension, conflict and
anxiety
•
 Personality
• Repression • Regression
• Can be both conscious and • Reaction Formation
unconscious • Splitting

• Projection • Development of Personality

• They are like that
• Psycho-sexual stages in
• Displacement which sexual energy has
– Sublimation: Socially different foci. Lack of
acceptable / creative resolution leads to ‘fixation’
expression

• Oral stage 1-2

 Personality
• Anal stage 2-3 • Girls: Envy, weak super ego
• Toilet training - Imago
• Obsessive, neat, authoritative, stingy • Latency and the Genital stage
• Vs. messy, disorganized, uncaring
• Other Psychodynamic approaches
• Oedipal / Phallic stage
• Boys: Repress desire and internalize father figure • Carl Jung
• Collective unconscious: Memories, symbols, images

• Archetypes: Earth Mother, Hero -- Shadow the

predator

• Object Relations school

• Independence vs. need for others

• Adjustment to separation and losses
• True self vs. false self based on others

• Mental representations vs. persons

• Girls don’t need to separate from mother to

develop vs. men who do. So sharper identity
boundaries
Criticisms of Psychodynamic theory
• Falsifiability
• Trait Theories
• Universal theory from small sample
• Objective tests or inventories
• Using Retrospective accounts
• Inaccurate • Allport: Central traits vs. Secondary traits
• Illusions of causality
• However, some concepts empirically supported: • Cardinal traits
unconscious mechanisms, projection, displacement
• Behaviors, habits, traits, dimensions

• Eysenck:
• Disproof
• Circularity

• Factor Analysis
• Catell: Big Five

• Extroversion: Outgoing vs shy, adventurous,

dominant, limelight

• Neuroticism: impulses, negative emotions, worrying

 Personality
• Agreeableness: good natured,
cooperative, secure
• Conscientiousness: responsible,
dependable, persevering, tidy
• Openness: curious, imaginative,
questioning,
• Culture mediates Big 5 but the
dimensions are cross culturally
validated
• Also relatively stable across time
particularly after age 30. However,
people tend to become less
extroverted and open after 30
• Also young people may become more
self confident and emotionally stable
• Cross 10 countries meta study of 92
longitudinal studies shows people
become more agreeable,
conscientious, and less emotionally
negative after teens
• Either common experience or
common maturational pattern
 Personality
• Other candidate dimensions: Psychopathy,
religiousness, independence, humorousness
• Genetic Influences on Traits:
• 3 methods
• Cross specie, new born traits, twin studies
• Are we only ‘seeing’ personality in animals?
• Octopus – aggression / passiveness / waiting
till there were no observers
• Agreement between dog owners, friends and
strangers in behavioral matches on traits
• Babies Temperaments
• Placid, calm vs, irritable
• Snuggle vs. fidget
• These differences exist even when other
factors are controlled for
• Reactivity , soothability, positive / negative
emotionality
• E.g., high reactive infants excitable, nervous,
fearful at 7 years anxiety
• Heritability in twin studies of traits including
big 5 average of .5
• Proximal causes neuroticism show brain
response to unknown highly reactive
 Personality
• Environmental Influences
• Situations / parents / peers
• Situations: Different behaviors
may be reinforced / punished
in different situations
• Socio-cognitive learning
theorists
• Learning histories,
expectations and beliefs
• Child is classroom ->
Ambitious / industrious vs.
unmotivated
• Core set of stable traits and
varying behavior across
situations
• Reciprocal determinism
• Temperament, habits,
perceptions, beliefs ->
opportunities, rewards,
punishments
• All these make up our ‘non
shared environment’
 Personality
• Parents
• Shared environment has little
influence e.g., adopted children don’t
share traits
• Few parents have consistent child
rearing style, they often alter it with
temperament
• Even with consistency of input, there
is inconsistency of output
• There is however, influence including
on highly heritable traits
• Peer also have a powerful influence
including where peer and parental
values clash
• As reciprocal determinism suggests,
we also select peers that are in line
with our traits and dispositions
• Cultural Influences
• Conscientiousness and Quickness to
Anger as Personal traits. But they are
also culturally influenced
• Individualistic Cultures: Self as
collection of personality traits
• Collective Cultures: Self is defined in
context of relationships and
community
 Personality
• Chinese: ‘Who am I?’ If asked in
Chinese answer relationships vs.
Individual attributes in English
• Profoundly influences goals, values
thought positive, attributions,
weighing costs / benefits
• Americans – core identity state only
5-10% of self changes by situation
• Japanese ‘tachiba’ perform social
roles correctly. Consider 90-99% of
self changes
• Altruism vs. egoism: Cultures in
which children are assigned tasks
e.g., child caring, food preparation
that made a contribution to family
are found to be more altruistic.
• Linear time segments vs. parallel
time. In linear time societies keeping
people waiting is rude vs. other
societies where it is not so major
• Violence
• Nisbett (1993) Herders vs.
agriculturalists. The former need to
be hyperalert
• Culture of honor
• Aggression and Cortisol – Reaction to
an insult
 Personality
• Culture and personality: How to
avoid stereotyping?
• Variations within culture
• Cultures themselves are variations
within them
• Chinese and Japanese are both
collectivist cultures but Chinese
values individual achievement
whereas Japanese promote group
consensus
• All cultures also have similarities in
terms of shared human concerns so
differences tend to be ‘on average’
• Humanist approaches
• Maslow: Psychology ignores positive
and ‘peak experiences’ – not big five
but self actualized person what is
meaningful, satisfying, challenging
• Rogers: Not about why some people
cannot function well but also the
fully functional individual including
subjective reality. Congruence
between self and organism. Open
rather than defensive and realistic
• Unconditional positive regard
• Rollo May: Struggle to find meaning