NATURE OF PERSONALITY

Peter B. Santos, MD
First year resident
SPMC IPBM
PERSONALITY THEORY AND
HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Five recent sources of influence upon personality
theory
 Tradition of clinical observation
 Beginning from Charcot and Janet, Freud, Jung and
McDougall
 Gestalt tradition and William Stern
 Focuses on unity of behavior
 Experimental Psychology
 Psychometric Tradition
 Measurement and study of individual differences
 Genetics and Physiology
WHAT IS A PERSONALITY?
 No substantive definition of personality
 Latin word “Persona”
 outward appearance, the public face we display to the
people around us
 Impression we make on others
 concepts contained within a given theory that are
considered adequate for the complete description
or understanding of human behavior
 Enduring characteristics
 vary with the situation
 not rigid, it is generally resistant to sudden changes
 Calm, nervous, anxious

 Unique Characteristics
 each of us possesses special properties
 that distinguish us from all others

 Culture and Gender Variations

 General Definition:
 Social skill or adroitness
 Most outstanding or salient impression he or she
creates in others
Alport(1937)-
 Biosocial definition
 Social stimulus or value
 Biophysical definition
 Characteristics and qualities of the subject
 Rag-bag or omnibus definiton
 Personalities by enumeration, everything about the
individual
 Integrative or Organizational function
 Various discrete responses of the individual.
 Gives order and congruence to all he different
kinds of behavior in which the individual engages
 Varied and typical adjustments carried out by
the individual
 Unique or individual aspects of behavior

 Essence of the human condition- most

representative of a person
HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
 Late 19th century in Germany- Wilhelm Wundt
 greatly influenced by the natural science approach,
applied it to the study of the mind
 studied only those mental processes that might be
affected by some external stimulus that could be
manipulated and controlled by the experimenter.
THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR
 Early decades of the 20th century- John B.
Watson
 study of overt behavior rather than of mental
processes
 tangible aspects of human nature
 Accumulation of learned responses or habit
systems- B. F. Skinner
THE STUDY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
 Psychoanalysis- Sigmund Freud
 Based on clinical observation of his patients
 feelings and past experiences, both actual and
fantasized
WHAT IS A THEORY
 An unsubstantiated hypothesis or a speculation
concerning reality that is not yet definitely
known so.
 vague, abstract, and speculative—really no more
than a hunch or a guess and quite the opposite of a
fact.
 Two parts:
 Relevant assumptions
 Set of empirical (coordinating) definitions
 Should lead to a systematic expansion of a
knowledge
 Accepted or Rejected by its utility
 Verifiability- capacity of the theory to generate predictions
 Comprehensiveness- completeness of the derivations

 Heuristic influence
 Generate research by suggesting resistance or arousing
disbelief and resistance
 Permits incorporation of known empirical
findings within a logically consistent and
reasonable framework
 Simplicity or Parsimony

 Prevents the observer from being dazzled by the

full blown complexity of natural or concrete
events
THEORY OF PERSONALITY
 Set of assumptions relevant to the human
behavior together with the necessary empirical
definitions
 Lack explicitness
 Personal theories
 derive from our observations of ourselves and others
 limited number of persons—usually our small circle
of relatives, friends, and acquaintances, as well as
ourselves.
 subjective

 Formal theories
 observations of large numbers of people of diverse
natures
 more objective
 tested repeatedly against reality often by another
scientist
PERSONALITY THEORY AND OTHER
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES
 General theory of behavior
 All behavioral phenomena of demonstrated
significance
 Individual as an integrated unit

 Single domain theories

 Focuses on certain classes of behavioral events
COMPARISON OF THEORIES OF
PERSONALITY
Grouped into 4 families
 Psychodynamic theories
 Unconscious motives and intrapsychic conflicts
 Structural theories
 Different behavioral tendencies that characterize
individuals
 Experiential theories
 The way person perceives reality and experiences his
or her world
 Learning theories
 Emphasizes the learned basis of response tendencies,
with emphasis on learning process
 A number of aspects of personality are discussed
by different theorists
 Characteristics are real and important
 Confusing
 Number of qualities by which personality can be
compared and distinguished
 Formal attributes
 Substantive attributes
THANK YOU