Personality

Thinking about personality

• Constantly evaluating our personality and those of others
• We formulate opinions about the personality of others which we
use to either include/exclude from our lives/particular social
process & practices.

Defining personality
• A person’s attributes & qualities that make them unique
(emphasizes individual)
• Refers to the unique style of interacting with others and of reacting
to the environment (social context)

Important debates in Personality Theory (KNOW VERY

BREIFLY)
1. Free Will vs. determination (is personality the result of people’s
choices or is it shaped by forces beyond their control?)
a. Free will: people make conscious & forward-thinking
decisions to achieve their highest potential. (People are
always in control)
b. Determinism: psychodynamic personality theories argue that
behaviour is shaped by unconscious forces. (Emphasize
notion of unconscious)
2. Nature vs. Nurture (is personality something that people are born
with or is it shaped by the environment?)

None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the

prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
 a. Nature: biological personality theories argue that personality
is based on genetic makeup
b. Nurture: behavioral personality theories argue that
personality is learned
3. Past vs. Present (is personality shaped by past events or by their
present/current circumstances?)
a. Past: psychodynamic theories argue that childhood
experiences shape personality in adulthood
b. Present: humanist theories argue that personality is
motivated by presented circumstances which motivate
people to move forward & upward in life
4. Uniqueness vs. Universality (is personality unique in relation to
other personalities or is it similar across people?)
a. Uniqueness: cognitive behaviour theories argue that
personality is influenced by people’s unique thinking
processes and patterns
b. Universality: biological personality perspective, like trait
theories, argue that there are core personality traits
(introversion, extroversion) that all people are born with
5. Consistency vs. Malleability (is personality permanent overtime or
is it ever-changing and evolving – depending on when/who you are
with?)
a. Consistency: behavioral personality theories argue that
personality is a matter of learned responses to behaviour
that is either rewarded/punished (mechanical view)
b. Malleability: humanistic personality theories argue that
personality is based on people’s ever-changing needs in
response to always moving forward (challenging ourselves to
grow/reach our highest potential)
None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the
prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
 1) PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVES
Umbrella term for a group of loosely related theories that:
• Are based on & inspired by the work of Sigmund Freud (father of
psychoanalysis)
• Focus on unconscious mental processes.

Sigmund Freud
Major contributions:
• Emphasis on sex & sexual repression
o Created theory during period when sex was frowned upon –
sex was reserved only for reproduction & in marriage.
o Argues that our sexual instincts affect our behaviour.
• Developed a treatment for mental disorders called
psychoanalysis.
• Psychosexual theory of personality
• 3 main ideas of Freud’s theory:
1. Personality is governed by unconscious forces.
2. Unconscious forces are shaped by childhood
experiences.
3. Childhood involves a series of psychosexual conflicts that
children must navigate.
Freud’s structure of personality:
3 components of personality
1. Id: focus of pleasure
2. Ego: focus on reality

None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the

prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
 3. Superego: focus on perfection (following parental rules; strives for
moral perfection)

Our Egos are constantly mediating between demands & threats from Id
& Superego
• They experience anxiety & pressure from Id & Superego
• Ego develops defense mechanisms.

Defense mechanisms
• Largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from
unpleasant emotions, e.g., anger, sadness, guilt.
• Mental strategies we unconsciously use in order to lie to ourselves
about info we don’t want to confront because it is too
overwhelming, painful, uncomfortable, frustrating.
• 7 types:
1. Repression: burying distressing thoughts/feelings in the
unconscious
2. Projection: attribute one’s own thoughts/feelings/motives to
another
3. Displacement: diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from
their original source to a substitute source
4. Reaction formation: behaving in a way that is exactly the
opposite of one’s true feelings.
5. Rationalization: creating false but plausible excuses to justify
unacceptable behaviour
6. Identification: bolstering one’s self-esteem by forming an
imaginary/real alliance with some person/group
7. Regression: reversion to immature patterns of behaviour

None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the

prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
Freud’s psychosexual stages
1. Oral (birth-1yr)
a. Pleasure derived sucking
2. Anal (2-3yrs)
a. Pleasure derived from defecating.
3. Phallic (4-5yrs)
a. Pleasure derived from genitals.
4. Latency (6-12yrs)
a. No erotic pleasure
5. Genital (puberty onwards)
a. Pleasure derived from sexual intercourse.

Carl Jung
Major contributions
• Freud considered Jung to be his successor.
• Major falling out for 2 reasons:
o Jung argued that human behaviour is not only motivated by
sexual impulses & urges.
o Jung placed greater emphasis on the role that spirituality &
ancestry plays on shaping personality.
• Jung developed a brand of psychoanalysis called analytical
psychology.
Jung’s systems of personality
2 unconscious systems that continuously shape personality:
1. Personal unconscious: reservoir of material that was once
conscious but has been forgotten/suppressed (similar to Freud)

None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the

prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
 2. Collective unconscious: repository/storage for experiences of
hidden/latent experiences inherited from people’s ancestorial past
(history of person’s own life as well as history of species – differs
from Freud completely)

2) BEHAVIOURAL PERSPECTIVES
• Consider influence of environment on development of personality
through roles & responsibilities people need to perform I order to
learn.
• Influenced by the school of behaviorism (theoretical orientation
based on the premise that psychology should only study
observable behaviour)
• Why does psychology only want to study observable behaviour?
o Has to do with knowledge produced/generated by
psychology that needs to be casual/reliable/valid in order to
qualify as scientific.

B.F. Skinner (takes side of deterministic argument)

Major contributions
• Individual personality is a collection of response to tendencies
linked to various stimulus situations.
o Response tendencies: stable collection of behaviors that
people demonstrate in response to situations that arise
• Personality is developed through learned responses from the
environments that include:
1. Reinforcement: when the environment rewards behaviour
2. Punishment: when the environment forbids behaviour

None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the

prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
Albert Bandura (good example of free will vs. determination)
Major contributions
• Developed cognitive behavioral personality theory
o Argued that the study of observable behaviour should take
into consideration factors such as cognition.
• Emphasized that learned behaviour includes cognitive processes.
o Meaning that thought goes into behaviour.
• Bandura’s theory of personality is consistent with the notion of
reciprocal determinism.
o Reciprocal determinism: personality is influenced by the
power of the environment and people’s choices & actions.
• Developed the concept of observational learning; argues that
people do not passively respond to environment.
o Observational learning: people learn through observing the
behaviour of the other people.
o Models: people whose behaviour we observe
o Self-efficacy: people’s perception/belief they have of their
ability to achieve/accomplish their goals; refers to feelings of
adequacy/efficiency/competence in coping with life; the more
we meet & maintain our performance standards, the more
we enhance our self-efficiency.

3) HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVES

• Emerged in response to criticism that the psychodynamic &

behavioral schools were too deterministic

None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the

prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
 • Humanism: theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique
qualities of humans, especially their freedom & their potential for
personal growth

Carl Rogers
Major contributions
• Argues that people always know what is best for them; they
naturally gravitate towards personal growth; they are forward think
& moving
• People come to know who they are through the self-concept
o Self-concept: collection of beliefs about one’s own nature,
unique qualities, typical behaviour; how you see yourself
o Rogers argues that we tend to distort out self-concept;
people tend to have an unrealistic view about themselves
(social media)
• Incongruence: a gap/discrepancy between a person’s self-concept
and their real life OR a person whose self-concept is defined by an
idealized version of themselves
o People become incongruent due to conditional love
§ Conditional love: when people are made to feel worthy
only when they have fulfilled certain conditions laid
down by a significant other
§ Unconditional love: refers to no conditions/restrictions
being placed on a child’s/person’s need for love from
their parents/loved ones

Abraham Maslow
Major contributions

None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the

prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
 • Argues that people are innately (biologically) driver to move
forward and succeed in life (like Rogers)
• People are motivated by needs which are based on a hierarchy
• Hierarchy of needs:
o Systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in
which basic needs must be met before less basic needs are
aroused.
1. Self-actualization: achieving one’s full potential, including
creative activities (self-fulfillment)
2. Esteem: prestige & feeling of accomplishment
(psychological)
3. Belongingness & love: intimate relationship, friends
(psychological)
4. Safety: security, safety (basic)
5. Physiological: food, water warmth, rest (basic)

4) BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Personality is genetically inherited.

Twin studies on personality are frequently cited as evidence.

Trait theories
• Behavioral genetics: term developed by Hans Eysenck; refers to
the role that genes play in shaping personality
o Eysenck argues that there are 3 core personality traits
(extroversion, neuroticism, psychopathy) that people are

None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the

prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
 born with, which have nothing to do with the influence of the
environment

Five factor model of personality:

1. Conscientiousness: careful, dependable, self-disciplined
2. Agreeable: courteous, good natured, empathetic, caring
3. Neuroticism: anxious, hostile, depressed
4. Openness to experience: imaginative, creative, curious,
sensitive
5. Extroversion: outgoing, talkative, sociable, assertive

These can be seen as scales on which one can measure

personality – one can score high/low on each of the scales.

Evolutionary theories:
• Recent development in thinking about personality from a biological
standpoint.
o Natural selection: when particular personality traits present in
people because of their adaptive value for the humankind

Culture and personality:

• Individualistic personality theories promote values that are
consistent with Eurocentric & Western contexts where people are
encouraged to be individualistic and competitive
• In SA context we have cultures that emphasize community,
interdependence, and interconnectedness rather than
individualism
• Urie Bronfenbrenner’s theory of ecology:
o Individual
None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the
prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.
 o Microsystem (immediate context: family, living arrangement,
household)
o Mesosystem (school, peers, friends)
o Exosystem (industries, social services, work arrangements,
media individual is exposed to)
o Macrosystem (value systems, cultural beliefs, political
ideologies, religious doctrines, historical influences)

None of this informa.on is my own – it is a combina.on of informa.on found in the

prescribed textbook and the lecture slides.