INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

Lecture 4:

Motivation/Emotion

Theories of Personality

Lecturer: Nurul Husna

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the lecture, you should be able to:

 Define what motivation is

 Explain the different theories of motivation

 Define what emotion is, based on theories.

 Explain the function of emotions

 Define personality based on theories of personality.

Motivation

 Motivation refers to the internal process that makes a

person move towards a goal.

 Motivation cannot be seen, so we can only infer a

person’s motivation by noticing their behaviour.
Theories of Motivation

 Drive theories

 Arousal theories

 Incentive theories

 Needs theories
 (1) Drive Theory
 Motivation is considered as a drive.

 Drive = psychological tension

 Drive theory states that we desire to be in a state of

balance or contentment, called homeostasis (Hull,
1943).
 Example:
 Eating something to reduce the uncomfortable feeling
(tension) of hunger and to restore homeostasis.
 Feeling hungry = drive | Feeling full = homeostasis
Homeostasis
In homeostasis, the body maintains balance in the body’s physical states.

Increased hunger (a state of imbalance) prompts a person to eat. Eating

increases the level of glucose (blood sugar), causing the feelings of hunger to
reduce. After a period without eating, the glucose levels become low enough to
stimulate the hunger drive once again, and the entire cycle is repeated.
 (2) Arousal Theory
 Need for stimulation (excitement)

 Arousal theory suggests that people desire on

optimal (best/ideal) state of arousal.

 We not only feel tension and a desire to return to

homeostasis, but we might also feel bored and
desire excitement.

 Butler (1954, 1957) noted that even monkeys

engaged in behaviours due to curiosity, especially if
they haven’t been able to view anything interesting
for several hours.
 (3) Incentive Theories
 Incentives are external stimuli that pull us to perform
certain actions.
 Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within.
 Playing piano because you enjoy it.

 Extrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from outside the

person.
 Receiving a reward or threat.
Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation
(4) Needs Theory

 Maslow (1970) proposed that people resolve conflicts by

a hierarchy of needs.

 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is an organisation from the

most insistent needs to the ones that receive attention
only when all others are under control.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Emotions

 Psychologists usually define

emotion in terms of a combination
of cognitions, physiology, feelings
and actions.

 Emotion is defined as a complex

state of feeling that result in
physical and psychological
changes that influence thought
and behaviour.
 He was unfair to me

Cognition

Feeling
Behaviours

Physiology
Basic Emotions
Basic Emotions

 It is suggested that we have 6 basic emotions.

 Happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise.

 Criteria for basic emotions:

1. Basic emotions should emerge early in life without requiring
much experience. (baby)
2. Basic emotions should be similar across cultures. (smile)
3. Each basic emotion should have its own facial expression
and characteristic physiology. (anger heart rate)
Theories of Emotions

 Commonsense View

 James-Lange Theory

 Cannon-Bard Theory

 Schacter and Singer’s Theory

Questions:

1. Does physiological arousal precede or follow your

emotional experience?

Sweating vs afraid

1. Does cognition (thinking) precede emotion (feeling)?

Thinking of fear vs afraid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyxv0wZL29M
1) Commonsense View

Conscious Autonomic
Stimulus
feeling arousal

Conscious awareness precedes physiological activity.

2) James-Lange Theory of Emotions

 The James-Lange theory states that emotions are caused

by the interpretation of bodily reactions.

 James (1890) suggested that we experience emotion

only after our body reacts...
3) Cannon-Bard Theory

 Cannon-Bard theory suggested

that physiological responses and
cognitive responses are
simultaneous.

 Specifically, information from the

thalamus activates both
physiological reactions (e.g.,
increased heart rate, increased
respiration), and emotion (e.g.,
fear) by way of the cortex.
 4) Schacter and Singer’s Two Factor
Theory

 Schachter and Singer’s proposed

that our physiology and
cognitions create emotions.

 So emotion is based on two

factors: physiological arousal
and cognitive label.
Summary of the Theories of Emotion
PERSONALITY
What is personality?
Definition

 Personality is defined as “individual differences in

characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving”
(APA, 2016).

 Individual differences: uniqueness

 Personality is stable and does not change over time.

- Happy person remains happy-go-lucky
Personality

 There are four major perspectives:

 Psychoanalytic
 Behaviouristic
 Humanistic
 Trait Perspectives
Psychoanalytic Approach
 The psychoanalytic theory was
developed by Sigmund Freud (1856-
1939).

 Psychoanalytic theory relates

personality to the interplay of
conflicting forces within the individual,
including unconscious one.
 Video id ego superego
 1) Structure of Personality

 Freud claimed that personality consists of three aspects:

 Id
 Ego • Id consist of sexual and other
 Superego biological drives that demands
immediate gratification.

Id: selfish, pleasure-seeking • Ego is the rational, decision-

Ego: help the id obtain the tension
reduction by postpone it in order to
making aspect of personality.
meet the socially acceptable way
Superego: morality/conscience • Superego contains the memory of
rules and prohibitions we learned
from our parents and others.
 Id, Ego and Superego

“I guess I’ll have to wait

until I have the money
to buy that chocolate.”

“It’s wrong to steal”

“I want that
chocolate!!!”
Ego Defense Mechanism

 Strategies the ego uses to defend itself against the

anxiety provoked by conflicts of everyday life.

 Defense mechanisms involve denials or distortions of

reality.
unconscious type of forgetting
of painful memory

return to one of the stages of

childhood development

displace the aggression onto

someone else

Change the id impulse to socially

acceptable behaviour

expressing the opposite impulse

unacceptable impulses are seen

as being possessed by other
people, not by oneself.

reinterpreting our behavior to

make it seem more rational and
therefore more acceptable.
2) Psychosexual development

 Freud stated all of us are driven by the same id impulses, but there
is not the same universality in the nature of the ego and superego.
(different in life experience)

 Thus, part of our personality is formed on the basis of the unique relationships
we have as children with various people and objects.

 Freud argued that a person’s unique character type develops in

childhood (since 5years old), largely from parent–child interactions

 Children have to go through five stages of psychosexual

development, and if any stage is blocked or frustrated, the part of
libido becomes fixated at that stage.
 Libido = sex drive
Fixated = Persisting from childhood into adult life
 Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development
Stage Sexual Focus of Adult fixated
(approx. ages) Interests Conflict

Oral Sucking, Weaning • Tendency to use oral forms of aggression

(birth to 1) swallowing, (e.g. sarcasm)
biting • Pleasure from eating, drinking, smoking,
kissing and other oral activities

Anal Expelling faeces, Toilet training • Neatness

(1 to 3 years) retaining faeces

Phallic Oedipus Sexual Awareness • Development of conscience through

(4 to 5 years) complex identification with same-sex parent
• Males: fear of castration
• Females: penis envy

Latency Sexual interests School, play, • Ability to get along with others
(5 to puberty) suppressed same-sex
friendships

Genital Sexual contact Sexual • Committed adult relationship

(adolescence to with other relationship with
adulthood) people partner
Traits Approach

 Personality traits are consistent and long lasting tendency

in behaviour.

 Trait theories describe characteristics that make up

human personality in an effort to predict future
behaviour.
Trait theories of Personality

 Building on Allport’s work,

Cattell reduced Allport’s 4500
identified trait names to 171
key traits names.

 Using factor analysis, Cattell

(1947) developed a personality
model describing 16 traits and
a questionnaire to measure
those traits, called the Sixteen
Personality Factors
Questionnaire (16PF).
Catell’s Sixteen Personality Factors

Reserved Outgoing
Concrete thinker Abstract thinker
Stable, ego strength Emotionally/Neuroticism
Humble Assertive
Sober Happy-Go-Lucky
Expedient Conscientious
Shy Venturesome
Tough minded Tender-Minded
Trusting Suspicious
Practical Imaginative
Forthright Shrewd
Placid Apprehensive
Conservative Experimenting
Group-Dependent Self-sufficient
Undisciplined Controlled
Relaxed Tense
 Figure 13.4 Cattell’s Self-Report Inventory

This is an example of personality profiles based on Cattell’s 16PF self-report inventory. The two
groups represented are airline pilots and writers. Notice that airline pilots, when compared to writers,
tend to be more conscientious, relaxed, selfassured, and far less sensitive. Writers, on the other hand,
are more imaginative and better able to are think abstractly. Source: Cattell (1973).
Eysenck’s Supertraits (1916 – 1997)

 Eysenck (1967) also used

factor analysis to classify
personality traits, but he
based his theory on two
supertraits:
 extraversion-introversion
and
neuroticism-emotional
stability.
Eysenck’s Supertraits
The Big Five Model of Personality

 Although these trait theories were well established by the

1960s, there was no consensus concerning the number or
nature of personality traits.

 Recent personality researchers suggesting that Eysenck

had too few dimensions (three) and Cattell had too
many factors (sixteen)

 Instead, researchers consistently found a five factor of

personality originated by McCrae and Costa
 The Big Five Model of Personality

Trait Description
Openness A willingness to try new things
Conscientiousness A tendency to show self-discipline, to be
O dutiful, and to strive for achievement and
C competence.
E
Extraversion A tendency to seek stimulation and to enjoy
A
the company of others.
N
Agreeableness A tendency to be compassionate toward
others.
Neuroticism A tendency to experience unpleasant
emotions frequently, e.g., anxiety,
moodiness.
The Big Five Model of Personality
Personality Testing
Personality Testing (1)

 Objective tests
 Involves asking people to report on themselves by answering
questions about their behavior and feelings in various
situations.
 Example:
 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2)
 Latest MMPI-2-RF (Restructured Form)
 A true-false test that consists of 567 statements
 The test items cover physical and psychological health;
political and social attitudes; educational, occupational,
family, and marital factors; and neurotic and psychotic
behavior tendencies
Examples of the types of statements in the MMPI
Personality Testing (2)
 Projective tests
 Clinical psychologists developed projective tests of
personality for their work with the emotionally disturbed.
 Tests that are designed to let a person respond to
ambiguous stimuli to reveal hidden emotions and internal
conflicts projected by the person.
 Example:
 Rorschach and His Inkblots
 Rorschach (1921) created his own inkblots simply by
dropping blobs of ink on blank paper and folding the
paper in half
 Rorschach noticed consistent differences between the
responses of patients and the responses offered by
school children to the same inkblots.
the patient reports seeing
movement, human or
animal figures, animate or
inanimate objects, and
partial or whole figures.
 The inkblot cards (some black, others in color) are shown one at a
time, and test-takers are asked to describe what they see.

 Then the cards are shown a second time, and the psychologist asks
specific questions about the earlier answers.

 The examiner also observes behavior during the testing session,

including the test-takers’ gestures, reactions to particular inkblots,
and general attitude.

 Responses can be interpreted in several ways, depending on

whether the patient reports seeing movement, human or animal
figures, animate or inanimate objects, and partial or whole figures.

 Some researchers have concluded that there is no scientific basis

for the Rorschach; others insist that the test is as valid as any other
personality assessment measure.

 Nevertheless, the Rorschach continues to be a popular assessment

technique in personality research and clinical practice
 Summary
 Motivation is the individual’s internal strive towards a goal.

 Drive-reduction theory suggests that people act to maintain homeostasis.

 Incentive theory states that people are attracted to perform behaviors that offer positive incentives
and less attracted to perform behaviors associated with negative incentives.

 Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in behavior because it is personally rewarding; extrinsic

motivation occurs when we are motivated to perform a behavior or engage in an activity to earn a
reward or avoid punishment.

 Needs theory states that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. Once that need is
fulfilled, they then seek to fulfill the next need on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

 Emotions is a feeling state that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought
and behaviour.

 There are two functions of emotions: (1) adaptive functioning and (2) emotional expression.

 Personality is the stable and consistent way of how we think, feel and behave.
Some links for you to check it out!

 Big-5 Personality test

https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-
BFFM/?fbclid=IwAR0tR8He6WEFpr_XAA8b0Rx_PMj-
2GafWmH1sBSX5fSAxOELyztH9uZAGD0

 16Personalities
https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

 Multiphasic Personality test

https://www.idrlabs.com/multiphasic-
personality/test.php?fbclid=IwAR0qpsxdsguDoMXKw7yQt
KRKS5A8Vv_ZnrUY7BpviQhXXavKWRM3RKpEdww