Chapter 12

Personality

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Chapter Preview

 Psychodynamic Perspectives
 Humanistic Perspectives
 Trait Perspectives
 Personological and Life Story Perspectives
 Social Cognitive Perspectives
 Biological Perspectives
 Personality Assessment
 Personality and Health and Wellness
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Personality

…a pattern of enduring distinctive thoughts,

emotions, and behaviors that characterize the
way an individual adapts to the world

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Psychodynamic Perspectives

 personality is primarily unconscious

 understanding personality involves exploring
the symbolic meanings of behavior and the
unconscious mind
 early childhood experiences sculpt the
individual’s personality

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Freud’s
Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud and Psychoanalysis

 sex drive – main determinant of personality
development

Hysteria
 physical symptoms without physical cause
 overdetermined – multiple unconscious causes

Iceberg Analogy of Human Personality

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Personality Structure

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Personality Structure

Id
 instincts and reservoir of psychic energy
 pleasure principle
Ego
 deals with the demands of reality
 reality principle
Superego
 moral branch of personality; “conscience”

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Defense Mechanisms

 conflict between the id, ego, and superego

results in anxiety

 defense mechanisms reduce anxiety by

unconsciously distorting reality – not
necessarily unhealthy

 repression
 foundation for all defense mechanisms

 push unacceptable impulses out of

awareness

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Defense Mechanisms

 repression
 rationalization
 displacement
 sublimation
 projection
 reaction formation
 denial
 regression

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Defense Mechanisms

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Defense Mechanisms

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Psychosexual Stages

Oral Stage: 0-18 Months

 infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth

Anal Stage: 18-36 Months

 child’s pleasure involves eliminative functions

Phallic Stage: 3-6 Years

 child’s pleasure focuses on the genitals
 Oedipal complex
 castration anxiety

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Psychosexual Stages

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Psychosexual Stages (cont’d)

Latency Stage: 6 Years - Puberty

 psychic “time-out”
 interest in sexuality is repressed

Genital Stage: Adolescence and Adulthood

 sexual reawakening
 source of sexual pleasure is someone else

Fixation - remain locked in particular developmental

stage (e.g., anal retentive)

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Dissenters and Revisionists

 sexuality – not pervasive force

behind personality
 early experience –not as powerful as
Freud thought
 importance of conscious thought
 sociocultural influences

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Dissenters and Revisionists

Horney’s Sociocultural Approach

 both sexes envy the attributes of the other
 need for security, not sex, is primary motivator

Jung’s Analytical Theory

 collective unconscious and archetypes

Adler’s Individual Psychology

 perfection, not pleasure, is key motivator

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Evaluating
Psychodynamic Theory

Criticisms
 too much emphasis on early experiences
 too much faith in unconscious mind’s control
 too much emphasis on sexual instincts
 theory can not be tested

Contributions
 importance of childhood experiences
 development proceeds in stages
 role of unconscious processes
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Humanistic Perspectives

…emphasis on a person’s capacity for

personal growth and positive human
qualities

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Humanistic Perspectives

Abraham Maslow
 third force psychology
 self-actualization
 peak experiences
 biased since focus was on highly
successful individuals

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Humanistic Perspectives

Carl Rogers
 personal growth and self-determination
 unconditional positive regard
- conditions of worth
- self-concept
 empathy
 genuineness

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Evaluating
Humanistic Perspectives

Contributions
 self-perception is key to personality
 consider the positive aspects of human nature
 emphasize conscious experience

Criticisms
 too optimistic about human nature
 promotes self-love and narcissism

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Trait Perspectives

Trait
 an enduring disposition that leads to
characteristic responses
 traits are the building blocks of personality

Trait Theories
 people can be described by their typical
behavior
 strong versus weak tendencies
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Trait Perspectives

Gordon Allport
 personality understood through traits
 behavior consistent across situations
 lexical approach  4500 traits

W. T. Norman
 five factor model
 broad traits – main dimensions of
personality

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 Five Factor
Model of Personality

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Five Factor
Model of Personality

Do the big five show up in the

assessment of personality in
cultures around the world?

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Five Factor
Model of Personality

Do the big five personality

traits show up in animals?

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Evaluating Trait Perspectives

Contributions
 traits influence health, cognitions, career
success, and interpersonal relations

Criticisms
 ignores the role of the situation in behavior
 ignores nuances of an individual’s personality

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Personological Perspectives

…focusing on an individual’s
life history or life story

Henry Murray
 personology: the study of the whole person
 motives are largely unconscious
 thematic apperception test (TAT)
- need for achievement, affiliation, and power

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Life Story Approach

Dan McAdams
 our life story is our identity

 intimacy motivation

Psychobiography
 applying personality theory to one

person’s life

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Evaluating
Life Story Approach

Contributions
 rich record of an individual’s experience

Criticisms
 difficult and time-consuming
- extensive coding and content analysis
 prone to bias
 not easily generalized

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Social Cognitive Perspectives

 emphasize conscious awareness, beliefs,

expectations, and goals
 incorporates principles from behaviorism
when exploring:
- reasoning
- beliefs
- self reflection
- interpretation of situation
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Social Cognitive Perspectives

Albert Bandura
 reciprocal determinism
- behavior, environment, and cognitive
factors interact to create personality

Key Processes and Variables

 observational learning
 personal control
 self-efficacy

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Reciprocal Determinism

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Social Cognitive Perspectives

Walter Mischel
Situationalism
- behavior and personality vary
considerably across context

CAPS Model of Personality

- stability over time rather than across
situations
- interconnections among cognitions and
emotions affect our behavior
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Evaluating
Social Cognitive Theory

Contributions
 focuses on interactions of individuals with
their environments
 suggests people can control their environment

Criticisms
 too concerned with change and the situation
 ignores the role of biology
 very specific predictions hinder generalization

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Biological Perspectives

Personality and the Brain

 brain damage alters personality
 brain responses correlate with personality

Eysenk’s Reticular Activation System Theory

 extraverts and introverts have different base-line levels
of arousal

Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory

 behavioral activation system and behavioral inhibition
system

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Biological Perspectives

Role of Neurotransmitters
 growth of dopamine receptors stimulated
by warm care-givers
 disposes person to reward-sensitivity
(extraversion)
 less serotonin in circulation leads to
negative mood (neuroticism)

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Biological Perspectives

Behavioral Genetics
 twin studies reveal substantial genetic
influence on Big Five traits
 most traits influenced by multiple genes

Evaluating the Biological Perspective

 ties personality to animal learning, brain
imaging, and evolutionary theory
 criticisms (e.g., biology may be the
affect, not the cause, of personality)

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Personality –
Stability vs Change

Traits are stable by definition yet

positive traits increase across
adulthood (social maturity).

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Personality Assessment

Self-Report Tests
 beware social desirability
 empirically-keyed tests used to get around
social desirability problem
- test takers do not know what is being measured
- test items not related to purpose of test
- MMPI is an example

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Personality Assessment

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

 567 items
 controls for social desirability
 assesses mental health and used to make hiring
decisions and to determine criminal risk

Neuroticism Extraversion Openness

Personality Inventory-Revised
 assesses the big five factors and 6 subdimensions

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Personality Assessment

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

 four dimensions used to make personnel
decisions:
- extraversion-introversion
- sensing-intuiting
- thinking-feeling
- judgment-perception
 not empirically supported
 Barnum effect

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Personality Assessment

Projective Tests
…psychodynamic approach
…project own meaning on ambiguous stimuli

Rorschach inkblot test

 personality score based on description of inkblots
 questionable reliability and validity
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
 series of ambiguous pictures viewed one at a time
 elicited stories reveal an individual’s personality

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Rorschach Inkblot Test

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Thematic Apperception Test

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Other Assessment Methods

 direct behavioral observation

 cognitive assessment of attention and memory
 peer ratings
 psychophysiological measures (e.g., polygraph)
 brain imaging

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Personality and Health and
Wellness

Personality traits correlated with health

 conscientiousness
 personal control
 self efficacy
 optimism
 type A/type B behavior pattern

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Personality and Health and
Wellness

Subjective Well-Being
…person’s assessment of own positive
affect relative to negative affect, and
evaluation of own life in general

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Chapter Summary

 Define personality.
 Discuss the following perspectives on personality
 psychodynamic
 humanistic
 trait
 personological and life story
 social cognitive
 biological
 Characterize the main methods of personality assessment.
 Summarize how personality relates to health and wellness.

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Chapter Summary

Psychodynamic Perspectives
 focus on unconscious determinants
 personality structure and defense mechanisms
 psychosexual stages of development

Humanistic Perspectives
 Maslow and self-actualization
 Rogers and unconditional positive regard

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Chapter Summary

Trait Perspectives
 traits are stable over time and situations

Personological and Life Story Perspectives

 personology - study the whole person
 identity can be understood through life stories

Social Cognitive Perspectives

 behavior, environment, and cognitive factors
 self-efficacy and personal control

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Chapter Summary

Biological Perspectives
Personality Assessment
 self-reports tests
 projective tests
 other assessment techniques

Personality and Health and Wellness

 healthful personality traits

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