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Chapter 10
Personality
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
FIGURE 10.1 Personality types are defined by the presence of several specific traits. For
example, several possible personality traits are shown in the left column. A person who has a
Type A personality typically possesses all or most of the highlighted traits. Type A persons are
especially prone to heart disease (see Chapter 11).
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
Trait Theories
• Trait theorists aim to describe personality
with a small number of traits or factors
• Personality trait—stable quality a person
shows across most situations
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
FIGURE 10.4 The Big Five. According to the five-factor model, basic differences in personality
can be “boiled down” to the dimensions shown here. The five-factor model answers these
essential questions about a person: Is she or he extroverted or introverted? Agreeable or difficult?
Conscientious or irresponsible? Emotionally stable or unstable? Smart or unintelligent? These
questions cover a large measure of what we might want to know about someone’s personality.
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
True or False?
1. I believe my parents have been one of the most
influential forces in my development.
FIGURE 10.6 The approximate relationship between the id, ego, and superego, and the levels
of awareness.
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
Table 13.1
Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
Figure 13.5
Freud believed that psychoanalysis could bring parts of the unconscious
into the conscious mind, where the client could deal with them.
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
Freudian Defense Mechanisms:
Psychological Defenders of You!
• Defense Mechanisms: Habitual and unconscious (in
most cases) psychological processes designed to
reduce anxiety
– Work by avoiding, denying, or distorting sources of
threat or anxiety
– If used short term, can help us get through everyday
situations
– If used long term, we may end up not living in reality
– Protect idealized self-image so we can live with
ourselves
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
Freudian Defense Mechanisms:
Some Examples
• Denial: Most primitive; refusing to believe, denying
reality; usually occurs with death and illness
• Repression: When painful memories, anxieties, and so
on are held out of our awareness
• Projection: When one’s own feelings, shortcomings, or
unacceptable traits and impulses are seen in others;
exaggerating negative traits in others lowers anxiety
• Rationalization: Justifying personal actions by giving
“rational” but false reasons for them
• Reaction Formation: Impulses are repressed and the
opposite behavior is exaggerated
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
FIGURE 10.8 Incongruence occurs when there is a mismatch between any of these three
entities: the ideal self (the person you would like to be), your self-image (the person you think
you are), and the true self (the person you actually are). Selfesteem suffers when there is a
large difference between one’s ideal self and self-image. Anxiety and defensiveness are
common when the self-image does not match the true self.
Psychology: A Journey, Second Edition, Dennis Coon
Chapter 10
Personality Assessment
• Interview: Face-to-face meeting designed to
gain information about someone’s personality,
current psychological state, or personal history
– Unstructured Interview: Conversation is
informal, and topics are discussed as they
arise
– Structured Interview: Follows a prearranged
plan, using a series of planned questions
• Direct Observation: Looking at behavior