Personality

Chapter 14
McElhaney
 Personality
► Definition-“a person’s unique pattern of
thinking, emotions, and behavior.”

► Refers to consistency in who you are, have

been and will become.
► Is a blend of talent, values, hopes, loves,
hates, and habits…
 Basics
► Each of us have consistent behavior patterns that
define our personality

► Predictable- we can predict how people will act

► Personality- is closely related to traits

 Can be understood as a manifestation of Mental
conflicts
 Is effected by learning
 Is effected by social situations
 Relate to how people perceive themselves
 Basics 2
► Psychologists use:
 Interview
 Direct observation To assess
personality
 Questionnaires

► Shyness= public self-consciousness

► Behavior- is influenced by self-monitoring

► Self-monitoring- is a process of observing,

regulating, and controlling personal image we
display
 Psychology of Personality
► Personality factors
 Who are you?
 How do you think?
 How do you behave and express feelings?

► Personality is not character (is a term of

evaluation- friendly, outgoing, honest with moral
values…
► Personality is not temperament (hereditary aspects
– sensitivity, irritability, distractibility typical mood)
 Personality Traits
► Traits
are- stable qualities that a person
shows in most situations
 Are inferred from observed behaviors
►Sociable, orderly, intelligent, shy, sensitive, creative

► Types= Personality types- people who have

several traits in common
 Categories of include- popular, athletic,
motherly
 Self Concept
► Consistsof all your ideas, perceptions and
feelings about who you are

► Guides our behavior

► Problems can arise with inadequate or
inaccurate self concept
 Self Esteem
► Highesteem = confident, proud, self-
respecting
 Rises with success
► Low Esteem- Falls= with negative self
evaluation
 Examples- insecure, lacking in confidence, self-
critical
► Genuine Esteem is accurate appraisal of
strengths + weaknesses
 Personality Theories
► Are frameworks to understand personality
► 5 major Theories
1. Trait Theory
2. Psycho-Dynamic
3. Behavioristic
4. Social Learning
5. Humanistic
 Match the Personality Theory
A. Focuses on private, subjective experience, and personal
growth

B. Effect of conditioning +Learning = effects of external

environment

C. Focuses on inner workings of personality

 Especially internal conflicts & struggles

D. To learn what traits makeup personality + how they relate

to actual behavior

E. Attribute differences in personality to socialization,

expectations+ and mental processes
 Trait Approach
► Traitis a stable + enduring quality that a
person shows in most situations.

► To be considered a personality trait it must

be typical of your behavior

► AncientGreeks- found 4 different types of

temperament
Eysenck believed that many
personality traits are Hans Eysneck and Traits
related to whether you are
mainly introverted or
extroverted and whether
you tend to be emotionally
stable or unstable (highly
emotional). These
characteristics, in turn, are
related to four basic types of
temperament first
recognized by the early
Greeks. The types are:
melancholic (sad, gloomy),
choleric (hot-tempered,
irritable), phlegmatic
(sluggish, calm), and
sanguine (cheerful, hopeful).
(Adapted from Eysenck,
1981.)
Gordon Allport and Classifying Traits
► Identified different ► Individual Traits
kinds of traits  Defines a person of
► Subjective Classifying unique qualities…

► Common traits
 Characteristics shared
by most members of a
culture
 Tells us similarities in a
culture
 Allport 2
► Cardinal Traits ► Central traits- Basic
 Basic trait easily visible building blocks of
to a person’s activities personality
 Few people have ► Small # of traits (7)
cardinal traits
tell clear story of
 “Trait that literally
personality
Drives/guide’s your
life.”
 Mother Teresa-
Compassion
 Allport Secondary Traits
► Lessconsistent
► Superficial aspects
 Food preferences
 Attitudes
 Political opinion
 Musical tastes
 Raymond Cattell
► Wanted to know how ► Used statistics
traits were interlinked ► Called Factor Analysis
 Psychologists correlates
► Found surface traits- and looks for patterns
make up visible  Associated with traits
areas of - personality
► Occur in clusters ► 16 Source traits
 Appear often
 Seen as a basic trait
 Cattell 16 Source Traits
► All are needed to Fully describe a
personality
► Created a questionnaire
► “16 Personality Factor Questionnaire”
(16PF)
► Used to create a trait profile
► Represented in a graph or score based on
traits
 The Big 5- “5 Factor Model”
► Cattell’s (16 PF) was reduced to 5
Universal dimensions
► That can predict how people will act in
various circumstances (used to compare
personalities)
1.Extroversion
2.Agreeableness
3.Conscientiousness
4.Neuroticism
5.Openness to Experience
 Big 5 trait factors
► 1. how extro or introverted ?
► 2. Agreeableness- how agreeable= friendly,
nurturing, caring vs. cold, indifferent, self-centered,
spiteful
► 3. Conscientious- How self-disciplined,
responsible/achieving vs. irresponsible, careless,
undependable
► 4. Neuroticism- how negative, upsetting emotions-
 High neuroticism= anxious, emotionally sour, irritable
and unhappy.
► 5. Openness to Experience how open to experience
are you
► Any trait you can name will be tied to one of the
five factors
 Which is more important?
Personality traits or External Circumstances

► Both
► Personalitytraits are consistent & can
predict behavior

► Situations influence behavior

► Traits
interact with situations to determine
how we act.
 Psycho-Dynamic Theory of
Personality
► Not focused on traits-but under the surface

► Believe
our actions are based on hidden
unconscious needs
 Freud
► Freud personality theory

► Structureof personality
► Saw personality as 3 mental structures
► Id
► Ego
Interaction of 3 = Behavior

► Superego
 The Id
► Includes innate biological instances + urges
► Self serving irrational, impulsive,
► Totally unconscious
► Operates on Pleasure Principle
 I.E., seeks to express- pleasure urges
 (Id is) Energy for psyche=personality
 AKA the libido
► Id is the energyfor the psyche=libido
► Libido comes from life instincts (eros)
 Freud 3
► Freud said the libido drives:
 Sexual desires
 Survival
 Pleasure thinking
► Deathinstinct = (Thanatos)- produces
destructive + aggressive urges
 Ego
► Ego is the executive- “Directs energies supplied by
id.”
► Mediates between the Id & reality
► Id is expressed through the Ego

► Id= desires to- ego- reality

(Changes)

► Ego– guided by reality Principle

 Delays action until it is practical or appropriate
 Thinking, planning, problem solving, + deciding
 In conscious control of personality
 Super Ego
► Super ego- the judge, or Censor
 Internal parent- to keep order of behavior
 Thinking, planning, problem solving + deciding
 In conscious control of personality

► Consciencewhen punished, when standards of

the conscience are not met= guilt feelings
 Ego Ideal
► Reflects
all behavior- parent approved of+
rewarded
 Source of goals + aspirations
 When standard are met = pride

► Weak Super Ego= delinquent, criminal, anti-social

personality

► Harsh Super Ego= inhibition, rigidity, unbearable

guilt
 Freud Continued
► Said-
Id + superego + Ego are conflicting
mental processes

► When in conflict (especially sexually)–then

 Displacement or
 Sublimation occur- (sexual energy is directed to
other activities)
 Freud and Anxiety
► Freud said most internal struggles are re-channeled
energies typify most personality functioning.

► Anxiety- is the result of when ego is threatened or

overwhelmed

► Neurotic Anxiety results when ego can barely keep Id

under control. (individuals are struggling with forbidden
drives)
► Moral Anxiety- occur with threats of punishment from the
superego

► Ego defense mechanisms- are used to calm these anxieties

► Rationalization, Denial, Projection, Repression, Regression
 Levels of Awareness
► Freud
said- behavior- expresses
unconscious forces
 The unconscious holds repressed memories +
emotions plus drives of Id
►(also a limbic system connection )

► Unconscious thoughts feelings-urges may

slip into behavior in symbolic form
 Freud and Personality Development
► Freudsaid “Core of personality is formed
before age 6”

► Psycho-Sexual Stages= erotic (broad

categories of sources of pleasure) childhood
urges have lasting effects on development
 4 Psycho Sexual Stages
► Each different phase has a different phase
becomes a child primary erogenous zone
(area for experiencing pleasure)

► Adult Personality traits – can be traced to

fixations
► Fixations- arise from unresolved conflicts in
childhood- 1. over indulgence in one stage
2. frustration at stage
 4 Stages
► Oral-
► Anal
► Phallic
► Genital
 Neo-Freudians
► Close to Freuds ideas
► Accepted broad features of Freudian theory
► Horney
► Adler
► Jung
 Alfred Adler (1937)
► Broke from Freud

► Disagreed with Freud’s

 Emphasis on Unconscious
 Emphasis on Instinctual drives
 Emphasis on Sexuality
► Believed we are social creatures controlled by
social urges
► Main force of personality=striving for superiority
► Struggling
to overcome imperfections
► We have a drive for competence, mastery of shortcomings
 Adler 2
► Said- Everyone experiences inferiority feelings

► Because we begin small weak + relatively

powerless

► Inferiority also comes from personal limitations

► We compensate for limitations

 Adler
► We each have a unique style of life = personality
pattern

► Formed by age 5 indicated by earliest memory

that can be recalled

► Alsosaid we have a creative self-

► Humans create their personalities through choice
and experience
 Karen Horney (1855-1952)
► Close to Freud’s view- except the gender bias
► Said
► Basic Anxiety occurs- when people feel isolated
and helpless in a hostile world
 Feelings come from childhood experience

► Personality is affected when people try to control

anxiety by exaggerating a single mode of
interacting
1. Move toward= dependent- love, support, friendship
2. Move away= independent, withdrawal, loner, strong
3. Move Against= hostile, attacking, competing, seeking
power
 Carl Jung (1875-1961)
► Studentof Freud
► Developed his own ideas
► Used Ego=Conscious
 Identified the Persona- “Mask” that exists
between the ego and the outside world, the
public self to others
 (which makes up the personality)
 Jung said
Introverts Extroverts
► Shy ► Bold
► Egocentric ► Outgoing
► Attention is focused ► Attention directed
inward outward
► Energy directed mainly
inward ► Energy directed mostly
outward
 Jung and Personal Unconscious
► Used the term- Personal unconscious-
instead of the Freudian “Unconscious”

 Is a mental storehouse for individual’s

experience feelings and memories
Jung and Collective Unconscious
►A deep mental storehouse for unconscious
ideas and images
► Shared by all humans
 Called Archetypes
► Examples- all humans share experience:
 Birth, death, power, god figures, mother, father,
Earth, evil, rebirth
 Archetypes (arkehtypes)
► Found in collective unconscious
► They cause us to respond emotionally to
symbols of birth, death, energy, animals,
evil

► Jung
found archetypes in art, religion,
myths, dreams in every culture.
 Two Archetypes-
Anima= female principle
+ Animus= male principle
► In men- Anima is an ► Women have idealized
idealized image of man in Animus
woman- in
unconscious

• Anima and Animus allows us to relate to

opposite sex
• Also allows masculine and feminine sides of our
personalities
 Self-Archetypes
► Jung said most important
► Represents unity
Within
 Gradual balance
personality
 Wholeness
 Harmony
 Learning Theories of Personality-
Behavioral
► Personality is a ► Self Efficacy and
collection of behavior Bandura
patterns ► Self Reinforcement
► Situational ► 4 Critical Situations
determinants ► Behavior Critical
► Dollard and Miller Situations
► Social Learning ► Becoming Male and
Theorists Female (Behavioral
Aspects) and
 Parental aspects of
behavioral development
 Humanistic
► Definitions and
Humanism/Human nature
► Self Actualization Profile/
Self Acutalizer
► How does development of
the self contribute to later
personality functioning?

► Carl Rogers
► Personality Structure and
dynamics
► Ideal self
 Incongruence and
Incongruent Personality and
Personality Assessments 534-540
► Thematic Appreciation
Test
► Direct Observation and
Rating ► Limitsof Projective
Testing
► Personality
Questionnaires

► Rorschach Inklbot Test