Lecture No.

3
 Personality,
 Theories of Personality,
 Issues and Controversies in Personality
Theories.
“Personality is the distinctive patterns of
behavior that characterizes each individual’s
adaptation to the situations of his or her life”.

Personality includes the behavior patterns a

person shows across situations or
psychological characteristics of the person that
lead to those behavior patterns.
The theories of Personality are grouped into four
main categories:

Type & Trait Approaches,

Dynamic Approaches,
Learning & Behavioral Approaches,
Humanistic Approaches.
 The theory focus on people’s characteristics
i.e. stubbornness, shyness, introverts,
extroverts etc.

 Theorist differ in the way in which they use

those characteristics to describe people.
 A type is simply a class of individuals said to
share a common collection of characteristics.

 Classifying people into types is one device that

can be used to make sense out of other’s
behavior and to anticipate how they will act in
the future.
 Personality types are groups of traits that are
thought to always occur together. 
 Type theory, is the belief that an individual's
personality can be quantified into a few unique
categories. 
 The groupings or sets of types are called
typologies, i.e. in American Culture people are
often classified as leaders or followers, liberals or
conservatives etc.
 The ancient Greeks were among the first to
determine personality in this manner. Hippocrates
and, later, Galen, broke personalities into four
types which are as follow:

1. Sanguine: the optimistic personality

2. Choleric: the angry, moody or irritable type
3. Melancholic: the depressed type
4. Phlegmatic: a calm personality
According to this theory, specific types are
developed by treating each type as a
personality dimension. Individuals can then be
scored or rated to determine their position on
each dimension.

 Eysenck identified the major components of

personality as a small number of personality
types.
 For example, Eysenck’s extraverted type is said to
have such characteristics as sociability, liveliness
and excitability. Each one of these characteristics
can be broken down into number of patterns and
responses that apply to several situations.

 This progression from broad, global types down to

specific, situation-bound responses is Eysenck’s
Hierarchical Theory.
 This approach is commonly used in diagnosing
psychological disorders.

 People must show certain specific

characteristics to a certain degree before they
are typed as having a specific disorder.
 A terms which describe characteristics that lead
people to behave in more or less distinctive and
consistent way across situations, represents
“traits”.
 Trait is a relatively stable characteristic which
causes an individual to behave in a certain way.
 The trait theory is focused on the differences
between individuals.
 The combination and interaction of various traits
forms a Personality which is unique to each
individual.
The main Trait Theories include:
 Allport Theory,
 Raymond Cattell 16 Personality Factor
Questionnaire,
 Eysenck’s three dimensions of Personality,
 Five Factor theory of Personality or Big 5
Personality Model.
Gordon Allport found 4,000 words describing a
variety of personality traits in Oxford dictionary. He
divided these terms into three categories, which are
as follow:
a. Cardinal Traits - The most prominent
characteristic in an individual’s Personality which
dominates his/her whole life, up-to a point where the
person becomes known for these traits.
For example, Quaid e Azam is known for his
leadership qualities, Allama Iqbal is known for his
philosophical thinking, Abdul Sattar Edhi is known
for his social work and care for others.
b. Central Traits – These are the general
characteristics which form the basic foundation of
Personality. These are the traits which describe a
personality.
For example, intelligent, honest, hardworking, anxious,
shy, quiet, talkative etc.
c. Secondary Traits – These traits are related to
attitudes, preferences and often appear only in certain
situations.
For example, a person may get anxious while talking to
strangers or a person may get aggressive while waiting
in a queue.
Raymond Cattell reduced the number of personality
traits from 4,000 as proposed by Gordon Allport down
to 171 and divided them into 16 categories. They are
as follow:
1.Warmth,
2.Reasoning,
3.Emotional Stability,
4.Dominance,
5.Liveliness,
6.Rule-Consciousness,
7.Social Boldness,
8. Sensitivity,
9. Vigilance,
10. Privateness,
11. Abstractedness,
12. Apprehension,
13. Perfectionism,
14. Tension,
15. Openness,
16. Self-reliance.
British psychologist reduced the number of traits
proposed by Raymond Cattell and suggested that
personality is based on three universal traits:

1. Introversion/Extraversion - Introversion involves

directing attention on inner experiences. Individuals
with such trait are quiet, reserved, malevolent, careful
in protecting their emotions. Extraversion, on the
other hand, relates to focusing attention outward on
other people. Individuals with such trait are sociable,
outgoing, friendly, lively, carefree in protecting
emotions.
2. Neuroticism/Emotional Stability – Neuroticism
deals with fluctuations in mood or moodiness.
Individuals with such trait get upset easily and are
very emotional. Emotional Stability, on the other
hand, is even-temperedness. It refers to the tendency
to remain emotionally constant or stable.
3. Psychoticism – Eysenck was the first one to
include a personality trait dealing with mental illness.
Individuals suffering from mental illness are high on
this trait. Such individuals may have difficulty
dealing with reality and tends to be antisocial, hostile,
non-empathetic and manipulative.
Both Raymond Cattell and Eysenck’s theory of
Personality have been subject of considerable research.
One of them focused on too may similar traits, while the
other employed too few.
As a result, a new trait theory often referred to as 5
Factor Theory of Personality or Big 5 Personality Model
emerged. The 5 core traits are as follow:
1. Extraversion/Introversion,
2. Neuroticism/Emotional Stability,
3. Openness- Individuals with such trait are willing and
ready to receive ideas, they have an attitude of
accessibility, and are open to new ideas.
4. Agreeableness- Individuals with such trait are
kind, sympathetic, co-operative, warm and
considerate.
5. Conscientiousness- Individuals with such trait are
thorough, careful, vigilant, efficient, organized and
try to do tasks perfectly.
 Dynamic approaches involve a search for the
processes by which needs, motives and
impulses often hidden from view interact to
produce individual’s behavior.

 Dynamic theory involves a tendency to over

interpret, i.e. to attribute deeper meaning to
behavior than the behavior shows.
 Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
argued that human behavior is the result of the interaction
of three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and
superego.

 His structural theory placed great importance on the role

of unconscious psychological conflicts in shaping
behavior and personality.
There are two main parts of Dynamic theory of
Personality:

a.PersonalityStructure, and
b.Levels of Awareness.
Personality structure consist of :
1.Id-primitive unconscious part of mind which
deals with our desires, wishes and drives,
suppressed in our memories.

2.Ego-the logical part of mind that deals with our

decisions.

3.Superego-storehouse of moral values which

includes altitudes learnt from family & society.
Levels of Awareness consist of:
1. Conscious Mind-consist of everything we do
vigilantly.

2. Subconscious Mind- consist of memories or

feelings which can be recalled.

3. Unconscious Mind-consist of memories hidden

from one’s own immediate awareness, as these
can memories can adversely affect a personality.
 Defense Mechanisms reduce/redirect anxiety by
distorting reality.

 The coping process of the ego that helps keep it

functioning properly.

 Different strategies that mind uses to reduce

anxiety and stress.

 When the inner war gets out of hand, the result is

Anxiety.
 Unconscious mental strategies employed to
reduce the experiences of conflict, stress, or
anxiety.

 The unconscious mental strategy can be in the

form of transferring the uncomfortable feelings to
a weaker ones.

 For example: shutting the door aggressively after

getting scolded by teacher. Throwing books,
mobile etc., outside the window after being
scolded by Parents.
 The justification which we find for our
wrongdoings, refusal to accept our mistakes,
reacting in opposite of our true feelings, are
some of the examples of Defense mechanism.
 Learning theories believe that the personality
essentially arises from the molding that
individuals receive from their environment i.e.,
the patterns of behavior are shaped by
experience.

 The underlying assumption of the learning

perspective is that all behavior is learned
through experiences and by interaction with the
environment. 
 According to Learning & Behavioral theories,
Personality is the accumulated set of learned
tendencies over a lifetime.

 This perspective also implies that Personality is

capable of, open to molding, grinding and
polishing by the events.

 These events basically forms a person’s unique

history.
 The humanistic theories are optimistic about
the core of human nature.

 For humanists, personality is not driven by

unconscious conflicts and defenses against
anxiety but rather by needs to adapt, learn,
grow, and excel.

 Self as object and self as process.

 Self as an object is known as self image or self
concept.

 When self is studied as an object, we focus on the

attitudes, feelings, perceptions and evaluations,
regarding one’s self.

 Self as an object is divided into ideal self and present

self.

 In some cases, the ideal self does not match with the
present self and can cause disturbances.
 It is basically an individual’s attitude towards
himself. Their picture of the way they look and
act.

 It basically includes the impact they have on others

and their perceived traits, abilities and weaknesses.
 Self as a process basically deals with executive
functions.

 These include processes by which individual

manages, copes, thinks, remembers, perceives
and plans.

 Personality structure attributes are included in

this part of the self, as decision making
capabilities are studied.
 Abraham Maslow described a healthy personality
as one that is not only free from illness but is also
satisfied, he also came up with the idea that an
individual is motivated by hierarchy of needs.

 Maslow described people who have met healthy

personality, such as Abraham Lincoln, are Self-
Actualization Personalities.
 Maslow believed that each person has an
essential nature that presses to emerge.

 We all have high level growth needs which can

only assume dominant roles when primitive
needs are fulfilled.

 The primitive needs are physiological needs,

safety needs, need for belongingness and self-
esteem needs.
 The higher level growth needs are needs for
understanding of ourselves and self
actualization needs.

 These higher level growth needs help make us

distinct humans.
 Maslow stressed that “human being is not
white rat” and emphasized that “man has
higher and transcendent nature”.

 We all can observe such individuals who have

reached self actualization level, such as Quaid-
e-Azam, Allama M. Iqbal, Ashfaq Ahmed,
Qudrat Ullah Shahab.
Following are the levels in Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs:
1.Physiological Needs-food, water, shelter
2.Safety Needs-security & safety
3.Social Needs-trust, acceptance, belonging to a
group.
4.Esteem Needs-status, responsibility,
confidence & prestige.
5.Self Actualization Needs-Personal growth and
fulfilment.
Following are the main features:
Such people are open to experience vividly and
selflessly with full concentration.

They are spontaneous, autonomous and

independent, with fresh unstereotyped
appreciation of people and events.

They devote total effort to their goals, with the

aim to do their best.
 They are dedicated fully and creatively, to
some cause outside themselves.

 They resist conformity to the culture, they can

be detached and private.
 Morgan, King, Weisz and Schopler (2009)
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Prentice Hall.