CHAPTER 1:

PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONALITY

by
Syeda Ailia Batool Kazmi
ABOUT COURSE INSTRUCTOR
Academics
 Graduation in clinical psychology (QMC)

 MS in Clinical psychology (UMT)

 Diploma holder hand writing analysis, neuro-linguistic approach (NLP)

and Advance Hypnotherapy
About work
 As clinical psychologist in fountain house

 As Clinical psychologist in private setup

 As Supervisor for School counseling at UMT

 As psychology Lecturer at Comasts university

OUTLINE
Psychology of personality
 Introduction to the Discipline

 Meaning of personality

 Meaning of theory

 Components of personality theory

 COURSE INTRODUCTION

 Personality psychology has been blessed with an array of creative

thinkers, whose insights have been of immense value in helping us
understand how personality originates, develops, and functions.
Although all of the theories covered in this text have certain
strengths, not surprisingly each of them also has its limitations. The
phenomena encompassed by human personality are simply too
complex and diverse for any one individual to unite them in a
single, coherent theoretical framework; thus, no one theorist can
ever hope to construct a completely adequate theory of personality.
The goal instead is to create theories that are ever more adequate or
scientifically useful. Therefore, researchers continue to test
hypotheses from the various current theories in an effort to
validate, extend, and improve them. Some seek to construct new
theories; for them, the current theories serve to stimulate new
creative efforts.
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND DESCRIPTION

To examine, in depth, specific theories under each of the major

psychological models of personality and examine each theories
concepts and principles, their explanation of personality
development, their assessment techniques, and their application
to treatment of psychopathology. Students will be able to
articulate the major concepts and principles of each personality
theory discussed in the class and in the text. Students will be
able to articulate each theories assessment techniques and the
theories approach to the treatment and understanding of
psychopathology.
WHAT COMES IN YOUR MIND WHEN YOU
LISTEN THE WORD ‘PERSONALITY’?
What main stream thinks What is actual
‘PERSONALITY’

• HABIT • Stable aspects of behavior

• BEHAVIOR • Thinking style

• LOOKS • unconscious properties

• FIRST IMPRESSION • Influences

• THINKING STYLE
 INGREDIENTS OF PERSONALITY
 Temperament (you are born with)
 Nature (first five years of life)

 Temperament (which is being shaped by surrounding)

 Attachment style

 Parenting style (you received)

 Events in life

 Phases in life (failure or success)

 Fixation

 Role models
DEFINATION
Psychodynamic theories emphasize the unconscious: Many
important aspects of personality are beyond our
awareness and can be brought to consciousness only
with great difficulty, if at all
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
A Theory is an unproved speculation about reality.
a theory offers guidelines that will serve us in the absence
of more precise information.

Theory of personality
An “educated guess” about important aspects of human
behavior, which maybe based on clinical observation
or empirical research (or both)
THE MEANING OF PERSONALITY

Personality deals with a wide range of human behavior to

most theorists, personality includes virtually everything
about a person mental, emotional, social, and physical.
Some aspects of personality are unobservable, such as
thoughts, memories, and dreams, whereas others are
Observable such as overt actions. Personality also
includes aspects that are concealed from yourself, or
Unconscious as well as those that are Conscious and well
within your awareness.
SIGMUND FREUD
First theory of personality (and the first psychotherapy), psychoanalysis.
Most of personality is unconscious: We hide many unpleasant truths
about ourselves from ourselves by using defense mechanisms, and we
are driven by wishes, beliefs, fears, conflicts, and memories of which
we are totally unaware. Human nature is entirely malignant; our only
instincts are sexual and aggressive, and these inborn impulses include
powerful desires for the parent of the opposite sex and intense jealousy
toward the parent of the same sex (the Oedipus complex). Personality
is often a house divided against itself, torn by conflicting wishes and
goals, and this is best explained by using the concepts of id, ego, and
superego. Personality develops through a series of psychosexual stages
and is firmly established by about age 5 to 6 years. Dreams are a
“royal road” to understanding the unconscious. Psychopathology
occurs when we can’t find ways to channel (sublimate) our malignant
instincts into behavior that society will accept.
CARL JUNG
Supporter of psychoanalysis, then broke with Freud to establish
his own theory. Believed that the unconscious is extremely
important but disagreed with Freud in many respects: Human
nature is both good and bad. There are important instincts in
addition to sexuality and aggressiveness (including
individuation, the forerunner of the humanistic concept of self-
actualization). There is a collective unconscious that contains
archetypes, or inherited predispositions to perceive the world
in certain ways. Introversion–extraversion is a major aspect of
personality. Psychopathology occurs when personality
becomes too one-sided, as when we fail to develop important
aspects of personality or overemphasize aspects that are
contrary to our true (inborn) nature
ALFRED ADL
ER
Adler’s inclusion among the psychodynamic theorists is controversi
al because he did not believe that the unconscious is important.
Personality is shaped by the child’s relationship with
his/her parents and by our consciously chosen life goals, rather
than by instincts. The most important motive is striving for self-
perfection (superiority). Cooperation with others is essential for
our survival, and we have an inborn tendency to do so.
Psychopathology occurs when pathogenic parenting causes the
child to develop an inferiority complex and refuse to cooperate
with others
KAREN HORN
EY
Combined Freud’s belief that the unconscious is extremely
important with Adler’s belief that personality is shaped by the
child's relationship with his/her parents. Psychopathology
involves personality that is torn by inner conflicts (but concepts
such as the id, ego, and superego are not necessary to explain
this); self-hate, which is often concealed by an idealized self-
image; and painful anxiety that causes the healthy quest for
personal growth to be replaced by an all-out drive for safety and
a compulsive desire to be protected, to dominate others, or to be
alone
HARRY STACK SULLIV
AN
Defined personality in terms of our relationships with other people.
Stages beyond early childhood, including adolescence, are
important for personality development. Psychopathology is
caused by pathogenic parenting that leads to intense anxiety and
damaged interpersonal relationships. Made significant
contributions to our understanding of the causes and treatment of
schizophrenia.
ERIK ERIKSO
N
Became the leader of the psychoanalytic movement after Freud
because he was able to revise psychoanalytic theory in ways that
did not offend the establishment. Corrected some of Freud’s major
errors: Human nature is both good and bad, and the rational ego is
stronger than Freud believed. Personality is shaped much more by
the child’s relationship with his/her parents than by instincts and
sexuality, and it develops through a series of psychosocial stages
that go from infancy to old age. These stages include adolescence
and the identity crisis, and there are criteria for determining
whether development is successful at each stage. Devised
techniques of play therapy for use with children.
DIMENSIONS FOR COMPARING THEORIES OF
PERSONALITY
Ideally, there are four criteria that a theory of personality should satisfy: description,
explanation, prediction, and control. Human behavior can be bewilderingly
complicated, and a useful theory helps bring order out of chaos. A theory provides
convenient Descriptions establishes a framework for organizing substantial amounts
of data, and focuses attention on matters that are of greater importance. In addition, a
good personality theory Explains the phenomena under study. It offers answers to
such significant questions as the causes of individual differences in personality, why
some people are more pathological than others, and so forth. A theory should also
generate predictions , so that it may be evaluated and improved(or discarded). To
many psychologists, the acid test of any theory is its ability to predict future events.
Finally, a valuable theory usually leads to important practical applications. It
facilitates Control and change of the environment for example, by bringing about
better techniques of parenting, education, or psychotherapy.
These criteria may seem unambiguous, yet there is often considerable disagreement
about how to apply them. Some psychologists emphasize that a scientific theory
should generate formal, objective predictions that can be tested under the controlled
conditions of the research laboratory. By these lights, a theory with many constructs
that are difficult to evaluate empirically (such as the Freudian id, ego, and superego),
or one that does not stimulate a considerable amount of research, would be regarded