Personality

Unit 1: Introduction to Behavior

Testing
 Introduction: What is
Personality?
An individual’s unique and relatively
consistent patterns of thinking, feeling,
and behaving
Personality – an attempt to describe and
explain how people are similar, how they
are different, and why every individual is
unique
Tries to explain the whole person
 Introduction: What is
Personality?
Personality theories can be roughly grouped under four basic
perspectives:
The psychoanalytic perspective – emphasizes the importance of
unconscious processes and the influence of early childhood experiences

The humanistic perspective – represents an optimistic look at

human nature, emphasizing the self and the fulfillment of a person’s
unique potential

The social cognitive perspective – emphasizing learning and

conscious cognitive processes, including the importance of beliefs
about the self, goal-setting, and self-regulation

The trait perspective – emphasizes the description and

measurement of specific personality differences among individuals
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, the
founder of psychoanalysis, was one of the
most influential figures of the twentieth
century
Psychoanalysis – the theory of personality that
stresses the influence of:
Unconscious mental processes
Instincts, and
The enduring effects of early childhood experience on
personality
Sigmund Freud

Assumptions:
Traits transcend
situations
Personality
formed in
childhood
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
Freud’s Dynamic Theory of Personality
Freud saw personality and behavior as resulting from a constant
interplay between conflicting psychological forces that operate at
three different levels of awareness
1. All the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that you are aware of at
this particular moment represent the conscious level
2. The preconscious contains information of which you’re not
currently aware, but is easily capable of entering your
consciousness, such as childhood memories or your social security
number
3. The bulk of Freud’s psychological iceberg is made up of the
unconscious,
We are not directly aware of these submerged thought, feelings, wishes,
and drives
But the unconscious exerts an enormous influence on our conscious
thoughts and behavior
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
Freud’s Dynamic Theory of Personality
Freud believed that unconscious material often seeps
through to the conscious level in distorted disguised, or
symbolic forms
Dream analysis was particularly important to Freud
Beneath the surface images (manifest content) of a dream lies the
true, hidden, unconscious meaning of the dream symbols (latent
content)

The unconscious also can be revealed in unintentional

actions,
Such as accidents, mistakes, instances of forgetting and
inadvertent slips of the tongue (often referred to as “Freudian
Slips”)
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
The structure of personality
Psychological energy evolves to form the three basic
structures of personality – the id, the ego, and the
superego. These are distinct psychological processes.
 The Unconscious
“the mind is like an iceburg - mostly hidden”

Conscious Awareness Unconscious

small part above surface below the surface
(Preconscious) (thoughts, feelings,
wishes, memories)

Repression
banishing unacceptable
thoughts & passions to
unconscious
Dreams & Slips
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
The id, the most primitive part of the personality, is entirely
unconscious and present at birth – it is completely immune to
logic, values, morality, danger, and the demands of the
external world

Two conflicting instinctual drives fuel the id:

1. The life instinct;
2. The death instinct;

The id is rules by the pleasure principle

The relentless drive toward immediate

 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
The structure of personality
A new dimension of personality develops from
part of the id’s psychological energy – the ego
Partly conscious, the ego represents the organized,
rational, and planning dimensions of personality
The mediator between the id’s instinctual demands and
the restrictions of the outer world, the ego operates on the
reality principle
The capacity to postpone gratification until the
appropriate time or circumstances exist in the external
world
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
The ego is the pragmatic part of the
personality that learns various
compromises to reduce the tension of
the id’s instinctual urges.
If the ego cannot identify an acceptable
compromise to satisfy an instinctual urge,
it can repress the impulse
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
The structure of personality
Gradually, social values move from being
externally imposed demands to being
internalized rules and values
By age 5-6, young children develop an internal,
parental voice that is partly conscious – the
superego
As the internal representation of parental and
societal values, the superego evaluates the
acceptability of behavior and thoughts, then praises
or admonishes
Freud’s Model
 Defense Mechanisms
Ego Id
When the inner war
gets out of hand, the
result is Anxiety

Ego protects itself via

Defense Mechanisms
Super
Ego
Defense Mechanisms reduce/redirect
anxiety by distorting reality
 Defense Mechanisms
Repression - banishes certain thoughts/feelings
from consciousness (underlies all other defense
mechanisms)
Regression - retreating to earlier stage of fixated
development
Reaction Formation - ego makes unacceptable
impulses appear as their opposites
Projection - attributes threatening impulses to
others
Rationalization - generate self-justifying
explanations to hide the real reasons for our actions
Displacement - divert impulses toward a more
acceptable object
Sublimation - transform unacceptable impulse into
something socially valued
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
The Neo-Freudians: Freud’s descendents and
dissenters
In general, the neo-Freudians disagreed with
Freud on three key points
Freud’s belief that behavior was primarily motivated by
urges
Freud’s contention that personality is fundamentally
determined by early childhood experiences
Freud’s generally pessimistic view of human nature and
society
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
Carl Jung: Archetypes and the collective
unconscious
Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung broke with Freud to
develop his own psychoanalytic theory of
personality
He believed that people are motivated by a more general
psychological energy that pushes them to achieve
psychological growth, self-realization, and psychic
wholeness and harmony
He also believed that personality continues to develop in
significant ways throughout the lifespan
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
Carl Jung, continued
Jung believed that the deepest part of the individual psyche
is the collective unconscious
Jung’s theory divided the human mind into three parts:
The Ego
The Personal Unconscious
The Collective Unconscious

Jung was the first to describe two basic personality types:

Introverts – who focus their attention inward
Extroverts – who turn their attention and energy toward the
outside world
 Karen Horney

Stressed need for

safety & satisfaction
Childhood frustration
may lead to
development of basic
anxiety & neurosis
Horney's term for focusing on an unrealistic, perfect
self-image that leads to dissatisfaction
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
Karen Horney: basic anxiety
German-born American psychoanalyst Karen Horney came
to stress the importance of cultural and social factors in
personality development, matters that Freud had largely
ignored
She also stressed the importance of social relationships,
especially the parent-child relationship, and culture in
personality
Horney believed that disturbances in human relationships,
were the cause of psychological problems
Such problems arise from the attempt to deal with basic
anxiety
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
Horney described three patterns of behavior that
individuals use to defend against basic anxiety
Those who move toward other people have an excessive
need for approval and affection
Those who move against others have an excessive need for
power
Those who move away from other people have an excessive
need for independence and self-sufficiency
Horney contended that people with a healthy
personality are flexible in balancing these different
needs
Alfred Adler
Humans motivated by
the need to overcome
inferiority and strive
for significance
Inferiority Complex:
Adler's term for
feelings of inferiority
that interfere with
development
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
Alfred Adler: Feelings of inferiority and
striving for superiority
Austrian physician Adler broke away from Freud to
establish his own theory of personality
Adler believed that the most fundamental human motive
was striving for superiority
The desire to improve oneself, master challenges, and
move toward self-perfection and self-realization
This striving arises from universal feelings of inferiority
These feelings motivate people to compensate for
their real or imagined weaknesses
 The Psychoanalytic
Perspective on Personality
Alfred Adler, continued
When people are unable to compensate for
specific weaknesses or when their feelings of
inferiority are excessive they can develop an
inferiority complex
A sense of inadequacy, weakness, and helplessness
At the other extreme, people can overcompensate
for their feelings of inferiority and develop a
superiority complex
The Humanistic Perspective
on Personality
Emergence of the “Third Force”
In opposition to both psychoanalysis and
behaviorism, humanistic psychology was a
“third force” in psychology
This view of personality emphasizes human
potential and such uniquely human
characteristics as self-awareness and free will
It sees people as being innately good and focuses on
the healthy personality
The Humanistic Perspective
on Personality
Humanistic psychologists contended that the
most important factor in personality is the
individual’s conscious, subjective perception
of his or her self

Abraham Maslow was one of the founders of

humanistic psychology: key ideas included
the hierarch of needs and self-actualization
The Humanistic Perspective
on Personality
Carl Rogers: On becoming a person
Was one of the founders of humanistic
psychology, developed his personality theory from
his clinical experiences with his patients,
Whom he referred to as “clients” to emphasize their
active and voluntary participation in therapy
According to Rogers, the most basic human motive is the
actualizing tendency
The innate drive to maintain and enhance the human
organism
The Humanistic Perspective
on Personality
The cornerstone of Roger’s personality
theory is the idea of the self-concept
The set of perceptions and beliefs that you
hold about yourself
As children develop a greater sense of self-
awareness, there is an increasing need for
positive regard
The sense of being valued and loved by other
people
The Humanistic Perspective
on Personality
Rogers maintained that most parents provide their
children with conditional positive regard
The sense that the child is valued and loved only when the child
behaves in a way that is acceptable to others
Incongruence – a state in which a child’s self-concept conflicts with
his or her actual experience

Unconditional positive regard – the child’s sense of being

unconditionally loved and valued,
Even if she doesn’t conform to the standards and expectations of
others

Rogers did not advocate permissive parenting

He maintained that parents can disapprove of a child’s specific
behavior without completely rejecting the child herself
The Humanistic Perspective
on Personality
Through consistent experiences of
unconditional positive regard, one becomes a
fully functioning person
A person who has a flexible, constantly evolving
self-concept
Rather than defending against or distorting her
own thoughts or feelings, the person experiences
congruence
Her sense of self is consistent with her emotions and
experiences
The Humanistic Perspective
on Personality
Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective on Personality
The humanistic perspective has been criticized on two counts
1. Humanistic theories are hard to validate or test scientifically
Because they tend to be based on philosophical assumptions or
clinical observations, rather than on empirical research
2. Many psychologists believe that humanistic psychology’s view of
human nature is too optimistic

Although the influence of humanistic psychology has

waned since the 60’s and early 70’s, it has made
lasting contributions to psychotherapy, counseling,
education, and parenting
 The Humanistic Perspective
Maslow’s Roger’s
Self-Actualizing Person-Centered
Person Perspective

“Healthy” rather than “Sick”

Individual as greater than the sum of test scores
Maslow & Self-Actualization
Self-Actualization
the process of fufilling our potential

• Studied healthy, creative people

• Abe Lincoln, Tom Jefferson &
Esteem
Eleanor Roosevelt
• Self-Aware & Self-Accepting Love Needs
• Open & Spontaneous
• Loving & Caring Safety
• Problem-Centered not Self-Centered
Physiological
 Roger’s Person-Centered
Perspective
People are basically good
with actualizing tendencies.

Given the right environmental

conditions, we will develop
to our full potentials

Genuineness, Acceptance, Empathy

Self Concept - central feature
of personality (+ or -)
 Personal Control
Internal Locus of Control
You pretty much control your own destiny

External Locus of Control

Luck, fate and/or powerful others control your destiny

Methods of Study
• Correlate feelings of control with behavior
• Experiment by raising/lowering people’s sense of
control and noting effects
 The Social Cognitive
Perspective on Personality
The idea that a person’s conscious thought processes
in different situations strongly influence his or her
actions is one important characteristic of the social
cognitive perspective on personality
This perspective differs from the psychoanalytic
and humanistic perspectives in several ways:
It relies heavily on experimental findings
It emphasizes conscious, self-regulated behavior
It emphasizes that our sense of self can vary
 The Social Cognitive
Perspective on Personality
Albert Bandura & social cognitive theory
Several contemporary personality theorists
have embraced the social cognitive
approach to explaining personality;
Albert Bandura is well-known for observational
learning and self-efficacy
Both of these topics are central to social cognitive
theory
Emphasizes the social origins of thoughts and
actions and also stresses active cognitive
processes and the capacity for self-regulation
 The Social Cognitive
Perspective on Personality
Bandura’s research has shown that we observe:
The consequences that follow people’s actions
The rules and standards that apply to behavior in
specific situations, and
The ways in which people regulate their own behavior

Reciprocal determinism – a model that explains

human functioning and personality as caused by
the interaction of behavioral, cognitive, and
environmental factors
 The Social Cognitive
Perspective on Personality
Beliefs of self-efficacy
Collectively, a person’s cognitive skills, abilities, and
attitudes represent the person’s self-system

The most critical elements influencing the self-system

are our beliefs in self-efficacy
The degree to which we are subjectively convinced of our own
capabilities and effectiveness in meeting the demands of a
particular situation

Developing self-efficacy begins in childhood, but it

continues as a lifelong process, with each stage of the
lifespan presenting new challenges
 Self-Efficacy

Belief Greater
you will do effort &
well persistence

Success
 Self-Efficacy

Belief Less
you will do effort &
poorly persistence

Failure
 The Social Cognitive
Perspective on Personality
Evaluating the social cognitive perspective on personality
A key strength of the social cognitive perspective on personality
is its grounding in empirical, laboratory research
It is built on research in learning, cognitive psychology, and social
psychology
Rather than on clinical impressions
Some psychologists feel the approach applies best to laboratory
research

The social cognitive perspective has been criticized for its limited
view of personality
Clinical data, rather than laboratory data, may be more reflective of
human personality
It ignores unconscious influences, emotions, or conflicts
 The Social Cognitive
Perspective on Personality
Evaluating the social cognitive perspective on
personality
By emphasizing the self-regulation of behavior,
the social cognitive perspective places most of the
responsibility for our behavior on ourselves
And for the consequences we experience due to our
behavior
Social-Cognitive Perspective
Behavior learned through
conditioning & observation

What we think about our situation

affects our behavior

Interaction of
Environment & Intellect
 Reciprocal Determinism
Personal/
Cognitive
Factors

Environment
Behavior
Factors
Internal World + External World = Us
 The Trait Perspective on
Personality
In contrast to the psychoanalytic, humanistic, and
social cognitive theories, which emphasize the
similarities among people, the trait approach to
personality focuses primarily on describing individual
differences
Trait theorists view the person as a unique combination of
personality characteristics or attributes, called traits
A relatively stable, enduring predisposition to behave in a
certain way

Trait theory is a theory of personality that focuses on

identifying, describing, and measuring individual differences
 The Trait Perspective on
Personality
Surface traits and source traits
Surface traits – traits that lie on the surface and
can be easily inferred from observable behavior
Source traits – thought to be the most basic
dimension of personality;
A source trait can potentially give rise to a vast number
of surface traits
There are relatively few source traits, and these few
represent a universal way of describing individual
personality differences
 The Trait Perspective on
Personality
Two Trait Theories: Cattell and Eysenck
Cattell used a statistical technique called
factor analysis to identify traits that were
most closely related to one another
Eventually reducing his list to 16 key
personality factors
He developed the widely used self-report personality
test, the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire
(16 PF)
 The Trait Perspective on
Personality
Two Trait Theories: Cattell and Eysenck
British psychologist Eysenck developed a trait
theory of personality that identifies three basic
dimensions of personality
The first dimension in introversion-extroversion, which is
the degree to which a person directs his or her energies
outward toward the environment and other people
versus inward toward his or her inner and self-focused
experiences
Introversion – quiet, solitary, reserved; avoiding new
experiences
Extroversion – outgoing and sociable, enjoying new
experiences and stimulating environments
 Trait Perspective
No hidden personality dynamics…
just basic personality dimensions

Traits - people’s characteristic

behaviors & conscious motives

How do we describe & classify different personalities?

(Type A vs Type B or Depressed vs Cheerful?)

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - classify people

based upon responses to 126 questions
 Are There “Basic” Traits?
What trait “dimensions” describe personality?

Combination of 2 or 3
genetically determined Expanded set of factors
dimensions “The Big 5”

Extraversion/Introversion
Emotional Stability/Instability
 The Big Five
Emotional Stability
• Calm/Anxious
• Secure/Insecure

Extraversion
• Sociable/Retiring
• Fun Loving/Sober

Openness
• Imaginative/Practical
• Independent/Conforming

Agreeableness
• Soft-Hearted/Ruthless
• Trusting/Suspicious

Conscientiousness
• Organized/Disorganized
• Careful/Careless
 Assessing Traits
How can we assess traits?
(aim to simplify a person’s behavior patterns)

Personality Inventories
MMPI
• most widely used personality inventory
• assess psychological disorders (not normal traits)
• empirically derived - test items selected based
upon how well they discriminate twixt groups
of traits
 The Trait Perspective on
Personality
Eysenck’s trait theory of personality:
three basic dimensions of personality
The second major dimension is
neuroticism-emotional stability
Neuroticism – a person’s predisposition to
become emotionally upset
Stability – a person’s predisposition to be
emotionally even
 The Trait Perspective on
Personality
Eysenck’s trait theory of personality:
three basic dimensions of personality
The third major personality dimension,
which Eysenck identified in later research,
is called psychoticism
A person high in this trait is antisocial, cold,
hostile, and unconcerned about others
A person low in this trait is warm and caring
about others
 The Trait Perspective on
Personality
The five-factor model
The consensus among many trait researchers is
that the essential building blocks of personality
can be described in terms of five basic personality
dimensions, sometimes called the “Big Five”
The five-factor model of personality represents the
structural organization of personality traits

The most commonly accepted five factors are:

extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, and openness to experience
 The Trait Perspective on
Personality
The five-factor model, continued
Research has shown that traits are remarkably
stable across time

Traits are also generally consistent across

different situations
However, situational influences may affect the
expression of personality traits

However, remember that human behavior is the

result of a complex interaction between traits and
situations
 The Trait Perspective on
Personality
Evaluating the trait perspective on personality
Psychologists generally agree that people can be described
and compared in terms of basic personality traits

Like the other personality theories, the trait approach has

its weaknesses. Trait theories fail to:
1. Truly explain human personality
2. Explain how or why individual differences developed
3. Address other important personality issues, like:
The basic motives that drive human personality
The role of unconscious mental processes
How beliefs about the self influence personality, or
How psychological change and growth occur