PERSONALITY CRASH COURSE CRASH COURSE A PERSON’S PATTERN OF THINKING, FEELING AND ACTING

Psychoanalyze Yourself Read the following questions, imagining the scenes in your mind, and write down the FIRST thing that you visualize. Do not think about the questions excessively. 1. You are not alone. You are walking in the woods. Who are you walking with? 2. You are walking in the woods. You see an animal. What kind of animal is it? 3. What interaction takes place between you and the animal? 4. You walk deeper in the woods. You enter a clearing and before you is your dream house. Describe its size? 5. Is your dream house surrounded by a fence? 6. You enter the house. You walk to the dining area and see the dining room table. Describe what you see on AND around the table. 7. You exit the house through the back door. Lying in the grass is a cup. What material is the cup made of? 8. What do you do with the cup?

This has been a relational psychology test. The answers given to the questions have been shown to have a relevance to values and ideals that we hold in our personal lives. The analysis follows: 1. The person who you are walking with is the most important person in your life. 2. The size of the animal is representative of your perception of the size of your problems. 3. The severity of the interaction you have with the animal is representative of how you deal with your problems. (passive/aggressive) 4. The size of your dream house is representative of the size of your ambition to resolve your problems. 5. No fence is indicative of an open personality. People are welcome at all times. The presence of a fence indicates a closed personality. You'd prefer people not to drop by unannounced. 6. If your answer did not include food, people, or flowers, then you are generally unhappy. 7. The durability of the material with which the cup is made of is representative of the perceived durability of your relationship with the person named in number 1. For example, Styrofoam, plastic, and paper are all disposable, Styrofoam, paper and glass are not durable, and metal and plastic are durable. 8. Your disposition of the cup is representative of your attitude towards the person in number

Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts Free Association: In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY Sigmund Freud Idea of the Libido moving to different parts of our body Stages of Psycho-Sexual Development 1.Oral (0-18 months) 2.Anal (18-24 months) 3.Phallic (3-6 years) 4.Latent (6-puberty) 5.Genital (puberty-death) All relates to your childhood! What’s on our minds!!!

FREUD’S VIEW OF CONSCIOUSNESS Conscious- things we are aware of right now Preconscious- things we can be aware of if we wanted to be Unconscious- deep hidden reservoir that holds the true “us”; all of our desires and fears

FREUD’S CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY (PSYCHE) Id Ego Superego

ID Exists entirely in the unconscious (so we are never aware of it) Our hidden true animalistic wants and desires Works on the Pleasure Principle – avoid pain and receive instant gratification

EGO Develops after the Id Works on the Reality Principle Negotiates between the Id, the environment, and Superego In our conscious and unconscious minds It is what everyone sees as our personality

SUPEREGO Develops last; about age 5 It is our conscience (tells us the difference between right and wrong) The Ego often mediates between the Superego and Id.

DEFENSE MECHANISMS The Ego protects us from threatening thoughts in our unconscious  Defense Mechanisms o Our conscious self is usually unaware of the use of defense mechanisms

Richard is dating Jasmine. Jasmine dumps Richard and starts dating Andrew. AndrewRichard Jasmine

REPRESSION Pushing thoughts into our unconscious When asked about Jasmine, Richard may say “Who?, I have not thought about her for awhile.” Why don’t we remember our Oedipus and Electra complexes?

DENIAL Not accepting the ego- threatening truth. Richard may act like he is still together with Jasmine. He may hang out by her locker and plan dates with her.

DISPLACEMENT Redirecting one’s feelings toward another person or object. Often displaced on less threatening things Richard may take his anger/frustration out on another kid by bullying

PROJECTION Believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself. Richard insists that Jasmine still cares for him.

REACTION FORMATION Expressing the opposite of how one truly feels Cootie stage in Freud’s Latent Development Richard claims he hates Jasmine.

REGRESSION Returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior. Richard begins to sleep with his favorite childhood stuffed animal.

RATIONALIZATION Coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable situation Richard thinks he will find a better girlfriend. “Jasmine was not all that great anyway!” “I really didn’t want to go to _______ anyway, it was too ________.”

INTELLECTUALIZATION Undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic. Richard starts doing a research paper on failed teenage romances.

SUBLIMATION REVIEW QUIZ REVIEW QUIZ Channeling one’s frustration toward a different goal. Sometimes a healthy defense mechanism Richard learns how to play the guitar and writes songs (or starts to body build).

CRITICISMS OF FREUD He really only studied wealthy woman in Austria. His results are not empirically verifiable (really hard to test). No predictive power Scientific/research problems with defense mechanisms (i.e. repression)

NEO-FREUDIAN PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES Carl Jung - concept of the “collective” unconscious (a common reservoir of memory traces). Alfred Adler - studied superiority and inferiority (inferiority complex). Karen Horney - said Freud was sexist and countered “penis envy” with “womb envy”; childhood anxiety triggers desire for love and security

PSYCHOANALYSIS, PAST & PRESENT Hypnosis Dream Interpretation Free Association (having patients talk to themselves…and then interpreting the conversation) Projective Tests (tests that delve into the unconscious) Examples are TAT and Inkblot Tests.

TAT TEST (THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST) Give the subject a picture that is ambiguous (can have several meanings) and ask him what is occurring. His answers are the manifest content, supposedly revealing the latent content.

RORSCHACH INKBLOT TEST The most widely used projective test A set of ten inkblots designed to identify people’s inner feelings, thoughts, etc Subjects are asked to interpret what they see in the inkblots.

TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY MYERS-BRIGGS PERSONALITY INVENTORY CRASH COURSE MYERS-BRIGGS PERSONALITY INVENTORY CRASH COURSE Describe people’s personalities by specifying their main characteristics (traits – patterns of behavior or disposition to feel/act). Traits like honesty, laziness, ambition, outgoing are thought to be stable over the course of your lives. Often use Personality Inventories (Factor Analysis is used to cluster items and score personality “tests”. First developed by Gordon Allport (interviewed Freud).

TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY MMPI – Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory – most widely researched/used trait personality inventory Introversion-Extroversion/Emotional Stability Scale (Eysenck) BIG FIVE Personality Traits: Big Five Personality test 1.Extraversion (how outgoing or shy one is) 2.Agreeableness (how easy to get along with one is) 3.Conscientiousness (hardworking, responsible, organized) 4.Openness to Experience (creativity, curiosity, etc.) 5.Neuroticism (Emotional Stability; consistency of mood)

TRAIT THEORY CRITICISM Person-Situation Controversy – while there’s been some evidence of persistence of traits with age, they seem to vary by situation and circumstance Consistency of Expressive Style – some traits seem more easily judged or pervasive than others

BEHAVIORIST PERSPECTIVE ON PERSONALITY THEORIES The way most people think of personality is meaningless. Personality changes according to the environment (reinforcers and punishments). If you change environment then you change the personality.

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY CRASH COURSE; 9:53 CRASH COURSE; 9:53 In the 1960’s people became sick of Freud’s negativity, trait psych’s objectivity, and behaviorist psych’s determinism. Along came psychologists who wanted to focus on “healthy” people and how to help them strive to “be all that they can be”. Key Figures: A. Maslow / C. Rogers

HUMANISTIC PERSONALITY THEORY Rejects determinism (your actions are dictated by your past). Humans have free will (ability to choose their own destiny). Humans are innately good and as long as their self- esteem and self-concept are positive, they will be happy.

CARL ROGERS The objective of humans is to become self-actualized. Compared human potential to that of acorns For Humans to “grow” they need: Genuineness Acceptance (Unconditional Positive Regard) Empathy

CRITICISM OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY Reflects Western Cultural Values Extreme Individualism leads to Narcissism Fails to Account for Immense Evil (People are basically good?)

SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSONALITY THEORIES CRASH COURSE 5:00 CRASH COURSE 5:00 Focuses on how we interact with our culture and environment Albert Bandura Reciprocal Determinism (traits, environment, and behavior all interact and influence each other to form personality)

SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSONALITY THEORIES LOCUS OF CONTROL INVENTORY LOCUS OF CONTROL INVENTORY Rotter - “Locus of Control” – External – Internal Seligman - “Learned Helplessness”, Optimism, & Positive Psychology

BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON PERSONALITY THEORIES What % of personality variance can be attributed to genetics (heritability)? We are not sure BUT temperaments do seem to be stable from infants to old age.

SOMATOTYPE THEORY An early biological theory by William Sheldon. Endomorphs (Fat) tend to be friendly and outgoing. Mesomorphs (muscular) tend to be more aggressive. Ectomorphs (thin) tend to be more shy and secretive. Sheldon’s research was corelative only and has not been replicated.

BEWARE OF THE BARNUM EFFECT ! People have the tendency to see themselves in vague, stock descriptions of personality. Horoscopes, astrologists, psychics, and short “personality tests” all take advantage of this tendency. What kind of shape are you? What your favorite color says about you!!!

EXPLORING THE SELF Markus & “Possible Selves” Research Spotlight Effect – overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating one’s appearance, performance, etc.

EXPLORING THE SELF Self-Esteem – one’s feelings of high or low self worth – High self esteem correlates with better sleep, more resistance to peer pressure, less drug use, persistence, happiness, etc.

EXPLORING THE SELF Self-serving Bias – a readiness to perceive oneself favorably – People accept responsibility more readily for their successes than failures – People view themselves as better than average

EXPLORING THE SELF CULTURE & SELF Finish this sentence… – “I am....” Individualism – emphasis on one’s own goals and defining one’s identity in terms of self rather than the group – KEY WORD – “ME” Collectivism – emphasis on one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly – KEY WORD – “WE”

---AND “SELF EFFICACY” IS strength of one's belief in one's own ability to complete tasks and reach goals