PERSONALITY Almost everyone has one…

Definition  “The organization of enduring behavior patterns that often serve to distinguish us from one another.  What is included in personality?  Thinking  Feeling  Behaving  Experiencing the Environment

Personality Theory  Ideas that offer sweeping perspectives on human nature  Psychoanalytical  Humanistic  Trait  Social-Cognitive

HOW IS PERSONALITY ASSESSED? DIAGNOSTIC TESTING  Identifying characteristics of a personality  NON-PROJECTIVE ANSWER PROVIDED, YOU CHOOSE  PROJECTIVE VAGUE, PROJECT YOUR OWN ANSWER

Non-Projective Tests: MMPI Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory  Designed to assess a number of the major patterns of personality and emotional disorders.  Empirically derived (discriminate for abnormal traits)  To aid in making psychiatric diagnoses  To help the psychologist get an overall view of a client's personality traits and types  All Questions are self reported and YES or NO 1. I have diarrhea once a month or more 2. Once in a while I think of things too bad to talk about 3. I am sure I get a raw deal from life 4. My father was a good man What might the limitations of this type of testing be?

Barnum Effect  tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate.  Personality profiles, horoscopes, palm readings  P.T. Barnum believed a good circus had “a little something for everyone.”

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Henry Murray  Picture Interpretation Technique  30 provocative yet ambiguous pictures about which the subject must tell a story.ambiguous picturesstory  Tell a dramatic story including:  What has led up to the event shown?  What is happening at the moment?  What the characters are feeling and thinking?  What the outcome of the story was?

Evaluation & Purpose of the TAT?  Content of Story  Subject’s manner, vocal tone, & posture  Hesitation or avoidance  Emotional response (made anxious)  Anecdotal remarks (I don’t like the picture)  Not be used in the differential diagnosis of mental disorders.  Often administered to individuals who have already received a diagnosis in order to match them with the type of psychotherapy best suited to their personalities.  Forensics-assess motivations & general attitudes

Projective Tests  Thematic Apperception Test  Story that test taker projects their own traits on to  Rorschach Inkblot Test  Ambiguous inkblots that are believed to reflect the test taker’s inner thoughts and conflicts

Psychoanalytical Perspective  Sigmund Freud  Thoughts and actions are attributed to unconscious motives and conflicts  Id  Ego  Superego

Freudian Slips (Parapraxis) …interference from the unconscious

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Freud’s analyses of his patients led him to conclude that personality forms during the first 5-6 years of life. He believed that his patients problems originated in conflicts that had not been resolved during childhood years. These conflicts may manifest themselves later in life. Oral 1-18 months Anal months Phallic 3-6 years Latency 6-puberty Genital Puberty on Pleasure centers on the mouth- sucking, biting, chewing Weaning can be a conflict in this stage. Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder function; coping with demands for control. Potty training can be a conflict. Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous feelings. Boys love mom and fear Dad. “Oedipus Complex” Dormant sexual feelings. Children repress their feelings for the rival parent. “Identification Process” & “Gender Identity” Maturation of sexual interests. Begin experiencing sexual feelings toward others. Freud believed the patient had become “stuck” or “fixated” in one of the stages.

“Anxiety is the price we pay for civilized society.” Sigmund Freud Defense mechanisms  The conflict between the id’s wishes and the superego’s social rules produces this anxiety.  The ego has an arsenal of unconscious defense mechanisms that help rid anxious tension by distorting reality.

Repression  Banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.  Believed repression was the basis for all the other anxiety- reducing defense mechanisms.  Example: When asked how he feels about the breakup with Muffy, Biff replies, “Who? Oh, yeah, I haven’t thought about her in a while.”

Denial  The most primitive defense, a distortion of reality by simply negating the truth.  Not accepting the ego threatening truth.  Biff continues to act as if he and Muffy are still together. He waits by her locker, calls her every night, and plans their future dates. Muffy and I should go to Chipotle tonight!

Displacement  Redirecting one’s feeling toward another person or object whom they perceive as less threatening.  Biff could displace his feeling of anger and resentment onto his little brother or bedroom door.

Projection  People attribute their own unacceptable desires to others.  Believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person.  Biff insists MUFFY still cares for him. I still love Biff! I wish he would take me back!

Reaction Formation  Your behavior is exactly opposite your true feelings  Biff claims he hates Muffy Man, I’m so glad I dumped Muffy. I can’t stand her!

Regression  Returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior.  Biff begins to sleep with his favorite childhood stuffed animal, Fuzzy Kitten. I just want my Mr. Fuzzy Kitten…

Rationalization  Coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable occurrence.  Sweet Lemons & Sour Grapes  insisting that something unpleasant is in fact desirable  put down something simply because they can't have it.  Attempts to logically “explain away” unacceptable behavior.  Biff believes that he can find a better girlfriend. Muffy is not really all that pretty, smart, and fun to be with. Which one?

Intellectualization  Undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic.  Helps a person minimize anxiety by viewing threatening issues in abstract terms  Biff embarks on an in- depth research project about failed teen romances.

Sublimation  Transformation of unacceptable impulses into socially valuable motivations.  Socially adaptive; may even inspire achievement.  Biff devotes himself to writing novels and publishes a small chapter book before he graduates high school.

Neo-Freudians- Psychodynamic  Neo- Freudians  Alfred Adler  Karen Horney  Carl Jung  Erik Erikson  Agreed with Freud on the basics, but reject certain aspects of his theories.

Neo-Freudians  Alfred Adler Alfred Adler  Believed social tensions, NOT sexual tensions, were crucial in the development of personality.  Birth Order & Inferiority Complex  Karen Horney  Found Freud’s theory male dominated.  Social variables, not biological variables are the foundation of personality development.  movement to revise psychoanalysis we use today.  Carl Jung  Unlike Adler, Jung discounted social factors  Collective Unconscious-  Archetypes (universal symbols) provided the evidence for this idea.