1 Personality Chapter 13

2 I. Personality A. An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Each dwarf has a distinct personality.

3 II. Psychodynamic Perspective Freud’s clinical experience led him to develop A. the first comprehensive theory of personality, which included the unconscious mind, psychosexual stages, and defense mechanisms. Sigmund Freud ( ) Culver Pictures

4 B. Exploring the Unconscious A reservoir (unconscious mind) of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. Freud asked patients to say whatever came to their minds (1. free association) in order to tap the unconscious.

5 2. Dream Analysis Another method to analyze the unconscious mind is through interpreting a. manifest and b. latent contents of dreams. The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli (1791)

6 C. Psychoanalysis The process of bringing the unconscious into the conscious (frequently called the ‘talking cure’).

7 D. Model of Mind The mind is like an iceberg. It is mostly hidden, and below the surface lies the unconscious mind. The preconscious stores temporary memories.

8 E. Personality Structure Personality develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our biological impulses (id) and social restraints (superego).

9 F. Id, Ego and Superego 1. The Id unconsciously strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives, operating on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification. 2. The ego functions as the “executive” and mediates the demands of the id and superego. 3. The superego provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations.

10 G. Personality Development Freud believed that personality formed during the first few years of life divided into psychosexual stages (the focus was on erogenous zones).

11 1. Psychosexual Stages Freud divided the development of personality into five psychosexual stages.

12 2. Oedipus Complex A boy’s sexual desire for his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father. A girl’s desire for her father is called the Electra complex.

13 3. Identification Children cope with threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying with the rival parent. From the K. Vandervelde private collection

14 H. Defense Mechanisms The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality. 1.Repression banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness. 2.Regression leads an individual faced with anxiety to retreat to a more infantile psychosexual stage.

15 Defense Mechanisms 3.Reaction Formation causes the ego to unconsciously switch unacceptable impulses into their opposites. People may express feelings of purity when they may be suffering anxiety from unconscious feelings about sex. 4.Projection leads people to disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

16 Defense Mechanisms 5.Rationalization offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions. 6.Displacement shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, redirecting anger toward a safer outlet.

17 III. The Neo-Freudians A. Jung believed in the collective unconscious. Carl Jung ( )

18 The Neo-Freudians Like Adler, B. Karen Horney believed in the social aspects of childhood growth and development. She countered Freud’s assumption that women have weak superegos and suffer from “penis envy.” Karen Horney ( ) The Bettmann Archive/ Corbis

19 C. Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective 1.Personality develops throughout life and is not fixed in childhood. 2.People are not always driven by sex and violence. 3.Violates the principle of falsifiability 4.Most modern scientists doubt that repression actually happens. Unconscious influence is good but...

20 IV. Humanistic Perspective By the 1960s, psychologists became discontent with Freud’s negativity and the mechanistic psychology of the behaviorists. Abraham Maslow ( ) Carl Rogers ( )

21 A. Self-Actualizing Person Maslow proposed that we as individuals are motivated by a hierarchy of needs. We try to reach the state of self-actualization—fulfilling our potential. Ultimately we may strive for self- transcendence Ted Polumbaum/ Time Pix/ Getty Images

22 B. Goals of Humanistic Therapy: Genuinness, acceptance, and empathy C. Unconditional Positive Regard is an attitude of acceptance of others despite their failings. Michael Rougier/ Life Magazine © Time Warner, Inc.

23 D. Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective 1.Humanistic psychology has a pervasive impact on counseling, education, child- rearing, and management. 2.Concepts in humanistic psychology are vague and subjective and lack scientific basis. 3.How does one prove self-actualization?

24 V. The Trait Perspective An individual’s unique constellation of durable dispositions and consistent ways of behaving (traits) constitutes his or her personality (Gordon Allport). Examples of Traits Honest Dependable Moody Impulsive Psychoanalysis too deep? How do you classify apples?

25 A. Personality Type Personality types, assessed by measures like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, consist of a number of traits. For example, a feeling type personality is sympathetic, appreciative, and tactful. Sympathetic Appreciative Tactful Feeling Type Personality

26 B. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Based on Jung’s typological theories Identify people based on four distinct dichotomies 16 possible psychological patterns

27 C. Personality Dimensions Hans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that personality could be reduced down to two polar dimensions, extraversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability.

28 D. Assessing Traits Personality inventories are questionnaires (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors assessing several traits at once.

29 1. MMPI The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. It was originally developed to identify emotional disorders. The MMPI was developed by empirically testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminated between diagnostic groups.

30 MMPI Test Profile

31 2. The Big Five Factors Today’s trait researchers believe that Eysencks’ personality dimensions are too narrow and Cattell’s 16PF too large. So, a middle range (five factors) of traits does a better job of assessment. Conscientiousness Agreeableness Neuroticism Openness Extraversion

32 Big Five Factors 1.Extroversion vs. introversion; describes the extent to which people are outgoing or shy 2.Neuroticism vs. emotional stability; to what extent one suffers from anxiety, and inability to control impulses, and feelings of negative emotion 3.Agreeableness vs. antagonism; to what extent people are agreeable or good-natured

33 Big Five Factors 4. Conscientiousness vs. impulsiveness; degree to which people are responsible or undependable, self-disciplined or impulsive 5. Openness to experience vs. resistance to new experiences; extent to which people are curious, imaginative, questioning, and creative

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35 Questions about the Big Five Yes. Conscientious people are morning type and extraverted are evening type. 4. Can they predict other personal attributes? These traits are common across cultures. 3. How about other cultures? Fifty percent or so for each trait. 2. How heritable are they? Quite stable in adulthood. However, they change over development. 1. How stable are these traits?

36 VIII. Evaluating the Trait Perspective A. The Person-Situation Controversy

IX. Genetic Influences on Personality A. We are likely born with genetically determined temperaments which are quite stable over time B. Temperament: Dispositions to respond to the environment in certain ways (Reactivity, Soothability, Impulsivity, etc.)

IX. Genetic Influences on Personality C. Heritability: The proportion of the total variation in a trait that is attributable to genetic variation 1. Found by studying adopted children and twins 2. Research shows that traits are about 50% heritable

X. Environmental Influences on Personality A. There is a continual interaction between your particular qualities and the situation you are in

B. The Power of Parents Are parents solely responsible for the development of our personalities?

B. The Power of Parents 1. The shared environment of the home has little if any influence on personality 2. Few parents have a single child-rearing style that is consistent over time and with all children 3. Even when parents try to be consistent in the way they treat their children, there may be little relation between what they do and how the children turn out

C. The Power of Peers 1. Children live in two environments: home and outside the home 2. Most children will conform to the dress, habits, language, and rules of their peers

D. Cultural Influences on Personality 1. Our culture impacts our personality almost as much as genetics and the environment 2. The individualism and collectivism of our culture even affects how we view ourselves (Americans see themselves as unchanging, Japanese see themselves as constantly changing, etc.) 3. Americans view time as being the most valuable commodity, others view people as being the most valuable commodity