Personality Psychology 1001 11/7/2018

introduction Up to this point we have talked about similarities Personality deals with individuality Where does it come from? Lots of ideas Lots of ways to study differences 11/7/2018

Freud’s Psychoanalysis Big influence in earlier years Not as big today MD Lotsa people were sick, but he could no diagnose them with traditional methods Studied hypnosis Developed free association 11/7/2018

Free Association Supposedly, it leads to the unconscious Stuff we aren’t aware of Memories Thoughts Desires Some things are temporarily in some sort of preconscious areas Also from dreams, slips of the tongue etc 11/7/2018

Personality development according so Siggy Our personality arises from struggles between pleasures and restrictions Satisfaction without punishment There are three subsystems that make sure that we accomplish this 11/7/2018

The three systems Id Ego Superego Unconscious nasty psychic energy Operates on the pleasure principle Ego Gratify id in a reasonable way Reality principle Superego Our conscience Sort of the arch enemy of the id 11/7/2018

Development According to Freud we go through a series of psychosexual stages where the id focuses on different erogenous zones, this forms our personality Oral stage, first 18 months Anal stage, 18 months – 3 years Phallic stage 3-6 years 11/7/2018

Icky stuff During the phallic stage we go though the Oedipus complex Resolved through identification Girls have penis envy….. Latency until puberty Genital stage Is mature sexuality We fixate on stages with unresolved conflicts 11/7/2018

Defense mechanisms We use these to get though daily life Repression Regression Reaction formation Projection Rationalization Displacement All are unconscious 11/7/2018

Freud was whacked There were dissenters Erikson Jung Get at unconscious with the Rorschach test or the TAT These tests are about as reliable as the farmer’s almanac… 11/7/2018

So, what do modern psychologists think of this crap, err, this theory Dreams? Repression Unconscious Early development vs. life long change? Biggest problem is that it is all post hoc No prediction NOT A SCIENTIFIC THEORY 11/7/2018

Trait perspective Maybe, instead of worrying about the unconscious, we could worry about the conscious? Could try classifying people Doesn’t work all that well Describing? Eysenck’s ideas 11/7/2018

The Big 5 Emotional stability Extroversion Openness Agreeableness Conscientiousness There may be more, but you get the idea Assessed with questionnaires 11/7/2018

Personality inventories MMPI Empirically driven Make predictions Objective vs. projective tests You can catch a cheater Are people consistent? Situation important too Epstein (1983) Overall style vs. given behaviour 11/7/2018

Humanistic approach Sort of holistic Mazlow Self-actualization Fulfilling our potential Mazlow studied the successful Self-accepting Courage to be different 11/7/2018

Carl Rogers Hi views were pretty similar “People are generally good” Need to be in a growth promoting environment Genuineness Acceptance empathy 11/7/2018

Humanism Unconditional positive regard Self concept, positive or negative, is valued How do you measure this stuff? Questionnaires? Interviews? Self-esteem has been looked at quite a bit 11/7/2018

Self-esteem Feelings of self worth Higher self esteem, better day to day life Happier Less drug use Sleep better Less of those, more likely to be depressed Maybe goes in the other direction? 11/7/2018

Esteem Not only in one direction Make someone feel lousy, they are more likely to act like a jerk Minorities don’t have lower self esteem Most people have pretty high self esteem Self serving bias Not that surprising, but don’t push it to the delusional Pretty Western-centric 11/7/2018

Humanism is another ism Very influential ideas Self esteem, self worth a big ides, important in education But…. Vague Self actualization = self indulgence? People probably are NOT basically good 11/7/2018

Social Cognitive Perspective Overt Behaviour Importance of the effect of external events on our behaviour Reciprocal determinism Locus of control is another big issue Personal Factors Environment 11/7/2018

Social cognition Learned helplessness is the ultimate in external LOC Past behaviour predicts future behaviour Biggest criticism is that traits are ignored 11/7/2018

conclusions People are consistent Can be measured Freud was nuts Situation plays a role too 11/7/2018