Psychodynamic Perspectives Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Personality is defined as “an individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits”. A trait is an enduring, characteristic way of behaving, or a disposition, such as a tendency to be cautious or adventurous. Describing people in terms of their personality traits is a common human tendency. We may refer to someone as friendly, shy, uptight, boring, and so on. Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Culture and Personality

Reserved Outgoing Less Intelligent More Intelligent Affected by Feelings Emotionally Stable Submissive Dominant Serious Happy-go-lucky Expedient Conscientious Timid Venturesome Tough-minded Sensitive Trusting Suspicious Practical Imaginative Forthright Shrewd Self-assured Apprehensive In the 1950’s and 60’s, Raymond Cattell used the procedure of factor analysis – correlating many variables to identify closely related clusters of variables – to reduce Gordon Allport’s (1937) list of thousands of personality traits to just 16 basic dimensions. He also developed a test called the 16 PF to measure where a person falls along these 16 personality dimensions. Conservative Experimenting Group-dependant Self-sufficient Uncontrolled Controlled Relaxed Tense Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

outgoing assertive upbeat friendly gregarious sociable Agreeableness Conscientiousness (Constraint) Openness to Experience Neuroticism (Negative Emotionality) outgoing assertive Extraversion (Positive Emotionality) upbeat friendly Extraversion (Positive Emotionality) More recently, McCrae and Costa have used factor analysis to arrive at an even simpler, five-factor model of personality: the big five. High Extraversion scores signify that a person is outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive, and gregarious. Some trait models refer to this as positive emotionality. gregarious sociable Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

anxious vulnerable insecure self-conscious hostile Agreeableness Conscientiousness (Constraint) Openness to Experience Extraversion (Positive Emotionality) anxious vulnerable Neuroticism (Negative Emotionality) Neuroticism (Negative Emotionality) insecure High Neuroticism scores signify that a person is anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure, and vulnerable - some models call this negative emotionality. self-conscious hostile Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

unconventional attitudes Agreeableness Conscientiousness (Constraint) Extraversion (Positive Emotionality) Neuroticism (Negative Emotionality) curiosity Openness to Experience flexibility artistic sensitivity imaginativeness Openness to Experience Openness to experience is associated with curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity, and unconventional attitudes. vivid fantasy unconventional attitudes Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

sympathetic trusting modest cooperative straight forward Agreeableness Conscientiousness (Constraint) Extraversion (Positive Emotionality) Neuroticism (Negative Emotionality) Openness to Experience modest cooperative Agreeableness is associated with people who are sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward. It may have its roots in temperament. straight forward Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

diligent punctual disciplined dependable well-organized Extraversion (Positive Emotionality) Neuroticism (Negative Emotionality) Openness to Experience Agreeableness diligent punctual Conscientiousness (Constraint) Conscientiousness (Constraint) disciplined dependable Conscientious people are diligent, disciplined, well organized, punctual, and dependable. Some models refer to this trait as constraint, related to high productivity in a variety of occupational areas. well-organized Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Sigmund Freud Unconscious Mental Processes Psychodynamic theories include all the diverse theories descended from the work of Sigmund Freud, which focus on unconscious mental processes. Freud‘s psychoanalytic theory grew out of his decades of interactions with his clients. This theory focuses on the influence of early childhood experiences, unconscious motives and conflicts, and the methods people use to cope with sexual and aggressive urges. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Id Pleasure Principle Primary-process Thinking Unconscious Freud divided personality into 3 components - the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the primitive, instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification and engages in primary-process thinking (primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented). According to Freud, the id exists in the unconscious level of awareness. The unconscious contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Ego Reality Principle Secondary-process Thinking Preconscious Id Pleasure Principle Primary-process Thinking Unconscious The ego is the decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle, seeking to delay gratification of the id’s urges until appropriate outlets can be found, thus mediating between the id and the external world. In Freud’s model, the ego operates at all three levels of awareness - unconscious, pre-conscious, and conscious. The pre-conscious contains thoughts just beneath the surface, while the conscious is what you are aware of. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Ego Reality Principle Secondary-process Thinking Preconscious Superego Moral Imperatives Id Pleasure Principle Primary-process Thinking Unconscious The superego is the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong…the superego emerges out of the ego at around 3-5 years of age. Like the ego, the superego operates at all three levels of awareness. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

EGO ID Superego Holds Urges in Check With Reality Gratify Urges Immediately Holds Urges in Check With Morality Freud saw behavior as the outcome of an ongoing series of internal conflicts between the id, ego, and superego; with conflicts centering on sex and aggressive impulses having far reaching consequences. These conflicts lead to anxiety, which causes the ego to construct defense mechanisms, exercises in self-deception, as protection. ID Superego Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Intrapsychic Conflict (Between Id, Ego, and Superego) Anxiety Reliance on Defense Mechanisms Examples of defense mechanisms would be rationalization, where you justify unacceptable behavior with excuses, repression - burying distressful thoughts in the unconscious, projection - attributing your own thoughts and feelings to someone else, and displacement - diverting emotions from their original source to a substitute target. Suppose Jill is rear-ended on her way home from work and, extremely angry, immediately begins yelling at her husband. This is an example of displacement. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Five Psychosocial Stages: 1. Oral 2. Anal 3. Phallic 4. Latency Freud believed that the foundation of personality is laid by the age of 5. He theorized that the ways in which children deal with immature sexual urges (sexual used as a general term meaning physical pleasure) during different stages of development shape personality. He proposed 5 psychosexual stages, each with a characteristic erotic focus and developmental challenge. 5. Genital Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Key Tasks and Experience Stage Approximate Age Erotic Focus Key Tasks and Experience Stage Oral 0-1 Mouth (Sucking, Biting) Weaning (From Breast or Bottle) Anal 2-3 Anus (Expelling or Retaining Feces) Toilet Training Phallic 4-5 Genitals (Masturbating) Identifying with Adult Role Models; Coping With Oedipal Crisis Latency 6-12 None (Sexually Repressed) Expanding Social Contracts The oral stage is characterized by an erotic focus on the mouth and its functions; Freud believed that fixation at this stage led to obsessive eating and smoking. The anal stage, where children get erotic pleasure from expelling feces, may lead to sexual difficulties and resentment due to harsh toilet training. The phallic stage represents a focus on the genitals and self-stimulation, as well as the Oedipal complex - when children have erotic leanings towards their opposite-sex parent, and resent their same-sex parent. The latency stage is when erotic urges are suppressed, and leads into the genital stage, when puberty begins and sexual urges reappear. Genital Puberty Onward Genitals (Being Sexually Intimate) Establishing Intimate Relationships; Contributing to Society Through Working Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Carl Jung Freud had many followers in the early 1900s. Many of these followers had theories of their own, but Freud was not willing to accept radical departures from psychoanalytic theory. Two members who broke from his group, Carl Jung and Alfred Adler, founded their own brands of psychodynamic psychology, making important contributions in their own right. Carl Jung called his new theory analytical psychology, proposing that the unconscious mind is composed of two layers: the personal unconscious, which houses material that is not within one’s conscious awareness because it has been repressed or forgotten; and the collective unconscious, which houses latent memory traces inherited from people’s ancestral past. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Collective Unconscious Personal Unconscious Conscious Collective Unconscious Person A Person B Person C Jung called these ancestral memories archetypes – emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meaning and are often manifested as symbols in cultural art, literature, and religion. Like Freud, Jung used dream analysis in his treatment of patients, and believed that dreams contained important messages from the unconscious. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Alfred Adler Alfred Adler argued that Freud had gone overboard with his focus on sexual conflict. According to Adler and his individual psychology, the foremost source of human motivation is striving for superiority – a universal drive to adapt, improve oneself, and master life’s challenges. Adler asserted that everyone feels some inferiority and works to overcome it, a process he called compensation. When the feelings are excessive, an inferiority complex can result. People can also conceal, even from themselves, their feelings of inferiority, resulting in overcompensation - seeking status and power, and flaunting their success to cover up underlying inferiority. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Conscious Ego Reality Principle Secondary-process Thinking Preconscious Superego Moral Imperatives Id Pleasure Principle Primary-process Thinking Unconscious Psychodynamic theories have resulted in groundbreaking insights about the unconscious, the role of internal conflict, and the importance of early childhood experiences in personality development. On the down side, they have been criticized for their poor testability, inadequate empirical evidence, and male-centered views. How to Test? Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

B.F. Skinner Skinner’s views on personality were similar to his views on all other human behavior; it is learned through conditioning. He had little interest in unobservable cognitive processes and embraced a strong determinism, asserting that behavior is fully determined by environmental stimuli, and free will is but an illusion. Personality, according to Skinner, is based in response tendencies; acquired through learning over the course of the lifespan. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Operant Response Tendencies Circulate, speaking to others only if they approach you first R1 Stimulus Situation Stick close to the people you already know R2 Large party where you know relatively few people Politely withdraw by getting wrapped up in a host’s book collection R3 A specific situation may be associated with a number of response tendencies that vary in strength, depending on past conditioning. As an example, consider this hypothetical response hierarchy for the stimulus situation of a large party where you know relatively few people. R4 Leave at the first opportunity Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Albert Bandura Bandura developed social learning theory, focusing on how cognitive factors such as expectancies regulate learning. His concept of reciprocal determinism is the idea that internal mental events, external environmental events, and overt behavior all influence one another. His theory of observational learning holds that behavior is shaped by exposure to models, or a person whose behavior they observe. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Rewarding Stimulus Presented Good Buy on Car Response Bargain Assertively For example, if you watched your sister bargain assertively and get a good buy on a car, this could strengthen your tendency to drive harder bargains. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Carl Rogers Carl Rogers was one of the founders of the humanist movement, which emerged in the 1950’s as a reaction to the behavioral and psychodynamic theories. Rogers viewed personality in terms of the self-concept, a collection of beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities, and typical behavior…a person’s mental picture of themselves. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Congruence Incongruence Rogers stressed the subjective nature of the self-concept - it may not be consistent with reality. Rogers believed that when parents make their affection conditional, that is, dependent on a child’s living up to expectations, the child may block out of their self-concept those experiences that make them feel unworthy of love. Unconditional love is based in assurances that a child is worthy of affection, no matter what they do. When self-concepts don’t match reality (incongruence), they are threatened, and anxiety results. Self-concept Actual Experience Self-concept Actual Experience Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Need For Self-actualization Aesthetic Needs Cognitive Needs Esteem Needs Belongingness and Love Needs Safety and Security Needs Physiological Needs Abraham Maslow proposed that human motives are organized into a hierarchy of needs – a systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in which basic needs must be met before less basic needs are aroused. Like Rogers, Maslow argued that humans have an innate drive toward personal growth, culminating in the need for self-actualization, which is the need to fulfill one’s potential (the highest need in his hierarchy). “What a man can be, he must be.” Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Characteristics of Self-actualizing People Spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness Autonomy, independence of culture and environment Feelings of kinship and identification with the human race Balance between polarities in personality, etc. Maslow set out to identify people who had self-actualized, healthy personalities, for study. Self-actualizing persons, according to Maslow, are people with exceptionally healthy personalities, marked by continued personal growth. Maslow found that these people are tuned in to reality and at peace with themselves. They are open and spontaneous and sensitive to others’ needs, making for rewarding interpersonal relations. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Hans Eysenck Biological theories stress the genetic origins of personality. Hans Eysenck believes that personality can be characterized along just three dimensions and that these are genetically determined in individuals. He believes that genes influence physiological functioning, thereby influencing ease of acquiring conditioned responses. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Higher-order Trait Extraversion Sensation-seeking Traits Sociable Lively Active Assertive Habitual Responses Eysenck views personality structure as a hierarchy of traits in which many superficial traits are derived from a smaller number of more basic traits, which are derived from a handful of fundamental higher-order traits, such as extraversion. Specific Responses Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Type of Interfering Material .60 .50 .40 .30 Correlation of Scores .20 .10 Modern research in behavioral genetics has provided evidence consistent with Eysenck’s assertion that personality is molded by heredity. For instance, in one twin study conducted by Eysenck and his colleagues, 573 pairs of twins responded to a number of personality scales. Among the traits Eysenck measured were altruism, empathy, and aggressiveness. Consistent with the genetic view, identical twins were found to be much more similar than fraternal twins on all the traits. Altruism Empathy Aggressiveness Type of Interfering Material Identical Twins Fraternal Twins Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Positive Emotionality Negative Emotionality Constraint .70 .60 .50 .40 .30 Correlation of Scores .20 .10 -.10 However, skeptics wondered if genetic similarity was the true cause for the greater personality resemblance between identical twins, or if environment, rather than heredity, could be responsible for identical twins’ greater personality similarity.   To answer that question, the University of Minnesota conducted a landmark study of personality with identical and fraternal twins reared apart, as well as those reared together. Identical twins reared together were more similar than fraternal twins reared together, and identical twins reared apart were found to be more similar to each other than fraternal twins reared together. This strongly supports Eysenck’s claim that personality is largely inherited. Positive Emotionality Negative Emotionality Constraint Identical Twins Reared Together Identical Twins Reared Apart Fraternal Twins Reared Together Fraternal Twins Reared Apart Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

aspects of brain structure and function Personality traits aspects of brain structure and function In recent years neuroscientists have begun to explore the relationships between specific personality traits and aspects of brain structure and function.   Thus far, research and theory have focused primarily on the Big Five traits. A recent study used MRI technology to look for associations between the Big Five traits and variations in the relative size of specific areas of the brain. One interesting finding was participants’ extraversion correlated with the volume of brain regions known to process reward, while variations in neuroticism correlated with the volume of brain areas known to be activated by threat, punishment, and negative emotions. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Evolutionary Perspective: Traits conductive to reproductive fitness Evolutionary analyses of personality suggest that certain traits and the ability to recognize them may contribute to reproductive fitness…a reproductive advantage. Daniel Nettle takes this line of thinking one step further, asserting that the traits themselves (as opposed to the ability to recognize them in others) are products of evolution that were adaptive in ancestral environments. For example, he discusses how extraversion could have promoted mating success, how neuroticism could have fueled competitiveness and avoidance of dangers, how agreeableness could have fostered the effective building of coalitions, and so forth. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Renewed Interest in Narcissism Scores from the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), the most widely used measure of narcissism, have been rising recently, going from a mean of about 15.5 in the 1980s to almost 17.5 in 2005–2006. Some researchers argue that rising narcissism has fueled an obsessive concern about being physically attractive in young people, leading to unhealthy dieting, overuse of cosmetic surgery, and steroid-fueled body building. They also assert that narcissists’ “me-first” attitude has led to increased materialism and overconsumption of the earth’s resources, which have contributed to the current environmental crisis and economic meltdown. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Self-preservation Instinct Need to Defend Cultural Worldview Anxiety Buffer Potential for Death-related Anxiety and Terror Awareness of the Inevitability of Death Need to Enhance Feelings of Self-Esteem Terror management theorists have proposed that one of the key functions of self-esteem is to protect us against terror. We feel terror because we have a desire to preserve ourselves, but also have the cognitive ability to recognize that death is inevitable. Cultures provide worldviews--traditions, stories, and institutions--that salve this existential anxiety, and provide us with a sense of order in our lives. Our self-esteem corresponds to our sense of self-worth engendered by our confidence in our culture’s solutions. According to terror management theory, our self-esteem provides us with an anxiety buffer. Anxiety Buffer Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

T-scores on Personality Traits Conscientiousness Neuroticism Extraversion Agreeableness Openness N E O A C 60 55 T-scores on Personality Traits 50 45 In recent years, the connection between culture and personality has grown in popularity, in part due to interest in how Western personality constructs apply cross-culturally to other areas of the world. Studies tentatively show that cultures exhibit the same basic traits, but vary as to which particular trait is exhibited the most. However, when asked to rate the typical member of their culture, it was found that subjects agreed with each other about the personality traits of their culture, but there was little or no relationship between these perceptions and actual trait scores for that culture. 40 How Canadians View National Character Actual Trait Scores For Canadians Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Mother Father Self Sibling Friend Co-worker Friend In recent years, the connection between culture and personality has grown in popularity, in part due to interest in how Western personality constructs apply cross-culturally to other areas of the world. Studies tentatively show that cultures exhibit the same basic traits, but vary as to which particular trait is exhibited the most. However, when asked to rate the typical member of their culture, it was found that subjects agreed with each other about the personality traits of their culture, but there was little or no relationship between these perceptions and actual trait scores for that culture. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality

Mother Father Self Sibling Friend Co-worker Friend According to the same research, Asian cultures foster an interdependent view of self - children are encouraged to fit in, to be modest, to become part of and adapt to a group. Self worth is defined by the achievements of the group and harmony with others. Contemporary Empirical Approaches Terror Management Theory Nature of Personality Psychodynamic Perspectives Behavioral Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives Biological Perspectives Culture and Personality