Chalalai taesilapasathit Faculty of liberal arts, Thammasat university Personality Chalalai taesilapasathit Faculty of liberal arts, Thammasat university

Personality A pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world. Approaches in psychological theories of personality: Psychodynamics Trait Learning Biology and Evolutionary Humanistic

Psychodynamic Approach Psychodynamic approaches to personality: Assume that personality is primarily unconscious Motivated by inner forces and early childhood experiences

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Psychoanalytic theory: Unconscious forces act as determinants of personality Theory by Sigmund Freud Unconscious: Part of the personality that contains the memories, knowledge, beliefs, feelings, urges, drives, and instincts of which the individual is not aware Unconsciousness consists of Preconscious: non-threatening material that is easily brought to mind Drives: instinctual wishes, desires, demands, and needs hidden from awareness because of the conflict and pain they would cause

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Personality structure: Id Instinctual, unorganized, inborn part of personality Pleasure principle Ego Balancing between Id’s and Superego’s needs Reality principle Superego Moral branch of personality

Iceberg Analogy Ego Superego Id Note: Instructor may choose to use this slide at several different points in lecture: (1) after Id/Ego/Superego are introduced; (2) after Unconscious processes and Repression are introduced; or (3) after Defense Mechanisms are enumerated. Reposition slide as appropriate. Superego Id © McGraw-Hill Education Permission required for reproduction or display

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Developing personality: Psychosexual stages Psychosexual stages: Developmental periods that children pass through during which they encounter conflicts between the demands of society and their own sexual urges Fixations: Remain locked in particular developmental stage

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Psychosexual stages: Oral stage  Infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth Anal stage  Child’s pleasure involves eliminative functions Phallic stage  Child’s sexual interest in his or her opposite-sex parent, typically resolved through identification with the same-sex parent Latency stage  Interest in sexuality is repressed Genital stage  sexual reawakening during adolescence and adulthood

Psychosexual Stages

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Defense mechanisms: Unconscious strategies that people use to reduce anxiety by distorting reality and concealing the source of the anxiety from themselves

Defense Mechanisms

The Neo-Freudian Psychoanalysts Psychoanalysts who were trained in traditional Freudian theory but who later rejected some of its major points: Sexuality  not a pervasive force behind personality Early experience  not as powerful as Freud thought Importance of conscious thought Sociocultural influences

Dissenters and Revisionists x Dissenters and Revisionists Horney’s Sociocultural Approach both sexes envy the attributes of the other need for security, not sex, is primary motivator Jung’s Analytical Theory collective unconscious and archetypes Adler’s Individual Psychology perfection, not pleasure, is key motivator Photo credits: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis © Bettmann/Corbis © Douglas Glass/Paul Popper/Popperfoto/Getty Images © McGraw-Hill Education Permission required for reproduction or display

Trait Approach Trait: Consistent, habitual personality characteristics An enduring disposition that leads behaviors displayed across different situations Trait theories: Model of personality that seeks to identify the basic traits necessary to describe personality

Allport’s Trait Theory Single characteristic that directs most of a person’s activities Cardinal trait Major characteristics of an individual Central trait – honesty and sociability Affect behavior in fewer situations Secondary trait

Eysenck: Factoring Out Personality Describes level of sociability Extraversion Encompasses emotional stability Neuroticism Degree to which reality is distorted Psychoticism

Trait Approach: The Big Five

Evaluating Trait Approaches to Personality Benefits: Provide straightforward explanation of people’s behavioral consistencies Allow comparison of one person to another Influence the development of several useful personality measures Drawbacks: Validity of trait conceptions of personality Do not provide explanations for behavior

Learning Approach B. F. Skinner’s behaviorist approach: Personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns Humans are infinitely changeable through the process of learning new behavior patterns

Learning Approach Social cognitive approach to personality: Theories that emphasize the influence of a person’s cognitions and observation of others’ behavior, in determining personality Self-efficacy: Belief that we can master a situation and produce positive outcomes

Learning Approach Walter Mischel: Views personality as variable from one situation to another Situationism – View that personality cannot be considered without taking the particular context of the situation into account Cognitive-affective processing system theory (CAPS) People’s thoughts and emotions about themselves and the world determine how they view, and then react, in situations

Evaluating Learning Approaches to Personality Learning theories have: Helped make personality psychology a scientific venture by focusing on observable behavior and the effects of their environments Tend to share a highly deterministic view of human behavior Maintains that behavior is shaped by forces beyond the individual’s control Produced important, successful means of treating a variety of psychological disorders

Biological and Evolutionary Approaches Suggest that important components of personality are inherited Certain traits are more influenced by heredity than others Social potency - Degree to which a person assumes mastery and leadership roles in social situations Traditionalism - Tendency to follow authority

Biological and Evolutionary Approaches Temperament: Individual’s behavioral style and characteristic way of responding that emerges early in life Genes are found to be linked to specific personality characteristics But cannot be viewed as the sole cause of personality

Humanistic Approach Emphasize people’s innate goodness and desire to achieve higher levels of functioning Rogers and the need for self-actualization Self-actualization: State of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potential, each in a unique way Self-concepts: Set of beliefs and perceptions people hold about their own abilities, behavior, and personality

Self-concept and Ideal-self

Evaluating Humanistic Approach Benefits: Highlights the uniqueness of human beings Guides the development of a form of therapy designed to alleviate psychological difficulties Criticisms: Difficulty of verifying basic assumptions of the approach Making the assumption that people are basically “good”

Assessing Personality How can we most accurately assess personality? What are the major types of personality measurement?

Psychological Tests Standard measures devised to assess behavior objectively Used by psychologists to help people make decisions about their lives and understand more about themselves

Self-Report Measures of Personality Method of gathering data about people by asking them questions about their own behavior and traits Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2- Restructured Form (MMPI-2- RF ) Identifies people with psychological difficulties Employed to predict some everyday behaviors

Projective Methods Projective personality test: A test in which a person is shown an ambiguous, vague stimulus and asked to describe it or tell a story about it Rorschach test: Involves showing a series of symmetrical visual stimuli to people who then are asked what the figures represent to them Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Consists of a series of pictures about which a person is asked to write a story Limitations of each, and use in clinical settings

Projective Methods

Behavioral Assessment Direct measures of an individual’s behavior used to describe personality characteristics Appropriate for observing and eventually remedying specific behavioral difficulties Shyness in children