MYERS FOR AP, UNIT 10 PERSONALITY!!!

Free association!  Do now: I will read a random list of words.  Write down the first word that comes to mind when I read the word. Don’t stop and think. Just go with the very first thing that comes to mind, even if it doesn’t make sense.  Do any of these words seem to reveal any hidden feelings you might have about someone or something in your life? Why or why not?  Would you want people to read meaning into this list of freely associated words? Why or why not?

Two Broad Theories  Psychoanalytic – Childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations are the big influences  Humanistic– Focuses on our inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment

Freud! (Gotta start here!)  Most well-known dead psychologist  Technically a physician  Studied neurology  Hit a roadblock when he couldn’t explain things.  Father of psychoanalysis  Id-Ego-Superego theory  Psychosexual stages & fixations  Oedipal Complex/Electra Complex  Female inferiority/penis envy  Believed that we were unconsciously driven by dark, unacceptable motivations, which created anxiety

Defense Mechanisms (Know these!)  Repression  Regression  Reaction Formation  Projection  Rationalization  Displacement  Sublimation  Denial Do now: Give a personal or real-life example for at least three of the Freudian Defense mechanisms

Neo-Freudians and beyond  Accepted id, ego, superego  Agreed that personality is shaped in childhood  More emphasis on conscious mind  More emphasis on social influences  Doubted sex and aggression were the big motivations  Adler: Concept of inferiority complex  Horney: Childhood anxiety triggers need for love and security; argued with his sexism and tried to balance the bias  Jung: Collective unconscious concept; personality archetypes  Today’s psychodynamic theory:  We struggle with inner conflicts, about fears, wishes and values  Much of our mental life is unconscious  Childhood shapes personality and attachment to others.

Alfred Adler – Simplified Theory

Jungian Archetypes  Caroline Myss is known for her work with Jung’s archetypes, too.  It’s the basis of the Myers-Briggs Test (validity?)  What’s yours? Check it out at om/ om/

Assessing the Unconscious  Projective tests – apply feelings to a picture; reveal hidden feelings/experiences  Rorshach -- inkblots  Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT) – ambiguous pictures  Reliability: Results are consistent over time.  Validity: It measures what it says it measures.  A great question over whether repression is real.  A different idea of what the unconscious does (review p. 488) Corresponds to Unit 3B and Unit 5

Rohrshach Test

What about defense mechanisms?  Research indicates there’s some support – just not quite the way Freud saw it:  False consensus effect  We do seem to be motivated to use defenses to protect our self-image  We do seem to defend ourselves against anxiety  Terror-management theory  Freud also criticized for being non-scientific—few testable hypotheses

The Humanistic Perspective  Third-force perspective (Skinner and Freud being the first two)  Focus on healthy people striving to be better people and accomplish goals (self-determination; self- actualization)  Maslow – self-actualizing person  Rogers – Person-centered perspective  Growth promotion requires genuineness, acceptance and empathy  Unconditional positive regard  When our ideal self and actual self are closely aligned, we have a good self-concept

Evaluating Humanism  Do now: Is a positive self-concept the key to happiness and success? How Important is self-esteem?  What is the difference between self-concept, self- esteem and self-efficacy?  Pervasive influence  Huge impact on popular psychology  “Happy” a PBS show argues that.  Criticized for being vague and subjective  Can being true to oneself lead to negative aspects such as selfishness?  Criticized for being naïve (neglecting capacity for evil)

The Trait Perspective  Do now: Make a list of at least 15 personality traits  Mark whether they are negative or positive  Group with three or four other people and compare lists  Make a class list  Are these traits inborn or learned?  Do you strive to cultivate any of them? Why and how?

Contemporary Research-- The Trait Perspective  Trait  a characteristic pattern of behavior  a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports  Personality Inventory  a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors  used to assess selected personality traits

The Trait Perspective- Factor Analysis  Hans and Sybil Eysenck use two primary personality factors as axes for describing personality variation

The Trait Perspective  Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)  the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests  originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use)  now used for many other screening purposes

The Trait Perspective  Empirically Derived Test  a test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups  such as the MMPI

The Trait Perspective  Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) test profile Hysteria (uses symptoms to solve problems) Masculinity/femininity (interests like those of other sex) T-score Hypochondriasis (concern with body symptoms) Depression (pessimism, hopelessness) Psychopathic deviancy (disregard for social standards) Paranoia (delusions, suspiciousness) Psychasthenia (anxious, guilt feelings) Schizophrenia (withdrawn, bizarre thoughts) Hypomania (overactive, excited, impulsive) Social introversion (shy, inhibited) Clinically significant range After treatment (no scores in the clinically significant range) Before treatment (anxious, depressed, and displaying deviant behaviors)

The Trait Perspective- The Big 5

Social Media personality  Discuss in small groups “ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS”  Do you start or maintain relationships (friendly or otherwise) with people you do not know in “real” life WHY OR WHY NOT?  How can you tell if someone is being genuine online? What are some of your own criteria for determining someone’s personality?  What are some etiquette rules for communicating your desires? Joking around with others? Expressing your anger or displeasure? Using sarcasm?

Social-Cognitive Perspective  Social-Cognitive Perspective  views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons and their social context or situation  Reciprocal Determinism  the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors

Social-Cognitive Perspective

 Personal Control  our sense of controlling our environments rather than feeling helpless  External Locus of Control  the perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate

Social-Cognitive Perspective  Internal Locus of Control  the perception that one controls one’s own fate  Learned Helplessness  the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

Social-Cognitive Perspective  Learned Helplessness Uncontrollable bad events Perceived lack of control Generalized helpless behavior

Social-Cognitive Perspective  Positive Psychology  The scientific study of optimal human functioning  Aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive

Exploring Self  Write down your possible selves:  The self you hope to become  The self you fear you will become  The self you think you are to your friends  The self you think you are to your family  The self you are at school

Exploring the Self  Spotlight Effect  Overestimating the extent to which others notice and evaluate our appearance, performance, and blunders  Self Esteem  One’s feelings of high or low self-worth  Self-Serving Bias  Readiness or tendency to perceive oneself favorably

Exploring the Self  Individualism  Giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications  Collectivism  Giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly

Exploring the Self

The Modern Unconscious Mind  Terror-Management Theory  Faith in one’s worldview and the pursuit of self-esteem provide protection against a deeply rooted fear of death