 What do psychodynamic theories say about personality?  Can personality be described as a list of traits?  How is personality measured?

 Behavior is controlled largely by unconscious influences  Personality is the result of interaction among unconscious processes

 Personality is composed of three components: › Id › Ego › Superego  Three levels of consciousness

 Conscious : current thoughts  Preconscious: easily retrievable thoughts  Unconscious: thoughts that are difficult to retrieve; may be repressed

 Unconscious  Pleasure principle  Develops first

 Preconscious and conscious  Reality principle  Develops from id

 Conscious, preconscious, and unconscious  Sense of morality  Develops from ego

 Importance of unconscious processes  Impact of childhood experiences on adult behavior  Part of popular culture

 Not falsifiable  Based on individual cases  Reporting of cases is suspect

 Identify a limited set of personality traits that account for most of the variability in behavior  Establish useful personality tests › Reliability › Validity

 Openness: enjoys new experiences  Conscientiousness: responsible  Extraversion: outgoing  Agreeableness: friendly  Neuroticism: nervous

 The “big five” can be measured with high reliability and validity  Useful for predicting performance  Person-situation interaction

 Choose from limited set of responses (true-false, multiple choice)  Examples: › MMPI-2 › NEO-PI R

 567 items › Example: I believe I am being plotted against  10 trait scales › Example: paranoia  4 validity scales › Example: L-scale

 240 items › Example: I get angry sometimes  5 trait scales, each with multiple facets  3 validity scales

 Freely respond to ambiguous stimuli  Lower validity and reliability  Examples: › Rorschach Ink Blot Test › Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)