Personality (Chapter 17) Lecture Outline : What is personality? Psychodynamic approaches Assessment

What do you see?

What is personality? n Historically people have always been interested in “what people are like” n Definition: A sum of all behaviours and dispositions that provide some coherence across time and situations n Studied through case, observational, and empirical studies n Descriptive and developmental approaches

Psychodynamic approaches n Freud: People possess diverse sources of psychic energy n Biological drives can come into conflict –Example: Act or restrain sexual impulses –Push someone in front of a bus n Energy, drives, and conflicts have developmental course –Conscious and unconscious

Personality Structure of Psychodynamic Theory Conscious Preconscious Unconscious Ego Id Superego pleasure reality idealistic

Defense Mechanisms –Denial: Is there an exam in this course? –Repression: Cannot remember bad events –Projection: They want to see Spiceworld –Displacement: After exam go for run –Sublimation: Sex-starved artist or poet –Reaction formation: Oedipus complex –Rationalization: Why study? He’s not. –Regression: Act like a baby when hurt –Fixation: Obsessive person is “anal”

Neo-Freudians n Alfred Adler: We strive for superiority –Inferiority complex when we can not n Carl Jung: Unconscious consists of personal and collective components –“archetypes” are in the collective unconscious –Persona, shadow (“Mask”), anima, animus n Erik Erikson: Importance of Ego n Sullivan, Horney: Environment

Assessment of personality Assessment of personality n Projective tests: –Rorschach: 10 symmetrical inkblots: What do you see? Why is it that? –TAT: Stories told to ambiguous pictures n Objective tests –Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) 550 T/F items, 3 validity scales and 10 clinical scales –Other self-report questionnaires Example: –STAI

Normal curve of personality trait scores T-scores

Humanism (1960s, 1970s) n Humans are complex and distinct from other life forms n Future-oriented and purposeful n Carl Rogers: Person-centered approach, ideal self n Maslow: Movement to self-actualize n Rollo May, Existentialism: Appreciation for death gives meaning to life