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Chapter 13: Personality
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2. © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Personality
The pattern of enduring characteristics that differentiate people – those behaviors that make each of us unique
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3. Psychodynamic Approaches to Personality
Based on the idea that personality is motivated by inner forces and conflicts about which people have little awareness and over which they have no control
Sigmund Freud
Carl Jung
Karen Horney
Alfred Adler
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Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalytic theory
Freud’s theory that our behavior is triggered by forces within personality of which we are not aware
Unconscious
A part of the personality of which a person is not aware
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5. Freud: Structuring PersonalityId
Raw, unorganized, inborn part of the personality
Libido
Psychic energy that fuels primitive drives
Pleasure principle
Immediate reduction of tension and the maximization of satisfaction
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6. Freud: Structuring Personality
Ego
Strives to balance the desires of the id and the realities of the objective, outside world
Reality principle
Instinctual energy is restrained in order to maintain the safety of the individual and help integrate the person into society
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7. Freud: Structuring Personality
Superego
The final personality structure to develop that represents the rights and wrongs of society as taught and modeled by a person’s parents, teachers, and other significant individuals
Conscience
Prevents us from behaving in a morally improper way
Ego-ideal
Represents the “perfect person” we wish we were
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8. Freud: Psychosexual Stages
Oral stage
Center of pleasure is mouth
Anal stage
Center of pleasure is anus
Phallic stage
Pleasure focuses on genitals
Oedipal conflict
Identification
Latent stage
Children’s sexual concerns are temporarily put aside
Genital stage
Marked by mature sexual behavior (sexual intercourse)
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9. Freud: Psychosexual Stages
Fixation
Refers to conflicts or concerns that persist beyond developmental period in which they first occur
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Defense Mechanisms
Unconscious strategies that people use to reduce anxiety by concealing the source from themselves and others
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11. Carl Jung: Collective Unconscious
Common set of ideas, feelings, images, and symbols that we inherit from our ancestors, the whole human race, and even nonhuman ancestors from the distant past
Archetypes
Universal symbolic representations of a particular person, object, or experience
Mother
Good
Evil
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12. Karen Horney: Neo-Freudian Perspective
First feminist psychologist
Personality develops in the context of social relationships
Relationship between parents and child and his/her needs is very important
Cultural factors
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Alfred Adler
People strive for superiority
Self-improvement
Inferiority complex
Problem affecting adults who have not been able to overcome the feelings of inferiority that they developed as children, when they were small and limited in their knowledge about the world
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Trait Approaches
Sensitive
Friendliness
Trait theory
Model of personality that seeks to identify the basic traits necessary to describe personality
Trait
Consistent personality characteristics and behaviors displayed in different situations
Shy
Tense
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Gordon Allport
18,000 terms to describe personality
Cardinal
Single characteristic that directs most of a person’s activities
Central
Five to ten major characteristics of an individual
Secondary
Characteristics that affect behavior in fewer situations and are less influential
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Raymond Cattell
Factor analysis
Statistical method of identifying associations among a large number of variables to reveal more general patterns
Source traits
Sixteen Personality actor Questionnaire (16 PF)
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Raymond Cattell
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Hans Eysenck
Extraversion
sociability
Neuroticism
Emotional stability
Psychoticism
Degree to which reality is distorted
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The Big Five
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
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Learning Approaches
Behaviorist approach
B.F. Skinner
Collection of learned behavior patterns
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Learning Approaches
Social cognitive approach
Albert Bandura
Observational learning
Viewing the actions of others and observing the consequences
Emphasizes the influence of cognition
Thoughts
Feelings
Expectations
values
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Learning Approaches
Social cognitive approach
Self-Efficacy
Belief in one’s personal capabilities
Self-esteem
Component of personality that encompasses our positive and negative self-evaluations
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Learning Approaches
The downside of high self-esteem
Roy Baumeister
Unjustified high self-esteem can be psychologically damaging
Can lead to a variety of undesirable outcomes
Narcissism
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24. Biological and Evolutionary Approaches
Biological and evolutionary approaches to personality
Suggest that important components of personality are inherited
Temperament
Innate disposition that emerges early in life
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25. Humanistic Approaches
Humanistic approaches to personality
Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers
Self-actualization
State of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potential, each in his or her own unique way
Unconditional positive regard
Attitude of acceptance and respect on the part of an observer, no matter what a person says or does
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Comparing Approaches
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27. Assessing Personality
Psychological tests
Standard measures devised to assess behavior objectively
Self-report measures
MMPI-2
A test used to differentiate people with specific sorts of psychological difficulties as well as predicting a variety of other behaviors
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MMPI-2
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Projective Methods
Projective personality test
A test in which a person is shown an ambiguous stimulus and asked to describe it or tell a story about it
Rorschach test
TAT
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30. Behavioral Assessment
Direct measures of an individual’s behavior used to describe characteristics indicative of personality
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31. Using Tests in Employment Decisions
Understand what the test claims to measure
Base no decision only on the results of any one test
Remember that test results are not always accurate
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