1. PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONALITY AND HUMAN DYNAMIC
FEM 4105
PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONALITY AND HUMAN DYNAMIC

2. INTRODUCTION TO PERSONALITY

3. WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
PSYCHOLOGIST DEFINE….
A distinctive and relatively stable pattern of behavior, thoughts, motives, and emotions that characterizes an individual. (Wade, C. & Tavris, C. (2011) Psychology. 10th Ed. Prentice Hall.)

4. WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
The reasonable stable patterns of emotions, motives, and behavior that distinguish one person from another.
(Rathus, S. A. (2012) Psychology: Concepts and Connections. 10th Ed.Wadsworth Cengage Learning.)

5. The unique collection of attitudes, emotions, thoughts, habits, impulses, and behaviors that define how a person typically behaves across situations.
(Pastorino, E & Doyle-Portillo, S. (2012) What is Psychology? 3rd Ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning).

6. Our own conceptions about people, and about ourselves, may be similarly bound up with our own perspectives and initial beliefs.
Some think of personality as consisting of the person’s most striking traits, as in “This person has an outgoing personality” or “That person has an agreeable personality.” But many psychological theorists look deeper.

7. Those schooled in the Freudian tradition look at personality as consisting of underlying mental structures that jockey for supremacy outside the range of our ordinary awareness.
Other theorists focus on how personality is shaped by learning. And to the humanistic theorists, personality is not something people have but rather something they create to give their lives meaning and direction.
Then, too, sociocultural theorists remind us that we must always consider the influences of culture, race, and ethnicity on personality.

8. WHAT IS PERSONALITY? PSYCHOLOGIST DEFINE….
The Islamic theologian taught his pupils the legend of the blind men and the elephant to foster tolerance and to illustrate that no person can have a complete view of the truth; therefore we need to be flexible in our thinking and open to new ideas.
It is also possible that none of the views of personality presented in this lecture offer the one true portrait of human personality, but each may have something to contribute to our understanding of personality.

9. WHAT IS PERSONALITY? PSYCHOLOGIST DEFINE….
Our own conceptions about people, and about ourselves, may be similarly bound up with our own perspectives and initial beliefs.
Some think of personality as consisting of the person’s most striking traits, as in “This person has an outgoing personality” or “That person has an agreeable personality.” But many psychological theorists look deeper.

10. Bling Men and the Elephant: Once upon a time, a group of blind men heard thant an unsual animal called an elephant had come to their country, since they had no idea what an elephant looked like and had never even heard its name, they resolved that they would obtain a “picture” of sorts, and the knowledge they sought, by feeling the animal. After all, that was the only possibility available to them. They sought out the elephant, and its handler kindly permitted them to touch the beast.

11. One blind man stroked its leg, the other a tusk, the third an ear, and believing that they now had knowledge of the elephant, they returned home satisfied. But when they were questioned by others, they provided very different descriptions. The one who had felt the leg said that the elephant was firm, strong, and upright, like a pillar, the one who had felt the tusk disagreed. He described the elephant as hard and smooth; clearly not as stout as a pillar, and sharp at the end. Now spoke the third blind man, who had held the ear of the elephant. And so the three argued about the true nature of the beast. Each was right in part, but none grasped the real nature of the elephant. Yet each fervent in his belief that he knew the animal.

12. Perspectives on Personality
The Psychodynamic Perspective
The Trait Perspective
Learning-Theory Perspectives
The Humanistic-Existential Perspective
The Sociocultural Perspective

13. The major Influences on Personality
Psychodynamic
Genetic
Cultural
Humanist
Narrative