1. Personality Chapter 12

2. Each dwarf has a distinct personality.
An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
How assess? Case Studies vs Surveys
Each dwarf has a distinct personality.

4. Types of Personalities
Type A
Type B
Feel time pressure.
Easily angered.
Competitive and ambitious.
Work hard and play hard.
More prone to heart disease than rest of population.
Relaxed and easygoing.
But some people fit in neither type.

5. Biological Theories of Personality
What % of personality is inherited –heritability?
We are not sure BUT temperaments do seem to be stable from infants to old age.

6. Somatotype Theory A biological Theory by William Sheldon.
Endomorphs (Fat) tend to be friendly and outgoing.
Mesomorphs (muscular) tend to be more aggressive.
Ectomorphs (thin) tend to be more shy and secretive.
Study has not been replicated.

7. Culture & Self-Concept
Individualistic Cultures vs Collectivist Cultures

8. Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Sigmund Freud
( )
Fathered by Sigmund Freud.
1st comprehensive theory of personality
Used Case Studies of the Mentally Ill to develop theory
Unconscious Mind
Defense Mechanisms
Psychosexual Stages --Idea of the Libido moving to different parts of our body (id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on erogenous zones).
What’s on the human mind?

9. Stages of Psycho-Sexual Development
Oral (fixation)
Anal (retentive vs expulsive)
Phallic (identity -- Oedipus & Electra Complexes)
Latent (Libido hidden – cooties & fixation = sexual issues
Genital (fixation = normal)
Preview Question 1: What was Freud’s view of personality and its development?

10. Mind = Iceberg Conscious- things we are aware of.
Preconscious- things we can be aware of if we think of them (temporary memories).
Unconscious- deep hidden reservoir that holds the true “us”. All of our desires and fears.

12. Unconscious Mind & Psychoanalysis Treatment
Reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.
Freud used free association – whatever comes to mind (retrieve & release embarrassing memories)
Dream Analysis – Manifest vs Latent Content

13. Personality (Psyche)
Develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our biological impulses (id) and social restraints (superego).

14. Id https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfP9AIJA72E
Exists entirely in the unconscious (so we are never aware of it).
Our hidden true animalistic wants and desires.
Works on the Pleasure Principle
Avoid Pain and receive Instant Gratification.

15. Ego Develops after the Id Works on the Reality Principle
If you want to be with someone. Your id says just take them, but your ego does not want to end up in jail. So you ask her out and just “mac” it hard.
Develops after the Id
Works on the Reality Principle
Negotiates between the Id and the environment.
In our conscious and unconscious minds.
It is what everyone sees as our personality.

16. Superego Develops last at about the age of 5 Ideal Principle
It is our conscience (what we think the difference is between right and wrong)
The Ego often mediates between the superego and id.

17. Defense Mechanisms
The ego has a pretty important job…and that is to protect us from threatening thoughts in our unconscious minds.
One way it protects us is through defense mechanisms.
You are usually unaware that they are even occurring.
Movies

18. Scenario
Quarterback of the high school football team, Brandon, is dating Jasmine. Jasmine dumps Brandon and starts dating Drew, president of the chess club.
Jasmine
Brandon
Drew

19. Repression
Pushing thoughts out of our conscious mind and back into our unconscious.
When asked about Jasmine, Brandon may say “Who?, I have not thought about her for awhile.”
Why don’t we remember our Oedipus and Electra complexes?

20. Denial Not accepting the ego-threatening truth.
Brandon may act like he is still together with Jasmine. He may hang out by her locker and plan dates with her.

21. Projection
Believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself.
Brandon insists that Jasmine still cares for him.

22. Reaction Formation Expressing the opposite of how one truly feels.
Cootie stage in Freud’s Latent Development.
Brandon claims he hates Jasmine.

23. Regression Returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior.
Brandon begins to sleep with his favorite childhood stuffed animal, Mr. Snuggles.

24. Rationalization
Coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable outcome.
Brandon thinks he will find a better girlfriend. “Jasmine was not all that anyway!”
I really did not want to go to ……..anyway, it was too ……

25. Intellectualization
Undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic.
Brandon starts doing a research paper on failed teenage romances.

26. Displacement
Redirecting one’s feelings toward another person or object.
Often displaced on less threatening things.
Brandon may take his anger out on another kid by bullying.

27. Sublimation Channeling one’s frustration toward a different goal.
Sometimes a healthy defense mechanism.
Brandon starts to learn how to play the guitar and writing songs (or maybe starts to body build).

28. Criticisms of Freud It is not all about SEX!
His results are not empirically verifiable (really hard to test).
No predictive power.
Limited sample – he really only studied wealthy individuals in Austria.
Karen Horney said he was sexist with the “penis envy” and there is an actual “womb envy”.

29. Criticisms of Freud
Horney argued that there was a need for security, not sex, and that this need was the prime motive in human existence.
Horney argued that previous research about how women function was limited by the fact that those that described women were men.

30. Neo-Freudians: Psychodynamics
Alfred Adler
Childhood Tensions
Social tensions not sexual
EGO = Inferiority vs Superiority & Power
Inferiority Complex
Birth Order & Personality
Alfred Adler ( )
Preview Question 3: Which of Freud’s ideas did his followers accept or reject?

31. Adler’s Individual Psychology
According to Adler, individual psychology is when people are motivated by purposes and goals. It is perfection, not pleasure, that is the key motivator. He believed that social factors were more important than sexual motivation in shaping personality.

32. Neo-Freudians: Psychodynamics
Erik Erikson
Social Development not Sexual development
8 Stages of psychosocial development
Erik Erikson ( ) 32 32

33. Jung’s Analytical Theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLNShGOgqWQ
The collective unconscious is the impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind.
Archetypes are emotionally laden ideas and images that have a rich and symbolic meaning for people. Two of the main archetypes are the anima, which is a woman, and the animus, which is a man.

34. Psychodynamics Today Hypnosis Dream Interpretation Free Association
Projective Tests (tests that delve into and reveal the unconscious mind).
Examples are TAT and Inkblot Tests.
Reliability & Validity of Projective Tests?

35. TAT Test Thematic Apperception Test
Henry Murray
Giving the subject a picture that is ambiguous (can have several meanings) and ask them what is occurring.
Their answers reveal the manifest content.
Therapist can then discover the Latent Content.

39. Rorschach Inkblot Test
Hermann Rorschach
The most widely used projective test
A set of ten inkblots designed to identify people’s feelings when they are asked to interpret what they see in the inkblots.

49. Psychoanalysis
Projective Tests
Reliable?
Valid?

50. Evaluating the Psychodynamic Perspectives
Some of the psychodynamic theories in place today still share some of the same principles of Freud. Personality is determined both by current experiences and those experienced earlier in life. Personality can be better understood by looking at it developmentally. People mentally transform their experiences The mind is not all consciousness. An individual’s inner world conflicts with the outer demands of reality. Personality and judgment are rightful and important topics of psychological inquiry.

51. Behaviorist Theory of Personality
The way most people think of personality is meaningless.
Personality is Learned!
Personality changes according to the environment (reinforcers and punishments).
Contingencies of Reinforcement
If you change environment then you change the personality.

52. Humanistic Theory of Personality
Popular by 1960s
Do not believe in Determinism (your actions are dictated by your past).
They believe that humans have free will (our ability to choose your own destiny).
We are innately good and as long as our self-esteem and self-concept are positive we will be happy.

53. Humanism & Self-Concept
Abraham Maslow
Motivated by a Hierarchy of Needs
Self-Esteem
Self-Actualization—fulfilling our potential

54. Carl Rogers & Humanism
The object of humans is to become self-actualized.
Ideal Self vs Real Self (facebook)
We are like Acorns
What do Acorns need to grow?
Water sun and soil.
Except to grow into healthy humans we need:
Genuineness
Acceptance (Unconditional Positive Regard)
Empathy

55. Trait Theories of Personality
They believe that we can describe people’s personalities by specifying their main characteristics (traits).
Traits like honestly, laziness, ambition, outgoing are thought to be stable over the course of your lives.
Personality Inventories & Factor Analysis (score clusters) 55

56. Gordon Allport & Cardinal Trait
Cardinal Disposition = 1 dominant trait
Central traits = Makes us predictable in most situations.
Secondary traits = Least important and have less consistent influence on us
Ex: preferences in food and music 56 56

57. Raymond Cattell: Sixteen Trait Theory
16 Source Traits – Core of Personality
Also 46 Surface Traits 57

58. Eysenck’s Personality Table
Hans and Sybil Eysenck
Personality = 2 polar dimensions
Extraversion versus Introversion
Emotional stability versus Instability. 58 58

59. BIG FIVE TRAIT THEORY McCrae & Costa BIG FIVE personality traits:
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness to experience
Neuroticism (Emotional Stability) 59

60. Big 5 Inventory 60 60

61. Be careful of the Barnum Effect!!!
People have the tendency to see themselves in vague, stock descriptions of personality.
Horoscopes, astrologers and psychics all use this concept. 61

62. Trait Theory Criticism
Do NOT take into account the importance of the situation.
Walter Mischel -traits may be enduring, but the resulting behavior in various situations is different.
Person-Situation Controversy 62

63. Assessing Personality
Most common way is self-report inventories.
MMPI - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(most researched & used)
Test must be
Reliable- does it yield the same results over time.
Valid- does it measure what it is supposed to measure. 63

64. Sample MMPI Questions True/ False
1.I like mechanics magazines 2.I have a good appetite 3.I wake up fresh & rested most mornings 4.I think I would like the work of a librarian 5.I am easily awakened by noise 6.I like to read newspaper articles on crime 7.My hands and feet are usually warm enough 8.My daily life is full of things that keep me interested 9.I am about as able to work as I ever was 10.There seems to be a lump in my throat much of the time 11.A person should try to understand his dreams and be guided by or take warning from them 12.I enjoy detective or mystery stories 13.I work under a great deal of tension 14.I have diarrhea once a month or more 15.Once in a while I think of things too bad to talk about 16.I am sure I get a raw deal from life 17.My father was a good man 18.I am very seldom troubled by constipation 19.When I take a new, I like to be tipped off on whom should be gotten next to 20.My sex life is satisfactory 21.At times I have very much wanted to leave home 22.At times I have fits of laughing & crying that I cannot control 23.I am troubled by attacks of nausea and vomiting 24.No one seems to understand me 25.I would like to be a singer 64

65. MMPI Test Profile 65 65

66. Cognitive Theories on Personality
control
Optimism vs Pessimism
Internal Locus of Control versus External Locus of Control
External Locus can lead to a state of learned helplessness (unable to avoid repeated adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness) 66

67. Social-Cognitive Theory on Personality
Focus on how we interact with our culture and environment
Albert Bandura is back!!! (social learning)
Reciprocal Determinism (cognition, environment, and behavior all interact and influence each other.)
Triadic
Reciprocality 67

68. Positive Psychology Martin Seligman
Attempts to foster human fulfillment
Seeks positive subjective well-being, positive character, and positive social groups.
Martin Seligman 68 68