1. Chapter 12
Personality

2. Chapter Preview Psychodynamic Perspectives Humanistic Perspectives
Trait Perspectives
Personological and Life Story Perspectives
Social Cognitive Perspectives
Biological Perspectives
Personality Assessment
Personality and Health and Wellness

3. Personality …a pattern of enduring distinctive thoughts,
emotions, and behaviors that characterize the
way an individual adapts to the world

4. Psychodynamic Perspectives
personality is primarily unconscious
understanding personality involves exploring the symbolic meanings of behavior and the unconscious mind
early childhood experiences sculpt the individual’s personality

5. Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud and Psychoanalysis
sex drive – main determinant of personality development
Hysteria
physical symptoms without physical cause
overdetermined – multiple unconscious causes
Iceberg Analogy of Human Personality

6. Personality StructureId
instincts and reservoir of psychic energy
pleasure principle
Ego
deals with the demands of reality
reality principle
Superego
moral branch of personality; “conscience”

7. Personality Structure

8. Defense Mechanisms
conflict between the id, ego, and superego results in anxiety
defense mechanisms reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality – not necessarily unhealthy
repression
foundation for all defense mechanisms
push unacceptable impulses out of awareness

9. Defense Mechanisms repression rationalization displacement sublimation
projection
reaction formation
denial
regression

10. Defense Mechanisms

11. Defense Mechanisms

12. Psychosexual Stages Oral Stage: 0-18 Months Anal Stage: 18-36 Months
infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth
Anal Stage: Months
child’s pleasure involves eliminative functions
Phallic Stage: 3-6 Years
child’s pleasure focuses on the genitals
Oedipal complex
castration anxiety

13. Phallic Stage Pleasure focuses on genitals Oedipus Complex
discovery that self-stimulation is enjoyable
Oedipus Complex
boy’s intense desire to replace father and enjoy affections of mother
castration Anxiety
boy’s intense fear of being mutilated by father
identifying with father and adopting male gender role to reduce conflict, as foundation for superego
without experience of castration anxiety, girls cannot develop superego like boys

14. Psychosexual Stages (cont’d)
Latency Stage: 6 Years - Puberty
psychic “time-out”
interest in sexuality is repressed
Genital Stage: Adolescence and Adulthood
sexual reawakening
source of sexual pleasure is someone else
Fixation - remain locked in particular developmental
stage (e.g., anal retentive)

15. Psychosexual Stages

16. Dissenters and Revisionists
sexuality – not pervasive force behind personality
early experience –not as powerful as Freud thought
importance of conscious thought
sociocultural influences

17. Dissenters and Revisionists
Horney’s Sociocultural Approach
both sexes envy the attributes of the other
need for security, not sex, is primary motivator
Jung’s Analytical Theory
collective unconscious and archetypes
Adler’s Individual Psychology
perfection, not pleasure, is key motivator

18. Evaluating Psychodynamic Theory
Criticisms
too much emphasis on early experiences
too much faith in unconscious mind’s control
too much emphasis on sexual instincts
theory can not be tested
Contributions
importance of childhood experiences
development proceeds in stages
role of unconscious processes

19. Humanistic Perspectives
…emphasis on a person’s capacity for
personal growth and positive human
qualities

20. Humanistic Perspectives
Abraham Maslow
third force psychology
self-actualization
peak experiences
biased since focus was on highly successful individuals

21. Humanistic Perspectives
Carl Rogers
personal growth and self-determination
unconditional positive regard
- conditions of worth
- self-concept
empathy
genuineness

22. Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives
Contributions
self-perception is key to personality
consider the positive aspects of human nature
emphasize conscious experience
Criticisms
too optimistic about human nature
promotes self-love and narcissism

23. Trait Perspectives Trait Trait Theories
an enduring disposition that leads to characteristic responses
traits are the building blocks of personality
Trait Theories
people can be described by their typical behavior
strong versus weak tendencies

24. Trait Perspectives Gordon Allport W. T. Norman
personality understood through traits
behavior consistent across situations
lexical approach  4500 traits
W. T. Norman
five factor model
broad traits – main dimensions of personality

25. Five Factor Model of Personality

26. Evaluating Trait Perspectives
Contributions
traits influence health, cognitions, career success, and interpersonal relations
Criticisms
ignores the role of the situation in behavior
ignores nuances of an individual’s personality

27. Personological Perspectives
…focusing on an individual’s
life history or life story
Henry Murray
personology: the study of the whole person
motives are largely unconscious
thematic apperception test (TAT)
- need for achievement, affiliation, and power

28. Life Story Approach Dan McAdams our life story is our identity
intimacy motivation
Psychobiography
applying personality theory to one person’s life

29. Evaluating Life Story Approach
Contributions
rich record of an individual’s experience
Criticisms
difficult and time-consuming
- extensive coding and content analysis
prone to bias
not easily generalized

30. Social Cognitive Perspectives
emphasize conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations, and goals
incorporates principles from behaviorism when exploring:
- reasoning
- beliefs
- self reflection
- interpretation of situation

31. Social Cognitive Perspectives
Albert Bandura
reciprocal determinism
- behavior, environment, and cognitive
factors interact to create personality
Key Processes and Variables
observational learning
personal control
self-efficacy

32. Reciprocal Determinism

33. Social Cognitive Perspectives
Walter Mischel
Situationalism
- behavior and personality vary considerably across context
CAPS Model of Personality
- stability over time rather than across situations
- interconnections among cognitions and emotions affect our behavior

34. Evaluating Social Cognitive Theory
Contributions
focuses on interactions of individuals with their environments
suggests people can control their environment
Criticisms
too concerned with change and the situation
ignores the role of biology
very specific predictions hinder generalization

35. Biological Perspectives
Personality and the Brain
brain damage alters personality
brain responses correlate with personality
Eysenk’s Reticular Activation System Theory
extraverts and introverts have different base-line levels of arousal
Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory
behavioral activation system and behavioral inhibition system

36. Eysenck’s RAS Theory Reticular Activating System (RAS)
Located in brain stem
Plays role in wakefulness or arousal
Eysenck’s Theory
All share optimal arousal level
RAS of extraverts and introverts may differ in baseline levels of arousal, with behaviors aimed at regulating arousal around these baselines
But introverts may just be more sensitive to stimuli

37. Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity
Behavioral approach system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) underlie personality
Differences in sensitivity to rewards and punishers
BAS
Sensitive to rewards
Predisposition to positive emotion
Underlies extraversion
BIS
Sensitive to punishers
Predisposition to fear
Underlies neuroticism

38. Biological Perspectives
Role of Neurotransmitters
growth of dopamine receptors stimulated by warm care-givers
disposes person to reward-sensitivity (extraversion)
less serotonin in circulation leads to negative mood (neuroticism) 38

39. Biological Perspectives
Behavioral Genetics
twin studies reveal substantial genetic influence on Big Five traits
most traits influenced by multiple genes
Evaluating the Biological Perspective
ties personality to animal learning, brain imaging, and evolutionary theory
criticisms (e.g., biology may be the effect, not the cause, of personality) 39

40. Personality Assessment
Self-Report Tests
beware social desirability
empirically-keyed tests used to get around social desirability problem
- test takers do not know what is being measured
- test items not related to purpose of test
- MMPI is an example 40

41. Personality Assessment
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
567 items
controls for social desirability
assesses mental health and used to make hiring decisions and to determine criminal risk
Neuroticism Extraversion Openness
Personality Inventory-Revised
assesses the big five factors and 6 subdimensions

42. Personality Assessment
Myers Briggs Type Indicator
four dimensions used to make personnel decisions:
- extraversion-introversion
- sensing-intuiting
- thinking-feeling
- judgment-perception
not empirically supported
Barnum effect

43. Personality Assessment
Projective Tests
…psychodynamic approach
…project own meaning on ambiguous stimuli
Rorschach inkblot test
personality score based on description of inkblots
questionable reliability and validity
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
series of ambiguous pictures viewed one at a time
elicited stories reveal an individual’s personality 43

44. Rorschach Inkblot Test

45. Thematic Apperception Test

46. Other Assessment Methods
direct behavioral observation
cognitive assessment of attention and memory
peer ratings
psychophysiological measures (e.g., polygraph)
brain imaging