1. Exploring the Self

2. Self-Esteem - The correlation problem
High Self Esteem
Self- Credit
Positive
Expectations
Success
High Effort

3. Self-serving Bias – a readiness to perceive oneself favorably.
internalize (dispositional factors) for successes than for failures.
Tendency to see ourselves as better than average.
Less susceptible to
Depression.
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4. Down side of the self—serving bias.
Increased blaming of victims
prejudice (racism, sexism, homophobia).
bullying and aggression
decreased empathy
Narcissism – excessive self-love and self- absorption.

5. Theory Based Personality Tests Carl Jung believed that
personalities can be defined
according to Archetypes.
Myers-Briggs (MBTI)
Test designed to measure these
Personality traits.
The validity of Jung’s archetypes makes the usefulness of the MBTI suspect.
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6. Trait Theories
Attempt to measure and define enduring aspects of a person’s personality.
State vs. Trait
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7. Personality Dimensions
Definable characteristics which distinguish meaningful differences between people.
Eysenck Model
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8. Cattell’s 16 Factor Model
Personal Adjectives – words used to describe people’s personalities. English ~ 18,000 words!
Factor analysis statistical method which looks at which ratings go together.
Cattell’s 16 Factor Model
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9. 1. reserved, unsociable outgoing, sociable
2.  less intelligent, concrete more intelligent, abstract
3.  affected by feelings emotionally stable
4.  submissive, humble dominant, assertive
5.  serious happy go lucky
6.  expedient conscientious
7.  timid venturesome
8.  tough minded sensitive
9.  trusting suspicious
10.      practical imaginative
forthright shrewd, calculating
12.      self assured apprehensive
13.      conservative experimenting
14.      group dependent self sufficient
15.      undisciplined controlled
16.      relaxed tense
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10. Assessing Personality: Self-Report Inventories
self-report inventories – Psychological tests in which a person’s responses to standard questions are compared to established norms.
After you review the example questions, quick to show the results for “airline pilots” and “writers” to reveal the inventory results.
The sample is from the 16PF, a self-report inventory created by Raymond Cattell based on his framework of 16 personality factors. The most widely used self-report inventory is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Students are likely familiar with self-report inventories of some kind.
Self-report inventories use standardized question-and-answer or true-false formats, and they’re objectively scored with comparisons to norms.
While the reliability and validity of self-report inventories are far greater than those of projective tests, weaknesses of self-report inventories include the tendency of people to respond in socially desirable ways, the phenomenon of test-takers answering in a specific style, such as always choosing the first alternative, and also the fact that people are not always the best and most accurate judges of their own behavior, attitudes, and attributes.
APA Learning Goal 1: Knowledge Base of Psychology

11. The Big Five Central Personality Traits. 1) Extroversion/Introversion
2) Agreeableness/Antagonism
3) Conscientiousness/Undirectedness
4) Emotional Stability/Unstable (Neuroticism)
5) Openness/Non-openness
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12. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Empirically Derived.
Items on the Inventory are ones that research studies have shown differentiate people with known diagnoses from normal controls.
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13. Can you lie on a Personality test? “Lie Scales”
- detect faking good or bad.
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14. Criticisms of Trait Theories - largely descriptive
- emphasis on biology
- how many central factors?
Current Influences
1) personality traits are relatively stable.
2) personality tests used for diagnosis of
mental disorders
- job suitability?
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15. Emotions and Behaviors
Eclectic View - Mix of all the theories
Biology Environment
Cognition
Emotions and Behaviors
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