1. Personality

2. Characteristic patterns of emotional responses, thoughts, and behaviors that are relatively stable over time and across situations. Need to consider enduring aspects of behavior… “not one time at bat in baseball but the season’s hitting average, not a evening’s flirtation or adventure but marriage or an enduring relationship.” (A. H. Buss, 1989, University of Texas) Thinking Feeling Behaving

3. Allport Personality is… The dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought

4. More Freud…

5. Personality Development Psychosexual stages of development StagesPhysical focus Psychological themeAdult character Oral stage: Birth - 18 mos. Mouth, sucking dependencyDependent/ independent Anal Stage: 18 mos. - 3.5 yrs Anus (elimination) self-controlUptight vs impulsive Phallic Stage: 3.5 - 6 yrs. Penis morality and sexuality identification Amoral vs very rigid morals Latency Stage: 6 yrs. to puberty Period of relative calm Genital stage: post puberty Genitals Maturity and creation/enhancement of life Balance of love and work

6. Defense Mechanisms

7.  Regression  defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

8.  Reaction Formation  defense mechanism in which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites  people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings

9.  Projection  defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others  Rationalization  defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions

10.  Displacement  defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward another object or person  Sublimation  Channeling unacceptable impulses into constructive behaviors

11. Skinner’s view of personality Skinner showed us that reinforcement contingencies could influence behavior. In fact, Skinner thought personality was essentially the product of a person’s history of reinforcement

12. Humanistic Perspective  Carl Rogers (1902-1987)  focused on growth and fulfillment of individuals  genuineness  acceptance  empathy

13. I love you IF… Carl Rogers’ Personality Theory Love the sinner, hate the sin

14. Traits Gordon Allport wrote the influential book, “Personality” in 1937. He developed his ideas about “traits” viewing these as the basic structural elements of personality. Traits were defined as a predisposition to respond in a particular way to a broad range of situations. So an even-tempered person remains calm across a broad range of situations. The situations or stimuli are rendered “functionally equivalent” - opportunities to exercise restraint. Each person has a certain expressive and adaptive style that they bring to the situation.

15. Big 5 personality test

16. Extroversion Extroverted people Energetic Enthusiastic Dominant Sociable Talkative Introverted people Shy Retiring Submissive Quiet

17. Agreeableness High Agreeableness Friendly Cooperative Trusting Warm Low Agreeableness Cold Quarrelsome

18. Conscientiousness Conscientious Cautious Dependable Organized Responsible Impulsive Careless Disorderly Undependable

19. Neuroticism Emotionally unstable Nervous High-strung Tense Worrying Emotionally stable Calm Contented

20. Openness High on Openness Imaginative Witty Original Artistic Low on Openness Down to earth Conventional Conformist Simple

21. Big Five personality dimensions Openness to Experience (intellect, imagination, curiosity, creativity) Conscientiousness (order, duty, deliberation, self-discipline) Extraversion (sociability, assertiveness, activity, positive emotions) Agreeableness (trust, nurturance, kindness, cooperation) Neuroticism (anxiety, depression, moodiness,vulnerability to stress)

22. Type and Trait Approaches Describe Behavioral Dispositions “Personality Types” are discrete categories into which we place people Personality “traits” are dispositional: they predispose persons to behave, think, and feel in enduring patterns across situations Type and trait approaches describe but do not explain patterns

23. Personality Reflects Learning and Cognitive Processes Cognitive perspectives include: –Personal constructs: –Expectancies and value: – Beliefs in “locus of control”

24. Personality Refers to Both Unique and Common Characteristics Gordon Allport distinguished two approaches: –Idiographic approaches are “person centered” –Nomothetic approaches examine characteristics common to all persons, but on which people vary, and focus on differences between persons

25. We Can Use Objective and Projective Methods to Assess Personality Assessment methods often vary with theoretical preferences –Psychodynamic theorists like projective methods more than Trait theorists, who use objective methods Objective methods use self-reports Projective methods purport to tap the unconscious using ambiguous stimuli

26. Assessing the Unconscious

27. Thematic Apperception Test Projective Test –Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) –Based on Freud’s defense mechanisms (repression, projection)

28. Animals do have personality & it can be assessed

30. Personality Is Rooted in Genetics Adoption Studies show: –Adopted siblings are no more alike in personality than randomly selected persons are –Personalities of adopted children are largely unrelated to their adoptive parents Are there specific genes for personality?

31. Personality Is Rooted in Genetics: Twin Studies

32. Cortical Arousal Differences Eysenck (1967) –He suggests that the difference between introverts and extroverts depends on the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) Causes introverts to be “stimulus shy” Causes extroverts to be “stimulus hungry”

33. Eysenck Arousal Explanation Performance Arousal LowModerateHigh Low IntrovertsExtraverts

34. Why are there personality differences? Should natural selection make people more similar? –Random variation Frequency dependent selection –Inheritance of alternative strategies Group selection?

35. Personality Test http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/i pipneo300.htm