2. Personality
The distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize a person’s responses to life situations.
Study of personality is guided by the psychologist’s perspective, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand how they are all studying the same thing.
It seems hard to believe that all the theorists are talking about the same creature, who is now angelic, and now depraved, now a black-box robot shaped by reinforcers and now a shaper of its own destiny, now devious… and now hardheadedly oriented to solid reality. (Stone and Church, 1968)

3. Evaluating Theories
Truth, in personality studies, is often less important than usefulness.
after all, the study design and results interpretation is itself influenced by the personality of the psychologist
A theory is only useful in so far as it
Provides a comprehensive framework within which known facts can be incorporated
Allows us to predict future events with some precision
Stimulates the discovery of new knowledge

5. Personality Theories Is Human Nature Good or Evil?
Is Man Rational or Irrational?
Is Man’s behavior Determined or Free?
Psychodynamic
Evil
Irrational
Determined
Behavioristic and Social-cognitive
Neutral
Humanisitic
Good
Rational
Free

6. Psychoanalytic Theory

7. Freudian Theory: Psychic Energy
Altruism Principle:
what is best for others?
Reality Principle
what is best for everyone involved?
Pleasure Principle: what is best for me?

8. Ego
“Joe Normal”
SuperEgo
“The Saint” Id
“All About Me!”

9. Freudian Theory: Psychic Energy
Id: Develops first; exists in unconscious mind; wants immediate gratification
Instincts and Energy
Eros: life instincts (sexual desire)
Thanatos: death instincts (aggression)
Libido: energy that directs life instincts
Ego: Develops second; negotiates between the desires of the Id, and the limitations of the environment
Exists in conscious mind and the unconscious mind
Superego: conscience; determines what is right, and what is wrong

10. Freudian Theory
Personality is how we resolve the three psychic energies.
Use of Defense Mechanisms
Essentially set in childhood based on relative success during Psychosexual Stages of development.
Oral (birth-2 years)
Anal (2-3 years)
Phallic (4-5)
Latency (5-12 years) no effect
Genital ( years)

11. Freudian Theory: Development
Abnormal Development:
Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latency
Genital
Normal Development
Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latency
Genital
[Toward Normal Adulthood]
Regression: satisfies earlier stages

12. The Breakup
Muffy, the captain of the high school cheerleading squad, decides to leave her boyfriend of two years, Biff, the star wide receiver of the football team, for Alvin, the star of the school’s chess team.
Needless to say, Biff is devastated, but his ego can choose from a variety of defense mechanisms with which to protect him.

13. Defense Mechanisms I
Acting Out: Reducing anxiety aroused by forbidden desires by permitting their expression
Biff begins serial-dating. (Dating multiple girls at the same time.)
Displacement: Redirecting one’s feelings toward another person or object. Negative emotions are often displaced onto less threatening people.
Biff could displace his feelings of anger onto his little brother, pet hamster, or football.
Projection: Believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself.
Biff insists that Muffy still cares for him.

14. Defense Mechanisms II
Emotional Insulation: Reducing self-involvement by withdrawing into passivity to protect the self from hurt.
Biff stops going out with friends, and begins missing football games to stay at home.
Reaction Formation: Expressing the opposite of how one truly feels.
Biff claims he loathes Muffy.
Regression: Returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior.
Biff begins sleeping with his favorite childhood stuffed animal, “Mr. Fuzzy”
Rationalization: Coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable occurrence.
Biff believes that he can now find a better girlfriend, after all, Muffy isn’t really that pretty/smart/fun to be with.

15. Defense Mechanisms III
Repression: Blocking thoughts out from conscious awareness.
When asked how he feels about the breakup, Biff replies, “Who? Oh, yeah, I haven’t thought about her in a while.”
Denial: Not accepting the ego-threatening truth.
Biff continues to act as if he and Muffy are together. He waits by her locker, calls her, and plans their future dates.
Intellectualism: Undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic.
Biff embarks on an in-depth research project about failed teen romances.
Sublimation: Channeling one’s frustration toward a different goal.
Biff devotes himself to writing poetry and publishes a small volume before he graduates high school.

16. Psychodynamic Theory: Neofreudians
Carl Jung: Believed Unconscious consisted of two parts
Personal: painful/threatening memories that are repressed (complexes)
Collective: archetypes passed down through the species, explaining similarities between cultures
Ex: universal fear of the dark; importance of the circle
Alfred Adler: focused on the conscious role of the ego, believed people were motivated by two things:
Inferiority: fear of failure
Superiority: desire to achieve
Also, first to research the importance of birth order on personality and development.

17. Activity! Woo!

18. Humanistic Psychology

19. Humanistic Psychology: Basic Principles
Man operates on the assumption that he has some measure of control over his destiny.
Man is capable of both good and evil, rational and irrational, active and reactive behaviors. These qualities are opposites on a continuum, allowing man to retain the possibility of reaching both.
Individuality is paramount!!
“Each individual, by virtue of his great potential for learning and his own particular background of experience, is unique.”
Focus:
Values
Personal Growth
Fulfillment of Potential
Motivation: Self-Actualization
Mental Illness: caused by a disparity between one’s perceived self and environment, and one’s image of the “ideal-self” and “ideal environment”
BAD GOOD

20. Humanistic Psychology: Carl Rogers
Each individual exists in a private world of experience of which he—the I, me, or myself—is the center.
The most basic striving of the individual is toward the maintenance, enhancement, and actualization of the ‘self’ (Freud’s ‘ego’)
The individual reacts to situations in terms of his unique perceptions of himself and his world—he reacts to reality as he perceives it and in ways consistent with his self-concept.
Perceived threat to the self is followed by defense—including the narrowing and rigidification of perception and coping behaviors/defense mechanisms.
The individual’s inner tendencies are toward health and wholeness, and under normal conditions he behaves in rational and constructive ways, and chooses pathways toward personal growth and self-actualization.

21. Carl Rogers: Positive Regard
We All Need Somebody… to like us!
Unconditional Positive Regard
Typically between parent and child, necessary for the child to learn that he or she is worthy of being loved
Conditional Positive Regard
Dependent on how the child behaves; usually not given exclusively- can lead to resentment and fluctuating self-esteem
Positive Self-Regard
Desire to feel good about ourselves- fueled by Unconditional Positive Regard, hampered by conditions of worth
Self-Verification: need to confirm your self-concept
Self-enhancement: need to gain and preserve a positive self-image
Strategies found across cultures
Example:
I succeed: this is due to my awesome skill and intelligence!
I fail: I just didn’t get enough sleep/time/help from others.

22. Humanistic Psychology: Abraham Maslow
Realizing one’s full potential
Respecting oneself; Feeling Pride
Belonging, Friendship, closeness
Shelter, Feeling free from danger
Food, etc.

23. George Kelly: Personal Construct Theory
Primary focus: how people construct reality
Personal constructs determine personalities and can be used to predict behavior as they dictate how a person sees the world.
Examples: a couple breaks up: different people react differently, reactions/explanations include:
“simple incompatibility”
One was “jilted” by the other
Broke up because of “outside factors”
“a blessing in disguise”
“Terrible tragedy”

24. George Kelly: Personal Construct Theory
Therapy: understanding how a person views the world can help a therapist guide the patient to a new type of understanding.
Constructions are hypotheses, not facts!
Fixed-role therapy: within a therapy setting, patients are asked to follow a role description that is different from their preconceived self-concept

25. Rogers’ Person-Centered Approach
Take a sheet of paper, write your name on the “back.”
Fold the sheet of paper in half.
Label the left side “Perceived Self”
Perceived Self

26. Roger’s Person-Centered Approach
Label the right side of the page “Ideal Self”
It’s Fantasy Time! Describe who you would like to be.
Activity Wrap-up:
Did anyone put the same thing on both sides? A fully functioning, self-actualized person would have raised their hand.
Why doesn’t the overlap occur?

27. Rogers and Maslow Experience Self Concept Self Concept Experience

29. End of Part I: Psychodynamic and Humanistic
STOP!

30. Trait Theories

31. Trait Theories
Operate on the principle that we can describe people’s personalities by specifying their main characteristics or traits.
Are more concerned with describing behavior/personality than with explaining it.
Traits are stable, and motivate behavior in keeping with the trait.
Ex. A ‘friendly’ person acts in a friendly manner across different situations and times.

32. Trait Theories Founding Ideas:
Hans Eyesenck: introversion/extroversion theory
Raymond Cattell: Personality Factor test (16 traits)
Current Interpretations:
Factor Analysis, the “Big 5:” sliding scales of personality concerned with:
extraversion,
agreeableness,
conscientiousness,
openness to experience,
emotional stability
Idiographic theory: having one set of terms for all people is impossible. Look at each person’s best few traits instead.

33. Trait Theories
Gordon Allport: believed common traits were useful, but a full understanding of someone’s personality requires looking at three different types of personal traits.
Cardinal Dispositions: a single trait that is so influencing in some people, that they play a pivotal role in virtually everything they do
Central Dispositions: traits that have a broader, but vital role in a person’s personality
Secondary Dispositions: traits that have a limited, but important influence on a personality

34. Biological Personality Theory
Genes, chemicals, and body types determine who a person is.
Evidence points to genetic influence on temperament, but not hereditability of personality

35. Biological Personality Theory
Tellegen’s twin study: compared four groups of twin pairs on 14 different personality traits
Personality variation attributable to genetic, familial environment, and unique environment was calculated for each personality characteristic.
Genetic factors: 40-50%
Familial Environment: ~10%
Unique Environment: 40-50%

36. Introversion and Extraversion
Eysenck (from Trait theory): Two-dimensional theory using brain function to explain personality traits
Customary Arousal:
introverts are chronically overaroused (too electrically active)
Extraverts are chronically underaroused
Shifts in Arousal:
Stability/Instability: greater the instability, the more likely a person is to experience emotional problems or disorders

37. Eysenck’s Model

38. Eysenck
Research is proving his point: twin studies and brain mapping establishing that brain activation patterns are linked to introversion/extraversion, and temperament as well
Neural bases, however, go beyond Eysenck’s theory to include brain structures
Amygdala: linked to flight/fight response, hormonal controls, and to temperament, specifically inhibition
Temperament: individual differences in emotional and behavioral style
Twin studies: more highly correlated in identical twins than fraternal, suggesting a genetic link

39. Behaviorist Theories

40. Social-Learning Theory
Meld behaviorist theory and cognitive psychologists’ theories.
Albert Bandura: personality created by an interaction between the person (traits), the environment, and the person’s behavior.
Triadic reciprocality: (reciprocal determinism) each of the factors influences the others
Self-efficacy (level of optimism about one’s abilities) has a powerful effect on a person’s actions.

41. Social-Cognitive Theory
George Kelly: personal-construct theory
In their attempts to understand the world, people develop their own, individual systems of personal constructs
Constructs consists of pairs of opposites (fair-unfair, smart-dumb, exciting-dull)
Fundamental postulate: behavior is influenced by cognition; knowing how people have behaved in the past, we can predict their future actions

42. Social-Cognitive Theories
Julian Rotter: a person can be described as having either an internal or external locus of control
Internal: people feel that they are in control of what happens to them
External: people believe that luck and outside forces control their destiny

43. Family Characteristics, Child-rearing Practices
Cultural Influences
History of prejudice and oppression Cultural Values about:
Poverty achievement
Language and Art human nature
Sociopolitical Background social relations
Child-Rearing Beliefs individuality
Social Environment/
Community Influences
Family Characteristics,
Child-rearing Practices

44. Activity: Wall Chart Draw the following on the provided paper.
Fill in the blanks!
Psychodynamic
Humanistic
Biological/ Trait
Behavioral/ Social Cognitive
Major Focus
DNA; Hormones; biological factors
Major Theorists
Rogers; Kelly; Maslow
Watson; Skinner; Bandua; Rotter; Mischel
Background of Theorist
Freud: MD (neurology); Jung: psychiatry
Type of Therapy
Person-centered; non-directive
Length of Therapy
Managing medication
Short term
Terms associated with perspective
Free association

45. Assessing Personality
Interviews
Pro: personal contact
Con: Interviewer may influence responses
Reports (by others)
Personality Scales
Pro: objective
Con: people lie
Behavioral Assessment
Pro: objectivity, consistency
Con: difficult to train
Remote Behavior Sampling
Pro: can collect long-term patterns of behavior
Responses on Projective Tests (Rorschach)
Pro: no prompting
Con: little uniformity in scoring

46. Rorschach Tests

47. You absolutely NEED your laptop next class period!
STOP!
End of Part II: Behaviorist and Trait Theories

48. Personality Scales
Human Metrics’ Typology Test: A short-form Myers-Briggs/ Jung Personality Test
Go there!
Take the Assessment!
How accurate do you think it is?

49. Personality Glogster
Create a Glogster which represents your personality type using words, images, charts, poems, etc.
Personality types: ENTP; ISFJ; ISFJ; ENFP; INTJ, etc.
You may want to go back and review the Kiersey personality description that you received after you took the assessment:
Select your ‘type’ from the list on the far right.