1. CHAPTER 11 SELF AND PERSONALITY

2. Learning Objectives
How is the personality typically defined, and what are the five principles of defining personality?
How do psychoanalytic, trait, and social learning theories explain personality development?

3. Personality
An organized combination of attributes, motives, values, and behaviors
Patterns of traits
Unique to each individual
Consistent across situations and time
Self-Concept: Perceptions
Self Esteem: Evaluation
Identity: Overall sense of who you are

4. McAdams and Pals (2006) Five Principles
Personality shaped by evolution for adaptation to environment
People differ in dispositional traits
People differ in characteristic adaptations
Each has a unique life story
Cultural and situational influences ever present

5. Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud
Three parts of the personality
Selfish Id; Rational Ego; Moralist Superego
Stages of psychosexual development
Biological: ends at sexual maturity
Personality formed in first 5 years
Childhood anxieties become adult traits

6. Psychoanalytic Theory: Erik Erikson
Emphasized
Social influences
Rational ego
Life-span development
Crisis-Oriented Stages Result From:
Maturational forces
Social demands

8. Trait Theory
Psychometric Approach
Personality: a set of traits
Individual differences in each trait
Measurement approach
“Big Five” - Universal and stable
Evidence of genetic basis
Universal

10. Social Learning Theory
Personality: A set of behavior tendencies
Shaped by interactions
Found in specific social situations
No universal stages
Not enduring traits
People change as environment changes
Situational influences important
E.g., cheating

12. Learning Objectives
How does self-concept emerge during infancy and how does it change across the life span?
How has infant temperament been categorized?
How do these temperament styles interact with caregiver characteristics?
How does temperament relate to later personality?

13. Infancy:The Emerging Self
First 6 months: Discover physical self
Joint attention at about 9 mo
Difference in perceptions can be shared
Self-recognition about 18 months
Categorical self (age, sex): 18 – 24 months
Based on cognitive development
Requires Social Experience
The looking-glass self: a “reflection”

15. Temperament
Seen in infancy
Genetically based
Tendencies to respond in predictable ways
Building blocks of personality
Goodness of Fit (Thomas & Chess)
Parenting techniques
Learning to interpret cues
Sensitive responding

16. Leaning Objectives
What changes occur in the development of children’s self-esteem?
What factors influence self-esteem?
How does personality evolve over childhood and what do children understand of their personality?

17. Changes in Self-Concept: age 8
Include psychological, social qualities
Previously used only physical traits
Increased Use of:
Social comparison, multidimensionality
Hierarchy with self-worth on top
More accurate self evaluations
Widening gap between ideal-self and real-self

18. Contributions to Higher Self-Esteem
Competence!
Positive social feedback
Warm democratic parents
Social comparisons that are positive
Some temperament traits established
Will develop into adult traits

19. Learning Objectives
How do adolescents conceptualize their selves, including self-esteem and personality?
What factors influence the development of identity during adolescence?
How do adolescents make vocational choices and how does work affect adolescents’ identities?

20. The Adolescent
Increased awareness of psychological and abstract traits
Self-concept more integrated
Self-esteem dips temporarily, rebounds
Erikson’s Stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion
“Who Am I?”
Can last as long as into early 30s

21. Marcia’s Ego Identity Statuses
Diffusion: “Hey wait a minute – they didn’t know everything. Maybe I’m not who they said I was.” (No crisis. No commitment)
Foreclosure: “I’ll be a (Catholic, Democrat, doctor, etc.) because that’s what they told me was right.” (Commitment without crisis)
Moratorium: “Who am I? What is right? Who will I become?” (Crisis, no commitment)
Identity Achieved: “I can make my own life choices.” (Commitment, evolved from crisis)

22. The Four Identity Statuses as They Apply to Religious Identity

23. Identity Achievement
Ethnic Identity begins in infancy
Vocational Identity - increasingly realistic
“Goodness of fit” becomes useful
Influential Factors
Cognitive development
Openness to experience trait
Warm, democratic parenting
Culture that encourages exploration

24. Learning Objectives
How does personality change during adulthood?
Why do people change or remain the same?
How does culture influence personality

25. Self-Concept and Adulthood
Stable Self-Esteem
Generally good
Ability to adjust ideal to real self
Evaluate self with different standards
Comparisons with age-mates
Related to stable personality traits
Losses in self-esteem in later old age

26. Changes in Personality
Cross-sectional studies show more changes
Longitudinal, Cross-Cultural Studies
Adulthood: achievement and confidence
Older adults
Decrease: activity level, openness to experience
Increase: introversion, emotional stability, conscientiousness

27. Influences on Personality Change
Heredity
Earlier experiences
Stability of environment
Biological factors (e.g., disease)
Poor person-environment fit

28. Learning Objectives
What is the focus of each of Erikson’s psychosocial stages?
What factors can influence how each crisis is resolved?

29. Adulthood – Erikson and Research
Identity provides for intimacy in young adulthood
More traditional women solve identity crisis after intimacy (marriage, children)
Midlife generativity supported
“Midlife crisis” not supported
Integrity in old age supported
Includes life review
Life Stories: narrative identity approach

30. Learning Objectives
How do career paths change during adulthood?
How do adults cope with age-related changes that affect their working selves?
How are older adults influenced by retirement?
How can we characterize successful aging?

31. Vocational Development
Young adults: Career exploration
Thirties: Settling down
Forties & Fifties: Career peaks
Older Workers
Competent, satisfied, and positive
Selective optimization with compensation

32. Retirement
Average age 63
Adjustment phases
Success Factors:
Person-environment fit
Selective optimization with compensation
Disengagement versus Activity Theory
Support for activity theory