Human Adjustment
John W. Santrock
Chapter 2:
Personality
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What Is Personality?
Personality = pattern of enduring and distinctive
thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize
how an individual adapts to the world
 Theoretical perspectives on personality:
– psychodynamic
– behavioral and social cognitive
– humanistic
– trait
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What Is Personality?
 Four important questions about personality:
– What role do innate and learned characteristics play in
personality?
– To what extent is personality conscious or unconscious?
– How influential are internal or external factors in determining
personality?
– What characterizes a well-adjusted personality?
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Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory
 Psychodynamic Perspectives - view personality as
being primarily unconscious and as developing in
stages
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Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
 Sigmund Freud
– born in Austria in 1856 / died in England in 1939
– spent most of life in Vienna
– became medical doctor specializing in neurology
– developed psychoanalytic theory through work with
psychiatric patients
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Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
 Freud believed most of the mind is unconscious
 Freud’s psychoanalytic theory stated that personality
has three structures:
– id - pleasure (sexual and aggressive instincts)
– ego - reality (deals with demands of reality)
– superego - conscience (morality)
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Defense Mechanisms
 When ego blocks pleasurable pursuits of id, person
feels anxiety
Defense mechanisms = ego’s protective
methods for reducing anxiety by unconsciously
distorting reality
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Defense Mechanisms
 Defense mechanisms include:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
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repression
rationalization
displacement
sublimation
projection
reaction formation
denial
regression
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Freud’s Theory of Personality Development
 Freud was convinced that problems develop because
of early childhood experiences
 Freud proposed 5 stages of personality development:
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–
–
–
–
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oral
anal
phallic
latency
genital
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Freud’s Theory of Personality Development
 Freud claimed that at each stage, demands of reality
conflict with source of pleasure
 Adult personality depends on how person deals with
the conflict
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Psychodynamic Revisionists
 Criticisms of Freud:
– too much emphasis on sexuality
– first 5 years are not as important
– ego and conscious thought more important
– sociocultural factors more important
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Horney’s Sociocultural Theory
 Karen Horney (1885–1952)
– developed first feminist criticism of Freud’s theory
 Need for security is most important human motive
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Horney’s Sociocultural Theory
 People develop strategies to cope with anxiety:
– move toward people, seeking love and support
– move away from people, becoming more independent
– move against people, being competitive and domineering
 The secure person uses these ways of coping in
moderation
 The insecure person uses one or more strategies in
exaggerated fashion
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Jung’s Analytical Theory
 Carl Jung (1875–1961)
– thought Freud underplayed unconscious mind
 Collective unconscious - impersonal, deepest layer
of unconscious mind, shared by all human beings
 Archetypes - emotionally-laden ideas and images in
collective unconscious that have meaning for all
people
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Adler’s Individual Psychology
 Alfred Adler (1870–1937)
– People strive toward creating own goals
– Emphasis on social motivation
– Everyone strives for superiority
 Compensation - individual attempts to overcome
inferiorities or weaknesses by developing own abilities
 Overcompensation - individual exaggerates to
conceal a weakness
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Adjustment Strategies Based on
Psychodynamic Approaches
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1. Think about your experiences as a child and now.
2. Recognize you have unconscious feelings, drives,
and desires.
3. Examine your thoughts, feelings, and behavior to
determine extent you are using defense mechanisms.
4. Evaluate extent to which security needs are met.
5. Examine feelings of superiority or inferiority and
discover areas of life in which you can excel.
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Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspectives
 Psychodynamic perspectives:
– view personality as primarily unconscious
– stress that personality develops in stages
– emphasize the role of the individual’s past experiences
– emphasize mental representation and transformation of
experience
– emphasize the influence of conflict on personality
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Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning = learning process in
which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with
meaningful stimulus and acquires capacity to elicit a
response similar to response to meaningful stimulus
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Classical Conditioning
 Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1906) argued
classical conditioning consists of:
– conditioned stimulus
– conditioned response
 Learning (Conditioning) Paradigm
– Neutral + UCR UCR
– CS
CR
 Classical conditioning has been applied to
understanding fear
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Figure 2.6 Classical Conditioning: Boss’s
Criticism and High Blood Pressure
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Skinner’s Behaviorism
 B. F. Skinner (1938–1990) argued that our actions on
the environment have consequences that shape our
behavior
Operant conditioning = learning process that occurs
when consequences of the behavior change the
probability of the behavior’s occurrence
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Reinforcement and Extinction
Reinforcement = process by which a stimulus or event
that follows a behavior increases probability that the
behavior will occur again
 Positive reinforcement - frequency of behavior
increases because it is followed by rewarding stimulus
 Negative reinforcement - frequency of behavior
increases because it is followed by removal of an
aversive stimulus
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Reinforcement and Extinction
 Extinction - frequency of a previously reinforced
behavior that is no longer reinforced decreases
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Punishment
 Punishment decreases likelihood that a behavior
will occur
 Positive punishment - behavior
decreases when followed by
unpleasant stimulus
 Negative punishment - behavior
decreases when positive stimulus
is removed
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Positive and Negative Reinforcement, Positive
and Negative Punishment
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Applying Skinner’s Approach to Personality
 Skinner’s behaviorism emphasizes that cognition is
unimportant in personality
 Personality is observable behavior, which is influenced
by rewards and punishments in the environment
 In the behavioral view, personality often varies
according to the situation
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Social Cognitive Theory
 Social cognitive theory was first proposed by Albert
Bandura and Walter Mischel
 Social cognitive theory states that behavior,
environment, and cognitive factors are important in
understanding personality
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Observational Learning
Observational learning (imitation or modeling) = learning
that occurs when a person observes and imitates
someone else’s behavior
 Bandura (1986) identified four main processes:
–
–
–
–
retention
production
attention
reinforcement
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Observational Learning
 Bandura’s 1965 classic study - children who had seen
a model punished for aggression only showed the
model’s aggression when offered a reward
 Reciprocal determination - Bandura’s view that
behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors
interact to create personality
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Personal Control
 Social cognitive theorists emphasize that adjustment
can be measured by people’s belief in their capacity to
exercise some control over their own functioning and
over environmental events
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Personal Control
 Three aspects of personal control:
– delay of gratification - deferring immediate gratification to
obtain desirable future outcome
– self-efficacy - belief that one can master a situation and
produce positive outcomes
– locus of control - belief that the outcomes of people’s
actions depend on what they do (internal locus) or on
events outside of their personal control (external locus)
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Personal Control - Self-Efficacy
 Self-efficacy is related to positive developments in
people’s lives
– Self-efficacy helps people in unsatisfactory situations by
encouraging them to believe that they can succeed
 Having an internal locus of control is associated with
positive functioning and adjustment
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Adjustment Strategies
For Increasing Your Self-Efficacy
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1. Select something you expect to be able to do, not
something you expect to fail at accomplishing
2. Distinguish between past performance and your
present project
3. Pay close attention to your successes
4. Keep written records so that you will be concretely
aware of your successes
5. List the specific kinds of situations in which you
expect to have the most difficulty and the least difficulty
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Adjustment Strategies Based on Behavior
and Social Cognitive Perspectives
1. Recognize extent to which reinforcement and
punishment influence your behavior
2. Examine extent to which you use reinforcement and
punishment when interacting with others
3. Use your ability to learn through observation
4. Consider obtaining a mentor
5. Evaluate how good you are at delaying gratification
6. Examine whether you have an internal or an
external locus of control
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Evaluating the Behavioral and Social
Cognitive Perspectives
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 Strengths of the behavioral and social cognitive
perspectives include emphasis on:
– environmental determinants
– scientific climate for investigating personality
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Evaluating the Behavioral and Social
Cognitive Perspectives
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 The behavioral view has been criticized for:
– taking the “person” out of personality
– ignoring cognition
– inadequate attention to individual differences
– inadequate attention to biology
– inadequate attention to personality as whole
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Humanistic Perspectives
 Humanistic perspectives - stress a person’s capacity
for personal growth, freedom to choose one’s own
destiny, and positive human qualities
 Carl Rogers (1902–1987) and Abraham Maslow
(1908–1970) were leading architects of humanistic
perspectives
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Rogers’ Approach
 Carl Rogers stressed the importance of becoming a
fully-functioning person
 Rogers believed the tendency to actualize one’s
essential nature is inborn in every person
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Rogers’ Approach
 Self-concept - refers to individuals’ overall perceptions
and assessments of their abilities, behavior, and
personalities
 The Self - consists of our self-perceptions and the
values we attach to these perceptions
 The greater the discrepancy between the real self (self
resulting from experiences) and the ideal self (the self
we would like to be), the more maladjusted we will be
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Unconditional Positive Regard,
Empathy, and Genuineness
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 Rogers proposed 3 methods to help others develop a
more positive self-concept:
– Unconditional positive regard - accepting, valuing, and
being positive toward another person regardless of the
person’s behavior
– Empathetic - being a sensitive listener and understanding
of another’s true feelings
– Genuineness - being open with our feelings and dropping
our pretenses and facades
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Figure 2.9 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
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Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives
 The humanistic perspectives stress a person’s
capacity for personal growth and freedom
 These perspectives emphasize the importance of:
– our perceptions
– conscious experience
– the positive aspects of human nature
– encourage excessive self-love
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Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives
 Weaknesses of humanistic perspectives include
tendency to:
– avoid empirical research
– be too optimistic
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Trait Theories
 Traits - broad, enduring dispositions that lead to
characteristic responses
 Gordon Allport believed that each individual has a
unique set of personality traits
 Most trait theories hold that personality can be
described in terms of a few super-traits or dimensions
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Trait Theories
 Hans Eysenck - three dimensions of personality:
– introversion-extraversion
– stability-instability (neuroticism)
– psychoticism
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The Big Five
Factors of Personality
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Traits, Situations, and Culture
 Walter Mischel (1968) argued that personality varies
across situations more than trait theorists
acknowledged
– Mischel’s view is called situationism
 Personality results from interaction of traits and
situations
 Cross-cultural research suggests that traits may vary
across cultures
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Traits, Situations, and Culture
 Cultures around the world may be classified as
individualist or collectivist
– Individualism gives priority to personal goals rather than
group goals; it emphasizes values that serve the self, such
as feeling good, personal achievement and distinction, and
independence
– Collectivism emphasizes values that serve the group by
subordinating personal goals to preserve group integrity and
relationships
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Evaluating Trait Perspectives
 Understanding a person’s traits also may help us better
predict the person’s health, thinking, job success, and
interpersonal skills
 Personality is determined by a combination of traits
(person factors) and the situation (environmental
factors)
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Types of Assessment
 Psychologists use assessments not only in research
but also in their attempts to diagnose, treat, and
counsel people
 Scientific measures aim to be both reliable and valid
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Types of Assessment
 Types of assessments used by psychologists:
– projective tests
– self-report tests
– behavioral and cognitive
assessments
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Projective Tests
 Projective tests - present individuals with ambiguous
stimuli
 Projective tests assume that this ambiguity allows
individuals to project their personalities onto the stimuli
 Examples of projective tests include:
– Rorschach inkblot test
– Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
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Rorschach Inkblot Test
 Rorschach Inkblot Test was developed in 1921 by
Herman Rorschach
– It uses individual’s perception of inkblots to determine
personality
– Concerns about test’s reliability and validity
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Figure 2.13 Type of Stimulus Used in
the Rorschach Inkblot Test
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Thematic Apperception Test
 Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) - projective test
designed to elicit stories that reveal something about
individual’s personality
– TAT used in clinical practice and in research on need for
achievement
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Self-Report Tests
 Self-report tests (objective tests or inventories)
assess personality traits by asking questions about
preferences and behaviors
– Self-report tests may elicit deceptive responses when
people try to answer in a socially desirable way
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Self-Report Tests
 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI) is the most widely used self-report personality
test
 Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Personality
Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and Hogan Personality
Inventory (HPI) are two popular self-report tests that
assess the big five factors
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