PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION
Sixth Edition
by
Karen Huffman
PowerPoint  Lecture Notes Presentation
Chapter 13
Personality
Paul J. Wellman
Texas A&M University
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Lecture Overview
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Personality Assessment
Trait Theories of Personality
Psychoanalytic Theories of Personality
Humanistic Personality Theory
Social-Cognitive Approach to Personality
Biological Theories of Personality
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Personality
• Personality refers to a person’s unique
and relatively stable pattern of thoughts,
feelings, and actions
• Personality is an interaction between
biology and environment
– Genetic studies suggest heritability of
personality
– Other studies suggest learned components
of personality
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Measures of Personality
• Interviews
– Unstructured: “Tell me about yourself…”
– Structured: Set list of questions
• Observation: Psychologist learns about
personality by observing the person
• Objective tests: self-inventories that involve paper
and pencil tests
• Projective tests: subjects reveal aspects of their
personality when they talk about ambiguous
stimuli
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Projective Tests
• Projection is an idea developed by
Freud in which people are thought to
reveal their true feelings and thoughts
when describing ambiguous stimuli
• A projective test presents a series of
ambiguous stimuli and asks that a
subject describe each stimulus
– The idea is that their verbal descriptions will
reveal key aspects of their personality
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Specific Projective Tests
• Rorschach test
– Consists of 10 inkblots
– Reliability and validity of this test is low
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
– TAT also consists of a series of ambiguous
figures
– Was devised to measure achievement
motivation by Henry Murray in 1938
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Personality Measurement Issues
• Objective self-report personality tests can be
criticized on the basis of
– Deliberate deception and social desirability bias
• Can the test detect deception and attempts to
enhance social desirability?
– Diagnostic difficulties: the test may not be
sufficiently specific to allow for diagnosis
– Inappropriate use: when tests are used for
purposes other than their designed use
• Use of a personality test to decide a presidential
election
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Personality Traits
• Traits are relatively stable and consistent
personal characteristics
• Trait personality theories suggest that a person
can be described on the basis of some number
of personality traits
– Allport identified some 4,500 traits
– Factor analysis techniques identified 30-35 basic traits
– Eysenck argued there are 3 distinct traits in
personality
• Extraversion/introversion
• Neuroticism
• Psychotocism
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
The “Big 5”
• Modern personality research argues for 5
basic personality traits (OCEAN)
• Openness: whether a person is open to new
experiences
• Conscientiousness: whether a person is disciplined
and responsible
• Extroversion: whether a person is sociable,
outgoing and affectionate
• Agreeableness: whether a person is cooperative,
trusting, and helpful
• Neuroticism: whether a person is unstable and
prone to insecurity
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Overview of the Big “5”
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Evaluating Trait Theory
• Trait theory, especially the Big 5 model, is able to
describe personality
– Cross-cultural human studies find good agreement for
the Big 5 model in many cultures
– Even primate personality can be accurately described
by the big 5 model system
• Problems with trait theory include:
– Lack of explanation as to WHY traits develop
– Issue of explaining transient versus long-lasting traits
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Psychoanalytic Theory
• Psychoanalytic theory, as devised by
Freud, attempts to explain personality on
the basis of unconscious mental forces
– Levels of consciousness: We are unaware of
some aspects of our mental states
– Freud argued that personality is made up of
multiple structures, some of which are
unconscious
– Freud argued that as we have impulses that
cause us anxiety; our personality develops
defense mechanisms to protect against anxiety
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Defense Mechanisms
• Defense mechanisms refer to unconscious
mental processes that protect the conscious
person from developing anxiety
– Sublimation: person channels energy from
unacceptable impulses to create socially acceptable
accomplishments
– Denial: person refuses to recognize reality
– Projection: person attributes their own unacceptable
impulses to others
– Repression: anxiety-evoking thoughts are pushed into
the unconscious
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Levels of Consciousness
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Analytical Psychology
• Analytical psychology emphasized the
unconsciousness mind and its influence
on dream processes
– Devised by Carl Jung
– Two forms of unconscious mind
• Personal unconscious: unique for each person
• Collective unconscious: consists of primitive
images and ideas that are universal for humans
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Criticisms of Psychoanalytic
Theory
• Theory is difficult to test
• Theory places an overemphasis on
unconscious forces
• Inadequate evidence to support the
theory (only a few case studies)
• Sexism may have tainted the theory
• Lack of cross-cultural support for theory
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Humanistic Theory
• Humanistic personality theories reject
psychoanalytic notions
– Humanistic theories view each person as
basically good and that people are striving
for self-fulfillment
– Humanistic theory argues that people carry
a perception of themselves and of the world
– The goal for a humanist is to
develop/promote a positive self-concept
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Issues for Humanistic Theory
• Naïve assumptions about human nature
• Humanistic theory suffers from poor
testability
• Most humanists are not interested in
scientific testing of theory (thus it suffers
from inadequate evidence)
• Theory does not attempt to account for
all of human personality (narrowness
aspect of theory)
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Interactionism
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E
Copyright
Copyright 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York,
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© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 6E