SELF AND PERSONALITY
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
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
 Personality, then, includes ways in
which we are like all other people
(human nature), like some other people
(those with similar dispositional traits
and characteristic adaptations), and like
no one else on the planet (with our
unique life stories), as influenced by
cultural and situational factors.
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
Psychoanalytic Theory:
Erik Erikson
 Emphasized
 Social influences
 Rational ego
 Life-span development
 Crisis-Oriented Stages Result From:
 Maturational forces
 Social demands
Trait Theory
 Psychometric Approach
 Personality: a set of traits
 Individual differences in each trait
 Evidence of genetic basis
 “Big Five” - Universal and stable
Trait Theories: The Big Five
Openness to experience
Closed
Open
Conscientiousness
Undependable
Dependable
Extraversion
Withdrawn
Outgoing
Agreeableness
Low
High
Neuroticism
Stable
Unstable
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
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”
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
Changes in Self-Concept:
age 5-8
 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
Contributions to Higher
Self-Esteem
 Competence!
 Positive social
feedback
 Warm democratic
parents
 Self- esteem means
nothing unless it
grows out of one’s
real achievements.
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
 9- year- old: My name is Bruce C. I
have brown eyes. I have brown hair. I
love! sports. I have seven people in my
family. I have great! eye sight. I have
lots! of friends. I live at. . . . I have an
uncle who is almost 7 feet tall. My
teacher is Mrs. V. I play hockey! Im
almost the smartest boy in the class. I
love! food. . . . I love! school.
 111/ 2- year- old: My name is A. Im a human
being. . . . a girl. . . . a truthful person. Im
not pretty. I do so- so in my studies. Im a
very good cellist. Im a little tall for my age. I
like several boys. . . . Im old fashioned. I am
a very good swimmer. . . . I try to be helpful.
. . . Mostly Im good, but I lose my temper.
Im not well liked by some girls and boys. I
dont know if boys like me. . . .
 17- year- old: I am a human being. . . . a girl.
. . . an individ-ual. . . . I am a Pisces. I am a
moody person. . . . an indecisive person. . . .
an ambitious person. I am a big curious
person. . . . I am lonely. I am an American
(God help me). I am a Democrat. I am a
liberal person. I am a radical. I am
conservative. I am a pseudoliberal. I am an
Atheist. I am not a classifiable person ( i. e., I
don’t want to be).
 less physical and more psychological as
children age
 self- portraits become less concrete and more
abstract.
 Piaget’s theory
 -more self aware
 -more differentiated (recognize different
groups that like/dislike them)
 --more integrated/coherent selfportrait
 Self-esteem
decreases in
adolescence
 More common
among white females
 As adults, adolescents with low self- esteem
tend to have poorer physical and mental
health, poorer career and financial prospects,
and higher levels of criminal behavior than
adolescents with high self- esteem
 Teens tend to come out of adolescence with
higher self esteem so not that bad
Identity vs. Role Confusion
 Erickson
 Moratorium granted
by society
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)
Identity Achievement
 Ethnic Identity begins in infancy
 Vocational Identity - increasingly
realistic
 “Goodness of fit”
 Influential Factors
 Cognitive development
 Openness to experience trait
 Warm, democratic parenting
 Culture that encourages exploration
Self-Concept and
Adulthood
Losses in self-esteem in later old age
 Ability to adjust
ideal to real self
 Evaluate self with
different standards
 Comparisons with
age-mates
 Related to stable
personality traits
Changes in Personality
 Adulthood: achievement and confidence
 Older adults
 Decrease: extroversion-activity level,
openness to experience
 Increase: introversion, emotional stability,
conscientiousness