Personality!
Q--Who am I and how did I
get here?
Personality Assessments!
• How do psychologists figure out what kind of
personality you have?
– Projective Tests
• TAT
• Rorschach
• House-tree-person
– Self Report Inventories
• MMPI-2
• Myers Briggs
Projective Tests
• Make a Rorschach Ink blot and then use it to
do research on others to see if you can figure
out their personality.
• Take the House-Tree-Person Test
• What type of psychologist would be most
likely to use a projective test?
• Are these reliable? Are they valid?
– Barnum Effect
Self Report Inventories
• Most psychologists use self reporting
inventories to test personality.
• Are they reliable? Are they valid?
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI-2)—widely used
• Myers-Briggs
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgiwin/JTypes2.asp
– Take by 2/17!
Personality
• Personality—the unique abilities, behaviors,
and emotions that characterize a person
• Describe your personality
Psychoanalytic Theory--Personality
• Freudian Theory—
– Based on the discontinuous psychosexual stages
of development
– Girls suffer from penis envy and boys suffer from
castration anxiety
– Boys use the defense mechanism of Identification
to emulate a male figure that threatens them.
They break away from mom and identify with Dad.
• What if their mother is the one who threatens them
and emasculates them?
Psychoanalytic Theory--Personality
• Fixation in one of the psychosexual stages is
the key to your personality
• If your libido, pscyhic energy, gets stuck in one
of the stages then that is where you will
continue to pour all your energy and efforts
• Your personality is mostly unconscious—you
are not aware of what you do and why you do
it.
Psychoanalytic Theory--Personality
Psychoanalytic Theory--Personality
• Freud said there are 3 parts to personality—
id, ego, and superego
• Id—all id at birth— pleasure principle,
instincts, and psychic energy dedicated to Eros
and Thanatos
– Libido directs life instincts to Eros for things such
as sex
– Thanatos directs energy to aggression
Psychoanalytic Theory--Personality
• Ego—The Reality Principle: Negotiate with the ID
and the reality of the situation
– Ego protects the conscious mind from threatening
thoughts—uses defense mechanisms
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Repression vs. Suppression—ex.
Denial—ex.
Displacement—ex.
Projection—ex.
Reaction Formation—ex.
Regression—ex.
Rationalization—ex.
Intellectualization—ex.
Sublimation—ex.
Psychoanalytic Theory--Personality
• Super Ego—begins to develop @ 5 yrs. Kids
develop a conscience and begin to think about
what is right and wrong—driven by guilt and
shoulds
Psychoanalytic
Freudian Personality Pie
ID
Make you
own pie
for your
personality!
EGO
Super Ego
Criticisms of Freud
• Feminists, such as Karen Horney, say there is no
such thing as Penis Envy, but if so then men suffer
from Womb Envy.
• Karen Horney said children suffer from Basic
Anxiety if parent is non-responsive and this leads
to Basic Hostility
• Never directed at parent.
• Effects—Moving Toward,
Moving Away, Moving Against
• Can we mitigated with
consistent LOVE!
Psychodynamic Theory on Personality
• Psychodynamic or Neo-Freudian means:
• Carl Jung—
– Individuation—individual, unified whole—
complete person
– Personal Unconscious vs. Collective Unconscious
• Personal Unconscious—Complexes—Do you show signs
of a Complex?
• Collective Unconscious—Passed down—Archetypes
– The Shadow
– The Persona
» Do you self monitor—discuss with a neighbor!
Psychodynamic Theory on Personality
• Alfred Adler—
– Conscious is more important than unconscious
– People are motivated by a fear of failure--he called
this inferiority
– They are also motivated by a desire to achieve—
called drive for superiority
• Great examples???
– Inferiority Complex can be crippling
– Discussed Birth Order significance
• Have you neighbor guess your birth order
Trait Theorists
• Describe people’s personalities by specifying
their main characteristics or TRAITS
• These characteristics are STABLE
• Nomothetic approach—all people can be
characterized by similar categories
– Eyesenck: Introvert vs. Extrovert and Stable vs.
Unstable
• What are you? Discuss with your neighbor!
X marks your spot!
Trait Theorists
• Cattell—16 PF (personality factor)-16 basic
traits can describe in all people
• Big Five—
– C—Conscientousness
– A—Agreeableness
– N—Neuroticism
– O—Openness
– E—Extraversion
Trait Theorists
• Factor Analysis—statistical technique to correlate
traits into groups so that we have 16 basic traits
for most humans
– Ex.—What traits go along with neatness?
• Idiographic—no way people can be described
with the same traits
– Need to see people in terms of their individual traits
– Stand Up--Do you agree with Nomothetic or
Idiographic?
Trait Theorists
• Allport—
– Cardinal Disposition—pivotal role in everything we
do
– Central Disposition—dominant traits but not as
significant as cardinal
– Secondary Disposition—lesser seen traits that
might only come up in certain situations
– Write down examples for your self for each
Trait Theorists
• Criticisms of Trait Theorists?
The Biology of Personality
• What is the likelihood of heritability of traits?
– Discuss with neighbor
• Nature: Much evidence suggests that genes
play a role in temperament—which is defined
as the emotional style of the person and the
way they deal with the world.
Biology of Personality
• Hippocrates 4 Humors
Sanguine or Blood--amorous, happy,
generous, optimistic, irresponsible
Choleric or Yellow Bile--violent,
vengeful, short-tempered, ambitious
Melancholic or Black Bile--Introspective,
sentimental, gluttonous
Phlegmatic or Phlegm--Sluggish, pallid,
cowardly
• Levels of fluids determine personality
• Not found to be reliable or valid—why?
Biology of Personality
• William Sheldon’s Somatotype Theory
– Endomorphs—Fat—friendly and outgoing
– Mesomorphs—Muscular—confident and assertive
– Ectomorphs—Thin—shy and secretive
• Which are you?
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Research not replicated
Methodology questioned
Only correlational
Would it be reliable? Valid?
Humanistic Theory
• Maslow’s Holistic Dynamic Theory
–Personality moves toward Self
Actualization
–Society sometimes pushes us away
from self actualization
–Self Actualizers are creative,
democratic, independent, and are not
self focused
Humanistic Theory
• Carl Rogers Self Theory
– Idea of Self—organized, consistent idea about
ourselves which develops due to experience
– Need for Unconditional Positive Regard
– Fully Functioning (Self Actualized)
• Accept yourself
– Real Self vs. Ideal Self
• Incongruence vs. Congruence
• Are you happy when you look in the mirror?
Behaviorists
• How would strict Behaviorists like Skinner and
Watson view personality?
Social Learning Theories on Personality
• Cognitive and Social Cognitive Theorists look
at how both thinking and behavior influence
personality
• George Kelly—Personal Construct Theory
– Make sense of our world through constructs
• Such as Happy/Unhappy, Energetic/Inactive,
Selfish/Generous, etc.
• What are some of your personal constructs?
Social Learning Theories on Personality
• Albert Bandura—We learn through observing
– Reciprocal Determinism
– Personality is determined by our characteristics, our
behavior, and the environment
– Ex.—We are fun loving, so our behavior is fun, and we
tend to pick environments that our fun, and so people
think we are fun which in turn makes us more fun.
– Ex.—We are closed off from others, so our behavior is
closed, and we tend to choose to be alone, so people
think we are offish and therefore don’t approach us—
so we think people don’t like us, which then causes us
to be more closed off and alone
Social Learning Theories on Personality
• Bandura—
– Collective Self Efficacy--Collectivism
• Our group will attain its outcome
– Collective Societies--Asia
– Self Efficacy--Individualism
• Belief that we can perform necessary behaviors and
that we are competent
• We are confident about our ability in academics, but
not in sports, therefore we perform better in school
than sports
Social Learning Theories
• Julian Rotter—Locus of Control
– Is life in our hands or is it up to fate?
– External Locus of Control—Luck
– Internal Locus of Control—You are in charge
– Stand up—are you internal or external?
Social Learning Theories
• Walter Mischel’s—CAPS
– Cognitive Affective Personality System
– Develop unique Behavioral Signatures
– Consistent ways of dealing with people
– What is your signature?
• Discuss Criticisms of Social Learning Theories