Personality:
Psychoanalytic
According to Freud:


People’s personalities are shaped by their unconscious mind
o The id, the ego, and the super ego
 All try to their way till it all balances out into your personality
Now psychoanalytic psychologists still believe some of Freud’s ideas, but not to the extreme
that Freud did.
o They study people’s personality by analyzing people’s free associations and dreams.
o Now they also use projective tests to get people to reveal their unconscious mind like
inkblot test.
Humanistic


Believe that people’s personality comes from people’s self-awareness and that their basic needs
are being met.
The way that they study people’s personality is through questionnaires about people’s selfconcept and in therapy by looking at other’s subjective personal experiences.
Trait



They study the predispositions on why people do what they do.
They look at huge questionnaires that are used to determine feelings and behaviors.
They use the big five factors to help determine a person’s personality.
o Stability, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
Social-cognitive


They believe that a person’s personality is formed based on how principles of learning,
cognition, and social behavior along with environment are applied to a person’s life.
In order for them to see how these factors play a role in a person’s life they observe what the
client does in their life.
Compare and Contrast of Personality
1.
a)
b)
c)
Psychoanalytic:
The personality is broken up into three main parts, the id, the ego, and the super ego.
Personality is set in early childhood
As you grow through the psychosexual stages your personality forms into what it is today.
2.
a)
b)
c)
Humanist:
Personality is set on free will. You be who you want to be.
Self-esteem plays a major role in your day-to-day personality.
Self-actualization can lead to the ultimate personality and may lead to unconditional positive
regard
3.
a)
b)
c)
Behavioral:
Personality is determined by the environment around us.
How we perceive what is going on shapes our personality at curtain times.
Changing one’s environment can change one’s personality.
4.
a)
b)
c)
Trait:
Some one’s personality is shaped by their characteristics.
Personalities are mostly set and people’s reactions are similar to similar situations.
There are 5 main traits that are used in psychology: extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, openness to experience and emotional stability.
5.
a)
b)
c)
Social Cognitive:
The social cognitive approach mostly blends all of the other theories together.
Environmental factors as well as patterns of thought base personality.
Personality is measured by interactions with environments, other people, and one’s self.
Reliability: the test results are consistent even if the results are not accurate.
Validity: accuracy, a valid test measures what it purports to measure.
Types of Tests:
Projective Tests


Aim to provide such view by presenting an ambiguous stimulus, then ask test-takers to describe
it or tell a story about it
The stimulus has no inherent significance, so any meaning people read into it presumably is a
projection of their interests and conflicts
Rorschach Inkblot Test

Involves asking people to interpret ambiguous stimuli
o Examples: the Rorschach inkblot test (shows people series of inkblots and ask them to
describe what they see)
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Consists of a number of cards, each of which contains a picture of a person or people in an
ambiguous situation then asked to describe what is happening in the pictures
Both the inkblots and TAT cards are most often used by psychoanalysts
o
Reason why psychoanalysts use these two tests is because the person’s interpretation
reflects their unconscious thoughts
Henry Murray: (1933) came up with the Projective and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
Hermann Rorschach: (1921) came up with the Rorschach Inkblot Test. He is a Swiss
psychiatrist.
Assessment Techniques:
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality (MMPI)



Assesses “abnormal” personality tendencies rather than normal personality traits
Illustrates a good way of developing a personality inventory
One of the most widely used self-report instruments
Starke Hathaway: (1960) one of the creators of MMPI. He compared his effort to that of
Alfred Binet.
Important People to Remember

Sigmund Frued
-Developed the Psychoanalytic Theory
-Thoughts and Actions are attributed to our unconscious motives, and conflicts.
-Psychosexual Stages-Oral- (0-18 months)-Pleasure is centered around the mouth. Actions such as
biting, sucking, and chewing.
-Anal-(18-36 months)-Focuses on bowel and bladder control, dealing with the
demands for control.
-Phallic-(3-6 years)- Dealing with incestuous sexual feelings.
-Latency-(6-Puberty)- Undeveloped sexual feelings.
-Genital-(Puberty-)- Maturation of sexual interests.
-Id, Ego, Superego-
-Id- The impulse, wants immediate gratification. According to Frued, it's
unconscious psychic energy that needs to satisfy sexual and aggressive drives.
-Ego-Is the mediator between the Id and the Superego. Gives the Id what it
wants and also pleases the Superego.
-Superego- Follows what is right and ideal. The conscious. Gives standards for
future goals and judgments.

Henry Murray
-Developed the Thematic Apperception Test
-Thematic Apperception Test- Subject is given a scene in which they express their
inner thoughts and feelings through the storyline they make up based on the
scene.

Hermann Rorschach
-Developed the Rorschach Inkblot Test
-Rorschach Inkblot Test-Subject is given 10 inkblot designs and is told to describe
what they see or how they interpret the design.

Alfred Adler
-Developed the inferiority complex, agreed with Freud but believed that much behavior
is driven by the feeling to overcome childhood inferiority.

Karen Horney
-Developed the idea of "Penis Envy". Believed that childhood anxiety is the trigger for
the desire of love and security.

Carl Jung
-Believed that people have a Collective Unconscious.
-Collective Unconscious-Shared, inherited place of memory that goes back to the
human history.

Abraham Maslow
-Believed in a Hierarchy of needs.
-Self Actualization- The manner of fulfilling ones potential.

Carl Rogers
-Developed Unconditional positive regard.
-Unconditional Positive Regard- Being fully accepted, for who one is.
Alex F.: According to Freud, traits, humanistic and social-cognitive.
Ben Long: Compare and contrast personality (Psychoanalytic, Humanistic, Behavioral, Trait, Social
Cognitive)
Emily Grahek: Relativity, Validity, MMPI, TAT, Projective Test
Alyssa Taylor: All the famous people