Personality
Definition of personality

A. Organization of an individual’s distinguishing characteristics, traits, or habits
B. Includes the individual’s unique way
of
1. Think
2. Feel
3. Behave
4. Experience the environment
Tasks
1.
2.
3.
4.
analyze groups
understand individuals
study the personality process
develop theories
A. Basic tools
1. Observation
2. interview
3. peer rating
4. self report personality tests
Make a hand Turkey
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What characteristics define you?
How are you different from others
What bonds you with others
What is most important to you
1. Objective
 - individual answers questions with
response options

Examples2. Projective
 - individual answers questions with no
response restrictions

Examples-

http://theinkblot.com/step_2.htm
Validity VS Reliability
Validity
 measures what it is supposed to measure
Reliability
 a person’s score on a test at one point
should be the similar to the score obtained
by the same person on a similar test

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Are the SAT’s valid and reliable?
Make your own test

3 projective questions
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3 objective questions
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10 people must answer them by
Friday, December 3
( get your relatives to do this!)
Overview of Theories

Psychoanalytic
- we are who we are because of our
childhood
- we are ruled by our unconscious
Humanism

We have the freedom to grow and
choose our own destiny
Social Cognitive Theories

Personality is shaped by the
environment, cognitive personal
factors, and behaviors. These things
interact and influence how we
evaluate, interpret, organize and apply
information
Learning/Behaviorists

We are controlled by rewards and
punishments
Trait theories

Personality is analyzed by measuring,
identifying, and classifying similarities
and differences in personality
characteristics or traits
Instinctual Energy

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Life Instinct
self preservation
Death Instinct
– Leads us to aggression and destruction
– Write 3 examples of each
Levels of consciousness

Conscious thought
– Thoughts that we are aware of

Preconscious thought
– Thoughts that we are not immediately
aware of but can retrieve at will

Unconscious thought
– Thoughts wishes and desires that we
cannot voluntarily access
Ways of understanding
the mind

Free Association
– Free flowing uncensored talk to provide
clues to unconscious thought

Dream interpretation- based on the
assumption that dreams have meaning
that provide clues to the unconscious
mind

Freudian Slips– Mistakes we make when talking which
reflect our unconscious thoughts
Personality structures

Id– Demands immediate gratification
– Operates on the pleasure principle
– If it is not satisfied you feel like you are
missing out on things in life

Ego
– Rational buffer between the id and the
super ego
– Operates on the reality principle

Super Ego– Incorporates morals, values and
standards
– If it is not satisfied, you feel guilty
Defense Mechanisms

Defending the ego from experiencing
anxiety about failing in its task
Displacement


Taking your feelings out on someone
or something less threatening
Examples…
Repression

Blocking out unacceptable feelings or
experiences and pushing them into the
unconscious
Reaction Formation

Substituting unacceptable behaviors,
thoughts or feelings with acceptable
ones
Regression

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Going back to an earlier less mature
state
ex
Projection
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Inner personal feeling are placed onto
someone else
ex
Rationalizing

Covering up the true reason for doing
things with excuses and incorrect
explanations
Intellectualizing

Separating thought from feeling so
feelings are not overwhelming

Psycho sexual stages of development
A. Biologically determined stages
driven from birth by sexual instinct
B. Different zones of the body
become sources of pleasure during
different stages
C.
Mal adaptive behavior in adults
results from unresolved conflicts that
originate at any of the stages
D. At any time in these stages, a
conflict could cause fixation-
Oral Stage (birth – 18
months)

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- Sexual pleasure focuses on
sucking, biting and chewing
fixation is linked to excessive drinking,
gum chewing, biting nails, pencil
chewing , excessive eating
Anal stage 18 months- 3
years
- sexual pleasure is derived during
elimination of feces
If conflict is not resolved you become
Anal expulsive
Messy disorganized adults
Anal retentive
highly controlled, excessively neat
Phallic stage 3-6

- children seek genital stimulation and
develop unconscious...desires towards
the parent of the opposite sex

- children have feelings of ...hatred
and jealousy for the rival parent of the
same sex
Oedipus Complex
- found in boys, due to feelings of guilt
and fear of the rival parent
- boys fear castration by their father
Electra Crisis
- penis envy which symbolically
translates into wanting to have a child
with their father
How do kids deal with
this?
repression and trying to become like the
rival parent
This provides gender identity and
strengthens the super ego
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IV. Latency ( 6- puberty)
-the period of sexual repression in late
childhood
Genital Stage ( puberty –
adulthood)
maturation of sexual interest
most choose sexual intercourse for
gratification