The “Other” Personality Theories

The Neo-Freudians’ (Psychodynamic) Three
Core Beliefs
◦ Much of mental life – thoughts, feelings, and
motives - is unconscious
◦ Stable personality patterns start to form in early
childhood, early experiences play significant role
in personality development
◦ Personality development involves more than
learning to regulate sexual and aggressive
impulses
Childhood anxiety triggers our
desire for love and security
Our inferiority complexes
trigger us to compensate in
other ways
Karen Horney & Alfred Adler
A Jungian Walk in the Woods

Close your eyes, DON’T say your
answers out loud!!
◦ You’re walking through the woods. There’s
someone with you. Who is it?
◦ You come to a house. What does it look like?
◦ You go inside the house and are in the dining
room. What do you see?
◦ You’re back outside and you find a key. What
do you do with it?
oYou find a cup. What does it look like? What
do you do with it?
oYou come to some water. How big is the body
of water?
oYou have to get to the other side of the water.
How do you do it?
A Jungian Walk in the Woods, Explained
The woods stand for the
unconscious mind.
 The person with you is the
person who is most
important to you at this
time.
 The house stands for the
size of your ambition.
 The dining room stands for
sociability.

A Jungian Walk in the Woods,
Explained



The key stands for knowledge.
What is done with the key is
what the person does with
their education.
The cup stands for love.
The water stands for the
person’s problems: the bigger
the body of water, the bigger
they perceive their problems
to be. How they get across
the water is how they deal
with their problems.
The Humanistic Perspective
Maslow
 Why we don’t become selfactualized:

o It’s at the top of the pyramid,
weakest of all needs
o The Jonah Complex
o Cultural environment may stifle
self-actualization
o Childhood experiences may
inhibit personal growth
The Humanistic Perspective

Carl Rogers
◦ The Perceived Self – On the
sheet of paper, take 3
minutes to write a
description of how you see
yourself.
◦ The Ideal Self – Turn the
paper over and take
another 3 minutes to
describe who you would
like to be.
Why the Incongruence?
Perceived
Self
Ideal Self
Trait / Big Five Theories

The Meyers-Briggs
◦ For each pair of items, check which one you
agree with more.
◦ Add up the number of checks for each
column and put that number in the box.
◦ E / I = extraversion / introversion
◦ S / N = sensing / intuition
◦ T / F = thinking / feeling
◦ J / P = judging / perceiving

What do you think is Mr. Aiello’s “score”?
◦ I S T J (I N F J)
The Big Five (CANOE) Mcrae & Costa
Take The Big Five Inventory (BFI)
 Scoring

◦ Extraversion – reverse the numbers placed in front
of items 6, 21, & 31 (1 = 5, 2 = 4, 3 = 3, 4 = 2, 5 = 1)
Add all the numbers for 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31, & 36.
Scores can range from 8 – 40.
◦ Agreeableness – reverse numbers 2, 12, 27, & 37.
Add the numbers for 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27, 32, 37, & 42.
Scores can range from 9 – 45.
◦ Conscientiousness –reverse numbers 8, 18, 23, & 43.
Add the numbers for 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28, 33, 38, & 43.
Scores can range from 9 – 45.
The Big Five (OCEAN)

Scoring
◦ Neuroticism – reverse numbers 9, 24, & 34.
Add all the numbers for 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29, 34, & 39.
Scores can range from 8 – 40.
◦ Openness – reverse numbers 35 & 41.
Add all the numbers for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40,
41, & 44.
Scores can range from 10 – 50.
The Person-Situation Controversy

Are we consistent
over time and
throughout situations?
◦ In general, yes
◦ In specific situations,
not so much
Gordon Allport
18,000 adjectives to
describe behavior
 Secondary - thousands
 Central – 6 - 10
 Cardinal - 1

Social Cognitive Theories

Reciprocal Determinism – Bandura
Personal Construct Theory
George Kelly
 We are strongly motivated to
make sense of our world.
Like scientists, we are always
attempting to make better
predictions about what will
happen to us. So we
generate and test hypotheses.
 We use bipolar constructs to
interpret and predict events.

Personality differences result largely from differences in
the way people construe their worlds. We may use very
different descriptors to characterize the same person.
Those different construals will produce different social
behaviors toward the person. Our relatively consistent
patterns of behavior occur because of the relatively
stable way we construe the world.

Take the REP Test
(Handout 15 – 15)
Internal vs. External Locus of Control

Reverse the numbers you
placed before statements
3, 6, 7, 8. and 10.
◦ (1 = 7, 2 = 6, 3 = 5, 4 = 4, 5 = 3,
6 = 2, 7 = 1)
Add up the total score
 College students avg. = 52
 The higher your score the
greater your internal locus of
control

Internals not only believe that they can control
their own destinies, but in fact they are more
effective in influencing their environments.
Internals receive
higher grades and
better evaluations
than do externals.
 Although true across
the ages, it is
especially true in
adolescence.

Internals feel more responsible for their achievements,
believe that studying will pay off, and generally seem to
have a better idea of how to prepare for an exam.
They are more likely to attribute their grades to their
abilities or effort and thus are more likely to study for
the next exam.
Given the task of changing others’ beliefs, they are
more successful. Internals, however, seem to be less
susceptible to control and influence from others.
They are particularly resistant to subtle forms of
attempted influence. Internals are less likely to
conform and are not as likely to respond to the
prestige of a message’s source as are externals.
Internals also seem to exhibit greater selfcontrol.
• Among those who attempt to quit smoking,
internals show fewer relapses.
• Internals are more likely to engage in physical
exercise, better at losing weight, more apt to use
seatbelts, and more likely to practice preventive
dental and medical care.
• Internals are better hospital patients, knowing
more about their condition and less satisfied with
the amount of information given them by their
nurses and doctors.