Basics of Personality Theory
Personality – a pattern of relatively permanent traits
and unique characteristics that give consistency and
individuality to a person’s behavior
Theory – a set of related assumptions that allows
scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to
formulate testable hypotheses
⮚ assumption
accepted as if it were true
not yet proven
⮚ deductive reasoning
from general to specific
from theory to hypothesis
contrast: inductive reasoning
from specific to general
from hypothesis to theory
Looking at the Big Picture of Personality
Each personality theory discusses factors that influence,
to an extent, our personality
1. Genetic Factor
2. Environmental Factor
3. Learning Factor
It is impossible to deny the impact of diverse
environmental and social forces on personality.
The most significant way in which that impact is
exerted is through learning.
4. Parental Factor
5. Developmental Factor
6. Consciousness Factor
Refers to cognitive processes
7. Unconscious Factor
Overview of Personality Theories
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES
1. Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis
theory
(general)
hypothesis
(specific)
2. Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology
3. Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology
4. Melanie Klein: Object Relations Theory
What Makes a Theory Useful?
1. Generates research
5. Karen Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory
a.k.a. Neurotic Needs and Trends
2. Is falsifiable
6. Erich Fromm: Humanistic Psychoanalysis
3. Organizes data
4. Guides action
7. Erik Erikson: Post-Freudian Theory
a.k.a. Identity Theory
5. Is internally consistent
8. Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory
6. Is parsimonious
Psychology of science – investigates the impact of an
individual’s personal characteristics on the
development of his or her scientific theory
⮚ to understand a personality theory, it would
help when we learn something about the life of
the person who proposed it
Dimensions for a Concept of Humanity
What makes us human?
HUMANISTIC/EXISTENTIAL THEORIES
1. Abraham Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory
a.k.a. Needs-Hierarchy Theory
2. Carl Rogers: Person-Centered Theory
3. Rollo May: Existential Psychology
LEARNING-COGNITIVE THEORIES
1. B.F. Skinner: Behavioral Analysis
a.k.a. Reinforcement Theory
2. Albert Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory
a.k.a. Modeling Theory
1. Determinism vs. Free Choice
2. Pessimism vs. Optimism
3. Rotter & Mischel: Cognitive Social Learning
Theory
3. Causality vs. Teleology
4. George Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
4. Conscious vs. Unconscious determinants
5. Biological vs. Social influences
6. Uniqueness vs. Similarities
TRAIT/ DISPOSITIONAL THEORIES
1. Gordon Allport: Psychology of the Individual
a.k.a. Motivation and Personality
2. McCrae & Costa: Five Factor Trait Theory
EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES
1. Hans Eysenck: Biologically Based Factor Theory
2. Buss: Evolutionary Theory of Personality
Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis
The Life of Sigmund Freud
⮚ Mama’s boy - Freud felt a passionate, even
sexual attachment to her, a relationship that set
the stage for his concept of the Oedipus
complex.
⮚ Intelligent and had wide interests
⮚ Studied medicine to get a career in “scientific”
research
⮚ Experimented with cocaine and called it a
miracle drug
Instinct
The aim of an instinct is to satisfy the need and thereby
reduce the tension. Freud’s theory is therefore a
homeostatic approach, meaning that we are motivated
to restore and maintain a condition of physiological
equilibrium, or balance, to keep the body free of tension.
Although the instincts are the exclusive source of energy
for human behavior, the resulting energy can be
invested in a variety of activities. This helps explain the
diversity we see in human behavior. All the interests,
preferences, and attitudes we display as adults were
believed by Freud to be displacements of energy from
the original objects that satisfied the instinctual needs.
⮚ Life instinct – purpose is to survive
o Oriented toward growth and
development
o Satisfy need for food, water, air and sex
o Libido – the psychic energy manifested
by the life instinct
o Cathexis – the attachment of the libido
to objects (think: emotional
investment)
⮚ Death instinct – purpose is to return to an
inorganic state
o Unconscious wish to decay and die
o Aggressive drive – the compulsion to
destroy, conquer, and kill
Levels of Personality
⮚ Conscious – it includes all the sensations and
experiences of which we are aware at any given
moment
o Limited; only a small portion of
thoughts/memories/sensations exist in
conscious awareness
o The tip of the iceberg – the part above
the water
⮚ Preconscious – This is the storehouse of all our
memories, perceptions, and thoughts of which
we are not consciously aware at the moment
but that we can easily summon into
consciousness.
⮚ Unconscious – home of the instincts, those
wishes and desires that direct our behavior. The
unconscious contains the major driving power
behind all behaviors and is the repository of
forces we cannot see or control.
Provinces of the Mind
Freud revised his notion of three levels of personality
and introduced three basic structures in the anatomy of
personality
⮚ Id – reservoir of instincts
o
Operates on the pleasure principle –
increase pleasure and avoid pain
o Instant gratification and no awareness
of reality
o Selfish, amoral, primitive etc.
o Primary process thought – childlike
thinking by which the id attempts to
satisfy the instinctual drives
⮚ Ego – rational master of the personality
o Reality principle – the principle by
which the ego functions to provide
appropriate constraints on the
expression of id instinct
o ego does not prevent id satisfaction, it
tries to postpone, delay, or redirect it in
order to meet the demands of reality
o Secondary process thought – mature
thought processes needed to deal with
the external world
Who are the two masters of the ego?
Reality and Id
⮚ Superego
Question: Does the ego and superego have unconscious
aspects as well? Yes.