Personality
- An individual’s unique characteristic pattern of thinking,
feeling, and acting
- Inferred from consistency we observe in one’s behavior
(cross-situational)
- Dynamic (Changeable) process particularly as a function of
early experience
Personality Traits
A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in a
particular way in a variety of situations.
When you go to describe an individual’s personality, this is
usually done by listing the personality traits the individual
possesses.
What are the Basic traits that form the core of
our personality? A number of psychologists
have taken a position on this question.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits
Assessing Personality
Personality Inventories – long questionnaires which are
designed to assess several personality traits at one time
MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) is the
most widely used of all personality tests.
Projective Tests – ask subjects to interpret stimuli which are
intentionally vague or ambiguous. To provide an interpretation,
subject must take their own needs, hopes, and fears and project
them into the interpretation, thus revealing characteristics of their
personality.
TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)
Rorschach Test
Sentence Completion Test
Word Association Test
Theories of Personality
Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)
Freud – was trained as a physician and came to specialize
in nervous disorders. In the course of his work, Freud
found patients who suffered debilitating symptoms (e.g.,
paralysis, blindness) that had no neurological basis. He
concluded that their problems must have a psychological
rather than a physiological origin.
Patients could not identify the underlying psychological
factors that were causing there symptoms (i.e., the origins
of the symptoms were in the subjects unconscious mind).
To get to these underlying causes required accessing the
unconscious regions of the patients mind.
Special techniques would be required.
Psychoanalytic Techniques
Psychoanalysis – a treatment technique that seeks to expose
and interpret the unconscious forces causing psychological
disturbance.
Hypnosis – bypasses the usual self-censorship
mechanisms that cause are true feelings and beliefs to
be held back
Dream Interpretation – the content of dreams has hidden
meaning which must be understood to gain entry into
the unconscious
Free Association – patient asked to relax and say
whatever came into their minds no matter how
embarrassing or how trivial. Relax the body, relax the
mind. Thus the patient reclines during free association.
Psychoanalytic Principles
Psychological Determinism – present behavior (personality)
is directly caused by past experience
Childhood experience forges the adult personality that will
eventually emerge. “The child is the father of the man”
Unconscious Determination of Behavior – we behave the
ways that we do for reasons that we are totally unaware of
Levels of Consciousness
Conscious – though being
immediately experienced
Preconscious – can be
brought into consciousness
through volition
Unconscious – not accessible
through ordinary means, the
largest level, contributes the
most to the determination of
personality
Structures of the Personality
In Freud’s view, human personality arises from a conflict between our
aggressive, pleasure-seeking biological impulses and the internalized
social restraints against them.
To understand the mind’s dynamics during this conflict, Freud proposed
three interacting structures of personality:
Id – is the biological arm of the personality (our life force). It operates via
the pleasure principle. Produces the basic drives to survive and
reproduce. Operates at the unconscious level.
Ego – is the cognitive arm of the personality. Operates via the reality
principle, that is, it seeks to satisfy the needs of the id in realistic ways.
The ego contains our conscious perceptions, thoughts and judgments.
Superego – develops about age 4 or 5. It represents the social arm of the
personality. The inculcation of societal values and morals, the superego
operates according to the ideality principle. Responsible for our sense of
pride and guilt.
Libido refers to the psychic energy (produced by the id) which supplies
the energy force for all systems of the personality.
Defense Mechanisms
Freud believed that our psychological lives are dominated by
conflict. We are driven by our internal biological urges which
are being restrained by our socially responsible superegos.
Defense Mechanisms are largely unconscious processes
that protects a person from unpleasant emotions such as
anxiety or guilt.
Defense Mechanisms
Repression – a mechanism that pushes anxiety-arousing thoughts and feelings
from consciousness. Repressed thoughts are pushed to the unconscious mind
where they can produce powerful effects upon personality.
Projection – attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another.
Displacement – where sexual or aggressive impulses are diverted to an object or
person that is more psychologically acceptable.
Reaction Formation – where a person denies their own true feelings by espousing
a position diametrically opposed to their own.
Regression – when someone retreats to an earlier previously abandoned behavior
pattern.
Rationalization – creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable
behavior
Identification – overcoming feelings of inadequacy by forming an association to
some group or possession.
Psychosexual Stages of Development
Freud asserted that the basic foundation for an individual’s personality is
complete by age five. The psychosexual stages are developmental
periods with a characteristic sexual focus that leaves its mark on adult
personality.
Fixation involves a failure to move forward completely from one stage to
the next. This can result is personality deficits in adulthood.
Fixation at the oral stage
sarcasm, smoking, eating, verbosity
Fixation at the anal stage
avarice, obstinacy, overcleanliness
Oedipus Complex
According to Freud, a boy’s sexual urges become focused on his
mother. This is coupled with the development of hostility toward the
rival for the mother’s attention – the father. But the father is bigger and
stronger and thus is feared.
Castration Complex – fear that the father will retaliate against the boy
depriving him of what he now values most – the penis. Mother
becomes center of an approach-avoidance conflict.
Solution to the conflict – the process of identification whereby the boy
obtains indirect (vicarious) satisfaction of the libido. Boys at this
stage start to mimic their father and seem to want to be just like him.
Through this identification process children’s superego gains strength
as they incorporate many of their same-sex parents values (gender
identity).
Electra Complex – some psychologists have suggested that a parallel
process occurs in girls (sexual attraction to father, fear of mother,
identification with mother).
Theories of Personality
Humanism (Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow) – largely a reaction against
the psychoanalytic view that people are driven by primitive, animalistic
drives. Humanism emphasizes the unique qualities of human, especially
their self-determination and their potential for personal growth.
Rogers viewed personality structure as having just one construct (the
self-concept).
The self-concept refers to
our own beliefs concerning
our nature, qualities, and
behavioral propensities. We
are aware of our own selfconcept, it’s not buried in the
unconscious. Your selfconcept is subjective and
may not be entirely
consistent with experience.
Incongruence undermines
psychological well-being
The Development of the Self (Rogers)
According to Rogers, people have a need for affection, love, and
acceptance from others (positive regard). Early in life most of this
comes from our parents.
Conditional Positive Regard is when parents (or others) make their
affection dependent upon a child behaving well or living up to
expectations. Under these circumstances, children block out of their
self-concept those experiences which make them feel unworthy. The
conditions have been set for incongruence.
Unconditional Positive Regard is when parents (or others) make it
clear that their affection will be there regardless. Under these
circumstances, children have less of a need to block out unworthy
experiences. Their self-concept will have greater congruence with
reality.
According to Rogers, experiences which threaten people’s personal
views of themselves are the principal cause of anxiety and
psychological disturbance.
Maslow’s Theory of Self-Actualization
The Hierarchy of Needs is a systematic arrangement of needs according to
priority. Basic needs must be met before higher needs can be expressed.
Self-Actualization – the highest need, the realization of
one’s ultimate potential
The Social Cognitive Theory of Personality
Albert Bandura – proposed a theory of personality based primarily on the
concept of observational learning.
How we behave and how our personality develops is largely a property our
imitating behavior patterns we see in other significant figures in our lives.
These significant figures are called Models in Bandura’s theory.
Our earliest and most influential models are our parents. As we grow older,
others become models for our behavior.
• We imitate people we like and respect
• We imitate people whom we see like ourselves or in our same situation
• We imitate people whose behavior leads to positive outcomes
Self-Efficacy
Self-Efficacy is a powerful force in the development of one’s
personality in Bandura’s theory.
Self-Efficacy refers to one’s belief about our ability to
accomplish behaviors that will lead to expected outcomes.
If one’s self-efficacy is high
If one’s self-efficacy is low
confidence, sense of control,
outgoing
worry, self-doubt, withdrawn
Research shows individuals with high sense of self-efficacy:
Greater success in smoking cessation, adhering to exercise
program, coping with medical rehabilitation, greater success
in academic pursuits, reduced vulnerability to anxiety and
depression, enhanced performance in athletic competition,
greater resistance to stress, etc. (pp 339-340)
The Connection Between Personality and Physical Structure
Phrenology – the belief that personality was revealed by the
shape of the head
A popular view in the 1800’s but soon discredited except in
extreme circumstances.
Constitutional Psychology
William Sheldon (1940’s) – proposed and reported evidence
of a strong relationship between body type (somatotypes)
and personality characteristics.
Took nude photos and did extensive personality testing on
each of the subjects in his study. Looked for correlations
between body style and personality traits displayed.
Three main somatotypes which were found to correlate with
three different personality constellations.
Sheldon’s Findings
Somatotype
Ectomoph
Mesomorph
Endomorph
Personality
Cerebrotonia
Somatotonia
Viscerotonia
Correlation
+.83
+.82
+.79
As simpleminded as the Sheldon system seems at first,
there is a surprisingly high correlation between the
somatotypes and their associated personalities.
So body types and personalities go together but these
data don’t tell us if the body type shapes the
personality that one develops or if the personality one
has causes the body to develop in a particular way.