PERSONALITY
Historic Perspectives
Opening Exercise: “I am…..”
1) Have students number a blank piece of paper 1 through 20 down the
left side.
2) Have them list some of their own positive and/or negative personality
qualities.
3) While they are doing this, write the following on a chalkboard or have
overhead/visual display ready:
a. Introduce yourself & tell your group about your personality
b. As a group, identify the 4 descriptive terms used most frequently
among you. Why do you think those specific terms were used?
c. Identify any of the self-descriptive terms that do not really qualify
as personality characteristics. (words like “tall”, “fat”, “smart”,
etc… aren’t personality characteristics.
d. What makes a personal quality part of your personality?
4) After 5 minutes or so, break into groups of 4-5
a. Have the answer the above questions in their groups.
5) Conclude with the definition of personality:
“ Personality is the Organization of enduring behavior patterns that often
serve to distinguish us from each other.”
1. Distinctiveness – thus psychologists study “differences” & create tests
to measure.
2. Enduring patterns – “predictability”
3. Organization of Individuality – mind & body related? Inherited or
learned? Free will?
Psychoanalytic Perspective – Freud
Free Association – method to explore unconsciousness
Psychoanalysis – treating psychological disorders by interpreting
unconscious thoughts
Unconscious according to Freud – bad thoughts, wishes, feelings,
memories
Id – reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic
sexual & aggressive drives. Operates on the “pleasure principal” –
immediate gratification.
Ego – “executive” part of personality – mediator
Super ego – internalized ideals & provides standards & future aspirations
Freud’s psychosexual stages – oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
Oedipus Complex – hate rival father – sexually desire mom (phallic stage)
Identification process – incorporate parent’s values
Freudian Slips – occur due to unconscious conflicts – some hidden motive
(according to Freud) – has been disproven. What really happens is
our subconscious takes over the mundane tasks, and we have active
attention lags…..
HANDOUT - Defense Mechanisms - & process
HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
Maslow – Self-Actualization
Rogers – person-centered – unconditional positive regard
Criticisms – subjective – can lead to self-indulgence, does not take into
account human capacity for evil
TRAIT PERSPECTIVE
Allport / Myers-Briggs
Empirically derived – developed by testing a pool of items & slecting those
that discriminate between groups
Big 5 Factors
Person / situation controversy & change vs. stable controversy
SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
Bandura
Reciprocal-determinism – interaction of internal factors, environment &
behaviors
Locus of Control – external vs. internal
Learned Helplessness
Criticism – too much emphasis on situation – not enough on individual
CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES:
The Self & the Modern Unconscious
Exploring the Self – Handout – Self Esteem Scale
Reverse score 3, 5, 8, 9 & 10
Higher scores reflect greater sense of self-worth
Measures general satisfaction with your life
Feeling good about oneself seems to cause a rosy glow over one’s
specific self-schema.
Our sense of self is a pivotal center of personality. From our self-focused
perspective we assume that others are noticing and evaluating us –
“spotlight effect.” You are your own worst enemy, in most cases
Self-esteem – is it good or bad?
How do minorities, women, etc…. that have faced discrimination and
lower status maintain their self-esteem?
1) They value the things they excel in
2) The attribute problems to prejudice
3) The do like everyone else does – compare themselves to those
in their own group
Self-serving bias – we perceive ourselves favorably
We accept credit rather than take blame
We see ourselves as better than average
EXERCISE – demonstrates name-letter bias & subconscious
awareness
Share with class that although the task may seem silly, you would like
them to rate how much they like each letter. Each student should do so
rapidly just giving immediate impressions.
1. After doing the exercise – have students write their first and last
name at the top
2. Explain what the letters above the columns on the right mean:
IYFN “in your first name”. NIYFN “not in your first name”. IYLN
“in your last name”. NIYLN “not in your Last name.
3. Fill in the rating for each letter under the appropriate column.
For example if the student rated “R” a “5” and it is not in their
first name but in their last name – they should put the “5” score
in the NIYFN column, and in the IYLN.
4. Calculate the mean for each column
How many had a higher average for letters in your first name than for
letters NOT in your first name? Last name?
Illustrates “mere-ownership” effect….. found in over a dozen languages. It
is not due to name letters being more frequent, or to you trying to guess
the significance of the survey……
Individualism vs. Collectivism
The modern unconscious mind
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Schemas that automatically control our perceptions and interpretations
Parallel processing of different aspects of vision and thinking
Implicit memories that operate without conscious recall
Emotions that activate instantly, before conscious analysis
Self-concept & stereotypes that unconsciously influence how we process info
about ourselves and others.