What is more important in determining your behavior - your personality or the siltation in which
you are in (the environment)? Are you a "nice" person? If you said yes, are you always nice? The
answer, if you are being honest, is no.
The question then is, if you are a "nice" person (and thus that is part of your personality), why
aren't you nice all the time; how can you be every not be nice if that is your personality?
According to personality theorists, the human personality is enduring and the determining factor
in human behavior. But, as you will see in the Social Psychology section (later in the semester),
this may not be exactly the case. For now, let's take a look at what Personality is according to
Personality theorists.
Personality can be defined as an individuals unique, relatively consistent pattern of thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors.
I.
The Psychobiological approach (the perspective that personality is determined by
biological factors).
temperament -- a person's characteristic emotional state, first apparent in early infancy and
possibly inborn.
A. Hippocrates' view -- According to Hippocrates, temperament is determined by a person's
level of 4 different body fluids, called humors.
1) Blood was associated with a cheerful, or sanguine temperament.
2) Phlegm assoc. with a calm, or phlegmatic temperament.
3) Black bile was associated with a depressed, or melancholic temperament.
4) Yellow bile was assoc. w/ an irritable, or choleric temperament.
B. Phrenology and Physiognomy
1) Phrenology -- the study of bumps on the skull (believed in the 19th century to be associated
with particular personality and intellectual characteristics).
2) Physiognomy -- the study of the face (based on the belief that personality was revealed by
facial features.
C. Physique and Personality -- Somatotypes (body types) -- Constitutional theory of
personality -- William Sheldon. According to this view, there is al ink between a person's body
type and personality.
1) ectomorph -- thin, frail body; believed by Sheldon to reveal a shy, restrained, and
introspective temperament called cerebrotonia.
2) mesomorph -- muscular, strong body; believed to display a bold, assertive, and energetic
temperament called somatotonia.
3) endomorph -- large, soft body; believed to display a relaxed, sociable and easygoing
temperament called viscerotonia.
D. Heredity and Personality
Behavioral Genetics -- the study of the relationship between heredity and behavior.
1) support for this perspective is demonstrated by the differences found in infants. At that early
age, personality theorists say that the baby has not had time to learn how to behave, but is
behaving according to their innate personalities.
2) Bouchard studies of identical twins reared apart. These studies demonstrate that identical
twins who grow up in different homes often exhibit many similar behaviors and characteristics.
II. The Psychoanalytic Approach (rooted in the psychobiological approach) - this theory is
extremely popular, and was developed by Freud.
A. Psychosexual Theory of the Structure of Personality
1) Id (Latin for "it") -- contains innate biological drives, seeks immediate gratification, and
operates by the pleasure principle (seeking gratification of impulses).
2) Ego (Latin for "I") -- helps the individual adapt to external reality by making compromises
between the id, the superego, and the environment. Operates by the "reality principle" -- directs
the individual to express sexual and aggressive impulses in socially acceptable ways.
3) Superego (Latin for "over the I") -- acts as our moral guide; contains the conscience, which
makes us feel guilty for doing or thinking something wrong; also contains the ego ideal, which
makes us feel good for wanting or doing something good.
4) Defense Mechanisms -- distort reality to protect the ego from anxiety caused by id impulses.
There are many different types of defense mechanisms:
a) repression -- this is the most often used and central main defense mechanism; it is common to
all the others. Repression can be defined as the banishment of threatening thoughts, feelings, and
memories into the unconscious mind.
b) denial -- refusal to admit a particular aspect of reality.
c) regression -- individual displays immature behaviors that have relieved anxiety in the past
d) rationalization -- providing socially acceptable reasons for our inappropriate behavior
e) intellectualization -- reducing anxiety by reacting to emotional situations in a detached,
unemotional way.
f) projection -- attributing our undesirable feelings to others.
g) displacement -- expressing feelings toward something or someone besides the target person,
because they are perceived as less threatening.
h) reaction formation -- acting in a manner opposite our true feelings.
i) compensation -- reacting to a personal deficiency by developing another talent.
j) sublimation -- expression of sexual or aggressive impulses through indirect, socially
acceptable ones.
B. Analytic Psychology -- Carl Jung
Unlike the Psychosexual approach, the analytic approach de-emphasizes the sex motive
1) Personal Unconscious -- the individuals own unconscious mind.
2) Collective Unconscious -- the unconscious mind that is shared by all human beings and that
contains archetypal images passed down from our prehistoric ancestors.
3) Archetypes -- inherited images which are passed down from our prehistoric ancestors and
reveal themselves as universal symbols in art, dreams, and religion.
4) Extrovert -- a person who tend to focus on the external world and people. People often
associate being socially outgoing with extroversion, but that is a little too simplistic. Extroverts
may be more outgoing in that they gain energy from the other people and the external
environment, and usually prefer to be with others.
5) Introvert -- a person who is focused on (often preoccupied) with his or her private mental
experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
III. The Dispositional Approach
A. Type Theories (Eysenck)
1. Unstable/Stable
2. Introverted/ Extroverted
B. Trait Theories -- (Allport, Cattell) -- a trait is a relatively enduring, cross-situationally
consistent personality characteristic that is inferred from a person’s behavior.
1) Allport -- created a measure to identify each person’s ‘central traits’; indicated that there is a
hierarchy of 3 basic trait types:
a) cardinal (similar to types) - this is the big one. Cardinal traits are dominant traits that
characterize most of (or almost all) of a person's behavior. Cardinal traits completely dominate a
person's sense of self. For example, Charles Manson's evilness could be identified as a cardinal
trait or Mother Teresa's altruism.
It is important to note that cardinal traits are not common. Most people do not have these
traits...people with cardinal traits are considered rare.
b) central (humorous, kind) - these traits are central, prominent traits that everyone has (unlike
cardinal traits). Our personalities are built upon the central traits. They are influential, but don't
dominate like the cardinal traits.
c) secondary (food preferences, etc.) - these are traits that are only exhibited in some situations.
For example, someone may be kind most of the time, but become very selfish in other situations.
2) Raymond Cattell- factor analysis; 16PF (personality factor) 16 basic traits in all people in
varying degrees
3) Hans Eyesenck- believed could classify all people along introversion-extraversion scale and a
stable-unstable scale
4) Trait theorists believe we can describe people’s personalities by specifying their main
characteristics or traits.
a) Nomothetic approach. Theorists that believe that the same basic set of traits can be used to
describe all people’s personalities
b) Idiographic theorists- argue that each person should be seen in terms of the few traits that best
characterize their uniqueness
c) A number of contemporary trait theorists believe that personality can be described using the
big five personality traits- extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to
experience emotional stability
d) The number of traits is derived from factor analysis- a statistical technique that allows
researchers to use correlations between traits.
C. Dispositional Assessment of Personality
1) Personality Types -- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
2) Personality Traits -- MMPI, CPI
IV. The Behavioral Approach - this approach rejects the importance of biological factors in
favor of the environmental forces. Instead of traits, behavioral approach proponents believe that
behavior is a function of environmental factors and learning.
A. Operant Conditioning Theory -since operant conditioning was already discussed in an
earlier section, we won't go into much detail.
B.F. Skinner was a major proponent of this perspective and believed that what most people
referred to as personality was simply a person's distinct behavior pattern that emerged in specific
situations. For example, you may think that your teacher is very timid and a straight arrow
because you see them only in a very specific situation (the classroom or in the school setting).
However, your teacher may behave very differently in another situation that contradicts your
perception of their "personality".
B. Social Cognitive Theory (Albert Bandura) -- this perspective is quite similar to the
behavioral perspective, but here cognitive factors are also considered important in determining
behavior (remember that cognitive factors are ignored in strict behavioral theory). So, according
to the Social Cognitive Perspective, the environment/learning and cognition are the determining
factors in behavior. In addition, there are two important concepts you need to be familiar with:
1) reciprocal determinism -- Bandura’s belief that personality traits, environmental factors, and
overt behavior don't determine behavior in isolation. Rather, these factors affect each other to
determine our behaviors. Reciprocal determinism also relies on a person's self-efficacy.
2) self - efficacy -- a person’s belief that he or she can perform behaviors that are necessary to
produce a desired outcome. Self-efficacy influences what choices we make in different
situations, the situations we enter, and the outcomes. For example, do you think a person with
low self-efficacy would enter a situation in which they must perform a difficult task in front of a
large crowd of people?
C. Behavioral Assessment - to measure a person's personality, there are several tools
Psychologists with a behavioral perspective may use:
1) Behavioral observation
2) Experience sampling
3) Situational interview
4) Behavioral checklists
5) Cognitive-Behavioral Assessment (Rotter’s Internal/External Locus of Control Scale)
V. The Cognitive Approach
A. Personal Construct Theory (George Kelly) -- Human beings are lay scientists who
continually test hypotheses about social reality (these hypotheses are personal constructs).
1) constructive alternativism -- the ability to apply different personal constructs to a given
situation.
B. Cognitive Assessment -- Role Construct Repertory Test (Kelly) -- three persons; how are the
first two similar and different from the third? How many constructs does the individual use to
distinguish between people? Are they too inflexible or flexible (stereotypes vs. ability to predict
behavior).
VI. The Humanistic Approach
A. Self-Actualization Theory (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
B. Self Theory -- incongruence between the self and personal experience. Healthy people have
congruence between the self and the ideal self.
C. Humanistic Assessment -1) Personal Orientation Inventory -- measures the degree to which a person’s values and attitudes
agree with those of Maslow’s description of self-actualized p
TermsDefinitions
Personality
Free association
Psychoanalysis
Unconscious
Id
An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person
relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or
embarrassing.
Freud's theory of personality and therapeutic technique that attributes thoughts
and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. Freud believed the patient's
free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences—and the therapist's
interpretations of them—released previously repressed feelings, allowing the
patient to gain self-insight.
According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes,
feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information
processing of which we are unaware.
Contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud,
strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. Operates on the pleasure
principle, demanding immediate gratification.
Ego
Superego
Psychosexual stages
Oedipus complex
Identification
Fixation
Defense mechanisms
Repression
Regression
Reaction formation
Projection
Rationalization
Displacement
The largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud,
mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates
on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically
bring pleasure rather than pain
The part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals
and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future
aspirations.
The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during
which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct
erogenous zones.
According to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of
jealousy and hatred for the rival father.
The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents'
values into their developing superegos.
according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier
psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by
unconsciously distorting reality
in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from
consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories
psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety
retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy
remains fixated
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches
unacceptable impulses into their opposites.
psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own
threatening impulses by attributing them to others
Defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real,
more threatening, unconscious reasons for ones actions.
psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses
toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when
redirecting anger toward a safer outlet
Collective unconscious Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our
species' history
Projective test
a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous
stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics
Thematic Apperception test TAT
a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and
interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous
scenes
Rorschach inkblot test the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann
Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their
interpretations of the blots
Terror-management theory
Proposes that faith in one's worldview and the pursuit of self-esteem
provide protection against a deeply rooted fear of death.
Self actualization
according to Maslow, the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic
physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the
motivation to fulfill one's potential.
Unconditional positive regard according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another
person
Self-concept
All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question "who
am I?"
Trait
a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed
by self-report inventories and peer reports
Personality inventory A questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide
range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.
MMPI
The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests - originally
designed to identify emotional disorders
Empirically derived test
A test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that
discriminate between groups.
Social-cognitive perspective
Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons and
their social context.
Reciprocal determinism
The interacting influences between personality and environmental
factors.
Personal control
Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.
External locus of control
The perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal
control determine our fate.
Internal locus of control
The belief that an individual has more control over life circumstances
than the environment does.
Learned helplessness
Lack of motivation to avoid unpleasant stimuli after one has failed
before to escape similar stimuli
Positive psychology
A psychology concerned not only with weakness and damage but also
with strength and virtue.
Spotlight effect
overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance,
performance, and blunders.
Self-esteem
One's feelings of high or low self-worth
Self-serving bias
A readiness to perceive oneself favorably.
Personality
is the unique attitudes, behaviors, and emotions that characterize a
person.