CHAPTER 15 LECTURE NOTES: PERSONALITY
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Personality:
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individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
Four basic perspectives:
1. Psychoanalytic
2. Trait
3. Humanistic
4. Social-cognitive
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5. Freud's theory: proposes that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE
Psychoanalysis
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Technique of treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret 6. unconscious tensions
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Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality sought to explain what he observed during psychoanalysis
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7. Free Association
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method of exploring the unconscious
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person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing
8. Unconscious
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Freud’s theory: a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories
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Current theory: information processing of which we are unaware
9. Preconscious: information that is not conscious, but is readily retrievable into conscious awareness
Personality Structure
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10. ID: reservoir of unconscious psychic energy
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strives to satisfy 11. basic drives … sexual and aggressive
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operates on the 12. pleasure principle; demanding immediate gratification
13. SUPEREGO: part of personality that represents 14. internalized ideals
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provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations
15. EGO: largely conscious, 16. "executive" part of personality
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17. mediates among the demands of the id, superego and ego
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operates on the 18. reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring
pleasure rather than pain
Personality Development
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Psychosexual Stages: childhood stages of development during which the pleasure-seeking energies focus
on distinct erogenous zones
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19. Oedipus Complex: boy's sexual desires towards his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the
“rival” father
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20. Electra Complex: came later…. girl's sexual desires towards her father and feelings of jealousy and
hatred for the “rival” mother
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Freud's Psychosexual Stages
STAGE
FOCUS
21. ORAL (0-18 months)
Pleasure center on the mouth … sucking, biting,
chewing
22. ANAL (18-36 months)
Pleasure focuses on bowel & bladder elimination;
coping with demands for control
23. PHALLIC (3-6 years)
Pleasure zone is genitals; coping with incestuous
sexual feelings
24. LATENCY (6 to puberty)
Dormant sexual feelings
25. GENITAL (puberty & on …)
Maturation of sexual interests
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26. Identification: the process by which children incorporate their parents' values into their developing
superegos
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27. Gender Identity: one's sense of being male or female
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28. Fixation: a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where
conflicts were unresolved … nail biters or gum chewers may be fixated in the Oral Stage.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
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29. Defense Mechanisms: the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
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30. Repression: basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and
memories from consciousness
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31. Regression: individual retreats when faced with anxiety, to a more infantile psychosexual stage
where some psychic energy remains fixated … college freshman goes home for Thanksgiving, has
mom wash clothes, fix favorite dinner, tuck him in at night, etc……
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32. Reaction Formation: the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites.
People may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings.
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33. Projection: people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
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34. Rationalization: offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious
reasons for one's actions
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35. Displacement: shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening
object or person .... when angry with your parents, you kick a hole in your bedroom door
NEO-FREUDIANS
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36. Alfred Adler: importance of childhood social tension
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37. Karen Horney: sought to balance Freud's masculine biases
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38. Carl Jung: emphasizes collective unconscious … concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces
from our species' history
ASSESSING THE UNCONSCIOUS
 39. Projective Test: personality test, such as the Rorschach or T AT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed
to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics
 40. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): projective test in which people express their inner feelings and
interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
 41. Rorschach Inkblot Test: most widely used projective test, uses a set of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann
Rorschach to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.
TRAIT PERSPECTIVE
 Trait: characteristic pattern of behavior; a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and
peer reports
 42. Personality Inventory: questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people
respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality
traits
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Big Five Personality Factors
TRAIT DIMENSION
43. EMOTIONAL
STABILITY
44. EXTRAVERSION
45. OPENNESS
46. AGREEABLE
47. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
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DESCRIPTION
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Calm versus anxious
Secure versus insecure
Self-satisfied versus self-pitying
Sociable versus retiring
Fun-loving versus sober
Affectionate versus reserved
Imaginative versus practical
Preference for variety versus
preference for routine
Independent versus conforming
Soft-hearted versus ruthless
Trusting versus suspicious
Helpful versus uncooperative
Organized versus disorganized
Careful versus careless
Disciplined versus impulsive
48. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
 The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests
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Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use)
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Now used for many other screening purposes
49. Empirically Derived Test: test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that
discriminate between groups … similar to MMPI
EVALUATING THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE
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Situational influences on behavior are important to consider
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People can fake 49.5 desirable responses on self-report measures of personality
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Averaging behavior across situations seems to indicate that people do have distinct personality traits
HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
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50. Carl Rogers (1902-1987): focused on growth and fulfillment of individuals
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Requires three conditions:
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51. Genuineness
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52. Acceptance- unconditional positive regard: an attitude of total acceptance toward
another person
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53. Empathy
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Self- 54. Concept: all of our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in an answer to the question "Who
am I"?"
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Self- 55. Esteem: one's feelings of high or low self-worth
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Self- 56. Serving Bias: a readiness to perceive oneself favorably
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57. Individualism: giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in
terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications
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58. Collectivism: giving priority to the goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group)
and defining one's identity accordingly.
Contrasts Between Individualism and Collectivism
CONCEPT
SELF
INDIVIDUALISM
COLLECTIVISM
59. Independent
59. Interdependent
(identity from individual traits)
(identity from belongings)
LIFE TASK
Discover and express one’s
uniqueness
Maintain connections
WHAT MATTERS
60. Me, personal achievement and
fulfillment; rights and liberties
We, group goals and
solidarity; social
responsibilities and
relationships
COPING METHOD
61. Change reality
62. Accommodate reality
MORALITY
Defined by individuals (self-based)
Defined by 63. social
networks (duty-based)
RELATIONSHIPS
Many, often temporary or casual;
Few, close and enduring;
64. confrontation acceptable
65. harmony valued
Behavior reflects 66. one’s
personality and attitudes
Behavior reflects 67. social
norm and roles
ATTRIBUTING
BEHAVIOR
EVALUATING THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
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Concepts like self-actualization are 68. vague
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Emphasis on self may promote self-indulgence and lack of concern for others.
Theory does not address reality of human capacity for 69. evil
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Theory has impacted popular ideas on child rearing, education, management, etc.
SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
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Reciprocal Determinism: 70. interacting influences between personality and environmental factors
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Personal Control: 71. our sense of controlling our environments rather than feeling helpless
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External Locus of Control: 72. perception that chance or outside forces beyond one's personal control
determine one's fate
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Internal Locus of Control: 73. the perception that one controls one's own fate
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Learned Helplessness: 74. hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when
unable to avoid repeated aversive events
EVALUATING THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
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Built from research on learning and cognition
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Fails to consider 75. unconscious motives and individual disposition
Today, 76. cognitive-behavioral theory is perhaps predominant psychological approach to explaining
human behavior