Karen Horney- Neo-Freudian
Carol Gilligan- Men and women have different feelings
about things, women act differently. Don’t need
physiological needs. Maslow is more sexist than she would
like.
Carl Rodgers- Just like Maslow said- people are basically
good. You must accept your SELF not yourself.
A.G.E
A- Acceptance
G- Genuineness- open with your feelings and honest with
your self.
E- Empathy
If you grow up and your parents give you unconditional
positive regard- complete acceptance of who you are, you
make a mistake they still love you.
Ideal Self- Hope what you can be.
Actual Self- What you are.
Criticism of Humanistic Psychology- Very difficult to do a
lot of research. Everyone has different views of themselves.
1. Rollo May- Sees everyone is good, but there is evil in
the world.
2. Because it’s so involved with individuals rather than
groups, people concentrate so much on themselves
they end up being selfish.
Trait Perspective
- Open-minded
- Non-judgmental
- Social
- Unorganized
- Opinionated
Characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel
and act as assessed by self report inventories, and peer
reports.
Gordan AllportIsabel Myers and Katherine Briggs
EysenckIntroverted
Extraverted
Unstable
Stable
Five factors that explain personality
C.A.N.O.E
C- Conscientiousness 4, 4, 4
A- Agreeableness- 2, 3, 2
N- Neuroticism- 3, 4, 4
O- Openness- 3, 1, 3
E- Extraversion- 1, 2, 2
MMPI-2- Minesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Measures personality traits, empirically derived, most
extensively researched and widely used personality
inventory.
Personality
 Motivation- a need or desire that energizes and directs
behavior
 Instinct- complex behavior that is rigidly patterned
throughout a species and is unlearned
 Drive-Reduction Theory- the idea that a physiological
need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that
motivates an organism to satisfy the need
 Homeostasis- 1. tendency to maintain a balanced or
constant internal state 2. regulation of any aspect of
body chemistry around a particular level
 Incentives- a positive or negative environmental
stimulus that motivates behavior.
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
 Self-actualization needs Need to live up one’s
fullest and unique potential
1. Esteem needs
Need for self-esteem, achievement, competence,
and independence; need for recognition and
respect from others
 Belongingness and love needs
Need to love and be loved, to belong and be accepted; need
to avoid loneliness and alienation
 Safety needs
Need to feel that the world is organized and predictable;
need to feel safe, secure, and stable
 Physiological needs
Need to satisfy hunger and thirst.
 begins with physiological needs that must be satisfied
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the higher-level safety needs become active
then psychological needs become active
Karen Horney- Neo-Freudian
Carol Gilligan- Men and women have different feelings
about things, women act differently. Don’t need
physiological needs. Maslow is more sexist than she would
like.
Carl Rodgers- Just like Maslow said- people are basically
good. You must accept your SELF not yourself.
A.G.E
A- Acceptance
G- Genuineness- open with your feelings and honest with
your self.
E- Empathy
If you grow up and your parents give you unconditional
positive regard- complete acceptance of who you are, you
make a mistake they still love you.
Ideal Self- Hope what you can be.
Actual Self- What you are.
Self Serving Bias- People tend to look favorably at
themselves.
Personality
Social Cognitive Perspective
- Views behavior as influenced by the interaction
between people’s traits and their social context.
 An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking,
feeling, and acting
 Four basic perspectives
 Psychoanalytic
 Trait
 Humanistic
 Social-cognitive
 From Freud’s theory which proposes that
childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations
influence personality
 Biological Influence- Genetically determined
temperment, autonomic nervous system, brain
activity
 Psychological- Learned responses, unconscious
thought processes, expectations and
interpretations
 Social-cultural influence- Childhood
experiences, influenced of the situation, cultural
expectations, social support.
Positive Psychology- Positive emotions.
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
 Psychoanalysis
 Technique of treating psychological disorders by
seeking to expose and interpret unconscious
tensions
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Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality
sought to explain what he observed during
psychoanalysis
Free Association
Method of exploring the unconscious
Person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind,
no matter how trivial or embarrassing
Unconscious
Freud-a reservoir of mostly unacceptable
thoughts, wishes. Feelings and memories
Contemporary-information processing of which
we are unaware
Preconscious- information that is not conscious,
but is retrievable into conscious awareness
Personality Structure
 ID
 A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy
 Strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive
drives
 Operates on the pleasure principle. Demanding
immediate gratification
 SUPEREGO
 The part of personality that presents internalized
ideals
 Provides standards for judgement and for future
aspirations
 EGO
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The largely conscious, “executive” part of
personality
Mediates among the demands of the id, superego
and ego
Operates on the reality principle, satisfying the
id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring
pleasure rather than pain
Personality Development
 Psychosexual Stages- the childhood stages of
development during which the pleasure-seeking
energies focus on distinct erogenous zones
 Oedipus Complex- a boy’s sexual desires
towards his mother and feelings of jealousy and
hatred for the rival father
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Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
STAGE
FOCUS
Oral (0-18 months)
Pleasure centers on the
mouth---sucking, biting, chewing
Anal (18-36 months)
Pleasure focuses on
bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands
for control
Phallic (3-6 years)
Pleasure zone in genitals;
coping with incestuous sexual feeling
Latency ( 6 to puberty)
Dormant sexual feelings
Genital (puberty on)
Maturation of sexual
interests
Personality Development
 Identification- the process by which children
incorporate their parents’ values into their
developing superegos
 Gender Identity- one’s sense of being male or
female
 Fixation- a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking
energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where
conflicts were unresolved
Defense Mechanisms
 Defense Mechanisms- the ego’s protective
methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously
distorting reality
 Repression- the basic defense mechanism that
banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and
memories from consciousness
 Regression- defense mechanism in which an
individual retreats, when faced with anxiety, to a
more infantile psychosexual stage where some
psychic energy remains fixated
 Reaction Formation- defense mechanism by
which the ego unconsciously switches
unacceptable impulses into their opposites.
People may express feelings that are the opposite
of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings.
 Projection- defense mechanism by which people
disguise their own threatening impulses by
attributing them to others
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Rationalization- defense mechanism that offers
self-justifying explanations in place of the real,
more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s
actions
Displacement- defense mechanism that shifts
sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more
acceptable or less threatening object or
person…as when redirecting anger towards a
safer outlet
Neo-Freudians
 Alfred Adler- importance of childhood social
tension
 Karen Horney- sought to balance Freud’s
masculine biases
 Carl Jung- emphasizes collective
unconscious…concept of a shared, inherited
reservoir of memory traces from our species’
history
Assessing The Unconscious
 Projective Test- a personality rest, such as the
Rorschach or TAT, that provided ambiguous
stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s
inner dynamics
 Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)- a
projective test in which people express their
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inner feelings and interests through the stories
they make up about ambiguous scenes
Rorschach Inkblot Test- the 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.
The Trait Perspective
 Trait- a characteristic pattern of behavior; a
disposition to feel and act, as assessed by selfreport inventories and peer reports
 Personality Inventory- a 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
 The “Big Five” personality Factors
Trait Dimension
Description
Emotional Stability
Calm versus anxious
Secure versus insecure
Self-satisfied versus self-pitying
Extraversion
Sociable versus retiring
Fun-loving versus sober
Affectionate versus reserved
Openness
Imaginative versus
practical
Preference for variety versus preference for routine
Independent versus conforming
Extraversion
Soft-hearted versus
ruthless Trusting versus suspicious Helpful versus
uncooperative
Conscientiousness
Organized versus
disorganized Careful versus careless Disciplined
versus impulsive
 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI)
 The most widely researched and clinically used
of all personality tests
 Originally developed to identify emotional
disorders (still considered its most appropriate
use)
 Now used for many other screening purposes
 Empirically Derived Test- a test developed by
testing a pool of items and then selecting those
that discriminate between groups…similar to
MMPI
Evaulating The Trait Perspective
 Situational influences on behavior are important
to consider
 People can fake desirable responses on selfreport measures of personality
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Averaging behavior across situations seems to
indicate that people do have distinct personality
traits
Humanistic Perspective
 Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)- studied selfactualization processes of productive and healthy
people
 Self-Actualization- 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
 Carl Rogers (1902-1987)- focused on growth
and fulfillment of individuals
 Requires three conditions
1. Genuineness
2. Acceptance- unconditional positive regard
3. Empathy
 Unconditional Positive Regard- an attitude of
total acceptance toward another person
 Self-Concept- all of our thoughts and feelings
about ourselves, in an answer to the question
“Who am I”?”
 Self-Esteem- one’s feelings of high or low selfworth
 Self-Serving Bias- a readiness to perceive
oneself favorably
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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
Collectivism- giving priority to the goals of
one’s group (often one’s extended family or
work group) and defining one’s identity
accordingly
Evaluating The Humanistic Perspective
 Concepts like self-actualization are vague
 Emphasis on self may promote self-indulgence
and lack of concern for others
 Theory does not address reality of human
capacity for evil
 Theory has impacted popular ideas on child
rearing, education, management, etc.
Social-Cognitive Personality Perspective
 Reciprocal Determinism- the interacting
influences between personality (thinking) and
environmental (friends) factors and behavior.
 Personal Control- our sense of controlling our
environments rather than feeling helpless
 External Locus of Control- the perception that
chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal
control determine one’s fate
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Internal Locus of Control- the perception that
one controls one’s own fate, act independently,
less depressed, have better health.
Learned Helplessness- the hopelessness and
passive resignation an animal or human learns
when unable to avoid repeated aversive (bad)
events
Built from research on learning and cognition
Fails to consider unconscious motives and
individual disposition
Today, cognitive-behavioral theory is perhaps
predominant psychological approach to
explaining human behavior
Positive Psychology
Is personality stable over time?
Personality stability- With age personality traits
become more stable. Personality traits are stable
on the average- unless something tramatic
happens.
A Hierarchy of Motives
Physiological Needs
These are biological needs. They consist of needs for
oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body
temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a
person were deprived of all needs, the physiological
ones would come first in the person's search for
satisfaction.
Safety Needs
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no
longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs
for security can become active. Adults have little
awareness of their security needs except in times of
emergency or periods of disorganization in the social
structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often
display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.
Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
When the needs for safety and for physiological wellbeing are satisfied, the next class of needs for love,
affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow
states that people seek to overcome feelings of
loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving
and receiving love, affection and the sense of
belonging.
Needs for Esteem
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the
needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve
needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person
gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable,
firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect
from others. When these needs are satisfied, the
person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in
the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person
feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.
Needs for Self-Actualization
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and
only then are the needs for self-actualization activated.
Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need
to be and do that which the person was "born to do."
"A musician must make music, an artist must paint,
and a poet must write." These needs make themselves
felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge,
tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person
is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking
self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is
restless about. It is not always clear what a person
wants when there is a need for self-actualization.
Self Transendance