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Grand Theories
Psychodynamic Perspective
 psychodynamic theories represent a very diverse set of
loosely related theories which in some way can be related
to the work of Freud
 and while theorists working under this orientation share
common intellectual heritage not always agreement
amongst them
 people who adhere to this approach do not deny that
people differ in terms of personality traits, that is some
people are more sociable than others etc, they argue
however that the trait approach is rather superficial
 they argue that what people do and say and think is only
the "tip" of the iceberg -- this metaphor seen again
 they argue that human behaviour to a large extent based
on factors of which they are often unaware
 thus, to understand an individual need to understand
these hidden psychological forces (dynamics)
Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory (1900-1939)
 Freud born in 1856 and died in 1939 (cancer of the jaw
and mouth) and spend most of his time in Vienna
 as a young man he decided that he wanted to be a
scientist and with this goal in mind he entered medical
school in Vienna in 1873
 while Freud never intended to practice medicine a variety
of factors -- e.g., limited remuneration for scientific work,
limited opportunities for academic advancement (because
of anti-Semitism), and demands of growing family -forced him to begin private practice
1
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Personality Theories
2
 in spite of his practice however, he did find time to engage
in research
 Freud seemed intent on obtaining fame
 look at his biographies can see what appears to be
Freud's continuing search for fame -- regardless of the
area of study
 e.g.,
- despite being told that the attempt would be futile,
dissected some 400 male eels to prove that they
had testicles
 Freud was unable to conclusively locate the
eel's testes but did believe he had found
them, and later research would prove him
right
 He was not happy that the results of his work
were less than definitive however, not until
after the First World War were male testes
conclusively, right where Freud thought they
were
- Freud is also seen to have played a significant role
in the development of the Western cocaineindustry
 he wrote: "I take very small doses of it
regularly and against depression and against
indigestion, and with the most brilliant
success
 Drug giants Merck and Parke Davies both
paid Freud to endorse their rival brands.
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Personality Theories
- Freud wrote several enthusiastic papers on
cocaine, notably Über Coca (1884). and
concluded Über Coca by recommending seven
conditions for which cocaine pharmacotherapy
might prove valuable:
 as a mental stimulant
 as a possible treatment for digestive
disorders
 as an appetite stimulant in case of wasting
diseases
 as a treatment for morphine and alcohol
addiction
 as a treatment for asthma
 as an aphrodisiac
 as a local anaesthetic
 after failing in these attempts to gain fame, starts work in
another area
 at the time that Freud was beginning his work as a
physician (Victorian era), quite common for many of his
patients, especially females, to present with problem
known then as
 hysteria - symptoms consisted of a strange variety of
physical and mental complaints - total or partial blindness
or deafness, paralysis or loss of feeling of various parts of
the body, controllable trembling or convulsive attacks,
distortions or gaps of memory
 except for the symptomotology with which these
individuals presented themselves, they were no way
considered insane -- seem to be able to speak lucidly and
were not institutionalized
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Personality Theories
4
 first indication that these symptoms reflected a
psychological disorder rather than a physical or organic
disorder was presented by a French neurologist Jean
Charcot who noticed that many of symptoms of hysteria
made no "medical" sense
 for example, common symptom of hysteria was loss of
feeling in their hands with no loss of feeling above their
wrists (glove anesthesia)
 Charcot noted that this could not possibly be caused by
any nerve injury, since in was known that an injury to any
of the relevant nerve trunks must affect a portion of the
arm above the wrist -- thus, the symptoms of hysteria
were incompatible with what was known about human
physiology
 while other people working at this time attempted to treat
cases of hysteria from an approach that recognized its
non-organic cause (e.g, using hypnosis etc), these people
met with mixed success
 it was Freud, in collaboration with another physician, Josef
Breuer, who suggested that the attempts to "cure" hysteria
just by removing the symptoms were necessarily futile,
what was needed was to get to the underlying cause of
the symptoms
 Freud and Breuer believed that the hysterical symptoms
were a disguised means of keeping certain emotionally
charged memories repressed and they believed further
that once these memories were brought to awareness the
symptoms would disappear
 at first, Freud and Breuer tried to get their patients to
recall these buried memories while they were supposedly
under "hypnotic trance"
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Personality Theories
5
 one of Breuer's cases was that of someone who has
become known in the literature as "Anna O", a 21 year old
woman who presented with wide range of hysterical
symptoms: various paralyses, hysterical squints, coughs,
occasional speech disorders etc
 under hypnosis, she was able to recall certain crucial
events in her past that seemed to be the cause of these
various symptoms, with many of these events dating back
to a traumatic period of her life when she was caring for
her dying father
 e.g., her symptom of a nervous cough was traced back to
an occasion when she was sitting at her father's bedside
and heard the sound of "dance music" coming from a
neighbors house -- she recalled wanting to be there
(instead of at her father's side) and immediately felt guilty - she supposedly remember covering up these feelings of
guilt with a nervous cough
 after this event she coughed uncontrollably whenever she
heard any kind of rhythmic or dance music
 this symptom reportedly disappeared after the forgotten
episode was recalled
 Breuer relates these types of findings to Freud and Freud
is intrigued and develops his theory of psychoanalytic
psychology
 as opposed to behaviourism, psychoanalytic psychology
focused on problems people had in living rather than on
just their behaviour
 central in the development of psychoanalysis, is the
concept to unconscious - which Freud believed to
contain thoughts, memories, and desires that were not
available (thus below) conscious awareness but
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Personality Theories
nevertheless exerted influence on behaviour (e.g., Anna's
coughing)
 essentially then, psychoanalytic theory attempted to
explain personality, motivation and some physiological
disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of
behavior
Freud's Conception of the Structure of Personality
 Freud believed that there were three more or less distinct
subsystems of personality (ICEBERG OVERHEAD)
Id - source of psychic energy, most primitive portion of
personality and source of other two structures
 contains all biological urges
 id is totally unconscious, no contact with reality
 cannot differentiate between self and world/fantasy and
reality
 works on pleasure principle (seek pleasure/avoid pain)
 based on primary process thinking- illogical, primitive,
irrational, fantastical
 infant at birth is believed to be all ID
Ego-personality structure that develops from id, and is
structure that deals with the demands of reality
 develops when infant learns that he/she can't get
immediate gratification and must reconcile the demand of
the id with the restrictions of the external worlds (e.g.,
have to say please to get something)
 it's through this kind of interaction that ego eventually
develops
 thus, ego derived from id and is essentially still in its
service
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Personality Theories
7
 makes rational decisions
 operates on reality principle-ego attempts to bring the
individual as much pleasure as possible within the
boundaries of reality
 ego also wants to maximize pleasure/gratification but uses
secondary-process thinking - which is realistic, rational,
oriented toward problem solving
 ego partly conscious and houses higher mental functions
(reasoning, problem solving) and thus often referred to as
executive branch of personality
Superego - structure of personality that can be considered
to be the moral branch of personality
 thus superego evaluates whether or not something is right
or wrong
 prior to its development, ego only had to be concerned
with external reality (e.g., steal cookie -- might get caught)
however learns that this is wrong
 superego becomes egos other master (i.e., along with id)
 thus, ego often in conflict between primitive desires of the
id and the prohibition of fulfillment of these desires by
superego
 id & superego both comparatively unsophisticated
 id merely blindly demanding satisfaction of its desires
whereas the superego formed while child not very
cognitively developed (between 3 & 5 years)
 thus, child only internalizes simple do's and don't and is
therefore essentially irrational
 further, the superego is largely unconscious and therefore
its rules are not open to reason
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Personality Theories
 in summary then, thought and actions determined by the
interplay of three major factors -- biological drives, ways
we have learned of satisfying these drives and
demands/rules of society with most of this interplay
occurring an a level below conscious awareness
Levels of Awareness
 perhaps Freud's biggest contribution lies in his
conceptualization of how unconscious can influence
behaviour
 again arrived at from his case studies of hysterics
 believed that there were three levels of awareness
i. conscious - whatever one's aware of at any given
moment
ii. preconscious - material just beneath level of awareness
that can be readily retrieved (e.g., mother's maiden name)
iii. unconscious - memories and desires well beneath
conscious awareness but which influences behaviour (e.g.,
Anna's O guilt obedience -- 60 min daughter repressed
memory of father killing her 6 yr old friend some 20 years
earlier)
 Freud believed that considerably more unconscious than
either preconscious or conscious
- thus, iceberg analogy
 proposed that ego and superego operate at all three
levels whereas id is strictly unconscious level
 thus, much of behaviour motivated by unconscious
conflicts resulting from id conflicting with ego and
superego
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Personality Theories
Conflict
 Freud believed that most behaviour motivated by conflict,
some minor, others major, however two main
drives/impulses that have considerable impact
1) life instinct (eros - which manifests itself in sex and
related activities)
2) death instinct (thanatos - which manifest itself in
aggression or often self-destructive behaviors)
 the reason these drives result in conflicts is that they are
subject to what Freud considered to be complex and
ambiguous social controls
 often get inconsistent messages regarding both of these
(e.g., generally against violence but willing to pay $50 to
see Mike Tyson on pay per view)
 also, it seems that these drives thwarted more often than
others (e.g., satisfying hunger easier than satisfying
sexual drive)
 Freud argued that most conflicts, both major and minor,
resolved relatively quickly however, other will tend to
linger for days, months, years
 Freud focused on unresolved conflicts since he believed
that these most often led to development of anxiety which
can be caused by
a) ego worrying about id getting out of control and leading
to behaviour with negative consequences
b) ego worrying about superego getting out of control and
developing sense of guilt
 thus, in order to avoid anxiety develop a variety of
strategies, largely unconscious strategies which Freud
called
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Personality Theories
10
defense mechanisms - largely unconscious reactions that
protect a person from unpleasant emotions such as guilt and
anxiety
 most of these involve the mental manipulation/distortion of
information
repression - most common, considered to be the basic
defence mechanism
- keep distressing thoughts from conscious
awareness
- often see this in motivated forgetting (e.g., forget
dental appointment)
- can manifest itself in a variety of behaviours
- e.g., person might not see something in plain sight
because perception of it is repressed or person
may become sexually impotent because he is
afraid of the sex impulse
- some instances of amnesia thought to be due to
repression (e.g., one instance man was found
wandering in the street unable to remember his
name or where he had come from -- by means of
hypnosis and other techniques it was shown that
after some domestic problems he had gone on
major drinking spree (something quite atypical)
and suffered deep embarassment and remorse
and this lead to development of amnesia
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Personality Theories
11
displacement - often make an analogy to a geyser being
damned up -- the energy/water surfaces elsewhere
- often see displaced aggression, so instead of
hitting another child, a kid may kick the cat
- Freud believed that displacement was the most
satisfactory way of handling aggressive and
sexual impulses since, the basic drives cannot be
changed but the object toward which the drive is
directed can
- e.g., sexual impulses toward parents cannot be
safely gratifies but such impulses can be displaced
toward a more suitable love object
- e.g., hostile impulses directed to aggressive sports
reaction formation - attempt to completely block impulse
- suppressed desire often replaced with opposite
behaviour/ e.g., hate replaced by love
- thus girl who initially hated sister showers her with
gifts
- "me thinks he doth protest too much"
- e.g., person who wants to censor pornographic
magazines may actually be fascinated with
pornography
rationalization - reinterpretation of impulse
- "sour grapes" phenomenon
- "I wouldn't have gone to the party even if they had
invited me"
projection - attribute unacceptable or undesirable
wishes/characteristics to others
- really just another form of rationalization
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Personality Theories
12
 many other types of defense mechanisms and it seems
that they are widely used by most individuals
 however, although they help in a temporary fashion they
don't really represent an effective problem solving strategy
since they do not really solve the problem
Psychosexual Stages
 perhaps most controversial of Freud's ideas comes from
his theory of personality development
 he believed that "child is the father of man" with basic
foundations for personality set as early as age 5
 Freud's theory of personality development suggests that
infants begin life as a "bundle of pleasure seeking"
tendencies with pleasure being obtained by stimulation of
certain areas of the body -- mouth, anus, genitals and as
child develops the relative importance of the erogenous
zones shifting
 at each stage of development specific areas are the focus
of erotic pleasure and there are specific tasks to be
accomplished at each stage (e.g., weaning)
 further, the manner in which task is handled results in
certain personality characteristics occurring in later life
 certain reactions to the frustrations that occur at each
crucial stage can have long lasting consequences
 one of these consequence is fixation - which is a failure to
move from one stage to another as expected
 individual may become fixated due to either excessive
gratification at one stage or because needs weren't
satisfied at that stage
 Freud argued that there were five psychosexual stages
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Personality Theories
13
Oral Stage (birth to 1 year)
 source of gratification is the mouth
 during this stage infant gets pleasure from sucking and
swallowing and with the later development of teeth, from
chewing and biting
 key task at this stage is weaning
 if infant fixated at this stage from deriving too much
pleasure from sucking etc then person may develop
 oral receptive personality - person who continues to seek
pleasure from mouth by over-eating, smoking and by
being a "gullible person who swallows ideas" too easily
 contrarily if infant oral pleasure frustrated, e.g., mother
has too strict/rigid feeding schedule may develop
 oral aggressive personality - seeks pleasure by being
verbally hostile
Anal Stage (1 to 3 years)
 next stage the anus becomes the source of gratification
 toilet training is key task and when parents decide to toilet
train their child he/she learns how much control they can
exert over others with the anal sphincter muscles
 according to Freud, excessive punishment for failure with
toilet training results in development of
 anal retentive personality - where fixated individual
becomes either stingy, obstinate stubborn or compulsive
 conversely, if derives too much pleasure may develop
 anal expulsive personality - where fixated individual is
either cruel, pushy, messy, or disorderly
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Personality Theories
14
Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years)
 during this stage genitals become the primary source of
pleasure
 according to Freud the child begins to enjoy touching his
or her own genitals and develops a sexual attraction to the
parent of the opposite sex
 Freud believed that most of this occurred at unconscious
level, so that we are not consciously aware of either the
touching or the incestuous urges
 instead, the child feels intense love for opposite sex
parent
 these sexual attractions create a comparatively intense
unconscious conflict called for boys the Oedipus complex
- and for girls the Electra complex
 term Oedipus complex taken from ancient Greek play
Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles which tells the story of an
infant who was abandoned the King and Queen of Thebes
and grew up in a rival city -- as a young man not knowing
who is parent are, Oedipus returns to Thebes and kills his
father and marries his mother
 according to Freud all males have unconscious desire to
kill their fathers and sexually possess their mothers
 these unacceptable desires are blocked from conscious
awareness
 child however fears that father with discover his secret
desires and will deliver the all too appropriate punishment
of castration
 this results in development of what Freud called castration
anxiety which leads boy to repress desires for his mother
and to avoid angering his father by identifying with him
more strongly
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Personality Theories
15
 story is a little bit more complex/convoluted/bizarre for
girls
 Electra complex begins when girl discovers that she
doesn't have a penis
 according to Freud girl unconsciously concludes that she
has already been castrated and blames her mother for
letting this happen
 as a result, she transfers her love and sexual desire from
her mother to her father and in doing so hopes to share
with him his penis
 this results in penis envy which is desire to possess penis
 the sexual attachment to her father is transformed into
more wholesome affection due to the demands of society
 through this, she develops attachment to her mother
Latency Stage (6 to 11 years)
 after resolution of Oedipal/Electra complex child enters
latency stage in which sexual interest is relatively inactive
 this is because of repression and sexual energy is really
being sublimated and manifest itself in things like school
work, sports etc
 Freud believed individual had to develop sense of
competency in these areas if they were to pass
successfully through this stage
Genital Stage (11 years on)
 with the arrival of puberty genital stage is entered
 see renewed interest in sexual pleasure with increase in
masturbation
 see increase in sexual and romantic interest in others but
since parents have been ruled out as objects of desire
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Personality Theories
16
through resolution of Electra/Oedipus complex opposite
sexed peers become focus
Critique of Freud
 not surprising that this theory met with some resistance in
the early 1900s
 on positive side Freud's theory seemed to focus interest in
study of unconscious as source of motivation etc
 also, established importance of looking at personality from
developmental perspective
 finally, scope of the theory amazingly broad
 negative side is that theory is hard to assess empirically
(hard to operationally define things like castration anxiety)
 over emphasis of men/poor view of women
 some controversy that he covered up seduction theory
Jeffry Masson
 also, comparatively negative view of man, governed by
primitive instincts, no free will
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Personality Theories
17
Jung's Analytic Psychology
 originally a colleague of Freud's who joins his "innercircle" and publishes a number of works that used Freud's
ideas to explain aspects of severe mental illness
 Jung splits with Freud in 1913 and develops so-called
analytic psychology which places less emphasis on sex
 this resulted in major faction/dispute between Freud and
Jung
 Freud publicly denounced Jung and the whole
psychoanalytic community turned against him.
 later In 1913, Jung suffered a possible extended mental
breakdown but which he preferred to call, "a confrontation
with the unconscious."
 On the lake shore in Zurich he collected stones and built a
miniature village, including a castle, cottages, and a
church.
 Trying to understand the rift in psychological terms, he
came up with "introvert" and "extrovert" (identifying himself
as and Introvert and Freud as an extrovert)
 he also came up with four different functioning types:
thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition - all of which
would form the basis of the Myers-Briggs personality tests
 Jung felt that Freud took a one-sided negative view of the
human condition
 however, while accepting that the unconscious mind
contained selfish and hostile forces he also argued that it
contained positive, more spiritual forces
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Personality Theories
18
 this reflects one of the principles of Jungian thought, that
being that in the human mind that all the important
elements came in opposites -- that is we possess the
potential for good and evil; masculine and feminine
behaviours; etc.
 in fact Jung contributes concept of introversion and
extroversion
introversion - tendency to focus our attention on our selves
and thus
 introverts - tend to be preoccupied with the internal world
of their own thoughts, feelings and experiences
extroversion - tendency or desire to be friendly, open to
things happening in the external world and concerned about
others -- t
 extroverts - tend to be interested in the external world of
people and things
 Jung believed that like the other polar pairs, that it was
important for individuals to have a balance of these two
opposing tendencies and argued that it was maladaptive
to be either too much of an introvert or an extrovert
 Jung also modified/expanded Freud's view of the
unconscious dividing it into the:
personal unconscious - (quite similar to Freud's) which
contains those motives, conflicts, and information that we
have repressed into the unconsciousness because they are
threatening to us and the
collective unconscious - which is the unconscious mind
with which all humans are born -- the store of latent memory
traces inherited from one's ancestral past
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Personality Theories
19
 Jung argues that we share our collective unconscious with
the entire human race and argues that this is true because
of the presence of
 archetypes - emotionally charged images and thoughts
that have universal meaning
 argues that these archetypes represent manifestations of
the collective unconscious
 e.g., Mandalas (Sanskrit for circle) - serve as symbol of
wholeness or completeness
 e.g., similarly phallic symbols used to represent
authority/power as evident in totem poles, scepters held
by kings, and the Washington monument
 Jung had little direct influence in mainstream
contemporary psychology and seems to have been more
influential in areas such as Art, Religion, and Philosophy
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Personality Theories
20
Adler's Individual Psychology
 Alfred Adler was a comparatively young physician
practicing in Vienna when he was invited to join Freud's
group however he too after personal dispute with Freud
departs in 1911 and adopts comparatively new approach
to psychology
 Adler agreed with Freud that the struggle to come to grips
with one's sexual and aggressive impulses was important
to the development of personality but he did not feel that it
was the most important factor
 Adler argued that the primary struggle in personality
development was the effort to overcome feelings of
inferiority in social relationships
 suggests prime motive in humans is striving for superiority
 [this not all that surprising given his personal history of
having often been in the shadow of comparatively more
famous individuals -- as a child his brother and then later
in life by Freud]
 initially, Adler limited this view to individuals who were
born with physical defects, as he was, but later expanded
this view to include all individuals
 argues that because we are all small and dependent on
the protection of adults as children that we all begin life
with feelings of inferiority
 task of personality development then is to outgrow these
feelings of inferiority and to see ourselves as competent
adults
 striving for superiority- defined as universal drive to adapt,
improve oneself and to master life's challenges
 thus, this striving often manifest itself in behaviours such
as
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Personality Theories
21
 compensation - effort to overcome imagined or real
inferiority by developing ones abilities
 argues that the feelings of inferiority can become
exaggerated and result in development of an inferiority
complex due to either parental pampering or neglect [thus
Adler looks at importance of early determinants on
behavior
 Adler argues that overcompensation can occur when
individuals attempt to hide these feelings of inferiority and
results in individuals striving for the material aspects of
success rather than attempting to gain skills and abilities
 Ansbacher (1970) has used Adler’s theory to analyze the
“tragic” life of Marilyn Monroe
 during childhood Monroe suffered from parental neglect
and Ansbacher argues that this left here with acute
feelings of inferiority
 these feelings of inferiority led her to overcompensate by
- flaunting her beauty
- marrying celebrities (Joe Dimaggio, Arthur Miller)
- keeping film crews waiting for hours
- seeking the adoration of her fans
 Adler was also interested in more social determinants of
personality
 first to speculate that birth order might influence
personality development and concludes that
 1st born - problematic because their position as only child
taken away
- Adler noted that neurotics, criminals, drunkards
and perverts are
often first born
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Personality Theories
 2nd born - competitive, ambitious because constantly
trying to surpass his/her sibling
 only children - spoiled (also true of youngest child in
family)
- next to 1st borns youngest most likely to become
neurotic/problematic
 [some support for this by Schacther 1959]
22
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Personality Theories
23
Critique of Psychodynamic Approach
 Positives
i.
suggest the importance of unconscious influence on
behaviour
ii.
highlight concept of internal conflicts as source of stress
iii.
suggest that early childhood experiences can influence
adult personality
iv.
provides many interesting and still useful concepts
a) defence mechanisms
b) inferiority complex
c) introversion/extroversion
d) importance to areas other than psychology (art,
literature, etc)
 Negatives
i.
because of nature of concepts hard to test empirically
(too vague, hard to derive operational definitions of
something like collective unconscious)
ii.
lacks empirical support
a. most typical type of evidence in support of these
theories comes from things like case studies
reported by people who have a vested interest in
supporting psychoanalytic theories
b. also often deal with atypical subjects/patients
iii.
sexist - not surprising given the tenor of the times when
these theories were developed that these are malecentred with comparatively less positive view of females
(e.g., females have less developed super-ego because
they have not internalized castration anxiety)
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Personality Theories
24
Humanistic Perspective
 arises in reaction to the comparatively negative view of
humans inherent in both psychoanalytic theory and
behaviourism
 third force in psychology based on
humanism - theoretical orientation that emphasizes the
unique qualities of humans, especially their free will and
potential for
 this approach also assumes that we can rise above any
animalistic drives (as proposed by psychoanalytic theory)
and control these biological urges
 also, proposed that we are largely conscious, rationale
beings who are not driven by unconscious motives
 finally, emphasizes the importance of the subjective
experience over objective reality thereby adopting
phenomonological approach- assumes need to examine
individual's personal, subjective experiences in order to
understand their be
I. Carl Rogers -- Client Centred Theory
(1902–1987)
 according to Rogers personality dependent on only one
structure
 Self (self-concept) - collection of beliefs about one's own
nature, unique qualities, and typical behaviours
 suggests that this is developed in early childhood and
eventually includes ones sense of self as an agent who
takes (or doesn't take) actions and makes (or doesn't
make) decisions
 self-concept open to conscious awareness however also
open to subjective experience and therefore may be
inaccurate (e.g., person who thinks that he/she is quite
intelligent despite low gpa etc)
 this gap between subjective experience of self (ideal self)
and reality (or real self) is called
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Personality Theories
25
 incongruence - degree of disparity between one's selfconcept and one's actual experience
 individuals differ in the degree to which they experience
incongruence with all individuals having some and with
extreme incongruence resulting in psychological problems
 suggestion is that we behave in ways that are consistent
with our self-concepts
 individuals with more rigid or inflexible self-concepts likely
to distort reality likely to need to distort reality in order to
have a fit between real and ideal selfs
Development of Self
 Rogers suggest that the self develops in childhood as a
result of how parents respond to the child who Rogers
believes has strong need for affection that must be met by
caregiver
 parents can respond in one of two ways
 1)conditional affection (positive regard) which is
dependent upon child's behaviour
 2)unconditional affection (positive regard) which is quite
independent of child's specific behaviours
 Rogers believed that conditional regard leads to
incongruence whereas unconditional positive regard leads
to congruence
 as self-concept develops it stabilizes and we become
"loyal" to it which results in
1) self-fulfilling prophecy - behave in ways consistent with
self-concept
2) resistance to information that is inconsistent with selfconcept
 Rogers argues that anxiety arises when experience run
counter to our self-concept and this is more likely to occur
the more incongruence there is between real and ideal
self-concept
 thus, high incongruence leads to anxiety
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 Roger's argues that we want to reduce anxiety and do this
often by reinterpretting the experience so that it is
consistent (e.g., if I fail exam and have self-concept of I'm
intelligent person, then likely to reinterpret this as exam
being unfair)
 Rogers argues that psychological health related to
increasing congruence in self-concept and this is related
to a sense of personal worth which stems from childhood
where child receives unconditional positive regard
II. Abraham Maslow
 originally studied under Henry Harlow -- thus, not all that
surprising that he later criticized and rejected animal
research
 One of the many things Maslow noticed while he worked
with monkeys early in his career, was that some needs
take precedence over others
 For example, if you are hungry and thirsty, you will tend to
try to take care of the thirst first. After all, you can do
without food for weeks, but you can only do without water
for a couple of days! Thirst is a “stronger” need than
hunger.
 similarly once you’ve satisfied your basic
biological/physiological needs, other factors become
important (like housing, car, et cetra)
 from this develops concept of hierarchy of needs
The physiological needs. These include the needs we
have for oxygen, water, protein, salt, sugar, calcium, and
other minerals and vitamins. They also include the need to
maintain a pH balance (getting too acidic or base will kill
you) and temperature (98.6 or near to it). Also, there’s the
needs to be active, to rest, to sleep, to get rid of wastes
(CO2, sweat, urine, and feces), to avoid pain, and to have
sex. Quite a collection!
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Personality Theories
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The safety and security needs. When the physiological
needs are largely taken care of, this second layer of needs
comes into play. You will become increasingly interested in
finding safe circumstances, stability, protection. You
The love and belonging needs. When physiological needs
and safety needs are, by and large, taken care of, a third
layer starts to show up. You begin to feel the need for
friends, a sweetheart, children, affectionate relationships in
general, even a sense of community.
In our day-to-day life, we exhibit these needs in our desires
to marry, have a family, be a part of a community, a member
of a church, a brother in the fraternity, a part of a gang or a
bowling club. It is also a part of what we look for in a career.
The esteem needs. the need for the respect of others, the
need for status, fame, glory, recognition, attention,
reputation, appreciation, dignity, even dominance. the need
for self-respect, including such feelings as confidence,
competence, achievement, mastery, independence, and
freedom.
self-acutalization - an inborn tendency to strive toward the
realization of one’s full potential
 suggests that this is an innate drive and that attainment of
this is crucial to psychological well being "...if he is to be
ultimately at peace with himself, what a man can be, he
must be" (1970).
 identifies characteristics of self-actualizers by assuming
that those who are most healthy from a psychological
point of view must be self-actualized
 thus, looks at characteristics of top 1% of college subjects
and examines their characteristics [tautological]
 also studies historical figures Einstein, Beethoven, William
James, Eleanor Roosevelt and concludes that
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Personality Theories
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 self-actualizing people are exceptionally healthy
personalities marked by continued personal growth
 individuals are in touch with reality, at peace with
themselves, open, spontanious, sensetive to others, thrive
on work,
 also flexible personality and combine many aspects -e.g., both rational and intuitive; conforming and rebellious
etc
 have peak experiences
o coined this term to describe nonreligious quasimystical and mystical experiences
o Peak experiences are sudden feelings of intense
happiness and well-being, and possibly the
awareness of "ultimate truth" and the unity of all
things
o Accompanying these experiences is a heightened
sense of control over the body and emotions, and
a wider sense of awareness, as though one was
standing upon a mountaintop.
o The experience fills the individual with wonder and
awe. He feels at one with the world and is pleased
with it; he or she has seen the ultimate truth or the
essence of all things.

Critique of Humanism Perspective
 Positive
 provides new, more optimistic perspective
 emphasizes aspects of personality that other theories
ignored (listening to music, reading, poetry etc)
 provides development of conceptualizton of self-concept
 Negative
 lack of testability
 as with psychoanlytic theory, uses comparatively vague
terms like unconconditional positive regard/self-
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Personality Theories
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actualization that are hard to operationally define and
measure
 overly optimistic view of self-actualizers
a) comparatively rare - hard to find
b) Al Capone, Hitler also self-actualized but ignored,
thus development of personality does not
necessarily imply positive or "good" growth
 inadequate evidence
a) limited empirical support--like psychodynamic approach
most research based on clinical case studies that are
open to interpretation
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Personality Theories
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Biological Perspective
 popular support for this perspective comes from anecdotal
reports regarding similarity of twins who meet years after
having been separated at an early age
 e.g., Time Magazine report identical twin who separated
at birth 1945 and meet in 1970 -- same name (Jim), drove
same type of car, both chain-smokers of Salem cigarettes,
owned dogs with same name
 (CARTOON)
 thus, many look for genetic contributions to personality
I Sheldon's Constitutional Approach (1940)
 Sheldon argued that body type correlated with certain
personality characteristics
 Ectomorphic- thin, flat, frail body
- inhibited, apprehensive, introverted, intellectual,
self-conscious
 Endomorphic - fat, round, soft
- sociable, relaxed, affectionate, even-tempered
 Mesomorphic - hard, strong, muscular
- -energetic, competitive, aggressive
 although Sheldon conducted research that seemed to
confirm his theory the study was susceptible to
experimental bias since Sheldon rated both personality
characteristics and body type
 other researchers have been less successful in replicating
these findings
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Personality Theories
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II. Eysenck's Theory (1967) (PEN)
 believes that personality (like intelligence) largely
inherited/genetic
 adopts hierarchical view of personality traits and using
factor analysis
 suggests that there are three basic dimensions of
personality (PEN)
- psychoticism
 impulsive, egocentric, cold, antisocial
- extraversion
 sociable, assertive, active, lively
- neuroticism
 anxious, tense, moody, low self-esteem
 suggests that individuals can very on these scales with
most individuals falling somewhere between the ends of
the continua of each of these dimensions
 suggests that these basic dimensions blend together to
form all of individuals basic personality traits
 argues for a biological bases for personality
 what is inherited are differences in physiological
functioning
- for example, variations in extraversion/introversion
are due to different levels of physiological arousal
- specifically, he suggests that introverts have
higher levels of physiological arousal (or perhaps
arousability) which make them more easily
conditioned than extraverts
- according to Eysenck, individuals who are more
easily conditioned acquire more inhibitions than
others
- this leads them to be more bashful, tentative, and
uncomfortable in social situations which causes
them to be more introverted
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Personality Theories
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- variations in Neuroticism are based on differences
in the activation thresholds in the sympathetic
nervous system
- according to Eysenck, neurotic individuals have
low activation thresholds and as such are more
easily upset by minor stresses; conversely, those
who are stable have higher thresholds and as
such can remain calm under pressure
- Psychoticism is linked to testosterone levels with
higher psychoticism being associated with a
greater tendency toward aggression
 some empirical support in that introverts shown to develop
a classically conditioned eye blink more easily than
extroverts
 also some support for similarity of various personality
traits for individuals varying in degree of genetic similarity
with heredibility estimates for various aspects of
personality varying from .56 to .72
 most dramatic evidence regarding genetic contributions to
personality come from the study of twins
 anecdotal evidence quite common
- case of identical twins Oscar and Frank, one
raised as a Nazi in Czechoslovakia and the other
as a Jew in Trinidad
- when they were reunited in 1979 it was discovered
that they shared several very unique behaviours
- for example, they both had habit of deliberately
sneezing in elevators to surprise people and they
both liked to flush toilet before use
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Personality Theories
33
 more empirically based research also suggests a genetic
component
- study by Tellegen and his colleagues looked at
217 pairs of identical twins who had been reared
together, 44 pairs of identical twins who were
reared apart, 114 pairs of fraternal twins reared
together, and 27 pairs of fraternal twins reared
apart
- each participant administered MMPI
- results show that identical twins tend to show
higher correlations than fraternals regardless of
whether or not they were reared together
Critique of Biological Perspective
 above empirical support
 however problems with interpretation of heretiability ratios
 probably inadequate to try and isolate the separate effects
of environment and genetics -- rather, need to focus on
interaction
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Personality Theories
34
Trait Theories
personality traits - durable dispositions to behave in a
particular way in a variety of situations
 traits are an abstraction and are inferred from our
behaviour -- can not actually see personality traits like
aggressiveness, timidity etc
 most theorists suggest that each individual has an
hierarchy of personality traits with some traits being more
important or influential than others (e.g., if introvert likely
to be shy in specific situations, quiet, unassuming, timid)
Allport's Theory (1930s)
 based on examination of dictionary (pretty exciting stuff)
Gordon Allport identified some 4500 personality traits
which he suggested could be ranked on three levels
1. cardinal traits - dominant trait the characterizes nearly all
of an individual's behaviour
o comparatively rare
o e.g., Mother Theresa's altruism, Seven dwarfs
(goofy, sleepy, doc, grumpy, happy, bashful,
sneezy)
2. central traits - prominent general dispositions
o these are much more common, found in most
individuals
o Allport considered these to be the "building blocks"
of personality
o suggested that most people had between 5 & 10
central traits
3. secondary traits - less consistent, situationally
determined
o e.g., a typically introverted person becomes
aggressive in certain situations
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Personality Theories
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Cattell's Theory (1957)
 adopts strategy similar to Allport’s
 uses Allport’s list of 4500 traits and reduces the list by
eliminating uncommon words, synonyms etcetera to some
171 trait names
 groups of judges than asked to rate subjects using these
terms and these ratings subjected to process of factor
analysis -- looking for groups of traits that were highly
inter-correlated and uncorrelated with other traits
 based on these results Cattell suggested that there were
16 primary personality factors (things like relaxed/tense;
forthright/shrewd; submissive/dominant; less
intelligent/more intelligent etc)
 Cattell believed that these 16 source traits served as the
basis for all other personality traits
 16PF used in a variety of setting including occupational
counseling
Costa & McCrae's Theory (1985)
 another approach again based on factor analysis
 Paul Costa and Robert McCrae reduce solution to five
factors
 again suggest that personality traits derived from the five
basis ones
 neurotocism, extroversion, openness to experience,
agreeableness, conscientiousness
 many argue that this provides the best solution to the
factor analysis problem
 further, evidence from cross-cultural studies suggesting
that when people across the world are asked to describe
personality, seems that five basic dimensions emerge,
regardless of language
 show that in adulthood considerable stability in these
personality dimensions
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Personality Theories
36
Behavioural Perspective
B. F. Skinner on Personality
 given ardent behavioural stance argues that not interested
in internal events or structures within individuals as being
determinants of personality since they cannot be
objectively observed
 thus, focuses on environmental determinants of behaviour
 again emphasizing deterministic view --> "FREE WILL IS
AN ILLUSION"
 stability (consistency) of behaviour (which is closest
behaviourists get to personality trait since they can’t be
observed) is due to fact that we have learned specific
response tendencies - patterns of behaving in given
situation
 Skinner argues that personality is "collection of response
tendencies that are related to specific stimulus situations"
 more than one response tendency may be associated with
any given situation however their strength will vary
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Personality Theories
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 Skinner argues that these response tendencies are
acquired through learning with some acquired through
operant conditioning and others acquired through classical
conditioning
 e.g., someone who's "tidy" probably has been reinforced
in the past for being clean and thus, due to this
reinforcement, has response tendency to be clean
 argues that partial reinforcement (or schedules of
reinforcement) can account for why behaviours continue
to occur when not when not reinforced
 further, because response tendencies are constantly
being strengthened or weakened by reinforcement or
punishment personality develops over the lifespan
 more recent behaviourists have decreased emphasis on
deterministic factors and have incorporated more
cognitive factors
Bandura's Social Learning Theory
 seems evident that not all aspects of personality can be
external with thoughts often influencing or comprising
some central aspects of personality
o e.g., Joe believes that women can't be trusted
o Carol expects failure regardless of how hard she
tries
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Personality Theories
38
 thus, the acceptance that these types of factors can
influence personality led to a liberalization of strict
behavioural explanations of personality and allowed the
incorporation of more cognitive aspects (things like
expectation and belief) into the theory
 thus Bandura rejects strict determinism (as espoused by
Skinner) and suggests the concept of
reciprocal determinism - interplay among internal mental
events, external environmental events, and overt behaviours
 this stance is not really free will nor is it strict determinism
 suggestion is that we are able to choose the specific
environment in which we are however there's still
determinism since that environment exerts control over
our behaviour
 among the more important contributions of Bandura is his
concept of
 observational learning - conception that person's
responses to specific stimuli can be influenced be the
observation of others
 Bandura argues that we can learn (vicariously) through
the observation of others
 e.g., Billy sees that Karen gets the toy she wants by
whining may adopt the same strategy in future situation
 models are people who we watch/observe and who's
behaviours we may imitate
 some models are more influential than others with
research suggesting that we are more likely to model
people who are:
1) attractive or powerful
2) similar to ourselves (as in gender, age, etc.)
3) those who receive positive outcomes
 perhaps the most renowned and influential aspect of
social learning theory has been applied to the study of
aggression
 Bandura, Ross, & Ross (1963)
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Personality Theories
39
 demonstrate that observation of filmed models can
influence aggressive tendencies
 stimulus used involved a film of an adult in a room with a
"bobo" doll
 adult goes to the bobo doll and orders it out of the way
and when doll "refuses" (i.e., it doesn't move) the adult
punches and kicks at it and yells "right on the nose, boom,
boom, boom"
 in one condition the film ends and in the other condition
the film continues and portrays the adult getting
reprimanded for his actions being told not to do it again
 now children are allowed to go into the room and their
interaction with the bobo doll is observed
 as predicted, kids from condition 1, don't see model
punished, behaved more aggressively to bobo doll than
did subjects in the other condition who saw model being
punished for aggressive behaviour
 another belief of Bandura's is that our cognitions are a
prime determinant of our behaviour
 for example, a person who believes that they are boring
will tend to avoid contact with others and thus be
introverted
 Bandura argues that our cognitions about our ability to
handle the demands of life are especially important and
that this is
self-efficacy - the perception that one is capable of doing
what is necessary to reach one's goals
 Bandura argues that this is a personal factor/attribute that
influences a wide variety of behaviour (e.g., ability to quit
smoking etc.)
 thus people with high self-efficacy are confident that they
can behave in certain ways in order to obtain desired
reinforcers whereas individuals with low self-efficacy feel
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
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Personality Theories
40
that they won't be capable of behaving in manner required
to obtain goals/rewards
self-efficacy is thus a personality characteristic that is
thought to vary between individuals and across situations
for example studies have shown that feelings of greater
self-efficacy are related to:
o greater success at quiting smoking
o greater adherence to exercise regimen
o more success in coping with pain
o greater academic success
o higher work-related performance
research suggests that parents can encourage selfefficacy by providing a stimulating environment and by
being responsive to their children’s behaviour
conversely, parents who are authoritarian, overprotective,
or neglectful may hinder the development of their
children’s levels of self-efficacy
Person-Situation Controversy
 this controversy arises from the conflict between the more
traditional belief that personality traits were stable within
an individual across different situations (e.g., introvert
avoids contact in variety of social situations) whereas
learning theory and social learning theory emphasized the
importance of the situation in determining behaviour
 Mischel reviews the extant evidence (mid 1970s) and
finds considerably less cross-situational consistency than
would be expected based on the traditional view of
personality traits
 e.g., someone who would be considered to be honest
doesn't declare all stuff she brings back across the border
 thus, Mischell proposes concept of situational specificity
 this view quite antithetical to tradition trait approach
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Personality Theories
41
 Mischel and others argue that the reason why we have
trait conception and believe in cross-situational
consistency is that
1) we see people in quite similar situations
2) use of personality traits functional in that allows us to
simplify a vast amount of information regarding
individual's behaviours
 more recently Mischel and his colleagues (Shoda) have
developed a comprehensive model CAPS that tries to
account for how an individual will behave in a given
situation
 argues that interaction among five person factors and the
specific situation will determine how individual will behave
– or will determine his/her
behavioural signature – consistent ways of responding in
particular classes of situations determined by situation and
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Personality Theories
42
Five Person Factors:
o Encoding Strategies: how individual interprets
situation
 e.g., individuals who are highly aggressive
more likely to define a situation as one that is
hostile – thus, they are primed to behave in
an aggressive fashion
o Expectancies and Beliefs: what is expected to
happen if we behave in a particular way
 if…then questions: What will happen to my
GPA if I take stats?
o Goals and values: different goals motivations that
people have –
o Affects: impact of emotions on behaviour
 e.g., if happy because you’ve just been given
a raise may be more likely to take other risks
– e.g., ask someone out on a date
o Self-Regulatory Processes and
Compentencies:
 degree to which people able to self-regulate
 e.g., some individuals more likely to preserve
on a diet than others
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Personality Theories
Critique of the Behavioural Approach
 Positives
 reliance on empiricism results in continued research into
and refinement in this approach
 highlights the importance, of among other things,
environment in situational specificity and observation in
social learning theory
 Negatives
 criticized for the overgeneralization of results from animal
research (e.g., difficulty in extinguishing certain learned
responses in animals who have been reinforced on
specific type of schedule does not apply to same nonextinction of response in more cognitively able humans)
 do not take into account or allow for the possibility that
biology may influence behaviour
 presents a rather fragmented view of personality, that is,
personality composed of collection of stimulus-response
tendencies rather than a unified whole
43