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CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY
Chapter 2
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Definition of Personality
2. Trait Theory
3. Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory
4. Jung's Analytic Psychology
5. Adler's Individual Psychology
6. Pavlov's Classical Conditioning
7. Skinner's Operant Conditioning
8. Definition of Behaviorism
9. Bandura's Social Learning Theory
10. Humanism as a school of thought in psychology
11. Rogers's Person-Centered Therapy
12. Maslow's Self-Actualization Theory
13. Biological perspectives (Eysenck's theory)
The Nature of Personality
What is
personality?
Personality refers to an individual’s unique constellation of consistent
behavioral traits.
Personality is consistent, distinctive, and unique:
1. Consistency of behavior across situations lies at the core of the
concept of personality
2. Distinctiveness of behavior is also central to the concept of
personality
3. Personality refers to an individual's unique constellation of
consistent behavioral traits
Trait Theories
Trait
Theories




A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular
way in a variety of situations.
Trait models attempt to analyze personality by breaking it down into
its basic dimensions.
Examples of traits: honest, dependable, moody, impulsive,
suspicious, anxious, domineering, friendly.
Some traits are more basic than others. For example, a person’s
tendency to be impulsive, restless, boisterous, and impatient might
derive from a more basic tendency to be “excitable”.
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The Five-Factor Model of Personality (McCrae & Costa)
McCrae & Costa suggest that the vast majority of personality traits
derive from five critical traits, These have come to be known as the
“Big Five”:
1. Extraversion
 Individuals who score high in extraversion are
characterized as outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly,
assertive, and gregarious.
2. Neuroticism
 Individuals who score high in neuroticism tend to be
anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure, and
vulnerable.
3. Openness to experience
 Openness is associated with curiosity, flexibility, vivid
fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity, and
unconventional attitudes.
4. Agreeableness
 Individuals who score high in agreeableness tend to be
sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and
straightforward.
5. Conscientiousness
 Individuals who score high in conscientiousness tend to
be diligent, disciplined, well organized, punctual, and
dependable.
Psychodynamic Theories
Psychodynamic Psychodynamic theories include all of the diverse theories
descended from the work of Sigmund Freud that focus on
Theories
unconscious mental forces.
Freud’s
Freud divided personality structure into three components: the id, the
Psychoanalytic ego, and the superego.
Theory
Id
 The Id is a primitive, completely unorganized reservoir of
energy which includes all the instincts and reflexes inherited at
birth. It encompasses the basic biological drives – selfpreservation instincts, libido or sexual instincts, and the
aggressive instincts (Halpert, 1977).
 The Id operates according to the pleasure principle, which
demands immediate gratification of its urges.
 The Id houses the biological urges that energize our behavior.
 The Id engages in primary process thinking, which is
primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented.
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Ego

The Ego is the decision-making component of personality that
operates according to the reality principle, which seeks to
delay gratification of the Id’s urges until appropriate outlets and
situations can be found.
o The Ego mediates between the Id, with its forceful
desires for immediate satisfaction, and the external
social world, with its expectations and norms regarding
suitable behavior.
o The Ego considers social realities – society’s norms,
etiquette, rules, and customs – in deciding how to
behave.
o The Ego engages in secondary process thinking,
which is relatively rational, realistic, and oriented toward
problem solving
Superego
 The Superego is the moral component of personality that
incorporates social standards about what is right and wrong.
 The Superego is the aspect of mental life that acts as the
conscience.
 Throughout our lives, we receive training about what is good
and bad behavior. Eventually, we internalize many of these
social norms.
 That means that we truly accept certain moral principles, and
then we put pressure on ourselves to live up to these
standards.
According to Freud, the Id, the Ego, and the Superego, are
distributed across three levels of awareness:
1. The Conscious, which consists of whatever one is aware of at
a particular point in time.
2. The Preconscious, which contains material just beneath the
surface of awareness that can be easily retrieved.
3. The Unconscious, which contains thoughts, memories, and
desires that are well below the surface of conscious
awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on one’s
behavior.
Defense
Mechanisms
Freud believed that anxiety was a crucial event in understanding
personality functioning. According to Freud, anxiety was so unpleasant
an emotion that people tried to rid themselves of it in any way they
could. This effort often gave rise to the use of what he termed defense
mechanisms.
Defense mechanisms are largely unconscious reactions that protect a
person from painful emotions such as anxiety and guilt.
(See Table of the most Common Defense Mechanisms)
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Freud’s
Freud formalized a stage theory of development that stressed the
Psychosexual
importance of the early years of life.
Stages of
Development The Psychosexual Stages are developmental periods with a
characteristic sexual focus that leave their mark on adult personality.
(See Table for description of Freud’s Psychosexual Stages)
Jung’s
Analytic
Psychology



Alfred
Adler's
Individual
Psychology
Like Freud, Jung emphasized unconscious determinants of
personality
Unlike Freud, Jung suggested that the unconscious consists of two
layers:
1. Personal Unconscious
 Essentially the same as Freud's version of the
unconscious
 Contains material not within one's conscious awareness
2. Collective Unconscious
 A storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from
people's ancestral past that is shared with the entire
human race.
 Jung called these memories archetypes, which are
emotionally charged images and thought forms that
have universal meaning.
 Jung's believed an understanding of archetypal symbols
helped him make sense of his patients’ dreams. This
was of great concern to him because he depended
extensively on dream analysis in his treatment of
patients.
Jung was the first to describe introverts and extraverts
1. Introverts tend to be preoccupied with the internal world of
their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
2. Extraverts tend to be interested in the external world of
people and things.
1. Stressed the social context of personality development:
 Focused attention on possible importance of birth order as a
factor shaping personality.
 Had a more optimistic view of human nature than Freud's.
2. Suggested that the foremost human drive is not sexuality, but a
striving for superiority, which is a universal drive to adapt,
improve oneself, and master life’s challenges.
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3. Suggested that everyone has to work to overcome some feelings
of inferiority. This was done through a process he termed
compensation.
 Compensation involves efforts to overcome imagined or real
inferiorities by developing one's abilities.
 Inferiority feelings can become excessive, resulting in an
inferiority complex, which are exaggerated feelings of
weakness and inadequacy.
 Exaggerated feelings of weakness and inadequacy
o Can distort the normal process of striving for superiority.
o Can result in overcompensation. Some people engage
in overcompensation in order to conceal, even from
themselves, their feelings of inferiority.
Behavioral Theories
Behaviorism



Behaviorism is a theoretical orientation based on the premise that
scientific psychology should study observable behavior.
Behaviorism focuses on response tendencies rather than internal
personality structures.
Behaviorists have focused extensively on personality development.
Pavlov’s
Classical
Conditioning

Skinner’s
Operant
Conditioning
Classical conditioning explains reflexive responding controlled by
stimuli that precede the response. However, both animals and humans
make many responses that don’t fit this description. For that, we turn
to Skinner’s theory of Operant Conditioning.
Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a neutral
stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was
originally evoked by another stimulus.
Operant Conditioning
 Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which voluntary
responses come to be controlled by their consequences.
 The fundamental principle of operant conditioning is that
organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by
favorable consequences, and they tend not to repeat those
responses that are followed by neutral or unfavorable
consequences.
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


In short, our behavior has consequences and those
consequences govern the likelihood that we will repeat a
particular behavior.
Behavior that is positively or negatively reinforced will be
repeated.
Behavior that is neutral or is punished will not.
According to Skinner, reinforcement can occur in two ways: positive
reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
1. Positive Reinforcement
 Positive reinforcement occurs when a response is
strengthened (increases in frequency) because it is followed
by the addition of a (presumably) pleasant stimulus.
 Roughly synonymous with concept of reward.
 Motivates much of our everyday behavior.
 Behaviors that are reinforced regularly will tend to become
an integral element of one's personality.
2. Negative Reinforcement
 Occurs when a response is strengthened (increases in
frequency) because it is followed by the removal of an
(presumably) unpleasant stimulus.
 Negative reinforcement strengthens a response.
 Plays a major role in the development of avoidance
tendencies.
Extinction
The effects of operant conditioning may not last forever. In both types
of conditioning, extinction may occur.
 Extinction is the gradual weakening and disappearance of a
response.
 Extinction occurs when a previously reinforced response stops
producing positive consequences.
Punishment
 Punishment occurs when a response is weakened (decreases in
frequency) because it is followed by the addition of an
(presumably) unpleasant stimulus.
 Concept is often confusing to students.
o Mixed up with negative reinforcement
o May be viewed as only a disciplinary procedure
 Patterns of behavior that lead to punishment tend to be
weakened (in contrast, reinforcement leads to strengthening).
 According to Skinner, conditioning is a "mechanical" process that
occurs without conscious participation.
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Bandura’s
Social
Learning
Theory
The basic thrust of behaviorism is that personality is largely shaped
through learning. However, other theorists suggest different models in
which behavior is influenced by cognition.
Cognition refers to the thought processes involved in acquiring
knowledge.
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
 Emphasizes the role of cognition in learned behaviors.
 Maintained that conditioning is not a “mechanical" process in which
people are passive participants, but rather a more “active” process.
 Maintains that people actively seek out and process information
about their environment
Observational Learning
 Observational learning occurs when an organism's responding is
influenced by the observation of others, who are called models.
 Some models are more influential than others
o We tend to imitate people we like or respect
o We tend to imitate people we consider attractive or powerful
o We tend to imitate people who are similar to ourselves
 Models influence personality development through children's
observational learning
Self-efficacy
 Self-efficacy is one's belief about one's ability to perform behaviors
that should lead to expected outcomes.
 When self-efficacy is high, people feel confident in executing the
responses necessary to earn reinforcers.
 When self-efficacy is low, people worry that the necessary
responses may be beyond their abilities.
 Perceptions of self-efficacy can influence which challenges one
tackles and how well one performs.
Humanistic Theories
Humanistic
Perspectives


Humanism is a theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique
qualities of humans, especially their free will and their potential for
personal growth.
Humanistic theories take a more optimistic view of human nature
o Human nature includes an innate drive toward personal growth
o Individuals have free will; they are not pawns of their
environment.
o People are conscious and rational beings who are not
dominated by unconscious, irrational needs and conflicts.
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Roger’s
PersonCentered
Theory
Carl Rogers's Person-Centered Theory
1. Views on the self and its development
 Self-concept: a collection of beliefs about one's own nature,
unique qualities, and typical behavior.
o A mental picture of yourself
o Rogers stressed the subjective nature of self-concept
 Incongruence: the disparity between one's self-concept and
one's actual experience.
o Childhood experiences may promote congruence or
incongruence.
o Unconditional love from parents fosters congruence
and conditional love fosters incongruence.
2. Views on anxiety and defense
 Experiences that threaten one's self-concept are the principal
cause of anxiety.
 People behave defensively to ward off this anxiety and protect
their self-concept.
Maslow’s
Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Self-Actualization
Theory of
Self1. Hierarchy of Needs
Actualization
 Systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in
which basic needs must be met before less basic needs are
aroused.
 Usually portrayed as a pyramid.
 Satisfaction of one level of needs activates needs at the next
level.
 Main "growth need" is self-actualization: the need to fulfill
one's potential; it is the highest need in Maslow's motivational
hierarchy.
2. The Healthy Personality
 Called people with exceptionally healthy personalities selfactualizing persons.
 Self-actualizers are accurately tuned in to reality and are at
peace with themselves.
 Not dependent on other for approval.
 Enjoy "peak experiences" (profound emotional highs) more
often than others.
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Biological Theories
Eysenck’s
Theory
Han Eysenck's Theory
 Eysenck defined personality as “a more or less stable and enduring
organization of a person’s character, temperament, intellect, and
physique which determines his unique adjustment to the
environment” (Eysenck, 1970).
 Stressed the understanding of all forces of biology, historical
typology, learning theory, and factor analysis in order to understand
personality.
 Stressed rigorous scientific methods and criticized the nonscientific theories of personality.
 Viewed personality structure as a hierarchy of traits.
Has shown special interest in explaining variations in extraversionintroversion (see Table of Eysenck’s Theory of Personality Types).
 Proposed that introverts tend to have higher levels of
physiological arousal than extraverts.
 Higher arousal motivates introverts to avoid social situations.
Discussion
Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Do you think it is likely, as Freud's theory suggests, that our
behavior is largely influenced by desires and urges of which we are
unaware?
2. As discussed in Chapter 1 of the textbook, psychology is a science,
committed to the empirical study of behavior. Do you think it's
possible to apply this scientific approach to the study of unconscious
desires and urges, as postulated by Freud's theory of personality?
3. Do you have any mild anxieties or fears (e.g., an aversion to a
particular food or drink) that you think you might have developed as
a result of classical conditioning?
4. With reference to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, what level do you
think most people in our society are concerned with satisfying? How
might this compare with individuals in other societies?
5. Do you know of individuals whom you would consider to be selfactualized? What is it about these people that leads you to this
conclusion?
6. Recent research in behavioral genetics has provided convincing
evidence that biological factors help shape our personality. As
science continues to progress as a result of advances in technology,
do you think that researchers will someday be able to explain all of
our behavior in terms of biological factors? Why or why not?
7. Which theoretical orientation (psychodynamic, behavioral,
humanistic, biological) do you think does the best job of explaining
personality? Why?
8. What do you think of Maslow's idea that healthy people have a good
sense of humor and peak experiences? Do you think these are
essential characteristics of a well-adjusted individual?
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Chapter Summary References:
Adapted by Roqueta, M. (2002), from Weiten, W., & Lloyd, M. A. (2003),
Psychology applied to modern life: Adjustment in the 21 st Century. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Halpert, L.H. (1977), Psychology test. New York: Monarch Press.
Table References:
Table of Summary of Personality Theories, adapted by Roqueta, M. (2002)
from Weiten, W., & Lloyd, M. A. (2003), Psychology applied to modern life:
Adjustment in the 21st Century. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Table of Most Common Defense Mechanisms adapted from: Craig, G. (1999),
Human Development, Prentice Hall.
Table of Freud’s Stages of Development: from Hockenbury & Hockenbury
(2000), Psychology, 2nd Ed., Worth Publishers.
Websites:
Behaviour Analysis and Learning
Personality Theories -- Table of Contents
Great Ideas in Personality--Psychology Theory and Research
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