Personality Theory
Personality: a person’s enduring, characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and
behaving.
The questions are:
Is it changeable? or
Are you born with it?
In the beginning, there was
Sigmund Freud who followed on the heels of Darwin.
Freud believed behavior was rooted in the desires for sex and need for aggression.
These desires are hidden in people’s unconsciousness.
Psychoanalysis
Freud develop the system of talk therapy, or psychoanalysis, designed to uncover what
is hidden in the unconsciousness.
Freud used
hypnotism,
dream interpretation and
free association to plumb the depths of unconsciousness.
The Freudian Mind
The Id: the bubbling cauldron of sexual desires and aggressive impulses. The id acts on
the pleasure principle. Have fun, make babies, take the other guy’s stuff.
The Superego: this is the part of the mind which is socialized to be good. It is the
superego that makes us feel guilty and anxious when we act upon the Id’s wishes.
The Freudian Mind
The Ego: The executive of the mind. Its job is to mediate the id and superego. Figures
out how to mediate the id’s desires in socially acceptable, conscious ways.
Anxiety is caused when this system is malfunctioning, those thoughts are then
repressed
The Freudian Mind
Personality is pretty much set in the first years of life according to Freud as we resolve
conflicts in certain psychosexual stages of development. If we do not resolve the
conflicts involved in any of the stages we are said to be fixated, causing personality
problems.
b
Issues in Personality
1. Events that occurred during childhood have no effect on one’s personality in
adulthood.
2. Sexual adjustment is easy for most people.
3. Culture and society have evolved as ways to curb human beings’ natural
aggressiveness.
4. Little boys should not become too attached to their mothers.
5. It is possible to deliberately “forget” something too painful to remember.
6. People who chronically smoke, eat, or chew gum have some deep psychological
problems.
7. Competitive people are no more aggressive than noncompetitive people.
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8. Fathers should remain somewhat aloof to their daughters.
9. Toilet training is natural and not traumatic for most children.
10. The phallus is a symbol of power.
11. A man who dates a woman old enough to be his mother has problems.
12. There are some women who are best described as being “castrating bitches.”
13. Dreams merely replay events that occurred during the day and have no deep
meaning.
14. There is something wrong with a woman who dates a man who is old enough to
be her father.
15. A student who wants to postpone an exam by saying “My grandmother lied . . .
er, I mean died,” should
probably be allowed the postponement.
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Psychosexual Stages
The oral stage: 0-18 months. This has to do with breast feeding and weaning. If we
don’t resolve here, we may become too independent or too dependent. We may become
smokers or pencil chewers. We also may disguise our need for dependence by acting
super macho.
Psychosexual Stages
The Anal stage: This stage has to do with “potty training.” Unresolved conflicts may
create anal expulsiveness or anal retention. The former would be messy and
disorganized and the latter obsessive neat and tidy.
Psychosexual Stages
The Phallic stage, 3-6 years old: Here we become obsessed with penis and genitalia.
Girls may form penis envy. The Oedipus and Electra complex also occurs, where the
child falls in love with their opposite sex parent and secretly resents the same sex one.
When resolved the child learns it gender type , what it means to be a man or woman, by
imitating the competition. Called Identification
Psychosexual Stages
From 6 to puberty: Latency. Sexuality takes a break.
Genital stage: from puberty on when mature sexual desires are at play.
Freudian Slips
When we make mistakes of language or unconscious mistake are our real thoughts.
Experiment with scantily clad interviewer, vs. normally dress one.
Without a telescope I can barely blank the stars.
You tighten the lid you to really………
Defense Mechanisms
Freud believed that if the ego is threatened by the id and conflicts with the superego,
that sometimes it will use defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety.
Defense Mechanisms
Repression: the mother of all defense mechanisms. Bury thoughts and desires that
create anxiety. All others are rooted with repression.
Regression: to act babyish, to regress to a younger level: like when you fight with your
parents.
Reaction Formation: We we believe we feel the opposite of what we do. We might get
angry or hate people we unconsciously love.
Projection: when you project your feeling about yourself onto others and then react to
them If you think you are selfish, then you see others as being selfish. That teacher hates
me. (really you hate him/her)
Displacement: redirect feelings about one target toward another.
Sublimation: redirect our hostile/sexual feelings into more socially acceptable
activities.
Defense Mechanisms
Rationalization: offers a slef-justifying explanation in place of the real, more
threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions.
Denial:Completely rejecting thoughts and feelings from obvious situations.
Alcoholics often deny their problem drinking that is obvious to everyone else.
Key to Defense Mechanisms
1. E 10. A
19. D
28. F
2. A 11. C
20. B
29. C
3. C 12. E
21. E
30. B
4. G 13. G
22. A
31. D
5. F 14. D
23. F
32. G
6. D 15. B
24. G
33. B
7. E 16. F
25. D
34. E
8. F 17. A
26. C
35. A
9. B 18 C
27. G
Freud’s Descendants
Karl Jung: a early follower who fell out with Freud. He believed in a collective
unconsciousness, a universal set of knowledge inherited from our primal past, expressed
in myths and by archetypes that are universally understood: the wise old man, the earth
mother, the young warrior, etc. We try to emulate those archetypes and fall short creating
anxiety.
Jung
The Shadow: Jung believed we were 360 degree people, who bury socially
unacceptable impulses in our shadow. If we don’t recognize and gain energy from our
shadows, the shadow may emerge unconsciously and destroy us. Ask Bill Clinton. You
know those thoughts you thought nobody knew you thought, we all have them.
Jung
Persona: According to Jung, we all have masks we put on to show the world. Those
personas vary depending upon circumstances. Do you act the same way with friends as
grandman?
Other Neo-Freudians
Alfred Adler: agreed with much of Freud’s philosophy, but thought the need for
esteem and competence was as important as sex and aggression. Coined the idea of the
inferiority complex.
Karen Horney: who thought it was love and belongingness we sought. Thought penis
envy was untrue.
Projective Tests: Interpretive
Design to search the unconscious mind.
TAT (Thematic apperception test): vague pictures are shown and the subject creates
stories.
Rorschach Test: Ink Blots are shown and the subjects tells what they say to them. Can
now be used as a diagnostic test and is scored by computer programs.
Effectiveness of test has some debate.
What’s happening here?
This is a black and white card, often described as looking like a mask or the face of a
fox or wolf.
Possible Sexual Imagery: Breasts, primarily the rounded areas at the top of the image.
This
is a card with black and red ink, often described as people dancing or touching
hands with each other.
Possible Sexual Imagery: Male sex organ at top center or, in some cases, a vagina (at
the center near the bottom).
This is a card with black and red ink, frequently visualized as two people facing each
other or sometimes a butterfly or moth.
Possible Sexual Imagery: Male sex organs and female breasts, right about where you
would expect to find them.
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A card with only black ink. This card has a rough "V" shape sometimes described as
faces pointing towards one another, "bunny ears", or similar visualizations.
Possible Sexual Imagery: The female sex organs (seen at the bottom of the card where
the figures join.
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A card with black ink showing an amorphorous "splat" shape. This one can be hard to
see anything in. Occasionally described as a foreshortened view of a person with their
arms outstretched.
Possible Sexual Imagery: The head of the male sex organ (the portion at the top of the
card) or alternately, a female sex organ (middle and bottom part of the card).
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Assessment of Freud
Most of Freud’s ideas are not testable or observable.
Repression is generally in doubt, people usually remember traumatic events. There may
be hippocampus damage for children with long-term abuse, affecting memory.
We certainly do process information unconsciously. But is the hypothalamus sending
messages the same as Freud’s unconsciousness?
Trait’s Perspective
Describes personality in terms of enduring fundamental traits: characteristic behaviors
and conscious motives for behaviors.
Looks for behaviors that are associated with basic traits, like extroversion/introversion.
More concerned with describing personality that looking for a cause.
Type A vs. Type B Personality: hard driving v. Easy going. Externally motivated v.
internally motivated. Type C: anal and anxious, Type D: eyore and moody.
Myers-Briggs: Jungian Archetypes.
Sensing v. Intuition
 Judging v. percieving
thinking v. feeling
Introvert/extrovert.
The Big Five: most accepted personality traits
These traits are recognized cross-culturally and even in Chimps.
The Big Five: Personality traits
Emotional Stability:
calm--------anxious
Secure-----insecure
Self-satisfied-------self pitying
Extraversion
Soicable-------retiring
Fun-loving--------sober
Affectionate---------reserved
Openness
Imaginative--------------practical
Preference for variety---------------Prefer sameness
Independent--------------------conforming
Agreeableness
Soft-hearted-------------ruthless
Trusting-----------------Suspicious
Helpful-----------------------uncooperative
Conscientiousness
Organized-----------disorganized
Careful---------------Careless
Disciplined-----------------impulsive
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Myers-Briggs Type Indicators
E: Extrovert vs
I: Introvert
S: sensing
vs
N: iNtuitive
F: Feeling
vs
T: Thinking
J: Judging
vs.
P: perceiving
Meyers briggs shorthands
NT: relates to the world of ideas. Thinkers, philosophers, arguers, system creators.
NF: relates to the world of people. Makes people feel good. Process through their
feelings,
SJ: relates to organizations and structures. Dislikes change, likes organization and
order. Likes clear lines.
SP: Relates to the outside world of doing. Likes to relate to their environment. Taking
things apart, building, rolling around in the mud, breaking things.
Inventories
Traits are generally uncovered by using inventories that ask people to self-report
preferences.
Factor analysis is then use to analyze clusters of responses that are associated with the
basic personality types.
Traits are more consistent the older you get.
Expressiveness as a consistent trait.
Expressiveness is a trait that is consistent. In fact expressive people trying to fake nonexpressiveness are more demonstrative than non-expressive people faking
expressiveness.
Optimism.
The trait of optimism is associated with feelings of happiness and well-being.
Pessimists are worse students than optimists.
Optimists are healthier, not stressing their immune systems as much.
Optimism.
However, overconfidence can blind us to real danger, and not give us enough eustress
(good stress), so that we become complacent.
The moral: enough optimism to believe there is always hope, enough anxiety to realize
that if we don’t try, failure is possible.
MMPI
Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory: one of the most researched traits inventories.
Designed to find clusters of traits associated with abnormal personalities. Through
factor analysis.
Empirically derived: measures levels of traits and correlates them with
psychopathologies.
Problems with Traits Theory
Rely on self-reports and people will often guide their responses to the way they’d like
to be. Self-serving bias: people see themselves and remember themselves as being
better/different than they are/were.
People aren’t consistent in behavior, in respect to traits, in different situation. Think
of yourself at dinner with your grandparents and with your friends.
Evaluating Traits
Best predictor of one’s behavior is the behavior in similar circumstances in the past:
not a trait that is derived from inventory.
Humanism
Maslow: Self Actualization is goal.
Good self-esteem in nurtured through genuineness acceptance and empathy:
unconditional positive regard. With this people will gravitate to self-actualization.
Personality is driven by self-concept.
Humanism
The major goal according to humanists was self-actualization which requires a basis of
self-esteem.
The closer your ideal self is to your real self the higher your self esteem will be.
With humanists, individuality and free will determine your ideal self and selfconcept.
Traits of those with High Self esteem
Fewer sleepless nights.
Conform less
Less likely to use drugs
persistent at difficult tasks
report being happier
Humanism
Low self-esteem brings unhappiness and depression. So the further apart your ideal self
and real self, the unhappier you will be.
In experiments where subjects are made to feel unhappy, they were more likely to
disparage other people and express higher degrees of racial prejudice and stereotyping.
Suffer more anxiety/depression.
Culture and Self-esteem: What if told by society you are less.
Minorities have no greater incidences of low self-esteem, despite prejudice and
stereotyping from general culture.
They value the things at which they excel.
They attribute problems to prejudice.
They compare themselves to others in their group-relative deprivation theory.
Evaluating Humanistic Perspective
Self concept is key to happiness.
People are innately good and capable of self-improvement.
In 1930s only 9% agreed with those concepts, while in 1989 85% did, indicating the
strength of humanists effect on American culture.
Emphasis meshes well with American cultural values of independence and selfreliance.
Evaluating Humanistic Perspective
However, Humanism is criticized from being vague and subjective.
Ideals may promote selfishness, self-indulgence and lack of restraint.
Fails to appreciate humans capacity for evil.
Self-Serving Bias
One problem with traits inventories and self-reports of esteem is the pervasiveness of
self-serving bias: the tendency for people to belief good things about themselves and to
blame external events or others for bad thins.
Self-Serving Bias
People accept more responsibility for good deeds than for bad. “The devil made me do
it.”
Most people rate themselves as better than average.
Our memories tend to build ourselves up. “The older I get, the better I was.”
We overestimate our behaviors in hypothetical situations.
Self-Serving Bias
We readily believe positive descriptions of ourselves: horoscopes, Meyers-Briggs
types. Barnum effect.
Underlies “other blaming” in marital discord and ethnic snobbery.
However, self-affirming is generally adaptive keeping our self-esteem up, optimism
and happiness.
Where would you rather be?
At a sporting event with friends, or participating in one?
At home reading a book, watching t.v., surfing the net?
At the mall with friends hanging out or shopping.
Sitting in Wheeler’s class learning.
Social Cognitive Approach
That personality is formed by a combination of learned experiences
(operantly,classically, socially), mixed with thought processes (cognition).
Focuses on how we respond to different stimuli in our environment.
Reciprocal determinism
“Behavior, internal personal factors and environmental influences all operate as
interlocking determents of each other”-Bandura
Past learned behaviors, influence new choices of environment which determines future
behavior. Personality dispositions lead us to the choices of environment.
Reciprocal determinism
Different people choose different environments: what classes you take, what outside of
school activities you are attracted to, what social events you attend are cognitive choices,
influenced by personality characteristics. Your success/failures in these determine future
choices of environment, which in turn interact and influence traits that you express.
Reciprocal determinism
In addition your personality influences the environment. If you act aggressive or
passive, interested/disinterested, happy/moody all influence how others respond to you.
Final behavior emerges from the interplay of your expressed personality traits, your
choice of environment (cognition), and learning (previous experiences, reinforced or not)
Reciprocal Determinism
More Socio-cognitive explanation of personality
Indicate the extent to which each of the following statements applies to you. Use the
following scale:
1 = disagree strongly
2 = disagree
3 = disagree slightly
4 = neither agree nor disagree
5 = agree slightly
6 = agree
7 = agree strongly
1. When I get what I want, it’s usually because I worked hard for it.
2. When I make plans, I am almost certain to make them work.
3. I prefer games involving some luck over games requiring pure skill.
4. I can learn almost anything if I set my mind to it.
5. My major accomplishments are entirely due to my hard work and ability.
6. I usually don’t set goals because I have a hard time following through on them.
7. Competition discourages excellence.
8. Often people get ahead just by being lucky.
9. On any sort of exam or competition, I like to know how well I do relative to
everyone else.
10. It’s pointless to keep working on something that’s too difficult for me.
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Personal Control
Our sense of personal control is a great influence on our personality and behavior.
Internal locus of control: we feel we can determine/influence our environment and
mood.
External locus of control: we are reactive and have little to say about which way our
lives go.
Personal Control
Internals achieve more in school, feel less depressed, act more independently, .
Learned helplessness: extreme feel of external locus of control results in giving up,
allowing the world to beat us down, depression.
People thrive when given control: people in democracy, even poor ones, are happier
than in totalitarian countries.
External locus and learned helplessness
Terror Management Theory
Humans are innately terrified of death.
Death anxiety motivates hatred of others and esteem for our own group.
In a threatening world: cling to love ones, embrace a world view that explains life
meaning (religion)
Modern Unconsciousness
Processing at unconscious levels
Targets you can’t see but know where they are.
Schemas that control our reactions and interpretations
Parallel processing
Emotions that occur before cognition.
Implicit memories.