Introducing Psychology
Second Edition
Schacter · Gilbert · Wegner
Personality
Chapter 11 Sections 4,
5, 6
Prepared by
Melissa S. Terlecki, Ph.D.
Cabrini College, PA
The Humanistic-Existential Approach:
Personality as Choice 11.4
 Humanistic and existential theorists focus on how
healthy choices create personality.
o Humanistic psychologists emphasize a positive,
optimistic view of human nature; goodness and
potential for growth.
o Existentialist psychologists focus on the individual as
responsible agent, negotiating the issue of meaning
and the reality of death.
Human Needs, Self-Actualization, and
Personality as Existence
 Self-actualizing tendency: the human motive to realize
our inner potential
o Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs recognizes selfactualization as a higher need.
 Engagement in tasks that match our abilities cause a
state of focus called flow.
 Existential approach: a school of thought that regards
personality as governed by an individual’s ongoing
choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life
and death
o Angst can arise as we find meaning in life (and
awareness of death) and take responsibility for making
free choices.
o One must deal with issues head-on instead of using
defenses.
The Social Cognitive Approach:
Personalities in Situations
 Social cognitive approach: an approach that views personality in
terms of how the person thinks about the situations encountered
in daily life and behaves in response to them
o Focus on how people perceive their environments
 Person-situation controversy: the question of whether behavior is
caused more by personality or by situational factors
 Walter Mischel (1930-) argues that personality traits do little to
predict behavior (r = .30 on average), and behaviors may not
transfer in different situations.
 We need information about both personality and situation to
predict behavior.
Personal Constructs
 Personal constructs: dimensions people use in making
sense of their experiences; originally proposed by George
Kelly (1905-1967)
o Differences in personal constructs are key to personality
differences and lead to disparate behaviors.
 Perspective is also reflected in translation of personal
goals into behavior.
o Outcome expectancies: a person’s assumptions about
the likely consequences of a future behavior; combine
with goals to produce characteristic style of behavior
o Locus of control: a person’s tendency to perceive the
control of rewards as internal to the self or external in
the environment; developed by Julian Rotter (1916-)
Table 11.2
Rotter’s Locus-of-Control Scale
Answer: A
more internal
locus of
control would
be reflected in
choosing
options 1b, 2b,
3a, and 4a.
The Self:
Personality in the Mirror
 Self-concept: a person’s explicit knowledge of his or her
own behaviors, traits, and other personal characteristics
o Organized as narratives about episodes in our lives and
in terms of traits
 Self-narrative is the story we tell about ourselves.
 Self-narratives and trait self-concepts don’t always match
up.
 George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) stated that we
develop a consensus (“generalized other”) of how others
see us.
o Our goal is to promote consistency.
 Self-verification: the tendency to seek evidence to
confirm the self-concept
What is your life story
as you see it—your selfnarrative?
Why don’t traits always
reflect knowledge of
behavior?
How does
self-concept
influence
behavior?
Self-Esteem
 Self-esteem: the extent to which an individual likes,
values, and accepts the self
o Those with high self-esteem tend to live happier and
healthier lives, cope better with stress, and are more
likely to persist at difficult tasks.
o Comparisons with others matter, including the
comparison between the actual and ideal self.
o Judgments from authority figures may influence selfesteem.
o Domains of personal importance vary.
Table 11.3
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
How do comparisons with others affect self-esteem?
The Desire for Self-Esteem
 Benefits of self-esteem include:
o Status (worthiness of respect)
o Belongingness (inclusion and accepted by others)
o Security (regarding our value and mortality)
 Self-serving bias: people’s tendency to take credit for their
successes but downplay responsibility for their failures
 Some people take positive self-esteem to the extreme.
o Narcissism: a trait that reflects a grandiose view of the self
combined with a tendency to seek admiration from and exploit
others.
 Implicit egotism argues that people are generally unaware of their
preference for things similar to themselves (i.e., own name).
o The name-letter effect shows how people prefer letters that are
the related to their first names.
Where Do You Stand?
Personality Testing for Fun and Profit
 Many people enjoy taking “personality tests” from a
variety of sources, although many of those sources
may not be valid.
 Correlations exist between personality dimensions
and work-related indicators.
o The Big-Five factors are often related to particular
job success.
 Business, government, and military employers often
use personality tests for hiring.
 Are personality tests useful for making decisions
about people?