General Psychology
PSYC 200
Personality
But first…
• What do we think about
https://www.crystalknows.com/
http://www.dailydot.com/technology/crystalapp-email-wtf/
Announcements
• Extra credit: 10 points per
– Go to Psych lecture & write 1 page – next one
April 30th 5:30 pm – Topping Room
– Go to Science Museum, take 3 selfies of psych
exhibits, write one page
– Participate in RATS study & write 1 paragraph
about experience
Sources and Credibility
• How do we decide what is credible?
“Since this anthology discusses psychology, a
science based on a lot of assumptions, it cannot
be considered reliable information”
Outline
What is Personality?
How do We Measure it?
Trait Approach
Psychodynamic Approach
Humanistic Approach
Social-Cognitive Approach
I What is Personality?
• An individual’s characteristic style of behaving,
thinking, and feeling
• Across time, across situations
• Trait: A relatively stable disposition to behave
in a particular and consistent way
Across different situations?
• Trait vs. Situation
• Long time controversy
I How Do We Measure It?
• Self-Report: Just ask people
– MMPI
• Projective Tests
– Standard set of ambiguous stimuli that elicit
unique responses
What do you see?
Figure 12.1 Sample
Rorschach Inkblot
Figure 12.2 Sample TAT Card
Schacter, Gilbert and Wegner:
I How Do We Measure It?
• Self-Report: Just ask people
– Drawback: self-reports can be limited
• “Are you conceited?”
• Projective Tests
– Drawback: Don’t work (can’t predict behavior)
Four Major Approaches
• differ dramatically
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•
•
•
methods used
questions asked
assumptions made
current popularity
II Trait Approach
• identify core traits
• enduring predispositions
• e.g., introverted, conscientious, helpful
• focus on description
• not explanation
• self-report methodology
• personality inventories
• MMPI
“Oh, God! Here comes little Miss Perky.”
“Big Five”
• leading personality inventory
• Avoids overlap, captures variation
• reliable
• stable over time, different data
• valid
• e.g., high conscientiousness and low neuroticism are
correlated with successful job performance
• cross-cultural validity
My Big Five
http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/
• www.outofservice.com
http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?oR=0.725&cR=0.722&eR=0.312&
aR=0.861&nR=0.188
OCEAN
•
•
•
•
•
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
• Openness to Experience
• curious; vivid imagination
• like variety and unusual ideas; unconventional
• like the abstract, ambiguous, and subtle
• Conscientiousness
• self-disciplined and dutiful; prefer order
• prefer planning over spontaneity; detail-oriented; careful and exact
• Extraversion
• get energy from being with others
• energetic and enthusiastic; talkative
• Agreeableness
• compassionate and cooperative; value harmony
• friendly, generous; feel others’ emotions; soft-hearted
• Neuroticism
• anger prone; anxious and irritable
• unstable, moody; often depressed and stressed
Nature or Nurture?
• surprisingly high heritability rates for many
personality traits
• e.g., introversion/extraversion
• evidence for genetic basis to personality
• twin studies
• adoption studies
• family patterns
• Does environment matter too?
V Psychodynamic Approach
• historical value
• personality is shaped by desires and needs that
are outside of our awareness
• power of the unconscious
• psychic determinism
• assumption that all psychological events have a cause
• no free choice
• primary methodology involved projective tests
• Rorschach Test
It’s just a simple Rorschach ink-blot test,
Mr. Bromwell, so calm down and tell
me what each one suggests to you.”
• Freudian slips
Freud
• first comprehensive theory of personality
• late 1800s
• physician specializing in neurotic disorders
• no known physical cause
• unconscious motivations
• sex
• aggression
• mind is like an iceberg
• mostly hidden
Structure of the Mind
Ego
Conscious mind
Unconscious mind
Superego
Id
• tensions among the id, ego, and superego
shape our personality
• pleasure = id
• reality = ego
• morality = superego
• anxiety is a driving force
• defense mechanisms help relieve anxiety
• unconscious coping mechanisms
Defense Mechanisms
• repression
• blocking emotionally threatening memories or impulses
• projection
• attributing your own unacceptable feelings or impulses to
someone else
• displacement
• directing an unacceptable impulse onto a safer and more
socially acceptable target
• reaction formation
• transforming an anxiety-provoking emotion into its opposite
• regression
• returning to younger stages of development
• rationalization
• providing a reasonable sounding explanation for an
unreasonable behavior
• denial
• refusing to admit that something unpleasant or taboo is
happening
• sublimation (+)
• transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired
goal
Defense Mechanisms
• Elise accuses other women of talking too much when she is really the
one who talks too much.
• John got in a lot of fights as a child. When he started high school he
channeled that hostility into playing football.
• Mr. Egosi forgot to mail the letter inviting his mother-in-law to spend
the winter with them.
• After failing an exam, Kenny slams the door as he leaves the
classroom.
• Lisa dresses in provocative clothes and uses suggestive language
although she actually fears that she is unattractive.
Personality Development
• which conflicts we have when shape our unique
personalities
• fully formed by age 6
• 6 psychosexual stages
• differentiated by area of the body
Psychosexual Stages
Stage
Focus
Oral
(0-18 months)
Pleasure centers on the mouth-sucking, biting, chewing
Anal
(18-36 months)
Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder
elimination; coping with demands for
control
Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with
incestuous sexual feelings
Phallic
(3-6 years)
Latency
(6 to puberty)
Dormant sexual feelings
Genital
(puberty on)
Maturation of sexual interests
Oedipus Complex
Oedipus Complex
• phallic stage
• boys
• develop powerful attraction to Mommy
• see Daddy as rival
• castration anxiety
• eventually give up and identify with Daddy
• If you can’t beat him, join him
Electra Complex
• girls
• attracted to Daddy
• fantasize about getting rid of
Mommy
• develop penis envy (??)
• feel inferior to boys
• girls never get over their penis
envy entirely unless they give
birth to a boy
Fixations
• “stuck”
• too much or too little gratification; can’t resolve
conflicts
• manifest as distinct personality characteristics or
flaws
• oral fixation → eating disorders, excessively needy
• anal fixation → stubborn, obsessive-compulsive
• phallic fixation → jealous, sex-role identity problems
Evaluating the Psychoanalytic
Approach
• biased case studies
• vague terms
• gender, race, and
cultural biases
• just plain wrong about
many things
• unparalleled impact
• emphasized talk
therapy
• got us thinking
about the
unconscious
IV Humanistic Approach
• 1960s-70s
• emphasized free will
• personality shaped by our choices
• emphasized potential for growth
• reaching optimal states of being
• upbeat, positive about human nature
• core motives are good, not evil
• optimistic to the point of being naive
Self-Actualization
• Abraham Maslow
• living up to one’s fullest potential
• MLK, Helen Keller, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas
Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln
Unconditional Positive Regard
• Carl Rogers
• necessary for optimal, healthy personality development
• individual differences stem from different conditions of
worth imposed on us
• impact on parenting
Social-Cognitive Approach
• Personality: How we think about situations and
behave in response to them
• emphasizes the interaction of our traits with our
situations
– Mischel : Traits alone often don’t predict behavior
– Also Mischel – marshmallow study
• and the importance of mental processes
• how we interpret and respond to events
• how we view ourselves and our place in the world
• locus of control
• do we view ourselves as controlling, or as controlled by, our
environment
Locus of Control
Internal
• what happens is result
of our actions
• high sense of control
• self as effective and
powerful
• take credit for
successes and
responsibility for failures
• “can do” mentality
External
• what happens is result
of chance, fate, luck,
other forces
• low sense of control
• feel less powerful or
effective
• tend not to take credit
for successes or
failures