Personality
What Is Personality?
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Personality is defined as an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking,
feeling, and acting.
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Types of approaches to study personality
 Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory proposed that childhood sexuality and
unconscious motivations influence personality.
 The humanistic approach focused on our inner capacities for growth and selffulfillment
Sigmund Freud
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Freud focused on the unconscious state of mind through his personality
theories
 Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions
to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological
disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
 Freud defines your unconscious state of mind as a reservoir of mostly unacceptable
thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists,
information processing of which we are unaware.
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Within your personality Freud believed there are many structures
 Id: contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud,
strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure
principle demanding immediate gratification
 Ego: the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that according to Freud,
mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality.
 Superego: the personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals
and provides standards for judgment (the conscious) and for future aspirations.
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
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Freud was convinced that certain erogenous zones during childhood could effect
ones personality.
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Oedipus Complex: a boy’s sexual desires towards his mother and feelings of
jealousy and hatred for the rival father.
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Psychosexual Stages
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Oral (0-18 months) – Pleasure centers on the mouth – sucking, biting, chewing
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Anal (18-36 months) – Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping
for demands of control
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Phallic (3-6 years) – Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual
feelings
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Latency (6 to puberty) – Dormant sexual feelings
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Genital (Puberty on) – Maturation of sexual interests
Personality Defense Mechanisms
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Defense Mechanism: tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting
reality
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Repression: Banishment of anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and
memories from consciousness
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Regression: Going back to a less anxious phase within one’s life
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Projection: People disguising their own threatening impulses by attributing
them to others
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Rationalization: self-justifying explanations in place of real life, more
threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s action
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Denial: A person refuses to believe or even to perceive painful realities
Rorschach Inkblot Test
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The most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, seeks to identify
people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
The Humanistic Perspective
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Abraham Maslow had a theory of self-actualization meaning that once one’s
physiological needs are met, the person focuses to fulfill their own potential.
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Carl Rogers used the theory of unconditional positive regard or an attitude
of acceptance toward another person – how you view others can affect how
you view yourself
Trait Perspective
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A person’s traits can define their overall personality
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Talkative, funny, fun to be around may be a more extroverted person than
someone who keeps to their self
Personal Control
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Personal Control: the extent in which people perceive control over their
environment rather than feeling helpless
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External locus of control: the perception that chance or outside forces beyond
your personal control determine your fate
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Internal locus of control: the perception that you control your own fate
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Learned helplessness: the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal
or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.
Optimism vs. Pessimism
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Optimism: Feeling positive about things
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Pessimism: Feeling negative about things
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In repeated studies, optimists have outlived pessimists or lived with fewer
illnesses.
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Positive Psychology: the scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims
to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and
communities to thrive.
Exploring the Self
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Self: assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts,
feelings, and actions
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Spotlight effect: overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our
appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume the spotlights
shines on us)
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Self-esteem: one’s feelings of high or low self-worth
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Self-Serving Bias
 People accept more responsibility for good deeds than for bad, and for successes
than for failures
 Most people see themselves as better than average