PERSONALITY
Definition of Personality
– individual’s unique pattern of thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors
– persists over time, across situations
– Unique differences
– Relatively stable and enduring
Four Major Types of Personality Theories
• Psychodynamic Theory: views
personality as the result of
unconscious, often sexual
motivations and conflicts
• Freud
• Neo-Freudians (Jung, Adler,
Horney, Erikson)
Four Major Types of Personality Theories
• Humanistic Theory: emphasize the role of
positive growth motives and the realization of
potential in shaping personality.
• Carl Rodgers
Four Major Types of Personality Theories
Social-Cognitive Theory: finds the roots of
personality in the ways people think about, act on,
and respond to their environment.
-personal expectancies
-locus of control
-learn from experiences
-Behaviorism! (B.F. Skinner)
-Albert Bandura
Four Major Types of Personality Theories
• Trait theories: focus on categorizing
and describing the ways in which
people’s personalities differ.
-subjective
-done through extensive personality tests
-you can assess your own personality by
describing yourself!
-Gordon Allport—OCEAN—BIG 5 test
Trait Theory
• Concentrates on how adult personalities are
different, not how they develop
• Traits are the building blocks of personality
• Traits cannot be seen but they can be inferred
from behavior
Problem: obviously subjective and descriptive,
not scientific
• Look at packet page 5 for more info…
Gordon Allport-Trait Theorist
• When he was 22, he traveled to Vienna. He had arranged to
meet with the great Sigmund Freud! When he arrived in
Freud’s office, Freud simply sat and waited for Gordon to
begin. After a little bit, Gordon could no longer stand the
silence, and he blurted out an observation he had made on his
way to meet Freud. He mentioned that he had seen a little boy
on the bus who was very upset at having to sit where a dirty
old man had sat previously. Gordon thought this was likely
something he had learned from his mother, a very neat and
apparently rather domineering type. Freud, instead of taking it
as a simple observation, took it to be an expression of some
deep, unconscious process in Gordon’s mind, and said “And
was that little boy you?”
• This experience made him realize that psychology sometimes
digs too deeply…
Trait Theory: Gordon Allport
• Organized all human traits into 5 main
categories- Allport’s OCEAN
• Openness
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism
• What were your results? What is your
opinion of the test?
Brainstorm using the Trait Theory…
• Can you brainstorm the following about
yourself?
– Any cardinal trait(s)?
• Remember: Not everyone has a cardinal trait!
– What are your central traits?
– What are your secondary traits?
• Essentially, presenting this is your trait theory
assignment, described in one of two options on
packet page 2! (due next Wednesday)
Personality Paper:
Due Tuesday @ midnight, hand in during class on Wednesday
• Unit Assessment- paper (described on page 3)
– You will be hearing many theories of personality and
essentially, forming your own theory based on the thoughts
of psychologists and your own personal experiences.
• Details:
– 2-3 pages, 2 outside sources and the use of your packet, intext citations, MLA format bibliography.
– You must use turnitin.com by TUESDAY at midnight. The
assignment is due regardless of your attendance on
4/10/12 OR 4/11/12. Bring a paper copy Wednesday to
avoid a point deduction.
Packet citation information:
Morris, Charles G. Psychology: an Introduction.
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1996.
Print.
In text: (Morris, 1996).
• 2 additional sources needed!
• Use in-text citation and a formal works cited!