Personality Psychology
AP PSYCHOLOGY: UNIT X
Designated Unit:
Unit I
Approaches & Methods
Personality:
The Nature of Personality
PART ONE
Personality: The Nature of Personality
 Personality
 The unique & relatively
stable ways in which
people think, feel and
behave

Not to be confused with…
 Character
• Refers to a person’s moral & ethical behavior

Temperament
• The enduring characteristics with which each person
is born
 Irritability, adaptability, etc.
Personality: The Nature of Personality
 Big Issues in Personality
 Nature v. Nurture


Unconscious v. Conscious


Is personality genetically
encoded or learned?
Do you know why you do
what you do?
Fixed v. Situational

Is personality stable or does
it change from situation to
situation?
Personality:
Psychodynamic Perspective
PART TWO
FREUDIAN
Theorist: Sigmund Freud
 Three primary beliefs…
 Childhood experiences
determine the adult personality
 Unconscious mental processes
influence everyday behavior
 Conflict causes most human
behavior
 Four major theories…
 Personality Structure
 Levels of Consciousness
 Defense Mechanisms
 Development
Theory: (1) Personality Structure
 Part 1: The Id
 The id is fully intact from the
moment of birth
The primitive & instinctive
component of our personality
 Houses unconscious drives such
as libido (sex) & aggression
 Selfish & irrational


Operates according to the pleasure principle


Demands INSTANT gratification…
“Primary-Process” thinking
Theory: (1) Personality Structure
 Part 2: The Superego
 Develops during childhood (around
the age of 6)
The internalized parent of our
personality
 Causes us to feel guilty for our
desires/id impulses
 Strives for perfection


Operates according to the Judicial or Moral Principle

Seeks to do what is right and good…
Theory: (1) Personality Structure
 Part 3: The Ego
 Develops during infancy (around the 6th month)


Operates according to the reality principle


The decision-making component of our personality
Seeks to gratify the id’s urges at an appropriate time,
given an appropriate outlet; will otherwise delay
gratification
“Secondary-Process” thinking
Theory: (2) Levels of Consciousness
 Conscious Mind
 Consists of our awareness at any point in time
 Preconscious
 Contains material just beneath the surface of
awareness; can be easily retrieved
 Unconscious Mind
 Contains thoughts, memories and desires that are well
below the surface of conscious awareness
I’m just the tip of
the iceberg!
Executive
mediation
Freudian-Slip
Central…
Internalized
ideals
Unconscious
urges & desires
Theory: (3) Defense Mechanisms
 The inevitable conflict between the id & the
superego produces anxiety

This anxiety is inherited by the ego, which uses
defense mechanisms (largely unconscious) to better
manage it, as well as other unpleasant emotions

Types of Anxiety
 (1) Realistic Anxiety
• External threat; fear

(2) Moral Anxiety
• Internal threat from superego

(3) Neurotic (Nervous) Anxiety
• Fear of being dominated by impulses residing in the id
Theory: (3) Defense Mechanisms
 Denial
 Refusing to experience a
certain situation

Example
 Despite being told that
their son cheated on the
SAT, Mr. and Mrs. Smith
refuse to believe that their
son is capable of such
actions…
Theory: (3) Defense Mechanisms
 Displacement
 Redirecting impulses towards an acceptable/symbolic
substitute

Example
 Children who fear expressing anger towards their
parents, may
displace it by
kicking their
dog
Theory: (3) Defense Mechanisms
 Identification (Introjection)
 Incorporating personality characteristics associated
with someone else into your own personality in order
to deal with a specific situation
 Forming a real or imaginary alliance (with a person
or a group) in order to bolster self-esteem; often seen
in insecure individuals

Example
 Joining a fraternity, clique, etc.
Theory: (3) Defense Mechanisms
 Projection
 Attributing one’s own
unacceptable thoughts to
another person

Example
 “He doesn’t trust me”
may be a projection of
the actual feeling “I don’t
trust him” or “I don’t
trust myself…”
Theory: (3) Defense Mechanisms
 Rationalization
 Distorting facts to make an event or desire seem less
threatening

Example
 Habitual drinkers may say they drink with friends
“just to be sociable”
 Reaction Formation
 To unconsciously switch unacceptable impulses into
their opposites

Example
 People may express feelings of purity when they are
suffering from unconscious feelings about sex
Theory: (3) Defense Mechanisms
 Regression
 Retreating to a more
infantile psychosexual stage
 A reversion to immature
patterns of behavior

Example
 A child, anxious about the first day
of school, may regress to the oral
comfort of thumb-sucking
 A teenager who throws a
temper-tantrum because her
parents won’t buy her a car
Theory: (3) Defense Mechanisms
 Repression
 “Motivated forgetting”
 Failure to remember a
traumatic event

Example
 We do not remember
our childhood lust for
our parent (Oedipus/Electra)
Theory: (3) Defense Mechanisms
 Sublimation
 Transforming an
unacceptable impulse
into a socially acceptable
one

Example
 A surgeon becomes a
surgeon so he or she can “cut” in a socially acceptable
manner
Theory: (4) Developmental Stages
 Oral Stage (Age: 0-1.5)
 Erogenous Zone
Mouth
 Libido satisfied by breast
feeding


Major Conflict
Weaning
 Failure to resolve the issue leads to oral fixation
 Suck/chew things for security
 Sarcasm, aggressiveness

Theory: (4) Developmental Stages
 Anal Stage (Age: 1.5-3)
 Erogenous Zone
Anus
 Libido satisfied by defecating


Major Conflict
Toilet training
 Failure to resolve the issue leads to anal fixation
 Anal Retentive: tightly controlled, OCD, fear of dirt,
obsessed with punctuality, etc.
 Anal Expulsive: messy, unorganized, rebellious, overly
giving, obsession with bathroom humor, etc.

Theory: (4) Developmental Stages
 Phallic Stage (Boys) (Age: 3-6)
 Erogenous Zone
Penis
 Libido satisfied by genital stimulation


“Oedipus Complex”
Desires mother; wants to eliminate father
 Resolved through castration anxiety
 Fears that father will find out & castrate him
 Relinquishes desire for mother & befriends father out
of fear

Theory: (4) Developmental Stages
 Phallic Stage (Girls) (Age: 3-6)
 Erogenous Zone
Clitoris
 Libido satisfied by genital stimulation


“Electra Complex” + Penis Envy

Reverse of Oedipus Complex (kind of…)
(More about Electra…)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Soon after the libidinal shift to the penis, the girl
develops her first sexual impulses towards her
mother (Oedipus…)
The girl realizes that she is not equipped to have a
heterosexual relationship with her mother…
As a result, she desires a penis, and the “power” it
represents…
She sees the solution as obtaining her father’s penis;
develops a sexual attraction towards him (Electra…)
The girl now blames her mother for her apparent
“castration” (which she views as punishment for
being attracted to her father…)
(More about Electra…)
6. Sexual desire for her father leads to feelings of
7.
8.
9.
10.
wanting to eliminate her mother…
Girl IDENTIFIES with her mother, so that she might
learn to mimic and thus replace her…
The girl anticipates that this action may lead to
punishment…
The girl employs DISPLACEMENT to shift the object of
her sexual desires from her father to men in general…
The end.
Theory: (4) Developmental Stages
 Phallic Stage (Age: 3-6)
 Major Conflict
Relinquishing desire for the opposite sex parent
 Failure to resolve this issues leads to fixation
 Excessive masturbation; overly flirtatious
 Excessive modesty
 Overly proud
 Promiscuous

Theory: (4) Developmental Stages
 Latency (Age: 7-11)
 Erogenous Zone
None
 Sexual feelings are repressed



Child develops academic, social
and extracurricular skills
Typically play in same-sex play
groups
Theory: (4) Developmental Stages
 Genital (puberty on…)
 Erogenous Zone
Penis/Vagina
 Begins when a child hits
sexual maturity


Normal sexual
relationships occur at
this stage
Personality:
Psychodynamic Perspective
PART THREE
1. Carl Jung
2. Alfred Adler
3. Karen Horney
NEO-FREUDIAN
Theorist: (1) Carl Jung
 Analytic Psychology
 Major criticisms of Freud?
Believed that Freud went
overboard on centering his
theory around sexual conflict
 Disagreed on the nature of
the unconscious mind


Jung believed that the
unconscious mind consisted
of two layers…
(1) Personal Unconscious
 (2) Collective Unconscious

Theorist: (1) Carl Jung
 (1) Personal Unconscious
 Houses material that is not
within one’s conscious
awareness because it has
been repressed or forgotten

(Essentially the same as Freud’s
version of the unconscious)
Theorist: (1) Carl Jung
 (2) Collective Unconscious
 Houses latent memory traces
inherited from people’s
ancestral past
Each person shares the
collective unconscious with
the entire human race
 Contains the “whole spiritual heritage of mankind’s
evolution, born anew in the brain structure of every
individual…”
 These ancestral memories are referred to as archetypes

Theorist: (1) Carl Jung
 Archetypes
 Emotionally charged images and thought forms that
have universal meaning

Archetypal images & ideas frequently show up in dreams
and are often
manifested in
a culture’s use
of symbols in
art, literature
and religion
Theorist: (2) Alfred Adler
 Individual Psychology
 Major criticism of Freud?


Believed that Freud went overboard on
centering his theory around sexual
conflict
Adler believed that the foremost
source of human motivation is a
striving for superiority

A universal drive to adapt, improve
oneself and master life’s challenges
Theorist: (2) Alfred Adler
 Other Major Ideas
 Compensation


Inferiority Complex


Fixation on feelings of personal inferiority that can lead
to emotional and social paralysis
Fictional Finalism


The idea that everyone has to work to overcome
feelings of inferiority, real or imagined, by developing
one’s abilities
Setting long-term goals that may never be reached, but
help you to achieve a sense of satisfaction along the way
(Theory of Birth Order)
Theorist: (3) Karen Horney
 One of the first females in the
field…

Major criticisms of Freud?


Believed that Freud went overboard on
centering his theory around sexual
conflict; “womb envy”
Horney believed that anxiety was one
of the most powerful motivating forces

Basic Anxiety
 Created when a child is born into the bigger & more
powerful world of adults and older children
Theorist: (3) Karen Horney
 Believed that those with loving parents would
overcome basic anxiety; those that didn’t
would develop neurotic personalities

How do children deal with anxiety and insecurity?

Coping Mechanisms
 Compliance: move toward others
 Withdrawal: move away from others
 Aggression: move against others
Evaluation: Psychodynamic Approach
 In support of…
 Research has demonstrated that…
Unconscious forces can influence behavior
 Internal conflict often plays a key role in generating
psychological distress
 Early childhood experiences can have a powerful impact
on adult personality
 People do use defense mechanisms to reduce their
experience of unpleasant emotions

Evaluation: Psychodynamic Approach
 Criticisms of…
 Poor testability


Unrepresentative samples


Depend too heavily on clinical cases
Sexism


Narrow & biased samples
Inadequate evidence


Ideas are often too vague and conjectural
Many psychodynamic theories are characterized by a
sexist bias against women
Pessimistic outlook on human nature
Personality:
Humanistic Perspective
PART FOUR
Humanism is a theoretical
orientation that emphasizes
the unique qualities of
humans, especially their
freedom and their potential
for personal growth
Personality: Humanistic Perspective
 Major Assumptions…
 People can rise above their
primitive animal heritage
 People are largely conscious,
rational beings who are not
dominated by unconscious,
irrational conflicts
 People are not helpless pawns
of deterministic forces
 Self-Actualizing Tendency
 Striving to fulfill one’s innate capacities & capabilities
Theorist: Carl Rogers
 Person-Centered Perspective
 The Self (Self-Concept)
A collection of beliefs about one’s
own nature, unique qualities and
typical behavior
 More-or-less subjective…
 “I’m easygoing”
 “I’m hardworking”
 “I’m pretty”
 Individuals are aware of their
self-concept; it is NOT buried in
their unconscious

Theorist: Carl Rogers
 The Self is divided into 2
major components…

The Real Self


One’s perception of actual
characteristics, traits & abilities
The Ideal Self

One’s perceptions of whom one
should be or would like to be
 Congruence v. incongruence?
Theorist: Carl Rogers
 Development of the Self
 Positive Regard
Warmth, affection, love and respect that comes from
significant others; impacts personality and happiness
 Vital to a person’s abilities to cope with stress and to
strive for self-actualization
 Unconditional positive regard

• Will provide overlap between real and ideal self

Conditional positive regard
Evaluation: Humanistic Approach
 Criticisms of…
 Poor testability
Ideas are often too vague, subjective or conjectural
 Lacking scientific hypotheses


Unrealistic & naive view of human nature


Inadequate evidence


Is anyone really this perfect? What about the human
capacity for evil?
Though empirical research has been done, it is difficult
to quantify human experience
Social influence?
Personality:
Trait Perspective
PART FIVE
Trait theories are less
concerned with the
explanation for personality
development & changing
personality, than they are
with describing personality &
predicting behavior based on
that description
Personality: Trait Perspective
 Trait
 A consistent, enduring
way of thinking, feeling or
behaving; a characteristic
pattern of behavior

Trait theorists believe that
personality is best explained
in terms of descriptive
adjectives and categories
comprised of related
qualities
Theorist: (1) Gordon Allport
 Trait Theory
 Cardinal Traits


Central Traits


Dominate and shape a person’s personality
 Ruling passions and/or obsessions
 Desire for money
General traits found in every person (to some degree)
 Honesty
Secondary traits

Seen only in certain circumstances
 Certain likes or dislikes
Theorist: (2) Raymond Cattell
 Factor Analysis Approach
 A statistical procedure that identifies
clusters of correlated test items
 Used this method to develop a 16
Personality Factor Inventory (16PF)

Believed that large groups of traits
could be reduced to 16 core
personality traits based on
statistical correlations
 Later added 7 for a total of 23 traits
Theorist: (3) Hans Eysenck
 Biological Trait Theory
 Suggested that personality could be
evaluated on two polar dimensions
Extraversion v. introversion
 Are you social and outgoing?
Reserved?
 Stability v. instability
 Are you predictable? Spontaneous?
 (Psychoticism)
 Are you EXTREMELY stable,
unstable, introverted or extraverted?

Theorist: (4) Robert McCrae
 Today’s trait researchers believe that
Eysenck’ s personality dimensions are too
narrow and Cattell’s 16PF are too large
 The Big-Five (Five-Factor Model)

Suggests that most personality traits are derived from
FIVE higher-order traits
OCEAN
 CANOE

Evaluation: Trait Perspective
 Criticisms of…
 Personality traits will not always be expressed in the
same way across the same situation

Trait-Situation Interaction (Walter Mischel)
 The assumption that the particular circumstances of
any given situation will influence the way in which a
trait is expressed
 As a result, traits are not good predictors of behavior
 On the other hand…
 Trait theorists argue that behaviors from a situation
may be different, but average behaviors remain the
same
Personality:
Social-Cognitive Perspective
PART SIX
The social-cognitive perspective
emphasizes the interaction of traits and
situations
***Sometimes known as social-behavioral perspective
Theorist: (1) Albert Bandura
 Social-Cognitive Theory
 Reciprocal Determinism
The idea that internal mental events (cognition),
external environmental events and overt behavior all
influence one another
 The environment determines behavior; however,
behavior also determines the environment…


Self-Efficacy

An individual’s expectancy of how effective his or her
efforts to accomplish a goal will be in any particular
circumstance
 High levels v. low levels of self-efficacy?
Theorist: (2) Julian Rotter
 Expectancy Theory
 Personal Control

The extent to which
people perceive control
over their environment;
impacts personality
development
 External Locus of Control
• The perception that chance or forces beyond one’s control
determine his or her fate

Internal Locus of Control
• The perception that one controls his or her own fate
Theorist: (3) Walter Mischel
 The Person-Situation Controversy
 Asserted that people make responses that they think
will lead to reinforcement given the situation at hand


Predicts that people will often behave differently in
different situations…
Sparked a major debate regarding:
The consistency of personality
 The relative importance of the person as opposed to the
situation in determining behavior

Evaluation: Social-Cognitive Perspective
 In support of…
 Theories are firmly rooted in extensive empirical
research (as opposed to clinical intuition)
 Situational factors are important in shaping behavior
 Criticisms of…
 Dehumanizing nature of radical behaviorism


In regards to the denial of free will & the importance of
cognitive processes
Dilution of the behavioral approach

Behavioral theories aren’t behavioral anymore?
Personality:
Assessment Strategies
PART SEVEN
Method: (1) Interviews
 An assessment in which the client is able to
answer questions, either in a structured or
unstructured
fashion

Used by…
Psychoanalysts
 Humanistic
theorists

Method: (1) Interviews
 Advantages
 The “inside scoop”
 Disadvantages
 Distortion of the truth,
misremembering, etc.
 Halo effect


The tendency to form a
favorable or unfavorable
impression of someone at the first meeting; impacts
interpretation of all consecutives meetings
Reliability?
Method: (2) Projective Tests
 Assessments that
provide ambiguous
stimuli designed to
trigger the projection
of one’s inner dynamics
(unconscious thoughts…)

Used by…

Psychoanalysts
Method: (2) Projective Tests
 Advantages
 Provide a starting point for
digging deeper into a client’s
recollections, concerns &
anxieties (?)
 (Are there any?)
 Disadvantages
 Very subjective
 No standard scoring scale;
low reliability and validity
Method: (2) Projective Tests
 Types of Tests
 Rorschach Inkblot Test (1921)
10 inkblots (5 in black ink, 5 in colored ink)
 Subjects are asked to interpret the blots


Thematic Apperception Test, TAT (1935)
20 ambiguous images
 Subjects are asked to tell a story


Sentence Completion Test



“I wish my mother…”
Draw-a-Person Test
House-Tree-Person Test
Method: (3) Personality Inventories
 A personality assessment
that consists of statements
requiring a specific,
standardized response
from the person taking
the test

Used by…

Trait theorists
Method: (3) Personality Inventories
 Advantages
 Standardized; everyone gets the same list of questions
 Generally scored on a computer
 Include validity scales
 Generally more reliable than projective tests
 Disadvantages
 Still a form of self-report

Issues?
Method: (3) Personality Inventories
 Types of Tests
 The Sixteen Personality
Factor Questionnaire
(16PF)


Based on: Raymond
Cattell’s work
Neuroticism/Extraversion/
Openness Personality
Inventory (NEO-PI)

Based on: Robert McCrae’s
work
Method: (3) Personality Inventories
 Types of Tests (continued)
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI)

Based on: Carl Jung’s work
 Relies on four personality
dimensions
•
•
•
•

Sensing/Intuition
Thinking/Feeling
Introversion/Extraversion
Perceiving/Judging
Keirsey Temperament Sorter
Method: (3) Personality Inventories
 Types of Tests (continued)
 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI2)
Assesses “abnormal” personality tendencies; widely used
in clinical settings
 Consists of 567 statements such as…
 “I am often tense”
 “I believe I am being plotted against”
 Includes 10 clinical validity scales

Method: (4) Behavioral Assessment
 A personality
assessment that
examines real world
behaviors

Used by…
Behavioral psychologists
 Social-Cognitive theorists

Method: (4) Behavioral Assessment
 Advantages
 Allows for the examination of
behavior in everyday
circumstances
 Disadvantages
 Observer effect
 Observer bias
 No control over external
environment
Method: (4) Behavioral Assessment
 Types of Tests
 Direct Observation


Rating Scale


Observation of client engaged in ordinary day-to-day
behavior in either a clinical or natural setting
An assessment in which a numerical value is assigned to
a specific behavior that is listed on the scale
Frequency Count

An assessment in which the frequency of a particular
behavior is counter