Chapter 13
Personality
Personality
• Overview
– Personality is an elusive concept.
– Some psychologists have developed “grand theories” of
personality.
– Others have tried to identify personality types and
describe why an individual classified as a certain
“personality type” behaves in certain ways.
– This chapter, we will examine the ways of
understanding personality and also discuss the ways of
and problems in measuring this concept.
Personality Theories:
What’s behind the mask?
• Personality -- from the Latin word persona or “mask” that Greek
actors used to wear to indicate if they were comic or tragic.
• What is Personality?
– Your characteristic pattern of thinking/ feeling/ acting, esp. in
social contexts.
– Implies some level of consistency across time and contexts
• This chapter
– Psychodynamic Approach
– Humanistic Approach
– Miscellaneous Facts & Assessment
Two major approaches:
psychodynamic & humanist
FIGURE 13.1 Philosophers Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau held
opposing views of human nature. Psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers also
held conflicting views. Freud, like Hobbes, stressed the more negative aspects of
human nature; Rogers, like Rousseau, the more positive aspects.
Psychodynamic theories
• Personality as the interplay of conflicting
forces within the individual, including some
forces that the individual may not
consciously acknowledge.
Sigmund Frued
• First psychodynamic personality theory
• Background
- Born 1856 Austro-Hungarian Empire
- Went into training as a medical doctor
- Theory based largely on sessions with his patients
- Nervous disorders sometimes didn’t make neurological
- Sense and talking often revealed emotional problems and
resolved symptoms
 Discussed cases with colleague Josef Breuer -- who used
hypnosis as a way to help cure patients with various
neuroses (e.g., Anna O)
Sigmund Frued
 1895 -- announced a new technique called free association.
 Patients express any random thoughts that enter their minds.
 Unconscious thoughts and memories brought to the conscious, allowing the
patient to understand them. This will hopefully free the patient from the problem.
 Free association led to a therapy known as psychoanalysis.
- Focused biologically based instinctual drives, especially sex and aggression.
- Very young children also have these drives and they influence fantasies,
problem solving and social interactions
Personality
• Freud and the psychodynamic approach
– Although Freud’s theory had an enormous
impact on society during the 20th century, his
influence within psychology is waning.
– His theory is very difficult to test empirically.
– Although many psychologists find nothing
useful in the Freudian paradigm, its tenets are
still utilized by some mental health
practitioners.
Freud’s view of the mind
•
•
•
conscious-- what you’re
aware of, can verbalize and
think about in a logical
fashion.
preconscious -- ordinary
memory. Not conscious, but
can be easily brought into
conscious.
unconscious -- not directly
accessible. A dump box for
urges, feelings and ideas that
are tied to anxiety, conflict
and pain. These feelings and
thoughts still exert influence
on our actions and our
conscious awareness.
Psychodynamic approach:
Where does personality come from?




shaped by internal conflicting forces.
individual may be unaware of these.
conscious vs. the unconscious
the unconscious =stuff in our minds that we’re not
aware of.
– includes some memories, thoughts, &
emotions that are illogical or socially
unacceptable.
– often at odds with our conscious minds
– affects our behavior
Three Portions of Personality in
Psychosexual Theory
conscious
EGO
SUPEREGO
• Id--(unconscious)-- sexual and aggressive
impulses -- represents biological needs and
desires, and requires immediate gratification
• Superego--(mainly unconscious) moral
ethical principles -- represents values of
society and conscience; a primitive and
unconscious sense of morality; it is the
internalization of the world view and norms a
child absorbs from parents and peers. A
primitive knowledge of right and wrong.
• Ego (mainly conscious) reality oriented
functions develops in early infancy and is the
conscious, rational part of personality It is the
mediator between the id and the superego
ID
unconscious
The psychodynamic approach:
How does a child’s personality develop?



Stages of Psychosexual Development
According to Freud people have a libido
(psychosexual energy) = all the sensations of
excitement that arise from body stimulation.
He believed that how we manage this aspect of
our development influences nearly all aspects
of our personality
as we grow up, we go through 5 psychosexual
stages
 how we deal with the stages ultimately determines
personality (“fixation”)

Personality
• Freud’s psychosexual stages of
development
– The Oral Stage (The first year of life)
• The infant derives intense psychosexual pleasure
from stimulation of the mouth, particularly from
breastfeeding but from oral contact with other
objects as well.
• Oral fixation might involve problems with eating,
drinking, substance use, and issues of dependence
on/independence from others.
Freud’s psychosexual stages of development
– The Anal Stage (About 1 to 3 years old)
• The child derives intense psychosexual pleasure from
stimulation of the anal sphincter, the muscle that controls
bowel movements. This is partly related to toilet training,
which usually occurs at this stage.
• Anal fixation might involve problems with:.
– Anal retentive traits--being obsessively clean, overly tidy, very
orderly, controlled, punctual, stingy and possessive. due to strict
attitudes towards toilet training.
– Anal expulsive traits-- poorly organized and perhaps aggressive. Due
to lax attitudes towards toilet training.
Freud’s psychosexual stages of
development
• The Phallic Stage (About 3 to 6 years of
age)
• The child derives intense psychosexual pleasure
from stimulation of the genitals, and becomes
attracted to the opposite-sex parent.
• Phallic fixation might involve fear of being castrated
(in boys) or “penis envy” in girls.
Freud’s psychosexual stages of
development
• The Latent Period (About 6 years to
adolescence)
• The child in this period suppresses his or her
psychosexual interest. Children in this age group
tend to play mostly with same sex peers.
• There is some evidence that the “latent period” is a
cultural artifact. Children in some non-industrialized
societies do not experience a period of “latency.”
Freud’s psychosexual stages of
development
• The Genital Stage (Adolescence and
beyond)
• The individual in this period has a strong sexual
interest in other people. If he or she has completed
the other stages successfully, primary psychosexual
satisfaction will be gained from sexual intercourse.
• The individual who is fixated in an early period of
development has little libido left for this stage.
Table 13.1 Freud’s stages of psychosexual development.
Name that fixation!
Your friend Oscar can’t seem to go more
than 30 minutes without lighting up a
cigarette. Freud would say that he…
Is fixated in the oral stage.
Name that fixation
Your friend Annie can’t seem to hang on to
a cent. She spends her money wildly. Her
roommates are always threatening to call
the health department because she never
cleans up after herself and her room always
looks like a “pigsty.” Freud would say that
she…
Is fixated in the anal stage.
Evaluation of Freud’s stages
• Difficult to test empirically.
• Research inconclusive.
• Personality attributes for people who are
“fixated” at certain stages do seem to
correlate, there is no evidence that they
result from the difficulties that Freud
hypothesized occur at those ages (i.e. “penis
envy” in the Phallic Stage).
The psychodynamic approach:
What else did Freud say?
excessive
anxiety may be due to libido problems:
 lack of sexual gratification
 excessive masturbation
 traumatic childhood sexual experiences
 To deal with anxiety: defense
mechanisms
 tricks used by ego to push unpleasant
things  unconscious; they reduce
anxiety & are usually healthy
The psychodynamic approach:
Common defense mechanisms
1. Rationalization (making excuses): Reframing unpleasant events
as actually good, justifiable or rational
2. Repression (motivated forgetting): Forgetting painful or
upsetting thoughts/feelings/events
3. Regression: Returning to a more juvenile way of thinking or
acting
4. Reaction formation: Presenting your ideas/feelings as the
opposite of what they really are
5. Projection: Attributing your own undesirable
characteristics/motives to someone else
6. Denial: Refusing to acknowledge an unpleasant event/thought
7. Displacement (scapegoating): Diverting your thoughts/impulses
from their actual target to a less threatening target
8. Sublimation: Transforming sexual or aggressive energies into
more acceptable, pro-social behaviors
Name that defense mechanism!
You promised yourself that you would exercise regularly, but you
haven’t exercised in about 3 months. You think: “Well, I can justify
this because I have been very busy … and if I had exercised I
probably would have gotten injured and done poorly in my classes.”
Rationalization
Name that defense mechanism!
Your boss yells at you. You come home and yell at
your spouse. Your spouse yells at your child. Your
child goes out to the yard and yells at the dog.
Displacement
The psychodynamic approach &
psychoanalysis
 Expanded to psychoanalysis:
therapeutic process:
 bringing parts of the unconscious
into consciousness  catharisis
(therapeutic release of pent-up
emotions)
The psychodynamic approach:
Freud’s legacy
Freud generally did not use the “scientific method”
And many of his findings discredited. However …
 There is an unconscious mind.
 People do often have conflicting motives.
 Childhood experiences and sexual development do
affect later outcomes
 Relationships with people in our family do influence
relationships we have with others.
Neo-Freudians
Psychologists and others who adopted some parts of
Freud’s theory and modified others.
• Karen Horney believed Freud exaggerated the role
of sexuality, and misunderstood the motivations of
women and the dynamics of family relationships.
Neo-Freudians
Carl Jung
• Greater emphasis on continuity of
human experience and need for
spiritual meaning.
• Fascinated by similar images and
themes (e.g., in art, stories) and themes
across cultures
• In addition to personal conscious and
unconscious mind Jung proposed idea
of “collective unconscious.”
– Present at birth, reflects cumulative
experiences of all of our ancestors.
– Contains archetypes -- figures and
themes that emerge repeatedly in
human history and across world
cultures (e.g., Anima/Animus)
Neo-Freudians
Alfred Adler “individual psychology.”
• “individual” -- understanding the whole person, not partitioned as in
Freudian framework.
• striving for superiority -- natural desire to seek personal excellence and
fulfillment
• We create a style of life, which is our plan for achieving a sense of
superiority
– Many paths to superiority
• Competition in business, sports, etc.
• Self sacrificing
• Committing crimes for attention
• Complaining to get control
• Making excuses for lack of achievement (“if only ….”)
• People who do not succeed may suffer from an inferiority complex, an
exaggerated feeling of inadequacy, throughout
Neo-Fruedians
Adler
– Social Interest -- sense of belonging and identification
with others
• healthy striving for superiority involved concern for
the needs and welfare of others.
Mental Health:
– Social interest
– Effective striving for superiority
Psychopathology:
– Lack of social interest
– Setting inadequate goals,
– Faulty style of life
Neo-Fruedians
Adler’s Legacy
• Mental health as a positive state (not just
the absence of neurosis)
• Inferiority complex
• Approaches to therapy based on how
people’s assumptions influence behavior
• Emphasis on social interest
Summary of Neo-Fruedians
 Adopted some parts of Freud’s
thinking and modified other parts.
 Note: Still did not generally use
“the scientific method”
The Learning Approach
• How do you develop a personality?
– You learn it!
• The learning approach
– Questions concept of personality.
• People frequently behave differently depending on
social context.
– E.g., We may act differently with our parents,
coworkers, friends.
• Learning approach relates specific behaviors to
specific experiences. Often the experiences from
which we learn are those of other people in our
environment.
– Helps explain variations in behavior across people and
situations
The Learning Approach
• How do people learn?
– Social Learning Theories
• Imitating models
• We are most likely to imitate models with
perceived similarity
• Principle of vicarious reinforcement
– Example -- gender roles psychological aspect
of being male or female (as opposed to your
biological sex.)
• Cross-cultural research suggests that
components of the male and female gender
roles are learned.
• Boys can be observed to imitate men, and
girls to imitate women.
The humanistic approach
 people are essentially good (in contrast to neutral
stance of behaviorism or negative view of
psychoanalytic theories)
 people strive toward self-actualization
 state of achieving one’s full potential.
 personality depends on what people believe
 behavior is not determined by “simple” causes
 look at “peak experiences”
 two Major People: Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow
Humanistic psychology:
Carl Rogers
– People strive toward self-actualization: a state of achieving
one’s full potential.
– Children develop a self-concept, an image of the person that
they really are and an ideal self, an image that represents the
person they would like to be.
– Psychological distress is generated from mismatch between
self-concept and the ideal self.
Humanistic psychology: Carl
Rogers
• human welfare best served in atmosphere of
unconditional positive regard.
• Unconditional positive regard involves the
acceptance of the person as he or she is.
• Most people receive conditional positive regard
in their important relationships.
• This means that the person is only held in esteem
when they fulfill certain requirements set for them
by the other person or society.
Humanistic psychology
The fit between reality and the authentic self
Authentic Self
threatened and stressful
Reality
The bigger the gap between a person's authentic self and daily life
the more likely the person is to experience life as threatening and
stressful.
Authentic Self
Reality
trust
freedom
creativity
The more harmony between authentic self and experience
the more a person experiences trust , freedom, and creativity
in daily life
.
Implications -- Well being is a product of personenvironment co-adaptation. Person seeks social settings that
fit thoughts, beliefs, and values.
Humanistic psychology
Abraham Maslow
– proposed that people have a hierarchy of
motivating needs and that the highest need of
these is the need to become self-actualized.
– Maslow developed a list of characteristics of
the self-actualized person based on people who,
in his opinion, had achieved the state.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Self Actualization--growthoriented motive that sits atop a
pyramid of needs
As more basic needs are met
people direct themselves towards
higher level needs (e.g., love and
esteem).
If those needs are met people
direct their needs towards selfactualization-Self Actualization -- a motive
that urges the person to make
optimal use of his or her full
potential, to become a more
effective, creative participant in
daily life
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
SELF-ACTUALIZED
PEOPLE
(anecdotal evidence):
 perceive reality accurately
 enjoy life
are independent, spontaneous, creative
 treat others with unconditional positive regard
Critics correctly point out that this is not a scientific list,
and merely represents characteristics that Maslow
admired in people.
Personality
• Personality theory in many ways seeks to
describe human nature. It raises some
fascinating questions that do not seem
easily answerable.
• Many researchers in the area of personality
are working on these questions in small
steps in hopes of eventually synthesizing an
accurate larger picture of who we as
humans really are.
The Trait Approach
• Personality Traits
• The main idea of the trait approach to personality is
that there exists in people consistent personality
characteristics that can be identified, measured and
studied.
Traits vs. States
• Personality traits and states
– A trait is a consistent, long-lasting tendency in
behavior,
• E.g., sociability, shyness or assertiveness.
– A state is a temporary activation of particular
behavior.
• E.g., getting angry when someone cuts you off on
the freeway
Concept Check:
You become very, very nervous whenever you
have a psychology test scheduled. Are you
experiencing “trait anxiety” or “state
anxiety?”
State anxiety
Types of Traits: Locus of Control
Table 13.2 Sample items from the Internal–External scale.
Types of Traits: Locus of Control
• The search for broad personality traits
– Locus of control
• Individual’s perception of the amount of control that
he or she has over the course of life events.
• People who believe that their lives are controlled by
external forces are said to have an external locus of
control.
• People who believe that they are in charge of their
lives have an internal locus of control.
– Implications for how people go about their
lives.
Personality
• The search for broad personality traits
– The Big Five personality traits
• Cattell identified 35 different personality traits
• Psychologists used factor analysis to determine
which traits overlapped and which did not. Based on
this approach, researchers identified what are termed
the “Big Five” personality traits:
• These are: neuroticism, extraversion,
agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to
new experience.
The Big Five personality traits
• Neuroticism-- tendency to experience unpleasant emotions
very easily.
• Extraversion-- tendency to seek stimulation and enjoy the
company of other people.
• Agreeableness--tendency to be compassionate rather than
antagonistic towards others.
• Conscientiousness--tendency to show self-discipline, to be
reliable, and to strive for competence and achievement.
• Openness to Experience -- tendency to enjoy new
experiences and new ideas.
Personality
• The search for broad personality traits
– Criticisms of the Big Five description:
• It was based on a study of the English language, not
on observations of human behavior.
• There are too few traits included.
• There are too many traits included.
• It has limited applicability cross-culturally.
Personality characteristics
 Why do different people have different
personalities?
 Some miscellaneous factors:
 Heredity: Twin & family studies strongly
suggest a genetic component to things like
extroversion.
 Older Age  more consistency in
personality
 Historical Era  anxiety is increasing
Personality
• Psychologists are still grappling with the
enigma of human personality. People are
not just different from each other; the same
people are different depending on the
situation.
• We are complex creatures and this area of
research is very challenging.