INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 12 - Personality
Personality
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Personality: a complex set of psychological qualities that
influence a variety of characteristic behavior patterns across
different situations and over time
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Trait: One enduring personal quality or attribute that
influences behavior across situations
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The whole person
A single characteristic
Factor Analysis
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Correlations among many variable are analyzed to identify closely
related clusters of variables
Personality
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Where does it come from?
 Interactions
between genes, biology, & environment
 Personality becomes more complex as we develop
(Baltes & Elder):
 Age-graded
normative influences
 History-graded influences
 Non-normative influences
Personality Theories
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Trait Theories
Psychodynamic Theories
Social-Learning & Cognitive Theories
Trait Theories
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There are universal traits on which people lie on a continuum
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The Five Factor Model (“The Big Five”):
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Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
The Five Factor Model has been replicated in 56 different
nations!
Traits
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Is a behavior the result of someone’s personality, or
is it the situation?
 Cross-situational
consistency - does this person always
behave this way?
 Are other people in this situation behaving similarly?
Culture & Personality
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Individualistic Cultures
 Value
personal goals over group goals
 Identify is defined in terms of personal attributes
 “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”
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Collectivistic Cultures
 Groups
goals are more important than personal ones
 Identity is defined in terms of belonging to a group
 “the nail that stands up gets hammered down”
Culture & Personality
Individualism
Collectivism
Psychodynamic Personality Theories
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The psychodynamic personality theories share the
assumption that personality is shaped by the
interaction between internal drives and the
environment
 Focus
on early childhood experiences
 Focus on levels of consciousness
Freudian
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Freud
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Psychosexual development
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Fixation: an inability to process normally through a particular psychosexual
stage, resulting in inappropriate thoughts and behaviors
Stage
Age
Erogenous Zone
Dev. Task
Adult Fixation
Oral
0-1
Mouth
Weaning
Smoking, overeating
Anal
2-3
Anus
Toilet Training
Orderliness vs.
Messiness
Phallic
4-5
Genitals
Oedipus/Electra
Complex
Vanity, recklessness,
promiscuity vs.
chastity
Latent
6-12
None
Development of
Defense Mechanisms
Genital
13-18
Genitals
Mature Sexual
intimacy
Adults that have
successfully gone
through the previous
stages should be OK
Freudian
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The psyche is divided into 3 components:
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Id
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Superego
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Innate and primitive
Hedonistic
Last structure to develop
Represents morality and values of society passed down by authority figures
Ego
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Mediates the relationship between the Id’s desires and the Superego’s values
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Reality principle
Freudian
Freudian
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Defense Mechanisms – mental strategies used by the ego to defend itself
against conflicts experienced in the normal course of life
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Repression: pushing painful thoughts/memories out of consciousness
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Displacement: discharging pent-up feelings (usually aggression) on other
objects/persons
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Identification: increasing self-worth by identifying with another person or institution
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Regression: retreating to an earlier developmental level
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Sublimation: gratifying or working off sexual frustration on substitutive non-sexual,
socially accepted activities
Freudian
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Examples of Freudian fixations & defense
mechanisms
 Oral
Fixation
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSM5W41jl74
 Regression
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuXp2PIVkKY
Psychodynamic (Neo-Freudian)
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Carl Jung
 Collective
unconscious: part of an individual’s
unconscious that is inherited and common to all members
of that species
 Archetype:
a universal, inherited, primitive, and
symbolic representation of a particular experience
 The
Persona
 The Anima/Animus
 The Shadow
The Collective Unconscious
Cognitive Theories

Expectancy Theory
 Expectancy:
the extent to which people believe that
their behaviors in particular situations will have
predictable results
 Locus of Control
 Internal
 External
Social-Learning Theories

Bandura’s Reciprocal Determinism Model
 There
is a complex interaction between a person, their
behavior, and the environment that contributes to
personality
Social Cognitive Theories
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Self-efficacy: a belief that one can perform
adequately in a particular situation
Self-esteem: a generalized evaluative attitude
toward the self that influences mood and behavior
Self-handicaping: the process of developing, in the
anticipation of failure, behavioral reactions and
explanations that minimize damage to self-esteem
Humanistic Theories
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Humanistic theories: emphasize people’s innate
goodness and desire to achieve higher levels of
functioning
 Self-actualization:
a state of self-fulfillment in which
people realize their full potential in a unique way
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Humanistic therapy
 Unconditional
positive regard
 Non-judgmental Listening Sequence
Personality Assessment: The MMPI
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Originally made in 1943 by psychologists and psychiatrists at the University of Minnesota
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The took hundreds of True/False questions, gave them to a clinical sample, and looked for patterns of
responses in the different populations
Includes 10 clinical scales, as well as validity and lie-detecting scales
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Considered the “gold standard” in personality testing
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Hypochondriasis (concern with bodily symptoms)
Depression
Hysteria (feelings of vulnerability)
Psychopathic Deviate (antisocial, anger)
Masculinity/Femininity
Paranoia
Psychasthenia (anxiety)
Schizophrenia
Hypomania (excitability)
Social Introversion
Good for clinical diagnosis and “normal” personality testing for employers
Now the MMPI-2-RF
Personality Assessment: The MMPI
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False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
False True
1. I like mechanics magazines.
2. I have a good appetite.
3. I wake up fresh and rested most mornings.
4. I think I would enjoy the work of a librarian.
5. I am easily awakened by noise.
6. My father is a good man (or if your father is dead) my father was a good man.
7. I like to read newspaper articles on crime.
8. My hands and feet are usually warm enough.
9. My daily life is full of things that keep me interested.
10. I am about as able to work as I ever was.
11. There seems to be a lump in my throat much of the time.
12. My sex life is satisfactory.
13. People should try to understand their dreams and be guided by or take warning from them.
14. I enjoy detective or mystery stories.
15. I work under a great deal of tension.
16. Once in a while I think of things too bad to talk about.
17. I am sure I get a raw deal from life.
18. I am troubled by attacks of nausea and vomiting.
19. When I take a new job, I like to find out whom it is important to be nice to.
20. I am very seldom bothered by constipation.
21. At times I have very much wanted to leave home.
22. No one seems to understand me.
23. At times I have fits of laughing and crying that I cannot control.
24. Evil spirits possess me at times.
25. I would like to be a singer.
26. I feel that it is certainly best to keep my mouth shut when I am in trouble.
27. When people do me wrong, I feel I should pay them back, just for the principle of the thing.
28. I am bothered by an upset stomach several times a week.
29. At times I feel like swearing.
30. I have nightmares every few nights.
Personality Assessment: The Rorschach
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Type of Projective personality assessment
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Developed by Herman Rorschach in 1921
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Used primarily by clinical psychologists and some forensic (criminal) psychologists
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Responses are measured by:
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Content
Location
Whole vs. details
Originality
# of responses
Test has had issues of validity and reliability
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Inter-rater reliability
Proliferation of images
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLh7ki27HNU
Personality Assessment: The TAT
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Type of projective
personality measure
 Similar
to the Rorschach,
but consist of interpersonal
scenes
 Includes
works of art and
photography
 Participant
must come up
with a story about the
picture