Personality
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Today
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Review
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Where we are at
Where we be going
Personality theories
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Review
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Attribution
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Schemata
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Attribution error
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Stereotypes
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Biases
Stereotypes
Social comparison
Social identity
Review
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Social facilitation
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Social conformity
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Social interference
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Bystanders
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Obedience
Social loafing
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Asch’s experiment
Milgram’s studies
Personality defined
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The organization of enduring
characteristics or behavior patterns that
often serve to distinguish us from one
another.
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Perspectives on personality
1
2
3
4
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The trait perspective
Freud’s psychodynamic perspective
Humanism
Socio-cognitive perspective
Personality as a set of behavioral
dispositions or traits
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Trait theories
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Biological foundations
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Twins raised apart
© Tuan Tran, 2003
The Trait Perspective
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Trait
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A characteristic pattern of behavior or a
disposition to feel and act
Trait theories of personality assume that
an individual’s dispositions and behaviors
are fairly stable across time and situation
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Trait Perspective
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Types
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Greek “humors” (fluids)
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Body types
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Melancholy, ...
Depressed, Cheerful, Unemotional, Irritable
Endomorph (“fat and happy”)
Mesomorph (muscular; bold and physical)
Ectomorph (slender; high strung and solitary)
1970s
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“A” vs. “B”
• A = intense
• B = laid back
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How many types of traits are
there?
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2?
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5?
“The big five”
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4?
8? Myers-Briggs
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4? Eysenck
Eysenck & Eysenck’s Dimensions
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extraversionintroversion
emotional stabilityinstability
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The “Big Five”
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Emotional stability
Extraversion
Openness
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Personality psychologists here at K State
are keen on the Big Five
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Myers-Briggs
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A bastardization of Jung
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Personality defined along 4 dimensions
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introversion/extraversion
sensing/intuition
thinking/feeling
judgment/perception
© Tuan Tran, 2003
How do personality psychologists
assess traits?
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Personality Inventories
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Ex. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI)
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Very complicated
Self-report questionnaires
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empirically derived.
“I like mechanic’s magazines”
“Do you usually value logic more than
sentiment or vice versa?”
Peer-report
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Is this a valid assumption?
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Trait theories of personality assume that
an individual’s dispositions and behaviors
are fairly stable across time and situation
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Do dispositions change with time?
Do behavior patterns change under different
circumstances or over time?
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Perspectives on personality
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1 The trait perspective
2 Freud’s psychodynamic perspective
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Personality as a mental process
3 Humanism
4 Socio-cognitive perspective
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Sigmund Freud
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Trained as a medical
doctor, specializing in
neurological disorders
He could not explain
some of his patients’
disorders through
medical means
He hypothesized a
three-fold framework
of mind
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Freud’s three-fold theory of mind
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Conscious mind
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Preconscious mind
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Unconscious mind
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Conscious mind
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The mechanism for perceiving psychic
events
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The only portal to psychic energy
All the things we are aware of at any
given moment are made available by
conscious mind
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Unconscious mind
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The residue of psychic experience,
especially childhood trauma, sexual
drives, and wishes
Unconscious wishes and drives are ways
active
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They are always seeking expression via
consciousness
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Preconscious mind
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The filter that protects the conscious mind
from unconscious wishes and drives
Responsible for the displacement of
wishes and their consolidation into images
in dreams
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Unconscious wishes and drives
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Freud believed that thoughts and drives
etc. have energy
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Hence, a psycho-dynamic theory of mind
The vast majority of psychic energy is
unconscious
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Everything experienced
Every wish
Every desire
Every drive
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Conflict
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Much of the unconscious psychic energy
express wishes and desires and drives
that are socially unacceptable
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Killing your father
Acting like the lizard king
This creates a real, ongoing, never-ending
psychic conflict
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Freud: Personality stems from
Conflict
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Basic conflict: to express desires in ways
that bring satisfaction without punishment
or guilt
3 interacting systems
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ID
SUPEREGO
EGO
© Tuan Tran, 2003
ID
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Expresses of unconscious wishes, drives,
and desires
Seeks to satisfy basic drives
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Homeostasis = survival
Aggression
Sex
Immediate gratification is good
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Pleasure principle
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SUPEREGO
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The voice of reason, the “conscience”
An individual’s assimilation of socially
acceptable norms on behavior
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EGO
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The executive
Seeks to satisfy the unconscious wishes
and drives in socially acceptable (nonproblematic) ways
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Tries to balance ID and SUPEREGO
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The balancing act generates anxiety
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Anxiety and defense mechanisms
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Freud believed that aspects of our
personality stemmed from our attempts to
reduce anxiety
He called these ways of reducing anxiety
“defense mechanisms”
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Re- defense mechanics
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Repression
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Regression
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push thought/feeling from consciousness
revert to more infantile stage of development
“eating when mad”
Reaction Formation
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unacceptable looks like opposite
“inadequacy or bravado”
© Tuan Tran, 2003
More defense mechanisms
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Projection
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Rationalization
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attributing impulses to others
“you hate me”
generating self-justifying explanations
“I’m a social drinker”
Displacement
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diverting impulses toward a more acceptable object
“taking it out on someone else”
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Freud’s psychoanalytic approach
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He surfed the Unconscious using hypnosis
and free association
Freud asked patients to speak freely
about themselves and the onset of their
symptoms
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How to access and assess the
Unconscious?
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Free Association
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Projective tests (ambiguous stimuli)
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Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Rorschach inkblot test
© Tuan Tran, 2003
FYI Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
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Oral (0 - 18 months)
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Pleasure centers on
mouth
Anal (18 - 36 months)
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Pleasure centers on
bowel and bladder.
Phallic (3 - 6 years)
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Pleasure centers on
genitals (Oedipus)
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Latent (6 to puberty)
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Dormant sexual feelings.
Genital (puberty on)
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Maturation of sexual
interests.
Freud believed personality
developed during
childhood
The Humanistic Perspective
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Humanistic Perspective
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Maslow (the “hierarchy of needs” guy)
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studied healthy, creative people
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as opposed to Freud’s patients
he believed these people to have “self-actualized”
reported that they were:
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© Tuan Tran, 2003
self-aware
self-accepting
open and spontaneous
loving and caring
self-secure
problem-centered
& enjoyed a few deep relationships
Humanistic Perspective
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Rogers
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believed that people were basically good and
had self-actualizing tendencies
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genuineness
acceptance
• “unconditional positive regard”
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empathy
He believed if we did these things, everyone
could self-actualize
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Humanistic Perspective
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So, everyone has the potential of
developing a self-actualized personality.
The work of these psychologists created
the concepts of:
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“self-esteem” - a good thing
“self-concept” - another good thing
© Tuan Tran, 2003
How does one assess the ‘self’?
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Rogers
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“describe your ideal self and your current self”
Standardized assessment is too
impersonal to delve into the personality of
an individual
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Evaluating the Humanistic
Perspective
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Its influence has been widespread
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Criticisms
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vague and subjective
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© Tuan Tran, 2003
Traits of self-actualization refer to Maslow’s heroes
Rampant individualism can lead to selfishness and
erosion of morals
Are people really good? (look around)
The Social-Cognitive Perspective
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A “positive” psychology that aims “to
measure, understand, and build the
human strengths and virtues”
© Tuan Tran, 2003
The Social-Cognitive Perspective
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The doctrine of reciprocal determinism:
Personality stems from the interaction of:
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Our behavior
Our predispositions
Our environment
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© Tuan Tran, 2003
Bandura, 1986
Locus of Control
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External locus of
control:
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believe chance or
outside forces control
our destinies
Internal locus of
control:
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People with internal
loci are more likely to:
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© Tuan Tran, 2003
believe we control our
own destinies
be successful in school
act more independently
feel less depressed
Evaluating the S-C perspective
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Positives
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acknowledges environmental effects
built from cognitive and learning research
Negatives
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sometimes it overemphasizes the environment
© Tuan Tran, 2003
Summary of Perspectives on
Personality
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Trait
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Psychoanalytic
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stresses unconscious and irrational aspects of
personality
Humanistic
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describes important aspects of personality
stresses our “self” and our potential for selfactualization
Social-Cognitive
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© Tuan Tran, 2003
relates what we know about social, learning and
cognitive psychology to how people respond in
context