Extending Beyond Psychodynamics
How Our Personal Identity is Formed
Personality, What is it?
 Personality
 It is an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
 IOW it is comprised of characteristics/behaviours that make everyone unique
 Personality is shaped by our environment & genetics
 Our past experience shapes our personality & specifically how we respond in
specific situations

 All people demonstrate traits
 Traits are predispositions to behave in a certain way in a given situation
 Animals appear to demonstrate personality traits however, they act according
to the conditioning they undergo
 Conditioning is a type of learning in which the subject responds to a stimulus
in a way that normally does not bring about that response
 Conditioning will be discussed more specifically during our next lesson on
Behaviourism
Categorizing Personality
 Categorizing personality types
began in ancient Greece
 Categorized in terms of the
humors (aka body fluids)
 Greeks classified personality
according to the idea that ppl
had excessive amounts of 1
 Modern psychologists have
their own theories & use tests
to categorize personality
Blood = optimistic
Yellow = irritable
Black = depressed
Phlegm = calm/unemotional
Jung on Personality
 Jung categorized all PPL based on the
following;
 Introverted or Extroverted
 Function Types (4)
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

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Thinking (uses reason)
Feeling (uses emotions)
Sensation (uses the senses)
Intuition (uses perception)
 The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI) was a test developed to
determine personality based off of
Jung’s ideas
 In fact, you probably already did one
in GR 10 Careers
 Either the CDN Personality
Dimensions or US True Colors Tests
Take Out Your iPad
 Go to
 http://www.humanmetrics.com/CGIWIN/JTYPES1.HTM
 Or Google – Human Metrics Personality Test
 What type of Personality do you have?
Criticisms of the MBTI & other Tests
 MBTI is believed to be accurate in determining the
introversion/extroversion portion of personality
 Less accurate relating to its other scales, WHY?
 Think about your responses
 PPL can fake them
 PPL can rush through instead of reflecting properly
 PPL can misread/misunderstand questions
 Tests need to take this into consideration when they are
developed to determine if answers could be faked or
exaggerated
A closer look at our VERTEDness
 Extroversion: directing one’s interests outward,
especially towards social contacts
 Introversion: directing one’s interests inward, away
from social contacts
 Neuroticism: is a personality trait that describes a
person’s stability in terms of their ability to deal with
stress, anxiety, moodiness, jealousy & envy.
The Big Five Theory
 Contemporary theorists believe that every individual posses a
mix of each of the following traits however, one side is more
dominant than others. Which are you?
THE BIG FIVE
Trait Dimension
Description
Openness
Imaginative/independent vs. practical/conforming
Conscientiousness
Organized/careful vs. disorganized/careless
Extroversion
Outgoing/energetic vs. shy/reserved
Agreeableness
Friendly/helpful vs. cold/unkind
Neuroticism
Anxious/insecure vs. calm/secure
The Big Five Theory
Often people are classified as Type A or Type B – the following are the two
prototypical personality types. People are a mix of these traits though
Personality Type A
 Unstable
 Worrying, vulnerable, self-pitying,
impatient
 Extrovert
 Sociable, fun loving, talkative,
spontaneous
 Open to Experience
 Imaginative, independent, curious,
broad interests
 Agreeable
 Courteous, selfless, trusting, cooperative
 Undirected
 Careless, undependable, lax, aimless
Personality Type B
 Stable
 Calm, hardy, self-satisfied, patient
 Introvert
 Reserved, sober, quiet, self-
controlled
 Not open to Experience
 Unimaginative, conforming,
incurious, narrow interests
 Antagonistic
 Rude, selfish, suspicious, unco-
operative
 Conscientious
 Careful, reliable, persevering,
ambitious
Let’s Assess this Guy
The Big Five Theory
What would personality theorists say about Cookie Monster’s personality?
Personality Type A
Personality Type B
 Unstable
 Stable
 Worrying, vulnerable, self-pitying,
impatient
 Extrovert
 Sociable, fun loving, talkative,
spontaneous
 Open to Experience
 Imaginative, independent,
curious, broad interests
 Agreeable
 Courteous, selfless, trusting, co-
operative
 Undirected
 Careless, undependable, lax,
aimless
 Calm, hardy, self-satisfied, patient
 Introvert
 Reserved, sober, quiet, self-
controlled
 Not open to Experience
 Unimaginative, conforming,
incurious, narrow interests
 Antagonistic
 Rude, selfish, suspicious, unco-
operative
 Conscientious
 Careful, reliable, persevering,
ambitious
Determining Personality & Behaviour
 Psychologists use a technique called factor analysis
 Factor analysis: a statistical technique that identifies
patterns of related test items (factors)
 Subjects respond to a series of written questions
that ask how they would react in a hypothetical
situation
 Psychologists look for patterns when analyzing the
data
 Using these patterns, they make predictions of how
personality & behaviour are linked