1. Personality Theories
Psychology

2. Personality Theory After Freud’s theories are popularized
Debate between pro-Freud and anti-Freud psychologists
Various theories to fit your own insights about causes of human behavior
To explain human complexity

3. Behaviorism
All behavior is reaction to stimuli from the world around you
Control the stimuli-control the behavior
John Watson: Psychologists frustrated with making assumptions about unknown mental functions
Focus only on verifiable observable behavior
Based on Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning research: Pavlov’s dogs

4. John Watson: Behaviorism
System of stimulus-response units: cause and effects between environment and behavior
Rewarded or pleasurable responses encourage repetition of behavior
Punishment deters behavior
Example: Baby responds to mother, expects care
Food, warmth, love
Responds with cooing and waving arms
Cry when mom goes away

5. B.f. skinner ( )
Watson’s successor as leading American behaviorist
Dismisses Freud’s psychoanalytic approach
Believes development of personality is too important to leave to parents/learning experiences

6. Skinner’s Books
Walden Two: Invents self-sufficient community run on behaviorist principles
Trained nurses raise children
Shape personalities to maintain stable productive society
Applied theory to all of society in Beyond Freedom and Dignity
Critics accuse him of trying to solve problems by sacrificing free will and individual responsibility

7. Skinner’s Theory
Infants born with 3 instinctive responses: love, rage, and fear
All others developed through learning
Classifies all behavior as respondent or operant:
Respondent: When stimulus causes reflexive automatic involuntary response

8. Skinner’s personality Theory
Operant: Behaviors that act on environment to gain reward
Most human behavior falls into this category
Can be conditioned through reinforcement
To display: Skinner trains pigeons
Teach behaviors in small steps and reward with food pellets
Bowling, play ping pong, piano, and drop bombs
ature=related

9. Shaping Behavior Broken down into small steps
Desirable behavior is rewarded
Undesirable behavior is ignored
Example: Teaching a child to swim
Applied to personality: Early life experiences can condition later life behavior
Underlying cause for neurotic behavior
CsOI

10. Behaviorist personality Theory
Neurotic behavior is poorly chosen response to stimuli
Causes general anxiety that makes it impossible to cope with symptoms
Behavioral Therapy: Teaches you to form the correct response
Common Technique: Systematic Desensitization process
Example: Get over fear of heights

11. Skinner’s Baby box
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12. Skinner’s “baby tender”
1940s: Wanted her to have the best possible environment to produce healthy, happy baby
Temperature control: less restrictive clothing
Keep out noise and light so she sleeps well
Clean: Bath her less often
She grew up normal and successful
He was criticized: Why didn’t it catch on?

14. Neo-Freudians
New research shows humans are highly adaptable to change in environment
Psychoanalysts modify Freud’s ideas: Believe social influences play a major role in shaping personality
Think less about influence of heredity and childhood experiences

15. Freudians vs. Neo-Freudians
Agree:
Unconscious has important influence
Repression used to cope with anxiety
Defense mechanisms protect ego
Early childhood is when you form basic personality
Disagree:
Sex Drive vs. Social influence=more important
Childhood Sexuality vs Learned relationship skills
Woman=inferior vs Neither superior
Id/Ego/Superego vs They don’t exist

16. Parents Support Healthy Development
Basic needs must be met; then child needs love, support and motivation
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17. Alfred Adler ( )
Broke with Freud in 1911 to form new school of “individual psychology”
Believes Freud focuses too much on sexuality’s influence on personality
Focuses on inborn social needs/urges instead
Society modifies these according to it’s own values/culture

18. The Creative self
Inner system that guides an individual to a fulfilling style of life
It is you: it makes you the unique person you are
Each person chooses a particular role because society seems to reward that choice
Examples: happy-go-lucky, romantic, intellectual, melancholy
Fosters your drive to be a superior person
Adler contributes this to free will/choice, unlike Freud contributing it to unconscious

19. Adler: Inferiority complex
Begins as child when you are helpless, adults have all the control and power
Most healthy people overcome this
Some don’t: lack social skills, have disabilities, a lack of support, or experience discrimination
Some use it as a motivation to try harder and succeed to prove themselves
Some compensate through actions that hurt others

20. Fictional Finalism
People driven by ideals that may be pure fiction, but are ones they pursue with great determination
Causes stress when they attempt to strictly adhere to them
Example: “Honesty is the best policy”
“If I am good, everyone will love me”

21. Social interest
Inborn characteristic: we want out community to be a better place
We want to believe there is good in everyone
Why some will risk their lives for a stranger
Give generously to charity for greater good
Many now are placing concern about personal safety over social interest in the modern world

22. Neo-Freudians: Karen Horney (1885-1952)
German psychiatrist
Didn’t like focus on sexual drives and inferiority of women
New ideas cost her a job and some of her support
Worked very hard to be respected as a woman in her field
Well loved for her warmth and dedication to helping people

23. Basic Anxiety
Believes that ability to cope with life is directly related to how well a child copes with threats to it’s security
Adult personality grows out of this success or failure in coping with this anxiety
Babies: unable to control their environment and feel helpless
Harsh/strict/negligent parents increases anxiety

24. Neurotic needs Major contribution to personality theory
Needs grow out of strategies to combat anxiety
People often make unrealistic demands on themselves on others
“I SHOULD always be understanding, helpful, sympathetic, forgiving, etc.”
Do things because you should do them not because you necessarily feel it or want to

25. Neurotic Needs Needs that move an individual toward people:
Need for affection, approval, to please others
Need for partner to run their life, fear of being alone
Need for prestige: self-confidence rests totally on receiving recognition from others
Need for personal admiration: Expects to be admired on the basis of false/inflated self-image

26. Neurotic Needs Needs the move an individual away from people:
Need to restrict one’s life within narrow borders
Need for self-sufficiency and independence: relationships are painful, won’t accept love
Need for perfection: Mistakes are weakness, person tries to be infallible at all times

27. Neurotic Needs Needs that move an individual against people:
Need for power: control is so important that they will do anything to attain it
Need to exploit others: Take advantage of people to relive own feelings of insecurity/helplessness
Need for personal achievement: Constantly needs more success, even if at the expense of others

28. Erik Erikson ( )
Austrian psychologist who studied with Anna Freud
Theory of Psychosocial Development:
Same age as Freud’s psychosexual development
In each stage: Achieve new way of seeing yourself in relation to society
Personality develops throughout your whole life
In each stage: Conflict develops between positive and negative ego qualities, you must resolve each crisis to move successfully through stages
If one is not resolved, it CAN be resolved later in life

29. Stages of Psychosocial development
Trust vs. Mistrust: Birth to one year
Babies learn to trust of fear the world depending on experiences with other people/parents
Need to feel world is orderly and predictable
Lack of trust causes anxiety/fear in later stages

30. Stages of Psychosocial development
Autonomy vs. Doubt: Early childhood age 2-3
Children must develop self confidence and independence
Learn to feed and dress themselves and become toilet trained
Kids not given the opportunity to explore new skills will be full of shame and self doubt

31. Stages of Psychosocial development
Initiative vs. Guilt: Play age, ages 4-5
Children are curious and should be encouraged to develop their intellectual resources and interests
Free to run, play, and question everything
Guilt results from overly strict parenting that hinder self-motivation

32. Stages of Psychosocial development
Industry vs. Inferiority: School age, 6-11
Most kids enter school eager to learn and show off skills
Curious and love trying new things
Explore interpersonal relationships
Teachers/parents who push too hard can cause feelings of inferiority and lack of initiative

33. Stages of Psychosocial development
Identity vs. Role Confusion: Adolescence, ages 12-18
Critical period where you find your own identity
Made more difficult by challenges of adolescent tasks: sex, career choices, relationships with peers and parents, etc.
Must resolve identity crisis in order to have
clear goals for a happy productive adulthood

34. Stages of Psychosocial development
Intimacy vs. Isolation: young adulthood,
ages 19-35
People are looking for a partner
Find your values while your identity will be challenged by friends and lovers
Must develop strength to stick to commitments even if there is sacrifice or deferred gratification

35. Stages of Psychosocial development
Generativity vs. Stagnation: Adulthood, ages 36-60
Mature adults begin to plan for future generations, through children or community contribution
Volunteer work, coaching, or helping your own kids succeed adds to quality of life
Stagnant adults are concerned only with themselves and try to deny aging process and concentrate
on material pleasures

36. Stages of Psychosocial development
Ego Integrity vs. Despair: old age, 60+
Well-integrated elderly people can cherish their successes, learn from their failures, and accept death
Remain active and involved
Those who did not achieve ego integrity are full of anger, fear, despair and regret

37. Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss Psychoanalyst, friend of Freud
Doesn‘t agree with Freud’s focus on sex drives
Instead, places emphasis on spiritual and moral aspects of life
So influential and original that he has his own school of psychology; Analytic Psychology
Calls the human personality the psyche

38. The Jungian Unconscious
Two parts: Personal and Collective Unconscious
The Personal Unconscious: contains experiences that were once conscious but have been forgotten/repressed
Unconscious can influence conscious behavior
Complex: organized group of feelings/thoughts in the unconscious
Fixation on aspect that dominates your life that you may or may not be aware of
Examples: money complex, power complex, mother complex, etc.

39. Carl Jung’s unconscious
The Collective Unconscious:
Universal instincts, drives, and memories shared by the human race
Cross boundaries of time, skin color, and geography
“Memories” of history are unseen forces influencing your thoughts/feelings/perceptions
2 million years of evolutionary experience left a mark on the human brain
Example: People still like to hunt/fish, universal behaviors across separated cultures, etc.

40. Archetypes Universal thought patterns, themes, and symbols
Appear across time in literature, religion, music, art, etc.
Create images on which you base your perception of the world
Creates your sense of wholeness, completeness, and interconnectivity
Examples: Hero archetype, mother earth archetype, the wise old man, the devil/villain

43. Jung’s Archetypes Four become systems within personality:
1. Persona: The “mask” you wear to hide your true self in public (your image)
In response to social pressure, traditions, and need for acceptance
Healthy if it is a choice, but can’t allow it to dominate your life
Example: the good girl, the bad boy

44. Jung’s Archetypes Anima and Animus:
All people carry elements of the opposite sex within their personalities
Anima: Feminine image men carry
Animus: Male image women carry
Provide balance to the personality
Enable sexes to understand each other
Forms your perception/expectations of the opposite sex
Example: Ideal woman

45. Jung’s Archetypes Shadow: Represents the primitive side of personality
Socially unacceptable thoughts/desires are repressed by personal unconscious
Most people hide the shadow behind their persona
Deep secrets, guilty pleasures, skeletons in the closet, selfish needs, etc.

46. Jung’s Archetypes
Self: Analytic psychology places great emphasis on concept of the self
Life goal, striving for unity and completeness
Few reach this because all other elements of personality must fully develop first
Example: Religious leaders or philosophers who join conscious and unconscious mind see emergence of completed self

47. Jung’s Other contributions
Introversion: look inward, find pleasure in pursuing own thoughts, shy, happiest alone
Extroversion: invest psychic energy in the outside world, need company, excitement, activity, outgoing
Everyone has both aspects, one usually dominates

48. Jung’s Word association tests
As the subject responds to a list of prepared words, repressed/concealed thoughts will slip past the mind’s censors into speech
Responses to key words admit guilt/connect them to a crime, etc.
Similar to polygraph test

49. existential Psychology
Human beings are free agents, they determine their behavior by choice
Not controlled by unconscious forces
No one is bound to the past
Rollo May: Encourages people to take responsibility for their own lives
“I learned along the way to tune in on my being, my existence in the now, because that was all there was—that and my tubular body. It was a valuable experience to face death, for in the experience I learned to face life”

50. Existentialist’s approach to personality
Created after WWII to aid people who felt life was empty of meaning
It is the belief in the nobility of the human spirit that gives meaning and purpose to life
Central concept of life is being: all you can know of the world is what you perceive
“You are part of the world, and the world is part of you”

51. Key Existential Beliefs
Being is becoming: Humans have potential to grow and change things
Alternative is to give in to frustration and sense of futility
To realize your potential requires that you explore your own being/consciousness/identity
Happiness found in freedom and commitment

52. Key Existential Beliefs
Humans must take responsibility of their own life, completely free will
Make choices, take action, take risks, learn from mistakes
Everyone can change for the better and has a responsibility to do so
Don’t make excuses for your problems/issues:
“My parents hit me when I was little, so it’s their fault that this is the way I am. I can’t change.”

53. Key Existential Beliefs
Happiness is a by-product of committing yourself to the choices you have made
Make each choice in your life as if you are making it for all humanity
Anxiety and despair result when you refuse to take responsibility of your own life
Life is not fair, bad things will happen, but live your life to the fullest and make the beset of it

54. Existential view of neurotic behavior
Anxiety/despair are inescapable parts of the human condition
Making choices means taking chances
Each choice brings new anxiety
If you give in to this anxiety it causes neurotic behavior
Examples: Withdrawal from society, seeking pleasure by any means, conforming to the views/desires of others so they don’t have to make their own choices, etc.

55. Existential view of neurotic behavior
Existential vacuum: Feeling that everything is meaningless, feeling helpless to change anything successfully, give up instead
Viktor Frankl: Studied concentration camp inmates
Many were in an existential vacuum=died
Those who lived were those who had a task to complete in life: someone/something depended on them=gives them meaning and purpose

56. Existential Psychologists
Viktor Frankl: “I have seen the meaning of my life in helping others to see in their lives a meaning”
Rollo May: Anxiety in small doses is constructive
Sharpens your sensitivity
Spark creativity/motivation
Living up to your responsibilities strengthens you

57. The future of personality theory
Psychologists still hope for an all-encompassing theory to explain personality
Family Systems Theory: Therapists should focus on the family not individuals
Family interactions can cause anxiety or happiness
Psychologists are exploring ethnic and cultural forces that shape personality
Gender theory is gaining ground in comparing roles each sex takes on which form their personalities