1. Personality Theories and Assessment
Prepared by J. W. Taylor V

2. Personality
A person’s internally based characteristic ways of acting and thinking

3. The Journey… The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality
The Humanistic Approach and the Social-Cognitive Approach to Personality
Trait Theories of Personality and Personality Assessment

4. The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality
Freudian Classical Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Neo-Freudian Theories of Personality

5. Freudian Classical Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Developed by Sigmund Freud in the late nineteenth century and continued until his death in 1939
Freud received a medical degree and established a practice as a clinical neurologist treating patients with emotional disorders
Believed sex was a primary cause of emotional problems and was a critical component of his personality theory
Remains an important influence in Western culture

6. Freud’s Three Levels of Awareness
1. The conscious mind is what you are presently aware of, what you are thinking about right now
2. The preconscious mind is stored in your memory that you are not presently aware of but can gain access to
3. The unconscious mind is the part of our mind of which we cannot become aware
It contains, however, the primary motivations for all of our actions and feelings – our biological instinctual drives (such as for food and sex) and repressed unacceptable thoughts, memories, and feelings, especially unresolved conflicts from our early childhood experiences

7. Freud’s Three-Part Personality StructureId
Ego
Superego

9. The Id
Is the original personality, the only part present at birth and the part out of which the other two parts of our personality emerge
Resides in the unconscious mind
Includes our biological instinctual drives, the primitive parts of our personality located in our unconscious
Life instincts for survival, reproduction, and pleasure
Death instincts, destructive and aggressive drives detrimental to survival
Operates on a pleasure principle; that is, it demands immediate gratification for these drives without the concern for the consequences of this gratification

10. The Ego
Starts developing during the first year or so of life to find realistic and socially-acceptable outlets for the id’s needs
Operates on the reality principle, finding gratification for instinctual drives within the constraints of reality (the norms and laws of society)
Part of the ego is unconscious (tied to the id) and part of the ego is conscious and preconscious (tied to the external world)
Serves as the executive manager of the personality

11. The Superego
Represents one’s conscience and idealized standards of behavior in their culture
Operates on a morality principle, threatening to overwhelm us with guilt and shame
The demands of the superego and the id will come into conflict and the ego will have to resolve this turmoil within the constraints of reality
To prevent being overcome with anxiety because of trying to satisfy the id and superego demands, the ego uses what Freud called defense mechanisms, processes that distort reality and protect us from anxiety

12. Freud’s Defense Mechanisms
Repression
Unknowingly placing an unpleasant memory or thought in the unconscious
Not remembering a traumatic incident in which you witnessed a crime
Regression
Reverting back to immature behavior from an earlier stage of development
Throwing temper tantrums as an adult when you don’t get your way
Displacement
Redirecting unacceptable feelings from the original source to a safer substitute target
Taking your anger toward your boss out on your spouse or children by yelling at them and not your boss

13. Freud’s Defense Mechanisms
Sublimation
Replacing socially unacceptable impulses with socially acceptable behavior
Channeling aggressive drives into playing football or inappropriate sexual desires into art
Reaction Formation
Acting in exactly the opposite way to one’s unacceptable impulses
Being overprotective of and lavishing attention on an unwanted child
Projection
Attributing one’s own unacceptable feelings and thoughts to others and not yourself
Accusing your boyfriend of cheating on you because you have felt like cheating on him
Rationalization
Creating false excuses for one’s unacceptable feelings, thoughts, or behavior
Justifying cheating on an exam by saying that everyone else cheats

14. Unhealthy Personalities
Develop not only when we become too dependent upon defense mechanisms, but also when the id or superego is unusually strong or the ego unusually weak
Freud believed that our behavior is largely shaped by id, ego, superego conflict and the conflicts centering on sex and agression urges and frustration in satisfying them.

15. Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Theory
Freud believes that “the child is the father to the man”.
Was developed chiefly from his own childhood memories and from his years of interactions with his patients and their case studies that included their childhood memories
An erogenous zone is the area of the body where the id’s pleasure-seeking psychic energy is focused during a particular stage of psychosexual development
A change in erogenous zones designates the beginning of a new stage
Fixation occurs when a portion of the id’s pleasure-seeking energy remains in a stage because of excessive gratification or frustration of our instinctual needs and continue throughout the person’s life and impact their behavior and personality traits (failure to move forward)

16. Five Psychosexual Stages
Oral Stage (birth to 18 months)
Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years)
Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years)
Latency Stage (6 years to puberty)
Genital Stage (puberty to adulthood)

17. Freud’s Psychosocial States of Personality Development
Stage (age range)
Erogenous Zone
Activity Focus
Oral (birth to 1½ years)
Mouth, lips, and tongue
Sucking, biting, and chewing
Anal (1½ to 3 years)
Anus
Bowel retention and elimination
Phallic (3 to 6 years)
Genitals
Identifying with same-sex parent to learn gender role and sense of morality
Latency (6 years to puberty)
No erogenous zone
Cognitive and social development
Genital (puberty to adulthood)
Development of sexual relationships, moving toward intimate adult relationships

18. Potty Training
Parents try to get the child to have self-control during toilet training
If the child reacts to harsh toilet training by trying to get even with the parents by withholding bowel movements, an anal-retentive personality with the traits of orderliness, neatness, stinginess, and obstinacy develops
The anal-expulsive personality develops when the child rebels against the harsh training and has bowel movements whenever and wherever he desires

19. Phallic Stage Conflicts
In the Oedipus conflict, the little boy becomes sexually attracted to his mother and fears the father (his rival) will find out and castrate him
In the Electra conflict, the little girl is attracted to her father because he has a penis; she wants one and feels inferior without one (penis envy)

21. Identification
In the process of identification, the child adopts the characteristics of the same-sexed parents and learns their gender role (the set of behaviors expected of someone of a particular sex)
It is during identification that the superego begins to develop

22. Evaluation of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Freud’s notion of an “unconscious” level of awareness is not accessible to anyone and is impossible to examine scientifically
Indeed, unconscious information processing does impact our thinking and behavior
However, the unconscious is not a storehouse of instinctual drives, conflicts, and repressed memories and desires
Although early childhood experiences are indeed important, there is little evidence for his psychosexual stages impacting development

23. Evaluation of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Contemporary researchers think repression, seldom, if ever, really occurs
We understand today how Freud’s questioning during therapy may have created such “repressed’ memories in his patients
There is evidence we fight hard to maintain self-esteem, but not necessarily through defense mechanisms as Freud described them

24. Neo-Freudian Theories of Personality
Agree with many of Freud’s basic ideas, but differ in one or more important ways
Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious
Alfred Adler’s Striving for Superiority
Karen Horney and the Need for Security

25. Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious
The collective unconscious is the accumulated universal experiences of humankind, with each of us inheriting the same cumulative storehouse of all human experiences
These experiences are manifested in archetypes, which are emotionally charged images and symbols of all the important themes in the history of humankind (e.g., God, mother, hero)
Notions of collective unconscious and archetypes are more mystical than scientific and cannot be empirically tested

26. Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious
Jung proposed two main personality attitudes, extraversion and introversion
Jung also proposed four functions/styles of gathering information
Sensing is the reality function in which the world is carefully perceived
Intuiting is more subjective perception
Thinking is logical deduction
Feeling is the subjective emotional function
The two personality attitudes and four functions are the basis for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, still in wide use today

27. Alfred Adler’s Striving for Superiority
Adler thought the main motivation was what he termed “striving for superiority” – to overcome the sense of inferiority that we feel as infants given our totally helpless and dependent state
A healthy person learns to cope with these feelings, becomes competent, and develops a sense of self-esteem (compensation)
Inferiority complex is the strong feeling of inferiority felt by those who never overcome this initial feeling of inferiority

28. Karen Horney and The Need for Security
Focused on dealing with our need for security, rather than a sense of inferiority
A child’s caregivers must provide a sense of security for a healthy personality to develop or else basic anxiety, a feeling of helplessness and insecurity in a hostile world, will result
Three neurotic personality patterns
Moving toward people A compliant, submissive person
Moving against people An aggressive, domineering person
Moving away from people A detached, aloof person

29. The Humanistic Approach and the Social-Cognitive Approach to Personality
The Humanistic Approach to Personality
The Social-Cognitive Approach to Personality

30. Alternative Approaches
Humanistic theories developed in the 1960s as a part of a response to the deterministic psychoanalytic and strict behavioral psychological approaches that then dominated psychology and the study of personality
The humanistic approach emphasizes conscious free will in one’s actions, the uniqueness of the individual person, and personal growth
During the 1960s, social-cognitive theorists rebelled against the narrowness of the strict behavioral approach to the development of personality, emphasizing both social and cognitive factors along with conditioning to explain personality development

31. The Humanistic Approach to Personality
Abraham Maslow is considered the father of the humanistic movement
He studied the lives of very healthy and creative people to develop his theory of personality
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is an arrangement of the innate needs that motivate our behavior, from the strongest needs at the bottom of the pyramid to the weakness needs at the top of the pyramid

32. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self-Actualization
Self- Esteem
Social
Safety
Physiological

33. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

34. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self- Actualization
A growth-based need focused on the fullest realization of one’s potential, becoming all that one can be
Self-Esteem
Achievement mastery, gaining apprecia-tion from others for our achievements, and having a positive self-image
Social
Love, belongingness, affection, family relationships, and companionship
Safety
Being out of danger, feeling safe and secure
Physiological
Food, water, and air

35. Self-Actualization Characteristics of self-actualized people include
Accepting themselves, others, and the nature of world for what they are
Having a need for privacy and only a few close, emotional relationships
Being autonomous and independent, democratic, and very creative
Having peak experiences, which are experiences of deep insight in which you experience whatever you are doing as fully as possible

36. Critique
Maslow hierarchy of needs is criticized for being based on non-empirical vague studies of a small number of people that he subjectively selected as self-actualized

37. Roger’s Self Theory
Carl Rogers was a client-centered therapist who dealt with young, bright college students with adjustment problems
Emphasized self-actualization
Believe that people have a strong need for positive regard – to be accepted by and have the affection of others, especially the significant others in our life

38. Roger’s Self Theory
Our parents set up conditions of worth, the behaviors and attitudes for which they would give us positive regard
Meeting conditions of worth continues throughout life, and a person develops a self-concept of what others think he should be
Unconditional positive regard – acceptance and approval without conditions
Empathy from others, and having others be genuine with respect to their own feelings is necessary if we are to self-actualized
Note that neither Maslow nor Roger’s theories are research-based

39. The Social-Cognitive Approach to Personality
Is research-based by combining elements of three major research perspectives
Cognitive
Behavioral
Sociocultural
Maintains that learning through environmental conditioning contributes to personality development
However, social learning/modeling and cognitive processes, such as perception and thinking, are also involved and are actually more important to the development of our personality

40. Bandura’s Self-System
The self-system is the set of cognitive processes by which a person observes, evaluates, and regulates his/her social behavior
There is a conscious decision to choose what behavior to engage in, acting in accordance with the assessment of whether the behavior will be reinforced or not
Self-efficacy is a judgment of one’s effectiveness in dealing with particular situations and plays a major role in determining our behavior
Low self-efficacy is associated with depression, anxiety, and helplessness
High self-efficacy is associated with self-confidence, positive outlook, and minimal self-doubt

41. Rotter’s Locus of Control
Locus of control is a person’s perception of the extent to which he/she controls what happens to him/her
External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or external forces beyond your control determine your fate
Internal locus of control refers to the perception that you control your own fate

42. Locus of Control
People with an internal locus of control perceive their success as dependent upon their own needs, but they may or may not feel that they have the competence (efficacy) to bring about successful outcomes in various situations
People with an internal locus of control are psychologically and physically better off
External locus of control may contribute to learned helplessness, a sense of hopelessness in which one thinks that he/she is unable to prevent unpleasant events

43. Self-Perception
Attribution is the process by which we explain our own behavior and that of others
Internal attribution means that the outcome is attributed to the person
External attribution means that the outcome is attributed to factors outside the person

44. Self-Perception
Self-serving bias is the tendency to make attributions so that one can perceive oneself favorably
If the outcome is positive, we make an internal attribution for it
If the outcome is negative, we make an external attribution for it
Self-serving bias is adaptive because it protects us from falling prey to learned helplessness and depression

45. Learned Helplessness and Depression
Can result from:
Internal attributions for negative outcomes (“I failed the test because I am no good at math”)
External attributions for positive outcomes (“I aced the test because it was so easy”)
Pessimistic explanations are also stable (i.e., the causes are permanent, “I will always have no ability for math”) and global (“I have no ability for anything”)

46. Trait Theories of Personality and Personality Assessment

47. Trait Theories of Personality
Personality traits are internally based, relatively stable characteristics that define an individual’s personality
Each trait is a dimension, a continuum ranging from one extreme of the dimension to the other
Trait theorists use factor analysis and other statistical techniques to tell them how many basic personality factors (or traits) are needed to describe human personality, as well as what these factors are
Factor analysis identifies clusters of test items (e.g., on a personality test) that measure the same factor/trait

48. The Number and Kind of Personality Traits
Raymond B. Cattell, using factor analysis, found that 16 traits were necessary to describe human personality
Hans Eysenck, also using factor analysis, argued for three trait dimensions
Cattell and Eysenck differed because the number of traits depends on the level of categorization in the factor analysis
Eysenck’s theory is at a more general and inclusive level of abstraction than Cattell’s

49. Eysenck’s Three-Factor Theory
Extraversion- Introversion
Neuroticism- Emotional stability
Psychoticism- Impulse control
Eysenck argued that these traits are determined by heredity

50. Eysenck’s Three-Factor Theory
The biological basis for the extraversion-introversion trait is level of cortical arousal (neuronal activity)
Introverts have higher normal-levels of arousal than an extravert, so extraverts need to seek out external stimulation to raise the level of arousal in the brain to a more optimal level

51. Eysenck’s Three-Factor Theory
People who are high on the neuroticism-emotional stability dimension tend to be overly anxious, emotionally unstable, and easily upset because of a more reactive sympathetic nervous system
The psychoticism-impulse control trait is concerned with aggressiveness, impulsiveness, and empathy
A high level of testosterone and a low level of MAO, a neurotransmitter inhibitor, lead to high levels of psychoticism

52. Five-Factor Model of Personality
These five factors appear to be universal and are consistent from about age 30 to late adulthood
These factors are measured using an assessment instrument called the NEO-PI

53. The Big Five Personality Trait Dimensions
High End
Low End
Openness
Independent, imaginative, broad interests, receptive to new ideas
Conforming, practical, narrow interests, closed to new ideas
Conscientiousness
Well-organized, dependable, careful, disciplined
Disorganized, undependable, careless, impulsive
Extraversion
Sociable, talkative, friendly, adventurous
Reclusive, quiet, aloof, cautious
Agreeableness
Sympathetic, polite, good-natured, soft-hearted
Tough-minded, rude, irritable, ruthless
Neuroticism
Emotional, insecure, nervous, self-pitying
Calm, secure, relaxed, self-satisfied

54. Personality Assessment
The main uses of personality tests are to aid in diagnosing people with problems, counseling, and making personnel decisions
Personality Inventories
Projective Tests

55. Personality Inventories
Are designed to measure multiple traits of personality, and in some cases, disorders
Are a series of questions or statements for which the test taker must indicate whether they apply to him or not
The MMPI (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) is the most widely used, translated into more than 100 languages

56. MMPI
Uses a “True/False/Cannot Say” format with 567 simple statements (e.g., “I like to cook”)
Developed to be a measure of abnormal personality, with 10 clinical scales such as depression and schizophrenia
Items were developed and tested to differentiate different groups of people (a representative sample of people suffering a specific disorder versus a group of normal people) on certain dimensions; to be retained, the two groups generally responded to an item in opposite ways

57. MMPI
Contains three validity scales, which attempt to detect test takers who are trying to cover up problems and fake profiles or who were careless in their responding
Its test construction method leads to good predictive validity for its clinical scales and its objective scoring procedure leads to reliability in interpretation

58. Projective Tests
Contain a series of ambiguous stimuli, such as inkblots, to which the test taker must respond about his perceptions of the stimuli
Sample tests
Rorschach Inkblots Test
Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT)

59. Rorschach Inkblots Test
Contains 10 symmetric inkblots used in the test, in which the examiner then goes through the cards and asks the test taker to clarify her responses by identifying the various parts of the inkblot that led to the response
Assumes the test taker’s responses are projections of their personal conflicts and personality dynamics
Widely used but not demonstrated to be reliable and valid

70. Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT)
Consists of 19 cards with black and white pictures of ambiguous settings and one blank card
Test taker has to make up a story for each card he sees (what happened before, is happening now, what the people are feeling and thinking, and how things will turn out)
Looks for recurring themes in the responses
Scoring has yet to be demonstrated to be either reliable or valid