1. Personality PowerPoint from Morris & Maisto, as modified by Stephen Landman, Ph.D.

2. What Is Personality? An individual’s unique patterns of:
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
that persist over time and
across situations
Definition focuses on:
Unique differences
Stable, enduring differences

3. Psychodynamic Theories
See behavior as the result of psychological dynamics within the individual:
Much of mental life is unconscious
Mental processes can be in conflict
Personality patterns start in childhood experiences
How we think of others guides our interactions with them
Personality involves learning to self-regulate
See behavior as the result of psychological dynamics within the individual
Much of mental life is unconscious
Mental processes can be in conflict
Personality patterns start in childhood experiences
How we think of others guides our interactions with them
Personality involves learning to self-regulate
Sexual, aggressive feelings
Socially interdependent rather than dependency

4. Freud’s Structure of Personality
Id: The collection of unconscious urges and desires that continually seek expression
Source of all energy
Functions entirely in unconscious
Libido: A form of psychic energy; The energy generated by the sexual drive
Pleasure principle: The way the id seeks immediate gratification of an instinct
Ego: The part of the personality that mediates between the demands of reality, the id, and superego
Operates at all three levels
Reality principle: The way in which the ego seeks to satisfy instinctual demands safely and effectively in the real world
Superego: The social and parental standards the individual has internalized
The superego strives toward perfection, which is unrealistic
Note that most of mental life is on an unconscious (unaware) level

5. Id
Present at birth
Wants immediate gratification, operating on the “Pleasure Principle”
Irrational

6. Superego Internalized standards of right and wrong – the conscience
Irrational – says always do what society wants you to do; never gratify yourself

7. Ego Has the job of reducing anxiety
Operates on the “Reality Principle”
Must meets the demands of the id, the demands of the superego, and the demands of reality
Has a bag of tools, all designed to reduce anxiety, called “defense mechanisms”, or “ego defense mechanisms”
View separate document on the defense mechanisms.

8. Ego Defense Mechanisms
Repression - Excluding uncomfortable thoughts from consciousness: Acting Out – Expressing wishes, desires, impulses openly and directly, without regard to whether the behavior is socially acceptable Suppression – Purposely putting a thought out of your mind, deciding to not think about it, because it makes you anxious Denial - Refusing to acknowledge a painful or threatening reality Projection - Attributing one's own undesirable repressed motives, feelings, or wishes to others Identification - Taking on the characteristics of someone else to avoid feeling incompetent

9. Ego Defense Mechanisms II
Regression - Reverting to childlike behavior and defenses, psychologically returning to an earlier time, when one was not faced with anxiety-arousing reality. Intellectualization - Thinking abstractly about stressful problems as a way of detaching oneself from them Reaction Formation - Expression of exaggerated ideas and emotions that are the opposite of one's repressed beliefs or feelings Displacement - Shifting repressed motives from an original object to a substitute object: Sublimation - Redirecting repressed motives and feelings into more socially acceptable channels Rationalization - The process of constructing a logical justification for an action that actually comes from a different, less worthy motivation; the process of finding a "good reason", to cover up the true reason, for an action.

10. Libido
Libido, the life energy which drives the entire development of personality development, is sexual energy.
At different stages of life, the libidinal energy is aimed at, and expressed through different body parts.

11. How Personality Develops
Freud’s psychosexual stages:
Oral stage
Anal stage
Phallic stage
Latency stage
Genital stage
Overcoming fixation at each stage
Freud’s psychosexual stages explains personality development in terms of how we satisfy our sexual instincts during the course of our life
Oral stage
First stage of personality development in which the infant’s erotic feelings center on the mouth, lips, and tongue
Anal stage
At this stage a child’s erotic feelings center on the anus and on elimination
Conflict arises as parents make efforts to toilet train the child
This conflict is stressful to the child and may lead to an anal fixation
Phallic stage
Erotic feelings center on the genitals
Oedipus complex and Electra complex:
A child’s sexual attachment to the parent of the opposite sex and jealousy toward the parent of the same sex
Latency stage
A period in which the child appears to have no interest in the other sex
Genital stage
The final stage of normal adult sexual development, which is usually marked by mature sexuality
Fixation:
A partial or complete halt at some point in the individual’s psychosexual development

12. Oral Stage
The oral stage lasts from birth to about 18 months. The focus of pleasure is, of course, the mouth. Sucking and biting are favorite activities.
Task that must be accomplished: weaning

13. Anal Stage
The anal stage lasts from about 18 months to three or four years old. The focus of pleasure is the anus. Holding it in and letting it go are greatly enjoyed.
Task that must be accomplished: toilet training

14. The Phallic Stage
The phallic stage lasts from three or four to five, six, or seven years old. The focus of pleasure is the genitalia. Masturbation is common.
In the phallic stage the Oedipus Complex occurs.
Task that must be accomplished: resolution of the Oedipus Complex

15. The Oedipus Complex 1 (taken from the Bouree article)
The first love-object for all of us is our mother. We want her attention, we want her affection, we want her caresses, we want her, in a broadly sexual way. The young boy, however, has a rival for his mother's charms: his father! His father is bigger, stronger, smarter, and he gets to sleep with mother, while junior pines away in his lonely little bed. Dad is the enemy.

16. Oedipus Complex 2
About the time the little boy recognizes this archetypal situation, he has become aware of some of the more subtle differences between boys and girls, the ones other than hair length and clothing styles. From his naive perspective, the difference is that he has a penis, and girls do not. At this point in life, it seems to the child that having something is infinitely better than not having something, and so he is pleased with this state of affairs.

17. Oedipus Complex 3
But the question arises: where is the girl's penis? Perhaps she has lost it somehow. Perhaps it was cut off. Perhaps this could happen to him! This is the beginning of castration anxiety, a slight misnomer for the fear of losing one's penis.

18. Oedipus Complex 4
The boy, recognizing his father's superiority and fearing for his penis, engages some of his ego defenses: He represses his desire for his mother. He identifies with his dad, and attempts to become more and more like him, that is to say, a man. After a few years of latency, he enters adolescence and the world of mature heterosexuality, sublimating his desire for his mother by being attracted to other females; thus resolving the Oedipus Complex.

19. Carl Jung Two levels of unconsciousness: Personal unconscious:
Individual’s repressed thoughts, forgotten experiences, and undeveloped ideas
Collective unconscious:
The part of the unconscious that is inherited and common to all members of a species
“Archetypes”
Archetypes
The thought forms common to all human beings
Archetypes are stored in the collective unconscious
Mother: A protective presence
Hero: One who overcomes
Persona: Our public self

20. Jung’s Personality Types
General attitudes
Extrovert
Focuses on external world
Introvert
Focuses more on own thoughts, feelings
Individual types
Rational
Regulates self based on thinking, feeling
Irrational
Bases actions on perceptions, even if only intuited
Jung’s Two General Attitude Types
General attitudes
Extrovert
One who focuses more on social life and the external world instead of his/her own thoughts and feelings
Introvert
One who focuses on his/her own thoughts and feelings
Individual types
Rational:
One who regulates his/her actions by thinking and feeling
Irrational:
One who bases his/her actions on perceptions, either through the senses or unconscious processes (intuition)

21. Androgyny
Today most people in the USA believe that it is not a good thing to force children into strict gender roles, the stereotypic masculine and feminine behaviors. Most people allow their children to develop naturally, and to express interests which they are attracted to. So it is okay for a girl to excel in sports or for a boy to like to cook or to like babies. This recognizes that real people are androgynous. Androgyny means a mixture of typically masculine and feminine aspects within a personality.

22. Jung – Anima and Animus
Jung proved himself to be ahead of his time when he recognized that real people did not fit the stereotypic masculine and feminine gender roles. He called the female aspects of a personality in a male the anima, and he called males aspects of personality in a female the animus.
His explanation for this is that all males have had female ancestors and all females have had male ancestors, and people inherited the experiences of their ancestors, which are stored as archetypes in the collective unconscious.

23. Differences Between Freud and Jung
Stressed the primacy of sexual instincts
Development is shaped in childhood
Jung
Stressed people’s rational & spiritual qualities
Development only comes to fruition during middle adulthood

24. Alfred Adler Compensation
One’s effort to overcome imagined or real personal weaknesses
Inferiority complex
Fixation on feelings of personal inferiority that results in emotional and social paralysis
People posses innate positive motives
Striving for personal and social perfection
Compensation: One’s effort to overcome imagined or real personal weaknesses
Inferiority complex
Fixation on feelings of personal inferiority that results in emotional and social paralysis
These beliefs of inferiority may be real or imagined.
Comparing Freud & Adler:
Freud
We are controlled by our environment
View of individual: selfish; Eternally in conflict with society
Adler
We can control our own fate
View of individual: striving for perfection; Develops socially constructive goals

25. Karen Horney Nonsexual factors play a larger role than sexual ones
Anxiety as a driving force
Reaction to real or imagined threats
Neurotic trends
Submission
Aggression
Detachment
Nonsexual factors play a larger role than sexual ones
Anxiety as a driving force
Reaction to real or imagined threats
Neurotic trends
Irrational strategies for coping with emotional problems and minimizing anxiety

26. Erikson’s 8 Stages of Development
Trust: Faith in the predictability of the environment; Optimism about the future
Mistrust: Suspicious, fearful, and overly concerned with security
Autonomy: Gain control over bodily functions and coordination
Shame & doubt: Self-doubt about ability to control body; Hostile rejection of all controls (internal & external)
Initiative: Parental support for trying new things leads to joy in exercising initiative and taking on new challenges
Guilt: Feelings of guilt, unworthiness, and resentment may occur if scolded for exercising initiative
Industry: Learning the skills of personal care, productive work, & independent living
Inferiority: Failure to learn these skills leads to feelings of mediocrity, inadequacy, and low self-sufficiency
Identity: Integration of one’s roles in life into a coherent pattern
Role confusion: Failure to integrate these roles leads to a lack of personal identity and despair
Intimacy: In order to love another, one must have resolved all earlier crises
Isolation: Failure at intimacy brings a painful sense of loneliness and incompleteness
Generativity: Experience meaning and joy in all the major activities of life
Stagnation: Failure to remain productive and creative; Life becomes a drab routine; Feelings of dullness and resentfulness
Integrity: Acceptance of one’s life; A sense that it is complete and satisfactory; Little fear of approaching death
Despair: Despair at the loss of former roles and missed opportunities; Fear approaching death

27. Humanistic Personality Theories
Humanistic theories stress the potential for growth and change.
Focus on here and now, rather than the past
We are responsible for our own lives.
Given reasonable conditions, people develop in socially desirable directions.
Rooted in Adler’s concept of striving for perfection

28. Abraham Masow
See document on Maslow at
Maslow was a humanistic personality theorist.

29. Carl Rogers Self-actualizing tendency
The drive of human beings to fulfill their conceptions of themselves (self-concepts)
Fully functioning person
An individual whose self-concept closely resembles his/her inborn potentials
Helped along with unconditional positive regard, instead of
Conditional positive regard
Actualizing tendency: The drive of every organism to fulfill its biological potential and become what it is inherently capable of becoming
Self-actualizing tendency: The drive of human beings to fulfill their self-concepts
Fully functioning person: An individual whose self-concept closely resembles his/her inborn potentials
Unconditional positive regard:
The full acceptance and love of another person regardless of that person’s behavior
Conditional positive regard:
Acceptance and love that are dependent on behaving in certain ways and fulfilling certain conditions

30. Trait Theories
People differ according to the degree to which they possess certain personality traits.
Use of factor analysis to cluster traits
Research confirms the value of the five-factor model, referred to as the “Big Five”.

31. The Big Five Dimensions
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness/dependability
Emotional stability
Openness to experience/culture/intellect
Extroversion
Warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement-seeking, positive emotions
Agreeableness
Trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, tender-mindedness
Conscientiousness/dependability
Competence, order, dutifulness, achievement-striving, self-discipline, deliberation
Emotional stability
Anxiety, hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, vulnerability
Openness to experience/culture/intellect
Fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, values
Some evidence for genetic basis in twin studies; although results are not conclusive and tend to contribute (very roughly) 40 up to 60% of personality

32. Cognitive-Social Learning Theories
People organize their expectancies and values:
To guide their own behavior
Our set of standards is unique to each of us
Result of our past history
Our behavior is a result of the interaction of:
Our cognitions, learning, and environment

33. Albert Bandura Expectancies guide our evaluation of a situation.
We then act according to our own performance standards.
When we meet our own standards, we develop our self-efficacy.
An attitude that our effort will be successful
Expectancies
What a person anticipates in a situation or as a result of behaving in certain ways
Performance standards
Standards that people develop to rate the adequacy of their own behavior in a variety of situations
Self-efficacy
The attitude that one’s efforts will be successful

34. Rotter’s Locus of Control
An expectancy about whether reinforcement is under internal or external control
Internal
One can control his/her own fate.
External
One’s fate is determined by chance, luck, or the behavior of others.

35. Explanatory Styles General explanatory style Two kinds
Optimistic explanatory style
Appear to be more careful in their choices
Pessimistic explanatory style
Higher risk-taking behavior
Our expectancies mixed with the situation lead to our complex behavior.
General explanatory styles--our usual expectancy style
Tie has been found between general explanatory style and health
Optimistic explanatory style
More careful in their choices
Pessimistic explanatory style
More risk-taking behavior
Relates to lower health, academic achievement, higher rate of disorders (e.g. depression)

36. Personality Assessment
Interviews
Unstructured
The interviewer asks questions about any material that comes up.
Structured
The order and content of the questions are fixed; set format.
Interviews
Unstructured:
The interviewer asks questions about any material that comes up and asks follow-up questions whenever appropriate
Structured:
The order and content of the questions are fixed and the interviewer adheres to the set format
Less personal but usually more objective and less interviewer bias

37. Personality Assessment
Direct Observation
Systematic observation
Issues of observer bias
Time consuming and expensive
People may alter their behavior when observed
Although observation is a good way of learning about someone’s personality, the information may not always be accurate because people act differently when they are aware of being observed

38. Psychological Assessment
Psychologists always use a combination of
interviews and tests; always given in a battery (more than one test), culminating in a written report. The report describes the reason for the assessment, the behavioral observations, the information received through the interview, names the tests given, describes test results and interpretations, and finishes with conclusions and/or recommendations.

39. Objective Tests Standardized tests
Forced-choice or multiple choice formats
Limitations
Rely entirely on self-report
Familiarity with the test affects responses
Common in trait research
Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire
NEO-PI-R
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, (originally published in 1943 to diagnose mental illnesses)
16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF):
A personality test created by Cattell that provides scores on the 16 traits he identified
NEO-PI-R
Big 5
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI):
The most widely used objective personality test, originally intended for psychiatric diagnosis

40. MMPI – Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Originally published in 1943, to help diagnose mental illness. Has been revised several times, and is research based. It has changed and become more useful over the years.
The most widely used personality assessment tool used by psychologists today.

42. Projective Tests
Present subject with a standard ambiguous, unstructured stimulus, and ask subject to interpret it.
Sentence Completion I like _____________________________
Kinetic Family Drawings Draw a picture of your family in which everybody is doing something.
Rorschach Inkbots (1921)
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) (1935)