1. Ch 14 Personality Theory
Notes

2. Trait Approach
Aspect of personality considered to be reasonably stable
Hippocrates
Gordon Allport: dictionary of traits to describe a personality
Traits are building blocks of personality
Hans Eysenck: introverts vs extroverts and emotional stability vs instability

3. 5 Factor Model “Big Five”
Basic personality factors
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional Stability-Instability
Openness to Experience
Personalities mature rather than are shaped by environmental conditions
Expression of traits affected by culture

4. Other Uses of the “Big Five”
Studying politics
Ways that they are connected with the ways people interact with friends/family
Relationship between them and disorders
Are there other personality factors that are important? Yes, but these 5 are agreed upon by most as the basic ones

5. Psychoanalytic Approach
All people undergo inner struggles
People are born with certain biological drives like aggression, sex, and need for superiority
May come into conflict with laws, social norms, and moral codes that have been internalized
Person’s behavior, thoughts, and emotions represent the outcome of inner contests between the opposing forces of drives and rules

6. Sigmund Freud Conscious feelings occupy only small part of mind
Unconscious holds deepest thoughts, fears, and urges
Psychoanalysis used to explore the unconscious
“talking cure”
Dream analysis
hypnosis

7. Structures of the Mind Id: basic drives
Follows the pleasure principle: urge for immediate release of energy/emotion that will bring personal gratification, relief, or pleasure
Ego: the self (reason and good sense)
Reality principle: understanding that in real world we can’t always get what we want
Provides conscious sense of self
Superego: moral sense
moral principle: values and standards

8. Defense Mechanisms
Methods the ego uses to avoid recognizing ideas/emotions that may cause anxiety
Repression Reaction Formation
Rationalization Denial
Displacement Sublimation
Regression
Projection
Normal to use but should not be “crutches” because it becomes unhealthy

9. Stages of Development Oral Stage (birth to 1 ½)
Anal Stage (1 ½ to 2 ½)
Phallic Stage (3rd year)
Latency Stage (5 or 6 to puberty)
Genital Stage (puberty on)

10. Carl Jung
Analytic psychology: more emphasis on influences of mysticism and religion on behavior
People have a personal unconscious and a collective unconscious (store of human concepts shared by all people across all cultures)
Archetypes: ideas and images of accumulated experience of all human beings (supreme being, young hero, fertile/nurturing mother)

11. 1 archetype - Sense of self: unifying force of personality that gives people direction and a sense of completeness
Characterized by 4 functions of the mind: thinking, feeling, intuition, and sensation
Individuation: integrating conscious elements with the collective unconscious

12. Alfred Adler
People basically motivated by a need to overcome feelings of inferiority
Inferiority complex: based on physical problems and need to compensate for them
Self-awareness plays a major role in the formation of personality
Creative self: strives to overcome obstacles and develop individual’s unique potential

13. Karen Horney
Greatest influences on personality are social relationships
Importance of childhood experiences
Parent-child relationship extremely important
Basic anxiety: insecurity children develop with neglectful parents
Genuine and consistent love could temper the effects of the most painful childhoods

14. Erik Erikson
Believed social relationships are most important factors in personality development
Emphasized the general emotional climate of mother-infant relationship
People are capable of making real and meaningful choices
Developmental theory of personality with stages and traits that might develop at each stage

15. Learning Approach- Behaviorism
Behaviorism: John B. Watson claimed that external forces/influences shape people’s preferences and behavior
B.F. Skinner: emphasized the effects of reinforcement on behavior
Environmental influences condition/shape us into wanting some things and not others
Socialization: process by which people learn socially desirable behaviors of particular culture
We are shaped into wanting what is good for society at early age and no one is really free

16. Social-Learning Theory
Albert Bandura: focus on importance of learning by observation and the role of cognitive processes that produce individual differences
People can act intentionally to influence the environment
People engage in meaningful learning
Internal variables also influence how we act in certain situations (skills, values, goals, expectations, self-efficacy expectations)

17. Humanistic Approach
Begin with assumption that self-awareness is the core of humanity
Focus on people’s pursuits of self-fulfillment and ethical conduct
People are free to do as they choose with their lives and are responsible for the choices they make

18. Abraham Maslow Desire to achieve self-actualization
Must follow own path to self-actualization

19. Carl Rogers “Father of Humanism”
People shape personalities through free choice and action
Self theory: revolves around people’s sense of self
Self-concept: view of oneself as an individual
Self is center of person’s experience

20. Pieces of His Theory
Key to happiness and healthy adjustment is congruence: consistency between own self-concept and one’s experience
Self-Esteem/Self-Respect and Positive Regard (unconditional positive regard vs conditional positive regard)

21. Sociocultural Approach
Roles of ethnicity, gender, and culture in formation of personality
Individualism vs Collectivism
Sociocultural Factors and the Self
Self-concept and self-esteem
Acculturation (process of adapting to a new/different culture) and self-esteem