Raymond Walters College PowerPoint Presentations for Passer/Smith Psychology: Frontiers and Applications by David K. Jones Westminster College and Diane Feibel, Ed. D. Raymond Walters College

PowerPoint Presentations for: Passer/Smith Psychology: Frontiers and Applications Chapter 13 Personality

What is Personality? People differ from each other in meaningful ways People seem to show some consistency in behavior Personality is defined as distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting

Freudian Theory Structures of Personality Levels of consciousness Id Operates according to the “pleasure principle” Ego Operates according to the “reality” principle Superego Contains values and ideals Levels of consciousness Conscious What we’re aware of Preconscious Memories etc. that can be recalled Unconscious Wishes, feelings, impulses that lies beyond awareness

Freudian Model

Freudian Model

Freudian Theory Anxiety occurs when: Impulses from the id threaten to get out of control The ego perceives danger from the environment The ego deals with the problem through: coping strategies defense mechanisms

Freudian Theory

Freudian Model: Psychosexual stages Oral Primary satisfaction from chewing and sucking Anal Pleasure focused on elimination Phallic Pleasure derived from sexual organs Experience Oedipal or Electra conflict Latency Genital

Problems with psychoanalytic theory Concepts are ambiguous and difficult to operationally define Theory doesn’t allow clear-cut predictions Much research does not support the theory’s basic suppositions

Neoanalytic and Object Relations Perspectives Alfred Adler Humans are motivated by social interest Carl Jung A collective unconscious is represented by universal archetypes Object relations theory Focuses on mental representations people form on the basis of early experience

Motivation: Humanistic Theory (Maslow, 1954, 1970)

Humanistic Perspectives Carl Rogers We have needs for: Self-consistency (absence of conflict between self-perceptions Congruence (consistency between self-perceptions and experience) Inconsistency evokes anxiety and threat

Humanistic Perspectives: Rogers We develop a need for positive self-regard However, people usually place conditions of worth on us Unconditional positive regard is important

Self-esteem

The Self Self-verification Self-enhancement People are motivated to maintain self-consistency and congruence Self-enhancement A tendency to gain and preserve a positive self-image

The Self-Concept

Personality Factors The Big Five Factors (McCrae & Costa, 1999) Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism http://www.fmarion.edu/~personality/corr/big5/traits.htm http://www.wmin.ac.uk/cgi-bin/buchant/tbur/invitation1.pl

Eysenck’s Model of Personality

Biological Foundations of Personality Traits The brains of extreme introverts are overaroused, and the brains of extreme extroverts are underaroused (Eysenck, 1967) On a great number of characteristics, MZ twins are more similar than are DZ twins http://www.yorku.ca/bethune/bc1850/persnlty.htm#Research

Evolutionary Theory Where did the traits come from? Traits have been selected for: Physical survival Reproduction of the species

Stability of Personality Traits Little stability of behavior across situations This makes it difficult to predict behavior from personality traits Stability over time There is good evidence for both stability of some traits and change in some traits over time

Predicting Behavior from Personality Traits Personality traits interact with other traits as well as with characteristics of situations Situational consistency is influenced by the importance of a trait for the person High self-monitors act differently in different situations, while low self-monitors do not http://chiron.valdosta.edu/mawhatley/767/sm.htm

Personality and Health Type A personality Demanding, have time urgency, high levels of competitiveness, ambition, aggressiveness, and hostility The hostility component is related to coronary heart disease http://www.queendom.com/tests/typea.html Type B personality More relaxed, agreeable, less time urgency

Personality and Health Type C personality Tend to bottle up negative emotions May be related to cancer proneness http://www.rcsed.ac.uk/journal/vol44_5/4450012.htm#Can the Type C personality

Personality and Health Optimism Pessimists are at greater risk for depression and are more vulnerable to physical disease http://www.psychologytoday.com/features1.html Conscientiousness Conscientious is positively correlated with physical health and longetivity

Locus of Control (Rotter) Internal locus of control Life outcomes are under personal control Positively correlated with self-esteem Internals use more problem-focused coping External locus of control Luck, chance, and powerful others control behavior http://www.dushkin.com/connectext/psy/ch11/survey11.mhtml

Self-efficacy Beliefs concerning ability to perform behaviors needed to achieve a desired outcome Four important determinants: Previous performance attainments Observational learning Verbal persuasion Controlling negative arousal

Cognitive-Affective Personality System (Mischel & Shoda, 1999) People exhibit behavioral signatures, consistent ways of responding Person variables responsible: Encoding strategies Expectancies and beliefs Goals and values Affect Personal competencies and self-regulatory processes

Personality Assessment Structured interviews Behavioral assessment Remote behavior sampling

Personality Assessment Projective Tests Person is presented with an ambiguous stimulus Interpretation of the stimulus will be a “projection” of inner needs and feelings

Personality Assessment Rorschach ink-blot test http://www.branson.k12.mo.us/langarts/cmflower/rorschac.htm Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Draw-a-person test

Personality Assessment Objective personality tests Include standard sets of questions that are scored using a specific scoring key e.g. NEO-PIR, MMPI-II