Personality Chapter 2: Human Adjustment John W. Santrock McGraw-Hill © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2-2 What Is Personality?  Theoretical perspectives on personality: – psychodynamic – behavioral and social cognitive – humanistic – trait Personality = pattern of enduring and distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize how an individual adapts to the world

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2-3 What Is Personality?  Four important questions about personality: – What role do innate and learned characteristics play in personality? – To what extent is personality conscious or unconscious? – How influential are internal or external factors in determining personality? – What characterizes a well-adjusted personality?

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2-4 Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory  Psychodynamic Perspectives - view personality as being primarily unconscious and as developing in stages

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2-5 Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory  Sigmund Freud – born in Austria in 1856 / died in England in 1939 – spent most of life in Vienna – became medical doctor specializing in neurology – developed psychoanalytic theory through work with psychiatric patients

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2-6 Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory  Freud believed most of the mind is unconscious  Freud’s psychoanalytic theory stated that personality has three structures: – id - pleasure (sexual and aggressive instincts) – ego - reality (deals with demands of reality) – superego - conscience (morality)

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2-7 Defense Mechanisms  When ego blocks pleasurable pursuits of id, person feels anxiety Defense mechanisms = ego’s protective methods for reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2-8 Defense Mechanisms  Defense mechanisms include: – repression – rationalization – displacement – sublimation – projection – reaction formation – denial – regression

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2-9 Freud’s Theory of Personality Development  Freud was convinced that problems develop because of early childhood experiences  Freud proposed 5 stages of personality development: – oral – anal – phallic – latency – genital

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Freud’s Theory of Personality Development  Freud claimed that at each stage, demands of reality conflict with source of pleasure  Adult personality depends on how person deals with the conflict

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Psychodynamic Revisionists  Criticisms of Freud: – too much emphasis on sexuality – first 5 years are not as important – ego and conscious thought more important – sociocultural factors more important

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Horney’s Sociocultural Theory  Karen Horney (1885–1952) – developed first feminist criticism of Freud’s theory  Need for security is most important human motive

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Horney’s Sociocultural Theory  People develop strategies to cope with anxiety: – move toward people, seeking love and support – move away from people, becoming more independent – move against people, being competitive and domineering  The secure person uses these ways of coping in moderation  The insecure person uses one or more strategies in exaggerated fashion

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Jung’s Analytical Theory  Carl Jung (1875–1961) – thought Freud underplayed unconscious mind  Collective unconscious - impersonal, deepest layer of unconscious mind, shared by all human beings  Archetypes - emotionally-laden ideas and images in collective unconscious that have meaning for all people

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Adler’s Individual Psychology  Alfred Adler (1870–1937) – People strive toward creating own goals – Emphasis on social motivation – Everyone strives for superiority  Compensation - individual attempts to overcome inferiorities or weaknesses by developing own abilities  Overcompensation - individual exaggerates to conceal a weakness

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Adjustment Strategies Based on Psychodynamic Approaches 1. Think about your experiences as a child and now. 2. Recognize you have unconscious feelings, drives, and desires. 3. Examine your thoughts, feelings, and behavior to determine extent you are using defense mechanisms. 4. Evaluate extent to which security needs are met. 5. Examine feelings of superiority or inferiority and discover areas of life in which you can excel.

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspectives  Psychodynamic perspectives: – view personality as primarily unconscious – stress that personality develops in stages – emphasize the role of the individual’s past experiences – emphasize mental representation and transformation of experience – emphasize the influence of conflict on personality

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning = learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with meaningful stimulus and acquires capacity to elicit a response similar to response to meaningful stimulus

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Classical Conditioning  Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1906) argued classical conditioning consists of: – conditioned stimulus – conditioned response  Learning (Conditioning) Paradigm – Neutral + UCR  UCR – CS  CR  Classical conditioning has been applied to understanding fear

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Figure 2.6 Classical Conditioning: Boss’s Criticism and High Blood Pressure

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Skinner’s Behaviorism  B. F. Skinner (1938–1990) argued that our actions on the environment have consequences that shape our behavior Operant conditioning = learning process that occurs when consequences of the behavior change the probability of the behavior’s occurrence

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Reinforcement and Extinction   Positive reinforcement - frequency of behavior increases because it is followed by rewarding stimulus  Negative reinforcement - frequency of behavior increases because it is followed by removal of an aversive stimulus Reinforcement = process by which a stimulus or event that follows a behavior increases probability that the behavior will occur again

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Reinforcement and Extinction  Extinction - frequency of a previously reinforced behavior that is no longer reinforced decreases

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Punishment  Punishment decreases likelihood that a behavior will occur  Positive punishment - behavior decreases when followed by unpleasant stimulus  Negative punishment - behavior decreases when positive stimulus is removed

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Positive and Negative Reinforcement, Positive and Negative Punishment

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Applying Skinner’s Approach to Personality  Skinner’s behaviorism emphasizes that cognition is unimportant in personality  Personality is observable behavior, which is influenced by rewards and punishments in the environment  In the behavioral view, personality often varies according to the situation

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Social Cognitive Theory  Social cognitive theory was first proposed by Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel  Social cognitive theory states that behavior, environment, and cognitive factors are important in understanding personality

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Observational Learning  Bandura (1986) identified four main processes: – retention – production – attention – reinforcement Observational learning (imitation or modeling) = learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates someone else’s behavior

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Observational Learning  Bandura’s 1965 classic study - children who had seen a model punished for aggression only showed the model’s aggression when offered a reward  Reciprocal determination - Bandura’s view that behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors interact to create personality

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Personal Control  Social cognitive theorists emphasize that adjustment can be measured by people’s belief in their capacity to exercise some control over their own functioning and over environmental events

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Personal Control  Three aspects of personal control: – delay of gratification - deferring immediate gratification to obtain desirable future outcome – self-efficacy - belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes – locus of control - belief that the outcomes of people’s actions depend on what they do (internal locus) or on events outside of their personal control (external locus)

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Personal Control - Self-Efficacy  Self-efficacy is related to positive developments in people’s lives – Self-efficacy helps people in unsatisfactory situations by encouraging them to believe that they can succeed  Having an internal locus of control is associated with positive functioning and adjustment

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Adjustment Strategies For Increasing Your Self-Efficacy 1. Select something you expect to be able to do, not something you expect to fail at accomplishing 2. Distinguish between past performance and your present project 3. Pay close attention to your successes 4. Keep written records so that you will be concretely aware of your successes 5. List the specific kinds of situations in which you expect to have the most difficulty and the least difficulty

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Adjustment Strategies Based on Behavior and Social Cognitive Perspectives 1. Recognize extent to which reinforcement and punishment influence your behavior 2. Examine extent to which you use reinforcement and punishment when interacting with others 3. Use your ability to learn through observation 4. Consider obtaining a mentor 5. Evaluate how good you are at delaying gratification 6. Examine whether you have an internal or an external locus of control

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Evaluating the Behavioral and Social Cognitive Perspectives  Strengths of the behavioral and social cognitive perspectives include emphasis on: – environmental determinants – scientific climate for investigating personality

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Evaluating the Behavioral and Social Cognitive Perspectives  The behavioral view has been criticized for: – taking the “person” out of personality – ignoring cognition – inadequate attention to individual differences – inadequate attention to biology – inadequate attention to personality as whole

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Humanistic Perspectives  Humanistic perspectives - stress a person’s capacity for personal growth, freedom to choose one’s own destiny, and positive human qualities  Carl Rogers (1902–1987) and Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) were leading architects of humanistic perspectives

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Rogers’ Approach  Carl Rogers stressed the importance of becoming a fully-functioning person  Rogers believed the tendency to actualize one’s essential nature is inborn in every person

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Rogers’ Approach  Self-concept - refers to individuals’ overall perceptions and assessments of their abilities, behavior, and personalities  The Self - consists of our self-perceptions and the values we attach to these perceptions  The greater the discrepancy between the real self (self resulting from experiences) and the ideal self (the self we would like to be), the more maladjusted we will be

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Unconditional Positive Regard, Empathy, and Genuineness  Rogers proposed 3 methods to help others develop a more positive self-concept: – Unconditional positive regard - accepting, valuing, and being positive toward another person regardless of the person’s behavior – Empathetic - being a sensitive listener and understanding of another’s true feelings – Genuineness - being open with our feelings and dropping our pretenses and facades

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Figure 2.9 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives  The humanistic perspectives stress a person’s capacity for personal growth and freedom  These perspectives emphasize the importance of: – our perceptions – conscious experience – the positive aspects of human nature – encourage excessive self-love

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives  Weaknesses of humanistic perspectives include tendency to: – avoid empirical research – be too optimistic

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Trait Theories  Traits - broad, enduring dispositions that lead to characteristic responses  Gordon Allport believed that each individual has a unique set of personality traits  Most trait theories hold that personality can be described in terms of a few super-traits or dimensions

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Trait Theories  Hans Eysenck - three dimensions of personality: – introversion-extraversion – stability-instability (neuroticism) – psychoticism

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved The Big Five Factors of Personality

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Traits, Situations, and Culture  Walter Mischel (1968) argued that personality varies across situations more than trait theorists acknowledged – Mischel’s view is called situationism  Personality results from interaction of traits and situations  Cross-cultural research suggests that traits may vary across cultures

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Traits, Situations, and Culture  Cultures around the world may be classified as individualist or collectivist – Individualism gives priority to personal goals rather than group goals; it emphasizes values that serve the self, such as feeling good, personal achievement and distinction, and independence – Collectivism emphasizes values that serve the group by subordinating personal goals to preserve group integrity and relationships

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Evaluating Trait Perspectives  Understanding a person’s traits also may help us better predict the person’s health, thinking, job success, and interpersonal skills  Personality is determined by a combination of traits (person factors) and the situation (environmental factors)

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Types of Assessment  Psychologists use assessments not only in research but also in their attempts to diagnose, treat, and counsel people  Scientific measures aim to be both reliable and valid

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Types of Assessment  Types of assessments used by psychologists: – projective tests – self-report tests – behavioral and cognitive assessments

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Projective Tests  Projective tests - present individuals with ambiguous stimuli  Projective tests assume that this ambiguity allows individuals to project their personalities onto the stimuli  Examples of projective tests include: – Rorschach inkblot test – Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Rorschach Inkblot Test  Rorschach Inkblot Test was developed in 1921 by Herman Rorschach – It uses individual’s perception of inkblots to determine personality – Concerns about test’s reliability and validity

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Figure 2.13 Type of Stimulus Used in the Rorschach Inkblot Test

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Thematic Apperception Test  Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) - projective test designed to elicit stories that reveal something about individual’s personality – TAT used in clinical practice and in research on need for achievement

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Self-Report Tests  Self-report tests (objective tests or inventories) assess personality traits by asking questions about preferences and behaviors – Self-report tests may elicit deceptive responses when people try to answer in a socially desirable way

McGraw-Hill ©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Self-Report Tests  Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely used self-report personality test  Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) are two popular self-report tests that assess the big five factors