Theories of Personality Copyright 2007 Horizon Textbook Publishing

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Personality Personality - the unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel, and behave. Character - value judgments of a person’s moral and ethical behavior. Temperament - the enduring characteristics with which each person is born.

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Four Perspectives in the Study of Personality Psychoanalytic. Behavioristic (including social cognitive theory). Humanistic. Trait perspectives.

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis –Freud’s term for his theory of personality and his therapy for treating psychological disorders The conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious –Freud believed that there are three levels of awareness in consciousness: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious –Conscious The thoughts, feelings, sensations, or memories of which a person is aware at any given moment

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis The conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious (continued) –Preconscious The thoughts, feelings, and memories that a person is not consciously aware of at the moment but that may be brought to consciousness –Unconscious For Freud, the primary motivating force of behavior, containing repressed memories as well as instincts and wishes that have never been conscious

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis The id, the ego, and the superego –Feud proposed three systems of personality Id –The unconscious system of the personality, which contains the life and death instincts and operates on the pleasure principle Ego –In Freudian theory, the rational, largely conscious system of personality, which operates according to the reality principle Superego –The moral system of the personality, which consists of the conscience and the ego ideal

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Figure 1.2 Freud’s Conception of the Personality

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Neo-Freudians Neo-Freudians - followers of Freud who developed their own competing theories of psychoanalysis. –Carl Jung developed a theory of a collective unconscious. Personal unconscious - Jung’s name for the unconscious mind as described by Freud. Collective unconscious – Jung’s name for the memories shared by all members of the human species. Archetypes - Jung’s collective, universal human memories.

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Neo-Freudians Adler proposed feelings of inferiority as the driving force behind personality and developed birth order theory. Horney developed a theory based on basic anxiety and rejected the concept of penis envy. –Basic anxiety - anxiety created when a child is born into the bigger and more powerful world of older children and adults. –Neurotic personalities – maladaptive ways of dealing with relationships in Horney’s theory. Erikson developed a theory based on social rather than sexual relationships, covering the entire life span.

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Learning Theories and Personality Social-cognitive theory –Reciprocal determinism Bandura’s concept that behavior, cognitive factors, and environment all influence and are influenced by each other –One of the cognitive factors Bandura considers especially important is self-efficacy –Self-efficacy A person’s belief in his or her ability to perform competently in whatever is attempted

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Social-Cognitive Perspective Reciprocal Determinism –the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors Internal personal/ cognitive factors (liking high-risk activities) Behavior (learning to bungee jump) Environmental factors (bungee-jumping friends)

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Learning Theories and Personality Locus of control –Proposed by Julian Rotter –A concept used to explain how people account for what happens in their lives-people with an internal locus of control see themselves as primarily in control of their behavior and its consequences; those with an external locus of control perceive what happens to be in the hands of fate, luck, or chance

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Humanistic Personality Theories Two humanistic theories –Abraham Maslow Found self-actualizers to be accurate in perceiving reality-able to judge honestly and to spot quickly the fake and the dishonest Self-actualization –Developing to one’s fullest potential –Carl Rogers Conditions of worth –Conditions on which the positive regard of others rests

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Humanistic Personality Theories Two humanistic theories (continued) –Carl Rogers Believes our parents set up conditions of worth For Rogers, a major goal of psychotherapy is to enable people to open themselves up to experiences and begin to live according to their own values rather than according to the values of others in order to gain positive regard Calls his therapy “person-centered therapy” Unconditional positive regard is designed to reduce threat, eliminate conditions of worth, and bring the person back to tune with his or her true self

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Humanistic Personality Theories Self-esteem –One source of variations in self-esteem arises from comparisons of actual to desired traits –Developmental psychologists have found that self- esteem is fairly stable from childhood through the late adult years –So, the self-worth beliefs we adopt in childhood can affect us for a lifetime

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Trait Theories Hans and Sybil Eysenck use two primary personality factors as axes for describing personality variation UNSTABLE STABLE choleric melancholic phlegmaticsanguine INTROVERTED EXTRAVERTED Moody Anxious Rigid Sober Pessimistic Reserved Unsociable Quiet Sociable Outgoing Talkative Responsive Easygoing Lively Carefree Leadership Passive Careful Thoughtful Peaceful Controlled Reliable Even-tempered Calm Touchy Restless Aggressive Excitable Changeable Impulsive Optimistic Active

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Trait Theories Early trait theories –Gordon Allport Claimed that each person inherits a unique set of raw materials for given traits, which are then shaped by experiences –Raymond Cattell Referred to observable qualities of personality as surface traits Found certain clusters of surface traits that appeared together time after time Believed these were evidence of deeper, more general, underlying personality factors, which he called source traits

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Trait Theories Early trait theories (continued) –Raymond Cattell Found 23 source traits in normal individuals, 16 of which he studied in great detail Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, commonly called the 16 PF, yields a personality profile Factor models of personality –Five-factor theory The most influential proponents of the five-factor theory are list in the following chart

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Trait Theories

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Trait Theories Factor models of personality (continued) –Costa and McCrae Developed the NEO Personality Inventory and, more recently, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory which are used to measure the Big Five dimensions of personality The NEO and other measures of the Big Five are currently being used in a wide variety of personality research studies

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Trait Theories The situation versus trait debate –Walter Mischel Initiated the situation-trait debate, an on-going discussion among psychologists about the relative importance of factors within the situation and factors within the person that account for behavior Later modified his original position and admitted that behavior is influenced by both the person and the situation Views a trait as a conditional probability that a particular action will occur in response to a particular situation

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Trait Theories The situation versus trait debate (continued) –McCrae and Costa Studied personality traits of subjects over time and found them to be stable for periods of 3 to 30 years

Copyright © 2007 Horizon Textgook Publishing All rights reserved Trait Theories Factor models of personality (continued) –Costa and McCrae Developed the NEO Personality Inventory and, more recently, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory which are used to measure the Big Five dimensions of personality The NEO and other measures of the Big Five are currently being used in a wide variety of personality research studies

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