1. Chapter 11: Personality: Theory, Research, and Assessment

2. Personality Theory
Personality theory attempts to describe and explain how people are similar, how they are different, and why every individual is unique.

3. Defining Personality: Consistency and Distinctiveness
Personality Traits
Dispositions and dimensions
The Five-Factor Model
Extraversion
Neuroticism
Openness to experience
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
The concept of personality is used to explain the stability in a person’s behavior over time and across situations (consistency) and the behavioral differences among people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness).
Personality refers to an individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits.
A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations. Adjectives like honest, moody, impulsive, and excitable describe dispositions that represent personality traits.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Raymond Cattell used the procedure of factor analysis – correlating many variables to identify closely related clusters of variables – to reduce Gordon Allport’s (1937) list of thousands of personality traits to just 16 basic dimensions. He also developed a test called the 16 PF to measure where a person falls along these 16 personality dimensions.
More recently, McCrae and Costa have used factor analysis to arrive at an even simpler, five-factor model of personality: the big five.
High Extraversion scores signify that a person is outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive, and gregarious. Some trait models refer to this as positive emotionality.
High Neuroticism scores signify that a person is anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure, and vulnerable. Some models call this negative emotionality.
Openness to experience is associated with curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity, and unconventional attitudes.
Agreeableness is associated with people who are sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward. It may have its roots in temperament.
Conscientious people are diligent, disciplined, well organized, punctual, and dependable. Some models refer to this trait as constraint. It is related to high productivity in a variety of occupational areas.

4. Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis
Personality
A person’s characteristic patterns of behaving, thinking, and feeling
Psychoanalysis
Freud’s term for his theory of personality and his therapy for treating psychological disorders
Central idea - Unconscious forces shape human thought and behavior

5. Psychodynamic Perspectives
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
Conflict
Sex and Aggression
Anxiety
Defense Mechanisms
Freud saw behavior as the outcome of an ongoing series of internal conflicts between the id, ego, and superego; with conflicts centering on sex and aggressive impulses having far reaching consequences. These conflicts lead to anxiety, which causes the ego to construct defense mechanisms, exercises in self-deception, as protection.

6. Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis
Three Levels of Consciousness
Conscious
The thoughts, feelings, sensations, or memories of which a person is aware at any given moment
Preconscious
The thoughts, feelings, and memories that a person is not consciously aware of at the moment but that may be easily brought to consciousness
Unconscious
The primary motivating force of human behavior that have never been conscious, containing
Repressed memories
Instincts
Wishes
Desires

7. Figure 11.2 Freud’s model of personality structure

8. Psychodynamic Perspectives
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
Structure of personality
Id - Pleasure principle
Ego - Reality principle
Superego - Morality
Levels of awareness
Conscious
Unconscious
Preconscious
Psychodynamic theories include all the diverse theories descended from the work of Sigmund Freud, which focus on unconscious mental processes.
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory (1901, 1924, 1940) grew out of his decades of interactions with his clients. This theory focuses on the influence of early childhood experiences, unconscious motives and conflicts, and the methods people use to cope with sexual and aggressive urges.
Freud divided personality into three components.
The id is the primitive, instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification and engages in primary-process thinking (primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented).
The ego is the decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle, seeking to delay gratification of the id’s urges until appropriate outlets can be found, thus mediating between the id and the external world.
The superego is the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong. The superego emerges out of the ego at around 3-5 years of age.
Freud’s most enduring insight was his recognition that unconscious forces can influence behavior. Freud theorized that people have three levels of awareness, conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

9. The Id, Ego, and Superego Ego
The logical, rational, largely conscious system of personality
Operates according to the reality principle
Evolves from and draws its energy from the id
One function is to satisfy the id’s urges
Considers the constraints of the real world
Determines appropriate times, places, and objects of gratification of the id’s wishes
Compromises towards what is possible
Settling for fast food hamburger instead of steak

10. The Id, Ego, and Superego
Freud’s proposed concepts for looking at personality ID
The unconscious system of the personality which contains
The life instincts
Sexual instincts
Biological urges like hunger and thirst
The death instincts
Aggressive and destructive impulses
Operates on the pleasure principle.
Seeks pleasure and avoids pain
Gain immediate gratification for its wishes
The source of the libido
The psychic energy that fuels the entire personality

11. The Id, Ego, and Superego Superego Moral component of the personality
The conscious
All behaviors for which a child has been punished and feels guilty
The ego ideal
Behaviors for which a child has been praised, rewarded, and feels pride and satisfaction
Initially reflects only the parents’ expectations of what is good and right
Expands over time incorporating the broader social world
Sets guidelines define and limits the ego’s flexibility
Harsher than external authorities
Judges behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and wishes

12. Defense Mechanisms
A means used by the ego to defend against anxiety and to maintain self-esteem
All people use defense mechanisms to some degree
Overuse can adversely affect mental health
Repression
The most frequently used
removes painful or threatening memories, thoughts, perceptions from consciousness and keeps them from consciousness
thoughts lurk in the unconscious and cause psychological disorders in adults
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13. Figure 11.3 Freud’s model of personality dynamics

14. Unconscious mental processes employed by the ego to reduce anxiety
Defense Mechanisms
Unconscious mental processes employed by the ego to reduce anxiety

15. Table 11.1 Defense Mechanisms, with Examples

16. Freud on Development: Psychosexual Stages
Sexual = physical pleasure
Psychosexual stages
Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital
Fixation = Excessive gratification or frustration
Overemphasis on psychosexual needs during fixated stage
Freud believed that the foundation of personality is laid by the age of five. He theorized that the ways in which children deal with immature sexual urges (sexual used as a general term meaning physical pleasure) during different stages of development shape personality.
He proposed five psychosexual stages, each with a characteristic erotic focus and developmental challenge.
Fixation is a failure to move forward from one stage to another as expected. Fixation can occur due to excessive gratification or frustration during a particular stage, leading to an overemphasis on the psychosexual needs prominent during the fixated stage in adulthood.

17. Psychosexual Stages of Development
The sex instinct is present at birth and the most important factor influencing personality
Develops through a series of psychosexual stages
Each stage centers on a part of the body that provides pleasurable sensations around which a conflict arises
Conflicts not readily resolved
Failure to resolve conflicts may have serious consequences
Difficulties carried over into adulthood
Fixation
Arrested development at a psychosexual stage occurring because of excessive gratification or frustration at that stage
Oedipus complex
One of the most controversial aspects of Freud’s theory
A conflict in which the child is sexually attracted to the opposite-sex parent
Feels hostility toward the same-sex parent
Unresolved adults may have guilt, anxiety, sexual problems, and difficulties relating to members of the opposite sex
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18. Table 11.2 Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

19. Fixation
Fixation at the anal stage, resulting from harsh parental pressure, could lead to anal retentive personality
Characterized by excessive
Stubbornness,
Rigidity
Neatness

20. Evaluating Freud’s Contribution
Psychology is indebted to Freud for introducing
The idea that unconscious forces may motivate behavior
Emphasizing the influence of early childhood experiences on later development
Many children who are rejected by their parents have behavioral and psychological difficulties later in life
A theory that may better explain the emotional aspects of the psychological experience
Psychoanalysis is still a useful therapy tool
Defense mechanisms provide useful categorizing of cognitive strategies people use to manage stress
Critics of Freud’s theories
It defies scientific testing
Any behavior, or lack of behavior can be interpreted to support Freud’s theory

21. Other Psychodynamic Theorists
Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology
Personal and collective unconscious
Archetypes
Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology
Striving for superiority
Compensation
Freud had many followers in the early 1900s. Many of these followers had theories of their own, but Freud was not willing to accept radical departures from psychoanalytic theory. Two members who broke from his group, Carl Jung and Alfred Adler, founded their own brands of psychodynamic psychology, making important contributions in their own right.
Carl Jung called his new theory analytical psychology, proposing that the unconscious mind is composed of two layers: the personal unconscious, which houses material that is not within one’s conscious awareness because it has been repressed or forgotten; and the collective unconscious, which houses latent memory traces inherited from people’s ancestral past.
Jung called these ancestral memories archetypes – emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meaning, such as the mandala.
Jung was also the first to describe the introverted (inner-directed) and extraverted (outer-directed) personality types.
Alfred Adler argued that Freud had gone overboard with his focus on sexual conflict. According to Adler and his individual psychology, the foremost source of human motivation is striving for superiority – a universal drive to adapt, improve oneself, and master life’s challenges. Adler asserted that everyone feels some inferiority and works to overcome it, a process he called compensation.

22. Figure 11.4 Jung’s vision of the collective unconscious

23. Alfred Adler Inferiority complex Individual Psychology
Emphasized the unity of personality rather than separate warring components of id, ego, and superego
Drive to overcome inferiority acquired in childhood motivates most behavior
People develop a unique style of life at an early age that is used through out life to achieve superiority
Inferiority complex
Inferiority feelings so strong to prevent personal development
Individual Psychology
Another name for Adler’s theory
Stresses the uniqueness of each individual’s struggle to achieve superiority and refers to the “creative self”
A conscious, self-aware component of an individual’s personality

24. Behavioral Perspectives
Skinner’s views
Conditioning and response tendencies
Bandura’s social cognitive theory
Observational learning
Models
Self-efficacy
Mischel’s views
The person-situation controversy
Skinner’s views on personality were similar to his views on all other human behavior; it is learned through conditioning.
Personality, according to Skinner, is based in response tendencies; acquired through learning over the course of the lifespan.
Bandura developed social cognitive (formerly known as social learning) theory, focusing on how cognitive factors such as expectancies regulate learning.
His theory of observational learning holds that behavior is shaped by exposure to models, or a person whose behavior they observe.
Bandura, in recent years, has emphasized self-efficacy in his research, referring to one’s belief about one’s ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes. He believes that self-efficacy (or lack thereof) influences which challenges people tackle and how well they perform. Researchers believe that self-efficacy is fostered by parents who are stimulating and responsive to their children.
Walter Mischel is also an advocate of social learning theory, with a focus on the extent to which situational factors govern behavior, instead of person variables.

25. Figure 11.5 A behavioral view of personality

26. Figure 11.6 Personality development and operant conditioning

27. Evaluating Behavioral Perspectives
Pros
Based on rigorous research
Insights into effects of learning and environmental factors
Cons
Over-dependence on animal research
Fragmented view of personality
Dehumanizing views
Behavioral views are based on rigorous research and have provided ample insights into how learning and environmental factors mold personality
They have been criticized for an over-dependence on animal research, their fragmented view of personality (carving up personality into stimulus-response relations with no unifying structural concepts tying these pieces together), and radical behaviorism’s dehumanizing view of human nature (no free will).

28. Learning Theories and Personality
Albert Bandura – Social Cognitive Approach
Reciprocal determinism
Influential, mutual relationship among behavior, cognitive factors, and environment
Self-efficacy
Perception of ability to perform competently whatever is attempted
High Self-efficacy
Approach new situations confidently
Set high goals
Persist in efforts because they believe success is likely
Low Self-Efficacy
Expect failure
Avoid challenges
Give up on tasks found difficult
Likely to experience depression

29. Self-Efficacy
A person high in self-efficacy pursue challenging goals and persist in their efforts until they reach them.

30. Bandura’s Reciprocal Determinism
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31. Humanistic Perspectives
Carl Rogers’s person-centered theory
Self-concept
Conditional/unconditional positive regard
Incongruence and anxiety
Abraham Maslow’s theory of self-actualization
Hierarchy of needs
The healthy personality
Carl Rogers was one of the founders of the humanist movement, which emerged in the 1950’s as a reaction to the behavioral and psychodynamic theories.
Rogers viewed personality in terms of the self-concept, a collection of beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities, and typical behavior, a person’s mental picture of himself or herself.
Rogers stressed the subjective nature of the self-concept. It may not be consistent with reality. Rogers believed that when parents make their affection conditional, that is, dependent on a child’s living up to expectations, the child may block out of their self-concept those experiences that make them feel unworthy of love.
Unconditional love is based in assurances that a child is worthy of affection, no matter what they do.
When self-concepts don’t match reality (incongruence), they are threatened, and anxiety results.
Abraham Maslow proposed that human motives are organized into a hierarchy of needs – a systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in which basic needs must be met before less basic needs are aroused.
Like Rogers, Maslow argued that humans have an innate drive toward personal growth, culminating in the need for self-actualization, which is the need to fulfill one’s potential (the highest need in his hierarchy). “What a man can be, he must be.”
Maslow set out to identify people who had self-actualized, healthy personalities, for study. Self-actualizing persons, according to Maslow, are people with exceptionally healthy personalities, marked by continued personal growth.
Maslow found that these people are tuned in to reality and at peace with themselves. They are open and spontaneous and sensitive to others’ needs, making for rewarding interpersonal relations.

32. Humanistic Personality Theories
Carl Rogers
Conditions of worth set up by our parents
Positive regard hinges on these conditions
Act us to live and act according to someone else’s values rather than our own
To gain positive regard we deny our true selves by inhibiting behavior, denying or distorting perceptions, and closing off parts of our experiences
Causes stress and anxiety and threatens our whole self-structure
Goal of therapy
Enable people to open up to experiences
Begin to live according to own internal values
Unconditional Positive Regard
Unqualified caring and nonjudgmental acceptance of another
High Self-Esteem
When our strengths lie in areas we value and believe to be important

33. Figure 11.7 Rogers’s view of personality structure

34. Figure 11.8 Rogers’s view of personality development and dynamics

35. Humanistic Personality Theories
Humanistic Psychology
People are assumed to have a natural tendency toward growth and realization of their fullest potential
Theories are more optimistic and sensitive to emotional experiences
Inspired study of positive personal qualities
Altruism, love, and acceptance
Cooperation and self-esteem
Difficult to test scientifically
Abraham Maslow
Motivational factors are at the root of personality
Hierarchy of Needs
Physiological needs
Safety needs
Belonging and esteem needs
Self actualization developing one’s fullest potential

36. Figure 11.9 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

37. Figure 11.10 Maslow’s view of the healthy personality

38. Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives
Pros
Recognized importance of subjective views
Recognized importance of self-concept
Laid foundation for positive psychology
Cons
Many aspects of theory are difficult to test
Unrealistic optimism
More empirical research needed
Humanistic psychology made important contributions to psychology by recognizing the importance of a person’s subjective views, often more than objective reality, in determining behavior and attitudes; by recognizing the importance of the self-concept; and by laying the foundation for positive psychology.
Critics of humanism have pointed out that many aspects of humanist theory are difficult to test, that humanists were often unrealistically optimistic about human nature, and that more empirical research is needed to keep up with humanist theory.

39. Biological Perspectives
Eysenk’s theory
Determined by genes
Extraversion-introversion
Behavioral genetics
Twin studies
Heritability estimates
The evolutionary approach
Traits conducive to reproductive fitness
Biological theories stress the genetic origins of personality. Eysenck believes that personality can be characterized along just three dimensions and that these are genetically determined in individuals. He believes that genes influence physiological functioning, thereby influencing ease of acquiring conditioned responses. He has shown particular interest in extraversion-introversion.
Behavioral genetics has provided some interesting evidence that personality is substantially inherited. Twin studies indicate that identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins in personality characteristics, with heritability estimates in the vicinity of 40%. Interestingly, shared family environment does not lead to similar personality characteristics among siblings, leading some theorists to assert that parents matter very little in how their children develop.
Evolutionary analyses of personality suggest that certain traits and the ability to recognize them may contribute to reproductive fitness—a reproductive advantage.

40. Figure 11.11 Eysenck’s model of personality structure

41. Nature, Nurture, and Personality
Interesting Details
Twin and Adoption Studies
IQ scores of identical twins are strongly correlated
Identical Twins similar on several personality factors
Regardless of whether twins are raised in the same or different environments
Nurturance, empathy, altruism, aggressiveness, and assertiveness are substantially influenced by heredity
Genes influence Extroversion and Neuroticism than any other dimension on the Big Five
Heredity strongly influences personality
Adopted children more similar to genetic family
Genes constrain the ways which environments affect personality traits

42. Estimated Influence of Heredity and Environment on the Big Five Personality Dimensions.

43. Evaluating Biological Perspectives
Pros
Convincing evidence for genetic influence
Cons
Too much reliance on heritability estimates
No comprehensive biological theory
Researchers have compiled convincing evidence that biological factors affect personality; however, heritability estimates vary depending on sampling procedures and other considerations, and should only be used as ballpark figures.
Additionally, there is no comprehensive biological theory of personality.

44. Personality Assessment
Observation, Interviews, and Rating Scales
Observation is used in a variety of settings to assess personality
Hospitals, schools, clinics, and workplaces
Behavioral Assessment
Counting and recording the frequency of particular behaviors
Frequently used in behavior modification programs
Reduced aggression or undesirable behaviors
Time consuming and tedious
Interviews
To help in diagnosis and treatment of patients
Screen applicants for admission to college, special programs, and to evaluate job applicants and performance
A person’s tone of voice, speech, mannerisms, gestures, and general appearance are also considered.
Structured Interview are prearranged questions and format
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45. Personality Assessment
Projective Techniques
Interpretation of an ambiguous image
Used to determine unconscious motives, conflicts, and psychological traits

46. Rorschach Inkblot Test
Presentation and interpretation of a series of black-and-white and colored inkblots
Numerous scoring systems exist

48. Thematic Apperception Test
Series of pictures depicting ambiguous scenes
Person is asked to create a story about the scene
Answers are scored according to themes, motives, and anxieties of main character

50. Drawbacks to Projective Tests
Examiner or test situation may influence individual’s response
Scoring is highly subjective
Tests fail to produce consistent results (reliability problem)
Tests are poor predictors of future behavior (validity problem)

51. Self-Report Inventory
Psychological test in which an individual answers standardized questions about their behavior and feelings
The answers are then compared with established norms

52. Personality Inventories
Inventory
A paper-and-pencil test
Contains questions about a person’s
thoughts
feelings
behaviors
Measures several dimensions of personality
Can be scored according to a standard procedure
Yields a personality profile
where people fall on various dimensions (traits)
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53. MMPI Most widely used self-report inventory
Originally designed to assess mental health and detect psychological symptoms
Includes more than 500 questions to which person must reply “True” or “False”
Includes “lying scales”

54. Personality Inventories
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2)
Most widely used and heavily researched personality inventory
Aids in diagnosis of psychiatric problems and disorders
Originally used over 1000 questions about
Attitudes, feelings, and symptoms to a group of psychiatric patients
Retained 550 items that differentiate psychiatric patients from those considered ‘normal’
Second edition added items on alcoholism, drug abuse, suicidal tendencies, eating disorders, and Type A behaviors
Validity scales integrated to detect those who are
Lying
Faking psychiatric illness
Faking no psychiatric illness
Does not reveal normal personality differences very well

55. Clinical Scales of The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2)
Scale Name Interpretation– High scorers…
1. Hypochondriasis (Hs) exhibit an exaggerated concern about their physical health
2. Depression (D) are usually depressed, despondent, and distressed.
3. Hysteria (Hy) complain often about physical symptoms that have no apparent organic cause.
4. Psychpathic deviate (Pd) show a disregard for social and moral standards
5. Masculinity/ show “traditional” masculine or feminine attitudes and femininity (Mf) values.
6. Paranoia (Pa) demonstrate extreme suspiciousness and feelings of persecution.
7. Psychasthenia (Pt) tend to be highly anxious, rigid, tense, and worrying
8. Schizophrenia (Sc) tend to be socially withdrawn and to engage in bizarre and unusual thinking.
9. Hypomania (Ma) are usually emtional, excitable, energetic, and impulsive.
10. Social Introversion (S) tend to be modest, self effacing, and shy.

56. Strengths of Self-Reports
Standardized — each person receives same instructions and responds to the same questions
Use of established norms: results are compared with previously established norms and are not subjectively evaluated

57. Weaknesses of Self-Reports
Evidence that people can “fake” responses to look better (or worse)
Tests contain hundreds of items and become tedious
People may not be good judges of their own behavior

58. A Contemporary Empirical Approach: Terror Management Theory
Conflict between self-preservation and ability to foresee death
Culture and self-esteem
Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski have proposed that one of the key functions of self-esteem is to protect us against terror. We feel terror because we have a desire to preserve ourselves, but also have the cognitive ability to recognize that death is inevitable.
Cultures provide worldviews—traditions, stories, and institutions—that salve this existential anxiety, and provide us with a sense of order in our lives. Our self-esteem corresponds to our sense of self-worth engendered by our confidence in our culture’s solutions.

59. Figure 11.13 Overview of terror management theory

60. Contemporary Empirical Approaches: Terror Management Theory
Increasing subjects’ mortality salience causes them to:
Punish moral transgressions more harshly
Be less tolerant of criticism of their country
Give greater rewards to those who uphold cultural standards
Respect cultural icons more
Experimental manipulations of subjects’ mortality salience causes behavioral changes in several directions predicted by terror management theory.
Increasing subjects’ mortality salience causes them to:
Punish moral transgressions more harshly
Be less tolerant of criticism of their country
Give greater rewards to those who uphold cultural standards
Respect cultural icons more
Other research indicates that people are also willing to discriminate against others to preserve their self esteem.

61. Culture and Personality
Independent self
Interdependent self
Comparison of personality traits between Western and East Asian nations have revealed intriguing differences. American culture seems to foster an independent view of self, in which children are encouraged to see themselves as autonomous and self-reliant. In contrast some East Asian cultures seem to foster a view of self in which children are encouraged to see themselves in relation to others, as part of a social unit.

62. Figure 11.14 Culture and conceptions of self