1. Ch 13 Personality

2. Personality
Unique way in which each individual thinks, acts, and feels throughout life
It is not
Character – person’s value judgments made on a person’s morals or ethical behavior
Temperament – enduring characteristics with which each person is born, such as irritability or adaptability
Biology through genetic and prenatal influences
One’s larger personality is built on this
Our personality is a combo of out temperament and character, what we react to and what our family history, culture and beliefs are

3. Perspectives of personality theory
Psychodynamic
Sigmund Freud
role of the unconscious mind and biological causes of personality
Behaviorist
Effect of environment on personality
Humanistic
Reaction against psychoanalytic and behaviorist
Role of each person’s conscious life experiences and choices
Trait
End result, not focused on causes
The study of personality is still a young field, several ways to explain a persons behavior, it is difficult to measure precisely and scientifically
Philosophers once believed that the personality was a balance of the four physical humors of the body, blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm
Reinforces
Bandura
Rogers
Gordan allport

4. Sigmund Freud Born in 1856 Grew up in Vienna
Jewish, so he then moved to England to escape Nazis
Victorian age, sex only in marriage, and you should not like it
Many of Freud's patients were wealthy women with sexual repression
Freud was obsessed with sex being the explanation for abnormal behaviors
We need to understand the man
men were to father children with their wives and have fun with their mistresses
Women were to not have any sexual urges

5. Unconscious Mind Three parts of a persons’ mind Unconscious mind
Preconscious, conscious, and unconscious mind
Unconscious mind
Level of the mind that we keep thoughts, feelings and memories.
Not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness
To Freud it is what makes up our personality and human behavior
No one argued with have a conscious, it was the unc that bothered people
They would come out in dreams in a symbolic manner
Where our secrets lie

6. Divisions of personality
ID-if it feels good do it
Pleasure seeking, immoral
Basic biological drives
Hunger, thirst, self preservation and sex
Pleasure Principal – desire for immediate gratification with no regard for the consequences
Ego-the Executive Director
Rational, logical and conning
Reality Principal - satisfying the needs of the ID when negative consequences will not result
Superego- the moral watchdog
Moral Center
Contains the Conscience, what makes up feel guilty
He thought babies had sex drives, or pleasure seekers, sucking of thumb, chewing
Id Present as an infant is demanding irrational illogical, want needs satisfied, right NOW
When we grow up, we get the ego. Reality sets in

7. How they work together Psychological defense mechanisms
How our unconscious distorts our perception of reality to reduce stress and anxiety
Examples
Denial
Repression
rationalization
Freud believed that we had to find a way to mange the fight with the three
So we will deny our behaviors thoughts
Not remembering the bad stuff
Make up an excuse why it is ok

8. Stages of personality development
Freud determined 5 stages
Developing sexuality of the child
Each stage focus on a different erogenous zone
Fixation
Getting stuck in one stage
Child will grow but will carry emotional baggage from one stage
Since he focused heavily on sex drive…
Also called them psychosexual stages of personality dev

9. Oral Stage Birth to 1 ½ years old Mouth is the erogenous zone
Weaning is the primary conflict
Fixation in adults
Overeating
Drinking
Smoking
Excessive talking

10. Anal stage 1 ½ - 3 years of age Erogenous zone is now the anus
Toilet training becomes an issue
Fixation
Anal Explosive
Messiness is a statement of control
Destructive
Hostile
Anal Retentive
Stingy
Stubborn
Excessively neat
Potty training is in full swing
People who are slobs

11. Phallic stage 3-6 years old Erogenous zone is the genitals
Realizing differences between boys and girls
Oedipus/Electra Complex
Fixation
Immature sexual attitude
Promiscuous
“mama’s boys”
Love mom kill dad and marry mom, stewie had exact opposite

12. Latency stage 6 – onset of puberty Children hide their sexual feelings
Children grow and develop intellectually, physically and emotionally
Play with own gender, other gender is bad
Fixation
Difficulty getting along with others

13. Genital stage When puberty begins
Sexual feelings can no longer be hidden
Bodies are changing
Begins adult social and sexual behavior
Fixation
Immature love relationships

14. Criticisms
He did no experiments to arrive at his conclusions about personality
Used observations and case studies
He used confirmation bias
Memories and dreams would be put into his theory as he needed
No scientific basis of dreams
Of the limited pool of clients, wealthy Jewish women
when his close friends children told him of actual abuse, he denied the abuse and stated the memories were not real
After criticism he revised his story on this
We cannot take Freud lightly his theory has had a great deal of influence on movies literature and cartoons

15. Psychodynamic today His concepts remain useful
Basis for modern personality theories
Defense mechanisms has drawn much research
Unconscious mind
If you take the basis of each of his development stages he is correct, psych have built from there
People do have defense mechanisms to explain behavior
We do have issues in life at times that we cannot explain

16. behaviorist Watson and Skinner
Operant and classical conditioning influence our personalities
Our personality is just a set of learned habits
Social Cognitive learning Theorists
Importance of both the influences of other people’s behavior and of a person’s own expectancies on learning
Observations
Modeling
Well learned responses that are automatic
In their eyes, everything we do is learned reactions
A shy person may be shy due to a harsh parent at home, learned to keep quiet
We develop who we are by how our thought process views life

17. Bandura
Three factors in the behaviors that make up a persons personality
Environment
Behavior itself
Personal or cognitive factors
Reciprocal Determination
The three factors affecting
one another in a give-take
relationship
Environment is the physical sorrounbdings
We walk into an environment as the new person, we do not like this, we do not like who is there, we have feelings/beleifs about it. We sit in the back and remove ourselvs

18. Rotter
Motivation
People are driven to seek reinforcement and to avoid punishment
Personality is a relatively stable set of potential responses to a situation
Locus of Control
We assume we either have or do not have control, internal or external
Expectancy
An expectation that a behavior will lead to a reinforcement
If we have learned what the response was in the past, and it was pleasurable, we will respond that way
We are more motivated if we feel we have control
What happens is we continue to have expectations we do not get reinforcment

19. Behaviorists today Limited Does not take mental process into account
Does not look at social influence
Has influenced therapies based on learning theories
We do have a degree of genetic make up
We can learn to overcome issues

20. Humanistic Maslow and Rogers Focuses on what makes us human, unique
Feelings and freedom of choice
We make our own destiny

21. rogers
We are striving to fulfill what our genetic makeup will allow us to
Self-actualization=fulfillment
Self concept is our own image of who we are
Real self – who we are
Ideal self – who we want to be
We have our own drives and beliefs of what a good life will be
It is influenced by what others tell us about ourselves
Empty chair
If the real self is true and the ideal self is attainable, we are pretty happy

22. Conditional and unconditional positive regard
Warmth, affection, love
Unconditioned positive regard
No strings attached
Conditioned positive regard
Strings
Fully functioning person
In touch with their own feelings and abilities, trust themselves

23. Humanistic today Ignores the negative aspects of human nature
Difficult to test
Development if therapies to promote self growth and a better understanding of self
How would it explain serial killers

24. trait Concerned describing personality and predicting behavior
Trait – is a consistent, enduring way of thinking, feelings, or behavior
Describing a persons personality in terms of a person’s trait

25. Allport & catell Found 200 traits in dictionary
Paired down to surface or source traits
Reserved vs outgoing
Submissive vs dominant
Shy vs bold
These traits were wired in the nervous system to guide our behavior
Used in many different situations
Persons “constellation” of traits are unique
Lack of scientific evidence
However, behavioral genetics support heritability of personality traits
Gordon Allport andhis collogues scanned the dictionary for traits, finding paired down to 200
Shy might avoid crowds

26. The big five 5 trait dimensions Openness Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Try new things
Organization, motivation
In or out
Easy going friendly
Emotional stability

27. Trait today Traits will not always be expressed the same
Depends on situation
The big 5 has been tested
Found in 11 different cultures
Party vs funeral

28. Assessment of personality
Interviews – asking questions of the person, structured or not
Halo Effect – interviewer to allow positive traits to influence the assessment
Projective tests
Psychoanalysts want to uncover the unconscious conflicts, desires and urges
These tests have the person project their “issues” unto harmless stimuli
Client responds to whatever comes to mind
Uncovers problems in personality
Methods vary as the theories vary
Eclectic view and take pieces of them all
Just as watching the clouds

29. Rorschach inkblots Developed in 1921 by a Swiss Psychiatrist
10 inkblots, 5 black and white, 5 color
Using predetermined responses based on past answers, people were given a score
They are still used today
No right or wrong answers
Issues
Subjective
Not reliable
No valid outside of the person

30. Rorschach inkblots
Large number os sexual responses indicated schizo

31. Rorschach inkblots
Another ink blot with a little face in the center - it's important not to focus on the face.

32. Time would matter, slow response depression or low iq
Time would matter, slow response depression or low iq. Should respond with this looks like, not this is
Negative responses, anger aggression

33. Personality Inventories
Standardized test with yes or no questions
More reliable as the questions are not open ended, and everyone gets asked the same questions
Myers Briggs is used to assess personality to help with career selection
MMPI-2 very common
True or false answers to statements
Issues
Some people are able to fake the answers
Try to ask the same questions a few different ways to avoid cheating