1. Personality Theory and Assessment
Chapter 14
Book authors:
R.H. Ettinger
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Slide authors:
Larry D. Thomas
Landon O. Thomas
Copyright 2007 Horizon Textbook Publishing

2. Sigmund Feud and 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
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3. 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
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4. 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
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5. Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis
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6. Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis
Defense Mechanisms
An unconscious, irrational means used by the ego to defend against anxiety; involves self-deception and the distortion of reality
Repression
Involuntarily removing an unpleasant memory or barring disturbing sexual and aggressive impulses from consciousness
Several studies have shown that people do indeed try to repress unpleasant thoughts
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7. Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis
Defense Mechanisms (continued)
Projection
Attributing one’s own undesirable thoughts, impulses, traits, or behaviors to others
Allows people to avoid acknowledging unacceptable traits and thereby to maintain self-esteem, but it seriously distorts their perception of the external world
Denial
Refusing to acknowledge consciously the existence of danger or a threatening condition
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8. Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis
Defense Mechanisms (continued)
Rationalization
Supplying a logical, rational, socially acceptable reason rather than the real reason or an action
When people rationalize, they make excuses for, or justify, failures and mistakes
Regression
Reverting to a behavior characteristic of an earlier stage of development
Reaction formation
Denying an unacceptable impulse, often a sexual or aggressive one, by giving strong conscious expression to its opposite
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9. Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis
Defense Mechanisms (continued)
Displacement
Substituting a less threatening object for the original object of an impulse
Sublimation
Rechanneling sexual or aggressive energy into pursuits that society considers acceptable or admirable
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10. Sigmund Feud and Psychoanalysis
The psychosexual stages of development
Psychosexual stages
A series of stages through which the sexual instinct develops
Fixation
Arrested development at a psychosexual stage occurring because of excessive gratification or frustration at that stage
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11. Neo-Freudians Carl Jung
Did not consider the sexual instinct to be the main factor in personality; nor did he believe that the personality is almost completely formed in early childhood
Conceived of the personality as consisting of three parts: the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious
Personal unconscious
In Jung’s theory, the layer of the unconscious containing all of the thoughts and experiences that are accessible to the conscious, as well as repressed memories and impulses
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12. Neo-Freudians Carl Jung (continued) Collective unconscious Archetypes
In Jung’s theory, the most inaccessible layer of the unconscious, which contains the universal experiences of humankind transmitted to each individual
Archetypes
Existing in the collective unconscious, and inherited tendency to respond in particular ways to universal human situations
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13. Neo-Freudians Alfred Adler
Emphasized the unity of the personality rather than the separate warring components of id, ego, and superego
Maintained that the drive to overcome feelings of inferiority acquired in childhood motivates most of our behavior
Claimed that people develop a “style of life” at an early age-a unique way in which the child and later the adult will go about the struggle to achieve superiority
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14. Neo-Freudians Karen Horney
Did not accept Freud’s division of personality into id, ego, and superego, and she flatly rejected his psychosexual stages and the concepts of the Oedipus complex and the penis envy
Believed that personality could continue to develop and change throughout life
Argued forcefully against Freud’s notion that a woman’s desire to have a child and a man are nothing more than a conversion of the unfulfilled wish for a penis
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15. Neo-Freudians Karen Horney (continued)
Believed that many of women’s psychological difficulties arise from failure to live up to an idealized version of themselves
To be psychologically healthy women, she claimed, and men for that matter, must learn to over come irrational beliefs about the need for perfection
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16. 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
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17. 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)
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18. 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
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19. 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
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20. 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
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21. 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
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22. Trait Theories
UNSTABLE
STABLE
choleric
melancholic
phlegmatic
sanguine
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
Hans and Sybil Eysenck use two primary personality factors as axes for describing personality variation
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23. Trait Theories Early trait theories Gordon Allport Raymond Cattell
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
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24. 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
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25. Trait Theories
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26. 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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27. 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
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28. 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
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29. Nature, Nurture, and Personality
Twin and adoption studies
Tellegen and others
Found that identical twins are also quite similar on several personality factors, regardless of whether they are raised together or apart
Rushton and colleagues
Found that nurturance, empathy, and assertiveness are substantially influenced by heredity
Miles and Carey
Revealed that he habitability of aggressiveness may be as high as .50
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30. Nature, Nurture, and Personality
Twin and adoption studies (continued)
Loehlin and others
Assessed the personalities of 17-year-olds who had been adopted at birth
When the adopted children were compared to other children in the family, the researchers found that the shared family environment had virtually no influence on their personalities
Loehlin and colleagues
Measured change in personality of adoptees over a 10-year period and found that children tended “to change on the average in the direction of their genetic parents’ personalities”
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31. Nature, Nurture, and Personality
Neurotransmitters and personality
Researchers hypothesize that genes contribute to personality through their influence on the brain’s neurotransmitter production, transport, and reuptake systems
Researchers propose that people who are emotionally unstable possess a serotonin system that is unusually sensitive to dangers and threats
Several DNA studies have shown direct links between the characteristics of individuals’ serotonin-controlling genes and emotional stability
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32. Nature, Nurture, and Personality
The shared and nonshared environment
Shared environment
Consists of those environmental influences that tend to make family members similar
Nonshared environment
Consists of influences that operate in different ways among children in the same family
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33. Nature, Nurture, and Personality
Personality and culture
Hofstede
Analyzed questionnaire responses measuring the work-related values of more than 100,000 IBM employees in 53 countries around the world
Factor analysis revealed four separate dimensions related to culture and personality
Rank-ordered the 53 countries on each of the four dimensions
Individualism/collectivism dimension
The term used to signify a culture’s emphasis either on individuals or on social relationships
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34. Nature, Nurture, and Personality
Personality and culture (continued)
The clearest shared cultural value is a strong identification with and attachment to the extended family
Another important value is simpatia, the desire for smooth and harmonious social relationships
Constantine Sedikides and her colleagues
Have argued that the goal of all individuals, regardless of cultural context, is to enhance self-esteem
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35. Personality Assessment
Observation, interviews, and rating scales
Using an observational technique known as behavioral assessment, psychologists can count and record the frequency of particular behaviors
Interviewers consider not only a person’s answers to questions but the person’s tone of voice, speech, mannerisms, gestures, and general appearance as well
Interviewers often use a structured interview, in which the content of the questions and even the manner in which they are asked are carefully planned ahead of time
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36. Personality Assessment
Observation, interviews, and rating scales (continued)
Rating scales are useful because they provide a standardized format, including a list of traits or behaviors to evaluate
A problem in evaluation is the halo effect-the tendency of raters to be excessively influenced in their overall evaluation of a person by one or a few favorable or unfavorable traits
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37. Personality Assessment
Personality inventories
Inventory
A paper-and-pencil test with questions about a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which can be scored according to a standard procedure
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
The most extensively researched and widely used personality test; used to screen and diagnose psychiatric problems and disorders
Published in 1943 by McKinley and Hathaway and originally intended to identify tendencies toward various types of psychiatric disorders
Because the original MMPI had become outdated, the MMPI-2 was published in 1989
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38. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Hysteria
(uses symptoms to solve problems)
Masculinity/femininity
(interests like those of other sex)
T-score 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Hypochondriasis
(concern with body symptoms)
Depression
(pessimism, hopelessness)
Psychopathic deviancy
(disregard for social standards)
Paranoia
(delusions, suspiciousness)
Psychasthenia
(anxious, guilt feelings)
Schizophrenia
(withdrawn, bizarre thoughts)
Hypomania
(overactive, excited, impulsive)
Social introversion
(shy, inhibited)
Clinically
significant
range
After
treatment
(no scores
in the clinically
significant range
Before
(anxious,
depressed,
and
displaying
deviant
behaviors)
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39. Personality Assessment
Personality inventories (continued)
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (continued)
The MMPI-2 is reliable, easy to administer and score, and inexpensive to use
Does not reveal differences among normal personalities very well
California Psychological Inventory (CPI)
A highly regarded personality test used to assess the normal personality
Is valuable for predicting behavior, and it has been “praised for its technical competency, careful development, cross-validation and follow-up, use of sizable samples and separate sex norms”
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40. Personality Assessment
Personality inventories (continued)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
An inventory for classifying personality types based on Jung’s theory of personality
Projective tests
A personality test in which people respond to inkblots, drawing of ambiguous human situations, incomplete sentences, and the like, by projecting their own inner thoughts, feelings, fears, conflicts onto the test materials
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41. Personality Assessment
Projective tests (continued)
Rorschach Inkblot Method
A projective test composed of 10 inkblots to which a test taker responds; used to reveal unconscious functioning and the presence of psychiatric disorders
One of the oldest and most popular projective tests
Developed by Hermann Rorchach
Can be used to describe personality, make differential diagnoses, plan and evaluate treatment, and predict behavior
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42. Assessing the Unconscious- Rorschach
What might this be?
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43. Personality Assessment
Projective tests (continued)
Exner
Developed the Comprehensive System-a more reliable system for scoring the Rorschach
Provides some normative data so that the responses of a person taking the test can be compared to those of others with known personality characteristics
Thematic Apperception Test
A projective test consisting of drawings of ambiguous human situations, which the test taker describes; through to reveal inner feeling, conflicts, and motives, which are projected onto the test materials
Developed by Henry Murray and his colleagues in 1935
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44. Assessing the Unconscious- TAT
Sample Thematic Apperception Test Card
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