1. PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 12
Personality

2. Personality: What It Is and How It Is Measured
Schacter
Gilbert
Wegner
PSYCHOLOGY
12.1
Personality: What It Is and How It Is Measured

3. 12.1 Personality—What Is It?
Personality— the study of relatively enduring patterns of behavior that may be said to characterize or differentiate an individual or a “type” of individual from others
Paradox: Change and continuity

4. 4 “Big Questions” addressed by most personality theories
How much consistency is there in a person’s behavior across time and situations – how do we explain this?
How do we explain individual differences between people in the same situation?
How much does personality change across time and lifespan – how do we explain change?
What constitutes psychological well-being, and how does one achieve it? Conversely, what are causes of psychological problems?

5. Approaches to Studying Personality
Global Theory Approaches
Taxonomic approaches – the study of individual differences
Psychologically meaningful differences
Why are people different?
prior events
anticipated events
biologically based predispositions

6. Approaches to Studying Personality
“Global” Theories of Personality: Big Picture Theories
Psychodynamic or psychoanalytic – Freud, Jung, Erikson
Behavioral or behaviorist – Watson, Skinner
Humanistic – Existential – Rogers, Maslow, Csikszentmihalyi, May, Frankl
Social – Cognitive - Cultural – Mischel, Kelly, Rotter, Markus & Kitayama, social psych influences – many others
Biopsychological – neuroscientific – evolutionary - Eysenck
Taxonomic approach to individual differences
Trait (with or without biological basis assumed)
e.g. The “Big Five” - Costa & McRae

7. The Psychodynamic Approach: Forces That Lie Beneath Awareness
Schacter
Gilbert
Wegner
PSYCHOLOGY
12.3
The Psychodynamic Approach: Forces That Lie Beneath Awareness

8. Many Psychodynamic Perspectives
All assume behavior is primarily caused by unconscious processes, e.g. unconscious motives, conflicts
Wide variety of psychodynamic theories:
e.g. Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson
Carl Jung
Differ in assumptions about
1. the content and dynamics of the unconscious
2. How personality changes/develops over time
3. Views about psychological well-being and
illness

9. 12.3 Psychodynamic Approach
Freud: “psychopathologies of everyday life”
Freudian slips
Psychodynamic approach
dynamic unconscious
emphasis on process
conflict & tension within & among parts of self
goal of tension reduction

10. Psychodynamic Perspectives
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
Structure of personality
Id - Pleasure principle
Ego - Reality principle
Superego - Morality
Levels of awareness
Conscious
Unconscious
Preconscious
Conflict
Sex and Aggression
Anxiety
Defense Mechanisms
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 3 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 3 levels of awareness, conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
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. Defense mechanisms and examples of each are presented in table 11.1.

11. 12.3 Psychodynamic Approach—Structure of Personality
Three independent, interacting, and often conflicting systems
Id—present at birth
pleasure principle
Ego—acquired through contact with reality
reality principle
Superego— internalized through identification with parents (usually same-sex parent – Freud)
morality principle

12. Figure 11.2

13. Figure 11.3
Figure 11.3 Freud’s model of personality dynamics. According to Freud, unconscious conflicts between the id, ego, and superego sometimes lead to anxiety. This discomfort may lead to the use of defense mechanisms, which may temporarily relieve anxiety.

14. 12.3 Psychodynamic Approach—Defense Mechanisms
Repression
Rationalization
Reaction formation
Projection
Regression
Displacement
Identification
Sublimation

15. Freud on Development: Psychosexual Stages
Sexual = physical pleasure
Erogenous zones (erotogenic) – bodily source of pleasure
different emphasis with each stage
Psychosexual stages
Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent, Genital
Fixation = personality characterized by one of these stages
results from excessive gratification or frustration
Overemphasis on psychosexual needs during fixated stage
Resolution of the Oedipal conflict & identification with same-same
parent during the Phallic Stage assumed to be critical for
a. the development of the superego
b. incorporation/development of gender roles
Freud believed that the foundation of personality is laid by the age of 5. 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. Psychosexual stages are defined as developmental periods with a characteristic sexual focus that leave their mark on adult personality.
Freud theorized that each stage has its own unique 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.
He proposed 5 psychosexual stages, each with a characteristic erotic focus and developmental challenge.
These are presented in Table 11.2.

16. 12.3 Psychodynamic Approach—Personality Development & Change
Psychosexual stages of development
Personality formed by age 6 through crucial experiences
Fixation
Oedipus conflict

17. Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology and Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology
Personal and collective unconscious
Archetypes
Introversion/Extroversion
Alfred Adler
Individual Psychology
Striving for superiority
Compensation
Inferiority complex/overcompensation
Birth order
Carl Jung began to correspond with Freud in 1906, and they exchanged 359 letters before their friendship and alliance ended in Jung developed his own theory, calling it analytical psychology, in order to differentiate it from Freud’s theory. Jung proposed 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, a storehouse of 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. The mandala, or magic circle, for example, has served as a symbol of the unified wholeness of the self.
Like Jung, 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. Compensation involves efforts to overcome imagined or real inferiorities by developing one’s abilities. When the feelings are excessive, an inferiority complex can result.
Adler was also the first to stress the possible importance of birth order as a factor governing personality. The contemporary psychologist Frank Sulloway (1995, 1996) has argued persuasively that birth order does indeed have an impact on personality.

18. Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspectives
Pros
Insights regarding
The unconscious
The role of internal conflict
The importance of early childhood experiences
Cons
Poor testability, inadequate empirical evidence
Lack of parsimony (unnecessarily complex theory)
Sexism – esp. in Freudian version
Overemphasis on early childhood experiences
Psychodynamic theories have resulted in groundbreaking insights about the unconscious, the role of internal conflict, and the importance of early childhood experiences in personality development.
On the down side, they have been criticized for their poor testability, inadequate evidence, and male-centered views.

19. The Humanistic-Existential Approach: Personality as Choice
Schacter
Gilbert
Wegner
PSYCHOLOGY
12.4
The Humanistic-Existential Approach: Personality as Choice

20. 12.4 Humanistic-Existential Approach
Assumes free will and responsibility
Assumes basic motivation to “grow”
Healthy choices
Self-actualizing tendency
Hierarchy of needs (chapter 10)
Peak experiences
Conditions for growth
unconditional positive regard (Carl Rogers)

21. Humanistic Perspectives
Carl Rogers
Person-centered Theory
Self-concept
Conditional/unconditional positive regard
Incongruence and anxiety
Abraham Maslow
Self-actualization theory
Hierarchy of needs
The healthy personality
Carl Rogers was one of the fathers of the human potential movement. 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 themselves.
Rogers stressed the subjective nature of the self-concept–it may not be consistent with your experiences. When self-concepts don’t match reality (incongruence), they are threatened, and anxiety results.
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 unworthy experiences from their self-concept. He believed that unconditional love from parents fosters congruence, or a self-concept which is reasonably accurate.
Unconditional love is based in assurances that a child is worthy of affection, no matter what they do.
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. They are not dependent, however, on others for approval or uncomfortable with solitude. They thrive on work, and enjoy their sense of humor.

22. Figure 11.7
Figure 11.7 Rogers’s view of personality structure. In Rogers’s model, the self-concept is the only important structural construct. However, Rogers acknowledged that one’s self-concept may not be consistent with the realities of one’s actual experience—a condition called incongruence.

23. Figure 11.9
Figure 11.9 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. According to Maslow, human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, and people must satisfy their basic needs before they can satisfy higher needs. In the diagram, higher levels in the pyramid represent progressively less basic needs. Individuals progress upward in the hierarchy when lower needs are satisfied reasonably well, but they may regress back to lower levels if basic needs are no longer satisfied.

24. Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives
Pros
Importance of subjective reality
Developed self-concept construct
Foundation for Positive Psychology
Cons
Difficult to test
Overly optimistic
More experimental research needed
Humanistic theories deserve credit for arguing the importance of a person’s subjective view of reality. They also deserve credit for making the self-concept an important construct in psychology.
Finally, their approach laid the foundation for the emergence of the positive psychology movement that is increasingly influential today.
Critics argue that humanistic theory is difficult to test, that humanistic theorists are overly optimistic in their assumptions about human nature, and that more experimental research is needed.

25. 12.4 Personality as Existence
Rollo May & Victor Frankl—looked at specific aspects of human existence
awareness of our own existence
ability to make choices
Finding meaning in life
existential dread (if I can think about life, I realize I will die!)
mortality salience (worldview defense)

26. Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives
Pros
Importance of subjective reality
Developed self-concept construct
Foundation for Positive Psychology
Cons
Some concepts difficult to test
Overly optimistic
More experimental research needed
Humanistic theories deserve credit for arguing the importance of a person’s subjective view of reality. They also deserve credit for making the self-concept an important construct in psychology.
Finally, their approach laid the foundation for the emergence of the positive psychology movement that is increasingly influential today.
Critics argue that humanistic theory is difficult to test, that humanistic theorists are overly optimistic in their assumptions about human nature, and that more experimental research is needed.

27. The Trait Approach: Identifying Patterns of Behavior
Schacter
Gilbert
Wegner
PSYCHOLOGY
12.2
The Trait Approach: Identifying Patterns of Behavior

28. Trait Theories of Personality
Emphasizes underlying, possibly innate, attributes (traits) that predispose one toward patterns of thinking and behavior
These traits are assumed to explain patterns of individual consistency in behavior across time and situations
Tend to examine the correlation between traits and behavior. Usually emphasize one trait (e.g. sensation seeking, or self-esteem) or, at most, a few personality traits (e.g. “The Big Five”

29. 12.2 Personality—The Trait Approach
A person’s special qualities?
Gordon Allport (1937) —personality can be understood as a combination of traits
Are the personalities of the two owners of the closets different? 29

30. 12.1 Personality—How It Is Measured
Personality inventories
Self-report
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Easy to administer
response style
validity? 30

31. 12.1 Personality—How It Is Measured
Projective techniques
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Problems?
always an interpretation
reliable in predicting behavior?
valid in predicting behavior? 31

32. 12.2 The Search for Core Traits
How is personality represented in our language (synonyms)
Factor analysis
Hierarchical structure of traits 32

33. 12.2 The Big Five Dimensions of Personality
Many factor analyses reveal the same “major” factors that seem to classify the personalities of most people
The Big Five 33

34. 12.2 Traits as Biological Building Blocks
Do immutable brain and biological processes produce the stability of personality?
Brain changes do sometimes bring on personality changes—Phineas Gage
Traits do seem to have a heritability component 34

35. 12.2 Do Animals Have Personalities?
Gosling (1998) studied spotted hyenas. He:
had human observers use personality scales to rate the different hyenas in the group
did a factor analysis on these findings
found five dimensions
three closely resembled the Big Five traits of neuroticism, openness to experience, and agreeableness 35

36. 12.2 Traits in the Brain
Reticular formation of extraverts may not be as easily stimulated as that of introverts
Gray (1970) suggests extraversion/ introversion and neuroticism reflect differences in two basic brain systems:
behavioral activation system (BAS)
behavioral inhibition system (BIS) 36

37. The Social Cognitive Approach: Personalities in Situations
Schacter
Gilbert
Wegner
PSYCHOLOGY
12.5
The Social Cognitive Approach: Personalities in Situations

38. 12.4 Personalities in Situations
Social cognitive approach
social psychology
cognitive psychology
learning theory
Situations cause behavior, too!

39. 12.5 Consistency of Personality across Situations
Person-situation controversy
Walter Mischel (1968)
measured personality traits do a poor job of predicting behavior
George Kelly (1955)—people view the social world from different perspectives
Personal constructs are key to personality differences
can have the same traits but won’t act the same way if your perspective is different

40. 12.5 Personal Goals and Expectancies
Person’s unique perspective is reflected in personal goals
Outcome expectancies
Rotter (1966)—locus of control