1. Personality

3. What are the perspectives on personality?
Psychoanalytic
Humanistic
Trait
Social cognitive
The self

4. Psychoanalytic perspective
Sigmund Freud
The mind is like an iceberg
Conscious
(Above the water)
Unconscious
Larger
(Below the water)
Thoughts
Feelings
Memories

5. Freud’s personality theory
Id = Pleasure principle
Sex & violence
Hedonistic
Ego = Reality principle
Mediates between Id and Superego
Superego = conscious
Pride and guilt

6. Freud’s personality iceberg

7. How do we evaluate the unconscious?
Projective tests
Ambiguous stimuli that people “project” information onto
E.g. describe or tell a story
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Patient makes up a story based on ambiguous pictures
Rorschach Test
10 inkblots - people discuss what they see in the inkblots
Designed to identify people’s inner unconscious feelings
Not successful in predicting behavior or diagnosis

8. Ego defense mechanisms
Repression
Underlies all other defense mechanisms
Keeps repressed urges (e.g. incest) from becoming conscious
Regression
Retreating to an earlier, more infantile stage of development
Reaction formation
Doing the opposite of what you actually feel
Inadequate feelings become bravado
“I hate him” becomes ” I love him”
Makes unacceptable impulses more acceptable

9. Ego defense mechanisms (Cont.)
Projection
Projecting your unacceptable impulses to others
E.g. “He is lying like everyone else.”
Rationalization
Thinking up socially acceptable reasons for your negative behavior.
E.g. “I only steal from rich people”
Displacement
Diverts sexual or aggressive energies toward a more acceptable target.
E.g. Mad child kicks the pet.

10. What is the Humanistic Perspective?
The self concept - “Who am I”
A basic focus of the Humanistic perspective
Maslow’s Self-actualization
People strive for self-actualization
To be the best you can be
After other needs are met for physiological, safety, love, and self-esteem

11. Humanistic Perspective (cont.)
Carl Rogers - Person Centered Perspective
Unconditional positive regard
If we feel accepted, we will be more open and expressive.

12. What is the Trait Perspective?
Traits = Characteristic behaviors or disposition
Myers-Briggs type indicator
Describes personalities in complimentary terms
Extroversion or introversion
Thinking or feeling

13. Trait Perspective (cont.)
MMPI = Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Most widely used personality inventory
Used to identify emotional disorders

14. MMPI = Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

15. What is the Social Cognitive Perspective?
How does learning & thinking & society influence each other?
Reciprocal Determinism
Albert Bandura
Behavior, internal personal factors, and the environment all operate to determine each other.

16. Reciprocal Determinism

17. Locus of control Internal locus of control External locus of control
“I personally control my destiny.”
External locus of control
“Outside forces which I can not control determine my destiny.”

18. What is Learned Helplessness?
Repeatedly faced with traumatic events over which people have no control, people feel helpless, hopeless, and depressed.

19. Exploring your “self concept”
Benefits of positive self esteem:
More persistent at tasks
Less likely to use drugs and conform to group pressure
Happier
Self serving bias
We like to perceive ourselves favorably
We contribute successes to our own effort and failure to factors beyond our control.