1. Personality & The Self
Chapter 9

2. Take a sheet of paper & and write down a description of
You, as you see yourself
Your best friend
You, as your best friend knows you

3. Personality - Biological Approaches
Personality is an entity
(Reification)

4. Galen - 4 Humors
Blood
Phlegm
Yellow Bile
Black Bile

5. Sheldon - Somatotypes
Ectomorph
Mesomorph
Endomorph

6. Somatotypes = Personalities
Ectomorph = Cerebrotonia
Mesomorph = Somatotonia
Endomorph = Visceratonia

7. Current Biological Theories
Cattell - 16 Traits
Eysenck - Types
“The Big Five”7

8. The “Big Five” Personality Characteristics
I Surgency (Extraversion)
II Agreeableness
III Conscientiousness
IV Emotional Stability (vs. Neuroticism)
Culture, intellect, openess

9. Behavioral Approach to Personality
Behavior - You are what you do.
Lundin (1961) Personality is:
“that organization of unique behavioral equipment an individual has acquired under the special conditions of his (or her) development”
Body is the location for your behavior (Baer)
Environment shapes personality
Behavior is situation specific

10. Behavioral Systems Approach
Genotype/environment interactions (temperament)
Person/Environment Interactions
Personality as a skill
Personality as a dynamic attractor

11. Temperaments (Thomas, Chess, & Birch)
· Activity Level:
· Rhythmicity:
· Approach or Withdrawal:
· Adaptability: Is the child able to adjust easily to changes in caretaking patterns?
· Intensity of Reaction:
· Threshold of Responsiveness:
Quality of Mood:
· Distractibility

12. Temperaments (Bates) Negative emotionality Difficultiness
Adaptability to new situations or people
Activity Level
Self-regulation (smoothability)
Reactivity
Sociability-positive emotionality

13. How Stable is Temperament
Low agreement among different observers (e.g., mother, father, teacher).
Weak correlations between early months measures and later.
Around end of year 1, better short-term stability
After second year, beter long-term stability

14. Child Constellations
Easy Child
Difficult Child
Slow-to-Warm Child

15. Which Category?

16. Implications
“Goodness of Fit”
Nonlinear Model

17. Role of Environment Genotype-Environment Interactions
(Heavily genetic-constitutional –e.g. early temperament)
Person-Environment Interactions
(Heavily environmentally acquired) Personality
Consistency in enviornments mean consistency in behavior. (Pasive, evocative, and active interactions contribute to this)
Drastic changes in environment produce changes in personality (e.g., Patty Hearst).
Previously reinforced behaviors put on extinction. New behaviors reinforced.
Personality as behavioral attractor. (i.e., organized pattern of behavior.

18. How the Environment Organizes Behavior
Familiar environments produce familiar behavior
We actively maintain familiar environments
We are reinforced by familar environments
We environments are unfamiliar
We try to change them
They change us
previous behaviors are extinguished
new behaviors emerge and are organized

19. Sex Differences How Do Gender Related Behaviors Develop?
Sex Role Stereotypes and Societal/Cultural Expectations
Parental Expectations & Reinforcement
Reinforcement of Gender Appropriate Behaviors
Androgyny - Combining Roles

20. The Self Self Concept and Self Recognition
Self-Awareness & Perspective Taking
Relational Frame Theory
Self statements
Stable vs. Unstable Traits
Internal - stable
External - unstable
Self-Efficacy Beliefs
Self Control
Self Esteem

21. Self-Control Matching Law & Choice Problem
Small Immediate vs.
Large Delayed
Change Value by changing amount or delay

22. The Self Revisited