Personality Theories

PersonalityBiological Theories, Genetics, and personality,

Temperament, Parental Behaviour, Sexual Behaviour

Refers to a combination of long-lasting and distinctive behaviors, thoughts, motives, and emotions that typify how react and adapt to other people and situations. (Plotnik, 2002)

Personality

biological components strongly determine our physical characteristics

such as eye color, height, hair color, body type, and

general looks.

Even if biology plays no direct role in our

personality, the way we look certainly affects how we see ourselves and how others interact with us.

Other aspects of human development, such as

temperament and extroversion and introversion

have also been shown to have strong biological links

One theorist, Hans Eysenck, believed that much of our

personality was determined by biology, and although controversial at times, he continues to be one of

the most discussed biological theorist in terms of personality

development.

Biological Theories

For years, biological theory played a significant role in our view of human development and personality.

Toward the beginning of the 20th Century, however, views began to change and personality was seen as involving both biology and environment.

Hans Eysenck, however, fought against this trend.

Hans Eysenck

By using the statistic known as Factor Analysis, he concluded that all human traits can be broken down into two distinct categories:

1. Extroversion-Introversion2. Neuroticism

Hans Eysenck

Similar to what Jung meant by the same terms, and

something very similar to our common-sense understanding

of them: Shy, quiet people “versus” out-going, even loud

people.

Eysenck hypothesized that extraversion-

introversion is a matter of the balance of “inhibition”

and “excitation” in the brain itself.

Excitation is the brain waking itself up, getting into an

alert, learning state.

Inhibition is the brain calming itself down, either in the usual sense of relaxing

and going to sleep, or in the sense of protecting itself in the case of overwhelming

stimulation.

Extraversion-Introversion

Someone who is extraverted has good, strong inhibition:

When confronted by traumatic stimulation -- such as a car crash -- the extravert’s brain inhibits itself, which means that it becomes “numb,” you might say, to the trauma, and therefore will remember very little of what happened.

After the car crash, the extravert might feel as if he had “blanked out” during the event, and may ask others to fill them in on what happened.

Because they don’t feel the full mental impact of the crash, they may be ready to go back to driving the very next day.

Extraversion

The introvert, on the other hand, has poor or weak inhibition:

When trauma, such as the car crash, hits them, their brains don’t protect them fast enough, don’t in any way shut down.

Instead, they are highly alert and learn well, and so remember everything that happened.

They might even report that they saw the whole crash “in slow motion!”

They are very unlikely to want to drive anytime soon after the crash, and may even stop driving altogether.

Introversion

Imagine the extravert and the introvert both getting drunk, taking off their clothes, and dancing buck

naked on a restaurant table.

The next morning, the extravert will ask you what

happened (and where are his clothes).

When you tell him, he’ll laugh and start making arrangements to have

another party.

The introvert, on the other hand, will remember every mortifying

moment of his humiliation, and may never come out of his room again.

Extraversion-Introversion

Temperament is that aspect of our personalities that is genetically based, inborn, there from birth or even before.

That does not mean that a temperament theory says we don't also have aspects of our personality that are learned!

The issue of personality types, including temperament, is as old as psychology.

The ancient Greeks, to take the obvious example, had given it considerable thought, and came up with two dimensions of temperament, leading to four “types,” based on what kind of fluids (called humors) they had too much or too little of.

This theory became popular during the middle ages.

Temperaments

In the 1950’s, William Sheldon (b. 1899) became interested in the variety of human bodies.

He built upon earlier work done by Ernst Kretschmer in the 1930's. Kretschmer believed that there was a relationship between three different physical types and certain psychological disorders.

Specifically, he believed that the short, round pyknic type was more prone to cyclothymic or bipolar disorders, and that the tall thin asthenic type (a too a lesser degree the muscular athletic type) was more prone to schizophrenia.

His research, although involving thousands of institutionalized patients, was suspect because he failed to control for age and the schizophrenics were considerably younger than the bipolar patients, and so more likely to be thinner.

Body Types

He theorized that the connection between the three physical types and the three personality types was embryonic development.

In the early stages of our prenatal development, we are composed of three layers or “skins:” the ectoderm or outer layer, which develops into skin and nervous system; the mesoderm or middle layer, which develops into muscle; and the endoderm or inner layer, which develops into the viscera.

Body Types

Body Types

EndomorphChubby people, tending to “pear-shaped.”

Viscerotonics: Sociable types, lovers of food and physical comforts.

MesomorphStockier people, with broad shoulders and good musculature.

Somatotonics: Active types, physically fit and energetic.

EctomorphSlender, often tall, people, with long arms and legs and fine features.

Cerebrotonics: Nervous types, relatively shy, often intellectual.

In the last couple of decades, an increasing number of theorists and researchers have come to the conclusion that five is the “magic number” for temperament dimensions.

The first version, called The Big Five, was introduced in 1963 by Warren Norman.

Big Five Test Big Five Interpretation Big Five ppt

The Big Five

Emotional Development – is an interaction between temperament (nature) and positive or negative environmental feedback (nurture)

Temperament – refers to individual differences in attention, arousal, and reactivity to new or novel situations.

Temperaments

Easy babies – made up 40% of the sample,

were happy and cheerful, had regular

sleeping and eating habits, and adapted

quickly to new situations

Slow-up-to-warm-up babies – made up 15% of the sample,

were more withdrawn,

were moody, and tended to take longer or adapt to new

situations

Difficult babies – made up 10% of

the sample, were fussy,

fearful of new situations, and more intense in their reactions. They develop

serious emotional problems

No-single-category

babies – made up 35% of the sample, had a variety of traits and could not be classifies

into one of the other

categories

Baby’s Temperaments

Transactional Analysis◦ Eric Berne◦ P-A-C (Structural Analysis)◦ The brain is like a tape recorder.

Parental Behavior

This is a set of feelings, thinking and behaviora that we have copied from our parents and significant others.

As we grow up we take in ideas, beliefs, feelings and behaviors from our parents and caretakers.

If we live in an extended family then there are more people to learn and take in from.

When we do this, it is called introjecting and it is just as if we take in the whole of the care giver.

For example, we may notice that we are saying things just as our father, mother, grandmother may have done, even though, consciously, we don't want to.

We do this as we have lived with this person so long that we automatically reproduce certain things that were said to us, or treat others as we might have been treated.

Transactional Analysis

Parent The parent represents a massive collection of recordings in the brain

of external events experienced or perceived in approximately the first five years of life.

Since the majority of the external events experienced by a child are actions of the parent, the ego state was appropriately called Parent.

Note that events perceived by the child from individuals that are NOT parents (but who are often in parent-like roles) are also recorded in the Parent.

There are two forms of Parent we can play. The Nurturing Parent is caring and concerned and often may

appear as a mother-figure (though men can play it too). They seek to keep the Child safe and offer unconditional love, calming them when they are troubled.

The Controlling (or Critical) Parent, on the other hand, tries to make the Child do as the parent wants them to do, perhaps transferring values or beliefs or helping the Child to understand and live in society.

P-A-C

ChildIn contrast to the Parent, the Child represents the recordings in the

brain of internal events associated with external events the child perceives.

Stated another way, stored in the Child are the emotions or feelings which accompanied external events. Like the Parent, recordings in the Child occur from childbirth all the way up to the age of approximately 5 years old.

There are two types of Child we can play. The Natural Child is largely un-self-aware and is characterized by

the non-speech noises they make (yahoo, etc.). They like playing and are open and vulnerable.

The cutely-named Little Professor is the curious and exploring Child who is always trying out new stuff (often much to their Controlling Parent's annoyance).

The Adaptive Child reacts to the world around them, by changing themselves to fit in, or through obedience

P-A-C

Adultthe Adult in us is the 'grown up' rational

person who talks reasonably and assertively, neither trying to control nor reacting. The Adult is comfortable with themselves and is, for many of us, our 'ideal self'.

P-A-C

Psychosexual Stages of Development (Sigmund Freud)

five different developmental periods during which an individual seeks pleasure from different areas of the body that are associated with sexual feelings

Sexual Behaviors

Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months). During the oral stage, the child if focused on oral

pleasures (sucking). Too much or too little gratification can result in an Oral

Fixation or Oral Personality which is evidenced by a preoccupation with oral activities.

This type of personality may have a stronger tendency to smoke, drink alcohol, over eat, or bite his or her nails.

Personality wise, these individuals may become overly dependent upon others, gullible, and perpetual followers. (Oral receptive)

On the other hand, they may also fight these urges and develop pessimism and aggression toward others. (Oral aggressive)

Psychosexual Stages of Development

Anal Stage (18 months to three years). The child’s focus of pleasure in this stage is on

eliminating and retaining feces. Through society’s pressure, mainly via parents,

the child has to learn to control anal stimulation. In terms of personality, after effects of an anal fixation during this stage can result in an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control (anal retentive).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, they may become messy and disorganized (anal expulsive).


Phallic Stage (ages three to six). The pleasure zone switches to the genitals. Freud

believed that during this stage boy develop unconscious sexual desires for their mother (Oedipus complex).

Because of this, he becomes rivals with his father and sees him as competition for the mother’s affection.

During this time, boys also develop a fear that their father will punish them for these feelings, such as by castrating them

A fixation at this stage could result in sexual deviancies (both overindulging and avoidance) and weak or confused sexual identity


Latency Stage (age six to puberty). It’s during this stage that sexual urges

remain repressed and children interact and play mostly with same sex peers.


Genital Stage (puberty on). The final stage of psychosexual

development begins at the start of puberty when sexual urges are once again awakened.

Through the lessons learned during the previous stages, adolescents direct their sexual urges onto opposite sex peers, with the primary focus of pleasure is the genitals.


The EndPrepared by: JC de [email protected]

Personality Theories

Education

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