SUMMER AT THE ACADEMY
Introduction to Psychology
Days 7 & 8: Personality
Ms. Mary-Liz Fuhrman
* PERSONALITY *
Chapter 15 pp 595-637
CH 15: PERSONALITY OVERVIEW Psychoanalytic Perspective Humanistic Perspective Trait Perspective Social-Cognitive Perspective Exploring the Self
WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Q: How do you describe your own
personality? Personality: an individual’s characteristic pattern of
thinking, feeling, and acting Focus is on individual not general human nature
Explores: Traits Uniqueness Personal control Sense of self
4 PERSPECTIVES OF PERSONALITY
Psychoanalytic theory emphasizes the unconscious and irrational aspects of personality.
Humanistic theory draws attention to the concept of self and to human potential for healthy growth.
Trait theory led to advances in techniques for evaluating and describing personality.
The social-cognitive perspective emphasizes the effects of our interactions with the environment
Contributions & short-comings
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVESigmund Freud (1856-1939) Austria Medical Doctor:
nervous disorders/neurology Developed theory based on evaluations of self and
patients: Unconscious region of the mind Psychosexual stages Defense mechanisms
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVEExploring the Unconscious
Free Association: person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind
Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of personality and associated techniques that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflictsseek to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
Unconscious: FREUD: reservoir of unacceptable thoughts, wishes,
feelings, and memoriesTODAY: info processing of which we are unaware
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVEPersonality Structure
“Iceberg” Id: pleasure principle—immediate gratification;
strives to satisfy sexual and aggressive drives Ego: reality principle—satisfying the id’s desires
realistically; mediates between the id and superego; mostly conscious
Superego: internalized ideals and provides standards for judgments
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVEPersonality Development
FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGESOral
(birth-18 months)Pleasure centers on mouth --Sucking, biting, chewing
Anal(18-36 months)
Pleasure focuses on the bowel and bladder elimination
--coping with demands for controlPhallic
(3-6 years)Pleasure zone is genitals
--coping with incestuous sexual feelings
Latency(6 to puberty)
Dormant sexual feelings--expanding social contacts
Genital(puberty -on)
Maturation of sexual interests--exploring intimate relationships
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE Oedipus Complex: boy’s sexual desires
toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival fatherElectra Complex
Identification: children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos
Fixation: lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were not resolved
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE
Defense MechanismsEgo’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by
unconsciously distorting reality
Repression: *Basic defense mechanism; banishes anxiety arousing thoughts, feelings, & memories** Dreams and “Slips-Of-The-Tongue”
Regression: When faced w/ anxiety, retreat to an earlier psychosexual stage where some energy remains fixated
Reaction Formation: unconsciously switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites; express feelings opposite of anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVEDefense Mechanisms Cont’d
Projection: people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others ex: He doesn’t love me ~~ I don’t love him
Rationalization: offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions ex: well I had to check his text messages because…
Displacement: shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person; redirecting anger toward a safer outlet ex: yelling at your boyfriend when you are angry w/ your
parents
THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
1960s Unhappy w/ Freud and Skinner Freud’s focus was on “sick” people Humanistic: focus on how healthy people strive for
self-determination and self-realization Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVEAbraham Maslow’s Self-Actualizing Person
Heirarchy of Needs pyramid of human needs, beginning at the
base w/ physiological needs that must first be satisfied before moving up to psychological needs
Goal: Self-Actualization fulfilling one’s potential
THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVEMaslow studied healthy, creative people Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor
Roosevelt Self-aware, self-accepting, open and
spontaneous, loving and caring, not paralyzed by other’s opinions
Interests were problem-centered not self-centered
THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE EVALUATING THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
PROS Influenced counseling, education, child-rearing,
and management strategies Today’s popular psych:
“Positive Self-Concept is the key to happiness and success”
Hierarchy of Needs relates to Business
CONS Vague, subjective Assumptions are too optimistic Individualization can lead to self-indulgent, selfish
behaviors
THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVEELIZABETH KUBLER-ROSS: STAGES OF GRIEVING
DenialAngerBargainingDepressionAcceptance
THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE stable and enduring behavior patterns Traits: a characteristic pattern of behavior or
a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports
Gordon Allport (1920s)Less explaining; more describing
“Types” of personalities Myers-Briggs Type Indicator sorts people
according to Jung’s personality typesExtroverted/Introverted, Sensing/Intuition,
Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving
THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVEAssessing Traits
Personality Inventories: questionnaire (often t/f or agree/disagree) on which people respont to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; assesses selected personality traits
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): the most widely researched and clinically used personality test. Originally designed to identify emotional disorders.
The Big 5 Factors Conscientiousness
Organized/disorganized, careful/careless, disciplined/impulsive Agreeableness
Soft-hearted/ruthless, trusting/suspicious, helpful/uncooperative
Neuroticism (emotional stability v. unstability) Calm/anxious, secure/insecure, self-satisfied/self-pitying
Openness Imaginative/practical, variety/routine,
independent/conforming Extraversion
Sociable/retiring, fun-loving/sober, affectionate/reserved
THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE
THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE
How stable are these traits? Conscientiousness increases in 20s Agreeableness increases in 30s
How heritable are they? About 50% per dimension
How well do they apply to other cultures? Well supported for other cultures
Do the Big Five traits predict other personal attributes? Yes! Morning people (conscientious) v. night owls
(extraverted) Marital satisfaction decreases with low agreeableness,
stability, and openness
THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE
Evaluating The Trait Perspective The person-situation controversy
Effects of interaction w/ the environmentPersonality traits persist over time and situationsSpecific behaviors are less consistent
Consistency of Expressive StyleUnfamiliar/Formal situations—wait for social cuesFamiliar/Informal (friends)– more comfortableExpressiveness is relatively, consistent
Even modest outgoing people are more expressive than inhibited people at their peek
THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE Views behavior as influenced by interaction
between persons and their social context Albert Bandura Social: Learn behaviors through conditioning or by
observing others and modeling our behavior after theirs
Cognitive: What we think about our situations affects our behavior
Interaction: How we interpret and respond to external events.
THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVEReciprocal Influences
Reciprocal Determinism: the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors
*Different people choose different environments:friends, school, jobs– you choose the environment that shapes you
*Personalities shape how we interpret and react to eventsanxious– notice threatening events more
*Personalities help create situations to which we reacthow we view and treat people influences how they treat us
SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVEPersonal Control
Def: Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless
Internal Locus of Control: we control our own fate External Locus of Control: fate is determined for us
Learned Helplessness: the more traumatic events faced, the more helpless, hopeless, and depressed we become
EVALUATING THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
PROS More focus on cognition and learning Reminds us that the situation does impact
individuals
CONS Too much focus on situation and not traits Emotions?
EXPLORING THE SELF Self is Center of our personality
Includes Possible self & feared self Spotlight Effect: overestimating others’
noticing and evaluating our appearance, mistakes, and performance
EXPLORING THE SELFBenefits of Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem: one’s feelings of high or low self-worth
Lower self-esteem– more personal problems
Why?Success leads to higher self esteemself-esteem reflects realityGauges our relationships w/ others
EXPLORING THE SELFSelf Serving Bias
Def: A readiness to perceive oneself favorably
Accept more responsibility for good deeds and success than for bad deeds and failures
Most people see themselves as above average
Top Related