2011 ch 10

Chapter 10: Personality

What is Personality?
A general pattern of your behavior, including traits (which characterize you), and modes of adjustment.
Traits
Any psychological characteristic you have.
Behavior patterns that are consistent & characteristic & descriptive of you.
Your unique pattern of thoughts, feelings, & behavior that continues over time & across situations.
Included are: perceptual dispositions, consistencies in reactions, values, abilities, motives, defenses, temperament, identity, personal style, thoughts, feelings, & environmental relationships.
Individual Differences
A core concept in psychology

Psychology of Personality
Character
Personal characteristics that have been judged or evaluated
Personality
A person’s unique and relatively stable behavior patterns
the consistency of who you are, have been, and will become

The “Big Five”
The Five Factor Model
Paul Costa, Jr. & Robert McCrae
Organizes personality traits into opposing factors and describes differences in personality using five categories. These traits have been see in cultures as widely divergent as American, German, Portuguese, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
Factor Description of Traits

Extraversion vs. Sociable vs. Withdrawn
Introversion Fun-loving vs. Sober
Friendly vs. Aloof
Adventurous vs. Cautious
Neuroticism vs. Anxious vs. Relaxed
Stability Insecure vs. Secure
Emotional vs. Calm
Self-pitying vs. Content
Openness vs. Closed Original vs. Conventional
To Experience Imaginative vs. Down-to-Earth
Broad vs. Narrow Interests
Open vs. Closed to New Ideas
Agreeableness vs. Good-natured vs. Irritable
Antagonism Soft-hearted vs. Ruthless
Courteous vs. Rude
Sympathetic vs. Tough-minded
Conscientiousness vs . Well-organized vs. Disorderly
Undirectedness Dependable vs. Undependable
Hardworking vs. Lazy
Ambitious vs. Easygoing

Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychodynamic theories
Study personality to learn what drives, conflicts, and energies motivate us.
Believe that actions based on unconscious thoughts, needs, and emotions
Both psychodynamic theories and trait theorists believe human personality is based on biological predispositions

Theories of Personality
Psychoanalytic Theory of Freud
Basic Concepts:
Psychic Determinism & the Unconscious
The Structure of the Mind
The Conscious, the Preconscious, and the Unconscious
The Structure of Personality
The Id, Ego, & Superego

Psychoanalytic Theory: Dynamics of Personality
Levels of Awareness
Unconscious
Holds repressed memories and emotions and the id’s instinctual drives
Conscious
Everything you are aware of at a given moment
Preconscious
Material that can easily be brought into awareness

Psychoanalytic Theory: Structure of Personality
Id
Provides energy for the entire psyche
Libido
Comes from Life Instincts (Eros)
Underlies efforts to survive, sexual desires, pleasure seeking
Thanatos
Comes from death instincts
Produces aggressive and destructive urges

Ego
Executive
directs energies supplied by id
Partially conscious and partially unconscious
Works on Reality Principle
Delays action until it is practical and/or appropriate
System of thinking, planning, problem solving, and deciding

Superego
Judge or censor for thoughts and actions of the ego
Acts as “internalized parent”
Two parts
Conscience:
Reflects actions for which a person has been punished; source of guilt
Ego Ideal:
Reflects behavior one’s parents approved of or rewarded; source of pride

Id Ego Superego Id Ego Superego

How Personality Develops
Stage Description
Oral Stage Child lives & loves through its mouth. Taking
Birth – 2 yrs. through the mouth is behavioral model for
aquisitiveness. Holding on is behavioral model for refusal & pessimism. Fixation can lead to excessive smoking.
Anal Stage Toilet training is important at this time. The
2 – 3 yrs. manner in which the child is toilet trained is the model for generosity. Child learns to “give” (feces) in order to receive something (approval). Anal Retentive & Anal Expulsive fixations.
Phallic Stage Male child wishes to control mother & get rid
3 – 6 yrs. of father (rival). Discovers he has a “special organ.” Assumes all females were castrated. Oedipus complex in males, Electra complex in females. Identifies with the opposite-sex parent to control same-sex parent. Fixation leads to homosexuality.
Stage Description
Latency Repression of sexual feelings. Little interest is
Stage expressed in the opposite sex. Prefers the
6 -12 yrs. Company of the same sex. Fixation can lead to celibacy.
Hetero- The repressed feelings for the opposite sex
sexual or emerge with the natural flow of the hormones.
Genital The person seeks a mate of the opposite sex
Stage with which to live.
12+ yrs.

Cognitive Social-Learning View
Reciprocal Determinism & Expectancies
Albert Bandura
Reciprocal Determinism – cognitions, behaviors, & environmental factors influence each other.
Outcome Expectancies – Personal predictions about the outcomes of your behavior.

Learning Theories of Personality
Behavioral Personality Theory:
Model of personality that emphasizes learning and observable behavior
Acquired through conditioning principles
Learning Theorists:
Believe that learning shapes our behavior and explains personality
Personality comprises learned responses
Emphasize Situational Determinants:
External conditions that influence behaviors

Learning Theories: How Situations Affect Behavior
Behavior is the product of both prior learning and situations
Personality predicts we will respond fairly consistently to certain types of situations

Learning Theories: Behavioristic View of Development
Like Freud, Miller and Dollard agreed first six years were critical
Time of urgent drives, rewards, punishments, frustrations, and social reinforcement

Learning Theories: Personality and Gender
At birth, children are labeled boy or girl, and encouraged to learn sex-appropriate behavior
Identification
Child’s emotional connection to admired adults
Especially to those providing love and care
Imitation
Desire to act like an admired person with whom one identifies

Cognitive Social-Learning View
Locus of Control
Julian Rotter
Expectancies – personal predictions about the outcomes of behavior. Expectancies produce effects on behavior.
Subjective Value – the importance you place on desired outcomes.
Locus of Control – whether your efforts can bring about desired outcomes. Locus of control determines if you feel your decisions, behaviors, etc. are controlled inside or outside of yourself.
Self-efficacy – expecting that your efforts will be successful.

Humanistic Theories of Personality
Approach that focuses on human experience, problems, potentials, and ideals
Reaction to
Rigidity of traits
Pessimism of psychoanalytic theory; rejection of the battleground for instincts and unconscious forces
Mechanical nature of learning theory

Humanistic Personality Theory
Carl Rogers
Saw humans as innately good with positive strivings toward self-fulfillment.
The emphasis is on free-will, self-awareness, & self-growth.
We all have an innate urge to self-actualize .
This urge shapes our development.
We have the potential to become a fully-functioning person.
Unconditional Positive Regard

Important Concepts
Phenomenal field
Your total experience
Self
The portion of your personality consisting of the perceptions of “I” or “me.”
Phenomenal self
Your self-image
Ideal self
The kind of person you’d like to be.
True self
Who you are with your “ego” stripped away & you’re free to be yourself.
Unconditional Positive Regard
Complete & total acceptance of another

Assessing Personality

2011 ch 10

by Alex Holub on Aug 15, 2011

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2011 ch 10 — Presentation Transcript