Personality and Psychological Disorders

Fall 2011

Personality

• Personality-relatively stable and enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions.

• Traits-relatively stable and consistent characteristics that can be used to describe someone.

Trait Theory

• Gordon Allport• Factor analysis• Raymond Cattell• Hans Eysenck

The Five-Factor Model: Five Basic Personality Traits

• Openness• Conscientiousness• Extroversion• Agreeableness• Neuroticism

Evaluating Trait Theories

• FFM achieved goal of trait theory-to describe and organize personality characteristics using the smallest number of traits.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Conscious

Preconscious

Unconscious

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

• Id- made up of innate, biological instincts and urges.

• Ego-responsible for planning, problem solving, reasoning, and controlling the potentially destructive energy of the id.

• Superego-a set of ethical rules for behavior.

Psychosexual Stages of Development

Freud vs. Erikson

Neo-Freudian Theories

• Alfred Adler-believed behavior is purposeful and goal-directed rather than motivated by unconscious forces.– Individual Psychology – we are motivated by our goals in

life—especially our goals of obtaining security and overcoming feelings of inferiority.

• Carl Jung-emphasized unconscious processes, but believed that the unconscious contains positive and spiritual motives as well as sexual and aggressive forces.– Two forms of unconscious: personal and collective

Neo-Freudian Theories

• Karen Horney- developed a creative blend of Freudian, Adlerian, and Jungian theory, with added concepts of her own.– Believed adult personality was shaped by the

child’s relationship to the parents—not by fixation at some stage of psychosexual development, as Freud argued.

Rogerian Theory

• Carl Rogers- coined the term self-concept (all the information and beliefs that individuals have about their own nature, qualities, and behavior).

• Unconditional Positive Regard- Roger’s term for positive behavior toward a person with no contingencies attached.

Maslow’s Theory

• Abraham Maslow believed that there is a basic goodness to human nature and a natural tendency toward self-actualization.

Bandura’s Theory of Reciprocal Determinism

• Self-efficacy- Bandura’s term for the learned belief that one is capable of producing desired results, such as mastering new skills and achieving personal goals.

• Reciprocal Determinism- cognitions, behaviors, and the environment interact to produce personality.

Rotter’s Theory of Locus of Control

• Julian Rotter suggests that learning experiences create cognitive expectancies that guide behavior and influence the environment.

• Considered locus of control in how people view their position in life.

Biopsychosocial Theory and Personality

Genetic FactorsNonshared Environmental FactorsShared Environmental FactorsUnknown Factors

Personality Tests

• Interviews and Observation• Objective Personality Tests- standardized

questionnaires that require written responses, usually to multiple choice or true-false questions.– Example: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

(MMPI)• Projective Tests- psychological tests that use ambiguous

stimuli, such as inkblots or drawings, which allow the test taker to project his or her unconscious thoughts onto the test material.– Example: Rorschach Inkblot Test

Accuracy of Personality Assessment

• Deliberate Deception• Diagnostic Difficulties• Cultural Bias or Inappropriate Use• Reliability/Validity

Psychological Disorders

• Abnormal Behavior-patterns of emotion, thought, and action that are considered pathological (diseased or disordered) for one or more of these reasons: statistical infrequency, disability or dysfunction, personal distress, or violation of norms.

Birth of Psychiatry

“Mentally Ill”

• Thomas Szasz- a critic of the medical model—believes it encourages people to have no responsibility for their actions.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR)

• The classification system developed by the American Psychiatric Association used to describe abnormal behaviors; the IV-TR indicates that it is the test revision (TR) of the fourth edition.

Multiaxial Assessment

Anxiety Disorders

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder• Panic Disorder• Phobias– Agoraphobia– Specific phobias– Social phobias

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)• Posttraumatic stress disorder• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cr7IomSy8s

Explaining Anxiety Disorders

• Psychological– Faulty Cognitions– Maladaptive Learning

• Biological Factors– Evolutionary predispositions– Genetic predispositions– Biochemical disturbances

• Sociocultural Factors– Cultural pressures

Mood Disorders

• Major Depressive Disorder- long-lasting depressed mood that interferes with the ability to function, feel pleasure, or maintain interest in life.– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeZCmqePLzM

• Bipolar Disorder-repeated episodes of mania (unreasonable elation and hyperactivity) and depression.– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl95tsiLvyM&f

eature=relmfu

Explaining Mood Disorders

• Structural brain changes• Imbalances of neurotransmitters serotonin,

norepinepherine, and dopamine• Heredity

– If one identical twin develops derpession, it is 50% likely that the other twin will develop it

• Adaptive – Helps us step back and reassess our goals

• Learned Helplessness– Helpless to escape something painful– Internal, stable, and global reasons

Schizophrenia

• A group of psychotic disorders involving major disturbances in perception, language, thought, emotion, and behavior. The individual withdraws from people and reality, often into a fantasy life of delusions and hallucinations.

• Prevalence = 1/100 people• Emerges between late teens and mid-30s

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

• Perceptual symptoms– Hallucinations-imaginary sensory perceptions that occur without

external stimulus– Most common = auditory

• Language and thought disturbances– Loss of logic, linear thinking– Delusions-mistaken beliefs based on misrepresentations of reality

• Grandeur, persecution, reference

• Emotional disturbances• Behavioral disturbances

– cataleptic

Schizophrenia

• http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2011/01/16/sotu.01.16.frese.earley.cnn#/video/politics/2011/01/16/sotu.01.16.frese.earley.cnn

• http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/girl-suffers-paranoid-schizophrenia-10057077

Types of Schizophrenia

Nature and Nurture Theories

The Soloist

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=907pVLbXdHg

Substance Disorders

• Substance-related disorders– Abuse-interferes with social or occupational

functioning– Dependence-also causes physical reactions

including tolerance and/or withdrawal.– These disorders are highly comorbid with anxiety,

mood, personality disorders and schizophrenia.• Self-medication

Dissociative Disorders

• Amnesia, fugue, or multiple personalities resulting from avoidance of painful memories or situations.

• Primary cause seems to be environmental, not genetics.

• Dissociative identity disorder (DID)– Unique memories, behaviors, and social relationships.– More common in women– Avergaing 15+ identities

Personality Disorders

• Inflexible, maladaptive personality traits that cause significant impairment of social and occupational functioning.– Antisocial• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfHo-HJObU8

– Borderline• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdPuSnP8YY8&feat

ure=related

Multiple Personality Disorder/DID

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4i9Ya10Kqg&feature=related

How Gender and Culture Affect Abnormal Behavior

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI-6Va_T7bw