Personality

Our characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and acting

Chapter ObjectivesAfter completing this chapter, you should be able to:

Describe Freud’s view of personality structure in terms of the id, ego, and superego.

Identify Freud’s psychosexual stages of development, and describe the effects of fixation on behavior.

Discuss how defense mechanisms serve to protect the individual from anxiety.

Describe the humanistic perspective on personality in terms of Maslow’s focus on self-actualization and Rogers’ emphasis on people’s potential for growth.

Identify the Big Five trait dimensions. Describe the social-cognitive perspective. Discuss some evidence for self-serving bias.

Overview

Psychoanalytic theory Humanistic perspective Trait perspective Social-cognitive perspective The self

The Psychoanalytic Perspective

“Nothing is ever accidental”

Unconscious

Free association

Personality Structure

Personality Development

Defense Mechanisms

Repression

Regression

Reaction formation

Projection

Rationalization

Displacement

Sublimation

Neo-Freudians

Supported

New concepts

Assessing Unconscious Processes

Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective

Theory rests on only a few objective observations & has produced few hypotheses to accept or reject

Supporters Today

Review

Freud believed that we block unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories from our consciousness. He called this process of blocking

a. free association b. repression

c. anxiety d. reaction formation

Freud called the conscience, or the part of the personality that internalizes ideals,

a. the ego. b. the superego.

c. the reality principle. d. repression.

The Humanistic Perspective

More positive view

Focus on the ways “healthy” people strive for self-determinism & self-realization

From self-reports

Self-Actualization (Maslow)

Person-Centered Perspective (Rogers)

We are primed to reach our potential if we are given a growth promoting environment Genuine Accepting

Unconditional positive regard Empathetic

Self concept

Review

Rogers believed that we can help people reach their full potential by providing an environment of total acceptance, which he called

a. self-esteem.

b. unconditional positive regard.

c. self actualization.

d. the “ideal self.”

The Trait Perspective

Personality Trait Trait factors

OCEAN

The Social-Cognitive Perspective

Do the personality traits we express change from one situation to another?

Behavior

The person

The situation

The interaction Reciprocal determinism

Review

Trait theory often describes personality in terms of clusters of characteristic behaviors, or traits that tend to occur together. These clusters are called:

a. lobe areas b. axes

c. factors d. dimensions

Social-cognitive theory concerns how people’s traits and thoughts affect, and are affected by, their

a. genes b. behaviors

c. emotions d. situations

The Self

Self image

Possible selves

Spotlight effect

Self esteem

Self Serving Bias

Self handicapping

Self efficacy

Culture & The Self

Review

People tend to accept responsibility for their successes and to blame circumstances or bad luck for their failures. This is an example of

a. defensive self-esteem.

b. secure self-esteem.

c. self-serving bias.

d. possible selves.