Personality Theories

5-7% of AP Exam

Definition of PersonalityThe organization of an individual’s distinguishing characteristics, traits or habits

Another way of saying it

Personality is the organization of enduring behavior patterns that often serve to distinguish us from one another

Definition of Personality

The individual’s unique ways of

thinking

feeling

behaving

experiencing the environment

Tasks of personality psychologist

Analyzing group and individual differences

Understanding individuals

Studying personality processes

Developing theories of personality structure

Why Have a

Personality Theory?Functions of theory

Functions of Personality Theory

To organize, describe and explain phenomenon

To guide research and empirically test hypothesis

To identify and apply principles that may be used in therapeutic settings (help people)

Assessment TechniquesBut before these, research techniques. . .

Research Approaches Field studies

Projective tests

Self-report inventories

Observers reports

Psychobiography

Laboratory studies

Individual Assessment-Basic tools

Observation

Interviews

Self-report personality tests

Peer ratings

Organization of testsObjective TestProjective Test

Objective tests

Objective Tests:

Standard written format

Select from provided choices

Also called self-report

Examples?

Problems with objective tests?

Projective Tests Projective Tests:

Free response format

Relatively unstructured stimuli which can be perceived in many ways

Theoretically, the individual “projects” personality onto task

Examples?

Problems with projective tests?

Objective Tests

Standard written format

Select from provided choices

Also called self-report

Examples?

Problems with objective tests?

Projective Tests

Free response format

Relatively unstructured stimuli which can be perceived in many ways

Theoretically, the individual “projects” personality onto task

Examples?

Problems with projective tests?

Research Issues in Personality

Nature vs. Nurture

Trait vs. Situation

Stability vs. Change

Nomothetic vs. Idiographic

Others?

Graphic organizers

Instructions for graphic organizers

Draw a graphic of your choosing (flower, fish, balloons, whatever)

Somewhere on your graphic, identify, define and list names associated with the 7 current perspectives in psychology (listed below)

behavioral, biological, cognitive, evolutionary, humanistic, psychodynamic, and trait

Predict what each perspective would say about how you got a “personality”

Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic approach

According to Sigmund Freud People are born with

psychic energy that is transformed and redirected during the normal course of social development

This creates conflict!

Sources of instinctual

energyLife Instinct or

Eros-self preservation

and/or preservation of

the life of species

Sources of instinctual

energyDeath instinct or Thanatos-Impels the

person toward aggression

and/or destruction

Levels of Consciousness

Conscious Events of which you are currently aware

Preconscious- events not immediately aware, but can retrieve at will (memory)

Unconscious- all thoughtsfeelings, wishes, memories about which we are largely unaware, but influence behavior

Freudian Slips

Personality Structure Id

Latin for “it’

Unconscious and without specific direction

Immediate gratification

Pleasure principle

Personality Structures Ego

Under the influence of external reality

Mediates between Id and SuperEgo

Reality principle

Delayed gratification

Personality Structure Superego

The moral system

Conscience

Not really operating in reality system

Incorporates the morals and values of parents and society

Seen something like this?

Anna Freud (Sigmund’s

daughter)

Defense Mechanisms

Defense Mechanisms- the ego’s method to resolve conflicts with the

Id and the Superego to guard against anxiety created by instinctual wishes

Just listen, you can get them from your textbook notes.

Common Defense Mechanisms Denial

Displacement

Identification

Projection

Rationalization

Reaction Formation

Regression

Repression

Sublimation

Psychosexual Stages of Development

According to Freud, a series of biologically determined stages of development driven from birth by sexual instinct

Different zones of the body become sources of pleasure during different stages of development

Maladaptive behavior in adults result from unresolved conflict that originate during these stages (childhood)

A strong conflict could “lock” or “fixate”

Psychosexual Stages of Development

Oral stage (0-18 months)

Anal stages (18-36 months)

Phallic stage (3-6 years)

Oedipus Complex

Electra Complex

Personality established by about age 5

Latency Stage (6 years –puberty)

Genital stage (puberty to adulthood)

A quick review of Freud

WOW!

Whether you believe it of not, these ideas have made their way into western culture

Examples?

Defense Mechanisms

Complete provided assignment to reinforce examples of defense mechanisms.

You may use your notes and/or textbook to be sure you recall the specifics of the named defense mechanisms.

Other Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic perspectives

Freud, Hall and Jung at Clark University (Freud’s only trip to US)

Carl Jung

Major Jungian Ideas Two separate unconscious regions

of the mind

Personal Unconscious

Collective Unconscious

Universal archetypes

Complexes

Concepts of introversion and extroversion

Jung speaks of death 4 mins

Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler Notable Concepts

Inferiority Complexes

Compensation/Overcompensation

Karen Horney

Horney broke with Freud over his gender bias

Childhood anxiety caused by a sense of helplessness triggers a desire for life and security

The parent child relationship is critical to successful development

Erik Erikson

Erikson modified and extended Freud’s stages of development

Life span approach

Referred to stages as psychosocial rather than psychosexual

Assessing the Unconscious

Rely on the Projective tests to reveal hidden conflicts and impulses

TAT or Rorschach

Techniques for treatment Goal of therapy is

to gain INSIGHT into the unconscious origins of disorders

Free association

Dream Interpretation

Resistance

Transference

Evaluation of the Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Perspective

Freud developed the most comprehensive and influential theory ever

Weaknesses?

Behavioral Models of Personality

Behavioral Models

Derived from learning theory

Summarizes a person’s unique pattern of learned behavior

Personality assumed to be predictable from history of reinforcement

Inconsistencies due to situational specificity

B. F. Skinner

Skinnerian Ideas

Personality is viewed in terms of observed behavior

Behaviors are under the control of contingencies of reinforcement

Behavior Therapy is an attempt to modify behavior through systematic alteration of undesired behavior

Albert Bandura

Bandura’s Social Learning Theory Personality is acquired, or learned,

behavior taking place in a social context

Key concepts:

Reciprocal determinism-overt behavior, cognition and the environment influence each other

Observational Learning- learning by watching and imitating others including vicarious reinforcement and punishment

Self Efficacy- a learned expectation of success, confidence in your ability to be successful

Walter Mischel

Mischel is a social learning advocate

People make responses that will lead to reinforcement in the situation at hand (situational specificity)

This view suggests people act different in different situations

This view says behavior is NOT consistent

Not all agree with this view

Evaluating the Behavioral Theory

Your turn

Evaluation of Behavioral Perspective

Too simplistic to account for complex human behavior

Too mechanical (no free will)

Laboratory studies based on lower animals (pigeons, rats, etc.)

Dispositional-Trait Models

Dispositions are the collective way an individual

usually thinks and behaves.

As opposed to Mischel, this view suggests:

each person has stable, long lasting traits

traits appear in diverse situations

each person has a unique set of traits

Hippocrates

Hippocrates suggests certain temperaments as per dominant body fluids

Black bile (ancient term that was thought to be secreted by the

liver or kidneys. It was dry and dark! Yuck!)

Yellow bile

Blood

Phlegm

William Sheldon

Sheldon’s body types

ectomorph

endomorph

mesomorph

Endomorph- comfort loving, even tempered

Mesomorph – aggressive, courageous and tend to dominate

Ectomorphs – introverted, poorly coordinated and intellectual

Which came first? Personality type or body type?

Gordon AllportPersonality consists of cardinal and central traits

Theory less concerned with explaining why and more concerned with describing how we differ

Raymond Cattell

Used factor analysis to identify 16 personality traits.The degree to which a person possesses each trait forms their unique personality profile

Hans Eysenck

Eysenck

Five Factor Theory Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (1985, 1992)

Lew Goldberg calls it the “Big Five” (1998)

Develop a new personality inventory called the NEO Personality Inventory to measure the Five Factors/ Traits. It’s NEW, but widely accepted:

Openness to experience (intellect/ imagination)

Conscientiousness (organized, thorough, plan)

Extraversion (talkative, energetic, assertive)

Agreeableness (sympathetic, kind, affectionate)

Neuroticism (emotional stability)

Mnemonic OCEAN

Assessing Personality

MMPI

Eysenck Personality Inventory

BFI-54

Evaluation of Dispostional/Trait Perspective

What do you think?

Humanistic/

Phenomenologic

al

Model

Humanistic Models

These models are an alternative to previous models that highlight negative aspects of social development

This model focuses on the positive!

Common components Humans are born with a positive

drive to grow and improve

People strive for self-determination and self actualization

Self-concept reflects our subjective perception of who we are

Inner-directedness is an internal force that leads people to grow and improve

Abraham Maslow(Harry Harlow’s grad student)

Maslow’s Hierarch of Needs

If basic needs are fulfilled, people will strive to actualize to their actual potential

Self Actualization is the final psychological need and cannot be attained until basic needs are met

Carl Rogers

Roger’s Person Centered Perspective

Self actualization is a central theme, referring to the human tendency to fulfill his/her human potential

Self concept is all thoughts and feelings about ourselves which answer the question of “Who Am I?”

The gap between self-concept and reality is called incongruence.

Incongruence

Rogers’ Client (Person) Centered (Non-Directive) Therapy

Genuineness

Unconditional Positive Regard

Empathy

Assessing the Self

Questionnaires, interviews and intimate conversations

Evaluation of the Humanistic Model

Unrealistically optimistic

Vague and subjective

Empirical research is difficult

Cognitive Model

Cognitive Model

Views individual personality in terms of tendencies to process, interpret and understand the environment

Julian Rotter

Rotter’s Expectancy Theory Learning creates cognitive

expectancies that guide behavior

Behavior is determined by what the person expects to happen and the value the person places on the outcome

Internal-External Locus of Control

“40 Studies” Reference

“Are You the Master of Your Fate?”

George Kelly

Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory

Personality is understood as the habitual way people make sense out of the world

People attempt to predict and control their environment by using an individual system of personal constructs (bipolar categories)

Fritz Heider

Heider’s Attribution Theory Suggests that people make inferences

about the causes of other’s behavior called attributes.

People tend to locate these causes either within the person or within the situation

Evaluation of Cognitive Perspective

Narrowness in scope

Humans are seen as unfeeling though thinking creatures

Behaviorists disagree with dependence of unobservable processes

Psychoanalytic theorists object to the neglect of childhood influences

Pyramid of People Complete multiple pyramids of the

notable individuals in the study of personality theory (as per College Board Acorn Book) Alfred Adler Albert Bandura Paul Costa and Robert McCrae Sigmund Freud Carl Jung Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers Julian Rotter

Other Activities

Activities Folder:

TV Character and Personality Theory

Bumper Stickers/ Personalized License Plates

Match Theory (Print copy)

Twitter Theory

Wordle