UNIT 13 - PERSONALITY 1.21.13.pptx

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UNIT 13: PERSONALITY

Personality

• _{Personality – an individual’s}

characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

– Gets expressed in one’s traits and cultural situation

– Makes us unique

• _{Theories of Personality}

– _{Freud’s psychoanalytic theory}

• Childhood sexuality & unconscious motives

– Humanistic approach

• Inner capacity for growth and self-fulfillment

Psychoanalytic Perspective

• _{Sigmund Freud}

– Most notable psychologist – Studied at the University of

Vienna in 1873

– After school he set up a practice specializing in nervous disorders

– First used hypnosis and then

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• _{Free Association – in}

psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

• _{Psychoanalysis – Freud’s}

theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and

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• _{Freud believed that the mind}

is mostly hidden

• _{Unconscious – according to}

Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts,

wishes, feelings, and

memories. According to

contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware

• _{Preconscious area –}

temporary storage for

thoughts from which we can retrieve them into

conscious awareness

• _{Freud believed we}_repress

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• _{Freud viewed jokes and slips}

of the tongue as

expressions of repressed sexual and aggressive

tendencies, and dreams as the “royal road to the

unconscious”. – “Freudian slip”

– Freud searched for patients’ inner conflicts

Psychoanalytic Perspective • _{Freud saw personality as the}

result of our efforts to resolve the basic conflict between the id, ego, and superego.

• _{Id – contains a reservoir of}

unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and

aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure

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• _{Ego – the largely conscious,}

“executive” part of

personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id,

superego, and reality. – Operates on the reality

principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain

• _{Superego – the part of}

personality that, according to Freud, represents

internalized ideals and provides standards for

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• _{“Id dominant”}

– _{Ex – often uses alcohol,} tobacco, and other drugs

seeking immediate gratification without acknowledging future consequences

• _{“Ego dominant}

– _{Ex – seeks to gratify id’s}

impulses in ways that will bring long-term pleasure

– _{The “middle road”}

• _{“Superego dominant”}

– Ex – our “moral compass” or conscience

– Focus is on “how we ought to behave”

– Strives for perfection

• _{Positive feelings of pride} • _{Negative feelings of guilt}

– _{Opposite would be:}

• Self-indulgent

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• _{Picture the personality like}

an iceberg

– _{Id is completely below surface} – _{Ego and Superego are both}

above and below the surface – _{Only a small part of the whole}

personality is above the surface; most lies beneath

• _{The ego plays mediator}

between the id and superego

Personality Development

• _{Psychosexual Stages – the}

childhood stages of

development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

– _{Freud believed the}

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• _{Oedipus complex –}

according to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of

jealousy and hatred for the rival father

– In females, called Electra complex

– Happens during the phallic stages, ages 3-6 years

• _{Identification – the process}

by which, according to

Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos

– _{Gender Identity – our sense} of being male or female

• _{Forms through our early}

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• _{Fixation – according to}

Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

– Proposed that those who smoked or ate excessively as adults may be “stuck” in the oral stage of psychosexual development

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages • _{Oral (0-18 months)}

– Pleasure centers on mouth – sucking, biting, chewing

• Anal (18-36 months)

– Focus on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

• Phallic (3-6 years)

– Pleasure zone is genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings

• _{Latency (6-puberty)}

– Dormant sexual feelings

• Genital (puberty on)

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Defense Mechanisms

• _{Defense Mechanisms – in}

psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by

unconsciously distorting reality

– Freud proposed this is how the ego protects itself

– There are 7 defense

mechanisms that we will address

1. Repression – basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness

2. Regression – defense mechanism in which an

individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile

psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

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3. Reaction Formation – when the ego unconsciously

switches unacceptable

impulses into their opposites. May cause people to express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing

unconscious feelings

- Feelings of inadequacy become bravado; not-good-enough becomes I’m too good!

4. Projection – when people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

“He doesn’t trust me” may mean “I don’t trust him”

5. Rationalization – offers

self-justifying explanations in place of real, more threatening,

unconscious reasons for one’s actions.

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6. Displacement – shifts sexual or aggressive

impulses toward a more acceptable or less

threatening object or

person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet

-children who fear expressing anger toward parent may take it out on the family pet

7. Denial – when people

refuse to believe or even to perceive painful realities -dying patients may deny the

seriousness of their illness -parents may deny their child

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Neo-Freudians & Psychodynamic Theorists

• _{Accepted Freud’s basic}

ideas:

– Personality structures of the id, ego, and superego

– Importance of the unconscious

– Shaping of personality during childhood

– Dynamics of anxiety and the defense mechanisms

• _{Veered away from Freud by:}

– Placed more emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in

interpreting experience and coping with environment – Doubted that sex and

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• _{Alfred Adler & Karen Horney}

(HORN-eye)

– _{Focused on childhood social} (not sexual) tensions

– _{Adler’s inferiority complex} explained our strivings for superiority and power

– _{Horney felt childhood anxiety,} triggered by dependent child’s sense of helplessness, triggers desire for love and security

• _{Freud assumed:}

– _{Women have weak superegos} and suffer “penis-envy”

• _{Horney countered:}

– _{“The view that women are} infantile and emotional creatures, and as such,

incapable of responsibility and independence is the work of the masculine tendency to lower women’s self-respect.”

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• _{Carl Jung – Freud’s}

disciple-turned-dissenter

– Placed less emphasis on social factors

– Unconscious still has powerful influence

– Coined the term “collective unconscious”

– Today’s psychologists

discount the idea of inherited experiences

• _{Contemporary psychologists}

agree with Freud that:

– Much of our mental life is unconscious

– We often struggle with inner conflicts among wishes, fears, and values

• _{They disagree with Freud on:}

– The specifics of the id, ego, and superego

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• _{Collective Unconscious –}

Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history

Assessing Unconscious Processes

• _{Projective test – a}

personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that

provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger

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• _{Thematic Apperception Test}

(TAT) – a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

• _{Rorschach inkblot test – the}

most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots,

designed by Hermann Rorschach

– _{Seeks to identify people’s} inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

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Evaluating Psychoanalytic Perspective

• _{Criticizing Freud by today’s}

psychology standards is like criticizing Henry Ford’s

Model T by today’s automobile standards

– _{All things develop over time} – _{Recent research does}

contradict many of Freud’s specific ideas

Evaluating Psychoanalytic Perspective

• _{Freud, by today’s standards:}

– See development as lifelong, not fixed in childhood

– Overestimated parental

influence and underestimated peer influence

– Doubt the Oedipus complex – Overestimated connection to

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Evaluating Psychoanalytic Perspective • _Repression

– _{Was the entire basis for Freud’s} psychoanalytic theory

– _{By today’s standards, IF it ever} occurs, repression is a rare mental response to terrible trauma

– _{Elizabeth Loftus}

• Even those who witness a parent’s murder or survived Nazi death camps retain

unrepressed memories of their horror.

Evaluating Psychoanalytic Perspective – _{Today’s standards seriously}

question whether repression ever existed or exists

– _{Opposite of repression may} be true: in extreme

circumstances, high stress and hormones associated with it appears to enhance memory

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Modern Unconscious Mind

• _{Research reveals that}

unconscious implicit learning is a reality

• _{According to contemporary}

psychologists, the unconscious involves:

– _{Schemas (controlling} perceptions and

interpretations)

– _{Priming by stimuli (not} consciously attended)

Modern Unconscious Mind – Right hemisphere activity (in

split brained person)

– Parallel processing (vision and thinking)

– Implicit memories (without conscious recall)

– Emotions that activate

instantly (w/o conscious recall) – Self-concept and stereotypes

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• _{What Freud called}

projection, today is called the false consensus effect: our tendency to

overestimate the extent to which others share our

beliefs and behaviors

• _{Terror-management theory}

– a theory of death-related anxiety; explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death

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Freud’s Ideas as Scientific Theory

• _{Serious problems with}

Freud’s theory as scientific: – _{Offers after-the-fact}

explanations of any characteristic

– _{Fails to predict behaviors and} traits

– _{A good theory makes testable} predictions

*All things considered, popular culture still has a place for Freud

Humanistic Perspective

• _{Humanistic psychologists:}

– Focused on ways “healthy” people strive for

determination and self-realization

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• _{Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)} • _{Self-actualization – according to}

Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and

psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the

motivation to fulfill one’s potential

• _Maslow

– We are motivated by a

hierarchy of needs – Self-transcendence –

meaning, purpose, and

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• _{Maslow recognized people}

like Abraham Lincoln,

Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt as being

self-actualized, having several things in common:

– Self-aware – Self-accepting

– Open and spontaneous – Loving and caring

Humanistic Perspective – _{Not paralyzed by others’}

opinions

– _{Interests were} problem-centered, not self-centered – Had a mission in life

– Had a few deep relationships – Moved by spiritual or

personal peak experiences – Compassionate

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• _{Carl Rogers (1902-1987)}

– Believed that people are basically good and are

endowed with self-actualizing tendencies

– Believed a

“growth-promoting climate” required 3 conditions:

• _{Genuineness – being open}

with own feelings, dropping facades, being transparent and self-disclosing

Humanistic Perspective • _{Acceptance – offering}

unconditional positive

regard –an attitude of total acceptance of another

person

• Empathy – sharing and mirroring our feelings and reflecting our meanings.

• _{Self-Concept – all our}

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Assessing the Self

• _{According to Carl Rogers:}

– When actual self and ideal self are closest to one

another, those people tend to be the happiest

– Humanistic psychologists find standardized assessments depersonalizing; they would rather have intimate

conversations

Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective

• _{9 in 10 people rated}

self-esteem as very important for “motivating a person to work hard and succeed.”

– _{1992 Newsweek Gallup Poll} – _{Evidence of humanistic}

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Criticisms of Humanistic Perspective

• _{Concepts are vague and}

subjective

• _{Individualism it encourages}

may lead to self-indulgence, selfishness, and an erosion of moral restraints

• _{It is naïve, and fails to}

appreciate the reality of our human capacity for evil

Criticisms of Humanistic Perspective

• _{“Humanistic psychology, say}

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Trait Perspective

• _{Trait – a characteristic pattern}

of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.

• _{Gordon Allport (1919) – upon}

interviewing Freud, Allport said we would do well to give full recognition to manifest motives before probing the unconscious

• _Allport

– Defined personality in terms of identifiable behavior patterns

• _{Myers-Briggs Type Indicator}

(MBTI) – sorts personality types based on responses to questions; used mostly for counseling, leadership

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• _{MBTI – remains mostly a}

counseling and coaching tool, NOT a research

instrument

• _{Factor Analysis – identifies}

clusters of test items that tap basic components of a specific trait (Ex:

intelligence)

• _{Hans & Sybil Eysenck:}

– _{Developed two personality} dimensions to which we may reduce normal individual variations

• Extraversion – Introversion • _{Emotional Stability –}

Instability

– _{Eysenck believed these traits} were genetically influenced – _{Developed the Eysenck}

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Biology & Personality

• _{Extraverts seek stimulation}

because their normal brain arousal is relatively low

• _{Dopamine and}

dopamine-related neural activity tend to be higher in extraverts

• _{Our genes greatly influence}

our temperament and behavior style

Biology & Personality

• _{Jerome Kagan}

– _{Attributed children’s shyness} and inhibition to their

autonomic nervous system reactivity

• A highly reactive ANS leads to greater anxiety and inhibition

• _{Samuel Gosling}

– _{Found that dogs have}

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Assessing Traits

• _{Personality Inventory – a}

questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people

respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of

feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected

personality traits

• _{Minnesota Multiphasic}

Personality Inventory (MMPI) – the most widely researched and clinically used of all

personality tests. Originally developed to identify

emotional disorders (still considered its most

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• _{Empirically derived test – a}

test (such as the MMPI)

developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate

between groups

– depressive tendencies – masculinity-femininity – introversion-extraversion

• _{Personality inventories are}

scored objectively, and can be scored by a computer

– Certain questions may indicate a lie scale that

assesses faking: when people respond “false” to a

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The Big Five Personality Factors

• _{Big Five is more widely}

respected than Eysenck’s dimensions today

• _CANOE

– _{Conscientiousness} – _{Agreeableness} – _Neuroticism – _Openness – _Extraversion

The Big Five Personality Factors

• _{Thinking Critically –}

Astrologers and Palm Readers

– _{Barnum effect – stock, positive} descriptions that would likely describe anyone

• Commonly used by

astrologers and palm readers • Sometimes are able to read

our clothing, physical features, nonverbal gestures, and

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Evaluating Trait Perspective

• _{Person-Situation}

Controversy

– Our behavior is influenced by the interaction of our inner disposition with our

environment

• _{As people grow older, their}

personality stabilizes – _{Interests, careers,}

relationships all change

• _{Personality Traits rival}

socioeconomic status and

cognitive ability as predictors of: – Mortality

– Divorce

– Occupational Attainment

• _{Walter Mischel}

– The consistency of our behaviors from one situation to the next varies

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• _{Inconsistency in behaviors}

makes personality test scores weak predictors of behavior

• _{Average behavior over}

many situations is predictable

• _{It’s hard to be someone}

you’re not – your enduring traits seem to shine through

• _{At any moment, the}

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Social-Cognitive Perspective

• _{Social-Cognitive Perspective}

– views behavior as influenced by the interaction between

people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context or situation.

– Proposed by Albert Bandura – Describes how we and our

environment interact

Reciprocal Influences

• _{Reciprocal Determinism – the}

interacting influences of

behavior, internal cognition, and environment

– _{All of these operates as}

interlocking determinants of each other

– _{At every moment our behavior} is influenced by our biology, our social and cultural

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Personal Control

• _{Personal Control – the}

extent to which people

perceive control over their environment rather than feeling helpless

• _{External locus of control}

– The perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate

• _{Internal locus of control}

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• _Internals:

– Achieve more in school/work – Act more independently

– Enjoy better health – Feel less depressed – Delay gratification

– Cope better with stress – Handle marital problems

better

• _{Learned helplessness – the}

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• _{Shock we feel in an}

unfamiliar culture comes from a diminished sense of control

• _{Measures that increase}

control noticeably improve health and morale

– In prisons and in workplaces

• _{Those who work from home}

feel more isolation

• _{When nursing home}

patients were encourage to exert more control over

their environment, they became more alert, active, and happy.

• _{Teens and adults feel a}

sense of control using

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• _{Too Much Freedom???}

– An excess of freedom to choose leads to:

• _{Decreasing life satisfaction} • _{Increased depression}

• Sometimes paralysis

– Tyranny of choice

• _{A feeling of information}

overload when faced with too many choices; we feel regret over some of the unchosen options

Optimism vs Pessimism

• Positive Psychology

– _{Martin Seligman – APA President,} 2002

– _{Seeks to advance human fulfillment} with a scientific methodology

• _{Positive Psychology – the}

scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to

discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable

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• _{Three Pillars of Positive}

Psychology:

– Positive emotions – Positive character

– Positive groups, communities, and cultures

• _{For too long psychology has}

focused on the negative parts of human psychology

• Realistic positive expectations fuel motivation and success

• _{A depressed hopelessness}

dampens the body’s disease-fighting immune system

• _{Realistic anxiety over possible}

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• _{Asian-American students}

express somewhat greater pessimism going into tests, and they show impressive academic achievements

• _{“We should have enough}

optimism to provide hope and enough pessimism to prevent complacency”

• _{Excessive Optimism}

– can blind us to real risks – Teens usually feel less

vulnerable than their peers at contracting HIV/AIDS.

– College students feel less

vulnerable than their peers at developing drinking problems, dropping out, or having a heart attack by age 40.

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Blindness to Own Incompetence

• _{People are often are most}

overconfident when incompetent

• _{“Ignorance of one’s own}

incompetence” makes us unaware of how much we really don’t know

– _{Sometimes this serves us} positively by helping to

sustain our confidence in our own abilities

Assessing Behavior in Situations

• _{Seeing how a potential}

employee behaves in a job-relevant situation helps predict job performance

– _{Simulated work during an} interview process

• _{“The best predictor of future}

job performance is past job performance”

– _{Same with grades,}

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Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective

• _{Critics say the}

social-cognitive perspective focuses so much on the situation that it fails to appreciate the person’s inner traits.

Exploring the Self

• _{Self – in contemporary}

psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

• _{Possible Selves:}

– Rich self, loved/admired self, successful self

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• U of Michigan medical students did better in school after a

program that helped them establish a clear vision of

themselves as successful doctors.

• _{Spotlight effect – overestimating}

others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)

• _{Fewer people notice our}

appearance, etc., than we presume

• _{Self-esteem – one’s feelings}

of high or low self-worth – “Today’s self-esteem predicts

tomorrows achievements.” – Academic self-concept – does

predict school achievement

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• _{Effects of low self-esteem}

– _{Disparaging to others}

– _{Heightened racial prejudice} – _{Thin-skinned and judgmental} – _{Excessively critical of others}

• _{“Accept yourself and you’ll}

find it easier to accept others.”

• _{“People who are down on}

themselves tend to be down on other things and people around them.”

Self-Serving Bias

• _{Self-serving bias – a}

readiness to perceive oneself favorably

• _{Most of us generally feel}

good about ourselves: – People accept more

responsibility for good deeds than for bad, and for

successes than for failures – Most people see themselves

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• _{“Pride does often go before}

the fall.”

– _{Self-serving perceptions} underlie conflicts

• _{Aryan pride fueled Nazi} atrocities

• _{In children:}

– _{Most aggressive children have} high self-regard that gets

punctured by other kids’ dislike (making them potentially

dangerous)

• _{After criticism, those with}

unrealistically high self-esteem become

exceptionally aggressive

• _{“Generation Me”}

– Expresses more narcissism – Correlates with materialism

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• _{Why do people voice}

self-directed put downs:

1. Subtle strategy – to elicit reassuring comments/actions 2. To prepare us for possible

failure – if we recognize an opponent is superior, we have an excuse ready

3. People are more critical of their distant past selves: chumps yesterday, champs today

• Defensive self-esteem – focuses on sustaining itself, and is

fragile

– _{Correlates with aggressive and}

antisocial behavior

• _{Secure self-esteem – to feel}

accepted for who we are, not based on external evaluations

– Less fragile