Personality.pptx

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Personality

Unit Themes:

Some of our behavior patterns are consistent over time

• _{While some are learned, some are definitely innate}

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Personality Unit Outline

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What is personality?

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Major theories and approaches

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Trait, Psychoanalytic, Behavioral, Social

Learning, Humanistic

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Personality Assessment

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General Issues

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Interviews, Personality Questionnaires,

Projective Tests, Direct

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Look a person next to you and take a moment to think about his/her “personality.”

How would you describe that person’s personality to someone else?

What elements are in your description?

• _Personality_{refers to who we are}

• The unique blending of our attitudes, behaviors, and emotions

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Personality Unit Outline

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General Issues

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• _{Most dominant approach today}

• _{Says we all have stable qualities, or}_{personality traits}_,

that we demonstrate in most situations

• _{Describes a person in general terms}

• _{Kind of what we saw when I asked you to}

describe your neighbor’s personality

• _{Furthermore, helps predict how a person acts in}

certain situations

• _{A notable amount of our personality traits are}

inherited

• _{Current thinking is between 25% and 50%}

• _{Trait theorists attempt to learn what traits make up}

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Gordon Allport (1961) postulated there are different kinds of traits

Cardinal Traits

• _{So basic that all of a person’s activities can be traced to it}

• _{Not many people have these}

• _{Mother Theresa -> compassion}

• _{Abraham Lincoln -> honesty}

Central Traits

• _{Basic building blocks of personality}

• _{Most people’s personality can be pretty much completely} described in an average of 7 terms – these are that person’s central traits

Secondary Traits

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The Five-Factor Model (aka “The Big Five”)

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Personality Unit Outline

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General Issues

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Sigmund Freud

• _{Remember earlier this year we}

talked about Sigmund Freud’s “Psychosocial Stage Theory of

Personality Development?” What are the stages?

• _{Oral (Birth – 1 year)}

• _{Anal (1 – 3 years)}

• _{Phallic (3 – 5 years)}

• _{Latent (5 – puberty)}

• _{Genital (From puberty on)}

• _{Do you also remember Freud's}

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Not only did Freud say that the human mind has three levels, he also

theorized that one’s

personality is shaped by all of this

Actually, he said the three distinct parts of one’s personality is shaped by all of this

• _the_id • _the_ego

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The Id

• _{Present from birth}

• _{According to Freud, the source of all}

psychic energy, which makes it the primary component of personality

• _{Driven by the pleasure principle –}

immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs

• _{Includes instinctive and primitive behaviors}

• _{Is entirely in the unconscious}

• _{Very important early in life, because it} ensures an infant’s needs are met

• _{You are sitting next to a straight A student} who has the same test form as you. Your id tells you to…

• _{Copy from him/her}

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• _{Deals with reality}

• _{Develops from the id and ensures that the}

impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world

• _{Functions in the conscious, preconscious,}

and unconscious mind

• _{Based on}_{reality principle}_{– satisfying the}

id’s desires only in realistic and socially acceptable ways

• _{Takes into account costs and benefits of}

action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses

• _{Balances id by promoting delayed}

gratification

• _{You are sitting next to a straight A student}

who has the same test form as you. Your ego tells you to…

• _{Not copy because you could get in}

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The Superego

• _{Begins developing around age 5 – last component}

to do so

• _{Present mostly in the preconscious}

• _{Holds the moral standards and ideals we learn from}

parents and society – our sense of right and wrong

• _{Two parts}

• _{Ego ideal}_{– rules and standards for good}

behaviors

• _Conscience_{– information about things that are}

viewed as bad by parents and society

• _{Acts to perfect and civilize our behavior}

• _{Suppresses all unacceptable urges of the id and}

struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather than realistic principles

• _{You are sitting next to a straight A student who has}

the same test form as you. Your ego tells you to…

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Interaction of the Id, Ego, and Superego

Freud said the id, ego, and superego are always in

conflict Role Play

• _{Three volunteers,}

one be the id, another the ego,

another the superego

• _{Improvise a dialogue}

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According to Freud, the key to a healthy personality

is a balance between the id, the ego, and the

superego

However for many there is an imbalance

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Superego-dominant people can be hamstrung

by extreme anxiety. What would Freud’s

reasoning be?

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Ego-dominant people are cool and calculating.

What would Freud’s reasoning be?

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Those who are id-dominant are very impulsive.

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Representations of the Id

As discussed earlier, Freud theorized that the id is present from birth. Why?

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The Id of

Cookie

Monster

Cookie Monster: A Sweet, Sensual Id, Unfiltered

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Some theorists accepted Freud’s theories in general but they revised parts of it – called neo-Freudians

Karen Horney (1885-1952)

• _{Challenged the male bias in}

Freud’s thinking

• _{“Anatomy is not destiny”}

• _{Also disagreed that “neurotic”}

people struggle with forbidden id drives

• _{Basic anxiety}_{caused when}

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Some neo-Freudians eventually split with Freudian ideas

Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

• _{Disagreed with Freud’s emphasis on}

unconscious, biological drives, and on the importance of sexuality

• _{Main driving force in personality}

resides in the ego, specifically striving for superiority because of social

drives

• _{Want to overcome imperfection –}

we develop an inferiority complex

• _{When we can’t overcome some}

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Another famous neo-Freudian that split from Freud was Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Proposed the unconscious is made of two parts

• _Jung’s_{personal unconscious}_similar to Freud’s concept of unconscious • _{However, he said there is also a}

collective unconscious

• _{All of humanity’s experiences are} actually passed down and reside in everyone’s unconscious

• _{Therefore, our unconscious} contains all the ideas and images that came before us • _{We all share these ideas and}

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Universal ideas, images, or patterns that we all share as a species and reside in our collective unconscious Jung called archetypes

Said that common symbols in art, religion, and myths across cultures were

evidence for the existence of archetypes

• _{Examples include:}

• _{The Hero}

• _{The Caregiver}

• _{The Rebel}

Odysseus

Nurse

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Most important archetype for Jung was the self-archetype

• _{Represents the concept all} humans share for unity,

wholeness, completion, and balance

• _{Essentially Maslow’s} self-actualization

• _{Represented visually by every} culture by a mandala of some sort

• _{Graphic display in a} circular design

Give some examples of circles in any culture that Jung would

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Another of Carl Jung’s contribution to psychology is his ideas about…

• _Extroversion_{– Ego attitude in which energy is mainly}

directed outward

• _Introversion_{– Ego attitude in which energy is mainly}

directed inward

“Introverted? Extroverted? Which are you?” questionnaire

Suggestion for independent investigation

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that personality is mostly a function of

nature

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Which say its all nature?

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Others place a much greater emphasis on

nurture – personality is generally learned

from our environment

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The two most dominant of these “learning

theories” are

behavior

and

social learning

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Personality Unit Outline

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What is personality?

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General Issues

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• _{Radical behaviorists (like B.F. Skinner) say one’s}

personality is just the combination our behaviors, all of them learned through classical and operant conditioning

• _{Pick one of the personality traits you scored highly on}

when you took the Big Five Inventory earlier in this unit

• _{Trait theorists say you were more or less born with}

it

• _{Behavioral theorists would say you learned it from}

your environment

• _{What do you think?}

So, behaviorist theory leaves out a lot. One thing it leaves out is that we think. There is a cognitive aspect to personality

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Personality Unit Outline

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General Issues

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• _{Like behaviorist theorists, social learning theorists state that personality is just}

an expression of behavior

• _{However, this behavior is shaped not only by classical and operant}

conditioning, but cognition and the effects of social relationships as well

• _{Julian Rotter said they are grounded in three concepts}

• _{The psychological situation – how the person defines the situation} • _{Do you hit someone back EVERY time he/she hits you? How}

would the psychological situation determine that?

• _{Our expectancy – our prediction whether we will receive}

reinforcement or not if we make a response

• _{Again, think about hitting someone back. How would your}

expectancy influence our behavior?

• _{The reinforcement value – the quality of the expected}

reinforcement

• _{How would our assessment of the value of the likely}

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Alfred Bandura said that one of the most important expectancies we have is self-efficacy

• _{We have some control over what happens to us; we}

can manipulate events in order to reach a desired result

• _{Activities we choose/environment we place}

ourselves in helps shape our lives – and we know it

• _{Ex: What courses are you taking next year?}

How much say do you have in that right now?

• _{People with high self-efficacy are optimistic about}

their ability to get things done, while people with a low self-efficacy often feel a sense of

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A concept related to self-efficacy is Julian Rotter’s

locus of control

– said it has a large impact on how

a person thinks and acts in general

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Those with an

internal locus of control

feel they

are responsible to what happens to them

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Those with an

external locus of control

generally

feel luck and other forces outside their own

control determine their destinies

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Do you feel you have more of an internal locus of

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Another concept related to the social learning

school of thought regarding personality

development is

self-reinforcement

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Have you ever rewarded yourself when you

have done something well or reach a goal?

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If you do this often, you have high rates of

self-reinforcement

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Those who regularly practice

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Research consistently shows that

self-regulation

skill is necessary for reliable emotional

well being

Behaviorally, self-regulation is the ability to act in

your long-term best interest, consistent with your

deepest values

Violation of one's deepest values causes guilt,

shame, and anxiety, which undermine well being

Emotionally, self-regulation is the ability to calm

yourself down when you're upset and cheer

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Personality Unit Outline

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Major theories and approaches

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General Issues

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• _{Focuses on human experience, problems, potentials,}

and ideals

• _{Reaction to the rigidity of traits, pessimism of}

psychoanalytic theory, and mechanical nature of learning theory

• _{Being human is a positive thing}

• _{The person you are today (your personality) is largely}

the product of the choices you made Two major humanists

• _{Abraham Maslow we talked about already}

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person, we want our ideal self, self-image and true self to be in congruence

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Personality Unit Outline

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General Issues

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General Issues

Since there are multiple theories of personality development, there are multiple ways to measure personality

Each has its strengths and limitations – for this reason they are often used in combination

As with any other kind of testing, reliability and validity are concerns when assessing personality. What do these terms mean again?

• _Reliability _{– results of test are consistent time after time}

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Interviews

Direct questioning; used to detecting personality disturbances

• _{Unstructured interview}_{– informal conversation, topics addresses as}

they arise

• _{Structured interview}_{– interviewer asks pre-planned questions}

Answers are important, but when face-to-face the interviewer also takes note of mood, body language, other not verbal cues

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Benefits of Interviews

• _{Relatively quick; provide rapid insight into personality}

• _{Great for initial topline diagnosis; provides direction for further}

therapy

Limitations of Interviews

• _{Face-to-face interviewers can be swayed by personal biases}

toward subjects based on appearance, social group, etc.

• _{Interviewers personality/gender may unconsciously influence}

client’s behavior (give answers that he/she think interviewer wants to hear)

• _{Subjects may consciously try to deceive interviewer}

• _The_{halo effect}_{– likeable/attractive subjects may not be}

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Personality Questionnaires

Trait theorists love these

Paper and pencil tests – more objective than interviews

• _{“Objective” means subject gets the same score no}

matter who corrects it Benefits

• _{Standardized scores are unaffected by examiner bias}

Limitations

• _{Only accurate if people tell the truth about themselves}

• _{Can’t adjust on the fly, so it may miss some things}

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One of the most widely used is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2)

• _{567 true/false questions measuring ten major aspects of personality}

• _{Disorders seen when comparing person’s profile to “typical” adults}

• _{Have “lie scales” built in so researcher can detect when people aren’t} being honest

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Projective Tests

Made of ambiguous/unstructured images

Favored by psychoanalytical psychologists

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Instead of directly identifying overt, observable

traits, eek to uncover unconscious wishes, thought,

and needs

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Most well know examples are the

Rorschach

Inkblot Test

and the

Thematic Apperception Test

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Rorschach Technique

• _{See an inkblot and describe what you see in it}

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Thematic Aerception Test (TAT)

• _{See sketches depicting different scenes and life situations}

• _{Make up a story about what is happening in each one}

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Biggest limitation of projective test is validity

Why?

Still has value when used as part of a series of

other more objective tests