Bell Ringer

What is a “Freudian slip?” Give an example (if you don’t know… take an educated

guess!)

Personality

entry #4

Where does our personality come from?

Personality: An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Each dwarf has a distinct personality.

Psychologists use 5 approaches to explain the development of personality:

1. Psychoanalytic Approach (aka Psychodynamic)

2. Humanistic Approach 3. Trait Approach/The Big 5 4. Learning Approach 5. Social-Cognitive Approach

Psychoanalytic Theory

Describes personality as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion

Believes that behavior is merely a surface characteristic and that to truly understand who we are we have to analyze the symbolic meaning of behavior and the deep inner workings of the mind

Created by Sigmund Freud Believed we repress

(forcibly block from our conscious thought) thoughts, beliefs, and memories that are too upsetting to acknowledge

Exploring the Unconscious

A reservoir (unconscious mind) of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and

memories. Freud asked patients to say whatever came to their minds (free association) in order to

tap the unconscious.

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Dream Analysis

Another method to analyze the unconscious mind is through interpreting manifest and

latent contents of dreams.

The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli (1791)

Freud believed our personality is made up of 3 structures: IdEgoSuperego

Id

Instincts & impulses Sexual drives Aggression Seeks immediate gratification Ruled by the “Pleasure Principle” =

maximize pleasure, minimize pain Completely unconscious

Ego

Controls the id Rational decision-making Obeys the “Reality Principle” = deals with

the demands of reality

Superego

Moral decision making Is one’s “conscience” tells you right

from wrong

Freud’s Iceberg Analogy

Psychoanalytic Theory

Believes that behavior is merely a surface characteristic and that to truly understand who we are we have to analyze the symbolic meaning of behavior and the deep inner workings of the mind (#2)

Created by Sigmund Freud Believed we repress

(forcibly block from our conscious thought) thoughts, beliefs, and memories that are too upsetting to acknowledge (#3)

Exploring the Unconscious

Freud asked patients to say whatever came to their minds (free association) in

order to tap the unconscious. (#1)

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Freud believed that a person’s personality develops mostly during the first few years of life (#4)

Personality is rooted in unresolved childhood conflicts (#4)

Believed that children pass through 5 Psychosexual stages of development: childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on the erogenous zones (#5)

Fixation

Freud believed that conflicts unresolved during early psychosexual stages could surface as maladaptive behaviors in adult years. Strong conflict could lock, or fixate, the person’s pleasure-seeking behaviors in that stage.

Fixation: being stuck in a stage of development, and carrying the behaviors from that stage into adulthood. (#6)

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development

Oral0-18 months

Pleasure focus is on the mouth

sucking, biting, chewing

(no key terms for this stage)

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development Anal

18-36 months

Pleasure focus is on bowel and bladder eliminationcoping with demands for control

(no key terms for this stage)

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development Phallic

3-6 years

Pleasure focus is on genitalscoping with incestuous feelings

Key terms: Oedipus Complex (a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father), Electra Complex

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development Latency

6-puberty

No focus, sexual feelings are dormant(children eventually cope with Oedipus Electra by repressing these feelings and identifying with rival parent= if you can’t beat em, join em)Key terms: Identification superego gains strength and begins to incorporate the parents values (trying to become like parent)Gender Identity: sense of being male or female

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development Genital

puberty on

Focus is on maturation of sexual interests

No key terms at this stage

Defense Mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are used by the ego to resolve conflicts and demands between the id and superego. (#11)

These defense mechanisms reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality (#11)

Defense Mechanisms

Repression: bury it in the unconsciousEx: mugging or rape too traumatic to deal

with, push it into unconscious… no recollection of it happening

Projection: disguise your own threatening impulses by attributing them to othersEx: “She’s such a slut!”

Defense Mechanisms

Denial: the conscious mind ignores or can’t admit the problemEx: alcoholics, drug addicts

Displacement: take out feelings on someone/something else completely unrelated to the problemEx: you have a fight with your boyfriend and

come home and scream at your brother

Defense Mechanisms

Sublimation: take negative behaviors and try to put them towards a positive use Ex: join football team to redirect aggressive actions

Regression: reverting to an earlier stage of development in response to frustration or an inability to cope – acting infantile/childish Ex: Bad day at school- come home and curl up in

mommy’s lap and suck your thumb

Defense Mechanisms

Rationalization: try to justify our behaviors or feelings – make excuses Its not my fault I flunked my psych test, Mrs.

DeKalb tests are too hard- its unfair! Reaction Formation: acting the opposite of

what you really unconscious think or feelMrs. DeKalb you are sooooo pretty and the

best teacher ever!

Projective Personality Tests (#20)

Have no clearly defined answers Use an open-ended format Present ambiguous stimuli and ask test

taker to interpret what they see

- The interpretation is thought to reveal information about their personality

Two most common projective personality tests are theRorschach Inkblot TestThematic Apperception Test (TAT) (#21)

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Created by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach in 1921

Uses 10 official inkblots5 black and white2 black and red and white3 multicolored

Rorschach Inkblot

Person is shown card with inkblot and asked what they think it could be

Responses to cards are interpreted according to the following factors: Location responding to whole card or part of card? Determinants responding to particular shaping,

coloring, textures Content the precise object that the test-taker is seeing Form is the answer based on the actual shape of the

blot, or are they seeing a different form entirely?

Thematic Apperception Test

Created in the 1930’s by Harvard psychologist Henry Murray

Involves a picture interpretation technique Test takers are shown ambiguous pictures

and asked to create a story for the picture

TAT

Subject’s story may include:What has led up to the event shownWhat is happening at the momentWhat the characters are feeling and thinkingWhat the outcome of the story was

TAT

Each story is carefully analyzed to uncover the test takers unconscious mind, including anyRepressed aspects of personalityMotives and needs for achievementPower and intimacyProblem solving abilities

Learning Theory of Personality

2 learning approaches:BehaviorismSocial-Learning Theory

Behaviorism

Watson: believed external forces or influences- NOT internal traits or inner conflicts- shape people’s preferences and behavior

Skinner agreed, believed we should focus on how organisms behave, not what’s going on in their mind

Neither believed in the influences of personal freedom, choice, and self-direction

Behaviorists believe our personality is LEANRED and shaped by:Environmental influences (reinforcements,

punishments) parent/peer approval

Cultural factors Social customs

Socialization The process by which we learn socially

desirable behaviors and adopt them as part of our personality

Social Learning Theory

Bandura and others agree we learn from our environment, but emphasized that we learn by OBSERVATION of our environment, not just reinforcement and punishment

Said we can influence our environment based on our own internal factors: Our skills Our values Our goals Our expectations Self-efficacy expectations: positive thinking about yourself “I think I

can… I think I can…”

Bell Ringer

What is a personality trait? List at least 5 of your personality traits.

Trait Approach –entry #5 Rather than focusing on unconscious forces

and unsatisfactory growth opportunities, some psychologists attempt to

explain personality in terms of stable and enduring behavior patters = TRAITS

Trait Approach

Traits are fixed (created) at an early age Traits are consistent and unchanging = you

act/react the same in a variety of situations

Examples of Traits:

HonestDependable

MoodyImpulsive

Trait Theorists

Hippocrates: said personality caused by combinations of different bodily fluids, which he called humors Blood made people sanguine (cheerful) Black bile made people meloncholly (sad) Yellow bile made people phlegmatic (unconcerned,

lazy) Green bile made people choleric (irritable, short-

tempered)

Trait Theorists

Gordon Allport: defined personality in terms of identifiable behavior patters (traits)

-identified 18,000 words representing traits!

-Factor analysis is a statistical approach used to describe and relate personality traits = cluster similar traits into groups

Example of factor analysis:

People who describe themselves as outgoing also say that they like excitement, practical jokes, and taking on leadership roles.

these behaviors can be clustered together to describe 1 basic personality trait:

=extraversion

Trait Theorists

Raymond Cattell: used factor analysis to develop a 16 Personality Factor inventory

-whittled down 18,000 traits in 16 basic source traits

-Believed that

by determining

which of these

16 traits a

person has you

can predict their

behavior in

certain

situations

Trait Theorists Hans Eysenck: categorized personality traits

according to two polar dimensions: extraversion vs. introversion and emotional stability vs. emotional instability.

Assessing Traits

Personality inventories are questionnaires

(often with true-false or agree-disagree items) designed to assess several traits

at once.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely used of all personality tests.

The Big Five Factors

Today’s trait researchers believe that Eysencks’ personality dimensions are too narrow and

Cattell’s 16PF too large. The “Big Five” says that there are 5 basic

personality dimensions:

Conscientiousness

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Openness

Extraversion

The “Big Five” remember CANOE!

Conscientiousness

Agreeableness

Neuroticism (emotionally stable or unstable)

Openness

Extraversion

Organized, careful, disciplined -or- disorganized, careless, impulsive?

Trusting, helpful -or-suspscious, uncooperative?

Calm, secure -or-anxious, insecure?

Independent, open to variety, imaginative -or-conforming, likes routine, practical?

Sociable, fun-loving, affectionate -or-shy, quiet, reserved

Evaluating the Trait Perspective

-Walter Mischel (1968, 1984, 2004) points out that traits may be enduring, but the resulting behavior in various situations is different. =Therefore, traits are not good predictors of behavior.

-Trait theory explains where we get our personalty from, but does not explain where traits come from!