personality humanistic, trait, testing. humanistic perspective by the 1950s and 60s psychology moves...
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PersonalityHumanistic, Trait, Testing
Humanistic PerspectiveBy the 1950s and 60s psychology moves away from Freud’s negativity and the mechanistic
psychology of the behaviorists.Abraham Maslow
(1908-1970)Carl Rogers(1902-1987)
Self-Actualizing PersonAbraham Maslow proposed that we as
individuals are motivated by a hierarchy of needs. Beginning with physiological needs, we
try to reach the state of self-actualization—fulfilling our potential.
Self Actualized people are self aware, self accepting, open and spontaneous, creative, loving and caring, and not paralyzed by other’s opinions.
“acquired enough courage to be unpopular, to be unashamed about being openly virtuous”
College students most likely to become self-actualized were “privately affectionate to those of their elders who deserve it.” and “secretly uneasy about the cruelty, meanness and mob spirit so often found in young people.”
Self Actualization
Maslow estimated only 1% of the population reaches this level
The top of the motivational hierarchy. This makes it the weakest of all needs and the most easily impeded.
“This inner nature is not strong and overpowering and unmistakable like the instincts of animals. It is weak and delicate and subtle and easily overcome by habit, cultural pressure, and wrong attitudes toward it.”
Jonah Complex – must be willing to sacrifice safety for personal growth. A fear of success.◦ We Run away from responsibilities, freedom,
Does society influence this? How does childhood influence this?
Examples of SA People
Pablo Casals Albert Einstein Ralph Waldo Emerson William James Thomas Jefferson Eleanor Roosevelt Albert Schweitzer
Assessment of Maslow
Original work has been interpreted multiple times, stemming away from his original ideas.
Some will state Maslow’s list of people is biased as he focused on what he thought represented the best of humans.◦Only those that had opportunity for success in
that setting, European, and men
Carl Rogers
Goal of every organism is to fulfill the capabilities of our genetic blueprint – actualizing tendency
Human beings form images of themselves – called self concepts (genuine, innate desires)
Drive to fulfill self-concepts – self actualizing tendency
Carl Rogers
Struggled to understand the unhappiness of the people he encountered in therapy.
The founder of personal growth and determination framework, which later leads to Positive and Motivational psychology.
Believed that we all have a potential for a fulfilling life if we remove the obstacles that keep us from reaching it.
Opposite of Freud’s world, which highlights our negative tendencies and compromises between impulses.
Perceived Self vs. Ideal Self
Did you write the same thing for each prompt?From a humanistic perspective, a fully
functioning, self-actualized person finds the perceived self as completely congruent with the ideal self.
Rogers suggests that if our self-concept is negative, that is, if we fall far short of our ideal self, we feel dissatisfied and unhappy. It follows that parents, teachers, and friends should help others know, accept, and be true to themselves
Assessing the Self
All of our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in an answer to the question, “Who am I?” refers to Self-Concept.
In an effort to assess personality, Rogers asked people to describe themselves as they would like to be (ideal) and as they actually are (real). If the two descriptions were close the individual if a fully functioning person
Humanistic Personality Theories
Humanistic view asserts the fundamental goodness of people and their constant striving toward higher levels of functioning
Does not dwell on past occurrences, but rather focuses on the present and future
How to become fully functioning?Early Childhood Matters
People who are central to our lives condition us to move away from our genuine feelings, to earn their love by pursuing those goals they value, even if those do not reflect our deepest wishes.
Called Conditional positive reward (of worth)◦Acceptance and love contingent on certain behaviors
and fulfilling certain conditions.Need to strive for unconditional positive reward
◦Full acceptance and love of another regardless of our behavior Genuineness Accepting Empathy
Answer in your unit guide.
1. Who is your most significant other at this time?
2. Do you have unconditional positive regard (UPR) for this person? Explain.
3. Does this person have UPR for you? Explain.
4. Are there conditions of worth in your relationship? If so, what are they?
Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective
1. Humanistic psychology has a pervasive impact on counseling, education, child-rearing, and management.
2. Concepts in humanistic psychology are vague and subjective and lack scientific basis.
3. Some view these theories as overly optimistic and that they ignore the nature of human evil
4. Some argue that humanistic view lead to self-indulgence, narcissism and self-centeredness – Western view of hyper-individualism
Trait perspective
The Trait Perspective: Not Why but What
An individual’s unique makeup of durable dispositions and consistent ways of behaving
(traits) constitutes his or her personality.
Examples of Traits
HonestDependable
MoodyImpulsive
Gordon Allport
Founder of trait theory)Allport rejects the idea that the unconscious is central as
well as dismissing the negativity of psychodynamic theory.◦ “Are you that little boy.” Freud
Goal was to define personality in terms of identifiable behavior patterns
Description and classificationAllport & Odbert (1936), identified 18,000 words
representing traits. Cut this down to 200 – still too muchAllport believed if you want to know something about
someone, you just ask them.
Allport Continued
Each person has a unique capacity to adapt to the environment
Defined traits as mental structures that cause behavior to be similar across different situations◦Outgoing in the mall or in class
Exploring Traits
Factor analysis is a statistical approach
used to describe and relate
personality traits.
Cattell used this approach to develop a 16
Personality Factor (16PF) inventory.
Raymond Cattell(1905-1998)
Factor Analysis
Cattell found that large groups of traits could be reduced down to 16 core
personality traits based on statistical correlations.
Impulsive
Excitement
Imp
ati
en
t
Irritable
Boiste
rou
s
BasictraitSuperficial
traits
Personality DimensionsHans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that
personality could be reduced down to three polar dimensions, extraversion-introversion emotional
stability-instability, and pychoticism
The Big Five FactorsToday’s trait researchers believe that Eysencks’
personality dimensions are too narrow and Cattell’s 16PF too large. So, a middle range (five factors) of traits does a better job of assessment.
Openness/Culture
Conscientiousness
Extroversion/Introversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism/ Emotional Stability
Endpoints
Questions about the Big Five
Yes. Conscientious people are morning type and extraverted are evening type.
4. Can they predict other personal attributes?
These traits are common across cultures.
3. How about other cultures?
Fifty percent or so for each trait.
2. How heritable are they?
Quite stable in adulthood. However, they change over development.
1. How stable are these traits?
Evaluating the Trait Perspective
The Person-Situation Controversy
Walter Mischel (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.
* Level of aggression is different based on environmental context
* She does A when X, but B when Y
The Person-Situation Controversy
Trait theorists argue that behaviors from a situation may be different, but average behavior
remains the same. Therefore, traits matter.