SUMMER AT THE ACADEMY

Introduction to Psychology

Days 7 & 8: Personality

Ms. Mary-Liz Fuhrman

* PERSONALITY *

Chapter 15 pp 595-637

CH 15: PERSONALITY OVERVIEW Psychoanalytic Perspective Humanistic Perspective Trait Perspective Social-Cognitive Perspective Exploring the Self

WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Q: How do you describe your own

personality? Personality: an individual’s characteristic pattern of

thinking, feeling, and acting Focus is on individual not general human nature

Explores: Traits Uniqueness Personal control Sense of self

4 PERSPECTIVES OF PERSONALITY

Psychoanalytic theory emphasizes the unconscious and irrational aspects of personality.

Humanistic theory draws attention to the concept of self and to human potential for healthy growth.

Trait theory led to advances in techniques for evaluating and describing personality.

The social-cognitive perspective emphasizes the effects of our interactions with the environment

Contributions & short-comings

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVESigmund Freud (1856-1939) Austria Medical Doctor:

nervous disorders/neurology Developed theory based on evaluations of self and

patients: Unconscious region of the mind Psychosexual stages Defense mechanisms

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVEExploring the Unconscious

Free Association: person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind

Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of personality and associated techniques that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflictsseek to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

Unconscious: FREUD: reservoir of unacceptable thoughts, wishes,

feelings, and memoriesTODAY: info processing of which we are unaware

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVEPersonality Structure

“Iceberg” Id: pleasure principle—immediate gratification;

strives to satisfy sexual and aggressive drives Ego: reality principle—satisfying the id’s desires

realistically; mediates between the id and superego; mostly conscious

Superego: internalized ideals and provides standards for judgments

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVEPersonality Development

FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGESOral

(birth-18 months)Pleasure centers on mouth --Sucking, biting, chewing

Anal(18-36 months)

Pleasure focuses on the bowel and bladder elimination

--coping with demands for controlPhallic

(3-6 years)Pleasure zone is genitals

--coping with incestuous sexual feelings

Latency(6 to puberty)

Dormant sexual feelings--expanding social contacts

Genital(puberty -on)

Maturation of sexual interests--exploring intimate relationships

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE Oedipus Complex: boy’s sexual desires

toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival fatherElectra Complex

Identification: children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos

Fixation: lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were not resolved

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE

Defense MechanismsEgo’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by

unconsciously distorting reality

Repression: *Basic defense mechanism; banishes anxiety arousing thoughts, feelings, & memories** Dreams and “Slips-Of-The-Tongue”

Regression: When faced w/ anxiety, retreat to an earlier psychosexual stage where some energy remains fixated

Reaction Formation: unconsciously switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites; express feelings opposite of anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVEDefense Mechanisms Cont’d

Projection: people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others ex: He doesn’t love me ~~ I don’t love him

Rationalization: offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions ex: well I had to check his text messages because…

Displacement: shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person; redirecting anger toward a safer outlet ex: yelling at your boyfriend when you are angry w/ your

parents

THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

1960s Unhappy w/ Freud and Skinner Freud’s focus was on “sick” people Humanistic: focus on how healthy people strive for

self-determination and self-realization Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVEAbraham Maslow’s Self-Actualizing Person

Heirarchy of Needs pyramid of human needs, beginning at the

base w/ physiological needs that must first be satisfied before moving up to psychological needs

Goal: Self-Actualization fulfilling one’s potential

THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVEMaslow studied healthy, creative people Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor

Roosevelt Self-aware, self-accepting, open and

spontaneous, loving and caring, not paralyzed by other’s opinions

Interests were problem-centered not self-centered

THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE EVALUATING THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

PROS Influenced counseling, education, child-rearing,

and management strategies Today’s popular psych:

“Positive Self-Concept is the key to happiness and success”

Hierarchy of Needs relates to Business

CONS Vague, subjective Assumptions are too optimistic Individualization can lead to self-indulgent, selfish

behaviors

THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVEELIZABETH KUBLER-ROSS: STAGES OF GRIEVING

DenialAngerBargainingDepressionAcceptance

THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE stable and enduring behavior patterns Traits: a characteristic pattern of behavior or

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

Gordon Allport (1920s)Less explaining; more describing

“Types” of personalities Myers-Briggs Type Indicator sorts people

according to Jung’s personality typesExtroverted/Introverted, Sensing/Intuition,

Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving

THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVEAssessing Traits

Personality Inventories: questionnaire (often t/f or agree/disagree) on which people respont to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; assesses selected personality traits

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): the most widely researched and clinically used personality test. Originally designed to identify emotional disorders.

The Big 5 Factors Conscientiousness

Organized/disorganized, careful/careless, disciplined/impulsive Agreeableness

Soft-hearted/ruthless, trusting/suspicious, helpful/uncooperative

Neuroticism (emotional stability v. unstability) Calm/anxious, secure/insecure, self-satisfied/self-pitying

Openness Imaginative/practical, variety/routine,

independent/conforming Extraversion

Sociable/retiring, fun-loving/sober, affectionate/reserved

THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE

THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE

How stable are these traits? Conscientiousness increases in 20s Agreeableness increases in 30s

How heritable are they? About 50% per dimension

How well do they apply to other cultures? Well supported for other cultures

Do the Big Five traits predict other personal attributes? Yes! Morning people (conscientious) v. night owls

(extraverted) Marital satisfaction decreases with low agreeableness,

stability, and openness

THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE

Evaluating The Trait Perspective The person-situation controversy

Effects of interaction w/ the environmentPersonality traits persist over time and situationsSpecific behaviors are less consistent

Consistency of Expressive StyleUnfamiliar/Formal situations—wait for social cuesFamiliar/Informal (friends)– more comfortableExpressiveness is relatively, consistent

Even modest outgoing people are more expressive than inhibited people at their peek

THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE Views behavior as influenced by interaction

between persons and their social context Albert Bandura Social: Learn behaviors through conditioning or by

observing others and modeling our behavior after theirs

Cognitive: What we think about our situations affects our behavior

Interaction: How we interpret and respond to external events.

THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVEReciprocal Influences

Reciprocal Determinism: the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors

*Different people choose different environments:friends, school, jobs– you choose the environment that shapes you

*Personalities shape how we interpret and react to eventsanxious– notice threatening events more

*Personalities help create situations to which we reacthow we view and treat people influences how they treat us

SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVEPersonal Control

Def: Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless

Internal Locus of Control: we control our own fate External Locus of Control: fate is determined for us

Learned Helplessness: the more traumatic events faced, the more helpless, hopeless, and depressed we become

EVALUATING THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

PROS More focus on cognition and learning Reminds us that the situation does impact

individuals

CONS Too much focus on situation and not traits Emotions?

EXPLORING THE SELF Self is Center of our personality

Includes Possible self & feared self Spotlight Effect: overestimating others’

noticing and evaluating our appearance, mistakes, and performance

EXPLORING THE SELFBenefits of Self-Esteem

Self-Esteem: one’s feelings of high or low self-worth

Lower self-esteem– more personal problems

Why?Success leads to higher self esteemself-esteem reflects realityGauges our relationships w/ others

EXPLORING THE SELFSelf Serving Bias

Def: A readiness to perceive oneself favorably

Accept more responsibility for good deeds and success than for bad deeds and failures

Most people see themselves as above average