The Trait Perspective

Thinking About PsychologyModule 26

11/30/04 Personality

Identifying Traits Gordon Allport’s Theory

Should only be studied in normal adults Individual personalities are unique

Raymond Cattell’s Factor Analysis Do some traits predict other traits? 16 core personality dimensions (factors)

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Indentifying Traits cont’d

Hans Eysenck’s Biological Dimensions Introversion/Extraversion Emotionally

Unstable/Stable

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The “Big Five” Traits Agreeableness Conscientiousness Emotional stability Extraversion Openness

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Testing for Traits Personality inventories

Questionnaires on which people respond to items to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors

Used to assess personality traits Often true-false, agree-disagree, etc. types of

questions

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Testing for Traits cont’d Validity

Measures what it is suppose to Personality inventories off greater validity than

projective tests Reliability

Consistent results Personality inventories are more reliable than

projective tests

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Testing for Traits cont’d Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

(MMPI) Most clinically-used personality test 500 questions Originally designed to assess abnormal behavior

MMPI-2 Revised and updated version Assesses test takers on 10 clinical scales and 15

content scales

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MMPI Scoring Profile

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Evaluating the Trait Perspective Does not consider how the situation affects

personality traits Does not explain why we behave the way we

do Do explain how we behave Does not explain how our thoughts affect

behavior

Psychodynamic Perspective

Thinking About PsychologyModule 25

11/30/04 Personality

Personality Personality: the person’s characteristics

thoughts and behavior

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Sigmund Freud 1856-1939 Founder of psychoanalysis Proposed the first complete theory of

personality Emerges from tensions between the

unconscious motives and unresolved childhood conflicts

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Freud cont’d Structure of the Human Mind (iceberg)

Conscious: what we are aware of Preconscious: easily retrieved Unconscious: includes unacceptable thoughts,

wishes, feelings, and memories

•Free association

•Freudian slips

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Freud cont’d Three forces

Id: the child Unconscious energy from basic aggressiveness and sexual drives pleasure principle

Superego: your parent Internalized ideals and standards what we “should” do

Ego: the adult Mediates between the id and superego reality principle

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Freud cont’d Defense Mechanisms: ways to reduce anxiety

Repression-put anxiety-arousing thoughts into the unconscious Regression-the person retreats into a more comfortable, infantile stage

of life Denial-the person refuses to admit that something unpleasant is

happening Reaction formation- the person expresses the opposite of the anxiety-

provoking, unconscious feeling Projection-disguises threatening feelings by attributing the problems to

others Rationalization-replaces the anxiety-provoking explanations with more

comforting justifications Displacement- shifts an unacceptable impulse toward a more acceptable

or less threatening object or person

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Freud cont’d

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Freud cont’d Stages of personality development

Oral stage Conflict: weaning

Anal stage Conflict: potty training

Phallic stage Oedipus complex

Latency period Identification process & gender identity

Genital stage Starts at puberty

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Neo-Freudians Alfred Adler

1870-1937 Believed that social tensions

were more important that sexual tensions

Believes psychological problems were the result of feelings of inferiority

Inferiority Complex: a condition that comes from being unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings

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Neo-Freudians cont’d Carl Jung

1875-1961 Believed that humans

share a collective unconscious

Collective unconscious: concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our ancestors

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Neo-Freudians cont’d Karen Horney

1885-1952 Found psychoanalysis

negatively biased against women

Believed cultural/social variables are the foundation of personality development

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Assessing Personality from a Psychodynamic Perspective Projective tests:

ambiguous stimuli to trigger projection of one’s inner thoughts and feelings

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Ambiguous pictures

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Assessing cont’d

Rorschach inkblot test Most widely used Set of 10 inkblots

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Assessing cont’d Problems with the Rorschach

Not reliable Lack of a universal scoring system Does not accurately predict personality

characteristics No scientific basis

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Evaluating the Psychodynamic Perspective Most psychodynamic theorists do not believe

that sex is the basis of personality Agree that there are inner conflicts People do not “fixate” at various stages of

development Agree that childhood experiences do shape

personality Comprehensive theory