UNIT X: PERSONALITY

AP Psychology NOTES

An Overview of the Study of Personalities

1.Psychoanalytic Perspective: the approach of delving into the unconscious mind to understand the motivations and perspectives of personalities

2.Humanistic Perspective: the approach of studying how “healthy” people strive for self-determination and self-realization

3.Trait Perspective: the approach that focuses on individual traits to assess behaviors and dispositions; uses inventories and peer reports

4.Social-Cognitive Perspective: the approach that assesses the interaction of our traits with particular scenarios

Show Your Personalities!Directions:

1. Create a 4-LINE JINGLE that describes the perspective of exploring personalities that your group has been assigned.

2. You have 15 MINUTES to compose it!

3. All group members need to exhibit their individual personalities during your group’s JINGLE performance.

4. Have FUN!!!

***Recorded as a classwork grade.***

HOW DOES LEARNING VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES OF PERSONALITY

EMPOWER US IN OUR DAILY LIVES?

Psychoanalytic PerspectiveSIGMUND FREUD – The Father of Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic Techniques:•Free association: the client relaxes and just says whatever comes to his/her mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

•Psychoanalysis: systematic process of exploring a client’s unconscious thoughts to determine a link between a person’s past experiences and current behaviors

• ID, EGO, SUPEREGO (moral motivations)• Id the impulsive self• Ego the rational self• Superego the aspired self

Discuss with your neighbor…

What might be some loopholes in Freud’s Id, Ego,

Superego Theory?

Psychosexual Development Stages•Oral – (0-18 months) pleasure from the mouth (sucking, biting, chewing)

• Anal – (18-36 months) pleasure from controlling bodily functions (bowel, bladder)

• Phallic – (3-6 years) pleasure from exploring genital differences; beginning of sexual feelings

• Latency – (6 years – puberty) dormant sexual feelings; prefer the company of the same gender

• Genital – (puberty –adulthood) maturation of sexual interests

Discuss with the class…

•With which parts of the Psychosexual Development Stages do you agree?•With which parts of the Psychosexual Development Stages do you NOT agree?

8 DEFENSE MECHANISMS FREUDIAN CONCEPTS

Why is there a need for defense mechanisms?

To reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality for those around the individual, so that the individual maintains a sense of dignity,

calm, and “leveled playing field”.

REPRESSION: pushing unpleasant/socially unacceptable thoughts, events, etc. into one’s unconscious; thoughts/events may surface in dreams or slips of the tongue (Freudian slips)

ex: Impulsive thoughts of hitting your elderly grandmother because she forgot to bring you a gift are immediately pushed into your unconscious, but may resurface in a dream.

REGRESSION: retreating into childlike or infantile stages of thinking, talking, behavior in order to gain a sense of security and comfort

ex: A typically outgoing 13-year-old, may physically retreat and suck their thumb when first meeting adults

REACTION FORMATION: unconsciously manipulating unacceptable behavior or statements to appear like the opposite

ex: A sheepish 14-year old male immediately pretends that he is not pulling the girl’s hair in front of him, but instead pulling something out of her hair when he realized the teacher’s glare directed at him.

PROJECTION: disguising events/behavior by attributing them to othersex: Brian Faultner says he wants to fight Gregory Benton because supposedly

Brian thinks that he is making moves on his girlfriend. In reality, Brian overheard his girlfriend and her friends talking and giggling about how cute Gregory is, and Brian wants to make it clear to Gregory to stay away from his girlfriend.

RATIONALIZATION: unconsciously justify our actions to avoid the real reasons for our actions

ex: Janice wants to impress her friends with new designer cowboy boots, so she tells herself and others that evening at the basketball game that her feet always get cold in the school gym, so she needed to wear her boots to keep warm.

DISPLACEMENT: diverting socially unacceptable impulses toward an object or person that is more socially acceptable than the one caused the impulses.

ex: Morgan has had a major crush on her principal since the first day of 9 th grade. She knows that it is unacceptable to flirt with her principal, so whenever he is around, she tends to talk louder to people around her, laugh uncontrollably, and flirt with the nearest male classmate.

SUBLIMINATION: the transformation of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motivations

ex: A woman is unable to have children and briefly considered adopting a child through the black market. Instead she decides to work for the local adoption agency and work to put policies in place that might speed the adoption process for herself and others.

DENIAL: to refuse to believe reality, despite being given facts

ex: Those who were recently diagnosed with early stages of cancer, may refuse to believe they have cancer because they still look and feel healthy, despite having 2nd and 3rd medical opinions that prove the original diagnosis.

Psychoanalysis – Projective Tests

• Projective tests: purpose is to provide understanding of what is occurring in a person’s unconscious mind through asking test-takers to describe a random or ambiguous stimulus or to tell a story about it.

•Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): look at a given image and make up a story about it; motivation is assessed•Rorschach inkblot test: describe what is seen in a series of inkblots; motivation and likely behavior is assessed

CRASH COURSE ON PSYCHOANALYTIC & HUMANISTIC APPROACH TO

PERSONALITY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUELAiHbCxc

The Humanistic Perspective

Abraham Maslow1908-1970

Carl Rogers1902-1987

Maslow’s Self-Actualization Person

• Self-actualization is the fulfillment of individual potential.

• Self-transcendence is the understanding of the purpose one has within the global realm.

• Abraham Maslow studied:•Mentally healthy, creative person and identified factors that enabled success, happiness, and fulfillment• Persons he identified as mentally healthy (i.e. self-aware, self-accepting, open, loving/caring, problem-centered):- Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt

Carl Rogers’ Person-Centered Perspective

•Believed that people nurture other people by being:1. Genuine – no façade; transparent2. Accepting – unconditional positive regard (an

attitude of grace – mercy, even undeserved mercy – of others)

3. Empathetic – sharing and mirroring the feelings of others

Self-Concept

•Aware of oneself and where/how one fits into society•Positive self-concept (tend to have positive world view)•Negative self-concept (tend to have negative world view)

•Realistic assessment of strengths and weaknesses

•Accepting oneself based on reality, but acknowledge opportunity to improve oneself

The Trait Perspective

Gordon Allport1897-1967

Isabel Briggs Meyers

Exploring Traits• Traits people’s characteristic behaviors and conscious motives; behavior patterns; influenced by both genetics and environmental factors

Gordon Allport • described (not explained) personality according to observable traits• criticized Freud for exploring too deep into the unconscious

Isabel Briggs Myers• Describe important personality differences• Created (with her mother, Katherine Briggs) the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator• Take the Typology Personality Test @ http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Factor Analysis

•Statistical technique that identifies groups of correlated test items that highlights basic factors of intelligence•Hans and Sybil Eysenck created the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (see chart on page 495)• Introversion vs. Extraversion•Unstable vs. Stable

PERSONALITY INVENTORY

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) – focuses on abnormal personality

tendencies

The Big Five Factors(see page 497)

Identifies the location of an individual’s personality on the spectrum of the 5 Factors:

1. Conscientiousness

2. Agreeableness

3. Neuroticism

4. Openness

5. Extraversion

The Social-Cognitive Perspective

Albert Bandura

Social-Cognitive Perspective• The interaction between traits and various scenarios.• Example: A person who tends to be quiet-natured or shy may:

Not interact with more than 2 or 3 at a party.Not speak up to share his/her opinion at a public forum.Be talkative and quite funny during a sleep over with 2 friends he/she knew since kindergarten.

• Reciprocal Determinism – combination of one’s natural behavior(s), personal factors (i.e. perception of self/others, role, etc.) and environmental influences (i.e. Role and dynamics of family, school/work, community).1. Environments can be chosen (friends, entertainment venues, schools, music, reading), which

then influences you.

2. Personalities influence how we perceive and react to events.

3. Personalities influence the situations to which we react.

Personal Control• Internal Locus of Control vs. External Locus of Control• Internal belief that you control your own destiny• External belief that outside forces determines your destiny

• Benefits of Personal Control1. Feeling of autonomy2. Feeling of self-efficacy3. Problem-focused/Solution-oriented4. Optimism vs. Pessimism• Optimism leads to better health and general perception of life and

possibilities• Pessimism leads to altered health and negative perception of life and

possibilities

Assessment of Behaviors in SituationsDiscuss with a neighbor…

•Psychologists seek to identify, predict, and then influence behaviors.• Scenario #1: Stephen is sitting within a group of 20-25 year olds. The conversation is

focused on the frustrations each of them are experiencing at work. He notices that most of the group members are inserting “jokes” about the challenges on the job, while one person is becoming increasingly agitated and loud. Stephen finds himself drawn to comments of the one person who is visibly and audibly agitated. What might be some ways that Stephen can empathize with that person and help influence his/her mood to gravitate to one of optimism?

• Scenario #2: Melissa lives with her grandmother, who tends to have an excitable personality in times of family hardships or any major life changes. Melissa received news from her Aunt Kathleen that the family has decided that paying the taxes on the family land had become too much and the family has agreed to sell the land at the auction next month. How might Melissa break the news to her grandmother in a manner which will not over-excite her?

Exploring the Self• Self: the essence of who we are; organizer of thoughts, feelings, behaviors

• Self-esteem self-worth

• Self-serving bias tendency to slant events or perception so as not to take responsibilities for failures; but to take credit for successes

• Most people see themselves with a distorted perception than how others see them.• Ex: Overestimate or underestimate one’s importance, role, status

• Individualism vs. Collectivism:• Individualism mostly concerned about oneself and one’s success; the success of a group or the

family may be secondary• Collectivism mostly concerned about the success of the group or the family; one’s personal

success or goals may be secondary