Emphasize that personality is primarily unconscious, or beyond awareness
Emphasize that personality is primarily unconscious, or beyond awareness
Copyright McGraw-Hill, Inc. 2013
Copyright McGraw-Hill, Inc. 2013
Chapter 10
Personality
Copyright McGraw-Hill, Inc. 2013
Chapter Preview
- In this chapter we will review historical and contemporary approaches to the study of personality
- This is an interesting domain, because personality is one of the most distinctive aspects of being human. It has generated some of the more provocative theoretical thinking in the history of the field (though much of the more interesting theory has not held up under scientific scrutiny).
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Personality
- For our purposes, we will define personality as a pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors which characterize how an individual adapts to the world
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Psychodynamic Perspectives
- Emphasize that personality is primarily unconscious, or beyond awareness
- There are other psychodynamic theorists besides Freud, however he is the most famous
- Horney, Jung and Adler are psychodynamic revisionists (argued against Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and added to the psychodynamic body of work)
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Psychodynamic Perspectives
- According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
Sexual drive is the most important human motivator and the main determinant of personality
- Freud (1856-1939) was a product of the Victorian society in which he lived. Many of his theories were centered around the ideas of male superiority- ideas that were clearly a reflection of his culture, but have not endured over time.
Class and Sex role expectations were rigid. (Titanic)
The idea of wanting to break free – that unconscious impulses regarding sex and aggression were warring with society-approved expectations made sense in that context.
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Psychodynamic Perspectives
- Freud had some strange ideas –
- Oedipus complex (boy wants sex with mother)
- Castration anxiety – fears castration by his father for these desires
- Boy identifies with father and takes on male gender role in reaction to fear of castration. What??
- Girls/Women did not go through this process since they lacked a penis – and were said to have “penis envy”
- It’s not anatomy, Freud. They just wanted the same privileges males received (Male Privilege)
- Example of early women psychology pioneers who had to choose between marriage and career – while male counterparts could freely have both.
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Structures of Personality
- Freud says personality is comprised of three main structures:
Id (devil on your shoulder)
- Consists of unconscious drives
- Reservoir of sexual energy
- Works according to pleasure principle
Ego
- Deals with demands of reality
- Abides by the reality principle
Superego (angel on your shoulder)
- Evaluates morality of behavior
- Reflected in “conscience”
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Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development
- Freud’s model is centered on a stage-based model of development
- Adult personality is determined by the way conflicts are resolved between early sources of pleasure and demands of reality
- Stages are:
Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital
- Review these in your book, understand each stage at a general level
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Defense Mechanisms
- Tactics used to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality are called “defense mechanisms”
- Denial – refuse to acknowledge anxiety-filled reality (cancer diagnosis)
- Projection – see the “flaws” in others that we fear/despise in ourselves (homosexual tendencies)
- Repression – push memories into the unconscious mind (sexual abuse victims)
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Critics & Revisionists of Freud
- Critics argue that sexuality is not a pervasive force behind personality, and that the first five years are not as powerful in shaping adult personality as Freud claimed
Ego and conscious thought are more dominant
Sociocultural factors are more important than Freud acknowledged
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Copyright McGraw-Hill, Inc. 2013
Other Psychodynamic Theories
- Horney’s Sociocultural Approach emphasizes sociocultural influences on personality development
Both sexes envy attributes of other
- Women Status bestowed upon men
- Men Reproductive capabilities of women
Need for security, not sex, as prime motive
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Jung’s Analytical Theory
- Believed Freud underestimated the importance of the unconscious in personality.
- Emphasized the importance of the collective unconscious
Impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind, reflecting cultural memories and archetypes
- Archetypes are emotionally laden ideas having symbolic meaning. Examples include:
Female, passive anima and assertive, male animus
Persona – public mask which hides true, inner feelings
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Copyright McGraw-Hill, Inc. 2013
Adler’s Individual Psychology
- People motivated by purposes, goals
Perfection, not pleasure, as key motivator
We are motivated by compensation – an attempt to overcome inferiorities by developing abilities
Birth order can influence success by forcing siblings to strive for superiority
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Commonalities of
Psychodynamic Perspectives
- Although science has generally not supported the psychodynamic theories, some of their commonalities have led to enduring themes within the domain of personality psychology:
Personality determined by early life experiences
Examining personality as a series of stages
Mental transformation of experiences for meaning
Unconscious motives lie behind some of our behavior
Inner world conflicts with outer demands of reality, creating anxiety
Personality and adjustment as topics for psychological inquiry
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Psychodynamic Perspectives
- Criticisms
Too much faith in the unconscious mind
Too much emphasis on sexuality
Much of what these models claim cannot be tested empirically
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Humanistic Perspectives
- Emphasize person’s capacity for personal growth and positive human qualities
- Our personality is driven by our ability to:
Control our lives
Achieve what we desire
- Significant figures include Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
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Maslow’s Approach
- Emphasized pursuit of self-actualization (see previous chapter) as central to personality
- Saw self-actualizers as spontaneous, creative, and possessing a childlike capacity for awe
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Rogers’ Approach
- Adaptive personality develops within a context of unconditional positive regard
A state of being accepted, valued, and treated positively, with no conditions of worth attached
Self-concept is a representation of who we are and who we wish to be
Positive self concept develops when we interact with people with empathy and genuineness
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Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives
- Common themes:
Perceiving self and world as essential element of personality
Consider whole person and positive bent of human nature
Emphasis on conscious experience
- Criticisms:
Too optimistic, overestimating freedom and rationality
Promoting excessive self-love and narcissism
Not holding individuals accountable for their behaviors
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Trait Perspectives
- Trait perspectives have been the most dominant contemporary approach to the study of personality
Traits are mental structures that make different situations the same for the person; essentially, they are our broad, enduring characteristics, reflected informally in the adjectives we may use to describe ourselves and others
Compare to states, which are fleeting – you may be a generally happy person (trait) but that doesn’t you won’t occasionally be in an unhappy state
- Gordon Allport advocated trait theory as an alternative to the negative, unconscious-driven models of the Freudians
Focused on healthy, well-adjusted individuals, the uniqueness of each person and people’s capacity to adapt
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Five-Factor Model
- One set of extensively studied traits is the Big Five or Five Factor Model (be sure to focus on these in your reading):
- OCEAN
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
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Five-Factor Model
- Researchers have found evidence of five factors of personality in different cultures and in some animal species
- Some correlate with early childhood temperament
- Strong relationship between personality traits and well-being
Extraversion Higher levels of well-being
Neuroticism Lower levels of well-being
- Be sure to study this in depth in your book
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Trait Perspectives
- Focus more on the practical value of personality traits, and the connections between personality traits and:
Health
Career success
Relations with others
- Criticisms
Trait theories may miss the importance of situational factors
Paint personality with very broad strokes
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Personological Approach
- Henry Murray proposed personology as the study of the whole person
“The history of the organism is the organism” – essentially, you are the sum product of your history
- Developed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) to help measure of motives that are largely unknown to us
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Life Story Approach
- Dan McAdams
Our life stories are our identities
Conducted life story interviews, then analyzed them for themes relevant to life stages and transitions
Highlighted importance of the intimacy motive, and enduring concern for warm interpersonal encounters
- Psychobiography
Means of inquiry that applies personality theory to a single person’s life
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Life Story Approach
- This approach provides a rich opportunity for researchers to learn a lot from individuals.
- However, there are criticisms
The approach is difficult and time-consuming
Psychobiographical inquiries are prone to biases, and may not serve the scientific goal of generalizability to other individuals
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Social Cognitive Perspectives
- Formal behaviorism does not focus much on personality, as it is an internal state. However, the social cognitive perspective incorporates principles from behaviorism.
- Emphasizes conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations and goals
- Explores ability to reason, think about past, present and future, and to reflect on the self
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Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
- Reciprocal determinism
Personality is a product of the interaction between behavior, environment, and the person and cognitive factors
- Observational learning plays an important role
- Personal control also important
Internal locus of control
External locus of control
Our response and use of these is affected by our sense of self-efficacy
- Belief that one can master situation and produce positive change
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Walter Mischel
- Criticized social cognitive model as claiming too much consistency within behavior
Argued there was no evidence of cross-situational consistency
Instead advocated situationism, the idea that personality and behavior vary from one context to another
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Mischel’s Contributions
- CAPS theory
Cognitive Affective Processing Systems – thoughts and emotions about self/world affect behavior
Concerned with how personality works; studied it via delayed gratification research
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Evaluation of Social Cognitive Perspectives
- Common themes:
Focus on interactions of person with environment
Highlight observation of behavior
Emphasize influence of cognitive processes
- Criticisms
Concern with change and situational influences ignores role of biology in personality
Makes generalizations impossible
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Biological Perspectives
- Reticular activating system (RAS)
Located in the brain stem
Plays role in wakefulness or arousal; arousal is then linked to many aspects of human behavior
- Eysenck’s RAS theory
We all share optimal arousal level; however, the RAS of extraverts and introverts may differ in baseline levels of arousal
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Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity
- Two main biological systems drive personality:
Behavior activation system (BAS)
- Sensitive to rewards
- Predisposition to positive emotion
- Underlies extraversion
- Behavioral inhibition system (BIS)
- Sensitive to punishers
- Predisposition to fear
- Underlies neuroticism
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Role of Neurotransmitters
- Dopamine
Function in experience of reward
Factor in BAS or extraversion
- Serotonin
Related to neuroticism
Less serotonin is correlated with more negative mood
Inhibition of serotonin reuptake decreases negative mood and enhances feelings of sociability
- This is the mechanism that is believed to be affected by drugs such as Prozac
- However, cause and effect in role of neurotransmitters is hard to identify
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Behavior Genetics
- Study of inherited underpinnings of behavioral characteristics
- Twin studies have found that
Genetic factors explain differences in big five traits
Autobiographical memories influenced by genetics
- Role of genetic factors enormously complex
Genes and environments intertwined; both drive interactions with each other, so pure cause-effect conclusions are difficult to draw
Most traits are influenced by multiple genes
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Biological Perspectives
- Common themes
Personality tied to :
- Animal learning models
- Advances in brain imaging
- Evolutionary theory
- Cautions
Biology can be effect, not cause, of personality
Question of whether personality can change throughout life
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Personality Assessment
- Rigorous methods for measuring mental processes
- Assess personality for different reasons (e.g. diagnosis, research, job placement)
- Different methods include:
Self-report tests
Projective tests
Other assessment methods
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Self-Report Tests
- Directly ask people whether different items describe their personality traits
- One challenge is social desirability
Individuals are motivated to respond in ways that make them look better; thus, they may be more likely to lie about negative traits, and give self-serving inflations of positive traits
May be addressed by give questionnaire designed to tap into tendency
- Design scales so it is impossible to tell what is being measured
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Self-Report Tests
- MMPI – Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Most widely used and researched empirically-keyed self-report personality test
Used to assess personality and predict outcomes
- NEO-PI-R
Geared toward assessing the five-factor model
Includes items with face validity
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Projective Tests
- Present individuals with ambiguous stimulus
- Ask them to describe it, or tell a story about it
- Especially designed to elicit unconscious feelings and conflicts
- Theoretically aligned with psychodynamic perspectives on personality
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Projective Tests
- Rorschach inkblot test
Responses are scored based on indications of various underlying psychological characteristics
Reliability and validity criticized
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Designed to elicit stories that reveal personality
Greater reliability and validity
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Other Assessment Methods
- Measuring behavior directly
- Cognitive assessments
- Friend or peer ratings
- Psychophysiological measures