Goal

• Categorize people • Predictions about people• Specify differences among people

Personality Defined

• Unique psychological qualities of an individual that influences a variety of characteristic behavior pattern across different situations over time

Personality Types

• Distinct patterns of personality characteristics used to assign people to categories

• Qualitative differences rather than differences in degree, used to discriminate among people

Personality Phrenology

• Study of skull shape/bumps

Hippocrates (5 BC)

• 1st to introduced personality types• Types: Blood, Phlegm, Black Bile, Yellow Bile

William Sheldon (1942)

• Physique to temperament– Endomorphic (fat, soft, round)• Relaxed sociable

– Mesomorphic (muscular, strong, rectangular)• Energy, courage, assertive

– Ectomorphic (thin, long, fragile)• Brainy, artistic, introverted

Frank Sulloway (1996)

• Birth order– 1st or only-niche already made– 2nd born-need to create niche

Traits

• Enduring personal qualities or attributes that influence behavior across situations

Gordon Alport (1937-1966)

• Cardinal traits– What person organizes their life around

• Central traits– Represent major characteristics of a person

• Secondary traits– Specific personal features “The same fire that

melts butter hardens the egg”

Hans Esenck (1973-1990)

• Extraversion– Internally vs. externally orientated

• Neuroticism– Emotionally stable vs. unstable

• Psychoticism– Kind/considerate vs. aggressive/antisocial

5 factor model

• Extraversion– Talkative, energetic, assertive vs. introversion-quiet, shy,

reserved

• Agreeable– Sympathetic, kind and affectionate vs. cold quarrelsome

and cruel

• Conscientiousness– Organized, responsible and cautious vs. careless, frivolous

and irresponsible

5 factor model

• Neuroticism– Stable, calm and contented vs. anxious, unstable

and temporal• Openness to experience– Creative, intellectual and open minded vs. simple,

shallow, and unintelligent

Trait Habitability

• Influenced by genetic factors (twin studies)

Traits and Predictions

• Consistency paradox– Observation that personality ratings across

time+among different observers are consistent, while behavior rating across situations are not consistent

Traits and Predictions

• Areas of predictability– Cognitive, social, self regulatory, physical strength,

motor coordination• Shyness– Individuals discomfort and or inhibition in

interpersonal situations that interferes with pursuing interpersonal or professional goals

– Born, nurture, cultural, technological

Psychodynamic Theories

• Assume that personality is shaped by and behavior is motivated by powerful inner forces

• Freud’s Drivers• Eros– Sexual urges, preserves species

• Libido– Psychic energy that drives individuals toward sensual

pleasures of al types, especially sexual ones• Thantos– Self-preservation

Psychosexual Stages of Development

• Oral (0-1)• Anal (2-3)• Phallic (4-5)– Oedipal / Electra complexes

• Latency (6-12)• Genital (13-18)– Fixation-person remains attached to objects or activities

more appropriate for an earlier stage of psychosexual development

Psycho Determinism

• Mental and behavioral reactions are determined by previous experiences

Unconscious

• Domain of psyche that stores repressed urges and primitive impulses

Freud’s Personality Structure

• Id– Primitive unconscious part of the personality that

operates irrationality and acts on impulse to purse pleasure

Freud’s Personality Structure

• Superego– Represents the internalization of society’s values,

standards and morals

Freud’s Personality Structure

• Ego– Reality principle– Conscious– Moderates Id/Superego– Self preservation, directs instinctual drives, urges

into appropriate channels

Ego Defense

• Mental strategies used by the ego to defend itself against conflicts experienced in the normal course of life

• Anxiety – Intense emotional response caused by the

preconscious recognition that a repressed conflict is about to emerge into consciousness

Post-Freudian Theories (NeoFreudians)

• Emphasis on Ego: Function, defenses, development of self, conscious thought processes and personal mastery

• Added social variables (culture, family)• Less emphasis on sexual energy• Life span beyond childhood

Alfred Adler (1929)

• Inferiority complex– Driven by feelings of inferiority

Carl Jung (1959)

• Collective unconscious– Part of the individual’s unconscious that is

inherited, evolutionarily developed and common to all members of the species

Carl Jung (1959)

• Archetypes– Universal, inherited, primitive and symbolic

representation of a particular experience or object

Carl Jung (1959)

• Analytic Psychology– Branch of psychology that views the person as a

constellation of compensatory internal forces in a dynamic balance

Humanistic Theories

• Humans naturally good, striving for self actualization (Maslow)– Person’s constant striving to realize his or their

own potential and to develop inherent talents and capabilities

• Unique tendencies

Carl Rogers (1947-77)

• Organism• Self• Conditional positive regard– Given to people with conditioning

• Unconditional positive regard– Complete love and acceptance of an individual by

another person– No conditions attached

Karen Horney (1939)

• Challenged Freud's issues on the focus of the penis

Karen Horney (1950)

• “real self”– Need favorable atmosphere to develop• Warmth, goodwill, love

– Get away from due to anxiety• Idealized self image “search for glory”• Tyranny of should

– I.e. beautiful, perfect, etc.

Karen Horney (1950)

• Holistic-separate acts as part of whole personality

Karen Horney (1950)

• Dispositional-focus on inner qualities that create actions

Karen Horney (1950)

• Phenomenological-individuals frame of reference

Karen Horney (1950)

• Existential– Rollo May (1995)– Higher mental processes

Karen Horney (1950)

• Psychobiography-these use of psychological theory to describe and explain an individual’s course through out life– Life story

Social Learning and Cognitive Theories

• Look at environmental factors• Social imitation• How we use or mental (mind) to manipulate

the environment

Walter Mischel (1995)

• How behavior arises as a function of interactions between persons and situations

Albert Bandura (1986)

• Reciprocal determinism– Complex reciprocal interaction exists among the

individual, his or her behavior, and environment all stimuli and that of each of these components affects the others

Albert Bandura (1986)

• Self-efficacy– Set of beliefs that one can perform adequately in a

particular situations– Includes perceptions, motivations– Judgments

• Vicarious experiences– View of others performances

• Persuasion– Others convince you

• Monitoring yourself (emotional)

Albert Bandura (1986)

• Outcome-based expectations (environmental)– Expectations of failure or success– Kind environment might try harder

Nancy Cantor (1987)

• Social intelligence– Refers to expertise people bring to their

experience of life task

Nancy Cantor (1987)

• 3 types of social intelligence– Choice of life• What is important to you

– Knowledge relevant to social interactions• Level of expertise

– Strategies for implementing goals• Problems solving strategies are all different

Criticisms of Social/Cognitive Theories

• Overlook emotions• Vagueness of explanation about the person’s

constructs and competencies are created

Self Theories William James (1890)

• Material me – body, physical• Spiritual me – thoughts, feelings• Social me – how others view you

Self Concept

• Person’s mental model of his or her abilities and attributes– Motivates, interprets, organizes, mediates,

regulates behavior

Hazel Markus (1986)

• Possible selves– Ideal selves that a person would like to becomes

the selves a person could become and the selves a person is afraid of becoming

– Components of the cognitive sense of self– Motivate you

Self-Esteem

• Generalized evaluative attitude toward the self that influences both moods and behaviors and that exerts a powerful effect on a range of personal and social behaviors

Self-Esteem

• Self handicapping– Process of developing in anticipation of failure,

behavioral reactions and explanations that minimize ability deficits as possible attributions for failure

– Ready made excuses– More likely when outcome will be public

Cultural Construction of self

• Western self– Individualistic 30%

Independent Construal of Self

• Orientated around one’s thoughts feelings and actions

• Collectivists 70%

Independent Construal of Self

• Collectivists– Needs of the group– Interdependent construal of self• Encompassing social relationships• Recognized that one’s behavior is determined,

contingent on and to a large extent organized by what the actor perceives to be the thoughts, feelings and actions of others

Twenty Statements Test (TST) 1934

• Kohn and McPartland– 20 different answers to “Who am I?”• Categories answers

– Social, ideological, interests, ambitions, self-evaluations

Comparing Personality Theories

• Heredity vs. Environmental (Nature/nurture)• Learning Process vs. Innate Laws of Behavior• Modified through society vs. internal time table• Emphasis on past, present, future• Consciousness vs. unconsciousness• Inner disposition vs. other situation

Assessment of Personality

• Personality inventory– Self report questionnaire used for personality assessment– Includes a series of items about personal thoughts,

feelings and behaviors– Most common

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)• 10-15 clinical scales• I.e. anxiety, type A, self esteem, anger bizarre

Neo-PI

• Neurotic, Extraversion, openness, agreeable conscientiousness

Projective Tests

• A standardized set of ambiguous, abstract stimuli is presented and asked to interpret their meanings

• Response reveals inner feelings, motives, conflicts• 1st used to get into unconscious

Therapeutic Appreciation Test (TAT)

• Henry Murray 1938– Ambiguous scenes asked to make up stories about

it

TAT

• http://nknau.blogspot.com/2009/08/thematic-appriciation-test-tat.html

Rorschach

• Rorschach– Hermann Rorschach 1921

• Ink blots– Location– Content– determinants

Rorschach

• http://www.deltabravo.net/custody/rorschach.php

Gnarls Barkley

• http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=1033619