Personality Characteristic pattern of thinking feeling and acting

Personality “Characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting. ” Four major perspectives on Personality Psychoanalytic - unconscious motivations Trait - specific dimensions of personality Humanistic - inner capacity for growth Social-Cognitive - influence of environment

What is Personality? s People differ from each other in meaningful ways s People seem to show some consistency in behavior Personality is defined as distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting

Personality • Personality refers to a person’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions • Personality is an interaction between biology and environment – Genetic studies suggest heritability of personality – Other studies suggest learned components of personality

Five Theories of Personality 1. Trait 2. Psychoanalytic 3. Humanistic 4. Learning 5. Socio-Cognitive

The First Trait Theory Moody Anxious Rigid Sober Pessimistic Reserved Unsociable Quiet UNSTABLE Touchy Restless Aggressive Excitable Changeable Impulsive Optimistic Active melancholic choleric INTROVERTED EXTRAVERTED phlegmatic sanguine Passive Careful Thoughtful Peaceful Controlled Reliable Even-tempered Calm Sociable Outgoing Talkative Responsive Easygoing Lively Carefree Leadership STABLE • Two Factor Trait Theory of Personality

Trait Perspective No hidden personality dynamics… just basic personality dimensions Traits - people’s characteristic behaviors & conscious motives How do we describe & classify different personalities? (Type A vs Type B or Depressed vs Cheerful? ) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - classify people based upon responses to 126 questions

Personality Traits • Traits are relatively stable and consistent personal characteristics • Trait personality theories suggest that a person can be described on the basis of some number of personality traits – Allport identified some 4, 500 traits – Cattel used factor analysis to identify 30 -35 basic traits – Eysenck argued there are 3 distinct traits in personality • Extraversion/introversion • Neuroticism • Psychotocism Allport

Overview of the Big “ 5”

Assessing Traits: An Example • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) – the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests – developed to identify emotional disorders

MMPI: examples • “Nothing in the newspaper interests me except the comics. ” • “I get angry sometimes. ”

Are There “Basic” Traits? What trait “dimensions” describe personality? Combination of 2 or 3 genetically determined dimensions Expanded set of factors “The Big 5” Extraversion/Introversion Emotional Stability/Instability

Psychoanalytic Perspective “first comprehensive theory of personality” University of Vienna 1873 Voracious Reader Medical School Graduate (1856 -1939) Specialized in Nervous Disorders Some patients’ disorders had no physical cause!

Psychoanalytic Perspective “first comprehensive theory of personality” Q: What caused neurological symptoms in patients with no neurological problems? Hypnosis “Psychoanalysis” Unconscious Free Association

The Unconscious “the mind is like an iceburg - mostly hidden” Conscious Awareness small part above surface (Preconscious) Unconscious below the surface (thoughts, feelings, wishes, memories) Repression banishing unacceptable thoughts & passions to unconscious Dreams & Slips

Freud & Personality Structure “Personality arises from conflict twixt agressive, pleasure-seeking impulses and social restraints” Satisfaction without the guilt? Super Ego Id

Freud & Personality Structure Id - energy constantly striving to satisfy basic drives Pleasure Principle Ego - seeks to gratify the Id in realistic ways Reality Principle Super Ego Id Super Ego - voice of conscience that focuses on how we ought to behave

Freud & Personality Development “personality forms during the first few years of life, rooted in unresolved conflicts of early childhood” Psychosexual Stages Oral (0 -18 mos) - centered on the mouth Anal (18 -36 mos) - focus on bowel/bladder elim. Phallic (3 -6 yrs) - focus on genitals/“Oedipus Complex” (Identification & Gender Identity) Latency (6 -puberty) - sexuality is dormant Genital (puberty on) - sexual feelings toward others Strong conflict can fixate an individual at Stages 1, 2 or 3

Defense Mechanisms Ego Id When the inner war gets out of hand, the result is Anxiety Ego protects itself via Defense Mechanisms Super Ego Defense Mechanisms reduce/redirect anxiety by distorting reality

Assessing the Unconscious-Rorschach used to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

The Unconscious & Assessment How can we assess personality? (i. e. , the unconscious) Objective Tests? No - tap the conscious Projective Tests? Yes - tap the unconscious Thematic Apperceptions Test (TAT) Rorschach Inkblot Test

Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective Were Freud’s theories the “best of his time” or were they simply incorrect? Current research contradicts many of Freud’s specific ideas Development does not stop in childhood Slips of the tongue are likely competing “nodes” in memory network Dreams may not be unconscious drives and wishes

Freud’s Ideas as Scientific Theory Theories must explain observations and offer testable hypotheses Few Objective Observations Few Hypotheses (Freud’s theories based on his recollections & interpretations of patients’ free associations, dreams & slips o’ the tongue) Does Not PREDICT Behavior or Traits

3. Humanistic Theory • Humanistic personality theories reject psychoanalytic notions – Humanistic theories view each person as basically good and that people are striving for self-fulfillment – Humanistic theory argues that people carry a perception of themselves and of the world – The goal for a humanist is to develop/promote a positive self-concept

Humanistic Perspectives s Carl Rogers – We have needs for: • Self-consistency (absence of conflict between selfperceptions • Congruence (consistency between self-perceptions and experience) – Inconsistency evokes anxiety and threat – People with low self-esteem generally have poor congruence between their self-concepts and life experiences.

The Humanistic Perspective Maslow’s Self-Actualizing Person Roger’s Person-Centered Perspective “Healthy” rather than “Sick” Individual as greater than the sum of test scores

Humanistic Perspectives ▲Abraham Maslow emphasized the basic goodness of human nature and a natural tendency toward self-actualization.

Maslow & Self-Actualization the process of fufilling our potential • Studied healthy, creative people Esteem • Abe Lincoln, Tom Jefferson & Eleanor Roosevelt Love Needs • Self-Aware & Self-Accepting Safety • Open & Spontaneous Physiological • Loving & Caring • Problem-Centered not Self-Centered

Roger’s Person-Centered Perspective People are basically good with actualizing tendencies. Given the right environmental conditions, we will develop to our full potentials Genuineness, Acceptance, Empathy Self Concept - central feature of personality (+ or -)

Assessing & Evaluating the Self ? ? Primarily through questionnaires in which people report their self-concept. X Concepts are vague & subjective. Assumptions are naïvely optimistic. Also by understanding others’ subjective personal experiences during therapy

1925 -present Social Learning Theory By: Albert Bandura

Bandura’s Early Life • 1925 -present

4. Definition of Social Learning Theory • “According to social learning theory, behavior is learned symbolically through central processing of response information before it is performed. By observing a model of the desired behavior, an individual forms an idea of how response components must be combined and sequenced to produce the new behavior. ” p.

Modeling • “…most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. ” p. • Bobo Doll Experiment

Reinforcement • “Reinforcement does play a role in observational learning, but mainly as an antecedent rather than a consequent influence. ”

Processes of Social Learning Theory – Attentional Processes – Retention Processes – Motor Reproduction Processes – Motivational Processes

Social-Cognitive Perspective Behavior learned through conditioning & observation What we think about our situation affects our behavior Interaction of Environment & Intellect

Reciprocal Determinism Personal/ Cognitive Factors Environment Factors Behavior Internal World + External World = Us