Personality Theories PSY 3320 Theories of Personality What

Personality Theories PSY 3320 Theories of Personality

What is personality? �Not a readily defined concept �Little common agreement among personality theorists on the appropriate use of the term �However, about. com provides a definition of personality that says, “personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make a person unique. ”

Personality Theories Psychoanalytic Social-Cognitive and Behaviorist Humanistic

Psychoanalytic Personality Theorists Sigmund Freud Neo Freudians Carl Jung Alfred Adler Karen Horney Eric Fromm Erikson

Social-cognitive and Behaviorist Personality Theorists Jean Piaget Albert Bandura Ivan Pavlov B. F. Skinner

Humanistic Personality Theorists Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud Born in 1856 Started in medical school studying neurology First practiced neuropsychiatry

Sigmund Freud Personality is made up of 3 interacting components Id Ego Superego

Sigmund Freud Compared the mind to an iceberg made up of 3 levels Conscious Preconscious Unconscious

Freud’s 3 levels of the mind Conscious—our current thoughts, feelings, desires, memories, etc…everything we are aware of at any given moment

Freud’s 3 levels of the mind Preconscious—closely associated with the conscious mind Anything that one is not currently aware of but can easily be recalled into the conscious mind

Freud’s 3 levels of the mind Unconscious—biggest part of the mind Includes everything that one may not be aware of like drives and instincts and also things that one may have unknowingly repressed for some reason

Freud: Mind is an iceberg

3 components of personality Id—basic instinctual drives Pleasure principle Subjective reality Immediate gratification

3 components of personality Ego—develops to realistically deal with the Id Reality principle Objective reality Delayed gratification

3 components of personality Superego—represents internalized values, ideals, and moral standards Sets the limits Controls Provides feeling of guilt

Ego conflict The Ego must create a balance between the pleasure seeking Id and the Superego Sometimes keeping this balance can become very difficult for the ego and can create anxiety Freud identified 3 different forms of anxiety

Anxiety Reality anxiety Fear of something real Example: fear of failing a test if one has not studied

Anxiety Moral anxiety Feelings of anxiety that originate in the superego Examples include feelings of shame, guilt, etc

Anxiety Neurotic anxiety Fear of being overwhelmed by internal drives, impulses, etc Example: fear of “losing one’s mind”

Defense Mechanisms To deal with this anxiety, the ego develops defense mechanisms to keep anxiety from taking over

Defense Mechanisms Repression—unconscious repressing of a traumatic event, desire, etc Denial—not accepting the reality of something Regression—acting in a child-like way like an adult having a temper tantrum

Defense Mechanisms continued Displacement—taking one’s anxiety and redirecting it on to someone or something else Sublimation—taking something unpleasant and turning it into something productive and useful Retrogression—trying to get back to a specific age

Example of Displacement

Defense Mechanisms continued Reaction formation—one’s behavior is opposite of the way they really feel Projection—take any unacceptable impulses and attribute them to something else Rationalization—coming up with reasons to justify something…making up lies that we want to believe

Freud’s Stage Theory Freud’s Psychosexual stages of Development Put emphasis on sexuality Claimed that depending on our age and what stage we are in, we have different erogenous zones If we become frustrated or overindulged at any particular stage we may become fixated on that stage

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Oral stage (birth to 18 months)* Erogenous zone: mouth Associated with weaning * Ages are approximate

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Anal Stage (18 months to 4) Erogenous zone: anus Associated with potty training

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Phallic stage (3— 5 -6) Oedipus complex (boys) Castration anxiety—fear of losing one’s penis Electra complex (girls) Penis envy—according to Freud, girls apparently want a penis

Oedipus Complex

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Latency stage (6 -puberty) Once children go to school they can focus their energy on learning

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Genital stage (puberty-adulthood) Pleasure is derived from sexual intercourse

Freud’s Psychosexual stages of Development

Neo Freudians Carl Jung Alfred Adler Karen Horney Eric Fromm

Neo Freudians generally disagreed with Freud on at least one of several different issues 1. Freud’s emphasis on sexual drives 2. Freud’s belief that human nature is naturally evil 3. Freud’s failure to acknowledge adult experiences as a potential influence on an individual’s personality

Neo Freudians

Carl Jung

Carl Jung Follower of Freud Disagreed with Freud over sexual drives Founded analytic psychology

Carl Jung �Psyche—all psychological processes, thoughts, feelings, etc �Viewed the unconscious as a source of consciousness �Libido—an undifferentiated energy that moves a person forward �This is a different definition than Freud who viewed libido as a sexual impulse or drive

Personal Unconscious vs. Collective Unconscious Personal unconscious An individual’s history that has been repressed or forgotten Jung’s personal unconscious was the same as Freud’s

Personal Unconscious vs. Collective Unconscious Personal unconscious Example: an idea an individual has of their OWN mother—nurturing, strict, etc

Personal Unconscious vs. Collective Unconscious Collective unconscious Universal forms of thought an individual may have about any given idea (archetypes) Example: a general idea an individual may have about a mother figure—kind, nurturing, caring

Carl Jung Archetypes Universal symbols Stereotypical ways of looking at something

Archetypes Jung identified 4 different archetypes although he believed there could be an infinite number of archetypes 1. The Self 2. The Shadow 3. The Persona 4. The Anima or Animus

Archetypes The Self Central archetype that is the combination of the unconscious and conscious True midpoint of personality A Mandela is a symbol of the self

Archetypes The Shadow Made up of repressed and unsocial thoughts, feelings, and behaviors Dark side of the psyche Unknown to most individuals although it can appear in dreams

Archetypes The Persona Social role Our way of presenting ourselves to society One’s persona or way of presenting themselves can change depending on what social setting and/or situation they are in

Archetypes The Anima or Animus—one’s true self Can be different than the self one presents to the world Anima Feminine side of male psyche Animus Masculine side of female psyche

Archetypes Other possible archetypes Father—strong, provider, head of family Grandparents—doting, loving, generous Youngest child—spoiled, baby, etc

Alfred Adler Neo Freudian who disagreed with Freud in that Freud did not focus on the importance of an individual’s culture and society on the development of their personality

Alfred Adler Defined social interest as: A desire innate in individuals to adjust themselves to whatever conditions exist at the present in their social environment Defined fictional finalism as: Belief that individuals have where they think of future events or ideas as being definite even though there is no way to definitely predict our personal future

Alfred Adler’s Psychotherapy Adler’s therapy mainly consisted of getting people to realize they may have unrealistic life goals Neuroses He tried to get people to return to a sense of reality

Karen Horney (1885 -1952)

Karen Horney Radical feminist who disagreed with the Freudian perspective Theory of neuroses and defense attitudes Countered Freud’s “penis envy” with “womb envy”

Karen Horney Womb envy Women have a higher, more important role in that they can give birth to children This explains the high achievements of men because they have to make up in other areas for the fact that they cannot give birth

Karen Horney Defense attitudes Attitudes we develop to allow us to deal with all the anxiety in the real world Should reduce anxiety

Karen Horney Identified 3 coping strategies 1. primary modes of relating 2. moving away 3. moving against

Karen Horney Made a distinction between one’s “real self” and “idealized self” Real self—acknowledging one’s own true unique talents Idealized self—what one thinks they should be

Real Self �Realized by those who live in harmony with their own uniqueness �Horney believed that all children are born with a drive toward self-realization �Believed that children’s relationships with their caretakers strongly influence whether they develop a real self

Real Self Will emerge naturally if children are allowed to grow and mature without hindrance Most important thing a parent can give their child is a sense of belonging

Real Self Sense of belonging can be realized if parents empathize with their children and are accepting and recognize that their children are unique individuals This will bring out a basic confidence in children Encourages the development of positive qualities

Self-realization This basic confidence allows for the development of positive qualities that Horney believes is a trademark of self-realization Examples of qualities of self-realizing children Openness to experience Ability to recognize their limitations Ability to be themselves Knowledge of who they are

Self-realization Poor parenting can harm the development of selfrealization in children Examples of poor parenting according to Horney: Apathy toward the child Ridicule Humiliation Favoring of another sibling

Self-realization Any one of the examples of poor parenting may not necessarily result in poor self-development Rather, the spirit in which parents care for their children and the atmosphere they create is extremely important

Idealized Self Used as a model that we create to help us continue striving toward our goals and fully realize our potential

Eric Fromm Worked closely with Karen Horney Talked about basic human conditions and needs Freedom Escape mechanisms

Eric Fromm Freedom—basic human condition part of a psychological problem Fromm believed that as people get more freedom, they also have increased feelings of separation and isolation He proposed 3 escape mechanisms that people use to escape from the burden of freedom

Escape Mechanisms Authoritarianism Escape from freedom by becoming part of a larger society either by becoming an authority or by allowing others to be an authority Destructiveness Escape from freedom by destroying something in the world or harming oneself Automation conformity Escape from freedom by blending in with the world

Erikson

Erikson Psychosocial Theory of Development Stage theory Each stage represents a new conflict that must be resolved in order to successfully move on to the next stage Stages extend from birth until death

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages �Stage 1 �Basic trust vs. basic mistrust (0 -1)* � Infants are helpless as in they rely on their caregiver for everything � Basic trust develops when the caregiver provides predictable, reliable, and consistent care � Basic mistrust develops when the caregiver does not consistently provide predictable, reliable, and consistent care � For example, the infant cries and no one comes to feed it, etc *ages are approximate

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages Stage 2 Autonomy vs. shame and self doubt (2 -3) Related to potty training Autonomy develops if the child understands that they are being potty trained in order to gain more self-control Shame and self doubt develops if their caregiver has a “do it or else” attitude

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages Stage 3 Initiative vs. guilt (3 -5) During this stage children have a lot of energy and enthusiasm but yet they still require the supervision of adults If caregivers are able to harness the child’s energy and enthusiasm and give them guidance than they will develop initiative However, if caregivers only punish children without providing proper guidance they will develop guilt

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages Stage 4 Industry vs. inferiority (5 -11) Children have a desire to feel like they are good at something If caregivers provide encouragement and help children to realize they are a valuable part of the community, they will develop industry However, if caregivers make fun of children’s skills or abilities, they will develop inferiority

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages Stage 5 Identity vs. role confusion (11 -18) The conflict during adolescence is finding out what one is going to do with their life Identity will develop if one successfully tries out new things and uses the feedback to figure out what they want to do and/or be Role confusion will prevail if one is unable to figure out what they want with their life

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages After Erikson’s first 5 stages, the conflicts are less intense and have no specific age associated with them.

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages Stage 6 Intimacy vs. isolation (early adulthood) This stage focuses on an individual’s ability to become part of a meaningful relationship Intimacy results if the individual is successful Isolation results if an individual fails to establish a relationship

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages Stage 7 Generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood) Generativity results if an individual feels they are being productive with their life Stagnation results if an individual feels like their life is progressing the way they want it to

Erikson’s Psychosocial stages Stage 8 Ego integrity vs. despair (late adulthood) Ego integrity results if an individual can look back on their life and feel like it was worth it Despair results if an individual looks back on their life and feels like they haven’t done anything productive

Erikson vs. Freud

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget Began as a biologist Claimed people are always striving to adapt and survive…believed this was an innate tendency Claimed that the reason we are always striving to adapt and survive is because of our reasoning skills

Jean Piaget Humans reasoning skills are what makes them different from other animals and organisms Epistemology—the study of knowledge or reason What individuals are or are not capable of knowing

Jean Piaget Dealt with cognitive development Growth of the mind Believed that mental development goes along with neurological development

Jean Piaget Believed development of the mind of a child happens in an orderly stage-like process Believed children are capable of grasping certain things at certain ages and not before

Jean Piaget Believed children are actively trying to understand become scientists Claimed that children are NOT a blank slate that everything needs to be pressed on This was contrary to the teachings of John Locke who maintained that children’s minds are a blank slate that can be molded into anything

Jean Piaget Defined “schemes” as basic structures or understandings of the mind Schemes are mental outlines about how some part of the world operates Children’s understanding of the world is dependent on the stage they are in For example, infant’s schemes include how to suck, throw, etc while an adult scheme may be how to operate a vehicle

Jean Piaget The mind is constantly forming and reforming schemes Cognitive disequilibrium—when an individual is confronted with a new situation there is a tendency to get frustrated Since individuals’ don’t like frustration, we either assimilate or accommodate to remove the frustration

Jean Piaget Once schemes are formed—like how to act in a classroom—we can form new schemes using the old ones (assimilation) or we may be forced to form completely new schemes (accommodation) when we are confronted with a new situation

Jean Piaget Assimilation Individual’s build on current schemes to adapt to a new experience With assimilation there is no need to relearn anything…just use an existing scheme

Jean Piaget Accommodation Either modify a scheme or create a brand-new scheme Accommodation occurs when an individual comes up against the limitations of their knowledge making it necessary to grow and mature through accommodation

Jean Piaget Children are able to assimilate and accommodate certain things at certain stages Piaget’s developed 4 stages of cognitive development

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev.

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. I. Sensorimotor Period (0 -2) Infants knowledge is mostly concerned with how they can move something How things in the world look and feel

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. 6 sub phases of the Sensorimotor Period 1. Reflex Activity (0 -1 month) Most of the child’s activities involves reflexes of some kind 2. Self-investigation (1 -4 mo. ) More intentional activity and primarily circular reactions May repeat the original movement that got whatever it is they want in the first place

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. 3. Coordination and Reading Out (4 -8 mo. ) Increase in myelin in the brain facilitates their ability to explore things in their environment 4. Purposeful co ordinations/goal directed behavior (8 - 12 mo. )

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. 5. Experimentation (12 -18 mo. ) Children play with objects just to see what happens Involves tertiary circular reactions 6. problem solving and mental combinations (18 -24 mo. ) Children are using symbolic representation (language) They can represent the world in words and images

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. During the Sensorimotor period children develop object permanence Object permanence is essential for acquiring language Object permanence is the realization that something exists even if they can’t see it No longer dependent on sensing and feeling

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev.

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. II Preoperational Period (2 -7) Children have a more abstract knowledge (thinking) However, their thinking is not logical and it is egocentric Egocentrism is where one’s outlook is entirely concerned with oneself…only see things from one’s own perspective

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. 2 sub phases of the Preoperational Period Pre-concepts (2 -4) Concepts are incomplete and biased Intuitive thought (4 -7)

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. Children during the Preoperational Period are biased toward their own first-person viewpoint Examples: They believe everything has feelings (talking trains and frogs make sense to them) They may think the moon is following them May cover their eyes with their hands because they believe that if they can’t see a person than the person can’t see them

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. At the end of the Preoperational Period, children should finally realize that reality goes beyond egocentrism and that there are other ways of viewing the world beyond their own thoughts, feelings, etc

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. III Concrete Operational Period (7 -11) This stage represents when a child first becomes a logical thinker Use of concrete logic Good way to teach kids fractions is by using pizza Use words like “take away” instead of subtract

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev.

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. Children have completely overcome their egocentric bias when they learn to conserve Conservation—based off of mental processes Example of a conservation task…fill up two short, fat cups with juice…then take one of the cups and pour the juice into a tall skinny cup…if the child realizes that both the short fat cup and the tall skinny cup has the same amount of fluid they can conserve

Piaget’s conservation task

Example: lack of conservation

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. Once children have learned to conserve, they have made it to the final stage of Piaget’s cognitive development stages.

Piaget’s stages of cognitive dev. IV Formal Operational Period (11+) Thinking is abstract—not necessarily tied to the concrete material world Ability to contemplate the future—hypothetical Discovers possibility

Criticism of Piaget’s stage theory Some have contended that children are capable of learning certain things before Piaget claims they can Example—a teacher-student relationship—students usually try to give a teacher the right answer, also, kids may not always know what they’re being asked

Alternatives to Piaget Vygotsky contended that there are not perfectly segmented stages of cognitive development Rather, it is better to talk about general zones Came up with scaffolding as a way to get through to children…talk to them on a level they can understand

Albert Bandura Social Learning Theory Observational learning or modeling Bobo doll example

Albert Bandura Bobo doll Bandura showed children a video of a woman beating up a bobo doll The children were then allowed to play in a playroom complete with a bobo doll

Albert Bandura Not surprisingly, many of the children then proceeded to beat up the bobo doll in a similar fashion to what they just observed in the video Bandura called this observational learning since the children basically copied the behavior of the woman in the video

Albert Bandura Observational Learning or Modeling The children in the bobo doll experiment were not given any reward to change their behavior Instead, all that was needed to change their behavior was to observe someone else doing the behavior

Albert Bandura �These results conflicted with Behaviorist Learning Theory � Behaviorists believe that individual’s learning behavior through a system of rewards and punishments � However, Bandura demonstrated that individual’s could also learn through modeling

Alfred Bandura Theory of Observational Learning Vicarious reinforcement—an individuals sees someone else being rewarded for a behavior which makes the individual more likely to perform the behavior

Alfred Bandura If role models provide vicarious reinforcement and an individual models them: Modeling effect—the individual wants the same reward the role model received Additionally, if a role model is punished for a negative behavior, an individual may not engage in that behavior because they don’t want the same punishment

Ivan Pavlov Russian physiologist Researched involuntary reflex actions Discovered what would become known as classical conditioning

Ivan Pavlov Classical Conditioning—type of learning where a behavior or response is automatically evoked by a stimulus that was originally induced by another stimulus Discovered some form of classical conditioning when working with dogs

Classical Conditioning Neutral stimulus Produces no particular response Unconditioned stimulus Automatically produces a particular response Conditioned stimulus Produced by a former neutral stimulus that has become conditioned by becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus

Classical Conditioning Unconditioned response An automatic response resulting from the unconditioned stimulus Conditioned response A response that has been learned and it results from the stimulus that used to be neutral

Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning Pavlov and his dog experiment Pavlov was able to make dogs salivate when they heard a bell He did this through classical conditioning He paired a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to evoke a conditioned response

Ivan Pavlov

Classical Conditioning Pavlov would put some food in front of his dogs and they would begin to salivate The food is the unconditioned stimulus and salivating is the unconditioned response He then would present food AND ring a bell at the same time and of course the dogs still salivated In the beginning the bell was the neutral stimulus

Classical Conditioning After presenting the food and ringing the bell together multiple times he eventually just rang the bell Not surprisingly, the dogs still salivated even though there was no food present

Classical Conditioning The bell that started out as the neutral stimulus became the conditioned stimulus after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus Therefore, the bell alone could now produce salivation which became the conditioned response to the bell This showed how stimulus-response bonds are created

Ivan Pavlov

B. F. Skinner Operant conditioning Reinforcement Punishment Schedules of reinforcement Shaping

Operant conditioning When organisms operate on the environment, there are effects These effects are known as consequences or reinforcers Consequences determines the predictability or the likelihood of a behavior

Operant vs. Classical Condition. Classical conditioning is an automatic stimulusresponse type of learning Whereas Operant conditioning is where rewards or punishments increase or decrease the likelihood of someone repeating the behavior

Classical vs. Operant Condition.

Operant Conditioning Two types of consequences Punishment (not necessarily something negative) Reinforcement (reward)

Operant Conditioning Punishment—decrease in the probability that the behavior will happen again Positive punishment Decrease likelihood of a behavior by giving or inflicting something bad Negative punishment Decrease likelihood of a behavior by removing something good

Operant Conditioning Reinforcement—increase in the likelihood of a behavior happening again Positive reinforcement Increase likelihood of a behavior by giving something good Negative reinforcement Increase likelihood of a behavior by removing something bad

Operant Conditioning

Schedules of Reinforcement �Fixed interval �Reward will occur on a regular basis after a certain (and always the same) amount of time—this amount of time could be every half hour, every week, every month, etc. �Variable interval �Reward will occur on a regular basis after a specific amount of time. However, the amount of time may change—it could be every half hour, every week, OR every month, etc.

Schedules of Reinforcement �Fixed Ratio �Reward is given based on the behavior happening a certain amount of times—it could be after the behavior happens 5 times, etc. �Variable Ratio �Reward is given based on the behavior happening a certain amount of times but it is not known when during those times the reward will be given—it could be once every 5 times but on the 4 th time one time and on the 3 rd time the next time

Shaping Use of “successive approximations” Idea is to train bit by bit—first get the individual or animal to do a behavior that’s only somewhat similar to the end target, then keep changing the behavior to be more and more similar to the end target

Shaping Example: 1. train a dog to come into a room and give them a treat 2. train a dog to come into a room and go to a specific spot and give them a treat 3. train a dog to come into a room, go to a specific spot, and sit down and give them a treat This could keep going on until whatever behavior someone wants is achieved

Abraham Maslow Developed hierarchy of needs On the bottom are basic needs we need to survive (breathing, drinking, eating, etc. ) Once those needs are fulfilled we have other needs (safety, etc. ) Once we have made it to the top we have a need of selfactualization

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow Self actualization In order to reach this level all other needs must be met Self actualization involves always striving to be the best one can possibly be—fulfilling one’s potential

Carl Rogers Believed that a developing person has an inherent need and desire to fulfill one’s own potential Actualizing tendency—always striving to become one’s ideal self Ideal self What each individual strives to become

Carl Rogers Everyone is born with a self-actualizing tendency This does not mean everyone successfully becomes his/her ideal self Parents who provide their children with unconditional love create an environment conducive to healthy development

Carl Rogers Children who think their parents are not providing them with unconditional love, may change their behavior to what they think will make their parents love them This may create confusion for the child since they are not acting like themselves but rather are acting as what their parents want them to be

Carl Rogers This confusion can also become anxiety for the child because they may feel if they stop acting in the way they believe their parents want them to, their parents may stop loving them Self-actualizing then becomes fake because it is opposite of the child’s real wants and feelings

Carl Rogers This will create an incongruence between the real self and the ideal self which in turn causes confusion and anxiety This is, of course, harmful to the healthy development of the self

Congruent vs. Incongruent

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