Theories of Personality An individuals characteristic pattern of

Theories of Personality An individuals characteristic pattern of thinking, acting, and feeling

Figure 15. 7 The biopsychosocial approach to the study of personality Myers: Psychology, Eighth Edition Copyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Psychoanalytic perspective � Sigmund Freud- Austrian founder of psychoanalysis � Techniques included: ◦ Free association to unlock the unconscious motivators ◦ Freud believed that the chain of thought leading to the unconscious would reveal memories that were painful and that trauma could be released

Freud’s idea of mind structure � “iceberg theory”- the mind is mostly made up of unconscious desires that are beneath the surface, the conscious mind floats on the surface � To Freud nothing was accidental � Dreams were the key to unconscious desires � Jokes were expressions of repressed sexual and aggressive tendencies

Figure 15. 1 Freud’s idea of the mind’s structure Myers: Psychology, Eighth Edition Copyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Psychoanalytic personality structure � Personality results from efforts to resolve conflicts between our impulses and our social restraints against these impulses ◦ Id our internal drive to satisfy unconscious desires that operates on the pleasure principle ◦ Ego contains our partly conscious perceptions and thoughts. Also seeks to gratify the id’s impulses in a realistic ways ◦ Superego the voice of conscience that strives for perfection, judges actions; someone that is superego driven may be extremely virtuous but guilt ridden

Psychosexual stages � Freud thought that personality forms from life’s early years and he thought that his patients problems stemmed from unresolved conflict � Children pass through psychosexual stages that focus on satisfying distinct pleasure centers of the body called erogenous zones

Psychoanalytic theory �Emphasis on fixation or progress through early psychosexual ages; �Experiences in early childhood (ex. pacifiers, toilet training) can leave lasting mark on adult personality

Oral stage �Oral ◦ ◦ (birth-18 months) Stimulation is feeding mouth, tongue, lips Not fed enough- nail biting, thumb sucking Too much feeding- smokers, compulsive eaters, talkative people, obesity

Oral Stage �Passive dependence=didn’t meet needs at id stage; dependent upon another OR �Acting tough & criticizing others=denial of dependence �Gratify their oral desire by smoking and or eating excessively

Anal stage �Anal (19 -36 months) ◦ Stimulation is potty training ◦ Bowels, rectum, anus, coping with demands for control ◦ Rigid potty training- obsessively neat, obsessed with cleanliness, perfectionistic, cruelty, coldness ◦ Neglectful potty training- messy appearance, sloppy behavior

Phallic stage �Phallic (3 -6 years) ◦ Coping with incestuous sexual feelings ◦ Genitals ◦ Oedipus complex (male will remain childlike and seek out maternal figures) ◦ Electra complex (female will seek out father figures in relationships)

Latency stage �Latency (6 - puberty) ◦ Dormant sexual feelings ◦ Repression of sexual and aggressive desires ◦ Learn gender roles ◦ Unresolved conflict leads to jealousy, egocentric sex ◦ Preference for the same sex ◦ Excessive modesty and shame

Genital stage �Genital (puberty onward) ◦ Maturation of sexual interests ◦ Awakening of your libido = sex drive or sexual energy ◦ Social inferiority ◦ Low sex drive ◦ Hyper sex drive

Psychosexual Stages Oedipus complex during the phallic stages boys feel unconscious sexual desires for their mothers and jealous/hatred for their fathers � Girls feel a parallel called the Electra complex � Children cope with the feelings through repression and by identifying with the rival parent � Through this process the child’s superego gains strength as they incorporate their parents values and develop gender identity � Unresolved issues in various stages could cause a person to fixate on the pleasure seeking energies in the various stages �

Defense Mechanisms � Refers to an inability to satisfy needs.

Repression Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious A traumatized soldier has no recollection of the details of a close brush with death.

Sublimination Channeling prohibited impulses into socially acceptable activities People who have an oral fixation would smoke (instead of using a pacifier)

Projection Attributing one’s own thoughts, motives, or feelings to another An employee doesn’t like his boss, so the employee says “My boss doesn’t like me. ”

Displacement Diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target After parental scolding, a girl may fight with her brother

Reaction formation Behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite of one’s true feelings A parent who unconsciously resents a child spoils the child with outlandish gifts

Regression A reversion to immature patterns or behavior An person (older than a toddler) has a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get his own way

Rationalization Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior Students watch TV instead of studying, saying that “additional studying won’t do any good anyhow. ”

Identification Bolstering self esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group An insecure student joins a fraternity/sorority to boost his/her self-esteem.

Denial Adopting a reassuring contrary belief You’ve found out that person you care about deeply has a terminal disease and you say this person will get better soon.

Fantasy Substituting an imaginary and wish -filled world for a real threatening one Imaginary friends

Withdraw Removing oneself from an anxiety provoking situation Jane doesn’t like large parties so she goes into the kitchen and helps all clean up during the party

Undoing Repetitive, ritualistic action designed to get rid of unwanted thought or feeling Grandma dusts the glassware every day, even though it’s clean

Suppression Not a defense mechanism, but goes hand in had with defense mechanisms Consciously choose NOT to think about something We know that we’ll have summer reading to do for next year’s classes, but we don’t think about it until the night before the first day of school

Neo Freudians � Alfred Adler (inferiority complex), Karen Horney, Anna Freud (more defense mechanisms), Carl Jung (collective unconscious) � Most placed emphasis on social and NOT sexual development

Predict this person’s future � Boy born in 1858 � Has severe asthma � Tended to catch colds & coughs easily � Was small & thin for age � Very curious about nature � Read a lot because of illnesses � Couldn’t shoot a rifle well � Couldn’t defend himself in fistfights well

President Teddy Roosevelt

�Became a New York assemblyman �Was a North Dakota cowboy �New York Governor �Lieutenant colonel of “Rough Riders” �Author �Youngest president of the U. S.

Adler’s Question How is it that someone so sickly should become so healthy, vigorous, and successful? Why is it that some children, sickly or not, thrive, while others wither away? Is the drive that Roosevelt had peculiar to him, or is it something that lies in each of us? http: //www. ship. edu/~cgboeree/adler. html

Adler’s ideas � All have “aggression” or “assertiveness” drive (eat, sleep, affection, accomplish/be frustrated) � Boys are encouraged to be aggressive & girls are encouraged to be compliant � Freud was a “reductionist” (least common denominator) while Adler was a “holist”— people are to be understand in their entirety

Alfred Adler Childhood experiences are important Social (not sexual) tensions are most important in forming the personality

overcome our shortcomings—and we compensate for them.

�Adler says we all have problems �How do we handle problems? �Adler’s inferiority complex (I just can’t do math!) �Problem becomes a neurosis—a life size problem

Adler’s Superiority Complex “I’m just better than others”— bullies, people who brag, dictators

Karen Horney Broke with Freud’s ideas about malecentered therapy Social tensions are most important to development of personality

Some children suffer from anxiety —fear of abandonment

Dr. Karen Horney--Neurosis � Medical doctor early 1900 s � Struggled with depression throughout life � All need affection & approval, yet � The “neurotic” wants this to an extreme � Neurosis is a continuous line (all of us try to make life more bearable)

�All of us need affection/attention! Healthy people don’t expect affection/attention all the time from people in all situations. If a neurotic person doesn’t receive this attention, the neurotic person will experience anxiety.

3 Coping Strategies Compliance—the neurotic please others, someone takes over your life and makes decisions for you Aggression—the neurotic need to dominate others & have power over others Withdrawal—the neurotic’s need to NOT ask for help (even when needed), need for perfection

Womb envy Freud says that girls/women have “penis envy” (the desire to be male) & Horney says that women envy men’s power; Horney stated that boys/men have “womb envy”—the ability to give life.

Carl Jung Followed Freud; had an argument with Freud All of us have a collective unconscious— common images that are shared across cultures

Movies/Books that draw upon the collective unconscious � Iliad (Indo European) � Sundiata (West african) � Ramayana (Aryan) � Epic of Gilgamesh (Middle Eastern � Odyssey (southern european) � Star Wars � Lord of the Rings � Matrix � Harry Potter

Humanistic Perspective � Humans are essentially good; your environment inhibits growth and corrupts � Emphasized human growth and potential � Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers � Focus on what makes healthy people healthy instead of the sick � Genuineness, acceptance � Humans seek self actualization (fulfilling ones human potential)

Humanistic Psychology Case studies from clinical practice of clientcentered therapy

Key motivational forces in Humanism �Actualizing tendency (motive to develop capacities and experience personal growth) & self-actualizing tendency (motive to maintain self-concept and behave in ways that are consistent with self-concept)

Model of Humanistic personality structure �Most of self-concept matches actual experience results in congruence �Only a little bit of self-concept matches actual experience results in incongruence

View of Humanistic personality development Children who receive unconditional love have less need to be defensive; they develop more accurate, congruent selfconcept; conditional love fosters incongruence

Roots of Disorder in Humanism �Incongruence between roots & actual experiences (inaccurate self-concept); overdependence on others for approval and sense of self

Assessing Unconscious Processes � Projective tests- provide a stimulus and ask a test taker to describe a story about it ◦ Thematic Apperception Test view pictures and tell a story about it ◦ Rorschach inkblot test a series of inkblots that seeks to identify ones inner feelings � Critics of projective tests cite their lack of: ◦ Reliability ◦ Validity ◦ Open to interpretation

Figure 15. 2 The TAT Myers: Psychology, Eighth Edition Copyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Figure 15. 3 The Rorschach test Myers: Psychology, Eighth Edition Copyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Trait Perspective � Gordon Allport � Define personality in terms of fundamental traits � Gordon Allport thought that psychoanalysis went too deep � Allport thought less about explaining behavior and more about describing

Trait Perspective � Extroverts vs. introverts � Emotional stability vs. instability � The trait perspective use questionnaires to assess personality and to develop inventories ◦ MMPI is typically used to identify emotional disorders

Critics of the trait perspective. . � Specific behavior varies from time to time and from situation to situation

Figure 15. 4 Two personality factors Myers: Psychology, Eighth Edition Copyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Trait—a thread that runs through the personality

�A model was needed to discuss personality traits rather than personality attributes �(Description rather than “Why are we like this? )

The next step…. Allport (1936) wrote down 18, 000 words from the dictionary that described personality

Allport’s traits Moods or temporary states (afraid, elated, rejoicing)

Evaluative words Excellent, worthy, irritable— subjective words

Physical Characteristics

Consistent Traits should remain similar in a variety of circumstances Major criticism of Big 5—traits vary from situation to situation; aren’t consistent

�Says that personality is determined by 46 surface traits or 16 source traits �These 16 “source traits” predict the 46 surface traits

The next steps…. �Several others over the next 40 years furthered theory by compiling the traits into 5 broad (or ‘Big’) traits

Table 15. 2 Myers: Psychology, Eighth Edition Copyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Extraversion Talkative, assertive, energetic

Agreeable Good- natured, cooperativ e

Conscienti ousness— orderly, responsible, dependable

Openness to experiences ◦

Emotional stability versus neuroticis m (calm versus

Social Cognitive Perspective Emphasizes the interaction of people and their situations

Social Cognitive Perspective � This perspective is based on the work of Albert Bandura � We learn behaviors through conditioning, modeling and observing others � AND how we THINK about our situations affects our behaviors � Reciprocal determinism ◦ Refers to how behavior, internal factors, and environmental influences operate together

Personal Control � External locus of control ◦ The idea that chance or outside forces determine our fate � Internal locus of control ◦ The belief that a person controls their own destiny � “Internals” achieve more in school, act more independently, enjoy better health, and feel LESS depressed than “externals” � Self control (the ability to control impulses and delay gratification) predicts good adjustment, better grades, and social success

Personal Control � Learned helplessness ◦ Passive resignation when one cannot escape punishment initially learn a sense of helplessness in that when they can escape punishment they opt not to try escape � Optimism vs. Pessimism ◦ Having a pessimistic attributional style attribute poor performance to their lack of ability (“I cant do this and there is nothing I can do about it”) ◦ These people are more likely to continue to get poor grades than those with an optimistic attributional style ◦ Optimists see their setbacks as flukes and a means to develop a new approach to a problem

Critics of Social Cognitive Perspective � This perspective doesn’t take into consideration our INDIVIDUAL traits, emotions, and differences