An Individual S Characteristic Pattern of Thinking, Feeling, and Acting

Chapter 12: Personality

What is Personality? Personality an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting basic perspectives

Approaches to study of Personality Psychoanalytic Humanistic Trait perspective Social Cognitive

The Psychoanalytic Perspective Freud’s theory proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality

Psychoanalysis techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

Free Association in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Unconscious a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories

Personality Structure Id strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives operates on the pleasure principle

Superego presents internalized ideals; provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations Ego the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality operates on the reality principle,

Personality Development Psychosexual Stages the childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones Oedipus Complex a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father electra complex

Identification the process by which children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos

Fixation a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were unresolved

Defense Mechanisms the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality Repression the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness Regression defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated Reaction Formation ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites

Projection people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Rationalization offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions

Displacement shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

Denial: Refusal to accept or acknowledge an anxiety producing piece of information

Extra: Sublimation

Neo-Freudian psychoanalysts: Psychoanalysts who were trained in traditional Freudian theory but who later rejected some of its major points Agreed with Freud” The importance of the unconscious and childhood relationships in shaping personality The id/ego/superego structure of personality The role of defense mechanisms in reducing anxiety about uncomfortable ideas

Disagreed in specific areas

Alfred Adler importance of childhood social tension

Adler’s Individual Psychology: goal is to obtain security and overcome feelings of inferiority inferiority complex:, a situation in which adults have not been able to overcome the feelings of insecurity they developed as children

Karen Horney

Horney disputed Freud’s assumption that women have weak superegos and suffer from “penis envy.” Attempted to balance Freud’s masculine biases—term of “womb envy” Criticized the Freudian portrayal of women as weak and subordinate to men. She highlighted the need to feel secure in relationships.

Carl Jung’s Analytic Psychology emphasis on unconscious processes which include positive and spiritual motives as well as sexual and aggressive forces collective unconscious: concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history personal unconscious: created from individual experiences archetypes: primitive images and patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior found in the collective unconscious that cause us to perceive and react in predictable ways.

Assessing the Unconscious

Evaluating personality from an unconscious mind’s perspective would require a psychological instrument (projective tests) that would reveal the hidden unconscious mind.

Projective Test a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics

Rorschach Inkblot Test a set of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann Rorschach seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

Thematic Apperception test : TAT Developed by Henry Murray, a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

Humanistic Psychology: The theory that emphasizes people’s basic goodness and their natural tendency to grow to higher levels of functioning.

Humanistic Perspective In the 1960’s, psychologists began to reject: the dehumanizing ideas in Behaviorism, and the dysfunctional view of people in Psychodynamic thought.

Maslow and Rogers offer a “third force” in psychology: The Humanistic Perspective. studied healthy people rather than people with mental health problems. Humanism: focusing on the conditions that support healthy personal growth. Theories emphasizes people’s basic goodness and their natural tendency to grow to higher levels of functioning

Focus on internal experiences—feelings, thoughts, and sense of basic worth;

Abraham Maslow studied self-actualization processes of productive and healthy people (e.g., Lincoln)

Maslow’s self-actualization: A state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potential

Self-Actualization the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved the motivation to fulfill one’s potential Self-transcendece-self-actualization: meaning, purpose and communion beyond self

Carl Rogers: we all progress toward a state of fulfillment and happiness unless derailed by life's obstacles. Rogers agreed that people have natural tendencies to grow, become healthy, and move toward self-actualization.

Fully Functioning person: a psychologically healthy individual who is able to enjoy life as completely as possible Open to experience, not very defensive, aware and sensitive to self and external world, and for most, harmonious relationships with others. Unconditional Positive Regard an attitude of total acceptance toward another person

Conditional positive regard: The belief that others will withdraw their love and acceptance if a person does something of which they do not approve; i.e., the others’ view of you is dependent upon your behavior conditional love

Growth promoting climate requires 3 conditions: Empathy, genuineness, and acceptance

Carl Rogers’ self-concept theory

In the humanistic perspective, the core of personality is the self-concept, our sense of our nature and identity. self-concept: all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in an answer to the question, “Who am I?”.

People are happiest with a self-concept that matches their ideal self. it is important to ask people to describe themselves as they are and as they ideally would like to be. real self vs ideal self

The Trait Perspective

Trait theorists attempt to describe personality in terms of stable and enduring behavior patterns, or dispositions to feel and act.

Trait theory of personality: That we are made up of a collection of traits, behavioral predispositions that can be identified and measured, traits that differ from person to person

Trait: An enduring quality that makes a person tend to act a certain way. Examples: “honest.” “shy.” “hard-working.” MBTI traits come in pairs: “Judging” vs. “Perceiving.” “Thinking” vs. “Feeling.” Some theorists use dominant traits and their associated characteristics to describe personality “types.” Examples of Traits Honest Dependable Moody Impulsive

Personality Inventory a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors used to assess selected personality traits

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. It was originally developed to identify emotional disorders.

Costa and MacRae Five-factor model: a trait theory that explains personality in terms of the following five traits:

Openness: high scores  original, imaginative, curious, open to new ideas, artistic, interested in cultural pursuits; low scores  conventional, down to earth, narrower interests, not artistic

Conscientiousness: high scores  responsible, self-disciplined, organized, achieving; low scores  irresponsible, careless, impulsive, lazy, undependable

Extroversion: high scores  sociable, outgoing, talkative, fun loving, affectionate; low scores  withdrawn, quiet, passive, reserved

Agreeableness: high scores  good-natured, warm, gentle, cooperative, trusting, helpful; low scores  irritable, argumentative, ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative, vindictive

Neuroticism (emotional stability): high scores  emotional instability, prone to insecurity, anxiety, guilt, worry, moodiness; low scores  emotional stability, calm, even-tempered, easygoing, relaxed

Social-Cognitive Perspective views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons and their social context

Albert Bandura Reciprocal Determinism the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors

Personal Control our sense of controlling our environments rather than feeling helpless

External Locus of Control the perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate

Internal Locus of Control the perception that one controls one’s own fate Learned Helplessness the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

Optimism versus Pessimism

Positive Psychology the scientific study of optimal human functioning discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive

Exploring the Self Spotlight Effect overestimating others noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders Self Esteem one’s feelings of high or low self-worth Self-Serving Bias readiness to perceive oneself favorably