Chapter 11 Objectives Personality

After studying this chapter, students should be able to:

Introduction: What Is Personality? 1. Define personality, discuss the nature of personality theories, and identify the four basic theoretical perspectives on personality.

The Psychoanalytic Perspective on Personality 2. Discuss the course of Sigmund Freud’s life, some of his notable publications, and the social and cultural events that shaped Freud’s views about human nature. 3. Distinguish among the three levels of awareness and describe the nature and development of the three basic structures of personality in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. 4. Define the pleasure principle, and the reality principle, and explain their importance in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. 5. Discuss Freud’s notion of the ego defense mechanisms, and provide an everyday example of each of the major ego defense mechanisms. 6. Describe the psychosexual stages of development, focusing on the core conflict at each stage, and explain the consequence of fixation. 7. Explain what Oedipus complex refers to and describe its role in personality development. 8. Describe the personality theories of neo-Freudians Carl Jung, Karen Horney, and Alfred Adler, and explain the similarities and differences between these theories and Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. 9. Identify criticisms of Freud’s theory and, more generally, of the psychoanalytic perspective.

The Humanistic Perspective on Personality 10. Describe the humanistic perspective and contrast it with psychoanalytic theory and behaviorism. 11. Discuss the key assumptions of Carl Rogers, and describe his theory of personality, especially the importance of the actualizing tendency, the self- concept, conditional and unconditional positive regard, and the fully functioning person. 12. Critical Thinking: Compare and contrast the viewpoints of Sigmund Freud, Carl Rogers, and Albert Bandura on human nature. 13. Identify the key strengths and weaknesses of the humanistic perspective.

The Social Cognitive Perspective on Personality 14. Discuss the key ideas of Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory of personality, noting the role of self-efficacy beliefs in the development of a person’s self-system. 15. Critical Thinking: Compare and contrast the viewpoints of Sigmund Freud and Albert Bandura on human aggression. 16. Specify the strengths and weaknesses of the social cognitive perspective.

The Trait Perspective on Personality 17. Describe how trait theories differ from the other perspectives on personality, and distinguish between surface traits and source traits. 18. Compare and contrast the trait theories of Raymond Cattell and Hans Eysenck. 19. Describe the five-factor model of personality and the research evidence supporting it. 20. Focus on Neuroscience: Describe the brain-imaging research findings suggesting that some of the Big Five traits are associated with structural differences in the brain. 21. Describe the research strategies used in the field of behavioral genetics, and discuss research findings on the relationship between genetics and personality traits. 22. Identify criticisms of the trait perspective.

Assessing Personality: Psychological Tests 23. Name and describe the two projective tests and the four self-report inventories discussed in the text. 24. Science Versus Pseudoscience: Compare and contrast the methods of personality assessment advocated by the pseudoscience of graphology, noting what scientific research has indicated about the validity of this method. 25. Compare and contrast the methods used by projective tests and self-report inventories to measure personality, including the issues of reliability, validity, standardization, and the use of established norms. 26. Identify the key strengths and weaknesses of projective tests and self-report inventories.

Psych for Your Life: Possible Selves: Imagine the Possibilities 27. Discuss how your “possible selves” can influence your sense of self-efficacy, motivation, behavior, and life decisions.

In addition, you should be able to give examples and elaborate on the major concepts from the chapter.