CHAPTER 11 SELF AND PERSONALITY

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CHAPTER 11SELF AND PERSONALITY
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Learning Objectives

• How is the personality typically defined, and
  what are the five principles of defining
  personality?
• How do psychoanalytic, trait, and social learning
  theories explain personality development?

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Personality

• An organized combination of attributes, motives,
  values, and behaviors
• Patterns of traits
• Unique to each individual
• Consistent across situations and time
• Self-Concept Perceptions
• Self Esteem Evaluation
• Identity Overall sense of who you are

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McAdams and Pals (2006) Five Principles

• Personality shaped by evolution for adaptation to
  environment
• People differ in dispositional traits
• People differ in characteristic adaptations
• Each has a unique life story
• Cultural and situational influences ever present

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Psychoanalytic Theory Sigmund Freud

• Three parts of the personality
• Selfish Id Rational Ego Moralist Superego
• Stages of psychosexual development
• Biological ends at sexual maturity
• Personality formed in first 5 years
• Childhood anxieties become adult traits

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Psychoanalytic Theory Erik Erikson

• Emphasized
• Social influences
• Rational ego
• Life-span development
• Crisis-Oriented Stages Result From
• Maturational forces
• Social demands

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Trait Theory

• Psychometric Approach
• Personality a set of traits
• Individual differences in each trait
• Measurement approach
• Big Five - Universal and stable
• Evidence of genetic basis
• Universal

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Social Learning Theory

• Personality A set of behavior tendencies
• Shaped by interactions
• Found in specific social situations
• No universal stages
• Not enduring traits
• People change as environment changes
• Situational influences important
• E.g., cheating

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Learning Objectives

• How does self-concept emerge during infancy and
  how does it change across the life span?
• How has infant temperament been categorized?
• How do these temperament styles interact with
  caregiver characteristics?
• How does temperament relate to later personality?

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InfancyThe Emerging Self

• First 6 months Discover physical self
• Joint attention at about 9 mo
• Difference in perceptions can be shared
• Self-recognition about 18 months
• Categorical self (age, sex) 18 24 months
• Based on cognitive development
• Requires Social Experience
• The looking-glass self a reflection

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Temperament

• Seen in infancy
• Genetically based
• Tendencies to respond in predictable ways
• Building blocks of personality
• Goodness of Fit (Thomas Chess)
• Parenting techniques
• Learning to interpret cues
• Sensitive responding

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Leaning Objectives

• What changes occur in the development of
  childrens self-esteem?
• What factors influence self-esteem?
• How does personality evolve over childhood and
  what do children understand of their personality?

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Changes in Self-Concept age 8

• Include psychological, social qualities
• Previously used only physical traits
• Increased Use of
• Social comparison, multidimensionality
• Hierarchy with self-worth on top
• More accurate self evaluations
• Widening gap between ideal-self and real-self

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Contributions to Higher Self-Esteem

• Competence!
• Positive social feedback
• Warm democratic parents
• Social comparisons that are positive
• Some temperament traits established
• Will develop into adult traits

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Learning Objectives

• How do adolescents conceptualize their selves,
  including self-esteem and personality?
• What factors influence the development of
  identity during adolescence?
• How do adolescents make vocational choices and
  how does work affect adolescents identities?

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The Adolescent

• Increased awareness of psychological and abstract
  traits
• Self-concept more integrated
• Self-esteem dips temporarily, rebounds
• Eriksons Stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion
• Who Am I?
• Can last as long as into early 30s

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Marcias Ego Identity Statuses

• Diffusion Hey wait a minute they didnt know
  everything. Maybe Im not who they said I was.
  (No crisis. No commitment)
• Foreclosure Ill be a (Catholic, Democrat,
  doctor, etc.) because thats what they told me
  was right. (Commitment without crisis)
• Moratorium Who am I? What is right? Who will I
  become? (Crisis, no commitment)
• Identity Achieved I can make my own life
  choices. (Commitment, evolved from crisis)

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• The Four Identity Statuses as They Apply to
  Religious Identity

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Identity Achievement

• Ethnic Identity begins in infancy
• Vocational Identity - increasingly realistic
• Goodness of fit becomes useful
• Influential Factors
• Cognitive development
• Openness to experience trait
• Warm, democratic parenting
• Culture that encourages exploration

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Learning Objectives

• How does personality change during adulthood?
• Why do people change or remain the same?
• How does culture influence personality

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Self-Concept and Adulthood

• Stable Self-Esteem
• Generally good
• Ability to adjust ideal to real self
• Evaluate self with different standards
• Comparisons with age-mates
• Related to stable personality traits
• Losses in self-esteem in later old age

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Changes in Personality

• Cross-sectional studies show more changes
• Longitudinal, Cross-Cultural Studies
• Adulthood achievement and confidence
• Older adults
• Decrease activity level, openness to experience
• Increase introversion, emotional stability,
  conscientiousness

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Influences on Personality Change

• Heredity
• Earlier experiences
• Stability of environment
• Biological factors (e.g., disease)
• Poor person-environment fit

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Learning Objectives

• What is the focus of each of Eriksons
  psychosocial stages?
• What factors can influence how each crisis is
  resolved?

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Adulthood Erikson and Research

• Identity provides for intimacy in young adulthood
• More traditional women solve identity crisis
  after intimacy (marriage, children)
• Midlife generativity supported
• Midlife crisis not supported
• Integrity in old age supported
• Includes life review
• Life Stories narrative identity approach

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Learning Objectives

• How do career paths change during adulthood?
• How do adults cope with age-related changes that
  affect their working selves?
• How are older adults influenced by retirement?
• How can we characterize successful aging?

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Vocational Development

• Young adults Career exploration
• Thirties Settling down
• Forties Fifties Career peaks
• Older Workers
• Competent, satisfied, and positive
• Selective optimization with compensation

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Retirement

• Average age 63
• Adjustment phases
• Success Factors
• Person-environment fit
• Selective optimization with compensation
• Disengagement versus Activity Theory
• Support for activity theory