Personality

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Personality

• Psychoanalysis

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What is personality?

• An individuals pattern of thinking, feeling, and
  acting. Or(Attitudes, behaviors, emotions)

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Freuds Psychoanalysis

• Overview questionsAccording to Freud
• When is ones personality established?
• What is the ultimate influence in shaping
  personality?
• What is the essential conflict that resides
  within each individual?
• Stage theory Continuous or discontinuous? Free
  will or deterministic?
• What is psychoanalysis?

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Freuds States of Conscious
Conscious
Preconscious
Unconscious
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A Closer Look
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Exploring the Unconscious

• Freud
• Hypnosis
• Dream Analysis
• Free Association
• Strategies to discover the issues of the
  unconscious

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Freud's Personality Structure

• Ego
• Superego
• Id

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Id

• Instincts / natural impulses
• Two types
• Eros life instincts, driven by libido
• Thanatos Death instincts, driven by aggression
• Pleasure principle- immediate gratification
• Unconscious mind

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Ego

• Reality principle
• Seeks emotional balance
• Executive Mediator between Id and Superego
• Part of conscious and unconscious mind
• Constructs defense mechanisms to protect the
  conscious mind (from the threatening issues of
  the unconscious)

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Superego

• Age 5 sense of right and wrong (conscience)
• Internalized ideals, morals, judgment
• Part of conscious and unconscious mind

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Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development

• Freud believed that your personality developed in
  your childhood.
• Believed that children pass through a series of
  psychosexual stages.
• Conflicts during these stages effect your
  personality development
• The id focuses its libido (sexual energy) on
  different erogenous zones in different stages

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Freuds Stages of Psychosexual Development
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Phallic Stage

• Oedipus Complex Boys sexually desire their
  mothers, father as rival
• Electra Crisis Girls sexually desire their
  fathers, mother as rival
• Penis envy / castration anxiety
• Identification (defense mechanism) Boys emulate
  and attach themselves to their father (who
  threaten them- castration anxiety as rivals for
  their mother)

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Fixation

• Libido gets stuck in any one of psychosexual
  stages due to unresolved conflicts
• Often over-gratification or under-gratification
• Examples
• Oral fixations
• Anal fixations (retentive and expulsive)
• Genital fixation

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Defense Mechanisms

• Egos effort to protect the conscious mind from
  the threatening thoughts of the unconscious
• IOW Reduce anxiety by distorting reality
• No conscious awareness

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Freuds Defense Mechanisms

• Repression
• Major defense mechanism
• Push out of conscious awareness
• Why we dont remember incestuous feelings of
  phallic stage.

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Defense Mechanisms

• Regression
• Returning to an earlier, safer stage when facing
  anxiety

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Defense Mechanisms

• Reaction Formation
• Ego switches unacceptable impulses into their
  opposites
• Being mean to someone you have a crush on
• The bully whos not tough after all

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Defense Mechanisms

• Projection
• Disguise your own threatening impulses by
  attributing them to others
• Thinking that your wife wants to cheat on you
  when really its you that wants to cheat on her.
• After your girlfriend dumps you for someone else,
  you insist she still cares for you.

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Defense Mechanisms

• Rationalization
• self-adjusting explanations in place of real,
  more threatening reasons for your actions or
  events. (Making excuses)
• I didnt want to go to the prom with her.
• I couldnt go anyway, I have to babysit my kid
  brother.

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Defense Mechanisms

• Displacement
• Shifting an unacceptable impulse into a safer
  outlet
• Parents taking it out on you after a hard day at
  work with their boss
• Confronting a teacher vs. rolling her yard

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Defense Mechanisms

• Sublimation
• Channeling unacceptable impulses into more
  acceptable or socially approved activities
• An aggressive kid joins the football team

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True or False?

1. According to Freudian theory, humans are driven
   by life instincts and by death instincts.
2. Dreams and Freudian slips are two ways to study
   unconscious wishes or impulses.
3. Individuals pass through a series of psychosexual
   stages during which id impulses of a sexual
   nature find a socially acceptable outlet.
4. Unresolved conflicts between id impulses and
   social restrictions during childhood continue to
   influence ones personality in adulthood.

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Christmas Vacation

• Analyze the scene from a Freudian perspective.
• Modern analysis
• Natural byproduct of how our minds process
  information and direct action
• Capture error pass too near a well formed habit
  and it will capture your behavior. Examples?
• Most actions carried out automatically by
  subconscious (conscious selection, unconscious
  action) Why?
• When attention lags, habitual response takes over
• Cognitive connections and linguistic pathways
  (existence of sexuality in situation activates
  memory)

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Criticisms of Freud

• Little empirical evidence supports it
• No predictive value (only explains past behavior
  and source of problem)
• Gender discriminatory (Freuds assumption that
  men were superior to women)
• Example penis envy

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Freuds Legacy

• Profound impact on psychology
• Children are sexual creatures
• Behavior shaped by unconscious thoughts
• Early experiences are significant in shaping
  personality
• Cultural impact (references in popular culture)
• Id /ego
• Unconscious
• Anal retentive
• Freudian slips
• Freud today 80 of pure Freudian therapists
  live within 20 miles of each other in N.Y. city

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Psychodynamic Theories

• Alfred Adler Karen Horney Carl Jung
• Neo-Freudians

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Alfred Adler

• Social, (not sexual) issues as primary influence
  of childhood development
• Ego Psychologist- focused on conscious role of
  the ego as primary force of behavior (Not the
  unconscious)
• Inferiority complex motivation by fear of
  failure
• Superiority complex desire to achieve
• Birth order theory in shaping personality

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Carl Jung

• Stressed the unconscious
• Two parts
• Personal unconscious (Freudian view) complex
• Collective unconscious passed down through
  species- similarities between all cultures
• Archetypes universal concepts
• fear of the dark
• Shadow as darker side of personality
• Universal importance of circle in cultures

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Karen Horney

• Social forces in shaping childhood personality
• Took issue with Freuds male dominant view of
  weak superegos and penis envy
• 1st woman to provide major academic challenge to
  Freuds analysis of female personality development

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Rorschach Inkblot Test

• http//theinkblot.com/step_1.htm
• What do you see in this visual?

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Projective Tests

• window to the unconscious
• Ambiguous stimulus / interpretations of it
• Thematic Apperception Test ambiguous pictures /
  create stories (free association)
• Rorschach inkblot test 10 inkblot images used
  to reflect inner feelings (unconscious)

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Humanistic Psychology

• Humanistic psychology Core Ideas
• Man is innately good and has innate need to
  fulfill potential
• Focus on life of fulfillment
• Anyone has potential for actualization at any
  time
• Focus on free will (genes, environment are not
  destiny)
• Focus on self-concept / self esteem

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Self-Concept

• Global feelings about oneself
• Develops through social interaction (parents
  etc.)
• Positive self-concept high self esteem
• Central to humanistic psychology

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Maslow and Rogers

• People are motivated to reach full potential
• Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers

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Maslows Hierarchy A review

• Self-actualization
• Completely knowing, accepting oneself
• Open, spontaneous, loving, caring, problem
  centered
• Congruence between who we really are, who we
  think we are, and who we want to be

Thomas Jefferson Abraham Lincoln Albert
Einstein Jane Addams Willliam James Albert
Schweitzer Aldous Huxley Eleanor Roosevelt
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Maslows List 2 are Self-Actualized Why so
few?

• Top of hierarchy, weakest of needs, most easily
  impeded
• Jonah Complex fear and doubt (most lack courage
  to sacrifice lower needs for personal growth)
• Environmental influence (ex.- manliness)
• Childhood experiences (freedom within limits
  fosters growth)

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Carl Rogers

• Positive Self-Theory depends on
• Environment genuineness, acceptance, empathy
• Unconditional Positive Regard (total acceptance
  from parents critical for self-theory,
  self-actualization)
• Must feel accepted for self-actualization

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Real Versus the Ideal Self

• Divide a sheet of paper into two equal columns.
• Entitle the left side The Real Self, and the
  right side the Ideal Self.
• Write for no more than 10 minutes on each side,
  attempting to portray an honest self assessment.
• When finished, compare the differences between
  the two. Would you consider yourself
  self-actualized? If so, to what extent? Be
  prepared to discuss.

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The Trait Perspective

• Belief that personality is defined by specific
  characteristics, or traits (Genetic emphasis)
• Trait a characteristic of personality
  (combination of traits personality)
• Viewed as stable and motivates behavior in
  keeping with the trait (lazy, friendly, etc.)
• Nature! You are who you are!
• Gordon Allport (1919) pioneer defined
  personality in terms of specific traits /
  identifiable behavior patterns

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Types of Trait Theories

• Nomothetic
• Basic set of universal traits can be used to
  describe anyones personality
• Idiographic
• Rejects nomothetic approach- each person must be
  seen for unique traits
• Gordon Allport 3 Types of Personal Traits
• Cardinal dispositions (profound- dominates
  personality)
• Central, Secondary

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Personality Inventory

• A self-report questionnaire (true-false or
  agree-disagree items)
• designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and
  behaviors
• used to assess personality by identifying
  specific traits
• Objectively graded / assessed
• Used by most all personality theorists
• Factor analysis statistical procedure used to
  identify clusters of questions (Example strong
  correlations between social, friendly, talkative
  Extraversion as basic personality trait

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Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory

• Myers-Briggs
• Most popular inventory in corporate sector
• 89 of 100 largest corporations 2.5 million/year
  
• Colleges Career placement office

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Eyesenck Personality Questionnaire

• Hans Eyesenck two primary personality factors as
  axes for describing personality variation

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Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

• MMPI Used to assess abnormal personality /
  emotional disorders

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Empirically Derived Tests

• Testing a pool of questions and then selecting
  those that discriminate between groups
• MMPI

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The Big Five (Personality traits)
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Points to consider

• Traits / personality do reveal a pattern of
  behavior ( thoughts and feelings)
• but fail to predict behavior in all situations
  (environment often temporarily affects our
  traits)
• Research shows that traits are easy to recognize

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Credibility of Personality Tests

• What two major factors are used to determine a
  tests credibility?
• Validity, Reliability
• Beware of the.
• Barnum Effect A persons tendency to see himself
  in vague, broad personality types. (P.T. Barnum
  A sucker born every minute.

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Traits Stabilize with Age
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The Myers-Briggs

• Use the website below to take an abridged version
  of the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory
• http//www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
• Use the following website to analyze your
  results
• http//www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-typ
  e/mbti-basics/
• Questions
• Identify your Myers-Briggs personality type.
• Explain specifically what your type is. (Explain
  each of four traits.)
• To what extent do you agree or disagree with your
  results?
• Identify one potential strength and weakness of
  this test.

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Social-Cognitive Theories

• Belief that personality development is largely
  determined by interaction between ones
  environment and patterns of thought

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Albert Bandura

• Albert Bandura personality shaped by
  interaction of traits, environment and behavior
• Reciprocal Determinism Constant cause and
  effect between three factors
• Self-efficacy highoptimism / low helplessness

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Julian Rotter Locus of Control

• Internal Locus of Control
• You control your destiny (Individual takes charge
• External Locus of Control
• luck, environment determine destiny
• Type of locus impacts how we think and act, thus
  affecting our personality
• Internal correlated with positive outcomes

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George Kelley

• Personal Construct Theory
• Personality is shaped by cognition
• Individuals create own personal constructs to
  understand, interpret their world.
• Constructs begin as pairs of opposites, used to
  interpret world ( fair, unfair / smart, dumb)
• Thus perception of the world largely shaped our
  attitude, behavior (and personality)
• Past behavior, shaped by cognition, can be used
  to predict future behavior

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In conclusion

• We have looked at what Freudian, humanistic,
  trait and social-cognitive theorists have to say
  about personality.
• What would a radical behaviorist say???