Personality

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Chapter 12
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• Personality

Slides prepared by Randall E. Osborne, Texas
State University-San Marcos
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12.1
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• Personality What It Is and How It Is Measured

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Early History of Personality TypesFour Humors
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Early History of Personality TypesAnimal Traits
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Herbivores Baboon Bison Cottontail Deer Elephant
Giraffe Gorilla Horse Hippo M.Goat Rhino Sable
Sheep Warthog Zebra Sociable Hard Working
Sober Friendly Family Oriented Organized
Reliable Methodical Conservative
Insectivores Rodents Bat Beaver Mole Mice
Porcupine Prairie Dog Shrew Small Creative
Thrifty Active Resilient Cautious Small
Socially Adept Bright
Birds Eagle Owl Peacock Penguin Rooster Swan
Vulture Energetic Attractive Fun Loving
Talented Flamboyant World Travelers
Carnivores Bear Dog Fox Dolphin Lion Tiger Otter
Weasel Wildcat Wild Dog Wolf Powerful
Optimistic Territorial Courageous Athletic
Fastidious Athletic Adventurous Energetic
Attractive Fun Loving Talented Flamboyant
World Travelers Loyal
Reptiles Crocodile Snake Artistic Creative
Quick Tempered Moody Quirky Unpredictable
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Personality
Characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and
acting.
Four major perspectives on Personality
Psychoanalytic - unconscious motivations Trait -
specific dimensions of personality Humanistic -
inner capacity for growth Social-Cognitive -
influence of environment
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Sigmund Freud
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Freud Personality Structure
Id - energy constantly striving to satisfy basic
drives Pleasure Principle
Ego - seeks to gratify the Id in realistic
ways Reality Principle
Super Ego - voice of conscience that focuses on
how we ought to behave
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The Unconscious
the mind is like an iceburg - mostly hidden
Conscious Awareness small part above
surface (Preconscious)
Repression banishing unacceptable thoughts
passions to unconscious Dreams Slips
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Freud Personality Development
personality forms during the first few years of
life, rooted in unresolved conflicts of early
childhood
Psychosexual Stages Oral (0-18 mos) - centered on
the mouth Anal (18-36 mos) - focus on
bowel/bladder elim. Phallic (3-6 yrs) - focus on
genitals/Oedipus Complex (Identification
Gender Identity) Latency (6-puberty) - sexuality
is dormant Genital (puberty on) - sexual feelings
toward others
Strong conflict can fixate an individual at
Stages 1,2 or 3
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Defense Mechanisms
When the inner war gets out of hand, the result
is Anxiety
Ego protects itself via Defense Mechanisms
Defense Mechanisms reduce/redirect anxiety by
distorting reality
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Defense Mechanisms

• Repression - banishes certain thoughts/feelings
  from consciousness (underlies all other defense
• mechanisms)
• Regression - retreating to earlier stage of
  fixated
• development
• Reaction Formation - ego makes unacceptable
  impulses appear as their opposites
• Projection - attributes threatening impulses to
  others
• Rationalization - generate self-justifying
  explanations to hide the real reasons for our
  actions
• Displacement - divert impulses toward a more
• acceptable object
• Sublimation - transform unacceptable impulse into
• something socially valued

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Other Psychoanalysts

• Myers-Briggs Typology Inventory (MBTI)
• Introversion-Extroversion
• Thinking Feeling
• Sensate Perceiving
• Judgmental - Intuitive

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12.1 PersonalityHow It Is Measured

• Personality inventories
• Self-report
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
• Easy to administer
• response style
• validity?

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12.1 PersonalityHow It Is Measured

• Projective techniques
• Rorschach Inkblot Test
• Problems?
• always an interpretation
• reliable in predicting behavior?
• valid in predicting behavior?

Hermann Rorscharch
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Projective Tests (contd)

• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

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12.2
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• The Trait Approach Identifying Patterns of
  Behavior

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12.2 PersonalityThe Trait Approach

• Gordon Allport (1937) personality can be
  understood as a combination of traits

• American psychologist and trait theorist who
  researched the idea that individual personalities
  are unique
• Studied the English dictionary and found more
  than 4,000 words describing specific personality
  traits.
• Stressed importance of studying mentally healthy
  people
• Resisted the idea of finding personality law
  that would apply to everyone

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Hans Eysenck (1916-1997)

• German psychologist who researched the
  genetically-influenced dimensions of personality
• Had 3 different source traits dimensions
• Introversion-extraversion
• Degree to which a person directs their energies
  inward toward themselves or outward onto others.
• Emotional stability- Neuroticism (Stable
  Unstable)
• A persons predisposition to become emotionally
  upset or stay emotionally even.
• Psychoticism
• Low in this means warm caring toward others.
• High in this means antisocial, cold, hostile
  unconcerned about others.
• Generally considered as too few traits
• Using the first two dimensions he created 4 basic
  personality types (see next slide)
• Recent brain scan studies show specific
  personality traits can produce individual
  differences in the brains reaction to emotional
  stimuli (Focus on Neuroscience)

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12.2 Eysencks Factor Analysis

• Return of the Humors
• Book emphasizes two main dimensions
• introverted/extraverted
• emotional/stable

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Raymond Cattell (1905-1998)

• English psychologist who researched whether some
  traits predicted others
• Used factor analysis to come up with 16 key
  personality dimensions or factors to describe
  personality
• Proposed Each factor was measured on a continuum
• Generally considered as too many traits

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Cattells 16 Personality Factors

• Example Questions and Profiles The 16PF,
  developed by Raymond Cattell, is a self-report
  inventory that contains 185 items like those
  shown in part (a).

When scored, the 16PF generates a personality
profile. In part (b), personality profiles of
airline pilots and writers are compared. Cattell
(1973) found that pilots are more controlled,
more relaxed, more self-assured, and less
sensitive than writers
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12.2 The Search for Core Traits

• How is personality represented in our language
  (synonyms)
• Factor analysis
• Hierarchical structure of traits

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Use Of Personality Traits in Propaganda
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William Sheldon body types
Your body type determines your personality
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Sheldons endomorph
A lot of body fat A lot of fat on the upper arms
and thighs Wide hips and narrow shoulders Fairly
slim wrists and ankles

• Love of food
• Love of comfort
• Sociable
• Good-humored
• Relaxed
• Tolerant

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Sheldons ectomorph
Very little muscle or body fat Narrow hips and
shoulders Thin legs and arms A narrow chest and
abdomen Thin face and high forehead

• Self-conscious
• Private
• Introverted
• Intense
• Artistic
• Restrained

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Sheldons mesomorph
Very little body fat A muscular body Broad
shoulders and narrow hips A large head Strong
forearms and thighs

• Adventurous
• Dominant
• Courageous
• Indifferent
• Competitive
• Risk-taker

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12.2 The Big Five Dimensions of Personality

• Many factor analyses reveal the same major
  factors that seem to classify the personalities
  of most people
• The Big Five

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Which somatotype?

• All performers are made up of elements of these
  three extreme somatotypes.
• Most people have a mixture of mesomorphic,
  endomorphic and ectomorphic characteristics.
• A persons somatotype can be graded using a
  scoring system. They are given 3 scores between 1
  and 7, according to how well they conform to each
  of the extreme somatotypes.
• 1 is a low score, 7 is a high score. For example

1, 7, 2
Low endomorph
High mesomorph
Low ectomorph
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12.2 Traits as Biological Building Blocks

• Do immutable brain and biological processes
  produce the stability of personality?
• Brain changes do sometimes bring on personality
  changesPhineas Gage
• Traits do seem to have a heritability component

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Story of Phineas Gage Damage to the Prefrontal
cortex

• Gage was fitful, irreverent, indulging at times
  in the grossest profanity (which was not
  previously his custom), manifesting but little
  deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint
  or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at
  times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious
  and vacillating, devising many plans of future
  operations, which are no sooner arranged than
  they are abandoned in turn for others appearing
  more feasible. A child in his intellectual
  capacity and manifestations, he has the animal
  passions of a strong man. Previous to his injury,
  although untrained in the schools, he possessed a
  well-balanced mind, and was looked upon by those
  who knew him as a shrewd, smart businessman, very
  energetic and persistent in executing all his
  plans of operation. In this regard his mind was
  radically changed, so decidedly that his friends
  and acquaintances said he was 'no longer Gage.

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12.2 Do Animals Have Personalities?

• Gosling (1998) studied spotted hyenas. He
• had human observers use personality scales to
  rate the different hyenas in the group
• did a factor analysis on these findings
• found five dimensions
• three closely resembled the Big Five traits of
  neuroticism, openness to experience, and
  agreeableness

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12.2 Traits in the Brain

• Reticular formation of extraverts may not be as
  easily stimulated as that of introverts
• Gray (1970) suggests extraversion/ introversion
  and neuroticism reflect differences in two basic
  brain systems
• behavioral activation system (BAS)
• behavioral inhibition system (BIS)

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12.4
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• The Humanistic-Existential Approach Personality
  as Choice

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12.4 Humanistic-Existential Approach

• Healthy choices
• Self-actualizing tendency
• Hierarchy of needs (chapter 10)
• Peak experiences
• Conditions for growth
• unconditional positive regard (Rogers)

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Maslow Self-Actualization
Self-Actualization the process of fufilling our
potential

• Studied healthy, creative people
• Abe Lincoln, Tom Jefferson
• Eleanor Roosevelt
• Self-Aware Self-Accepting
• Open Spontaneous
• Loving Caring
• Problem-Centered not Self-Centered

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12.4 Personality as Existence

• Rollo May Victor Frankllooked at specific
  aspects of human existence
• awareness of our own existence
• ability to make choices
• Finding meaning in life
• existential dread (if I can think about life, I
  realize I will die!)
• mortality salience (worldview defense)

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12.5
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• The Social Cognitive Approach Personalities in
  Situations

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12.4 Personalities in Situations

• Social cognitive approach
• social psychology
• cognitive psychology
• learning theory
• Situations cause behavior, too!

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12.5 Consistency of Personality across Situations

• Person-situation controversy
• Mischel (1968)
• measured personality traits do a poor job of
  predicting behavior
• Kelly (1955)people view the social world from
  different perspectives
• Personal constructs are key to personality
  differences
• can have the same traits but wont act the same
  way if your perspective is different

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12.5 Personal Goals and Expectancies

• Persons unique perspective is reflected in
  personal goals
• Outcome expectancies
• Rotter (1966)locus of control

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12.6
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• The Self Personality in the Mirror

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12.6 The Self

• Learn to recognize ourselves in the mirror by
  about 18 months
• Self-concept
• William JamesI (self as knower) and Me (self
  as known)
• Self-esteem
• Self-concept organization
• self-narrative

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12.6 The Self in the Brain

• Self-schemas
• What happens in brain when something has
  self-relevance?
• Medial prefrontal cortex becomes active

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12.6 Causes and Effects of Self-Esteem

• George Herbert Mead (1934)generalized other
• Self-verificationprefer and seek consistent
  feedback
• Allows personality to become self-sustaining

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12.6 Causes and Effects of Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem
• Sources?
• accepted and valued by others
• self-evaluations
• social comparisons
• actual versus ideal self

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12.6 Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
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12.6 Self-Esteem

• Desire for self-esteem
• a basic need?
• Self-serving bias
• Narcissism

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The End

• Back-up slides

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12.3
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• The Psychodynamic Approach Forces That Lie
  Beneath Awareness

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12.3 Psychodynamic Approach

• Freud and psychopathologies of everyday life
• Freudian slips
• Psychodynamic approach
• dynamic unconscious

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12.3 Psychodynamic ApproachStructure of
Personality

• Three independent, interacting, and often
  conflicting systems
• Idpresent at birth
• pleasure principle
• Egoacquired through contact with reality
• reality principle
• Superegolearned from caregivers
• morality principle

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12.3 Psychodynamic ApproachDealing with Inner
Conflicts

• Anxiety as a driving force
• Defense mechanisms
• repression as motivated forgetting?
• decreased activity in hippocampus during memory
  suppression

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12.3 Psychodynamic ApproachDefense Mechanisms

• Rationalization
• Reaction formation
• Projection
• Regression
• Displacement
• Identification
• Sublimation

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12.3 Psychodynamic ApproachPersonality
Development

• Psychosexual stages of development
• Personality formed by age 6 through crucial
  experiences
• Fixation
• Oedipus conflict

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The Imp of the Perverse (Poe, 1850) Argues that
people often do things for no better reason than
that it will hurt themselves or others. The
narrator then tells how he murdered a man and
lived contentedly with the knowledge for many
years until he was suddenly, perversely compelled
to confess.

• Have you ever had an urge, wish, or desire pop
  into your head, something that surprised or
  shocked you? Something that made you say, whoa,
  where did THAT come from?

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The structural model
Conscious
Ego
Superego
Preconscious
Unconscious
Id
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I) Freuds Developmental Model
Note how The child is father to the man
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II) Freuds Therapeutic Model
The goal of Psychoanalysis is --"to strengthen
the ego, to make it more independent of the
super-ego, to widen its field of perception and
enlarge its organization, so that it can
appropriate fresh portions of the id. --To
reduce neuroses anxiety disorders resulting from
intrapsychic conflict The ideal of mental
health the ability to love, and to work.
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How do I analyze my dreams?
Pick the richest dream you can. Go through the
people, objects, and actions (manifest content).
For each one, look for day residue (symbols taken
from the days experiences) and condensation
(several meanings/people condensed into a
single symbol). Try to free-associate to each
symbol. Note the affective tone of your
associations (positive or negative). Try to find
fears, wishes, desires, conflicts, sources of
shame, anger, etc. in you that might be related
(the latent content... what the dream is really
about). Do you see signs of the dream-work the
process of converting latent content into
manifest content? Or is it really just random
associations. Look out for signs of resistance
in yourself.