10 Personality - Personality (1).ppt

Personality1

PersonalityThe Psychoanalytic Perspective Exploring the Unconscious Exploring the Neo‐Freudian andPsychodynamic Theories Assessing Unconscious Processes Evaluating the PsychoanalyticPerspective2

PersonalityThe Humanistic Perspective Abraham Maslow’s Self‐ActualizingPerson Carl Roger’s Person‐CenteredPerspective An Assessment of the Self An Evaluation of the HumanisticPerspective3

PersonalityThe Trait Perspective Exploring Traits Assessing Traits Describing The Big Five Factors Evaluating the Trait Perspective4

PersonalityThe Social‐CognitivePerspective Reciprocal Influences Personal Control Internal Versus External Locus ofControl Learned Helplessness VersusPersonal Control5

PersonalityThe Social‐CognitivePerspective Evaluating Optimism VersusPessimism Assessing Behavior in Situations Evaluating the Social‐CognitivePerspective6

PersonalityExploring the Self Benefits of Self‐Esteem Culture and Self‐Esteem Self‐Serving Bias7

PersonalityAn individual’s characteristic pattern ofthinking, feeling, and acting.Each dwarf has a distinct personality.8

Psychodynamic PerspectiveCulver PicturesIn his clinical practice,Freud encounteredpatients suffering fromnervous disorders.Their complaintscould not be explainedin terms of purelyphysical causes.Sigmund Freud(1856‐1939)9

Psychodynamic PerspectiveCulver PicturesFreud’s clinicalexperience led him todevelop the firstcomprehensive theoryof personality, whichincluded theunconscious mind,psychosexual stages,and defensemechanisms.Sigmund Freud(1856‐1939)10

Exploring the UnconsciousA reservoir (unconscious mind) of mostlyunacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, andmemories. Freud asked patients to say whatevercame to their minds (free association) in order totap the unconscious.http://www.english.upenn.edu11

Dream AnalysisAnother method to analyze the unconsciousmind is through interpreting manifest andlatent contents of dreams.The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli (1791)12

PsychoanalysisThe process of freeassociation (chain ofthoughts) leads topainful, embarrassingunconscious memories.Once these memoriesare retrieved andreleased (treatment:psychoanalysis) thepatient feels better.13

Model of MindThe mind is like an iceberg. It is mostly hidden,and below the surface lies the unconsciousmind. The preconscious stores temporarymemories.14

Defense Mechanisms3. Reaction Formation causes the ego tounconsciously switch unacceptableimpulses into their opposites. People mayexpress feelings of purity when they may besuffering anxiety from unconscious feelingsabout sex.4. Projection leads people to disguise theirown threatening impulses by attributingthem to others.22

Defense Mechanisms5. Rationalization offers self‐justifyingexplanations in place of the real, morethreatening, unconscious reasons for one’sactions.6. Displacement shifts sexual or aggressiveimpulses toward a more acceptable or lessthreatening object or person, redirectinganger toward a safer outlet.23

The Neo‐FreudiansArchive of the History of American Psychology/ University of AkronJung believed in thecollective unconscious,which contained acommon reservoir ofimages derived from ourspecies’ past. This is whymany cultures sharecertain myths and imagessuch as the mother beinga symbol of nurturance.Carl Jung (1875‐1961)24

The Neo‐FreudiansNational Library of MedicineLike Freud, Adlerbelieved in childhoodtensions. However, thesetensions were social innature and not sexual. Achild struggles with aninferiority complexduring growth andstrives for superiorityand power.Alfred Adler (1870‐1937)25

The Neo‐FreudiansThe Bettmann Archive/ CorbisLike Adler, Horneybelieved in the socialaspects of childhoodgrowth anddevelopment. Shecountered Freud’sassumption thatwomen have weaksuperegos and sufferfrom “penis envy.”Karen Horney (1885‐1952)26

Assessing Unconscious ProcessesEvaluating personality from an unconsciousmind’s perspective would require apsychological instrument (projective tests) thatwould reveal the hidden unconscious mind.27

Projective Tests: CriticismsCritics argue that projective tests lack bothreliability (consistency of results) and validity(predicting what it is supposed to).1. When evaluating the same patient, eventrained raters come up with differentinterpretations (reliability).2. Projective tests may misdiagnose a normalindividual as pathological (validity).30

Evaluating the PsychoanalyticPerspectiveModern Research1. Personality develops throughout life and isnot fixed in childhood.2. Freud underemphasized peer influence onthe individual, which may be as powerfulas parental influence.3. Gender identity may develop before 5‐6years of age.31

Evaluating the PsychoanalyticPerspectiveModern Research4. There may be other reasons for dreamsbesides wish fulfillment.5. Verbal slips can be explained on the basis ofcognitive processing of verbal choices.6. Suppressed sexuality leads to psychologicaldisorders. Sexual inhibition has decreased,but psychological disorders have not.32

Evaluating the PsychoanalyticPerspectiveFreudʹs psychoanalytic theory rests on therepression of painful experiences into theunconscious mind.The majority of children, death camp survivors,and battle‐scarred veterans are unable torepress painful experiences into theirunconscious mind.33

Freud and the Unconscious MindModern research shows the existence ofnon‐conscious information processing.1.Schemas that automatically control perceptions andinterpretations2.Parallel processing during vision and thinking3.Implicit memories4.Emotions that activate instantly withoutconsciousness34

Evaluating the PsychoanalyticPerspectiveThe scientific merits of Freud’s theory havebeen criticized. Psychoanalysis is meagerlytestable. Most of its concepts arise out of clinicalpractice, which are the after‐the‐factexplanation.35

Humanistic PerspectiveBy the 1960s, psychologists became discontentwith Freud’s negativity and the mechanisticpsychology of the behaviorists.http://www.ship.eduAbraham Maslow(1908‐1970)Carl Rogers(1902‐1987)36

Assessing TraitsPersonality inventories are questionnaires(often with true‐false or agree‐disagree items)designed to gauge a wide range of feelings andbehaviors assessing several traits at once.46

MMPIThe Minnesota Multiphasic PersonalityInventory (MMPI) is the most widelyresearched and clinically used of all personalitytests. It was originally developed to identifyemotional disorders.The MMPI was developed by empiricallytesting a pool of items and then selecting thosethat discriminated between diagnostic groups.47

MMPI Test Profile48

The Big Five FactorsToday’s trait researchers believe that Eysencks’personality dimensions are too narrow andCattell’s 16PF too large. So, a middle range (fivefactors) of traits does a better job of smOpennessExtraversion49

Endpoints50

Questions about the Big Five1. How stable are these traits?Quite stable in adulthood.However, they change overdevelopment.2. How heritable are they?Fifty percent or so for eachtrait.3. How about other cultures?These traits are common acrosscultures.4. Can they predict otherpersonal attributes?Yes. Conscientious people aremorning type and extravertedare evening type.51

Evaluating the Trait PerspectiveThe Person‐Situation ControversyWalter Mischel (1968, 1984, 2004) points out thattraits may be enduring, but the resultingbehavior in various situations is different.Therefore, traits are not good predictors ofbehavior.52

The Person‐Situation ControversyTrait theorists argue that behaviors from asituation may be different, but average behaviorremains the same. Therefore, traits matter.53

The Person‐Situation ControversyTraits are socially significant and influence ourhealth, thinking, and performance(Gosling et al., 2000).John Langford PhotographySamuel Gosling54

Consistency of Expressive StyleExpressive styles in speaking and gesturesdemonstrate trait consistency.Observers are able to judge people’s behaviorand feelings in as little as 30 seconds and in oneparticular case as little as 2 seconds.55

Social‐Cognitive PerspectiveBandura (1986, 2001,2005) believes thatpersonality is theresult of an interactionthat takes placebetween a person andtheir social context.Albert Bandura56

Reciprocal InfluencesThe three factors, behavior, cognition, andBandura called the process of interacting withenvironment, are interlocking determinants ofour environment reciprocal determinism.each other.Stephen Wade/ Allsport/ Getty Images57

Individuals & EnvironmentsSpecific ways in which individuals andenvironments interactDifferent people choosedifferent environments.The school you attend and themusic you listen to are partlybased on your dispositions.Our personalities shape howwe react to events.Anxious people react tosituations differently than calmpeople.Our personalities shapesituations.How we view and treat peopleinfluences how they treat us.58

BehaviorBehavior emerges from an interplay of externaland internal influences.59

Personal ControlSocial‐cognitive psychologists emphasize oursense of personal control, whether we controlthe environment or the environment controlsus.External locus of control refers to the perceptionthat chance or outside forces beyond ourpersonal control determine our fate.Internal locus of control refers to the perceptionthat we can control our own fate.60

Learned HelplessnessWhen unable to avoid repeated adverse eventsan animal or human learns helplessness.61

Optimism vs. PessimismAn optimistic or pessimistic attributional style isyour way of explaining positive or negativeevents.Positive psychology aims to discover andpromote conditions that enable individuals andcommunities to thrive.62

Assessing Behavior in SituationsSocial‐cognitive psychologists observe people inrealistic and simulated situations because theyfind that it is the best way to predict the behaviorof others in similar situations.63

Evaluating the Social‐CognitivePerspectiveCritics say that social‐cognitive psychologistspay a lot of attention to the situation and payless attention to the individual, his unconsciousmind, his emotions, and his genetics.64

Positive Psychology and HumanisticPsychologyPositive psychology, such as humanisticpsychology, attempts to foster humanfulfillment. Positive psychology, in addition,seeks positive subjective well‐being, positivecharacter, and positive social groups.Courtesy of Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD Director,Positive Psychology Center/ University of PennsylvaniaMartin Seligman65

Exploring the SelfResearch on the self has a long history because theself organizes thinking, feelings, and actions and is acritical part of our personality.1.2.3.Research focuses on the different selves wepossess. Some we dream and others we dread.Research studies how we overestimate ourconcern that others evaluate our appearance,performance, and blunders (spotlight effect).Research studies the self‐reference effect inrecall.66

Benefits of Self‐EsteemMaslow and Rogers argued that a successfullife results from a healthy self‐image (self‐esteem). The following are two reasons whylow self‐esteem results in personal problems.1.2.When self‐esteem is deflated, we viewourselves and others critically.Low self‐esteem reflects reality, our failure inmeeting challenges, or surmountingdifficulties.67

Culture & Self‐EsteemPeople maintain their self‐esteem even with a low statusby valuing things they achieve and comparingthemselves to people with similar positions.68

Self‐Serving BiasWe accept responsibility for good deeds andsuccesses more than for bad deeds andfailures. Defensive self‐esteem is fragile andegotistic whereas secure self‐esteem is lessfragile and less dependent on externalevaluation.69

Like Freud, Adler believed in childhood tensions. However, these tensions were social in nature and not sexual. A child struggles with an inferiority complex during growth and strives for superiority and power. Alfred Adler (1870‐1937) National Library of Medicine