Personality Theories and Assessment

Prepared by J. W. Taylor V

Personality
A persons internally based characteristic ways of acting and thinking

The Journey

The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality The Humanistic Approach and the Social-Cognitive Approach to Personality Trait Theories of Personality and Personality Assessment

The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality

Freudian Classical Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Neo-Freudian Theories of Personality

Freudian Classical Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

Developed by Sigmund Freud in the late nineteenth century and continued until his death in 1939

Freud received a medical degree and established a practice as a clinical neurologist treating patients with emotional disorders Believed sex was a primary cause of emotional problems and was a critical component of his personality theory

Remains an important influence in Western culture

Freuds Three Levels of Awareness

1. The conscious mind is what you are presently aware of, what you are thinking about right now 2. The preconscious mind is stored in your memory that you are not presently aware of but can gain access to 3. The unconscious mind is the part of our mind of which we cannot become aware

It contains, however, the primary motivations for all of our actions and feelings our biological instinctual drives (such as for food and sex) and repressed unacceptable thoughts, memories, and feelings, especially unresolved conflicts from our early childhood experiences

Freuds Three-Part Personality Structure

Id Ego Superego

The Id

Is the original personality, the only part present at birth and the part out of which the other two parts of our personality emerge

Resides in the unconscious mind Includes our biological instinctual drives, the primitive parts of our personality located in our unconscious

Life instincts for survival, reproduction, and pleasure Death instincts, destructive and aggressive drives detrimental to survival

Operates on a pleasure principle; that is, it demands immediate gratification for these drives without the concern for the consequences of this gratification

The Ego

Starts developing during the first year or so of life to find realistic and socially-acceptable outlets for the ids needs

Operates on the reality principle, finding gratification for instinctual drives within the constraints of reality (the norms and laws of society) Part of the ego is unconscious (tied to the id) and part of the ego is conscious and preconscious (tied to the external world) Serves as the executive manager of the personality

The Superego

Represents ones conscience and idealized standards of behavior in their culture

Operates on a morality principle, threatening to overwhelm us with guilt and shame The demands of the superego and the id will come into conflict and the ego will have to resolve this turmoil within the constraints of reality To prevent being overcome with anxiety because of trying to satisfy the id and superego demands, the ego uses what Freud called defense mechanisms, processes that distort reality and protect us from anxiety

Freuds Defense Mechanisms

Repression Unknowingly placing an Not remembering a unpleasant memory or traumatic incident in thought in the unconscious which you witnessed a crime Reverting back to Throwing temper tantrums immature behavior from an as an adult when you earlier stage of dont get your way development Redirecting unacceptable Taking your anger toward feelings from the original your boss out on your source to a safer substitute spouse or children by target yelling at them and not your boss

Regression

Displacement

Freuds Defense Mechanisms

Sublimation Replacing socially unacceptable impulses with socially acceptable behavior Acting in exactly the opposite way to ones unacceptable impulses Attributing ones own unacceptable feelings and thoughts to others and not yourself Channeling aggressive drives into playing football or inappropriate sexual desires into art Being overprotective of and lavishing attention on an unwanted child Accusing your boyfriend of cheating on you because you have felt like cheating on him Justifying cheating on an exam by saying that everyone else cheats

Reaction Formation Projection

Rationalization Creating false excuses for ones unacceptable feelings, thoughts, or behavior

Unhealthy Personalities

Develop not only when we become too dependent upon defense mechanisms, but also when the id or superego is unusually strong or the ego unusually weak Freud believed that our behavior is largely shaped by id, ego, superego conflict and the conflicts centering on sex and agression urges and frustration in satisfying them.

Freuds Psychosexual Stage Theory

Freud believes that the child is the father to the man. Was developed chiefly from his own childhood memories and from his years of interactions with his patients and their case studies that included their childhood memories An erogenous zone is the area of the body where the ids pleasure-seeking psychic energy is focused during a particular stage of psychosexual development

A change in erogenous zones designates the beginning of a new stage

Fixation occurs when a portion of the ids pleasureseeking energy remains in a stage because of excessive gratification or frustration of our instinctual needs and continue throughout the persons life and impact their behavior and personality traits (failure to move forward)

Five Psychosexual Stages

Oral Stage (birth to 18 months)
Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years) Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years)

Latency Stage (6 years to puberty)

Genital Stage (puberty to adulthood)

Freuds Psychosocial States of Personality Development

Stage (age range) Erogenous Zone Activity Focus

Oral (birth to 1 years)

Anal (1 to 3 years)

Mouth, lips, and tongue

Anus

Sucking, biting, and chewing

Bowel retention and elimination

Phallic (3 to 6 years)
Latency (6 years to puberty) Genital (puberty to adulthood)

Genitals

Identifying with same-sex parent to learn gender role and sense of morality
Cognitive and social development Development of sexual relationships, moving toward intimate adult relationships

No erogenous zone Genitals

Potty Training

Parents try to get the child to have self-control during toilet training

If the child reacts to harsh toilet training by trying to get even with the parents by withholding bowel movements, an anal-retentive personality with the traits of orderliness, neatness, stinginess, and obstinacy develops The anal-expulsive personality develops when the child rebels against the harsh training and has bowel movements whenever and wherever he desires

Phallic Stage Conflicts

In the Oedipus conflict, the little boy becomes sexually attracted to his mother and fears the father (his rival) will find out and castrate him In the Electra conflict, the little girl is attracted to her father because he has a penis; she wants one and feels inferior without one (penis envy)

Identification

In the process of identification, the child adopts the characteristics of the same-sexed parents and learns their gender role (the set of behaviors expected of someone of a particular sex) It is during identification that the superego begins to develop

Evaluation of Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

Freuds notion of an unconscious level of awareness is not accessible to anyone and is impossible to examine scientifically

Indeed, unconscious information processing does impact our thinking and behavior However, the unconscious is not a storehouse of instinctual drives, conflicts, and repressed memories and desires

Although early childhood experiences are indeed important, there is little evidence for his psychosexual stages impacting development

Evaluation of Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

Contemporary researchers think repression, seldom, if ever, really occurs

We understand today how Freuds questioning during therapy may have created such repressed memories in his patients

There is evidence we fight hard to maintain self-esteem, but not necessarily through defense mechanisms as Freud described them

Neo-Freudian Theories of Personality

Agree with many of Freuds basic ideas, but differ in one or more important ways

Carl Jungs Collective Unconscious

Alfred Adlers Striving for Superiority

Karen Horney and the Need for Security

Carl Jungs Collective Unconscious

The collective unconscious is the accumulated universal experiences of humankind, with each of us inheriting the same cumulative storehouse of all human experiences These experiences are manifested in archetypes, which are emotionally charged images and symbols of all the important themes in the history of humankind (e.g., God, mother, hero) Notions of collective unconscious and archetypes are more mystical than scientific and cannot be empirically tested

Carl Jungs Collective Unconscious

Jung proposed two main personality attitudes, extraversion and introversion Jung also proposed four functions/styles of gathering information

Sensing is the reality function in which the world is carefully perceived Intuiting is more subjective perception Thinking is logical deduction Feeling is the subjective emotional function

The two personality attitudes and four functions are the basis for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, still in wide use today

Alfred Adlers Striving for Superiority

Adler thought the main motivation was what he termed striving for superiority to overcome the sense of inferiority that we feel as infants given our totally helpless and dependent state A healthy person learns to cope with these feelings, becomes competent, and develops a sense of self-esteem (compensation) Inferiority complex is the strong feeling of inferiority felt by those who never overcome this initial feeling of inferiority

Karen Horney and The Need for Security

Focused on dealing with our need for security, rather than a sense of inferiority A childs caregivers must provide a sense of security for a healthy personality to develop or else basic anxiety, a feeling of helplessness and insecurity in a hostile world, will result Three neurotic personality patterns

Moving toward people A compliant, submissive person Moving against people An aggressive, domineering person Moving away from people A detached, aloof person

The Humanistic Approach and the Social-Cognitive Approach to Personality

The Humanistic Approach to Personality
The Social-Cognitive Approach to Personality

Alternative Approaches

Humanistic theories developed in the 1960s as a part of a response to the deterministic psychoanalytic and strict behavioral psychological approaches that then dominated psychology and the study of personality

The humanistic approach emphasizes conscious free will in ones actions, the uniqueness of the individual person, and personal growth

During the 1960s, social-cognitive theorists rebelled against the narrowness of the strict behavioral approach to the development of personality, emphasizing both social and cognitive factors along with conditioning to explain personality development

The Humanistic Approach to Personality

Abraham Maslow is considered the father of the humanistic movement

He studied the lives of very healthy and creative people to develop his theory of personality

Maslows hierarchy of needs is an arrangement of the innate needs that motivate our behavior, from the strongest needs at the bottom of the pyramid to the weakness needs at the top of the pyramid

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

Self-Actualization SelfEsteem Social Safety Physiological

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

Self-Actualization

Characteristics of self-actualized people include

Accepting themselves, others, and the nature of world for what they are Having a need for privacy and only a few close, emotional relationships Being autonomous and independent, democratic, and very creative Having peak experiences, which are experiences of deep insight in which you experience whatever you are doing as fully as possible

Critique

Maslow hierarchy of needs is criticized for being based on non-empirical vague studies of a small number of people that he subjectively selected as self-actualized

Rogers Self Theory

Carl Rogers was a client-centered therapist who dealt with young, bright college students with adjustment problems

Emphasized self-actualization Believe that people have a strong need for positive regard to be accepted by and have the affection of others, especially the significant others in our life

Rogers Self Theory

Our parents set up conditions of worth, the behaviors and attitudes for which they would give us positive regard

Meeting conditions of worth continues throughout life, and a person develops a self-concept of what others think he should be

Unconditional positive regard acceptance and approval without conditions

Empathy from others, and having others be genuine with respect to their own feelings is necessary if we are to selfactualized

Note that neither Maslow nor Rogers theories are research-based

The Social-Cognitive Approach to Personality

Is research-based by combining elements of three major research perspectives

Cognitive Behavioral Sociocultural

Maintains that learning through environmental conditioning contributes to personality development

However, social learning/modeling and cognitive processes, such as perception and thinking, are also involved and are actually more important to the development of our personality

Banduras Self-System

The self-system is the set of cognitive processes by which a person observes, evaluates, and regulates his/her social behavior

There is a conscious decision to choose what behavior to engage in, acting in accordance with the assessment of whether the behavior will be reinforced or not

Self-efficacy is a judgment of ones effectiveness in dealing with particular situations and plays a major role in determining our behavior

Low self-efficacy is associated with depression, anxiety, and helplessness High self-efficacy is associated with self-confidence, positive outlook, and minimal self-doubt

Rotters Locus of Control

Locus of control is a persons perception of the extent to which he/she controls what happens to him/her

External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or external forces beyond your control determine your fate Internal locus of control refers to the perception that you control your own fate

Locus of Control

People with an internal locus of control perceive their success as dependent upon their own needs, but they may or may not feel that they have the competence (efficacy) to bring about successful outcomes in various situations

People with an internal locus of control are psychologically and physically better off

External locus of control may contribute to learned helplessness, a sense of hopelessness in which one thinks that he/she is unable to prevent unpleasant events

Self-Perception

Attribution is the process by which we explain our own behavior and that of others

Internal attribution means that the outcome is attributed to the person External attribution means that the outcome is attributed to factors outside the person

Self-Perception

Self-serving bias is the tendency to make attributions so that one can perceive oneself favorably

If the outcome is positive, we make an internal attribution for it If the outcome is negative, we make an external attribution for it Self-serving bias is adaptive because it protects us from falling prey to learned helplessness and depression

Learned Helplessness and Depression

Can result from:

Internal attributions for negative outcomes (I failed the test because I am no good at math) External attributions for positive outcomes (I aced the test because it was so easy)

Pessimistic explanations are also stable (i.e., the causes are permanent, I will always have no ability for math) and global (I have no ability for anything)

Trait Theories of Personality and Personality Assessment

Trait Theories of Personality
Personality Assessment

Trait Theories of Personality

Personality traits are internally based, relatively stable characteristics that define an individuals personality

Each trait is a dimension, a continuum ranging from one extreme of the dimension to the other

Trait theorists use factor analysis and other statistical techniques to tell them how many basic personality factors (or traits) are needed to describe human personality, as well as what these factors are

Factor analysis identifies clusters of test items (e.g., on a personality test) that measure the same factor/trait

The Number and Kind of Personality Traits

Raymond B. Cattell, using factor analysis, found that 16 traits were necessary to describe human personality Hans Eysenck, also using factor analysis, argued for three trait dimensions Cattell and Eysenck differed because the number of traits depends on the level of categorization in the factor analysis Eysencks theory is at a more general and inclusive level of abstraction than Cattells

Eysencks Three-Factor Theory

ExtraversionIntroversion NeuroticismEmotional stability PsychoticismImpulse control Eysenck argued that these traits are determined by heredity

Eysencks Three-Factor Theory

The biological basis for the extraversionintroversion trait is level of cortical arousal (neuronal activity)

Introverts have higher normal-levels of arousal than an extravert, so extraverts need to seek out external stimulation to raise the level of arousal in the brain to a more optimal level

Eysencks Three-Factor Theory

People who are high on the neuroticismemotional stability dimension tend to be overly anxious, emotionally unstable, and easily upset because of a more reactive sympathetic nervous system The psychoticism-impulse control trait is concerned with aggressiveness, impulsiveness, and empathy

A high level of testosterone and a low level of MAO, a neurotransmitter inhibitor, lead to high levels of psychoticism

Five-Factor Model of Personality

These five factors appear to be universal and are consistent from about age 30 to late adulthood These factors are measured using an assessment instrument called the NEO-PI

The Big Five Personality Trait Dimensions

Dimension Openness High End Independent, imaginative, broad interests, receptive to new ideas Well-organized, dependable, careful, disciplined Sociable, talkative, friendly, adventurous Sympathetic, polite, goodnatured, soft-hearted Emotional, insecure, nervous, self-pitying Low End Conforming, practical, narrow interests, closed to new ideas Disorganized, undependable, careless, impulsive Reclusive, quiet, aloof, cautious Tough-minded, rude, irritable, ruthless Calm, secure, relaxed, selfsatisfied

Conscientiousness

Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism

Personality Assessment

The main uses of personality tests are to aid in diagnosing people with problems, counseling, and making personnel decisions

Personality Inventories Projective Tests

Personality Inventories

Are designed to measure multiple traits of personality, and in some cases, disorders

Are a series of questions or statements for which the test taker must indicate whether they apply to him or not

The MMPI (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) is the most widely used, translated into more than 100 languages

MMPI

Uses a True/False/Cannot Say format with 567 simple statements (e.g., I like to cook) Developed to be a measure of abnormal personality, with 10 clinical scales such as depression and schizophrenia Items were developed and tested to differentiate different groups of people (a representative sample of people suffering a specific disorder versus a group of normal people) on certain dimensions; to be retained, the two groups generally responded to an item in opposite ways

MMPI

Contains three validity scales, which attempt to detect test takers who are trying to cover up problems and fake profiles or who were careless in their responding Its test construction method leads to good predictive validity for its clinical scales and its objective scoring procedure leads to reliability in interpretation

Projective Tests

Contain a series of ambiguous stimuli, such as inkblots, to which the test taker must respond about his perceptions of the stimuli Sample tests

Rorschach Inkblots Test Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT)

Rorschach Inkblots Test

Contains 10 symmetric inkblots used in the test, in which the examiner then goes through the cards and asks the test taker to clarify her responses by identifying the various parts of the inkblot that led to the response Assumes the test takers responses are projections of their personal conflicts and personality dynamics Widely used but not demonstrated to be reliable and valid

Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT)

Consists of 19 cards with black and white pictures of ambiguous settings and one blank card Test taker has to make up a story for each card he sees (what happened before, is happening now, what the people are feeling and thinking, and how things will turn out) Looks for recurring themes in the responses Scoring has yet to be demonstrated to be either reliable or valid