Transcript Document
Personality Discussion How would you describe your own personality? Is your personality the same as it was 5 years ago? Will it be the same in 5 years? Does your personality change based on the situation? Chapter 10: Personality Psychological qualities that bring continuity to an individual’s behavior in different situations and at different times Used to explain… Stability in person’s behavior over time and across situations (consistency) Behavioral differences between people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness) Theories – help understand the causes of similarities and differences among people Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Psychoanalytic theory: early childhood experiences, unconscious motives/conflicts, and methods used to cope with sexual & aggressive urges Personality, behavior, and disorders are determined by basic drives and past psychological events. Unconscious: thoughts, memories, desires well below the surface of conscious awareness, but still exert great influence on behavior Sexual & aggressive impulses – major source of conflict Ambiguous social norms – inconsistent messages about what is appropriate Thwarted more often than other urges Drives and Instincts (psychic energy) Eros (life instincts) – drives people towards acts that are life giving Libido (energy behind eros) – drives people to experience sensual pleasure Thanatos (death instincts) – drives people toward aggressive and destructive behaviors Freud’s Model of the Mind Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory PLEASURE PRINCIPLE Id Superego Ego Primitive, unconscious portion of personality; houses most basic drives and stores repressed memories Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory MORAL PRINCIPLE Id Superego Ego Mind’s storehouse of values, moral attitudes learned from parents and society; same as common notion of conscience Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory REALITY PRINCIPLE Id Superego Ego Conscious, rational part of personality; charged with keeping peace between superego and id Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Ego defense mechanisms: Largely unconscious mental strategies employed to reduce the experience of anxiety or guilt Repression: keeping distressing thought/feelings in the unconscious Projection: attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another Regression: reversion to immature patterns of behavior Denial: arguing against an anxiety by stating that it doesn’t exist More Defense Mechanisms Undoing: attempt to take back thoughts/ behaviors that are unacceptable Displacement: diverting emotional feelings from their original source to a substitute target Reaction Formation: acting in a way opposite of one’s true feelings Sublimation: acting out unacceptable impulses in a socially acceptable way Rationalization: creating false, but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Psychosexual stages: Successive, developmental periods with a characteristic sexual focus that leave their mark on adult personality Oral Stage Anal Stage Phallic Stage Latency Genital Stage Assessing Unconscious Processes Projective tests: Personality assessment instruments based on Freud’s concept of projecting hidden motives, interests, conflicts; ambiguous stimuli Rorschach inkblot technique Sentence completion Free association Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Rorschach Inkblot Thematic Apperception Test Neo-Freudian and Psychodynamic Theories Accepted basics: personality structure, unconscious, childhood influence, anxiety Disagreed in two ways: More emphasis on the conscious mind Sex and aggression not main motivators Alfred Adler and Karen Horney – emphasized social factors Adler: Supported inferiority complex Horney: Against penis envy; need for love and security Carl Jung – still focused on unconscious Collective unconscious: shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history Humanistic Perspective Third Force – emphasized human potential; gave rise to positive psychology Self-concept: thoughts and feelings about ourselves; central feature of personality Self-esteem: How we evaluate ourselves Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Self-actualization: fulfilling one’s potential Carl Rogers Unconditional positive regard: total acceptance toward another Fully-functioning person: has a self-concept that is positive and congruent with reality Trait Perspective Gordon Allport Traits: Stable personality characteristics that are presumed to exist within the individual and guide his/her thoughts and actions under various conditions Central traits form the basis of personality Secondary traits include preferences and attitudes Cardinal traits define peoples lives Patterns in Personality Trait Theory Type: Clusters of traits that are not only central to a person’s personality but are found with essentially the same pattern in many people Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment The Big Five (McCrae) – handout Best approximation of the basic trait dimensions NEO-PI assessment Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) – abnormal assessment Person-situation controversy: dispute over the relative contribution of personality factors and situational factors in controlling behavior (criticizes trait theory) Social-Cognitive Theories Bandura – interaction between people’s traits (including thinking) and social context Personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns (skills, attitudes, beliefs, fears) and the way we think about situations Self efficacy: our learned sense of competency What we do/try to do is largely controlled by our beliefs about our chances of success at it Reciprocal determinism: Process in which cognitions, behavior and environment mutually influence each other Reciprocal Determinism Cognition Environment Behavior Implicit Personality Theories Implicit personality theories: Assumptions about personality that are held by people to simplify the task of understanding others Fundamental attribution error: Assumption that another person’s behavior (especially undesirable behavior) is the result of a flaw in the personality, rather than in the situation