What is Personality?

Transcription

1 What is Personality? Free will or determinism? Masters of our own fate or biological, unconscious, external factors Nature or nurture? Heredity or environment Past, present, or future? Is it determined in childhood or can it change with present or future goals? Uniqueness or universality? Is each personality unique or are the patterns with people? Equilibrium or growth? Are we motivated by pleasure or growth? Optimism or pessimism? Are human being basically good or evil?

2 What is Personality? Personality an individual s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting four basic perspectives Psychoanalytic Trait Humanistic Social-cognitive

3 Personality - The Psychoanalytic Perspective Sigmund Freud childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality Dreams and Freudian slips

4 The Psychoanalytic Psychoanalysis Attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts Treatment seeks to expose and interpret those conflicts Perspective

5 The Psychoanalytic Perspective Preconscious information that is not conscious, but is retrievable into conscious awareness Unconscious a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories Contemporary viewpoint- information processing of which we are unaware

6 The Psychoanalytic Perspective - Personality Structure Id contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy strives to satisfy basic sexual (Eros) and aggressive (Thanatos) drives: what you want to do. operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification at any and all costs Ego Id Conscious mind Unconscious mind Superego

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8 Personality Structure Superego the part of personality that presents internalized ideals provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations what you should do. initiates guilt Ego Id Conscious mind Unconscious mind Superego

9 Personality Structure Ego the largely conscious, executive part of personality mediates among the demands of the id, superego and reality: plans what you can do. operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain Ego Id Conscious mind Unconscious mind Superego

10 Personality Structure - Summary Can you now explain this picture?

11 Psychoanalysis Personality Development Psychosexual Stages the childhood stages of development during which the id s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones Fixation a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were unresolved

12 Personality Development Identification the process by which children incorporate their parents values into their developing superegos

13 Personality Development Oedipus Complex a boy s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father

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15 Psychoanalysis - Defense Mechanisms Defense Mechanisms the ego s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

16 Psychoanalysis - Defense Mechanisms Repression the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxietyarousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness

17 Defense Mechanisms Denial Rejects that the anxiety causing fact is true, despite overwhelming evidence Reaction Formation people express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings Projection people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others Displacement redirecting aggressive or sexual impulses toward a safer outlet

18 Defense Mechanisms Regression retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated Intellectualization Employing an over emphasis on thinking to distance from a feeling, behavior, or event.

19 Defense Mechanisms Rationalization offers selfjustifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one s actions

20 Defense Mechanisms Sublimation defense mechanism by which people re-channel their unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities i.e. using art, fantasy, and humor as an outlet for anxiety producing situations

21 Defense Mechanisms Compensation Counterbalancing a perceived weakness by emphasizing a strength in another area. Suppression Conscious form of repression actively working to forget.

22 Defense Mechanisms Identification Bolstering selfesteem by joining a real or imagined group.

23 The Psychoanalytic Perspective Assessing the Unconscious Free Association A type of treatment for exploring the unconscious person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

24 Assessing the Unconscious Projective Test a personality test, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one s inner dynamics TAT Rorschach

25 Assessing the Unconscious Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

26 Assessing the Unconscious Rorschach Inkblot Test the most widely used projective test seeks to identify people s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

27 Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective Important within its historical context Researchers find little support that defense mechanisms disguise sexual and aggressive impulses History does not support Freud s idea that sexual repression causes psychological disorder

28 Humanistic Perspective Abraham Maslow studied processes of productive and healthy people Striving for selfdetermination and self-realization

29 Humanistic Perspective Hierarchy of Needs Self-Actualization the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved

30 From different cultures Come up with three examples of people that are self-actualized. What roles in society did these people play? What types of things were they able to accomplish? Did they inspire others to follow their examples? Did people outside of their cultures recognize them? Why or why not?

31 Humanistic Perspective Carl Rogers focused on growth and fulfillment of individuals requires three things: Genuineness Acceptance Empathy Unconditional Positive Regard an attitude of total acceptance toward another person

32 Humanistic Perspective Self-Concept all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves Who am I? know, accept, and be true to oneself Self-Esteem one s feelings of high or low selfworth Self-Serving Bias a readiness to perceive oneself favorably

33 Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective Concepts like self-actualization are vague Emphasis on self may promote selfindulgence and lack of concern for others Theory does not address reality of human capacity for evil Theory has impacted popular ideas on child-rearing, education, management, etc.

34 The Trait Perspective Trait a characteristic pattern to describe behavior a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

35 The Trait Perspective Moody Anxious Rigid Sober Pessimistic Reserved Unsociable Quiet UNSTABLE melancholic choleric INTROVERTED EXTRAVERTED phlegmatic sanguine Passive Careful Thoughtful Peaceful Controlled Reliable Even-tempered Calm STABLE Touchy Restless Aggressive Excitable Changeable Impulsive Eysenck Optimistic Active Sociable Outgoing Talkative Responsive Easygoing Lively Carefree Leadership Hans and Sybil Eysenck use two primary personality factors as axes for describing personality variation Factor Analysis

36 The Trait Perspective The Big Five Personality Factors Note: Neuroticism has been changed to Emotional

37 The Trait Perspective Personality Inventory a questionnaire (often with true-false or agreedisagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors

38 The Trait Perspective Empirically Derived Test a test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) the most widely researched and clinically used Designed primarily for emotional disorders, but now has other uses.

39 Evaluating the Trait Perspective Situational influences on behavior are important to consider People can fake desirable responses on self-report measures of personality Averaging behavior across situations seems to indicate that people do have distinct personality traits