Psyc 001 Chapter 13: Personality

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personality

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the characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors that are relatively stable in an individual over time and across circumstances

comes from latin word "persona" meaning mask

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personality trait

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a characteristic; a dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time and across circumstances

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psychodynamic theory

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Freudian theory that unconscious forces--such as wishes, desires, hidden memories--determine behavior

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Levels of consciousness
(figure 13.3 p570)

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conscious level - thoughts we are aware of

preconscious level - content that is not currently in awareness but that could be brought to awareness (analogous to long-term memory)

unconscious - material the mind cannot easily retrieve

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Freudian slip

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When buried thoughts leak into the conscious mind resulting in us making inappropriate comments that reflect our unconscious desires/wishes

ex: "Excuse me, I don't think we've been properly seduced." (instead of "properly introduced")

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Freud's structural model of personality

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Part of psychodynamic theory; model of how personality is organized involving three interacting structures: id, superego, and ego

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id

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first structure; component of personality that is completely submerged in the unconscious and operates according to the pleasure principle (libido) which directs to seek pleasure and avoid pain

analogous to:
an infant crying to be fed when hungry

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libido

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energy that promotes pleasure seeking; it acts on impulses desires

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superego

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second structure; largely unconscious internalization of societal and parental standards of conduct (a brake on the id); rigid structure of morality of conscious

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ego

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third structure; mediates between id and superego--tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while be responsive to the dictates of the superego

operates according to reality principle - rational though and problem solving

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defense mechanisms
(table 13.1 - p571)

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unconscious mental strategies that the mind uses to protect itself from distress

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Denial
(table 13.1 - p571)

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Refusing to acknowledge source of anxiety

ex: ill person ignore medical advice [because they don't want to deal with the fact that s/he is sick]

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repression
(table 13.1 - p571)

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excluding source of anxiety from awareness

ex: person fails to remember unpleasant event (e.g. childhood sex abuse from family member)

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projection
(table 13.1 - p571)

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attributing unacceptable qualities of the self to someone else

ex: competitive person describes others as being super-competitive

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reaction formation
(table 13.1 - p571)

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warding off an uncomfortable through by over emphasizing its opposite

ex: person with unacknowledged homosexual desires is overtly homophobic

research has been done that shows that men who express the most negative views of homosexuality also become most aroused when watching homosexual sex

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rationalization
(table 13.1 - p571)

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concocting a seemingly logical reason or excuse for behavior that might otherwise be shameful

ex: person cheats on taxes because "everyone does it" or because the government is ripping us off anyway

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displacement
(table 13.1 - p571)

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shifting the attention of emotion from one object to another

ex: person yells at children after a bad day at work

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sublimation
(table 13.1 - p571)

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channeling socially unacceptable impulses into constructive, even admirable, behavior

ex: sadist becomes a surgeon or dentist

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psychosexual stages

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according to Freud, development stages that correspond to distinct libidinal urges; progression through these stages profoundly affects personality

in each psychosexual stage, libido is focused on one of the erogenous zones: the mouth, the anus, or the genitals

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the oral stage

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lasts from birth to approximately 18 months

During this time, infants seek pleasure through the mouth. Because infant experience relief when they breast-feed, they come to associate pleasure with sucking

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the anal stage

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age 2-3

during this time toilet training leads them to focus on the anus.

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the phallic stage

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age 3-5

they direct their libidinal energies toward the genitals. Children often discover the pleasure of rubbing their genitals during this time, although they have no sexual intent per se

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the latency stage

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children suppress libidinal urges or channel them into doing school work or building friendships

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the genital stage

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adolescents and adults attain mature attitudes about sexuality and adulthood. They center their libidinal urges on the capacities to reproduce and to contribute to society

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Personality results due to fixation at a psychosexual stage

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oral stage - oral personalities; seek pleasure through mouth such as by smoking and are also excessively needy

anal stage - anal-retentive; stubborn and highly regulating

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neo-freudians
(Jung, Adler, & Horney)

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focus on social interactions, especially children's emotional attachments to their parents or primary caregivers

object relations theory - a person's mind and sense of self develop in relation to others in the particular environment. "Objects" as real others in the world and how the person relates to these others shapes the person's personality

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humanistic approaches [to personality]

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emphasize personal experience, belief systems, the uniqueness of the human condition, and the inherent goodness of each person

propose that we seek to fulfill out potential for personal growth through greater self-understanding (Maslows's self-actualization)

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Rogers' Person-Centered approach

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emphasized people's subjective understandings of their lives. Highlights the importance of how parents show affection for their children and how parental treatment affects personality development

Parents who only love their children when they do what they want them to do cause children to lose touch with their true selves and in pursuit of positive regard from others

to conteract this effect, parents should raise children with unconditional positive regard - accept and prize their children no matter how they behave

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personal constructs (Kelly)

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personal theories of how the world works; we view the world as if we were scientists--constantly testing out theories and then revising them based on what we observe

Rotter build on that approach;
Our behavior is a function of two things: our expectancies for reinforcement and the values we ascribe to particular reinforcers

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Cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS)
(Walter Mischel)

(figure 13.7 - p575)

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our personalities often fail to predict our behavior across different circumstances; instead, our responses are influenced by how we perceive a given situation, our affective (emotional) responses to the situation, our skills in dealing with challenges, and our anticipation of the outcomes of our behavior

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self-regulatory capacities

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our relative ability to set personal goals, evaluate our progress, and adjust our behavior accordingly

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personality types

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discrete categories of people based on personality characteristics

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implicit personality theory

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study of two tendencies related to personality
1. tend to assume that certain personality characteristics go together
2. (as a result) we tend to make predictions about people based on minimal evidence

ex: we might think that introverts dislike parties, like solitary activities (e.g. reading), and are sensitive

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trait approach

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focuses on how individuals differ in personality disposition such as sociability, cheerfulness, and aggressiveness

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Eysenck's Hierarchical Model

(figure 13.9 - p577)

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specific response level- specific responses are observed behaviors (e.g. a person buys an item on sale)

habitual response level- repeats the behavior occasionally (e.g person has a hard time resisting sales)

trait level - if a person behaves the same way on many occasion, the person is characterized as possessing a trait

superordinate traits - introversion/extraversion, emotional stability, and psychoticism

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introversion/extraversion

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coined by Carl Jung

refers to how shy, reserved, and quiet a person is or how sociable, outgoing, and bold the person is

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emotional stability

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how much a person's moods and emotions change

a person low in emotional stability is considered neurotic. Neurotic people experience frequent and dramatic mood swings.

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psychoticism

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mix of aggression, impulse control, and empathy

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Five-factor theory

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the idea that personality can be described using five factors: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

cross-cultural difference emerge
ex: interpersonal relatedness, or harmony, is not an important trait in Western cultures but is in China

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idiographic approaches

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person-centered; focus on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons

uses different metric for each person

assume all individuals are unique

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nomothetic approaches

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focus on characteristics that are common among all people but that vary from person to person

uses the same metric to compare all people

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central vs. secondary traits

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central traits - especially important for how individuals define themselves (more predictive of behavior)

secondary traits - less personally descriptive or not applicable

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projective measures

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personality tests that examine unconscious processes by having people interpret ambiguous stimuli. General idea that people will project their mental contents onto the ambiguous items

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Rorschach Inblock Test

Example of projective measure

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a person looks at a meaningless inkblot and describes what it appears to be. How the person describes the inkblot is supposed to reveal unconscious conflicts and other problems

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Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT)

Example of projective measure

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developed by Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan

studies motivation. A person is shown an ambiguous picture and is asked to tell a story about it. Scoring of the story is based on motivational schemes that emerge, because the schemes are assumes to reflect the storyteller's personal motives

useful in measuring motivational traits (especially those related to achievement, power, and affiliation); it reliably predicts how interpersonally dependent people are

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objective measure

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relatively straightforward assessments of personality, usually based on information gathered through self-report questionnaires or observer ratings