Psychology Personality

1. Personality

2. Personality
Understanding oneself entails developing an understanding of one’s
personality.
 Allport- “Personality as the dynamic organization within the
individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique
adjustment to his environment”
 Mischel(1976)- “Distinctive patterns of behavior including thoughts &
emotions that characterize each individual’s adaptation to the
situations of his or her life.”
• Behavior patterns across situations
• Psychological characteristics of the person that lead to those
behavior patterns.

3. Personality theories
 Understand the structure of adult personality, its origin & its
correlates.
 Predicting behavior & life events based on what we know
about personality.
 Vary on-
 Starting points and sources of data collection.
 Varying focus, understanding the structure of personality or how
personality developed and continues to grow.
 Different focus on healthy & troubled people.

4. Theories of Personality
 Type & Trait approach-focus on characteristics
 Dynamic approaches- on motives impulses &
psychological processes
 Learning & Behavioral
 Humanistic Approaches- Self and the importance of the
individuals subjective view of the world.

5.  Type Theories- Hippocrates 400 BC .
4 Temperamental types
 Sanguine-cheerful ,vigorous
 Phlegmatic-slow moving, calm
 Melancholic-Depressed, morose
 Choleric-Hot-tempered
Many other Typologies
A class of individuals said to share a common collection of
characteristics . Non overlapping categories
 Introverts-shyness, social withdrawal, tendency to talk
less
 Extraverts-tendency to be outgoing, talkative

6. William Sheldon (1942)
 Related physique to temperament
 Endomorphic-fat, soft, round- relaxed, sociable,
fond of eating.
 Mesomorph- muscular, rectangular, strong- filled
with energy, courage & assertive tendencies.
 Ectomorphs- thin, long, fragile- brainy, artistic
and introverted.
 Failed to predict behavior.

7.  Eysenck’s hierarchical Theory
Personality Type (certain characteristics)
habitual response patterns (applicable to many situations)
specific responses (specific situations)
Focus on good-fits

8. Trait Theories
Descriptive terms like determined, flamboyant, inclined to
make quick decisions are “traits”; make people behave in
distinctive and consistent ways across situations.
Allport’s Theory- Distinctive & personal forms of behaviors
 Mostly adjectives that describe how people act, think, perceive &
feel.
 Three levels of generality
Cardinal Traits- Dominant and all individual action can be traced to
them
Central Traits- Characterizing an individual’s behavior to some extent
but not in such a complete way as cardinal traits
Secondary traits-influential but only within a narrow range

9.  Idiographic Approach- Entails efforts to
understand, explain and predict
individual’s behavior in various situations.
 Consistencies across one person
 Nomothetic approach- discovery of
principles of personality that apply to
people in general
 Consistencies across individuals

10. Issues with Trait and Type Theories
 Heritability studies show that almost all personality traits
are influenced by genetics.
 Consistency paradox, on looking at traits predicting
behavior.
 Methodological Issues
 Reliability, getting agreement from different
observers.
 Validity of trait assessment, whether assessments
mean what they actually mean, social desirability
 Situationism
 Is it adequate to think of our personalities as a sum of
traits? Do not explain how personality develops or
behavior is generated.

11.  Type and Trait theories involve a search for separable
components of personality and ways by which the
components fit together to form a personality structure.
 Dynamic approaches involve a search for processes by
which needs, motives and impulses –often hidden from
view –interact to produce the individual’s behavior.

12. Freudian Psychoanalysis
 Core of personality are the events that are part
of the person’s mind.
 According to Freud all behavior is motivated,
some of these motives we are conscious of and
some motivation operates at an unconscious
level.
 No accidental happenings cause behavior.
Through analysis of thought associations,
dreams, errors we can learn about unconscious
motives.

13.  Each person has inborn instincts or drives that create
tension in the body.
 Originally gave two basic drives
 Self-preservation (meeting needs of hunger & thirst).
 Eros the driving force related to preservation of the
species. Not expressed only in sexual gratification but
in other forms of seeking pleasure and or having
physical contact with others.
 Libido is the source of energy of sexual urges.
 Eros does not appear suddenly at puberty but
operates from birth.
 Later added “Thanatos” or death instinct primitive to
return to inorganic state.

14. Psychoanalytic Theory
3 parts
1. Structure of the personality comprising of the id, ego,
superego.
2. Personality dynamics in which conscious and
unconscious motivation and ego-defense mechanisms
play an important role.
3. Theory of psychosexual development in which different
motives and bodily regions influence the child at
different stages of growth.

15. Personality Structure: Id, Ego & Superego
3 interlocking parts
Id- most primitive, biological based urges
- eat, drink, eliminate & sexual stimulation
- the energy that underlies these urges is libido
- operates on the pleasure principle, satisfaction
immediately as the urges arose
- without regard to rules, realities of life
Ego- The elaborate ways of thinking and behaving
constitutes the “executive-function”
- delays the demands of id channelizing them into
more socially acceptable out lets
- works on the “in the service of reality principle”

16. Superego- conscience-
-mainly prohibitions learnt from parents and other
authorities
-superego may condemn as wrong certain things that the
ego may otherwise do to satisfy the id
-It is the seat for all positive values and moral ideals that
are pursued because they are worthy
Lively ongoing interplay between the id, ego and superego.
Id wants to do what to do what feels good and superego
insists on doing the right thing. Ego arbitrates

17. 3 levels of consciousness-
Conscious, preconscious & the unconscious
 Conscious level- we are aware
of certain things around us &
certain conscious thoughts.
 Preconscious level- Memories
and thoughts that are easily
available with a moments
reflection
 Unconscious- Memories
,thoughts and Motives which
we cannot easily call up.

18. Why do some ideas and feelings become
unconscious?
Repression- We repress or banish from consciousness,
ideas, memories feelings or motives unacceptable,
forbidden and disturbing.
 It is unconscious and automatic.
 We don’t choose
 Whenever the idea or impulse which is painful and anxiety
causing we must escape
 This anxiety triggers repression

19. According to Freud the repressed material is not just safely
tucked away. It operates underground, converting
repressed conflicts into neurosis.
Neurotic symptoms often bear a symbolic relationship to
repressed material that is causing them.
-Unconscious process also figured in dreams and
accidents.
-Dreams are disguised manifestations of ids motives “royal
road to the unconscious”
-Slips of the tongue

20. Defense Mechanism
 The demands of id are instinctual & amoral and hence
must be blocked by the ego & superego.
 Results in anxiety and guilt from which the ego has to be
protected
 Defenses are used- The ego disguises, redirects and
copes with the id’s urges.
Reaction Formation- A motive that would arouse unbearable
anxiety if it recognized hence it is converted into its
opposite
Projection and Displacement

21. Psychosexual stages of development
 Freud emphasized biological development and sexual
development
 From birth onwards we have innate tendency to seek
pleasure though stimulation of various parts of the body
that are sensitive to touch
 The mouth, the anus and the genitals are erogenous
zones
 Psychosexual stages
 If a child’s need at one psychosexual stage are under
satisfied or over satisfied, then it leads to “fixation”

22. Oral Stage – birth to 1 year
 The infant obtains pleasure by sucking and later by biting
 Feeding, mouthing new objects, even relief of teething
pain
 Mouth is the source of all pleasure in the first year
 A baby given too little or too much or made too anxious
about it-oral fixation
 Adulthood excessive oral behavior in terms of concrete
forms eg. Smoking, psychological forms such as
dependence or critical biting personality

23. Anal Stage- when child is toilet trained and teach them
prohibited behavior
 Anus becomes highly sensitive to the stimulation of
“holding on” and “letting go”
 Toilet training is first contact with authority
 Id is brought under control of the ego
Fixation characterized by
 Messiness and disorder
 Compulsiveness, over conformity

24. Phallic Stage- (3-5 years)
 After child has been toilet trained there is increase in
awareness of genitals
 It is in this stage that children develop sexual feelings
towards the parent of the opposite sex
 Oedipus complex & Electra complex
 The child may be fearful of the parent of same sex and
fear retaliation
 Gradually this anxiety is resolved by identification with
parent. Adopting behavior patterns and ideas.

25. Latency Period- (6 years through puberty)
 According to Freud not very important in the
development if personality
 The child learns more about the world and the ego
expands
Genital Stage- Adolescences & beyond
 Mature sexual interests appear
 The focus lies outside the self and family
 Responsible enjoyment of adult sexuality which is the
epitome of healthy development

26. Jung’s analytical psychology
 Jung parted ways from Freud; differences mainly
due to Jung’s belief that childhood psychosexual
development did not play that important a role
for adult adjustment as suggested by Freud.
 Jung gave less emphasis to sexual and
aggressive urges arising out of past conflicts .
 More emphasis to people’s future-oriented
goals.
 Also differed about the nature of the
unconscious.

27.  Jung focused on dreams and fantasies. Tried to
understand the content and meanings of dreams and
visions in people’s lives .
 Used word association technique. 100 terms presented
and respondent instructed to respond quickly.
 Measured how long it took to respond, changes in
patterns of breathing, perspiration.
 Stimulus terms that had long delays were part of
complexes- network of ideas bound together by
emotions

28.  From this arose difference in Jung and Freud’s idea of
unconscious.
 Freud’s focus on sexual urges and libido as the basis of
human motivation. Jung provided another driving force
as “only a continuous life urge”, a striving to live and
insure the survival of one’s species & operate as one
coherent whole
 Jung also gave other structures of the personality.
 Collective unconscious called the archetypes; these
grow out of past experiences of the human race.
Fundamental images, impressions or predispositions
that were common to earlier members of the human
race. Not memories but subjective reactions.

29.  Jung also provided each individual with a personal
unconscious; consists of an individual’s experiences that
are repressed.
 Psychologically healthy people come in contact with the
unconscious parts of their personalities which they
integrate with their conscious ego.
 Each individual had their own unique way of integration;
this process is individuation.

30.  Limitations
 Dynamic theories can not be tested
 Cultural environment major influence
 Research from studies of disturbed adults

31. Learning and Behavioral Theories
 Behaviors that make up our personality are conditioned or learned
 Current conditions help maintain this behavior
 Main focus is on testing their theories hence focus on observable
behaviors
 Dollard and Miller gave the basic idea that social behavior and
individual behavior can be explained by means of basic learning
principles
 Neurosis explained as an outcome of conflict on being attracted and
repelled by a course of action.

32.  Skinner’s radical behavioral perspective drew only from instrumental
conditioning
 Reinforcement and punishment influence behavior
 Ruled out unobservable like drive, motives and emotions
 Personality as a collection of reinforced responses
 Bandura and Walters- gave importance to observational learning or
imitation
 It requires no direct reinforcement to the learner
 Imitator observes the model and experiences the model’s behaviors
and its consequences vicariously
 Situationalist approach that diminishes ‘person’ in personality

33. Humanistic Theories
 Have focused on an entity known as the self
 2 distinct meanings
- people’s attitudes about themselves their perceived
traits, abilities, weaknesses
- this is the self-concept/self-Image.
- the executive functions-processes by which an individual
copes, thinks , remembers, perceives and plans

34. Roger’s Self theory -
Individual's subjective frame of reference which is the phenomenal field
, it may or may not correspond with external reality
- The concept of the self develops out of the phenomenal field
- The ideal self- what the person would like to be.
- Trouble occurs when there are mismatches or incongruence
- Results can be very disturbing
- As an individual needs self-esteem we can distort our perceptions of
our experiences in self-serving ways.

35. Personality Development- as a child grows parents and
others react to their behavior, sometimes in a positive
way and sometimes with disapproval
Children learn to regard some actions or thoughts as
unworthy and they often react by distorting or denying
these unworthy aspects of self
Both these lead to maladaptive behaviors.
Importance of unconditional positive regard in raising
children.
Unconditional positive self regard is important in adults.
In mature well adjusted individuals there is congruence and
no distortions.

36. Maslow’s self actualization
 Studied models of self actualized people and found that
1. Open to experience
2. In tune with their inner beings
3. Spontaneous, independent fresh in their appreciation of
others
4. Devote efforts to their goals wanting to be good at it
5. Dedicated fully and creatively to something outside
themselves
6. Related to a few specially loved others in a deep emotional
plane
 Had peak experiences, moments of true self actualization

37.  Nature-Nurture debate
 Person-situation debate