Chapter 11

Personality
Personality

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Psychology
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Psychology
Definition of Personality

 The sum total of the typical ways of acting

thinking, and feeling that each person
different from other people.
 Aspects that are:
Typical of the person
Different from other individuals

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Psychology
Trait Theory
 Traits : Traits are relatively enduring
patterns of behavior (thinking, acting,
and feeling) that are relatively consistent
across situations.
 Examples
 Friendly
 Aggressive
 Flirtatious
 Fearful

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Psychology
Trait Theories of Personality
 Gordon Allport’s Trait theory (1961):
The best way to understand people and
predict how they will behave in the future is to
find out what they value – the things that they
will strive to attain.
Allport: traits can be ranked
•Motivational traits related to one’s values
•Cardinal traits dominate one’s life (ie: desire
for social
justice)
•Central/secondary traits are more common
(ie:
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obtaining sexual gratification)
Psychology
Trait Theories of Personality

 Common traits
 Personal dispositions

 Cardinal : traits are those that dominate a person’s life.

E.g., Quest for knowledge in Albert Einstein, and Social
justice in Mahatma Gandhi
 Central : these traits are important that influence and
much of our behavior . E.g., one person’s behavior
might mostly be aimed at obtaining intimacy and sexual
gratification. Another person, on the other hand, may be
relatively uninterested in intimacy or sex but may
strongly desire power and prestige.
 Secondary: traits are much more specific (such as rude
to door-to-door sales people) and much less important
to comprehensive description of a persons personality

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Psychology
Trait Theory

 Trait theories of personality

 The Five-Factor model of personality traits
 Neuroticism
 Extroversion
 Openness
 Agreeableness
 Conscientiousness
 Experimental validation of personality traits

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Psychology
Neuroticism

 Calm……………Vs……………Worrying
 At-ease…………Vs……………Nervous
 Relaxed…………Vs…………..High-strung
 Secure…………..Vs………….Insecure
 Comfortable…….Vs………Self-conscious

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Psychology
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Psychology
Extraversion

 Retiring…………….Vs…………Sociable
 Sober………………Vs…………Fun-loving
 Reserved…………..Vs……….Affectionate
 Quiet……………….Vs………Talkative
 Loner……………….Vs………Joiner

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Psychology
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Psychology
Openness

 Conversional………Vs………..Original
 Down-to-earth…….Vs……….Imaginative
 Uncreative………….Vs………Creative
 Narrow interest…….Vs……Broad interest

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Psychology
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Psychology
Agreeableness

 Irritable……………Vs……..Good-natured
 Ruthless……………Vs…….Soft-hearted
 Selfish………………Vs……Selfless
 Callous……………..Vs…….Sympathetic
 Vengeful……………Vs…….Forgiving

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Psychology
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Psychology
Conscientiousness

 Negligent………….Vs……..Conscientious
 Careless……………Vs…….Careful
 Undependable……..Vs……Reliable
 Lazy…………………Vs……Hardworking
 Disorganized……….Vs…..Well-organized

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Psychology
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Psychology
A Big Five Personality Profile

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Psychology
Human Diversity: Personality and
Culture
 Socio-cultural factors and physical challenges are
important in understanding our personalities.
 The five personality traits are a human universal
and equally meaningful in all culture.
 Individualistic cultures emphasize the rights and
characteristics of the individual person.
 Collectivistic cultures understand the individual
more in terms of the expectations, rights, and
duties of being a member of a group (family,
caste, country)

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Psychology
Human Diversity: Personality and
Culture
 Individualistic culture
 Are more likely to feel proud and
superior
 Tend to be more motivated to
work hard to meet their own
personal goals than the goals of
others.
 They are more willing to prove
themselves right even if it
embarrasses others and are even
more likely to resort to physical
aggression when disputes arise
 Free time, persons in individualistic
cultures are more likely to spend it
in solitary pursuits than in group.
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Psychology
 Collectivistic culture
 Friendly, having close feelings,
and being respectful –
characteristics that refer to
relations with others.
 Tend to be more motivated to
work hard to meet goals set by
respected authority figures than
their own goals.
 Free time, they tend to spend it
with family or friends.
 They are less aggressive and
more likely to say things that
allow the other person to save
face and avoid embarrassment.
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Sigmund Freud
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Psychology
Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud

 Three levels of consciousness

 Conscious mind: That portion of the mind of which
one is presently aware
 Preconscious mind: That portion of the mind
containing information that is not presently conscious
but can be easily brought into consciousness
 Unconscious mind: The part of the mind of which we
can never be directly aware; the storehouse of
primitive instinctual motives and of memories and
emotions that have been repressed.
 Repression: Unpleasant information is often pushed into
unconsciousness without our being aware of it.

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Psychology
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Psychology
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Psychology
Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud

 Freud’s mind
 Id: The selfish beast : Inborn part of the unconscious
mind that uses the primary process to satisfy its needs
and that acts according to the pleasure principle.
 Life instincts – libido: The energy of the life instincts of
sex, hunger, and thirst.
 Death instincts
 Pleasure principle: seek immediate pleasure to avoid
pain, regardless of how harmful it might be to others.
 Primary process thinking: the attempt by the Id to
satisfy its needs by forming a wish-fulfilling mental
image of the desired object.

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Psychology
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Psychology
Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud

 Freud’s mind
 Ego: The executive of personality – part of
mind that uses the reality principle to satisfy
the Id.
 Reality principle: Attempt by the ego to find safe,
realistic ways of meeting the needs of the Id.

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Psychology
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Psychology
Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud

 Freud’s mind
 Superego: Part of the mind that opposes the
desires of the Id by enforcing moral
restrictions and by striving to attain
perfection.
 Conscience: The moral inhibitions of the super
ego.
 Ego ideal: The standard of perfect conduct of the
super ego.

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Psychology
Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud

 Becoming a member of society

 Displacement: A defense mechanism in which the
individual directs aggressive or sexual feelings away
from the primary object to someone or something
safe.
 Sublimation: A form of displacement in which a socially
desirable goal is substituted for a socially harmful goal.
 Identification: The tendency to base one’s identity
and actions on individuals who are successful in
gaining satisfaction from life.

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Psychology
Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud

 Theories derived from psychoanalysis

 Carl Jung Carl Jung
 Extraversion: the tendency of some individuals to be
friendly and open to the world
 Introversion: the tendency of some individuals to be shy
and to focus their attention on themselves.
 Personal unconscious: the motives, conflicts, and
information that are repressed by a person because they
are threatening to that individual.
 Collective unconscious: the content of the unconscious
mind with which all humans are born.

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Psychology
Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud

 Theories derived from psychoanalysis

Alfred Adler
 Alfred Adler
 Feelings of inferiority: the feelings that result from
children being less powerful than adults that must be
overcome during the development of the healthy
personality
 Social interest: to establish loving, helpful relationships
with other people
 Goals: people’s lives are governed by their goals.
 Karen Horney
 Anxious insecurity

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Psychology
Karen Horney
Social Learning Theory: Albert Bandura

 The role of learning in personality

 Reciprocal determination: the individual’s behavior
and the social learning environment continually
influence one another.
 The role of cognition in personality
 Self-efficacy: the perception of being capable of
achieving one’s goals.
 Self-regulation: the process of cognitively reinforcing
and punishing our own behavior, depending on
whether it meets our personal standards.

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Psychology
Personality Theories and Assessment

Role of Cognition in Personality

 Helping others makes one more reliable and
less stingy?
 Self-efficacy: subjective perception of what one
is capable of
 High self-efficacy: accepts more challenges
 Bandura: emphasizes learning of personal
standards (self-regulation) of reward and
punishment from experience and watching others
Social Learning Theory: Albert Bandura

 Situationism and interactionism

 Situationism: Behavior is not consistent but is
strongly influenced by different situations.
 Person X situation interactionism: behavior is
influenced by a combination of the
characteristics of both the person and
situation.

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Psychology
Humanistic Theory: Carl Rogers
 Inner-directness and Subjectivity
 Inner-directedness -a force that all people possess that
internally leads them to grow and improve
 subjectivity -everyone views life in somewhat different, highly
personal terms
 The self-concept – Our subjective perception of who we are and
what we are like.
 Self – the person one thinks one is
 Ideal self – the person one wishes one were
 Symbolization – the process of representing experience, thoughts
or feeling in mental symbols of which we are aware.
 Conditions of worth – the standards used by others or ourselves
in judging our worth.

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Psychology
Humanistic Theory: Abraham Maslow

 Self-actualization – the seldom reached

full result of the inner-directed drive of
humans to grow, improve, and use their
potential to the fullest.
 Peak experiences – intensively moving
experiences in which the individual feels a
sense of unity with the world.

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Psychology
Humanism compared with classic
psychoanalysis and social learning theory
Psychoanalytic Social Learning Humanistic
Theory Theory Theory

An “unconscious” or Yes No Yes

“unsymbolized” exerts a
powerful influence on
us

We learn what is Yes Yes Yes

“good” and “bad” from
our families and
cultures
Our internalized Yes Yes Yes
knowledge of what is (super ego and ego (self-regulation) (ideal self)
“good” and “bad” is an ideal)
important part of our
personalities
People are Selfish and evil Neither good nor bad Good
inherently…..

Society…… Usually teach us to Can influence us in Often harms or destroys

convert our selfish either positive or our inherent tendency
nature into positive
behavior
negative ways

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to be healthy and good.
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Psychology
Personality Assessment: Taking a
Measure of the Person
 Interview and
Observational Methods
 Interview: A subjective
method of personality
assessment that involves
questioning techniques
designed to reveal the
personality of a client
 Observational Method:
Methods of personality
assessment that involve
watching a person’s actual
behavior in a natural or
simulated situation

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Psychology
Personality Assessment: Projective
Personality Tests
 Thematic
Apperception Test
(TAT) - Murray,
1938,1951

 Rorschach Inkblot
Test – Rorschach,
1953

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Psychology
Personality Assessment: Objective
Personality Test
 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI, MMPI - 2)

 Evaluation of Personality Test

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Psychology
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Psychology