Personality

- Unique and enduring behavior patterns

 Assessing Personality

Observation

Situational Testing

- Testing the person in specific situations

- Shoot - Don’t shoot

various high risk scenes are acted out

Interviews

Halo Effect - tendency to generalize impressions

 

Objective Tests

Personality Scales

MMPI - Measures 10 major aspects of personality

- Helps psychologists identify various personality disorders

 

Projective Tests

Attempt to uncover hidden or unconscious thoughts

TAT, Rorschach

 

The Behavioral Approach

Situational specificity - behavior is controlled by the environment

Best for predicting behavior

 

Psychodynamic Approach

Psychic Determinism - Personality is determined by events that occurred early in life

Freudian slips - errors in writing, reading, speaking reveal inner thoughts & desires

Instincts

Eros - life-giving, pleasure producing

Thanatos - aggression, destruction

3 Major Components of Personality

Id

- pleasure principle

- primitive, biological side

- reduce tension

- extremely selfish

Ego

- reality principle

- executive, realistic plan for gratification

Superego

- conscience and ego ideal

- internalized values, guilt

 

Defense Mechanisms

Interpersonal conflict

Anxiety is warning to the ego that a conflict is occurring

Ego defends itself by unconsciously denying or distorting reality

Defense Mechanisms may be helpful or harmful

Repression - one of the most basic defense mechanisms

- troublesome thoughts are pushed into the unconscious

- may reappear disguised as dreams or slips

Rationalization - propose acceptable reasons to replace actual reason

Projection - individual attributes their short-comings to others

Reaction Formation - express feelings opposite of your true feelings

Displacement - original object desired is replaced with a substitute which is less anxiety arousing

for your ego

Variations on Freud - Neofreudian

Developed new perspectives that fit the basic structure of the psychodynamic approach

Emphasized the ego as a creative, adaptive force, and social aspects of personality

Carl Jung

personal unconscious

collective unconscious

- contains unconscious images held by all people

- archetypes

genetically transmitted "ideas"

Karen Horney

- challenged the obvious male bias in Freud’s theory

- personality disturbance occur from basic anxiety, feel isolated, unfriendly world

Alfred Adler

-felt Freud overemphasized sexual drive

- primary drive is social

- striving for superiority

Phenomenological Approach

Humanistic - focus on unique human qualities, consciousness, ability to make choices

"Third Force" - alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism

 

The Dispositional Approach

Personality is a stable disposition - Enduring & lasting behavioral tendencies

Personality types

people are assigned to different categories

Hippocrates 400 B.C.

- Humoral Theory

Dominant fluid determines personality

yellow bile - bad temper

black bile - gloomy, pessimistic

phlegm - sluggish, unexcitable

blood - passionate, cheerful

Friedman & Roseman (1983)

Type A - high risk for heart attack

Type B

Personality Traits

People differ along a wide range of

continuous values

Catell (1965) developed a list of 16 traits

e.g., reserved <-----> outgoing

Has been reduced to the "Big Five"

Extroversion, Agreeableness,

Conscientiousness, Neuroticism

Openness to experience