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Theories of Personality - Notes

Personality Psychology (Texas State University)

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Studying Personality: Assessments, Research, and Theory

Monday, October 30, 2017 4:56 PM
Ethnic & Gender Issues in Personality Online Test Administration
Personality - the unique, relatively enduring internal & external aspects of a person's character that influence behavior • All early research of psychology of personality were conducted and experimented for and by white, Caucasian • Pros
in different situations men ○ Takes less time
○ Even the lab rats, no joke ○ Less expensive
The Place of Personality in the History of Psych ○ Focused on the importance of social and environmental forces and ignored ethnic and gender background ○ Scoring is more objective
W. Wundt influences ○ Readily accepted by younger members of the work force
• Est. psych's first lab in 1897 in Germany • Boys and girls are exposed and affected to our environments in vastly different social and cultural ways ○ Prevents from looking ahead at questions and from changing answers already given
The Study of Consciousness ○ Kids are still typically reared by gender stereotypes • People feel a greater sense of anonymity and privacy when interacting with a computer and as a
• Early psychologists theorized that human nature was greatly influenced by the natural science approach ▪ in a large-scale study of undergraduate college women in the US and Germany showed greater result will reveal more personal info
○ Researchers limited themselves to the experimental method emotional awareness than men despite the difference in culture as one example
○ Studied only the metal processes that might be affected by some external stimulus that could be • Cross-cultural psych Projective Techniques
controlled ○ Personality is formed by both genetic and environmental influences, among the most important influences • Projective Test - a personality assessment device where subjects are presumed to project personal
being cultural need, fears, and values onto their interpretation or description of an ambiguous stimulus
The Study of Behavior ○ Much less research has been done in non-English speaking countries • Results are very subjective
• Behaviorism - the school of psych founded by John Watson that focused on the study of overt behavior rather ○ Not highly reliable or valid
than mental processes Assessment in the Study of Personality ○ Different test administrators can come to different conclusions with the same info from the
○ Presents a mechanistic picture of people as well-ordered machines that respond automatically to external • To assess = to evaluate same person
stimuli • Reliability - the consistency of response to a psychological assessment device • Widely used for assessment and diagnosis purposes
• Watson believed that consciousness couldn’t be seen or experimented on so it wasn't to much of a science • Validity - the extent to which an assessment device measures what it is intended to measure • Rorschach Inkblot Technique
• Focus on what could be seen, manipulated, and measured ○ How it works:
• Sees personality as "the accumulation of learned responses or habit systems" - Skinner Self-Report Personality Tests ▪ Inkblot cards are shown and test-takes describe what they see
• Self-report inventory - a personality assessment technique where subjects answer questions about their ▪ Cards shown a second time and asked specific questions about earlier answers
The Study of the Unconscious behaviors and feelings ▪ Examiner observes behavior like gestures, reactions, and general attitude
• Psychoanalysis - Freud's theory of personality & systems of therapy for treating mental disorders • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) ○ Disagreement amongst researchers on its validity
• Freud didn't use the experimental method, but instead clinical observations of his patients ○ World's most widely used psych test (translated into over 140 languages) • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• Neo-psychoanalysts ○ A true-false tests with 567 statements ○ Developed by Henry Murray and Christina Morgan
○ Focused on the whole person as they function in the real world ▪ a shorter version for adolescents, MMPI-A with 478 ○ How it works:
○ Accepted the existence of conscious & unconscious forces ○ Measures characteristics such as gender role, defensiveness, depression, hysteria, etc. ▪ Test-taker asked to create a story around the people and/or objects from ambiguous
○ Relied more on inferences based on observations rather than on quantitative analysis of lab data ○ Used with adults as a diagnosis tool for assessing personality problems and for vocational & personal pictures, describing what led up to the situation, what they are thinking/feeling, and
counseling the possible outcome
Personality, the Internet, and Social Networking ○ Problems: ▪ Psychologists then consider several factors such as the kinds of personal relationships
• Research from the US and Germany show that social networking sites do convey accurate images/impressions of ▪ Some people lose interest and motivation way before they finish involved, the motivations of the characters, and the degree of contact with reality
people's personality ▪ Some items deal with highly personal characteristics shown by the characters
○ Almost as accurate as those conveyed face-to-face ▪ Some people consider the questions and invasion of privacy, especially when they have to take the ○ Proven high for research and low for actual diagnostic purposes
• More time on the internet usually = test to get a job ▪ Devised to measure specific aspects of personality
○ higher levels of depression and anxiety in adolescents • Assessment of self-report inventories • Word association & sentence completion
○ Reduced psych well-being ○ Pros ○ How it works:
○ Decrease quality of relationships w/ friends and romantic partners ▪ Designed to be scored objectively ▪ A list of words are read to a subject and they are meant to respond with the first word
• People who use social media/status updates usually = ▪ Results don't depend on the scorer's personal or theoretical biases that comes to their mind
○ more extroverted and narcissistic ▪ Computerized scoring provides a complete diagnostic profile of the test-taker's responses ○ Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank test provided more objective scoring
○ More open to new experiences ○ Cons
○ Lower self-esteem ▪ Not always appropriate for people with lower levels of intelligence or lower reading skills Clinical Interviews
○ Less conscientious ▪ Even minor changes in the wording of questions/response alternatives can lead to major changes in • Psychologists take test results and focus on problems indicated and explore those areas in detail
○ Score lower on tests of emotional stability than those who use less
the results • Subjective
• Shy people more likely to text message than call
▪ People tend to give answers that appear to be more socially desirable especially when taking for a • Widely used for personality assessments and a tool when supplemented by more objective
job procedures
• Older bloggers more motivated by the need to help and inform and younger bloggers tend to be more motivated
by boredom

(cont. on next page) (cont. on next page)

Gender and Ethnic Issues in Assessment Research in the Study of Personality Theory in the Study of Personality
Gender The Clinical Method • Theories provide a framework fro simplifying and describing data in a meaningful way
• The difference in scores between men and women may result from sex-role training of different • Case study - a detailed history of an individual that contains data from a variety of sources • Must be testable, must clarify and explain the data, and useful in understanding/predicting
cultures ○ Psychologists who used this tried to find consistencies in their findings behavior
• Data has shown that women receive more diagnosis for emotional disorders • Method includes tests, interviews, and dream analysis to be used for assessment
○ May be related to gender bias/stereotyping in interpreting assessment results • Not offer the precision and control of the experimental and correlation methods so not exactly Formal Theories vs. Personal Theories
○ Average course of therapy tends to be longer and does of psychoactive meds prescribed scientific Formal:
tend to be higher for women ○ Subjective • Based on data from observations of large numbers of people in diverse natures
○ Memories can be distorted by time so not accurate either • More comprehensive
Asians tend to score: • Provides a window to view the depths of the personality to be used by the psychoanalytic and • More objective
• High in collectivism nep-psychoanalytic theorists (like Freud) • Tested repeatedly by other scientists who didn't originally propose a certain theory
• Low in individual competitiveness and assertiveness Personal:
• Low in self-enhancement and optimism The Experimental Method • Basically just the opposite of formal theories
• Low in the tendency to seek mental health treatment • Technique for determining the effect of one or more variables or events on behavior • May reflect a theorist's life experiences
• Most precise of the methods
African American tend to score: • Consists of: Personality Theorists:
• Low in trust of other people ○ Independent variable • Present different images of human nature
• Low in hopelessness and depression (if they identify with Black culture values) ○ Dependent variable ○ Examples:
• Low on self-esteem if they perceive discrimination against them ○ Control group ▪ Free will vs Determinism
○ Experimental group ▪ Nature vs Nurture
Hispanics tend to score: • Ex: Bandura and the Bobo doll experiment ▪ Optimism vs Pessimism
• Low in tendency to seek mental health treatment • Limitations:
• High in collectivism ○ Some aspects of behavior or personality can't be studies under lab conditions b/c of safety
• High in PTSD symptoms following injuries or ethical conditions
○ Subject's behavior may change b/c they are aware they are being observed
Cross-Cultural Issues
• Cultural factors can affect or even distort personality assessments The Virtual Research Method
○ What is normal in one culture may be judged wrong in other cultures • Advantages:
○ Important factors of personality may be ignored completely depending on the culture it’s ○ Provide faster responses
administered in ○ Cost less
• Personality tests are sometimes reworked to ensure that they accurately reflect and measure ○ Have the potential to reach a broader range of subjects
relevant personality variables, but it can be difficult and require a knowledge and sensitivity to • Disadvantages:
cultural differences ○ Limited to Web users so no guarantee that takers will be a true sample of a population
○ Can't determine how honest and/or accurate subjects will be
• This method has shown to be generally consistent and similar to traditional lab research

The Correlation Method

• A statistical technique that measures the degree of the relationship between two variables,
expressed by the correlation coefficient
• Limitations:
○ No guarantee that one variable had caused the other

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Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis

Monday, October 30, 2017 5:05 PM

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Carl Jung: Analytical Psych

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Alfred Adler: Individual Psych

Tuesday, October 31, 2017 5:06 PM
Striving for Superiority/Perfection Birth Order Assessment in Adler's Theory
Overview • Our ultimate goal/main motivation is the urge toward perfection or completion • Not firm rules, but certain likelihood that certain styles of life will develop combined with one's • Developed theory by analyzing his patients
Individual psychology • Not related to the superiority complex early social interaction • Sat in comfortable chairs facing each other so the sessions felt more like chats between friends
• Focuses on the uniqueness of each person • Fictional Finalism - the idea that there is an imagined/potential goal that guides our behavior ○ Used humor
• Social forces > biological forces (Freud) • It increases tension The First-Born • Primary methods of assessment he called the entrance gates to mental life
○ Childhood experiences aren't as important as our attitude towards them ○ Adler didn't believe that our sole motivation was to reduce tension • Oriented toward the past, pessimistic about the future, and concerned w/ maintaining order and ○ Birth order, early recollection, and dream analysis
○ However, the potential for social interest and strive for perfection are innate • Manifested by both the individual and society authority • Purpose was to discover the patient's style of life and determine whether it was the most appropriate
• The conscious is at the core of personality ○ Most people are social beings so striving for superiority extends to being members of a group • Possible Pros: for that person
• We control our fate ○ Individuals and society are interrelated and interdependent ○ Play more authoritative roles --> mature intellectually to a higher degree than other siblings
○ Tend to become good organizers, conscientious and scrupulous about detail, and Early Recollections
Aspects of Adler's theories that have influenced personality theorists: The Style of Life authoritarian in attitude • A personality assessment technique where our earliest memories, real or not, are assumed to reveal
• Emphasis's in: • A unique character structure/pattern of personal behaviors & characteristics ○ High in self-esteem the primary interest in our life
○ Cognitive & social factors in personality • How we try to attain the goal of perfection ○ Low on measures of depression & anxiety • Early memories indicate the style of life that continue to characterize us as adults
○ The unity of personality • Determines which aspects of our environment we attend to or ignore and what attitudes we hold • Possible Cons: ○ Memories that support their current views of themselves in the world
○ The creative power of self • Depends on social interactions ○ Subject more to the power of the parents b/c more is expected of them ○ Memories that support their direction of striving for significance & security
• Will remain relatively constant ○ Can grow up to be more insecure and hostile towards others
○ The importance of goals
○ Neurotics, perverts, and criminals were often first-borns Dream Analysis
Inferior Feelings: The Source of Human Striving
The Creative Power of the Self • Dreams involve our feelings about a current problem and what we intend to do about it
• The ability to create an appropriate style of life The Second-Born • Fulfilled our wishes or reveal hidden conflicts
• Inferior feelings
○ Once chosen, that style remains constant throughout life • Has the older kid's example as a model, threat, or source of competition
○ The normal condition of all people; the source of all human striving
• How we react to heredity and environment sets the basis for our attitudes for life • Not as concerned with power Measure of Social Interest
○ Determined by the infant's helplessness and dependency on adults
• More likely to take risks • Adler thought therapists should develop intuition instead of relying on tests, but tests to measure his
• Compensation - a motivation to overcome inferiority, to strive for higher levels of development
Dominant, Getting, Avoiding, and Socially Useful Types • Possible Pros: theory were created anyways
○ The cause of individual growth
• Groups of Universal Problems: ○ Likely to become competitive and ambitious • Social Interest Scale (SIS)
○ Those involving our behavior toward others ○ More optimistic ○ Test-takers were given a pair of adjectives and told to choose which one they wanted
The Inferiority Complex
○ Those of occupation • Possible Cons: • Social Interest Index (SII)
• A condition that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings
○ Those of love ○ If individual feels overshadowed by older sibling, inferiority could take over and they ○ Participants judge the degree that statements represent themselves
• Causes low self-esteem & helplessness
• Caused from either: • Styles of Life for dealing w/ these problems: become underachievers ○ People who score high in this test tend to have more social interest and lower in anxiety,
○ Organic inferiority ○ Dominant hostility, and depression
▪ Ruling attitude w/ little social awareness The Youngest • The Basis Adlerian Scales for Interpersonal Success (BASIS-A)
▪ Having defective parts or organs of the body shape --> taking the defect as weakness and
▪ The extreme end of the spectrum can become sadists, delinquents, or sociopaths • Possible Pros: ○ Designed to assess life style and degree of social interest
never compensating
▪ Less extreme become alcoholics, addicts, or commit suicide b/c they believe they hurt ○ Often develop at a fast rate b/c of need to surpass older siblings ○ Measures: social interest, going along, taking charge, wanting recognition, and being cautious
○ Spoiling
▪ Given idea that they are the most important people in any situation and others should
others by attacking themselves ○ Often high achievers as adults
always defer to them --> believe that they must have some personal deficiency when ○ Getting • Possible Cons:
unable to get through obstacles ▪ Most common according to Adler ○ Excessive pampering --> not learning anything for themselves
Neglect ▪ Become dependent on others b/c they expect to receive satisfaction that way ○ Can retain helplessness and dependency and have a hard time adjusting to adulthood
▪ Lack of love & security in childhood --> feelings of worthlessness/anger and view others ○ Avoiding
with distrust ▪ Make no attempt to face life's problems The Only Child
○ Socially useful • Never lose their position and remain the focus/center of attention
The Superiority Complex ▪ Only style of life with social interest • Possible Pros:
• A condition that develops when a person overcompensates for normal inferiority feelings ▪ Cooperates w/ others and acts in accordance to their needs ○ Often mature early and manifest adult attitudes and behaviors
• Expresses in two ways: • Adler used these for teaching purposes, but warned therapists to not assigning people into a category ○ High in achievement & intelligence
○ Person feels inwardly self-satisfied and superior and doesn't want to demonstrate it with ○ Industrious and do good in school
accomplishments Social Interest ○ High in self-esteem
○ Person feels a need to work to become extremely successful • Our innate potential to cooperate w/ other people to achieve personal and societal goals • Possible Cons:
• Causes: boasting, vanity, self-centeredness, and tendency to put others down ○ The extent of how social we are depends on our early social experiences ○ Learned to neither share nor compete
• A lot depended on the mom's role ○ Lack of attention could cause them to feel disappointment
• People have a fundamental need to belong in order to be healthy, well-functioning individuals

Research in Adler's Theory

• Primarily used case study but little of it survived
• Observations can't be duplicated or repeated
• They weren't conducted in a controlled and systematic function
○ Didn't verify accuracy or explain procedures of analysis

Dreams
• Participant given a puzzle that remained unfinished --> went to sleep --> some allowed to dream and
others not --> dreaming enabled research participants to effectively deal with the currently
threatening situation (the puzzle)
• Two groups of people about to go through stressful situations allowed to dream -->both dreamt about
problems they were facing

Inferior Feelings
• Adults that score low in inferiority feelings tended to be more successful, self-confident, and more
persistent to in trying to achieve their goals

Early Recollections
• These memories tend to be subjective recreations rather than actual events
• Research supported theory that these memories reveal one's current style of life and can be used as a
therapeutic device

Neglect in Childhood
• Feelings of worthlessness and shame
• Depression
• Anxiety

Pampered in Childhood
• Low self-esteem
• Become narcissistic
• Lack of empathy for others

Social Interest
• People who score high:
○ Lower on depression, anxiety, and hostility
○ Empathetic
○ Become happy and agreeable

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Karen Horney: Neurotic Needs & Trends

Tuesday, October 31, 2017 5:07 PM
Neurotic Needs and Trends The Idealized Self-Image Assessments in Horney's Theory
Background on Horney (1885 - 1952) Needs Trends • Idealized self-image • Free Association
• Trained in the official psychoanalytic doctrine ○ For normal people, the self-image is an idealized picture of oneself built on a flexible, realistic ○ Focused on patient's visible emotional reactions towards her believing that these attitudes could explain
Affection & approval The compliant personality - Movement assessment of one's abilities her patients' attitudes towards other people
○ Thought it focused more on men's development than women's A dominant partner towards other people
○ Disputed Freud's psychological portrayal of women ○ For neurotics, the self-image is based on an inflexible, unrealistic self-appraisal ○ Didn't bring up their early years until after evaluating present attitudes, defenses, and conflicts
• Felt less loved than her older brother and felt she didn't get a lot of love & security from her parents Power The aggressive personality - Movement ▪ Based on an unattainable idea of absolute perfection ○ Believed that each attitude/feeling resulted from a deeper preexisting one, which in turn had a deeper one,
either Exploitation against other people ▪ A model of what they thinks he/she is, can be, or should be and so on
○ Theory describes how a lack of love in childhood fosters anxiety and hostility Prestige ○ Purpose: to unify the personality • Dream Analysis
• Theory influenced by her gender and personal experiences Admiration • Tyranny of shoulds ○ Dreams represented attempts to solve problems in either a constructive or neurotic way
Achievement or ambition ○ An attempt to realize an unattainable ideal of self-image by denying the true self and behaving in ○ Each could be explained w/n the context of the patient's conflict
The Childhood Need for Safety Self-sufficiency The detached personality - Movement terms of what we think we should be doing ○ Focused on the dream's emotional content
• Social forces in early childhood formed personality Perfection away form other people • Externalization • The Three Neurotic Trends
○ There are neither universal developmental stages or inevitable childhood conflicts Narrow limits to life ○ A way to defend against the conflict caused by the discrepancy between and idealized and a real ○ The CAD
• Safety need - a higher level for security and freedom from fear self-image by projecting the conflict on to the outside world ○ The HCTI (Horney-Coolidge Type Indicator)
○ Lack of warmth or affection --> weaken security ○ Example: a neurotic may project their self-hatred onto others so they can believe that it's coming
Neurotic needs from outside sources and not themselves Research on Horney's Theory
○ Kids know if the parent's love is genuine or not • Ten irrational defenses against anxiety that become a permanent part of personality and that
• Ways to have a kid repress hostility • Used case study method
affect behavior Feminine Psychology: Mommy Track or the Career Path? • Neurotic Trends
○ Kids kept in an excessively dependent state --> helplessness encouraged --> less they will • Encompass the four ways of protecting ourselves against anxiety • Feminine psychology ○ Personality types had predictive value for later behavior
oppose or rebel against the parents • We all manifest these to some degree ○ To Horney, a revision of psychoanalysis to encompass the psychological conflicts inherent in the ○ Moving against people = Ill-tempered
○ The more frightened a kid is of the parents --> more likely to repress hostility b/c of fear ○ Only become a problem when they become the only way of reducing basic anxiety traditional ideal of womanhood and woman's roles ▪ Prone to divorce and downwards occupational mobility
○ Fake love from parents --> repressed hostility for fear of losing even that
○ Critical of Freud's theories like penis envy, cause really what the fuck? ▪ May not do well in school
○ Make them feel guilty b/c it causes then to feel unworthy, wicked, or sinful Neurotic trends • Womb Envy ▪ May have mental health issues
• Repressed hostility undermines the childhood need fro safety and is manifested in basic anxiety • Horney's revision of the concept of neurotic needs ○ The envy a male feels toward a female b/c she can bear kids and he can't ▪ More likely to major in business than in helping professions
• Involve compulsive attitudes and behaviors ▪ Expressed in seeking achievement in their work ○ Moving away from people = shy
Basic Anxiety: The Foundation of Neurosis • Displayed indiscriminately in any situation ○ Horney's response to Freud's penis envy concept
• Basic Anxiety - a pervasive feeling of loneliness & helplessness ▪ Shy boys --> aloof adults w/ marital & job instability
• Three categories of behaviors & attitudes toward oneself and others that express a person's needs ○ If women feel unworthy, it's b/c they have been treated that way in male-dominant cultures
• Four ways we try to protect ourselves against basic anxiety in childhood: ▪ Shy girls --> no effect
○ The compliant personality • The Flight from Womanhood
○ Securing affection and love ○ Moving towards people = dependent
▪ That of moving toward people, such as a need for affection and approval ○ When women choose to deny their femininity as a result of feeling inferior
▪ "If you love me, you will not hurt me", basically ▪ Dependent boys --> agreeable, good socially, warm, and giving adults w/ stability in jobs & marriages
▪ "Look at me. I'm so weak and helpless that you must protect and love me." • The Oedipus Complex
▪ Shown in obedience, bribery, or threatening others to provide the desired affection □ Opposite for girls
▪ Always trying to please while asking nothing of themselves ○ Horney didn't believe that conflicts between kids and parents had sexual origins or universal
○ Being submissive • Feminine Psychology
▪ Source of repressed hostility, defiance, and vindictiveness but have a desire to control, ○ "I have to repress my hospitality b/c I need you."
▪ "If I give in, I won't be hurt", basically ○ Research supported Horney's insight though indirectly
exploit, and manipulate others
▪ Obedient ○ Oedipal feelings develop when parent act to undermine their child's security • The Tyranny of Should
▪ Similar to Adler's getting type
▪ Avoid doing anything that could antagonize others such as criticism • Motherhood or Career? ○ Studies should that people who went through life wanting to make the decisions they did had generally a
○ The aggressive personality
▪ Repress personal desires ○ Women seek their own identity by developing their abilities and pursuing careers higher satisfaction with life
▪ That of moving against people, such as a domineering & controlling manner
▪ Believe themselves to be unselfish & self-sacrificing • Cultural Influences on Feminine Psychology • Neurotic Competitiveness
▪ Never display fear or rejection
○ Attaining power ○ Women are different wherever you go depending on the culture of the place ○ An indiscriminate need to win at all costs
▪ Find satisfaction in having their superiority affirmed by others
▪ Compensates helplessness & achieve security w/ success or superiority ○ High scorers tend to be:
▪ Driven by insecurity, anxiety, and hostility
○ Withdrawing Questions About Human Nature ▪ Neurotic
▪ Similar to Adler's dominant or ruling type
▪ Seeks independence to guard against being hurt by others • Need for security is frustrated for a child --> Neurotic behavior ▪ Narcissistic
○ The detached personality
▪ Could cause aloofness and stop seeking others to satisfy emotional needs • Self-realization is our innate potential and ultimate goal in life ▪ Authoritarian
▪ That of moving away from people, such as an intense need for privacy
• Characteristics of the four self-protecting mechanism: • We can shape our own personality b/c human nature is flexible ▪ Low in self-esteem
▪ Place great stress on logic, reason, and intelligence
○ Motivate people to seek security ○ Adult experiences as important as childhood ones
▪ Strive for self-sufficiency
○ Defenses from pain Reflections on Horney's Theory
▪ Believe greatness should be recognized automatically & have a feeling of uniqueness
○ Cost is an impoverish personality • Heavy influences of middle-class American culture
▪ Suppress feelings for others
• Didn't use data from sociology or anthropology
▪ Similar to Adler's avoiding type
• Criticized for not being as developed as Freud's
• Conflict
• Had significant impact on the theories of Erikson and Maslow
○ The basic incompatibility of the neurotic trends
• Contributions to studies of women in society were influential, especially after the women's movements of the
○ The core of neurosis
1960's

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Erik Erikson: Identity Theory Play Constructions

Monday, October 30, 2017 5:06 PM • A personality assessment technique for kids where structures assembled for dolls, blocks, and other
Questions About Human Nature Research on Erikson's Theory
• Personality is affected more by learning & experiencing than development • Used case study primarily toys are analyzed
• We all have the potential to attain hope, purpose, wisdom and other virtues even though not every • The differences could be result from societal sex-role training
Erikson's Background (1902 - 1994) one does so The Psychological Stages
• Trained by Anna Freud • We aren't victims to our childhood and can shape our own lives • Studies have found: Trust and Security
• Extended Freud's Theory by: ○ First fours stages are those which we experience through authority figures ○ Significant relationship between happiness and adaptive development at each stage • Kids w/ a developed sense of trust tend to be:
1. Elaborated the stages of development ○ Last four are based on our own free will, although was we formed during the first four will affect ○ A high correlation between maladaptive development in the first 6 stages and a sense of alienation and ○ Well-developed socially and emotionally
2. Placed greater emphasis on ego than id our choices uprootness ○ Popular
3. Recognize the impact of cultural and historical forces ○ Emerging adulthood was a time of increased psych well -being ○ High curiosity
• As a kiddo: Assessment in Erikson's Theory ○ Sensitive to the needs and feelings of other people
○ Suffered many personal identity crises b/c of not fitting in with the Danish b/c of growing up in • Preferred patients and therapists to face each other and be seated in comfortable chairs to promote a Adolescent Development
Germany, not fitting in with the Germans b/c he was Jewish, and not fitting in with the Jews for more personal relationship • 3 key elements for this developmental stage: Virtual Identity
not looking like one • Occasionally used free association but never dream analysis really 1. Conflict w/ parents, characterized by a forceful resistance to adult authority • Establishing a virtual identity online:
Then….. Once again when moving to the USA as an adult --> called it identity confusion • Used data from play therapy (observations of how kids played w/ toys), anthropological studies, and 2. Mood disruption, characterized by volatile emotional life, mood swings, and episodes of depression ○ Allows you to try on different identities
Psychohistorical analysis to develop his theory 3. Risky behavior that may harm themselves and others ○ Can be as satisfying as establishing an identity in the real world
Psychological Stages of Personality Development • Psychohistorical analysis - the application of Erikson's life-span theory, along w/ psychoanalytic • Adolescence includes the following types/statuses: ○ Can play both a positive and negative role in identity formation
• 8 successive stages encompassing the life span principles to the study of historical figures ○ Identity achievement ○ May be used more by people who are lonely and socially anxious
• At each stage we face a crisis in either an adaptive or maladaptive way and only when we resolve each • Psychological Tests ▪ Those who are committed to occupational and ideological choices
one can we go onto the next stage ○ Ego-Identity Scale - measures the development of ego identity during adolescence ▪ High in this tend to: Gender and Ego Identity
• Epigenetic principle of maturation - idea that human development is governed by a sequence of ○ Ego identity Process Questionnaire - measures the dimensions of exploration and commitment □ Have a strong sense of ego identity & high self-esteem • Formation of ego identity in women:
stages that depend of genetic or social factors in adolescents □ Be concerned w/ realistic goals ○ Was influenced (for those at the time) by the women's movement of the '60s and '70s
• Basic strengths - motivating characteristics and beliefs that derive from the satisfactory resolution of ○ Loyola Generativity Scale - measures the level of generativity or stagnation in adulthood □ Establish mature romantic relationships in young adulthood ○ Is more influenced by career concerns
each crisis ○ Is linked to the willingness to change
○ Moratorium
• Basic weaknesses - motivating characteristics that derive from the unsatisfactory resolution of crises ○ May be affected by changes in body image
Reflections on Erikson's Theory ▪ People who are still going through their identity crisis
• Maldevelopment - a condition that occurs when the ego consists solely if a single way of coping w/ • Contributions to psychology include: ▪ Behaviors range from indecisive to active and creative
conflict
○ Personality development throughout the life span ○ Foreclosure Generativity
○ Maladaptive - when only the positive, adaptive, tendency is present in the ego • People high in generativity tend to be:
○ The concept of the identity crisis in adolescence ▪ Those who haven't experienced an identity crisis but are committed to an occupation and an
○ Malignant - when only the negative tendency is present ○ Happy satisfied w/ their lives, and successful in their marriages and careers
○ The incorporation of his theory of the impact of cultural, social, and historical forces ideology
▪ Maladaption --> neuroses & malignancies --> psychoses ○ Extraverted, conscientious, and open to new experiences
• Criticisms: ▪ Tend to be rigid and authoritarian and have difficulty coping with change
○ Has ambiguous terms and concepts ○ Identity diffusion ○ High in self-esteem
Stage Ages Crisis Basic Strength Maldevelopment ○ Conclusions drawn in the absence of supporting data ▪ People who don't have occupational or ideological commitments and may not have experienced an • People high in ego integrity:
Oral-sensory Birth - 1 Trust Hope Sensory maladjustment ○ Overall lack of precision identity crisis ○ Spend quality time examining their past
Mistrust Withdrawal ○ Incomplete description of the developmental stage of maturity ▪ Have a distant relationship w/ parents who they see as indifferent or rejecting ○ Can acknowledge regrets and missed opportunities
○ Developmental stages may not be applicable to women or poorer people who can't afford a ▪ Tend to: ○ Have few regrets of bitterness and resentment
Muscular-anal 1-3 Autonomy Will Shameless willfulness □ Have subjective well-being, be higher in unstable self-image and interpersonal relationships
moratorium in adolescence
Doubt, shame Compulsion □ More likely to engage in self-destructive and impulsive behavior
• Continues to prove meaningful for contemporary psychology and social thought Ethnic Identity
Locomotor-genital 3 - 5 Initiative Purpose Ruthlessness • Play therapy has become a standard diagnostic and therapeutic tool for work w/ emotionally disturbed ○ Alienated achievement • People of ethnic minorities who score high in ethnic and racial identity tend to:
Guilt Inhibition and abused kids ▪ Those who've experienced an identity crisis, have no occupational goal, and cling to beliefs that are ○ Score high in subjective well-being and self-esteem
Latency 6 - 11 Industriousness Competence Narrow virtuosity critical of the social and economic system ○ Have less positive attitudes toward illegal drugs
Inferiority Inertia ▪ Tend to be cerebral, philosophical, and cynical as students ○ Get along well with family and peers
• Those who are close to achieving/ have achieved an integrated ego identity will have greater ego strength than ○ Perform better in school
Adolescence 12 - 18 Identity cohesion Fidelity Fanaticism those who're farther from resolving their identity dilemma ○ Experience less stress
Role confusion Repudiation • Gender
Young Adulthood 18 - 35 Intimacy Love Promiscuity ○ Women identity is more centered on relating to others Gender Preference Identity
Isolation Exclusivity ○ Men identity is more centered on individual competence and knowledge • Gender Preference research shows that:
Adulthood 35 - 55 Generativity Care Overextension ○ Black and Hispanic kids feel great pressure to conform to gender roles
Stagnation Rejectivity ○ Conflicts over gender preferences are related to low self -esteem, guild, and stress
○ Those high in gay identity show high self-esteem and no desire to change
Maturity-old age 55+ Ego integrity Wisdom Presumption
Despair Distain

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Gordon Allport: Motivation & Personality Assessment in Allport's Theory

Monday, October 30, 2017 5:07 PM • Methods to test theory
Motivation The Healthy Adult Personality
• Functional anatomy of motives - the idea that motives in a normal, mature adult are independent 1. The mature adult extends his or her sense of self to people and to activities beyond the self 1. Constitutional and physiological diagnosis
Background on Allport (1897 - 1967) 2. Cultural setting, membership, role
• Helped bring personalities into the mainstream of the childhood experiences in which they originally appeared 2. Relates warmly to other people, exhibiting intimacy, compassion, and tolerance
○ Ex. A tree's development can be traced to it's seed, but once the tree is fully grows the seed 3. Self-acceptance helps him/her achieve emotional security 3. Personal documents and case studies
• Formed a theory of personality development were traits play a prominent role 4. Self-appraisal
• Challenge Freud by: isn't so relevant 4. Holds a realistic perception of life, develops personal skills, and makes a commitment to some
• Perseverative functional anatomy - the level of functional autonomy that relates to low -level and type of work 5. Conduct analysis
○ Didn't accept that unconscious forces dominate the personality of normal mature adults 6. Ratings
○ We aren't victims of our childhood routine behaviors 5. Has a sense of humor and self-objectification (a understanding of or insight into the self)
○ Ex. A rat can be trained to run a maze to get food, but it would still eventually run the maze 6. Subscribes to a unifying philosophy of life, which is responsible for directing towards future goals 7. Tests and scales
▪ We are guided by the present and our view for the future 8. Projective techniques
○ Only took data from emotionally healthy adults unlike Freud for other reasons than just food
• Propriate function autonomy - the level of functional autonomy that relates to our values, self - Questions About Human Nature 9. Depth analysis
image, and lifestyle • Holds an optimistic views that people are in control o their lives 10. Expressive behavior
The Nature of Personality 11. Synoptic procedures
○ An organized process that maintains our sense of self • Moderate stance on free will vs determinism
• Personality - the dynamic organization w/n the individual of those psychophysical systems that • Personal-Document Technique - a method of personality assessment that involves the study of a
○ Proprium - Allport's term for the ego or self • Once behaviors are formed, they are difficult to change
determine characteristic behavior and thought person's written or spoken records
○ Principles of the organizing process: • Both heredity and environment influence personality
○ Dynamic organization - growth is organized even though personality of constantly changing and • The Study of Values
▪ Organizing the energy level • The ultimate and necessary goal in life is to increase tension, to seek new sensations and
growing 1. Theoretical - concerned w/ the discovery of truth and are characterized by an empirical,
○ Psychophysical - personality is composed of mind and body functioning together □ How we acquire new motives challenges
○ Reward is the process of achieving (striving) intellectual, and rational approach to life
• Heredity - Provides raw materials that may be shaped, expanded, or limited by the conditions of the ▪ Mastery and competence
2. Economic - concerned w/ the useful and practical
environment □ Refers to the level where we choose to satisfy motives
3. Aesthetic - relate to artistic experiences and to form, harmony, and grace
• There are two personalities: one for childhood and one or adulthood ▪ Propriate patterns
4. Political - deal with personal power, influence, and prestige in all endeavors, not just in political
□ Describes a striving for consistency and integration of the personality
activities
Personality Traits 5. Religious - concerned with the mystical and with understanding the universe as a whole
• Traits Personality Development in Childhood: The Unique Self
○ Distinguished characteristics that guide behavior Research on Allport's Theory
○ Measured on a continuum and are subject to social, environmental, and cultural influences Age Stage Development • Expressive behavior - spontaneous and seemingly purposeless behavior, usually displayed w/o our
• Characteristics of traits 0-3 1. Bodily Self Become aware of their existence conscious awareness
1. Real and exist w/n everyone • Coping behavior - consciously planned behavior determined by the needs of a given situation and
2. Determine or cause behavior, not jus arising to certain stimuli Childhood 2. Self-identity Realize their identity remains intact despite the many changes that
designed for a specific purpose, usually to bring about a change in one's environment
3. Can be demonstrated empirically; by observing behavior over time, we can infer the existence of are taking place
Expressive behavior has found that:
traits in the consistency of a person's responses to the same/similar stimuli Childhood 3. Self-esteem Learn to take pride in their accomplishments • Personality traits can be assessed from facial expression
4. Interrelated; may overlap but may represent different characteristics 4-6 4. Extension of Come to recognize the objects and people that're part of their world • Women and kids are better than men and older people at reading facial expressions
5. Vary w/n a situation self • Close friends are better than strangers at decoding facial expressions of emotion
• Individual traits - unique to a person and their character • As many as seven separate emotions can be identified in facial expressions
○ Later called personal dispositions Childhood 5. Self-image Develop actual and idealized images of themselves and their behavior
• We recognize smiles in others by unconsciously mimicking them
○ Cardinal traits - the most pervasive and powerful human traits and become aware of satisfying (or not) parental expectations
• Depressed people are better at recognizing sad expressions
○ Central traits - the handful of outstanding traits that describe a person's behavior 6-12 6. Self as a Begin to apply reason and logic to the solution goals of everyday • Computers can recognize and express basic emotions
○ Secondary traits - the least important traits that a person displays inconspicuously and rational coper problems
inconsistently Reflections on Allport's Theory
Adolescence 7. Propriate Begin to formulate long-range goals and plans
• Common traits - shared by a number of people, like those of a culture, and likely to change over time as • Overall, his theory as a whole stimulated little research
striving
the times change • Never made it clear how an original motive is transformed into an autonomous one
○ Later just called the general traits Adulthood 8. Adulthood Normal ones are functionally autonomous and function rationally in • The emphasis on the uniqueness of personality has been challenged b/c it's impossible to generalize
the present and consciously create their own lifestyle from one person to another
• His approach to personality development, emphasis on uniqueness, and focus on the importance of
Parent-child interactions goals is reflected in the work of the humanistic phycologists like Rogers and Maslow
• Important in the development of the proprium • Work on the expression of emotions have been good for the development of the field of cognitive
○ Needs to provide sufficient affection and security neuroscience
○ If needs are frustrated they tend to become insecure, aggressive, jealous, and self -centered
• Adult motives don't become functionally autonomous but remain tied to their original conditions

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Cattell, Eysenck, and Other Trait Theorists Questions About Human Nature Hans Eysenck (1916 - 1997) & Behavioral Genetics - the study of the relationship between genetic or Robert McCrae & Paul Costa: The 5 Factor Model
Thursday, November 9, 2017 1:37 PM • Falls more on the side of determinist hereditary factors and personality traits Factor Description
• Personality has to lawful and orderly to be predictable
Overview of Cattell (1905 - 1998) • Didn't propose any ultimate/necessary goal The Dimensions of Personality Neuroticism Worried, insecure, nervous, highly strung
• Goal was to predict how a person will behave in response to a given stimulus situation • Moderate position on nature vs nurture • Tend to remain stable throughout life span despite our different social and environmental Extraversion Sociable, talkative, fun-loving, affectionate
• Studied normal people's personality, not treat them experiences
• Very scientific research Assessment in Cattell's Theory
Openness Original, independent, creative, daring
• Factor analysis - a statistical technique on correlations between several measures, which may be • L-data - life-record ratings of behaviors observed in real life situations like the classroom or the office E - Extraversion vs introversion Agreeable Good-natured, softhearted, trusting, courteous
explained in terms of underlying factors • Q-data - self report questionnaire ratings of our characteristics, attitudes, and interests • Extroverts have a lower base level of cortical arousal than introverts Conscientiousness Careful, reliable, hardworking, organized
• Traits - the mental elements of personality • T-data - data derived from personality tests and resistant to faking ○ Introverts already have a high cortical arousal level
• We have to describe in precise terms the entire pattern of traits that define a specific person • 16 PF Test • Introverts react more strongly to sensory information, exhibit greater sensitivity to low -level
Assessments:
stimuli, and how lower pain thresholds than extroverts
Cattell's Approach to Personality Traits • Self-ratings
Research on Cattell's Theory • Extroverts experience more pleasant emotions
• Traits - reaction tendencies, relatively permanent • Objective tests
• Used bivariate, clinical, and multivariate approaches to study personality
• Observers' reports
Common traits possessed in some degree by everyone ○ Bivariate - standard lab experimental method N - neuroticism vs emotional stability
• NEO Personality Inventory (most frequently used)
○ Clinical - case studies, dream analysis, free association, etc. • Neurotics:
Unique possessed by one or a few people • Oral interviews
○ Multivariate - factor analysis ○ Have low self-esteem and high guild feelings
Ability describe our skills and how efficiently we will be able to work towards our goals • 16 PF Test ○ Function well in fast-paced, stressful jobs
Research on the 5 Factors show that:
Temperament describe our general behavioral style in responding to our environment ○ Can predict martial stability ○ Score low on verbal ability • Neuroticism, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness have a strong hereditary component
Dynamic describe our motivations and interests ○ Can be faked if you want to present yourself in a more favorable light • Neurotics seem to have greater activity in the brain areas that control the sympathetic branch of • Agreeableness has a strong environmental component
○ Can be used in many cultures the autonomic nervous system • All five have been found in diverse cultures
Surface Show correlation but don't constitute a factor b/c they aren't determined by a single ○ Yielded results indicating that some source traits are primarily inherited while others are from the ○ Overreact to even mild stressors --> chronic hypersensitivity
source • Most of the factors remain stable over the life span
environment • Women report high levels of neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
Source Stable and permanent; the basic factors of personality ○ Can identify 16 source traits of personality P - psychoticism vs impulse control (superego functioning) than men
○ Can be used for research, clinical diagnosis, and predicting success on the job • Men usually score higher than women • We tend to see others as being more conscientious and less neurotic than ourselves
Constitutional Source traits that depend on our physiological characteristics
○ May be related to their hormones • High extraversion:
Environmental- Source trait's that're learned from social and environmental interactions Reflections on Cattell's Theory ○ High scorers have a low emotional well-being ○ High in emotional stability and life satisfaction
mold • There's potential for subjective error in the factor analysis approach • Psychotics: ○ Be better able to cope w/ everyday stress
• The amount of work her acquired and the complexity of his factor analysis method cause a lack of ○ Can be cruel, hostile, and insensitive ○ Get high grades
Dynamic Traits acceptance of his theory ○ Have more problems with alcohol and drug abuse ○ Enjoy high status and prominence in college
• Ergs • Generally considered the father of the personality traits approach ○ Are aggressive antisocial, and egocentric • High conscientiousness:
○ permanent constitutional source traits that provide energy for goal-directed behavior ○ Be reliable, efficient, and punctual
○ The basic innate units of motivation The Primary Role of Heredity ○ Get better grades
• Sentiments - environmental mold source traits that motivate behavior • Research evidence shows a stronger genetic component for extraversion and neuroticism than ○ Be well-organized and disciplined
psychoticism
○ Set high personal goals
Stages of Personality Development • Believed that the effects of childhood on personality were limited
○ Be accepted by their peers and have more friends
Stage Age Development ○ Be healthier and live longer
Research
○ Wear seat belts, exercise, get enough sleep, and eat healthier
Infancy Birth - 6 Weaning, toilet training, formation of the ego, superego, and social attitudes • All 3 personality dimensions are determined primarily by heredity
• High in conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and extraversion:
Childhood 6 - 14 Independence from parents and identification with peers ○ Identical twins showed that identical twins were had closer personalities than fraternal
○ Be popular and judge more attractive
twins even if raised by different parents & environments
Adolescence 14 - 23 Conflicts about independence, self-assertion, and sex ○ Get good grades
○ Adopted kids acted more like their biological parents than their adopted ones even if they
Maturity 23 - 50 Satisfaction with career, marriage, and family ○ Cope well with stress
never met
○ Be good parents
Late maturity 50 - 65 Personality changes in response to physical and social circumstances ○ Prefer dogs over cats
Old age 65+ Adjustment to loss of friends, career, and status

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Michael Ashton and Kibeom Lee: HEXACO: The 6 Factor Model

Factor Description
Honesty/humility Sincere, honest, faithful vs greedy, pretentious, hypocritical, boastful
Emotionality Emotional, oversensitive, faithful, anxious vs brave, tough, self-assured, stable
Extraversion Outgoing, lively, sociable, cheerful vs shy, passive, withdrawn, reserved
Agreeableness Tolerant, peaceful, gentle, agreeable vs quarrelsome, stubborn, and ill-tempered
Conscientiousness Disciplined, diligent, through, precise vs reckless, lazy, irresponsible, absent-minded
Openness to experience Creative, innovative, unconventional vs shallow, conventional, unimaginative
Research:
• High score on conscientiousness tend to be right -wing politically
• High scores on honesty, agreeableness, and openness tend to be left -wing politically
• High scorers on honesty/humility tend to receive higher job performance ratings

Personality Traits and the Internet

• In Israel
○ High scorers in conscientiousness had more Facebook friends
○ Higher neurotics posted more pics on Facebook
• In the Netherlands
○ High internet use was greatest amongst introverted, disagreeable, lonely, and emotionally less stable
adolescents
• In USA and Germany
○ College students high in conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability tended to post less
on Facebook
• In USA
○ Both genders high in extroversion are more likely to use social networks
○ Men high in emotional stability were even more likely
○ Women high in neuroticism were more likely to blog
○ High scorers of openness between 11 & 16 spent more time on the computers and playing video games

Reflection on the Traits Approach

• Inheritance may account for as much as 50% of personality
• Nature > nurture

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Abraham Maslow: Needs-Hierarchy Theory • Safety Needs The Study of Self-Actualizers Research on Maslow's Theory
Monday, October 30, 2017 5:07 PM ○ Typically an important drive for infants and neurotic adults • Metamotivation - the motivation of self-actualizers which involves maximizing personal potential • Correlations Studies
○ Kids prefer routine w/ some freedom but that freedom has to be offered w/ guidance b/c they rather than striving for a particular goal object ○ POI scores are correlated with other measures of behavior and personality
Background on Maslow (1908 - 1970) aren't capable of directing their own behavior • Metaneeds - states of growth or being toward which self-actualizers evolve • The Hierarchy of Needs
• Considered the founder of the humanistic psych movement ○ Still present in most normal adults too b/c we tend to choose order > chaos any day, but not as • Metapathology - a thwarting of self-development related to failure to satisfy the metaneeds • The Belongingness Need
• Concluded that each person is born with the same set of instinctive needs that enable us to grow and overwhelming of a driving force • Characteristics of self-actualizing people • Self-Esteem
fulfill our potential • Belongingness and Love Needs ○ Clear perception of reality ○ High self-esteem:
• Grew up w/o close friends or loving parents ○ Can be expressed through close or a social relationships ○ Acceptance of self, others, and nature ▪ Feel competent and productive
• Felt alone in the world and turned to education to fill himself ○ This needs has grown harder to satisfy with the rise of our mobile society ○ Spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness ▪ Receive more job offers and cope better with job loss
○ The failure to satisfy the need for love is a fundamental cause of emotional maladjustment ○ Dedication to a cause ▪ Are less likely to have anxiety or depression or to drop out of school
Personality Development: The Hierarchy of Needs
• Esteem needs ○ Independence and need for privacy ▪ Get along well with others
• Hierarchy of 5 innate (instinctoid) needs
○ respect from ourselves in the form of: ○ Freshness of appreciation ▪ Are likely to have strong ethnic identities
○ Have a heredity component ▪ May spend less time on social media
▪ Self-worth ○ Peak experiences
○ Can be affected or overridden by learning, social expectations, and the fear of disapproval
○ From others in the form of: ○ Social interest
○ Lower needs have to be at least partially satisfied before higher needs become influential
▪ Status ○ Deep interpersonal relationships Self-Determination Theory
○ Were aren't driven by all of them at the same time; generally, only one need will dominate out • People have an innate tendency to express their interests, exercise and develop their capabilities and potentials,
▪ Recognition ○ Tolerance and acceptance of others
personality ▪ Social success ○ Creativity and originality and overcome challenges
○ Common reversal involves when people place more importance on esteem than on love ○ Allows us to feel confident of out strength, worth, and adequacy • Facilitated by a person's focus on intrinsic motivation, such as engaging in an activity b/c of the challenge of the
○ Resistance to social pressures
• The Self-Actualization Need • Failure to Become Self-Actualizing activity itself
○ Even if all the other needs are satisfied, if this isn't, the person will be restless, frustrated, and ○ It's the least potent, so it can easily be inhibited • Have high self-esteem and self-actualization
discontent ○ Inadequate education and improper child rearing can thwart this drive in adulthood • Three basic needs:
Midlife ○ Conditions needed to satisfy the self-actualization need: ▪ Ex. Tenderness and sentimentality is inhibited fro boys so this nature never fully ○ Competence
▪ Must be free of constraints imposed by society and by ourselves develops ○ Autonomy
▪ Mustn't be distracted by the lower needs ○ Jonah complex ○ Relatedness
▪ Must be secure in our self-image and in our relationships w/ others; love and be loved ▪ the fear that maximizing our potential will lead to a situation with which we will be
▪ Must have a realistic knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses, virtues, and vices unable to cope Reflection on Maslow's Theory
○ Reversals possible ▪ Refers to our doubts in our own abilities • There was a lack of experimentally generated supporting data in his research
▪ Ex. People who fast until death in the service of their beliefs • The definitions he gave to terms were ambiguous and used inconsistently
Adolescence ▪ Artists who've imperiled health for the sake of their work Questions about Human Nature • It was successful in social, clinical, and personal terms
• Cognitive Needs • We shape our free will even in the face of negative biological and constitutional factors • Became popular in the 60's and 70's
○ Innate needs to know and to understand • We choose how to best satisfy our needs and actualize our potential
○ Appears in late infancy and early childhood and expressed by a kid's natural curiosity • The needs are innate, but behaviors of how we satisfy them are learned
○ It's impossible to become self-actualizing if we don't meet our cognitive needs • Personality is determined by both nature and nurture
Infancy • Early childhood experiences are important but we aren't victims to them
• People are basically good but evil still existed

Assessment in Maslow's Theory

• For living subjects: interviews, free association, and projective tests, but sometimes indirectly but
her never explained exactly how this was done
• Characteristics of Needs
• The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI)
○ Deficit (deficiency) needs - the lower needs; failure to satisfy then produces a deficiency in the
○ Self-report questionnaire to measure self-actualization
body
○ Assesses how much we depend on ourselves rather than on others for judgements and
○ Growth (being) needs
values
▪ the higher needs
▪ although less necessary for survival, they involve the realization and fulfillment of human
potential
○ A needs doesn't have to be satisfied fully before the next needs in the hierarchy becomes
important
• Physiological Needs
○ Have a greater personal impact as motivating forces in cultures where basic survival remains an
everyday concern

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Carl Rogers: Self-Actualization Theory Characteristics of Fully Functioning Persons Research on Roger's Theory
Friday, November 10, 2017 9:54 PM • Fully functioning person - Roger's term for self-actualization • Person-centered interviews > experimental methods
• Characteristics of a fully functioning person • Recorded and filmed therapy sessions to study interaction
Background on Rogers (1902 - 1987) ○ Awareness of all experiences; open to positive and negative feelings • Q-sort technique - a self-report technique fro assessing aspects of the self-concept
• Originated an approach to psychotherapy known as nondirective/client-centered/person-centered ▪ No defensiveness b/c nothing threatens the self-concept ○ Sort statements from most descriptive to least descriptive
therapy ○ Freshness of appreciation for all expereinces • Positive self-regard may be more important in individualistic cultures
• Developed from research experiences with his clients ▪ Expereinces can't be predicted or anticipated but're participated in rather than just observed • Fully functioning persons are open to all experiences
• Believes that we're rational beings ruled by a conscious perception of ourselves & our experiential world ○ Trust in one's own behavior and feelings • A child's self-acceptance depends in part on the mother's degree of self-acceptance
• Rejected idea that our past events exert a controlling influence on a present behavior ▪ Aren't guided by others, by a social code, or by their intellectual judgments • Kids whose parents accept them unconditionally have high self-esteem
• Personality could only be understood through our own viewpoints based on subjective experiences ▪ All information can be perceived, evaluated, and weighted accurately • Those who possess incongruence between perceived self and ideal self are poorly adjusted emotionally
• Our overall motivation: the tendency to actualize, to develop our abilities and potentials ○ Freedom of choice, w/o inhibitions and have low self-esteem and self-actualization
• Ultimate goal: to become a fully functioning person • Failing to realize our innate potential can lead to maladjustment
▪ Know that the future depends on their own actions
• Theory overall has a lot of acceptance in psychology, education, and family-style research
▪ Don't feel compelled to behave in only one way
○ Creativity and spontaneity Reflection in Roger's Theory
The Self and the Tendency Toward Actualization • Person-centered psychotherapy quickly became popular
○ Continual need to grow, to strive to maximize one's potential
• The factor that most accurately predicted later behavior was self-insight ○ Was easy to learn and teach which was important after the demand for therapists increased after
• Actualization tendency WWII
Questions about Human Nature
○ The basic human motivation to actualize, maintain, and enhance the self • Has broad application from treatment for emotional disturbance to a way to enhance the self -image
• Free will > determinism
○ Encompasses all physiological and psychological needs • His theory and therapy stimulated research on the nature of psychotherapy, client -therapist interaction,
• Nurture > nature
• The process towards full human development requires struggle and pain
○ Actualization tendency is innate, but the process is influenced more by social forces and the self-concept
○ Ex. A child falling while trying to take their first steps
• Present feelings are more important than those of our childhood
• Organismic valuing process - the process by which we judge experiences in terms of their value for
fostering or hindering our actualization and growth
Assessment in Roger's Theory
○ These influence our behavior b/c we prefer to avoid undesirable experiences and repeat desirable
• Person-centered therapy - Roger's approach to therapy where the client is assumed to be responsible for
expereinces
changing his or her personality
○ Limitations:
The Experiential World
▪ Experiences that're not in conscious awareness remain hidden
• The reality of our environment depends on our perception of it, which may not always coincide with
▪ Trying to infer too much of the non-conscious expereinces could represent a therapist's own
reality that can change with time and circumstances
projections more than the client's actual expereinces
○ Benefits:
The Development of the Self in Childhood
▪ Provides a clearer view of a person's experiential world
• All aspects of the self strive for consistency
▪ Doesn't rely on a predetermined theoretical structure; clients are accepted as they are
○ Ex. A person who doesn't like aggressive behaviors don't express those behaviors on their own b/c
• Opposed things like free association, dream analysis, and case histories b/c he believed that they made
then they'd be inconsistent with their self-concept
the client dependent on the therapist
• Positive regard - acceptance, love, and approval from others
○ They took away from personal responsibility
○ Infant behavior is driven by the amount of affection and love it's bestowed
• Encounter groups - a group therapy technique where people learn about their feelings and about how
• Unconditional positive regard - approval granted regardless of a person's behavior
they relate to one another
○ What therapists offer the client in Roger's person-centered therapy
• Positive self-regard - the condition under which we grant ourselves acceptance and approval
• Conditions of worth - a belief that we're worthy of approval only when we express desirable behaviors
and attitudes and refrain from expressing those that bring disapproval from others; similar to Freud's
superego
• Conditional positive regard - approval, love, or acceptance granted only when a person expresses
desirable behaviors and attitudes
○ Kids evaluate their actions more carefully --> no longer functioning freely --> inhibiting from fully
developing or actualizing the self
• Incongruence - a discrepancy between a person's self-concept and aspects of his or her expereinces
○ Ex. Self-concept includes loving all humanity --> meets an asshole --> develops anxiety -->
represses anxiety --> rigidity of some of our perceptions
▪ Psychologically healthy people don't do this b/c nothing threatens their self-concept b/c as
kids they received unconditional positive regard so they didn't have to internalize any
conditions of self worth

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George Kelly: Personal Construct Theory Ways of Anticipating Life Events Assessment in Kelly's Theory
Monday, October 30, 2017 5:07 PM • our psychological processes are directed by the ways in which we anticipate events • The interview
• The Corollaries of personal construct theory ○ Kelly's primary assessment technique
Overview of the Cognitive Movement in Psychology ○ Respected what the client had to say, even if not fully believed
• Unique theory that didn't drive or build from other theories Construction b/c repeated events are similar, we can predict/anticipate how we will experience such
an event in the future • Self-characterization sketches
• Personal Construct Theory - Kelly's description of personality in terms of cognitive processes ○ A technique designed to assess a person's construct system; that is, how a person perceives
○ We are capable of interpreting behaviors and events and of using this understanding to guide Individuality People perceive events in different ways themselves in relation to other people
our behavior and to predict the behavior of other people Organization We arrange our constructs in patterns, according to our view of their similarities and • The Role Construct Repertory Test
○ We interpret and organize the events and social relationships of our lives in a system or pattern differences ○ Client lists people who've played a significant role in their life and the most intelligent and
▪ Patterns --> predictions about us, others, and events --> formulate responses & guide most interesting person they know --> names sorted in groups of three and person chooses
actions Dichotomy Constructs are bipolar; example: our opinion of honest also includes our concept of
dishonesty which two are most alike, noting how they differ from the third --> repertory grid
○ Interpretations of events > events themselves ○ [add more notes later]
• Cognitive psychologists Choice We choose the alternative for each construct that works best for us, the one that • Fixed Role Therapy
○ Interested in both cognitive variables and overt behavior allows us to predict the outcome of anticipated events ○ A psychotherapeutic technique where the client acts our constructs appropriate for a
○ Study primarily in an experimental setting fictitious person
Range Our constructs may apply to many situations or people, or they may be limited to a
○ Study overt behavior and learning in social situations as well as personality single person or situation ○ Shows the client how the new constructs can be more effective than the old ones he/she has
• Criticism - Range of convenience been using
○ It focuses on intellectual and rational aspects of human functioning to the exclusion of ○ Behavior changes could last long, but effectiveness isn't certain
emotional aspects Experience We continually test our constructs against life's experiences to make sure they remain
○ Theory didn't coincide w/ the everyday experiences of clinical psychologists who see more useful
Research on Kelly's Theory
extreme examples of human behavior Modulation We may modify our constructs as a function of new experiences • REP Test
▪ Kelly's rational being was an ideal that existed in abstract but not in reality - Permeability ▪ Validity on test is determined by the skill of the psychologist interpreting it
▪ Emotions were w/n personal constructs ▪ Been used for market research, performance appraisal,
Fragmentation We may sometimes have contradictory or inconsistent subordinate constructs w/n our
○ Was too different compared to other theories ○ A person's constructs remain stable over time
overall construct system
○ Kelly didn't publish much ○ We choose friends whose constructs are like ours
○ Sample of subjects was narrow and unrepresented Commonality Although our individual constructs are unique to us, people in compatible groups or
○ Spouses whose constructs were alike were happier
cultures may hold similar constructs
○ Schizophrenics formed stable constructs of objects but not of people
Kelly's Life (1905 - 1967) Sociality We try to understand how other people think and predict what they will do, and we ○ Delinquents identified with action heroes rather than real people
• From a religious, loving family in a Kansas farm and was an only child modify our behavior accordingly
• Received a bachelor's degree in physics and math but he switched interests to social problems Cognitive complexity - a way of construing the environment characterized by the ability to perceive
• Had jobs such as engineer --> teacher differences among people
Questions about Human Nature
• Thought a lot of psychology was stupid, especially Freud
• Optimistic image of human nature Cognitive simplicity - a way of construing the environment characterized by a relative inability to perceive
• Patients were regular college students who were referred by their teachers for counseling
• We weren't victims of our own destiny differences among people
• We can change when necessary by revising old constructs and forming new ones • High scorers in cognitive complexity tend to:
Personal Construct Theory ○ Score low in anxiety
• It's the operation of our rational mental processes that forms our personality
• Observe events --> interpret in our own way ○ Have more than the traditional five factors of personality
• Moderate position on uniqueness verses universality
• Construct system - the unique pattern created by each individual ○ Be good at predicting how others will behave
○ Commonality corollary - People of the same culture develop similar constructs
• Construct - an intellectual hypothesis that we devise and use to interpret or explain life events
○ Individuality corollary - emphasized the uniqueness with many of our constructs ○ Have moderate to liberal political views
- Bipolar, such as honest versus dishonest
• Didn't talk about heredity on personality ○ Had more diverse experiences in childhood
• Construct alternativism - the idea that we are free to revise or replace our constructs with alternatives
• Didn’t propose an ultimate and necessary life goal ○ Adjust better to the stresses of college
as needed
Attributional complexity - the extent to which people prefer complex rather than simple explanations for
social behavior
• People high in attributional complexity:
○ Attribute the behavior of others to complex causes
○ Have greater empathy and understanding of others
○ Are sensitive to subtle signs of racism

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B.F. Skinner: Reinforcement Theory

Monday, October 30, 2017 5:07 PM
Successive Approximation: The Shaping of Behavior Questions About Human Nature
Overview of Skinner Successive Approximation/Shaping • Nurture > nature
• Attempted to account for all behavior in factual terms • An explanation for the acquisition of complex behavior • basic behaviors are formed in childhood, but they can change as we get older
• Argued that everything should be restricted to facts and what could be observed in a laboratory • Behavior such as learning to speak will be reinforced only as it comes to approach the final desired • No two people will behave in the same way, we are all unique
• Interested in behavioral response to stimuli behavior • Skinner didn't talk about an ultimate goal
• Reinforcement comes in stages til the final behavior desired • People function like machines in lawful, orderly, and predetermined ways
Skinner's Life (1904 - 1990) • Used in parenting a lot • Behavior is controlled by reinforcers
• The oldest of two boys with strict parents • We are responsible for designing our environment and we constantly are changing it
• Failed novelist Superstitious Behavior
• Became a psychologist when he decided to study human behavior based on science rather than on • Persistent behavior stat has a coincidental and not a functional relationship to the reinforcement Assessment in Skinner's Theory
fiction received • Functional analysis - an approach to the study of behavior that involves:
○ Became a behaviorist ○ Ex. An NFL kicker hugging the goal posts before each game 1. Assessing the frequency of a behavior
2. The situation it occurs in
Reinforcement: The Basis of Behavior The Self-Control of Behavior 3. The reinforcers associated with it
• Any human or animal could be trained to do anything and they type of reinforcement that followed • Self-control - the ability to exert control over the variables that determine our behavior • Direct Observation of Behavior
the behavior would be responsible for determining it • The isn't a process, drive, or other internal activity that determined behavior ○ Just watching people
• Respondent Behavior • To some extent we can control the external variables that determine our behavior • Self-Report of Behavior
○ responses made to or elicited by specific environmental stimuli ○ Ex. If roommate plays annoying music, you leave ○ From interviews and questionnaires
○ Reinforcement - the act of strengthening a response by adding a reward so it could be ▪ You reduce the control that the other has over your behavior • Physiological Measurements of Behavior
repeated • Self-administering satiation - we exert control to cure ourselves of bad habits by overdoing the ○ Testing things like heart rate, muscle tension, and brain waves to evaluate the physiological
○ Extinction - the process of eliminating a behavior by withholding reinforcement behavior effects of various stimuli
• Operant Behavior - behavior emitted spontaneously or voluntarily that operates on the ○ Ex. Smokers chain smoke until it becomes so uncomfortable to them that they quit • Ultimate goals of these are to modify behavior, not change personality
environment to change it • Aversive stimulation - involves unpleasant or repugnant consequences
○ Ex. Person who wants to lose weight tells other people about it to hold themselves accountable Research on Skinner's Theory
Operant Conditioning and the Skinner Box • Self-reinforcement - we reward ourselves for displaying good/desirable behaviors • Intensive studies of a single subject
• Operant conditioning - the procedure by which a change in the consequences of a response will • College students who scored high in self-control had better grades, higher physiological adjustment • Believed that valid and replicable results could be obtained as long as sufficient data was collected
affect the rate at which the response occurs scores, greater self-esteem, better relationships, and lower anger levels from a single subject under well-controlled experimental conditions
• When a hungry rat was placed in a box, its actions were random, so it basically wasn't responding to • Results have been highly supportive of Skinner's ideas
any specific stimulus --> learns that lowering a lever releases food --> does it a lot for the food --> Application of Operant Conditioning • Found that:
won't continue to do so unless food keeps being dispersed • Behavior modification - a form of therapy that applies the principles of reinforcement to bring about ○ The greater the reinforcement given during training, the more resistant is the conditioned
• How Skinner believed most behavior is learned desired behavioral changes response to extinction
• Personality - a pattern or collection of operant behaviors • Token economy - a behavior modification where tokens are awarded for desirable behaviors ○ Operant conditioning can shape most forms of behavior in humans and animals
• Behavioral Modification Programs ○ American baseball players are more superstitious than Japanese ones
Schedules of Reinforcement ○ Meant to change overt behavior ○ Token economy programs have reduced aggressive acts by cognitively impaired patients by as
• Reinforcement schedules - patterns or rates of providing or withholding reinforcements ○ Have taken place at major manufacturers, financial institutions, and government agencies much as 79%
○ Fixed interval - the reinforcer is presented following the first response that occurs after a fixed ○ Have been shown to reduce absenteeism, lateness, abuse of sick-leave privileges, and
time interval has elapsed improvements in job performance and safety Reflections on Skinner's Theory
▪ Ex. A midterm and final exam ○ Reinforcers in businesses include things such as pay or job security • Humanistic psychologists rejected Skinner's idea that people were complex machines
○ Fixed ratio - reinforcers are given only after the organism has made a specified number of • Punishment and Negative Reinforcement ○ Felt that it ignored conscious free will
responses ○ Punishment is ineffective in changing behavior but positive reinforcement is effective • His experiments created too broad of statements from single subjects
▪ Ex. A sales person working in commission ○ Negative reinforcement - the strengthening of a response by the removal of an aversive • Instinctive drift - the substitution of instinctive behaviors for behaviors that had been reinforced
○ Variable interval - reinforcers are presented randomly stimulus • Still applied in lab, clinical, and organizational settings
▪ Ex. fishing ▪ Ex. A smoker would stop smoking to avoid nagging • Challenged by the cognitive movement in psychology
○ Variable ratio - based on the average number of responses between reinforcers, but with ▪ Doesn't always work
more variability
▪ Ex. Gambling

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Albert Bandura: Modeling Theory The Process of Observational Learning Developmental Stages of Modeling and Self-Efficacy Questions About Human Nature Rese
Monday, October 30, 2017 5:08 PM • Attentional processes • Childhood • Reciprocal determinism - the idea that behavior is controlled or determined by the individual, •
○ Developing our cognitive processes and perceptual skills so that we can pay sufficient attention ○ Limited to immediate imitation through cognitive processes, and by the environment, through external social stimulus events •
Overview of Bandura (1925-) to a model, and perceiving the model accurately enough, to imitate displayed behavior ○ The behaviors chosen to imitate will change with age • Triadic reciprocality - the idea that behavior is determined through the interaction of behavioral,
• All forms of behavior can be learned without reinforcement ○ Example: Staying awake during driver's ed class ○ Kids learn about the consequences of their actions and language competence cognitive, and environmental or situational variables
• Observational learning - learning new responses by observing the behavior of other people • Retention processes • Our reactions to stimuli are self-activated in accordance with our learned expectations
○ Early efficacy building is centered around the parents
• Vicarious reinforcement - learning/strengthening a behavior by observing the behavior of others, ○ Remembering the model's behavior so that we can imitate it at a later time • We choose and shape our behavior to gain reinforcement and avoid punishment
○ Birth order of a family was important
and the consequences of behavior, rather than experiencing the reinforcement or consequences ○ We use our cognitive processes to encode mental images and verbal descriptions of the • We are influenced by external forces and in turn guide the extent and direction of such influences
○ Kids tend to rate their competence based on their teacher's evaluations of them
directly • Optimistic view of human nature
model's behavior • Adolescence
• Cognitive processes can influence observational learning ○ Example: taking notes on the lecture material or the video of a person driving a car in driver's • Most behaviors are learned and genetic factors play a minor role
○ Involves coping w/ new demands and experiences
• No direct link exists between behavior and reinforcer, but instead our cognitive processes ○ Hereditary factors can influence the reinforcers that people, particularly kids, receive
ed ○ Success on this stage typically depends on the level of self-efficacy established during the
mediate between the two • Production processes ○ Childhood learning may be more influential than learning in adulthood, but can still be
childhood years
○ Translating the mental images or verbal symbolic representations of the model's behavior into • Adulthood unlearned later in life
• Canadian of Polish descent who's parents valued education • Ultimate and necessary goal: to set realistic performance standards to maintain an adequate level
our own over behavior by physically producing the responses and receiving feedback on the ○ Young adulthood
• Ended up getting a PhD in psychology from the University of Iowa accuracy of our continued practice of self-efficacy
▪ Involves adjustments such as marriage, kids, and a career
• Became a faculty member of Stanford where he published a lot ○ Example: getting in a car with an instructor to practice in a parking lot ▪ High self-efficacy is necessary and people with low self -efficacy will not be able to deal
• Incentive and motivational processes adequately with these situations Assessment in Bandura's Theory •
Modeling: The Basis of Observational Learning ○ Perceiving that the model's behavior leads to a reward and thus expecting that our learning - a • Accepted the operation of cognitive variables
○ Middle adulthood
• Bobo doll studies successful performance - of the same behavior will lead to similar consequences • Modeling study: Include direct observation, self-report inventories, and physiological
▪ When we confront our limitations and redefine our goals to find new opportunities for
○ Modeling - a behavior modification technique that involves observing the behavior of ○ Example: expecting that when we have mastered driving skills, we will pass the state test and measurements
enhancing our self-efficacy
others and participating with them in performing the desired behavior • Studies of self-efficacy: behavioral and cognitive variables
receive a driver's license • Old Age
○ Two groups of preschoolers given a bobo doll. Experimental group shown an adult attack it • Test anxiety: personality inventories
○ A lowering self-efficacy can further affect physical and mental functioning in a kind of self- •
so they did, too. Control group wasn't shown that so they didn't do anything. Self-Reinforcement and Self-Efficiency fulfilling prophecy
• Other modeling studies Self-reinforcement
○ Similar to the bobo doll but just observed how parents act and how that related to how • administering rewards or punishments to ourselves for meeting, exceeding, or falling short of one's Behavior Modification
aggressive their kids were own expectations or standards • Fears and phobias
○ Verbal modeling can induce certain behaviors, as long as the activities involved are fully • Past behavior may become the reference points for evaluating our present behavior and an incentive ○ Guided participation - watching a live model and then participating with them
and adequately explained for better performance in the future ○ Covert modeling - subjects are introduced to imagine a model coping with a feared or •
• Disinhibition - The weakening of inhibitions by observing the behavior of a model • We initially learn our set of standards from the behavior of models like our parents, and once we threatening situation, but they don't actually see the model
○ Examples can be seen in people starting a riot in a crowd b/c they would do so if they were adopt a given style of behavior, we compare our behavior with theirs for the rest of our lives ○ Modeling therapy has been effective with phobias, OCD, sexual dysfunction, and the
on their own
positive effects have been reported to last for years
• The effects of society's models Self-efficacy • Anxiety
○ Much behavior is learned by imitating those of others • our feeling of adequacy, efficiency, and competence in coping with life ○ Fear of medical treatment
○ Bandura didn't agree with the amount of violence that was portrayed in the media that • Low self-efficacy can destroy motivation, interfere w/ cognitive abilities, and adversely affect physical
kids watched ▪ Prevents some people from seeking treatment
health ▪ Common for both kids and adults
○ Models control behavior • High self-efficacy reduces fear of failure, raises aspirations, and improves problem solving and ○ Test anxiety
• Characteristic of the Modeling Situation analytical thinking abilities • Ethical issues in behavior modification
○ Characteristics of the Model • Believing that you have the ability to be successful becomes a powerful asset as you strive for ○ Behavior modification doesn't occur w/o the client's awareness
▪ Affect our tendency to imitate them achievement ▪ They wont' work anyway unless the person is able to understand what behaviors are
▪ Bobo doll • Sources of info about self-efficacy being reinforced
□ Kids shown a live model of aggression to the doll were more prone to imitate ○ Performance attainment - previous experiences provide direct indications of our level of ▪ Clients decide what they want changed
than if shown an animated model mastery and competence
▪ More likely to imitate someone of the same sex and similar age or of a higher status ▪ Increases self-efficacy by exposing people to success expereinces by arranging reachable
▪ Size and weight of a model could also be an influencer goals
○ Characteristics of an Observer ○ Vicarious expereinces - seeing others perform successfully
▪ People who're low in self-esteem and self-confidence are much more likely to ▪ "if they can do it, so can I" if the succeed, and vice versa
imitate a model's behavior ▪ Increases self-efficacy by exposing people to appropriate models who perform
▪ More likely to imitate if they've been reinforced to successfully
□ For example, a child rewarded for behaving like an older sibling ○ Verbal persuasion - remind people that they possess the ability to achieve whatever they want
○ The Reward Consequences Associated w/ the Behaviors to
▪ Kids who saw positive reinforcement for aggression towards the bobo doll imitated ▪ Increases self-efficacy by providing verbal persuasion that encourages people of their
the aggression more than the kids who saw aggression being punished abilities
○ Physiological and emotional arousal - use this as a basis for judging our ability to cope
▪ Increases self-efficacy by strengthening physiological arousal through proper diet, stress
reduction, and exercise programs which increases strength, stamina, and the ability to
cope

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earch on Bandura's Theory

• Favored well-controlled lab investigations (experimental)
• Self-efficacy
○ Men score higher than women when they're younger
○ Increases into adulthood, peaks at middle age, and declines after the age 60
○ Those whose parents scored high in parental self-efficacy scored high for personal self-
efficacy, did better in school, less anxiety, and fewer behavior problems
○ Higher in individualistic cultures
○ High in self-efficacy scorers:
▪ Earn better grades
▪ Set higher career goals, are more committed to attain those goals, and perform better
on the job
▪ Are in better health, higher pain tolerance, and recover faster from illness
▪ Less likely to drink or smoke
▪ Less likely to stressed or depressed or become neurotic
▪ High self-esteem
• Collective efficacy
○ Better cooperation as a team leads to more wins
○ Show higher level of commitment to their organization
○ Score high in job satisfaction
○ Engage in less bullying in the classroom
• Self-efficacy and the internet
○ US college male score higher than females
○ Taiwan 8th grade girls score higher than the boys
○ Those high in self-efficacy are more likely to become addicted to the internet
○ Those who fell sure of their ability to make a good impression on others use more informal
pics on their Facebook page
• Aggressive behavior is related to:
○ Watching violent tv shows as a kid
○ Playing violent video games from kid-young adulthood
○ Listening to rap music
○ Having a computer a kid w/o parental control or monitoring

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Locus of Control, Sensation Seeking, Learned Helplessness,

Optimism/Pessimism, Positive Psych, and Happiness & Success Marvin Zuckerman: Sensation Seeking
Monday, October 30, 2017 5:08 PM • Sensation seeking - the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations an experiences
○ Largely hereditary (Eysenck)

Julian Rotter: Locus of Control Assessing Sensation Seeking

Internal vs External Control of Reinforcement • Sensation Seeking Scale - 40 item questionnaire
• Internal locus of control - a belief that reinforcement is brought about by our own behavior ○ People who deliberately sought unusual activities scored higher than those who didn't
• External locus of control - a belief that reinforcement is under the control of other people, fear, or luck ○ Thrill & adventure seeking - extreme sport stuff
Assessment of Locus of Control ○ Experience seeking - novel artsy expereinces or a nonconformist lifestyle
• Self-report inventories ○ Disinhibition - the need to seek release in uninhibited social activities
○ I-E Scale - 23 forced-choice alternative ○ Boredom susceptibility
▪ Variants measure specific behaviors such as the relationship between locus of control and factors
relating to successful dieting and weight loss Characteristics of Sensation Seekers
Age and Gender Differences • Younger people are more adventurous
• Attempts to control our eternal environments begin in infancy • Men scored higher in thrill seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility
• People become more internally oriented as they grow older, peaking at middle age • Women scored higher on experience seeking
• No difference on I-E scale scores for adult US men and women • Asians scored lower in SSS than Westerners
○ English women had more external control • Whites scored higher sensation seeking
○ Chinese men had more internal control
• Women - External increased after a divorce or if they've been physically abused Behavioral Differences
Cultural Differences • Behavioral differences aren't that dramatic between high and low sensation seekers
• Blacks - Higher in external loc unless they were higher in socioeconomic status • High sensation seekers were more likely to do the drugs and smoke and all that jazz
• Asians - More externally oriented b/c they emphasize community reliance and interdependence ○ Men in this category more likely to get AIDS
• Westerners - More internally b/c of prizing self-reliance and individualism
Behavioral Differences
• High in Internal loc
○ Able to adapt and commit to change
○ Higher satisfaction with job and life in general
○ Cope better with stress
○ Lower anxiety
○ Higher self-esteem
○ Usually more healthy both mentally and physically
○ Less likely to get addicted to the Internet
○ Less likely to have emotional problems or become alcoholics
Developing Locus of Control in Childhood
• Loc is learned in childhood and directly related to parental behavior
• External
○ More likely in single-mom homes
○ Increases with the number of siblings
○ More likely if moms are depressed and have little education/income
• Internal
○ Parents were highly supportive, consistent in discipline, not authoritarian, and encourage independence
for the kids as they grew older
Reflections on Locus of Control
• Strong relationship to Bandura's concept of self-efficacy
○ Difference if loc is more general
• Research was well controlled and used objectively so there's a lot of support behind it
• I-E scale applied in clinical and educational settings

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