Chapter 10

Personality
AP Psychology
Mr. Tusow
 Personality

• Personality: The psychological qualities that bring a

consistency to an individual’s thoughts and behaviors
in different situations and at different times.
• Personality is a continuously changing process, shaped by
our individual needs and cognitions and by external
pressures from the social environment.

• It is the thread that consistently runs through our lives.

 Two Main Theories

• Psychodynamic Theory: Freud’s theory that calls

attention to motivation, especially unconscious
motives, and the influence of our past experiences.

• Humanistic Theory: A theory that emphasizes the

present, subjective reality-what we believe is important
now, what we think of ourselves in relation to others is
important now.
 Clinical Perspective

• The clinical perspective utilizes a combination of the

psychodynamic and humanistic theories. This is most
often used by psychologists who are working with
people who are seeking counseling.
 Social Cognitive Theory

• Social-cognitive theory derives from experiments in

psychology rather than clinical work.
• This theory is based on the idea that personality is a
result of learning, perception and social interaction.
• Despite what it seems, social-cognitive theory and clinical
perspective compliment each other and share some
common ideas.
 Psychodynamic Theories

• Although there are a variety of psychodynamic

theories, they originate with Freud’s psychoanalytic
theory.
• In this theory, Freud said the unconscious, the hidden
parts of the mind, was a source of powerful impulses,
instincts, motives, and conflicts that energize
personality.
 Psychoanalysis

• Psychoanalysis focuses on how the mind’s energy is

exchanged, transformed and expressed.
• The “mental stream” of the sex drive was called the Eros,
he Greek god for passionate love. The energy behind this
drive was called libido, Latin for lust.

• The “mental stream” for destruction was Thanatos. Freud

called it the “death instinct” that drives aggressive and
destructive acts humans commit against each other.
 Personality Structure

• Freud saw human

Ego Conscious mind
personality as an iceberg
with three parts: the Ego, Unconscious
Superego and Id. mind
Superego
• In this model, the
superego and the id were Id
antagonist parts,
regulated by the ego.
 The Id

• In Freud’s model, the id is the primitive, unconscious

reservoir that houses the basic motives, drives and
instinctive desires that determine our personalities.
• Always acts on impulse and seeks immediate pleasure
• The only part of the personality present at birth
 The Superego

• The superego is the “police” of personality and is

responsible for morals and values learned from society.
• The superego develops as the the child forms an
internal set of rules based on external experiences
• The inner voice of shoulds and should nots
• Often conflicts with the id because the id wants what feels
good and the superego wants what is right and moreal
 The Ego

• Regulating the conflict between the id and the superego

is the job of the ego-the conscious, rational part of the
mind.
• The ego must figure out a way to satisfy one’s desires,
while not violating one’s moral code.
• When this balance becomes upset, conflicted thoughts and
behaviors that signify a mental disorder may be the result
 Psychosexual Stages

• Freud believed that our early experiences stayed with us

and affected us throughout our development, especially
with regards to sex.
• Should something happen in the early years, people will
have problems to overcome later in life specifically dealing
with sexuality:
• Oedipus complex: boy in love with their mother
• Identification: boys love their mom/identify with their dad
• Penis envy: girls desire to have a penis-attracted to males
• Fixation: occurs when development is stopped at a particular
stage
 Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Stage Focus

Oral Pleasure centers on the mouth--

(0-18 months) sucking, biting, chewing
Anal Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder
(18-36 months) elimination; coping with demands for
control
Phallic Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with
(3-6 years) incestuous sexual feelings
Latency Dormant sexual feelings
(6 to puberty)
Genital Maturation of sexual interests
(puberty on)
 Ego Defense

• Ego defense is the largely unconscious mental strategy

to reduce anxiety or conflict.
• Repression: the ego defense that excludes unacceptable or
inappropriate thoughts and feelings from our awareness.

• A complete list of ego defenses is on page 416, be able to

identify what these are.
 Assessing the Unconscious

• Projective Test
• a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides
ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner
dynamics

• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

• a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and
interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous
scenes
Assessing the Unconscious--TAT
Assessing the Unconscious

• Rorschach Inkblot Test

• the most widely used projective test
• a set of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann
Rorschach
• seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by
analyzing their interpretations of the blots
Assessing the Unconscious--Rorschach
 Criticism of Freud

• While Freud is still wildly popular in media and

culture, it has lost most of it support in the psychology
field.
• Many Freudian concepts (libido, repression) are vague
• The focus is on retrospective explanation
• Only looks back, doesn’t give credit to the present or future
• No thought given to women
• The unconscious mind is not as smart/purposeful as Freud
would like us to believe
 Neo-Freudians

• Freud was a controversial figure, and many of his collogues broke away
from his view, but still maintained a psychodynamic aspect to their
theories
• Alfred Adler
• importance of childhood social tension

• Karen Horney
• sought to balance Freud’s masculine biases

• Carl Jung
• emphasized the collective unconscious
• concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history
• .
 Humanistic Theories

• Humanistic theories are optimistic about the core of

human nature.
• Personality is driven by needs to adapt and learn, rather
than unconscious conflicts or defense mechanisms and
anxiety
• Mental disorders occur when a person is in an unhealthy
situation that causes low self-esteem and unmet needs, not
from unhealthy individuals.
 Abraham Maslow

• The most famous humanistic perspective came from

Abraham Maslow who created a hierarchy of needs
(chapter 8).
• He said we needed something that described good mental
health as more than just the absence of illness.
• Maslow saw a group of people in pursuit of “higher
ideals” and wanted a way to explain their behavior.
• Self-actualizing personalities-healthy individuals who have
met their basic needs and are free to be creative and fulfill
their potentialities.
 Carl Rogers

• Another famous humanists was Carl Rogers who took a

different approach.
• He identified healthy personalities as the fully
functioning person.
• An individual who has a self-concept that is positive and
congruent with reality.
 Criticism of Humanistic Theories

• People criticize humanistic concepts as being fuzzy-

what is self actualization?

• For a long time, self-esteem was thought to cause

people to act the way they do. More recently,
psychologists have argued that self-esteem isn’t the
cause of behavior, but rather a by-product of behavior.
 Social-cognitive Theories

• Where are the clinical views lack scientific backing,

the social-cognitive theories are solidly founded in
scientific tradition, with emphasis put on research.
• The most well known of these theories is observational
learning, supported by Albert Bandura.
• Bandura said we are not only driven by innerforces and
the environment, but also expectations about how those
actions will affect other people, the environment and
ourselves.
 Observational Learning

• In observational learning, we learn new responses by

watching each others’ behavior.
• Personality, thus, is learned behavior patterns
• These cognitive process involve an ongoing relationship
between the individual and the environment called
reciprocal determinism
 Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Locus of Control
• our sense of controlling our environments
rather than feeling helpless
• External Locus of Control
• the perception that chance or outside forces
beyond one’s personal control determine
one’s fate
 Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Internal Locus of Control

• the perception that one controls one’s own
fate
• Learned Helplessness
• the hopelessness and passive resignation an
animal or human learns when unable to avoid
repeated aversive events
 Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Learned Helplessness

Uncontrollable
bad events

Perceived
lack of control

Generalized
helpless behavior
 Personality and Temperament

• Temperament is the inherited personality dispositions

that are apparent in early childhood and that establish
“tempo” and “mood” in the individual’s behaviors.
• Biological dispositions affect our basic personalities
 Traits and Personality

• Traits are stable personality characteristics that are

presumed to exist within the individual and to guide his
or her thoughts and actions under various conditions
• The Five-Factor Theory: A perspective suggesting
that personality is composed of five fundamental
personality dimensions: openness to experience,
consciousness, extraversion, agreeableness and
neuroticism (explanation on page 432-433).
 Five-Factor Theory
The “Big Five” Personality Factors
Trait Dimension Description
Emotional StabilityCalm versus anxious
Secure versus insecure
Self-satisfied versus self-
pitying
Extraversion Sociable versus retiring
Fun-loving versus sober
Affectionate versus reserved
Openness Imaginative versus practical
Preference for variety versus
preference for routine
Independent versus
conforming
Extraversion Soft-hearted versus ruthless
Trusting versus suspicious
Helpful versus uncooperative
Conscientiousness Organized versus disorganized
Careful versus careless
Disciplined versus impulsive
 Contemporary Research–
The Trait Perspective
• Trait
• a characteristic pattern of behavior
• a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories
and peer reports

• Personality Inventory
• a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on
which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of
feelings and behaviors
• used to assess selected personality traits
 The Trait Perspective
UNSTABLE
Moody
Anxious
Touchy
Restless • Hans and Sybil
Rigid
Sober
Aggressive
Excitable Eysenck use two
Pessimistic
Reserved
Changeable
Impulsive
primary personality
Unsociable
Quiet
factors as axes for
Optimistic
melancholic choleric Active
INTROVERTED EXTRAVERTED describing personality
Passive
Careful
phlegmatic sanguine
Sociable variation
Outgoing
Thoughtful Talkative
Peaceful Responsive
Controlled Easygoing
Reliable Lively
Even-tempered Carefree
Calm Leadership
STABLE
 The Trait Perspective

• Empirically Derived Test

• a test developed by testing a pool of items
and then selecting those that discriminate
between groups
• such as the MMPI
 The Trait Perspective

Hypochondriasis 1
Clinically
significant • Minnesota
(concern with body symptoms) range
Depression
Multiphasic
(pessimism, hopelessness)2
Hysteria
After
treatment Personality
(uses symptoms to solve problems) 3 (no scores
in the clinically
Before
treatment
Inventory
Psychopathic deviancy 4
(disregard for social standards) significant range) (anxious,
depressed,
(MMPI) test
Masculinity/femininity 5
(interests like those of other sex) and
displaying
profile
Paranoia
(delusions, suspiciousness) 6 deviant
behaviors)
Psychasthenia
(anxious, guilt feelings) 7
Schizophrenia
(withdrawn, bizarre thoughts) 8
Hypomania
(overactive, excited, impulsive) 9
Social introversion 10
(shy, inhibited)
0 30 40 50 60 70 80

T-score