CHAPTER 10: PERSONALITY: THEORIES OF THE WHOLE PERSON

Mary Calkins: 1st Female president of American Psychological Association. Earned, but did not receive PhD. Did research on memory, became teacher of psychology.

Personality: The psychological qualities and processes that bring continuity to an individual's behavior in different times and situations. Is the thread of consistency that runs through our lives.

Personality: the psychology of individual differences

Involves a whole – person perspective: learning, perception, development, emotion, etc/

Break thread of consistency/personality =

Bipolar disorder

Schizophrenia

Personality disorders

4 different theories to dealing with kinds of personality issues (Textbook)

Current personality characteristics: look at theories of temperaments, traits, or types. Ie. Screening job applicants

Understand someone as a changing, developing being: look at psychodynamic, humanistic, or social – cognitive theories. Ie friend asking for help

How people understand each other/assumptions made: implicit theories of personality. Ie marriage counseling/conflict management

Do people understand each other in the same ways around the world: cross – cultural work.

Personality is shaped by the combined forces of biological, situational, and mental processes-all embedded in a sociocultural and developmental context.

Biology, Human Nature, and Personality

People lash out at convenient targets when threatened. Freud called it displacement of aggression. Also generally called scapegoating. Biologically, exists b/c if you respond to a threat, you are more likely to survive reproduce than if you just accept it. Also less likely to be a victim. According to David Barash.

Prefer pleasure pain. Fits with Darwin's idea of tendency for reproduction and aggression. Freud takes survival of the fittest and suggests a sex based survival instinct.

Social motives have some basis in biology: ie Bees

There are NOT only a few basic urges behind all human behavior. Humans have separate modules in the brain each with a different purpose. Ie Sex, aggression, hunger, affiliation, thirst, achievement.

Effects of Nurture: Personality and the Environment

Environment molds us according to principles of behavioral conditioning, cognitive learning and social psychology.

Importance of early childhood experiences. No human contact = mental and physically stunted.

Effect of birth order: Older sibling gets job that requires intellect. Youngest are more likely to make people laugh. Older = more conservative, less likely to take risks. Younger = more likely to be successful when taking risks.

Walter Mischel: personality psychologist who suggests that environmental influences usually overwhelm all other effect, including inborn traits.

Effects of Nurture: Dispositions and Mental Processes

Disposition: relatively stable personality pattern, including temperaments, traits, and personality types. Ie Introvert/extrovert

Personality Process: the internal working of the personality, including motivation, emotion, perception, and learning, as well as unconscious processes.

Descriptive approach to personality: focuses on dispositions.

Experiences are affected by mental "filters" that represent core elements of personality.

Social and Cultural Contributions to Society:

Juris Draguns: cross – cultural psychologist, says that the concept of personality theory is a western invention.

Most comprehensive and influential theories of personality are based on Western social sciences with a bias toward individualism and the unique "self."

Non – Western perspectives originate in religion. Hindus = personality is a union of opposing characteristics. Chinese = complementary opposite forces yin/yang

Individualism (Euro – American) vs collectivism (Include Latin America and Africa)

Within a culture, social relationships have huge impact on personality = creation of other people.

Cross – cultural differences in Shyness: 40% shy in US, 60% in Asian – American, and 25% in Jewish. Based on how each culture deals with child's success and failures. Asian success is due to elders, and blame is all on child. = Low risk taking, cautiousness = shy. Jewish = all blame on others, none on child. Child success= praise.

Hippocrates: temperament results from balance of 4 humors in the body = personality theory

Blood from Heart = sanguine (cheerful)

Choler (yellow bile) from liver = choleric (angry)

Melancholer (black bile) from spleen = melancholy (depressed)

Phlegm from the brain = phlegmatic (sluggish)

Dispositional theories: A general term that includes the temperament, trait, and type approaches to personality.

Temperaments: global dispositions of personality (shy/outgoing) that have strong biological basis.

Traits: multiple dimensions of personality (cautious vs reckless), which are more influenced by experience (learning).

Type: is a category, not a dimension, which is either yes or no. IE. Introversion = trait dimension = different degrees of introversion. Introversion = type = introverted or not.

4 Theoretical Perspectives on Personality: Psychologists focus on different aspects of the personality and have different theoretical explanations for it.

Trait theory (biologically based perspective)

Psychodynamic (Freud)

Humanistic (Maslow/Positive Psychology)

Social cognitive (Bandura)

Biological dispositions do affect our basic personalities Is consistent & durable

Temperament: biologically based personality dispositions that are apparent in early childhood and stable over time. Establish the foundation of the personality and the mood of an individual's approach to life.

Generally refers to 1-2 dominant and long – standing themes, ie shyness/moodiness.

Establishes the tempo and mood of an individual's behaviors

Brain chemistry research shows how particular structures in the brain are affected by imbalances of neurotransmitters that regulate the synapses. Chemical balance may in turn have a genetic basis. People have same neurotransmitters, but different mix. Kagan study on inherited basis of shyness newborns already differ.

Phineas Gage accident: Railroad worker got a metal rod through skull (frontal lobes), and personality/basic response style more confrontational & emotional

Twin studies

Temperament is slightly influenced by learning

Behavior - environment interaction

Happy child elicits positive responses from environment = positive feedback

Inherited temperament sets the range of responses, but external factors make the personality pattern unique.

Trait Theory (biologically based perspective):

Traits: Multiple stable personality characteristics that are presumed to exist within an individual and guide his/her thoughts and actions under various conditions. Ie moody, cheerful, smart, enthusiastic, volatile, friendly, melancholy. May be the way our motives, emotions, and cognitions are expressed in behavior.

Traits vs Temperament: Temperament = foundation of a personality, based in our individual biological nature. Traits = multidimensional structure built on the foundation of temperament, but influenced by experience. Traits emerge from temperaments, nature is expanded by nurture. .

Trait Theories of Personality:

Allport: Listed 200 traits and believed traits were part of nervous system

Cattell: Reduced number of traits to between 16 and 23 with computer method called factor analysis.

Factor analysis: Way to condense the immense list of personality traits

Personality Dimensions: Hans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that personality could be reduced down to two polar dimensions, extraversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability. Was too narrow, so used 5 factors of traits instead.

The Five Factor Theory = OCEAN (each has opposite pole)

Openness to Experience: inquiring intellect, curiosity, independence. VS close-mindedness, low curiosity, and unimaginative.

Conscientiousness: Dependability, goal – directedness, perseverance, superego strength, prudence, constraint. VS Impulsiveness, carelessness, irresponsibility

Extraversion: social adaptability, assertiveness, sociability, boldness, self – confidence VS introversion, shyness

Agreeableness: warmth, likability, prosocial approach to others. VS Coldness, negativity, or antagonism

Neuroticism: anxiety, emotionality VS emotional stability, emotional control\

Given statements (Ie I am inventive), and asked to say how strongly you agree/disagree. No right/wrong answers.

High score does NOT equal good. Ie too conscientious = less ability to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

5 Factor Theory seems to be valid across different cultures (50 worldwide), but is not necessarily accurate is it is tested at Universities that tend to have Western world views.

Are very stable in adulthood, 50% heritable, and can be found across 50 cultures.

Rick Shweder: Anhtropologist in some cultures, people are not defined by personal disposition, but by social roles, position within family structure, or goals.

Evaluating the Trait Perspective

The Person-Situation Controversy: says depend on various situations and behavior will be different.

Mischel originally conceived that idea that we are all six people away from somebody else anywhere in the country.

Walter Mischel (1968, 1984, 2004) argued that traits may be enduring- but the resulting behavior across situations is different. Thus traits are not good predictors of behaviors. VS Trait theorists argue that behaviors may be different from situation to situation, but average behavior remains the same, thus traits matter. More recently, Gosling argues that traits are socially significant and influence our health, thinking and performance. Expressive styles in speaking, gestures demonstrate trait consistency. Observers are able to judge people's behavior and feelings in as little as 30 seconds and in one case as little as 2 seconds. "thin slicing"

John Gottman:The Mathematics of Divorce

Video taped couples having a conversation- developed a coding system for their interaction- (behavioral consistency)

Analyzes 1 hr video predicts 95% accuracy if they will be married 15 years later. 15 min 90% accuracy

4 negative behaviors predict divorce

1) criticism of partners' personality, 2) contempt (from a position of superiority), 3) defensiveness, 4) stonewalling (emotional withdrawal from interaction)

stable couples handle conflicts in gentle, positive ways, and are supportive of each other.

Assessing Traits with Personality Inventories:

NEO – PI (Neuroticism, Extroversion, and Openness – Personality Inventory): Big 5 Inventory. Clinical/counseling psychologist assesses patient's personality on 5 factors w/ paper and pencil test. Based on agree/disagree w/ no right answers. General personality stability; characteristics

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2):

Measures clinical traits/signs of mental disorder.

High reliability and validity. Most widely-used inventory

567 true-false questions, say whether each statement describes them or not

Answers compared against responses made by clinical populations with known mental disorders.

Empirically based scoring system not just opinion.

Examples: I am often bothered by thoughts about sex. Sometimes I like to stir up some excitement. If people had not judged me unfairly, I would have been far more successful.

Does not measure Big 5, but rather 10 clinical scales to assess mental problems.

Hypochondriasis(Hs): Exaggerated concern about physical health

Depression (D): Distress, depression

Hysteria (Hy): Physical symptoms w/ no cause

Psychopathic Deviate (Pd): Disregard for moral & social standards

Masculinity-Femininity (Mf): Having traditional male or female traits

Paranoia (Pa): Fear of others; suspiciousness

Psychasthenia (Pt): Rigidity, tension, worry

Schizophrenia (Sc): Bizarre; unusual thinking

Hypomania (Ma): Excitability, impulsiveness

Social Introversion (S): Modesty, shyness

Cannot fake a good or bad score on the MMPI-2. Contains "lie scales" that signal something is wrong when too many unusual responses are made. Too many attempts to make yourself look good/bad elevates lie scores.

Sometimes I put off doing things I know I ought to do

On occasion I have passed on some gossip

Once in a while I find a dirty joke amusing

Validity Scale

Cannot Say (?): Evasiveness

Lying (L): Lying in order to look good

Infrequency (F): Lying in order to look bad

Correction (K): Defensiveness in filling out the scale

Typical person had all values around 55. Schizophrenic has high Pd, Pa, Pt, Sc. Depressive has high D, Hy, S.

MMPI – 2 and NEO – PI are good b/c they have good reliability and validity

Reliability: An attribute of a psychological test that gives consistent results.

Validity: An attribute of a psychological test that actually measures what it is being used to measure. (personality traits or signs of mental disturbance). For MMPI – 2, it may not be valid if translated into other languages/across cultures.

Be careful when giving personality inventories to ethnic minorities b/c they were not well represented in samples used to develop the test.

Evaluating Temperament and Trait Theories:

Criticisms:

Portrays personality as fixed and static rather than a dynamic process that can change depending on experience

Are oversimplifications of our complex natures by describing personality on only a few dimensions.

***Like old instinct theories*** DESCRIBES behavior with a label, but DOES NOT EXPLAIN IT. Identify common traits, but don't say how they interact.

Self – fulfilling prophecy: people are influenced by expectations implied by labels.

Benefits/Positive side

Trait theories give us the ability to predict behavior in common situations (work settings) and see who is best suited to the job.

Big 5 traits predict what matters to us fairly accurately: health, academic success, etc

Personality Type: Older notion. Similar to a trait, but instead of being a dimension, a type is a category that is believed to represent a common cluster of personality characteristics = Distinct categories. VS Modern trait theory = anywhere between extremes.

Personality type is assessed with Meyers – Briggs – Type – Indicator (MBTI): widely used personality test based on Jungian types.

Uses of the MBTI:

Given to 2 million people per year at self awareness workshops, team- building, etc.

Answer questions about how you make judgments, perceive the world, and relate to others. Scoring system uses responses to assign a 4 dimensional personality type: Introversion – Extraversion, Thinking – Feeling, Sensation – Intuition, and Judgment – Perception.

Reliability of MBTI is questionable.

Uncertain about the validity of the MBTI test: MBTI does NOT truly identify distinct personality types: that a person is a sum of each of the 4 type designations. Instead, it shows that people are distributed all along the introversion – extroversion continuum. Supports the ideas of traits (different degrees of a characteristic), not type (yes/no).

Is not necessarily good in linking personality patterns and jobs. Don't want to turn averages into stereotypes. Data shows diversity of types within occupations, and there is no evidence that having a certain personality type makes you better for a job.

The Effect of Mental Processes on Personality

Mental processes actively shape people's personalities, VS static traits, types, and temperaments.

3 kinds of mental processes: 1) Psychodynamic 2) Humanistic 3) Cognitive theories.

Each of the process theories sees different forces at work in personality. Each considers personality as combination of internal and external factor. Each emphasizes a different combination of factors at work in personality. ALL portray personality as the result of both internal mental processes and social interactions.

Psychodynamic Theory: A group of theories that originated with Freud. All emphasize motivation – and the influence of the past on the development of mental disorders.

Humanistic Theories: A group of personality theories that focus on human growth and potential rather than on mental disorder. All emphasize the functioning of the individual in the present rather than on the influence of past events

Social – cognitive Theories: A group of theories that involve explanations of limited but important aspects of personality (eg locus of control). All grew out of experimental psychology.

PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE (Freud)

Approach began in late 1800s w/ medical disorder called hysteria (modern = conversion disorder). Patients experience muscle weakness, loss of sensation, or paralysis even though there is no physical cause such as nerve damage.

Jean Charcot: Showed that hysteria was psychological when he could make symptoms disappear by suggestion while patients are in hypnotic trance.

Freud attempted to use hypnosis, but was not successful. Developed psychoanalysis/ psychoanalytic theory to find another way to understand and treat sickness. Led to first comprehensive theory of personality that included the unconscious mind, psychosexual stages, and defense mechanisms.

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Psychoanalysis:

A method of treating mental disorders based on Freud's psychoanalytic theory.

The process of free association (say whatever you think / chain of thoughts) led to painful, embarrassing unconscious memories. Once these memories were retrieved and released (treatment: psychoanalysis) theoretically the patient felt better.

Goal: release unacknowledged conflicts, urges, and memories from the unconscious.

Psychoanalytic theory: Freud's theory of personality and mental disorder.

The Freudan Unconscious:

Mind's hidden collection of powerful impulses, instincts, motives, and conflicts that energize the personality

Are usually unaware of it b/c the contents are so threatening and anxiety provoking that the conscious mind refuses to acknowledge it.

Can glimpse these memories as dreams, slip of tongue, or a mental disorder when they try to escape from the unconscious. A therapist can find these memories (ie sexually molested in childhood) using special techniques of psychoanalysis. To tap the unconscious, patients say whatever comes to mind = Free association.

Interpret the manifest and latent contents of dreams to analyze the unconscious mind.

Unconscious Drives and Instincts

Unconscious mind is fueled by psychological energy from most basic and secret motives, drives, and desires.

Unconscious sex drive = Eros expressed directly through sex or indirectly through releases such as joking, working, or creative pursuits. Libido = The Freudian concept of psychic energy that drives individuals to experience sexual pleasure = Energy produced by Eros. Libidinal energy fuels the rest of personality as a primitive life force.

Eros /libidinal energy: does not explain acts of human aggression and destruction, or why war veterans have PTSD. Says that they are caused by Thanatos: the unconscious "death instinct" / drive that pushes people to commit aggressive and destructive acts against each other or themselves (smoking, gambling, reckless driving, drug abuse).

Model of the Mind:

Id: The primitive, unconscious portion of the personality that houses the most basic drives (Ie Eros, Thanatos) and stores repressed memories. Energizes all 3 parts of the personality. The Id acts on impulse and pushes for immediate gratification w/o concern for consequences.

Superego: Mind's storehouse of values, moral attitudes learned from parents and society, same as common notion of conscience. Develops as child forms internal set of rules imposed by other adults. Also includes the ego ideal = view of the kind of person that someone wants to become. Frequently opposes the Id's desires.

Ego: Conscious, rational part of personality, charged with keeping peace between superego and id. Make decisions that satisfy no part of the personality completely, but keep the whole out of trouble.

The mind is like an iceberg. Conscious level = exposed potion. At water level = preconscious level (thin strip). Is outside awareness, but accessible. Preconscious level stores temporary memories. Below water = unconscious level.

Ego is in the conscious level. Id is in the unconscious level. Superego spans all 3.

Personality develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our biological impulses (id) and social restraints (superego).

Development of Personality: Psychosexual Stages

Argued that early experiences shaped later development and that the human personality was formed in the first 5 years of life.

Emerging sexual and aggressive dives push child through psychosexual stages.

Psychosexual Stages: Successive instinctive developmental phases in which pleasure is associated with stimulation of different bodily areas at different times of life.

Oral: 0-18 months. Pleasure from the mouth suckling, biting, chewing

Anal: 18-36 months: Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

Phallic: 3-6 years: Pleasure zone is in the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feeling. Involves "immature" sexual expression, or masturbation. Child must resolve feelings of anxiety and conflict by identifying more closely with the same sex parent.

Latency: 6 – puberty: Dormant sexual feeling

Genital: Adult stage that brings maturity and mental well – being to those fortunate enough to resolve conflicts of previous stages. Maturation of sexual interests.

Developed to resolve theory about gender identity/roles

Psychodynamic perspective criticism:

Freud's answers are fairly convoluted and contrived. Lacked scientific support.

Ignored external influence of the different ways in which boys and girls are socialized

Ignored possibility of Genetic Programming

Psychodynamic perspective qualifiers:

Currently don't fully understand how sexual attraction works

Freudian concepts about psychosexual development have a wide impact outside psychology, IE in literature and French psychology

Freud may have been wrong about details of psychosexual development, but the overall pattern and idea that children all progress through stages of development = central focus of psychologists.

IE: Freud may have been right that difficulties early in life lead to fixation or arrested psychological development. Oral stage fixation dependency on others in later childhood/adulthood oral tendencies like overeating, alcoholism, smoking, etc mouth as a way to connect with what one needs/wants. Anal fixation troubles w/ toilet training at age 2 stubborn, compulsive, or excessively neat pattern of behavior related to the theme of controlling one's body or life.

Boys = Oedipus Complex: largely unconscious process when young males displace erotic attraction toward their mother to females of their own age. At the same time, they identify with the father.

Girls = Electra Complex: Highlights a girl's psychosexual competition with the mother for the father's love, which is resolved when the girl comes to identify with the same – sex adult. Concept was advanced by Carl Jung.

Identification: The mental process by which one individual tries to become like another person, especially the same – sex parent. Children cope with threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying with the rival parent. Through this process of identification, their superego gains strength incorporating their parents' values.

Ego Defense Mechanisms:

Operate at unconscious level and are methods for reducing anxiety or conflict.

The ego's tools to keep unacceptable thoughts or urges from conscious awareness

Some more mature than others.

Denial: Refusing to accept that the feeling is present or that an event occurred. A very primitive mechanism. Example: A student refuses to believe he has flunked a course.

Repression: Relegating anxiety-causing thoughts to the unconscious (away from awareness and memory), refusing to think about them. Example: a person "forgets' about an embarrassing incident in middle school.

Projection: Anxiety producing characteristics or behaviors of the self are attributed to others. Example: a person who cheats on a partner, checks his or her cell phone or email for possible cheating. A man who unfaithful to his wife feels guilty and suspects is wife is unfaithful

Reaction Formation: Taking actions opposite to one's feelings in order to deny the reality of the feelings. Freud thought many people fervently pursuing a cause were using this mechanism to hide their true feelings. Example: a guilty partner who is planning to end a relationship, sends flowers. A mother who unconsciously resents her child behaves in an overly loving way.

Rationalization: Creating intellectually-acceptable arguments for thoughts or behavior to hide the actual anxiety- causing impulses. Examples: I only read Playboy magazine for the articles. Everyone cheats on tests, its ok for me to do it as well.

Regression: Reverting to the comfort of behaviors of an earlier stage of development in order to cope. Example: Children who crawl around the floor and produce baby talk when a new baby enters the family. Boss has a temper tantrum when an employee makes a mistake. A person bursts into tears whenever his or her partner wants to have a talk about their relationship issues…

Displacement: Substituting a less-threatening object for the subject of the hostile or sexual impulse. Example: A person mad at his boss attacks an underling instead—a person like the boss in some ways, but not as anxiety provoking.

Sublimation: The most mature mechanism. Redirecting anxiety-causing impulses into socially acceptable actions. Example: Dealing with anxiety over a final by engaging in vigorous physical activity. Aggressive child takes martial arts lessons.

Assessing Unconscious Processes

Evaluating personality from an unconscious mind perspective require a psychological instrument (projective tests) that would reveal the hidden unconscious mind.

Projective test: Personality assessment instrument which is based on Freud's ego defense mechanism of projection

The Rorschach Inkblot Test: Designed by Hermann Rorschach. Subjects describe what they see in a series of 10 (symmetrical) inkblots. Receives low marks from psychologists b/c of low consistency and accuracy in measuring individual differences in personality. May be based on concepts such as unconscious motivation that are impossible to demonstrate objectively. But some still claim that it can give insight as part of a broader personality assessment. Does not predict behavior.

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Developed by Henry subjects to make up stories that explain ambiguous pictures. Is a bit more reliable, especially for assessing achievement motivation. Say what characters are doing and thinking, what led up to each event, and how the situation might end. Subject perceives elements of picture, apperceives (fills in) personal interpretations based on thoughts, feelings, and needs. Examiner interprets responses by looking for psychological themes.

Projective Tests: Criticisms

Critics argue that projective test lack both reliability (consistency of results) and validity (predicting what it is supposed to).

Even trained raters evaluating the same patient come up with different interpretations (reliability).

Projective tests may misdiagnose a normal individual as pathological (validity).

Psychic Determinism: Freud's assumption that all mental and behavioral responses are caused by unconscious traumas, desires, or conflicts. No coincidences. Mental symptoms such as fears/phobias = signs of unconscious difficulties that are to be uncovered and worked through. Freudian slips.

Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective: Contributions

Freud was right about the unconscious mind. Modern research shows the existence non-conscious information processing.

The discovery of unconscious processes. Much of mental life is unconscious

People can have conflicts arising from conflicting motives (conscious or unconscious) that push them in different directions simultaneously

Stable personality patterns do form in childhood.

Schemas that automatically control perceptions and interpretations.

Parallel processing during vision and thinking.

Implicit memories.

Emotions activate instantly without consciousness.

His emphasis on childhood influences on adult behavior

Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective: Criticisms

Unscientific: Psychoanalysis is not testable. Most of the concepts arise out of clinical practice which are after-the-fact explanations.

Freud's psychoanalytic theory rests on the idea that we repress painful experiences into the unconscious mind. But research today shows that the majority of children, death camp survivors, battle-scared veterans are unable to repress painful experiences into their unconscious mind.

Modern research shows that:

Personality develops throughout life and is not fixed in childhood.

Freud underemphasized peer influence on the individual; which may be as powerful as parental influence.

Gender identity may develop before 5-6 years of age.

Too general: Explains everything after the fact, but predicts nothing beforehand

Key portions are contrary to recent data: There is no evidence for penis envy, castration anxiety, or the latency period

Biased against females: Freud's negative attitudes towards women colored his entire theory; odd relationship with his own stepmother!

Relies on too many hypothetical constructs: such as the id, ego, & superego- that may not exist.

Former students of Freud who broke away from him (often acrimoniously) to create their own theories. But still retained his psychodynamic emphasis: that personality is an emerging process driven by motivational energy:

Neo – Freudians made several significant changes in the course of psychoanalysis:

Put greater emphasis on ego functions, including ego defenses, development of self, and conscious thought as the major components of the personality VS Freud's unconscious.

Gave social variables an important role in shaping personality

Extended personality development beyond childhood to include the lifespan.

Carl Jung: extending the unconscious, collective unconscious, archetypes

Was initially Freud's successor, but had personality conflict w/ Freud b/c Freud was too paternal. Jung thinks Freud overemphasizes sexuality at the expense of other unconscious needs and desires that Jung saw at the heart of personality (Spirituality is a fundamental human motive coequal to sexuality). Also disputed the nature of the unconscious mind.

Jung believed in the collective unconscious which contained a common reservoir of images derived from our species' past. That is why many cultures share certain myths and images such as the mother as a symbol of nurturance.

Personal unconscious = Portion of the unconscious corresponding to Freud's id

Collective unconscious = Jung's addition to the unconscious, involving a reservoir for instinctive "memories" including the archetypes, which exist in all people

Archetype = One of the ancient memory images in the collective unconscious. Archetypes appear and reappear in art, literature, and folktales around the world. Ie Gandalf, Merlin = archetype of magician/trickster. Other archetypes: Animus/anima = masculine/feminine sides of personalities. Shadow archetype at work when you feel jealous, hostile, or angry.

Introversion = The Jungian dimension that focuses on inner experience–one's own thoughts and feelings, making the introvert less outgoing and sociable than the extrovert

Extraversion = The Jungian personality dimension involving turning one's attention outward, toward others

Alfred Adler: superiority/inferiority complex

Believed in childhood tensions, however these tensions were social in nature and not sexual. A child struggles with the inferiority complex during growth and strives for superiority and power.

Karen Horney: basic anxiety creates neuroses

Karen Horney and Anna Freud, Freud's daughter, represents virtually only feminine voices within the early decades of the psychoanalytic movement.

Disputed idea of Oedipus complex and assertion that women suffer from penis envy.

Women want same rights as men, and personality differences between males and females result from learned social roles, not unconscious urges.

Personality is not determined mainly by early childhood experiences. Normal growth involves full development of social relationships and potential.

Basic anxiety: emotion that gives a sense of uncertainty and loneliness in a hostile world and can lead to maladjustment. Blocks normal growth/development

Neurotic needs: 10 Signs of neurosis

3 patterns of attitudes and behavior used to deal with basic anxiety:

Move towards others: Pathological need for constant reminders of love and approval. Need someone to help or take care of.

Move against others: Get power and respect by attacking others, only to risk being feared and being lonely.

Moving away from others: to protect themselves from imagined hurt/rejection. Close off from intimacy and support.

Work was largely neglected until book Feminine Psychology was published in 1967. Ideas still have a very weak scientific foundation.

The Humanistic Perspective (Maslow/Positive Psychology)

By 1960s psychologists had become discontented with Freud's negativity and the mechanistic psychology of the behaviorists. Failed to create a usable theory of the healthy personality.

Human psychologists are optimistic:

Personality is driven by positive needs to adapt, learn, grow, and thrive.

Retain idea that motivation is a central component of personality, but accentuate positive motives (Love, esteem, and self – actualization).

Mental disorders come from unhealthy situation, not individuals.

Humanistic Positive Theories: Emphasis on human potential and mental health

Abraham Maslow:

Humanistic view = psychology's 3rd force, vs psychoanalytic and behaviorist movements

Mental health is more than just the absence of mental illness

Searched for healthy personality in people who lived full and productive lives.

Self-actualizing personality: A healthy individual who has met his basic needs and is free to be creative and fulfill his potentialities. Spontaneous, but accepts their own limitations

Needs in a hierarchy: needs are arranged in a priority order from biological needs to needs for safety, love, esteem, and self – actualization.

Carl Rogers: Fully functioning person

Fully functioning person: Term for a healthy, self – actualizing person who has self – concept that is both positive and congruent with reality.

Negative experiences lead to incongruence, a threat to one's self – esteem.

The Phenomenal Field: One's psychological reality, composed of one's perceptions and feelings. Ie. Different reactions when A student and F student get C's

Conditional vs unconditional relationships: Parental love is conditional on good behavior kids with excessive anxiety and guilt which leads to low self – esteem and mental disorder.

Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective

Humanistic psychology had pervasive impact on counseling, education, child-rearing and management.

But, concepts in humanistic psychology are vague and subjective and lack a scientific basis.

They make you feel good/positive regardless of their scientific validity

Positive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology: Positive psychology like humanistic psychology attempts to foster human fulfillment. Positive psychology in addition seeks positive subjective well-being, positive character and positive social groups.

Optimism vs. Pessimism

An optimistic or pessimistic attributional style – is your way of explaining positive or negative events. Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Benefits of Self-Esteem

Maslow and Rogers argued that a successful life results from a healthy self-image (self-esteem). There are two reasons why low self-esteem results in personal problems.

When self-esteem is deflated, we views our self and others critically.

Low self esteem reflects reality – our failure in meeting challenges or surmounting difficulties.

People maintain their self-esteem even with a low status by valuing things they achieve and comparing themselves with people with the similar positions.

Social-Cognitive Perspective: Emphasis on Social Learning

Observational Learning and Personality: Bandura's Theory

Bandura (1986, 2001, 2005) believes that personality is the result of an interaction that takes place between a person and his social context.

We are driven not just by inner motivational forced or external reward/punishment, but by our expectations of how our actions might get us reward/pain.

Bandura's Theory: We learn vicariously from others = Social Learning/Observational learning

Observational learning: Form of cognitive learning in which new responses are acquired after watching other's behavior and consequences of their behavior. Others act as role models that we accept or reject.

Personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns, many of which we have borrowed by observational learning.

Personality is not just a collection of learned behavior. Involves understanding the continued interaction between behavior, cognition, and the environment = Reciprocal Determinism. They are interlocking determinants of each other.

Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Approach

Focus on rational information processing

Overlook the role of emotion and the unconscious

Solid psychological research provides evidence for this approach

Provides explanation and treatments for a number of mental disorders

Individuals & Environments:

Different people choose different environments.

Our personalities shape how we react to events.

Our personalities shape situations.

Behavior: Behavior emerges from an interplay of external and internal influences.

Locus of Control: Rotter's Theory

Julian Rotter: Our behavior depends on our sense of personal power or locus of control

Is both a trait theory and a "process" theory

Ie. If you always buckle your seatbelt = internal locus of control = you have control over fate

If you have a fatalistic feeling that you have no control over the events in your life, you won't buckle up because of an external locus of control.

Internal locus of control: good grades, exercise and watch diets

External locus of control: Depressed.

Is not a trait b/c internality/externality is NOT fixed and unchangeable.

Family systems theory: Perspective on personality and treatment that emphasizes the family rather than the individual as the basic unit of analysis.

Implicit Personality Theories: A person's set of unquestioned assumptions about personality, used to simplify the task of understanding others.

Tend to associate people you like with positive personality and people you dislike with negative personality.

Help us anticipate people's motives and behavior. Is similar to 5 factor theory. Impressions generally match, except argumentative behavior is a sign of emotional stability in men, but instability in women.

Other Blind Spots: Stereotypes about traits and physical characteristics.

May also get bad predictions depending on a person's mood: Angry/upset person think that other people feel the same way.

Mindset: The extent to which one believes abilities and talents are fixed by nature or can change and grow through practice that experience influences success that requires hard work and effort, and also one's reactions to failure.

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): The dual tendency to overemphasize internal, dispositional causes, and minimalize external, situational pressures, Is more common in individualistic Cultures.