A. Personality Theories and Approaches

X. Personality (6–8%)

A.  Personality Theories and Approaches

B.  Assessment Techniques

C.  Self-concept, Self-esteem

D.  Growth and Adjustment

Deals with:

How people handle frustration

Concept of personality

Tests to measure personality

Personality Theories

Psychodynamic

Freud

Trait Approach

Allport’s Trait Theory

Big 5 model of Personality

Biological Trait Theory

Social Cognitive Approach Theories

Humanistic Approach Theories

Assessing Personality

Objective Personality Tests (questionnaires)

Projective Personality Test

Personality + Employee Selection

Observation

Basics:

Each of us has a consistent behavior pattern that defines our

Own personality

Understanding personality we can predict how people will act.

Personality

·  is closely related to traits

·  Can be understood by mental conflicts

·  Is effected by learning

·  Is effected by social situations

·  Is effected by how people see themselves

Self Monitoring

Process of regulating behavior through controlling personal behavior we display

Shyness= public self-consciousness

Personality factors:

Who you are

How you think

How you think, behave, express feelings… all of this.”

Personality: “A person’s unique pattern of thinking, emotions, behavior.

Refers to consistency in who you are have been and will become.”

Blend of talent values hopes, loves hates, and habits…

Personality is not character-

Character is a term of evaluation

Friendly, outgoing, honest with moral values

Personality is not temperament

Temperament has hereditary aspects: sensitivity, irritability, distractibility, typical moods.

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Traits: Sociable, orderly, intelligent, shy sensitive, creative

Personality traits

Are stable qualities that a person show in most situations

Are inferred from behavior

Stable personality traits are manifested by age 30

Personality Types = people who have several traits in common

Categories- popular = athletic, motherly

Carl Jung- and Traits

Said people are introverts or extroverts

Introverts
Shy
Egocentric
Attention is focused inward / Extroverts
Bold outgoing
Attention directed outward

Self Concept:

Consists of all your ideas

Perceptions + feelings about who you are

Guides our behavior

Problems can arise with inadequate or inaccurate self concept

Self Esteem

Rises with success

Low self esteem- negative self evaluation

Insecure, lacking in confidence, self critical

High Self Esteem

Confident, proud, self respecting

Genuine Self Esteem is accurate appraisal of strengths + weaknesses

Arrogance is problematic

Personality Theories:

Are frameworks to understand personality

A theory is a system of concepts, assumptions, ideas, and principles proposed to explain personality.

5 Major Personality Theories:

·  Trait Theories:

Purpose is to learn what traits makeup personality + how they relate to actual behavior

·  Psycho dynamic Theories

Focuses on inner workings of personality especially internal conflicts & struggles

·  Behavioristic

Effect of conditioning + learning

Effects of external environment

·  Social Learning Theories

Attribute differences in personality to socialization expectations and mental processes

·  Humanistic

Focuses on private subjective experience and personal growth

Trait Theories:

Purpose is to learn what traits makeup personality + how they relate to actual behavior

Trait = stable + enduring qualities that a person shows in most situations.

To be considered a personality trait it must be typical of your behavior

Introverts and extroverts are traits knowledge

Allows us to predict behavior

Trait Theorists- attempt to analyze, classify, and interrelate traits…

4 traits identified by the Ancient Greeks
Introverted + Extroverted (emotionally stable and emotionally unstable)

Melancholic
Sad
Gloomy / Choleric
Hot-tempered
Irritable / Phlegmatic
Sluggish
Calm / Sanguine
Cheerful
Hopeful

Hans Eysenck 1960s trait theory

Allport
Gordon Allport (1961)
I defined different kinds of traits
Common traits = characteristics- shared by most members of a culture
Tell us similarities – in a culture
Individual traits = defines a person of unique qualities.
Cardinal Traits
Basic traits, easily visible or traceable to a person’s activities
Few people have cardinal traits
Central Traits ***
Basic building blocks of personality
Small # of traits (7) tell clear story of personality
Obvious to everyone
Used to control and organize behavior
Seen in many different situations
Relialble
Secondary Traits
Less consistent
Specific to situation
Control less behavior
Superficial aspects
o  Food preferences
o  Attitudes
o  Political opinion
o  Musical tastes / Raymond Cattell
Wanted to know how traits were interlinked
Found Surface Traits
Make up visible areas of personality
Found Source Traits
Source traits are surface traits that occur in clusters
àThat appear often
Seen as a basic traits
Used statistics
Called factor analysis to define source traits
With factor analysis psychologists correlate patterns associated with traits
Found 16 source traits
All are needed to fully describe a personality called “16 Personality Factor Questionnaire” (16PF)
Used to create a trait profile
The profile is a graph of a scores based on traits

The Big 5 = 5 Factor Model

Which is Cattell’s (16PF) reduced to 5 universal dimensions

1.  Extroversion

2.  Agreeableness

3.  Conscientiousness

4.  Neuroticism

5.  Openness to experience

Can predict how people will act in various circumstances

(Any trait you can name will be tied to one factor or another)

Also used to compare personalities

1. How Extroverted or Introverted

2. Agreeable = How friendly, nurturing, caring vs. cold, indifferent, self centered, spiteful

3. Conscientious = How self disciplined, responsible, and achieving

Vs. Irresponsible, careless, undependable

4. Neuroticism = How negative, upsetting emotions/ high N = anxious, emotionally “sour” irritable and unhappy.

5. Openness to Experience = how open to experience are you?

Traits and Situations

Which is more important, Personality Traits or External Circumstances?

·  Both are important

·  Situations influence behavior

·  Personality traits are consistent + can predict behavior

·  Traits interact with situations to determine how we act.

Situations influence the expression of personality as settings change.

Do We Inherit Personality?

Behavioral Genetics- study of inherited behavioral traits

In humans we rely on Twin Studies

Things influenced by heredity

·  Intelligence

·  Some mental disorders

·  Temperament and other qualities

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Learning Theories of Personality

Behavioralists reject trait theories

Say personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns.

Learning, reinforcement, imitation

People learnà kindness, hostility, generosity, destructiveness

Classical and operant conditioning

Observational Learning

Reinforcement

Extinction

Generalization

Discrimination

There are situational implications on behavior

Situational Determinants = external causes of actions

Situations interact with a person’s background (prior learning)

Trait theory says situations interact with traits vs. behaviorists say situations interact with prior learning.

Dollard and Miller Theory (Behavioralists)

Habits = learned behavior patterns = structure of personality

Habits are governed by 4 elements

1. Drive = stimulus strong enough to produce action

2. Cue = signals from environment

3. Response = action to get

4. Reward = positive reinforcement

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Social Learning Theory (Cognitive Behavioralism) (mental events used to explain personality)

Include perception, thinking, Expectations, and other mental events social relationships, modeling

Theories of Juilia Rotter

1. Psychological Situation- how a person interprets or defines a situation

These are really interpretations of an event/situation

These interpretations are key to how we respond

2. Expectancy- refers to your (thoughtful) anticipation that your response will lead to reinforcement

Expected reinforcement is à key

3. Reinforcement Value – we attach subjective value to various activities or rewards.

Self Efficacy (social learning theory) (Bandura argued)

Is the ability to control you own life “a capacity for producing a desired result.”

Efficacy beliefs (shape our behavior)

Self-Reinforcement (Social learning theory) (impact of High Self-Esteem)

Praising + rewarding yourself for having made a success

Adds to Behavioristic view

Habits of self praise or self blame important in personality

Self Reinforcement =greater happiness and life satisfaction

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Personality Development and Learning Theorists

What makes early learning experiences so lasting in their effects?

The core of personality is shaped in early stages

Social reinforcement- based on praise, attention, approval (impacts personality)

Miller and Dollard

Said 4 Critical Situations can have lasting impact on personality.

1. Feeding-
2. Toilet or cleanliness training
3. Sex Training
4. Learning to express Anger and Aggression

1. Feeding- children active à

Active or passive orientation of the world may be learned

Example of feeding

Active reinforcement—children fed when they cry (manipulate parents)

Passive reinforcement—children allowed to cry without being fed= passive

Could impact social relationships- could associate people with pleasure or discomfort

2. Toilet + Cleanliness Training could be source of emotion

Frustration can have undesirable effects

Needs patience

3. Sex + Anger

Permissiveness in sexual and aggressive behavior linked to adult needs for power

Gender Development=

Sex appropriate behavior is learned

Identification and Imitation are important to personality

Identification= a child’s emotional attachment to admired adults encourages imitation

Attention of any kind reinforces childrens behavior

Boys encouraged to be à aggressive, loud, boisterous

Girls- encouraged to be- submissive dependent, passive

Problem when parents are rejecting, punishing, sarcastic, humiliating, neglectful, their children, become hostile-

Hostile personality causes- unresponsive, unstable, dependent, impaired self-esteem

When parents are accepting and affectionate

Children developà sociable, positive, emotionally stable, high self esteem

Personality Research:

Focused on understanding origins causes of similarity and differences among people:

1. In their patterns of thinking

2. Emotions

3. Behavior

Personality Assessments in Hiring Tests-

Integrity Tests (screening)

·  Test impulsivity

·  Test disruptive behavior

·  Try to predict likelihood of undesirable characteristics

·  A scale – is the maladaptive behavior likely or not

·  Looking for clues to personality

Heredity appears to be responsible for about 25-50% of the variation in many personality traits.

Psychodynamic = Freudian (humans are driven by unconscious desires = impulse gratification…)

Freud-

·  Influential

·  Comprehensive

·  Influenced modern thinking, literature, sociology, anthropology-

·  Shaped psycho-therapy techniques

·  Some ideas supported by Cognitive research- example- defense mechanisms are present in research.

·  Evidence that people’s thoughts and actions are influenced by unrecalled events and experiences

Criticism:

·  Theories based on case studies (few individuals, conclusions may not apply to people in general, narrow sample, upper-class Viennese women, culture impacted ig sex)

·  Western European values reflected

·  Biases male and female interpretations

·  Poor research- leading questions (false memories (implanted)

·  Not scientific

View of Personality:

Each person’s personality is shaped by the number, nature and outcome of these conflicts. (Id, ego, superego)

Defense Mechanisms: deflect (avoid) anxiety or guilt in the short run, but they sap energy.

List some incidents in which you or someone you know might have used each of the defenses described.

How can you tell if these are unconscious defense mechanisms or actions motivated by conscious intentions?

Defenses Mechanisms-

Freud said ego’s primary function is to prevent the anxiety or guilt we would feel if we became aware of our socially unacceptable id impulses or if we thought about violating the superego’s rules.

Ego might use unconscious tactics that protect against anxiety and guilt by either preventing threatening material from surfacing or disguising it when it does.

1. Repression

Unconsciously pushing threatening memories, urges, or ideas from conscious awareness; A person may experience loss of memory, for unpleasant events.

1. Rationalization
2. Attempt to make actions or mistakes seem reasonable:
3. The reasons or excuses given (e.g. “I spank my children because it is good for them”) sound rational, but they are not the real reasons for the behavior.”)

1. Projection
2. Unconsciously attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts or impulses to another person:
3. Instead of recognizing that “I hate him,” a person my feel that “He hates me.”

1. Reaction Formation
2. Defending against unacceptable impulses by acting opposite to them:
3. Sexual interest in a married co-worker might appear as a strong dislike instead.

1. Sublimation
2. Converting unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable actions, and perhaps symbolically expressing them;
3. Sexual or aggressive desires may appear as artistic creativity or devotion to athletic excellence.

1. Displacement
2. Deflection an impulse from its original target to a less threatening one:
3. Anger at one’s boss may be expressed through hostility toward a clerk, a family member, or even a pet.

1. Denial
2. Simply discontinuing the existence of threatening impulses:
3. A person may vehemently deny ever having had even the slightest degree of physical attraction to a person of the same sex.
4. Compensation
5. Striving to make up for unconscious impulses or fears
6. A business executive’s extreme competiveness might be aimed at compensating for un-conscious feelings of inferiority.

Assessing Personality

Describing personality and diagnosing psychological disorders, predicting dangerousness, selecting employees… - psychologists use four main sources:

·  Life Outcomes- education, income, or marital status

·  Situational Tests- laboratory measurements of behavioral, emotional, and physiological reactions to conflict, frustration…

·  Observer Ratings- judgments about a person made by family or friends

·  Self Reports- responses to interviews and personality (interviews)

Open-ended- questions are tailored to intellectual level, emotional state,

Structured- interviewer asks fixed questions about specific topics, in order

Tests must be

Reliable (Reliability) how stable/consistent the results are and

Valid (Validity) the degree to which test scores are interpreted appropriately and used properly in making inferences about people

Tests are either Objective or Projective

Objective tests- clearly worded items relating to the individual being assessed;

Self report tests

Scores compared with group norms

Scores indicate conclusions about personality

Compared to others = average score of others = norms

Examples- traits, or a set of related traits,

NEO-PI-R Neuroticism Openness Personality Inventory (revised)

Measures Big 5 Personality Traits

Can be either (private) self responses or ratings by (public) another person

(Marriage counseling for spouses with drastic differences)

Very Reliable

Can be used in prediction of future behavior

Example likelihood of criminal behavior

MMPI Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

·  Diagnose psych disorders

·  MMPI-2

·  Clinical scales

·  Respondents scores are compared to others who have been previously diagnosed