Henry Murray, a personality psychologist has said:

“All of us are in some ways like ALL other people,

In some ways like SOME other people,

And in some ways like No other people”.

 

We have commonalities, but each of us is also, unique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

　

 

 

 

Believe that early experiences with parents play an important role in sculpting the individual’s personality.

 

Believe that in order to understand personality, we have to explore the symbolic meaning of behavior and the deep inner workings of the mind.

 

 

Sigmund Freud was born in Austria in 1856 and died in London at the age of 83.

 

He was a medical doctor who specialized in neurology and he developed his ideas about personality from work with his psychiatric patients.

 

Freud is considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of the 20 century, and is the only psychologist/psychiatrist whose name has become a common part of everyday language.

For ex….Freudian slips….common misstatements that Freud believed reveal unconscious thoughts……see page 409 in text.

 

Most people assume that Freud thought everything was about sex, but his definition of sex was much broader than you would think

By sex, he meant anything pleasurable.

 

He claimed that we are motivated by two major drives: eros…and thanatos

Eros - pleasure/sex…the life drive.. Thanatos - self-destruction…the death drive

　

Freud developed psychoanalysis - a form of therapy, out of his work with female patients who were diagnosed with “hysteria”

 

 

The diagnosis of hysteria is no longer is use. Primarily, because the causes of their symptoms have now been identified. For ex. Several of his patients would now have been diagnosed with epilepsy.

 

In fact, Freud did believe that all of his patients had some underlying physical problem that was not understood, but that the other part of the problem was what he termed “ conversion disorder” - where anxiety was ‘converted’ into physical symptoms’.

 

Conversion disorder continues to be the term in use today, and remains a controversial diagnosi

　

Freud developed his model of the human personality out of his work with his patients.

 

 

Freud believed that the personality has 3 structures - id, ego, and superego

 

 

 

 

 

Ego defense mechanisms - a function of the ego  page 410 figure 11.2

 

Defense mechanisms are used to handle the conflicts that arise between the id - ego - and superego…….by unconsiously distorting reality, in order to reduce the anxiety of the real situation

 

 

Important points:

1. Defense mechanisms are unconscious

2. Are not unhealthy when used in moderation…..adaptive

Ex. Denial re death …..anxiety post 9/11 had to restore defense mech of denial

 

 

Freud believed that our adult personality is determined by the way we resolve conflicts that occur during the psychosexual stages when we experience pleasure from different erogenous zones.

 

 

 

 

Freud held that girls experienced penis envy at this stage which led to their wanting to eventually marry and have a son. Because women did not have castration anxiety, Freud believed that they never truly developed a superego to the extent that men did, and were, therefore, morally inferior, which explained why they were second-class citizens.

 

He felt that women remained childlike and needed the guidance of their fathers and husbands. He believed that the only way for women to complete their moral development was through education….which he supported and allowed women to study with him, and as a result, many of his earliest followers were women.

 

Latency period - not a developmental stage, but a time-out. After the drama of the phallic stage, the child represses all interest in sexuality.

 

 

Freud argued that the individual can become fixated at any of the stages of development if the child is overindulged or overly punished at a stage.

 

 

 

Critics have stressed the following points:

 

1. Sexuality is not such a pervasive force behind personality development

 

2. Early experience - is not the only influence on adult personality - later experience counts too.

 

3. Social factors - Freud emphasized biological factors in development; more contemporary psychodynamic approach emphasizes interpersonal relationships within the family and outside of the family - also, role of Freud’s culture and time period in his theories

 

4. Contemporary psychodynamic approach sees the ego and conscious thought as playing more of a role in our personality than Freud did who emphasized the role of the id

 

 

 

Challenged ‘penis envy’ - that women might envy the penis not for biological reasons, but because of the status that society bestows on those who have them

 

She felt that both sexes envied the attributes of the other….women envied the status of men, and men envied the reproductive capacities of women.

 

Horney also felt that the need for security..not sex… is the primary motivation

 

Jung felt that the unconscious mind was even more important in personality than Freud proposed.

 

Jung introduced the concept of the “collective unconscious” - which is the deepest layer of the unconscious mind, a shared common experience from our past ancestors

 

The collective unconscious is expressed through archetypes - ideas and images that have symbolic meaning for all people.

 

 Personal unconscious and a collective unconscious which is inherited.

 

Archetypes are seen across cultures and appear in art, literature, religion and dreams.

Ex. Of archetypes

1. Animus - part of the unconscious in women - our unconscious male attributes

2. Anima - in men, the unconscious female attributes

3. Mandala - symbolizes the self - in mythology and in different cultures p.413

4. Persona - the public mask that we wear in social interactions

 

 

 

People motivated by perfection, not pleasure

 

Striving for superiority…stems from our feelings of inferiority as children

 

　

 

 

2. Humanistic Perspectives on Personality

 

 

Developed in response to the pessimistic view of the psychodynamic perspective

Also developed in contrast to behaviorism which reduced people to stimulus and response only.

 

 

 

We become alienated from our ideal self by trying to meet the conditions of worth established by other people

 

Self-concept - an individual’s overall perceptions and assessments of his/her abilities, behavior, and personality.

 

An inaccurate self-concept = maladjusted

 

Real self - the self resulting from our experiences

 

Ideal self - the self we would like to be

 

Incongruent - when the real self and ideal self do not match up = maladjustment

 

Congruence = good adjustment

 

 

1. Unconditional positive regard - accepting, valuing, and being positive toward another, regardless of the person’s behavior…..but makes a distinction between the person and the behavior….I accept you…it’s your behavior I don’t like

 

2. Empathy - being a sensitive listener and understanding another’s feelings

 

3. Genuineness - being open with our feelings and dropping our pretenses and facades

 

 

- the way that we perceive ourselves and the world around us is important to personality

 

- emphasize the positives in human nature

 

- emphasize conscious experience

 

Criticisms:

- too optimistic and overestimate the rationality of humans

- encourages narcissism by encouraging people to think so positively about themselves

- humanistic ideas are difficult to research

 

 

 

The trait perspectives have been the dominant approach to understanding personality for the past 20 years.**

 

According to this approach, people can be described in terms of the basic ways they behave

 

 

 

To understand healthy people we must focus on the present not on their childhood experiences

 

Stressed the uniqueness of individuals and their capacity to adapt

 

Felt that traits should be consistent across situations

 

Used the lexical approach - if a trait is important, then it should be represented in the language - pulled out all the words in the dictionary that could be used to describe people - came up with 4,500 traits

　

 

 

 

 

Five factors of personality that are thought to describe the main dimensions of personality

 

1. O - Openness to experience -  imaginative vs. practical

                                                   Likes variety vs. routine

                                                    Independent vs. conforming

 

2. C - Conscientiousness -  organized vs. disorganized

                                          Careful vs. careless

                                          Disciplined vs. impulsive

 

3. E - Extraversion  -  Sociable vs. retiring

                                  Fun-loving vs. somber

                                  Affectionate vs. reserved

 

4. A - Agreeableness  -  Softhearted vs. ruthless

                                     Trusting vs. suspicious

                                     Helpful vs. cooperative

 

5. N - Neuroticism     - Calm vs. anxious

(Emotional Stability)     Secure vs. insecure

                                    Self-satisfied vs. self-pitying

 

See page 419...figure 11.5

 

These 5 factors are considered to be independent of one another.

 

 

Evaluating the Trait Perspectives

 

Criticisms - minimizes the importance of ‘the situation’ with personality and behavior

 

‘psychology of the stranger” - tells us a lot about someone we’ve never met, but doesn’t add much information to someone that we already know….the uniqueness

　

　

 

 

 

“the history of the organism is the organism - in order to understand a person we have to understand that person’s history…all aspects of their life

 

In the 1930’s, Murray was director of the Psychological Clinic at Harvard - He gathered specialists from many fields who would analyze people from many different perspectives in order to understand the person

 

In WWI he was asked by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) - the precursor to the CIA, to develop a psychological profile of Hitler. His report accurately predicted that Hitler would commit suicide rather than be taken alive.

 

Murray’s report served as a model for modern criminal profiling**

 

Murray believed that our motives are largely unconcsious to us. As a result he developed the T A T = Thematic Apperception Test through which people reveal their unconscious motives through the stories that they tell in response to the picture

 cards.

 

P. 432 fig 11.9

 

This is called a projective test - individual projects their unconscious motivations onto the story line

 

 

 

 

Murray said that the history of the organism is the organism

McAdam suggested that our life stories are our identities.

 

Psychobiography - a method where a personality psychologist attempts to apply a personality theory to one person’s life….like a case conceptulatization

 

Freud wrote the first psychobiography….on Michelangelo…not a successful interpretation and has become the roadmap for what not to do in a psychobiography

 

 

Life story studies are difficult and time-consuming

 

It’s considered to be “the long way” to study personality

 

Psychobiographies are also very open to the bias of the biographer

 

Life stories often lack “generalizability” which is one of the major scientific goals

 

 

Social cognitive psychologists explore the person’s ability to reason…to think about the past, present, and future…and to reflect on the self

 

Emphasize the uniqueness of each person

 

Not interested in broad traits, but investigate how beliefs relate to behavior and performance

 

 

Felt that B. F. Skinner and the behaviorists were too simplistic…they felt that internal states were irrelevant…

 

 

 

Bungee jump (behavior)…and become more of a risk-taker (personality)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research has shown that individuals who score high on measures of self-efficacy are more successful at initiating and maintaining a diet and exercise program and at quitting smoking….have better job performance…and seeking counseling to help with their problems

 

 

 

Gordon Allport had claimed that personality was made up of traits that were consistent across situations…if you’re extraverted in one place, you will be across situations

This is known as cross-situational consistency.

 

Mischel argued with this, and proposed a view called situationism - the idead that personality and behavior often vary from one context to another.

 

 

CAPS is a ‘botton-up’ approach to personality..I.e. it is concerned with how personality works, and not what personality is

 

The CAPS approach looks at how people behave in different situations and how they interpret different situations. Ex. Just because someone is an introvert in one situation..like a party…doesn’t mean they will be in another situation….hanging out with friends.

 

 

Contributions - highlight oberving behavior…not just self-report

 

Emphasizes cognitive processes in personality and our ability to control or change our behaviors in different situations

 

Criticisms - overemphasizes situational differences and downplays the enduring characteristics of personality

 

Ignores role of biology in personality

 

Problems with generalizability…because of individual differences in different situations

 

 

There are many tests that have been developed to assess personality.

 

Personality assessments are used for evaluations in counseling settings. They are also used in career counseling and in job selection.

 

This is the most commonly used method of measuring personality characteristics.

A self-report test is also called an objective test or inventory

 

The questions directly ask people whether specific items describe their personality traits.

 

NEO-PI-R - a self-report test for measuring the five-factor model - neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness

 

 

The NEO-PI-R…is constructed with strong face validity.

 

Weakness of self-report tests like the NEO - social desirability - subjects answer the way that makes them look better…ex. I am lazy at times…….some people will minimize this

 

To identify if this is a factor in the subject’s response, subjects are sometimes given a social desirability scale to complete that contains questions like “I like to gossip at times”..and if they score high on this scale then they know the person has probably not answered the test truthfully.

 

Another way to get around social desirability issues is to use an empirically keyed test.

 

These tests are constructed by administering them to large groups that are knowingly different from each other. For ex…..people with psychological disorders vs. people without psychological disorders.

 

Then through statistical analysis, questions are selected that are best at differentiating between the groups.

 These questions are often low in face validity…it’s not obvious what trait they’re measuring…

 

 

Is the most widely used self-report personality test** used world-wide

 

First constructed in 1940’s

 

It is empirically keyed.

 

550 items …T F and provides information on a variety of personality characteristics

 

It is used by clinical psychologists to assess a person’s mental health and also used in career screening such as police work

 

Many experience the test as vague and difficult because of the low face validity.

 

 

The test is especially designed to elicit the individual’s unconscious feelings and conflicts, providing an assessment that goes deeper than the surface personality that the person presents.

 

Projective tests are based upon psychodynamic perspectives which give more weight to the unconscious.

 

 

10 cards - 5 in b&w…5 in color

 

The person is asked to describe what s/he sees in each picture and the responses are scored in detail.

 

Scores can then indicate certain psychological characteristics.

 

Reliability and validity have been questioned.

 

Exner scoring system developed.

 

Still used in clinical settings, but not commonly used in research.

 

 

A series of pictures and subjects are asked to tell a story about each picture,

Including events leading up to the situation, the characters’ thoughts and feelings,

And the way the situation turns out.

 

The TAT is still used in clinical practice and there is a children’s version with different pictures.

 

The TAT is still commonly used in research into needs such as achievement, affiliation, power, and intimacy.

 

 Also used in research on unconscious defense mechanisms and cognitive styles.

 

 

7. Personality and Health and Wellness

 

Of the Big 5 factors of personality….Conscientiousness…may be the most important trait when it comes to health…..they seem to be better at sticking with a plan of healthy behavior and tend to live longer

　

　

 

 

 

Type A - had twice as many heart attacks and significantly more heart disease

 

Excessively competitive

 

Hard - driven

 

Impatient

 

Hostile

 

Type B - relaxed

Easy - going

 

Further research has fine-tuned this to “hot reactors” - people who have intense physiological reactions to stress - hearts race, breathing quickens, and muscles tense

 

Hot reactors have more hostility - either turned outward or held inward

 

Hostility is a better predictor of heart disease in older men than smoking, drinking, high caloric intake, or high levels of cholesterol.

 

A hostile personality may also affect the course of diseases such as AIDS. A study showed that hostile individuals with AIDS who experienced a distressing event had more weakening of the immune system than less hostile counterparts.

 

 

 

Numerous research studies show that optimists generally function more effectively and are physically and mentally healthier than pessimists.

 

Hardiness - a trait characterized by a sense of commitment (rather than alienation) and control (rather than powerlessness) and seeing problems as challenges (rather than threats)…..research shows this as a factor in healthy outcomes, as well.

 

　

　

　

　

 

 

 

 

 

A study was done in 2005 on political candidates over 3 elections who were running for the House of Representatives and the Senate.

 

People were asked to rate the competence of individuals based upon their pictures.

 

 Ratings matched the outcomes in 70% of the cases.

 

 

Attractive people are assumed to have other positive characterisitics.

 

This is known as the “beautiful is good” stereotype.

 

One study showed that babies as young as 3 - 6 mos preferred to look at pictures of attractive people more than unattractive…..the pictures had been previously categorized by adults.

 

 

If we go back to our earlier discussions on thinking and cognitive processing, we discussed how we rely on concepts as a way to classify information into groups and categories.

 

When we categorize people, we tend to do so based upon stereotypes. So stereotypes are the down side of your cognitive processes.

　　

　

 

Dimensions of Causality -

 

We make attributions based on the following 3 dimensions:

 

1. Internal or external causes

Internal attributions - traits or abilities

External attributions - social situation, money, weather, luck

Why did someone get an A?

Internal attribution - she’s smart

External attribution - the test was easy

 

2. Stable or unstable causes

Stable attribution - the cause is relatively enduring or permanent

Unstable attribution - the cause is temporary

Why did he yell at that guy?

Stable attribution - he’s a hostile person

Unstable attribution - he’s in a bad mood

 

3. Controllable or Uncontrollable causes

Controllable attribution - we are in control of events

Uncontrollable attribution - we are not in control of events

I wonder why she didn’t show up?

Controllable - she didn’t want to go

Uncontrollable - she was sick

　

 

The actor - the person who produces the behavior

 

The observer - the onlooker or the person affected by the behavior

 

We tend to disregard the situation ( external) and attribute the behavior to a personality trait (internal).

 

Research - college students.

A female student was instructed to talk one on one with other students as part of the study. She was told to either be warm and friendly or critical and unfriendly.

　

Half of the students were told that she had been instructed on how to act. It didn’t matter. Even when told that she was acting, students attributed her behavior to her personality, not to the situation, and judged that she was an unfriendly person.

 

P. 447 in the book…figure 12.1

 

Actor late with assignment gives external cause

Observer attributes internal cause

　

 

We tend to take credit for our successes and to deny responsibility for our failures.

 

If we do well, we take responsibility for it…if not, we come up with an excuse

 

Ex. You receive an Oscar - I was great…I deserved it….internal attribution

 

You don’t receive an Oscar - she’s old - it’s probably her last chance - external

 

 

Women in particular tend to view themselves and their bodies as objects in the social world.

 

In a series of studies about self-objectification, men and women were asked to try on clothes either a sweater or a swimsuit…and then to complete a math test.

 

When women tried on swimsuits prior to the math test, they did significantly poorer on the test than the other groups. It was concluded that trying on the swimsuits heightened their sense of self-objectification (negative emotion) which interfered with their performance.

　

Another phenomenon that interferes with performance is Sterotype Threat.

 

 

In situtations where the stereotype might be relevant, the individual experiences anxiety about performing in line with the negative stereotype and reinforcing it, and consequently underperforms from the anxiety.

　

Stereotype threat has also been shown the affect the performance of women on math tests.

 

Asian women have been found to perform better on a math test if asked first for their ethnicity…but will perform more poorly if asked first about their gender.

　

 

Festinger, 1954, proposed the social comparison theory - that when we don’t have any objective means for evaluating our performance, we compare ourselves to others…and we tend to compare ourselves to others who are like us….keeping up with the Joneses.

 

Now research tends to focus on how we compare ourselves to others who are not like us. This is called downward social comparison. - comparing ourselves to those that we consider inferior to us…and this is used as a way to improve our mental well-being - “well, at least I’m not as bad off as they are!”

　

 

Research in the area of conformity and obedience started in earnest after WWII.

 

 Psychologists wanted to know how ordinary people could be influenced to commit the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust.

 This is also important when we look at the affects of group behavior in our current times.

 

 

Not all negative - in a positive sense we expect conformity to rules and regulations so that society will function smoothly.

 

A classic experiment in psychology is Solomon Asch’s Conformity Experiement on group influence conducted in 1951.

 

The following video reenacts the experiment on group influence.

 

Note that in the group only one subject is a true subject. The others are confederateswho have been given a role to play in the experiment.

 

e-book - Conformity - video*****

　

　

Two main reasons that people conform:

 

1. Going along to be right - we come to agree with the group if we perceive the group to be well-informed and if we’re not highly confident on our independent judgment - the group ultimately persuades us

 

2. Going along to be liked

　

 

Another classic experiment in psychology…the Milgram experiment - by Stanley Milgram…1965 and 1974.

 

In this experiment, subjects, thought they were participating in a study on the effects of punishment on learning.

 

The subject was in the role of “teacher” and the “learner” was in a separate room.

 

 The teacher was told to administer a shock each time the learner made a mistake.