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Personality

by ME

on green fantasy (2024)

What is personality?
An enduring inner core that embodies our distinct pattern of thoughts, feelings, motives, values and behaviors.

Persona - translates as mask. It's the mask that we put up. It's put on. Major approaches to studying personality


The psychoanalytic approach - Sigmund Freud, of course we're aware of our thoughts. But so much are dominated by forces outside of our awareness. Who we are is a function of dynamics that lie on an unconscious level.
The humanistic approach - there's more to life than unconscious forces. Than how the environment controls us. We are capable of moving towards our potentials.
The social-cognitive approach - our thoughts occur in ways that our outside of our conscious control. At times, the environment has control. Unlike rats and monkeys, humans are cognitive. We think about life. If we change our thoughts, then we can change our behavior. There is power in cognition, we have control.
The train approach - 5 personality dimensions. Neuroticism, extroversion, agreeable-ness, openness, conscientiousness.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SIGMUND FREUD

Freud's early years - 1956. As a young boy, he was smart. In his own words he had a greed for knowledge. Graduated with Medical Degree. Neurologist.
Studies with Jean Charcot - Traveled to Paris. Charcot was an important figure in European Medicine.

Etiology and treatment of hysteria - defined as the experience of psysical symptoms without an organic basis. Conversion paralysis - can't move leg. There's nothing wrong with you. Conversion blindness - i can't see anything. Conversion deafness. Conversation hallucinations - things that occurred 365 days ago. Etiology - the source, cause.
People who suffer from hysteria often have some sort of traumatic experience that can be traced back to childhood. Often at hands of family. Charcot was the first to discoversion that – even though conversion had impact - he can find a cure.
All he had to do was places a patient in hypnosis. Would make suggestions.
Studies with Josef Breuer

Anna O's talking cure - young woman who suffered from hysteria. Paralysis of limbs. Impaired vision, speech. Nervous cough, hallucinations. Treatment was terminated, believed she was pregnant. The talking cure - brewers would go to her house. During that hour, she would communicate hallucinations.
Freud's private practice

Development of free association and psychoanalysis. Freud did not have success with hypnosis. For Freud 1) Not everyone can be hypnotized. 2) Relief is temporary.
Free association - say whatever comes to mind. You would encourage the patient to say what comes to mind. The patient would begin a chain of association. The patient would mumble or abrupt change. Anytime patent hesitated, therapist went into those associations. Eventually get to source of trauma.
Psychoanalysis - an approach to personality.
FREUD'S TOPOGRAPHIC MODEL

Location of mental phenomena in one's mind. Personality is largely shaped by unconscious forces. People are not aware of these forces.

The conscious - material that is on your mind right now.

Preconscious - material not on your mind, but easily brought to mind

The unconscious - repressed sexual and agressive urges.

FREUD'S STRUCTURAL MODEL

Personality and conflict Personality arises out of the conflict of impulses and restraint. We have drives that push for expression. Although, we live in societies. Those societies have rules. Forms though our effort to resolve our conflict.
The ID (the it) The largest portion of cognition exists outside of our awareness. An iceberg. The ID - the large part of the iceberg.

A reposity for our repressions - all of the psychological material that we are foreign to is pushed into the ID.
Pleasure principle - the ID is a pleasure seeking entity. The ID is immoral. Egocentric. Give expression to sexual and aggressive drives at all times.
The Ego (The i) How we think about ourselves.
our self-concept - material that is apart of the ego is not contradictory to our self-concept. how we think about ourselves, all of that is a part of the ego.
Reality principle - to delay gratification of drives. We can't satisfy our drives.
The super ego (the over-I)
Represents internalized cultural norms and values - socialization is important. First 6 years of life. Through socialization, we adopt different values, norms. Parents and society.
Critical functions - To warn the ego against acting on the pleasure principle. ID is a pleasure seeking organ.
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

A stage of personality development - first 6 years of life in the resolution of sexual conflicts. All children regardless of their gender progress through a sequence of stages. Each stage is marked by libito.
the oral stage From birth until 18 months. Everything is in the mouth. The location of sexual energy is located on the mouth. With this focus, the breast is the primary source of satisfaction. For freud, all of this is motivated sexually. This is a conflict. The breast is the primary object of sexual gratification. Parents are the primary way to resolve this.
The anal stage 18 to 36 months. Focused on the anus of course. Defecation is the focus. Of course, the one behavior parents have no control. We have a conflict. This is the preferred experience. Parents are responsible for taking this away.
The phallic stage The genital stage. 3 years to 6 years. Focused on the genitals. 2 conflicts. 1 for boys. 1 for girls. The edible complex (boys) - I'm a boy. The electra complex (girls).
Fixations in personality With too much or too little. We may develop fixations.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS

The function of defense mechanisms - to minimize the anxiety that the ego would otherwise experience in relations to our morals and the external world.
repression - pushed out of the awareness by the ego and then forgotten. Our behavior is motivated by non-conscious link between libito and the object in the world that satisfies the libito. Cathexis
Denial - the ego shuts itself down when it encounters threatening material. False memories.
Reaction formation - converting unacceptable feelings into their opposites.
Projection - projecting our unwanted urges onto others. Taking our unwanted drives, and placing them on others. We see in others what we can't accept in ourselves.
Displacement - diverting sexual and agressive drives onto easier targets.
Rationalization - making excuses for one's failures. I can explain the aspects of myself that I don't like.
Sublimation - channeling repressed urges into socially acceptable outlets.
NEO-FREUDIAN THEORISTS

Alfred Adler - rather than sex-centric, our development is motivated by social conflicts. how our personality forms, is largely a function of how we govern social conflicts.
Erich Fromm - a basic drive of humans is to escape from freedom. Freedom is an existential concern. We hate freedom. I can make choices, and i'm responsible. Freedom is terrifying. We fall in love, we give ourselves over, we have children. All of these acts are ways of giving our freedom to others. We join religions, political parties.
Karen Horney - humans have a basic need for love and security. It's not the sexual drive, but to connect interpersonally.
Carl Jung - we have a collective unconscious. In each one of us, our universal symbols are apart of of our ancestral past, that unite each one of us.
THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH

The third force in psychology - by the 1960s, some psychologists had grown discontent with the landscape. Freud's theory focused only on dark forces buried deep in the unconscious. All of our behavior is motivated by dark outside forces. Skinner's theory focused only on the effect of reinforcement on behavior.
The association for humanistic psychology
Four principles

The experiencing person is of primary interest. We don't care about unconscious forces. We take more interest in your experience. What are you thoughts feelings and behaviors now.
Human choice, creativity, self-actualization are the preferred topics of empirical inquiry.
Meaningfulness must precede objectivity. What are the issues that are meaningful.
Ultimate value is places on the dignity of the person.
Carl Rogers

Believed humans are inherently good. Are endowed with a tendency towards self-actualization. It's in our makeup that we move toward self-actualization. Realization of our full human potential.
We care about other's approval. To be positively regarded by others. Although we have a basic need for positive regard, that's not always given with strings attached.
Contingent / conditional love. Our friends / parents love is conditional on being a certain way. We often change our thoughts and feelings in order to maintain the view of ourself as lovable.
We often distort our experience and swallow the experience of others. This distortion is at the basis.
Therapist must be true to who they are. In touch with their feelings and communicate those aspects to the client.
It is critical for the therapist to understand the experience of the client.
Unconditional positive regard - you as a client are loved, cherished, prized just for being you. All thought are acceptable.
Maslow

How people tried to fulfill their potential. How do people move toward realization of their potential. Self-actualization is the goal of personality development. People strive to achieve and to realize their potential fully.

Self-actualization is associated with playfulness and spontaneity.
Associated with loving and accepting others.
Associated with creativity, energy.
Associated with independence in thought, feeling, behavior. Rather than conformity.
THE TRAIT APPROACH

Emergence of the trait approach At the time of the trait approach's emergence. In this landscape psychologists began to recognize the importance in differences in personality. The importance of stable, meaningful differences.
Gordon Allport
What are traits?
Characteristic patterns of behavior and conscious motivates. More interested in describing personality. The goal of the trait approach is to describe individual traits.
Trait theories have used a lot of methods
Myers-Brigges Type Indicator - and early attempt to sort people into different personality types. Based off of the world of Carl Young. The MBTI classifies individuals into 2 attitudes and 4 functions.
Introversion is not shyness. Extroversion is not outgoingness. Introversion - psychological energies point inward. Deep interest in self. Extroversion involves directing psychological energy outwards.
Thinking feeling sensing intuitive
Factor analyze Use to identify clusters of traits. Hang together statistically. These clusters describe a person's personality.
Two primary dimensions.
Introversion versus extroversion.
Emotional stability versus emotional instability Some psychologists have examined biological influences on personality.
Assessing traits

Personality inventories - longer questionnaires used to test a variety of traits.
MMPI - Minnestoa Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Abnormal personality traits.
Big 5 Approach - theory of personality. Paul Costa and Robert Mc
Cray. Argued that there are 5 basic dimensions of personality.
Neuroticism - high on emotional instability. Emotions go up and down.
Extroversion - people who are high, are social outgoing, the life of the party. Like to be around others.
Openness - are creative, imaginative, revolutionaries.
Agreeableness - help others. like others.
Conscientiousness - organization and self-discipline.
THE SOCIAL COGNITIVE APPROACH

Biopsychosocial approach - when we look to explain people's thoughts, feelings, behaviors. It is the interaction of our biological with our psychology, the environment around us that gives rise to our experience. Not enough to explain behavior with only a single field. An interaction between these.
Albert Bandura - triadic reciprocal determinism - earlier theorist were wrong that only our environment controls our behavior. Theres a reciprocal arrow between the person, behavior, interaction, internal experiences. In interacting with the environment, our behavior is impacted. The social part argues that we learn many behaviors in 1) conditioning 2) observation of others
PERSONAL CONTROL

Julian rotter - proposed the construct of locus of control. Desrcibes whether we see ourselves as in control of our behavior or if we see our behavior as controlled by the environment.
Internal locus of control - see their behavior as leading to desired outcomes. If I behave in a certain way, then i'm likely to receive reinforcement. My behavior can lead to desired outcomes. People who have this, perceive themselves as in control of their destiny. Tend to be motivated. If my behavior can lead to desired outcomes.
External locus of control - do not see their behavior as leading to desired outcomes. Rather than being in control, people perceive forces outside of themselves as in control of their destiny. Fate. Chance. Whim. If you believe that what you do does not lead to desired outcomes, you won't be motivated. Why bother?
Internal - tend to be happier. Tend to act more independently. Tend to enjoy better physical and psychological health.
External - depressed and anxious. Why bother, then i'll feel really anxious because i don't know if what i really do is going to matter at all.
LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

Seligman and Maier - 3 groups of dogs.
Helplessness arises at any in which outcomes are not correlated with behaviors. Mice in a tank of water. We become passive, learned helplessness.
PROMOTIING PERCEIVED CONTROL

what can we do to promote motivation

Schultz study - 2 groups of residents, nursing home. All of the old folks, research assistants would make visits. Group 1, assistants determined day and a time. The elderly had no input to make. In group 2, the elderly worked with the research assistant. Real input. 6 months.
Psychological and physical outcomes - with control, those participants felt more alive, energetic during the experiments. Their physical health improved.
A year in a half later, those who had control had worse health.
By giving control and then taking it away, you highlight how little control they have in their life.
Rudin's study
2 groups. 1) the participants could choose what activities they could engage in 2) the elderly were given things - but general idea was, we the staff will take care of it for you. we know the best way to arrange your room. Movie at certain time.
At the end of the study, those who were given choice benefitted psychologically. 1 year later - those who were given choice - all of the positive benefits were maintained and amplified. Opportunities for choice, were internalized. They were applied to multiple areas of the participants life.
LEARNED OPTIMISM

Optimism - pessimism - represents one measure on how effective vs. helpless a person feels. It's not only the case that we can have a pessimistic personality, situations, it's also the case that the way we think about experiences in out life can make us feeling more or less well.
Pessemistic attributional style How do we explain what happens when bad things happen to us. How do we explain the cause of the bad things that happen to us. We have different ways of explains what caused us to fail a test.
Internal vs. external - 1) I am the cause of doing poorly on this test. 2) Can also explain with an external style. It wasn't me, but something outside of me. When people explain negative life events with an internal attribution style, they're more likely to experience depression.
Stable vs. unstable - 1) I am a poor student all the time. I may have gotten lucky, but i'm pretty poor as a student. 2) Yes, I did poorly. But it really reflects a bump in the road. I'm not a poor student, i'm actually quite good. A stable attributional style promotes depression when used to explain negative life events.
Global vs. specific - 1) We may tell ourselves, not only am I poor student, but i'm terrible in all life domains. 2) I did poorly but... I have a lot of other redeeming qualities. Global - we are more prone to depression. the idea that an internal, stable, global attribution style contributes to depression following traumatic life events.
Learned optimism - the idea that people will live a better life overall when they believe that they are in control of important outcomes. Indeed, there is a strong correlation between optimism and physical health. More optimistic have healthier immunes systems. Optimists live longer than people who are pessimistic.
Excessive optimism - can blind people to life's risks. Most college students perceive themselves to be less likely to drop out, develop drinking problem than actually the case. Most late adolescents perceive themselves to be less vulnerable to contracting HIV.