Introduction to Theories of Personality

Personality is…

• Relatively stable

• Persona

  • an archetype usually used in the arts

  • your public personality

  • Ex. hero archetype = Superman; villain archetype = Joker

  • “Mask”

• Identity

  • The capacity to be aware of ourselves as separate entity

  • from Erich Fromm; humanistic psychoanalysis

• Traits

  • basic units of personality (Gordon Allport)

  • Trait researchers attempt to define personality in terms of stable and enduring behavior patterns

• Big 5 (OCEAN)

  • openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

• Portrayal of self

  • Center of psyche

  • Represents our striving for unity of opposing forces

  • Considered congruent with potentialities

Innate Factors that Influence Personality

• Genetics

  • Although we do inherit our genes, we do not inherit personality in any fixed sense

• Temperament

  • they can be influenced by an individual's family, culture or their experiences

• Biological make up

  • biological factors include genetic, hereditary factors, physical appearance and physique and rate of maturation

• Nature

  • nature vs nurture

  • One's personality is shaped by a combination of nature (genetic) and nurture (environmental) influences

External Factors Influencing Personality

• Experiences (childhood), relationship, culture, religion, race, environment, nationality

Type vs Trait

• Type:

  • Categorizing

  • Dominant

  • Preferences

  • Can change over time

• Trait:

  • Might lessen/grow but will not change

  • More enduring

  • More consistent

Ideographic vs Nomothetic

• Idiographic

  • individual/unique characteristics

  • Center core of the person

  • “idios”: Greek word meaning own or private

• Nomothetic

  • Commonalities

  • Bigger picture

  • “nomos”: Greek word meaning law

  • compares individuals in a bigger scale (in terms of traits or dimensions common to everyone)

Assessment

• Techniques to know what a person is like

1. Clinical Interview

   • Interviews, conversations, can be structured/unstructured (demographics, childhood history, diagnosis, life experiences, hobbies, lifestyle, difficulties)

   • Standardized questionnaires (mostly Western)

2. Behavioral Observations

   • Naturalistic

   • Checklist, forms

   • Specific behavioral manifestations

   • Surveys

3. Personality Tests

   • Self-report inventory/rating scale

   • Ex. MBTI

   • Objective:

     • More reliability

     • Paper and pen test

     • Ex. MMPI, NEO PI

   • Subjective:

     • Unstructured test

     • Stimulus but response is open-minded

     • Ex. Sentence completion test, Rorschach inkblots, Thematic Apperception Test

Dimensions

• Framework for looking at different theories

1. Free Choice vs Determinism

   • revolves around the extent to which our behavior is the result of forces over which we have no control or whether people are able to decide for themselves whether to act or behave in a certain way

   • Free Choice

     • Free will

     • Ex. Maslow (self-actualization)

   • Determinism

     • Pre-determined

     • Learned behavior

2. Pessimism vs Optimism

   • Pessimism

     • negative view in life

     • Ex. Freud

   • Optimism

     • positive view in life

     • Possibility for change

3. Causality vs Teleology

   • Causality

     • Past experiences affect who you are

     • Ex. Freud, Skinner

   • Teleology

     • What they can do in the future

     • Ex. Rogers (humanistic)

4. Conscious vs Unconscious

   • can be defined as two distinct but overlapping systems of learning and memory

   • Conscious

     • we are fully aware of what is going on in the conscious mind

   • Unconscious

     • a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness

     • Ex. Freud, Jung

   • Determinants of behavior

5. Biological vs Social Influences

   • Biological

     • Genetics (nature)

   • Social Influences

     • Environment (nurture)

6. Uniqueness of a Person vs Similarities to Others

Personality Theories

1. Psychodynamics

   • an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience

   • Ex. unconscious motivation, childhood experiences

2. Humanistic

   • a perspective that emphasizes looking at the the whole person, and the uniqueness of each individual

   • Ex. self-actualization, self-worth

3. Cognitive Social

   • personality is shaped by interacting social factors, cognitive factors, and behavior

   • Ex. learned behavior, traits, personality

4. Trait

   • people are different from one another based on the strength and intensity of basic trait dimensions

   • Ex. characteristics, types