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WHAT LIES
Personality Theories in Psychology
“Characteristic pattern of thinking,feeling and acting”
WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
WHY DO WE NEED TO
UNDERSTAND OUR PERSONALITY?
WHY DO WE NEED TO
UNDERSTAND OUR PERSONALITY?
To understand others better
For self development
To become Exceptional Leaders
To understand group dynamics
To help others grow
To understand our motivations
WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY?
1. Trait: specific dimensions of personality
2. Psychoanalytic: unconscious motivations
3. Humanistic: inner capacity for growth
4. Socio-Cognitive: influence of environment
TRAIT THEORY
Traits are relatively stable and consistent personal characteristics.
Trait personality theories suggest that a person can be described on the basis of some number of personality traits.
TRAITS THEORY
o Allport identified some 4,500 traitso Cattell used factor analysis to identify 30-35 basic traitso Eysenck argued there are 3 distinct traits in personality:
Extraversion/introversion, Neuroticism and Psychotism
What trait “dimensions” describe personality?
Combination of 2 or 3genetically determineddimensions
Expanded set of factors“The Big 5”, 16 PF
Extraversion/IntroversionEmotional Stability/Instability
Extraversion,Emotional Stability,
Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness etc
In 1936, psychologist Gordon Allport found that one English-language dictionary alone contained more than 4,000 words describing different personality traits. He categorized these traits into three levels:
Traits that dominate an individual’s whole life, often to the point that the person becomes
known specifically for these traits. Allport
suggested that cardinal traits are rare and tend to
develop later in life.
These are the general characteristics that form the basic foundations of personality. Terms like
intelligent, honest, shyanxious are considered
central traits.
These are the traits that are sometimes related
to attitudes or preferences and often appear only in certain
situations or under specific circumstances.
Example impatient while waiting in traffic.
Trait theorist Raymond Cattell reduced the number of main personality traits from Allport’s initial list of over 4,000 down to 171, mostly by eliminating uncommon traits and combining common characteristics. Next, Cattell rated a large sample of individuals for these 171 different traits. Then, using a statistical technique known as factor analysis, he identified closely related terms and eventually reduced his list to just 16 key personality traits. According to Cattell, these 16 traits are the source of all human personality. He also developed one of the most widely used personality assessments known as the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF).
Emotional Stability
Extraversion
Openness
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
• Calm/Anxious• Secure/Insecure
• Sociable/Retiring• Fun Loving/Sober
• Imaginative/Practical• Independent/Conforming
• Soft-Hearted/Ruthless• Trusting/Suspicious
• Organized/Disorganized• Careful/Careless
Minnesota Multiphasic PersonalityInventory (MMPI) is a self-reportpersonality inventory consisting of550 items that describe feelings oractions which the person is asked toagree with or disagree with; manyscales estimating traits and qualitiesof personality have been developedusing MMPI items such as anxiety,depression, masculinity–femininity,and paranoia.
While most agree that people can be described based upon their personality traits, theorists continue to debate the number of basic traits that make up human personality. While trait theory has objectivity that some personality theories lack (such as Freud’s psychoanalytic theory), it also has weaknesses.
Some of the most common criticisms of trait theory center on the fact that traits are often poor predictors of behavior. While an individual may score high on assessments of a specific trait, he or she may not always behave that way in every situation. Another problem is that trait theories do not address how or why individual differences in personality develop or emerge.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
The first comprehensive theory of personality was proposed by Sigmund Freud, known as the father of Psychoanalysis.
A Medical Student from the University of Vienna, Freud specialized in Nervous disorders and found that some of his patients showed no physical cause for nervous problems
Sigmund Freud(1856-1939)
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
The question boggled his mind
Q: So, What caused neurological symptoms in patients with no neurological problems?
This was his answer to the question:
A: It had to do with the Human Mind. Not the one that e know of. Not the Conscious mind but the Unconscious.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Hypnosis Free Association Psychoanalysis& = Understanding the Unconscious
Conscious Awarenesssmall part above surface
(Preconscious)
Repression: banishing unacceptable thoughts and passions to unconscious Dreams & Slips
Unconsciousbelow the surface (thoughts, feelings,wishes, memories)
“Personality arises from conflict between aggressive,pleasure-seeking impulses and social restraints”
EgoSuper Ego
Id
EgoSuper Ego
Id
Id - energy constantly striving to satisfy basic drivesPleasure Principle
Ego - seeks to gratify the Id in realistic ways
Reality Principle
Super Ego: voice of consciencethat focuses on howwe ought to behave
When the inner war between id, ego and superego gets out of hand, the result is Anxiety
Ego protects itself from Anxiety via Defense Mechanisms
Defense Mechanisms reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality
Defense mechanisms refer to unconscious mental processes that protect the conscious person from developing anxiety
Sublimation: person channels energy from unacceptableimpulses to create socially acceptable accomplishments
Denial: person refuses to recognize reality
Projection: person attributes their own unacceptableimpulses to others
Repression: anxiety-evoking thoughts are pushed into theunconscious
Rationalization: Substituting socially acceptable reasons
Intellectualization: Ignoring the emotional aspects of apainful experience by focusing on abstract thoughts, words,or ideas
Reaction formation: Refusing to acknowledge unacceptable urges, thoughts or feelings by exaggerating the opposite state
Regression: Responding to a threatening situation in a way appropriate to an earlier age or level of development
Displacement: Substituting a less threatening object for the original object of impulse
How can we assess personality?(i.e., the unconscious)
If you said Objective Tests, you are wrong. They tap the conscious mind only.
Projective Tests tap the unconscious.
I used two projective tests to understand my Patients. Thematic Appearance Test (TAT)Rorschach Inkblot Test
Rorschach Inkblot Test is the most widely used projective test
Consists of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann Rorschach.
It was used to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
People express their inner motivesthrough the stories they make upabout ambiguous scenes
Current research contradicts many of Freud’s specific ideas. However, Psychoanalysis is also becoming one of the most popular approaches to mental Health. Listed below are
some of Freud’s theories that were proven false in recent studies.
Development does notstop in childhood
Dreams may not be Unconscious wishes
Slips of the tongue arelikely competing “nodes”
in memory network
HUMANISTIC THEORY
HUMANISTIC THEORY
o Humanistic theory argues that people carry a perception of themselves and of the world
o The goal for a humanist is to develop/promote a positive self-concept
o Humanistic personality theories reject psychoanalytic notions
Humanistic theories view each person as basically good and that people are striving for self-fulfillment
FAMOUS HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVES
Roger’s Person Centered Perspective Maslow’s Self Actualizing Person1 2
We have needs for:
Self-consistency (absence of conflict between self-perceptions)
Congruence (consistency between self-perceptions and experience)
Inconsistency evokes anxiety and threat
People with low self-esteem generally have poor congruence between their self-concepts and life experiences.
We all have a sense of “who we are”. I call
this a “Self Concept”
Carl Rogers, American psychologist; believed that personality formed as a result of our strivings to reach our full human potential.
Fully Functioning Person: Lives in harmony with his/her deepest feelings and impulses
Self-Image: Total subjective perception of your body and personality
Conditions of Worth: behaviors and attitudes for which other people, starting with our parents, will give us positive regard.
Unconditional Positive Regard: Unshakable love and approval
Positive Self-Regard: Thinking of oneself as a good, lovable, worthwhile person
o Many of the Humanists’ claims are un-testable.
o Humanists may have an overly-positive, rosy view of humankind. They do not look at the “dark side.”
o For the Humanists, the cause of all our problems lies not in ourselves, but in others.
o Maslow’s characterization of self-actualized individuals is very biased toward a certain philosophical position.
o Most of the people Maslow identified as self-actualized had rather serious psychological problems.
▲Abraham Maslow emphasized the basic goodness of human nature and a natural tendency toward self-actualization.
▲Only when all the lower level needs are achieved, an Individual can be self-actualized
o Efficient perceptions of reality
o Comfortable acceptance of self,
others, and nature
o Spontaneity
o Task Centering
o Autonomy
o Continued freshness of appreciation
o Fellowship with humanity
o Profound interpersonal relationships
o Comfort with solitude
o Non-hostile sense of humor
o Peak experiences
SOCIO-COGNITIVE THEORY
SOCIO-COGNITIVE THEORY
Behavior is learned through conditioning & observation. Hence, What we think about our situation affects our behavior.
Each person has a unique personality because unique personal histories and interpretations shape our personalities
Self-system: the set of cognitive processes by which a person observes, evaluates, and regulates his/her behavior. Bandura proposed that what we think of as personality is a product of this self-system. Children observe behavior of models (such as parents) in their social environment. Particularly if they are reinforced, children will imitate these behaviors, incorporating them into personality.
He also proposed that people observe their own behavior and judge its effectiveness.
Self-efficacy: a judgment of one’s effectiveness in dealing with particular situations.
Julian Rotter, an American psychologist, began as a Freudian! His personality theory combines learning principles, modeling, cognition, and the effects of social relationships
External locus of control: perception that chance or external forces beyond personal control determine one’s fate
Internal locus of control: perception that you control your own fate.
Learned Helplessness: a sense of hopelessness in which a person thinks that he/she is unable to prevent aversive events
o Social-cognitive theories tend to be overly-mechanical.
o Overemphasizes environmental influences; gives little or no consideration to the possibility of innate personality differences or the effects of genetics.
o Does not recognize internal human qualities such as hope, aspiration, love, self-sacrifice
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