Ch 12 PersonalitySupplemental Notes
Psychodynamic Perspective
2 other defense mechanisms:
Sublimation- attempting to turn unacceptable thoughts or actions into socially acceptable behaviors
Compensation- Trying to make up for unconscious impulses or fears
Ex. Julie is very strict with her employees, trying to make up for her shortcomings as an effective boss.
Neo-Freudian View of Personality (didn’t go with the Oedipus and Electra complex)
Carl Jung- disagreed with Freud primarily on the role of the libido. He said it was a life force.
Introvert- someone who prefers privacy and ponders his or her own actions and thinking
Extrovert- someone who receives energy through being active and part of the outside social world.
Personal conscious- repressed material and also a deeper layer called the collectiveunconscious (collection of past experiences shared by all people that are inherited from ancestors and passed from generation to generation. Interested in history and art
This contained the archetypes (snakes represent evil) these are generational themes
Alfred Adler:
Believed we have an innate desire to overcome inferiorities experienced in childhood.
Inferiority complexes- stem from our reliance on others (primarily parents) in caring for us when we’re young. As we get older we seek to overcome this by trying to achieve superiority.
You see a child wanting to do things for themselves even if wrong.
Karen Horney
First feminist personality researcher: Didn’t like Freud’s penis envy she came up with “womb envy”. This is why men actually feel inferior to women.
She said that social restraints were the reason for women’s feeling inferior to men.
Three styles:
Moving toward: strong desire for approval
Moving against: strong desire for control
Moving away: people who place importance on independence
Example: Remember a time when you had a disagreement with a friend. After this disagreement you probably did not act like yourself. Did you feel a desire for approval from other people, or a need to be in control, or did you just want to be left alone?
Evaluating the approach:
Testability limited but also based on western European thought and N.American values.
Did bring about further research
Trait Theories:internal characteristics that are stable, consistent over time, and displayed through multiple situations. Describes but don’t tell why.
Type Versus Trait
Traits – provide a list, or number, of descriptors that are used to describe a person, whereas types address whether a person “fits” that particular type, or whether he or she has certain characteristics of that type.
Ex. If a person is the feeling type, then that person displays a number of traits including affection, sympathy, and dependability. If a person is not the feeling type then they do not display those traits.
Problem: Types are vague and not as descriptive as traits.
Type of person cheater would have certain traits (mistrustfulness, deceptiveness, or selfishness)
- Just because someone is selfish does not necessarily mean that he or she is a cheater.
Gordon Allports Trait Theory First Trait researcher came up with more than 18,00 traits
Cardinal Trait – Some people which are rare have a dominating trait that solely defines who they are..
Most people have central or secondary traits
Central (source) traits are strong influence on personality and have an impact on nearly everything an individual does
Secondary (surface) traits specific to certain situations and have less of an effect on personality and may change over time.
Ex. On the surface Jim is competitive (secondary trait), but deep down he is a nice person (central trait).
Raymond Cattell – based his research on Allport’s and used a questionnaire that asked people to rate themselves on a number of traits to show which best described them.
Used factor analysis (mathematical formula that explains how traits are related to one another.) Believed central traits could give rise toa number of secondary traits. If you are caring, you could predict that that person would be dependable (secondary) in various situations.
Came up with the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire
Biological Traits – Hans Eysenck- came up with extroversion and introversion, and between emotionality and stability.
The Big 5 TraitsPaul costa and Robert McCrae
Argued that Cattell identified too many traits and Eysenck too few
O- Openness (to experience): curious, insightful, imaginative, structured, creative
C - Conscientiousness: organized, reliable, hardworking
E – Extraversion: active, energetic, affectionate
A - Agreeableness: forgiving, generous, trusting
N – Neuroticism: anxious, tense, vulnerable
Evaluation: labels behavior but does not give the why
Social Cognitive Approachpersonality is the interaction of cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors.
Julian Rotter – Internal and external locus of control
Internal- can control environmental influences
External – cannot control environmental factors – prone to learned helplessness because they can’t control the outcome.
Albert Bandura – reciprocal determinism- Environmental factors affect the way you think (cognition), which affects the way you act (behavior). A person who finds a class very interesting (environmental) will think more effectively (cognition) and act more appropriately in the class (behavioral).
Also – emphasized the importance of self-efficacy beliefs, confidence a person has about his or her abilities or expectations that play a role in how a person behaves or acts.
Walter Mischel Cognitive/Affective Theory
Cognitive personal variables determined how people behave and express different personalities. If you believe you will succeed then you will but if you don’t think you will succeed then you will not try as hard and not be successful.
Argued personality is not as predictable or consistent but vulnerable to change and instability.
Evaluation: how social circumstances influence thought processes and the way a person acts
Assessing Personality:
Objective or self-report inventoriesProjective
Machine scored-saves time and $Unstructured stimuli/ subjective
Understandable and standardizeddifficult to hide true responses
because you don’t know questions
can fake responses to answer may not be accurate
Rushed/understanding/cultural biasLack reliability because of different
Interpretations
NEO-I measures the Big 5Thematic apperception (TAT)
MMPIRorschach Inkblot Test
Draw a person Test