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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