Chapter 12 Personality Lecturenotes filled in.doc

Psychology 111 ? Chapter 12 Personality 1 Personality- An individual?s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Psychodynamic perspective 2 Personality theory ? an attempt to describe and explain how people are similar, how they are different, and why every individual is unique; a personality theory uniquely tries to explain the whole person. The 3 Psychodynamic Perspective- includes all the diverse theories descended from the work of Sigmund Freud, which focus on unconscious mental forces. Freud believed that personality and behavior was the result of a constant interplay between conflicting psychological forces that operate at three different levels of awareness. Three levels of awareness 4 Concious level ? all thoughts and feelings you are aware of at this particular moment; contact with outside world 5 Preconscious level? contains information of which you?re not currently aware but easily capable of entering your consciousness (ss#) ; material just beneath the surface of awareness 6 Unconscious level? lies submerged below the waterline of the preconscious and conscious; not directly aware of these thoughts, feelings, wishes, and drives; the unconscious exerts an enormous influence on conscious thoughts and behaviors; difficult to retrieve material; well below the surface of awareness Unconscious level A reservoir (unconscious mind) of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories. Freud asked patients to say whatever came to their mind (free association) to tap the unconscious. Freud believed that unconscious material often seeps through to the conscious level in distorted, disguised, or symbolic forms. 7 Manifest Content ? surface images of a dream 8 Latent Content ? true, hidden unconscious meanings Freud believed that the unconscious can be revealed in unintentional actions such as accidents, mistakes, instances of forgetting, and inadvertent slips of the tongue, which are often referred to as 9 ?Freudian Slips.? The structure of personality Psychological energy evolves to form the three basic structures of personality Personality develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our biological impulses (id) and social restraints (superego). The 10 id? the primitive part of the personality is entirely unconscious and present at birth; it is completely immune to logic, values, morality, danger, and the demands of the external world; two conflicting instinctual drives fuel the id 11 Life Instinct (eros) ? biological urges consisting of hunger, thirst, physical comfort, and sexuality ? libido (sexual energy or motivation) 12 Death Instinct (thanatos) ? destructive energy reflected in aggressive, reckless, and life-threatening behaviors The id is ruled by the 13 Pleasure principle ? the relentless drive toward immediate satisfaction of the instinctual urges, especially sexual urges The 14 ego ? represents the organized, rational, and planning dimensions of personality; mediator between the id?s instinctual demands and the restrictions of the outer world; operates on the reality principle 15 Reality principle ? the capacity to postpone gratification until the appropriate time or circumstances exists in the external world; the ego is the pragmatic part of the personality that learns various compromises to satisfy and instinctual urge. If the ego cannot identify and acceptable compromise to satisfy an instinctual urge, it can 16 repress the impulse ? remove it from conscious awareness. The 17 Super ego appears at age five or six ? internal, parental voice that is partly conscious; internal representation of societal values; evaluates the acceptability of behavior and thoughts and then praises or admonishes 18 Defense Mechanism ? largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety and guilt. 19 Rationalization ? creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior. 20 Repression ? keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious. 21 Projection ? attributing one?s own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another. 22 Displacement ? diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target 23 Reaction formation ? behaving in a way that?s exactly the opposite of one?s true feelings 24 Regression ? a reversion to immature patterns of behavior 25 Identification ? bolstering self esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective Personality develops throughout life and is not fixed in childhood. Freud underemphasize peer influence on the individual which may be as powerful as parental influence. Gender identity may develop before 5-6 years of age. There may be other reasons for dreams to arise than wish fulfillment. Verbal slips can be explained on basis of cognitive processing of verbal choices. Suppressed sexuality leads to psychological disorders. Sexual inhibition has decreased, but psychological disorders have not. Freud's psychoanalytic theory rests on repression of painful experience into the unconscious mind. Freud was right about the unconscious mind . Modern research shows the existence nonconscious information processing. Humanistic Perspective The 26 Humanistic Perspective on Personality ? emphasizes free will, self-awareness, and psychological growth. A view of psychology that emphasizes human potential and such uniquely human characteristics as self-awareness and free will. 27Carl Rogers ? developed the humanistic theory of personality. 28 Actualizing tendency ? the innate drive to maintain and enhance the human organism. 29 Self Concept ? set of perceptions and beliefs that you have about yourself, including your nature, your personal qualities, and your typical behavior. 30 Conditioned Positive Regard ? the sense that you will be valued and loved only if you behave in a way that is acceptable to others; conditional love and acceptance. 31 Unconditioned Positive Regard ? the sense that you will be valued and loved even if you don?t conform to the standards and expectations of others; unconditional love or acceptance. Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective Humanistic psychology had pervasive impact on counseling, education, child-rearing and management. Concepts in humanistic psychology are vague and subjective and lacked scientific basis. Social Cognitive Perspective The 32 Social Cognitive Perspective on Personality ? stresses conscious thought processes, self-regulation, and the importance of situational influences. It emphasizes the importance of observational learning, conscious cognitive processes, social experiences, self-efficacy beliefs, and reciprocal determinism Bandura (1986, 2001, 2005) 33 Albert Bandura ? probably the most influential social cognitive personality theorist. Best known for his classic research on observational learning.; believed that personality is the result of an interaction that takes place between a person and his social context. 34 Reciprocal determinism ? examines human functioning and personality as caused by the interaction of behavioral, cognitive, and environmental factors. 35 Self-Efficacy ? the belief that people have about their ability to meet the demands of a specific situation; feelings of self-confidence or self-doubt. Personal Control Social-cognitive psychologists emphasize our sense of Personal control ? whether we control environment or environment controls us. External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or outside forces - beyond our personal control determine our fate. Internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control of own fate . 36 Learned Helplessness - When unable to avoid repeated aversive events an animal or human learns hopelessness. Critics say that social-cognitive psychologists pay a lot of attention to the situation and pay less attention to the individual, his unconscious mind, his emotions and his genetics. Trait Perspective The 37 Trail Perspective on Personality ? a theory of personality that focuses on identifying, describing, and measuring individual differences 38 Raymond Cattell ? a strong advocate of the trait approach to personality. Developed the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. 39 Trait ? a relatively stable, enduring predisposition to consistently behave in a certain way. 40 Surface Traits ? personality characteristics that can easily be inferred from observable behavior. 41 Source Traits ? the broad, basic traits that are hypothesized to be universal and relatively few in number. 42 Hans Eysenck - British psychologist who proposed a model of universal source traits which included three dimensions ? introversion ?extroversion; neuroticism vs. stability; psychoticism. Psychological Tests ? Assessing Personality 43 Psychological Test ? a test that assesses a person?s abilities, aptitudes, interests, or personality, based on a systematically obtained sample of behavior. 44 Projective test ? a type of personality test that involves a person?s interpreting an ambiguous image; used to assess unconscious motives, conflicts, psychological defenses, and personality traits. 45 Rorschach Inkblot Test ? a projective test using inkblots, developed by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. 46 Thematic Apperception Test ? a projective test that involves creating stories about each of a series of ambiguous scenes. 47 Self-report inventory ? a type of psychological test in which a person?s responses to standardized questions are compared to established norms. Strengths of self-report tests 48 Standardization 49 Use of established norms Weaknesses of self-report tests 50 Fake responses 51 Self-evaluation maybe inaccurate