Emphasize that personality is primarily unconscious, or

February 14, 2024/0 Comments/in Psychology Essay Help /by admin

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In this chapter we will review historical and contemporary approaches to the study of personality
This is an interesting domain, because personality is one of the most distinctive aspects of being human. It has generated some of the more provocative theoretical thinking in the history of the field (though much of the more interesting theory has not held up under scientific scrutiny).

Personality

For our purposes, we will define personality as a pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors which characterize how an individual adapts to the world

Psychodynamic Perspectives

Emphasize that personality is primarily unconscious, or beyond awareness
There are other psychodynamic theorists besides Freud, however he is the most famous
Horney, Jung and Adler are psychodynamic revisionists (argued against Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and added to the psychodynamic body of work)

Psychodynamic Perspectives

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

Sexual drive is the most important human motivator and the main determinant of personality

Freud (1856-1939) was a product of the Victorian society in which he lived. Many of his theories were centered around the ideas of male superiority- ideas that were clearly a reflection of his culture, but have not endured over time.

Class and Sex role expectations were rigid. (Titanic)
The idea of wanting to break free – that unconscious impulses regarding sex and aggression were warring with society-approved expectations made sense in that context.

Psychodynamic Perspectives

Freud had some strange ideas –
Oedipus complex (boy wants sex with mother)
Castration anxiety – fears castration by his father for these desires
Boy identifies with father and takes on male gender role in reaction to fear of castration. What??
Girls/Women did not go through this process since they lacked a penis – and were said to have “penis envy”
It’s not anatomy, Freud. They just wanted the same privileges males received (Male Privilege)
Example of early women psychology pioneers who had to choose between marriage and career – while male counterparts could freely have both.

Structures of Personality

Freud says personality is comprised of three main structures:

Id (devil on your shoulder)

Consists of unconscious drives
Reservoir of sexual energy
Works according to pleasure principle

Ego

Deals with demands of reality
Abides by the reality principle

Superego (angel on your shoulder)

Evaluates morality of behavior
Reflected in “conscience”

Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development

Freud’s model is centered on a stage-based model of development
Adult personality is determined by the way conflicts are resolved between early sources of pleasure and demands of reality
Stages are:

Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital

Review these in your book, understand each stage at a general level

Defense Mechanisms

Tactics used to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality are called “defense mechanisms”

Denial – refuse to acknowledge anxiety-filled reality (cancer diagnosis)

Projection – see the “flaws” in others that we fear/despise in ourselves (homosexual tendencies)

Repression – push memories into the unconscious mind (sexual abuse victims)

Critics & Revisionists of Freud

Critics argue that sexuality is not a pervasive force behind personality, and that the first five years are not as powerful in shaping adult personality as Freud claimed

Ego and conscious thought are more dominant
Sociocultural factors are more important than Freud acknowledged

Other Psychodynamic Theories

Horney’s Sociocultural Approach emphasizes sociocultural influences on personality development

Both sexes envy attributes of other

Women  Status bestowed upon men
Men  Reproductive capabilities of women

Need for security, not sex, as prime motive

Jung’s Analytical Theory

Believed Freud underestimated the importance of the unconscious in personality.
Emphasized the importance of the collective unconscious

Impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind, reflecting cultural memories and archetypes

Archetypes are emotionally laden ideas having symbolic meaning. Examples include:

Female, passive anima and assertive, male animus
Persona – public mask which hides true, inner feelings

Adler’s Individual Psychology

People motivated by purposes, goals

Perfection, not pleasure, as key motivator
We are motivated by compensation – an attempt to overcome inferiorities by developing abilities
Birth order can influence success by forcing siblings to strive for superiority

Commonalities ofPsychodynamic Perspectives

Although science has generally not supported the psychodynamic theories, some of their commonalities have led to enduring themes within the domain of personality psychology:

Personality determined by early life experiences
Examining personality as a series of stages
Mental transformation of experiences for meaning
Unconscious motives lie behind some of our behavior
Inner world conflicts with outer demands of reality, creating anxiety
Personality and adjustment as topics for psychological inquiry

Psychodynamic Perspectives

Too much faith in the unconscious mind
Too much emphasis on sexuality
Much of what these models claim cannot be tested empirically

Humanistic Perspectives

Emphasize person’s capacity for personal growth and positive human qualities
Our personality is driven by our ability to:

Control our lives
Achieve what we desire

Significant figures include Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

Maslow’s Approach

Emphasized pursuit of self-actualization (see previous chapter) as central to personality
Saw self-actualizers as spontaneous, creative, and possessing a childlike capacity for awe

Rogers’ Approach

Adaptive personality develops within a context of unconditional positive regard

A state of being accepted, valued, and treated positively, with no conditions of worth attached
Self-concept is a representation of who we are and who we wish to be
Positive self concept develops when we interact with people with empathy and genuineness

Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives

Perceiving self and world as essential element of personality
Consider whole person and positive bent of human nature
Emphasis on conscious experience

Too optimistic, overestimating freedom and rationality
Promoting excessive self-love and narcissism
Not holding individuals accountable for their behaviors

Trait Perspectives

Trait perspectives have been the most dominant contemporary approach to the study of personality

Traits are mental structures that make different situations the same for the person; essentially, they are our broad, enduring characteristics, reflected informally in the adjectives we may use to describe ourselves and others
Compare to states, which are fleeting – you may be a generally happy person (trait) but that doesn’t you won’t occasionally be in an unhappy state

Gordon Allport advocated trait theory as an alternative to the negative, unconscious-driven models of the Freudians

Focused on healthy, well-adjusted individuals, the uniqueness of each person and people’s capacity to adapt

Five-Factor Model

One set of extensively studied traits is the Big Five or Five Factor Model (be sure to focus on these in your reading):
OCEAN

Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

Five-Factor Model

Researchers have found evidence of five factors of personality in different cultures and in some animal species
Some correlate with early childhood temperament
Strong relationship between personality traits and well-being

Extraversion  Higher levels of well-being
Neuroticism  Lower levels of well-being

Be sure to study this in depth in your book

Trait Perspectives

Focus more on the practical value of personality traits, and the connections between personality traits and:

Health
Career success
Relations with others

Trait theories may miss the importance of situational factors
Paint personality with very broad strokes

Personological Approach

Henry Murray proposed personology as the study of the whole person

“The history of the organism is the organism” – essentially, you are the sum product of your history

Developed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) to help measure of motives that are largely unknown to us

Life Story Approach

Our life stories are our identities
Conducted life story interviews, then analyzed them for themes relevant to life stages and transitions
Highlighted importance of the intimacy motive, and enduring concern for warm interpersonal encounters

Means of inquiry that applies personality theory to a single person’s life

Life Story Approach

This approach provides a rich opportunity for researchers to learn a lot from individuals.
However, there are criticisms

The approach is difficult and time-consuming
Psychobiographical inquiries are prone to biases, and may not serve the scientific goal of generalizability to other individuals

Social Cognitive Perspectives

Formal behaviorism does not focus much on personality, as it is an internal state. However, the social cognitive perspective incorporates principles from behaviorism.
Emphasizes conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations and goals
Explores ability to reason, think about past, present and future, and to reflect on the self

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

Personality is a product of the interaction between behavior, environment, and the person and cognitive factors

Observational learning plays an important role
Personal control also important

Internal locus of control
External locus of control
Our response and use of these is affected by our sense of self-efficacy

Belief that one can master situation and produce positive change

Walter Mischel

Criticized social cognitive model as claiming too much consistency within behavior

Argued there was no evidence of cross-situational consistency
Instead advocated situationism, the idea that personality and behavior vary from one context to another

Mischel’s Contributions

Cognitive Affective Processing Systems – thoughts and emotions about self/world affect behavior
Concerned with how personality works; studied it via delayed gratification research

Evaluation of Social Cognitive Perspectives

Focus on interactions of person with environment
Highlight observation of behavior
Emphasize influence of cognitive processes

Concern with change and situational influences ignores role of biology in personality
Makes generalizations impossible

Biological Perspectives

Reticular activating system (RAS)

Located in the brain stem
Plays role in wakefulness or arousal; arousal is then linked to many aspects of human behavior

We all share optimal arousal level; however, the RAS of extraverts and introverts may differ in baseline levels of arousal

Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity

Two main biological systems drive personality:

Behavior activation system (BAS)

Sensitive to rewards
Predisposition to positive emotion
Underlies extraversion
Behavioral inhibition system (BIS)
Sensitive to punishers
Predisposition to fear
Underlies neuroticism

Role of Neurotransmitters

Function in experience of reward
Factor in BAS or extraversion

Related to neuroticism
Less serotonin is correlated with more negative mood
Inhibition of serotonin reuptake decreases negative mood and enhances feelings of sociability

This is the mechanism that is believed to be affected by drugs such as Prozac
However, cause and effect in role of neurotransmitters is hard to identify

Behavior Genetics

Study of inherited underpinnings of behavioral characteristics
Twin studies have found that

Genetic factors explain differences in big five traits
Autobiographical memories influenced by genetics

Role of genetic factors enormously complex

Genes and environments intertwined; both drive interactions with each other, so pure cause-effect conclusions are difficult to draw
Most traits are influenced by multiple genes

Biological Perspectives

Personality tied to :

Animal learning models
Advances in brain imaging
Evolutionary theory
Cautions

Biology can be effect, not cause, of personality
Question of whether personality can change throughout life

Personality Assessment

Rigorous methods for measuring mental processes
Assess personality for different reasons (e.g. diagnosis, research, job placement)
Different methods include:

Self-report tests
Projective tests
Other assessment methods

Self-Report Tests

Directly ask people whether different items describe their personality traits
One challenge is social desirability

Individuals are motivated to respond in ways that make them look better; thus, they may be more likely to lie about negative traits, and give self-serving inflations of positive traits
May be addressed by give questionnaire designed to tap into tendency

Design scales so it is impossible to tell what is being measured

Self-Report Tests

MMPI – Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Most widely used and researched empirically-keyed self-report personality test
Used to assess personality and predict outcomes

Geared toward assessing the five-factor model
Includes items with face validity

Projective Tests

Present individuals with ambiguous stimulus
Ask them to describe it, or tell a story about it
Especially designed to elicit unconscious feelings and conflicts
Theoretically aligned with psychodynamic perspectives on personality

Projective Tests

Responses are scored based on indications of various underlying psychological characteristics
Reliability and validity criticized

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Designed to elicit stories that reveal personality
Greater reliability and validity

Other Assessment Methods

Measuring behavior directly
Cognitive assessments
Friend or peer ratings
Psychophysiological measures

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admin2024-02-14 11:10:422024-02-14 11:10:42Emphasize that personality is primarily unconscious, or beyond awareness

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