CHAPTER 12: PERSONALITY, THEORY, RESEARCH AND ASSESSMENT A) THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY A.

1) Defining Personality: Consistency and Distinctiveness - Concept of personality is used to explain: a) stability in a persons behavior over time and across situation (consistency) b) behavioral differences among people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness) - Personality: a set of an individuals consistent behavioral traits A.2) Personality Traits: Dispositions and Dimensions - Personality traits: tendency to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations A.3) The Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits Extraversion Neuroticism - Referred as +ve - Anxious, hostile, emotionality self-conscious - Tend to be happier - Tend to overreact than others (get stressed more) - Outgoing, sociable, - Impulsive and upbeat exhibit emotional instability

Openness to experience - Curiosity, flexible, vivid fantasy - Tolerant of ambiguity and have less need for closure than others - Determinants of people political attitude

Agreeableness - Sympathetic, trusting, cooperative - Opposite: suspicious, antagonistics - Constructive approach to conflict resolution (mediator between conflicting party)

Conscientiousness - Diligent, disciplined, well-organized, punctual and dependable - Strong self-discipline, ability to regulate oneself effectively

- Big 5 is predictable for some behavior > extraversion with popularity, conscientiousness with low-alcohol consumption and honesty, openness with playing musical instrument, agreeableness with honesty - 2 of them are related to health and mortality > neuroticism with all major mental disorders, conscientiousness with less illness and reduced mortality

B) PERSONALITY THEORIES - Main Figure: Sigmund Freud (the rest disagree with some of his views) PERSONALITY THEORIES 2) Behavioral 3) Humanistic - asserts that scientific -focus on human behavior psychology should be based on (humanism) observable behavior Figures: Figures: 1) Carl Rogers (Person-centred) 1) B.F. Skinner - Personality structure: one - assumption views humans construct reactions as mechanically - Tom Higgins (Self-Discrepancy) produced and dont involve cognitive processes but other 2) Abraham Maslow (Hierarchy behaviorists assert that humans of Needs) are conscious, thinking, feeling beings - Personality Structure: little interest in the inside of the ppl - Developmental Stages: nonecontinuos experience 2) Albert Bandura (Reciprocal Determinism) 3) Walter Mischel (Situational factor)

1) Psychodynamic - focus on unconscious mental forces Figures: 1) Sigmund Freud (Psychoanalysis) - Personality structure: id, ego, superego - Developmental Stages: oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital 2) Carl Jung (Analytical Psycho) 3) Alfred Adler (Individual Psy)

4) Biological

Figures: 1) Hans Eysenck - Personality structure: hierarchy of traits (extrav, neuro, psycho)

B.1) Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory - grew up in middle-class Jewish home in Vienna, Austria (big impact on him) - sexual repression and hostilities imprinted Freuds view of human nature

- Psychoanalytic theory: tries to explain personality, motivation, psychological disorders by focusing on the influence of early childhood experience, unconscious motives and conflicts, methods people use to cope with their sexual and aggressive urges - Most of Freuds contemporaries (living the same age) are not comfortable with his idea due to the following: 1) F suggests that individuals arent the masters of their own minds 2) Adult personality are shaped by childhood experience and other factors beyond ones controls 3) How people cope with their sexual urges (by offending the conservative, Victorian values) B.1.1) Structure of Personality Id - primitive, instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle - fulfill raw biological urges (sleep, eat) - Pleasure principle: demands immediate gratification of its urges - Id engages in primary-process thinking: primitive, illogical, irrational, fantasy-orientd Structure of Personality Ego - decision-making component that operates according to the reality principle - ego considers social reality- societys norms, etiquettes, rules and customs - Reality principle: delay gratification of ids urges until appropriates outlet and situations can be found - Ego engages in secondary-process thinking: rational, realistic, problem-solving oriented Superego - moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong - emerges around age 3-5

B.1.2) Levels of Awareness - Fs concepts of mind is compared to iceberg that has most of its mass hidden under the water surface - F believes that: unconscious is larger than preconscious and conscious - ego and superego operate at all level of mind awareness - id at unconscious level expressing urges at a conscious level through the ego Levels of Awareness 2) Preconscious - materials just beneath the surface of awareness that can be easily retrieved

1) Conscious - whatever the individuals are aware of at a particular time

3) Unconscious - thoughts, memories and desires that are well below the surface of consciousness but exert great influence on behavior

- superego and ego operate here

- superego and ego operate here

- id operates here - superego and ego operate here

B.1.3) Conflict and the Tyranny of Sex and Aggression - F assumes that behaviour is the outcome of ongoing series of internal conflicts (battle between id, ego and superego) -Why F focuses on sexual and aggressive drive 1) because they are subjected to more complex and ambiguous social controls than other basic motives 2) they are thwarted more regularly than other basic biological urges B.1.4) Anxiety and Defence Mechanism - Anxiety can be contributed to your ego worrying about: 1) the id (primitive instinct) getting out of control and doing something that leads to severe ve consequences 2) the superego (moral) getting out of control and making you feel guilty about real or imagined transgression

- Getting rid of the anxious feeling involves defence mechanism: unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety and guilt THE MECHANISMS 1) Repression (motivated forgetting): keeping distressing thoughts and feelings in the unconscious - Repression is the flagship of psychoanalytics defense mechanism 2) Projection: attributing ones own thoughts, feelings or motives to another 3) Displacement: diverting emotional feelings (anger) from their original source to a substitute target (work outrage) 4) Reaction formation: behaving in a way thats opposite of ones true feelings 5) Regression: reversion to immature patterns of behavior (when anxious boasting in a child-like manner) 6) Identification: bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group 7) Sublimation: Unconscious, unacceptable impulses are channeled into socially acceptable, perhaps even admirable, behaviors 8) Rationalization: creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior

Pg: 554 Mechanism: regression, repression, reaction formation, projection, displacement, identification, sublimation, rationalization

B.1.5) Development: Psychosexual Stages - Psychosexual stages: developmental periods with a characteristic sexual focus that imprint their adult personality - Fixation: Failure to move forward from one stage to another as expected > excessive gratifications of needs at a particular stage or by excessive frustration of those needs PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGE 1) ORAL STAGE - first year of life - main source of erotic stimulation: biting, sucking, chewing - F: handling of the childs feeding experiences is crucial to subsequent development 2) ANAL STAGE - second year - erotic pleasure from their bowel movements through expulsion or retention of feces - Example: toilet training - could affect ones sexual activities 3) PHALLIC STAGE - age 4 - Oedipal complex emerges: children develop preferences for their opposite gendered-parents 4) LATENCY AND GENITAL STAGES - age 6 through puberty - sexual energy is normally channeled towards of peers of the other sex, rather than towards oneself, as in the phallic stage

B.2) Jungs Analytical Psychology - middle-class, Swiss parents, son of a Protestant pastor, deeply introverted but an excellent child - friends with Freud before disagreement on theoretical views - like F, emphasizes the unconscious determinants of personality - J theorizes the existence of deeper layer called collective unconscious : storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from peoples ancestral past

- ancestral memories: archetype - archetypes: emotionally charged images and thoughts forms that have universal meaning - Example: mandala or magic circles served as symbol of the unified wholeness - J: understanding of archetypal symbol helped him make sense of his patients dreams (thought that dreams contain important messages from unconscious) . Also depended on dream analysis in his treatment - Js archetype had little impact but the first to describe: > Intoverts: tend to be preoccupied with the internal world of their own thoughts, feelings and experiences > Extraverts: tend to be interested in the external world of people and things B.3) Adlers Individual Psychology - grew up in Vienna in a middle-class Jewish home, was a sickly child - was a charter member of Freuds inner circle (Vienna Pschoanalytic Society) - asserts that F had gone overboard in theory of sexual conflicts - Striving for superiority: universal drive to adapt, improve oneself and master lifes challenges > children feel helpless compared to the stronger kids > this early inferiority supposedly motivate them to acquire new skills and develop new talents > A maintained that striving for superiority is the prime goal of life, rather than physical gratification - Compensation: efforts to overcome imagined or real inferiorities by developing ones abilities > excessive compensation drives inferiority complex- exaggerated feeling of weaknesses and inadequacy - agreed with F on early childhood experiences but focused on different parent-child relationship - some people engage in overcompensation to conceal their feelings of inferiority > these people work to achieve staus, gain power over others and acquire the trapping of success > these people engage in unconscious self-deception worrying more about appearances than reality - A introduced the concept of birth order > first, second and later borns enter varied home environments and treated differently by their parents - Frank Sulloway asserts based on BIG 5 > first-borns: conscientious, less agreeable but open to experience, conventional, achievement-oriented > later-borns: liberal and rebellious

B.4) Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspectives - what this perspective manages to prove 1) unconscious forces can influence behavior 2) internal conflicts often play key roles in generating psychological distress 3) early childhood experiences can have powerful effect on adult personality 4) people do use defence mechanism to reduce their experience of unpleasant Critiques: 1) Poor testability- psychodynamic ideas are usually vague and hard to prove empirically 2) Inadequate evidence- depend too heavily on clinical case for which they may see what they expect to see 3) Sexism- sexist bias against women 4) Unrepresentative samples: Fs samples were based on narrow sample of upper-class, sexually repressed Vienna women

C) BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE - asserts that scientific psychology should be based on observable behavior C.1) Skinners Ideas Applied to Personality C.1.1) Personality Structure: A View from the Outside - showed little interest on what goes inside people - S: people show some consistent patterns of behavior because they have some stable response tendencies > view individuals personality as a collection of response tendencies that are tied to various stimulus situations C.1.2) Personality Development as a Product of Conditioning - human behaviors are shaped by operant conditioning - factors: reinforcement, punishment and extinction determine peoples patterns of responding - if response is followed by favorable consequences (reinforcement) it is strengthened - views personality development as a continuos, lifelong journey. So, doesnt developmental process into stages - assumed that: conditioning strengthens and weakens responses tendencies mechanically- without the persons conscious participation > S explains consistencies in behavior without being concerned about individuals cognitive processes C.2) Banduras Social Cognitive Theory

- together with Walter Mischel and Julian Rotter assert that: humans are conscious, thinking, feeling beings

C.2.1) Cognitive Processes and Reciprocal Determinism - conditioning is not a mechanical process where people are passive but, people are self-organizing , proactive, self-reflecting and self-regulating and not just shaped by external events - Bandura advocates: reciprocal determinism (internal mental events, external environmental events and overt behaviors all influence one another) > environment does determine behavior but behavior too determines environment > people can act to alter their environment C.2.2) Observational Learning - occurs when an organisms responding is influenced by the observation of others who are called models > classical and operant conditioning can occur just by watching others experiencing it - keypoint: many response tendencies are the product of imitation C.2.3) Self-Efficacy - ones belief about ones ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes > if high: individuals are confident of the incoming outcome as reinforcing > if low: individuals worry about the necessary responses may be beyond their abilities C.3) Mischel and the Person-Situation Controversy - advocate of social learning theory - focus: situational factors govern behavior > people make response that they believe will lead to reinforcement in the situation at hand > Mischel version of social learning: people often behave differently in different situations (honest people may be dishonest in other place) > controversy: concept of personality assumes that people are reasonably consistent in their behavior New conclusion: In predicting ones behavior, need to know the persons personality traits and the nature of the situational context he is facing

C.4) Evaluating Behavioral Perspectives Critiques: 1) Dehumanizing nature of radical behaviorism (denying the existence of free will) 2) Dilution of the behavioral approach (behaviorism are very behavioral anymore) D) HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVES - criticized Freuds theory as being primitive, animalistic - criticized behaviorism for its preoccupation with animal research and mechanistic fragmented view of personality - both schools fail to recognize the unique qualities of human behavior - Humanism: theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth - Assume that: 1) people can rise above primitive animal heritage and control their biological urges 2) people are largely conscious and rational beings who are dominated by unconscious, irrational needs and conflicts - also, a persons subjective view of the world is more important than objective reality - embraces phenomenological approach: assumption that one has to appreciate individuals personal, subjective experiences to truly understand their behavior D.1) Rogers Person-Centred Theory - founder of human potential movement, grows up in religious, upper-middle-class home - emphasizes self-realization through sensitivity training, encounter groups and other exercises intended to foster personal growth - based model on his clinical therapy D.1.1) The Self - personality structure: one construct known as self - self-concept: collection of beliefs about ones own nature, unique qualities and typical behavior (mental picture of yourself) > according to Carl, individuals are aware of their self-concept and this varies from one person to another - Incongruence: the gap between individuals self-concept and reality (congruence has no gap)

D.1.2) Development of the Self - some parents make their love conditional : child living up to expectation and behaving well > children often block out of their self-concept because they worry about parental acceptance - parents with unconditional love: children have less need to block out unworthy experiences - unconditional: congruence - conditional: incongruence D.1.3) Anxiety and Defence - Inaccurate self conception will increase the clash with self-perception - as the result, individuals tend to behave defensively D.1.4) Recent Direction on the Self - Tory Higgins: developed Theory of Self-Discrepancy - discrepancy between actual self (own beliefs about the kind of person we are) and two standards we hold for the self (the ought self and the ideal self) can lead to emotional discomfort and even psychopathology if the discrepancy is extreme enough) - ideal self: the person we wish to be - ought self: obliged to be - discrepancy between actual and ought leads to agitation or in extremity: anxiety - discrepancy between actual and ideal leads to dejection or in extremity : depression D.2) Maslows Theory of Self-Actualization - grew up in Brooklyn, NY - psychology should take optimistic view of human nature instead of dwelling on the causes of disorders

D.2.1) Hierarchy of Needs - systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in which basic needs must be met before less basic needs are aroused - fulfilling basic needs will activate less basic needs - humans have an innate drive for personal growth - fulfilling self-actualization: fulfilling growth needs > need for self-actualization: need to fulfill ones potential

SELF-ACTUALIZATION ACRONYMS: SACEBSP AESTHETIC NEEDS COGNITIVE NEEDS ESTEEM NEEDS BELONGINGNESS AND LOVE SAFETY AND SECURITY PYSHIOLOGICAL NEEDS

D.2.2) The Healthy Personality - self-actualizing persons: people with exceptionally healthy personalities, marked by continued personal growth

D.3) Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives Critiques: - poor testability: hypotheses that are difficult to put into test - unrealistic view of human nature - Inadequate evidence E) BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES E.1) Eysencks Theory - born in German, fled to England - Personality traits: Hierarchy of traits derived from a handful of higher-order traits: extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism > each trait is represented by bipolar dimension : extraversion-introversion, stability-neuroticism, psychoticism-self-control - believes that personality originates from ones genes E.2) Behavioral Genetics and Personality - identical twins are much more similar than fraternal twins > even though reared apart, they have similar personality . thus: genetic shapes personality E.3) The Neuroscience of Personality - Investigate: specific personality traits and aspects of brain structure and function - extraversion is related to volume region known to process reward - size of brain : thought to regulate planning and voluntary control correlated with subjects degree of conscientiousness E.4) The Evolutionary Approach to Personality - Big 5 is the fundamental aspects of personality E.5) Evaluating Biological Perspectives - obsession with establishing the exact magnitude of heritability coefficients- theres no exact number as the correlation varies with the sample - results are ultimately artificial- effects of nature versus nurture are twisted in complicated interactions F) CONTEMPORARY EMPIRICAL APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY F.1) Renewed Interest in Narcissism

- Narcissism: personality trait marked by an inflated sense of importance, need for attention and admiration, a sense of entitlement and a tendency to exploit others - Symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) 1) grandiose sense of importance 2) constant need for attention 3) difficulty dealing with criticism 4) sense of entitlement - Scale of measurement: Narcissistic Personality Inventory - Narcissists are more interested in making them look powerful than forging a lasting bond , more impulsive, prone to unprovoked aggression - Initially: perceived as charming, self-assured, humorous, charismatic - Observation among young adults: excessive concerns about being physically attractive: unhealthy dieting, overuse cosmetic surgery and steroid-fuelled , increased materialism and overconsumption of the earths resources

F.2) Terror Management Theory - concerns the psychological consequences of the juxtaposition of a biologically rooted desire for life with the awareness of the inevitability of death - self-esteem: a sense of personal worth that depend on ones confidence in the validity of ones cultural worldview and the belief that one is living up to the standards prescribed by the worldview (anxiety buffer) - mortality salience: degree to which subjects mortality is prominent in their minds > leads people to work harder, bolster their spirits G) CULTURE AND PERSONALITY - research suggests that the basic dimensions of personality structure may be universal 1) Brazilian scored high in neuroticism 2) Australians in extraversion 3) German in openness to experience 4) Malaysian in conscientiousness - national character: various cultures have widely recognized prototype personalities

Works of Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama - American parents teach their children to be self-reliant, feel good about themselves and view themselves as special individuals > thus, foster an independent view of the self - China and Japan: interdependent view of the self > stresses on the fundamental connectedness of people to each other > parents teach children that they can rely on family and friends, modest about their personal accomplishments > children are encouraged to fit in with others > youngsters typically learn to define themselves in terms of the group they belong to - consistent with this, Asian youngsters tend to evaluate themselves as similar to their peers compared to the American - Individualism: putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining ones identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group membership - Collectivism: putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining ones identity in terms of the groups one belongs to - Self-enhancement: focusing on positive feedback from others, exaggerating ones strengths and seeing oneself as above average > more common in individualism than collectivism >collectivists may have more accurate view of themselves than individualists (tend to engage in self-enhancement)