THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy.

, RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY NOTES

Prepared and screened by:
Prof. Jason Ray M. Barlaan, RPsy

INTRODUCTION TO THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Personality Precision and Testability

• Latin – persona, “mask” − A good theory contains constructs that are
• “Pagkatao” clearly and explicitly defined. It should also
• Characteristic patterns of behavior, thought, contain propositions (relational statements)
and emotion that determine a person’s that are consistent and logically related to
adjustment to environment. one another.

Theory Parsimony
• Gk. Theoria; act of viewing, contemplating or − Contains only those constructs, statements
thinking about something. and assumptions necessary for the
• A set of abstract concepts developed about a explanation of the phenomena within its
group of facts/events in order to explain domain.
them.
Empirical Validity
Criteria for evaluating a Theory − Has data that supports it

Comprehensiveness Heuristic Value

− A theory encompasses and accounts for a
wider range and diversity of data is better
and more useful than a theory that explains
only a more limited range of phenomena.
− Can stimulate and provoke investigators to do
further theorizing and research;
Applied Value
− Leads to new approaches to the solution of
people’s problems.

PSYCHODYNAMIC/ PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES

Basic Concepts:
Early Experiences, Unconscious, Emotions = Personality

CLASSICAL PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

Sigmund Schlomo Freud

What made this theory interesting?

– Cornerstones: Sex and aggression
– Spread by a dedicated group
– Brilliant language (Goethe Prize in Literature)
Levels of Mental Life
1. Unconscious
− Contains all those drives, urges or instincts that are beyond our awareness but that nevertheless
motivate most of our words, feelings and actions;
− Is the explanation for the meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue and certain kinds of
forgetting
2. Preconscious
− Contains all those elements that are not conscious but can become conscious either quite readily or
with some difficulty.
3. Conscious
− Mental elements in awareness at any given point in time.

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
− Directly available to humans.

Provinces of the Mind

Have no territorial existences, merely hypothetical constructs
Interact with the 3 levels of mental life.
1. Id
− Sole personality structure at birth;
− Has no contact with the reality;
− strives constantly to reduce tension by satisfying basic desires.
− Unrealistic, illogical, entertain incompatible ideas, amoral, chaotic.
− Pleasure Principle

2. Ego
− 2nd part of personality structure – 2 y/o
− The only region that is in contact with reality.
− Person’s sole source of communication with the external world
− The decision-making/ executive branch of personality
− Reality Principle
3. Superego
− 3rd part of personality structure – _______ years old.
− Moral and ideal aspects of personality
− Grows out of the ego and has no energy of its own
− No contact with the external world
− Unrealistic and demanding for perfection
− Moral Principle
[____________]
− a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against
impending danger
− serves as an ego-preserving mechanism because it signals the coming of danger.

Kind of Anxiety:
1. Neurotic anxiety
− apprehension about an unknown danger; a result of the ego’s dependence on the id; exists in the ego but
originates from id impulses;
2. [_________] anxiety
− stems from conflict between the ego and the superego
3. Realistic anxiety
− an unpleasant, nonspecific feelings involving a possible danger;
− is different from fear [specific fearful object].
EGO DEFENSE MECHANISMS
To protect ego against anxiety.
1. Repression
− The cornerstone on which the whole structure of psychoanalysis rest.
− It forces threatening feelings into the unconscious.
− May also find an outlet in dreams, slips of the tongue, or one of the other defense mechanisms.
2. Reaction formation
− Adopting a disguise that is directly opposite of the original form.
− Can be identified by its exaggerated character and by its obsessive and compulsive form
3. Displacement
− People can redirect their unacceptable urges onto a variety of people or objects so that the original
impulse is disguised or concealed.
− irrational fears or phobias – symbolic displacements
4. Regression
− Attempting to return to an earlier libidinal phase of functioning to avoid the tension and conflict
evoked at the present level of development.
5. Projection
− Seeing in others unacceptable feelings or tendencies that actually reside in one’s own unconscious.
6. [_________________]
− Only successful defense mechanism.
− Expressed most obviously in creative cultural accomplishments; it is part of all human relationships
and all social pursuits.
7. Denial
− Helps a person cope with difficult circumstances.

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
− Coping momentarily
8. Rationalization
− Providing good reason for a behavior (anxiety provoking)
− Sour-grape and Sweet-lemon
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
Stages of Personality Development
1. Oral
− First year, birth – 1.5 years old
− Erogenous zone : mouth
− Fixation:
• Oral – Dependent Personality
• Too much stimulation = over dependency, submissive
• Oral – Aggressive Personality
• Too little gratification = very aggressive and will get what he wants through force
2. Anal
− 1.5 – 3 years old
− Toilet training conflict
• Anal - Expulsive Personality
• Too lenient = reckless, careless
• Anal – Retentive Personality
• Excessive pressure = obsessively clean, orderly
3. [_____________]
− 3 / 4 – 6 years old
− Super ego develops
− Oedipus Complex - Castration Anxiety
− Electra Complex - Penis envy
4. Latency
− 6 to puberty
− Repressed sexual feelings, same-sex play/ friendships, social skills
− Sublimation stage
− Time of learning, adjusting to the social environment, form beliefs and values.
5. Genital
− Puberty – adulthood
− Sexual feelings consciously expressed.
− No fixation

ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Carl Gustav Jung

Background:
• Emphasis on Inner growth
• Past and future shape us
• Unconscious did not just contain sex and aggression.

SYSTEMS OF PERSONALITY
1. Ego
− The center of conscious mind
− Selects perception, thoughts, feelings and memories that may enter consciousness
− An overemphasis on expanding one’s conscious psyche may lead to ______________.
2. Personal unconscious
− Where perceptions, thoughts, feelings reside – easily retrived
− Repressed and forgotten individual experiences
− Organized into [________________]
• Organized group of thoughts, feelings, & memories about particular concept.
3. Collective Unconscious
− Impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind shared by all human beings because of our
ancestral past.
− Archetypes - People’s perception and experiences, exerting primordial influences on our collective
unconscious
− Powerful archaic images derived from the collective unconscious.
• Persona – side of personality that people show to the world.
• Shadow – darkness and repression; first test of courage

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
• Anima - feminine side of men; second test of courage
• Animus – masculine side of women
• Self – archetype of all archetypes; inherited tendency to move towards growth, perfection
and completion.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
Functions
− Extraversion - Outward orientation to the objectie world
− Intraversion - Inward orientation to the subjective world
Attitudes
− Sensation & Information - How we gather data and information
− Thinking & Feeling - How we make judgements / conclusions.

EXTRAVERTED TYPE INTRAVERTED TYPE

THINKING Tend to live according to fixed rules; repress Strong need for privacy; tend to be theoretical, intellectual,
feelings; try to be objective but may be dogmatic somewhat impractical, repress feelings; may have trouble
in thinking. getting along with other people.

FEELING Sociable, seek harmony with the world, respect Tend to be quiet, thoughtful, and hypersensitive, repress
tradition and authority, tend to be emotional, thinking, may appear mysterious and indifferent to others.
repress thinking.

SENSING Seek pleasure and enjoy new sensory experiences; Passive, calm, and artistic, focus on objective sensory
strongly oriented toward reality; repress intuition. events, repress intuition.

INTUITION Very creative, find new ideas appealing, tend to Mystic dreamers, come up with unusual new ideas; are
make decisions based on hunches rather than seldom understood by others; repress sensing.
facts; in touch with their unconscious wisdom;
repress sensing.

INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
Alfred Adler

Background:
• Emphasized that our unconscious does not determine personality.
• 1st to emphasized the role of family in the development of personality.
• a comprehensive "science of living" that focuses on the uniqueness of the individual and a person's
relationships with society.

STRIVING FOR SUPERIORITY

Man’s ultimate goal – psychologically healthy

Developing Superiority:
− Be aggressive -actively seek oppoetunities to improve self.
− Be powerful (positive) - Apply skills
− Be superior - Mastery of skills

Feelings of inferiority
− Compensate for inferiorities.
− Compensation : Process of developing one’s abilities in order to overcome real or imagined inferiorities.
− Overcompensation
o Inferiority Complex
 Exaggerated feelings of weakness and inadequacy
 Incompetent self
 Justify failure
o [______________]
 Exaggerated self-importance (greater than others);
 To mask strong inferiority complex
Style of Life
Unique way each individual seelks to cope with environemnt and develop superiorty. Influenced by:
• Family constellation (birth order)

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
• Family atmosphere (quality of emotional relationships in the family)
Social Interest
− Feeling of oneness with humanity
− Natural condition of human
− Binds society
Parenting
− Too protective = personal superiority
− Uninvolved = inferiority/ unwantedness
Creative self
− Freedom to create own style of life
− Individual is product of environment & heridity
− Individual influences environment.

Family Constellation

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist

INTERPERSONAL THEORY
Harry Stack Sullivan

Background:
• Focus on social aspects of personality & cognitive representations.
• Personality: characteristic ways in which an individual deals with other people.
• Self-system: born out of well-being influenced by significant others.

[______________________]
Mental images that allow us to better understand ourselves and the world.

1. Bad-me
− represents those aspects of the self that are considered negative and are therefore hidden from others and
possibly even the self
2. Good- me
− Everything we like about ourselves.
− the part of us we share with others and that we often choose to focus on because it produces
no anxiety
3. Not-me
− Things that are so anxiety provoking that we can not even consider them a part of us.
− kept out of awareness by pushing it deep into the unconscious.

Security Operations
− To reduce and enhance security to minimized anxiety.
− Processes to observed when dealing with other people.
− Healthy = increase one’s competence in interpersonal relations.
− Unhealthy = lead to painful emotions and psychiatric illness.
a. Sublimation
– Expression and discharge of uncomfortable feelings in interpersonally acceptable.
– Same with Freud, but emphasis on learnig in interpersonal situation.
b. Selective Inattention
– Failure to observe some factor in an interpersonal relationship that cause anxiety.
– May blind us to what is going on in the world and make it difficult to cope effectively.

Developmental Epochs(-a division of period)

Personality can develop past adolescence and even well into adulthood.

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Karen Danielsen Horney

Basic Concepts
Basic Hostility
– Unsatisfied needs of children by parents
– Repress hostility toward parents (unaware) produces insecurity – leads to basic anxiety.
Basic Anxiety
– profound feelings of insecurity and a vague sense of apprehension.
– Feeling of being lonely and helpless

The need for security, and NOT sex and aggression

• Moving towards People
− To protect oneself against feelings of helplessness; appeal to be loved.
− Desperate striving for affection; may seek a powerful partner who will take responsibility for their
lives.
• Moving against People
− A striving for mastery
− tough and ruthless;
− motivated by a strong need to exploit others;
− Seldom admit their mistakes; compulsively driven to appear perfect, powerful and superior.
• Moving [____________] people
− A desire to be free of others
− Detached manner, value freedom, appear to be aloof and unapproachable.
− An expression of needs for privacy, independence and self-sufficiency.

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS
Erich Krause Fromm

Background:
- Assumes that existential needs are innate
- Lack of animal instincts = presence of rational thoughts = a feeling of loneliness and isolation (basic anxiety)

Human Needs/Existential Needs

Emerged during the evolution of human culture in an attempt to explain one’s existence;
5 kinds:
1. Relatedness - drive for union with another person or other persons.
2. Transcendence - Rising above the animal level of creatureliness and becoming active creators; can be
pursued by either creating life or destroying it.
3. Rootedness - the need to establish roots or to feel at home again in the world
4. Sense of identity - the capacity to be aware of ourselves as separate entities.

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
5. Frame of orientation - a road map enabling people to organize the various stimuli that impinge on them.

Productive Orientation
has 3 dimensions: working, love and reasoning;
– work is valued as a means of creative self-expression;
– productive love is characterized by 4 qualities: care, responsibility, respect and knowledge;
– productive thinking is motivated by a concerned interest in another person or object.

Non-productive Orientation
• Receptive (masochist)
• Exploitative (sadistic)
• Hoarding ( destructive)
• Marketing (indifferent)
• Necrophillous (murderous)

PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT

Erik Homburger Erikson

Background:
− Offers a “new way to looking at things”
− Extended Freud’s infantile developmental stages
− Social and historical influences
−
Epigenetic Principle
Early stage has a critical period which is dominant. One component grows out of another in its proper time and
sequence.

Basic Strength
The ego quality that emerges from conflict between the opposites.

PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT

STAGE PSYCHOSOCIAL BASIC CORE SIGNIFICANT

CRISIS STRENGTH PATHOLOGY RELATIONSHIP
Infancy Trust VS Mistrust Withdrawal
Hope The mothering one
Early childhood Autonomy VS Will Compulsion Parents
Shame & Doubt
Play age Initiative VS Guilt Purpose Inhibition Family
School age Industry VS Competence Inertia/inaction Neighborhood
Inferiority
Adolescence Identity VS Isolation Fidelity Role Peer groups
Repudiation
Young adulthood Intimacy VS Love Exclusivity Sexual partners,
Isolation Friends
Adulthood Generativity VS Care Rejections Divided labor
Stagnation &Shared
household.
Old age Integrity VS Despair Wisdom Disdain All humanity

HUMANISTIC / EXISTENTIAL APPROACH

Basic Concepts:
− Human Potential - “Humans are not robots”
− Free will - Freedom to choose one’s destiny
− Self actualization - Achievement of one’s full potential

HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Abraham Maslow

View of Motivation
 Whole person, not any single part/ function

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
 Is usually complex
 People are continually motivated by one need or another.
 All people everywhere are motivated by the same basic needs.
 Needs can be arranged on a hierarchy.

10% self-actualizers
40% satisfied esteem
50% satisfied belonging
75% satisfied safety
85% satisfied physiological

Criteria for Self-actualization

• Free from psychopathology/mental illness.
• Progressed through the hierarchy of needs.
• Embraced the B-values
• Truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness or the transcendence, of dichotomies, aliveness or sponteneity,
uniqueness, perfection, completion, justice and order, simplicity, richness or totality, affortlessness,
playfulness and humor, self-sufficiency or autonomy.

Other Needs that are not universal

AESTHETIC
− Desire for beauty and to have an orderly environment

COGNITIVE
− Desire to know, to solve mysteries and to understand.

NEUROTIC
− leads to stagnation and pathology
− are nonproductive
− are usually reactive serve as compensation for unsatisfied basic needs

PERSON-CENTERED THEORY
Carl Rogers

Background:
Humans are innately good

Actualizing Tendency
− Tendency within all humans to move toward completion or fulfilment of potentials.
− Need for maintenance
o similar to Maslow’s basic needs;
o includes the tendency to resist change and to seek the status quo;
− Need for enhancement
o need to become more, to develop and to achieve growth;
o expressed in a variety of forms ( curiosity, playfulness, etc) to achieve psychological growth.

[__________________________]
o “I will love you ONLY IF you conform to our standards.”
Self-concept
Real self and Ideal self

Defensiveness
-- Objective: to keep our perception of our organismic experiences consistent with our self-concept;

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
-- how: by distortion or denial of experiences inconsistent with it;
-- 2 chief defenses:
− distortion - misinterpret an experience in order to fit it into some aspect of our self-concept
− denial - refuse to perceive an experience in awareness or at least keep some aspect of it from
reaching symbolization

EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Rollo May

Being-in-the-World

Dasein:
• to exist in the world unity of self and world
• 3 modes of Dasein:
1. Umwelt: environment around us
2. Mitwelt: our relations with other people
3. Eigenwelt: our relationship with our self
 Healthy people live in umwelt, mitwelt and eigenwelt simultaneously;
 Unhealthy people suffer from isolation and alienation and manifest this in 3 areas:
– separation from nature
– lack of meaningful interpersonal relations
– alienation from one’s authentic self.
Anxiety

 the subjective state of the individual’s becoming aware that his/her existence can be destroyed, that he can
become nothing;
 a threat to some important value;
 is the “dizziness of freedom”.

[__________]
 a delight in the presence of the other person and an affirming of that person’s value and development as
much as one’s own;
 when seen as sex, it becomes temporary and lacking in commitment;
 there is no will, only wish.
Forms of Love
Sex- power of procreation; drive which perpetuates the race
Eros- is the wish to establish a lasting union; is built on care and tenderness
Philia - is friendship; takes time to grow, to develop, to sink its roots;
Agape - love of God for man; a kind of spiritual love that carries with it the risk of playing God

LEARNING AND BEHAVIORAL THEORIES

Basic concepts:
− Science of Behavior - Ignore the unconsiousness
− Observable behaviors - Directly seen & measured
− Learned Behaviors - Stimulus-Response (S-R); Phobias

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Ivan Pavlov

Classical Conditioning Process

1. GENERALIZATION
− Responding to a stimulus that resembles the neutral stimulus.
2. DISCRIMINATION
− Not responding to a stimulus because the individual recognizes that the stimulus is not exactly the
neutral stimulus.
3. EXTINCTION
− Ceasing to respond because the individual recognizes that the unconditioned stimulus is not given
after the neutral stimulus for several times.
− Unconditioned stimulus is not given after the neutral stimulus.
4. SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
− Responding after a prolonged rest period after extiction.

OPERANT CONDITIONING
Burrhus Frederic Skinner

− The process by which an operant response becomes associted with reinforcement through learning.
− Stimulus : an agent that rouses or excites a response.
− Schedule of reinforcement: a program for increasing or decreasing the likelihood of a particular response.
Continuous reinforcement: a schedule of reinforcement in which the desired behavior is reinforced every
time it occurs. [to be fearful]
− Two types of reinforcement:
o Primary reinforcement: any event or object reinforcing properties and does not require prior
association.
o Secondary/ Conditioned reinforcement: event or object that acquires its reinforcing qualities
through close association with a primary reinforcement in the past conditioning history.
o Positive reinforcement: anything that serves to increase the frequency of a response.
o Negative reinforcement: unpleasant or aversive stimuli that can be changed or avoided by certain
behavior.
− [_____________]: an undesirable consequence that follows a behavior and desired to stop or change it.
o Negative punishment/ omission training: Taking away something rewarding/pleasant.
o Positive punishment: introduce something aversive.
− Interval reinforcement: a schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is reinforced after a certain time
period has elapsed.
− Ratio reinforcement: a schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is reinforced after a number of
appropriate responses.
− SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT:
o FIXED RATIO: performance based reinforcement.
o FIXED INTERVAL: Reinforcement is given in a predetermined time.
o VARIABLE RATIO: Reinforcement is on the basis of some predetermined average number of
responses; random amount of reinforcement.
o VARIABLE INTERVAL: reinforcement randomly given. Could cause a decrease in motivation.

**In classical conditioning, extinction happens when there is no UCS. In operant conditioning, extinction happens
when there is no reinforcement.

Application of Conditioning
 Advertising
 Phobias or irrational fears
 Formation of irrational and supertisious beliefs (e.g., athletes’ socks to win the game)
 Parenting
 Social norms
 Motivation of employees, students, rehab patients and even pets

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Albert Bandura

Modeling
− Core of observational learning
− Involves cognitive processes & is not mimicry or imitation.

Chance Encounters and Fortuitous Events

Chance Encounters
• an unintended meeting of persons unfamiliar to each other
Fortuitous Events
• an environmental experience that is unexpected and unintended

[______________]
− the essence of humanness
− People actively contribute to their own experience
− an active process of exploring, manipulating, and influencing the environment in order to attain desired
outcome

Core Features of Human Agency

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
Intentionality
• refers to acts a person performs intentionally.
Forethought
• people possess this to set goals.
• to anticipate likely outcomes of their actions.
Self-reflectiveness
• people are examiners of their own functioning;
Self-reactiveness
• people not only make choices but they monitor their progress toward fulfilling those choices

Processes Governing Observational Learning

1. Attention
2. Representation
3. Behavioral Production
4. Motivation

TRAIT AND DISPOSITIONAL THEORIES

PSYCHOLOGY OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Gordon W. Allport

[_______________]
− The dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his
characteristic behaviour & thought.
Common traits
− are general characteristics; means by which people within a given culture can be compared to one
another.
Personal dispositions
A general determining characteristic, but it is unique to the individual who has it.
 Cardinal
− an eminent characteristic or ruling passion so outstanding that it dominate one’s
life.
− known by single characteristic.
 Central
 less dominating characteristics around which a person’s life focuses;
 guide much of a person’s adaptive and stylistic behavior;
 e.g., intelligent, honest,shy and anxious
 Secondary
 less descriptive of an individual but occur with some regularity and are responsible
for much of one’s specific behaviour.
 e.g., getting anxious when speaking to a group or impatient while waiting in line.

Motivational disposition
 strongly felt dispositions that receive their motivation from basic needs and drives;
 initiate action;
Stylistic Disposition
 personal disposition that is less intensely experienced;
 guide action;

BIOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY
Hans Eysenck

Three dimensions of Personality:

– Extraversion [E], Neuroticism [N], Psychoticism [P]
– [N] & [P] not limited to pathological individuals
– All are part of normal personality structure

Extraversion – Introversion

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist

[________________________]

Psychoticism - Superego

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF PERSONALITY

David Buss

Overview:

Artificial Selection (Breeding)

− Humans select particular desirable traits in a breeding species.
Natural Selection
− When nature rather than people select traits
− Traits more/less common in species over long period of time – do or don’t lead to greater
survivability & reproduction --- Evolved Strategies.
− Sexual Selection: when members of the opposite sex find certain traits more appealing & attractive
than others thus produce offspring with those traits.

Evolved Mechanisms: Psychological Mechanisms

Personality Traits

1. Surgency/extraversion/dominance
− Disposition to experience positive emotional states & to engage in one’s environment
− Driven to achieve, dominating and leads, have more children, marked by a tendency to take
risks and to experience positive emotion, initiating & maintaining friendships/relationships
2. [____________________]
− Person’s willingness & capacity to cooperate & help the group ;
− To be hostile & aggressive

Theories of Personality – BARLAAN2016

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
− Likely to work to smooth over group conflict & form alliances between people; foster group
cohesion; tend to conform to group norms
3. Conscientiousness
− One’s capacity & commitment to work
− Careful, detail-oriented, focus & reliable; dependable
4. Openness/intellect
− One’s propensity for innovation & ability to solve problems.
− Intelligence & novelty
5. Emotional stability
− One’s ability to handle stress.

PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONAL CONTRUCTS

George Kelly

Overview
 Metatheory
 People Anticipate Events by the Meanings or Interpretations They Place on Those Events
− Behavior Is Shaped by Interpretation or Construction of the World
 Every Construction Is Open to Revision or Replacement
 We are tied to our past experiences only in the sense that they have helped to develop our constructs &
expectancies for the future.
 As cognitive theorist: Stressed the process of knowing as the primary factor in personality development.


Constructive alternativism
 An idea that, while there is only one true reality, reality is always experienced from one or another
perspective, or alternative construction.
 Multiple possible world views
o I have a construction, you have one, a person on the other side of the planet has one, someone
living long ago had one, a primitive person has one, a modern scientist has one, every child has one,
even someone who is seriously mentally ill has one.

Basic/Fundamental Postulate
 'A person's processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events'.

Personal Constructs
− Are ways of construing the world - in order to understand and explain the world around them in the same
way that scientists develop theories.
− often defined by words, but can also be non-verbal and hard to explain.
o feeling you get when your football team just won the championship.
− No 2 people use identical person constructs & no 2 people organize their constructs in an identical manner.
− When constructs are challenged or incomplete the result is emotional states such as anxiety, confusion,
anger and fear.
− often polar in that they have opposites (and are hence dichotomous). Thus the construct of good implies
another of bad. Polar constructs create one another: thus 'good' cannot exist without 'bad'. When poles
are denied, they are said to be submerged.
o Friendly-unfriendly, tall-short, intelligent-stupid, masculine-feminine.
o After applying teh original black-and-white construct we can use other bipolar constructs to
determine the extent of blackness or whiteness.
 If you think a person is intelligent, you may then apply construct, “academically intelligent
or commonsense intelligent. – provide a clearer picture.

What drives us according to Kelly?

− Anticipation is both the push and pull of the psychology of personal constructs.
− “it is the future that tantalizes man, not the past”

11 COROLLARIES

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
1. Construction corollary: We conservatively construct anticipation based on past experiences. We utilize past
experiences to help us organize and anticipate future events.
2. Experience corollary: When things do not happen as expected, we change our constructs (thus
reconstructing). This changes our future expectations.
3. Dichotomy corollary: We store experience as constructs, and then look at the world through them.
4. Organizational corollary: Constructs are connected to one another in hierarchies and network of
relationships. These relationships may be loose or tight.
5. The range corollary: Constructs are useful only in limited range of situations. Some ranges are broad, whilst
other ranges are narrow.
6. The modulation corollary: Some construct ranges can be 'modulated' to accommodate new ideas (e.g.
'big'). Others are 'impermeable'.
7. The choice corollary: We can choose to gain new experiences to expand our constructs or stay in the safe
but limiting zone of current constructs.
8. The individuality corollary: As everyone's experience is different, their constructs are different.
9. The commonality corollary: Many of our experiences are similar and/or shared, leading to similarity of
constructs with others. Discussing constructs also helps to build shared constructs.
10. The fragmentation corollary: Many of our constructs conflict with one another. These may be dictated by
different contexts and roles.
11. The sociality corollary: We interact with others through understanding of their constructs.

COGNITIVE THEORY – IRRATIONAL THINKING

Aaron T. Beck

Assumption
How one thinks largely determineshow one feels and behaves.
People can consciously change how they reason.

Cognitive Schemas
Cognitve structures that consist of an individual’s fundamental core beliefs and assumptions about how the world
operates.
• Develop early in life from personal experiences and identification with significant others.
• Dependent on a person’s moods.

Levels of Cognitive Functioning

 Controlled thinking
– Voluntary, intentional, fully conscious, amenable to regulation.
 Automatic thinking
– Involuntary & Unintentional
– Run as self-monologue

Cognitive Distortions
 Systematic errors in reasoning.
 Appear during psychological distress.

1. Arbitrary Inference
• Drawing a specific cconclusion without supporting evidence or even inthe face of contradictory evidence.
• One evidence is enough to prove a person guilty.

2. Selective abstraction
• Conceptualizing a situation on the basis of a detail taken out of context and ignoring all other possible
3. Overgeneralization
• Abstracting a general rule from one or two isolated incidents and applying it too broadly.
• One sample is representative of the population.
4. Magnification / Minimization
• Seeing an event as more significant or less significant than it actualy is.
• The problem is 10 times bigger than it really is.
5. Personalization/ Excessive Responsibility
• Attributing external events to oneself without eveidence of connection.
• Parents assumes that they are to blame everytime their children misbehave.
6. Dichotomous thinking

Theories of Personality – BARLAAN2016

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
• Categorizing situations in extremes.
• Black & white; all or none thinking.

SIKOLOHIYA NG KAPWA
Virgilio Gaspar Enriquez

SIKOLOHIYANG PILIPINO
• Study of diwa (psyche) – wealth of ideas implied by the philosphical concept of “essence”

“Taong- bahay” (Metaphor)

• Difference between tao sa bahay (person in the house) and taong-bahay (house person).
• Indigenous psychology : kinagisnan and katutubong sikolohiya.

BASIC TENETS

Core value or Kapwa (togetherness)

• Kapwa, meaning 'togetherness', is the core construct of Filipino Psychology.
• Kapwa refers to community; not doing things alone. Kapwa has two categories, Ibang Tao
(other people) and Hindi Ibang Tao (not other people).
o The “ako” (ego) and the “iba sa akin” (others) are one and the same in Kapwa
psychology.
• Filipinos value conformity because unlike non-Asian countries, its culture is predominantly
Confucian. This runs into conflict with individualism (kanya-kanya) which was brought about by
Western colonialism.

Categories of Kapwa
1. Ibang tao (outsider) : 5 domains
• Pakikitungo – civility
• Pakikisalamuha – act of mixing
• Pakikilahok – act of joining/ participating
• Pakikibgay – conformity
• Pakikisama – being united with the group/ adjusting
2. Hindi ibang tao (one-of-us) : 3 domains
• Pakikipagpalagayang –loob – act of mutual trust
• Pakikisangkot – act of joining others
• Pakikipagkaisa – being one with others.

Linking socio-personal value: Pivotal Value

• Pakiramdam: Shared inner perceptions. Filipinos use damdam, or the inner perception of
others' emotions, as a basic tool to guide his dealings with other people.
o Heightened awareness, sensitivity
o “feeling for another”
o An active process involving frreat care and deliberation manifested in “hesitation to
react, inattention to subtle cues, and non-verbal behavior in mental role-playing.
o The centrality of pakikiramdam in behavioral and interpersonal domains:
 Biro, lambing, tampo

Linking socio-personal value/Kagandahang-Loob: Shared humanity. This refers to being able to help
other people in dire need due to a perception of being together as a part of one Filipino humanity.

Accommodative surface values

Theories of Personality – BARLAAN2016

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY JASON RAY M. BARLAAN, MA Psy., RP
Discussion Outline Asst. Prof.of Psychology/ Clinical Psychologist
− Hiya: Loosely translated as 'shame' by most Western psychologists, Hiya is actually 'sense of
propriety'.
− Utang na loob: Norm of reciprocity. Filipinos are expected by their neighbors to return favors—
whether these were asked for or not—when it is needed or wanted.
− Pakikisama and Pakikipagkapwa: Smooth Interpersonal Relationship, or SIR, as coined by
Lynch (1961 and 1973). This attitude is primarily guided by conformity with the majority.

Confrontative surface values

− Bahala Na: Bahala Na translates literally as "leave it up to God (Bathala)" and it is used as an
expression, almost universally, in Filipino culture. Filipinos engage in the bahala na attitude as a
culture-influenced adaptive coping strategy when faced with challenging situations.
− Lakas ng Loob: This attitude is characterized by being courageous in the midst of problems and
uncertainties.
− Pakikibaka: Literally in English, it means concurrent clashes. It refers to the ability of the
Filipino to undertake revolutions and uprisings against a common enemy.

Societal values
− Karangalan: Loosely translated to dignity, this actually refers to what other people see in a
person and how they use that information to make a stand or judge about his/her worth.
− Puri: the external aspect of dignity. May refer to how other people judge a person of his/her
worth. This compels a common Filipino to conform to social norms, regardless how obsolete
they are.
− Dangal: the internal aspect of dignity. May refer to how a person judges his own worth.
− Katarungan: Loosely translated to justice, this actually refers to equity in giving rewards to a
person.
− Kalayaan: Freedom and mobility. Ironically, this may clash with the less important value of
pakikisama or pakikibagay (conformity).

References:

Mataragnon, R.H. (1987). In from colonial to liberation psychology: The philippine experience. Virgilio G. Enriquez
(e) (1992) UP Press.

Fesist, J., Feist, G.J., & Roberts, T. (2013). Theories of personality (8th ed.). PH: McGraw-Hill

Ryckman, R.M. (2000). Theories of Personality(7th ed.). C.A.: Wadsworth, p.349

Theories of Personality – BARLAAN2016