Personality

Personality

• Pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving that is characteristic of an individual.

• Psychoanalytic perspective

• Humanistic perspective

• Trait perspective

• Social-cognitive perspective

Freud: Psychoanalytic theory

• Basics of psychoanalytic theory– Focus on the unconscious

• Conscious• Preconscious• Unconscious

– Importance of childhood experiences

Structure of personality

• Id

• Superego

• Ego

Psychosexual development

• Oral stage

• Anal stage

• Phallic stage

• Latency stage

• Genital stage

• Fixation

Defense mechanisms

• Repression

• Regression

• Reaction formation

• Projection

• Rationalization

• Displacement

• Sublimation

Psychoanalytic therapy

• Free association

• Dream analysis

Limitations of psychoanalytic theory

• Personality continues to develop throughout life

• Influence of social and cultural dynamics

• Modern research– Dreams– Memory repression

• Psychoanalytic theory is scientifically untestable

Neo-Freudians: Psychodynamic perspective

• Carl Jung - focus on the unconscious– Dimensions of personality– Collective unconscious

• Alfred Adler & Karen Horney– Importance of childhood social experiences

Erikson: Psychosocial development

• Personality results from the resolution of psychosocial crises that occur throughout development– Trust vs. mistrust (infancy-1 year)– Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1-2 years)– Initiative vs. guilt (3-5 years)– Competence vs. inferiority (6-adolescence)– Identity vs. role confusion (adolescence-young adult)– Intimacy vs. isolation (20s-40s)– Generativity vs. stagnation (40s-60s)– Integrity vs. despair (60+)

Humanistic perspective

• Abraham Maslow - hierarchy of needs– Self-actualizing person– Peak experiences

• Carl Rogers - person-centered approach– Self concept– Unconditional positive regard– Empathy, genuineness

Trait perspective

• Exploring traits– Factor analysis– Personality inventories

Trait perspective

• Big 5 personality factors– Openness– Conscientiousness – Extraversion – Agreeableness– Neuroticism

Trait perspective

• Epigenetic theory– Interaction of genes and environment

Social-cognitive perspective

• Bandura– Reciprocal determinism

Cognitive factors

Behavior Environmental factors

Social-cognitive perspective

• Personal control– Locus of control– Learned helplessness– Attribution style