Personality

Personality
Understanding oneself entails developing an understanding of one’s
personality.

 Allport- “Personality as the dynamic organization within the

individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique
adjustment to his environment”

 Mischel(1976)- “Distinctive patterns of behavior including thoughts &

emotions that characterize each individual adaptation to the
situations of his or her life.”

• Behavior patterns across situations

• Psychological characteristics of the person that lead to those

behavior patterns.
Theories of Personality
 Type & Trait approach-focus on characteristics
 Dynamic approaches- on motives impulses &
psychological processes
 Learning & Behavioral
 Humanistic Approaches- Self and the importance of the
individuals subjective view of the world.
 Type Theories- Hippocrates 400 BC .
4 Temperamental types
 Sanguine-cheerful ,vigorous
 Phlegmatic-slow moving, calm
 Melancholic-Depressed, morose
 Choleric-Hot-tempered

Many other Typologies

A class of individuals said to share a common collection of
characteristics
 Introverts-shyness, social withdrawal, tendency to talk
much
 Extraverts-tendency to be outgoing, talkative
 Eysenck’s hierarchical Theory

Personality Type (certain characteristics)

habitual response patters (applicable to many situations)

specific responses (specific situations)

Trait Theories
Descriptive terms like determined flamboyant , inclined to
make quick decisions are “traits”

Allport’s Theory- Distinctive & personal forms of behaviors

 Mostly adjectives that describe how people act, think, perceive &
feel.
 Three levels of generality

Cardinal Traits- Dominant and all individual action can be traced to

them
Central Traits- Characterizing an individual’s behavior to some extent
but not in such a complete way as cardinal traits
Secondary traits-influential but only within a narrow range
 Type and Trait theories involve a search for separable
components of personality and ways by which the
components fit together to form a personality structure.

 Dynamics approaches involve a search for processes by

which needs, motives and impulses –often hidden from
view –interact to produce the individual’s behavior.
Psychoanalytic Theory
3 parts

1. Structure of the personality comprising of the id, ego,

superego.
2. Personality dynamics in which conscious and
unconscious motivation and ego-defense mechanisms
play an important role.
3. Theory of psychosexual development in which different
motives and bodily regions influence the child at
different stages of growth.
Personality Structure: Id, Ego & Superego

3 interlocking parts
Id- most primitive, biological based urges
- eat, drink, eliminate & sexual stimulation
- the energy that underlies these urges is libido
- operates on the pleasure principle
- without regard to rules, realities of life

Ego- The elaborate ways of thinking and behaving

constitutes the “executive-function”
- delays the demands of id channelizing them into
more socially acceptable out lets
- works on the “in the service of reality principle”
Superego- conscience-

-mainly prohibitions learnt from parents and other

authorities
-superego may condemn as wrong certain things that the
ego may otherwise do to satisfy the id
-It is the seat for all positive values and moral ideals that
are pursued because they are worthy
3 levels of consciousness-
Conscious, preconscious & the unconscious

 Conscious level- we are aware

if certain things around us &
certain conscious thoughts.
 Preconscious level- Memories
and thoughts that are easily
available with a moments
reflection
 Unconscious- Memories
,thoughts and Motives which
we cannot easily call up.
Why do some ideas and feelings become
unconscious?

Repression- We repress or banish from consciousness,

ideas, memories feelings or motives unacceptable,
forbidden and disturbing.
 It is unconscious and automatic.
 We don’t choose
 Whenever the idea or impulse which is painful and anxiety
causing we must escape
 This anxiety triggers repression
According to Freud the repressed material is not just safely
tucked away. It operates underground, converting
repressed conflicts into neurosis.

-Unconscious process also figured in dreams and

accidents.

-Dreams are disguised manifestations of ids motives “royal

road to the unconscious”

-Slips of the tongue

Defense Mechanism
 The demands of id are instinctual & amoral and hence
must be blocked by the ego & superego.
 Results in anxiety ad guilt from which the ego has to be
protected
 Defenses are used- The ego disguises, redirects and
copes with the id’s urges.

Reaction Formation- A motive that would arouse unbearable

anxiety if it recognized hence it is converted into its
opposite
Projection and Displacement
Psychosexual stages of development

 Freud emphasized biological development and sexual

development
 From birth onwards we have innate tendency to seek
pleasure though stimulation of various parts of the body
that are sensitive to touch
 The mouth, the anus and the genitals are erogenous
zones
 Psychosexual stages
 If a child’s need at one psychosexual stage are under
satisfied or over satisfied, then it leads to “fixation”
Oral Stage – birth to 1 year

 The infant obtains pleasure by sucking and later by biting

 Feeding, mouthing new objects, even relief of teething
pain
 Mouth is the source of all pleasure in the first year
 A baby given too little or too much or made too anxious
about it-oral fixation
 Adulthood excessive oral behavior in terms of concrete
forms eg. Smoking, psychological forms such as
dependence or critical biting personality
Anal Stage- when child is toilet trained and teach them
prohibited behavior
 Anus becomes highly sensitive to the stimulation of
“holding on” and “letting go”
 Toilet training is first contact with authority
 Id is brought under control of the ego

Fixation characterized by
 Messiness and disorder
 Compulsiveness, over conformity
Phallic Stage- (3-5 years)

 After child has been toilet trained there is increase in

awareness of genitals
 It is in this stage that children develop sexual feelings
towards the parent of the opposite sex
 Oedipus complex & Electra complex
 The child may be fearful of the parent of same sex and
fear retaliation
 Gradually this anxiety is resolved by identification with
parent. Adopting behavior patterns and ideas.
Latency Period- (6 years through puberty)
 According to Freud not very important in the
development if personality
 The child learns more about the world and the ego
expands

Genital Stage- Adolescences & beyond

 Mature sexual interests appear
 The focus lies outside the self and family
 Responsible enjoyment of adult sexuality which is the
epitome of healthy development
 Limitations
 Dynamic theories can not be tested
 Cultural environment major influence
 Research from studies of disturbed adults
Learning and Behavioral Theories
 Behaviors that make up our personality are conditioned or learned

 Current conditions help maintain this behavior

 Main focus is on testing their theories hence focus on observable

behaviors

 Dollard and Miller gave the basic idea that social behavior and
individual behavior can be explained by means of basic learning
principles

 Neurosis explained as an outcome of conflict on being attracted and

repelled by a course of action.
 Skinner’s radical behavioral perspective drew only from instrumental
conditioning

 Reinforcement and punishment influence behavior

 Ruled out unobservable like drive, motives and emotions

 Personality as a collection of reinforced responses

 Bandura and Walters- gave importance to observational learning or

imitation

 It requires no direct reinforcement to the learner

 Imitator observes the model and experiences the model’s behaviors

and its consequences vicariously

 Situationalist approach that diminishes ‘person’ in personality

Humanistic Theories

 Have focused on an entity known as the self

 2 distinct meanings

- people’s attitudes about themselves their perceived

traits, abilities, weaknesses
- this is the self-concept/self-Image.
- the executive functions-processed by which an individual
copes, thinks , remembers, perceives and plans
- Individual's
subjective frame of reference, it may or may not
correspond with external reality

- The concept of the self develops out of the phenomenal field

- The ideal self- what the person would like to be

- Trouble occurs when there are mismatches or incongruence

- Results can be very disturbing

- As an individual needs self-esteem we can distort our perceptions of

our experiences in self-serving ways.
Personality Development- as a child grows parents and
others react to their behavior, sometimes in a positive
way and sometimes with disapproval

Children regard some actions or thoughts as unworthy and

they often react by distorting or denying these unworthy
aspects of self