Personality

a relitively stable pattern of thinking feeling and behaving that is distinct for each individual

• Extroversion
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Neuroticism
• Openness to Experience

• critical personality dimensions
• Norman, 1963

how outgoing and energetic a person is—sociability, liveliness, outgoing, assertive, active

how kind or sympathetic someone is—pleasant disposition, charitable, empathetic, friendly, kind, helpful, easy-going, generous

how responsible and organized someone is—reliability, hard work, punctuality, concern about doing things correctly, organized, deliberate, conforming, self-disciplined

how anxious or tense someone is—nervousness, emotional instability, moodiness, irritability, tendency to worry, anxious, moody, critical, self-punishing

how curious and imaginative someone is—imagination, intelligence, curiosity, aesthetic sensitivity, artistic, open to new experiences

• Self report measures
• Projective Test

• individuals answer questions about themselves
• Yes/No True/False or Always/Never Not a problem/Always a problem

• most common self report measure
• 550-567 T/F

Test that use unstructured or ambiguous stimuli to alllow a person's personality to emerge.

• Most popular of the projective test
• 10 symmetrical blots

Psychodynamic Approach

• behavior is a result of dynamic underlying psychic processes
• both conscious and unconscious
• BIG CONTRIBUTION= UNCONSCIOUS

• a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories
• "we are largely unaware of what is going on in the deep dark unconscious"

• biological drives play a key role (especially drives for sex)
• drives often confllict with one another
• desire to have sex with mother but doesnt want to be rejected by father

• ask that a person completely relaxes and says whatever comes to mind:
• Uncensored, unablashed, regardless of how trivial or controversial or silly

• Id
• Ego
• Superego

• unconscious, irrational source of primitive impulses
• very unrealistic, immature thinking
• anything goes
• dreams-thinking in dreams disguises or unacceptable Id impulses
• Jailicia

urge for immediate gratification, regardless if consequences or external realities

largely conscious, realistic aspect of personality

• operates on the Reality Principle
• acts to control Id's impulses
• mediator between the Id and the real and the real world
• finds acceptable ways to gratify Id's impulses.

sees world as it is not as we wish it was

• unconscious, irrational, based on rules and prohibition we have internalized from interactions with parents and other authority figures
• conscience
• operates by the Idealistic Principle

what we SHOULD do according to internalized authority figures/society

How we act is a reflection of how well the person copes with and resolves conflicts among the Id Ego and Superego.

• the Ego's way of protecting itself from unacceptable thoughts and impulses
• and the anxiety that stems from conflicting urges and prohibitions of the Id and Superego

mind defends itself from thinking about unpleasant unwanted or threatening situations

• internal counterpart to denial
• we unknowingly exclude from consciousness any unacceptable and potentially dangerous impulses
• ex: molestation as a child repressed-expressed as fear of men

leads us to attribute our own unacceptable and possibly dangerous thoughts/impulses to another person

redirect an impulse away from the person who prompts it toward another person who is a safe substitute

redirect socially unacceptable impulses, transforming energy from them into acceptable and even admirable behavior

• transform unacceptable thought or impulse into its opposite
• ex: inwardly jealous of coworkers new car, but your conscious report is that the car is superficial, ugly, pure waste of money

• avoid threatening thoughts by replacing them with non threatening ones
• JOY
• ex: providing justification. the wife of the compulsive gambler brags to friends how hard her husband works to support the family

• revert to thinking and behavior in ways that are characteristic of an earlier stage of socioemotional development to ward off anxiety or pain that we are experiencing in present stage
• Zoe

• gender and sexuality based development starts at birth and continues through adulthood. A set of personality characteristics is associated with each stage
• if child is unable to resolve issues of current stage they become fixated, unable to progress and show characteristics of the stage in adulthood

• nourishment and pleasure from oral activity;
• focus on mouth
• 0-2 yrs

• derive pleasure from urination and pooping
• 2-4 yrs

• Figure out stimulation of genitals feels good
• overly preoccupied with self
• vain and arrogant
• unrealistic self-confidence and self-absorption
• 4-6yrs - middle childhood

• sexual sublimation and repression of complexes
• 6-11yrs/middle childhood

• traditional sex roles and heterosexual orientation
• 11-ish
• adolescence through adulthood

boys desire their mother and worry about wrath of their fathers

girls may desire their father and worry about wrath of their mothers

• actions shaped by expectation for future
• strive for superiority unless have inferiority complex

• rejected Freud's theory that basis of personality is fueled by sexual drives and aggression
• Theorized about the personal and collective unconscious
• memories of distant ancestors
• Archetypes

• emphasizes person's potential for growth and change and inherent goodness
• Believes that each person shapes own destiny, with a heavy focus on the conscious level
• ex: my biological dad

• person centered approach
• Emphasizes the self and person's perception of the self
• self concept
• person has power within self to change themselves and be what they can be
• Unconditional Positive regard

• an ideal self
• the closer the match between two better adjusted the person is
• what you think about yourself

• the idea that a child's development was greatly assited by the belief that they were loved "no matter what"
• not advocating permissive parenting or spoiling the child, but rather allowing the child to develop "fully" while learning rules of acceptable behavior

Self- actualization as highest need in hierarchy

studies how people think and behave and how the two interact

personalities differ because different environmental contingencies and schedule of reinforcement.

• reciprocal determinism
• interaction among personal factors environmental events behavioral factors

• our sense of control over our live impacts the decision we make and the feelings we have
• tied in closely with motivation

Humans tend to perceive of themselves favorably especially in Western society

the perception that chance/luck or some outside force determines your fate

• the perception that to a great extent you control your own destiny
• ex: my biological dad