psyc 2301 ch 10

• the unique and relatively stable aspects of an individual's psychology
• ie: congitions, emotions, and behaviors

• psychoanalytic
• humanistic
• social cognition theory
• trait theory

• state personality is the result of unconscious drives and early experiences
• fits best in philosopy & developed by Sigmund Freud
• not scientifically testable, so are not scientific theories
• states personality is shaped by...
• -strong unconscious desires for sex and violence
• -our early childhood experiences

• argues that we have strong motivation to create an ideal self and this motivation shapes our personality
• fits best in philosopy
• not scientifically testable, so are not scientific theories

says that a strong motivation for high self-esteem influences our personality

says that genetic dispositions lead to individuals differences

• conscious
• pre-conscious
• unconscious

• consists of our current awareness
• ruled by the ego

• includes thoughts and feels that we can easily pull into awaremess bc they are just below our level of consciousness
• contains the superego

• consists of things that are difficult and nearly impossible to pull into awareness.
• Freud believed this level of consciousness is what truely shaped our personality
• influenced by the ID

Freud believed that our current awareness was just a tip of the iceberg and that the vast majority of our personality was shaped by the unconscious

• analyzing dreams
• looking at free associations
• taking note of slips of the tongue (Freudian slips)

• manifest content-images
• latent content-meaning

• there is no scientific evidence for the existence of latent content
• we don't need latent content in order to find the themes of sex and violence in out dreams.
• since the amygdale is activated during sleep, the manifest content of outrdreams tends to be sexual and violent in nature

• consists of analyzing one's stream of consciousness
• can uncover their unconscious desires and wishes

reveal your true underlying desires

• ID
• ego
• superego
• conflict amoung these influences personality

• believes in the pleasure principle
• maxamize pleasure, avoid pain
• born with this

• as we grow the ego (conscious self) emerges and comes in conflict with the ID
• ego must find acceptable ways to fulfill the desires of ID
• follows the reality principle (ie: sometimes we must postpone gratification to obtain larger goals)

• internalized societal pressures become the superego
• little voice in head telling what you should do
• when good, rewards with pride/self-respect
• when bad, punishes with shame/guilt

• it is not truly a scientific theory (can't test it)
• true bc Freud says so
• this perspective is based on a small number of mentally ill patients and Freuds own self-reflectin.
• hard to generalize to larger population

• when parents love you only if you behave
• in order to be loved you can't be yourself
• learn to hate your true self
• never reach full potential

• when parents love you no matter how you behave
• you learn to love yourself more fully
• allows you to strive for personal greatness

individuals who engage in evil, did not receive unconditional positive regard growing up.

• it is mostly phiosophical and not scientifically testable
• based on a small number of mentally ill patients and thus hard to generalize to a larger population

• influenced by humanistic perspective
• doesn't assume we are innately good or bad, but does assume that we asll want to feel good about ourselves
• desire for high self-esteem shapes who we are

compare our self to others in area that we find self-relevant

• others value it
• you receive positive feedback

• self-esteem drops
• if negative feedback continues, you will seek out a domain that you are good at

• measure of how capable and effective you are at dealing with the demands of a particular situation
• levels differ across different domains and strongly influence our behavior

• (people are just different)
• instead of why they are different, how they are different

• created list of adjectives describing how people are
• came up with 400 different personality traits
• but 3 fundamentally different "types" of traits
• cardinal, central, & secondary

• a single core trait that directs all your behavior
• most ppl are not this one dimensional

most people can be summed up with 5-10 traits called central traits

• don't affect your every action
• only come to the surface under specific circumstances

• narrowed Alports 4000 traits to 171 by eliminating redundant and uncommon traits
• created factor analysis

• statistical analysis that allows you to measure the degree to which characteristics are similar to each other
• high correlation thought to belong to same factor
• Cattell concluded there are 16 personality traits based on this

• said 16 was too many, but 3 sounded just right
• came up with the following traits
• -extraverted-introverted
• -neuroticism-emotionally stable
• -psychoticism-superefo function

concerns how social you are

concerns how anxious you are

concerns the degree to which you conform to societal pressures

• Openess to experience
• Conscientiousness
• Extroversion
• Agreeableness
• Neurotism
• found cross-culturally making them biologically based
• twins show that genetics play a roll

• activity level
• quality of mood
• approach-withdrawal
• adaptability
• rhythmicity
• responsiveness
• intensity of reaction
• distractability
• attention span

some infants are highly active

some children are happy and some are not

• some children are more curious that others
• showing willingness to engage in novel stimuli

some adjust more rapidly to new experiences

some children are easier to put on a schedule

some children are easliy "moved"

infants respond with different amounts of intensity

some kids are easily distracted by new stimuli

some kids lose interest easily

• 65% of infants are classified into one of 3 categories
• -easy 40%
• -slow to warm up15%
• -difficult10%
• remaining 35% are not easily categorized