Psych 202 Lecture April 16 2015 Introduction to Personality What is personality o What makes you who you are o Why you are unique o What s the same over time o Personality characteristics emotions thought behaviors that are relatively stable over time and across circumstances o Personality trait characteristics of the person a dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time The Freudian or Psychodynamic Approach o The role of unconscious influences on personality o Id unconscious pleasure center o Superego dictates from society parents o Ego mediates between Id and Superego o Introduced concept of unconscious defense mechanisms Freudian Slip o A verbal or memory mistake that is believed to be linked to the unconscious mind o nice to beat you when you mean meet someone you don t like One reason Freud decreased in popularity The Penis Envy theory o The female acknowledges the fact of her castration and with it too the superiority of the male and her own inferiority but she rebels against this unwelcome state of affairs Freud Defense mechanisms o Denial refuse to acknowledge source of anxiety i e ill person ignores medical advice o Repression excluding source of anxiety from awareness o Projection attributing unacceptable qualities of the self to someone else o Reaction formation warding off an uncomfortable thought by overemphasizing its opposite o Rationalization concocting a seemingly logical reason or excuse for behavior that might otherwise be shameful i e person cheats on taxes b c everyone else is doing that o Displacement shifting attention of emotion from one object to another i e person yells at children after a bad day at work o Sublimation channeling unacceptable impulses into constructive even admirable behavior i e sadist become surgeon or dentist Little Shop of Horrors The Humanistic Existential Approach Personality as Choice o Focus on how healthy choices create personality Humanistic psychologists emphasize a positive optimistic view of human nature goodness and potential for growth Existential psychologists focus on the individual negotiation of the issue of meaning and reality of death Human Needs Self actualization and Personality as Existence o Self actualizing tendency the human motive towards realizing our inner potential o Maslow s hierarchy of needs recognizes self actualization as a higher need o Flow engagement in tasks that match our abilities o Existential approach o Social cognitive approach Studying Personality Projective Approaches o Open to subject interpretation o Rorschach Inkblot Test individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondent s inner feelings and interpret his her personality structure o Thematic Apperception Test TAT respondents reveal underlying motives concerns and the way they see the social world through the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people Studying Personality Self report inventories o Personality inventories use multiple choice forced choice Validity scales help alleviate response style biases Self report a series of answers to a questionnaire that asks people to indicate the extent to which sets of statements of adjectives accurately describe their own behavior or mental state MMPI 2 a well researched clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems Studying Personality Narrative Approach o Dan McAdams personality researcher o To understand people need to understand their personal narratives of their whole lives o Tell me about your life The Search for Core Traits o Big Five the traits of a five factor model conscientiousness agreeableness neuroticism openness to experience and extraversion Eysenck Posits Three superordinate personality traits o Emotional stability instability neuroticism o Extraversion introversion o Psychoticism impulsiveness and aggression The inner quadrant of the Eysenck model shows an Ancient Greek Typology that divided people into four types o Melancholic o Choleric o Sanguine o Phlegmatic The Big Five Openness to experience conscientiousness extraversion agreeableness and neuroticism think canoe or ocean to remember Personality traits predict behavior and psychopathology Introversion vs extraversion o Introverted more stress reactive ex infants with stimulus cry more easily What is the biological basis of personality o Personality is rooted in genetics o Temperaments are evident in infancy o Personality is linked to specific neurophysiological mechanisms o Personality is adaptive A lot of our personality functions are influenced by genes Adoption studies show o Adopted siblings are no more alike in personality than randomly selected persons are o Personalities of adopted children are largely unrelated to their adoptive parents Are there specific genes for personality Temperaments are Evident in Infancy o Personality is reflected in infant temperament Activity level Emotionality Sociability Shy children are inhibited Traits in the Brain o Hans Eysenck postulated that extraversion is most relevant to neurophysiological mechanisms variations in alertness o Over under stimulation of the reticular formation arousal Jeffrey Gray proposed two brain systems responsible for extraversion and neuroticism Behavioral activation system BAS Behavioral inhibition system BIS Arousal and Extraversion Introversion o Theory differences in cortical arousal why differences between extraverts and introverts Examples of some traits o Self efficacy o Optimism o Type A competitive vs Type B laid back and flexible personalities o Neuroticism o Hardiness resiliency dandelion vs orchid o Narcissism self centeredness o Stress reactivity From Traits to Diagnosable disorders DSM V s perspective on normal and abnormal psychopathological dimensions of personality traits Personality disorders enduring patterns of inner experience and behavior with 5 characteristics o Deviates markedly from expectations of individual s culture o Pervasive and inflexible o Has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood o Stable over time o Leads to either significant personal distress or impairment in socio occupational functioning DSM V Diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder 5 of the following o Grandiose sense of self importance o Preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success power brilliance beauty or ideal love o Believes he she is special and unique and can only be understood by or should associate with other