Psych 202 Lecture April 16, 2015Introduction to Personality- What is personality?o What makes you who you areo Why you are uniqueo What’s the same over time?o Personality= characteristics, emotions, thought, behaviors that are relatively stable over time and across circumstanceso Personality trait= characteristics of the person, a dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time- The Freudian or “Psychodynamic” Approacho The role of unconscious influences on personalityo Id= unconscious, pleasure centero Superego= dictates from society, parentso Ego= mediates between Id and Superegoo Introduced concept of unconscious defense mechanisms- Freudian Slipo A verbal or memory mistake that is believed to be linked to the unconscious mindo “nice to beat you” when you mean “meet” someone you don’t like- One reason Freud decreased in popularity… “The Penis Envy” theoryo “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 awarenesso Projection- attributing unacceptable qualities of the self to someone elseo Reaction formation- warding off an uncomfortable thought by overemphasizing its oppositeo 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 Choiceo 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 Existenceo Self-actualizing tendency: the human motive towards realizing our inner potentialo Maslow’s hierarchy of needs recognizes self-actualization as a higher needo Flow= engagement in tasks that match our abilitieso Existential approacho Social cognitive approach- Studying Personality: Projective Approacheso Open to subject interpretationo 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 structureo 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 inventorieso 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 Approacho Dan McAdams, personality researchero To understand people, need to understand their personal narratives of their whole liveso “Tell me about your life”- The Search for Core Traitso 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/introversiono Psychoticism (impulsiveness and aggression)- The inner quadrant of the Eysenck model shows an Ancient Greek Typology that divided people into four types:o Melancholico Cholerico Sanguineo 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 extraversiono Introverted more stress-reactive (ex: infants with stimulus cry more easily)- What is the biological basis of personality?o Personality is rooted in geneticso Temperaments are evident in infancyo Personality is linked to specific neurophysiological mechanismso 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 areo Personalities of adopted children are largely unrelated to their adoptive parents- Are there specific genes for personality?- Temperaments are Evident in Infancyo Personality is reflected in infant temperament Activity level Emotionality Sociability Shy children are “inhibited”- Traits in the Braino Hans Eysenck postulated that extraversion is most relevant to neurophysiologicalmechanisms; variations in alertness Over/under stimulation of the reticular formation (arousal)o Jeffrey Gray proposed two brain systems responsible for extraversion and neuroticism Behavioral activation system (BAS) Behavioral inhibition system (BIS)- Arousal and Extraversion/Introversiono Theory: differences in cortical arousal why differences between extraverts and introverts- Examples of some traits:o Self-efficacyo Optimismo Type A (competitive) vs Type B (laid back and flexible) personalitieso Neuroticismo 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 cultureo Pervasive and inflexibleo Has an onset in adolescence or early adulthoodo Stable over timeo 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