Personality What is it and How Can We study it personality people s typical ways of thinking feeling and behaving trait relatively enduring predisposition that influences our behavior across many situa tion two approaches to studying personality nomothetic approach idiographic approach nomothetic approach strives to understand personality by identifying general laws that govern the behavior of all individuals x idiographic approach strives to understand personality by identifying the unique configu ration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person three broad influences on personality genetic factors shared environmental factors non shared environmental factors Investigating the Causes of Personality Overview of Twin and Adoption Stud ies identical twins reared together and those reared apart are about the same personality wise which shows that shared environment plays little or no role in adult personality adoption studies shows that the correlations between biological parents an their adopted away children in their sociability levels are slightly higher than the correlation between adop tive parents and their adopted children even though the biological parents had essentially no environmental contact with their children after birth Birth Order Does it Matter Frank Sulloway examined the association between birth order and attitudes toward revo lutionary scientific theories results the later borns were more likely than firstborns to favor revolutionary ideas Behavior Genetic Studies A Note of Caution Researchers using twin and adoption studies have found that genes influence a variety of behaviors often associated with personality traits These behaviors include divorce religiosity and even the tendency to watch television molecular genetic studies investigation that allows researches to pinpoint genes associ ated with specific personality traits rests on two premises 1 genes code for proteins that in turn often influence the functioning of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin 2 the functioning of many neurotransmitters is associated with certain personality traits Psychoanalytic Theory The Controversial Legacy of Sigmund Freud His Fol lowers Freud s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality rests on three core assumptions Freud be lieved that many mental disorders were produced by psychological rather than physiological factors 1 Psychic Determinism the assumption that all psycho logical events have a cause Many key influences on adult personality stem from early childhood experiences especially parenting 2 symbolic meaning no action no matter how seemingly trivial is meaningless 3 unconscious motivation according to Freud we rarely understand why we do what we do Freud s model of Personality Structure looks like a glacier The Id Ego and Superego The Structure of Personality Freud hypothesized that the human psyche consists of three agencies or components the id ego and superego Id the reservoir of our most primitive impulses including sex and aggression seething caulderon of desires Operates by a mean of pleasure principle tendency of the id to strive for immediate gratification ego is the boss of the personality its the principle decision make primary task is to in teract with the real world governed by the reality principle tendency of the ego to postpone gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet super ego is our sense of morality it contains a sense of right and wrong normally the ego and superego are harmonious Anxiety and the Defense Mechanisms the ego interacts with the world so it engages in defense mechanisms Stages of Psychosexual Development according to Freud personality develop ment pro ceeds through a series of stages called psychosexual stages because each focuses on an eroge nous zone sexually arousing zone of the body According to Freud just as infants depend on their mother s breast as a source of satis faction They re also prone to unhealthy oral behaviors like overeating drinking exces sively or smoking Freudians believe that anally fixated individuals anal personalities tend toward ex cessive neatness stinginess and stubbornness in adulthood In the phallic stage children develop a powerful attraction for the opposite sex parent as well as a desire to elimi nate the same sex parent as a rival In boys the phallic stage is termed the Oedipus complex after the tragic Greek character who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother The boy who wants Mommy all for himself wants to kill or at least rid himself of Daddy In girls in contrast the phallic stage is often termed the Electra complex after the Greek character who avenged her father s murder by killing her mother Latency Consistent with this belief most boys and girls during this stage find members of the opposite sex to be yucky and utterly unappealing Genital this stage witnesses the emergence of mature romantic relationships Freud s Followers The Neo Freudians most neo freudian theories consists with Freud s theories on a unconscious influences b the importance of early experience in shaping personality However differ from Freudian theory in two key ways 1 place less emphasis on sexual ity as a driving force in personality and more emphasis on social drives ex need for approval 2 Neo freudian theories are more optimistic than Freudian theories concerning the prospects of personality growth Freud was pessimistic about the possibility of personality change after childhood Alfred Alder The Striving for Superiority the principle motive in personality is not sex or aggression but striving for superiority tend to do this by our distinct style of life longstanding pattern of achieving superiority inferiority complex feelings of low self esteem that can lead to overcompensation for Carl Jung The Collective Unconscious tors have passed down to us across generations collective unconscious according to jung our shared storehouse of memories that ances believed that the collective unconscious contained achetypes cross culturally universal over our peers such feelings symbols Karen Horney Feminist Psychology believed Freud s concept of penis envy was misguided and that women s sense of inferi ority stems from their excessive dependency on men Behavioral and Social Learning Theories of Personality radical behaviorist view personality as under the control of 2 major influences 1 genetic factors and 2 contingencies in the environment reinforcers and punishers Behavioral
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