What is personality o What makes you who you are unique the same as others o What changes over time o Personality characteristics emotions thoughts behaviors that are relatively stable over time and across circumstances your life A personality disorder is continuous over time it is not one event bad time in o Personality traits smaller aspects of who we are characteristics of the person a dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time E g introvert vs extrovert In total we are a sum of our traits Some traits predict psychopathology o E g introversion Kagan at 4 months old you can see which children are high stress reactive over aroused likely to be introverted reading being alone may develop high stress disorder o Or low stress reactive under aroused likely to be extraverted stimulation seeking more likely to seek out drugs that amp you up such as cocaine How have scientists studied personality o What is unconscious psychodynamic theories emphasize unconscious and dynamic processes e g how you relate what you know about your mother to all women o Personal experience humanistic approaches emphasize integrated personal experience o Social cognitive approach how people act on a social level and how they think o Type and trait approaches describe behavioral dispositions type broader traits smaller units of behavior that make up a type of personality Freudian or Psychodynamic approach o Influence on how we think about ourselves personality o Practiced through the 1930s o Thought the role of unconscious influences on personality E g lay on couch talk about your life psychologist would give insight into what problems you are experiencing o Id unconscious seeking pleasure o Superego dictates moral and behavioral messages from society and parents o Ego mediates between Id Superego o Struggle between three id superego and ego o Introduced concept of unconscious defense mechanisms o Classic image of struggle angel vs devil superego vs id o Freud s topographical model Thought 2 3 of our lives is unconscious almost everything that s relevant Small amount of preconscious that we may be able to access Very small amount in conscious things we are aware of One reason Freud became unpopular o Female Sexuality book Penis envy theory 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 Females inferior and are jealous of males o Developed idea of phallic symbol e g farm silos that symbolize male power Common defense mechanisms Freudian concepts unconscious defending your emotions to make yourself feel better o Denial something is making us anxious or uncomfortable and ignore it to feel better can be the source of a problem b c don t cope with issue can still affect life o Repression not remembering unpleasant memories also can be a problem o Projection something about self that makes you uncomfortable and you focus on that quality in other people and criticize them o Reaction formation deal with a discomfort of self by emphasizing the opposite extreme such as extreme homophobic preacher who turns out to be gay himself Study the likelier people are to say homophobic statements the more they are aroused by images representing the same sex o Rationalization rationalizing your behavior justifying it you know you are doing something wrong so you give yourself a reason why you are doing it e g lying on your taxes and telling yourself everyone does it o Displacement taking your emotions out on others e g kicking your dog o Sublimation using a socially acceptable path to take out unacceptable emotions e g becoming a surgeon to inflict pain on others The humanistic existential approach personality as choice o People are inherently good positive view basic impulse is to be good o Focus on how healthy choices create personality Humanistic optimistic view of human nature goodness potential for growth Existentialist individual negotiates the issue of meaning and the reality of death Crisis what is the meaning of life when I will ultimately die Can t find meaning knowing they will ultimately die Subcategory of humanistic approach Human needs self actualization and personality as existence o Self actualizing tendency the human motive toward realizing our inner potential o Maslow s hierarchy of needs recognizes self actualization as a higher need o Flow is a need Engagement in tasks that match our abilities cause a state of focus E g so engaged in rock climbing that I didn t realize I was there for hours o Like Yerkes Dodson model performance don t want under or over arousal only perfect level of arousal attentive aware but not overwhelmed Flow between anxiety and boredom engaged Want to spend as much time in that optimal state o Existential approach dealing with meaning of life and reality of death personality is the individual s choices in view of that Must accept the fact that we will die what is the meaning of life in that context Angst can arise o Social cognitive approach personalities in situations Social cog Approach an approach that views personality in terms of how the person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them A way of thinking how we respond to other people E g an optimistic person may have a family member die but they acknowledge how full their own life is and the other positive things in their life despite their death How do we study something as complex as personality o Studying personality projective approaches Open to subjective interpretation Rorschach inkblot test a set of inkblots are shown to a person they tell you what they see their response tells you about their personality e g a butterfly positive vs a satanic image Thematic apperception test TAT ambiguous slides shown to a person include people asked to tell a story about the image e g if having struggles about family their struggles will be projected into the story o Studying personality self report inventories Personality inventories use multiple choice forced choice Self report Understanding something about yourself through situations e g if this happens do you do x or y Frequently used MMPI 2 most common personality test used over 500 questions assesses personality and psychological problems difficult reading level Other shorter tests e g sensation seeking scale a trait present in some people with extraversion e g I enjoy getting into new situation where