- 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 A personality disorder is continuous over time, it is not one event/bad time in your lifeo 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 psychopathologyo 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” approacho Influence on how we think about ourselves & personalityo Practiced through the 1930so 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 experiencingo Id = unconscious, seeking pleasureo Superego = dictates moral and behavioral messages from society and parentso Ego= mediates between Id & Superegoo Struggle between three (id, superego, and ego)o Introduced concept of unconscious defense mechanismso Classic image of struggle = “angel vs. devil” = superego vs. ido 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 unpopularo “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 maleso 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 bettero 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 lifeo Repression- not remembering unpleasant memories, also can be a problemo Projection- something about self that makes you uncomfortable, and you focus on that quality in other people and criticize themo 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 sexo 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 choiceo People are inherently good, positive view, basic impulse is to be goodo 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 existenceo Self-actualizing tendency: the human motive toward realizing our inner potentialo Maslow’s hierarchy of needs recognizes self-actualization as a higher needo 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 hourso 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 stateo 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 ariseo 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?)-
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