Personality What makes us who we are Qiong Zhang zhangqiongzgh zju edu cn 1 What is personality Unique attitudes and emotions that characterize an individual 2 unique personality yields characteristic patterns of behavior 3 Theories list Type theory Trait theory Psychodynamic theory Humanistic theory Expectancy theory Social learning theory Self theories Cognitive affective personality theory 4 Theories list Type theory Trait theory Psychodynamic theory Humanistic theory Expectancy theory Social learning theory Self theories Cognitive affective personality theory 5 Type theory I An early form of personality type indicator theory was the Four Temperaments system of Galen based on the humours model of Hippocrates 6 cheerf ul hopefu ll hot temper ed irritablel sad gloom y sluggis h calml 7 sanguine phlegmatic melancholic choleric 8 Type theory II Type A or B personality The hypothesis describes Type A individuals as outgoing ambitious rigidly organized highly status conscious sensitive impatient anxious proactive and concerned with time management People with Type A personalities are often high achieving workaholics They push themselves with deadlines and hate both delays and ambivalence People with Type A personalities experience more job related stress and less job satisfaction 9 People with Type B personality tend to be more tolerant of others are more relaxed display a higher level of imagination and creativity experience lower levels of anxiety 10 One study suggests that people with Type A personalities are more likely to develop personality disorders Type B personalities are more likely to become alcoholics 11 Approaches 2 trait Traits are stable qualities that a person shows in most situations Sociable orderly intelligent shy sensitive creative Traits are inferred from observed behaviors 12 Trait theory I Allport Cardinal traits Central traits Secondary traits uniqu e pers on 13 Cardinal Traits Basic trait easily visible to a person s activities Few people have cardinal traits Trait that literally Drives guide s your life Mother Teresa Compassion Martin Luther King Jr 14 Central traits Basic building blocks of personality Abraham Lincoln 15 Secondary Traits Less consistent Superficial aspects Food preferences Dress preferences Attitudes Political opinion Musical tastes Lady Gaga 16 17 The same fire that melts the butter hardens the egg the same stimuli can have different effects on different individuals 18 relating sets of stimuli and responses that might seem as first glance to have little to do with each other Many theories followed Allport personality structure is a key determinant of human behavior 19 Trait theory II Raymond Cattell Wanted to know how traits were interlinked Used statistics Factor Analysis Psychologists correlates and looks for patterns associated with traits 16 Source traits surface behavior 20 21 Created a questionnaire 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire 16PF Used to create a trait profile Represented in a graph or score based on traits 22 Trait theory III Eysenck Extraversion internally vs externally oriented Neuroticism emotionally stable vs unstable Psychoticism kind and considerate vs aggressive and antisocial 23 24 Trait theory IV Big five OCEAN ideas Openness how easy are you talking to how open you are to new Conscientiousness how hard do you work Extraversion are you shy or not to talk to other people Agreeableness how much you go the flow how much you will do as you told Neuroticism how much do you worry 25 26 27 Traits and Heritability Jim s artistic like his mother Mary s as stubborn as her grandfather Behavioral genetics is the study of the degree to which personality traits and behavior patterns are inherited 28 nature family members who share different proportions of genes nurture who have grown up in the same or different households 29 a study example Kandler et al 2010 To study the importance of heritability for personality 696 monozygotic twin pairs 387 dizygotic twin pairs 13 years measure self reports of personality personality evaluated by the twins peers environmental fluctuations are assumed to affect short term changes a few days weeks or even several months in personality 30 Do trait predict behaviors if trait can predict behavior we would expect someone to produce the same behavior in all situations But study showed that lying and cheating on a test correlated weakly among schoolchildren Hartshorne May 1928 behavior is not entirely consistent 31 Psycho Dynamic Theory of Personality Not focused on traits but under the surface our actions are based on hidden unconscious needs 32 Sigmund Freud 33 The primary data for Freud s hypotheses about personality came from clinical observations in depth case studies of individual patients in therapy a theory of normal personality from his intense study of those with mental disorders 34 I Drives and psychosexual development At the core of personality are events within a person s mind intrapsychic events that motivate behavior Often people are aware of these motivations however some motivation also operates at an unconscious level the source of motivation for human actions to psychic energy These energy sources when activated could be expressed in many different ways 35 two basic drives self preservation meeting such needs as hunger and thirst Eros the driving force related to sexual urges and preservation of the species not only the urge for sexual union but all other attempts to seek pleasure or to make physical contact with others Libido a psychic energy that drives us toward sensual pleasures of all types Sexual urges demand immediate satisfaction whether through direct actions or through indirect means such as fantasies and dreams 36 Every human action has a cause and a purpose that can be discovered through analysis of thought associations dreams errors and other behavioral clues to inner passions kings queens or other highly respected persons Parents small animals or vermin children and siblings 37 II Personality Structure Id energy constantly striving to satisfy basic drives Pleasure Principle Ego seeks to gratify the Id in realistic ways Reality Principle Ego Super Ego Id Super Ego voice of conscience that focuses on how we ought to behave Interaction of Behavior 3 38 Freud and Anxiety Freud said most internal struggles are re channeled energies typify most personality functioning Anxiety is the result of when ego is threatened or overwhelmed Neurotic Anxiety results when ego can