Theories of Personality

• Situational Approach


  Environmental situations that affect our behavior
• Attribution


  Process of inferring the cause of events/ behaviors
• Internal Attributions


  Consistent and contains traits
• External Attributions


  Inconsistent/ states causing a person to behavior a certain way due to the situation
• Factors in External Attributions

  • Consistency: does the person normally behave this way?
  • Distinctiveness: is the person behaving this way because of the situation?
  • Consensus: Do other people behavior similarity in the situation?
• If there is distinctiveness and consensus then the person is behaving based on the situation
• Situational Approach example


  • A person is calm going to the zoo and seeing snakes. The same person is not calm when the snakes are not contained and in the open.
• Psychoanalytic Theory


  Our childhood experiences and unconscious desires influences our behavior
• Libido


  Natural energy source that fuels the mind
• Psychoanalytic Theory components


  • Id: mostly the unconscious that develops after birth that seeks immediate gratification
  • Ego: the mediator between the Id (unconscious) and Superego (Conscious) that seeks long-term gratification
  • Superego: mostly conscious that is our moral compass
• Humanistic Theory


  Focuses on the conscious that individual have free-will and will reach self-actualization
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

  • Self-esteem
  • Love
  • Safety
  • Physiological Needs
• Self-actualization


  Reached after self-esteem, where the basic aspects of life are not focused on. The person recognizes that they have a higher purpose. About 1% of people reach this.
• Rogers


  Used Maslow's ideas to show that the needs are nurtured early in life
• Conditions for self-actualization growth process


  • When the person is genuine
  • When the person has gone through acceptance
• Biological Theory


  Component of personality are inhered
• Biological Theory components


  • Genes
  • Traits
  • Behavior/ personality
  • Environment
• Twin Studies


  Used to study personality traits
• Traits studied in Twin Studies

  • Social Potency: the degree to which a person assumes leadership and mastery roles in a social situation
  • Traditionalism: the tendency to follow authority, which is usually consistent throughout life
• Biological Theory example


  • People with longer Dopamine-4 receptors are more likely to be thrill seekers
• Behavioral Theory


  Personality results from interactions between individuals and their environment; observable
• Skinner


  Operant conditioning based on rewards and punishments
• Pavlov


  Classical conditioning
• Behavioral Theory example


  • Dog conditioning example
• Cognitive Theory


  The bridge between the observable (behavioral) and mental (psychoanalytic)
• Bandura Social Cognitive Theory

  Attention Memory Imitation Motivated
• Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment

  Learning-Performance Distinction: The children learn what aggressive behavior is, but did not act aggressive because they thought about their consequences
• Trait Theory


  A descriptive theory that identifies patterns of behaviors
• Trait


  A stable, internal characteristic
• Allport's Trait Types


  • Cardinal traits: dominant traits influences central and secondary traits
  • Central traits: less dominant than cardinal traits, but can still influence secondary traits
  • Secondary traits: preferences or attitudes
• Cattell


  Made up of 16 personality trait questionnaire/ 16PF
• Eysenck's 3 Dimensions of Personality

  • Extroversion
  • Neuroticism: our emotional stability
  • Psychoticism: the degree to which reality is distorted
• The Big 5 Personality Traits

  • Openness
  • Consciousness
  • Extroversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Neuroticism
• Defense Mechanisms


  Psychological strategies used to cope with reality and reduce anxiety
• Neurotic Defense Mechanisms


  • Intellectualization
  • Regression
  • Rationalization
  • Repression
  • Displacement
  • Reaction Formation
• Pathological Defense Mechanisms


  Distorts reality
• Denial


  Refuses a situation
• Immature Defense Mechanisms


  • Projection
  • Passive Aggression
• Projection Identification


  The person that was projected onto begin to act like the projection
• Mature Defense Mechanisms


  • Humor
  • Sublimation
  • Suppression
  • Altruism