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BOARD EXAMINATION
REVIEW MANUAL
Sample Module: Theories of Personality
Reviewer: Riyan Portuguez
Name: ________________________________
FAMILIRIAZE YOURSELF WITH THE AREAS OF THEORIES OF
PERSONALITY
Additional:
SIkolohiyang Pilipino
(Virgilio Enriquez)
MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
NOTES:
PERSONALITY AND THE SCIENTIFIC OUTLOOK
ITS ORIGIN
WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
PSYCHOLOGY OF SCIENCE
ITS IMPORTANCE
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
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THEORY AND ITS RELATIVES
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
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• Deductive theories:
• Can be precisely stated and tested
• Hypotheses are created as tentative answers to
problems
• Consist of postulates and a set of interrelated
and internally consistent propositions
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
NOTES:
Experimental method cont…
• Informed consent - practice of telling study
participants about the nature of their participation in
a proposed experiment and then obtaining their
written agreement to participate
• Debriefing - informing study participants of the true
nature and purpose of a study after it is completed
Correlational Method
Case-Study Method
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
NOTES:
TYPE 1 AND TYPE 2 ERRORS IN
RESEARCH
TRUE FALSE
TRUE FALSE
RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY
Personality theories, like other theories, are based on
systematic research that allows for the prediction
of events. In researching human behavior, personality
theorists often use various measuring procedures,
which must be both reliable and valid. Reliability
refers to a measuring instrument's consistency and
includes test-retest reliability and internal consistency.
Validity refers to the accuracy or truthfulness of test
and includes predictive validity and construct validity.
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
NOTES:
STUDYING PERSONALITY REQUIRES LOTS OF
DATA.
• L-data (Life Record Data), consist of information that
can be obtained from a person’s life history. or life
record.
• O-Data (Observer Data), consist of information
provided by knowledgeable observers such as
parents, friends, or teachers. Generally such
persons are provided with a questionnaire or other
rating form with which they rate the target
individual’s personality characteristics.
• T-Data (Test Data), consist of information obtained
from experimental procedures in which researchers
measure people’s performance on tasks.
• S-Data (Self-Report Data) is information that
participants report about themselves.
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
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PSYCHOANALYSIS
OVERVIEW
Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis has endured because
it:
(1) postulated the primacy of sex and aggression—two
universally popular themes,
(2) attracted a group of followers who were dedicated
to spreading psychoanalytic doctrine, and
(3) advanced the notion of unconscious motives, which
permit varying explanations for the same observations.
SIGMUND FREUD
He was born in the Freiberg, Moravia in 1856, Sigmund
Freud spent most of his life in Vienna. Early in his
professional career, Freud believed that hysteria was a
result of being seduced during childhood by a sexually
mature person, often a parent or other relative. In
1897, however, Freud abandoned his seduction theory
and replaced it with his notion of the Oedipus complex,
a concept that remained the center of his
psychoanalytic theory. Near the end of his life and to
escape Nazi rule, Freud moved to London where he
died in 1939.
BASIC TENET
Human personality and behavior are powerfully shaped
by early childhood relationships. They believed that
humans are primarily pleasure-seeking creature
dominated by sexual and aggressive impulses.
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LEVELS OF MENTAL LIFE
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
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DYNAMICS OF PERSONALITY
Dynamics of personality refers to those forces that
motivate people.
A. Instincts
Freud grouped all human drives or urges under two
primary instincts—
• Sex (Eros or the life instinct). The aim of the
sexual instinct is pleasure, which can be gained
through the: Erogenous zones, especially the
mouth, anus, and genitals. The object of the sexual
instinct is any person or thing that brings sexual
pleasure. All infants possess primary narcissism,
or self-centeredness, but the secondary narcissism
of adolescence and adulthood is not universal. Both
sadism (receiving sexual pleasure from inflicting
pain on another) and masochism (receiving sexual
pleasure from painful experiences) satisfy both
sexual and aggressive drives.
• Aggression (the death or destructive instinct).
The destructive instinct aims to return a person to an
inorganic state, but it is ordinarily directed against
other people and is called aggression.
B. Anxiety
Only the ego feels anxiety, but the id, superego, and
outside world can each be a source of anxiety.
• Neurotic anxiety stems from the ego's relation with
the id;
• Moral anxiety is similar to guilt and results from the
ego's relation with the superego; and
• Realistic anxiety, which is similar to fear, is
produced by the ego's relation with the real world.
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
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DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Defense mechanisms operate to protect the ego
against the pain of anxiety.
Repression
It involves forcing unwanted, anxiety-loaded
experiences into the unconscious. It is the most basic
of all defense mechanisms because it is an active
process in each of the others.
Reaction Formation
It is marked by the repression of one impulse and the
ostentatious expression of its exact opposite.
Displacement
It takes place when people redirect their unwanted
urges onto other objects or people in order to disguise
the original impulse.
Fixation
Fixations develop when psychic energy is blocked at
one stage of development, making psychological
change difficult. Some adults may remain fixated on
the anal stage of psychosexual development.
Regression
It occur whenever a person reverts to earlier, more
infantile modes of behavior. Some adults may return to
the oral stage as a means of reducing anxiety.
Projection
Projection is seeing in others those unacceptable
feelings or behaviors that actually reside in one's own
unconscious. When carried to extreme, projection can
become paranoia, which is characterized by delusions
of persecution.
Introjection
Introjections take place when people incorporate
positive qualities of another person into their own ego
to reduce feelings of inferiority.
Sublimation
Sublimations involve the elevation of the sexual
instinct's aim to a higher level, which permits people to
make contributions to society and culture.
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
NOTES:
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
A. Infantile Period
The infantile stage encompasses the first 4 to 5 years
of life and is divided into three sub phases: oral, anal,
and phallic.
Oral, first pregenital stage of psychosexual
development in which primary gratifications center
around the mouth
Anal, second pregenital stage of psychosexual
development in which primary gratification centers
around the anal cavity
Phallic, third pregenital stage of psychosexual
development in which main gratifications are derived
from manipulation of the genitals
• Oedipal complex: male child desires sexual
contact with the mother, feels threatened by the
father, and eventually resolves the conflict by
identifying with the father
• Identification: taking on the characteristics of
another person as a means of relieving
anxieties
B. Latency Period
Freud believed that psychosexual development goes
through a latency stage—from about age 5 years until
puberty—in which the sexual instinct is partially
suppressed or inactive.
C. Genital Period
The genital period begins with puberty when
adolescents experience a reawakening of the genital
aim of Eros. The term "genital period" should not be
confused with "phallic period."
D. Maturity
Freud hinted at a stage of psychological maturity in
which the ego would be in control of the id and
superego and in which consciousness would play a
more important role in behavior.
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MODULE: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
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CHARACTER TYPES
Oral character
Oral receptive character: an individual who becomes
fixated because of overindulgence during feeding
As an adult, this person is characterized by
gullibility, admiration for others, and excessive
dependence
Oral aggressive character: an individual who
becomes fixated because of under indulgence during
feeding
As an adult, this person is characterized by
envy, manipulation of others, and
suspiciousness
Anal character
Anal eroticism: feelings of sexual pleasure that have
their source in the person’s control over expulsion and
retention of feces
Stems from difficulties during toilet training,
when children are locked in a battle over power and
control with their parents
Anal character: an individual fixated at the anal stage,
who derives pleasure from his/her control over
retention of feces.
As an adult, this person is characterized by
stinginess, orderliness, stubbornness, and the hoarding
of possessions
Phallic character
An individual fixated at the phallic stage who, later in
life, needs to prove continually his or her sexual
adequacy.
Genital character
It is a mature, healthy individual who is sexually
developed and capable of relating to members of the
other sex
BASIC TENET
He saw people as extremely complex beings who are a
product of both conscious and unconscious personal
experiences. However, people are also motivated by
inherited remnants that spring from the collective
experiences of their early ancestors.
LIBIDO
It is the creative life force that could be applied to the
continuous psychological growth of the person.
PSYCHE
It is a construct to represent all of the interacting
systems within human personality that are needed to
account for the mental life and behavior of the person.
DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
Jung divided development into four broad stages:
(1) childhood, which lasts from birth until adolescence;
(2) youth, the period from puberty until middle life,
which is a time for extraverted development and for
being grounded to the real world of schooling,
occupation, courtship, marriage, and family;
(3) middle life, from about 35 or 40 until old age and a
time when people should be adopting an
introverted, or subjective attitude;
(4) old age, which is a time for psychological rebirth,
self-realization, and preparation for death.
SELF-REALIZATION
Self-realization, or individuation, involves a
psychological rebirth and an integration of various parts
of the psyche into a unified or whole individual. Self-
realization represents the highest level of human
development.
RECENT RESEARCH
Some investigators have used the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator to study the idea of psychological types.
OVERVIEW
He was an original member of Freud's psychoanalytic
group, but he never saw himself as a disciple or a
follower of Freud. If fact, throughout his life he carried
with him the note Freud had sent to him proposing the
establishment of an organization of physicians. Adler
saw the invitation as Freud's recognition of Adler as an
equal. After Adler broke from that group, he built a
theory of personality that was nearly diametrically
opposed to that of Freud. Whereas Freud's view of
humanity was pessimistic and rooted in biology, Adler's
view was optimistic, idealistic, and rooted in family
experiences.
ALFRED ADLER
SOCIAL INTEREST
Human behavior has value to the extent that it is
motivated by social interest, that is, a feeling of
oneness with all of humanity.
A. Origins of Social Interest
Although social interest exists as potentiality in all
people, it must be fostered in a social environment.
Adler believed that the parent-child relationship can be
so strong that it negates the effects of heredity.
CREATIVE POWER
Style of life is partially a product of heredity and
environment—the building blocks of personality—but
ultimately style of life is shaped by people's creative
power, that is, by their ability to freely choose a course
of action.
ABNORMAL DEVELOPMENT
Creative power is not limited to healthy people;
unhealthy individuals also create their own
personalities. Thus, each of us is free to choose either
a useful or a useless style of life.
A. General Description
The most important factor in abnormal development is
lack of social interest. In addition, people with a
useless style of life tend to (1) set their goals too
high, (2) have a dogmatic style of life, and (3) live in
their own private world.
B. External Factors in Maladjustment
Adler listed three factors that relate to abnormal
development: (1) exaggerated physical defects,
which do not by themselves cause abnormal
development, but which may contribute to it by
generating subjective and exaggerated feelings of
inferiority; (2) a pampered style of life, which
contributes to an overriding drive to establish a
permanent parasitic relationship with the mother or a
mother substitute; and (3) a neglected style of life,
which leads to distrust of other people.
D. Masculine Protest
Both men and women sometimes overemphasize the
desirability of being manly, a condition Adler called the
masculine protest. The frequently found inferior
status of women is not based on physiology but on
historical developments and social learning. Boys are
often taught early that being masculine means being
courageous, strong, and dominant. The ultimate
accomplishment for boys is to win, to be powerful, to be
on top. In contrast, girls often learn to be passive and
to accept an inferior position in society. In contrast to
Adler's more democratic attitude, Freud believed that
anatomy is destiny and that women occupy the 'dark
continent" of psychology. Near the end of his life,
Freud was still asking what women wanted. According
to Adler, Freud's attitudes toward women would be
evidence of a person with a strong masculine protest.
In contrast to Freud's views on women, Adler assumed
that women—because they have the same
physiological and psychological needs as men—want
more or less the same things that men want.
FOUR MAJOR LIFESTYLE TYPES
ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES
1. Family Constellation
Adler believed that people's perception of how they fit
into their family is related to their style of life. He
claimed that firstborns are likely to have strong feelings
of power and superiority, to be overprotective, and to
have more than their share of anxiety. Secondborn
children (such as Adler) are likely to have strong social
interest, provided they do not get trapped trying to
overcome their older sibling. Youngest children are
likely to be pampered and to lack independence,
whereas only children have some of the characteristics
of both the oldest and the youngest child.
2 .Early Recollections
A more reliable method of determining style of life is to
ask people for their earliest recollections. Adler
believed that early memories are templates on which
people project their current style of life. These
recollections need not be accurate accounts of early
event, but true or false, they have psychological
importance because they reflect a person's current
view of the world.
3. Dreams
Adler believed that dreams can provide clues to solving
future problems. However, dreams are disguised to
deceive the dreamer and usually must be interpreted
by another person.
OVERVIEW
Karen Horney's psychoanalytic social theory, assumes
that social and cultural conditions, especially during
childhood, have a powerful effect on later personality.
Like Melanie Klein, Horney accepted many of Freud's
observations, but she objected to most of his
interpretations, including his notions on feminine
psychology.
KAREN HORNEY
She was born in Germany in 1885 and she was one of
the first women in that country admitted to medical
school. There, she became acquainted with Freudian
theory and eventually became a psychoanalyst and a
psychiatrist. In her mid-40s, Horney left Germany to
settle in the United States, first in Chicago and then in
New York. She soon abandoned orthodox
psychoanalysis in favor of a more socially oriented
theory—one that had a more positive view of feminine
development. She died in 1952 at age 67.
OVERVIEW
Sees people from the perspective of psychology,
history, and anthropology. Influenced by Freud and
Horney, Fromm developed a more culturally oriented
theory than Freud and a much broader theory than
Horney.
ERICH FROMM
Erich Fromm was born in Germany in 1900, the only
child of orthodox Jewish parents. A thoughtful young
man, Fromm was influenced by the bible, Freud, and
Marx, as well as by socialist ideology. After receiving
his PhD, Fromm began studying psychoanalysis and
became an analyst by virtue of being analyzed by
Hanns Sachs, a student of Freud. In 1934, Fromm
moved to the United States and began a
psychoanalytic practice in New York, where he also
resumed his friendship with Karen Horney. Much of
his later years were spent in Mexico and Switzerland.
He died in 1980.
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
Fromm believed that humans have been torn away
from their prehistoric union with nature and left with
no powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world.
But because humans have acquired the ability to
reason, they can think about their isolated
condition—a situation Fromm called the human
dilemma.
Dichotomies, a two-pronged dilemma that has no
solution because none of the alternatives is entirely
satisfactory.
Relatedness
Transcendence
Rootedness
Sense of identity
Frame of Reference or Orientation
A. Relatedness
First is relatedness, which can take the form of (1)
submission, (2) power, or (3) love. Love, or the ability
to unite with another while retaining one's own
individuality and integrity, is the only relatedness need
that can solve our basic human dilemma.
B. Transcendence
Being thrown into the world without their consent,
humans have to transcend their nature by destroying or
creating people or things. Humans can destroy through
malignant aggression, or killing for reasons other
than survival, but they can also create and care about
their creations.
C. Rootedness
Rootedness is the need to establish roots and to feel at
home again in the world. Productively, rootedness
enables us to grow beyond the security of our mother
and establish ties with the outside world. With the
nonproductive strategy, we become fixated and afraid
to move beyond the security and safety of our mother
or a mother substitute.
D. Sense of Identity
It is an awareness of ourselves as a separate person.
The drive for a sense of identity is expressed
nonproductively as conformity to a group and
productively as individuality.
OVERVIEW
Sullivan had a lonely and isolated childhood, he
evolved a theory of personality that emphasized the
importance of interpersonal relations. He insisted that
personality is shaped almost entirely by the
relationships we have with other people. Sullivan's
principal contribution to personality theory was his
conception of developmental stages.
DYNAMISM
Sullivan used the term dynamism to refer to a typical
pattern of behavior. Dynamisms may relate either to
specific zones of the body or to tensions.
A. Malevolence
The disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred is called
malevolence, defined by Sullivan as a feeling of living
among one's enemies. Those children who become
malevolent have much difficulty giving and receiving
tenderness or being intimate with other people.
B. Intimacy
The conjunctive dynamism marked by a close personal
relationship between two people of equal status is
called intimacy. Intimacy facilitates interpersonal
development while decreasing both anxiety and
loneliness.
C. Lust
In contrast to both malevolence and intimacy, lust is an
isolating dynamism. That is, lust is a self-centered
need that can be satisfied in the absence of an intimate
interpersonal relationship. In other words, although
intimacy presupposes tenderness or love, lust is based
solely on sexual gratification and requires no other
person for its satisfaction.
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Sullivan pioneered the notion of the therapist as a
participant observer, who establishes an interpersonal
relationship with the patient. He was primarily
concerned with understanding patients and helping
them develop foresight, improve interpersonal relations,
and restore their ability to operate mostly on a syntaxic
level.
References:
Books:
Feist, J. & Feist, G. (2009). Theories of personality (7th
ed.). USA: McGraw−Hill Companies
Hall, C. S., Lindzey, G., & Campbell, J. B.
(1998). Theories of personality. New York: J. Wiley &
Sons.
Ryckman, R. (2008).Theories of personality (9th ed.).
USA: Thomson Wadsworth
Web source:
http://webspace.ship.edu
OVERVIEW
Her theory was built on a careful observation
on young children. Object relations theory
places less emphasis on biologically based
drives and more importance on consistent
patterns of interpersonal relationships. In
contrast to Freud, her theory was more
maternal, stressing the intimacy and nurturing
of the mother.
Object relations theorists generally see human
contact and relatedness—not sexual
pleasure—as the prime motive of human
behavior.
MELANIE KLEIN
OBJECTS
She supported the idea of Freud that humans have
instincts or drives. Objects are something to which the
subject relate. Objects are not primarily materials, it
can be the significant person that is the object or target
of another's feelings or intentions.
INTROJECTION
It occurs where a subject takes into itself the behaviors,
attributes or other external objects, especially of other
people. An introjected object is drawn into the 'inner
circle', but can still have a life of its own.
PROJECTION
It takes aspects of one's internal world and projects
them onto external subjects. It is used to expel and
externalize uncomfortable inner thoughts and feelings.
INTERNALIZATION
IDENTIFICATION
When I 'identify with' other people, I find something
attractive about them and seek to join with them in
some way. A significant difference from such joining
forms as incorporation and introjection is that
identification is practiced by moving the self towards a
desirable object rather than drawing the object towards
them.
PROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION
is an unconscious phantasy in which aspects of the self
or an internal object are split off and attributed to an
external object.
OVERVIEW
Erikson postulated eight stages of psychosocial
development through which people progress. Although
he differed from Freud in his emphasis on the ego and
on social influences, his theory is an extension, not a
repudiation of Freudian psychoanalysis.
ERIK ERIKSON
When Erik Erikson was born in Germany in 1902 his
name was Erik Salomonsen. After his mother married
Theodor Homberger, Erik eventually took his
stepfather's name. At age 18 he left home to pursue
the life of a wandering artist and to search for self-
identity. He gave up that life to teach young children in
Vienna where he met Anna Freud. Still searching for
his personal identity, he was psychoanalyzed by Ms.
Freud, an experience that allowed him to become a
psychoanalyst. In mid-life, Erik Homberger moved to
the United States, changed his name to Erikson, and
took a position at the Harvard Medical School. Later,
he taught at Yale, the University of California at
Berkeley, and several other universities. He died in
1994, a month short of his 92nd birthday.
EGO IN POST-FREUDIAN
.According to Erikson, the ego is the center of
personality and is responsible for a unified sense of
self. It consists of three interrelated facets: the
body ego, the ego ideal, and ego identity.
B. Early Childhood
The 2nd to 3rd year of life is early childhood, a period
that compares to Freud's anal stage, but it also
includes mastery of other body functions such as
walking, urinating, and holding. The psychosexual
mode of early childhood is anal-urethral-muscular,
and children of this age behave both impulsively and
compulsively. The psychosocial crisis of early childhood
is autonomy versus shame and doubt. The
psychosocial crisis between autonomy on the one hand
and shame and doubt on the other produces will, the
basic strength of early childhood. The core pathology
of early childhood is compulsion.
D. School Age
The period from about 6 to 12 or 13 years of age is
called the school age, a time of psychosexual latency,
but it is also a time of psychosocial growth beyond the
family. Because sexual development is latent during
the school age, children can use their energies to learn
the customs of their culture, including both formal and
informal education. The psychosocial crisis of this age
is industry versus inferiority. Children need to learn
to work hard, but they also must develop some sense
of inferiority. From the conflict of industry and inferiority
emerges competence, the basic strength of school
age. A lack of industry leads to inertia, the core
pathology of this stage.
E. Adolescence
Adolescence begins with puberty and is marked by a
person's struggle to find ego identity. It is a time of
psychosexual growth, but it is also a period of
psychosocial latency. The psychosexual mode of
adolescence is puberty or genital maturation. The
psychosocial crisis of adolescence is identity versus
identity confusion. Psychologically healthy
individuals emerge from adolescence with a sense of
who they are and what they believe; but some identity
confusion is normal. The conflict between identity and
identity confusion produces fidelity, or faith in some
ideological view of the future. Lack of belief in one's
own selfhood results in role repudiation, or an inability
to bring together one's various self-images.
A. Anthropological Studies
Erikson's two most important anthropological studies
were of the Sioux of South Dakota and the Yurok tribe
of northern California. Both studies demonstrated his
notion that culture and history help shape personality.
B. Psychohistory
Erikson combined the methods of psychoanalysis and
historical research to study several personalities, most
notably Gandhi and Luther. In both cases, the central
figure experienced an identity crisis that produced a
basic strength rather than a core pathology.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
HIGHLIGHTS
She was a lively child with a reputation for mischief.
"I am glad that Sophie is getting married, because
the unending quarrel between us was horrible for
me.“
She introduced novel ideas such as extending
psychoanalysis to children.
Her ideas paved way to Child Psychology.
BASIC TENET
In order to emerge in an analysis, the ego must
become aware of the utilize defenses to prevent the
material to resurface.
ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUE
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
HIGLIGHTS
He follows the idea of Erik Erikson.
It stemmed from lack of parental empathy and
mirroring.
BASIC TENET
A good sense of self-worth and acceptance can be
achieved through parental empathy.
BASIC CONCEPTS
Mirroring, reflects back a sense of self-worth and
value. The use of the affirming and positive
responses of others to see positive traits within the
self.
Idealizing, individuals need people who will make
them feel calm and comfortable.
Empathy is the capacity to think and feel oneself
into the inner life of another person.
CONTRIBUTIONS
Clearest model of the self and its role in pathology.
Highlights the importance of empathy.
Narcissism plays a healthy role in children.
Narcissism is a natural part of development.
It offers a helpful perspective on the subject of
addiction.
ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES
Transference, he process in which a person in
treatment redirects feelings and desires from
childhood to a new object.
Introspection
BASIC INFORMATION
Name: Dan McAdams
Place: Gary, Indiana
Date: 1954
Occupation: Professor
HIGHLIGHTS
Humans are extremely sociable.
Each of us develops identity and comes to know who
we are by stages of psychosocial development.
He suggests that personality is a composite pattern
of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and
integrative stories.
BASIC TENET
Each of us develops identity and comes to know who
we are by constructing conscious/unconscious
narrative of the self; personality is composite pattern
life stories.
CONTRIBUTION
Loyola Generativity Scale (McAdams and de St.
Aubin), a self-report scale that measure differences in
concern with generativity.
ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUE
Narrative therapy, it seeks to help people identify their
values and the skills and knowledge they have to live
these values, so they can effectively confront whatever
problems they face.
OVERVIEW
Holistic-dynamic theory assumes that people are
continually motivated by one or more needs, and that
under the proper circumstances, they can reach a level
of psychological health called self-actualization.
ABRAHAM MASLOW
Abraham H. Maslow was born in New York City in
1908, the oldest of seven children of Russian Jewish
immigrants. After 2 or 3 mediocre years as a college
student, Maslow improved in his academic work at
about the time he was married. He received both a
bachelor's degree and a PhD from the University of
Wisconsin, where he worked with Harry Harlow
conducting animal studies. Most of his professional
career was spent at Brooklyn College and Brandeis
University. Poor health forced him to move to
California, where he died in 1970 at age 62.
SELF- ACTUALIZATION
MEASURING SELF-ACTUALIZATION
Maslow's methods for measuring self-actualization
were consistent with his philosophy of science. He
began his study of self-actualizing people with little
evidence that such a classification of people even
existed. He looked at healthy people, learned what
they had in common, and then established a syndrome
for psychological health. Next, he refined the definition
of self-actualization, studied other people, and changed
the syndrome. He continued this process until he was
satisfied that he had a clear definition of self-
actualization. Other researchers have developed
personality inventories for measuring self actualization.
The most widely used of these is Everett Shostrom's
Personal Orientation Inventory (POI), a 150-forced-
choice inventory that assesses a variety of self-
actualization facets.
OVERVEW
Although Carl Rogers is best known as the founder of
client-centered therapy, he also developed an important
theory of personality that underscores his approach to
therapy.
BIOGRAPHY
Carl Rogers was born into a devoutly religious family in
a Chicago suburb in 1902. After the family moved to a
nearby farm, Carl became interested in scientific
farming and learned to appreciate the scientific method.
When he graduated from the University of Wisconsin,
Rogers intended to become a minister, but he gave up
that notion and completed a PhD in psychology from
Columbia University in 1931. In 1940, after nearly a
dozen years away from an academic life working as a
clinician, he took a position at Ohio State University.
Later, he held positions at the University of Chicago
and the University of Wisconsin. In 1964, he moved to
California, where he helped found the Center for
Studies of the Person. He died in 1987 at age 85.
BASIC TENET
Person-centered theory rests on two basic
assumptions: (1) the formative tendency that states that
all matter, both organic and inorganic, tends to evolve
from simpler to more complex forms and (2) an
actualizing tendency, which suggests that all living
things, including humans, tend to move toward
completion, or fulfillment of potentials. However, in
order for people (or plants and animals) to become
actualized, certain identifiable conditions must be
present. For a person, these conditions include a
relationship with another person who is genuine, or
congruent, and who demonstrates complete
acceptance and empathy for that person.
Awareness
People are aware of both their self-concept and their
ideal self, although awareness need not be accurate.
For example, people may have an inflated view of their
ideal self but only a vague sense of their self-concept.
Rogers saw people as having experiences on three
levels of awareness: (1) those that are symbolized
below the threshold of awareness and are ignored,
denied, or not allowed into the self-concept; (2) those
that are distorted or reshaped to fit it into an existing
self-concept; and (3) those that are consistent with the
self-concept and thus are accurately symbolized and
freely admitted to the self-structure. Any experience
not consistent with the self-concept—even positive
experiences—will be distorted or denied.
Needs
The two basic human needs are maintenance and
enhancement, but people also need positive regard
and self-regard. Maintenance needs include those for
food, air, and safety, but they also include our tendency
to resist change and to maintain our self-concept as it
is. Enhancement needs include needs to grow and to
realize one's full human potential. As awareness of self
emerges, an infant begins to receive positive regard
from another person, that is, to be loved or accepted.
PSYCHOTHERAPY
A. Conditions
B. Process
RECENT RESEARCH
More recently, other researchers have investigated
Rogers' facilitative conditions both outside therapy
and within therapy.
OVERVIEW
Existential psychology began in Europe shortly after
World War II and spread to the United States, where
Rollo May played a large part in popularizing it. A
clinical psychologist by training, May took the view that
modern people frequently run away both from making
choices and from assuming responsibility.
ROLLO MAY
Rollo May was born in Ohio in 1909, but grew up in
Michigan. After graduating from Oberlin College in
1930, he spent 3 years as an itinerant artist roaming
throughout eastern and southern Europe. When he
returned to the United States, he entered the Union
Theological Seminary, from which he received a Master
of Divinity degree. He then served for 2 years as a
pastor, but quit in order to pursue a career in
psychology. He received a PhD in clinical psychology
from Columbia in 1949 at the relatively advanced age
of 40. During his professional career, he served as
lecturer or visiting professor at a number of universities,
conducted a private practice as a psychotherapist, and
wrote a number of popular books on the human
condition. May died in 1994 at age 85.
EXISTENTIALISM
B. Forms of Love
May identified four kinds of love in Western tradition—
sex, eros, philia, and agape. He believed that
Americans no longer view sex as a natural biological
function, but have become preoccupied with it to the
point of trivialization. Eros is a psychological desire
that seeks an enduring union with a loved one. It may
include sex, but it is built on care and tenderness.
Philia, an intimate nonsexual friendship between two
people, takes time to develop and does not depend on
the actions of the other person. Agape is an altruistic
or spiritual love that carries with it the risk of playing
God. Agape is undeserved and unconditional.
RELATED RESEARCH
May's theory of personality does not easily lend itself to
direct empirical research. Nevertheless, some
researchers have investigated the concept of terror
management, which is based on more readily testable
hypotheses. Rollo May's existential theory has not
generated much objective, scientific research, a situation
that May would have approved. Nevertheless, one
existential topic to receive some empirical attention has
been existential anxiety and terror management. Ernest
Becker, an American psychiatrist inspired by Kierkegaard
and Otto Rank, has presented research that has been a
major source of inspiration for terror management
theorists.
A. Mortality Salience and Denial of Our Animal Nature
Jamie Goldenberg and colleagues found that cultural
worldviews (religion, politics, and social norms) and self-
esteem function to defend people against thoughts of
death, so that when death becomes salient through
disasters, death of a loved one, or images of death,
people respond by clinging more closely to cultural
worldviews and bolstering their self-esteem. They
predicted that mortality salience would increase feelings
of disgust, and their experiment found this prediction to be
true. Goldenberg and colleagues found that their results
supported the basic terror management assumption that
people distance themselves from animals because
animals remind us of our own physical mortality.
OVERVIEW
Gordon Allport had a short but pertinent visit with Freud
in Vienna, a meeting that changed Allport's life and
altered the course of personality psychology in the
United States. In Allport's mature theory, his major
emphasis was on the uniqueness of each individual.
Allport built a theory of personality as a reaction against
what he regarded as the non-humanistic positions of
both psychoanalysis and animal-based learning theory.
However, Allport was eclectic in his approach and
accepted many of the ideas of other theorists.
GORDON ALLPORT
Gordon W. Allport was born in Indiana in 1897. He
received an undergraduate degree in philosophy and
economics from Harvard. After receiving a PhD from
Harvard, Allport spent 2 years studying under some of
the great German psychologists, but he returned to
teach at Harvard. Two years later he took a position at
Dartmouth, but after 4 years at Dartmouth, he returned
to Harvard, where he remained until his death in 1967.
PERSONALITY
Allport defined personality as "the dynamic organization
within the individual of those psychophysical systems
that determine [the person's] behavior and thought.”
This definition includes both physical and psychological
properties and both stability and flexibility. Also,
personality not only is something but it does something;
that is, it includes both behavior and thinking.
STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
To Allport, the most important structures of personality
are those that permit description of the individual in
terms of individual characteristics, and he called these
individual structures personal dispositions.
A. Personal Dispositions
Allport distinguished between common traits, which
permit inter-individual comparisons, and personal
dispositions, which are peculiar to the individual. He
recognized three overlapping levels of personal
dispositions, the most general of which are cardinal
dispositions that are so obvious and dominating that
they can not be hidden from other people. Not
everyone has a cardinal disposition, but all people have
5 to 10 central dispositions, or characteristics around
which their lives revolve. In addition, everyone has a
great number of secondary dispositions, which are less
reliable and less conspicuous than central traits.
HANS EYSENCK
He was born in Berlin in 1916, but as a teenager, he
moved to London to escape Nazi tyranny. Eysenck
was trained in the psychometrically oriented
psychology department of the University of London,
from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1938
and a PhD in 1940. Eysenck was perhaps the most
prolific writer of any psychologist in the world, and his
books and articles often stirred worldwide controversy.
He died in September of 1997.
BASICS OF FACTOR ANALYSIS
Factor analysis is a mathematical procedure for
reducing a large number of scores to a few more
general variables or factors. Correlations of the
original, specific scores with the factors are called
factor loadings. Traits generated through factor
analysis may be either unipolar (scaled from zero to
some large amount) or bipolar (having two opposing
poles, such as introversion and extraversion). For
factors to have psychological meaning, the analyst
must rotate the axes on which the scores are plotted.
Eysenck used an orthogonal rotation whereas Cattell
favored an oblique rotation. The oblique rotation
procedure ordinarily results in more traits than the
orthogonal method.
AROUSAL THEORY
It explains behavioral differences in terms of the
interactions between inherited levels of nervous system
arousal and levels of environmental stimulation.
• Ascending reticular activating system (ARAS):
part of the central nervous system located in the
lower brain stem; it is involved in the arousal of the
cerebral cortex
• Autonomic nervous system: part of the peripheral
nervous system usually not under the individual's
voluntary control that regulates the operation of
internal organs and glands; it consists of sympathetic
and parasympathetic subsystems
• Extraverts: brains have lower innate levels of
arousal and are less responsive to stimulation
• Introverts: brains have higher innate levels of
arousal and are more sensitive to stimulation
• Autonomic activation and neuroticism
• Visceral brain: parts of the brain that underlie
emotional feelings and expression; also known
as the limbic system
• Neurotics have lower thresholds for activity in
the visceral brain and greater responsivity of
the sympathetic nervous system (division of
the autonomic nervous system that mobilizes
the body's resources for action); thus, neurotics
overreact to even mild forms of stimulation
OVERVIEW
Bandura's social cognitive theory takes an agentic
perspective, meaning that humans have some limited
ability to control their lives. In contrast to Skinner,
Bandura (1) recognizes that chance encounters and
fortuitous events often shape one's behavior; (2) places
more emphasis on observational learning; (3) stresses
the importance of cognitive factors in learning; (4)
suggests that human activity is a function of behavior
and person variables, as well as the environment; and
(5) believes that reinforcement is mediated by
cognition.
ALBERT BANDURA
Albert Bandura was born in Canada in 1925, but he has
spent his entire professional life in the United States.
He completed a PhD in clinical psychology at the
University of Iowa in 1951 and since then has worked
almost entirely at Stanford University, where he
continues to be an active researcher and speaker.
Learning
A. Observational Learning
The heart of observational learning is modeling, which
is more than simple imitation, because it involves
adding and subtracting from observed behavior. At
least three principles influence modeling: (1) people are
most likely to model high-status people, (2) people who
lack skill or status are most likely to model, and (3)
people tend to model behavior that they see as being
rewarding to the model.
HUMAN AGENCY
Bandura believes that human agency is the essence of
humanness; that is, humans are defined by their ability
to organize, regulate, and enact behaviors that they
believe will produce desirable consequences.
OVERVIEW
Both Julian Rotter and Walter Mischel believe that
cognitive factors, more than immediate reinforcements,
determine how people will react to environmental
forces. Both theorists suggest that our expectations of
future events are major determinants of performance.
JULIAN ROTTER
Julian Rotter was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1916.
As a high school student, he became familiar with
some of the writings of Freud and Adler, but he majored
in chemistry rather than psychology at Brooklyn
College. In 1941, he received a PhD in clinical
psychology from Indiana University. After World War II,
he took a position at Ohio State, where one of his
students was Walter Mischel. In 1963, he moved to the
University of Connecticut and has remained there since
retirement.
ROTTER'S INTERACTIONIST THEORY IS BASED
ON FIVE BASIC HYPOTHESES:
DELAY OF GRATIFICATION
A reference to the observation that people some of the
time will prefer more valued delayed rewards over
lesser valued immediate ones.
NEEDS
(1) recognition-status (2) dominance (3) independence
(4) protection-dependence (5) love and affection; and
(6) physical
Three need components
(1) need potential, or the possible occurrences of
a set of functionally related behaviors directed
toward the satisfaction of similar goals;
(2) freedom of movement, or person's overall
expectation of being reinforced for performing
those behaviors that are directed toward
satisfying some general need
(3) need value, or the extent to which people
prefer one set of reinforcements to another.
C. General Prediction Formula
The general prediction formula states that need
potential is a function of freedom of movement and
need value. Rotter's two most famous scales for
measuring generalized expectancies are the Internal-
External Control Scale and the Interpersonal Trust
Scale.
D. Internal and External Control of Reinforcement
E. Interpersonal Trust Scale
It measures the extent to which a person expects the
word or promise of another person to be true.
WALTER MISCHEL
COGNITIVE-AFFECTIVE THEORY
GEORGE KELLY
George Alexander Kelly was born on a farm in Kansas
in 1905. During his school years and his early
professional career, he dabbled in a wide variety of
jobs, but he eventually received a PhD in psychology
from the University of Iowa. He began his academic
career at Fort Hays State College in Kansas; then after
World War II, he took a position at Ohio State. He
remained there until 1965 when he joined the faculty at
Brandeis University. He died 2 years later at age 61.
BASIC TENET
It holds that people anticipate events by the meanings
or interpretations that they place on those events.
KELLY'S PHILOSOPHICAL POSITION
Kelly believed that people construe events according to
their personal constructs, rather than reality.
A. Person as Scientist
People attempt to solve everyday problems in much
the same fashion as do scientists
B. Scientist as Person
Because scientists are people, their pronouncements
should be regarded with the same skepticism as any
other data.
C. Constructive Alternativism
Kelly believed that all our interpretations of the world
are subject to revision or replacement.
CONSTRUCTION COROLLARY
Although no two events are exactly alike, we construe
similar events as if they were the same.
INDIVIDUALITY COROLLARY
People have different experiences, they can construe
the same event in different ways.
ORGANIZATIONAL COROLLARY
People organize their personal constructs in a
hierarchical system, with some constructs in a
superordinate position and other subordinate to them.
DICHOTOMY COROLLARY
Assumes that people construe events in an either/or
manner, e.g., good or bad.
CHOICE COROLLARY
People tend to choose the alternative in a dichotomized
construct that they see as extending the range of their
future choices.
RANGE COROLLARY
It states that constructs are limited to a particular range
of convenience; that is, they are not relevant to all
situations.
EXPERIENCE COROLLARY
Suggests that people continually revise their personal
constructs as the result of their experiences.
MODULATION COROLLARY
Assumes that only permeable constructs lead to
change; concrete constructs resist modification through
experience.
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PERSONOLOGY
BASIC INFORMATION
Name: Henry Murray
Place: New York
Date: 1893
Occupation: Psychologist
BASIC TENET
Personality is rooted in the brain.
BASIC CONCEPTS
• Human lives and the factors that influence their
course.
• To study individuals, it is useful to separate the
totality into identifiable and manageable units.
• Proceeding, the basic unit. A brief and significant
pattern that has beginning and end. E.g. writing
• Serial, succession of proceeding. E.g. friendship,
career
• Serial Program, operated by ordination which leads
to fulfillment of goal
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NEEDS
• A construct representing a force in the brain that
organizes our perception, understanding, and
behavior in such a way as to change an unsatisfying
situation and increase our satisfaction.
• Psychogenic needs, function mostly in unconscious
level; it plays major role in personality.
PRESS
• To characterize clearly the behavior.
• Forces from the objects or persons within the
environment that help or hinder people in fulfilling
goals.
Two types:
Alpha Press – actual properties or attributes in
environment.
Beta Press – individual’s subjective perception of the
environment.
ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUE
TAT (Thematic Apperception Test), a projective test
that reveal their underlying motives, concerns, and the
way they see the world.
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EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY
BASIC INFORMATION
Name: David Buss
Place: Indiana
Date: 1953 (64 years old)
Mediocre teenager who got involved in drugs during
high school years.
BASIC TENET
Human thought and behavior stemmed from evolutionary
perspective; it assumes that the true origins of personality
traits reach far back in ancestral times.
EVOLUTION
change over time
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MISCONCEPTIONS ON EVOLUTION
Artificial Selection
Humans select particular
desirable traits in a
breeding species.
NATURAL SELECTION
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EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS
• Adaptations, evolved strategies that solve important
survival and/or reproductive problems; often product
of natural selection.
• By-products, traits that happen as a result of
adaptations but are not of functional design.
• Noise, “random effects” occurs when evolution
produces random changes in the design that don’t
affect the function.
MECHANISMS
Solutions to basic problems of life produced from the
process of natural selection
• Physical Mechanisms – physiological organs and
systems evolved to solve problems of survival
• Psychological Mechanisms – internal and specific
cognitive, motivational, and personality system that
solve specific survival and reproduction problems.
Psychological Mechanisms
Three main categories related to personality:
Goals/drives/motives
Emotions
Personality Traits
Goals/drives/Motives/ Emotions
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Personality Traits
• Surgency/extraversion/dominance
• Agreeableness/hostility
• Conscientiousness
• Emotional Stability/Neuroticism
• Openness/Intellect
Note: Surgency, disposition to experience positive
emotional states and to engage in one’s environment
and to be sociable and confident
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
• Environmental Factors - child, pregnancy – toxins,
drugs, radiation, diseases, diet/lifestyle etc., birth
trauma, or any good/bad experiences
• Genetic factors
• Non adaptive variation – Neutral genetic mutation
• Maladaptive Source – genetic defect or
environmental trauma
MAJOR TAKEAWAY
Developmental plasticity allows us to alter our
strategies in order to exploit circumstances in while we
grow up.
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References:
Other references:
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