Defining Personality

• Personality can be shaped and affected by your life

Defining Personality

• Morton Prince, a Boston neurologist from the 20th century, defined personality as the sum of biological innate dispositions, impulses, tendencies, appetites, instincts of the individual, acquired dispositions, and tendencies that are from experience
• DSM-IV defines personality as an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior informed by temperament, socialization, cognitive style, and interpersonal attachments

Personality Traits

• Traits remain stable and consistent over time, although change is possible
• Traits differentiate individuals from each other which comprises a psychological blueprint

Freud and the Id, Ego and Superego

• The Id operates at an unconscious level consisting of basic impulses like sex and aggression: it seeks immediate gratification and is irrational and impulsive.
• The Ego operates mainly at the conscious level, executive mediating between id impulses and superego inhibitions, testing reality and remaining rational; it operates mainly at the conscious level but also at a preconscious level
• The Superego operates mostly at the preconscious level integrating ideals and morals, and striving for perfection; it incorporates influences from parents and becomes a person's conscience

Psychoanalytic Perspective

• This perspective states that conflicts between the Id, Ego and Superego cause Anxiety
• Anxiety results in the reliance on defence mechanisms

Defence Mechanisms

• Defence mechanisms balance the demands of the id, the super-ego, and reality
• Defence mechanisms distort reality and protect the individual from anxiety
• Defence mechanisms prevent threatening unconscious material from reaching consciousness
• Defence mechanisms express unacceptable or dangerous impulses in a disguised manner.

Defense Mechanisms: Denial

• Denial is defined the refusal to acknowledge anxiety-provoking stimuli
• Denial is not used consciously
• Denial is common and effective in the short run
• Denial can lead to a lack of contact with reality
• Denial involves blaming failures on external circumstances or other people
• Denial is an effective way to deal with initial shock
• Denial can be used for not acknowledging the sudden death of a loved one, or interpreting a terrible fight with a spouse as just a “lovers quarrel"

Defense Mechanisms: Repression

• Repression pushes threatening thoughts and ideas into the unconscious
• The stronger the anxiety would be if something were remembered, the more things are repressed
• Repression can cause the ego to run out of energy
• Repression can cause depression
• Repression can explain Post-traumatic stress disorder and repressed memories

Defense Mechanisms: Reaction Formation

• Reaction formation hides threatening impulses by over-emphasizing their opposite
• Reaction formation is common with especially strong sources of anxiety
• Reaction formation is usually illogically strong and out of proportion
• Reaction Formation can explain "Thou doth protest too much” or Dissonance leading to internalized homophobia

Defense Mechanisms: Projection

• Projection attributes anxiety-provoking impulses or thoughts to others
• Projection can explain always being suspicious of others and self-sabotage

Defense Mechanisms: Rationalization

• Rationalization creates logical and socially acceptable explanations for behaviors which were actually driven by unconscious impulses
• Rationalization can be Trivialization
• Recent research includes cognitive dissonance
• Rationalization can explain getting fired and saying the reason was that they didn't like you, when the real reason is poor performance

Defense Mechanisms: Displacement

• Displacement is the shifting of one's unconscious aggression or fears to a safer target ("hydraulic model”)
• Displacement can explain getting mad at your friend when you had a bad day

Defense Mechanisms: Intellectualization

• Intellectualization is thinking about events in a cold, clinical way
• Intellectualization is useful when reality is horrifying or too painful to deal with directly
• Intellectualization is problematic if reality is not dealt with appropriately
• Intellectualization is common in warfare and medicine
• Intellectualization can explain person diagnosed with a terminal illness discussing their experience through facts about the disease

Defense Mechanisms: Sublimation

• Sublimation transforms dangerous urges into positive and socially meaningful motivations
• Sublimation includes occupational choice where career choice fulfills unconscious desires: a positive process
• Sublimation can explain coping with humor, artistic creativity, and community leadership

Defense Mechanisms: Regression

• Regression protects the individual by returning to an earlier ‘safer’ time of life
• Regression can explain a child with a new baby sibling wanting a bottle again, and when an adult acts like a child where a partner falls into the parent role

Types of Anxiety

• Neurotic anxiety signals that id impulses may break through and can be overcome via repression
• Moral anxiety indicates fear that one's own superego will respond with guilt
• Reality anxiety indicates that the external world threatens real danger

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development

• Oral: 0-18 months old, mouth, lips & tongue, characterized by dependence and passivity resulting in Dependent or overly independent
• Anal: 18 months to 3.5 years, anus and organs of elimination, characterized by obedience and self-control, resulting in someone obedient/obsessed with order or anti-authority/chaotic
• Phallic: 3.5-7 years old, sexual organs, characterized by gender identity and sexuality, resulting in someone over or under-sexualized
• Latency: 7 years to puberty, characterized by learning and cognitive development
• Genital: Puberty to adulthood, characterized by sexuality in the context of mature relationships, enhancement of life resulting in a mature adult that is seldom achieved

Humanistic Perspective

• The humanistic perspective includes questions about the nature of the human spirit
• The humanistic perspective asks why people are born and why they die
• The humanistic perspective includes questions about happiness and how to successfully attain it
• The humanistic perspective includes questions about the meaning of life

Humanistic Perspective: Existentialism

• Existentialism is an area of philosophy concerned with the meaning of human existence: a reaction against rationalism, science, and the industrial revolution
• Purpose: regain contact with the experience of being alive and aware
• Key questions include: What is the nature of existence? How does it feel? and What does it mean?

Humanistic Perspective: Carl Rogers

• Rogers focuses on people's thoughts and feelings about themselves
• Rogers focuses on the ways that interpersonal relationships shape these feelings
• Rogers focuses on the self: perceptions of personal qualities
• Carl Rogers example include harm reduction and motivational interviewing

Elements of the Self

• Actual self: perceptions of qualities you possess currently
• Ideal self: perceptions of qualities that you'd like to possess

Five-Factor Model

• Current research indicates personality traits fall into five clusters (“Big Five”)
• The Five-factor model (McCrae & Costa) shows a dominant conception of personality structure and maintains that most personality traits are derived from just 5 higher-order traits
• The Five-Factor Model is also known as NEO-PI-R

Tendencies in the Five-Factor Model

• Openness includes the tendency for an individual to be open to a variety of experiences like imagination, aesthetics, and intellectual curiosity which can range from preference for routine vs preference for variety, and down-to-earth vs imaginative to conforming vs independent.
• Conscientiousness includes the tendency to be able to regulate oneself effectively which can range from disorganized, careless, and impulsive to be organized, careful and disciplined
• Extraversion is the tendency for an individual to experience positive emotion and be sociable which can range from shy, serious and reserved to sociable, fun-loving and affectionate.
• Agreeableness is a tendency to be cooperative and straightforward which can can range from ruthless, suspicious and uncooperative to soft-hearted, trusting and helpful
• Neuroticism is a tendency to experience negative emotion/affect which can range from secure and self-satisfied to insecure and self-pitying.

Personality Testing

• Personality testing is informed by a variety of theoretical systems including psychoanalytic theory, object relations theory, self-psychology, social learning theory, and physiological models
• Attempts to characterize normal vs abnormal through personality testing
• Testing can be used for labels and to identify profiles

Projective Personality Assessments

• Projective personality assessments are intended as techniques for making unconscious aspects conscious
• Examples of Projective Personality Assessments include the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test), sentence completion tests/ Rotter, Rorschach, and drawing tests
• Projective Personality Assessments are considered controversial due to reliability and validity issues, cultural biases, and over-reliance/ low convergent validity.

Personality Assessment Inventory

• Clinical scales measure mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, paranoia, and antisocial behaviors.
• Personality scales assess traits such as openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness.
• Treatment considerations include factors that might influence therapeutic approaches and responses to treatment and coping mechanisms.
• Interpersonal scales measure interpersonal interactions, including aggression and social introversion.
• Validity scales assess whether a person may be answering truthfully or trying to present themselves in a particular way, e.g., socially desirable responding or malingering.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

• The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely used and researched psychological test for assessing personality and psychopathology, originally developed in the late 1930s with several revisions
• This inventory is used to help diagnose mental health disorders and functioning consisting of 567 true/false statements

MMPI Scales

• Clinical scales measure depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviation, paranoia, schizophrenia, hypomania, and social introversion
• Validity scales measure the tendency to present oneself in an overly favorable light: measuring exaggeration or malingering and defensiveness or denial of problems
• Content scales measure anxiety, fear, obsessive behavior, and interpersonal relations

Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory

• The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory is also widely used
• This Inventory attempts to match DSM
• This Inventory consists of 14 personality scales, 10 clinical syndrome scales and 5 validity scales
• This Inventory is shorter than MMPI with overlapping items, with 175 true-false scales, taking 25-30 minutes to complete
• Uses base rate scores to allow comparison

Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory Scales

• This measures scales for moderate personality disorder like Schizoid, Avoidant, Depressive, Dependent, Histrionic, Narcissistic, Antisocial, Aggressive (Sadistic), Compulsive, Passive-Aggressive (Negativistic), Self-Defeating
• Severe Personality Pathology Scales measure Schizotypal, Borderline, Paranoid
• Moderate Clinical Syndrome Scales measure Anxiety, Somatoform, Bipolar: Manic, Dysthymia, Alcohol Dependence, Drug Dependence, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Severe Syndrome Scales measure Thought Disorder, Major Depression, and Delusional Disorder