Introduction to Personality Theories

Theories of Personality

• Personality theories attempt to explain how people think, feel, and behave.
• Various perspectives exist, each with unique strengths and limitations.

Lesson Outline

• The nature of personality
• Psychodynamic perspectives
• Behavioural perspectives
• Humanistic perspectives
• Biological perspectives

The Nature of Personality: Defining Personality

• Optimistic personality suggests consistent cheerful behaviour.
• Distinctiveness is key, as each person exhibits unique personality traits.
• Consistency across situations is central to personality.

The Nature of Personality (continued)

• Personality is defined as an individual's unique pattern of consistent behavioural traits.
• These traits explain both consistency in behaviour over time and differences in behaviour among people in the same situation.

Personality Traits

• Personality traits are durable dispositions to behave consistently in various situations.
• Adjectives like honest, dependable, moody, describe personality traits.
• Some traits are more fundamental than others. For example, impulsiveness, restlessness, irritability could stem from excitability.

Personality Traits (continued)

• The Big Five traits are key dimensions of personality. These are extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Sigmund Freud's theories focus on unconscious mental forces.
• Freud used psychoanalysis, a lengthy treatment procedure.
• Freud believed that unconscious drives and conflicts influence mental health.

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

• Freud's theory was criticised in his time for several reasons.
• It suggested that unconscious forces govern behaviour.
• It claimed that childhood experiences shape adult personality.
• It suggested that sexual urges shape personalities.

Freud's Structure of Personality

• Freud divided personality into three components: id, ego, and superego.
• The id operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification.
• The ego operates on the reality principle, mediating the demands of the id and the external world.
• The superego represents societal standards of right and wrong.

Freud's Structure of Personality (continued)

• The id is the primitive, instinctive component of personality operating on the pleasure principle.
• The ego is the decision-making component of personality operating on the reality principle.
• The superego is the moral component of personality representing societal standards.

Freud's Structure of Personality (continued)

• The superego represents societal standards about what constitutes right and wrong.

Freud's Three Levels of Mind

• Freud's theory describes three levels of awareness: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
• The conscious is the current awareness.
• The preconscious is below the surface of awareness, but accessible.
• The unconscious contains thoughts, feelings, memories that are difficult to access directly.

Freud's Conflict and Defence Mechanisms

• Freud believed behaviour comes from conflicting drives (id, ego, and superego).
• Defence mechanisms are unconscious reactions that protect from anxiety or guilt.
• Common defence mechanisms include rationalisation, repression, projection, displacement, reaction formation, regression, and identification.

Freud's Conflict and Defence Mechanisms (continued)

• Rationalisation is justifying unacceptable behaviour.
• Repression is keeping distressing thoughts/feelings out of conscious awareness.
• Projection is attributing one's own thoughts/feelings or motives to others.

Freud's Defence Mechanisms (continued)

• Displacement is diverting strong emotions from their source to a 'safer' target.
• Regression is returning to childlike behaviour under stress.
• Identification is coping with difficult feelings or situations by adopting the traits of someone else.

Freud's Theory of Development: Psychosexual Stages

• Freud's theory identifies stages of personality development.
• Psychosexual stages are developmental periods with a characteristic sexual focus.
• Fixation occurs if a particular stage is not resolved, leading to later problems with behaviour.

Freud's Psychosexual Stages (continued)

• Freud proposed oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages. Each stage involves unique challenges related to pleasure-seeking behaviours.

Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Psychodynamic theories have made significant contributions to understanding abnormal behaviour.
• However, some critics argue their focus is too vague to be scientifically tested.

Behavioural Perspectives

• Behaviourism focuses on observable behaviour, not internal mental states.
• It emphasizes the role of learning in shaping personality.

Pavlov's Classical Conditioning

• Pavlov demonstrated that a neutral stimulus can be associated with an unconditioned stimulus to evoke a conditioned response.
• This learning involves forming associations between stimuli and responses.
• This learning applies to phobias and anxiety.

Pavlov's Classical Conditioning (continued)

• A neutral stimulus is paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus for an unconditioned response.
• Through this, the neutral stimulus now becomes a conditioned stimulus triggering a conditioned response.

Skinner's Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning studies how consequences of behaviour shape future behaviour.
• Responses followed by reinforcement are more likely to be repeated; punishment is less so.

Skinner's Operant Conditioning (continued)

• Positive reinforcement involves presenting something desirable after a behaviour.
• Negative reinforcement involves removing something unpleasant after a behaviour.
• Punishment involves presenting something unpleasant after a behaviour.

Evaluating Behavioural Perspectives

• Behavioural theories provide a powerful explanation of how learning shapes behaviour.
• However, critics argue that behaviourism neglects cognitive and emotional processes.

Humanistic Perspectives

• Humanistic theories emphasise human potential for personal growth and self-actualisation.
• Key figures in humanistic theory are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

Rogers' Person-Centred Theory

• Rogers developed a person-centred therapy approach, emphasizing the individual's subjective experience.
• Rogers' theory focuses on the self-concept, which includes self-perceptions, qualities, and behaviours.
• Ideal self and real self may not be congruent generating incongruence and anxiety.

Maslow's Theory of Self-Actualisation

• Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs.
• Self-actualisation is at the top of the hierarchy – the fulfillment of one's potential.

Maslow's Theory of Self-Actualisation (continued)

• Maslow's hierarchy of needs comprises physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-actualisation needs.

Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives

• Humanistic theories highlight the importance of free will and personal growth.
• However, criticisms exist about the lack of empirical evidence.

Biological Perspectives

• Biological theorists explore the role of genetics and the brain in shaping personality.

Eysenck's Theory

• Eysenck proposed a biological basis for personality traits.
• Extraversion–introversion and neuroticism – emotional stability are fundamental traits.

Eysenck's Theory (continued)

• He argued that these traits are rooted in physiological differences.

Recent Research in Behavioural Genetics

• Twin studies support the hereditary component of personality traits.
• Identical twins share more similarities than fraternal twins.

The Evolutionary Approach to Personality

• Evolutionary psychology views behaviour in terms of its reproductive value.
• Some characteristics are adaptive over time.

Evaluating Biological Perspectives

• Evidence for biological influences exists, but a complete biological theory is still lacking.

Theoretical Diversity

• Different theories of personality focus on various aspects of human behaviour.
• This diversity contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of personality.