Psychology Chapter on Personality Theories

Jung's Theory of Personality

• Jung believed that religion played a significant role in his theory of personality.
• Jung’s concept of the unconscious is more expansive than Freud's, including the "collective unconscious".
• For Jung, the Ego encompasses all levels of the mind, not just the conscious part.
• Libido for Jung is a non-sexual general life energy.
• Jung believed that personality development continues throughout life.

Karen Horney and Feminine Psychology

• Horney rejected Freud’s idea of penis envy.
• Horney attributed the desire to be a man to social expectations and power dynamics in society.
• Horney proposed the concept of "womb envy" to challenge Freud’s assumptions.

Anxiety and Neurotic Needs

• Horney identified "basic anxiety" that developed in childhood and leads to "neurotic needs" in adulthood.
• Neurotic needs are unrealistic and often contradictory, leading to self-defeating behaviors.

Erik Erikson

• Erikson focused on the development of the ego (identity) and how it integrates with the social environment.
• He proposed a stage model of psychosocial development, suggesting that personality is malleable and develops over the lifespan.

Cross-Cultural Psychology

• Cross-cultural psychology explores how psychological phenomena differ across cultures.
• It seeks to understand commonalities and differences in human behavior, cognition and emotion.
• Cross-cultural research is important for understanding the diversity of human experience and generalizing findings.

Etic vs. Emic

• Etic approach focuses on universal aspects of ideas across cultures.
• Emic approach examines elements of ideas that are unique to specific cultures.
• Etic and Emic approaches provide a comprehensive understanding of cultural variations and similarities.

Characteristics of Culture

• Cultural characteristics include "toughness/easiness", "achievement/affiliation", and "complexity".
• Head vs. heart cultures prioritize different types of thinking: logic and reason vs. emotion and social harmony.
• Tightness vs. looseness cultures vary in terms of social control and tolerance for deviance.
• Honor, face, and dignity cultures emphasize different values and social norms: respect for hierarchy, reputation, and individual strength.

Cross-Cultural Psychology: Study Findings

• A meta-analysis of 145 studies examined the heritability of personality traits in twin studies.
• Heritability estimates for the Big Five traits were consistently high, suggesting a significant genetic influence on personality.
• Shared environment (c) had a minimal impact on personality, highlighting the importance of non-shared environment (e).
• The concept of "effective environment" emphasizes how individuals experience and interpret their environment, influencing personality.

Principles of Personality Change and Stability

• Cumulative continuity principle suggests that personality traits become more stable over time.
• Maturity principle emphasizes that individuals develop skills and cope with life challenges better as they age.
• Plasticity principle states that personality can change despite being stable, but it might be challenging.
• Role continuity explains how adopting roles consistent with personality contributes to stability.
• Identity development strengthens consistent behaviors aligned with one's self-image.
• Social investment refers to changing social roles throughout life that impact personality development.
• Corresponsive principle explains how personality and environment interact, resulting in personality stability or growth.

Personality Neuroscience:

• Personality neuroscience explores the biological basis of personality by studying brain structure and function.
• The discipline seeks to establish links between traits and genetic and environmental influences.

Early Theories of Brain Structure: Phrenology

• Phrenology is a historical theory that linked personality traits to specific areas of the brain.

Eysenck's Big 3 Traits

• Eysenck’s theory identified three major personality traits: extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.
• Eysenck proposed neurobiological underpinnings for these traits.

Rank-Order Consistency

• Longitudinal studies have confirmed that personality traits tend to remain stable (rank-order consistency) across the lifespan.
• The consistency often increases with age.
• Studies suggest that people become more stable and consistent with age, but personality development and change still occur.

Evidence for Personality Development

• Personality development involves changes in the average level of a personality trait over time.
• Researchers use cross-sectional and longitudinal studies to investigate personality development.

Cross-Sectional Evidence of Personality Development

• Cross-sectional studies compare different age groups at one point in time.
• Studies consistently show that people become more agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, and socially dominant with age.

Cohort Effects

• Cohort effects refer to the potential impact of generational factors on personality development.
• Differences in personalities across age groups might be due to social and historical experiences of different generations.

Longitudinal Evidence of Personality Development

• Longitudinal studies track the same individuals over time.
• Longitudinal studies generally confirm the findings of cross-sectional studies, indicating that personality development continues throughout life.
• The findings are aligned with the maturity principle: traits needed for adult roles increase with age.

Carl Jung's Theory of Mind

• Ego: The conscious part of the mind.
• Personal Unconscious: Includes repressed and unimportant information.
• Complexes: Clusters of emotionally loaded thoughts within the personal unconscious.
• Collective Unconscious: Inborn memories and ideas shared by all humans, shaping thoughts and behaviors.
• Archetypes: Part of the collective unconscious, not consciously remembered but shaping thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Examples include the hero, the devil, earth mother, and the snake.
• Anima: The female component of a man's psyche.
• Animus: The male component of a woman's psyche.
• Persona: Outwardly visible self.
• Shadow: The dark part of the psyche.
• Self: Resides between the persona and shadow, trying to balance conflicting aspects of the mind; the conscious part of the self is the ego.

Carl Jung's Theory of Personality: Basic Ways of Thinking

• Attitude: How a person relates to the outer world.
  • Extraversion: Focused outside, social, unfocused.
  • Introversion: Focused inside, thoughtful, private.
• Function: How a person sees the world/processes information.
  • Thinking: Logical, observant.
  • Feeling: Evaluates in terms of value, liking, worth.
  • Sensing: Uses the five senses, realistic, concrete.
  • Intuiting: Uses hunches, creative.

Jung's 8 Personality Types

• Thinking: IT, ET.
• Feeling: IF, EF.
• Sensing: IS, ES.
• Intuiting: IN, EN.

Freud vs. Jung

• Freud considered religion unimportant, while Jung emphasized religion and spirituality.
• Freud focused on the personal unconscious, while Jung included the collective unconscious.
• Freud's ego encompassed all levels of the mind, while Jung's ego was conscious only.
• Freud defined libido as sexual, while Jung defined libido as general life energy.
• Freud focused on childhood and adolescence for development, while Jung believed development was lifelong.

Karen Horney & Feminine Psychology

• Rejected Freud’s concept of “penis envy”
• Proposed cultural explanations for "the masculine wish"
• Emphasized "power envy" over "penis envy"
• Introduced the concept of “womb envy”.

Anxiety & Neurotic Needs

• Basic anxiety acquired in childhood can lead to neurotic needs in adulthood.
• These neurotic needs include:
  • The need for a perfect “other half.”
  • The need to be loved by all.
  • The need to dominate others.
  • The need to be entirely independent.

Erik Erikson

• Focused on development of the ego (identity)
• Ego: Integrates the individual with the social environment.
• Believed personality is changeable and develops over the lifespan.
• Stated that "psychosocial development" explains the stages of life's stages from early childhood to old age.

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

• Trust vs. Mistrust: (0-18 months/2 years) - Virtue: Hope.
• Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt: (2-4 years) - Virtue: Will.
• Initiative vs. Guilt: (4-7 years) - Virtue: Purpose.
• Industry vs. Inferiority: (7-12 years) - Virtue: Competence.
• Identity vs. Confusion: (12-18 years) - Virtue: Fidelity.
• Intimacy vs. Isolation: (18-25*) - Virtue: Love.
• Generativity vs. Stagnation: (25*-65) - Virtue: Care.
• Integrity vs. Despair: (65+) - Virtue: Wisdom.

Critiques of Erikson's Theory

• Focused on specific social expectations.
• Culturally bound.
• Age cutoffs aren't clearly defined.
• Doesn't adequately address adulthood.

Eysenck's P-E-N Model

• Psychoticism (vs. superego control): Unconstrained? Aggression, creativity, impulsivity, psychological detachment from others, enjoyment of danger, disregard for social conventions.
• Extraversion (vs. Introversion): Outgoing, enjoys being around people, enjoys excitement.
• Neuroticism (vs. emotional stability): Greater reactions to stress, touchy, restless, moody, anxious.

Ascending Reticular Activating System (ARAS)

• Controls the amount of nervous system stimulation that enters the brain.
• Keeps a person awake or asleep.
• Regulates arousal activity and activation of the brain.
• Lets in or filters out information.

Eysenck's Arousal Hypothesis

• People seek an optimal level of arousal.
• Introverts have higher resting levels of arousal because their ARAS lets in too much stimulation, and they engage in behaviors to minimize or avoid stimulation.
• Extraverts have lower resting levels of arousal because their ARAS lets in too little stimulation, and they engage in behaviors to increase stimulation.

Revision to Eysenck's Original Theory

• Introverts and extraverts do not differ in baseline (resting) levels of arousal.
• Introverts have more arousability than extraverts, meaning they respond to stimulation more quickly and strongly.
• The ARAS alone is not responsible for this difference.

Evidence for Eysenck's Theory

• Introverts get used to sensory stimuli slower than extroverts.
• Introverts salivate more than extroverts when lemon juice is dripped on their tongue.

Personality Stability

• Rank-order consistency: Personality traits remain stable over time and across situations.
• Childhood personality: Can predict, on average, adult behavior and life outcomes.

Causes of Stability: Temperament

• Temperament: Consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based, often evident in babies.
• Heterotypic continuity: Fundamental temperamental tendencies change with age, but the underlying temperament remains the same; behaviors associated with traits change.

Causes of Stability: Physical and Environmental Factors

• Physical and environmental factors can contribute to personality stability.
• The influence of birth order is debated, with mixed research support.
• Early experiences, both positive and negative, play a role in shaping personality.

Cumulative Continuity Principle

• Personality ratings by the self and others show greater alignment in young adulthood compared to adolescence.
• Personality traits become more consistent with age.
• Rank-order consistency increases with age.

Personality Development

• Personality change (intentional or unintentional) is possible throughout the lifespan.

Explore the key concepts of personality theories proposed by Carl Jung, Karen Horney, and Erik Erikson. This quiz covers topics such as the unconscious, neurotic needs, and the evolution of personality throughout life. Test your understanding of these influential psychologists and their contributions to personality psychology.