Theories of Personality Overview

Theories of Personality

• Theories of personality aim to explain how people think, feel, and behave.
• Different perspectives exist, including psychodynamic, behavioural, humanistic, and biological.

Lesson Outline

• Nature of personality
• Psychodynamic perspectives
• Behavioral perspectives
• Humanistic perspectives
• Biological perspectives

The Nature of Personality: Defining Personality

• Defining personality involves consistent behaviour across situations
• It's about a person behaving in a consistent way in various situations
• Distinctiveness is also key since everyone has unique traits

The Nature of Personality

• Personality is a combination of behaviour that is consistent over time and across situations (consistency) and behaviour differences among people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness).
• A definition of personality is an individual's unique pattern of consistent behavioural traits

Personality Traits

• Personality traits are durable dispositions to behave in a particular way
• Traits are often described with adjectives like honest, dependable, moody etc
• Some traits are basic, while others are more superficial

Personality Traits

• Key personality traits include:
  • Extraversion: outgoing, sociable, cheerful, friendly, assertive
  • Neuroticism: anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure, vulnerable
  • Openness: curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginative, artistic, and unconventional
  • Agreeableness: sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward.
  • Conscientiousness: diligent, disciplined, well-organized, punctual and dependable

Psychodynamic Perspectives

• Psychodynamic theories focus on unconscious mental forces.
• Freud's psychoanalysis was an innovative treatment procedure involving lengthy, verbal interactions where he probed into patients' lives

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

• Freud's theory faced criticism due to:
  • Focus on unconscious forces
  • Emphasis on childhood experiences
  • Focus on sexual urges

Freud's Structure of Personality

• Id: Primitive, instinctive component operating on the pleasure principle (immediate gratification)
• Ego: Decision-making component operating on the reality principle (mediating between the id and the social world)
• Superego: Moral component incorporating social standards

Freud's Structure of Personality (Id)

• The id is the primitive instinctive component of personality.
• It operates according to the “pleasure principle”
• This principle involves seeking immediate satisfaction of urges (e.g., hunger, thirst)
• The id engages in ‘primary process thinking’, which is primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy-oriented.

Freud's Structure of Personality (Ego)

• The ego operates according to the “reality principle”
• This means that it seeks to delay gratification of the id’s urges.
• This compromise involves considering social realities, rules, and norms to guide behaviour.
• The ego contains ‘secondary process thinking’, which is relatively rational, realistic, and oriented toward problem-solving

Freud's Structure of Personality (Superego)

• The superego is the moral component of personality.
• It represents internalized social standards about right and wrong, often acquired through the experiences during childhood.
• The superego continually evaluates the ego’s decisions and may induce feelings of guilt or pride.

Freud's Three Levels of Mind

• Conscious: Awareness of immediate surroundings
• Preconscious: Easily retrieved memories
• Unconscious: Repressed thoughts, feelings, memories

Freud's Conflict and Defense Mechanisms

• Anxiety arises from conflicts between the id, ego, and superego.
• Defense mechanisms are unconscious reactions that protect a person from painful emotions like anxiety and guilt.
• Common defense mechanisms include rationalisation, repression, projection, displacement, reaction formation, regression.

Freud's Conflict and Defense Mechanisms (Additional)

• Rationalization: Creating false but plausible excuses
• Repression: Pushing thoughts and feelings into the unconscious
• Projection: Attributing your own thoughts/feelings to someone else.

Freud's Conflict and Defense Mechanisms (additional)

• Displacement: Diverting emotions to a different target.
• Regression: Reverting to immature behaviours.
• Identification: Boosting self-esteem by identifying with someone else.

Freud's Theory of Development: Psychosexual Stages

• Freud argued that personality development occurs in stages.
• Stages are characterized by developmental challenges and fixations that could affect adult personality.
• Fixation occurs when the needs at a particular stage are either excessively gratified or excessively frustrated.
• These psychosexual stages include oral, anal, and phallic.

Behavioral Perspectives

• Behaviorism focuses on observable behavior.
• Behaviorists ignore internal mental processes.
• Behaviorism examines how our environment shapes our personality.

Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning involves learning through association.
• A neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus triggering a response, and the neutral stimulus eventually triggers a similar response.
• Extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus is presented alone without the unconditioned stimulus, leading to the gradual weakening of the learned response.

Skinner's Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning emphasizes the role of consequences in shaping behaviour
• Operant conditioning occurs when a response is strengthened or weakened based on its consequences (reinforcement or punishment).
• Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a specific behaviour, where punishment decreases the likelihood of that behaviour

Skinner's Operant Conditioning (positive reinforcement)

• Positive reinforcement occurs when a pleasant stimulus is presented after a behavior.
• This strengthens the behaviour, increasing its frequency.

Skinner's Operant Conditioning (negative reinforcement)

• Negative reinforcement occurs when an unpleasant stimulus is removed after a behavior.
• This also strengthens the behaviour, increasing its frequency.

Skinner's Operant Conditioning (punishment)

• Punishment weakens a behaviour, reducing its frequency.
• Punishment is when an unpleasant stimulus follows a response.

Punishment (Additional)

• Positive punishment is adding something unpleasant.
• Negative punishment involves removing something desirable.

Bandura and Social Learning Theory

• Bandura's social learning theory acknowledges cognition (mental processes) as well as environment in shaping personality.
• Social learning includes observation, imitation, and modeling.

Observational Learning

• Observational learning focuses on learning through observation of others, also referred to as 'models'
• Learning can occur indirectly–by observing what happens to others

Observational Learning (Additional)

• Attention is an important aspect of observational learning.
• If we do not pay attention to the model, we cannot learn from them.

Self-Efficacy

• Bandura views self-efficacy as a crucial element in personality.
• Self-efficacy is people's beliefs about their ability to perform behaviours that should lead to expected outcomes
• High self-efficacy relates to confidence in abilities, while low self-efficacy relates to doubts.

Evaluating Behavioural Perspectives

• Useful in understanding how environmental factors influence personality
• Strengths: based on research that is more rigorous than clinical evidence.
• Limitations: oversimplification of human behaviour

Disadvantages of the Behavioural Approach

• Dilution of the behavioural approach
• Over-reliance on animal research

Humanistic Perspectives

• Humanism emphasizes free will and personal growth.
• It contrasts with psychodynamic and behavioural views, arguing people are not helpless pawns but active agents capable of self-determination.

Carl Rogers' Person-Centred Theory

• Rogers emphasized the importance of the self-concept as a central aspect of personality.
• He believed that a positive self-concept fosters well-being
• The self-concept is made up of beliefs about one's own nature, unique qualities, and typical behaviour.

Incongruence/Congruence

• Incongruence is the difference between the person's self-concept and experiences.
• Congruence is when a person's self-concept is reasonably accurate of their experiences.

Maslow's Theory of Self-Actualisation

• Maslow proposed a hierarchical model of needs, with basic needs at the bottom and self-actualisation at the top.
• He believed that humans strive for self-actualisation, the realization of one's potential.
• Self-actualisation is the highest level of needs.

Hierarchy of Needs

• Maslow’s pyramid depicts a hierarchical arrangement of needs.
• Basic needs such as physiological, safety and belongingness must be met before higher level needs such as esteem and self-actualisation can be aroused.

Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives

• Strengths: Provides positive, optimistic view, focuses on personal growth
• Limitations: Difficult to test scientifically

Biological Perspectives

• Biological perspectives examine hereditary influences on personality.
• Twins, separated at birth, provide valuable data for investigating the importance of genetics in developing personality.

Eysenck's Theory

• Eysenck's theory suggests many human traits are derived from a handful of fundamental higher-order traits
• Personality traits are in part inherited and influenced by differences in a person’s temperament, and their physiological functioning

Evaluating Biological Perspectives

• Strengths: Evidence from research on twins and heredity supports its arguments
• Limitations: Lack of a comprehensive theory

Theoretical Diversity

• In psychology, there is a variety of theoretical perspectives to explain human behaviour
• Different theories focus on different aspects of behaviour
• Different theories often converge on a more complete understanding of human behaviour

Explore the various theories of personality, including psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, and biological perspectives. This quiz delves into how personality is defined, its nature, and the trait approach that describes individual differences. Understand the core concepts that shape our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.