Chapter 14 Personality PDF

PSYC 101 Introduction to Psychology: Social, Developmental, Clinical Chapter 14: Personality Department of Psychology, University of Regina Instructor Louise I. R. Castillo, M.Sc., Ph.D. Candidate (she/her) Outline Personality Psychoanalytic Th...

PSYC 101 Introduction to Psychology: Social, Developmental, Clinical Chapter 14: Personality Department of Psychology, University of Regina Instructor Louise I. R. Castillo, M.Sc., Ph.D. Candidate (she/her) Outline Personality Psychoanalytic Theory Behavioural and Social Learning Theories Humanistic Models Trait Models Personality Assessment Personality Learning objectives Describe how twin and adoption studies shed light on genetic and environmental influences on personality Personality Stable tendencies within individuals that influence how they respond to their environments Typical way of thinking, feeling, and behaving Traits: relatively enduring predisposition that influences our behaviour across many situations Causes of Personality Behavioural Genetics studies have attempted to disentangle the effects of: Genetic factors Shared environmental factors Meet factor individuals from family or social situation who share same environment Non-shared environmental factors make people within same family less alike  TWIN & ADOPTION STUDIES Twins reared together indicate anxiety proneness, impulse control, and traditionalism are influenced by genetics ___________ Identical twins reared apart are about as similar in personality as identical twins reared together o Suggests shared environment plays little role in adult personality Sociability scores of adopted children correlate more strongly with their biological parents’ than with their adoptive parents’ scores sociability is similar to extraversion A NOTE OF CAUTION Genes code for proteins, not specific behaviours! Genes have an indirect influence on traits, but this role is moderated by the environment The goal of molecular genetics studies is to pinpoint the genes associated with traits. However, there have been many challenges: o Most effects are weak, replication issues, few genes identified o One exception is novelty-seeking and genetic markers of the dopamine system, which is intimately involved in reward seeking Psychoanalytic Theory Learning objectives Describe the core assumptions of psychoanalytic theory Describe key criticisms of psychoanalytic theory and the central features of neo-Freudian theories Sigmund Freud Viennese neurologist who developed first comprehensive theory of personality The psychoanalytic theory forwarded by Freud and others rests on 3 key principles 3 Principles Psychic determinism: Psychological _______ events have a cause Symbolic meaning: no action (no matter how small) is meaningless Everything is symbolic of something else Unconscious motivation: ___________- We rarely understand why we do what we do Id, Ego & Superego Basic instincts, operates on the Pleasure principle (need for immediate gratification) Id: _______ sense of morality, contains the sense of Superego:right _____and wrong we've internalized from our interactions with society (e.g. our parents ) Ego: principal decision maker resolving demands of the id and superego. Governed by the reality principle (strives to delay gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet) Conflict between these causes distress DREAMS Freud thought that dreams were about this unconscious struggle Dreams reflected a desire for wish fulfillment: expressions of the id’s impulses Some wishes had to be disguised with symbols Contrary to popular psychology, Freud did not say that all symbols mean the same thing to everyone When the superego perceives the id’s desires to be threatening, it “commands” the ego to plaster over these wishes with symbols.  DEFENCE MECHANISMS Unconscious maneuvers intended to minimize ___________- anxiety Used by the ego to minimize anxiety Contrary to popular belief, Freud held that defence mechanisms are essential for psychological health Stages of Psychosexual Development Freud believed that personality development proceeds through a series of stages, each of which is focused on an erogenous zone: sexually arousing zone of the body Insisted that sexuality begins in infancy Too much, or too little, gratification can be a problem Individuals could get “stuck” in a stage and be unable to progress Highly controversial and widely criticized as pseudoscientific Stages of Psychosexual Development ORAL STAGE Focuses on the mouth Orally fixated persons react to stress by becoming intensely dependent on others for reassurance Stages of Psychosexual Development ANAL STAGE focuses on toiletry Focuses on toilet training Anally fixated individuals (“anal personalities”) are prone to excessive neatness, stinginess, and stubbornness in adulthood Stages of Psychosexual Development PHALLIC STAGE Focuses on the genitals In girls, the phallic stage takes the form of penis envy, in which the girl desires to possess a penis PHALLIC STAGE Oedipus Complex: conflict in which boys supposedly love their mothers romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals Electra complex: conflict in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals Stages of Psychosexual Development LATENCY STAGE initial friendship with peers Sexual impulses are submerged into the unconscious Most boys and girls during this stage find members of the other sex to be “yucky” and utterly unappealing Stages of Psychosexual Development GENITAL STAGE puberty, adolescence Sexual impulses awaken, reach awareness Romantic attraction to others emerges Criticisms sigmund freud: "analyzing the human psyche:" Unfalsifiable Failed predictions Questionable conception of unconscious Unrepresentative samples Flawed assumption of shared environmental influence  Neo-Freudian Theories Differ from Freud’s theories in 2 key ways: Less emphasis on sexuality, more on social drives More optimistic about personal growth Similar with Freud’s theories in 2 key ways: Unconscious influences on behaviour The importance of early experience in shaping personality different from initial theories  ALFRED ADLER The principal motive in human personality is striving for superiority Style of life: __________ each individuals way of achieving superiority (think of the term lifestyle) Inferiority complex: __________ low self-esteem that can lead to overcompensation Adler’s hypotheses are difficult to falsify CARL JUNG De-emphasized sexuality and added the collective unconscious shared storehouse of memories that ancestors have passed down to us Collective unconscious: _________ across generation o contains archetypes: which are cross culturally universal emotional symbols (e.g., the mother, the goddess, the hero) Jung’s hypotheses are difficult to falsify KAREN HORNEY Viewed women’s sense of inferiority as stemming from culturally enforced dependency, not penis envy Argued that the Oedipus complex is a symptom of psychological problems rather than the cause arises only when the other-sex parent is overprotective and the same-sex parent overly critical