Theories of Personality
Psychodynamic Perspectives
Assessment of Personality
Humanism and Personality
Behavioral and Social Cognitive View: (Learning theory that includes cognitive processes such as anticipating, judging, memory, and imitation of models)
Trait Theories: Theories that endeavor to describe the characteristics that make up human personality in an effort to predict future behavior
Freud's Conception of Personality
Stages of Personality Development
Learning Theories
Carl Rogers and the Humanistic Perspective
Allport and Cattell: Early Attempts to List and Describe Traits
Modern Trait Theories
Interviews, Behavioral Assessments, and Personality Inventories
Projective Tests: Personality assessments that present ambiguous visual stimuli to the client and ask the client to respond with whatever comes to mind
Minds three parts
Conscious mind: Level aware of immediate surroundings and perceptions
Unconscious mind: Level in which thoughts, feelings, memories, and other information that are not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness are kept
Preconscious mind: Information is available but not current conscious
Psychoanalysis
ID: Part of personality present at birth and completely unconscious
Pleasure Principle: Immediate satisfaction of needs without regard for the consequences
Libido: Instinctual energy that may come into conflict with demands of a society's standards for behavior
Fixation: If the person does not fully resolve the conflict in a particular psychosexual stage, it will result in personality traits and behaviors associated with that earlier stage
Anal Stage: Primary conflict- Toilet training (Ego develops)
Phallic Stage: Primary conflict- Awakening of sexual feelings and sexual curiosity
Oral Stage: Primary conflict-weaning
Latency Stage: Libido- Instinctual energy that may come into conflict with demands of a society's standards for behavior
Genital Stage: Sexual feelings re awaken with appropriate targets
Albert Bandura
Julian Rotter
Reciprocal Determinism: Explanation of how the factors of environment, personal characteristics, and behavior can interact to determine future behavior
Self-efficacy: An individual's perception of how effective a behavior will be in any particular circumstance
Locus of control: Internal vs. External
Expectancy: A person's subjective feeling that a particular behavior will lead to a reinforcing consequence
Reinforcement value: A person's preference for a reinforcer
Humanistic Perspective: Focuses on aspects of personality that make people uniquely human, such as subjective feelings and freedom of choice
Self-actualizing tendency: The striving to fulfill one's innate capacities and capabilities
Self-concept: The image of oneself that develops from interactions with significant people in one's life
Positive regard: Warmth, affection, love and respect that come from significant others in one's life
Fully functioning person: A person who is in touch with and trusting of the deepest, innermost urges and feelings
Components of self-concept
Real self: Actual characteristics, traits, and abilities
Ideal self: What one should be or would like to be
Unconditional positive regard: Given without conditions or strings attached
Conditional positive regard: Given only when person doing what providers of positive regard wish
Allport
Five-factor model (Big Five)
Cattell
Believed there were 200 traits, that were part of the nervous system/No evidence for this at the time
Reduced number of traits to 16
Surface traits: Aspects of personality that can be easily seen by other people in outward actions
Source traits: The more basic traits that underlie the surface traits, forming the core of personality
Model of personality traits that describes five basic trait dimensions (O C E A N)- Modern trait theory
Rorschach inkblot test: Projective test that uses ten inkblots as the ambiguous stimuli
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Projective test that uses twenty pictures of people in ambiguous situations as the visual stimuli
Interview: Personality assessment in which professional asks questions of the client and allows client to answer
Personality Inventory: Paper-and-pencil or computerized test that consists of statements that require a specific, standardized response from the person taking test
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: Based on Jung's theory of personality types
MMPI-2: Designed to detect abnormal behavior or thinking patterns in personality
NEO-PI: Based on the five-factor model