Dr Nesif Al-Hemiary
Definition
The distinctive and characteristic pattern of
thought , emotion and behavior that make up an
individual’s personal style of interacting with the
physical and social environment.
When we are asked to describe an individual’s
personality, we are likely to use terms referring to
personality traits( adjectives such as extraverted &
conscientious).
The Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud ,the creator of the psychoanalytic
theory, is one of the towering intellectual figures of the
20
th
century.
The basic premise of psychoanalytic theory is that
much of what we think and do is driven by
unconscious processes.
Despite its shortcomings as a scientific theory, the
psychoanalytic account of personality remains the
most comprehensive and influential theory of
personality ever created.
Freud compared the human mind to an iceberg. The
small part that shows above the surface of the water
consists of the conscious( or current awareness) and
the preconscious (all the information that is not
currently on our mind but that we could bring into
consciousness if called upon to do so, for example the
name of our president).
The much larger mass of the iceberg below water
represent the unconscious , a storehouse of impulses
,wishes and inaccessible memories that affect our
thought and behavior.
Freud believed that all thoughts ,emotions and actions
have causes and also most of them are caused by
unsatisfied drives and unconscious wishes.
Personality Structure
Freud discovered that his iceberg model was too simple to
describe the human personality ,so he went on to develop a
structural model ,which divided personality into three major
systems that interact to govern human behavior: the id, the
ego, and the superego.
1.
The id : according to Freud, the id is the most primitive part of
the personality & the part from which the ego and the superego
later develop.
It is present in the newborn infant and consist of the most
basic biological impulses or drives: the need to eat, to drink, to
eliminate wastes, to avoid pain and to gain sexual (sensual)
pleasure.
He also believed that aggression is a basic biological drive.
In fact he believed that the sexual and aggressive drives were
the most important instinctual determinants of personality
throughout life.
The id seeks immediate gratification of the impulses.
2. The ego :
Children soon learn that their impulses cannot
always be gratified immediately. Hunger will not
be alleviated until someone provides food .Relief
of bladder or bowel pressure must be delayed until
the bathroom is reached.
The ego obeys the reality principle: the
gratification of impulses must be delayed until the
situation is appropriate.
The ego thus is the executive of the personality: it
decides which id impulses will be satisfied and in
what manner.
The ego mediates among the demands of the id ,
the realities of the world , and the demands of the
superego.
3. Superego :
the third part of the personality is the superego,
which judges whether actions are right or wrong.
More generally ,the superego is the internalized
representation of the values and morals of the society.
It is the individual’s conscience ,as well as his or her
image of the morally ideal person( called the ego
ideal).
The superego develops in response to parental
rewards and punishments .
Violating the superego’s standards or even the
impulse to do so produces anxiety – beginning with
anxiety over loss of parental love.
According to Freud ,this anxiety is largely
unconscious ,but may be experienced as guilt.
The three components of personality are often in
conflict ; the ego postpones the gratification that the
id wants immediately, and the superego battles with
both the id and the ego because behavior often falls
short of the moral code it represents.
In the well –integrated personality , the ego remains in
firm but flexible control ; the reality principle governs.
Personality Dynamics
Conservation of Energy :
Freud believed that humans are closed energy system. There is a
constant amount of psychic energy for any given individual ,which
Freud called “libido”.
One corollary of the principle of conservation of energy is that if a
forbidden act or impulse is suppressed ,its energy will seek an outlet
somewhere else in the system ,possibly appearing in a disguised form.
The desires of the id contain psychic energy that must be expressed in
some way, and preventing the expression of these desires does not
eliminate them.
Aggressive impulses for example may be expressed in disguised form
by racing sports cars ,playing chess or making sarcastic remarks.
Dreams and neurotic symptoms are also manifestations of psychic
energy that cannot be expressed directly.
Anxiety & Defense :
Individuals with an urge to do something forbidden
experience anxiety. One way of reducing this anxiety is to
express the impulse in a disguised form that will avoid
punishment either by the society or by its internal
representative ,the superego.
Freud and his daughter Anna described several defense
mechanisms .
Defense mechanisms are strategies for preventing or
reducing anxiety.
We all use defense mechanisms at times .They help us over
the rough spots until we can deal with stressful situations
more directly.
Defense mechanisms are maladaptive only when they
become the dominant mode of responding to problems.
Defense mechanisms include the following types:
repression, rationalization, reaction formation, projection ,
denial, displacement & intellectualization.
Personality Development
Freud believed that during the first 5 years of life ,the
individual progresses through several developmental stages
that affect his or her personality.
Applying a broad definition of sexuality , he called these
periods psycho-sexual stages.
During each stage the pleasure seeking impulses of the id
focus on a particular area of the body and on activities
connected with that area.
These stages are:
1.
Oral stage (1
st
year of life): pleasure from nursing & sucking.
2.
Anal stage ( 2
nd
year of life): pleasure from withholding &
expelling feces.
3.
Phallic stage (3-6 years of life): pleasure of fondling genitals.
4.
Latency period (7-12 years) : children become less concerned
with their bodies and turn their attention to the skills needed
for coping with their environment.
5.
Genital stage (adolescence & puberty): the mature phase of
adult sexuality and functioning.
At age 5-6 years ,a boy’s sexual impulses are directed
toward his mother. this leads him to perceive his father as a
rival for his mother’s affection.
Freud called this situation the Oedipal conflict.
Freud also believed that the boy’s fears that his father will
retaliate against these sexual impulses by castrating him.
He labeled this fear castration anxiety.
In normal case of development the boy simultaneously
reduces this anxiety and gratifies his feelings towards his
mother by identifying with his father.
Resolution of Oedipal conflict ends the phallic stage.
Freud believed that special problems at any stage could
arrest , or fixate, development and have a lasting effect on
personality.
The Behavioral Theory
This approach emphasizes the importance of
environmental or situational determinants of behavior.
So, behavior is the result of a continuous interaction
between personal & environmental variables.
The environment shapes behavior through learning.
To predict behavior ,we need to know how the
characteristics of the individual interact with those of the
situation.
Social learning and conditioning
Operant conditioning:
Reinforcement and punishment can influence behavior.
Operant conditioning is a type of learning that occurs
when we learn the association between our behavior
and certain outcomes.
Learning can occur by two ways:
1.
By direct experience : rewards and punishments.
2.
By observing other people :noting the result.
Reinforcement
Reinforcement can occur through many ways:
1.
Direct : tangible rewards, social approval or disapproval,
alleviation of aversive conditions.
2.
Vicarious : observation of someone receiving reward or
punishment.
3.
Self-administered : evaluation of one’s own performance
with self praise or self reproach.
Classical conditioning
To account for emotions or affect , behaviorists add the classical
conditioning.
Classical conditioning is a type of learning that occurs when
specific situations become associated with specific outcomes.
When a child is punished for a forbidden behavior ,he will elicit
physiological responses that we associate with guilt or anxiety.
Subsequently, the child behavior itself will elicit these
responses , so the child feel guilty when engaging in a
forbidden behavior.
Unconditioned stimulus (punishment) guilt and
anxiety.
Conditioned stimulus (forbidden behavior guilt &
anxiety.
Individual Differences
Personality psychologists seek to specify both the
variables on which individuals differ from one
another & the general process of personality
functioning.
Behavioral theory concentrated on processes &
giving little attention to individual differences.
Evaluation of behavior theory :
1.
Pays little attention to biological determinants of
behavior & focuses on environmental factors.
2.
Passive quality of personality( highly modified by
environment). This view is changed by the social
learning theory of cognitive approach.
3.
It made good contribution to clinical psychology &
theory of personality.
The Cognitive Theory
Cognitive approach is a general empirical approach and
a set of topics related to how people process
information about themselves and the world.
For cognitive theorists : differences in personality stem
from differences in the way individuals mentally
represent information.
Social-cognitive theory
Bandura , one of the leading contemporary theorists
in this area, has taken this approach even further,
developing what he calls social-cognitive theory.
He emphasizes the reciprocal determinism in which
external determinants of behavior (rewards,
punishments) and internal determinants ( beliefs,
thoughts and expectations) are part of a system of
interacting influences that affect both behavior and
other parts of the system
.
Social-cognitive theory
Bandura notes that people use symbols and forethoughts in
deciding how to act. When they encounter a new problem ,they
imagine possible outcomes and consider the probability of
each. Then they set goals and develop strategies for achieving
them. This is quite different from the notion of conditioning
through rewards and punishments.
Bandura also points out that most behavior occurs in the
absence of external rewards and punishments. Most behavior
stems from internal processes of self-regulation. As he
expresses it “ anyone who attempted to change a pacifist into
aggressor or a devout religionist into an atheist would quickly
come to appreciate the existence of personal sources of
behavioral control”.
The personal sources of control develop by observing the
behavior of others or by reading or hearing about it.
Individual differences and social learning theory
Another prominent social –learning theorist, Walter
Mischel, has attempted to incorporate individual
differences into social learning theory by introducing
the following set of cognitive variables:
1.
Competencies: what can you do? Competencies
include intellectual abilities, social and physical skills,
and other special abilities.
2.
Encoding strategies: how do you see it? People differ in
the way they attend to information, encode
(represent) events and group the information into
meaningful categories.
3.
Expectancies :what will happen? Expectations about
the consequences of different behaviors will guide the
individual’s choice of behavior.
4.
Subjective values: what is worth? Individuals who have
similar expectancies may choose to behave differently
because they assign different values to the outcomes.
5.
Self-regulatory systems and plans: how can you
achieve it ? People differ in the standards and rules
they use to regulate their behavior, as well as their
ability to make realistic plans for reaching a goal.
All of these person variables ( referred to as cognitive
social-learning person variables) interact with the
conditions of a particular situation to determine what
an individual will do in that situation.
Self-Schemas
A schema is a cognitive structure that helps us
perceive ,organize ,process and utilize information.
Through the use of schemas , each individual develops
a system for identifying what is important in his or her
environment while ignoring everything else.
Schemas also provide a structure within which we
organize and process information. For example most
people have developed a mother schema. When asked
to describe their mother, it is easy for them because
the information is organized into a well-defined
cognitive structure.
Schemas are relatively stable over time and therefore
result in stable ways of perceiving and utilizing
information.
They differ from one individual to another, causing
people to process information differently and to
behave in different ways.
They thus can be used to explain differences in
personality.
Perhaps the most important schema is the self-
schema ,which consists of “cognitive generalizations
about the self, derived from past experience, that
organize and guide the processing of self-related
information.
The resulting self-schema is made up of the aspects of
our behavior that are more important to us, and it
plays a central role in the way we process information
and interact with the world around us.
The Humanistic Theory
During the first half of the 20
th
century ,the
psychoanalytic & behaviorist approaches were
dominant in psychology.
In 1962 ,however ,a group of psychologists founded
the Association of Humanistic Psychology.
They saw humanistic psychology as a “third force”
,an alternative to the other two approaches.
Carl Rogers
Like Freud , Carl Rogers (1902-1987) based his theory on
work with patients or clients in a clinic.
Rogers believed that the basic force motivating the human
organism is the actualizing tendency.
Actualizing tendency :a tendency toward fulfillment or
actualization of all the capacities of the organization.
A growing organism seeks to fulfill its potential within the
limits of its heredity.
A person may not always clearly perceive which action lead
to growth & which do not. But once the course is clear, the
individual chooses to grow.
Rogers did not deny that there are other needs ,some of
them biological ,but he so them as subservient to the
organism’s motivation to enhance itself.
The Self
The central concept in Rogers’s theory of personality is the
self or self-concept ( he uses them interchangeably).
The self or real self: consist of all the ideas ,perceptions and
values that characterize “I” or “Me” ;it includes the
awareness of “What I am ?” and “What I can do?” .
This perceived self, in turn, influences both the person’s
perception of the world and his or her behavior.
For example a woman who perceives herself as strong and
competent perceives and acts upon the world quite
differently than a woman who considers herself weak and
ineffectual.
The self concept does not necessarily reflect reality: A
person may be highly successful and respected but still
view himself or herself as a failure.
According to Rogers ,the individual evaluates every
experience in relation to his or her self-concept.
People want to behave in ways that are consistent
with their self image ,and experiences and feelings
that are not consistent are threatening and may be
denied entry into consciousness.
The more areas of experience a person denies
because they are inconsistent with his or her self
concept , the wider the gap between the self and
reality and the greater the potential for
maladjustment.
Rogers also proposed that each of us has an ideal
self ,our conception of the kind of person we
would like to be.
The closer the ideal self is to the real self , the
more fulfilled and happy the individual becomes.
A large discrepancy between the ideal self and real
self results in unhappy ,and dissatisfied person.
Thus two kinds of inconsistency can develop:
between the self & the experience of reality and
the real self and ideal self.
Rogers believed that people are likely to function
more effectively if they are brought up with
unconditioned positive regard (being given the
sense that they are valued by parents and others
even when their feelings ,attitudes, and behaviors
are less than ideal).
If parents offer only conditioned positive regards
(valuing the child only when he or she behaves ,
thinks ,or feels correctly)- the child’s self concept
is likely to be distorted.
Abraham Maslow
The psychology of Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
overlaps with that of Carl Rogers in many ways.
Abraham Maslow ,proposed that there is a
hierarchy of needs ,ascending from the basic
biological needs to the more complex
psychological motivations that become important
only after the basic needs have been satisfied .
The needs at one level must be at least partially
satisfied before those at the next level become
important motivators of action.
When food and safety are difficult to obtain
,efforts to satisfy those needs will dominate a
person’s actions ,and higher motives will have
little significance.
Only when basic needs can be satisfied easily will
the individual have the time and energy to devote
to aesthetic and intellectual interests.
Artistic and scientific endeavors do not flourish in
societies in which people must struggle for food,
shelter, and safety.
The highest motive – self actualization – can be
fulfilled only after all other needs have been
satisfied.
The Evolutionary Approach
One of the newest and most controversial theories
in personality is really an application of a very old
theory that is the Evolutionary Theory of
Darwin(1859).
The basic premise of evolutionary psychology is
that behaviors that increase the organism’s
chances of surviving and leaving descendants will
be selected for over evolutionary history and thus
would become aspects of human’s personalities.
A good deal of research on the application of the
evolutionary psychology to personality has
focused on mate selection.
Mating involves competition ,males compete with
males and females compete with females.
What is being competed for differs between the
sexes, however because males and females have
different roles in reproduction.
Because females carry their offspring for 9 months
and then nurse and care for them after birth ,they
have a greater investment in each offspring and
can produce fewer offspring in their lifetimes than
men can.
This puts a premium for the female on the quality
of the genetic contribution of the males with
whom she reproduces, as well as, on signs of his
ability and willingness to help care for his
offspring.
In contrast, the optimal reproductive strategy for
males is to reproduce as often as possible , and
they will primarily be looking for females who are
available and fertile.
Some evolutionary psychologists have investigated
personality differences between males and females
and hypothesized that they are the result of
differences in reproductive strategies.
They reasoned that women who are interested in
mating should emphasize their youth and beauty,
because these are signs of their fertility, but should
be choosier than men about what partners they
mate with.
In contrast ,men who are interested in mating
should emphasize their ability to support their
offspring and should be less choosy than women
about their mating partners.
This theory is controversial ,however , because of
its social implications and for the difficulty of
refuting arguments derived from this theory.
Genetics & Personality
We end with another controversial and relatively
recent approach to understanding the origins of
personality (the argument that personality traits
are largely determined by genes an individual was
born with.
Some of the best evidence that genes play a role in
personality comes from the Minnesota Study of
Twins Reared Apart.
These studies revealed that twins reared apart are
just as similar to each other across a wide range of
personality characteristics as twins reared
together, permitting us to conclude with greater
confidence that identical twins are more similar to
each other on personality characteristics than
fraternal twins because they are more similar
genetically.
Genetics & Personality
Evidence from twin studies suggests that genetic factors
substantially influence personality traits.
In shaping personality ,genetic and environmental
influences do not act independently but are intertwined
from the moment of birth.
Because a child’s personality and his or her home
environment are both a function of the parent’s genes,
there is a built-in correlation between the child’s genotype
(inherited personality characteristics) and that
environment.
Interaction between personality and
environment
Three dynamic processes of personality-environment
interaction are:
1.
Reactive interaction: different individuals exposed to the
same environment experience it, interpret it ,and react
to it differently.
2.
Evocative interaction :an individual’s personality evokes
distinctive responses from others.
3.
Proactive interaction: individuals select or create
environments of their own.
As the child grows older, the influence of proactive
interaction becomes increasingly important.