Psychology: Personality

• THE ORIGINS OF PERSONALITY
1. Biological and genetic influences
2. Experience - Culture and unique
3. Stability and change
    a. Genetic characteristics relatively stable through life
    b. Less active, hostile and impulsive with age
    c. Personality changes as a result of life experiences
• FREUD
1. Personality consist of three parts
    a. Id - basic biological urges; unconscious
    b. Ego - gratifies urges within acceptable bounds; conscious
    c. Superego - conscience, values and ideas of society
2. Psychosexual development
    a. Oral stage (0-1) - sucking, feeding, etc.
    b. Anal stage (2-3) - defecation
    c. Phallic stage (3-5) sexual attraction to the opposite sex parent produces the Oedipus complex
    d. Latency stage (5-puberty) - sexual feeling forgotten; child concentrates on skill development
    e. Genital stage - adult sexual relationships
3. Anxiety - unjustified fears resolved by ego through use of defense mechanisms
    a. Repression - active exclusion of unconscious impulses from consciousness
    b. Projection - attribute to others our thoughts and feelings
    c. Reaction formation - behavior patterns opposite to our anxiety producing urges
    d. Displacement - redirects anxiety producing behaviors to a more acceptable target
    e. Rationalization - substitute "good" reasons for real reasons foe behavior
• HUMANISTIC THEORIES - people are rational, capable of choice and desire to achieve personal growth
1. Carl Rogers - Self-concept directs behavior, conflict between real and ideal self
2. Abraham Maslow - individual strives for self-actualization - fulfillment of potential
• SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY - how and under what situations thoughts and behaviors are learned
• CONSISTENCY IN PERSONALITY
1. Trait - relatively enduring quality or characteristics
2. Cross-situational - most central to self-concept
• PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT
1. Assessment methods must be:
    a. Reliable - same results over time
    b. Valid - measure what is supposed to measure
2. Interview
    a. Advantage - tailored to individual's previous answers
    b. Disadvantage - low reliability
3. Observation - times particular behavior occurs
    a. Good reliability
4. Self-report
    a. MMPI - to diagnose psychological disorders
    b. Ten primary scales measure personality dimensions
5. Projective techniques - individual provides an interpretation of ambiguous material
    a. Rorschach inkblots
    b. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
    c. Concerns about reliability and validity since interpretations are subjective

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