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The Trait Perspective

The Trait Perspective. Thinking About Psychology Module 26. Identifying Traits. Gordon Allport’s Theory Should only be studied in normal adults Individual personalities are unique Raymond Cattell’s Factor Analysis Do some traits predict other traits?

MikeCarlo
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The Trait Perspective

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  1. The Trait Perspective Thinking About Psychology Module 26

  2. Identifying Traits • Gordon Allport’s Theory • Should only be studied in normal adults • Individual personalities are unique • Raymond Cattell’s Factor Analysis • Do some traits predict other traits? • 16 core personality dimensions (factors) Personality

  3. Indentifying Traits cont’d • Hans Eysenck’s Biological Dimensions • Introversion/Extraversion • Emotionally Unstable/Stable Personality

  4. The “Big Five” Traits • Agreeableness • Conscientiousness • Emotional stability • Extraversion • Openness Personality

  5. Testing for Traits • Personality inventories • Questionnaires on which people respond to items to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors • Used to assess personality traits • Often true-false, agree-disagree, etc. types of questions Personality

  6. Testing for Traits cont’d • Validity • Measures what it is suppose to • Personality inventories off greater validity than projective tests • Reliability • Consistent results • Personality inventories are more reliable than projective tests Personality

  7. Testing for Traits cont’d • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) • Most clinically-used personality test • 500 questions • Originally designed to assess abnormal behavior • MMPI-2 • Revised and updated version • Assesses test takers on 10 clinical scales and 15 content scales Personality

  8. MMPI Scoring Profile Personality

  9. Evaluating the Trait Perspective • Does not consider how the situation affects personality traits • Does not explain why we behave the way we do • Do explain how we behave • Does not explain how our thoughts affect behavior Personality

  10. Psychodynamic Perspective Thinking About Psychology Module 25

  11. Personality • Personality: the person’s characteristics thoughts and behavior Personality

  12. Sigmund Freud • 1856-1939 • Founder of psychoanalysis • Proposed the first complete theory of personality • Emerges from tensions between the unconscious motives and unresolved childhood conflicts Personality

  13. Freud cont’d • Structure of the Human Mind (iceberg) • Conscious: what we are aware of • Preconscious: easily retrieved • Unconscious: includes unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories • Free association • Freudian slips Personality

  14. Freud cont’d • Three forces • Id: the child • Unconscious energy from basic aggressiveness and sexual drives • pleasure principle • Superego: your parent • Internalized ideals and standards • what we “should” do • Ego: the adult • Mediates between the id and superego • reality principle Personality

  15. Freud cont’d • Defense Mechanisms: ways to reduce anxiety • Repression-put anxiety-arousing thoughts into the unconscious • Regression-the person retreats into a more comfortable, infantile stage of life • Denial-the person refuses to admit that something unpleasant is happening • Reaction formation- the person expresses the opposite of the anxiety-provoking, unconscious feeling • Projection-disguises threatening feelings by attributing the problems to others • Rationalization-replaces the anxiety-provoking explanations with more comforting justifications • Displacement- shifts an unacceptable impulse toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person Personality

  16. Freud cont’d Personality

  17. Freud cont’d • Stages of personality development • Oral stage • Conflict: weaning • Anal stage • Conflict: potty training • Phallic stage • Oedipus complex • Latency period • Identification process & gender identity • Genital stage • Starts at puberty Personality

  18. Neo-Freudians • Alfred Adler • 1870-1937 • Believed that social tensions were more important that sexual tensions • Believes psychological problems were the result of feelings of inferiority • Inferiority Complex: a condition that comes from being unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings Personality

  19. Neo-Freudians cont’d • Carl Jung • 1875-1961 • Believed that humans share a collective unconscious • Collective unconscious: concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our ancestors Personality

  20. Neo-Freudians cont’d • Karen Horney • 1885-1952 • Found psychoanalysis negatively biased against women • Believed cultural/social variables are the foundation of personality development Personality

  21. Assessing Personality from a Psychodynamic Perspective • Projective tests: ambiguous stimuli to trigger projection of one’s inner thoughts and feelings • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) • Ambiguous pictures Personality

  22. Assessing cont’d • Rorschach inkblot test • Most widely used • Set of 10 inkblots Personality

  23. Assessing cont’d • Problems with the Rorschach • Not reliable • Lack of a universal scoring system • Does not accurately predict personality characteristics • No scientific basis Personality

  24. Evaluating the Psychodynamic Perspective • Most psychodynamic theorists do not believe that sex is the basis of personality • Agree that there are inner conflicts • People do not “fixate” at various stages of development • Agree that childhood experiences do shape personality • Comprehensive theory Personality

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