Chapter 12 Personality Lectures

[Ready for Fall 2026]

Modified: 2026-08-03 9:25 PM CDST

• Personality
  • Another construct (an abstract concept made up to explain a complex psychological entity)
  • Personality theories are either descriptive or developmental
  • Personality is one of the most important parts of psychology

• "A lifelong journey"
  • Betty Grebenschikoff and Ana Maria Wahrenberg met in ballet class when they were both 6 years old.
    • Zoom reconnected them 82 years after they said good bye in 1939. They were sent to Chile and China to avoid Nazi Germany.
    • They simply picked up where they left off as friends so long ago.
• PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVES (p. 398)
  • Freud's Stages of Personality
    • Freud's metaphors for the personality were highly influential in their time
    • Today, however, they are largely of historical interest.
    • Freud's theory can be broken down into three main parts
      • Stages of personality development
        • These are his five stages:
          • Oral,
          • Anal,
          • Phallic (Castration Anxiety and Penis Envy),
          • Latency,
          • Genital
        • Fixation: Adult personality traits based upon lack of enough stimulation as a child)
      • The structure of the personality
        • These are the Ego (mediates the other two), the Id, and the Super-Ego
      • The parts of mental life
        • These are the Conscious, the Pre-Conscious, and the Unconscious.
  • Ego, Id, Super-Ego
    • Remember, these are metaphors
    • The Ego is the outward manifestation of the personality, the part shown to the world
    • The Id is hidden and is the biological part ot the personality and is governed by two forces:
      • Libido: the sex drive (most important motivator)
      • Thanatos: the death instinct
    • The Super-Ego is also hidden and has two parts, the conscience and the ego-ideal
  • Defense Mechanisms
    • Defense mechanisms are unconscious methods of dealing with anxiety.
    • They do not eliminated it, they just transform it into a form more easilty dealt with
    • The link above lists the following defense mechanisms:
      • Repression
      • Compensation
      • Denial
      • Displacement
      • Fantasy
      • Intellectualization
      • Projection
      • Rationalization
      • Reaction Formation
      • Regression
      • Sublimation
  • Anxieties (graphic)
  • Anxieties (graphic explained)
    • Freud indentifies three types of anxiety
      • Reality anxiety: you are truly in danger of loss of life or limb (i.e., being mugged). This is when a real life threat to your ego is in effect.
      • Moral anxiety: your Super-Ego threatens your ego because of a moral rule violation (i.e., having sex with you spouse's brother or sister).
      • Neurotic anxiety: your Id bursts out of its normal confines and causes an emotional reaction (i.e., shooting your spouse when caught with another in bed).
  • Mental Life (graphic)
    • This a version of Freud's famous iceberg metaphor (most of the ice is underwater)
    • It shows the three parts of mental life: the Conscious, the Pre-Conscious, and the Unconscious
      • Conscious: What are you thinking about right now? (Don't tell me :-)
      • Pre-Conscious: What can be easily brought into the conscious. I doubt your were thinking about this until I write: BREAKFAST
        • Now, you might think about bacon and eggs, pancakes, or some other breakfast item.
      • Unconscious, notice it's the biggest part of mental life, according to Freud.
        • It is difficult or impossible, Freud argues, to move items from the Unconcious to the Conscious.
        • For Freud, dreams and slips of the tongue reveal the unconscious.
        • Here's a personal example: I moved to Arkansas around the 4th of July. Ten years later, I tried to recall the previous nine 4th of July experiences I had. But, I could not recall one. One day while taking a hot shower it came to me. I had taken an auto trip to a city 1000 miles away and it had turned into a nightmare. So, I must have repressed it and I could not easily recall it. The memory came flooding out when I was relaxed and my normal efforts to repress the events were weakened.
  • Rorschach sample (graphic, what do you think this is?)
    • Obviously, it could be anything. (I see a large woman dancing, btw.)
    • Psychodynamic therapists (such as Freud) like to interpret the results as revealing the Unconscious.
  • Neo-Freudians
    • Long page discusses Freud's influence on others and how they altered his theory.
    • Freud did not like others making such alterations and broke with those that did.
    • Freud's informal group was called the "Vienna Circle" and included:
    • Carl Jung
      • Added collective unconscious, shadow, anima, animus, and other components
    • Alfred Adler
      • Birth order effects, feelings of superiority and inferiority
    • Karen Horney
      • Emphasized the psychology of women.
      • Argued against Freud's concept of penis envy
      • Wrote that security was more important than sex in personality theory.
    • Erik Erikson
      • Extended Freud's five stages to eight lifelong stages.
• HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVES (p. 405)
  • Abraham Maslow
    • The two major humanistic theorists
    • Maslow's hierarchy of needs (graphic)
      • Humans must work from the bottom of the triangle up
      • So, physiological and safety needs must precede: Love/Belonging Needs and Self-actualization
  • Humanistic Theories
  • Third Force psychology (e.g., not Freudian nor Behavioral)
    • Client-centered therapy
    • Focus on here and now.
    • Humanistic theory "give away" is usually the prefix "self-" as in self-esteem, self-worth, or self-concept
• TRAIT PERSPECTIVES (p. 407)
  • Type Theories
    • Maybe you once said, "That person is not my type." What are personality types?
    • They are attempts to summarize a complex idea (e.g., personality) into a smaller, more manageable form.
    • Historically, type theories began in antiquity and persevered into the 20th century.
      • Hippocrates humor theory persisted for hundreds of years
      • Lombroso, in the 19th century attempted to describe the "criminal type"
      • Kretschmer created a four-part type theory
      • Sheldon (see below) attempted to link body types to personality
  • Sheldon's Somatotypes (graphic)
  • Trait Theories
    • The general public often describes others by their personality traits: honest, cunning, friendly, and so on.
    • Scientific trait theories have evolved and have become very useful.
    • The trend in those theories is to incorporate fewer, rather than more traits.
    • The 16PF and the MMPI are examples of trait theories that use many categories
    • The "Big Five" theory looks at:
      • Conscientiousness
      • Agreeableness
      • Neuroticism
      • Openness
      • Extraversion
      • Taken together, these traits are very useful in describing personality
      • Mnemonics to remember them are CANOE or OCEAN
• psychological inquiry (p. 410)
  • Take the TIPI (Ten Item Personality Test) to assess yourself on the Big Five traits.
    • Email me if you want to take that assessment.
  • After, check to see if you agree with the results.
• Eysenck and Norman
  • Hans Eysenck's personality theory was biologically based and had three dimensions:
    • neurotic vs stable
    • extroverted vs introverted
    • stupid vs intelligent
  • Norman's Five Factor theory (see above)
• INTERSECTION: Personality and Social Psychology: Do Personality Traits Predict Prejudice?
• Personality traits are mostly independent of political position (e.g., liberal or conservative but there are some trends.
  • Openness to experience and agreableness correlate negatively with prejudice.
  • Conscientiousness is positively correlated with prejudice.
  • Agreeableness is more complex. Its compassionate aspect correlates positively to liberalism; while its politeness aspect correlates positively to conservatism.
• CRITICAL CONTROVERSY: Can We Intentionally Become Less Neurotic (and More Conscientious) and Should We Try? (p. 413)
• Steiger et al. (2021) attempted to have volunteers lower their neuroticism and raise their conscientiousness.
  • Atter 12 weeks the volunteers reported success.
  • So, with some effort people can alter their personalities.
  • However, should they?
• PERSONOLOGICAL AND LIFE STORY PERSPECTIVES (p. 414)
  • Murray's Approach
    • Promoted "Personology"
      • The amalgam of the factors in a person's life including:
        • life history
        • physical aspects
        • psychological aspects
        • sociological aspects
    • Developed the first personality profile (of Adolph Hitler) in 1943.
    • Developed the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)
      • The TAT revealed unconscious needs for:
      • achievement
      • affiliation
      • power
  • The Life Story (Dan McAdams)
    • Everyone's life story is unique, dynamic, and coherent.
    • Introduced intimacy motivation (also measured by the TAT)
• SOCIAL COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES (p. 417)
  • Learning and Social Learning Theories
    • These were an American learning psychology response to Freud
    • Bandura and Walter's social learning theory was an influential response
      • Reciprocal determinism links: person's behavior, the environment, and person's cognition all act to influence each other
    • So was Rotter's idea of internal and external locus of control.
  • Mischel's critique of personality consistency
    • He argued:
      • Narrow limited traits better predict behavior.
      • Consistency varies by person and trait.
      • Powerful situations (those with known rules) provide cues about how one should behave in those situations.
  • CAPS THEORY (Cognitive Affective Processing Systems)
    • Showed that children who waited longer to get a treat fared better in life.
  • The CAPS approach looks at how personality is affected by cognitive and emotional and how behavior results from a person's self analysis of those factors.
• BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES (p. 420)
  • Personality and the Brain
  • Behavioral Genetics
    • Behavioral genetics is an emerging area of personality research that links personality to its inherited underpinnings
• PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT (p. 419)
  • Studying Personality
    • Because of its complexity, studying personality is difficult
      • More than likely you have a good idea of the personality of your college roommate, brother or sister, or your parents because you have lived with them for a while.
      • But, it's not efficient to study a person's personality by moving in with them. Imagine if I knocked on your door and said I was there to live with you sixth months because the court wanted me to do a personality assessment.
      • So, we have a variety of personality assessments that include:
        • Self reports (most common method)
        • Interviews
        • Rating scales of others or of self
        • Personlity inventories
        • Projective techniques (mostly used by psychodynamic theorists)
          • Rohrschach
          • TAT
            • Now more likely to be used to measure "need for achievement"
          • Draw-a-Person
• PERSONALITY AND HEALTH AND WELLNESS (p. 428)
  • Personality and Physical Health
    • Conscientiousness
      • Important part of the Big Five Traits. Do you carry out what you promise?
    • Personal Control
      • Are you in control of your life? If yes, you will likely be healthier
    • Self-Efficacy
      • Do you have a "can do" attitude?
    • Optimism
      • Is the glass half full or half empty?
    • Type A and Type B Behavior Patterns
      • Are you competitive, driven, time bound (Type A) or are you relaxed or easygoing (Type B)