Chapter 10

Self and Personality

Modified: 2025-07-03 11:10 AM CDST

I. Conceptualizing the Self and Personality (p. 308)

• A. Basic Concepts
  • 1. Personality—unique, organized combinations of attributes, motives, values, behaviors that make up an individual
  • 2. Most people describe personality in terms of dispositional traits—relatively enduring traits like extraversion or introversion
  • 3. People differ in characteristic adaptations—more situation-specific and changeable ways in which people adapt to environment (e.g., motives, self-conceptions)
  • 4. People differ in narrative identities—unique integrative “life stories” we construct about our past and futures
  • 5. Cultural and situational influences help shape all aspects of personality.
  • 6. Description of personality often includes:
    • a.Self-concept—perceptions (positive to negative) of your own characteristics
    • b.Self-concept may be unrealistic (e.g., think you are dull while you are actually brilliant)
    • c.Self-esteem—evaluation (positive to negative) of self-worth (i.e., “how good am I”)
    • d.Identity—overall sense on one’s self
• B. Theories of Personality
• C. Psychoanalytic theory
  • 1. Sigmund Freud
    • a. Children progress through universal stages of psychosexual development.
    • b. Gist of personality is formed in first 5 years.
    • c. Unfavorable early experience (e.g., harsh parenting) leads to permanent mark on personality.
  • 2. Erik Erikson (neo-Freudian approach)
    • a. Personality evolves through challenges associated with different stages of development.
    • b. When compared with Freud, Erikson placed more emphasis on social influences (e.g., peers, culture), the adaptive nature of the rational ego, the possibility to overcome effects of harmful early experiences, and the potential for personality growth during the adult years.
• D. Trait theory
  • 1. Psychometric approach—guided by the development of intelligence tests
  • 2. Personality is a set of measurable traits (e.g., sociable-unsociable).
  • 3. Relies on factor analysis—statistical technique to identify items that are correlated with each other but not with other factors
  • 4. Big Five factor model—five key dimensions of neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness
  • 5. Big Five traits may be genetically determined and emerge early in life.
  • 6. Traits seem universal.
  • 7. Levels of Big Five traits vary by culture (in the way they are expressed).

The Big Five trait theory provides a compact view of personality. My favorite trait for students to possess is conscientiousness because students high in that trait are more likely to take their studies seriously, return their work on time, and keep their word.

• E. Social learning theory

• 1. Developed by researchers like Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel
• 2. Reject notion of stages of personality and question existence of enduring traits
• 3. People change as environments change—situation is key
• 4. Consistency in personality if situation is consistent, but not necessarily consistent if situation is different
• 5. Behavioral tendencies shaped by interactions with others in specific social situations
• 6. Because social context is so powerful, consistency over time is most likely if social environment remains the same (i.e., different personalities in different situations).

II. The Infant (p. 312)

• A. The Emerging Self
  • 1. Pattern of emerging self
  • 2. Infants born without sense of self, but quickly develop a sense through perceptions of their body and actions
  • 3. By 2 to 3 months, discover that they can cause things to happen
  • 4. During first 6 months, infants first discover properties of physical self, distinguish self from rest of the world, and act upon other people and objects
  • 5. During second 6 months, realize that they are separate beings from others, joint attention—begin sharing perceptual experience with others
  • 6. Self-recognition—ability to recognize oneself in mirror or photograph
  • 7. Researched by watching children’s reaction to self
  • 8. Recognition in mirror indicates clear evidence of self-recognition (occurs by 18–24 months).
  • 9. Categorical self—classification by socially meaningful dimensions (e.g., sex, age) (i.e., figuring out what is “like me” and what is “not like me”)
  • 10.Master skill of awareness of physical self between 18 and 24 months
• B. Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Influences
  • 1. Cognitive development (intellectually disabled children slower to recognize themselves)
  • 2. Social experience/interactions (toddlers with secure attachments better able to recognize themselves in a mirror)
  • 3. Self-awareness at 18–24 months paves way for later social and emotional development.
  • 4. Become able to talk about themselves and assert their will
  • 5. Experience self-conscious emotions such as pride
  • 6. Coordinate their own perspectives with those of others
  • 7. Cultural context influences self-awareness.
  • 8. Joscha Kärtner and his colleagues (2012) expected that self-awareness might develop more rapidly in individualistic cultures than in collectivist cultures.
• C. Implications for Self-Awareness
  • 1. Toddlers who have achieved self-awareness are more able than those who have not to:
    • a. Talk about themselves and to assert their wills
    • b. Experience self-conscious emotions
    • c. Understand other people
    • d. Coordinate their own perspectives with those of other individuals
• D. Temperament
  • 1. Temperament—early dimension of “infant personality”; genetically based tendencies to respond in predictable ways that give insight into a baby’s personality
  • 2. Easiness and difficultness: theory of temperament by Thomas and Chess
  • 3. Three categories of temperament (easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up) found in infants
  • 4. Easy temperament—typically happy, content, and open to new experiences
  • 5. Difficult temperament—irritable, irregular in habits, and react negatively to change
  • 6. Slow-to-warm-up temperament—relatively inactive, somewhat moody, and have only moderately regular daily schedules
  • 7. Slow to adapt to new people and situations
  • 8. Longitudinal study: 40% easy, 10% difficult, 15% percent slow-to-warm-up, remaining third could not be clearly placed
  • 9. Temperament in infancy has little to do with adult adjustment.
  • 10.Behavioral inhibition—tendency to be extremely shy and reserved in unfamiliar situations (Kagan)
  • 11.In Big Five terms, inhibited children are low in extraversion but show neuroticism and anxiety.
  • 12.Estimated 15% of toddlers are inhibited and 10% are extremely inhibited.
  • 13.Early tendencies seen by 4 months with fussing and fretting.
  • 14.Impact can be seen into the adolescent years.
  • 15.Kagan and colleagues conclude that behavioral inhibition is biologically rooted.
  • 16.Surgency, negative affect, and effortful control (Rothbart)—dimensions of temperament that emerge in infancy or toddlerhood/early childhood
  • 17.Surgency/extraversion—tendency to actively and energetically approach new experiences
  • 18.Negatively affectivity—tendency to be sad, easily frustrated, and irritable
  • 19.Effortful control—ability to sustain attention, control one’s behavior, and regulate one’s emotions
  • 20.Rothbart’s ideas very influential; share similarities with Big Five dimensions
  • 21.Meaningful connections exist between temperament in infancy/early childhood and personality in later life.
  • 22.Goodness of fit—extent to which child’s temperament is compatible with demand and expectations of social world
  • 23.Relationship between child and environment affects continuity of temperament.
  • 24.“Carl” who was studied in Thomas and Chess study was difficult but was with responsive dad who supported his behavior.
  • 25.Research suggests that behaviorally inhibited children remain inhibited if parents are overprotective or impatient, but can overcome inhibitions if their parents create a good fit by preparing them for potentially upsetting experiences.
  • 26.Parents should get to know baby as an individual and allow for personality quirks.
  • 27.Teaching parents of irritable babies how to better interpret infant cues can produce calmer infants.

III. The Child (p. 316)

• A. Self-Concepts and Self-Esteem
  • 1. Toddlers can tell others about their emerging self-concepts.
  • 2. The preschool child’s emerging self-concept is concrete and physical.
  • 3. Become capable of social comparison—use information about how they compare to others to characterize and evaluate themselves
• B. Changes in Self-Esteem
  • 1. Harter developed self-perception scale measures.
  • 2. Self-esteem becomes more differentiated or multidimensional with age.
  • 3. Preschoolers’ self-esteem defined by competence (physical and cognitive) and personal/social adequacy (social acceptance)
  • 4. By mid-elementary years, children able to differentiate between five dimensions of self-worth
  • 5. Scholastic competence—does well in school
  • 6. Social acceptance—is popular
  • 7. Behavioral conduct—does not get into trouble
  • 8. Athletic competence—is good at sports
  • 9. Physical appearance—feels good-looking
  • 10.By third to ninth grade, self-esteem is multidimensional and hierarchical.
  • 11.Accuracy of self-evaluations increases steadily over the elementary-school years, but can reflect a desire to be liked or good at activities.
  • 12.Self-evaluations first inflated, then more realistic by school-age (age 8).
  • 13.Children begin to form a sense of ideal self—idea of who they want to be (versus who they are).
  • 14.Gap between real and ideal self increases with age.
  • 15.Older children have greater risk of thinking that they fall short of what they should be.
  • 16.Social comparisons do not always come up well.
  • 17.Tendency for parents and teachers to offer more critical feedback may contribute to decrease in self-esteem from early to middle childhood.
• C. Influences on Self-Esteem
  • 1. Differences exist in levels of self-esteem.
  • 2. Levels of self-esteem may lie in genes (i.e., self-esteem may be a heritable trait)
  • 3. More capable and socially attractive children have more success that can contribute to more positive self-concept and to future academic achievement.
  • 4. More positive social feedback from parents
  • 5. Parental behavior promoting self-esteem (e.g., parents who are warm and democratic tend to have securely attached children)
  • 6. Loving parents communicate approval and acceptance.
  • 7. Effective parents enforce clearly stated rules.
  • 8. Once established, self-esteem stable over school years and correlated with measures of good adjustment
  • 9. Despite the importance of self-esteem, some feel that American educators go overboard in making all children feel good about themselves.
  • 10.Damon maintains that self-esteem means nothing unless it grows out of actual achievement.
  • 11.Children need real opportunities to learn about their limitations and to not give them an inflated and unrealistic sense of their worth.
  • 12.Helping children succeed at tasks can boost self-esteem and lead to future achievements.
• D. The Developing Personality
  • 1. Temperament shaped into predictable personality during childhood
  • 2. Some links between temperament in early childhood and later personality
  • 3. Inhibited 3-year-olds shy as teens
  • 4. Difficult 3-year-olds may end up as impulsive teens.
  • 5. Link between temperament and Big Five factors (e.g., behavioral inhibition in early childhood predictive of low extraversion in middle childhood)
  • 6. Cannot accept Freud’s view that personality is set by age 5
  • 7. Some stabilization in childhood, but then some traits change while others remain about the same
  • 8. Some characteristics do not gel until adolescence or adulthood.
• E. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
  • 1. Trust versus mistrust
  • 2. Autonomy versus shame and doubt
  • 3. Initiative versus guilt
  • 4. Industry versus inferiority

IV. The Adolescent (p. 319)

• A. Self-Concepts and Self-Esteem
  • 1. During adolescence, self-descriptions become:
  • 2. Less physical (“I have brown eyes”) and more psychological (“I am lonely”)
  • 3. Less concrete (“I love sports”) and more abstract (“I am a pseudoliberal”)
  • 4. More differentiated (splits into more distinct aspects)
  • 5. More integrated, creating a more coherent self-portrait
  • 6. More self-aware and reflective (may become painfully self-conscious)
  • 7. Self-esteem tends to decrease from childhood to early adolescence.
  • 8. Drop may be the result of more knowledge and realism about strengths and weaknesses.
  • 9. Drop more common among white females, especially those facing multiple stressors (e.g., puberty, dating, entering middle school)
  • 10.Self-esteem affected by social context and social comparisons
  • 11.Big-fish-little-pond effect—academic self-esteem tends to be lower when the average academic achievement of one’s classmates is high and personal academic achievement is low
  • 12.Certain academic transitions (e.g., from regular classes to gifted classes) might lead to drop in self-esteem.
  • 13.Special education students in regular classes with higher-achieving classmates tend to have higher academic self-esteem.
  • 14.Adolescence is not as hazardous to self as most people believe
  • 15.Most adolescents emerging from the developmental period with higher self-esteem than they had at the onset of the period
  • 16.Opportunities to feel competent in areas they find important and to experience support and approval from important people in their lives can positively impact self-esteem in this age group.
  • 17.As adults, adolescents with low self-esteem tend to have poorer physical and mental health and higher levels of criminal behavior.
• B. Forging an Identity
  • 1. Erikson argues that adolescence is a crisis of identity versus role confusion and moratorium period.
  • 2. Adolescence is the time to attempt to form own identity (definition of who you are, where you are going, and where you fit into society).
  • 3. Must integrate separate perceptions that are part of self-concept into a coherent sense of self
  • 4. Search involves grappling with many questions about beliefs
  • 5. Struggling with issues of self may lead adolescents to experience “identity crisis” resulting from:
  • 6. Changing body image and adjusting to being sexual being
  • 7. Cognitive growth allows for more sophisticated understanding of self
  • 8. Social demands force children to “grow up.”
  • 9. Society supports “moratorium period”—time of relative freedom from responsibility for adolescents
• C. Developmental trends
  • 1. Marcia expanded on Erikson’s theory and proposed four levels of identity statuses
  • 2. Key to status level is whether person has experienced a crisis or achieved commitment.
  • 3. Diffusion status—no crisis, no commitment (common in 12- to 15-year-olds)
  • 4. Foreclosure status—a commitment decision without a crisis is made (“I am going to be a doctor like my dad,” while never having thought about what suits one best)
  • 5. Moratorium status—crisis experienced, no commitment, around age 18; many question religion, use drugs, change majors, and enter a time of active exploration of ideas (but with no decisions)
  • 6. Identity achievement status—crisis experienced, commitment made (about 20% of 18-year-olds, and 40% of college students)
  • 7. Females are as concerned as males about establishing a career identity, but are more interested than males in identity aspects related with sexuality, interpersonal relationships, and balancing career and family goals.
  • 8. Many people achieve a sense of identity achievement status in late teens or early 20s, but this is not the end of identity formation process.
  • 9. People often reopen the question of who they are and recycle through the identity moratorium and achievement statuses throughout later life.
  • 10.Identify formation occurs at different rates in different domains of identity.
  • 11.Archer found 5% of adolescents in same identity status in all four domains (occupational choice, gender-role attitudes, religious beliefs, political ideology) and 90% were in two or three statuses across the four areas.
  • 12.Life-story approach to studying identity (Exploration Box on life stories)
• D. Developing a positive ethnic identity
  • 1. Ethnic identity—a sense of personal identification with an ethnic group and its values, customs, and traditions
  • 2. Members of minority groups tend to place more emphasis on ethnic identity, as the members of majority group often do not think of having an ethnic identity.
  • 3. Infants notice difference in different ethnic faces.
  • 4. Preschoolers learn about different racial and ethnic categories and behaviors associated with their culture (e.g., Chicano handshake).
  • 5. Ethnic identity formed same way as other identities (e.g., vocational)
  • 6. School-age and young adolescents mostly in foreclosure or diffusion status and mid to late teens may move into moratorium and achievement status.
  • 7. Some do not reflect ethnic identity until 20s.
  • 8. Positive sense of ethnic identity established when parents teach them about cultural traditions and prepare them to live in a diverse society
  • 9. Positive ethnic identity can protect from effects of racial discrimination and can reduce symptoms of depression.
  • E. Influences on identity formation
  • 1. Identity formation product of five factors
  • 2. Cognitive development enables one to consider possible future identities.
  • 3. Personality traits impact exploration (e.g., low neuroticism and high openness to experience and conscientiousness).
  • 4. Relationships with parents—youth in diffusion most rejected while those in achievement have high support; parents can be “too loving” and allow adolescents few chances to make own decisions; best option is a warm and democratic parenting style
  • 5. Opportunities to explore (experiences outside the home)—college often time of moratorium, allows for exposure to diverse ideas
  • 6. Broader cultural context plays role in formation of identity.

V. The Adult (p. 324)

• A. Age differences
  • 1. Self-esteem high in childhood, drops in adolescence, rises gradually in adulthood, and drops in older age
  • 2. Little truth to stereotype that most older adults suffer from a poor self-image and significant drops in self-esteem
  • 3. How elderly people maintain positive self-image despite loss:
  • 4. Reduce gap between real selves and ideal selves (i.e., scale down visions of what they can ideally be like and what they will be like)
  • 5. Adjust goals and standards of self-evaluation to lessen perception of failure (i.e., apply different measuring sticks in evaluating selves)
  • 6. Comparing self to other older adults involves a change in comparison group (e.g., often compare selves to older unhealthy people).
  • 7. Not internalizing ageist stereotypes (resist applying negative stereotypes concerning aging that can be damaging to self-perception)
  • 8. Research on the impact of aging stereotypes
  • 9. Priming older individuals with negative and positive stereotypes can impact their rate of walking (negative prime led to slower gait).
  • 10.Positive attitudes toward aging may increase longevity while negative attitudes are associated with higher risk for cardiovascular events like heart attacks.
  • 11.Rothmans and Brandtstadter found that holding negative stereotypes at age 54 led to negative self-perceptions in later life, but early self-perceptions did not affect later aging stereotypes.
• B. Cultural differences
  • 1. Individualistic culture—individual goal valued above group, typical of North America, Western Europe
  • 2. Collectivist culture—group goal valued above individual’s goals, typical of Asia, Africa, Latin America
  • 3. Americans tend to focus on unique aspects of general self and attempt to maintain high self-esteem.
  • 4. Japanese tend to focus on behavior in specific context and are more self-critical.
  • 5. Americans are more likely to describe themselves in terms of generalized personality traits found in most situations; Japanese are more likely to describe themselves in terms of specific behavior in context.
  • 6. Americans adopt trait theory.
  • 7. Japanese adopt social learning theory.
  • 8. Americans more obsessed with maintaining high self-esteem and tend to see themselves as above average on this trait, while Japanese and other East Asians more modest and self-critical
  • 9. Cultural differences in self-description seen as early as age 3 to 4
  • 10.Parents contribute to cultural differences through everyday conversation (e.g., American mothers tell stories in which the child is a star, Chinese mothers discuss experiences of the family group).
  • 11.Cross-cultural differences challenge many assumptions about healthy personality development.
  • 12.Western assumption is that you cannot function without a well-developed sense of individual identity, but in many other cultures, it’s “self-in-relation-to-others” that matters.
  • 13.Asking individuals about self may be culturally biased form of assessment.
• C. Continuity and Discontinuity in Personality
  • 1. Do people retain their rankings?
    • a. Big Five personality traits relatively enduring (i.e., good deal of consistency in rankings within a group), but individual change is possible
    • b. Tendency to be consistent increases with age; age 50 and beyond quite consistent
  • 2. Do mean personality scores change?
    • a. Focus on stability in the average level of a trait
    • b. Younger and older adults tend to have quite different personalities on average.
    • c. Differences likely due to generational or cohort effects
    • d. There is much cross-age consistency in rankings on Big Five, although some small changes possible
    • e. Openness to new experience and extraversion decline modestly from adolescence to middle-age.
    • f. Emotional stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness increase from adolescence to middle-age.
    • g. Big Five traits appear to be biologically based temperaments that undergo a universal process of maturational change.
    • h. Activity level and openness to new experience both tend to decline after age 50.
    • i. Agreeableness tends to increase after age 50.
    • j. Summary points on Big Five traits
    • k. Good deal of cross-age consistency in Big Five traits
    • l. Cohort effects suggest that historical context impacts personality.
    • m. Personality growth in adulthood differs by factor.
    • n. Little personality change in middle to later adulthood
• D. Genes, Environment, Brains, and Personality
  • 1. Why do people change or remain the same?
  • 2. Stability may be accounted for by:
    • a.Heredity (genetic inheritance)
    • b.Lasting effects of childhood experiences
    • c.Stability of environments
    • d.Gene–environment correlations promote continuity
  • 3. Significant changes may be explained by:
    • a.Biological factors (e.g., diseases)
    • b.Changes in social environments (including major life events)
    • c.Poor fit between person and the environment (e.g., independent women lacking traditional feminine traits show more midlife personality change than those fitting stereotypical feminine roles)
  • 4. Although several factors contribute to stability, change in personality is common (especially if there is a change in the environment or a poor fit between personality and lifestyle).
  • 5. Personality development impacts physical health and psychological well-being.
  • 6. Good health linked to higher levels of conscientiousness and extraversion and low levels of neuroticism
• E. Continuing Psychosocial Growth
  • 1. Psychosocial stage theory of personality development with eight psychosocial stages
  • 2. Both maturational forces and social demands push humans through the eight stages.
  • 3. Later conflicts more difficult to resolve if early conflicts not resolved successfully
  • 4. Optimal development involves a health balance of conflicts.
  • 5. The path to adulthood
  • 6. Trust versus mistrust—infants learn to trust caregiver, or mistrust may develop
  • 7. Autonomy versus shame and doubt—toddlers learn self as they assert themselves and gain sense of autonomy
  • 8. Initiative versus guilt—4- or 5-year-olds gain sense of self/pride in accomplishment of goals to form initiative
  • 9. Industry versus inferiority—elementary school students begin to make social comparisons and master cognitive skills; if this goes well, they can acquire a sense of industry
  • 10.Identity versus role confusion—adolescent crisis of establishing unique sense of self
  • 11.Early adult intimacy
  • 12.Intimacy versus isolation—first psychosocial conflict in adulthood
  • 13.Share self through intimacy in relationship with another
  • 14.Failure may lead to being threatened by commitment (fear of being “tied down”).
  • 15.College graduates have better-developed sense of resolution of intimacy issues than college seniors.
  • 16.Women may gain identity by choosing mate and taking on role of wife.
  • 17.More women, especially those will less traditional gender-role orientations, follow identity-before-intimacy route (route that characterizes most men).
  • 18.Erikson’s theory better fit for men than women
  • 19.Midlife generativity
  • 20.Psychosocial crisis of generativity versus stagnation
  • 21.Generativity involves the capacity to produce something that will outlive you and to care about welfare of future generations.
  • 22.Teaching and parenting to younger generation examples of generativity
  • 23.Research on generativity in midlife
  • 24.Valliant’s research found that 50-something males expressed more interest in caring for their own children or younger people at work than 40-somethings.
  • 25.Adults who have achieved a sense of identity and intimacy more likely to achieve generativity as well
  • 26.Generativity can be thought of in terms of successful parenting, but it can be achieved by those without children.
  • 27.Research supports idea of impressive psychological growth during middle age.
  • 28.Old age integrity
  • 29.Psychosocial crisis of integrity versus despair—finding meaning of life that will help them face the inevitability of death
  • 30.Sense of identity in early adulthood predicts generativity and integrity in later life.
  • 31.Sense of integrity is related to a high sense of psychological well-being and low levels of depression or despair.
  • 32.Life review—process of reflecting on past and resolving conflicts
  • 33.Life review can help one find meaning and coherence of life and to prepare for death.
  • 34.Those who reminisce show stronger sense of integrity and better overall adjustment than those who stew about unresolved regrets.
  • 35.Some use life review as a therapy for use with older adults.
  • 36.Conducting a life review may help people develop better sense of ego integrity and adjustment.
• F. Midlife Crisis?
  • 1. Erikson and Vaillant: discussed few signs of midlife crisis
  • 2. Levinson believed that there is:
  • 3. A transition period from age 40 to 45
  • 4. Midlife crisis: a person questions his life structure and raises unsettling issues
  • 5. Most researchers agree there is a midlife questioning period.
• G. Late Adulthood
  • 1. Integrity versus despair
  • 2. Complete psychosocial growth
  • 3. Life review: Reminisce and reflect on unresolved conflicts of the past to come to terms with themselves, find new meaning and coherence in their lives, and prepare for death
• H. Successful Aging and Psychological Well-Being
  • 1. Successful aging: An aging experience that is better overall that typical aging
• I. Rowe & Kohn:
  • 1. Freedom from disease and disability
  • 2. Good cognitive and physical functioning
  • 3. Active engagement with life
• J. Theories of Successful Aging
• K. Activity theory
  • 1. Aging adults will find their lives satisfying if they can:
    • a.Maintain their previous lifestyles and activity levels
    • b.Continue old activities
    • c.Find substitutes
• L. Disengagement theory
  • 1. Successful aging involves a withdrawal of aging individual from society that is satisfying to both.
  • 2. More support for activity theory than for disengagement theory
  • 3. Some seniors to become less active
  • 4. Interactionist model of development
  • 5. Emphasizes the goodness of fit between person and environment and their influence on one another

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