Introduction to Psychology

Week 3
Personality

IQRA UNIVERSITY KARACHI CAMPUS.

Welcome!!
Personality
Last class quick revision
 LEARNING OUTCOME

Students will be able to understand What is personality, and how do

the various perspectives in psychology view personality

Briefly discuss a objective and a subjective  per-

sonality tests.
What is Personality?
Personality
 Personality Theories:
What’s behind the mask?
• Personality -- from the Latin word persona or
“mask” that Greek actors used to wear to indi-
cate if they were comic or tragic.
Determinants of Personality
The structure of the personality
Personality Theory:
System of concepts, assumptions, ideas,
and principles proposed to explain
personality.
Types of Personality Theories
Psychodynamic perspectives
Freud’s theory
• Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory grew out of
his therapeutic work with clients and emphasized the
importance of the unconscious
ID – EGO - SUPEREGO
 Id  -  One of the three components of the
psyche, it is responsible for instinctual urges
and is completely unconscious.
 Ego  -  One of the three components of the
psyche, it is the part of the psyche that deals
with reality.
 Superego  -  One of the three components
of the psyche, the super-ego represents
internalized social rules. It is partly
conscious, and it enforces rules and imposes
guilt.
 Libido  -  Psychic energy derived from the
sex drive.
Freud described three levels
of awareness: the conscious
(current awareness), the
preconscious (material just
below the level of
awareness) and the
unconscious (material well
below the surface of
awareness).
Instincts
• Basic elements of the personality
• Life instincts: Serve purpose of survival
• Libido: Pleasurable behaviors
• Death instincts: drive to death and
destruction
• Aggressive drive: Compulsion to
destroy, conquer, kill
Freud theorized that conflicts centering on sex and
aggression are especially likely to lead to significant
anxiety.
Anxiety and other unpleasant emotions are often
warded off with defense mechanisms which work
through self deception.
Freud proposed that children evolve through five
stages of psychosexual development: the oral, anal,
phallic, latency and genital stages.
Certain experiences during these stages such as the
handling of the Oedipus complex can shape
subsequent adult personality.
Stages of Personality development
 Freud noted that, at different times in our lives, different parts of our skin
give us greatest pleasure. Later theorists would call these areas erogenous
zones.

 Oral 0 -1/2 years Weaning

 Anal 2 – 3/4 years Toilet training
 Phallic 4 – 5/6 years Identifying
 Latency 6 – 12/13 years Transforming
 Genital 13 + Love / Work
Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development
Types Of anxiety
Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms
• Anxiety - a negative emotional state associated
with a threat to the self. It arises when the ego
is faced with an influx of stimuli with which it
cannot cope.
• Defense mechanism - a technique used by the
ego to protect itself from anxiety .
Defense Mechanisms
• Unconscious mental
processes employed
by the ego to reduce
anxiety
 Erik Erikson
Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order
through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to
adulthood.
During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which
could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development.
According to the theory, successful completion of each stage results in a
healthy personality .
Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a reduced ability to
complete further stages and therefore a more unhealthy personality and
sense of self. 
Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development behaviors that may
be associated with healthy and unhealthy expressions of the self’s de-
velopment and ego boundary
Humanistic perspectives
Roger’s theory
Carl Roger’s person centered theory focuses on the self
concept –a collection of subjective beliefs about one’s nature.
Incongruence is the degree of disparity between one’s self
concept and one’s actual experiences
According to Rogers, unconditional love during childhood,
fosters congruence while conditional love fosters incongruence
Rogers asserts that people with highly incongruent self
concepts are prone to recurrent anxiety.
• Rogers (1980) believed that a growth-promoting climate
required
• three conditions—genuineness, acceptance, and empathy.
• Unconditional positive regard. This is an attitude of grace, an
attitude that values us even knowing our failings.
• It is a profound relief to drop our pretenses, confess our worst
feelings, and discover that we are still accepted.
• In a good marriage, a close family, or an intimate friendship,
we are free to be spontaneous without fearing the loss of
others’esteem.
• Empathic—by sharing and mirroring our feelings and
reflecting our meanings. By putting oneself in others
shoes!
• Genuine—by being open with their own feelings,
dropping their facades, and being transparent and
self-disclosing.
Maslow’s theory
Abraham Maslow proposed that human motives are
organized into a hierarchy of needs in which basic
needs must be met before less basic needs are
aroused.
• A self-Actualized Individual’s qualities
• Perceive reality efficiently and can tolerate uncertainty
• Accept themselves and others for what they are
• Problem-centered rather than self-centered
• Have a good sense of humor
• Highly creative
• Concerned for the welfare of humanity
• Capable of deep appreciation of the basic experiences of life
• Establish deep, satisfying interpersonal relationships with a few, rather than many,
people
• Able to look at life from an objective viewpoint
At the top of Maslow’ s hierarchy of needs is the
need for self actualization – the need to fulfill one’s
potential.
According to Maslow, self actualizing persons are
people with very healthy personalities marked by
continued personal growth.
Trait

A trait can be thought of as a relatively stable characteristic that

causes individuals to behave in certain ways.

The trait approach to personality is one of the major theoretical

areas in the study of personality.

The trait theory suggests that individual personalities are composed of the
broad dispositions.
Trait theory
It is a dimension of personality used to categorize people according
to the degree to which they manifest a particular characteristics. ...

Unlike many other theories of personality, such as psychoanalytic

or humanistic theories, the trait approach to personality is focused
on
differences between individuals
Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory
Gordon Allport found that one English language dictionary alone
contained more than 4,000 words describing different personality
traits. He categorized these traits into three levels

Cardinal traits: most dominant, but also the rarest. the person be-
comes almost synonymous with those qualities. (brilliance)
Central traits: much more common and serve as the basic building
blocks of most people’s personality (smart)
Secondary traits that tend to present themselves in certain situations.
(anxious)
The 5-Factor Theory of Personality
Cattell’s and Eysenck’s theories.
Cattell focused on too many traits, while Eysenck focused on too few.
As a result, a new trait theory often referred to as the "Big Five“
theory emerged.

This five-factor model of personality represents five core traits that

interact to form human personality.
The following are described most commonly:
Agreeableness Conscientiousness Extraversion Neuroticism
Openness
a. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• People express their inner feelings and interests through sto-
ries they make up about ambiguous scenes/pictures. It was de-
veloped by Henry Murray.
Example of an ambiguous picture
Thematic Apperception Test Images
b. Roschach Inkblot Test
• A set of 10 inkblots designed by Herman Rorschach,
now the most widely used projective test; seeks to
identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their
interpretations of the blots
What are your interpretations?
4. Objective Personality Tests
Present statements rather than ambiguous
stimuli characteristic of projective tests.
It rely on the test items to predict a particular
criterion.
Examples of Objective
Personality Tests
 a. MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory)
• The test is used by trained professionals
to assist in identifying personality structure
and psychopathology
b. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
c. 16 PF