Chapter 13 – Theories of Personality
I. What is Personality?
A. Specific patterns
of behaviors, thoughts, feelings, etc.
B.
The role of traits
1.
Central traits
2.
Secondary traits
3.
“Big Five” theory
a. extroversion
b. neuroticism
c. agreeableness
d. conscientiousness
e. openness to experience
C.
Measuring personality
1.
Projective tests
2.
Objective tests
3.
“Barnum Effect”
-- see chart on page
485 for following theories--
A.
Personality structures: id, ego,
superego
B.
Defense mechanisms
1.
repression
2.
projection
3.
displacement
4.
reaction formation
5.
regression
6.
denial
7.
sublimation
8.
rationalization
C.
Psychosexual development
1.
Psychosexual stages
2.
Oedipal/Electra complexes
D.
Evaluation:
1.
much of theory is untestable
a. constructs not measurable
b. aspects not falsifiable
2.
testable aspects generally not empirically
supported
3.
developed via few case studies; limited generalizability
4.
concepts often developed via retrospective
reporting
5.
first major theory to emphasize role of
unconscious
A.
Temperament (eg, easily soothed, reactive,
etc)
D.
Heritability of traits
1.
predisposition vs
inevitability
E.
Evaluation:
1. much research
supports role of genetics
2. but ignores/underestimates environmental influences
3. also remember reciprocal determinism
IV. Environmental
Influences
1.
Operant conditioning
2.
Social cognitive learning
B.
Influences of parents
1.
appears far less than that of peers in most studies
a. inconsistency of parenting?
C.
Influences of peers
D.
Influence of context (situationalism)
1.
Role of interaction of behavior X situation – reciprocal determinism
again
E.
Evaluation:
1.
much research supports role of environment
2.
ignores/underestimates individual diffs
3.
not always easy to pin down environmental
factors
V. Cultural Influences
A.
Individualistic vs. collectivist
B.
The importance of context
1.
Sim. to ingroup vs. outgroup effects
2.
Also sim. to
dispositional vs. situational attributions
C.
Evaluation
1.
ignores/underestimates differences within a culture
a. “stereotyping vs. cross-cultural
studies” (pg 485)
2.
not a full theory of personality development
VI. Humanistic Theory
A. response to analytic and behavioral
schools
B. focus on innate goodness and striving
C.
Maslow:
hierarchy of needs
D.
E.
May: existentialism
F.
Evaluation:
1.
much of theory is untestable/unmeasurable
2.
first theory to emphasize the positive (well,
not existentialism so much!)