What is Personality Read A Day in Life on page 321 Would Hannah do something like that The answer to that question relies on our perception of Hannahs personality When people think of personality they often think of the most striking element of that personality like having an a ID: 782409
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Slide1
Theories of Personality
Psychology: Chapter 14, Section 1
Slide2What is Personality?
Read “A Day in Life” on page 321
Would
Hannah do something like that?
The answer to that question relies on our perception of Hannah’s personality
When people think of personality, they often think of the most striking element of that personality, like having an “assertive personality” or an “artistic personality”
But psychologists define
personality
as the pattern of feelings, motives,
and behaviors that sets
people apart from one another
Slide3Psychologists Try to Understand Personality
Psychologists have come up with many ideas and theories about how personality develops
They try to predict how different people will respond to life’s demands
In this chapter, we will explore five approaches to the study of personality, which are:
Trait theory
P
sychoanalytic theory
L
earning theory
H
umanistic theory
S
ociocultural theory
Slide4The Trait Approach
A
trait
is an aspect of a personality that is considered to be reasonably stable
Traits account for consistent behavior in different situations
Someone who has the trait of being “shy” will be shy at a party as well as shy in a classroom
But if that person was only shy in the classroom, but loud and outgoing at a party, he or she would not be considered to have the trait of being shy, since it’s not consistent across situations
Slide5Where Do Traits Come From?
Trait theorists have thought for a long time about where traits come from
Some of the major thinkers on this have been Hippocrates, Gordon
Allport
, and Hans
Eysenck
Slide6Hippocrates
Hippocrates (c. 460 BC – c. 370 BC) was an ancient Greek physician
He is referred to as the father of Western medicine
When people complete their education and are finally about to be come doctors, they take the Hippocratic Oath, where they swear they will do no harm to anyone
Slide7Hippocrates
The ancient Greeks believed that the body contains fluids called humors
Hippocrates believed that personality traits are a result of different combinations of these bodily fluids
Yellow bile: Choleric: Quick tempered disposition
Blood: Sanguine: Warm, cheerful temperament
Phlegm: Phlegmatic: Sluggish, cool disposition
Black bile: Melancholic: Thoughtful disposition
Slide8Imbalance in the Humors
Certain diseases and disorders were believed to be caused by a lack of balance in these humors
Bloodletting and vomiting were recommended to restore the proper balance
Although medicine has advanced from this period, these words are still in use– a cheerful person could be described as sanguine
Slide9Gordon
Allport
Gordon
Allport
(1897-1967) was an American psychologist who was one of the very first to work on personality.
Slide10Gordon
Allport
In the 1930’s, Gordon
Allport
searched through a dictionary, looking for every word that could describe a person. He found 18,000 words.
Some were physical descriptions (short, brunette), some were behavioral traits (shy, emotional), and some regarded morality (honest)
Allport
assumed these traits could be inherited and were fixed in the nervous system
He believed that a person’s personality is a product of his or her combination of traits
Slide11Hans Jürgen Eysenck
(1916 –1997
) was a psychologist born in Germany, who spent his professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and
personality
Slide12Hans
Eysenck
Hans Eysenck saw personality along two dimensions: an extraverted/ introverted scale and emotional stability/ instability
Introverts
tend to be imaginative and look inward rather than to other people for their ideas and energy
Extraverts
tend to be active and self expressive and gain energy from interaction with other people
Stable people are reliable, composed and rational, while unstable people can be agitated and unpredictable
(note: Carl Jung, the originator of the idea, spelled it extr
a
version, which is more closely tied to its Latin roots, but many have adopted the spelling extr
o
version
,
to be more symmetrical with introversion. Either spelling seems accepted, as the book spells it with an o.)
Slide13Hans
Eysenck
Eysenck
categorized people on where they fell on the two-dimensional scale
For example, if a person is introverted and unstable, they might be considered Moody, while and introverted and stable person would be considered Calm. An unstable extraverted person could be Restless, while a stable extraverted person would be sociable.
This leads to a four point scale that reflects Hippocrates’s four humors theory
Slide14Slide15The Five-Factor Model
Research has expanded on
Eysinck’s
ideas and suggested that there might be five basic personality factors
In addition to extraversion/ introversion and stability/ instability, there may also be
openness to new
experiences, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
These personality traits lead to behavioral patterns
For example, people who are more agreeable tend to be safer drivers, as they allow others to merge. Dictators score low on openness, as they don’t want new ideas
Slide16The Five Factor Model looks at five aspects of personality and rates them on a sliding scale
Slide17The Myers-Briggs Test
One of the most popular tests for personality traits is called the Myers-Briggs test
This
test
was developed
in the 1960’s by Isabel Myers (1897-1980) and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs (1875-1968).
They studied individual
differences in healthy
personalities
Businesses spend
millions of dollars each year giving workers and potential
job candidates the Myers
Briggs personality test
to obtain an effective workforce
Slide18The
Myers Briggs
Test
The
official test is based on Carl Jung’s work in psychological typology.
In
1921, Carl
Jung categorized
people into primary personality types.
Jung’s
suggested that individuals are either born with, or develop, certain preferred ways of perceiving and
deciding
The Myers
Briggs Personality test sorts some of these psychological differences into four opposite pairs with a resulting 16 possible psychological types.
The
four pairs
are: Extraversion
(
E
) vs (
I
) Introversion, Sensing (
S
) vs (
N
) Intuition, Thinking (
T
) vs (
F
) Feeling and Judging (
J
) vs (
P
) Perception.
People
who prefer judgment over perception are not necessarily more
judgmental
or less
perceptive
. None of these types are considered
better
or
worse
, but
certain
personalities
could
be a better fit to certain
jobs
Slide19Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein would be classified as an INTP (Introvert, Intuition, Thinking, Perception, 1-3% of population).
INTPs
are quiet, thoughtful, analytical individuals who
tend to
spend long periods of time on their own, working through problems and forming solutions.
They
are frequently found in careers such as science, philosophy,
and law
They
also tend to be impatient with the bureaucracy, rigid hierarchies, and the politics
that are
in many professions. INTPs have little regard for titles and badges, which they often consider to be unjustified.
INTPs
accept ideas based on merit, rather than tradition or authority. They have little patience for social customs that seem illogical or that obstruct the pursuit of ideas and knowledge.
INTPs organize their understanding of any topic by articulating
principles
and
theoretical
constructs
. They
can demonstrate remarkable skill in explaining complex ideas to others in
simple
terms, especially in writing.
However,
their ability to grasp complexity may also lead them to provide overly detailed explanations of simple ideas, and listeners may judge that the INTP makes things more difficult than they need to be
.
Slide20Winston Churchill
On pretty much the opposite side of the scale we have the Winston Churchill, or the ESTP (Extravert, Sensing, Thinking, Perception, 4-5% of population).
According
to the
Myers
Briggs personality test, ESTPs are hands-on learners who live in the moment, seeking the best in life, wanting to share it with their friends.
The
ESTP is open to situations, able to improvise to bring about desired results. They are bold and tactical people who want to solve their problems rather than simply discuss them.
Slide21There are 16 personality types described by the Myers Briggs test. None are “better” than the others
Slide22Evaluation of the Trait Approach
One problem with the trait approach is that it may describe personality but doesn’t really do a good job at explaining where the traits come from
Although
Allport
and others tried to find some biological bases for personality, they were not successful in their search
However, trait theory has been very helpful at matching people’s personalities with jobs that they would enjoy
Slide23Section Assessment
Complete #1-3 on page 324 in
your notebook