PERSONALITY
Elif Aysimi Duman, Ph.D.
ed2621@nyu.edu
Fall 2023
Week 9
Part V: The Phenomenological-
Humanistic Level
Why Self Matters: Consequences
of Self-Discrepancies
• People experience different types of discrepancies between
different aspects of the self, influencing their emotions and
behaviors:
– Actual self: Yourself as you are
– Ideal self: Who you would like to be
– Ought self: Who you believe you should be
• Discrepancies may be experienced from one’s own vantage
point or from that of significant others.
Illustrative Self-Discrepancies
Types of Self- Induced Feelings Example
Discrepancies
Actual/Own: Disappointment and I’m rejected because I’m not
Ideal/Own dissatisfaction as attractive as I would like to
be
Actual/Own: Shame and I’m ashamed because I fail to
Ideal/Other embarrassment be as kind a person as my
parents wished me to be
Actual/Own: Guilt and self- I hate myself because I
Ought/Own contempt should have more willpower
Actual/Own: Fear or feeling I’m afraid my father will be
Ought/Other threatened angry with me because I didn’t
work as hard as he believes I
should
Narrative Identity: Stories that
Give Lives Meaning
• McAdams (1999) focuses on individuals’ personal
narratives, the stories people tell themselves (and others) as
they try to make sense of their own lives and experiences.
• Self-constructions try to answer basic questions about who
one is, why one lives, and how one fits into the existing social
order.
• Narrative identity concerns the internal stories, implicit and
explicit, that evolve over time to try to make sense of one’s
behavior.
• Different techniques to assess: self-report to interviews,
writing…
https://www.ted.com/talks/lori_gottlieb_how_c
hanging_your_story_can_change_your_life
The Value of Self-Disclosure
about Subjective Experiences
• According to Pennebaker & Graybeal (2001), writing about
traumatic or stressful experiences may yield:
– fewer visits to the doctor
– diverse other behavioral improvements, including better
grades and overall functioning
• But rumination if persistent can enhance angry and
depressed moods.
– In moderation, rumination is common, and more prevalent
among women than men
– Importance of sense of control
Meditation
• Meditation focuses on personal rather than intellectual
knowledge:
– It is practiced through exercises producing an alteration in
consciousness — shifting from an external focus of
attention to an internal one.
– Helps in increasing self-awareness and control
– Influences activation of the nervous system as well as
endocrine and immune systems
• acute and chronic effects
Andy Puddicombe:
https://www.ted.com/talks/andy_puddicombe_all_it_takes_is_10_mindful_minutes
Change and Well-Being
The Meaningful Life,
the Healthy Personality
• Self-realization involves a continuous quest to know oneself
and to actualize one’s potentialities:
– “Adjustment” to society is avoided
• Maslow offered a humanistic description of the healthy
personality.
• The self-actualizing person in this view has many positive
characteristics, for example:
– perceiving reality accurately and efficiently
– being accepting of self, of others, and of the world
Positive Psychology:
Finding Human Strengths
• Positive psychology (Seligman, 2002) is directed at three
levels with specific goals:
– Subjective Experience
– The Individual
– The Group
• It focuses on methods to build human strengths, finding
meaning in life, and three main aspects of happiness:
– Pleasure
– Engagement
– Meaning Martin Seligman:
https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman
_the_new_era_of_positive_psychology
Positive Psychology:
Finding Human Strengths
• An optimistic orientation and a belief in self-efficacy are
important ingredients for well-being.
• Important ingredients in “positive psychology” include:
– Finding and creating meaning in life
– Optimism (versus helplessness/hopelessness)
– Self-efficacy/agency (beliefs that one can do things effectively)
– Social support-relatedness (e.g., groups or friends that share
experience caringly, participating in and contributing to
community/society)
Shawn Achor:
https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_ach
or_the_happy_secret_to_better_work
Part V: The Phenomenological-
Humanistic Level
Basic units: The experienced self; personal constructs
and self-concepts; subjective feelings and
perceptions; self-discrepancies
Causes of behavior: Self-concepts, personal construal
(appraisal), feelings and conflicts, free
choices
Manifestations of Private internal experiences, perceptions,
personality: and interpretations, self-actualization
Favored data: Self-disclosure and personal constructs
(about self and others); self-reports
Part V: The Phenomenological-
Humanistic Level
Observed responses Signs (of the person’s inner states,
used as: perceptions, or emotions)
Research focus: Personal constructs; self-concepts, self-
awareness and expression; human
potential and self-actualization; emotion
Approach to By increased awareness, personal
personality change: honesty, internal consistency, and self-
acceptance; by modifying constructs; by
alternative construals (appraisals)
Role of situation: As the context for experience and choice;
focus on the situation as perceived
