Al akhawayn university
PSY1301
Introduction to Psychology
PERSONALITY
By Manal Lamouine
PERSONALITY
If personality is stable and enduring, do
you think people can truly change?
What makes two individuals have
different personalities?
WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
Personality – Personality refers to distinctive and relatively enduring ways of
thinking, feeling and acting that characterize a person’s response to life situations.
-Comes from the Latin word persona (a mask worn by an actor).
Definitions
•Gordon Allport (1937):
Personality is "the dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought."
(Focus: Holistic and integrative nature of personality.)
•Raymond Cattell:
Defined personality as "that which permits a prediction of what a person will do
in a given situation."
(Focus: Predictive and trait-based approach.)
•Carl Rogers:
Personality is "the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about
oneself."
(Focus: Humanistic view and self-concept.)
•Freud (Psychoanalytic):
Personality arises from the interaction of the id (instinctual drives), ego (reality-
oriented mediator), and superego (moral conscience).
(Focus: Unconscious motives and conflicts.)
Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
According to psychoanalysts, much of our
behavior is caused by parts of personality
found in the unconscious and of which we are
unaware.
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)
LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Unconscious – mental activity that we are
unaware of and are unable to access.
According to Freud:
• We are only aware of a small amount
(about one-tenth) of our mind’s activities
and most of it remains hidden from us in
our unconscious.
• Unacceptable urges and desires are
kept in our unconscious through
repression.
• The information in our unconscious
affects our behavior, although we are
unaware of it.
Freudian slip - Freud suggested that slips
of the tongue (saying a word you did not
intend to say) are sexual/aggressive urges
accidently slipping out of our unconscious.
ID, EGO & SUPEREGO
Freud posited that personality results from efforts to balance two competing forces.
1. Biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives.
2. Internal (socialized) control over these pleasure-seeking drives.
Freud described this process as an interaction between three systems.
Id
• Contains primitive urges (for hunger, thirst, and sex).
• Impulsive, instinctual.
• Operates on the ”pleasure principle” – seeks immediate gratification.
Superego
• Develops through interactions with others, learning social rules for right and wrong.
• Moral compass that tells us how we should behave based on rules..
• Strives for perfection.
Ego (self)
• Attempts to balance the id with the superego.
• Rational
• Operates on the “reality principle” – helps the id satisfy desires in a realistic way.
• The part of the personality seen by others.
ID, EGO, & SUPEREGO
Effects on Personality
Balanced id and superego → healthy personality.
Imbalanced id and superego → neurosis (tendency to experience negative emotions),
anxiety disorders, or unhealthy behaviors.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
• Unconscious protective behaviors that work to reduce anxiety.
• Used by the ego to restore balance between the id and superego.
• Freud believed them to be used by everyone but that overuse could be
problematic.
•Denial: Refusing to accept reality or facts to avoid dealing with painful emotions.
Example: Ignoring a serious health diagnosis and acting as if nothing is wrong.
•Displacement: Redirecting emotions from the original source to a safer target.
Example: Arguing with a friend after being scolded by your boss.
•Projection: Attributing one’s unacceptable feelings or traits to someone else.
Example: Accusing others of being dishonest when you’re the one struggling with
honesty.
•Rationalization: Creating logical explanations to justify unacceptable behavior.
Example: Saying, 'I didn’t want the job anyway,' after not getting hired.
•Reaction Formation: Behaving in a way that is opposite to your true feelings.
Example: Treating someone you dislike with excessive kindness.
•Regression: Reverting to behaviors typical of an earlier developmental stage.
An adult facing extreme stress, like a job loss or a breakup, starts cuddling a
childhood stuffed animal or seeking comfort from their parents as they did when they
were younger.
•Repression: Pushing distressing memories or thoughts out of conscious awareness.
Example: Forgetting a traumatic event from childhood.
•Sublimation: Channeling unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities.
Example: Redirecting aggressive tendencies into sports or creative work.
STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
Freud theorized that children pass through five psychosexual stages.
In each stage, pleasure-seeking urges (id) are focused on a different erogenous zone (part
of the body).
Lack of proper nurturing and parenting during conflicts results in the person becoming
stuck/fixated in that stage.
Oral Stage (Birth – 1 year)
• Erogenous zone – mouth.
• Pleasure – from eating and sucking.
• Major conflict – being weaned from bottle or breast.
• Adult fixation – smoking, overeating, nail biting.
Anal Stage (1-3 years)
• Erogenous zone – anus.
• Pleasure – from bowel and bladder movements.
• Major conflict – toilet training.
• Adult fixation – anal-retentive personality (stingy, stubborn, need for order and
neatness), anal-expulsive personality (messy, careless, disorganized, prone to
emotional outbursts).
STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
Phallic Stage (3-6 years)
• Erogenous zone – genitals.
• Major conflict – child feels a desire for the opposite-sex parent, and jealousy and
hatred toward the same-sex parent.
• Oedipus complex (boys) – desire for mother’s attention, urge to replace
father. Afraid of being punished by father for these feelings (castration anxiety).
• Electra complex (girls) - desire for father’s attention, urge to replace mother.
Angry at mother for not providing them with a penis (penis envy).
• Adult fixation – vanity, over-ambition.
Latency Stage (6-12 years)
• Erogenous zone – none.
• Sexual feelings are dormant as children focus on school, friendships, hobbies and
engage with peers of the same-sex.
Genital Stage (12+)
• Erogenous zone – genitals.
• Sexual reawakening – urges are redirected from parents to more socially acceptable
partners.
ALFRED ADLER
Individual psychology
• Focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority.
• Inferiority complex – A person’s feelings that they lack worth and don’t measure up to
the standards of others or of society.
• Social motives thought to be the force behind thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
• Placed focus on social connections during childhood development.
• Believed happiness can be found in working together
for the betterment of all.
• Saw conscious processes as more important.
• Theorized that birth order shapes our personality.
Adler identified three fundamental social tasks all
individuals must experience.
1. Occupational tasks – careers.
2. Societal tasks – friendship.
3. Love tasks – finding an intimate partner.
ERIK ERIKSON
Psychosocial theory of Development
• Personality develops throughout the lifespan.
• Emphasizes importance of social relationships at each stage.
• Development of a healthy personality and sense of competence
depend on successfully completing each of the 8 stages.
CARL JUNG
Analytical Psychology
• Focused on working to balance conscious and unconscious thought.
Carl Jung acknowledged the concept of a personal unconscious but was also interested in
exploring the collective unconscious.
Collective unconscious – universal version of personal unconscious, holding mental
patterns, or memory traces, which are common to all of us.
Archetypes –patterns that exist in our collective unconscious across cultures/societies.
symbols like the hero, the mother, or the shadow,
Persona – A mask that we consciously adopt.
the 'mask' we wear to fit into society. It helps us navigate social roles but can hide our true self if
overused; But deep down, you might feel insecure or afraid of failure—this is part of your personal
unconscious.
CARL JUNG
Extroversion vs Introversion
Jung’s most important contributions to the field of
personality psychology was the idea of extroversion and
introversion to explain different attitudes towards life.
Introverts Extroverts
Energized by being alone Energized by being with
others
Avoids attention Seeks attention
Speaks slowly & softly Speaks quickly & loudly
Thinks before speaking Thinks out loud
Stays on one topic Jumps from topic to topic
Prefers written Prefers verbal
communication communication
Pays attention easily Distractible
Cautious Acts first, thinks later
THE BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE
Learning approaches to personality focus on observable, measurable phenomena.
Skinner
• We learn to behave in particular ways.
• Personality is shaped by reinforcements and consequences in the environment.
• Personality develops over our entire life.
• Personality can vary as we experience new situations.
THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
Bandura
Agreed that personality develops through learning but disagreed with the behaviorist
approach because thinking and reasoning are important parts of learning.
Social-cognitive theory – emphasizes both learning and cognition as sources of
individual difference in personality.
Factors in personality development:
Reciprocal Determinism – cognitive processes (beliefs, expectations, and personality
characteristics), behavior, and context (environment/situation) all interact.
Observational learning – learning by observing someone else’s behavior and it’s
consequences.
• Teaches us which behaviors are acceptable and rewarded in our culture.
• Teaches us which behaviors are socially unacceptable.
Self-efficacy – level of confidence in our own abilities, developed through social
experiences.
• Affects how we approach challenges.
HUMANISTIC APPROACHES
The humanistic approach focuses on how healthy people develop.
Abraham Maslow
• Studied people he considered healthy, creative, and productive (Albert Einstein,
Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln).
• Found that they shared similar characteristics – open, creative, loving, spontaneous,
compassionate, concerned for others, accepting of themselves.
Carl Rogers
• Linked personality to self-concept (thoughts and feelings about ourselves).
• Divided the self into the idea self and the real self.
• Ideal self – the person you would like to be.
• Real self – the person you actually are.
• Believed we needed to find congruence between the ideal and real self – thoughts
about ideal self and real self are similar.
• High congruence → greater sense of self-worth and a health, productive life.
• Incongruence → maladjustment.
SOMATOTYPES
William H. Sheldon believed body type could be linked to personality.
He proposed three somatotypes:
1. Endomorphs – relaxed, comfortable, good-humored, even-tempered, sociable, and
tolerant.
2. Mesomorphs – adventurous, assertive, competitive, and fearless.
3. Ectomorphs – Anxious, self-conscious, artistic, thoughtful, quiet, and private.
Trait Theory: The Big Five Personality Traits
OCEAN = acronym to remember
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Openness
Interest in exploring new experiences and ideas
High: Low:
- Imaginative - Practical
- Curious - Traditional
- Artistic - Conforming
Conscientiousness
Organized, self-disciplined, achievement striving
High: Low:
- Organized - Unreliable
- Reliable - Lazy
- Hard-working - Careless
Extraversion
Friendly, social, seeks excitement, positive emotions
High: Low:
- Social - Passive
- Friendly - Cautious
- Outgoing - Reserved or shy
Introvert
Agreeableness
Trust, altruism, compliance, modesty
High: Low:
- Soft hearted - Uncooperative
- Trusting - Rude
- Helpful - Cynical
Neuroticism
Anxious, worried, angry, frustrated, jealous
High: Low:
- Worried/anxious - Calm
- Angry - Secure
- Self-conscious - Emotionally stable
CULTURAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF
PERSONALITY
Culture is one of the most important environmental factors that influences personality.
Culture – beliefs, customs, art, and traditions of a particular society.
Are personality traits the same across cultures or are there variations?
• There are both universal and culture-specific aspects that account for variation in
personalities.
Examples:
• Asian cultures – tend to be less extroverted.
• Central and South American cultures – tend to score higher on openness to
experience.
• Europeans – tend to score higher on neuroticism.
INDIVIDUALIST VS COLLECTIVIST CULTURES
Individualist cultures
• Value independence, competition, and personal achievement.
• Mainly Western nations such as the U.S. England, and Australia.
• People display more personally oriented personality traits.
Collectivist Cultures
• Value social harmony, respectfulness, and group needs over individual needs.
• Asia, Africa, and South America.
• People display more socially oriented personality traits.
