Personality

McElhaney

Personality Part 1

• Picture Fun
• Overview of Personality topics
• Need to Know:
• Personality Theories
• Psychodynamic Approach
• Social-Cognitive Approach
• Humanistic Approach
• Trait Approach
• Behavioral Approach
• Assessment Techniques
• (describing personality)
• Self Concept/Self Esteem
• Growth

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• Factors That Influence Personality
• Development
• (childhood experience)
• Genetics
• Cognition
• Emotional Expression
• Social Learning (other people)
• Definition of Personality
• Basics
• Consistent
• Predictable
• Traits

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Tell the Story�What’s happening in this picture?

Write, minimum, 3 paragraphs about this image.

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Try to tell the story.

Do it fast…

See document in Canvas

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Then do:

The Big 5 Questionnaire

See Canvas

Follow the directions

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Personality is really about Similarities and Differences in human behavior.

AP Outline Topics

• Personality Theories and Approaches
• Assessment Techniques
• Self-concept, Self-esteem
• Growth and Adjustment

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• Personality Theories
• Psychodynamic
• Social Cognitive Approach Theories
• Humanistic Approach Theories
• Trait Approach
• Eyesnick Theory
• Allport’s Trait Theory
• Cattell 16 Source Traits
• Big 5 model of Personality
• Biological Trait Theory
• Assessing Personality
• Objective Personality Tests (questionnaires)
• Projective Personality Test (Rorschach)
• Personality + Employee Selection
• Observation

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Personality

• Can be understood as a manifestation of Mental conflicts
• Is effected by learning
• Is effected by social situations
• Relate to how people perceive themselves

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Factors That Influence Personality

• Developmental Experiences and cultural influences
• Genetic + Biological characteristics
• Cognition and Information processing habits
• Typical patterns of emotional expression
• Social- other people (behavioral)

Personality

• Definition- “a person’s unique pattern of thinking, emotions, and behavior.”

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• Refers to consistency in who you are, have been and will become.
• Is a blend of talent, values, hopes, loves, hates, and habits…

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Psychology of Personality

• Personality is about:
• Who you are.
• How you think.
• How do you behave and express feelings?

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• Personality is not character (is a term of evaluation- friendly, outgoing, honest with moral values…
• Personality is not temperament (hereditary aspects – sensitivity, irritability, distractibility typical mood)

Basics

• Each of us have consistent behavior patterns that define our personality

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• Predictable- we can predict how people will act

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• Personality-
• Is closely related to traits
• Can be understood as a manifestation of Mental conflicts
• Is effected by learning
• Is effected by social situations
• Relate to how people perceive themselves

Personality Part 1

• Picture Fun
• Overview of Personality topics
• Need to Know:
• Personality Theories
• Psychodynamic Approach
• Social-Cognitive Approach
• Humanistic Approach
• Trait Approach
• Behavioral Approach
• Assessment Techniques
• (describing personality)
• Self Concept/Self Esteem
• Growth

​

​

• Factors That Influence Personality
• Development
• (childhood experience)
• Genetics
• Cognition
• Emotional Expression
• Social Learning (other people)
• Definition of Personality
• Basics
• Consistent
• Predictable
• Traits

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Personality Part 2 �Assessing Personality

• Assessment Techniques Overview
• Interview
• Direct Observation
• Halo Effect
• Direct Observation
• Personality Questionnaires
• Meyers Briggs
• MMPI
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
• Projective Tests
• Rorschach Inkblot Test

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Psychologists Use Techniques to Measure/Assess Personality�(see pages 534-540)

• Describe Personality Only
• Not Causation of Personality

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• Interview
• Direct Observation and Rating

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• Personality Questionnaires (MMPI/Meyers Briggs/Big 5)

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• Projective Tests
• Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT)
• Rorschach Inkblot Test
• Limits of Projective Testing

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The Interview

• Personality is measured by interviews, observation, questionnaires and projective tests.
• Interview- a face-to-face meeting held for a purpose of gaining information about an individuals personal history, psychological state and personality traits.

Interviews

• Unstructured Interview - an interview in which conversation is informal and topics are taken up freely as they arise.
• Structured Interview - An interview that follows a prearranged plan.
• Its used to identify personality disturbances and the study the dynamics of personality.
• Diagnostic Interview - Interviews used to find out how a person is feeling and what complaints/symptoms they have.

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Limitations of Interviews

• Interviewers can be swayed by:
• Preconceptions
• The interviewers own personality or gender
• People lying in their interview.
• As well as the Halo Effect- tendency to generalize a favorable/unfavorable first impression to unrelated details of personality.

Direct Observation

• Observing people in public places, such as a park…

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• For example, a psychologist may observe a child at play and evaluate the child using a “rating scale”

Personality Questionnaires

• More Objective (less bias by evaluators)
• Good tests are reliable and valid
• Reliable: same score if given multiple times
• Valid: measures what it says it measures
• Examples of tests:
• MMPI-2
• Big 5
• Meyers Briggs

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Meyers Briggs

• Compare Meyers Briggs with “The Big 5”
• Link to Meyers Briggs
• We’ll talk more about Meyers-Briggs when we get to Trait Theories

MMPI Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

• • Originally to Diagnose psych (link) disorders
• Used today by employers and screening for personality
• MMPI-2 (567 questions)
• • Clinical scales
• • Respondents scores are compared to others who have been previously diagnosed
• • Ex. Levels of OCD
• • Objective test
• • Computer statistic analysis
• • Focuses on overall patterns of behavior

Projective Personality Test (problem in analysis, reliability)

• Unstructured stimuli- which can be perceived in many ways
• Psychodynamic tests- reveal unconscious needs, motives, fantasies, conflicts, thoughts (hidden or unconscious)
• Used with clinical psychology to assess psychological disorders
• Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT) (Link)
• Measures need for achievement, need for power, need for affiliation…
• Rorschach Inkblot Test (linkRorschach Inkblot Test (link) see handout (link)
• Measure aggressive and sexual impulses that people otherwise might be able to hide

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Inkblots

• Example of a Projective test
• Projective tests uncover unconscious wishes through ambiguous stimuli
• Known as the Rorshach Technique
• The patient is shown inkblots and told to describe what he or she sees
• There answers are used to identify conflicts and fantasies
• Content is less important than how they organize images

Example

TAT Example

TAT example 2

Thematic Apperception Test

• Or TAT developed by theorist Henry Murray
• Consists of 20 sketches depicting scenes
• Patients are asked to form a story around the scene a psychologist might count the number of emotional reactions that appear in a persons story
• The limits of the projective tests are ambiguous they are best used in Test Battery

Personality Part 2 �Review

• Assessment Techniques Overview
• Interview
• Direct Observation
• Halo Effect
• Direct Observation
• Personality Questionnaires
• Meyers Briggs
• MMPI
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
• Projective Tests
• Rorschach Inkblot Test

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Personality Part 3

• Self Concept

Personality Theories

• Trait Theory
• Psychodynamic
• Behavioristic
• Social Learning
• Humanistic

What is Trait Theory?

• Stable/Enduring
• Type=Collection of Traits

Greeks/Eyesneck

• Introvert or Extrovert
• Emotional Stable or Emotionally Unstable
• 4 Types of Temperament
• Melancholic
• Choleric
• Phlegmatic
• Sanguine
• Bio Connection

Allport

• Common Traits
• Individual Traits
• Cardinal Traits
• Central Traits
• Secondary Traits

Cattell

• Factor Analysis
• Surface Traits
• 16 PF

Self Concept

• Consists of all your ideas, perceptions and feelings about who you are

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• Guides our behavior
• Problems can arise with inadequate or inaccurate self concept

Self Esteem

• High esteem = confident, proud, self-respecting
• Rises with success
• Low Esteem- Falls= with negative self evaluation
• Examples- insecure, lacking in confidence, self-critical
• Genuine Esteem is accurate appraisal of strengths + weaknesses

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Personality Theories

• Are frameworks to understand personality
• 5 major Theories
• Trait Theory
• Psycho-Dynamic
• Behavioristic
• Social Learning
• Humanistic

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Match the Personality Theory

1. Focuses on private, subjective experience, and personal growth

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• Effect of conditioning +Learning = effects of external environment

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• Focuses on inner workings of personality
• Especially internal conflicts & struggles

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• To learn what traits makeup personality + how they relate to actual behavior

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• Attribute differences in personality to socialization, expectations+ and mental processes

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What is Trait Theory all about?

• Most people describe others by referring to the “kind of people” they are:
• To the thoughts, feelings, and actions that are most typical of them
• To their needs
• These statements describe personality Traits

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Personality Traits

• Traits are- stable qualities that a person shows in most situations. Quantitative-How much of a quality they have-
• Are inferred from observed behaviors
• Sociable, orderly, intelligent, shy, sensitive, creative
• Types= Qualitative differences Personality types= people who have several traits in common = what class do they belong
• Categories of include- popular, athletic, motherly
• Maladjusted, Well Adjusted…

Trait Approach

• Trait is a stable + enduring quality that a person shows in most situations.

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• To be considered a personality trait it must be typical of your behavior

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• Ancient Greeks- found 4 different types of temperament

Hans Eysneck and Traits

Eysenck believed that many personality traits are related to whether you are mainly introverted or extroverted and whether you tend to be emotionally stable or unstable (highly emotional). These characteristics, in turn, are related to four basic types of temperament first recognized by the early Greeks.

The types are: melancholic (sad, gloomy), choleric (hot-tempered, irritable), phlegmatic (sluggish, calm), and sanguine (cheerful, hopeful).

Eysenck:

• Why do some people have certain traits and other not?
• Used Factor Analysis also
• Said:
• Most people’s traits could be described using 2 main dimensions: Introversion/Extraversion and Emotionality/Stability (neuroticism)
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• Introversion/Extraversion
• Extroverts are sociable, outgoing, like parties, group activities, take risks, like excitement and change
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• Introverts tend to be:
• Quiet, thoughtful, reserved, solitary pursuits, avoid social involvement

• Emotionality/Stability
• Emotionality:
• Moodiness, restlessness, worry, anxiety

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• Stability:
• Calm, even tempered, relaxed, emotionally stable

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• Eysenck said, there are degrees of emotionality/stability and introversion/extraversion
• Trait patterns can be seen and are predictable

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• Bio-connection- inherited differences in nervous system are factors-
• Brain differences
• Biological differences in:
• Level of arousal
• Sensitivity to stress
• Sensitivity to environmental stimulation

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• “People who inherit a nervous system that normally operates below their optimum arousal level will always be on the lookout for excitement🡪 change social contact in order to increase arousal=extroverted
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• Conversely- people who are regularly over aroused will avoid excitement to reduce to a more optimal arousal…

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Gordon Allport and Classifying Traits

• Identified different kinds of traits
• Subjective Classifying

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• Culture Reflects Common traits
• Characteristics shared by most members of a culture
• Tells us similarities in a culture

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• Individual Traits
• Defines a person of unique qualities…

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Allport

• Cardinal Traits
• Basic trait easily visible to a person’s activities
• Few people have cardinal traits
• “Trait that literally Drives/guide’s your life.”
• Mother Teresa- Compassion

Allport Secondary Traits

• Less consistent
• Superficial aspects
• Food preferences
• Attitudes
• Political opinion
• Musical tastes

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Raymond Cattell

• Wanted to know how traits were interlinked

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• Found surface traits-🡪make up visible areas of -🡪 personality
• Occur in clusters
• Appear often
• Seen as a basic trait

• Used statistics
• Called Factor Analysis
• Psychologists correlates and looks for patterns
• Associated with traits

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• 16 Source traits

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Cattell 16 Source Traits

• All are needed to 🡪Fully describe a personality
• Created a questionnaire
• “16 Personality Factor Questionnaire” (16PF)
• Used to create a trait profile
• Represented in a graph or score based on traits

Personality Part 3 �Review

• Self Concept

Personality Theories

• Trait Theory
• Psychodynamic
• Behavioristic
• Social Learning
• Humanistic

What is Trait Theory?

• Stable/Enduring
• Type=Collection of Traits

Greeks/Eyesneck

• Introvert or Extrovert
• Emotional Stable or Emotionally Unstable
• 4 Types of Temperament
• Melancholic
• Choleric
• Phlegmatic
• Sanguine
• Bio Connection

Allport

• Common Traits
• Individual Traits
• Cardinal Traits
• Central Traits
• Secondary Traits

Cattell

• Factor Analysis
• Surface Traits
• 16 PF

Personality Part 4

• Big 5
• CANOE
• Conscientiousness
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism
• Openness
• Extroversion

The Big 5- “5 Factor Model”

• Cattell’s (16 PF) was reduced to 5 Universal dimensions
• That can predict how people will act in various circumstances (used to compare personalities)

1. Extroversion
2. Agreeableness
3. Conscientiousness
4. Neuroticism
5. Openness to Experience

Big 5 trait factors

• 1. how extro or introverted ?
• 2. Agreeableness- how agreeable= friendly, nurturing, caring vs. cold, indifferent, self-centered, spiteful
• 3. Conscientious- How self-disciplined, responsible/achieving vs. irresponsible, careless, undependable
• 4. Neuroticism- how negative, upsetting emotions-
• High neuroticism= anxious, emotionally sour, irritable and unhappy.
• 5. Openness to Experience how open to experience are you
• Any trait you can name will be tied to one of the five factors

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Which is more important?�Personality Traits or External Circumstances

• Both
• Personality traits are consistent & can predict behavior

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• Situations influence behavior

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• Traits interact with situations to determine how we act.

Personality Part 4 �Review

• Big 5
• CANOE
• Conscientiousness
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism
• Openness
• Extroversion
• Role of the Situation

Personality Part 5 �Freud and Personality

• Freudian/Psychodynamic Approach to Personality
• Iceberg
• Role of Unconscious Processes
• Id- Tendencies
• Ego- Tendencies
• Superego- Tendencies
• Freud and Anxiety
• Defense Mechanisms

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• Psycho-Sexual Stages of Development
• Adult Personality Connections
• Fixation
• Oral
• Anal
• Phallic
• Latent
• Genital

Psycho-Dynamic Theory of Personality

• Not focused on traits-but under the surface
• Believe our actions are based on hidden unconscious needs/drives/motives
• People may not know why they feel, think or act the way they do.
• “Our personalities, behavior and behavior disorders are determined mainly by basic drives, and past psychological events.”

Freud

• There is an unconscious part of personality
• And Personality is determined by unconscious psychological processes
• Structure of personality
• Saw personality as 3 mental structures
• Id
• Ego
• Superego

Interaction of 3

Behavior

=

The Id

• Includes innate biological instances + urges
• Self serving irrational, impulsive,
• Totally unconscious
• Operates on Pleasure Principle
• I.E., seeks to express- pleasure urges
• (Id is) Energy for psyche=personality
• AKA the libido
• Id is the energy🡪for the psyche=libido
• Libido comes from life instincts (eros)

Freud 3

• Freud said the libido drives:
• Sexual desires
• Survival
• Pleasure thinking
• Death instinct = (Thanatos)- produces destructive + aggressive urges

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Ego

• Ego is the executive- “Directs energies supplied by id.”
• Mediates between the Id & reality
• Id is expressed 🡪through the Ego

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• Id= desires to-🡪 ego-🡪 reality

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• Ego– guided by reality Principle
• Delays action until it is practical or appropriate
• Thinking, planning, problem solving, + deciding
• In conscious control of personality

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(Changes)

Super Ego

• Super ego- the judge, or Censor
• Internal parent- to keep order of behavior
• Thinking, planning, problem solving + deciding
• In conscious control of personality

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• Conscience when punished, when standards of the conscience are not met= guilt feelings

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Ego Ideal

• Reflects all behavior- parent approved of+ rewarded
• Source of goals + aspirations
• When standard are met = pride

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• Weak Super Ego= delinquent, criminal, anti-social personality

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• Harsh Super Ego= inhibition, rigidity, unbearable guilt

Freud Continued

• Said- Id + superego + Ego are conflicting mental processes

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• When in conflict (especially sexually)–then
• Displacement or
• Sublimation occur- (sexual energy is directed to other activities)

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Freud and Anxiety

• Freud said most internal struggles are re-channeled energies typify most personality functioning.

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• Anxiety- is the result of when ego is threatened or overwhelmed

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• Neurotic Anxiety results when ego can barely keep Id under control. (individuals are struggling with forbidden drives)
• Moral Anxiety- occur with threats of punishment from the superego

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• Ego defense mechanisms- are used to calm these anxieties
• Rationalization, Denial, Projection, Repression, Regression

Levels of Awareness

• Freud said- behavior- expresses unconscious forces
• The unconscious holds repressed memories + emotions and drives the Id
• (also a limbic system connection )

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• Unconscious thoughts feelings-urges may slip into behavior in symbolic form (meaning the behavior must be “psychoanalyzed” to uncover the unconscious drive/conflicts/origin of the behavior.

Freud and Personality Development

• Freud said “Core of personality is formed before age 6”

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• Psycho-Sexual Stages= erotic (broad categories of sources of pleasure) childhood urges have lasting effects on development

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4 Psycho-Sexual Stages

• Each different phase has a different phase becomes a child primary erogenous zone (area for experiencing pleasure)

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• Adult Personality traits – can be traced to fixations
• Fixations- arise from unresolved conflicts in childhood- 1. over indulgence in one stage 2. frustration at stage

4 Stages

• Oral-
• Anal
• Phallic
• (Latency- sexual aspects are subdued till adolescence)
• Genital

Defense Mechanisms (Link)

• According to Freud
• Defense Mechanisms are:
• Unconscious responses to stimuli that is potentially damaging to the psyche.

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• We do not know (we are not conscious) we are acting in a defensive manner.

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Personality Part 5 �Review

• Freudian/Psychodynamic Approach to Personality
• Iceberg
• Role of Unconscious Processes
• Id- Tendencies
• Ego- Tendencies
• Superego- Tendencies
• Freud and Anxiety
• Defense Mechanisms

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• Psycho-Sexual Stages of Development
• Adult Personality Connections
• Fixation
• Oral
• Anal
• Phallic
• Latent
• Genital

Personality Part 6 �Freud and Personality

• Neo Freudians
• Adler
• Collective Unconscious
• Horney
• Role of Anxiety
• Jung
• Persona
• Introvert/Extrovert
• Personal Unconscious
• Collective Unconscious
• Archetypes
• Anima/Animus

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• Review of Freud

Neo-Freudians

• Close to Freuds ideas
• Accepted broad features of Freudian theory
• Horney
• Adler
• Jung

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Alfred Adler (1937)

• Broke from Freud

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• Disagreed with Freud’s
• Emphasis on Unconscious
• Emphasis on Instinctual drives
• Emphasis on Sexuality
• Believed we are social creatures controlled by social urges
• Main force of personality=striving for superiority
• Struggling to overcome imperfections
• We have a drive for competence, mastery of shortcomings

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Adler- Inferiority Complex (Link)

• Said “The power behind the development of personality comes not from the Id impulse but from innate desire to overcome infantile feelings of helplessness and to gain some control over the environment.”

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Adler 2

• Said- Everyone experiences inferiority feelings

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• Because we begin small weak + relatively powerless

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• Inferiority also comes from personal limitations

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• We compensate for limitations

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Adler

• We each have a unique style of life = personality pattern

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• Formed by age 5 indicated by earliest memory that can be recalled

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• Also said we have a creative self-
• Humans create their personalities through choice and experience

Karen Horney (1855-1952)

• Close to Freud’s view- except the gender bias
• Said
• Basic Anxiety occurs- when people feel isolated and helpless in a hostile world
• Feelings come from childhood experience

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• Personality is affected when people try to control anxiety by exaggerating a single mode of interacting
1. Move toward= dependent- love, support, friendship
2. Move away= independent, withdrawal, loner, strong
3. Move Against= hostile, attacking, competing, seeking power

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

• Student of Freud
• Developed his own ideas

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• Used Ego=Conscious
• Identified the Persona- “Mask” that exists between the ego and the outside world, the public self to others
• (which makes up the personality)

Jung said

Introverts

• Shy
• Egocentric
• Attention is focused inward
• Energy directed mainly inward

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Extroverts

• Bold
• Outgoing
• Attention directed outward

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• Energy directed mostly outward

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Jung and Personal Unconscious

• Used the term- Personal unconscious- instead of the Freudian “Unconscious”

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• Is a mental storehouse for individual’s experience feelings and memories

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Jung and Collective Unconscious

• A deep mental storehouse for unconscious ideas and images
• Shared by all humans
• Called Archetypes
• Examples- all humans share experience:
• Birth, death, power, god figures, mother, father, Earth, evil, rebirth

Archetypes (arkehtypes)

• Found in collective unconscious
• They cause us to respond emotionally to symbols of birth, death, energy, animals, evil

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• Jung found archetypes in art, religion, myths, dreams in every culture.

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Two Archetypes- �Anima= female principle �+ Animus= male principle

• In men- Anima is an idealized image of woman- in unconscious

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• Women have idealized man in Animus

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• Anima and Animus allows us to relate to opposite sex
• Also allows masculine and feminine sides of our personalities

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Self-Archetypes

• Jung said most important
• Represents unity
• Gradual balance
• Wholeness
• Harmony

Within

personality

Review Freud

• Free Association
• Psychoanalysis
• Dreams
• Manifest Content
• Latent Content-
• Oedipus Complex:

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• Defense Mechanisms:
• Projective Tests

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Personality Part 7 �Behaviorism and Personality

• Behaviorist Attitudes Toward Personality
• Watson-
• Classical Conditioning
• Skinner-
• Operant Conditioning
• Functional Analysis
• Observational Learning

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Social Cognitive Theory

• Aka Social Learning
• Rotter
• Bandura
• Mischel

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• Humanistic Approach to Personality
• Rogers and Maslow
• Drive Toward Growth
• Growth Potential
• Maximum Personal Development
• Cognition has a role
• Theory of Motivation
• Personality= their Perceptions/thoughts
• Roger Theory of Self

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Behaviorist Approach

• Sees personality as developed through Operant Conditioning
• Personality is reinforced by rewards and discouraged through punishment
• They support the concept of Observational Learning

• They discount mental processes/cognition

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Learning Theory 2

• Roots- JB Watson (1925) classical conditioning “All human behavior from mental disorder to scientific skill is determined by learning
• BF Skinner (1950) Operant Conditioning
• Used Functional Analysis- summarizes what people find rewarding (what they are capable of doing and what skills they lack)
• Saw behavior as a function its serves in obtaining Rewards or Avoiding Punishment

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• “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years.”

Social Cognitive or Cognitive Behavioral or Social Learning�(terms are synonymous)

• Recall this approach is a hybrid/combination of Behavioral Approach = Conditioning = reinforcing behavior
• AND
• Cognitive Approach= Mental Processes/thinking/judgement/
• AND
• Social Approach = Other people impact our individual behavior.

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Social Cognitive Theory �AKA Social Learning Theory

• According to the this Social-Cognitive Approach --- Personality is a manifestation of Thinking (Cognition) and Reinforcement (Behavioral) and Other People (Social)
• “Personality consists mainly of the thoughts and actions we learn through observing and interacting with family and others in social situations.”

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Social Cognitive Theory 2

• Incorporates learning theory
• Goes beyond learning to include mental processes
• “Approach to personality seeks to assess and understand how learned patterns of thoughts and feelings contribute to behavior and how behavior and its consequences alter cognitive activity and future actions”

Social Cognitive Theorist�Julian Rotter

• J. Rotter
• Rotter= Expectancy Theory (1982) explains the origins of some personality traits…
• Said Learning creates cognition + expectancies that guide behavior
• Behavior is determined by positive Reinforcers but also by expectancy
• An expectation that a particular behavior will result in a consequence
• Situation is also a factor

Julian Rotter

• Personality connection also includes:
• Locus of Control (video)
• Firstly, Locus of Control is a term that reflects a persons explanatory style regarding
• Why things happen…
• Internals believe they are responsible for what happens to them.
• Externals believe things outside their control are primarily responsible for what happens to them.

• Rotter argues that our Cognitions are reinforced/shaped by other people.
• And those thought processes make up our personality.

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Bandura

• Recall- Observational Learning-
• Bobo Doll Study- “See Aggression Do Aggression”
• He also created a Social-Cognitive explanation of causation for personality.
• He said personality is developed through reinforcement of Cognition through and Social influences (other people)

Bandura #2�Reciprocal Determinism (video)

• Behavior🡪 Cognition🡪 Environment = Personality Development

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• So according to Bandura, personality is impacted by Our own behavior->thinking and the situation with other people.

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• One big Bandura Connection to Personality:
• Self Efficacy

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Self-Efficacy according to Bandura is about behavior

He says what we do or try to do

Is impacted by Self Concept/Cognitions about

“our perceptions or beliefs about our chances of success”

Self-Efficacy is greatly determined by experience and reinforcement…

Self-perception is a cognition that reflects personality traits.

Mischel

• Cognitive Affective Theory (learned cognitions)
• Basically suggests that:
• Learned (Conditioned) beliefs (Cognitions), feelings, and experiences” are part of personality and make us different.”
• The person and the situation interact to produce behavior
• People learn behaviors for certain situations
• He said cognitive and emotional processes underlie overt behaviors

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Rotter Bandura Mischel

All support these components as part of causation in personality.

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These components are found in these theories of Personality

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Social Learning/Cognitive Behaviorism/

Social Cognitive Approach

Humanistic Psych and Personality�Maslow’s Growth Theory

• Saw personality as resulting from the basic human tendency toward growth known as self-actualization.
• He saw Self Actualization as a human need. The Highest of needs (motivated behavior)
• He found that most people are controlled (part of their personality) by a
• “Deficiency Orientation” “the preoccupation with perceived needs for material things.” this is considered part of personality traits, it’s also a cognitive connection.

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• People with “Deficiency Orientation” come to see life as meaningless exercise in disappointment and boredom…” (these are cognitions)

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• People with “Growth Orientation” focus on satisfaction with what they have, what they are, and what they can do…
• Maslow saw people with “Growth Orientation” as leading to Peak Experiences- where people feel joy, ecstasy in being alive and knowing they are utilizing their fullest potential. (which are personality behaviors/Cognitions)

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• Again: Humanists see personality as a combination of
• Self-Concept (Cognition)-🡪 reinforced by other people (Social Psych) using Conditioning Principles (Behavioral Psych)🡪 and the Situation (environmental factors/Social Psych)

Humanistic Approach to Personality (link)

• Focuses on mental abilities- self-awareness, creativity, planning, decision making, and responsibility
• “see human behavior as motivated mainly by a drive toward growth or their unique potential”
• They see people as naturally inclined toward goodness, creativity and joy.
• It’s important to understand people’s view of the world = Phenomenology
• Their phenomenology shapes personality and guides behavior (cognition)
• They try to understand people’s perceptions (cognitions)
• Humanists endeavor to see/understand how people see their world

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Carl Rogers Humanistic Psychology and Personality

• Rogers said, personality is created by the individual
• Personality reflects the persons natural tendency toward growth… “Actualizing Tendency”
• The tendency toward growth is impacted by experience of other people… (Conditioned by reinforcement and connected to Cognitions)
• Cognition about perceptions of self and the environment also shape personality
• He suggests that individuals create a perception (cognition) of 1. Ideal-Self (based on Experience and Cognition)
• and 2. Real-Self (Based on Experience and Cognition)
• How closely one’s real self matches up with their ideal self is called congruity.

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Rogers Continued

• Rogers argues that maladaptive behavior or abnormal behavior is the result of In-Congruence
• When our Ideal-Self and our Real-Self beliefs/perceptions (cognitions) are in conflict we get low self-esteem and maladaptive behavior.
• Again, these cognitions are reinforced by other people and situations…

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