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Introduction to Psychology

Module 11:

Personality

View the fully accessible companion document for this slide deck here.

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Affirmations

I chose to move forward every day, growing and learning as I go!
I am capable of being a great student
I don’t need to be anyone else but me

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Recall

What are situational and dispositional influences on behavior?
What was a takeaway from Solomon Asch’s research?
What was Stanley Milgram’s experiment and what did the results suggest?
How does social exchange theory apply to relationships?

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Key Integrative Theme

Integrative Theme B: Psychology explains general principles that govern behavior while recognizing individual differences.

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Two Truths and a Lie

Which of these is the lie?

C. Defense mechanisms, such as denial and projection, are concepts introduced by psychoanalytic theory to explain how the ego protects itself from anxiety.

B. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality says that childhood experiences can shape an individual’s personality.

A. Trait theories of personality assert that human personality can be fully understood by identifying a single, dominant trait that shapes all other behavior.

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Section 1 Learning Goals

1 Describe personality and the theories about how it develops

2 Understand the psychodynamic perspective on personality development

3 Describe defense mechanisms

4 Describe the psychosexual stages of personality development

5 Explain Adler and Erikson's contributions to personality theory

6 Explain Carl Jung's contributions to personality theory

Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:

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What is Personality?

Long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways

Kant’s adaptation of Galen’s four temperaments, arranged on two axes as suggested by Wundt

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Freudian Explanation of Personality

Personality develops from a conflict between two forces: our biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives versus our internal socialized control over these drives

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Defense mechanisms: unconscious protective behaviors that reduce anxiety.

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Defense Mechanisms

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Apply It: Defense Mechanisms

Can you demonstrate an example of a defense mechanism in action?

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On the Apply It page, students review types of defense mechanisms by looking at an applied example of students reacting to a poor exam score. They also consider their own experiences with defense mechanisms—identifying times when they have used them and which they most commonly use.

Activity #3 from Instructor Resources:

Background

Students learned about Freud’s personality theory and get the chance to better understand defense mechanisms. Having students perform should help to break the uniformity of a lecture class and be a fun way to help student distinguish concepts that may otherwise blend together and/or be difficult to distinguish.

Topic Alignment: Psychodynamic Approaches to Personality
Learning Outcome: Define Defense Mechanisms
APA Learning Outcome: Theme B: Psychology explains general principles that govern behavior, while recognizing individual differences.
Source: Noba Psychology Instructor Resources, CC-BY-NC-SA

For a variation on this activity, see: Inman, M. L. (2000). Defense Mechanism Miniskits. Published in M. Bolt's Instructor's Manual that accompanies David Myers, Introduction to Psychology, (6th Ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. http://www.macmillanhighered.com/r esources/1429244364/IRM/PDF/Bolt AP TRB10.pdf

Time Estimate: 10-15 minutes

Instructions

Divide the class into groups of between 2-5 people. into groups�After learning about Freud’s defense mechanisms, students should be split into small groups and asked to s
Assign or choose defense mechanisms.�Each group selects or is assigned a defense mechanism to demonstrate to the class. They work on created a short skit.
Perform.�Have each group perform their skit and let the other groups guess the defense mechanism.

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Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

Stage	Age (years)	Erogenous Zone	Major Conflict	Adult Fixation Example
Oral	0–1	Mouth	Weaning off breast or bottle	Smoking, overeating
Anal	1–3	Anus	Toilet training	Neatness, messiness
Phallic	3–6	Genitals	Oedipus/Electra complex	Vanity, overambition
Latency	6–12	None	None	None
Genital	12+	Genitals	None	None

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Inferiority Complex

Proposed by Adler, it refers to a person’s feelings that they lack worth and don’t measure up to others’ or to society’s standard

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Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development

Stage	Age (years)	Developmental Task	Description
1	0–1	Trust vs. mistrust	Trust that basic needs, such as nourishment and affection, will be met
2	1–3	Autonomy vs. shame/doubt	Sense of independence develops
3	3–6	Initiative vs. guilt	Take initiative on some activities, may develop guilt if boundaries overstepped
4	7–11	Industry vs. inferiority	Develop self-confidence in abilities when competent or sense of inferiority
5	12–18	Identity vs. confusion	Develop identity and roles
6	19–29	Intimacy vs. isolation	Establish intimacy and relationships
7	30–64	Generativity vs. stagnation	Contribute to society and family
8	65–	Integrity vs. despair	Assess and make sense of life and meaning of contributions

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Jung’s Ideas about Personality

Collective unconscious: common psychological tendencies that have been passed down from one generation to the next

Archetype: pattern that exists in our collective unconscious across cultures and societies

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Introverts and Extroverts

Introvert	Extrovert
Energized by being alone	Energized by being with others
Avoids attention	Seeks attention
Speaks slowly and softly	Speaks quickly and loudly
Thinks before speaking	Thinks out loud
Stays on one topic	Jumps from topic to topic
Prefers written communication	Prefers verbal communication
Pays attention easily	Distractible
Cautious	Acts first, thinks later

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Introverts and Extroverts

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Horney’s Coping Styles

Coping Style	Description	Example
Moving toward people	Affiliation and dependence	Child seeking positive attention and affection from parent; adult needing love
Moving against people	Aggression and manipulation	Child fighting or bullying other children; adult who is abrasive and verbally hurtful, or who exploits others
Moving away from people	Detachment and isolation	Child withdrawn from the world and isolated; adult loner

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Section 2 Learning Goals

1 Describe the social-cognitive perspectives on personality

2 Explain Abraham Maslow and Carl Roger's contributions to personality development

3 Discuss biological influences on personality

4 Discuss the impact of culture on personality

Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:

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Learning Approaches to Personality

Behaviorist

Personality is shaped by reinforcements and consequences.
People behave in a consistent manner based on prior learning.

Social-Cognitive

Personality is developed through learning, which may be observational.
Both learning and cognition are sources of individual differences in personality.
Reciprocal determinism
Self-efficacy

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Social-Cognitive Theory: Reciprocal Determinism

Bandura proposed the idea of reciprocal determinism: Our behavior, cognitive processes, and situational context all influence each other.

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Social-Cognitive Theory: Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy: someone’s level of confidence in their own abilities

People with high self-efficacy believe that their goals are within reach, have a positive view of challenges, develop strong commitment to the activities in which they are involved, and quickly recover from setbacks

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Social-Cognitive Theory: Locus of Control

Locus of control refers to our beliefs about the power we have over our lives. It occurs on a continuum (below) from internal to external.

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Humanistic Approaches: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow proposed that human beings have certain needs in common and that these needs must be met in a certain order

The highest need is the need for self-actualization, which is the achievement of our fullest potential

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Humanistic Approaches: Self Concept

Self-concept is illustrated below
When our ideal self is similar to the person we are, our real self, we experience congruence
Children raised with unconditional positive regard have the opportunity to self-actualize

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Humanistic Approaches: The Good Life

A growing openness to experience
An increasingly existential lifestyle
Increasing organismic trust
Freedom of choice
Higher levels of creativity
Reliability and constructiveness
A rich full life

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Biological Approaches: Heritability of Personality and Temperament

Heritability refers to the proportion of difference among people that is attributed to genetics

The Minnesota Twin Study found a 0.50 or greater heritability ratio for personality traits including: leadership, obedience to authority, a sense of well-being, alienation, resistance to stress, and fearfulness

Traits are determined by a combination of many genes, as well as by epigenetic factors that control whether the genes are expressed

Most contemporary psychologists believe temperament has a biological basis due to its appearance very early in our lives

Reactivity refers to how we respond to new or challenging environmental stimuli
Self-regulation refers to our ability to control that response

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Culture and Personality

The culture in which you live is one of the most important environmental factors that shapes your personality

The term culture refers to all of the beliefs, customs, art, and traditions of a particular society.

Three approaches to study personality in a cultural context:

Cultural-comparative approach
Indigenous approach
Combined approach

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Regional Personality Clusters Suggest Cultural Influence

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Apply It: Personality Theory Review

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Apply It: Personality Theory Review

As a group, pick a fictional character. Try to explain their personality from each of these perspectives:

Freud and the psychodynamic perspective,
Neo-Freudians like Adler, Erikson, Jung, and Horney, as well as
Learning perspective
Humanistic perspective
Biological perspective

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Question

1 Which personality perspective emphasizes personal growth, free will, and human nature's inherent goodness, and often focuses on the pursuit of self-actualization?

A. Trait Perspective

B. Psychoanalytic Perspective

C. Humanistic Perspective

D. Behavioral Perspective

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Question

2 Albert Bandura's theory emphasizes the importance of observational learning, beliefs, and social interactions in shaping personality. This is most closely aligned with which personality perspective?

A. Humanistic Perspective

B. Social-Cognitive Perspective

C. Trait Perspective

D. Psychoanalytic Perspective

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Section 3 Learning Goals

1 Describe early trait theories

2 Understand the traits described by the Big Five personality theory

3 Explain the person-situation debate

4 Discuss how personality stays the same or changes over time

Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:

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Mischel and the Person-Situation Debate

People are situation processors
They behave differently in different situations
A person’s behavior in one situation would likely be repeated in a similar one
Mischel studied self-regulation or will power in the marshmallow test

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Trait Theory

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Early Trait Theorists: Cattell

Warmth
Reasoning
Emotional Stability
Dominance
Liveliness
Rule-consciousness
Social boldness
Sensitivity
Vigilance
Abstractedness
Privateness
Apprehension,
Openness to change
Self-reliance
Perfectionism
Tension

Traits are characteristic ways of behaving
16 factors or dimensions of personality

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Early Trait Theorists: The Eysencks

The Eysencks viewed people as having three specific personality dimensions:

Extroversion/introversion
Neuroticism/stability
Psychoticism/superego control

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Trait Theory Today: The Five Factor Model

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Big 5 Review

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The Big 5

What do you think of the results of your test?
How do you imagine these traits play out in the various areas of your life?

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On the Apply It page, students were asked to take one of eight different personality tests, and consider the following:

Do you feel the questions posed did a good job of asking questions that revealed insights into your personality?
Do you think this test gave you accurate results?
Do you think you'd get the same results if you took the test again? Were there answers where you might have gone with a different choice?
Do you think if a family member or friend took this test for you that they would get the same results?
What value do you see in this personality test?

Activity #4 Instructor Resources

Background

This in-class mini-writing is designed to help students apply the information on the Five Factor Model of personality.

Topic Alignment: Personality assessment
Learning Outcome: Understand the traits described by the Big Five personality theory
APA Learning Outcome: Theme B: Psychology explains general principles that govern behavior, while recognizing individual differences.
Source: Noba Psychology Instructor Resources, CC-BY-NC-SA

Time Estimate: 30-50 minutes

Instructions

Part 1: Personality Test�First, you will need to assign the a personality test. This could be complete ahead of time as long as students bring the results with them to class.

Review the Big 5�Quickly review the traits of the big 5. You could show Gabriela Cintron’s – 5 Factors of Personality (OCEAN Song). This is a student-made video which cleverly describes, through song, common behavioral characteristics of the Big 5 personality traits. It was one of the winning entries in the 2016-17 Noba + Psi Chi Student Video Award. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Rk8CDXMb8_U&app=desktop
Quick write�Have students write about their personality based on their results and what they learned. Make sure you explain that you want them to apply the information, not just state whether they were high or low on certain traits. That is, have them explain the behaviors associated with each trait (e.g., I scored very highly on conscientiousness, which means that I am more likely to be on time, organized, and follow through with my commitments).
Part II:In-Class Activity�This demonstration is designed to help students observe personality in an applied setting. This activity can take quite a bit of time, but is a fun way to get students up and out of their seats.
Divide into groups�Divide students get into medium or large groups (5-12 students depending on your class size). Once they are in groups, let them know that they will be making a human obstacle course – where most of the students are the obstacles and one group member goes “through” the obstacle. Depending on your classroom, you may need to do this in a hallway, common area, or outside. Also, make sure to emphasize safety while giving instructions.
Create an Obstacle Course�Give groups about 10 minutes to build their course – it will take a few minutes for them to stop feeling awkward and to brainstorm ideas. Once they start to feel comfortable, they will put their idea into action. If you want, you can give a point or two of extra credit to the team that comes up with the best obstacle course (you will be amazed at how creative some groups get).
Participate�Let each group show off their obstacle course by having one person move through it.
Reflection�Once all obstacle courses have been completed, students return to their sits and complete a mini-writing on their experience. Ask students to describe their group members in terms of their Big 5 traits (no names necessary). ��Because this activity is a little extreme, students tend to notice the spectrum of traits. For example, some students are open to the idea from the get go and jump right in, others need a little time to observe and warm-up to the idea (openness). Some students happily go along with the group’s ideas, others may be aggressive in asserting their own vision (agreeableness). Some students clearly feel comfortable with their new group members and engage them in discussion (extraversion).

Discussion

How did you observe the different Big Five personality traits manifesting during the obstacle course activity? Can you give specific examples of how certain traits influenced group behavior?
Did you notice any patterns or correlations between specific personality traits and how individuals approached the obstacle course activity? How do these observations align with the concepts covered in the personality module?
Were there any challenges or conflicts within the groups during the obstacle course creation? How do you think personality traits played a role in resolving or exacerbating these challenges?
In what ways did the activity highlight the importance of individual differences and how they contribute to group dynamics? How can an understanding of personality traits improve teamwork and collaboration?
Reflect on your own personality test results and how they relate to your experience during the activity. Did you observe any connections between your personality traits and how you interacted with your group members?
How might the insights gained from this activity be applicable in real-life settings, such as work teams or social groups? Can you think of situations where understanding personality traits would be beneficial?

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How does culture impact personality?

Individualism and collectivism
Power distance
Masculinity and femininity
Uncertainty avoidance
Long-term and short term orientation

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Activity #2 from the Instructor Resources

Background

Students should have reviewed all of the chapter content and had exposure to different psychological tests. Students would benefit from an in-person review of cultural influences on personality and societal representations of personality. The following information might be helpful to add to the discussion:

“As suggested by Hofstede (2001), one of the most accepted and commonly used cultural taxonomies that can help study the cultural influence on personality could be the cultural taxonomy. Cultural taxonomies have five dimensions.

Individualism and Collectivism: In an individualist culture, traits like independence, competition, and personal achievement are valued where the emphasis given on the individual than the society. In a collectivist culture, society is valued over the individual, and traits like social harmony, respectfulness, and group needs are emphasized. This contrast leads to different kinds of personalities developing in different cultures.
Power Distance: Power distance refers to the inequalities between people in a society based on social status, wealth, power, laws, and physical characteristics, and how much people accept these differences. Power distance affects the perceptions and interactions of individuals with authority. Further, high power distance societies result in personality types that are accepting of authority, less questioning, and have traits like humility. Low power distance cultures encourage more open personality types that question authority, open to changes, and are more competitive to change their status.
Masculinity and Femininity: Cultures also differ in their orientation towards ego goals (related to money and career) or social goals (related to relationships and harmony). Cultures high on femininity are oriented towards social goals, resulting in personalities that value relationships, harmony, and society. A masculine culture encourages more competitive and career-oriented personality traits within individuals, resulting in a difference between the personalities of people in these two cultures.
Uncertainty Avoidance: Cultures differ in their approaches in dealing or coping with anxiety-provoking uncertainty. Some cultures teach individuals to accept the inevitable nature of certain kinds of uncertainty and are grouped under low uncertainty avoidance cultures. On the other hand, individuals from high uncertainty avoidance cultures feel threatened by uncertainty. This approach towards uncertainty shapes individuals' personality traits like dependence on policies and procedures, novelty and creativity, resistance to change, and intolerance.
Long-term and short-term orientation: Cultures differ in their emphasis on future rewards. Those cultures that focus more on future rewards (long-term orientation) emphasize traits like persistence, thrift, patience, and harmony within individuals. On the other hand, short-term orientation cultures that we can see in Canada and the USA, people focus on short-term rewards and emphasize traits like immediate gratification within individuals, thereby producing personalities that seek immediate gratification.”
Source: Cultural and Personality. (n.d.). Tutorials Point. https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cultural-and-personality

Topic Alignment: Measuring Personality
Learning Outcomes:

Describe personality and the theories about how it develops
Discuss the impact of culture on personality

APA Learning Outcome: Integrative Theme C: Psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors influence behavior and mental processes.
Source: Courtney Prather for Lumen Learning, CC-BY.

Time Estimate: 25-30 minutes

Instructions

Conversation starter�Think about personality qualities that are easily identified, encouraged, or highly valued within the dominant culture for the setting of the class. This could be generated through brainstorming ideas with the class and soliciting brief elaborations or examples.
Review�Review that culture not only heavily influences personality development, but also communicates values around personality characteristics and frames how we see and model personality.
Think�Have students spend some time on their own considering the following questions in writing.

From your cultural experience(s), identify one personality characteristic or construct that was easily identified, common or highly valued.
What does this personality characteristic say about your culture’s values or perspective?
What kind of behavior does this characteristic describe? How would we know a person had this trait or characteristic?
What kind of behavior or patterns does this characteristic predict for the future course of this person’s life?
Based on other culture’s you are familiar with, how do other cultures view this characteristic or trait?
How did this cultural narrative around personality impact your own personality development?

Split class into groups of 3-4 students

Allow students ample time to share their experiences and writings.
After each student has shared, ask students to consider the following:

What did their cultures/characteristics have in common?
What differences did they notice?
What surprised them?

Discussion

A larger discussion can be facilitated by having groups share things that stuck out to them within their small groups.
Discussion should conclude by emphasizing the saliency of culture in personality development and definition.

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Section 4 Learning Goals

1 Describe various personality tests

2 Understand the development of personality tests

3 Understand how validity is measured and why it's important

Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:

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Tests of Personality

Self-Report Inventories

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): personality test composed of a series of true/false questions in order to establish a clinical profile of an individual

Projective Tests�Personality assessment in which a person responds to ambiguous stimuli, revealing hidden feelings, impulses, and desires

Rorschach Inkblot Test
Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB)
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
TEMAS Multicultural Thematic Apperception Test and the Contemporized-Themes Concerning Blacks Test (C-TCB)

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Creating a Personality Test

How would you go about measuring blirtatiousness?

The test questions must work together as a set
The test must be reliable
The test must be valid

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Types of validity

There are multiple types of validity:

convergent validity: compare the test results with other personality tests of similar traits (convergent validity)
discriminant validity: compare the test results with other dissimilar tests (discriminant validity)
criterion validity: compare the results of the BLIRT test to real-world outcomes
predictive validity: see if the results work to predict people’s behavior in certain situations

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Apply It: The Blirt Test

You have been hired by a company to develop a measuring tool for a specific personality trait.

You should choose both a setting/company and trait that they're interested in measuring. For example, you could be hired by a big tech company to measure analytical abilities. Or you could be hired by a matchmaking service to measure honesty.

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On the Apply It page, students review the types of validity that can be assessed when examining personality tests, including convergent validity, discriminant validity, criterion validity, and predictive validity. They then assess the the BLIRT test for these types of validity.

Background

Students should have completed review of content on personality traits and measurement. This is also a great activity to complete following the students’ examination of the “Blirt” test and how they could create a test to measure validity. We recommend beginning class by reviewing and asking about what students remember from the reading about the Blirt test.

Topic Alignment: Measuring Personality
Learning Outcomes:

Describe various personality tests
Understand the development of personality tests
Understand how validity is measured and why it’s important

APA Learning Outcome: Integrative Theme B: Psychology explains general principles that govern behavior while recognizing individual differences.
Source: Courtney Prather for Lumen Learning, CC-BY.

Time Estimate: 45-60 minutes

Instructions

Split class into groups of 3-4 students�You can allow students to form these groups themselves, or assign groups.
Explain the scenario�Tell students they have been hired by a company to develop a measuring tool for a specific personality trait. Students should choose both a setting/company and trait that they're interested in measuring. For example, they could be hired by a big tech company to measure analytical abilities. Or they could be hired by a matchmaking service to measure honesty. Let students know the sky is the limit and encourage their creativity!
Students develop their ideas�For their chosen characteristic, students should choose and define the following:

Will students use a projective or self-report measure? Students should support their choice.

If self-report, students should choose and support their choice for Likert, forced choice, or T/F.

Students should create a 10-item test, remembering to think about the items as a set as well as validity.
Students should make a plan to asses validity, developing one strategy or idea for each of the following: convergent validity, discriminant validity, criterion validity, and predictive validity. Students can assume they have unlimited resources for assessing validity of their measure.
Students should make a plan to assess for reliability.
Students should present their measure to the class as a sales-pitch they would deliver to the hiring company or institution. What is their measure and how will they measure validity and reliability?

Discussion�If time allows, have students share out details of their personality tests. Use the discussion prompts below to facilitate the discussion.

Discussion

As a group, did students tend to favor projective or self-report measures? Why do you think this occurred?
How difficult was it to develop a measure for a given trait or characteristic? Do you think it is easier or more difficult in the "real world"?
How accurate do you think your's and other group's measures would ultimately be? How useful would they be in predicting future behavior or performance?

Debrief

Remind students that when psychologist develop measures, individual items are asses for reliability and validity, as well as how well they "hang together" and various other elements. Measurement development is a very thorough and long process, that ultimately still might have difficulty meaningfully predicting behavior over the longterm.

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Quick Review

What are early theories about personality development?
What is the psychodynamic perspective on personality development, including the id, ego, and superego, defense mechanisms, and the psychosexual stages of personality development?
What are the contributions of Neo-Freudians to personality theory, including Adler’s inferiority complex, Erikson’s psychosocial stages, Jung’s ideas of the collective unconscious and archetypes, and Horney’s coping styles?

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More Quick Review

What is the learning perspective on personality, including the concepts of reciprocal determinism, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the person-situation debate?
What are the contributions of humanists Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers to personality development?
What are biological approaches to understanding personality, including the findings of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, heritability, and temperament?

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Even More Quick Review

What are the early trait theories of Cattell and Eysenck?
What are the Big Five factors? How do you categorize someone who is high and low on each of the five traits?
What are personality differences of people from collectivist and individualist cultures? What are the approaches to studying culture and personality?
What are different types of personality tests, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and common projective tests?

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Attributions

Illustrations are from Storyset
Images from Pexels & Unsplash
Add additional attributions here……
Remember to add image alt text

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