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Invitation To Psychology
Carol Wade and Carol Tavris
PowerPoint Presentation by
H. Lynn Bradman
Metropolitan Community College-Omaha
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2-1
Theories of Personality
Chapter 2
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Theories of Personality
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The Psychodynamic Theories
The Modern Study of Personality
Genetic Influences
Environmental Influences
Cultural Influences
The Inner Experience
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The Psychodynamic Contribution
Freud and Psychoanalysis
Two Other Psychodynamic
Approaches
Evaluating Psychodynamic
Theories
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Psychodynamic Theories
• Emphasis on unconscious intrapsychic
dynamics
• Belief in the importance of early childhood
• Belief that development occurs in fixed stages
• Focus on fantasies and symbolic meanings of
events
• Reliance on subjective rather than objective
methods
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The Structure of Personality
• Id: Operates according to
the pleasure principle
– Primitive and
unconscious part of
personality
• Ego: Operates according
to the reality principle
– Mediates between id
and superego
• Superego: Moral ideals
and conscience
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Defense Mechanisms
• Repression: Threatening idea is blocked from
consciousness
• Projection: Unacceptable feelings are attributed
to someone else
• Displacement: Directing emotions toward
objects or people that aren’t the real target
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Defense Mechanisms
• Reaction Formation: A feeling that produces
anxiety is transformed into its opposite.
• Regression: A person reverts to a previous
phase of psychological development.
• Denial: A person refuses to admit that
something is unpleasant.
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Freud’s Psychosexual
Stages
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Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latency period
Genital
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Two Other Psychodynamic
Approaches
• Jungian Theory: A psychodynamic theory that
includes the concepts of the collective
unconscious (the universal memories of the
species) and archetypes (universal symbolic
images in myths, art, and dreams).
• Object Relations Theory: A psychodynamic
approach that emphasizes the importance of
the infant’s first two years of life and the
baby’s formative relationships, especially with
the mother.
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Evaluating Psychodynamic
Theories
• Psychodynamic theories violate the
principle of falsifiability
• Psychodynamic theories are criticized for
drawing universal principles from the
experiences of a few atypical patients.
• Psychodynamic theories are criticized for
basing theories upon the retrospective
accounts and fallible memories of
patients.
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The Modern Study of Personality
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Five Central Factors in
Personality
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Extroversion versus Introversion
Neuroticism
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness to Experience
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The Genetic Contribution
• Heredity and Temperament
• Heredity and Traits
• Evaluating Genetic Theories
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Heredity and Temperament
• Temperaments: Physiological
dispositions to respond to the
environment in certain ways; they are
present in infancy and are assumed to
be innate.
• Genes: The functional units of heredity;
they are composed of DNA and specify
the structure of proteins.
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Heredity and Traits
• Heritability: A statistical estimate of the
proportion of the total variance in some
trait that is attributable to genetic
differences among individuals within a
group.
• Behavioral genetics: An interdisciplinary
field of study concerned with the genetic
basis of behavior and personality.
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Twins
• Identical (Monozygotic) Twins: Twins
that develop when a fertilized egg
divides into two parts that develop into
separate embryos
• Fraternal (Dizygotic) Twins: Twins that
develop when two separate eggs are
fertilized by different sperm; they are no
more alike genetically than any other
pair of siblings.
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Twin Studies
• Studying identical twins separated near birth is
one behavior genetic method
• Gerald and Mark (right) met at age 31 after
being separated at birth.
• Both are volunteer firefighters
• Like to hunt, eat Chinese
food, and watch John
Wayne movies
• Drink the same brand
of beer, with their hands
held the same way
(pinky curled)
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Evaluating Genetic Theories
• Reasons for Caution
– Not all traits are equally heritable or
unaffected by shared environment.
– Some studies may underestimate the
impact of the environment.
– Even traits that are highly heritable
are not rigidly fixed.
• Genetic predisposition does not imply
inevitability
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Environmental Influences on
Personality
The Behavioral School
The Social-Cognitive Learning School
The Power of Parents
The Power of Peers
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The Behavioral School
• Behaviorism: An approach to psychology that
emphasizes the study of observable behavior
and the role of the environment as a
determinant of behavior.
• Operant Conditioning: The process by which a
response becomes more likely to occur or less
so, depending on its consequences.
• Reinforcer: A stimulus or event that
strengthens or increases the probability of the
response it follows.
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The Social-Cognitive
Learning School
• A theory that emphasizes how behavior
is learned and maintained through the
interaction between individuals and their
environment, an interaction strongly
influenced by such cognitive processes
as observations, expectations,
perceptions, and motivating beliefs.
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The Cultural Contribution
Culture and Personality
Evaluating Cultural Theories
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Culture and Personality
• Culture: A program of shared rules that
govern the behavior of members of a
community or society, and a set of
values, beliefs, and attitudes shared by
most members of that community
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Individualism or
Community?
• Individualist Culture: The self is
regarded as autonomous, and individual
goals and wishes are prized above duty
and relations with others.
• Collectivist Culture: The self is regarded
as embedded in relationships, and
harmony with one’s group is prized
above individual goals and wishes.
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Cultures and Time
• Monochronic Culture: Cultures in which
time is organized sequentially; schedules
and deadlines are valued over people.
• Polychronic Culture: Cultures in which
time is organized horizontally; people
tend to do several things at once and
value relationships over schedules.
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Culture And Male
Aggressiveness
• Richard Nisbett set out to explain why
the American South, and some western
regions of the country originally settled
by southerners, have much higher rates
of white homicide than the rest of the
country.
• Nisbett ruled out explanations based on
poverty, racial tensions, and history of
slavery.
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Culture And Male
Aggressiveness
• The higher rates of violence in the South
derive ultimately from economic causes:
• They occur in cultures whose economies
were originally based on herding rather
than agriculture.
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Why?
• People who depend on agriculture tend
to foster cooperative strategies for
survival.
• But people who depend on their herds
are extremely vulnerable; their
livelihoods can be lost in an instant by
the theft of their animals.
• To reduce the likelihood of theft, says
Nisbett, herders learn to be hyperalert to
any possibly threatening act and
respond to it immediately with force.
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Why?
• The emphasis on aggressiveness and
vigilance in herding cultures, in turn,
fosters a culture of honor, in which even
apparently small disputes and trivial
insults put a man's reputation for
toughness on the line, requiring him to
respond with violence to restore his
status.
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Why?
• Although the herding economy has become less
important in the South and West, the legacy of
its culture of honor remains. These regions
have higher rates of honor-related homicides
(such as murder to avenge a perceived insult to
one's honor
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The Inner Experience
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Humanist Psychology
• A psychological approach that
emphasizes personal growth and the
achievement of human potential rather
than the scientific understanding and
assessment of behavior.
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