Journal #13
How would you describe your
personality?
What things have made you
the way you are?
Theorists and Perspectives
Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalytic
Martin Seligman
Social-Cognitive
Gordon Allport
Trait
Albert Bandura
Social-Cognitive
Carl Rogers
Humanistic
Carl Jung
Psychoanalytic
Carol Myers-Briggs
Trait
THE HUMANISTIC
PERSPECTIVE
There are two main
humanistic psychologists
whose names you’ll need to
know:
HUMANISTS
BELIEVE:
1. That people are naturally good, but some
environments are bad, and that can lead
people to make bad choices.
2. That people should be treated with dignity
and respect.
3. When the environments people come from
are healthy, then people will be free to
become their best selves.
ABRAHAM
MASLOW
1908-1970
"What a man can be, he must be. This
need we call self-actualization."
 Studied healthy, creative people rather than troubled
clinical cases
 Personalities develop as we struggle to get our needs met
 All needs are equal
 Most basic needs must be met before we will seek to
fulfill the more complex needs
 If a person’s needs go unmet, the person will get stuck at
that level and will not progress to higher levels
 The graphic he used to represent the relationship
between needs is a triangle
MASLOW’S
HIERARCHY
OF NEEDS
SelfTranscendenceNeed to have one’s
life benefit others
Need to live up to
SelfActualization- one’s fullest and
unique potential
Need for self esteem, achievement,
and independence;
Esteem- competence,
need for recognition and respect
from others
Need to love and be loved, to belong
Love & Belonging- and be accepted; need to avoid
loneliness and alientation
Safety- Need to feel that the world is organized and predictable;
need to feel safe, secure, and stable
Physiological Needs-
Need to satisfy hunger and thirst
Examples
SelfTranscendenceService to Others,
making a difference in
someone else’s life
SelfMorality, spontaneity, creativity,
Actualization- problem solving, lack of
prejudice, acceptance of facts
Esteem-
Self esteem, confidence, achievement,
respect of others, respect by others
Love & Belonging-
Safety-
Friendship, family, religion
Security of body, health, resources, morality, employment,
family, property
Physiological Needs-
Breathing, sleep, water, food, shelter, exercise
CARL
ROGERS
1902-1987
“When I look at
the world I'm
pessimistic, but
when I look at
people I am
optimistic. ”
CARL ROGERS SAID THERE WERE
SOME CONDITIONS THAT MUST BE
MET IN ORDER FOR US TO GROW
INTO OUR “TRUE SELVES”.
(AND THAT THE GOAL OF LIFE IS TO
GROW UP TO BECOME THE PERSON
YOU REALLY ARE.)
WE NEED TO BE IN A GROWTHPROMOTING CLIMATE SURROUNDED
BY PEOPLE THAT GIVE US THE
FOLLOWING 3 CONDITIONS-
Condition
Example
1. Genuineness- being
open with their own
feelings, dropping
facades, and being
transparent and selfdisclosing
Friends and family that are
‘REAL’- write the name of a
person(s) who is in your life that
does this for you
2. AcceptanceUnconditional Positive
Regard. This means
that we are valued even
though our loved one
knows our failings
People that we can confess our
worst feelings to and show all our
‘warts’ to and they still love uswrite the name of a person(s) who
is in your life that does this for
you
3. Empathy- the
sharing and mirroring of
our feelings
People who share and mirror our
feelings and reflect our meaningswrite the name of a person(s) who
is in your life that does this for
you
Carl Rogers says:
Genuineness, Acceptance, and Empathy are the
Sun
Moon
Nutrients
That enable people to grow like oak trees
HUMANISTIC
ASSESSMENT:
In other words, how do we test
personality according to this
perspective…
1. Self-Concept Questionnaire
2. Personal Interviews
3. Self Report
NOT EVERYONE BELIEVES IN THE
HUMANISTIC PERSPECITIVE…
People who criticize this perspective
say…
1.
It is too optimistic about human nature. Not everyone
is good, not everyone is striving for self-actualization.
2. It’s concepts are too vague and subjective.
3. It could encourage a selfish focus on meeting one’s
needs while ignoring the needs of other’s.
4. It merely provides a picture of the qualities that Maslow
valued.
The Trait Theory
A
trait is
a characteristic
pattern of
behavior or a
disposition to feel
and act, as
assessed by self
report inventories
and peer reports
 One
major trait
theorist is Gordon
Allport.


He said that a
good theory of
personality
wouldn’t be as
concerned with
explaining
___________
why
someone acted a
certain way, but
should instead
describe
_______________
how people
actually act.
Trait theorists also
believe that
genetics
__________
play a
huge part in why
we are the way
we are.
 Personality
inventoriesa questionnaire (often
true-false or agreedisagree items) on
which people
respond to items
designed to gauge a
wide range of feelings
and behaviors; which
are used to assess
selected personality
traits.
MMPI- Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory
o Most commonly used test
today
Assessing Traits
To ensure they are accurate
they make them
Empirically DerivedA test developed by testing
a pool of items and then
selecting those that
discriminate between groups
Assessing Traits
If a personality inventory is a
good one it will have high
reliability
_______________,
meaning
that the same person taking
the same inventory at
different times will have very
similar
_______________
scores.
A well-designed inventory
will also have high
validity
_____________,
meaning
that people who score
high on a certain trait will
actually ________________
demonstrate
that behavior in most
situations.
Assessing Traits
Some critics dislike Trait
theory for the following
reasons:
1. They feel it is dehumanizing to reduce
people to pre-defined
categories

2. They feel it overlooks how
people came to act the
way they do, and that is too
important to disregard
3. People with certain traits
will not always express that
trait. Environmental
situations play a big part in
how we act.
Ex. A typically calm person
may get nervous when in
large crowds and act
anxious.
Evaluating the
Trait theory
Journal #14
 What parts of each of the tests’ results did you
most agree with?
 Were there any parts you disagreed with? If so,
why did you disagree?
 Which test do you think gave a more accurate
portrayal of your personality? Why?
 Which theory (Trait or Humanisitc) do you find
most interesting/accurate? Why?
 How does taking these tests influence your own
thinking about yourself and/or your future life?
Let the students discuss some of their insights as
time allows.
The SocialCognitive
Perspective
(environment matters)
 Important
Social-
Cognitive
Psychologists:
 Social
Cognitive
Perspectiveviews behavior as
influenced by the
interaction
between persons
(and their thinking)
and their social
context
Albert Bandura
Martin Seligman
Reciprocal Determinism:
 The
interacting influences between
personality and environmental factors.
3 ways in which individuals
and environments interact:
Different people choose different
environments- you choose your environment
and it then shapes you
 Our personalities shape how we interpret and
react to events- glass half empty/glass half
full
 Our personalities help create situations to
which we react- how we view and treat people
influences how they in turn treat us
Internal Cognitive Factors
(thoughts and feelings
about risky activities)
Behavior
(learning to
bungee jump)
Environmental Factors
(bungee-jumping
friends)
Internal vs. External Locus of
control:
Internal Locus of Control
Definition:
 People that believe they
control their own fate
Personality Results:
o
o
o
o
o
o
Achieve more in school
Act more independently
Enjoy better health
Feel less depressed
Better able to delay gratification
Better able to cope with stress
External Locus of Control
Definition:
 People that believe chance
or outside forces beyond
one’s personal control
determine one’s fate
Personality Results:
o
o
o
o
o
Blame academic performance on
teacher
Actions dependent on actions of
those around them
Impulse control problems
Stressed
depressed
Learned Helplessness:
 Learned
Helplessness is a passive attitude
that happens when people are faced
with an unavoidable negative event. This
hopelessness makes them unwilling to try
to change their situation.
Example:
Prisoners in prison that are told what to do
every minute of the day and how to do it.
Optimism
• Attributional Style- the way we characteristically
explain negative and positive events.
Is the glass
½ full or ½
empty?
Advantages of Optimism
• Higher success professionally
and at school
• Better health
• Better self-discipline
• Better relationship quality
• More general happiness
However unbridled optimism can cause
complacency, poor decision making, and
excessive risk taking.
The key then is to adopt a realistic
optimism- enough optimism to provide
HOPE, but enough pessimism to prevent
COMPLACENCY.
 No
specific
assessments
 Best predictor of
future behavior is
past behavior
Assessing SocialCognitive
Evaluating the SocialCognitive Perspective
 What
do critics say about this
perspective?
• Behavior is not just caused by
environmental influences, but we do
seem to have fairly consistent
personality traits
Self-Esteem
List some ways Self-Esteem influences
personality:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Happier
Less likely to conform
More persistent at difficult tasks
Less shy and lonely
Less likely to see rejection where none exists
Etc….
Cultures
Individualistic
Cultures
Cultures that give
priority to one’s own goals
over group goals, and
defining one’s identity in
terms of personal
attributes rather than
group identifications
Collectivist Cultures
Cultures that give
priority to the goals of
one’s group and defining
one’s identity accordingly