Personality
Theories and Approaches
By: Ryan Sousa
Period 1
AP Psychology
5/4/08
What's on it?
Psychoanalytical Theories
 Humanistic Theories
 Social-Cognitive Theories
 Trait Theories
 Evaluation Of The Various Personality Theories
 Assessment Techniques
 Self Concept, Self Esteem
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Personality is…
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“A person’s enduring general style of dealing
with others and with the world around them”.
Psychoanalytical Theories
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Freud was the first personality
psychologists.
He believed the mind could be
divided between the unconscious
and the conscious mind.
To Freud the unconscious mind
holds ones motivations and the
sources to ones problems, however,
these facts are concealed and
many times repressed from active
memory and thought.
The only clues as to the contents of
the unconscious mind are slips of
the tongue (Freudian slips), free
word association, and Freudian
symbols (dream interpretation).
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Freud describes three factions within
the mind: the Id, Superego, and the
Ego.
Id – source of mental energy and
drive. Controls basic human needs and
desires. Operates on a pleasure
principle (the desire to maximize
pleasure and minimize pain).
Superego – the manifestation of
societal rules, morals, and obligations
(opposite of Id).
(Let go my) Ego –allows a person to
function in the environment and to be
logical. Operates on the Reality
principle (desires can be only satisfied
if the means exist and are available).
“Balances the interaction with the
environment along with the opposing
forces of the Id and Ego”
Psychoanalytical Theories Continued…
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Freud believed that the ego deals with the anxiety produced by the
id-superego conflict by using defense mechanisms.
Defense mechanisms help one reduce tension and maintain
homeostasis (or close to it).
Some types of defense mechanisms are:
Repression – the moving of stressful memories/desires into
unconsciousness
Displacement – the direction of anger away from the source of the
anger to a less threatening form
Reaction formation – the ego reverses a disturbing desire to make it
safer or more socially acceptable.
Compensation – making up for failures in one area by success in
another.
Rationalization – creating logical excuses for emotional/irrational
behavior.
Regression – reverting to childish things
Denial – the refusal to accept unwanted beliefs/actions
Sublimation – the redirection of sexual/aggressive feelings to a more
socially acceptable outlet.
Psychodynamic Psychoanalysts
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Karen Horney - Personality theory based on the need for security; basic anxiety (the fear of
being alone) is central childhood. Children who find security in their relationships with
their parents find security in other adult relationships, visa versa
Carl Jung – personality theory based on the mind comprising pairs of opposing forces. Such
as a personal (overt personality) and shadow (covert personality), and anima and animus ,
female and male, sides to our personality.
Each of us has a personal unconsciousness (suppressed memories) and a collective
unconsciousness (instinctual behavior) comprised of archetypes.
Alfred Adler – all children develop a feeling of inferiority because of their size and level of
competence. People spend their whole lives trying to overcome the inferiority and develop a
life style to support the change. The best way to overcome the feeling of inferiority is to
tailor your life style around social interest (contribution to society)
If these feelings of inferiority are left unchecked, then an inferiority complex develops.
Humanistic Theories
Humanistic theories – “emphasizes the uniqueness and
richness of being human”.
 Humanistic theories are a response to behaviorism, thus
they denote subjective reality and mental events.
 Humanist theorists take a holistic view believing that one
is united, that one is not broken up into parts such as the
id, superego, and ego.
 Self-actualization – becoming the person you are
capable of being through your own means.
 To Humanistic theorists self-actualization is the ultimate
purpose for existence.
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Carl Rogers, Humanistic Theorist
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“The self constitutes the most important aspect of personality.”
Self-concept – a mental representation of who we feel we are.
Incongruence – conflicts between our self-concept and our actual
thoughts and behavior, which cause internal conflicts.
Conditions of worth – other people’s evaluations of our worth,
which inhibit our self-concept.
Parents should not implement conditions of worth on children,
they should be treated with unconditional positive regard (being
loved even if they fail)
Social-Cognitive Theories
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“Social-cognitive theories are based on the assumption that
cognitive constructs are the basis for personality…which are
modified though learning in social environments.”
Albert Bandura – focuses on the concept of self-efficacy, which
refers to a person’s beliefs about their own abilities. The belief that
you can do a particular task greatly increases the changes that you
will succeed.
Julian Rotter – locus of control theory – the extent to which people
believe that their successes or failures are a result of their own
efforts.
To have an internal locus of control would be to believe that
success or failures are a direct result of ones own efforts.
To have an external locus of control would be to attribute success
or failure to luck or chance.
Albert Bandura
Julian Rotter
Trait Theories
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“Trait theories of personality provide quantitative systems for
describing and comparing traits or stable predispositions to
behave in a certain way… traits are part of the person and are
not typically environmentally dependant”
Trait theorists believe that traits are mostly inherited rather
than learned.
The Big 5 personality traits:
Introversion-extroversion
Neuroticism-stability
Agreeableness-antagonism
Conscientious-undirectedness
Openness-nonopenness
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The two most common ways to research traits are nomothetic,
and idiographic analysis.
Nomothetic traits (like the Big 5) are universal.
Idiographic traits are unique to the individual.
Gordon Allport – trait theorist – identified 3 types of traits:
Cardinal (traits that “override” a persons actions)
Central (a persons primary characteristics)
Secondary (traits that are brought about by interest)
Raymond Cattell – believed that 16 source traits were the basis
of personality.
“Source traits are the persons underlying
characteristics...[which] give rise to clusters of surface traits,
those readily seen in the individual.”
Evaluation of the Various Personality
Theories
The main problem with the psychoanalytic and
humanistic theories is that they were not developed
through empirical testing, thus have a lack of
evidence.
 Despite their lack of fact these theories are still used
today.
 “Trait theories are unable to explain the origin of
personality”
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Assessment Techniques
The psychoanalytical approach calls for one-on-one
therapist and patient relationships where techniques,
such as free association and dream recall, are used to
explain the catalyst for ones personality.
 Humanist theorists fall short in assessment since all their
evidence are merely theories, based on no empirical
evidence.
 Social-cognitive theorists use questionnaires to assess
personality, many versions of Rotters questionnaires are
still used today.
 Trait theorists have the most complete tools for
assessment out of any other.
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Self-Concept
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“Self-concept refers to how we view ourselves”
“Self-esteem refers to how much we value ourselves”
Self understanding: Me
The physical self – our body, our name, etc.
The active self – how we behave.
The social self – how we interact with others.
The psychological self – comprises our feelings and personalities.
The self knower: I
Responsible for coordination and interpretaion of the for Me parts.
Also how we precieve ourselves as consistent over time as
individuals. It allows us to reflect on ourselves and to have a selfconcept
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem grows and differs as we age.
 As children we are unable to make judgments about ourselves,
and self evaluations, due to a halo effect.
 Halo effect – refers to when we generalize a high self –evaluation
from one domain to another.
 Example: “when one assumes a successful athlete would also be
articulate”
 Adult self-esteem is broken up into 11 domains which we use to
evaluate ourselves:
1-11; morality, sociability, intimacy, athleticism, intelligence, sense of
humor, nurturance, job competence, adequacy, as a provider,
physical appearance, and household management.
Low self-esteem is a product of reluctance to try new tasks and
continue with begun tasks.
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I like em… they're famous