Personally

Humanism introduces

[Read more…] about Humanism

After all of the emphasis of intra-psychic unconscious motivations, behaviorism appeared. It was fresh, easy to understand, and external. You aren’t thrown around by the whim of psychic energy. Your are controlled by stimuli or by the consequences of behavior. It’s still deterministic but all above board. Finally, a theory that describes human and animal behavior.

Ivan Pavlov

B.F.Skinner

Born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) was an English major in college (Hamilton College) and then pursued psychology (at Harvard). In contrast to Hull, Skinner approached psychology inductively. He proposed an atheoretical methodology which preferred operational definitions to intervening variables.

Best known for his model of learning, Skinner emphasized the importance of what happens after a response. Not S-R, but S-R-C (stimulus-response-consequence), Skinner expanded Thorndike’s law of effect to an entire system of reinforcement.

In place of classical respondent conditioning, Skinner proposed operant conditioning. According to his model, behavior which is followed by a positive reinforcer (reward) is more likely to occur.

Conceding that there are too many stimuli to categorize, Skinner focused on the response and its consequence. Positive reinforcers increase behavior strength; positive punishment decreases behavior temporarily (as long as the punisher is present). Only extinction (the continued absence of a reward) decreases behavior permanently (e.g., if they stop paying you, you don’t go to work). Negative reinforcement (the removal of something bad) increases the likelihood of behavior and negative punishment (the removal of something good) temporarily decreases it.

Note that Skinner did not hypothesize drive, insight or any internal process. He didn’t necessarily deny their existence as much as thought them to be unknowable. For Skinner, if it didn’t impact behavior, whatever went on in the black box of the mind was unimportant.

Basing his findings on animal research (mostly rats and pigeons), Skinner identified five schedules of reinforcement: continuous reinforcement, fixed interval (FI), fixed ratio (FR), variable interval (VI) and variable ratio (VR). Continuous reinforcement is used to shape (refine) a behavior. Every time the subject performs the desired behavior, it is rewarded. Continuous reinforcement leads to quick learning and (after the reinforcement is stopped) quick descent.

Fixed Interval (FI) describes the condition where a certain amount of time must past before a correct response is rewarded (e.g., getting paid every two weeks). FI produces a “scalloped” pattern (the closer it gets to pay day the more often the proper response is given).

fixed Ratio Ratio requires a certain number of responses to be made before a behavior is rewarded (e.g., 10 widgets must be made before you are paid). In Variable Interval and Variable Ratio schedules of reinforcement, the required amount of time or the number of responses varied. These partially reinforcement schedules (never quite sure when you’ll be rewarded) are quite resistant to extinction.

According to Skinner, rewards should be given appropriately. Parents should reward behaviors they want and ignore (extinguish) behaviors they don’t want. Giving attention to a child (such as when giving a punishment) actually rewards the child with your presence and sends a mixed message. Behavior can be shaped by rewarding successive approximations but practice without reinforcement doesn’t improve performance.

Skinner relied heavily on replication. His experimental evidence did not rely on statistical analyses or large subject pools. He performed carefully designed experiments with strict controls and simply counted the responses.

In an attempt to apply his research to practical problems, Skinner adapted his operant conditioning chamber (he hated the popular title of “Skinner box”) to child rearing. His “Baby Tender” crib was an air conditioned glass box which he used for his own daughter for two and a half years. Although commercially available, it was not a popular success.

During WWII, Skinner designed a missile guidance system using pigeons as “navigators.” Although his system was feasible, the Army rejected it out of hand. The PR problems of pigeon bombers must have been extensive.

Skinner’s also originated programmed instruction. Using a teaching machine (or books with small quizzes which lead to different material), small bits of information are presented in an ordered sequence. Each frame or bit of information must be learned before one is allowed to proceed to the next section. Proceeding to the next section is thought to be rewarding.

Mind Map

 

Notes

• 2 primary characteristics of Skinner’s work
  1. Atheoretical
  2. Inductive
• Built on Thorndike’s work
  Expanded Thorndike’s law of effect to an entire system of reinforcement
  Thorndike experiment: Hungry cat learned to pull a string in order to leave a box and eat
  food from a bowl placed just outside the box
  Law of Effect:  Behavior is controlled by its consequences
• Behavior is emitted from the organism
  A consequence occurs
  The organism adapts its behavior accordingly
  Focus on S-R-C (stimulus-response-consequence)
  Not S-R (stimulus-response)
• Rewards impact an entire class of behavior
  Operant is a class of behavior
  Not a single response
  Answering the phone
• Fictions
  People are responsible for their own behavior; people are autonomous
  Free will is a superstition
• Intend doesn’t counts
  Reinforcement & Punishment is not in the intent but in the effect

Approach

• Radical behaviorism
  S-R theory can account for all overt behaviors
  Took ideas of Watson to logical extreme
• Social Darwinism
  assumes we are nothing more than a bundle of behaviors shaped by environment
• Concentrated on variable and environmental forces, not person
• Sought general principles of behavior
• Relied on animal research (mostly rats and pigeons)

Elegantly simplistic theory

• Functional analysis
• 1 subject at a time (laws of behavior must apply to every subject)
• Internal structures are “fiction”
  can’t be directly observed
  can’t operationally define
  can’t systematically test them
  unnecessary to posit internal forces
• Personality and personality theories are superfluous
  internal states (if they exist) are the by-product of behavior
• Operational definitions
  Clear definitions not open to interpretation
  Didn’t infer internal states (hunger, etc)
  # of hrs not eaten
  Did not hypothesize drive, insight or any internal process

Skinner’s experimental approach

• Manipulated when a reward was received
• Built a body of knowledge on replication
• Used single subject designs (N=1)
• Rejected statistical analyses

Operant Conditioning

• Also called instrumental conditioning:
  Responses operate on the environment and are instrumental in receiving reward
• 3 Components
  • 1. Antecedent condition
    Circumstances that indicate when to respond
    The antecedent can be in the form of a discriminative stimulus
    – green light = cross.
    – red light = don’t cross.
  • 2. Behaviour
  • 3. Consequence
    The outcome, result of behavior
    Reinforcement = positive outcome
    Punishment = negative outcome
• 2 bi-polar dimensions of consequences
  Give-take
  Posit
  Negate
• Good-bad (like-dislike)
  Reward
  Punish
• 4 consequence conditions
  Positive reinforcement
  Positive punishment
  Negative reinforcement
  Negative punishment

Reinforcement
environmental $ that occurs after response & increases likelihood response will reoccur
increases likelihood of operant reappearing

• 3 types
  • Primary reinforcer
    satisfies biological need, works naturally, regardless of prior experience
  • Secondary reinforcer
    becomes reinforcing because of association with a primary reinforcer
  • Generalized conditioned reinforcers
    type of secondary
    praise and affection
• 2 ways to apply
  give +
  take –
• Positive Reinforcement
  stimulus after response makes response more likely to occur in the future
• Negative Reinforcement
  response terminates aversive  stimulus, strengthens response
  also called escape-learning
  removing impending doom

avoidance learning: response prevents aversive event from occurring
child cleans his room to avoid parental nagging

5 schedules of reinforcement

• Continuous reinforcement
  Shaping
  Reinforcer is obtained for every response
• Fixed interval (FI) (scalloped)
  after the elapse of N minutes
• Fixed ratio (FR): every Nth response
• Variable interval (VI) (resistant to extinction)
  on average, after N minutes
• Variable ratio (VR) (very resistant to extinction)
  average is every Nth response

Intermittent schedules: Reinforcer is not obtained for every response

• Rewards should be given deferentially
  Parents should reward behaviors they want and ignore (extinguish) behaviors they don’t want.
  Behavior can be shaped by rewarding successive approximations
  Practice without reinforcement doesn’t improve performance

Punishment

• Punishment (positive and negative) decrease the likelihood an operant reappearing
• 2 ways to apply: give and take
  Punishment decreases the likelihood that a response will occur
  Examples of punishing situations
• Presentation of an aversive stimulus (Positive punishment)
  Parent spanks a child for taking candy…
  Owner swats a dog who has chewed her slippers…
• Removal of a reward (Negative punishment)
  Teenager who stays out past curfew  is not allowed to drive the family car for 2 weeks…
  Husband who forgets anniversary sleeps on couch for a week.
• Difficulties in Punishment
  Learner may not understand which operant behavior is being punished
  Learner fear, rather than learn association between action & punishment (avoids teacher)
  Punishment may not undo existing rewards for a behavior
  Using punishment when the teacher is angry
  Punitive aggression may lead to future aggression
  Blocks behavior, not eliminate it

Application

• Teaching pigeons to play table tennis
• Language development
  Chomsky
• Programmed instruction
  Teaching machine (or books with small quizzes)
  Small bits of info presented in ordered sequence
  Each frame or bit of info must be learned before allowed to proceed to the next section
  Assumes proceeding to the next section is thought rewarding

Therapy
3 steps

• identify the behaviors that are maladaptive,
• remove them
• substitute more adaptive and appropriate behaviors
• No need to review the individual’s past or encourage reliving it
  not dependent on self-understanding or insight

Operant conditioning chamber

• hated the popular title of “Skinner box”)
  “Baby Tender” crib
  air conditioned, glass box
  used for his own daughter for two and a half years
  commercially available, not a popular success
  Theoretically successful but practically unaccepted applications
• WWII missile guidance system
  Pigeons as “navigators”
  Army rejected it out of hand.
• Token economy (retarded, industrial, prison)
• Social Utopia
  Walden II (behaviorally engineered society designed by a benevolent psychologist)
  Beyond Freedom and Dignity (most major problems caused by human behavior

Criticisms

• Can’t handle intentionality

Terms

• atheoretical
• Baby Tender crib
• contingent
• continuous reinforcement
• extinction
• fictions
• fixed interval
• fixed ratio
• frame
• inductive
• negative punishment
• negative reinforcement
• operant
• operant conditioning
• operational definitions
• partial reinforcement
• positive punishment
• positive reinforcement
• programmed instruction
• reinforcement
• replication
• scalloped
• schedules of reinforcement
• shaping
• Skinner box
• spontaneous recovery
• S-R-C (stimulus-response-consequence)
• Thorndike’s law of effect
• variable interval
• variable ratio

Quiz

What is classical conditioning based on:

• a. positive reinforcement
• b. desensitization
• c. unconscious
• d. reflexes

2. When your Mom scowls at you she is using:

• a. spontaneous recovery
• b. negative punishment
• c. positive punishment
• d. shaping

3. If you get paid for a sloppy rush job, it’s:

• a. negative reinforcement
• b. positive reinforcement
• c. negative punishment
• d. positive punishment

4. If Gramma says you can avoid doing the dishes if you eat your peas, she is using:

• a. negative reinforcement
• b. positive reinforcement
• c. negative punishment
• d. positive punishment

5. If your boss takes away your parking spot because you didn’t sell enough widgets, she is using:

• a. negative reinforcement
• b. positive reinforcement
• c. negative punishment
• d. positive punishment

 

1. What is classical conditioning based on:

• a. positive reinforcement
• b. desensitization
• c. unconscious
• d. reflexes

2. When your Mom scowls at you she is using:

• a. spontaneous recovery
• b. negative punishment
• c. positive punishment
• d. shaping

3. If you get paid for a sloppy rush job, it’s:

• a. negative reinforcement
• b. positive reinforcement
• c. negative punishment
• d. positive punishment

4. If Gramma says you can avoid doing the dishes if you eat your peas, she is using:

• a. negative reinforcement
• b. positive reinforcement
• c. negative punishment
• d. positive punishment

5. If your boss takes away your parking spot because you didn’t sell enough widgets, she is using:

• a. negative reinforcement
• b. positive reinforcement
• c. negative punishment
• d. positive punishment

Summary

 

Bonus

Photo credit

Psychoanalysis began with Sigmund Freud but it increased in popularity through the work of Alfred Adler and Carl Jung. Both were originally close to Freud but later distanced by him for their adaptations to his theory. What was once a single theory became an expansive dynamic array of ideas and approaches.fff

After the big three (Freud, Adler & Jung), psychoanalysis was popularized and changed by a group of new thinkers. They were followers of Freud, initially, but modified his approach quite dramatically. Here are some of the prominent neo-Freudians.

Anna Freud (1895-1982)

Anna Freud was the youngest of Sigmund’s six children, and the only one to show an interest in his work. She began reading his books when she was 15 but didn’t decide to become an analyst until later. In her early twenties, Anna wanted to be analyzed but who could you go to when there’s no one better than your Dad? So, when she was 23, Sigmund (then in his early sixties) psychoanalyzed Anna.

After Sigmund’s death, Anna was the defender of the faith. She continued to promote his ideas but tended to emphasize ego more than her father had. Anna believed that repression was the main defense mechanism because acting on impulse can hurt you. But more than defending and modifying her father’s work, Anna Freud extended psychoanalytic ideas to children. She maintained that play time was normal, and showed children’s ability to adapt to reality. Children aren’t simply bundled of unconscious conflicts. They are adaptive and creative beings.

In a study she coauthored with Dorothy Burlingham, Anna showed that children look to their parents for cues on how to reaction to situations. During WWII bombing raids, British families were observed in air raid shelters. The children didn’t have instinctive reactions but looked to their mothers to see how she was reacting.

Anna Freud created a classification system to organize evaluations of children’s symptoms. Development was seen as a series of id-ego interactions, where children gain increased control of themselves. Her “diagnostic profile” was a formal assessment procedure that tracked developmental progress on six dimensions of change:

1. dependency to emotional self-reliance
2. sucking to rational eating
3. wetting and soiling to bladder and bowel control
4. irresponsibility to responsibility
5. play to work
6. egocentricity to companionship

Erik Erikson (1902-1994)

Although born in Frankfurt, Germany, Erikson’s parents were Danish. His father was Protestant and his mother Jewish. When Erik was in his 30s, he moved to the United States, becoming a citizen in 1936.

Erikson emphasized the impact of society on the ego, the continuity of the present and the past, and the importance of personal identity (an inner sense of uniqueness) and identity confusion. Erikson saw ego as a creative problem solver. The ego helps organize one’s personality, and synthesizes the conscious and unconscious experiences. It works toward effective performance, as well as avoiding anxiety.

The ego also develops strengths at each stage of development. According to Erikson, there are eight stages in all. The first 5 stages are comparable to Freud’s, including infancy (oral), muscular (anal), locomotor (genital), latency, and adolescence. In Erikson’s sixth stage, the young adult struggles with intimacy and the development of love. As an adult, the seventh stage which extends from the mid-twenties to age 65, people focus on caring for their children and being productive in their careers. Maturity, the eighth stage, included the development of wisdom and a struggle to turn the fear of death into integrated self.

These stages show how children try to understand and relate to the world. According to Erikson, development stages are epigenetic (upon emergence), sequential (occur only in one order) and hierarchical (personality becomes more complex). The behaviors from one stage don’t disappear when the next one starts but each stage has its own characteristic crisis and virtue. A crisis is a battle between opposites (trust vs. distrust). A virtue is what you acquire when you have mastered that stage (hope).

Here are the crises and virtues for Erikson’s stages:

1. Trust vs distrust: Hope
2. Autonomy vs shame-doubt: Will
3. Initiative vs guilt: Purpose
4. Industry vs inferiority: Competence
5. Ego identity vs role confusion: Fidelity
6. Intimacy vs isolation: Love
7. Generativity vs stagnation: Care
8. Ego integrity vs despair: Wisdom

In his later years, Erikson studied the Sioux Indians (S Dakota) and the Yurok salmon fishermen of northern California. He found the Sioux to be trusting and generous, while the Yurok were miserly and suspicious. According to Erikson, the difference in behavior was the result of their cultures.

Karen Horney (1885-1952)

Born in Hamburg, Germany on September 18, 1885, Horney did not study directly with Freud but was greatly influenced by his work. She received her MD from the University of Berlin in 1913, and moved to the US in 1932.

Horney’s writings do not form a systematic theory of psychology but show how Freud’s concepts were manipulated and expanded by his followers. Horney’s concept of basic anxiety embraces Freudian thought but extends its interpretive usefulness. For Horney, basic anxiety is feeling helpless and is a product of culturalization. Basic anxiety produces a drive for safety (security).

Horney emphasized needs, including the need for affection, approval, power, ambition and perfection. She divided these needs into 3 types of personality: toward people, against people, and away from people.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980)

Fromm’s loosely constructed theory of personality emphasized social influences and trends. Born in Frankfurt, Germany on March 23, 1900, Fromm received his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg in 1922.

Fromm maintained that people are lonely, and seeking social contact. Basically a social animal, the greater independence one achieves, the greater loneliness is experienced. To counteract loneliness, people use myths, religions, and totalitarianism to bind themselves to each other. For Fromm, there are only two solutions to the problem: join with others in a spirit of love, or conform to society.

Fromm proposed five basic needs: relatedness (creating relationships), transcendence, rootedness (putting down roots), identity (uniqueness), and orientation (a consistent frame of reference).

According to Fromm, personality is composed of temperament (inherited. unchangeable characteristics) and character (which is learned). Individual character is developed within one’s environment and social character is a result of reaction to society.

Melatne Klein (1892-1960)

Klein was one of the founders of object relations theory. Although she believed aggression is an important and common force in children, Klein modified Freud’s drive theory. She maintained that drives are psychological forces (not biological) that seek people as their objects. That is, we are driven to interact with people, and to use those interactions to fulfill our needs.

According to this view, children construct an internal representation of people. These representations are rough estimates of reality. A young child doesn’t have to capacity to understand complex relationships, so they create simple images of the people in their world. Then, they apply these rules to real people (she’s like Mom; he’s like Uncle Fred).

This approach works well when you’re young but these early stereotypes make it hard to relate to people as they actually are. Because of these images, children are slow development realistic relationships with the world. They find it difficult to give up their unconscious fantasies; they prefer the fantasy that Mom is all good and Dad is a superhero. The truth is more difficult to accept. It’s harder to understand that Mom is good and sometimes mean, or that Dad can be dependable and strong yet not able to jump over tall buildings in a single bound.

Klein also believed that the superego developed before the Oedipal complex. Consequently, even young children can experience guilt, shame and complex emotions. To avoid the anxiety over mixed feelings (or aggressive impulses), children learn to separate their emotions from the target person (object). Objects tend to be good and feelings bad. This disconnect causes problems in later life.

In addition to traditional techniques (free association, analysis of defenses, etc.), she introduced innovative therapeutic interventions that are now considered standard practices. For example, Klein was the first to use play therapy. She had children play with toys, and used those sessions to get a better understanding of their drives and emotions.

Klein was strongly opinionated and a forceful advocate for her point of view. She was part of an on-going battle of words that threatened to destroy the British Psychoanalytical Society. Some of the conflict was over how to discover and interpret a child’s ego defenses. But much of the drama was not about the use of fantasy, projection and regression. It was a battle of personalities. It was the battle of giants: Melanie Klein vs. Anna Freud.

In this corner, was Melanie Klein: the first to apply psychoanalysis to children (beating out Anna Freud by four years). Klein was a radical, daring to challenge the ideas of Sigmund Freud. And in this corner, there was Anna Freud: youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud and heir to the Freud legacy and upholder of classical psychoanalysis. Joining Anna Freud group was Melitta Schmideberg, Melanie Klein’s daughter (with whom she never reconciled).

Each camp offered a training program, and held that their approach alone should be the official training program of the organization. More than that, each wanted the other expelled from the society.

The winner? Actually, the winner was a third group: the independents, whose primary concern was compromise. In the end, the Society did what all organization do: they solved the issue politically. Each side was asked to make formal presentations of their theories. A panel listened to all concerned and decided the Society would offer both training programs. A simple solution that only took 5 years to reach.

Mind Map

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Notes

Anna Freud (1895-1982)
Emphasized repression as main defense mechanism (acting on impulse can hurt you)
Emphasized ego
Defend your ego by separating ideas and feelings,
Projection (putting your feelings onto someone else),
Self aggressive behavior (suicide is an extreme example).
Play is normal; shows child’s adaptation to reality; not necessarily revels unconscious conflicts
Application of psychoanalysis to new areas
Study of children (coauthor: Dorothy Burlingham)
Showed children’s reaction to combat (impact of bombing raids on British children)
Not instinctive reaction; look to mother for her reaction
Emphasis on protective, supportive and educational attitudes
Personality comes out of a developmental sequence
Produced a classification system of childhood symptoms;
Created the “diagnostic profile” (a formal assessment procedure)
Developmental lines = series of id-ego interactions; children decrease dependence on external controls
1. dependency to emotional self-reliance
2. sucking to rational eating
3. wetting and soiling to bladder and bowel control
4. irresponsibility to responsibility
5. play to work
6. egocentricity to companionship
Ego must become aware of the defenses it is using (can infer them from behavior)
Analysis of defenses permits one to understand the child’s life history
Importance of paying attention to patient’s maturation level
Developed a concept of normality for the adolescent period
Period of disharmony but the crisis is “normative” and functional
Clarified which types of acting out are normal and which aren’t
Believed there are realistic limits to psychoanalysis
Wrote on the process of identification with the aggressor
(victim reacts with gratitude and admiration)

Erik Homburger Erikson (1902-1994)
Life
No college degree; in Vienna, started a progressive, non-graded, Montessori style school
Invited by Anna Freud to be analyzed by her and become a child analyst
Coined “identity crisis”
Ego
A creative problem solver; gives coherence to experiences (conscious and unconscious)
Maintains effective performance (not just avoid anxiety); has adaptive defenses
Organizing capacity (can reconcile discontinuities and ambiguities)
Develops strengths at each stage of development
Elaborated on Feud’s stages (added a social dimension)
Psychosocial stage characteristics
Children try to understand and relate to the world
An emotional polarity or specific conflict
Epigenetic (upon emergence)
Sequential, hierarchical, personality becomes more complex
Personal timetable; not strict time periods but there are critical periods
Behaviors from 1 stage don’t disappear when the next starts
Each has its own “life crisis” and virtue
8 stages
1. Trust vs distrust: Hope
if unresolved, perceive world as indifferent or hostile
not fully resolved in 1st year of life
2. Autonomy vs shame-doubt: Will
must become self-willed and take chances with trust
negativism of 2 yr. old (No) = attempt to autonomy
3. Initiative vs guilt: Purpose
preschoolers: ask why
begin to image goals can reach; language more polished; engage in projects
Oedipus complex (called it generational complex)
4. Industry vs inferiority: Competence
focus moves to the ego
conscious of doing superior or inferior work; industriousness = make something well
5. Ego identity vs role confusion: Fidelity
faithful to an ideological point of view
question way life is; begin to reconstruct roles and skills into a mature sense of identity
role confusion = unable to conceive self as productive member of society
confusion of values (important to give kids ideals they can share enthusiastically)
identify crisis = failure to establish stable identity
negative identity = opposed to dominant values of their upbringing
6. Intimacy vs isolation: Love
overcome the fear of ego loss; form a close affiliation with another
7. Generativity vs stagnation: Care
parenthood is one way to express generativity; ability to be productive and creative
if don’t have kids, work with other people’s kids or help create a better world for them
importance of procreative desires of human beings
8. Ego integrity vs despair: Wisdom
ability to reflect on one’s life with satisfaction even if all dreams weren’t met
Emphasized life span; impact of culture, society and history on developing personality
Wrote psycho-historical studies of famous people

Karen Horney (1885-1952)
1st to challenge Freud’s ideas about women
Anxiety is the basis of human condition
created by social forces
not by human predicament
Basic Evil = all of the negative factors in the environment
domination, isolation, overprotection
Children’s fears may be objectively unrealistic but for them they are real.
Essential for healthy personality development that they feel safe and secure
Significance of early relationships in their totality
Oedipus complex: parents not responding with pride & empathy to growth of their children.
We use strategies to deal with or minimize feelings of anxiety.
Neurotic needs or trends = exaggerated or inappropriate strivings
Neurotic trends are the result of the formative experiences that create basic anxiety.
10 different neurotic needs
Exaggerated need for affection and approval
Need for dominant partner
Exaggerated need for power
Need to exploit others
Exaggerated need for social recognition or prestige
Exaggerated need for personal admiration
Exaggerated ambition for personal achievement
Need to restrict one’s life within narrow boundaries
Exaggerated need for self-sufficiency and independence
Need for perfection and unassailability
3 types of coping strategies
moving toward (compliance)
moving against (hostility)
moving away (detachment)
3 basic orientations, respectively
self-effacing solutions (appeal to be loved)
self expansive solution (attempt at mastery)
resignation solution (desire to be free of others)
2 types of self
real self = things that are true about us
idealized self = what should be
similar to Freud’s concept of the ego-ideal
a special need of the individual to keep up appearances of perfection
Neurotics are governed by the Tyranny of the Should
Feminine Psychology
Men and women develop fantasies in their efforts to copy with the Oedipal situation
Womb envy (serious or tongue-in-cheek?)
Jealous over women’s ability to bear and nurse children
Shown in rituals of taboo, isolation & cleansing associated with menstruation & childbirth
Need to disparage women
Accuse them of witchcraft
Belittle their achievements
Deny them equal rights
Womb envy and penis envy are compliments
Men and women have an impulse to be creative and productive
Natural need
Women satisfy this need internally and externally
Men can satisfy their need only externally through accomplishments in the external world
“Flight from womenhood” can be observed in society
Inhibit women’s femininity; they become frigid
Women distrust men and rebuff their advances but wish they were male
Sexual unresponsiveness is not the normal attitude of women
Essence of being a women lies in motherhood
Defined feminine self in terms of women’s own self, not her relationship with a man
Women should reach freedom from inner bondage
We engage in self-analysis when we try to account for the motive behind our behaviors.
4 prerequisites for good decision making
be aware of our real feelings
create our own set of values
make a deliberate choice between 2 opposite possibilities
take responsibility for the decision we make
Emphasis on an individual’s current situation rather than on the past

Erich Fromm (1900-1980)
Combined Freud and Marx
Freedom is a basic human condition
To be human is to be isolated and lonely
one is distinct from nature and others
loneliness represent basic human condition
separates humans from animal nature
Know we going to die, so we have a feeling of despair
3 escape mechanisms
1. Authoritarianism
domination
permit other to dominate or seem to dominate and control others
2. Destructiveness
elimination of others or outside world
3. Automaton conformity
cease to be themselves
adopt the type of personality preferred by their culture
“the loss of the self”
Escape mechanisms are forces in normal people
5 Basic Needs
relatedness
transcendence
rootedness
sense of identity
frame of orientation & object of devotion
Later added “excitation and stimulation”
Our primary drive is toward the affirmation of life
In a capitalistic society, acquiring money is a means of establishing a sense of identify
In an authoritarian society, identifying with the leader or state provide a sense of identify
We create society to fulfill our needs but the society we create limits our need being met
Character is determined by culture and its objectives
authoritarian ethics have their source in a conscience that is rooted outside the individual
humanistic ethics represent true virtue in the sense of the unfolding of a person’s powers
biophilous character = seek to live life
necrophilous character = attracted to what is dead and decaying and seeks to destroy life
Malignant forms of aggression can be reduced when socioeconomic conditions changed
Productive love is an art; productive love is the true creative answer to human loneliness
symbiotic relationships are immature or pseudo forms of love
1976, added two basic modes or orientations
having mode = relies on the possessions that a person has
being mode = fact of existence
Everyone is capable of both having and being modes but society determines which prevails
Field study of a Mexican village; Michael Maccoby (coauthored it)
landowners (productive-hoarding);
poor workers (unproductive-receptive);
business group (productive-exploitative)

Object Relations
Intrapsychic experience of early relationships with others
Babies+ relate to individuals and form attachments
Relationship between intrapsychic dynamics and interpersonal relationships
Melanie Klein (1882-1960)
British, competitor of Anna Freud; modified Freud’s drive theory
Drives are psychological forces that seek people as their objects
Children
construct an internal representation of people
apply that representation to real people
project them onto real people
she’s like Mom; he’s like Uncle Fred
those early stereotypes make it hard to relate to people as they are
Split objects & feelings into good-bad aspects because anxiety over aggressive impulses
objects are good
feelings are bad
Emphasized
1. interaction of unconscious fantasies and real experiences
2. children are slow development realistic relationships with the world

Margaret Mahler (1897-1985)
psychological birth
begins with symbiotic fusion of child and mother
emerges as separate individual
unfolding process
separation = physical differentiation
individuation = psychological growth toward own identity
2 forerunner phases (move from narcissism to recognition of the external world)
1. normal autism
2. normal symbiosis
4 stages of the separation-individuation process
1. body image (5-9 months)
2. practicing (10-14 months)
perfecting motor abilities
developing physical independence
3. rapprochement (14-24 months)
increased awareness of separateness from mother
conflict: urge to separate and fear of loss
can see it when absent from mother
recognize mother has good and bad aspects
4. consolidation (2-3 years)
unification of the good and bad mother
beginnings of child’s own individuality; separate personhood
development of a self concept based on the a stable sense of “me”
Normal healthy infants have drive for and towards individuation
2 realities
1. importance of interpersonal dynamics
2. unconscious reality
Compared severely disturbed and normal children
Ego passes through stages
separation-individuation process
begins about 4th month; forms stable self concept by 3rd yr.
Criticism
no reciprocity (mother as separate person as well)
babies more hard-wired than Mahler thought
Heinz Kohut (1913-1981)
Extended Margaret Mahler’s observations
Importance of child-mother relationships
Self theory
Narcissism
individual fails to develop an independent sense of self
exaggerated sense of self-importance and self-involvement
behaviors hide a fragile sense of self worth
narcissism isn’t at just one stage
gradually unfolds
permeates the entire life span
leads to a distorted sense of self; from a failure in parental empathy
children need to be mirrored (talk acknowledged & accomplishments praised)
looking for an idealized parent substitute that can never be found
In ideal development, nuclear self emerges in 2nd year
bipolar self creates a tension arc, fosters development of early skills and talents
subsequent goals
The ideal autonomous self has qualities of self-esteem and self-confidence
shows lack of dependency on others
Narcissistic disorder
recurrent self-absorption
low self-esteem
unimportant physical complaints
chronic sense of emptiness
addictions
a futile attempt to repair development deficits in the self”
cult membership
Therapy
psychoanalysis can’t help unless therapist deals first with the narcissistic disorder
imagine you’re “into the clients’ skin”
cultivate feelings of being understood
use empathy and introspection (not free association and suspended attention)
when children develop normally, Oedipus complex may be a joyful experience
Otto Kernberg (1928-)
Narcissistic disorder
parents who were indifferent, cold, subtly hostile and vengeful
exaggerated self-images
insatiable need for approval from other people
the result of drives not neutralized
Borderline personality disorders
unable to engage in introspection or develop insight
strong mood swings
see significant others as all good or all bad
on the border between functioning adequately and lapsing into psychotic episodes
diagnose on causal description of early historical relationships
Splitting
introduced the concept
failing to consolidate positive and negative experiences
swing back and forth between conflicting images
you are either good or bad
Treatment
“expressive psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy”
face to face, intensive session, 3+ times per week, stress current behavior
complete transference is not permitted
don’t resolve transference by interpretation alone
directly state distortions
feelings are psychophysiological structures
evolved to assist in surviving
building blocks of drives
aggression is a major motivating force

Terms

• authoritarian ethics
• authoritarianism
• automaton conformity
• basic evil
• basic needs
• basic orientations
• being mode
• biophilous character
• body image
• borderline personality disorder
• care
• character
• competence
• conflict
• consolidation
• coping strategies
• destructiveness
• developmental lines
• epigenetic
• escape mechanisms
• fidelity
• flight from womanhood
• generativity
• having mode
• hope
• humanistic ethics
• idealized self
• identity crisis
• Individuation
• Industriousness
• internal representation
• interpersonal dynamics
• Intrapsychic
• life crisis
• loneliness
• loss of the self
• love
• moving against
• moving away
• moving toward
• narcissism
• necrophilous character
• negative identity
• neurotic needs
• neurotic trends
• normal autism
• normal symbiosis
• object relations
• practicing
• productive love
• productive-exploitative
• productive-hoarding
• psychological birth
• purpose
• rapprochement
• real self
• relatedness
• resignation solution
• role confusion
• rootedness
• self expansive solution
• self-effacing solution
• sense of identity
• separation
• separation-individuation process
• splitting
• transcendence
• tyranny of should
• unconscious reality
• unproductive-receptive
• virtue
• will
• wisdom
• womb envy

Quiz

Horney says people suffer from a(n):

• a. negative punishment
• b. tyranny of should
• c. identify crisis
• d. primal fear

2. Which emphasizes forming relationships with people, stuffed animals, food, drugs and other significant targets:

• a. operant conditining
• b. object relations
• c. productive love
• d. body image

3. Who proposed six developmental lines:

• a. Karen Horney
• b. Anna Freud
• c. Skinner
• d. May

4. Fromm suggest people use myths, religion and totalitarianism to counteract:

• a. negative reinforcement
• b. childhood trauma
• c. consolidation
• d. loneliness

5. In contrast to Freud, Erikson proposed a:

• a. non-hierarchy of stages
• b. reordering of stages
• c. virtue at each stage
• d. primordial stage

 

1. Horney says people suffer from a(n):

• a. negative punishment
• b. tyranny of should
• c. identify crisis
• d. primal fear

2. Which emphasizes forming relationships with people, stuffed animals, food, drugs and other significant targets:

• a. operant conditining
• b. object relations
• c. productive love
• d. body image

3. Who proposed six developmental lines:

• a. Karen Horney
• b. Anna Freud
• c. Skinner
• d. May

4. Fromm suggest people use myths, religion and totalitarianism to counteract:

• a. negative reinforcement
• b. childhood trauma
• c. consolidation
• d. loneliness

5. In contrast to Freud, Erikson proposed a:

• a. non-hierarchy of stages
• b. reordering of stages
• c. virtue at each stage
• d. primordial stage

 

Summary

 

Bonus

 

Traits can be discrete individual characteristics or continuous dimensions. The first theories of personality were trait theories. In ancient cultures, people were described by their names. Parents took great care in name selection, and tended to be aspirational. They preferred names of leaders, heroes and positive characteristics. Children were names Faith, Hope, Mighty, Calm and Brave. It is not until cognitive psychology became popular that people thought of constructing their own personality.

 

Trait theory is among the oldest approaches to explaining personality. According to this approach, your personality is the result of some external force.

The advantage to trait theory is that discovering who you are is relatively simple. You take a test, read a book, check your horoscopes or hire someone to analyze your star charts. The assumption is that there is an answer to who you are, and that the answer is knowable. It might take effort but someone will tell you who you are.

The disadvantage to trait theory is that you are locked into whatever traits someone else says you have. If you are labeled an introvert, you can never change. Outgoing people can never be shy. Trustworthy people can never cheat. Cowards can never become a hero. Trait theory is a closed system. There is no way out.

Ancient Trait Theories

Chinese Zodiac

For the ancient Chinese, who you are is determined by the year in which you are born. If you are born in the year of the rat, your personality and fortune will be different from someone born in the year of the ox. About 3500 years ago, the Chinese developed a system of personality based on when you were born. This zodiac incorporated the planets (5 elements), the months (12 animals), and (later on) the tide: yin and yang. This 60-year cycle explained what you were like, who to marry, and what would happen in the future. Many ancients believed that your name determines your personality. The power of names was so great, parents carefully chose a name lest they temp the fates. Consequently, naming a baby “sloth” would be unacceptable, while naming a child “brave” or “mercy” would produce a person held that trait.

Hippocrates

The ancient Greeks explained personality by four elements of life. About the time of Confucius, Hippocrates was explaining to the Greeks that personality types (humors) were based on four essential body fluids. A balance of the four fluids (yellow bile, phlegm, black bile and blood) kept one in “good humor.” A bit too much blood (sanguine) makes one confident and brave; too much makes someone arrogant, impulsive and unpredictable. A bit phlegmatic makes one easy going; too much makes on sluggish and lazy. A bit of yellow bile (choleric) gives one energy and passion; too much makes one aggressive and bad-tempered. Being a bit melancholic makes one sensitive and poetic; too much drowns you in depression. You might be born sanguine (happy) or melancholic (sad) but your temperament was predetermined by these elements.

Ancient approaches often emphasized temperament over character. Temperament was thought to be the built-in characteristics a person has. You might have a generally sad personality (melancholy) or happy (sanguine). This temperament doesn’t mean you can’t be honest (character) but describes your general bent. If you’re a morning person, it’s the result of temperament. If you go to an early morning class even though you are a late-night person, it’s a reflection of your character.

Modern Trait Theories

Allport

The first modern personality trait theorist was Gordon Allport. In the 1930’s, Allport and his students searched through dictionaries to find words that described personality. They started with 17,953 adjectives but settled on 4504 of them. Allport suggested that most of these traits were “common traits” (traits we all hold in common). Some might have a lot of a common trait but others might have only a smidge. But Allport also proposed that people can have individual traits unique to them. His morphogenic approach combined individual uniqueness (idiographic traits) and group comparison traits (nomothetic traits). You can compare yourself to others on “agreeable,” “friendly,” and “caring.” Plus, you can have your own special nobody-in-the-world-is-like-me traits. Allport bridged the “lots of traits” and the “only a few traits” debate by combining them.

Cattell

Following Allport’s lead, Raymond Cattell reduced Allport’s list further. Cattell removed uncommon words and those he thought redundant. He whittled it down to 171 traits. Still following Allport’s lexical approach (personality can be described by dictionary words), Cattell added a statistical technique: factor analysis. He believed that a limited number of traits were underlying the thousands of words used to describe people. Cattell was among the first to use factor analysis to determine which words went together and which described a different trait. He ended up with 16 factors (traits). His personality test, the 16 PF (sixteen personality factors) is still in use today. Cattell’s factors included: affectia (outgoing vs. reserved), ego strength (emotional volatility), parmia (adventurousness), and surgency (a sort of happy-sad distinction).

Cattell wasn’t the only one using factor analysis. Hans Eysenck used the statistical technique to reduce personality to two dimensions: neuroticism and introversion-extroversion.  For Eysenck, personality was more a matter of temperament than character. He revived the humors of Hipprocates but reformulated the four humors into two dimensions: extroversion and neuroticism. Extraversion is a reflection of your physiological make up. He believed that your shy personality is the result of your brain is easily startled. Specifically, Eysenck targeted the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) and the reticular formation of the lower brain stem. Introverts, according to this view, don’t have the safety mechanism that extroverts do. When trouble comes, an extroverts brain becomes numb or zones out. This inhibition process protects the brain from trauma. In contrast, introverts feel all of the impact of the traumatic event and are overwhelmed by it.

Eysenck

Although nervous people aren’t always neurotic, Eysenck believed that they were more susceptible to problems, hence the tendency for people to have “nervous disorders,” “nervous breakdowns,” and “nervous ticks.” This nervousness is the result of temperament: built in physiologically. Since the sympatric nervous system causes arousal and emotional responsiveness, he hypothesized that people who scored high on his test of neuroticism had an underlying physiology that made them more likely to be excited by danger and stress. People who remain calm under stress have a sympathetic nervous system that is less responsive.

Sheldon

The tendency to believe personality is biologically based is not limited to the brain physiology.  In the 1940’s, William Sheldon proposed that personality and body types were linked. He categorized people as being endomorphic (soft and round), mesomorphic (muscular and rectangular) and ectomorphic (fragile and tall). According to this approach, soft and round folk were friendly and cuddly. But muscular mesomorphs were assertive and energetic. Ectomorphs might be thin and shy but they were smart. Sheldon’s theory was more phrenology than psychology, but you’ll still encounter people following his line of reasoning.

Murray

Henry Murray added to trait theory by hypothesizing two influences on people: needs and presses. Needs can be both processes and internal states (achievement, power, intimacy). Your need for intimacy pushes you toward people. Your need for achievement determines how hard to try. Just as hunger is a physiological need that pushes you to get food, psychological needs are internal pressures that compel action. Your behavior is not solely the result of your needs. The environment also impacts you. These environmental presses pressure you from the outside. You can be pressured by a press of danger, or deprivation. Your environment might press you to be friendly or compliant. You can be impacted by a rejecting environment, or one of loss or duty. Both a loss in your life and the birth of a child are presses. In some sense, you are trapped between internal drives and external presses.

Murray’s other main contribution to personality theory was the creation of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Although today it is widely used as a test of creativity, the TAT was designed to reveal latent needs (unexpressed needs). Composed of a series of magazine-sized cards, the test is a collection of abstract images on which a person can “project” their personality. You would be given a card and asked to describe what is going on now, what went on before, and what is going to happen in the future. Your stories would be written down verbatim, and later analyzed for themes. Murray, who was psychoanalyzed by Carl Jung, believed that these latent themes were the key to understanding how people really felt; the TAT was a key to understanding one’s personality.

Big Five

The most recent trait theory is a multidimensional theory called the Big Five. This is a consensus theory, not the work of a single person. It is the culmination of work over three decades using factor analysis. The Big Five are summarized as OCEAN or CANOE: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

In the 19060’s, the Air Force routinely gave Cattell’s 16PF to its incoming officers. Two researchers (Tupes & Christal, 1962) analyzed these tests, looking for underlying factors. From their eight samples (they didn’t look at all of the scores), they concluded that the number of personality factors could be reduced substantially from Cattell’s sixteen. In six of the samples, they could reduce the number of factors to eight. In another sample, they found 5 factors. In the last sample, they identified 12 factors.

Using undergraduates instead of Air Force personnel, another researcher (Norman, 1963) found five factors. Norman had students rate their peers on 20 of the variables Tupes and Christal used (four from each of the five factors). Through factor analysis, he found five factors (which critics suggest is not surprising since he started with 4 examples of each of the five factors). In another study (Norman, 1967), 1431 words were rated on the original five dimensions, resulting in 75 semantic clusters. These clusters were later used with others words but again five factors were found (Goldberg, 1980); again not a surprise to the critics: start with clusters based on five dimensions and end with five dimensions.

Another research team (McCrae & Costa, 1976) began with a two-trait model (neuroticism and extraversion) but later added “openness to experience.”  Still later, they added agreeableness and conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 1985). In their personality test (NEO, each of the five factors are composed of six subscales (facets). So extroversion is really a combination of gregariousness, activity, assertiveness, warmth, positive emotions, and seeking excitement. And agreeableness is subdivided into trust, modesty, compliance, altruism, tendermindedness and straightforwardness.

Mind  Map

Notes

Ancient Trait Theory

Chinese

Modern Trait Theory

• Intro
• Allport, Gordon
• Paths
• Ancient Trait Theory
  Chinese Zodiac
  Shun Dynasty (1766-1050 BC)
  Year of birth determines personality
  60-year cycle based on lunar calendar
• Hippocrates (460-370 BC)
  “Good humor” is the balance of:
  yellow bile (air)
  phlegm (water)
  black bile (earth)
  blood (fire)
  Balancing the fluids is essential to good health
  Belief that lasted well into the Middle Ages

Galen (130-220)
4 temperaments
Sanguine
blood is dominant
warm, optimistic and confident
Melancholic
black bile is dominant
sad and depressed
cause by eating too many cold foods
Phlegmatic
phlegm is dominant
sluggish, apathetic
Choleric
yellow bile is dominant
angry, aggressive, violent
caused by eating too many warm foods
Impact = the authority on medicine until 16th century

Hans Eysenck (1916-1997)
Emphasized physiology and genetics
Used factor analysis
Trait theorist
Emphasized temperament
Temperament = genetic component of personality
Character = learned component of personality
Merged biological determinism & behaviorism
Introversion-Extroversion
The degree to which a person
Directs energies outward toward environment
Direct energies inward toward self-focused life
Neuroticism-Emotional Stability
Neuroticism = predisposition to become emotionally upset
Stability = predisposition to be emotionally even
Psychoticism
Added later
A person high on this trait is antisocial, cold, hostile, and unconcerned about others
A person low on psychoticism is warm and caring toward other
3-dimensional model
Factors are biological determined
P – Psychoticism
linked to endocrine gland especially
controls sex drive
E – Extraversion
linked to ascending reticular activating system (ARAS)
reticular formation of brain stem
N – Neuroticism
linked to limbic system
brains emotional center
regulates sex, fear & aggression

Franz Gall (1758-1828)
One of the first comparative anatomists
Brain localization
Founder of “cranioscopy” = phrenology

William Sheldon (1898-1977)
Antrhopometric method = things that don’t change with age
Studied4,000 men; photos (front, side and back)
Contribution of 3fundamental elements
Atlas of Men
Pure forms (somatotypes)
Endomorph =  7-1-1
Mesomorph = 1-7-1
Ectomorph =   1-1-7
Criminals
high in endomorphy
intermediate in mesomorphy
Suicidal
high in ectomorphy
Insanity
ectomorphs

Gordon Allport (1897-1967)
50 definitions of personality
Personality is a real entity
Functional autonomy
Proprium
rational coper
proprium striving
Mature Personality (6 criteria)
Extension of sense of self
Warm relations with others
Emotional security
Realistic perception of skills
Self-objectification
Unifying philosophy of life & religion
8 Characteristics
1. Exist in people
2. More generalized than habits
3. May determine behavior
4. Can be discovered with systematic observation
5. Only relatively independent of each other
6. Not the same as moral character
7. Inconsistencies don’t mean traits don’t exist
8. Some traits are unique to you
2 types of traits
Common = adjectives
Personal
Cardinal disposition
Central disposition
Secondary disposition

Raymond Cattell  (1905-)
Reduced Allport’s 4,000 traits to 171
Used Factor Analysis
Personality consisted of 46 surface traits
Condensed to 16 source traits
1950, published the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)
Other Accomplishments
2-factor theory of intelligence
Fluid (innate)
Crystallized (culturally constituted)
Allport’s adjectives using Q, T, and L data
Q-data = from self-reports & questionnaires (questionnaire data)
T-data = from controlled test situations-observational ratings & notes (test data)
L-data = from person’s life, school, work, community etc. (life data)

Henry Murray
Psychological hedonism
Ultimate goal of behavior is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain
Needs can be unconscious processes;
implicit motives (inhibited, conflicts)
Needs can be explicit motives; aware of competitiveness
2 kinds of needs
Viscerogenic needs
hunger, thirst; needed for survival
important for everyone
Psychogenic needs = achievement; individual differences
20 needs
4 major needs identified
Achievement
Power
Affiliation
Intimacy
Press = external events that influence motives
Seeing someone eat dessert
Environmental influence on motives;
as opposed to biological or internal influences of needs
Can bring on a motivational state through environmental exposure
Both objective and subjective press exists
Alpha Press (objective environment)
Beta Press (perceived environment)
Motives that influence behavior in some circumstances
Motives = drives to meet needs and reduce dissatisfaction;
internal states that arouse & direct toward goal (hunger)
Cognitions with affective overtones
organized around preferred experiences and goals
emotionally-charged goals
Appear in thoughts about either desired or undesired goals
Lead to behavior directly
Subjective overtones
Influenced by needs
Theory
Idiographically oriented = individual differences
Developed wide-ranging theory of personality
Organized by needs, motives, and presses
Manifest needs (observable)
Latent needs (underlying)
Process
Underlying need and the external press are combined into motives
Motives influence what behaviors are expressed
Hierarchy of Needs
Needs exist at different levels of strength
Each need interacts with other needs
resulting in interactions, or dynamics within the person
Varies from person to person
unique patterning of needs, motives, behaviors (individualized)
Measuring Needs
Manifest Needs (aka Motives) = behavior, self-report
Latent Needs (True definition of Needs)
Murray was most interested in latent needs
Indirect methods
Applied the term “Apperception”
the process of projecting needs onto a stimulus
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Christiana Morgan (1897-1967)
Born in Boston; moved to NY; studied art
She & William became friends with Henry and Josephine Murray
1925, analyzed by Jung
Had little feeling for her son; felt most alive with men
She had a series of semi-hypnotic “visions”
Jung thought she was burying her feminine spirituality;
hiding under masculine rationality
Jung recommended she have an affair to unlock her unconscious
suggested she be a muse for Murray
instead of creating children, she could create a man;
serve a man, serve the world
1934, her husband died
1938, co-created the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
First known as the Morgan-Murray Thematic Apperception Test
Later it was Murray and the “staff of the Harvard Psychological clinic”
She was in poor health
High blood pressure
Had a radical sympathectomy = sever sympathetic nerves spinal cord
She was in poor mental health
Sexual experimentation
Stormy relationships
Difficult marriage
Alcoholic
1965, Murray found younger woman
1967, she & Murray took trip to Virgin Islands
She drowned herself at age 69

Thematic Apperception Test
Ambiguous pictures
Originally taken from magazine photos; probably US Camera-1942
Cardsnot specifically created to elicit unconscious (not theory based)
Assumed any ambiguous stimuli could be used
Interpretation of interpersonal situations
Today 31 pictures available; usually use 10 cards per person
Select different ones for men, women or children
Not a standardized set of stimuli
Used to discover hidden emotions, inner needs
Often used to complement info from Rorschach ink-blot test
Can be used as a test of imagination
Card 1
Boy and his violin
Drawn by Christiana Morgan
Based on a photo of a Yehudi Menuhin
Card 13-B
Little boy is sitting on the doorstep of a log cabin
Based on Marion Post Wolcott’s photo of a Kentucky log cabin
Subjects create a story
What’s going on
What is being thought & by whom
What went on before
What will happen next

Big Five
1980s-1990s
Research-driven model
Data-driven theory
Inductive
Described somewhat differently, but
5 basic personality dimensions
Found in a variety of cultures
Evolutionary perspective
5 Dimensions
Extraversion = energetic, sociable vs shy, reserved, introverted
Neuroticism = high-strung, emotional vs calm, emotionally stable
Openness = imaginative, open-minded vs traditional thinking
Agreeableness = friendly, trusting vs cold, unkind
Conscientiousness = dependable, organized vs impulsive, careless

Evaluating Trait Theories
Behavior is result of interaction between traits and situations
Critics say it generally fails to explain:
Personality; label general predispositions
How or why individual differences develop
Motives that drive personality
Role of unconscious mental processes
How belief about self influence personality
How psychological growth and change occur

Terms

• 5 paths to truth
• 5 virtues
• 12 animals
• agreeableness
• air
• Allport, Gordon
• Big Five
• black bile
• blood
• body type
• Cattell, Raymond
• Chinese zodiac
• choleric
• comparative anatomy
• Confucianism
• Confucius
• conscientious
• cranioscopy
• earth
• ectomorphic
• endomorphic
• extroversion
• Eysenck, Hans
• factor analysis
• fire
• Galen
• Gall, Franz
• Hippocrates
• humors
• introversion
• melancholic
• mesomorphic
• neuroticism
• openness
• phlegm
• phlegmatic
• phrenology
• psychoticism
• sanguine
• Shelfon, William
• temperaments
• traits
• water
• yellow bile

Quiz

Who is associated with the four humors:

• Hippocrates
• Descartes
• Allport
• Freud

2. Who created the 16PF personality test:

• Raymond Cattell
• Psyche Cattell
• Gordon Allport
• BF Skinner

3. Which is the P in Eysenck’s PEN:

• psychoticism
• personality
• philosophy
• proprium

4. For Allport, traits which become independent of their childhood origins have:

• fundamental attribution
• functional autonomy
• flimsy footing
• flow

5. According to Allport, each person has a large number of:

• secondary dispositions
• vicarious dispositions
• extrinsic dispositions
• cardinal dispositions

 

1. Who is associated with the four humors:

• Hippocrates
• Descartes
• Allport
• Freud

2. Who created the 16PF personality test:

• Raymond Cattell
• Psyche Cattell
• Gordon Allport
• BF Skinner

3. Which is the P in Eysenck’s PEN:

• psychoticism
• personality
• philosophy
• proprium

4. For Allport, traits which become independent of their childhood origins have:

• fundamental attribution
• functional autonomy
• flimsy footing
• flow

5. According to Allport, each person has a large number of:

• secondary dispositions
• vicarious dispositions
• extrinsic dispositions
• cardinal dispositions

Summary

 

Bonus

 

Photo by Denis Degioanni on Unsplash