Personality

Course instructor
Ayesha Shahid Sh.
Clinical Psychologist

Personality: Some Terms

Personality: a persons internally based characteristic way of

acting and thinking

Character: Personal characteristics that have been judged or

evaluated

Temperament: Hereditary aspects of personality, including

sensitivity, moods, irritability, and distractibility

Personality Trait: Stable qualities that a person shows in

most situations

Personality Type: People who have several traits in common

Jungs Theory of Two Types

Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist who was a Freudian disciple,

believed that we are one of two personality types:

Introvert: Shy, self-centered person whose attention is

focused inward

Extrovert: Bold, outgoing person whose attention is

directed outward

Type A and Type B personalities!!

What is Personality?
Characteristics
Four

of behavior

basic perspectives:

psychoanalytic
humanistic
trait
social-cognitive

The Psychoanalytic Perspective

Freuds theory

Personality influenced
by:

childhood experiences

unconscious motivations

The Psychoanalytic Perspective

Unconscious

Freud: Mostly unacceptable thoughts & wishes

OR

Now (non-Freudian): information processing of which we are

unaware

Personality Structure

Personality Structure
Id, Location: unconscious
Role:

to satisfy basic sexual and

aggressive drives.

Motto:

Pleasure Principle

Personality Structure
Ego
Location:

conscious

Role:

executive; Mediates id &

superego

Motto:

Reality Principle

Personality Structure
Superego
Location:
Role:

spans unconscious & conscious

our ideals, conscience, judgment,

guilt
Motto:

Perfection

Personality Development

Identification

Children incorporate their parents values into their developing

superegos.

Fixation: Arrested Development \ when childhood demands are not met at

any of the stages proposed by Freud

Assessing the Unconscious

Projective Test

Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger

projection
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Assessing the Unconscious--TAT

Assessing the Unconscious

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Projective test.

a set of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann Rorschach

Assessing the Unconscious-Rorschach

The Trait Perspective

Trait

a characteristic pattern of behavior

A pre-disposition to feel and act

assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

Personality Inventory

used to assess selected personality traits

Big five personality test !!!

The Trait Perspective

The Big Five Personality Factors
Trait Dimension
Description
Emotional Stability

Calm versus anxious

Secure versus insecure
Self-satisfied versus self-pitying

Extraversion

Sociable versus retiring

Fun-loving versus sober
Affectionate versus reserved

Openness

Imaginative versus practical

Preference for variety versus
preference for routine
Independent versus conforming

Agreeableness

Soft-hearted versus ruthless

Trusting versus suspicious
Helpful versus uncooperative
Organized versus disorganized
Careful versus careless
Disciplined versus impulsive

Conscientiousness

The Trait Perspective

Big Five Personality Test

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests

Humanistic Perspective

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

Self-Actualization

the motivation to fulfill ones potential

Humanistic Perspective
Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

focused on growth and fulfillment of individuals.

Self-Concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in an

answer to the question Who am I?

Humanistic Perspective
Carl Rogers

Unconditional Positive Regard

Ideal vs. Real self

an attitude of total acceptance toward another person

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Personal Control

External Locus of Control

chance or outside forces beyond ones personal control determine ones fate

Internal Locus of Control

one controls ones own fate

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Learned Helplessness (Seligman)

hopelessness and resignation

occurs when we are unable to avoid or control repeated negative events

Social-Cognitive Perspective- Learned

Helplessness

Learned Helplessness

Uncontrollable
bad events

Perceived
lack of control

Generalized
helpless behavior

Personality disorders
Suspicious

Emotional and
impulsive

Anxious

paranoid

borderline

avoidant

schizoid

histrionic

dependent

schizotypal

narcissistic

obsessive
compulsive

antisocial