Theories of personality

1. THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
Guided by:
Dr. Richa Choudhary
Assistant Professor
MGMMC Indore
Presented by:
Dr. Akhilesh Prajapati
Junior resident 1
MGMMC Indore

2. Topics to be covered:
1. Introduction
2. Type and trait theories
3. Dynamic theories
 Sigmund Freud
 Neo Freudians
 Defense mechanism
4. Learning and Behavioral Theories
5. Humanistic theories
6. Summary

3. What is Personality?
 Dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his/her unique
adjustment to his/her environment.” (Allport)
 Personality is the distinctive patterns of behaviour
including thoughts and emotions that characterize
each individual's adaptation to the situation of his or
her life. (Walter Mischel)
 Personality is the sum total of an individual’s
characteristics which make him unique. (Hollander).

4. Is Personality real?
 This raises an intriguing question: Does such consistency really
exist? Some psychologists have argued that it does not—that
behavior is largely determined by external factors rather than by
stable traits (Mischel, 1985).
 According to many critics the very concept personality is
misleading, because the kind of stability it implies does not
really exist.
 On the contrary, individuals behave very differently in different
situations;
 our perception that people possess specific traits and behave in
accordance with those traits much of the time is largely an
illusion, stemming from our desire to simplify the task of
understanding others (Kunda & Nisbett, 1986; Reeder, Fletcher,
& Furman, 1989).

5.  While these arguments are intriguing ones, the weight of existing
evidence seems to be against them: Personality, defined in terms of
stable behavior tendencies, is indeed real.
 Many studies indicate that people do show at least a moderate degree
of consistency with respect to many aspects of behavior
(e.g., Pulkinen, 1996; Woodall & Matthews, 1993).
 Some of these research projects have continued for more than fifty
years, studying the same people from early childhood to old age; and
in general they have reported an impressive amount of consistency in
at least some traits (e.g., Heatherton & Weinberger, 1994).

6. TYPE AND TRAIT THEORY

7. Type theory
 Types: A type is simply a class of individual said to share a common collection of
characteristics
Earliest known type theory- Hippocrates
The father of the Hippocratic Oath hypothesized two poles on which
temperament could vary: “hot vs. cold” and “moist vs. dry”.
Four temperaments, each associated with a different bodily fluid or
humour
Individual personality is determined by the amount of each of four
humours

8.  Temperament
Sanguine
phlegmatic
Choleric
Melancholic
 Characteristics
Cheerful, vigorous, confidently optimistic
Slow moving,calm , unexcitable
Hot tempered, violent
Depressed ,morose

9. INTROVERT AND EXTROVERT CONCEPT OF CARL
JUNG
 An aspect of Jung’s theory was his suggestion that we are all born with innate tendencies to be concerned
primarily either with ourselves or with the outside world.
 Introvert-People who share characteristics such as shyness, social withdrawal and tendency not
to talk much
 Extravert –share a tendency to be out going , friendly, and talkative

10. Sociability
Type distribution
Sociability
Actual distribution

11. Body type and personality
William Sheldon(1940) classified
personality based on body types :

12. Trait theory
 Traits: A trait is the personality characteristic that must be stable, consistent and vary
from person to person and causes individual to behave in certain ways.The combination
and interaction of various trait form a personality that is unique to each person.

13. HANS EYSENCK’S HIERACHIAL THEORY
 Introduction: British psychologist developed a theory of personality based on biological factor
arguing that individual inherit nervous system that affect their ability to adapt to environment. He
used a technique called factor analysis and grouped certain factors into three dimensions.
 According to EYSENCK personality type is made up of a set of personality character.
 Introversion vs extraversion
 Neuroticism vs stability
 Psychoticism vs socialism

14. 1. Introversion vs extraversion: introverts are the people who are quite, reserved,
serious and more focused towards on self whereas extroverts are the people who are
care free , outgoing thrill seekers and are optimistic.
 According to EYSENCK extroverts inherit an under- aroused nervous system so they seek
stimulation from outside whereas introverts inherit over- aroused nervous system thus
they are already aroused from within and do not requiring stimulating environment.

15.  2 Neuroticism vs stability: Neuroticism refers to an individuals tendency to become
Moody, upset, emotional, restless,and unstable.
 Stability refers to the individuals to remain emotionally stable, constant,calm and
controlled
 Because according to EYSENCK people people who are high on Neuroticism have highly
reactive nervous system to stressful situations and people who are stable have less reactive
sympathetic nervous system.

16.  3 Psychoticism vs socialism: people who are High Psychoticism lack empathy, cruel,
impulsive, aggressive, and antisocial
 Whereas people who are high on socialism and low on Psychoticism are empathetic ,
cooperative, altruistic, and non agressive.
 This is because of level of testosterone hormone levels .

17. Three dimensions diagram

18. GORDON ALLPORT’S THEORY
 Allport catalogued about 18000 words that describe personality traits in individual at the three levels.

19. 1. CARDINAL TRAITS: cardinal traits are those
traits that define a parson to such an extent
that their names become synonymous with
their personality.
Example
Mother Teresa: kind and charitable
Adolf Hitler: dominant and lust for power
Albert Einstein: genius and brilliant

20. 2. CENTRAL TRAITS: These are defines the personality of an individual . These traits are also referred as
building block of personality
 Example : honesty, inteligent,shy etc
3.SECONDRY TRAITS: The traits that are related to attitude or preferences and often appear only in
certain situations or under specific circumstances.
Example: prefer fashionable clothes,love ice cream, anxiety and shyness in public situations

21. CATTEL’S SURFACE AND SOURCE TRAITS
 Divided personality traits in to two major categories
1. Surface traits : characteristics that can be easily and directly observed by others on
regular basis
2. Source traits: The more basic traits underlie the surface traits forming the core of
personality

22. TRAITS MODEL TO FACTOR MODEL
 The factors or dimensions, identified in this process correspond to groups of closely related traits, the set
of basic dimensions identified by factor analysis constitutes a model of the structure of personality traits
 RAYMOND CATTELL developed one of the first and most influential factor models. He reasoned that
in the course of cultural evolution any personality trait important in human social interaction would
have been noticed and named ,the 4000 trait term identified by Allport could thus be assumed to
represent an exhaustive listing of personality characteristics (this has become known as lexical
hypothesis)
 Cattell grouped synonyms and near synonyms together to obtain a set of 35 personality variables and
asked respondents to rate acquaintances on each of these sets of terms. He intercorrelated the rating and
and factored the correlation, identified 12 factors together with 4 more factors found in research using
self report questionnaire, these became the basis of 16 personality factor questionnaire (16PF)

23. RAYMOND CATTELL AND 16
PERSONALITY FACTORS
 Cattell collected data of traits and sampled them into 3 types:
 L TYPE – Life time data
 Q TYPE – Self rating assessment questionnaire
 T-Type – data from experimental situation where subject behaviour can be assessed
objectively
 Used factor analysis on these variables to produce 16 fundamental personality traits
source of all human personality.

25. Cattell’s 16 personality factors
1. Abstractedness- imaginative versus practical
2. Apprehension- insecure versus complacent
3. Dominance- aggressive versus passive
4. Emotional Stability- calm and stable versus high- strung
5. Liveliness- enthusiastic versus serious
6. Openness to Change- liberal versus traditional
7. Perfectionism- compulsive and controlled versus indifferent
8. Privateness - pretentious versus unpretentious

26. 9. Reasoning - abstract versus concrete
10. Rule Consciousness - moralistic versus free-thinking
11. Self-Reliance - leader versus follower
12. Sensitivity - sensitive versus tough-minded
13. Social Boldness - uninhibited versus timid
14. Tension - driven and tense versus relaxed and easy going
15. Vigilance - suspicious versus accepting
16. Warmth - open and warmhearted versus aloof and critical

27. “Big five” model of Personality

28.  According to the five-factor model, basic differences in personality can be “boiled down” to the
dimensions shown here. The five-factor model answers these essential questions about a person: Is
she or he extroverted or introverted? Agreeable or difficult? Conscientious or irresponsible?
Emotionally stable or unstable? Smart or unintelligent? These questions cover a large measure of
what we might want to know about someone’s personality.

29. Question/Limitations about type and trait
theory
 Reliability; problems of interjudge reliability do arise, however when the procedures for
inferring traits are not clear or when very subjective judgements are involved.
 Validity of trait assessments; whether the assessments mean what they are supposed to mean.
 Type and trait consistency; research findings suggest that people who are honest in one
situation are often not so honest in another; people who are calm in one situation may be very
anxious in another
 PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION: these approaches are purely philosophical in nature: is it
really adequate to think of our personality as the sum of traits or as the particular type we fit?
Some argue that personality is much more – that it is an active, dynamic, interplay of motives,
thoughts and feelings and that is best described not as a set of traits or types but as a set of
processes by which people cope with life

30. Psychodynamic Theories

31. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
 Psychoanalytic theory has three major parts:
1. A theory of structure of personality
2. A theory of personality dynamics
3. A theory of psychosexual development

32. Personality structure
 A basic idea of some of the key structures of personality described by Freud.
 According to Freud personality consists largely of three parts:
the id,
the ego,
the superego
 As we’ll soon see, these correspond roughly to desire, reason, and conscience.

33.  Id: In Freud’s theory, the portion of personality concerned with immediate gratification of primitive
needs. (Pleasure Principle)
 Ego: In Freud’s theory, the part of personality that takes account of external reality in the expression of
instinctive sexual and aggressive urges.( Reality Principle)
 Superego: According to Freud, the portion of human personality representing the
conscience. (morality).

34. Personality Dynamics
Level of consciousness
 Conscious. This includes our current thoughts: whatever we are thinking
about or experiencing at a given moment.
 Preconscious. This contains memories that are not part of current
thoughts but can readily be brought to mind if the need arises.
 Unconscious: thoughts, desires, and impulses of which we remain
largely unaware.

36. Psychosexual stages of development
 According to Freud, as we age, different parts of the body are used to fuel the id with pleasure
(libido = energy source).
1. Birth – 1 ½ years: Oral stage: gratification is gained by oral stimulation (Breastfeeding).
2. 1 ½ - 3 years old: Anal stage: pleasure is gained by being able to control feces. (Potty-training)
3. 3 – 6 years old: Phallic stage: awakening of sexuality
a. Oedipus complex for boys: when a male child wants to kill his father so he can have sex with his
mother. (from the Greek tragedy “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocoles) - Freud believed boys would eventually
overcome this conflict by identifying and bonding with the father.
b. Electra complex for girls: girls are jealous because they don’t have a penis, and they
4. 6-12 years old: Latency stage: pleasure is gained through same-sex peer friendships
5. 12+ years old: Genital stage: pleasure is gained through sexual intercourse with non-relatives

38. Summary of Freud’s theory
 Freud's psychoanalytic theory has provoked a number of criticisms.
 a lack of supportive scientific data;
 the theory's inadequacy in making predictions; and
 its limitations owing to the restricted population on which it is based.
 Still, the theory remains popular.
 For instance, the neo-Freudian psychoanalytic theorists built upon Freud's work, although
they placed greater emphasis on the role of the ego and paid greater attention to social
factors in determining behavior.

39. Neo Freudian Personality Theory

40. Carl Jung
Personal unconsciousness: superficial Equivalent to Freudian unconsciousness
Collective unconsciousness: deeper
learned during evolution and ancestral past
Complexes: group of unconscious ideas associated with emotionally toned events/
experiences
Eg: a father complex
Archetypes: Inherited capacity to initiate and carry out behaviors.
- Genetically determined
Ego: complex at the center of conscious personality
Self: Archetype of ego

41. Alfred Adler
Few basic concepts sustain the whole theoretical structure.
 Social interest.
 Creative self.
 Striving for superiority.
 Inferiority feelings and compensations.
 Style of life.

42. Horney’s Psychoanalytic interpersonal
theory
 Karen Horney
 Feminine psychology
 She argued that penis envy was not a normal development in females
but rather an unusual and pathological occurrence
 Two major components of her “person psychology”
1. Basic anxiety- arises in childhood when child feels helpless in a
threatening world.
2. Basic Hostility- grows out of resentment over the parental behaviour
that led to anxiety in the first place.

43. Erik Erikson
 Erik Erikson was an ego
psychologist who developed one of
the most popular and influential
theories of development. While his
theory was impacted by
psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's
work, Erikson's theory centered on
psychosocial development rather
than psychosexual development.

45. Defense mechanisms
 Defence mechanisms are not descriptions; they are explanations for
certain human behaviour and experiences. Hence they are a part
of explanatory psychopathology. These defences operate both in normal
individuals and under pathological conditions.
 Defense mechanisms defend or shield the individual from the emotional
discomfort that’s so often elicited by stress through self-deception.
 Purpose of defence mechanisms-
 To resolve the conflict
 To reduce stress and anxiety

46. Pioneers
 Sigmund Freud:
Defense is the term used by Freud to describe ‘all the techniques the ego makes use of
in conflicts which may lead to neurosis’ (Freud, 1923, The Ego and the Id,)
The function of defense is to protect the ego (typically against anxiety resulting from
loss of love object, loss of object’s love, castration and superego disapproval)
 Anna Freud
Anna Freud (1936) later organised Freudian defences and added more to this list
categorised them as ranging from primitive defences , to
more mature, advanced defences, which make
specific transformations of thought, feeling, behaviour, or some combination.

47. George Vaillant
George Vaillant (1977) categorized defenses to form a continuum
according to their psychoanalytical developmental level.
 Level I - Narcissistic defenses
 Level II - Immature defenses
 Level III - Neurotic defenses
 Level IV - Mature defenses

49. Narcissistic Defenses
Projection:
Blaming others
A way way of coping with one’s unwanted motives by shifting
them on to someone else
Eg- a cheating spouse who suspects their partner is being
unfaithful
Denial:
Seeing, but refusing to acknowledge what one sees, or hearing
but negating what is actually heard
Eg- heavy smokers often deny that smoking is bad for their
health

50. Narcissistic Defenses
Distortion:
Grossly reshaping external reality to suit inner needs
involves a person believing something to be true when it is not.
Eg – a person may believe that they failed a test because of
difficult questions, not because they did not prepare fully.
Splitting:
Qualities of an object or person are split into black and white i.e.
either good or bad with no grey area in between.
Eg- Believing personalities as the hero is all goodand the villain
all bad

51. Immature Defenses
Acting out:
The development of detrimental behaviors that distract
attention and energy away from other stressors.
Seen in Substance abuse, OCD, Borderline personality disorder.
Anti- social personality disorder.
Regression:
A return to a previous stage of development or functioning to
avoid the anxieties or hostilities involved in later stages.
Eg- Thumb sucking behavior

52. Immature Defenses
Somatisation: tendency to react with somatic rather than psychic manifestations.
Passive aggression: Aggression toward an object expressed indirectly and ineffectively through
passivity, masochism, and turning against the self.
Blocking: Temporary or transient blocking in thinking, inability to remember
Eg- during viva
Schizoid Fantasy: Creating an internal retreat into one's imagination to avoid
uncomfortable situations
Introjection: involves taking into your own personality characteristics of someone else,
because doing so solves some emotional difficulty
Hypochondriasis: can exist independent of being a defense mechanism but may be used
to displace anxiety away from something even more anxiety-provoking. For example,
intensely focusing on physical symptoms and their potential manifestation may be a
relief from feeling dissatisfied in your life.

53. Neurotic Defenses
Displacement:
person redirects an emotional reaction from the rightful
recipient onto another person or object
Eg: After a parental scolding, a young girl takes her anger out on
her little brother.
Dissociation:
temporary but drastic modification of character or sense of
personal identity to avoid emotional distress
Reaction formation:
a person unconsciously replaces an unwanted or anxiety-
provoking impulse with its opposite, often expressed in an
exaggerated or showy way.
A classic example is a young boy who bullies a young girl
because, on a subconscious level, he's attracted to her

54. Neurotic Defenses
Repression:
Curb ideas and feelings before they have reached
consciousness (primary repression).
Excluding from awareness what was once experienced on a conscious
level (secondary repression)
Isolation:
the individual blocks out painful feelings by recalling a
traumatic event without experiencing the emotion
associated with it.

55. Neurotic Defenses
Sexualisation:
The endowing of an object or function with sexual significance that it
did not previously have, or possesses to a lesser degree, to ward off
anxieties connected with prohibited impulses.
Intellectualisation:
involves a person using reason and logic to avoid
uncomfortable or anxiety-provoking emotions
Rationalisation:
involves finding excuses that will justify unacceptable behaviours
when self-esteem is threatened

56. Mature Defenses
Altruism:
The vicarious but constructive and instinctually gratifying service to others, even to the
detriment of the self.
Eg- by being particularly helpful to a person who we feel might dislike us or
neutralising an argument with kind words and positivity.
Humor:
The overt expression of feelings without personal discomfort or
immobilization and without unpleasant effect on others.

57. Mature Defenses
Sublimation:
The gratification of an impulse whose goal is retained, but whose aim or object
is changed from a socially objectionable one to a socially valued one.
Anticipation:
The realistic anticipation of or planning for future inner discomfort: Implies
overly concerned planning, worrying, and anticipation of dire and dreadful
possible outcomes.

58. Mature Defenses
Asceticism:
eliminate the pleasurable aspects of
experiences in one's life and mostly
by associating moral implications to
the pleasures.
They get involved in ascetic (monk
like) lifestyle wherein they renounce
their interest in what other people
enjoy
Suppression:
The conscious or semiconscious decision to
postpone attention to a conscious impulse or
conflict.

59. Learning and behavioral
theories

60. Dollard and miller
Early social learning theory
 Animal derived experimen
 Conflict between approach(Id demands) and
avoidance(superego/ego restraints) tendencies.
 Example- when we want to get a tooth filled but
we fear the pain
 Their aim was to engineer, if not a merger, at least
a bridge between the dynamic and learning
perspectives on personality.
Neil Miller
Experimental Psychologist
John Dollard
Sociologist

61. Skinner’s radical behaviorism
 Animal derived experiment
 Based on Instrumental or operant conditioning
 It deals only with the processes by which reinforcement and punishment influence the
likelihood of behaviours.
 Personality is a collection of reinforced responses.
 “Personalityless view of personality”

62. Bandura and walters:
Later social learning theory
 Albert Bandura and Richard Walters saw the animal derived principles of the Dollard,
Miller and Skinner as simply too limited to account for important aspects of real human
behaviour.
 based on observational learning or imitation
 No direct reinforcement required by the learner, but persistence of learned behaviour may
depend upon reinforcement or at least anticipated reinforcement
 Observational learning generally takes place in a social situation involving model and an
imitator.
 Imitator observes the model and experiences the model’s behaviour and its consequences
vicariously; this processes is called vicarious reinforcement.

63. Limitations
 It ignores the consistencies that many people show from one situation to the next
 Focusing on behaviours one can observe outwardly and emphasising concepts such as
reinforcement seem to diminish the person in personality.

64. Humanistic theories

65. Personality as the self
 The term self has two distinct sets of meanings.
 Self as an object: People’s attitude about themselves; the picture of the way they look and act,
the impact believe they have on others and their perceived traits, abilities and weaknesses.
 Self as a process: executive functions or processes, by which the individual manages coops,
things remembers perceives and plans.

66. Rogers’ self theory

67.  Rogers contends, lies in the anxiety generated when life
experiences are inconsistent with our ideas about ourselves—in
short, when a gap develops between our self-concept (our beliefs
and knowledge about ourselves) and reality or our perceptions of
it.
 Example-
 A young girl who believes that she is very likable and makes
friends easily. One day she happens to overhear a conversation
between two neighbors who describe her as moody and difficult to
get along with. She is crushed; here is information that is highly
inconsistent with her self-concept. As a result of this experience,
anxiety occurs, and she adopts one or more psychological defenses
to reduce it.

68. Maslow and the study of self actualising
people
 Self-actualization is the culmination of a lifetime of inner directed growth
and improvement.
 Challenging ourselves to the fullest.
 Can you identify a self-actualized individual?
 Characteristics of the self-actualized person:
1) Creative and open to new experiences.
2) Committed to a cause or a higher goal.
3) Trusting and caring of others, yet not dependent.
4)Have the courage to act on their convictions.

69. • Physiological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sex
• Safety needs such as needs for security, stability and
order
• Belongingness and love needs such as needs
perfection, affiliation and identification
• Esteem needs such as needs for prestige, success, and
self-respect
• The need for self actualisation
The needs appear in this order from lowest to highest
with physiological needs. First and self actualisation
needs lost during a person’s normal development.