Personality

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Personality

• Section 5

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VI. Humanistic Theory

• A. Abraham Maslow
• Stress our relative freedom from instinctual
  pressures and urges (like animals)
• Also stress the fact that we are not just a
  culmination of our history of rewards and
  punishments, but we have an ability to create and
  live by our own standards

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1. Self- Actualization

• All humans strive towards the realization of
  ones potential as a unique human being

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2. Characteristics

1. An openness to a wide variety of experiences
2. Awareness and respect for ones own and others
   uniqueness
3. Truly true to oneself
4. Willingness to grow
5. Altruistic selfless concern for the welfare of
   others

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3. Studies

• Maslow studied healthy people in an attempt to
  understand personality and self-actualization
• EX Abe Lincoln, Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt etc.
• He tried to identify key characteristics in
  people who seemed to really live a productive,
  effective life

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4. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

• Motivation
• Person needs to satisfy lower needs before they
  have the opportunity to move up to
  self-Actualization
• Fundamental Needs hunger, thirst, safety
• Psychological needs acceptance, love,
  self-esteem
• Self-Actualizing needs fulfill ones unique
  potential

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Maslows Pyramid
Self-Actualizing Needs
Fulfill ones unique potential
To achieve, be competent, gain approval and
recognition
Psychological Needs
To affiliate with others, belong, be accepted,
love
Feel secure, safe and out of danger
Fundamental Needs
Satisfy hunger, thirst etc.
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B. Carl Rogers

• Emphasized personal experiences rather than
  instincts or drives
• Client Centered Therapy
• Help clients over roadblocks on road to becoming
  fully functioning
• Individual is free to develop all his or her
  potentialities
• Person is open to all their feelings, thoughts
  and experiences

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VII. Trait Theories

• Dispositional
• Behavior and personality depend on how a person
  uses their unique pattern of traits

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1. Trait

• Any relative enduring way in which one individual
  differs from another.
• People have a tendency to act consistently during
  life

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A. Two Basic Assumptions

• Every trait applies to all people
• These traits can be quantified
• A few basic traits are central to all people
• Ex Self Confidence

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B. Gordon Allport

• Two major ways to study traits
• Nomothetic
• Study large groups of people in search for
  general laws of personality
• Idiographic
• Study one specific person in great detail
• Common verses individual traits

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C. Hans Eysenck

• Two Dimensions of Personality
• Stability verses Neuroticism
• The degree to which people have control over
  their feelings
• Stable easy going, well adjusted, even-tempered,
  relaxed
• Neurotic Moody anxious restless

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• Extroversion verses Introversion
• How one deals with the external world around them
• Extrovert sociable, lively, outgoing, active,
  seek excitement
• Introvert reserved, passive, unsociable, quiet,
  shy away, more self-controlled

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• Eyseneck added a third dimension years later
• Psychoticism
• Spectrum which ranges from self-centered, hostile
  and aggressive people who act without much
  thought to people who are socially sensitive,
  high on caring and empathy, and easy to work with.

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D. William Sheldon

• Three Basic Body Types
• Endomorphs
• Tendency to be overweight or fat/soft
• Jolly, relaxed, sociable, compliant, extrovert
• Ectomorphs
• Tendency to be thin and fragile
• Detached, anxious, introverted
• Mesomorph
• Tendency to muscularity and strength
• Aggressive, assertive, competitive