COURSE ORIENTATION

Course Code: PSYTHEO212

Credit units: 3 units
Prerequisite/s: None
Course Category: Professional Course / Board Exam Subject
Course Description: Theories of Personality is a professional course / board
examination subject that will involve an introduction to the most important
theories on personality to date. This subject is a survey of the major theories of
personality and theoretical and practical issues involved in the scientific study
and understanding of personality formation and dynamics.
 COURSE OUTLINE
PRELIM:
• Introduction to Personality Theories
• Psychology of the Individual
• 16 Personality Factor
• Biologically-based Factor Theory
• Five-Factor Trait Theory
• Psychoanalysis
• Analytical Psychology
• Individual Psychology
 COURSE OUTLINE
MIDTERM:
• Psychoanalytic Social Theory
• Psychosocial Theory
• Behavioral Analysis
• Holistic-Dynamic Theory
• Person-centered Theory
• Humanistic Psychoanalysis
• Existential Psychology
 COURSE OUTLINE
MIDTERM:
• Psychoanalytic Social Theory
• Psychosocial Theory
• Behavioral Analysis
• Holistic-Dynamic Theory
• Person-centered Theory
• Humanistic Psychoanalysis
• Existential Psychology
 COURSE OUTLINE
PREFINALS: FINALS:
• Social Cognitive Theory • Security to Autonomy
• Cognitive Social Learning Theory • Development of the Self
• Psychology of Personal Construct • Separation Anxiety
• Evolutionary Theory of Personality • Attachment Style
• Object Relations Theory
 COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1.Attendance
2.Quizzes
3.Performance Tasks
4.Seat work
5.Homework
6.Article Readings / Case Studies
7.Group Presentations / Workshop Facilitating
8.Written / Oral Examination
 GRADING SYSTEM
Class Participation 10%
(Seat work, Homework, Recitation)

Performance Task 50%

Quizzes 10%

Examination 30%
TOTAL 100%
 INTRODUCTION TO PERSONALITY
THEORY
• Why do people behave as they do?
• Do people have some choice in shaping their own
personality?
• What makes people act in predictable ways? Why are
they unpredictable?
• What causes mental disturbances?
• Is human behavior shaped more by heredity or by
environment?
• Sigmund Freud began to combine
philosophical speculations with a
primitive scientific method

• “Grand Theory” attempted to explain all

personality for all people
 INTRODUCTION TO PERSONALITY
THEORY
• Humans are not alone in their
uniqueness of and variability between
individual members of the species.
• The degree to which individual
humans vary from one another, both
physically and psychologically is quite
astonishing and somewhat unique
among species
 PERSONALITY
• Psychologists differ among
themselves as to the meaning of
personality.
• Most agree that the term
“personality” originated from the
Latin word persona which referred
to a theatrical mask worn by
Roman actors in Greek dramas.
 PERSONALITY
• Although no single definition is
acceptable to all personality
theorists, we can say that
personality is a pattern of
• relatively permanent traits and
unique characteristics that give both
consistency and individuality to a
person’s behavior.
 PERSONALITY
Traits contribute to individual
differences in behavior,
consistency of behavior over time,
and stability of behavior across
situations.
It may be unique, common to
some group, but their pattern is
different from each individual.
 PERSONALITY
Characteristics are unique
qualities of an individual that
includes attributes such as
temperament, physique, and
intelligence.
 THEORY

A set of related assumptions that

allows scientists to use logical
deductive reasoning to formulate
testable hypotheses
THEORY AND ITS RELATIVES

Broader than
theory
THEORY AND ITS RELATIVES

Must be tied to
emperical data
and science
 THEORY AND ITS RELATIVES

HYPOTHESIS

Specific guess
than can be
tested using
scientific method
 WHY DIFFERENT THEORIES?
Different Personal Backgrounds
• Childhood experiences
• Interpersonal Relationships
Different Philosophical Orientations
Unique ways of looking at the World
Data chosen for observation is different
 THEORISTS’ PERSONALITIES
Psychology of Science
The empirical study of scientific thought
and behavior (including theory
construction) of the scientist
The Personalities and psychology of
different theorists influence the kinds
of theories that they develop
 WHY DIFFERENT THEORIES?
Different Unique ways
Interspersonal
Philosophical of looking at
relationships
orientations the world

Data chosen to
Childhood
experiences ? observe is
different
Different Theorists’
personalities &
Personal their theories of
backgrounds personality
WHAT MAKES A THEORY USEFUL

GENERATES The most important criterion of a useful theory

Creates two different kinds of research: Descriptive and
RESEARCH hypothesis testing

IS
FALSIFIABLE A theory must be evaluated on its ability to be confirmed
or disconfirmed; that is, it must be falsifiable.

(VERIFIABLE)
WHAT MAKES A THEORY USEFUL
ORGANIZES
KNOWN A useful theory should also be able to organize those
research data that are not incompatible with each other

DATA

GUIDES It has the ability to guide the practitioner over the rough
ACTION course of day-to-day problems

(PRACTICAL)
WHAT MAKES A THEORY USEFUL
IS
INTERNALLY A useful theory need not to be consistent with other
theories, but it must be consistent with itself.

CONSISTENT

When two theories are equal in their ability to generate

research, be falsified, give meaning to data, guide
IS practitioner, and be self-consistent, the simpler one is
preferred. Simple, straightforward theories are more
PARSIMONIOUS useful than complicated ones.
DIMENSION FOR A CONCEPT OF
HUMANITY
DETERMINISM VS. FREE CHOICE

Do we consciously direct our own actions, or are

they governed by other forces?

Some personality theorists take extreme positions

on this issue. Others express more moderate views,
arguing that some behaviors are determined by
past events and some can be spontaneous and
under our control.
DIMENSION FOR A CONCEPT OF
HUMANITY
PESSIMISM VS. OPTIMISM

Optimism/Pessimism: are we basically good or

evil?

Some theorists’ views of the human personality are

positive and hopeful, depicting us as humanitarian,
altruistic, and socially conscious. Other Theorists
find few of these qualities in human beings, either
individually or collectively.
DIMENSION FOR A CONCEPT OF
HUMANITY
CAUSALITY VS. TELEOLOGY

Past/Present

Is our personality fixed by early events in our lives,

or can it be affected by experiences in adulthood?

Historical determinism: The view that personality is

basically fixed in the early years of life and subject
to little change thereafter.
DIMENSION FOR A CONCEPT OF
HUMANITY
CONSCIOUS VS. UNCONSCIOUS DETERMINANTS OF
BEHAVIOR

 Equilibrium / Growth
 Are we motivated simply to maintain a physiological
balance or state of equilibrium, or does the urge to
grow and develop shape our behavior?
Some theorists believe that people are tension-reducing,
pleasure-seeking animals. Others consider us to be
motivated primarily by the need to grow, to realize our full
potential, and to reach for ever-higher levels of self
actualization and development.
DIMENSION FOR A CONCEPT OF
HUMANITY

BIOLOGICAL VS. SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON PERSONALITY

 Nature/Nurture: are we influenced more by heredity

(nature) or by our environment (nurture)?
 As with the free will - determinism issue, the
alternatives are not limited to extreme positions. Many
theorists assume that personality is shaped by both
sets of forces. To some, inheritance is the predominant
influence and environment or minor importance;
others hold the opposite view.
DIMENSION FOR A CONCEPT OF
HUMANITY

UNIQUENESS VS. SIMILARITIES

 Is the personality of each human being unique, or are

there broad personality patterns that fit large numbers
of persons?
 We may think of personality as so individual that each
person’s action, each utterance, has no counterpart or
equivalent in any other person. This obviously makes
the comparison of one person with another
meaningless.
 DIFFERENT THEORIES OF
PERSONALITY
TRAIT THEORY
 Gordon Allport: Psychology of the Individual
 Raymond Cattell: 16 Personality Factors
 Hans Eysenck: Biologically Based Factor Theory
 McCrae and Costa: Five Factor Trait Theory
 DIFFERENT THEORIES OF
PERSONALITY
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
 Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis
 Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology
 Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology
 Karen Horney: Psychoanalytic Social
 Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Theory

BEHAVIORAL THEORY
 Burrhus Frederic Skinner: Behavioral Analysis
 DIFFERENT THEORIES OF
PERSONALITY
HUMANISTIC THEORY
 Abraham Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic
 Carl Rogers: Person-centered Theory
 Eric Fromm: Humanistic Psychoanalysis

COGNITIVE THEORY
 Albert Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory
 Rotter and Mischel: Cognitive Social Learning Theory
 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
 DIFFERENT THEORIES OF
PERSONALITY
OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY
 Melanie Klein: Object Relations
 Margaret Mahler: Security to Autonomy
 Heinz Kohut: Development of the Self
 John Bowlby: Separation Anxiety
 Mary Ainsworth: Attachment Style