Personality psychology

Psyc 2023
Dr. Tadele Z
(Assistant professor of applied
developmental psychology)
 Unit one

Essence of personality
 Introduction
• It was in the late 1930s that the study of personality became
formalized and systematized in American psychology, primarily
through the work of Gordon Allport at Harvard University.
• Following his initial efforts, professional books appeared,
journals were founded, universities offered courses, and
research was undertaken.
• These activities signalled a growing recognition that some
areas of concern to the psychoanalysts and neo-psychoanalysts
could be incorporated into psychology.
• Academic psychologists came to believe that it was possible to
develop a scientific study of personality.
• From the 1930s to the present day, a variety of approaches to
the study of personality have emerged.
• personality psychology as a discipline has its own distinguishing
features. Three of these are the emphases on (1) the whole
person, (2) motivation and dynamics, and (3) individual
differences.
• The study of personality focuses on two broad areas;
• One is understanding individual differences in particular
personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability.
• The other is understanding how the various parts of a person
come together as a whole.
 The concept and definition of Personality

• We frequently use the word personality when describing

other people and ourselves, and we all believe we know what
it means. Perhaps we do.
• One psychologist suggested that we can get a good idea of its
meaning if we examine our intentions whenever we use the
word I (Adams, 1954).
• When you say I, you are, in effect, summing up everything
about yourself—your likes and dislikes, fears and virtues,
strengths and weaknesses.
• The word I is what defines you as an individual, separate from
all others.
 As Others See Us

• In our effort to define the word more precisely,

we can look to its source. Personality derives
from the Latin word persona, which refers to a
mask used by actors in a play.
• After putting on the mask, audience expected the
person to perform a role in a particular manner.
• Our personality would then be defined in terms
of the impression we make on others that is,
what we appear to be.
• include many attributes of an individual, a
totality or collection of various characteristics
that goes beyond superficial physical qualities.
• The word encompasses a host of subjective
social and emotional qualities as well, ones that
we may not be able to see directly, that a person
may try to hide from us, or that we may try to
hide from others.
 Enduring Characteristics

• We may also, in our use of the word personality,

refer to enduring characteristics. We assume that
personality is relatively stable and predictable.
• Although we recognize, for example, that a friend
may be calm much of the time, we know that he
or she can become excitable, nervous, or panicky
at other times.
• Thus, our personality can vary with the situation.
Yet although it is not rigid, it is generally resistant
to sudden changes.
 Unique Characteristics

• Our definition of personality may also include

the idea of human uniqueness. We see
similarities among people, yet we sense that
each of us possesses special properties that
distinguish us from all others.
• Thus, we may suggest that personality is an
enduring and unique cluster of characteristics
that may change in response to different
situations.
• In his book Pattern and Growth in Personality, Allport
reviewed some 50 definitions of personality before
offering his own.
• He defined personality as "the dynamic organization
within the individual of those psychophysical systems
that determine his unique adjustments to his
environment".
• Allport later (1961) changed "unique adjustments to
his environment" to "characteristic behaviour and
thought."
• Let us examine the key concepts in this definition.
• By dynamic organization, Allport means that although
personality is constantly changing and growing, the growth is
organized, not random.
• Organized means that the psychological traits and mechanisms
for a given person are not simply random collection of
elements.
• Our personalities are organized in the sense that they contain
decision rules that govern which needs are activated,
depending on the circumstances.
• For example, you cannot be sensitive for just one day, you
should have same sensitivity in same circumstances.
• By Psychophysical, He means that personality is neither
exclusively mental nor exclusively neural (physical).
• Its organization entails the functioning of both "mind”
and "body” in some inextricable unity.
• By Systems. Systems are our ‘potential for activity,’‘
• By Within the individual means that personality is
something a person carries with himself overtime and
from one situation to the next.
• Thus, the definition of personality stresses that the
important sources of personality reside within
individual.
• By determine, Allport means that all facets of personality
activate or direct specific behaviours and thoughts. So,
Personality is something and does something.
• All the systems that comprise personality are to be
regarded as determining tendencies.
• The phrase characteristic behaviour and thought means
that everything we think and do is characteristic, or
typical of us i.e the characteristics of the person are
unique to him. Thus, each person is unique.
• Even the acts and concepts that we apparently ‘‘share''
with others are at bottom individual and idiomatic.
Three levels of Personality Analysis:
1. Like all others (human nature level), e.g. need to belong, love Traits
and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and
possessed by nearly everyone.
2. Like some others (level of individual and group differences) e.g. men
more physically aggressive than women. Individual differences refer
to ways in which each person is like some other people (e.g.,
extraverts, sensations-seekers, high self-esteem persons) Group
differences refer to ways in which the people of one group differ
from people in another group (e.g., cultural differences, age
differences)
3. Like no others (individual uniqueness) .e.g. Santion’s unique way to
expressing aggression
• -Individual uniqueness refers to the fact that every individual has
personal and unique qualities not shared by any other person in the
world
 Personality, Character, Temperament
• In the world of psychology, when you think about the Self,
your personality is everything.
• It’s “you” from top to bottom: all the behaviors, interests,
thoughts, beliefs, experiences, and traits that make you
unique in the world.
• Most modern personality models agree that the
foundation of your personality is your biology.
• Your experiences and environment help you develop other
aspects of your personality from that point on.
• In other words, you’re not born with a set personality.
• Modern personality theory suggests personality
begins with inborn temperament.
• Over time, you develop your character as you
engage in everyday experiences, and that’s how
your personality evolves.
• Character and temperament blend and contribute
to your personality traits, but they’re not all of it.
• Personality is more complex than the juncture of
temperament and character.
• It also encompasses thought and behavioral
patterns that come through in every life situation.
• Your choice of friends and music, how you behave
in work meetings versus social gatherings, or if you
prefer lunch over dinner are all aspects of your
personality.
• How you go about your character also depends on
your personality. For example, you may believe in
social justice, and your eagerness to act fairly is
part of your character.
• But depending on your personality, you may act on
this belief by quietly donating to social campaigns
or stepping on a stage and speaking to the masses.
Temperament
• Considered the primary foundation of personality, your
temperament is thought to be present at birth.
• It’s those aspects of your personality that you’re born
with.
• In other words, it’s what you come equipped with based
on your biology, not your experiences.
• Temperament is defined as constitutionally based
individual differences in emotional, motor and
attentional reactivity and self-regulation, showing
consistency across situations and relative stability over
time, influenced over time by genes, maturation, and
experience..
• The term constitutional refers to the biological bases of
temperament.
• By reactivity, we mean dispositions toward
emotional, motor, and orienting reactions (these
are sometimes referred to as the three A’s: affect,
activity, and attention).
• By temperamental self-regulation, we refer to
processes that regulate our reactivity.
• Self-regulatory dispositions include our
motivational tendencies to approach or withdraw
from a stimulus, to direct our attention toward or
away from it, and the effortful attentional control
that serves to regulate our thoughts and emotions.
• Temperament tend to show consistency across
situations and stability over time, although they
also may be altered in development and applied in
different ways to specific persons and situations.
• In infancy, temperament is the predominant
influence on the child’s reactions and adjustments
to a given environment.
• Temperamental tendencies form building blocks
that underlie development of individual differences
in personality.
• These tendencies form the basis for early coping
with challenges presented by others and the
environment.
Character
• As part of your personality, character represents your
ethical, moral, and social attitudes and beliefs.
• Its the sum of an individual’s qualities and
characteristics which differentiate him/her from others.
• Character is the aspect of personality that includes
temperament (inherited traits) and the social and
educational habits that you’ve learned.
• Character is often regarded as the true self, meaning
that it represents deep rooted attributes possessed by
a person.
• What others think you are or who you are in public
that may or not be your character or who you really
are.
• Some examples of character traits include: honesty,
loyalty, generosity, ambition, integrity….
• Character is based on the environment that surrounds
us, mental ability, moral principles and similar other
factors.
• It’s unclear when your character begins to develop or
whether that development occurs in phases.
• Some experts suggest that character develops as soon
as you face environmental challenges.
• The nature of those challenges — if they’re
unpredictable, harsh, or sheltered — could predict
specific character patterns in adulthood.
• Character may be more evident in certain
situations where you apply your core beliefs to
the circumstances at hand.
• For example, if you believe in social justice, your
character may come forward when you witness
something you consider an injustice. It may
propel you to action.
Personality
• Personality can also be described as a set of
qualities that makes a unique individual.
• However, personality is generally associated
with the outer appearance and behavior of an
individual. Sense of humor, being friendly,
interests and passions.
• There is no such thing as a person having a dishonest
personality. Honesty is a positive character trait and
dishonesty is a negative character trait.
• Your dominant personality traits are more or less set by
the age of 7.
• personality is more or less a gift but our character is built
by the thousand of choice we make in every day. You like
to say a character is a habit.
• Metaphorically personality is what we wear to the gym
and character is how hard you work out.
• You look some one who really look good at the gym but
that are not very sweaty. People who are charming but not
very kind.
• The difference between personality and character is
an important one, in fact a culture that is rich with
personality but low in character is very dangerous.
• When we say a man is of “good character' we are
referring to his moral excellence, If we say he has a
“good personality” we mean merely that he is socially
effective.
• Thus whenever we speak of character we are likely to
imply a moral standard and make a judgment of value.
What’s more important, character or personality?
• Character as an aspect of personality influence major parts of
life, such as work, social circles, activism, and criminality.
• It may determine many of your life choices. It can also be
essential in determining the outcome of personal goals and
relationships.
• Character can be seen as your essence, while your personality
is how you express that essence. In this sense, they’re
interdependent.
• Research shows that personality, particularly certain
temperament features, may be crucial to mental and physical
well-being.
• your personality traits may have a stronger influence on your
overall health, but character may impact your everyday and
essential life decisions.
 Determinants of personality
• Every person has a different personality and there are a lot of
factors which contribute to that personality.
• We call them the determinants of personality or the factors of
personality.
What determines personality?
• Of all the complexities and unanswered questions in the study
of human behaviour, this question may be the most difficult.
• People are enormously complex; their abilities and interests
and attitudes are diverse.
• An early argument in personality research was whether an
individual's personality was the result of heredity or
environment.
• Personality appears to be a result of both
influences. Additionally, today we recognize
another factor - the situation.
• To support his emphasis on the uniqueness of the
individual personality, Allport stated that we
reflect both our heredity and our environment.
• Heredity provides the personality with raw
materials (such as physique, intelligence, and
temperament) that may be shaped, expanded, or
limited by the conditions of our environment.
• In this way, Allport invokes both personal and
situational variables to denote the importance of both
genetics and learning.
• However, our genetic background is responsible for
the major portion of our uniqueness.
• An infinite number of possible genetic combinations
exist, and, except for identical twins, the chance that
someone else’s genetic endowment will be duplicated
in any one of us is too small to consider.
• Our genetic endowment interacts with our social
environment, and no two people, not even siblings
reared in the same house, have precisely the same
environment. The inevitable result is a unique
personality.
• Therefore, Allport concluded that to study personality,
psychology must deal with the individual case and not
with average findings among groups.
• The foundation for an etiological understanding of
personality structure and for a behavioral genetic
approach is provided by evidence that genetic influences
account for approximately 40–60% of the variance for
virtually all personality traits, with most of the remaining
variance being explained by non shared environmental
effects.
• The broad traits of extraversion and neuroticism have
received most attention.
• The data from several twin studies yield heritability
estimates of approximately 60% for extraversion and
50% for neuroticism.
• Loehlin (1992) also examined multiple personality scales
organized according to the five-factor framework.
• Estimates of about 40% heritability were obtained for
each domain.
• Subsequent studies using the NEO-PI-R yielded
heritability estimates of 41% for neuroticism, 53% for
extraversion, 41% for agreeableness, and 40% for
conscientiousness.
• Non additive genetic effects accounted for 61% the
variance in openness to experience.
• Although the evidence points to a significant genetic
component to personality traits, it has been suggested
that traits could be divided into temperament traits that
have a substantial heritable component and character
traits that are largely environmental in origin.
• It is possible that environmental factors that account for about
50% of the variance have a substantial effect on trait
covariation.
• If this were the case, the finding that traits are genetically
related would be of less value in clarifying personality
structure.
• Twin studies consistently show that about 50% of the variance
in personality traits is explained by environmental factors and
that most of this is accounted for by non specific influences;
common environmental influences do not appear to
contribute to personality variation (Plomin & Daniels, 1987).
• In general the determinants of personality can perhaps best
be grouped in five broad categories: biological, cultural, family,
social and situational.
• Human personality is also influenced by situational
factors. The effect of environment is quite strong.
• Knowledge, skill and language are obviously acquired
and represent important modifications of behaviour.
• These learned modifications cannot be passed on to
the children. The children in turn must acquire them
through their personal effort, experience and the
interaction with the environment.
• Many times the actions of the person are
determined more by the situation, rather than his
behavior.
• Therefore, the situation may potentially have a very
big impact on the actions and expressions.
• An individual's personality, while generally stable
and consistent, does change in different situations.
• The different demands of different situations call
forth different aspects of one's personality.
• According to Milgram "Situation exerts an
important press on the individual. It exercises
constraints and may provide push.
• In certain circumstances it is not so much the kind
of person a man is, as the kind of situation in
which he is placed that determines his actions".
We should therefore not look at personality
patterns in isolation.
 Questions About Human Nature
• An important aspect of any personality theory is the
image of human nature formulated by the theorist.
• Each theorist has a conception of human nature that
addresses a number of fundamental questions, issues
that focus on the core of what it means to be human.
• For centuries, poets, philosophers, and artists have
phrased and rephrased these questions, and we see their
attempts to answer them in their great books and
paintings.
• Personality theorists, too, have addressed these troubling
questions and have reached no greater consensus than
have artists or writers.
• The various images of human nature offered by the
theorists allow for a meaningful comparison of their views.
• These conceptions are not unlike personal theories; they
are frameworks within which the theorists perceive
themselves and other people and within which they
construct their theories.
• The issues that define a theorist’s image of human nature
are described below.
• As we discuss each theory, we will consider how the
theorist deals with these questions.
1. Free will vs determinism
2. Nature vs. nurture
3. Past vs. present
4. uniqueness vs. universality
5. Equilibrium vs. growth
6. Optimism vs. pessimism
 Free Will or Determinism?
• A basic question about human nature concerns the age-old
controversy between free will and determinism.
• Theorists on both sides of the issue ask, do we consciously
direct the course of our actions?
• Can we spontaneously choose the direction of our thoughts
and behavior, rationally selecting among alternatives?
• Do we have a conscious awareness and a measure of self-
control?
• Are we masters of our fate or are we victims of past
experience, biological factors, unconscious forces, or external
stimuli—forces over which we have no conscious control?
• Have external events so shaped our personality that we are
incapable of changing our behavior?
 Nature or Nurture?
• A second issue has to do with the nature-nurture controversy.
• Which is the more important influence on behavior: inherited
traits and attributes (our nature or genetic endowment) or
features of our environment (the nurturing influences of our
upbringing, education, and training)?
• Do the abilities, temperaments, and predispositions we
inherit determine our personality, or are we shaped more
strongly by the conditions under which we live?
• Personality is not the only topic affected by this issue.
Controversy also exists about the question of intelligence: Is
intelligence affected more by genetic endowment (nature) or
by the stimulation provided by home and school settings
(nurture)?
 Past or Present?
• A third issue involves the relative importance of past events,
such as our early childhood experiences, compared with
events that occur later in life.
• Which is the more powerful shaper of personality?
• If we assume, as some theorists do, that what happens to us
in infancy and childhood is critical to personality formation,
we must consequently believe that our later development is
little more than an elaboration of the basic themes laid down
in the early years of life.
• This view is known as historical determinism. Our personality
(so this line of thought goes) is mostly fixed by the age of five
or so and is subject to little change over the rest of our life.
• The adult personality is determined by the nature of these
early experiences.
• The opposite position considers personality to be more
independent of the past, capable of being influenced by
events and experiences in the present as well as by our
aspirations and goals for the future.
• An intermediate position has also been proposed. We
might assume that early experiences shape personality
but not rigidly or permanently.
• Later experiences may act to reinforce or modify early
personality patterns.
 Uniqueness or Universality?

• Is human nature unique or universal? This is another

issue that divides personality theorists.
• 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.
• Other positions allow for uniqueness but interpret this
within overall patterns of behavior accepted as
universal, at least within a given culture.
 Equilibrium or Growth?
• A fifth issue involves what we might call our ultimate and necessary
life goals. Theorists differ on what constitutes our major motivation
in life.
• Do we function like machines, like some sort of self-regulating
mechanism, content as long as some internal equilibrium or balance
is maintained?
• Do we act solely to satisfy physical needs, to obtain pleasure and
avoid pain?
• Is our happiness totally dependent on keeping stress to a minimum?
• 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.
 Optimism or Pessimism?

• One additional issue reflects a theorist’s outlook on life. We may

call it optimism versus pessimism.
• Are human beings basically good or evil, kind or cruel,
compassionate or merciless?
• Here we are dealing with a question of morality, a value judgment,
which supposedly has no place in the objective and dispassionate
world of science.
• 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.