5 Paths To Truth
Religion = revelation
Wisdom = insight
Philosophy = logic
Science = systematic observation
Tangen = dumb luck
Ancient Trait Theory
Chinese Zodiac
Shun Dynasty (1766-1050 BC)
Year of birth determines personality
60-year cycle based on lunar calendar
Hippocrates (460-370 BC)
“Good humor” is the balance of:
yellow bile (air)
phlegm (water)
black bile (earth)
blood (fire)
Balancing the fluids is essential to good health
Belief that lasted well into the Middle Ages
Galen (130-220)
4 temperaments
Sanguine
blood is dominant
warm, optimistic and confident
Melancholic
black bile is dominant
sad and depressed
cause by eating too many cold foods
Phlegmatic
phlegm is dominant
sluggish, apathetic
Choleric
yellow bile is dominant
angry, aggressive, violent
caused by eating too many warm foods
Impact = the authority on medicine until 16th century
Hans Eysenck (1916-1997)
Emphasized physiology and genetics
Used factor analysis
Trait theorist
Emphasized temperament
Temperament = genetic component of personality
Character = learned component of personality
Merged biological determinism & behaviorism
Introversion-Extroversion
The degree to which a person
Directs energies outward toward environment
Direct energies inward toward self-focused life
Neuroticism-Emotional Stability
Neuroticism = predisposition to become emotionally upset
Stability = predisposition to be emotionally even
Psychoticism
Added later
A person high on this trait is antisocial, cold, hostile, and unconcerned about others
A person low on psychoticism is warm and caring toward other
3-dimensional model
Factors are biological determined
P – Psychoticism
linked to endocrine gland especially
controls sex drive
E – Extraversion
linked to ascending reticular activating system (ARAS)
reticular formation of brain stem
N – Neuroticism
linked to limbic system
brains emotional center
regulates sex, fear & aggression
Franz Gall (1758-1828)
One of the first comparative anatomists
Brain localization
Founder of “cranioscopy” = phrenology
William Sheldon (1898-1977)
Antrhopometric method = things that don’t change with age
Studied4,000 men; photos (front, side and back)
Contribution of 3fundamental elements
Atlas of Men
Pure forms (somatotypes)
Endomorph = 7-1-1
Mesomorph = 1-7-1
Ectomorph = 1-1-7
Criminals
high in endomorphy
intermediate in mesomorphy
Suicidal
high in ectomorphy
Insanity
ectomorphs
Gordon Allport (1897-1967)
50 definitions of personality
Personality is a real entity
Functional autonomy
Proprium
rational coper
proprium striving
Mature Personality (6 criteria)
Extension of sense of self
Warm relations with others
Emotional security
Realistic perception of skills
Self-objectification
Unifying philosophy of life & religion
8 Characteristics
1. Exist in people
2. More generalized than habits
3. May determine behavior
4. Can be discovered with systematic observation
5. Only relatively independent of each other
6. Not the same as moral character
7. Inconsistencies don’t mean traits don’t exist
8. Some traits are unique to you
2 types of traits
Common = adjectives
Personal
Cardinal disposition
Central disposition
Secondary disposition
Raymond Cattell (1905-)
Reduced Allport’s 4,000 traits to 171
Used Factor Analysis
Personality consisted of 46 surface traits
Condensed to 16 source traits
1950, published the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)
Other Accomplishments
2-factor theory of intelligence
Fluid (innate)
Crystallized (culturally constituted)
Allport’s adjectives using Q, T, and L data
Q-data = from self-reports & questionnaires (questionnaire data)
T-data = from controlled test situations-observational ratings & notes (test data)
L-data = from person’s life, school, work, community etc. (life data)
Henry Murray
Psychological hedonism
Ultimate goal of behavior is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain
Needs can be unconscious processes;
implicit motives (inhibited, conflicts)
Needs can be explicit motives; aware of competitiveness
2 kinds of needs
Viscerogenic needs
hunger, thirst; needed for survival
important for everyone
Psychogenic needs = achievement; individual differences
20 needs
4 major needs identified
Achievement
Power
Affiliation
Intimacy
Press = external events that influence motives
Seeing someone eat dessert
Environmental influence on motives;
as opposed to biological or internal influences of needs
Can bring on a motivational state through environmental exposure
Both objective and subjective press exists
Alpha Press (objective environment)
Beta Press (perceived environment)
Motives that influence behavior in some circumstances
Motives = drives to meet needs and reduce dissatisfaction;
internal states that arouse & direct toward goal (hunger)
Cognitions with affective overtones
organized around preferred experiences and goals
emotionally-charged goals
Appear in thoughts about either desired or undesired goals
Lead to behavior directly
Subjective overtones
Influenced by needs
Theory
Idiographically oriented = individual differences
Developed wide-ranging theory of personality
Organized by needs, motives, and presses
Manifest needs (observable)
Latent needs (underlying)
Process
Underlying need and the external press are combined into motives
Motives influence what behaviors are expressed
Hierarchy of Needs
Needs exist at different levels of strength
Each need interacts with other needs
resulting in interactions, or dynamics within the person
Varies from person to person
unique patterning of needs, motives, behaviors (individualized)
Measuring Needs
Manifest Needs (aka Motives) = behavior, self-report
Latent Needs (True definition of Needs)
Murray was most interested in latent needs
Indirect methods
Applied the term “Apperception”
the process of projecting needs onto a stimulus
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Christiana Morgan (1897-1967)
Born in Boston; moved to NY; studied art
She & William became friends with Henry and Josephine Murray
1925, analyzed by Jung
Had little feeling for her son; felt most alive with men
She had a series of semi-hypnotic “visions”
Jung thought she was burying her feminine spirituality;
hiding under masculine rationality
Jung recommended she have an affair to unlock her unconscious
suggested she be a muse for Murray
instead of creating children, she could create a man;
serve a man, serve the world
1934, her husband died
1938, co-created the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
First known as the Morgan-Murray Thematic Apperception Test
Later it was Murray and the “staff of the Harvard Psychological clinic”
She was in poor health
High blood pressure
Had a radical sympathectomy = sever sympathetic nerves spinal cord
She was in poor mental health
Sexual experimentation
Stormy relationships
Difficult marriage
Alcoholic
1965, Murray found younger woman
1967, she & Murray took trip to Virgin Islands
She drowned herself at age 69
Thematic Apperception Test
Ambiguous pictures
Originally taken from magazine photos; probably US Camera-1942
Cardsnot specifically created to elicit unconscious (not theory based)
Assumed any ambiguous stimuli could be used
Interpretation of interpersonal situations
Today 31 pictures available; usually use 10 cards per person
Select different ones for men, women or children
Not a standardized set of stimuli
Used to discover hidden emotions, inner needs
Often used to complement info from Rorschach ink-blot test
Can be used as a test of imagination
Card 1
Boy and his violin
Drawn by Christiana Morgan
Based on a photo of a Yehudi Menuhin
Card 13-B
Little boy is sitting on the doorstep of a log cabin
Based on Marion Post Wolcott’s photo of a Kentucky log cabin
Subjects create a story
What’s going on
What is being thought & by whom
What went on before
What will happen next
Big Five
1980s-1990s
Research-driven model
Data-driven theory
Inductive
Described somewhat differently, but
5 basic personality dimensions
Found in a variety of cultures
Evolutionary perspective
5 Dimensions
Extraversion = energetic, sociable vs shy, reserved, introverted
Neuroticism = high-strung, emotional vs calm, emotionally stable
Openness = imaginative, open-minded vs traditional thinking
Agreeableness = friendly, trusting vs cold, unkind
Conscientiousness = dependable, organized vs impulsive, careless
Evaluating Trait Theories
Behavior is result of interaction between traits and situations
Critics say it generally fails to explain:
Personality; label general predispositions
How or why individual differences develop
Motives that drive personality
Role of unconscious mental processes
How belief about self influence personality
How psychological growth and change occur