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Personality is the collection of characteristic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are associated with a person. Personality traits are characteristic behaviors and feelings that are consistent and long-lasting.
Traits versus States
Unlike traits, which are stable characteristics, states are temporary behaviors or feelings that depend on a person’s situation and motives at a particular time. The difference between traits and states is analogous to the difference between climate and weather. Los Angeles has a warm climate, but on some days it may have cool weather. In the same way, a person who has the trait of calmness may experience a state of anxiety on a day when he or she faces a difficult challenge.
Psychodynamic Theories of Personality
Many psychologists have proposed theories that try to explain the origins of personality. One highly influential set of theories stems from the work of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, who first proposed the theory of psychoanalysis. Collectively, these theories are known as psychodynamic theories. Although many different psychodynamic theories exist, they all emphasize unconscious motives and desires as well as the importance of childhood experiences in shaping personality.
The Conscious, the Preconscious, and the Unconscious
Freud believed that most mental processes are unconscious. He proposed that people have three levels of awareness: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious.
The conscious contains all the information that a person is paying attention to at any given time.
Example: The words Dan is reading, the objects in his field of vision, the sounds he can hear, and any thirst, hunger, or pain he is experiencing at the moment are all in his conscious.
The preconscious contains all the information outside of a person’s attention, but readily available if needed.
Example: Linda’s telephone number, the make of her car, and many of her past experiences are in her preconscious.
The unconscious contains thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories of which people have no awareness but that influence every aspect of their day-to-day lives.
Example: Stan’s unconscious might contain angry feelings toward his mother or a traumatic incident he experienced at age four.
Freud believed that information in the unconscious emerges in slips of the tongue, jokes, dreams, illness symptoms, and the associations people make between ideas.
The Id, the Ego, and the Superego
Freud proposed that personalities have three components: the id, the ego, and the superego.
Id: a reservoir of instinctual energy that contains biological urges such as impulses toward survival, sex, and aggression. The id is unconscious and operates according to the pleasure principle, the drive to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The id is characterized by primary process thinking, which is illogical, irrational, and motivated by a desire for the immediate gratification of impulses.
Ego: the component that manages the conflict between the id and the constraints of the real world. Some parts of the ego are unconscious, while others are preconscious or conscious. The ego operates according to the reality principle, the awareness that gratification of impulses has to be delayed in order to accommodate the demands of the real world. The ego is characterized by secondary process thinking, which is logical and rational. The ego’s role is to prevent the id from gratifying its impulses in socially inappropriate ways.
Superego: the moral component of personality. It contains all the moral standards learned from parents and society. The superego forces the ego to conform not only to reality but also to its ideals of morality. Hence, the superego causes people to feel guilty when they go against society’s rules. Like the ego, the superego operates at all three levels of awareness.
Freud believed that the id, the ego, and the superego are in constant conflict. He focused mainly on conflicts concerning sexual and aggressive urges because these urges are most likely to violate societal rules.
Internal conflicts can make a person feel anxious. In Freud’s view, anxiety arises when the ego cannot adequately balance the demands of the id and the superego. The id demands gratification of its impulses, and the superego demands maintenance of its moral standards.
Ego Defense Mechanisms
To manage these internal conflicts, people use defense mechanisms. Ego defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies that protect people from anxiety. There are many different kinds of defense mechanisms, many of which are automatic and unconscious:
Denial: refusing to accept a reality that causes discomfort or anxiety.
Example: Someone may deny a serious medical diagnosis to avoid the emotional impact.
Displacement: transferring feelings about a person or event onto someone or something else.
Example: Employees frustrated with their boss might take out their anger on a family member.
Projection: attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to someone else.
Example: A man who feels angry toward a friend might accuse that friend of being angry toward him.
Rationalization: using logical but false self-serving explanations to justify unacceptable behavior, thoughts, or feelings. For example, a student who performs poorly on a test might blame the teacher’s “unfair questions,” rather than his or her own lack of preparation.
Reaction formation: adopting behaviors or attitudes that are the opposite of one’s true feelings, often to keep these feelings hidden
Example: Someone who feels sexually attracted to a friend’s partner may go out of the way to ignore them or make disparaging comments about them.
Regression: reverting to a more immature state of psychological development.
Example: When a young child gets less attention from his or her parents because of a new baby sibling, that child might suddenly start to wet the bed at night or revert to using a “baby voice.”
Repression: keeping unpleasant thoughts, memories, and feelings shut up in the unconscious.
Example: Individuals who experienced a traumatic event when they were young might be unable to recall the event as an adult.
Sublimation: channeling unacceptable thoughts and feelings into socially acceptable behavior.
Example: Someone with aggressive tendencies might take up a contact sport like boxing.
Projective Personality Tests
Psychodynamic theorists assess personality using projective tests, which are designed to uncover unconscious thoughts, desires, and conflicts. Projective personality tests require subjects to respond to ambiguous stimuli, such as pictures and phrases, that can be interpreted in many different ways. Projective tests are based on the projective hypothesis, which is the idea that people interpret ambiguous stimuli in ways that reveal their concerns, needs, conflicts, desires, and feelings. Clinical psychologists and researchers often use two projective tests: the Rorschach test and the Thematic Apperception Test.
The Rorschach test consists of a series of ten inkblots. Psychologists ask subjects to look at the inkblots and describe what they see, and the psychologists then use complex scoring systems to interpret the subjects’ responses. Scores are based on various characteristics of responses, such as the originality of the response and the area of the blot described in the response. The Rorschach gives psychologists information about the subject’s personality traits and the situational stresses the subject may be experiencing.
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) consists of a series of pictures containing a variety of characters and scenes. Psychologists ask subjects to make up stories about each picture and look for themes that run through the subjects’ responses. For example, a person with a high need for achievement may consistently come up with stories that have achievement-related themes.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Projective Tests
Projective tests are useful because they allow psychologists to assess unconscious aspects of personality. Projective tests are also not transparent: subjects cannot figure out how their responses will be interpreted. Therefore, subjects cannot easily fake personality traits on a projective test. A serious disadvantage of projective tests is that they have questionable reliability and validity. Despite this flaw, many researchers and clinicians find that such tests give them useful information.
Criticisms of Psychodynamic Theories
Freud’s original ideas have little popularity today, but many psychologists do adhere to neo-Freudian ideas. However, other psychologists criticize psychodynamic theories for various reasons:
- Some critics argue that psychodynamic theories are not falsifiable and therefore unscientific. In response to this criticism, proponents of psychodynamic theories point out that empirical evidence does support some psychodynamic concepts. For example, empirical research shows that there are unconscious mental processes, that people have mental representations of other people, and that people use unconscious defense mechanisms to protect themselves from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety.
- Other critics argue that psychodynamic theories are made by generalizing from a small number of patients to the whole human population. Relying only on case studies can lead to faulty conclusions.
- Another critique of psychodynamic theories is their overemphasis on childhood experiences and sexual drives. Freud, for instance, suggested that early psychosexual stages determine adult personality, which many find overly simple and not reflective of the complexity of human development. Critics argue that personality is influenced by a broader range of factors, including genetics, environment, and experiences beyond childhood.
- Finally, psychodynamic theories’ focus on unconscious motives can lead to overly deterministic explanations of behavior, leaving little room for free will or the influence of conscious decision-making. This perspective has been challenged by humanistic and cognitive approaches, which emphasize personal growth, self-awareness, and the role of conscious thought in shaping personality.
Humanistic Theories
Humanistic theories of personality emphasize the inherent goodness of people and their drive toward self-growth and fulfillment. These theories focus on the subjective experience of individuals and their capacity to make choices, highlighting the importance of free will, personal responsibility, and the search for meaning. Two core concepts of humanistic theories are unconditional positive regard and self-actualization.
Unconditional positive regard, proposed by Carl Rogers, refers to the act of accepting and valuing a person without conditions or judgments. Unconditional positive regard is essential for healthy personality development, as it fosters self-worth and enables individuals to explore their potential without fear of rejection or criticism. A lack of unconditional positive regard, such as experiencing conditional love based on performance or behavior, may hinder personal growth and lead to incongruence between an individual’s self-concept and their experiences.
The self-actualization tendency, first described by Abraham Maslow, refers to an individual’s innate drive to reach their fullest potential and achieve personal growth. The self-actualizing tendency emphasizes the pursuit of authenticity, creativity, and meaningful life experiences. Humanistic psychologists, such as Carl Rogers, argue that achieving self-actualization requires an environment of unconditional positive regard. This acceptance allows people to explore their capabilities, overcome obstacles, and align their behavior with their true selves. According to humanistic psychology, self-actualization is the ultimate motivating factor that drives personality development, pushing individuals to grow beyond basic needs and focus on higher-order aspirations.
Person-Centered Theory
Carl Rogers’s person-centered theory suggests that the self-concept is the most important feature of personality. Self-concept refers to the organized, consistent set of beliefs and perceptions an individual has about themselves. Children’s self-concepts match reality if their parents give them unconditional love. Rogers said that people experience anxiety when reality threatens their self-concepts.
The person-centered theory of personality emphasizes the inherent goodness of people and their drive toward self-actualization. Rogers believed that individuals have an innate tendency to grow, improve, and fulfill their potential, provided they are in an environment that offers empathy, acceptance, and unconditional positive regard – complete acceptance and support for a person, regardless of their actions, feelings, or circumstances.
The self-concept is critical to a person’s sense of identity and well-being. It consists of two main components: the real self, which is how a person perceives oneself in the present, and the ideal self, which represents who that person aspires to be. A healthy personality arises when there is alignment, or congruence, between the real self and the ideal self. Congruence allows individuals to feel authentic and experience a sense of fulfillment.
Conversely, incongruence occurs when there is a significant discrepancy between the real self and the ideal self. For example, if individuals see themselves as unkind but value being compassionate, this misalignment can lead to distress, low self-esteem, and a lack of authenticity. Rogers argued that incongruence often results from conditional positive regard – when people receive love and acceptance only if they meet certain conditions or expectations, rather than being valued unconditionally.
To foster congruence and personal growth, Rogers proposed a therapeutic approach centered on providing unconditional positive regard, empathy, and genuineness. These conditions help individuals to feel safe to explore their true feelings and reconcile discrepancies in their self-concept. Over time, this process can reduce incongruence and lead to greater psychological well-being.
Humanistic Personality Assessment
Humanistic theorists assess personality through methods that emphasize self-perception and individual experiences. Unlike more traditional approaches, humanistic assessment focuses on understanding how individuals view themselves and their capacity for growth, rather than measuring traits or behaviors in a detached, objective manner. Key methods of assessment include the following:
Self-Reports and Questionnaires: One common approach is the use of self-concept inventories, which ask individuals to describe their real self (who they believe they are) and their ideal self (who they aspire to be). For example, Carl Rogers used tools like the Q-Sort Technique, where participants sorted descriptive statements into categories based on how well they aligned with their self-concept. Comparing the real self to the ideal self reveals the level of congruence or incongruence, which Rogers believed was central to psychological well-being.
Interviews and Open-Ended Conversations: Humanistic theorists often rely on interviews or unstructured conversations to understand a person’s subjective experiences. These methods allow individuals to freely express their thoughts, feelings, and goals, providing insights into their self-concept and motivations.
Observations in a Therapeutic Setting: In therapy, humanistic psychologists assess personality indirectly by observing the client’s openness, self-awareness, and willingness to engage in personal growth. This approach emphasizes understanding the client holistically without reducing them to diagnostic labels or standardized scores.
Projective Tests: Projective tests are occasionally used. Although they are more common in psychodynamic theories, some humanistic psychologists may use projective methods, such as asking individuals to create personal stories or draw images, to gain deeper insight into their inner world. However, these are less-structured and focus on personal meaning rather than unconscious drives.
Criticisms of Humanistic Theories
Humanistic theories have had a significant influence on psychology as well as pop culture. Many psychologists now accept the idea that when it comes to personality, people’s subjective experiences have more weight than objective reality. The humanistic psychologists’ focus on healthy people, rather than troubled people, has also been a particularly useful contribution. However, critics of humanistic theories maintain several arguments:
- Humanistic theories are too naïvely optimistic and fail to provide insight into the evil side of human nature.
- Humanistic theories, like psychodynamic theories, cannot be easily tested.
- Many concepts in humanistic psychology, like that of the self-actualized person, are vague and subjective. Some critics argue that this concept may reflect Maslow’s own values and ideals.
- Humanistic psychology is biased toward individualistic values.
