PSY121

PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY

By

Dr. Simon Umukoro

 Introduction
• Everybody has a personality; and yours will help
determine the boundaries of your success and
life fulfillment. It is no exaggeration to say that
your personality is one of your most important
assets. It has already helped shape your
experiences up to now, and it will continue to do
so for the rest of your life.
• Everything you have accomplished to date, all of
your expectations for the future, whether you will
make a good husband, wife, partner, or parent,
even your health can be influenced by your
personality.
• Your personality can limit or expand your options
and choices in life, prevent you from sharing
certain experiences, or enable you to take full
advantage of them. It restricts, constrains, and
holds back some people and opens up the world
of new opportunities to others.

• You could be described as having a terrific

personality or a terrible personality. This suggests
that our personality can be objectively or
subjectively judged by ourselves and others
based on evaluation of overt and covert traits
• However, describing someone’s personality as
terrific and terrible is just a layman approach.
The subject of personality is too complex for
such a simplified description, because humans
are too complex and changeable in different
situations and with different people.
• Thus, we need to be more precise in our
language to adequately define and describe
personality. For that reason, psychologists
have devoted considerable effort to
developing tests to assess, or measure,
personality.
• There is still some validity in the argument that
you many not need a psychological test to tell
what your personality is; and, in general, you may
be right. After all, you probably know yourself
better than anyone else.

• Let try it. Write down as many adjectives as you

can think of to describe yourself as you really are
(—not the ideal you).

• How many words did you find? Six? Ten? A few

more? A widely used personality test, the
Adjective Check List, offers an astonishing 300
adjectives that describe personality.
• In this lecture, we will be studying the related
concepts, forces and factors that shape
personality, which will answer some basic
questions about the nature of personality; for
example, whether we are born with a certain
type of personality or learn it from our
parents, whether personality is influenced by
unconscious forces, and whether it can
change as we get older.

• We will cover a variety of theories that have

been proposed to help answer these and
related questions about human nature.
 What is Personality
• When we talk about personality, we mean to
include many different 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.
• Personality is defined as a unique constellation
of traits and states
• A personality trait is a unique (distinguishable),
relatively stable, enduring and predictable
character of a person that influence behaviour
(e.g. tolerance). A personality state is the
transitory exhibition of some personality trait
• For example, we may have a friend who is calm
much of the time, we know that he or she can
become excitable, nervous, or panicky at other
times. Thus, sometimes personality can vary
with the state or situation of an individual.
 Personality Assessment
• To assess something means to measure or
evaluate it. The assessment of personality is a
major area of application of psychology to a
number of real-world concerns. For example,

• Clinical psychologists try to understand the

symptoms of their patients or clients by assessing
their personalities, by differentiating between
normal and abnormal behaviors and feelings.
Only by evaluating personality in this way can
clinicians diagnose disorders and determine the
best course of therapy.
• School psychologists evaluate the personalities of the
students referred to them for treatment in an
attempt to uncover the causes of adjustment or
learning problems.

• Industrial and Organizational psychologists assess

personality to select the best candidate for a
particular job.

• Vocational psychologists measure personality to find

the best job for a particular applicant, matching the
requirements of the position with the person’s
interests and needs.
• Research psychologists assess the
personalities of their subjects in an attempt to
account for their behavior in an experiment or
to correlate their personality traits with other
measurements.
No matter what you do in your life and your
working career, it is difficult to avoid having your
personality assessed in some way at some time
using various assessment tools.
The psychometric properties (reliability and
validity) of these assessment tools determine
their relevance and predictive efficacy .
• Reliability involves the consistency of responses
or results obtained from an assessment device.
• Suppose you took the same test on two different
days and received two widely different scores.
How would you know which score is the most
accurate one? A test like that would not be
considered reliable because its results were so
inconsistent. No one could depend on that test
for an adequate assessment of your personality.
• It is common to find some slight variation in
scores when a test is taken a second time, but if
the variation is large, then something is wrong
with the test or with the method of scoring it.
• Validity refers to whether an assessment
device measures what it is intended to
measure. Does an intelligence test truly
measure intelligence? Does a test of anxiety
actually evaluate anxiety?
• If a test does not measure what it claims to,
then it is not valid and its results cannot be
used to predict behavior.

• A personality test that is not valid may provide

a totally misleading portrait of your emotional
strengths and weaknesses and will be of no
value to you or a potential employer
 Methods of Personality Assessment
Personality theorists have devised different
methods for assessing personality that were the
most useful for their theories. Their techniques
vary in objectivity, reliability, and validity. The
major approaches to personality assessment are

• Self-report or objective inventories

• Projective techniques
• Clinical interviews
• Behavioral assessment procedures
• Thought and experience sampling procedures
• Self-Report Personality Tests
The self-report inventory or test approach involves
asking people to report on themselves by
answering questions about their behavior and
feelings in various situations.

These tests include items dealing with symptoms,

attitudes, interests, fears, and values. Test-takers
indicate how closely each statement describes
themselves, or how much they agree with each
item. There are a number of self-report personality
tests in use today, but one of the most useful is the
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI).
• Projective Test
• A projective test is a personality assessment
device in which subjects are presumed to
project personal needs, fears, and values onto
their interpretation or description of an
ambiguous stimulus.
• The theory underlying projective techniques is
that when we are presented with an ambiguous
stimulus, like an inkblot or a picture that can be
interpreted in more than one way, we will
project our innermost needs, fears, and values
onto the stimulus when we’re asked to describe
it.
• Because the interpretation of the results of
projective tests is so subjective, these tests are
not high in reliability or validity. Two popular
projective tests are the Rorschach Inkblot
Technique and the Thematic Apperception
Test (TAT).
• The Rorschach inkblot test, which was first
published by a Swiss psychiatrist—Hermann
Rorschach in 1921.
• The test consists of 10 standardised inkblots –
5 of which are in colour and the rest 5 are in
shaded of black and gray.
• As the examinee is shown each inkblot, he is
asked to tell what he sees – what the blot
could represent. Besides keeping a verbatim
record of the responses to each card, the
examiner notes time of responses, position or
positions in which cards are held, spontaneous
remarks, emotional expressions, and other
incidental behaviour of the examinee during
test sessions.

• The process of interpreting the responses is

complicated and is depending on what the
examinees reported seeing
An sample inkblot similar to a
Rorschach inkblot
• Clinical Interviews
• Personality may be assessed through clinical
interviews. After all, it is reasonable to assume
that valuable information can be obtained by
talking to the person being evaluated and asking
relevant questions about past and present life
experiences, social and family relationships, and
the problems that led the person to seek
psychological help.
• A wide range of behaviors, feelings, and thoughts
can be investigated in the interview, including
general appearance, demeanor, and attitude;
facial expressions, posture, and gestures;
preoccupations; degree of self-insight; and level
of contact with reality.
• Behavioral Assessment
In the behavioral assessment approach, a trained
observer evaluates a person’s behavior in a given
situation. The better the observers know the people
being assessed and the more frequently they
interact with them, the more accurate their
evaluations are likely to be. Behaviour assessment
are based on formal systematic procedures

During clinical interviews, psychologists routinely

observe their clients’ behavior—considering, for
example, facial expressions, nervous gestures, and
general appearance—and use that information in
formulating their diagnoses.
• Thought and Experience Assessment
• In this approach to assessment, a person’s
thoughts are recorded systematically to provide a
sample over a period of time. Because thoughts
are private experiences and cannot be seen by
anyone else, the only person who can make this
type of observation is the individual whose
thoughts are being studied.
• Groups or individual clients can be asked to write
or record thoughts and moods for later analysis
by the psychologist. They could also be asked to
describe the social and environmental context in
which the experience being sampled occurs
 Sigmund Freud’s
Psychoanalytic Theory of
Personality
• Freud wrote that instincts were the basic
elements of the personality, the motivating forces
that drive behavior and determine its direction.
• Instincts are a form of energy—transformed
physiological energy—that connects the needs of
the body with the wishes of the mind.
• The stimuli for instincts (e.g. hunger and thirst)
are internal. When a need such as hunger is
aroused in the body, it generates a state of
physiological excitation or energy. The mind
transforms this bodily energy into a wish.
• It is this wish—the mental representation of the
physiological need—that is the instinct or driving
force that motivates the person to behave in a
way that satisfies the need.
• A hungry person, for example, will look for food.
The instinct is not the bodily state itself (the
hunger). Rather, it is the bodily need transformed
into a mental state, a wish.

• When the body is in such a state of need, the

person experiences a feeling of tension or
pressure. The aim of an instinct is to satisfy the
need and thereby reduce the tension.

• Freud’s theory is therefore a homeostatic

approach, meaning that we are motivated to
restore and maintain a condition of physiological
equilibrium, or balance, to keep the body free of
tension.
 Freud’s Levels of Personality
• Freud’s original conception divided personality
into three levels: the conscious, the preconscious,
and the unconscious. Freud likened the mind to
an iceberg. The conscious is that part above the
surface of the water—the tip of the iceberg.
• The conscious, as Freud defined the term,
corresponds to its ordinary everyday meaning. It
includes all the sensations and experiences of
which we are aware at any given moment.
• Freud considered the conscious to be a limited
aspect of personality because only a small
portion of our thoughts, sensations, and
memories exists in conscious awareness.
• More important, according to Freud, is the
unconscious. This is the focus of
psychoanalytic theory. Its vast, dark depths
are the home of the instincts, those wishes
and desires that direct our behavior. The
unconscious contains the major driving power
behind all behaviors and is the repository of
forces we cannot see or control.
• Between these two levels is the preconscious.
This is the storehouse of all our memories,
perceptions, and thoughts of which we are
not consciously aware at the moment but that
we can easily summon into consciousness.
 Freud’s Structure of Personality
• Freud later revised this notion of three levels of
personality and introduced in its place three basic
structures in the anatomy of the personality: the
id, the ego, and the superego
• The id is the reservoir for the instincts and libido
(the psychic energy manifested by the instincts)
• The id is a powerful structure of the personality
because it supplies all the energy for the other
two components.
• Because the id is the reservoir of the instincts, it
is vitally and directly related to the satisfaction of
bodily needs.
• The Id operates in accordance with what Freud
called the pleasure principle which is concerned
with increasing pleasure and avoiding pain.
• The id strives for immediate satisfaction of its
needs and does not tolerate delay or
postponement of satisfaction for any reason. It
knows only instant gratification; it drives us to
want what we want when we want it, without
regard for what anyone else wants. The id has no
awareness of reality.
• We might compare the id to a newborn baby who
cries and frantically waves its legs and arms when
its needs are not met but who has no knowledge
of how to bring about satisfaction.
• The Ego is the rational aspect of the personality,
responsible for directing and controlling the
instincts. It is based on the reality principle.

• The reality principle stands in opposition to the

pleasure principle, by which the id operates.

• The ego thus exerts control over the id impulses.

This controlling and postponing function of the
ego must be exercised constantly. If not, the id
impulses might come to dominate and overthrow
the rational ego.
• A person controlled by the id can easily become a
danger to society, and might end up in treatment
or in prison.
• The Superego is the moral aspect of personality
which is internalized by societal values and
standards.
• Freud believed that this moral side of the
personality is usually learned by the age of 5 or 6
and consists initially of the rules of conduct set
down by parents
• Through praise, punishment, and example,
children learn which behaviors their parents
consider good or bad.
• Those behaviors for which children are punished
form the conscience, one part of the superego.
The second part of the superego is the ego-ideal,
which consists of good, or correct, behaviors for
which children have been praised.
• In time, children internalize these teachings, and
the rewards and punishments become self-
administered. Parental control is replaced by self-
control.
• We come to behave at least in partial conformity
with these now largely unconscious moral
guidelines. As a result of this internalization, we
feel guilt or shame whenever we perform (or
even think of performing) some action contrary
to this moral code.
• The superego strives neither for pleasure (as the
id does) nor for attainment of realistic goals (as
the ego does). It strives solely for moral
perfection. The id presses for satisfaction, the ego
tries to delay it, and the superego urges morality
above all.
 Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies
used by the ego to defend itself against the
anxiety provoked by conflicts of everyday life.
Defense mechanisms involve distortions of
reality. Let’s describe a few
• Repression: This involves unconscious denial
of the existence of something that causes
anxiety.
• Denial: This involves deliberate denial the
existence of an external threat or traumatic
event.
• Reaction formation: This involves expressing
an id impulse and feelings in an opposite form
of the one that is truly driving the person.
• Projection: This involves attributing a
disturbing impulse to someone else.
• Regression: This involves retreating to an
earlier, less frustrating period of life and
displaying the usually childish behaviors
characteristic of that more secure time.
• Rationalization: This involves reinterpreting
our behavior to make it more acceptable and
less threatening to us.
• Displacement: This involves shifting id
impulses from a threatening object or from
one that is unavailable to an object that is
available
• Sublimation: This involves altering or
displacing id impulses by diverting instinctual
energy into socially acceptable behaviors.
• Intellectualization: This defense mechanism
allows us to avoid thinking about the stressful,
emotional aspect of a situation and instead
focus only on the intellectual component. For
example, a person who has just been
diagnosed with a terminal illness might focus
on learning everything about the disease.
 Freud’ Psychosexual Stages of
Personality Development
• Freud argued that a person’s unique character
type develops in childhood, largely from
parent–child interactions.
• The child constantly tries to maximize
pleasure by satisfying the id demands, while
parents, as representatives of society, try to
impose the demands of reality and morality.
• This is described in Freud’s theory of the
psychosexual stages of development
• These 5 stages include the oral, anal, phallic,
[latency], and genital stages through which all
children pass. In these stages, gratification of the
id instincts depends on the stimulation of
corresponding areas of the body.
• In each developmental stage a conflict exists that
must be resolved before the infant or child can
progress to the next stage. Inability to resolve
conflicts in each stage is often as a result of
fixation.
• Fixation is a condition in which a portion of libido
remains invested in one of the psychosexual
stages because of excessive frustration or
gratification.
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of
Personality Development
 Other Theories of Personality
Development
• Carl Jung
• Alfred Adler
• Erik Erikson
• Gordon Allport
• Raymond Cattell
• Hans Eysenck
• Robert McCrae and Paul Costa
Cattell proposed six stages in the development
of personality covering the entire life span
Hans Eysenck proposed three personality
dimensions
McCrae and Costa proposed the Big
Five Personality Factors
 The Nature-Nurture Hypothesis on
Personality Development
• The Nature-Nurture Hypothesis in personality
development posits that both genetic (nature)
and environmental (nurture) factors play crucial
roles in shaping an individual's personality.
• This hypothesis suggests that while genetic
predispositions establish certain potential
personality traits, environmental influences such
as upbringing, social interactions, culture, and life
experiences also significantly contribute to the
development of personality