Personality

In psychology, attempts to understand personality center around three basic questions: (1) What is the basic organization of personality that is common to all human beings? (2) How do individual differences occur due to personality characteristics? (3) What is it that makes each individual unique?

We can define personality as a psychological construct that characterizes our relatively enduring patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting, which is unique to us and differentiates us from other people. Personality is the psychological mechanism that organizes how people perceive and interact with their environment, so that their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors occur in accordance with each other.

It should be of no surprise that there are various methods and tools for personality assessment in psychology. Still, it is possible to classify these tools under three general categories: subjective measures of personality, objective measures of personality, and projective tests.

Subjective tests refer to the interview method. The interview questions vary depending on the context; whether it is a clinical or a job interview. For instance, a clinical interview generally include, questions about present and past experiences, as well as questions aiming to assess any psychological characteristics that might contribute to the client’s present complaints. In addition, behavioral observation during the interview (i.e., general attitude, nonverbal behaviors, motivation, or insight) provides information about the personality.

Objective tests are standardized paper-pencil tests that provide reliable
and valid information about personality. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and NEO Personality Inventory Revised are the personality tests that are widely used for clinical, vocational, and research purposes.

Projective Tests are different from subjective and objective measures of personality in the sense that they are specifically designed in order to assess unconscious thoughts and motives that contribute to certain behavioral patterns. Relying on the psychoanalytic theory, the tests utilize the freeassociation technique that requires the person to look at an ambiguous source (i.e., an inkblot figure, a picture, etc.) and tell whatever comes to her/his mind. In this way, the person projects her/ his unconscious motives to the test material.

Relying on factor analysis, Eysenck and his wife Sybil developed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and suggested that personality could be understood in terms of three dimensions: neuroticism versus emotional stability, extraversion versus introversion, and psychoticism versus impulse control.

Extraversion refers to a need for stimulation as the cortical arousal levels of extraverts are indicated to be low.

Although temperament and personality are sometimes used interchangeably, McCrae and colleagues (2000) suggest that personality is different from temperament in the sense that it is composed of acquired characteristics
that are shaped by parenting styles, friends, education, media, culture, as well as traumatic experiences.

Psychoanalytic theory represents the mind as an iceberg, which is composed of three layers. The first layer is the conscious part. It is the top of the iceberg, the visible part, meaning that the information in our conscious layer of the mind is available to us. It consists of what we are thinking or perceiving right now and what we are fully aware of. However, the capacity of the conscious mind is limited and it is not possible (or necessary) to be aware of all the information in our minds. We keep information such as what we have done last summer, or what we ate yesterday, or the meanings of the words we know in the preconscious layer of the mind. It is right underneath the conscious layer, meaning that although we are not fully aware of the information in the preconscious mind, we can easily achieve it. We call it to the conscious layer only when we need it. You should have noticed that as you go to the bottom of the iceberg, the area gets larger. The preconscious is larger than the conscious, as it keeps more information. At the very bottom of the iceberg there is the unconscious layer, which has the largest area, meaning that the amount of information it holds is inconceivable. The unconscious holds the information that we cannot and do not want to access, such as the aggressive and sexual impulses, unacceptable thoughts, memories, and wishes as well as emotional conflicts. The unconscious is the deepest layer, as the information therein is difficult to achieve through our conscious efforts. 

Id involves biological impulses, drivesand motives. That’s why it’s usually described as the most primitive part of the personality. Id operates according to the pleasure principle. Id looks for immediate gratification of primitive impulses and doesn’t take into account the suitability of external conditions such as societal norms and others’ rights or emotions. When the need or drive is not satisfied, it leads to a tension. Relieving of the tension (by gratifying the need), on the other hand, results with pleasure. Id operates completely at the unconscious level

Superego represents moral rules, social norms and values. In order to meet (or not to violate) these norms, it has to control the impulses of the id. However, superego seeks for perfection in terms of morality, so it might be forbidding and punitive. If the standards of the superego are not met, this might lead to feeling of guilt. Superego operates mostly at the unconscious level.

Ego functions at the conscious and preconscious level. Ego operates according to the reality principle. Unlike superego, it takes into account the needs of id, however it also realizes that the immediate gratification is not possible or realistic. Ego solves this problem through delay of gratification, meaning that it represses the demands of the id to the unconscious, until it finds the suitable conditions to meet those demands.

Suppression is the conscious attempt to hide or prevent unacceptable thoughts, feelings and motives. For instance, you are at your instructor’s office and he is scolding you for some reason. Suddenly you feel a strong urge to slam the door and leave the office. But you suppress this urge by trying to calm down. In this case you are consciously aware of your motive and your effort to deal with your motive. Remember that the defense mechanisms generally operate at the unconscious level. Suppression is an exception for this.

The stages of psychosexual development are oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

Carl Gustav Jung, one of the NeoFreudian psychologists, suggested that girls might also be experiencing a conflict which is similar to the boys’ Oedipus complex. Accordingly, the girls might feel sexual urges towards their fathers and see their mothers as their opponents, which is explained by the term Electra Complex.

Jung developed the theory of archetypes, which are defined as the thoughts and images that are shared universally across cultures. The five major archetypes in Jung’s theory are the persona, ego, anima/animus, shadow, and the self. Persona is the mask that we present to other people. Ego is our conscious sense of the self. Anima/animus is the mirror image of our biological sex, indicating the unconscious masculine side in women and feminine side in men. Shadow, which is very much like id, is the source of our creative and destructive tendencies. Finally, the self indicates a sense of unity.

Respondent behavior is any kind of automatic response that is elicited by a specific stimulus, such as an eye blink as a response to a blow. Respondent behavior is involuntary and doesn’t need to be learned. Conversely, operant behavior is a learned response that occurs voluntarily. It is shaped by the reinforcements following the behavior. According to Skinner, operant behavior is more important than the respondent behavior, because it can change the environment as well.

Maslow suggests that one cannot achieve self-actualization before meeting certain needs, which are organized in a hierarchical pyramid system: the hierarchy of needs. The basic premise is that behavior is motivated by certain needs and individuals should fulfill the necessities of one stage in order to move to the next one. The first one is physiological needs which consists of basic needs, for survival, like oxygen, food, water and sleep. If you feel you are out of oxygen, you can’t think about whether you are successful or approved by the society. Once you have secured your physiological needs, your second concern would be safety needs such as house and shelter. Then, the third stage is love & belonging needs. At this stage, you strive for attaining more meaningful intimate relationships. Next, there are esteem needs which include being respected and recognized by others. When the person fulfills these four groups of needs, Maslow indicates that the behaviors will be motivated by the need for self-actualization, which is at the top of the hierarchy.

These factors (or Big Five Traits) are Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Conscientiousness (C), Agreeableness (A), and Openness to Experience (O).