(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?

Putting it all together, 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.

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. Subjective assessment ensures fruitful information.

Objective tests are standardized paper-pencil tests that provide reliable and valid information about personality.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2)3 and NEO Personality Inventory Revised are the personality tests that are widely used for clinical, vocational, and research purposes.

The information provided by objective tests are limited, as compared to the subjective tests. Hence, in general psychologists utilize both subjective and objective tests in their assessments.

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 free association 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.

Although temperament and personality are sometimes used interchangeably, McCrae and colleagues 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.

An iceberg which is composed of three layers: the conscious layer at the top; the preconscious layer right under the conscious layer; and the unconscious layer at the very bottom.

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.

The unconscious layer is at the very bottom of the mind. It 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. 

Psychoanalytic theory depicts Id, Ego and Superego as the three basic dynamic structures of personality.

Id involves biological impulses, drives and motives. That’s why it’s usually described as the most primitive part of the personality. Id operates according to the pleasure principle.  And the situation given in the question just describes how it operates according to this principle.  Similarly, id looks for immediate gratification of primitive impulses and doesn’t take into account the suitability of external conditions such as societal norms, 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. 

Suppression, repression, regression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization, displacement, denial, intellectualization, and sublimation.

Denial is defined as ignoring the threatening, anxiety provoking thoughts, feelings, motives, or sometimes even events and realities. Denial is a common reaction in the presence of a psychological shock, such as the death of a loved one or an important diagnosis such as cancer or schizophrenia. The person might not believe and simply ignore the reality for 1-2 minutes to 1-2 days. Remember that the overuse of defense mechanisms might contribute to abnormal behavior or psychological disorders. In this case, the person might deny the reality for weeks or months. Therefore, s/he might not experience normal process of grief. In the presence of an important diagnosis, if the person overuses denial, s/he might not take necessary actions for treatment.

Libido is the psychic energy that is generated by id. Freud initially defined libido as the source of sexual energy, whereas in his later works he attributed all kinds of psychic energies and life and death instincts (eros and thanatos) to the libido.

Psychosexual development begins at infancy, follows through five stages, and lasts into adulthood. The stages are Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital. They are consecutive, meaning that every child goes through these stages in the same order.

In each stage, the psychic energy (libido) is located at a different erogenous zone and looks for a satisfaction at that zone. Hence, the conflict arising at each stage is specific to itself, having unique contributions to the personality. The child’s needs and expectations vary in each stage. Failure to meet those needs or over-satisfying them results in the fixation of the libido at the erogenous zone of that stage. Fixation occurs when the conflict at a certain psychosexual stage is not resolved. Consequently, the child develops an unconscious urge to stay in that psychosexual stage and feels an attachment to the erogenous zone, desires, people or objects related to that stage. This might lead to various neurotic behaviors, like an inability to form normal social relationships. Psychoanalytic theory suggests that a healthy personality development requires successfully resolving each conflict in each stage. 

The term Oedipus comes from Greek mythology, where Oedipus unintentionally kills his father and unknowingly marries his mother. In classical psychoanalysis, Oedipus complex refers to the conflict that the boy, attracted to the mother, fears that his father will take revenge on him by castrating him. The conflict is generally resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent.

Karen Horney was a German-born American psychoanalyst. She basically opposed the assumption that personality is shaped through the roles of aggressive and sexual impulses. Rather, she highlighted the effect of interpersonal relations and social factors on the development of personality. Horney basically claimed that the basic anxiety in childhood, characterized by feeling insecure and helpless, is more fundamental in personality development. The child learns to deal with this anxiety in three ways: approaching other people, moving against other people (aggression), or avoiding them. Horney suggested that parents should provide warmth and affection to their children as it leads the child to overcome the feelings of helplessness and loneliness in a hostile world.

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychoanalyst and philosopher. He mainly criticized the theory of psychosexual development in the sense that the theory gave an excessive emphasis on aggressive and sexual instincts. Rather, Jung suggested that the primary emphasis should be given to the concept of unconscious. He proposed an alternative theory of personality, in which he also mentioned about three basic structures, but he labelled them as Ego, Personal Unconscious, and Collective Unconscious. 

Alfred Adler developed the Individual Psychology theory indicating that individuals are guided by a conscious motive to follow their goals and shape their lives.

Alfred Adler was an Austrian psychiatrist. Contrary to Freud, he thought that the conscious efforts (rather than unconscious forces) play a more significant role on the personality and behavior.

Developmental Period                              Major Conflict

Infancy (birth to 18 months)                    Trust vs. Mistrust

Early Childhood (2 to 3 years)                  Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Play Age (3 to 5 years)                            Initiative vs. Guilt

School Age (6 to 11 years)                      Industry vs. Inferiority

Adolescence (12 to 18 years)                   Identity vs. Role Conflict

Young Adulthood (19 to 40 years)            Intimacy vs. Isolation

Middle Adulthood (40 to 65 years)            Generativity vs. Stagnation

Old Age (65 to death)                              Ego Integrity vs. Despair

The Psychoanalytic approach mainly describes the innate dynamics of the personality structure. On the contrary, behavioral approach is not scientifically interested in what is happening inside the mind. It is rather concerned with only what is observable – the behavior and how situational determinants shape the behavior. In fact, the influence of environment is the most prominent feature of the behavioral approach. Behaviorists did not provide a specific theory on personality, as they applied learning principles to all behavior, including personality. Therefore, in order to understand how our environment shapes who we are, we need to review the basic arguments of behavioral theory.

Bandura suggests that individuals develop certain expectations about the consequences of a behavior. For example, the child might observe in his family that women do not handshake with men. He doesn’t need to perform the behavior immediately after the observational learning. Rather, he develops an expectation, keeps the information in his memory, and when he is in a pertinent context, he recalls his expectation from the memory and acts accordingly. Bandura asserts that, when we decide how to behave according to our expectations, we feel some control over our environment. However, he claims that we are in a constant interaction with our environment. All the individual variables such as cognitions and personality influence and are being influenced by the situational factors, which in turn shape the behavior. Bandura calls this relationship between the individual and the environment reciprocal determinism. Accordingly, your preferences (such as the books you read, the music that you prefer to listen, and the people that you make friends with) give information about your personality, as they are most probably shaped in parallel with your expectations. 

Both depending on their being positive or negative.

Reinforcementi ncreases the probability of the occurence of certain behavior. If it is positive reinforcement, the behaviour is added to your system, and if it is negative, it is removed from your system.

Punishment, indeed, decreases  the probability of the occurance of certain behavior. The same happens when it comes to positive and negative punishment. If positve, added to the system. If negative, removed from the system.

A positive reinforcement is “giving something” in order to increase the frequency of a behavior. For instance the mother gives her attention when her baby smiles. Negative reinforcement, on the other hand, is “removing something” in order to increase the frequency of a behavior. For example, when you get into a car you might hear a disturbing noise which is only removed when you wear your seatbelt. Thus, seatbelt wearing behavior is negatively reinforced. Contrary to reinforcement, punishment decreases the probability of the occurrence of a behavior. A positive punishment is again giving something that wasn’t previously evident in the environment, like the teacher’s scolding behavior. On the other hand, negative punishment is “removing something” in order to decrease the frequency of a behavior. Consider two little boys fighting for a toy. When the mother takes the toy from them, the boys learn not to fight again. 

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.