Personality Theories

Bem P. Allen, Jr., Ph.D. has conducted research in personality-social psychology as well as distance perception and memory. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Society for Personality Assessment, and recipient of the 2001 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award. Professor Allen has also received the WIU Award for Excellence in Diversity and Multicultural Programing, Sigma Xi (1976) and College of Arts and Sciences Researcher of the Year (1990). He was Appointed Consulting Editor for Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Personality and Individual Differences Section (journal of the APA) effective January, 1, 1989; reappointed for 1990-91 and has served as reviewer for many personality and social psychology journals.

• 1. Introduction.Preliminary Definition of Personality.Implications and Cautions.Methods of Studying Personality.The Case History Method.The Correlation Method.The Experimental Method.Personality Tests: Personologists’ Tools.Reliability and Validity.Projective and Objective Tests.Testing and Theorizing about Personality in a World of Human Diversity.A Final Word about “Science”.Chapter Sections.Introductory Statement.The Person: Biographies.View of the Person: General Philosophical Orientation.Basic Concepts: The Heart and Soul of a Theory.Evaluation: Placing a Theory in Perspective.Occasional Sections.Conclusions Section.E-mail Interaction Section.Summary Points.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.2. The Psychoanalytic Legacy: Sigmund Freud.Freud, the Person.Freud’s View of the Person.Basic Concepts: Freud.Personality Structure: Three Interacting Systems (SIDE).The Five Stages of Personality Development (Old Aunt Pamela Loves Gorillas).A Basic Diversity Issue: Freud’s View of Females.Evaluation.Contributions.Supporting Evidence: Older and More Current.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.3. Personality’s Ancestral Foundation: Carl Jung.Jung, the Person.Jung’s View of the Person.Basic Concepts: Jung.Consciousness and Unconsciousness.Archetypes.Dreams as Messengers from a Wise Unconscious.Personality Typology.Personality Development.Evaluation.Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.4. Overcoming Inferiority and Striving for Superiority: Alfred Adler.Adler, the Person.Adler’s View of the Person.Basic Orientation.Humanitarianism: Diversity as It Concerns Women and People Everywhere.Basic Concepts: Adler.Developing Social Feeling: Society, Work, and Love.Style of Life.Future Goals versus Past Events.Overcoming Inferiority.Striving for Superiority and the Superiority Complex.Family Influences on Personality Development.Evaluation.Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.5. Moving toward, away from, and against Others: Karen Horney.Horney, the Person.Horney’s View of the Person.Basic Concepts: Horney.Basic Anxiety: Infantile Helplessness in a Hostile World.Coping with Ten Neurotic Needs.Moving toward, against, and away from People.Developing an Idealized versus a Real Image of Self.A Basic Diversity Issue: The Psychology of Women.Evaluation.Contributions.Some Research Support.Some Application: Group Therapy.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.6. Personality from the Interpersonal Perspective: Harry Stack Sullivan.Sullivan, the Person.Sullivan’s View of the Person.Significant Others and the Self.A Need for Tenderness.Basic Concepts: Sullivan.Empathy, Anxiety, and Security.Three Modes of Experience and Six Stages of Development.Evaluation.Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.7. The Seasons of Our Lives: Erik Erikson.Erikson, the Person.Erikson’s View of the Person.Freudian?On the Tasks and Polarities of Life.Basic Concepts: Erikson.Infancy: Trust and Distrust.Early Childhood: Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt.Play Age: Initiative versus Guilt.School Age: Industry versus Inferiority.Adolescence: Identity versus Identity Confusion.Young Adulthood: Intimacy versus Isolation.Middle Adulthood: Productivity versus Futility.Mature Adulthood: Generativity versus Stagnation.Old Age: Integrity versus Despair.Theoretical and Empirical Support for Erikson’s Point of View.Levinson: The Midlife Crisis.Sheehy: Women Are Different.Empirical Support: Research Confirming Erikson’s View.Evaluation.Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.8. The Sociopsychological Approach to Personality: Erich Fromm.Fromm, the Person.Fromm’s View of the Person.Basic Concepts: Fromm.Existential Needs.Individual and Social Character.Evaluation.Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.9. Every Person Is to Be Prized: Carl Rogers.Rogers, the Person.Rogers’s View of the Person.Basic Concepts: Rogers.Actualization: General and Specific.The Importance of the Self.Personality Development: Some Favorable Conditions.Procedures for Changing Personality: Client-Centered Therapy.Evaluation.General Contributions.Caring about the Person in Human Relationships.Rogers’s Scientific Contributions.The Famous Case of Gloria: A Teaching Tool.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.10. Becoming All That One Can Be: Abraham Maslow.Maslow, the Person.Maslow’s View of the Person.The Evolution of a Theorist.The Gestalt Influence.The Existential Influence.Motivation.Basic Concepts: Maslow.Five Basic Needs (Place Satisfaction Before Love, Esteem, and Self-Actualization).Human Nature Is Born, Not Made.Self-actualizing Persons: Superior Personalities.Needs and Values beyond the Pale, and Experiences from the Mountain Top.Evaluation.Contributions.Supporting Evidence.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.11. Marching to a Different Drummer: George Kelly.Kelly, the Person.Kelly’s View of the Person.Basic Concepts: Kelly.Personality as a System of Constructs.Relations among Constructs.Personality Development.Predictability.Dependency Constructs.Role Playing.Choices: The C-P-C Cycle.Evaluation.Contributions: Supporting Evidence and Practical Applications.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.12. The Social—Cognitive Approach to Personality: Walter Mischel and Julian Rotter.Mischel: A Challenge to Traits.Mischel, the Person.Mischel’s View of the Person.Basic Concepts: Mischel.Supporting Evidence.Mischel Summed Up: Consistency of Cross-Situation Behavioral Patterns.Evaluation.Mischel’s Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Rotter: Internal versus External Control of Our Behavior.Rotter, the Person.Rotter’s View of the Person.Basic Concepts: Rotter.Reinforcement Value, Psychological Situations, and Expectancy.Locus of Control: Internals and Externals.Characteristics of Internals and Externals.Evaluation.Contributions to Controlling Our Lives.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.13. Thinking Ahead and Learning Mastery of One’s Circumstances: Albert Bandura.Bandura, the Person.Bandura’s View of the Person.Inside/Outside and Reciprocal Causation.Person Factors, Behavior, and the External Environment.Free Will, Personal Agency, and the Power of Forethought.Learning.Basic Concepts: Bandura.Observational Learning.Social and Cognitive in Bandura’s Version of Social-Cognitive Theory of Observational Learning.Learning by Other People’s Example.Goals and Self-regulation.Self-Efficacy.Other Things We Learn from Models, besides Behavior.Rewards.Defensive Behaviors.Evaluation.Supporting Evidence.Implications of Social—Cognitive Theory for Moral Functioning.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.14. It’s All a Matter of Consequences: B. F. Skinner.Skinner, the Person.Skinner’s View of the Person.Environmentalism: The Importance of Consequences.“Beyond Freedom and Dignity”.Basic Concepts: Skinner.Operant Conditioning.Positive Reinforcement and Extinction.Negative Reinforcement and Punishment.The Development of Humans: Language, Personality, and Child Rearing.Evaluation.Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.15. Human Needs and Environmental Press: Henry A. Murray.Murray, the Person.Murray’s View of the Person.Early Exposure to Psychology.Why Did Murray Become a Psychologist?Developing a Unique Approach to Understanding People.Basic Concepts: Murray.Propositions.Definition of Needs.Varieties of Needs.Strength of Needs and Interactions among Them.Need Integrates (Complexes).Environmental Press.Thema.Evaluation.Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.16. The Trait Approach to Personality: Raymond Cattell and Hans Eysenck.Cattell, the Person.Cattell’s View of the Person.Cattell’s Approach to Understanding the Person.Personality Defined.Nature and Nurture.Factor Analysis.Basic Concepts: Cattell.Traits.Intelligence.Evaluation.Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Eysenck: 16 = 3—Conceiving of Personality in Three Dimensions.Eysenck, the Person.Eysenck’s View of the Person.Basic Concepts and Contributions: Eysenck.Traits and Types in Eysenck’s Theory.Biological Determinism.Toward a Scientific Model of Personality.Measuring and Describing E, N, and P.Supporting Evidence.Eysenck’s Last Word.Limitations.Arousal and E-I.Genes and Controversy.The Bell Curve: Race and Environment.Big 5 or Big 3 (or Big 16)?Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.17. Personality Development and Prejudice: Gordon Allport.Allport, the Person.Allport’s View of the Person.Humanism?Emphasis on Unique Traits and Behavioral Variability.De-emphasizing the Freudian Unconscious.Basic Concepts: Allport.Personality Defined.Traits.Cardinal, Central, and Secondary p.d.s.Personality Development.The Proprium and the Seven Stages of the Developing Self.The Mature Personality.Personality and Prejudice.Prejudice Defined.Social Distance.Subtle Manifestations of Racism.“Race” Differences.Stereotypes.Painting the Picture of the Prejudiced Personality.Evaluation.Contributions.Limitations.Conclusions.Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.18. Where Is Personality Theory Going?Underlying Assumptions.Temporal Orientation: Past, Present, and Future.Free Will?Consciousness and Unconsciousness.Developmental Stages.Humans: “Good” or “Bad”?Internal or External Causation?Bipolarity: Opposites Repel.Philosophical or Empirical?Holism versus Fragmentation.Genetic versus Environmental Causation.Idiographic versus Nomothetic Theory.Conceptualizations.Traits.Behavioral Dispositions.Cognitions.Temperament.Constructs.Situations.Methodologies.Reliance on Case Histories, Anecdotes, and Unsubstantiated Notions.Correlation Is Still Not Causation.Where Have the Experiments Gone?What We Know about Personality.Personality Is Uniqueness.Personality Is Complex.What Will Personality Theories of the Twenty-First Century Be Like?Summary Points.Running Comparison.Essay/Critical Thinking Questions.E-mail Interaction.