Week 13: Personality

Introduction to Psychology | Spring 2026 | Study Notes

What is Personality?

Personality refers to the long-lasting, relatively stable characteristics and patterns within an
individual that consistently influence their thinking, feeling, and behaviour. The word "personality"
comes from the Latin persona — a mask worn by actors in Ancient Greek/Roman theatre. The key
point: the public face we show is not the same as our personality.

Ewen (2014) Long-lasting and important characteristics within an individual that continue
to exert a strong influence on behaviour — observable or unobservable,
conscious or unconscious

Feist et al. (2021) A pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give
both consistency and individuality to a person's behaviour

APA Individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and

behaving

Historical Measures of Personality

The Four Humours (Hippocrates & Galen)

One of the earliest attempts to understand personality. Hippocrates (~460–370 BC) believed the
body contained four fluids (humours) that needed to be in balance for physical and mental health.
Galen (129–216 AD) linked them to four personality temperaments — too much of one humour
produced a certain temperament.

Humour Temperament Key Traits

Blood (Sanguine) Sanguine Optimistic, sociable, lively, courageous, eager

Phlegm (Phlegmatic) Phlegmatic Calm, peaceful, passive, thoughtful, reliable

Yellow Bile (Choleric) Choleric Bad-tempered, impulsive, ambitious, restless, bold

Black Bile (Melancholic) Melancholic Pessimistic, serious, anxious, unhappy, reserved

Other Historical Approaches

• Physiognomy — assessing personality from facial characteristics

• Phrenology / Craniology — reading personality from the shape and bumps of the skull
• Somatotyping — linking personality to body shape (e.g. Sheldon's Constitutional Theory)
 These approaches are now considered pseudoscience — they lacked scientific validity and were
often used to justify discrimination.

Perspectives on Personality

1. The Psychodynamic Perspective (Freud)

According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, all behaviour is predetermined — there is always a

reason (usually unconscious) for everything we do. Personality is shaped by unconscious forces,
early childhood experiences, and the tension between internal drives and social reality.

Levels of Awareness

Conscious What we are fully aware of at any given moment

Preconscious Not currently in awareness but can be brought to consciousness with effort. e.g.
a childhood memory you haven't thought of recently

Unconscious Thoughts, feelings, and desires that are repressed and cannot normally be
accessed. Home of anxiety-provoking or unacceptable material

The Tripartite Personality Theory (1923) — Id, Ego & Superego

Component When It Level of Operates On

Develops Awareness

Id At birth (innate) Unconscious Pleasure principle — seeks immediate

gratification of drives and desires, regardless
of consequences

Ego In infancy Conscious Reality principle — mediates between the id

and the real world; finds realistic ways to
satisfy drives

Superego Ages 3–6 Conscious + Moral principle — internalised societal rules

unconscious and values; the conscience; strives for
perfection

Freud's Psychosexual Development Theory

Freud believed personality is shaped by how we navigate five stages of development in childhood.
Conflict or unresolved issues at a stage can cause fixation — the personality becomes stuck at that
stage.

Oral Stage Birth – 1 year Pleasure centred on the mouth (feeding). Fixation →
dependency or aggression

Anal Stage 1 – 3 years Pleasure centred on bowel control. Fixation → overly

controlled (anal-retentive) or messy (anal-expulsive)
Phallic Stage 3 – 6 years Awareness of genitals; Oedipus/Electra complex. Fixation →
vanity, recklessness, or sexual issues

Latency Stage 6 – 11 years Sexual urges are suppressed; focus on social and
intellectual skills

Genital Stage Adolescence Sexual feelings re-emerge; development of mature

onward relationships

Defence Mechanisms
Unconscious strategies used by the ego to protect us from anxiety caused by unacceptable
thoughts or feelings:

Repression Unconsciously pushing unacceptable thoughts or memories out of

awareness

Regression Retreating to behaviour typical of an earlier developmental stage when

stressed. e.g. an adult throwing a tantrum

Reaction Formation Replacing an unacceptable thought with its opposite. e.g. being overly
kind to someone you dislike

Projection Attributing your own unacceptable feelings to others. e.g. "I'm not angry,
YOU'RE the angry one"

Introjection Internalising others' beliefs or values as your own

Sublimation Channelling unacceptable impulses into productive or socially acceptable

outlets. e.g. channelling aggression into sport

Projective Tests (Used in Psychodynamic Assessment)

• Rorschach Test — inkblot test; responses reveal unconscious emotions, motivations, and
perceptions
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) — personality assessed from stories a person makes up
about ambiguous pictures
• Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank — sentence completion test (e.g. "I regret…", "What
pains me…")
• Free association — freely sharing any thoughts and feelings without hesitation or censorship

The Neo-Freudians
Freud's followers (Neo-Freudians) agreed with many of his ideas but disagreed on others —
particularly his heavy emphasis on sex and the unconscious. Their theories are called
psychodynamic (broader than Freud's psychoanalytic).

Carl Jung (1875–1961) Added the collective unconscious — a shared reservoir of human
experience. Introduced archetypes and the concepts of
introversion/extraversion
Alfred Adler Focused on the inferiority complex — striving to overcome feelings of
(1870–1937) inferiority as a key motivator of behaviour

Karen Horney Challenged Freud's male-centred views; focused on anxiety and the role
(1885–1952) of social and cultural factors in personality

Erik Erikson Extended development across the lifespan with 8 psychosocial stages,
(1902–1994) each involving a crisis to resolve

2. The Behaviourist Perspective

Behaviourists believe that all behaviour — including personality — is learned through

experience. The environment shapes who we are. Internal mental states are either unimportant or
can be explained in purely behavioural terms.
• Personality = the sum of our learned, observable behaviours
• Any behaviour can in theory be taught through conditioning, regardless of individual differences

Radical Behaviourism (B.F. Skinner):

Skinner believed personality is simply our operant behaviours — what we do, shaped by
reinforcement and punishment from the environment. Internal traits exist but are not considered
important for explaining personality.
e.g. A person who is consistently rewarded for being helpful will develop a "helpful personality"
because that behaviour has been reinforced.

3. The Humanistic Perspective

The humanistic perspective rejects the determinism of both psychodynamics and behaviourism. It
emphasises that people have free will, agency, and an innate drive toward growth — called the
actualising tendency. People are seen as fundamentally good and capable of self-determination.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Already covered in Week 11. In the context of personality, Maslow believed that people who
successfully work through all levels of the hierarchy reach self-actualisation — achieving their full
potential. He referred to such people as having a "healthy personality."

Carl Rogers' Self-Concept (1902–1987)

Rogers (founder of person-centred therapy) believed personality is shaped by our self-concept —
our perception of who we are. He divided self-concept into three parts:
• Ideal self — who you want to be
• Self-image — how you currently see yourself
• Self-esteem — how you feel about yourself

Incongruence: The gap between the ideal self and real self. The larger this gap, the more anxiety
and vulnerability a person experiences. Rogers believed happiness comes from closing this gap.
Positive regard: Rogers argued that people need unconditional positive regard — being accepted
and valued without conditions — to develop a healthy self-concept. When love or approval is
 conditional, people distort their self-concept to meet others' expectations.

4. The Trait Perspective

Traits are relatively stable personality characteristics that make individuals different from each other.
The trait perspective focuses on identifying, measuring, and describing these stable characteristics.

Allport's Types of Traits

Gordon Allport started with ~18,000 personality-related words from the dictionary and eventually
narrowed them to 4,500. He categorised traits into three levels:

Cardinal Traits The single most dominant trait that shapes almost everything a person does.
Not everyone has one. e.g. Gandhi's nonviolence, Hitler's authoritarianism

Central Traits The main 5–10 traits that describe a person's personality. e.g. honest,
anxious, sociable

Secondary Traits Less consistent, less obvious traits that appear only in certain situations. e.g.
nervous about public speaking but not in everyday life

The Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN)

The most widely accepted model of personality today. Each trait is a spectrum — people fall
somewhere between the high and low ends.

Trait High Low

O — Openness Creative, imaginative, curious, likes Consistent, cautious, conservative,

variety likes routine

C — Conscientiousness Hardworking, organised, punctual, Negligent, lazy, disorganised, likely

ambitious to quit

E — Extraversion Outgoing, talkative, active, Reserved, quiet, passive, solitary,

fun-loving, passionate unfeeling

A — Agreeableness Trusting, generous, good-natured, Suspicious, stingy, irritable,

friendly detached, ruthless

N — Neuroticism Anxious, emotional, Calm, even-tempered,

temperamental, self-conscious comfortable, secure

Assessing Traits
• Self-report personality inventories — structured questionnaires. e.g. MMPI, Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator (MBTI), 16PF
• Surveys and personal documents — letters, diaries, autobiographies, recordings that reveal
personality patterns (Allport, 1961)

The Person vs The Situation

 A key debate: does behaviour reflect personality, or is it driven by the situation? Someone who
pushes you on the bus may be rude by nature — or may simply be in a desperate rush. This is
known as the fundamental attribution error when we over-attribute behaviour to personality and
ignore situational factors.

5. The Social Cognitive Perspective (Bandura)

This perspective combines elements of behaviourism and cognitive psychology. It recognises that
both the environment and our internal cognitive processes shape personality.

Behaviourist view Only the environment matters — it determines behaviour

Cognitive view Only internal cognitive processes matter — how we think and perceive

Social Learning Theory The environment matters, but so do inner processes — observational
learning and modelling are key

Social Cognitive Theory All three — the person, their behaviour, and the environment — interact
and influence each other

Reciprocal Determinism (Bandura):

The person (P), their behaviour (B), and the environment (E) all mutually influence each other —
no single factor is always dominant. Any one of the three can be the most influential depending on
the situation.
e.g. You enrol in a course (E → B). You work hard and feel confident (B → P). You find it interesting
so you do well (P → B). The course gets harder and you start disliking it (E → P).

Quick Summary

Topic Key Point

Personality Stable, long-lasting patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving unique

to an individual

Four Humours Hippocrates/Galen: Blood (Sanguine), Phlegm (Phlegmatic), Yellow

Bile (Choleric), Black Bile (Melancholic)

Freud's Levels Conscious → Preconscious → Unconscious

Id / Ego / Superego Id = pleasure principle; Ego = reality principle; Superego = moral

principle

Psychosexual Stages Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital — fixation at a stage shapes
personality

Defence Mechanisms Repression, Regression, Reaction Formation, Projection,

Introjection, Sublimation
Projective Tests Rorschach (inkblots), TAT (pictures), Free association, Incomplete
sentences

Neo-Freudians Jung (collective unconscious), Adler (inferiority), Horney (culture),

Erikson (lifespan stages)

Behaviourist View Personality = learned behaviours shaped by

reinforcement/punishment (Skinner)

Humanistic View People have agency and an actualising tendency; driven toward
growth and self-actualisation

Rogers' Self-Concept Ideal self, Self-image, Self-esteem; incongruence = gap between

ideal and real self

Positive Regard Unconditional acceptance needed for a healthy self-concept

Allport's Traits Cardinal (dominant), Central (main), Secondary (situational)

Big Five (OCEAN) Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness,

Neuroticism

Reciprocal Determinism Person, Behaviour, and Environment all mutually influence each
other (Bandura)

Based on: Freud (1923), Allport (1961), Rogers (1902–87), Maslow, Bandura, Ewen (2014), Feist et al. (2021)