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Chapter
Personality Theories
“We all agree that your
theory is crazy, but is it crazy
enough?” —Niels Bohr
PLAN AHEAD…
- How did Sigmund Freud explain personality development? Did
he emphasize sexuality and the unconscious? What are id,ego, superego,and Oedipus complex?
- Who were some of Freud’s followers,and how did they react to his theory?
- What is a collective unconscious? What are archetypes?
- How do behavioral and humanistic psychologists explain personality?
- Do we inherit our personalities? What is the nature-nurture controversy,and how
do modern psychologists resolve it?
- What are the parts of an emotion? How do psychologists describe and explain
emotional reactions?
- What motivates people to behave in a certain way?
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY 279
The first of the modern personality theories was developed by Sigmund Freud and is known as psychoanalytic theory. The psychiatric practice of this theory is called psychoanalysis. Freud’s ideas were plentiful, profound, and often controversial. His theory about personality has had tremendous influence on societies around the world through many different disciplines. Not only psychology has been influenced and informed by the ideas of Freud, but also literature, art, philosophy, cultural studies, film theory, and many other academic subjects. Freud’s theory represents one of the major intellectual ideas of the modern world. Right or wrong, these ideas have had a lasting and enormous impact.
Exploring the Unknown
To understand Freud’s theory of personality, we must begin with the concept of the unconscious. This is the cornerstone idea in psychoanalytic theory. Freud believed that most behaviors are caused by thoughts, ideas, and wishes that are in a person’s brain but are not easily accessible by the conscious part of the mind. In other words, your brain knows things that your mind doesn’t. This reservoir of conceptions of which we are unaware is called the unconscious. Psychoanalytic theory proposes that per- sonality characteristics are mostly a reflection of the contents of the unconscious part of the mind.
Sara is the daughter of my good friends, and I
watched her mature through adolescence and young adulthood. Throughout her teens,
she was shy,cautious,and conservative in her political views and her approach to life.
But in her twenties,Sara changed abruptly and dramatically,becoming animated,
gregarious,and extremely liberal. Everything about her seemed to blossom and
change. Do you know someone like that? As a psychologist,watching Sara made me
wonder how any personality theory could adequately capture the nuances of the
complex and changing thing we call personality.
Many psychologists have developed theories about personality—how to describe it,
how it emerges,what influences it,how it changes,and what constitutes a healthy or
an abnormal personality. Here you will learn about the three most important personal-
ity theories: psychoanalytic theory,behaviorism,and humanism. Do you remember
reading about them in Chapter 1?
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
“A Freudian slip is when you mean one thing and say your mother.” —Anonymous
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalysis.
Can you give some examples that might represent repression—things from your life,from people that you know,or from books or movies?
How are repression and forgetting different from each other?
THINK TANK
Some people find it fun and interesting to keep a dream journal.
Keep a pen and paper near your bed,and when you awaken,immediately attempt to recall your dreams and write them down.
If you have trouble remembering your dreams,set your alarm to wake up at a different time than usual,maybe 20 minutes earlier.
Can you find any meanings in your dreams?
What themes are common?
THINK TANK
Dreams and Slips
Although repression keeps undesirable information in the unconscious and out of awareness, that repressed information is influential and, according to Freudian theory, can seep out of the unconscious and express itself through behaviors, thoughts, and dreams. Unconscious thoughts express themselves in a disguised form so as not to overly disturb the conscious mind. It is as if the unconscious is a boiling cauldron of threatening and anxiety-producing ideas, but the steam from this boiling pot can filter up into our awareness and influence our behaviors and haunt our emotions and cog- nitions. Freud proposed that the best place to look for clues to the unconscious is in dreams. A dream, Freud said, is a disguised form of what we unconsciously wish for. Dreams are wish fulfillment. Through them, we get what our unconscious wants. But dreams are not obvious and direct mirrors of unconscious ideas. A dream must be ana- lyzed and interpreted in order to understand the clues that it provides. The things that are present and the events that happen in a dream are known as the manifest content of the dream. These are disguised versions of unconscious thoughts. The meanings of those dream elements are called the latent content of the dream. A dream about an Egyptian mummy (the manifest content) might be a dream about one’s mother (mommy); or it might be a dream about frustration (being bound); or it might be about a desire for more freedom; or it might represent a wish to be hugged and cuddled or to feel possessed by someone; or it might be an expression of the death wish ( thanatos, as opposed to the life wish, eros ) that Freud used to explain suicides, war, and other circumstances; or it might represent a desire to go to heaven or to be warm or to be rested (all possible latent contents). The manifest content, the mummy, represents something in the unconscious, the latent content. Freud devel- oped a number of counseling techniques (including dream interpretation) intended to help reveal what was in his patients’ unconscious minds based on the belief that reveal- ing the contents of the unconscious would cause the patient’s symptoms to disappear.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY 281
Sometimes, according to Freud, a mistake is not a mistake. Just as dreams have hid- den meanings, some mistakes have hidden meanings. When we make a mistake that is influenced by the unconscious (when a mistake is not a mistake, when a mistake has meaning) it is called a Freudian slip, for example, a slip of the tongue. If you acciden- tally call your boyfriend or girlfriend by the wrong name, it might just be a mistake; but it might be a Freudian slip. That is, it might be a mistake that reveals something about your unconscious thoughts and wishes. If a person has done something that he believes to be wrong (perhaps he told a lie earlier in the day) and this act has made him feel guilty, then perhaps later, while peeling potatoes, he might unintentionally cut himself. Freud said that sometimes such an act is no accident. The feelings of guilt in the uncon- scious might have directed the person to cut himself as a punishment for his lying. Remember, it does no good to ask a person whether this is true. Freud’s theory says that this information is in the unconscious—a person is not aware of it. In fact, during therapy, Freudian psychoanalysts believe that if a patient becomes overly upset when a therapist suggests that there is a particular thought or wish in the patient’s unconscious, this might be evidence that the therapist is on the right track. In psychoanalytic theory, this is known as resistance, referring to the idea that patients will resist suggestions that probe the anxiety-producing contents of the unconscious. The unconscious wants to keep those thoughts from awareness and becomes upset when they are approached. One of the techniques used in psychoanalysis is to analyze the patient’s resistance, to see what clues it might provide regarding the person’s unconscious thoughts. Theoretically, the stuff in the unconscious is there because it is bothersome to the person. The mind actively represses the information, whether that is rational or not. Freud’s view is that repression might be harmful and might be the cause of a patient’s mental or behavioral symptoms. Freud’s “cure” is to reveal the unconscious informa- tion. If a therapist suggests that a patient’s problems might be connected to his rela- tionship with his mother and the patient screams, “Leave my mother out of this!” the psychoanalytic therapist views this response as indicative of repression and resistance and a signal that therapy should proceed in that direction.
Mental Protection
Psychoanalytic theory suggests that there are other ways in which our unconscious pro- tects us besides by repression. These protective devices of the unconscious are known as defense mechanisms. Here are some examples.
- Rationalization: Sometimes our unconscious makes up a good-sounding reason to explain something we don’t like. If we fail a test, we blame it on others. If our favorite candidate doesn’t win the election, we say that it’s for the best anyway. If we don’t complete an assignment, we think the teacher was unfair to have given the assignment. “Sour grapes” is another example—if we don’t get something we want, we find something wrong with it and convince ourselves we’re better off without it. Rationalizing protects us from the anxiety of seeing ourselves as defi- cient. This is a common defense mechanism because of the importance placed on giving good reasons for things. However, this is not rational, it is rationalizing. Being rational means being objective. In rationalization, our mind protects us with a reason that only sounds good; it is not objective, it just seems to be. Our mind is trying to help us out!
- Projection: In this case, when we have some thoughts or feelings that we consider to be wrong or upsetting, we project them onto other people instead of on our- selves. If I believe that a certain attitude or feeling that I have is terribly wrong, I will claim that others have it. A person who wants to use illegal drugs but who believes that it would make him a horrible person might expect everyone else to want to use illegal drugs. This defense mechanism deflects the anxiety away from
282 PERSONALITY THEORIES
what is threatening. Defense mechanisms protect us from anx- iety and threats. In that sense, they are useful and good. How- ever, they can go too far and take us into abnormality. When defense mechanisms become extreme, they cause more prob- lems than they solve. A person might then develop symptoms of mental disturbance. Freud proposed a clinical therapy to deal with those instances, as noted above, a therapy known as psy- choanalysis. The essence of this approach is to reveal the con- tents of the unconscious to the patient so that he or she can see that there is nothing to be afraid of. This, Freud said, will result in a disappearance of the symptoms. We will return to this issue later in Chapter 10. For now, more about psychoanalytic per- sonality theory.
Personality Structures
Freud suggested an analogy about the mind. He said that the mind is like an iceberg in the ocean, floating 10% above the water and 90% below. The unconscious, Freud proposed, makes up the vast majority of our mind. In Freud’s view, only about 10% of our behaviors are caused by conscious awareness—about 90% are produced by uncon- scious factors. According to psychoanalytic theory, most of what controls our behaviors, thoughts, and feelings is unknown to our aware minds. Normally, the unconscious guides us. Freud said that the mind could be divided into three abstract categories. These are the id, the ego, and the superego. Although these are known as structures, do not take the term literally. Freud did not mean that these are physical parts of our bodies or our brains. He coined these terms and proposed this division of the mind as abstract ideas meant to help us understand how personality develops and works, and how mental ill- nesses can develop.
1. The id: Latin for the term “it,” this division of the mind includes our basic instincts, inborn dispositions, and animalistic urges. Freud said that the id is totally unconscious, that we are unaware of its workings. The id is not rational; it imagines, dreams, and invents things to get us what we want. Freud said that the id operates according to the pleasure principle —it aims toward pleasurable things and away from painful things. The id aims to satisfy our biological urges and drives. It includes feelings of hunger, thirst, sex, and other natural body desires aimed at deriving pleasure. 2. The ego: Greek and Latin for “I,” this personality structure begins developing in childhood and can be interpreted as the “self.” The ego is partly conscious and partly unconscious. The ego operates according to the reality principle; that is, it attempts to help the id get what it wants by judging the difference between real and imaginary. If a person is hungry, the id might begin to imagine food and even dream about food. (The id is not rational.) The ego, however, will try to determine how to get some real food. The ego helps a person satisfy needs through reality. 3. The superego: This term means “above the ego,” and includes the moral ideas that a person learns within the family and society. The superego gives people feelings of pride when they do something correct (the ego ideal ) and feelings of guilt when they do something they consider to be morally wrong (the conscience ). The superego, like the ego, is partly conscious and partly unconscious. The superego is a child’s moral barometer, and it creates feel- ings of pride and guilt according to the beliefs that have been learned within the family and the culture.
284 PERSONALITY THEORIES
Freud theorized that personality contains three structures—the id, ego, and superego—and that the mind is like an iceberg, the unconscious making up 90% while the conscious (like the tip of the iceberg floating above water) makes only 10% of the mind.
Id
Ego
Conscious mind Preconscious (outside awareness but accessible)
Unconscious mind
Superego
Freud did not
develop his
theory on the basis of
scientific experiments,
such as correlation and
controlled studies (see
Chapter 2). He drew his
conclusions mostly from the
patients that he saw. He used
the case study method. The
therapy that he developed is
discussed in Chapter 10.
Connecting
Concepts
Freud theorized that healthy personality development requires a balance between the id and the superego. These two divisions of the mind are naturally at conflict with one another: The id attempts to satisfy animal, biological urges, while the superego preaches patience and restraint. The struggle between these two is an example of intrapsychic conflict —conflict within the mind. According to psychoanalytic theory, defense mechanisms are automatic (unconscious) reactions to the fear that the id’s desires will overwhelm the ego. Freud believed that a healthy personality was one in which the id’s demands are met but also the superego is satisfied in making the person feel proud and not overwhelmed by guilt. If the id is too strong, a person will be rude, overbearing, selfish, and animalistic. If the superego is too strong, a person is constantly worried, nervous, and full of guilt and anxiety and is always repressing the id’s desires. An overly strong id makes one a psychopath, lacking a conscience, or an ogre, self- ishly meeting one’s needs without concern for others. An overly strong superego, on the other hand, makes one a worrier, a neurotic, so overwhelmed by guilt that it is dif- ficult to get satisfaction. Sometimes it is said that the ego is the mediator between the id and the superego, but this is not what Freud said. The ego does not help to find compromise; the ego helps the id to satisfy its desires by focusing on what is real.
The Stage Is Set
Freud theorized that personality traits evolve through a series of stages that occur during childhood and adolescence. These are called psychosexual stages because they focus on mental (psyche) ideas about sex. However, it is important to note that Freud’s language was German, and not everything from German translates precisely into English. When we say that Freud’s theory concentrates on “sex,” we are using that term in an overly broad manner. There is no word in English for exactly what Freud was talking about. “Sensuality” might be closer than “sex” to the concept that Freud had in mind. Freud was referring to everything that gave a person bodily pleasure. In psychoanalytic theory, sucking your thumb is part of sex. Massaging your neck is also included. Freud believed
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY 285
Recap
— Sigmund Freud developed an intricate theory of personality known as psychoanalytic theory. The therapeutic practice is called psychoanalysis.
— This theory says that traumatic events are repressed into the unconscious part of the mind,where they can influence behavior and personality.
— Freud described hysteria as an example of repression.
— Freud taught that slips of the tongue and dreams could be analyzed to give clues as to what is in a person’s unconscious. The elements
of a dream are called the manifest content; the hidden meanings are called the latent content.
— In psychoanalytic theory,the mind protects itself from threats by using defense mechanisms such as repression,rationalization, and sublimation.
— Freud theorized three structures of personality: the id (seeks pleasure),the ego (judges reality), and the superego (morality,including conscience).
— Intrapsychic conflict can involve disputes between the id (which attempts to satisfy biological urges) and the superego (which represents morality).
theoretically, that children become aware of whether or not they have a penis, and Freud believed that this causes a bit of anxiety in the unconscious parts of their minds. Boys, Freud reasoned, become protective of their penis and fear having it taken away. This is known as castration anxiety and might be manifested in a young boy’s fear of knives, scissors, or being bitten by dogs. Girls, Freud thought, feel resentful that they do not have a penis and hence seek phallic things and activities that will provide them with feelings of power and possession. This is known as penis envy and might be seen when preschool girls develop a deep fondness for horses, unicorns, and other strong, masculine things or long, pointed objects. Freud proposed an unconscious drama during this stage that he called his most important idea. It is called the Oedipus complex (some- times referred to as the Oedipal conflict). This unconscious process is named after the Greek story of Oedipus, the man who was raised by foster parents and grew up to unwittingly kill his biological father and marry his biological mother. Freud said that a similar drama occurs in the unconscious minds of preschool boys, who favor their mothers and fear their fathers (castration anxiety). The child resents the father for getting all of the mother’s attentions. Many psychoanalysts suggest a similar conflict for preschool girls, referred to as the Electra complex; it is essentially the reverse of the situation for boys: love and desire for father, resentment for mother. According to psychoanalytic theory, these complexes become so severe and anxiety-producing that the child’s unconscious must resolve them using a defense mechanism. The solution is for the child to begin to identify with the same-sexed parent. The child begins to internalize the personality of the same-sexed parent, thereby relieving the anxiety and vicariously winning the love of the opposite-sexed parent. For a little boy, being like daddy means no longer having to fear and resent him, and it also means getting mommy’s love through daddy. For a little girl, it means winning daddy’s love by being like mommy. This process is called identification with the aggressor; some- times simply known as identification. The result is that children begin to internalize the values, morals (the superego), traits, attitudes, and behaviors of their parents. In fact, in 1925, Freud concluded that he had been wrong about penis envy in young girls and theorized that the Oedipal struggle for girls, as well as for boys, centered on love for the mother. As you can imagine, this remains a controversial idea among psychoanalysts.
4. Latency: After resolving the Oedipal conflict through identification (at about the age of six), children enter a stage during which sexual urges are dormant or resting. The term latent means that something is present or has potential without being active or evident. During this stage, sexual urges are taking a recess; they are at a minimum. From about the ages of 6 to 12, boys typically stick together and say that they do not like girls, or they act squeamish around girls. Similarly, girls during this stage are highly critical of boys, are shy around them, and avoid them. Apparently, the demands of the previous stage and the Oedipal drama were so overwhelming that the unconscious needs a bit of a rest. 5. Genital: This final of the psychosexual stages arises during adolescence when teenagers begin again to show sexual interests. This stage leads to adult affection and love. If all has gone well in the previous stages, Freud theorized, interest during adolescence is on heterosexual relationships. This is a time of exploring pleasure through more mature love and affection.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY 287
TABLE 8.1 Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Stage Approximate Ages Main Features
- Oral Birth–1 1/2 or 2 Mouth,dependency
- Anal 1 1/2–3 Toilet training,give and take
- Phallic 3–6 Oedipus complex,identification,superego
- Latency 6–12 Repression of sexuality
- Genital 12–Adulthood Development of normal sexuality
288 PERSONALITY THEORIES
Can you think of characters from literature or movies that represent psychoanalytic concepts?
Is it always good to know what is in one’s unconscious?
Why or why not?
THINK TANK
One should not think of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory as a scientific theory, but more as a form of literature or storytelling. People often ask whether Freud’s theory is right or wrong. This question is difficult to answer, perhaps impossible, because psy- choanalytic theory is not totally a scientific or empirical theory that can be tested to determine its veracity. It is probably best to treat psychoanalytic theory as a series of interesting stories with plots and characters. Whether these stories are good or not depends on the extent to which they provide a deeper and better understanding of human personality development. Some of Freud’s concepts have met that test—for example, the unconscious, repression, the importance of childhood sexuality, and the influence of parenting on the child’s personality. It is hard to deny the basic tenets of psychoanalytic theory: The unconscious can influence our behaviors and our person- ality, things that happen in childhood plant the seeds for adult personality develop- ment, traumatic events in childhood can have lasting effects on our personalities, and the sexual drive is an important factor in our lives that can influence our personality. On the other hand, many of Freud’s ideas are not supported by research and obser- vation. His theory provides some provocative ideas about the course of human devel- opment and the causes of behaviors, but these often fail when put to an empirical test. Perhaps a good way to conclude this discussion of Freud’s ideas is to use a variation on Freud’s remark about his cigar smoking: Sometimes a theory is just a theory. Freud had great influence, particularly early in the twentieth century, and he had many followers who developed their own theories of personality development, often contradicting Freud’s. Here are a few of the major ideas of some neo-Freudians, early followers of Freud who splintered off and formed their own theories.
Carl Jung
Freud’s closest friend and dearest colleague was a psychiatrist from Switzerland named Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961). (The name Jung is pronounced “yooung.”) Freud selected Jung to be the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association in
Jung’s theory remains very popular. In many ways, it does not seem like a psycho- logical theory, because it leans so heavily on anthropology, spirituality, and myths. It is probably the most mystical of all the psychological personality theories.
290 PERSONALITY THEORIES
Try using Jung’s archetypes on yourself.
Divide a piece of paper into three sections.
In the first,write PERSONA,and list things about yourself that you show to others.
In the second section,write ANIMA or ANIMUS,and list the qualities of the opposite sex that you have.
In the third section,write SHADOW,and list your personality qualities that you keep hidden,that might represent the “bad” part of you.
THINK TANK
Erik Erikson
Sigmund Freud had a daughter named Anna, who also became a famous psychoana- lyst. One of her star pupils was a teacher named Erik Erikson (1902–1994). He is one of very few people to become a psychoanalyst without being a psychiatrist. Erikson learned about Freudian psychology from Anna Freud, then moved to New York, where he took up the practice of psychoanalysis. The funny thing is that Erikson noticed that most of his patients were not hung up on sexual problems, as the patients of Sigmund Freud reported, but instead talked about problems with understanding themselves and getting along with others. Erikson believed that Freud’s theory needed to be updated. In 1950, he wrote a book entitled Childhood and Society, in which he proposed a theory of psychosocial development. Erikson converted Freud’s emphasis on sexuality to a focus on social relationships and then extended Freud’s five psychosexual stages to eight psychosocial stages. These stages became known as the Eight Ages of Man. (As you know, at that time in history, the word man was used to apply to all human beings. No sexist discrimination was intended.) Each of Erikson’s eight stages was described as a time of crisis—a time when the personality would go one way or the other. For example, you’ve likely heard of the identity crisis. Erikson theorized that during adolescence, we all face a crisis of figuring out who we are. Each of the stages has this either-or quality.
Karen Horney
Not all of Freud’s disciples were men, and not all (though nearly all) concentrated on the personality development of men. The leader of the exceptions was a strong-willed woman named Karen Horney (1885–1952), who today is recognized as having pro- posed the most complete psychoanalytic theory of women’s personality development. Whereas Freud had placed great importance on biological factors, Horney believed that the differences between men and women were mainly due to societal conditions. She argued that women felt inferior to men not because of an innate penis envy, but because of the way women were treated in society.
Erik Erikson
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY 291
TABLE 8.2 Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
- Infant Trust versus mistrust Babies whose needs are met develop a feeling of trust for the environment. If infants have frustration and deprivation, they learn a basic mistrust for the world that will stick throughout life.
- Toddler Autonomy versus shame When toddlers learn to act independently and to control and doubt their bodies (toilet training,walking,etc.),they learn self- confidence and a feeling of autonomy. Failure leads to feel- ings of inadequacy and therefore a sense of basic shame and doubt.
- Preschool Initiative versus guilt The preschooler is ready to take action—in play,in imagina- tion,and in running his or her life. Success here leads to good self-esteem; problems lead to feelings of guilt.
- Early school age Industry versus inferiority The school-aged child is ready for learning many new skills and,if successful,will develop a sense of industry—being good at things. Failures at this stage result in a deep sense of being no good,of being inferior to others—a feeling that might carry into adulthood.
- Adolescent Identity versus role confusion An adolescent is beginning to think abstractly and can con- ceptualize his or her self-identity and personality. The adoles- cent begins to consider questions of identity such as: Who should I be? What should I value? And what interests should I have? The teen must answer these to develop a good sense of self-identity. Exploration of various roles and personalities is common in this stage.
- Young adult Intimacy versus isolation A young adult faces the challenge of developing close emotional relationships with other people. Here the term intimate does not mean sexuality,but social and emotional connections with others. The opposite result,for those who do not develop a sense of intimacy,is to become isolated from social contact.
- Middle-aged adult Generativity versus stagnation Middle-aged adults feel an urgency to leave a mark on the world,to generate something of lasting value and worth. Finding a purpose in life is a central theme. To fail at gener- ating something significant means a person becomes stag- nant and stops moving forward; this person may become selfish and self-absorbed.
- Old adult Integrity versus despair In old age,it is common to look back on life and reflect on what was accomplished. People who feel good about what they have done build a sense of integrity. For those whose evaluations are not so good,there is despair,the feeling of regret and remorse for the life they led.
What are some ways in which young adults show that they are dealing with the issue of intimacy versus isolation?
How does adolescent behavior represent a crisis in identity?
Give examples.
THINK TANK
BEHAVIORISM 293
BEHAVIORISM
“The term Science should not be given to anything but
the aggregate of the recipes that are always successful.” —Paul Valéry
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was the first modern theory of personality and, as was shown above, had great influence and many adherents. However, psychoanalytic theory also had numerous detractors. Chief among the critics of psychoanalytic theory was a young American psychologist named John B. Watson (1878–1958), who believed that psychology should eschew the subjective study of the mind and instead should embrace scientific methodology and empirical research. Watson initiated a revolution in thinking about psychology, creating a new school of thought called behaviorism. Watson was joined by a large number of psychologists who also believed that psychology should reject the mental and unconscious ideas of Freud and others and that psychology should focus on the scientific exploration of overt, observable behavior.
Searching for Laws
The behaviorists were like physicists attempting to uncover the funda- mental natural laws of behavior, one experiment at a time, while ignor- ing the mind altogether. Their leader was B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), a brilliant experimentalist who eventually equaled, or even surpassed, Freud in influencing the course of psychology. Skinner performed many experiments on lower animals, discovering the basic laws of animal action, and wrote many books. He was an ethical person, a hard worker, a good husband and father, and a brilliant scientist. Unfortunately, because many people did not like the results that Skinner found in his experiments, they criticized him unfairly. Skinner suffered the same complaints that Socrates, Galileo, and Darwin did. Because their ideas challenged common views, people who didn’t like the message often attacked the messengers. Skinner was often asked whether he thought about himself the same way that he thought about his research animals. It’s likely that this question was not meant in all fairness, because Skinner’s research animals were lower animals such as rats and pigeons. But Skinner took the question seri- ously and in 1983 responded somewhat proudly and defiantly: “The answer is yes. So far as I know, my behavior at any given moment has been nothing more than the product of my genetic endowment, my personal history, and the current setting.” This is a good summary of the behavior- ist view of personality. Personality is defined as behavior, and behavior has three causes: genetics, personal history, and the current setting.
The Basics of Behaviorism
First, notice from Skinner’s response that he answered the question with reference to behavior. A psychoanalyst, by contrast, would have responded to this question with reference to the unconscious. When questioned
B. F. Skinner, foremost proponent of behaviorism, with some of his common experimental subjects.
294 PERSONALITY THEORIES
about personality, behaviorists think first of behavior. Second, notice that Skinner does not ignore genetics. It is often said that behaviorism does not give any regard to heredity. This quotation from the leading behaviorist shows that the suggestion is incorrect. Next, note that Skinner credits the current setting as a contributing factor. This portion of answer refers to situationism, the notion that circumstances around us at any given moment can influence how we act. Finally, Skinner mentions personal history. This needs some explanation. When behaviorists speak of personal history, they are not referring to the kind of events that Freud and the psychoanalysts believed were important in personality formation, such as the traumatic, aggressive, and sexual events that become stored in a child’s uncon- scious. When they speak of personal history, behaviorists are not referring to the mind at all. What they mean is that each person has experiences in his or her environment, most importantly experiences with people, experiences that by means of reinforcement and other laws of behavior influence the person’s disposition to act a certain way. For instance, if a child’s outgoing behavior is reinforced, then that behavior will become more common. Similarly, if a child has unpleasant experiences around animals, then that child may come to dislike animals. A child who consistently receives praise for acting cooperatively or generously will begin to act cooperatively or generously in similar situations in the future, depending on the circumstances and on hereditary variables. By personal history, behavior- ists mean the reinforcing events that each of us has experienced in our pasts. Behaviorists theorize that personality is behavior and that behavior is shaped mostly by our experiences in the environment. Behaviors that are successful or that lead to pleasure will become more frequent. Behaviors that fail or that lead to unpleasantness will become less frequent. These considerations are modulated by the constraints of heredity and situationism. The cornerstone idea of behaviorism is that behavior is learned and that behavior might or might not be consistent from one situation to another. If extraverted behavior is reinforced in one set of conditions but not in another, the person will come to demon- strate extraverted behavior in situations that are similar to the first but not in situations similar to the second. Skinner’s answer provides us with the fundamental argument made by behaviorism: As far as we know, a person’s behavior at any moment is the result of (1) his or her heredity, (2) the situation he or she is in, and (3) that person’s previous experiences in the environment. Please note that one very optimistic thing about behav- iorism is the idea that if behaviors are in fact learned, they can also be unlearned.
Social Learning Theory
Behaviorism is technically not so much a coherent theory of personality as it is a collec- tion of experimental research findings that suggest certain principles of personality for- mation. Behaviorism is not so much a theory as it is an extrapolation of experimental findings. Its principal teachings are based on the results of scientific research. All behav- iorist explanations of personality embrace situationism. The focus of behaviorism is not on the personal characteristics of people, but on how people behave in various situations. Behaviorists do not talk about traits; they talk about actions. Personality, in the context of behaviorism, is the sum of the actions a person takes in different circumstances. Some followers of behaviorism have proposed theoretical models based on the exper- imental research findings that are at the core of this school of psychology. These theories are often called social learning theories because they emphasize the importance of social settings (interactions with people), and the significance of learning as the key com- ponent of personality development. Behaviorism defines personality as the different behaviors that a person engages in and argues that these behaviors have been learned, primarily through interactions with parents, family members, teachers, and others.
Observational Learning
One of the fundamental principles of social learning theory is that humans learn many of their behaviors not through their own direct experiences with the world, but by
The
behaviorists,more
than any other early
psychologists,used the
experimental methods
described in Chapter 2 to find
the laws and principles of
behavior. Those laws were
described in Chapter 5. Also,
the behaviorist emphasis on
the power of the situation is
similar to the discussion of
social psychology in Chapter 7.
Connecting
Concepts
296 PERSONALITY THEORIES
Behaviorism’s Tenets
The basic tenets of behaviorism are fairly simple, though the details may not be. Here are the fundamental theoretical beliefs of behaviorism:
1. Personality is an abstract, hypothetical concept that is best conceptualized as the sum of a person’s behaviors in various situations. Personality should be viewed not as part of the mind, but as observable behavior. 2. Behaviors should be studied empirically to determine the precise variables within the world of experience (the environment) that influence and shape personalities. Psychology must be a scientific enterprise. 3. Mental variables (the mind) are not proper subjects of scientific inquiry and furthermore are not elements that influence behavior. Skinner said, “The practice of looking inside the organism for an explanation of behavior has tended to obscure the variables which are immediately available for a scien- tific analysis. These variables lie outside the organism, in its immediate envi- ronment and in its environmental history. The objection to inner states is not that they do not exist, but that they are not relevant” (Skinner, 1953). 4. People are born neither good nor bad, but are shaped by their experiences. Each person has hereditary factors that influence his or her development, but the primary forces of personality development are the events that happen to people in their lives. 5. Behaviors are developed predominantly via learning. Learning occurs mainly through the processes of reinforcement and observation. Behaviors that are learned under one set of conditions might not be learned under a different set of conditions; therefore, personality might be inconsistent from one situa- tion to another.
Behaviorism had tremendous influence on the course of psychology, particularly dur- ing the first half of the twentieth century. Behaviorism influenced the kind of research that was done, the development of many theories and many practical applications that
Recap
— Behavior theorists shifted the focus away from the mind and onto observable,measurable behavior. They emphasize that personality is learned.
— John B. Watson was the founder of behaviorism, but B. F. Skinner was the most influential researcher and advocate of this school of psychology.
— Skinner stressed three factors as determiners of behavior: genetics,personal history,and the current setting.
— Behaviorism focuses on behavior,how it is learned within the environment,and how situations influence a person’s actions.
— The behaviorist approach to personality sees a newborn as essentially neutral; behaviors are learned depending on experiences in the world.
— Social learning theories emphasize the role of human interaction in the development of personality.
— Behavioral theories also emphasize observational learning—learning behaviors by seeing or hearing others.
— Bandura,Ross,and Ross showed how children learn aggressive behaviors by viewing adults acting aggressively.
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continue to be used in schools, mental hospitals, workplaces, and the home. In recent years, behaviorism has waned somewhat, and today is often tempered with doses of cog- nitive psychology and physiological psychology. Still, the remnants of this powerful school of psychology reverberate throughout the discipline. Many research studies that are conducted in contemporary psychology use methodology that would not have been possible without the progress and paradigms created by B. F. Skinner and his followers. In this sense, behaviorism will always be a part of psychology.
HUMANISM
“When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.” —Abraham Maslow
Psychoanalytic theory and behaviorism were the first two major theories of person- ality development in the modern discipline of psychology. Both have had tremendous influence and have inspired practical endeavors as well as theoretical notions. But there is still another theoretical school in modern psychology. This third approach, called humanism or humanistic psychology, was initiated in the 1950s by an Ameri- can psychologist named Abraham Maslow (1908–1970).
The Inner Drives
Maslow was critical of psychoanalytic theory because it focused on the abnormal per- sonality and had little to say about the normal, healthy personality. Maslow argued that psychology should give more attention to the highest and most affirming of human personality qualities, things like love, self-esteem, and creativity. Maslow wrote, “It is as if Freud has supplied to us the sick half of psychology and we must now fill it out with the healthy half” (Maslow, 1998). Additionally, Maslow believed that a personality theory should be centered on the conscious, not the unconscious, mind. He argued that human personality is primarily a matter of making conscious choices and rational decisions that are guided by our desire for excellence and fulfillment. Maslow wanted the aware mind to take center stage in a theory of personality. Just as he was critical of psychoanalytic theory, Maslow also criticized the basic tenets of behaviorism. Personality theories should emphasize human qualities, not the behavior of lower animals, he reasoned. Personality theo- ries should focus on the inner life (feelings and thoughts) of the individual, not on a person’s overt behaviors. Maslow did not believe that taking a scientific approach to person- ality was important. For him, personality should focus on the subjective mental life of people—emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and the conscious mind. Maslow carefully began to build a third approach to personality, the approach now known as humanism or humanistic psychology. Maslow’s ideas were similar to those of many philoso- phers who are collectively known as existentialists. It is not easy to define existential philosophy, because the topics covered in this broad field are very diverse and abstract.
Abraham Maslow, founder of humanistic psychology.
While at the University of Wisconsin,Maslow longed to marry a girl from back home in Brooklyn (his first cousin) but was wary of asking her to join him. He asked a professor for advice and was told to follow his heart. He was happily married for years. Perhaps this personal incident influenced his ideas about psychology.
