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Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development looks at development across the life span in a social context in 8 sequential stages during which we are faced with a crisis to resolve:

Table 13.1 Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Gender development:

Gender—the sociocultural dimension of being biologically male or female.

Gender roles—sets of expectations that prescribe how males and females should act, think, feel.

Gender identity—person’s sense of being male or female.

Gender stability—child’s understanding that sex identity is stable over time.

Gender consistency—child’s understanding that his/her sex won’t change even if he/she acts like the opposite sex.

Gender schema—mental set of what society considers appropriate behavior for each of the sexes.

Gender role stereotypes—broad categories that reflect our impressions and beliefs about males and females.

Androgyny—the presence of desirable masculine and feminine characteristics in one individual.

CHAPTER 14

Personality

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: “(S)he’s got a great personality” is a statement you probably like to hear about yourself. Personality is a unique pattern of consistent feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that originate within the individual. Because personality is unique to an individual, controlled experiments cannot be used to study it; thus, cause and effect relationships cannot be established. Psychologists use two different research methods to better understand personality. The idiographic method focuses on understanding the unique aspects of each individual’s personality relying on data primarily from case studies that often include interviews and naturalistic observations. The nomothetic method focuses on variables at the group level, identifying universal trait dimensions or relationships between different aspects of personality. Data for nomothetic studies is gathered primarily from tests, surveys, and observations. Correlations between traits or types of behavior can yield information about aspects of personality that apply to people in general. Nomothetic studies do not tell us about a particular individual. Most psychologists agree that our behavior results from the interaction of personal characteristics and environmental situations. Psychologists take different approaches to understanding and describing the origin and nature of personality.

This chapter examines theories and approaches of personality that are biological/evolutionary, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive, trait, and behaviorist; and techniques psychologists use to measure personality.

Key Ideas

Biological/evolutionary theories of personality

Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theories of personality

Humanistic theories of personality

Behavioral theory—operant conditioning

Cognitive theories of personality

Trait theories of personality

Assessment techniques

Self-concept and self-esteem

Personality Theories and Approaches

Biological and Evolutionary Personality Theories

To what extent is our personality determined by our heredity? Thousands of years ago, Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates attributed personality to our biology. About 500 years later, Greek physician Galen claimed that a person’s temperament depends on relative quantities of four humors, or fluids, in the body—blood and cheerfulness, phlegm and calmness, black bile and depression, yellow bile and irritability. In about 1800, seeking to relate behavior to observable aspects of physical makeup, Gall and Spurzheim related bumps and depressions on the skull to personality traits in their discredited theory of phrenology, and a half century ago, psychologist and physician William Sheldon related physique to temperament. According to his somatotype theory (which can be classified as a biological type theory), the soft, spherical endomorph is likely to be sociable and affectionate; the hard, muscular mesomorph is likely to be aggressive and courageous; and the linear and fragile ectomorph