Personality is an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Psychoanalytic (and later psychodynamic) theory and humanistic theory have become part of our cultural legacy. They also laid the foundation for later theories, such as trait and social-cognitive theories of personality.

Psychodynamic theories view personality from the perspective that behavior is a lively (dynamic) interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind. The theories trace their origin to Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis.

In treating patients whose disorders had no clear physical explanation, Freud concluded that these problems reflected unacceptable thoughts and feelings, hidden away in the unconscious mind. To explore this hidden part of a patient’s mind, Freud used free association and dream analysis.

Freud believed that personality is a result of conflict among the mind’s three systems: the id (pleasure-seeking impulses), ego (reality-oriented executive), and superego (internalized set of ideals, or conscience).

He believed children pass through five psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital). Unresolved conflicts at any stage can leave a person’s pleasure-seeking impulses fixated (stalled) at that stage.

For Freud, anxiety was the product of tensions between the demands of id and superego.

The ego copes by using unconscious defense mechanisms, such as repression, which he viewed as the basic mechanism underlying and enabling all the others.

Freud’s early followers, the neo-Freudians, accepted many of his ideas. They differed in placing more emphasis on the conscious mind and in stressing social motives more than sex or aggression. Neo-Freudian Carl Jung proposed the collective unconscious.

Contemporary psychodynamic theorists and therapists reject Freud’s emphasis on sexual motivation. They stress, with support from modern research findings, the view that much of our mental life is unconscious, and they believe that our childhood experiences influence our adult personality and attachment patterns.

Projective tests attempt to assess personality by showing people an ambiguous image designed to trigger projection of the test-taker’s unconscious thoughts and feelings.

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the Rorschach inkblot test are two such tests. The Rorschach has low reliability and validity, but some clinicians value it as a source of suggestive leads, an icebreaker, or a revealing interview technique.

Freud rightly drew our attention to the vast unconscious, to the struggle to cope with anxiety and sexuality, to the conflict between biological impulses and social restraints.

But his concept of repression, and his view of the unconscious as a collection of repressed and unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories, cannot survive scientific scrutiny.

Freud offered after-the-fact explanations, which are hard to test scientifically.

Research does not support many of Freud’s specific ideas, such as development being fixed in childhood. (We now know it is lifelong.)

Research confirms that we do not have full access to all that goes on in our mind, but the current view of the unconscious is that it is a separate and parallel track of information processing that occurs outside our awareness. Research also supports reaction formation and projection (the false consensus effect).

This processing includes schemas that control our perceptions; implicit memories of learned skills; instantly activated emotions; and the self-concept and stereotypes that automatically influence how we process information about ourselves and others.

Humanistic theories sought to turn psychology’s attention toward human growth potential.

Abraham Maslow thought that human motivations form a hierarchy of needs. If basic needs are fulfilled, people will strive toward self-actualization and self-transcendence.

Carl Rogers believed that people are basically good, and that showing unconditional positive regard and being genuine, accepting, and empathic can help others develop a more realistic and positive self-concept.

Some rejected any standardized assessments and relied on interviews and conversations.

Rogers sometimes used questionnaires in which people described their ideal and actual selves, which he later used to judge progress during therapy.

Humanistic psychology helped renew interest in the concept of self, and also laid the groundwork for today’s scientific subfield of positive psychology.

Critics have said that humanistic psychology’s concepts were vague and subjective, its values self-centered, and its assumptions naively optimistic.

Trait theorists see personality as a stable and enduring pattern of behavior. They have been more interested in describing our differences than in explaining them.

They identify factors—clusters of behavior tendencies that occur together.

Western cultures prize extraversion, but introverts have different, equally important skills. Introversion does not equal shyness, and extraverts don’t always outperform introverts as leaders or in sales success. Introverts often experience great achievement; many introverts prosper.

Personality inventories (such as the MMPI) are questionnaires on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors.

Unlike projective tests, these tests are objectively scored. But people can fake their answers to create a good impression; objectivity does not guarantee validity.

The Big Five personality factors—conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion (CANOE)—currently offer the clearest picture of personality.

These factors are stable and appear to be found in all cultures.

A person’s average traits persist over time and are predictable over many different situations. But traits cannot predict behavior in any one particular situation.

Reciprocal determinism describes the interaction and mutual influence of behavior, internal personal factors, and environmental factors.

Albert Bandura first proposed the social-cognitive perspective, which views personality as the product of the interaction between a person’s traits (including thinking) and the situation—the social world around us.

Social-cognitive researchers apply principles of learning, cognition, and social behavior to personality.

A person’s average traits are predictable over many different situations, but not in any one particular situation.

Critics note that social-cognitive theorists focus so much on the situation that they fail to appreciate a person’s inner traits, underemphasizing the importance of unconscious motives, emotions, and personality characteristics.

The self is the center of personality, organizing our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Considering possible selves helps motivate us toward positive development, but focusing too intensely on ourselves can lead to the spotlight effect.

High self-esteem is beneficial, but unrealistically high self-esteem, which can be narcissistic, is dangerous (linked to aggressive behavior) and fragile. Rather than unrealistically promoting children’s feelings of self-worth, it is better to reward their achievements, which leads to feelings of competence.

Self-serving bias is our tendency to perceive ourselves favorably, as when viewing ourselves as better than average or when accepting credit for our successes but not blame for our failures.

Defensive self-esteem is fragile, focuses on sustaining itself, and views failure or criticism as a threat.

Secure self-esteem is sturdy, enabling us to feel accepted for who we are.

Although individuals vary, different cultures tend to emphasize either individualism or collectivism.

Cultures based on self-reliant individualism tend to value personal independence and achievement.

Cultures based on socially connected collectivism tend to value group goals, social identity, and commitments.