Psychology

• Learn how psychologists study and analyze human behavior.
• Determine the role of nature and the role of nurture in our behaviors.
• Gain greater insight into the behavior of ourselves and others.
• Understand the various theories describing human behavior.
• Develop critical thinking skills and prepare ourselves to be cautious and analytical consumers of information.

Introduction

During the final week of this course, many of the concepts we studied will be drawn together in our discussion of the psychology of personality. Often we believe that a high self-esteem is a good thing, but an inflated self-esteem often leads individuals to a feeling that they can discriminate against others or behave violently towards them. We will also discuss the need for individuals to attain self-actualization and the obstacles that may prevent it. The role of social patterns, attitudes, and obedience on the behavior of individuals will also be examined. Finally, we will discuss the documented effect of physical beauty on how one is judged.

Freud's Place in the Psychology of Personality

Sigmund Freud is perhaps the one person who is thought of first when talking about Psychoanalysis. While he did draw attention to the subconscious mind and its affect on our personalities, many of his specific ideas are considered invalid or have been contradicted by newer research.

Freud felt that our personalities arise from the constant conflict between our biological processes (desires) and the social restraints against them. Some of these include the concepts of identification, defense mechanisms, repression, regression, projection, rationalization and displacement. However, other psycholanalyists including Alfred Adler, Karen Horney and Carl Jung differed from Freud by placing more emphasis on the role of the conscious mind and de-emphasizing the role of aggression and sexual drives on personality. Others like Gordon Allport put forward the idea of personality traits. Allport felt personalities were more definable in behavior patterns.

From these simple beginnings, personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) were born. While there continues to be arguments that these have their imperfections in identifying true personality, they are still in use today!

The Dark Side of Self-Esteem

Humanist psychologists assess personality by evaluating a person's concept of "self." It is based on the assumption that the "self" is the primary part of our personality. While there are benefits to a positive self-image, there are hazards in "pride."

In a recent Psychological Review article, Roy Baumeister and his colleagues drew the following provocative conclusion: "The societal pursuit of high self-esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm."

In a massive interdisciplinary review of the literature on aggression, crime, and violence, the authors conclude that high (not low) self-esteem underlies violent behavior, particularly "favorable self-appraisals that may be inflated or ill-founded and that are confronted with an external evaluation that disputes them." In short, some people turn aggressive when they receive feedback that contradicts their favorable images of themselves.

Clearly, Baumeister and his colleagues are not saying that everyone with high self-esteem is predisposed to violence. Rather, it is primarily those who refuse to lower their inflated self-appraisals who become violent. Teenagers who do not feel they have received the respect they deserve are more likely to strike out than those who genuinely believe themselves unworthy. Studies of murder, rape, domestic abuse, and even terrorism show that violence occurs when a person with a high, often inflated, opinion of himself or herself is challenged by someone considered inferior. For example, one study of sexual offenders found that rapists sometimes choose a particular victim in order "to disabuse her of her sense of superiority. That is, the woman gave the man the impression that she thought she was better than he was and so he raped her as a way of proving her wrong."

Another interesting example of the relationship between high self-esteem and aggression involves racist violence. Nazism includes an ideology of racial superiority that justifies violence against those deemed weak or inferior. At its peak, the Ku Klux Klan was most violent toward two groups that challenged the idea of white supremacy, namely upwardly mobile blacks, and whites who helped blacks by treating them as equals. One study of whites who belonged to hate groups indicated that those who engaged in violent behavior actually were better educated and had higher career aspirations than the less violent members of such groups.

Baumeister and his colleagues conclude that if, as some have suggested, low self-esteem (or even hidden self-doubts) is the cause of violence, "it would be therapeutically prudent to make every effort to convince rapists, murderers, wife-beaters, professional hit men, tyrants, torturers, and others that they are superior beings." However, there is clear evidence that this is something they already believe. "If any modifications to self-appraisals were to be attempted," suggest the authors, "then perhaps it would be better to try instilling modesty and humility."