W
ho was the real Steve Jobs? Peaceful
Buddhist or aggressive egomaniac?
Introverted loner or dynamic leader? Smart
or foolish? What led him to become a leg-
end in the high-tech world? What personal-
ity traits best describe him: bold, insecure,
kind, cruel, eccentric? Was he cruel to some
employees because that was part of his per-
sonality or because he thought it was the
way to get the job done? The kaleidoscope
of qualities that made up Steve Jobs was a
source of amazement to almost everyone who
knew him.
When you think about your own person-
ality, how would you describe yourself? Do
you feel that you are “yourself” pretty con-
sistently, across almost all situations, or do
you think you change quite a bit depending
on what group you’re with, whether you’re
working on your own or hanging out at a bar,
or whether you’re with a friend or a romantic
partner? Do you feel shy in new situations but
outgoing in familiar ones, or that you are con-
sistently a “shy person” everywhere you go?
In this chapter, we will see how psy-
chologists study such questions. In psychol-
ogy, personality refers to a distinctive pattern
of behavior, mannerisms, thoughts, motives,
and emotions that characterizes an individ-
ual over time and across different situations.
This pattern consists of many distinctive
traits, habitual ways of behaving, thinking,
and feeling: shy, outgoing, friendly, hostile,
gloomy, confident, and so on.
We will begin with the oldest theory of
personality, the psychodynamic view, so
that you will have a sense of how influential
it was, why it still appeals to some, and why
many of its ideas have become outdated.
Next we will consider evidence for the new-
est theory, the genetic view. Few scientists
today think that babies are little lumps of
clay, shaped entirely by their experiences,
or that parents alone determine whether
their infant becomes an adventurer, a sour-
puss, a worrywart,... or a Steve Jobs.
Yet, even if some of the human varia-
tion in personality traits comes from genet-
ics, what is responsible for the rest? To
answer that question, we will then examine
leading approaches to personality that are
neither psychodynamic nor biological. The
environmental approach emphasizes the role
of social learning, situations, parents, and
peers. It makes us think critically about what
we even think “personality” is, given that our
behavior often changes quite dramatically
across different situations and with different
people. The cultural approach emphasizes
cultural influences on traits and behavior,
and invites us to think about how many
behaviors that we think of as personality
traits are actually determined by cultural
norms and expectations—such as being “on
time” or tardy, bathing often or rarely, being
quick to anger or accepting of frustrations.
Finally, we consider the humanist approach,
which emphasizes self-determination and
people’s own view of themselves. When we
are done, we will return to the puzzle of Steve
Jobs and the forces that may have contrib-
uted to his unique personality.
personality A distinc-
tive and relatively stable
pattern of behavior,
thoughts, motives, and
emotions that character-
izes an individual.trait A characteristic of
an individual, describing
a habitual way of behav-
ing, thinking, or feeling.$1 a year to turn that same company around.
And turn it around, he did: He introduced the
iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. Yet
Jobs made some colossal mistakes because of
his stubbornness and arrogance: The man who
ran one of the most technologically advanced
companies on the planet rejected cancer treat-
ment for months because he didn’t want his
body to be opened up. Instead, he tried all
kinds of unproven alternative diets and cancer“cures” that he found, of all places, on the
Internet, including vegan diets, acupuncture,
and herbs; he consulted a psychic and a doctor
who prescribed juice fasts and bowel cleans-
ings. Finally, in 2004, Jobs had surgery to
remove the tumor, but by that time the cancer
had spread.
Jobs is survived by his wife Laureen, their
three children, a daughter from a previous rela-
tionship, and his sister Patty.