08 Know Nothing About Personality: Skinner

B.F. Skinner was the founder of operant conditioning. He showed how rewards and punishments impact the behavior of virtually everyone. Learn about positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment.

07 Know Nothing About Personality: Pavlov

Although he won a Nobel prize for his work in explaining the processes of digestion, Ivan Pavlov is best remembered for his discovery of classical conditioning.

He showed that the presence of an unconditioned stimulus (food) produces an unconditioned response (saliva of a given amount; varying somewhat between trials and between dogs). After sufficient pairings of the food with another, previously unused stimulus (e.g., light), the conditioned stimulus (light) could bring about a response (conditioned response). The conditioned response was weaker than the unconditioned response (i.e., less saliva) and forgettable (if repeated too often without food being presented).

06 Know Nothing About Personality: Neo-Freudians

Karen Horney, Erikson and the other followers of Freud changed his theory without really trying. Their ideas continue on today.

05 Know Nothing About Personality: Jung

Several tests of personality are based on the theory of Carl Jung. He liked themes, symbolism and archetypes. This image makes me think of Jung’s technique of amplification. He would have people expand on a single element of a dream or scene, giving multiple associations to a single item. Besides, Jung was sort of odd duck.