Behavioral Psychology CH. 10

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

It is about individual differences, what it is about you that makes you unique.

oAn area of study that is concerned with the differences between people.

oThose characteristics of the person or of people generally that account for consistent patterns of behavior. (Pervin, 1989)

oPersonality is the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and adaptations to, the environment (including the intrapsychic, physical and social environments). (Larsen & Buss, 2002)

Question 2

The study of personality seeks to answer:

Answer 2

oWhat are people is like what are their characteristics?

oHow do people become as they are? In particular, the question here is how do nature and nurture (heredity and environment) play their part?

oWhy do people do what they do? This question about motivation is probably the most difficult of all.

Question 3

Traits

Answer 3

Simply the name for the characteristics that make us unique or different from one another. They are stable (more or less) and can come from either our genes or environment or, more likely, from a mixture of the two. We are either born with a set of traits or we come to establish a set of traits through our interactions with the environment.

Question 4

The Big Five

Answer 4

extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness.

Question 5

Neuroticism or emotional stability

Answer 5

calm, relaxed and stable versus moody anxious and insecure.

Question 6

Extraversion or sergeancy

Answer 6

talkative, forward, outspoken versus shy, quiet, bashful, inhibited.

Question 7

Openness (intellectual/Immaginative)

Answer 7

creative, intellectual versus uncreative, unimaginative.

Question 8

Agreeableness

Answer 8

sympathetic, kind, warm, sincere versus unsympathetic, harsh, unkind.

Question 9

Conscientiousness

Answer 9

Organized, neat, meticulous versus disorganized, sloppy, impractical, careless.

Question 10

Freud suggested that personality is made up of three interconnected energy systems:

Answer 10

Id, Ego, Superego

Question 11

Id

Answer 11

• Drives us towards immediate gratification of any of our urges, for example, of sexual desires that would be all but impossible in real life.
• Freud believed that the powerful energy that derives from the id lies behind creativity.

Question 12

Ego

Answer 12

• Connects us to the real world, rather than the world, as we might like it to be. It has a sort of executive function for the personality, mediating between the urges of the id and the practical demands of the world at large.
• It is mainly conscious and is what in everyday terms would be called rational.
• It mediates between the id and the super ego.

Question 13

Superego

Answer 13

• Can be seen as the opposite of the id. It is the part of the personality (or mind) in which the values of society are internalized. This is the part of us that is made up of should and oughts.
• It is our moral compass.
• Composed of two parts:
• The conscience- This comes about from experiences for which we have been punished.
• The ego ideal- this comes about from experiences for which we have been rewarded.

Question 14

Anti-social personality disorder

Answer 14

impulsive behavior with little or no regard for others and no respect for the norms of social behavior.

Question 15

Border-line personality disorder

Answer 15

Instability, of mood, relationships, and even of the idea of self; impulsive and self-destructive.

Question 16

Histrionic personality disorder

Answer 16

Constant need for attention and approval; dramatic behavior, dependence and being seductive.

Question 17

Narcissistic personality disorder

Answer 17

Grandiosity, exploitativeness, arrogance, obliviousness to others. Only thinks of themselves.

Question 18

Paranoid personality disorder

Answer 18

Constant, pervasive and unwarranted mistrust of others.

Question 19

Schizoid personality disorder

Answer 19

Emotional coldness, no interest in relationships.

Question 20

Schizotypal personality disorder

Answer 20

Constantly inhibited or inappropriate socio-emotional behavior, odd cognitions and speech.

Question 21

Avoidant personality disorder

Answer 21

Constant worry over criticisms leads to avoidance of all interactions.

Question 22

Dependent personality disorder

Answer 22

Selflessness, neediness, fear of rejection.

Question 23

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Answer 23

rigidity in behavior and relationships, extreme perfectionism.

Question 24

Evoked Culture

Answer 24

comes from particular environments tending to create particular sets of responses that occur so commonly as to be to do with personality.

Question 25

Transmitted Culture

Answer 25

Is made up of beliefs, attitudes, values, opinions, morals, an so on, that are transmitted form one person to another.

Question 26

Isolation

Answer 26

personality cannot exist in isolation.

Question 27

The psychoanalytic, Freudian tradition

Answer 27

looks at personality as involving internal dynamic energy systems, the id, the ego and the superego, and views these as developing through the experiences of the first six years of life.

Question 28

Universal Traits

Answer 28

Traits that can be common to all of us. The big five.