Ch 14: Personality Flashcards
1
Q
Define: Personality
A
Characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
2
Q
What are the two historically significant theories of personality?
A
- Freud’s psychoanalytic theory: Childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality.
- Humanistic approach: Inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment.
3
Q
What are the two current theories of personality?
A
- Trait theories: Examine characteristic patterns of behaviour.
- Social-cognitive theories: Explore the interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context.
4
Q
Define: Psychodynamic theories
A
View personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences.
-Human behaviour = Dynamic interaction between conscious and unconscious mind, including various motives and conflicts.
These theories are descended from Freud’s psychoanalysis, focusing on the INNER forces that interact to make us who we are.
5
Q
What are psychodynamic theories stemmed from?
A
Freud’s psychoanalysis theory.
6
Q
Define: Psychoanalysis
A
Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts;
The techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.
7
Q
What is the ‘unconscious’, according to Freud?
A
A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.
Example: Lost feeling in hand might be caused by fear of touching one’s genitals.
8
Q
What is the free association method Freud utilized?
A
In exploring the unconscious, the patient is told to relax and say whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.
9
Q
Why was free association important for Freud?
A
It allowed to retrieve and release painful unconscious memories, often from childhood.
10
Q
What is the basic belief to Freud’s theory?
A
The mind is mostly hidden.
11
Q
Using the iceberg analogy, how can we conceptualize conscious awareness and the unconscious mind?
A
- Conscious awareness: Above-surface part of the iceberg, smaller.
- Larger unconscious mind: thoughts, wishes, feelings, memories.
12
Q
Where do we temporarily store thoughts of the unconscious mind?
A
In the PRECONSCIOUS AREA, from which we can retrieve them into conscious awareness.
13
Q
What does Freud believe we tend to repress?
A
Unacceptable passions, thoughts that would be too unsettling to acknowledge.
14
Q
What was Freud’s view of human personality?
A
Including emotions and strivings, personality arises from a conflict between IMPULSE (aggressive, pleasure-seeking biological urges) and RESTRAINT (internalized social controls over these urges).
Personality arises from our efforts to resolve this basic conflict - express these impulses in ways that bring satisfaction, without also bringing guilt or punishment.
15
Q
What are the three interacting systems in the ‘conflict’ Freud speaks of?
A
- Id
- Ego
- Superego
16
Q
Define: id
A
A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives.
The id operates on the PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, demanding immediate gratification.
= Unconscious energy
17
Q
Define: Ego
A
The larger conscious, “executive” part of the personality that mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality.
Includes our partly conscious perceptions, thoughts, judgments, memories.
It operates on the REALITY PRINCIPLE, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.
= Mostly conscious, making peace.
The ego struggles to control and satisfy the sexual and aggressive impulses of the id in a way that doesn’t offend the superego (the voice of our conscience).
But the differing motives of the id and superego create uncomfortable friction. This conflict causes anxiety, and the ego tries to reduce this anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
18
Q
Define: Superego
A
Part that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the CONSCIENCE) and for future aspirations.
Voice of our moral compass forcing the ego to consider not only the real, but the IDEAL - how we ought to behave.
Its demands often oppose the id.
19
Q
When does personality form, according to Freud?
A
During the first few years of life.
20
Q
What developmental stages did Freud propose?
A
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES, during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.
- Oral (0-18 months): Pleasure centers on the mouth - sucking, biting, chewing
- Anal (18-36 months): Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control
- Phallic (3-6 yrs): Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings
- Latency (6 to puberty): Dormant sexual feelings
Genitals (puberty on): Maturation of sexual interests
21
Q
What is the Oedipus complex, according to Freud?
A
A boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father, during the phallic stage.
22
Q
What is the identification process?
A
In which children’s superegos gain strength, by incorporating many of their parents’ values.
Lessens the threatening feelings of the Oedipus complex, by repressing them and trying to become like the rival parent.
23
Q
What provides gender identity, according to Freud?
A
Identification with the same-sex parent.
24
Q
What is the principle of fixation?
A
If a conflict arises at an earlier psychosexual stage than that at maturity, the individual may stay stuck seeking the pleasures of that stage for the remainder of life.
25
How does the ego protect itself?
By employing defense mechanisms, protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously and indirectly distorting reality.
26
What underlies and enables all other defense mechanisms, according to Freud?
Repression: Banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.
27
When do repressed urges appear?
Given that repression is often incomplete, they appear as symbols in dreams or slips of the tongue in casual conversation.
28
What are the six defense mechanisms?
REGRESSION: Retreating to a more infantile psychosexual state, where some psychic energy remains fixated.
REACTION FORMATION: Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites.
e.g. Repressing angry feelings by displaying exaggerated friendliness.
PROJECTION: Disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.
e.g. "The thief thinks everyone else is a thief."
RATIONALIZATION: Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions.
e.g. An alcoholic saying he drinks "just to be social".
DISPLACEMENT: Shifting sexual/aggressive impulses towards a more acceptable, or less threatening object or person.
e.g. Kicking the dog after being grounded by a parent.
DENIAL: Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities.
e.g. Partner denying evidence of loved one's affair.
29
What did neo-Freudians accept and diverge from Freud's original series?
Accepted:
- Personality structures (id, ego, superego)
- Importance of the unconscious
- Childhood roots of personality
- Dynamics of anxiety and the defense mechanisms
Broke off:
- More emphasis on the conscious mind's role in interpreting experience and in coping with the environment
- Doubted sex and aggression as being all-consuming motivations (more emphasis on loftier motives and social interactions)
30
According to Adler and Horney, childhood ______, not ______, tensions are crucial for personality formation.
Social; sexual
31
What did Adler believe?
Inferiority complex: Much of our behaviour is driven by efforts to conquer childhood inferiority feelings, triggering our strivings for superiority and power.
32
What did Horney believe?
Childhood anxiety triggers our desire for love and security.
She attempted to balance Freud's masculine bias.
33
What did Jung believe?
The unconscious contains more than repressed thoughts and feelings.
34
What is Jung's concept of the collective unconscious?
A shared inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history.
Explains spirituality, shared myths, and images among cultures.
35
What do psychodynamic psychologists today believe?
- Inherited experiences
- Shared evolutionary history = Universal dispositions
- Experience can leave epigenetic marks
- Much of our mental life is unconscious
- We struggle with inner conflicts: Wishes, fears, values
- Childhood shapes personality
- Childhood shapes our ways of becoming attached to others
36
Define: Projective tests?
Personality tests, such as the Rorschach, that provide ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics.
37
Define: Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.
38
What can TAT assess?
Achievement motivation
39
Define: Rorschach inkblot test
The most widely used projective test -- "most cherished and most reviled"
A set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach, seeking to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.
40
How does modern research contradict Freud's ideas?
- Development is lifelong, not fixed to childhood
- Freud overestimated parental influence, underestimated peer influence
- Gender identity is gained earlier, with leaning towards one or another gender not having to do with the presence of a same-sex parent.
- There is little support that defense mechanisms disguise sexual and aggressive impulses
- Suppressed sexuality does not cause psychological disorders
- Freud's theory has scientific shortcomings!
41
What is the most serious problem with Freud's theory?
It offers after-the-fact explanations of any characteristic, yet fails to PREDICT such behaviour and traits.
42
How is Freud's idea of repression contested?
In Freud's view, by recovering and resolving childhood repressions, emotional healing would occur.
However, those who have experienced terrible trauma retain the unrepressed memories of horror.
High stress and associated stress hormones ENHANCE memory, by triggering unwanted flashbacks.
43
How has modern research developed our understanding of the unconscious?
The unconscious is NOT seething passions, repressive censoring.
Rather, it is cooler information processing occurring without our awareness.
44
What does the unconscious involve, according to modern researchers?
- Schemas: Automatically control perceptions and interpretations
- Priming, by stimuli to which we have not consciously attended
- Implicit memories operating without conscious recall
- Emotions activating instantly, before conscious analysis
- Stereotypes, which automatically and unconsciously influence how we process information about others
45
Which of Freud's defense mechanisms are supported today?
1. Reaction formation: Trading unacceptable impulses for their opposite
2. Projection: Attributing our own threatening impulses to others
* *FALSE CONSENSUS EFFECT: Tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviours.
46
Define: Terror-management theory
Theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioural responses to reminders of their impending death.
47
What three ideas have survived from Freud's psychoanalytic theory?
-Importance of childhood experiences
Existence of the unconscious mind
-Self-protective defense mechanisms
48
What are three ways in which Freud's work has been criticized?
1. Not scientifically testable -- offers after-the-fact explanations
2. Too strongly focused on sexual conflicts in childhood
3. Based on repression, which is not supported by modern research
49
How do humanistic theories differ from psychodynamic theory and behaviorism?
- Not emphasized on disorders born out of dark conflicts; focused on the ways people strive for self-determination and self-actualization
- Contrasts behaviorism's scientific objectivity; studies people through their own self-reported experiences and feelings
= Focus on the potential for healthy personal growth
50
What is the 'third force perspective?
Perspective pioneered by Maslow and Rogers, emphasizing human potential.
51
What is self-actualization?
According to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs arising after basic physical and psychological needs are met, with self-esteem achieved.
It is the motivation to fulfill one's potential.
52
In Maslow's study, what fundamental qualities underlined rich and productive people?
- Self-awareness and self-acceptance
- Openness, spontaneity
- Loving, caring
- Secure in sense of who they were
- Problem-centred interests, rather than self-centered
- Driven by a mission in life: Energies focused on a particular task
- Few deep relationships, rather than many superficial ones
- Had been moved by spiritual or personal peak experiences, surpassing ordinary consciousness
53
What is Rogers' person-centered perspective?
People are basically good and are endowed with self-actualizing tendencies.
Unless thwarted by an environment inhibiting growth, each is primed for growth and fulfillment.
54
What are the three conditions of a growth-promoting climate, according to Rogers?
-GENUINENESS: Open with their feelings, drop their facades; transparent and self-disclosing.
-ACCEPTANCE: Offer unconditional positive regard, an attitude of grace valuing others, despite knowing their failings.
(As such, no fear of loss of others' esteem)
-EMPATHY: Sharing and mirroring others' feelings, reflecting their meanings.
55
According to Maslow and Rogers, what is a central feature of personality?
One's SELF-CONCEPT: All thoughts and feelings one has in response to 'Who am I'?
56
How does self-concept affect our perception of the world?
A positive self-concept = Act and perceive the world positively
A negative self-concept = In our own eyes, we fall short of our ideal self = Dissatisfied, unhappy
57
How did humanistic psychologists assess a person's sense of self?
By asking people to fill out questionnaires evaluating their self-concept: Describe their 'ideal self' and 'actual self'
58
When is self-concept positive?
When the ideal and actual selves are nearly alike.
59
What were other humanistic psychologists' stances towards standardized assessment?
Standard assessment of personality depersonalizes. Instead of responding to narrow categories, interviews and intimate conversations provide a better understanding of unique experiences.
60
Humanistic theories laid the groundwork for today's ________.
Scientific positive psychology.
61
What criticisms do humanistic theories face?
- Vague and subjective concepts
- Emphasis on individualism: Trusting and acting on one's feelings, being true to oneself, fulfilling oneself = Self-indulgence, selfishness, erosion of moral restraint
- Naive: Fails to appreciate the evil capacity of humans = Optimism, not realism.
62
Define: Traits
A characteristic pattern of behaviour or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.
63
What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)?
Based on responses to 126 questions, attempt to sort out people according to Jung's personality types.
Every type has its strengths.
However, the test remains mostly a counseling and coaching tool, not a research instrument.
64
How do psychologists describe countless individual personality variations?
By placing people on several trait dimensions simultaneously.
65
What is the factor analysis technique?
A statistical procedure used to identify clusters of test items. A statistically correlated cluster of behaviours then reflects a basic factor/trait.
66
What are the two dimensions to which our individual personality variations can be reduced to?
1. Extraversion-introversion
| 2. Emotional stability-instability.
67
How does biology interplay with extraversion and introversion?
- Extraverts seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal is relatively low.
- Extraverts have higher dopamine and dopamine-related neural activity.
68
What are some common misunderstandings about introversion?
- In Western cultures, extraversion is prized. Introversion = Not having the 'right stuff'.
- Extraversion = Success
People fail to understand what introversion really is.
- Introversion is NOT equal to shyness.
- Introverts seek lower stimulation from their environment because they're sensitive.
69
Does extraversion lead to greater success than introversion?
NO!!
-Introverts show greater RECEPTIVENESS when their employees voice their ideas, challenge existing norms, take charge.
70
Define: Personality inventory
A questionnaire (often with true-false, agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wider range of feelings and behaviours. It is used to assess selected personality traits.
71
What is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)?
The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests.
Originally developed to identify emotional disorders, it also assesses personality traits.
72
How are the items within MMPI derived?
They are EMPIRICALLY DERIVED: From a large pool of items tested, researchers then select those that discriminate (differ) between diagnostic groups.
73
In contract to the ___________ of most projective tests, personality inventories are scored ___________.
Subjectivity; objectively
-Software can administer and score these tests
74
Objectivity does not guarantee __________, in taking the MMPI test.
Validity!
Some may give socially desirable answers to create a good impression.
75
What are the 'Big Five' personality factors (CANOE)?
1. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
Organized/disorganized, careful/careless, disciplined/impulsive
2. AGREEABLENESS
Soft-hearted/ruthless, trusting/suspicious, helpful/uncooperative
3. NEUROTICISM (emotional stability vs instability)
Anxious/Calm, Insecure/Secure, Self-pitying/Satisfied
4. OPENNESS
Imaginative/practical, variety/routine, independent/conforming
5. EXTRAVERSION
Sociable/retiring, fun-loving/sober, affectionate/reserved
76
What questions has Big Five research explored?
-How stable are these traits?
By adulthood, traits have become fairly stable. Personality continues to develop and change through late childhood and adolescence.
Conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, extraversion continue to increase into middle age.
Neuroticism decreases with age.
-How heritable are they?
Many genes, each having small effects, combine to influence our traits.
-Do these traits reflect differing brain structures?
The size of different brain regions correlates with several Big Five traits.
-Have these traits changed over time?
Culture change can influence personality. In the US and in the Netherlands, extraversion and conscientiousness have increased.
-How well do the Big Five apply across cultures?
They can describe personality in various cultures reasonably well.
77
Are personality traits consistent over time and across situations?
Not exactly! The PERSON-SITUATION CONTROVERSY looks for genuine personality traits persisting over time AND across situations.
Our personality is an interaction between our inner disposition and our environment.
78
Although our personality _______ is maybe both stable and potent, our specific ________ from one situation to the next vary.
Traits; behaviours.
79
In what types of situations do traits remain hidden?
In unfamiliar, formal situations, we carefully attend to social cues.
In familiar, informal situations, our expressive styles are consistent.
80
Define: Social-cognitive perspective
Views behaviour as influenced by the interaction between people's traits, including their thinking, and their social context.
81
According to social-cognitive theorists, how do we learn many of our behaviours?
Either through conditioning, or by observing and imitating others.
82
What is the 'cognitive' part of social-cognitive theories?
The importance of mental processes! What we THINK about a situation affects our resulting behaviour.
83
Instead of focusing on how our environment ________ us, social-cognitive theorists focus on how we and our environment __________.
Controls; Interact.
84
Define: Reciprocal determinism
The interacting influences of behaviour, internal cognition, and environment.
85
What are three specific ways in which individuals and environments interact?
- Different people choose different environments. In turn, this environment shapes us.
- Our personalities shape how we interpret and react to events.
-Our personalities help create situations to which we react.
How we view and treat others influences how they treat us.
86
What other interaction exists in determining our personality traits?
The gene-environment interaction, in addition to the interaction of internal personal factors, the environment, and our behaviours.
87
What is the biopsychological approach to the study of personality?
Personality = Biological influences + Psychological influences + Social-cultural influences
1. Biological influences: Genetically-determined temperament, autonomic nervous system reactivity, brain activity
2. Psychological influences: Learned responses, unconscious thought processes, expectations, and interpretations
3. Social-cultural influences: Childhood experiences, situational influence, cultural expectations, social support.
88
How do social-cognitive psychologists observe behaviour?
In realistic situations.
89
What is the best predictor of future behaviour?
The person's past behaviour patterns in similar situations.
90
What criticism do social-cognitive theories face?
Focus so much on the situation that they fail to appreciate the person's inner traits.
91
What is the importance of the self?
The self, as the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions, is the center of personality.
92
What is the 'possible selves' concept?
The possible selves include your visions of the self you dream of becoming, fear becoming.
They motivate us to lay out specific goals that direct our energy effectively and efficiently.
93
What is the spotlight effect?
Overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders. We presume a spotlight shines on us.
94
How can we diminish the spotlight effect?
1. Knowing about the spotlight effect
| 2. Take the audience's perspective
95
Define: Self-esteem
One's feelings of high or low self-worth
96
Define: Self-efficacy
One's sense of competence and effectiveness
97
Why is self-esteem important?
Accept yourself, and you'll find it easier to accept others.
98
What are the risks of excessive optimism?
- Blinds us to real risks
| - More likely to expose ourselves to temptations and to fail
99
What is the concept of blindness to one's own incompetence?
The most overconfidence is seen when people are most incompetent.
100
What is the self-serving bias?
A readiness to perceive oneself favorably. People accepting more responsibility for good deeds than for bad, and for success than for failures.
= Overestimating the self; desire to maintain a positive self-view.
However, some cultures may also value modesty.
101
Define: Narcissism
Excessive self-love and self-absorption.
Those who are narcissistic forgive others less, take a game-playing approach to their romantic relationships, and make poor leaders.
It predicts increased sensitivity to threats and retaliatory aggression.
102
Why do people disparage themselves?
1. Self-directed put-downs can be subtly strategic
2. They prepare us for possible failure
3. They help us learn from our mistakes
- They pertain to one's old self
103
What are the pros and cons of high self-esteem?
- Happiness, greater motivation, less susceptibility to depression
- Blindness to one's own incompetence, self-serving bias, narcissism.
104
_________ self-esteem correlates with aggressive and antisocial behaviour.
Defensive
105
_____________ self-esteem is a healthier self-image allowing us to focus beyond ourselves, enjoying a higher quality of life.
Secure
106
What are the strengths and the limitations of the Rorcharch Inkblot Test?
Strengths: Provides rich data, generates discussion
Limitations: Complicated coding system, takes a long time to administer, low reliability (different interpretations), low validity (misdiagnosis)
107
Why use personality as a concept?
1. To convey a sense of consistency, continuity about a person: Across time, similar situations, all different situations
2. To convey a sense that whatever the person is doing/thinking/feeling originates from within: Behavioural consequences; drives actions
3. To convey a sense that a few qualities can summarize what a person is like: Key characteristics
108
What is personality? How is it complex? Why is it important?
Personality is a dynamic organization, inside a person, of psychophysical systems that create the person's characteristic patterns of thoughts, behaviours, feelings
It is complex because it comes about in a variety of ways, across various systems.
It is important to understand yourself and orient yourself in the world
109
What are the four primary theories of personality?
- Psychoanalytic
- Humanistic
- Trait
- Social-Cognitive
110
What are humanistic theories?
Everyone has the potential for growth and development;
No one is inherently bad or unworthy.
Focus? Self-actualization, self-determination.
Believes in free will, choice.
PHENOMENOLOGICAL: Emphasis on the importance of one's own PERSONAL experiences.
**NOT disorder-focused
111
What is Carl Rogers' person-centred perspective?
-How is potential realized, and how can that fail to happen?
Actualization: The potential for positive, healthy growth expresses itself in everyone, given that there are no strong opposing influences = Parents/significant others that don't oppose your worth; Experiences of trauma, abuse
112
What are the advantages of actualization, according to Rogers?
- Enriches life experiences, enhances creativity
| - Promotes congruence, wholeness, integration within the person: Who you are and who you want to be
113
How can one achieve actualization?
Honest communication between people, which can produce personality transformation = Problem-solving focus, the conceptualization of our problems and their solutions.
How do we grow from our problems?
114
Who is someone who is self-actualizing?
A fully functioning person!
115
What does a growth-promoting social climate provide?
Acceptance
Genuineness
Empathy
= Achieving self-actualization
116
What does acceptance mean?
We have a strong need to feel wanted & appreciated
-Unconditional positive regard:
Affection can be given without any special conditions ('No matter what')
vs Conditional positive regard: If you act a specific way, you will be accepted
-Conditional of worth:
Conditions under which people are judged to be deemed worthy of positive regard.
= What people DO to conform.
-Conditional self-regard:
When you conform to, satisfy a condition of worth, you give yourself affection or acceptance. Otherwise, the disappointment!
117
How can one achieve acceptance?
-Unconditional positive regard promotes self-actualization;
-Conditions of worth and conditional regard can interfere with self-actualization = Negative impacts.
If you choose your values and your goals based on those conditions, you cannot figure out who you truly are!
How could you determine your true desires??
118
What does genuineness mean?
Being open with one's own feelings, dropping one's facades, being transparent and self-disclosing.
119
What does empathy mean?
Sharing and mirroring one's feelings, and reflecting the meanings.
120
What is the self?
The subjective awareness of being; one's self-concept, which is a central feature of personality!
121
What is self-concept?
The set of qualities a person views as being part of oneself, a battle between the ideal self and the actual self
122
What is congruence?
"Fitting together" of the ideal self and the actual self.
OR
actual self and your experiences.
Self-actualization promotes congruence!
123
What is incongruence?
Disorganization, the discrepancy between the ideal and actual self = Lack of unity
This leads to anxiety, increases vulnerability for the development of psychopathology, underestimation of others' care for them, maladaptive defences
