Ch 20- Description and classification of personality Flashcards
What are the four main uses of personality tests?
1) Diagnosis of clinical dignosis i.e. mental health issues can be made
2) Palnning and day to day life help e.g. Vocational testing
3) Personnel selection - helps selection for speciific professions
4) Psychological research
Who is Sigund Freud and what theory did he propose for personality composition? i.e. what shapes personality?
- Medical doctor
- Invented psychoanaylsis aka talking therapy
- -Personality develops as a conflict of concious and unconcious mind in individual
- -Life time experiences from the earliest of childhood = shape personality
What did Freud say about childhood expeirence what can it lead to if unresolved?
-Childhood experience creates unconcious motives and conflicts -Achieving important development skills occur too and psychological issues o/ predictable type = Sex agression, agression, anxiety and hypochondria, depression
According to Freud what is the structure of personality?
- ID -EGO SUPEREGO = **I.E.S Personality = Impressive Emotional Stress
What is the Id component of Freud’s personality theory?
- The primitive animal urges from the unconcious in the Freud personality model
- Instinctive animal urges **UNCONCIOUS **
- Acts accprdomg to the **PLEASURE PRINCIPLE **
What is the Pleasure principle?
- States thh governing force of Freud’s id, drives a person to act impulsivly to achieve instant gratification of their **desire for food, sex **
- Used to avoid negative social consequences
- Aims to delay gratification until safe
- Not really considering the good of others or society
What is the superego component of Freuds personality theory?
- A component in the Freudian personality model that guides behaviour, It operates at the _concious preconcious and unconsious levels _
- **Protective mechanism **
- *Concious, Unconcious, Preconcious *
- Reality principle
What is the moral compomponent/ relaity principle of the superego?
- helps considers what is right or wrong in terms of social customs and benefit to others and to society.
- States that the governing principle of the superego and compels a person to _defer instant gratification where necessary _
- Does not show itself until somewhere between 3 and 5 y/o/a
What is the possible disadvantages of the superego?
- Can create **perfectionsists (tryna be all super(ego) and stuff!) **
- people may not be able to make compromises necessary
What is the moral component of the Superego?
- Moral component of the Freudian personality model. It operates at conscious,preconscious and unconscious levels.
What ahppens when the structure of perosnality is in conflict?
- Helps us deal with issues with the id, superego snf ego
- Times when conflict occurs
- *id causes you to behave in ways that upset the ego *
- *e.g. you are dieting and you eat chocolate, so insteaf of having just one swuare you eat the whole block (id) *
- Your supergo makes you feel GUILTY for not being PERFECT
- *e.g. you finish training and your coach asks you how maby baskets you got you say 10 when you only got 9, you feel guilt for the rest of the night.. *
- These situatiionS or conflict CREATE anxiety according to the Freudian theory delat with defence mechanisms! (NINE OF THEM!)
What are the three levels of awareness?
THE ID, EGO AND SUPERGO EXISTS AT THREE LEVELS KNOWN AS:
- Concious
- Preconcious
- Unconcious
Level of conciousness/ awareness The id, ego, supeego exist at three level of awareness , which Freud called the concious, preconcious and concious.
The concious refers to…
Everything that we are awaee of at a praticular time
eg. stimuli from the environment
phsycial sensations, thoughts, feelings
preconcious refers to…
memories that are just underneath the levek of concious awareness, but which can be easily retreived.
e.g. recalling a funny memory
unconcious refers to…
- Contains thoughts and memories that are deeply hidden
- we cannot ontrol them though!
- e.g. bad memeory from childhood bitten by duck= fear of yellow fluffy creatures/items
- repressed sexual desire, anger, desire for aggression.
CONLFLICT OF THREE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY CONTRIBUTES TO…
- Creation of personality
- the result of conflict is ego makes the decision, helps in decision making and is capable of overiding the id... defence mechanisms are used to deal with the anxiety created from this ongoing, conflict.
What are defence mechanisms?
According to Freud, Ways to avoid anxiety that may **functional or dysfunctional **
(1) Explain the Denial defence mechanism
- Refusal of truth- what is causing the anxiety
- e.g. deluded alcohlic man goes a day w/o liqour tells wife: “See I told you i can give up when I want to.”
(2) Explain the displacement defence mechanism
- Think of as transferring anger to another thing/ target that is percived as ‘safe’
- displacement is switching emotion to a **safer target **
- *e.g. man abused at work, yells at kids when he gets home. *
(3) Explain the identification defence mechanism
- Boostng confidence by associating with **people of a higher status **
- e.g. child with low self-esteem hangs around the edges of the ‘in-group.’
(4) Explain the projection defence mechanism
- Attributing our shortcomings and faults to others
- Blaming/ projecting wrong-doings on **other people **
- e.g. women at work does not like co-worker so tells her firend thst the co-worker does not like her
(5) Explain the **Rationalisation **defence mechanism
- Like **justification **
- **Excuse-making **
-
Convincing yourself with almost false but almost true excuses for actions you feel guilty about
- e.g. Not getting your resume completed in time to hand in for a job, then dismissing the issue saying it would be a boring job anyway
(6) Explain the Reaction formation defence mechanism
-
Behaving opposite way to how you feel
- *e.g. you do not like a girl in class so you act really kindly towards them *
(7) Explain the Regression defence mechanism
- mutton dressed like lamb concept
- acting younger then **what you really are **
- a return to a lesser or less developed state i.e. acting younger
- *e.g. Three y.o sibling of newborn starts having toilet training accidents again *
(8) Explain the Repression defence mechanism
- **Motivated forgetting **
-
Unaccpetable thoughts, desires or experiences are pushed into the **unconcious **
- e.g. person told they have a serious illness call up the doc the next day asking again for the test results (commonly happens)
(3) Explain the Sublimation defence mechanism
- Changing **unacceptable concepts, urges **- sexual or agressive urges into **socially accpetable behaviours **
- Like a good ulterior motives at times:
- UNACCEPTABLE URGES- SOCIALLY ACCEPTSBLE BEHAVIOUR
- *e.g. Someone become a surgeon to avoid unaccepatble agressive impulses- good instance of defence mechanisms! *
Why is Freud a stage theorist?
He beleived developmental goals are achieved by all persons in the same order and at about the same age,
What helps us hsape our personality acccording to Freud’s theory of **psychosexual development? **
The **goals avheived in the psychosexual development **there are five stages and key developmental tasks
Psychsexual development, what is it?
Freud’s stages of development charcterised by biological drives rhat r_equire overcoming_ conflicts divided into five stages known as the
- Oral stages
- Anal stages
- *Phallic stages *
- *Latency stages *
- *Genital stages *
What does it mean by fixation?
Fixation is what occurs when transition from one stage of the psychosexual development is _not smooth. _
When can fixation occur?
- If transition to next stage is too slow - child too happy in its current stage
- if transition is too fast - forcing child and resulting in frustration of that stage
STAGE ONE OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONSLITY: ORAL
- Oral (Birth to one yr)
- “Sexual focus” mouth, sucking, chewing
- Task for develooment: Weaning
- IF Fixation occurs: Obsessive drinking, (alcoholism) or smoking…
STAGE TWO OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY : ANAL
- **Anal (2-3 yrs old) **
- “Sexual Focus”: Anus
- Task for development: Toilet training
- I_F fixaton occurs:_ Obsession with cleanliness and Sexual anxiety
STAGE THREE OF THE PSYCHOSEXUAL THEORY OF PERSONALITY: PHALLIC
- *Phallic (4-5 yrs old) **
- “Sexual Focus”:* Genitals (masturbation)
- Task for development:* Identifyong with gender role models)
- IF fixaton occurs:* Difficulty with intimate relationships
STAGE FOUR OF THE PSYCHOSEXUAL THEORY OF PERSONALITY
- **Latency (6-12 yrs old) **
- “Sexual Focus”: None
- Task for development: Social interaction
- IF fixaton occurs: None this stage does not occur in all societies
STAGE FIVE OF THE PSYCOSEXUAL THEORY OF PERSONALITY: GENITAL
- Genital (Puberty & later)
- “Sexual Focus”: Genitals (sexual intimacy)
- Task for development: Intimate relationships Productvity
- IF fixaton occurs: If no interest in an earlier stage, sexual interest is low; if no previous fixation, sexual motivation will be normal
What is the Opedius complex?
- Interest/ parent interest: Where a child adores its **mum **and hates it **father **
- *Future sexual tendencies: *As an adult this person is likelt to seek out dominant women who will ‘mother’ him
The Electra complex, what is it?
- Suggestion from freud
- Interest/ parent interest: Phallic stage occurance where little girl forms strong attachment to father, angry blame mother for not giving her a penis = PENIS ENVY! :P
- Future sexual tendencies: Will have ‘daddy issues’ desiring men who resemble their father
TRUE OR FALSE: The id, ego and supergo are related to the unconciousness, level of awareness
**TRUE **The UNCONCIOUS STATE (unretreivable memories below the level of awareness) is related to the id, ego and the supergo..
What could the unconcious factors i.e. things we do without realising reveal about us and what are they?
Three ways in which personality shows up in personality is *through our unconcious: *
- Dreams
- Free association
- Freudian Slips
Explain DREAMS a as an unconcious factor to revealing our charcter ie. personality..
- _The fact we cannot control them show us who we really are _
- reveals our **true self **
- Published book the interpretation of dreams (1900)
- Beleives we dream symbolically revealing our sexual desires urges and frustrations.
- e.g. Long thin object- Penis
- e.g. Containers- Vagina
Explain FREE ASSOCIATION as an unconcious factor contributing to revealing our true-self
*When does it occur? *
- Free association occurs when you are given an ambiguous stimulus and the person’s response shows their ‘inner most self’
- The inner most self is revealed
- How this is achieved: By saying a certain word, showing picture or pattern then asking for a response.
- Person talks freely, **no interuption **
- e.g. When I say hot, you say cold thus showing innermost character.
Explain FREUDIAN SLIPS as an unconcious factor contributing to revealing our true-self
When does it occur?
- Freudian slips when our unconcious urges makes us have a ‘slip of tongue’
-
Primitive urges include:
- **Hunger **
- **Sex **
- Anger
- _NOTE: Not all primitive urges are socially acceptable like hunger! _
- e.g. Guy says nice chest**_ instead of nice dress _
What are NeoFreudians and who are they? Who belonged to this group of NeoFreudians?
*Individuals who were co-worker of Freud and then they decided his theories were no longer correct- ceratin aspecsts wrong *
- Carl **Jung **
- Alfred Adler
- Karen Horney
- NOTE think they are his three disciples - the holy trinity **JAH! **
Explain who Carl Jung was and what his theory was:
Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), disciple #1 of Freud J-BOI
- First to use term INTROVERT and **EXTROVERT **
- Theory name: Collective Unconcious (dismissed by biological standards)
- Collective Unconcious: Deepest level of unconcious, shared by all people ‘race memories’
- contains archetypes i.e. images we have inherited
- _e.g. artefacts from ancestors are similar despite different cultures _
Who was Joseph Adler? and what was his theory? (Against Freud’s Penis envy?)
- He viewed (AGAINST) freud that conciousness can be **divided **
- Viewed it as an invisible** WHOLE** instead
- The id, ego, superegos not apparent in **everyday situations **
- Girls want superior positions (AGAINST electra complex)
- CONCIOUS > UNCONCIOUS = personality determinant
Who is Karen Horney and what is her theory?
- **Feminist psychologist **
- pschoanalytic *background *
- against freud’s v/o **women: **
-
_Dependent, self absorbed, Dismissive _
- Beleives: PARENT/CHILD R/ship = **Personalit determinant **
- SOCIAL INTERACTIONS (conflict
TRUE OR FALSE Freud and his followers beleived UNCONCIOUSrepsonsible for personality.
TRUE. Unconccious = personality
Explain the 1920’s ink blot test
- projective test
- 1920’s BUT widely used today
- 10 ink blots shown to person
- ask to describe what is shown
What is projective testing?
An attempt to uncover an **individual’s: **
- *unconcious (look at no. 5) *
- desires/ needs
- -*wishes *
- - fears - thoughts
- hidden aspects of personality
*How? *
by giving them AMBIGUOS STIMULUS, Getting them to i**nterpret it! **
Further elaboration of the ink blot test- what it examines:
*Has more than one answer compared to invenotry style test *
Responses assesed on:
- The Determinant of the answer
- Perception of person
- Comparison of responses to others
- How many **times response occured **
- Extent to which ink-blot matches features of ink-blot
Explain the TAT (Thematic Apperception test)
- Projective testing
- 1943 Morgan and murray (1935)
- Piture shown by psch - asks person:
- “Tell me what is happening in this picture?”
- “What lead up to the event shown and what will happen next?”
- (30 pics shown/ 20 for personality assesement)
- themes looked over several scores
What is the TAT test assesed on? personality… but how?
’
- Response time
- First response
- Content of the story
- Think of law and order people investigating victim’s personality type to see if they’re psycho buy showing them series o/ pics
ADVANTAGES of PROJECTIVE TESTING
IE.
- TAT
- RORSHACH INKBLOT
- It’s ambiguous nature means:
- Cannot fake results
- no right or wrong answer
- scoring is not obvious
- Cannot be easily manipulated
- Little or as much detail can be given by person
- recurring THEMES IDENTIFIED
- Conflict use to guide **THERAPY **
- provide a personal information
- provides a lot of info when used with *person’s tone, body language etc. *
DISADVANTAGES OF PROJECTIVE TESTS
- Psychologist projecting their thoughts
- influence of psychologist on person
- identify many ppl as disturbed
- psychometric properties are poorly assesed such as RELIABILITY & VALIDITY
Trait theories pioneers include:
- Gordon Allport think three types of traits:
- CARDINAL CENTRAL SECONDARY
- Hans Eysenck
- Raymond **Cattel **
- 16PF Questionnaire
- **The BIg FIVE **
- Paul Costa & McRae
- **Neo PI-R **
Explain the difference between TRAIT and STATE
- Personality charcteristic that endures- overtime and in different situations = TRAIT is PERMENANT
- E.G. Happy, optimistic, intelligent, trsuting- describing words!
- STATE something that is TEMPORARY
- E.G. Nervous before test and state
What charcterises TRAIT THEORIES
- Focus on MEASURING
- IDNENTIFYING
- DESCRIBING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
- in PERSONALITY in terms of TRAITS (describing words)
- Focuses on differences
- Very different to other theories
- used to predict behaviour based on INVIDUAL
Explain ALLPORTS theory of traits: HIERARCHY OF TRAITS (lasting disposition to act specificially in different sit’s)
- First to describe trait theory
- Pionner of trait theory
- Identifying over 18000 words in ENG to describe personality traits
- Sorted them into three categories i,e. the traits:
- CARDINAL TRAIT
- CENTRAL TRAIT
- SECONDARY TRAIT
explain CARDINAL traits
- Personality trait which is a
- MOTIVATOR and DETERMINANT OF behaviour
- e.g. overwhelming amount of person needs to be POWERFUL
- guides FUTURE BEHAVIOUR.. job apps, careers choices, interactions, interest..
- *e.g. kindness of Mother Teresa *
explain CENTRAL traits
- A personality trait whcih is present in VARYING DEGREES within CULTURE or SOCIETY
- e.g. Independence, trustworthiness, generosity
- Known as BUILDING BLOCKS
- NOT controlling force of all behaviours
- ALLPORT BELIVED wr had 5-10 traits
EXPLAIn the Secondary traits
Trait apprent in SOME sits but NOT in others
e.g. stern teacher in classroom very sweet nad funny outside of school at a footy match
What psychologist although controversial made many contributions to the trait theory of psychology depite his wrongful/discriminativ interpretation?
- Hans Eysenck (1967- 1997)
- Factor analysis used in his study of personality psychology
- Called his factors found: dimensions of personality
- **Hippocrates model (4 personality types) contribute to Han’s own model: **
Hans model: DIMENSIONS ‘P.E.N.’
- *P-Psychoticism *
- *E- Extraversion *
- *N- Neuroticism *
Eysenck was on what side of debate? Nature of Nurture?
- PREDOMINANTLY THE nature side. ie. genetics
- he belived: ‘personality is determined to a large extent by a person’s **genes’ **
-
Said their is TWO dimensions _needed to account for personality traits _
- _‘HIGHER ORDER TRAITS’ & LOWER ORDER TRAITS _
- Determines behaviour in specific situations
After research with patiens, Hans Eysenck changed/added what to his dimension model of personality?
- A thrid FACTOR
- Psychoticism - tendency towards reckless, antisocial behaviour, drink driving, DUI, driving rampage or gun rampage
Can you recall what is factor analysis?
- Technique by psychologist
- investigationg intelligence
- Looking at many studies relationship to create a new specific FACTOR
- new factors as an aggregate of two others etc…
What kind of test did Eysenck divise to measure personality?
- *The Eysenck - self report inventory EPI *
- identifies personality characteristics on this three factors (PEN)
- Not in use today (i.e. racist interpreations)
Expain Introversion and Extroversion as defined by —
- at one end- introversion and extroversion at the other
- EXTRAVERSION
- Enhoy, INTERACTION with others SOCIAL ACTIVITY
- Risk-takers
- Love excitiment
- Enjoy new things- change
- External stimulation is needed/ seeked more E.G. Lady gaga
What are surface and source traits?
- SOURCE traits
- Underlying trait that cane be observed in behaviour through the set of surface traits which reflect it
- Each source trait is a factor or dimension of personality
- 16 sources e.g. reserved
Explain Cattell’s testin of personality
- 1 test _ (The 16PF) _
- 16 personality FACTOR QUESTIONNAIRE
- 185 y/n Q’S
- OVERALL PIC of a person’s personality
- Used to COMPARE personalities of _two or more people _
- _Each Factor is shown on a CONTINUMUM, with opposites at EACH END. _
*
Explain Eysenck’s classification of personality?
We can use TWO dimensions** to classify people into **FOUR personality types:
**IN / IS / EN / ES **
- -IN: Introverted/ Neurotic (crazy shy)
- *- IS: Introverted/ Stable (acceptable shy) *
- - EN: Extroverted/ Neurotic (crazy confident)
- *- ES: Etroverted/ Stable (acceptable confident) *
Explain Eysenck’s Psychotic dimension of PSYCHOTICISM
- Developed **later **
- Encompasses lower-level traits such as agressive, cold, egocentric, impulsive, *impersonal, anti-social, unempethatic, toughminded *
- Present in some people- **varying degrees **
- Controversial due to its correlation w/ **mental illness **
THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAIT Developed by who? And what is it? Their view on perspnality.
- BIG, broad like an OCEAN = personality
- Costa amd McCrae usimg FACTOR ANALYSIS
- Described personality based on five factors and its structure composed as: Ocean
- OPENESS
- COMCIOUSNESS
- EXTRAVERSION
- AGREEBLENESS
- NEUROTICISM
6.
Why is it called the big five?
- Because each factor is broad and summarised a large number of more specific characteristics
- Shows:
- The structure of personality
- Describes personality types
- Does NOT explain the DEVPT OF PERSONALITY
What is a strength of OCEAN?
What are the limitations of OCEAN?
Limited use in predicting personality
Openess to expeirnece explain: OCEAN
Includes traits such as:
- Imaginative
- Curious
- Artistic excitable
- Insight able
- insightful
Explain Extraversion OCEAN
WARMTH
OUTGOING
TALKATIVE
ENERGETIC
ADVENTUROUS
