Ch 6 - Identity and personality

Question 1

self concept and identity

Answer 1

• self concept - internal list of “who am I”, multiple identities come together to form one self concept. Includes future and past self
• self-schema - self given label that carries a set of qualities
• identity - individual components of self concept
  
  • religion, sexual orientation, personal relationships, social groups
    *

Question 2

gender identity

Answer 2

• describes persons appraisal of theirselves on scales of masculinity and femininity
• androgyny - state of being very feminine and masculine simultaneously
• undifferentiated - low feminine and masculine simultaneously. opposite of androgyny
• gender schema - key components of gender identity are transmitted through cultural and societal means

Question 3

ethnic and national identity

Answer 3

• ethnic identity- members typically share a common ancestry, cultural heritage, and language
• nationality - based on political borders. Shared history, media, cuisine, national symbols
  
  • does not need to be tied to ethnic identity or citizenship

Question 4

hierarchy of salience

Answer 4

• let the situation determine which identity is the most important in the moment
• can be influenced by amount of work required to be in identity, reward/gratification for identity, self esteem associate with the identity

Question 5

self discrepancy theory

Answer 5

• everyone has 3 selves
  
  • actual self - way we see ourselves currently
  • ideal self - way we want ourselves to be
  • ought self - how others think we should be
• closer the 3 are together, the higher the self esteem

Question 6

self efficacy

Answer 6

• belief in our ability to succeed
  
  • more likely to pursue tasks with a high efficacy
• overconfidence - take tasks that lead to frustration, humiliation, injury
• learned helplessness - self efficacy is depressed past the point of recovery
  
  • could be model for clinical depression

Question 7

locus of control

Answer 7

• the way we characterize the influences in our lives
• internal - view that they control their own fate
• external - events in their lives are caused by luck or outside influences

Question 8

freud

Answer 8

• psychology and sexuality are linked
• Libido is present at birth
• drive to reduce libidinal tension accounts for human psych
• Stages of psychosexual development
  
  • oral stage
  • anal stage
  • phallic stage
  • latency stage
  • genital stage

Question 9

fixation - freud

Answer 9

• fixation - child is overindulged or frustrated during a stage of development. Anxiety causes fixation and child forms a personality pattern based on the stage
• neurosis - fixation persists in adulthood and causes mental disorder

Question 10

Oral stage - Freud

Answer 10

• 0 - 1 year
• gratification from putting objects in mouth, biting, sucking
• fixation causes - excessive dependency

Question 11

Anal stage - Freud

Answer 11

• 1 - 3 yr
• gratification from elimination and retention of waste materials
• toilet training
• fixation causes excessive orderliness (anal retentiveness) or sloppiness

Question 12

Phallic stage - Freud

Answer 12

• 3 - 5 years
• aka Oedipal stage
• Oedipal conflict (male children) or Electra conflict (female children)
• male child envies fathers relationship with mother and fear castration by father, identifies with father and develops sexual identity and moral values
• sublimates libido - collects objects, focus on school
• females cannot fear castration - alternative is penis envy

Question 13

Genital stage - Freud

Answer 13

• puberty through adulthood
• enter heterosexual relationships
• sexual traumas that are not resolved can cause homosex, asex, fetishes

Question 14

Latency Phase - Freud

Answer 14

• libido is calmed
• 5 to puberty

Question 15

Erik Erikson

Answer 15

• psychosocial development
• personality development
• based on series of crises between needs and social demands
  
  • favorable and unfavorable outcomes
• emotional development and interactions with social environment
• possible to fail to resolve a conflict and still move to next stage

Question 16

Erikson Stages

Answer 16

• Trust v mistrust : 0 - 1 year
  
  • can I trust the world?
• Autonomy v shame and doubt : 1 -3 years
  
  • Is it okay to be me?
  • having control over choices versus external locus of control and doubt
• Initiative v guilt : 3 - 6 years
  
  • is it okay for me to do, move, and act?
• Industry v inferiority : 6 - 12 years
  
  • Can I make it in the world of people and things?
• Identity v role confusion : 12 - 20 years
  
  • Who and I and what can I be?
  • physiological revolution
• Intimacy v isolation : 20 - 40 years
  
  • Can I love
• Generativity v stagnation : 40 - 65 years
  
  • Can I make my life count?
• Integrity v despair : 65 - death
  
  • Is it okay to have been me?

Question 17

Kohlberg moral reasoning

Answer 17

• Heinz Dilemma
• development of moral thinking
• as we grow our morals change and perception of right and wrong changes
• preconventional morality - children
• conventional morality - level of normal adult reasoning
• postconventional morality - few adults

Question 18

Preconventional morality

Answer 18

• preadolescence thinking
• consequences of moral choice
• stage 1 : Obedience - avoiding punishment
• stage 2 : Self interest - gaining reward
  
  • aka instrumental relativist stage - concept of reciprocity and sharing

Question 19

Conventional Morality

Answer 19

• early adolescence
• understanding and accepting social rules
• Stage 3 : conformity - person seeks approval form others
• stage 4 : law and order - maintain social order in highest regard
  
  • I cant steal because what if everyone stole

Question 20

Postconventional morality

Answer 20

• not everyone is capable and is based on social mores, may conflict with the law
• stage 5 : Social contract - moral rules as conventions for the greater good, focused on individual rights
• stage 6 : universal human ethics - decisions make in consideration of abstract principles

Question 21

vygotsky: cultural and biosocial development

Answer 21

• cognitive development based on internalization of culture: rules, symbols, language
• zone of proximal development - skills and abilities that have not yet fully developed but are being developed
  
  • within the range of child to be able to learn

Question 22

influences on identity

Answer 22

• parents, siblings, peers
• most likely to imitate behaviors from similar people, such as same sex sibling
• role taking - playing school/house, helps understand roles and perspectives later in life
• theory of mind - ability to sense how someone elses mind works
  
  • helps understand how others react
  • aware of judgements and how to react
• looking-glass self : others reflecting our personality back to ourselves
• reference group - self concept depends on who we compare to

Question 23

personality

Answer 23

• thoughts, feelings, traits, and behaviors that are characteristic of an individual across time and locations
• theories of personality
  
  • psychoanalytic (psychodynamic)
  • humanistic (phenomenological)
  • type and trait
  • behaviorist

Question 24

psychoanalytic theory

Answer 24

• assumption of unconscious internal states that motivate the overt actions of individuals and determine personality
  
  • most noteworthy is Freud
  • Carl Jung

Question 25

Freud on psychoanalytic perspective of personality

Answer 25

• id - basic, primal urges to survive and reproduce
  
  • pleasure principle - achieve immediate gratification to relieve tension
  • primary process - id’s response to frustration, need satisfaction now
  • wish fulfillment - day dream or fantasy to fulfill satisfaction
• ego -
  
  • reality principle - account objective reality and guides or inhibits id and the pleasure principle
    
    • delay demand by id until it can be obtained
  • secondary process - guidance of id
  • promote growth of perception, memory, problem solving, reality testing
  • receives power from id and can never be independent of it
  • also moderate superego
• superego - perfectionist, judges actions and respond to failures and successes
  
  • conscience - improper actions that were punished
  • ego-ideal : proper actions that were rewarded
  • right and wrong replace rewards and punishments

Question 26

Consciousness (Freud)

Answer 26

• conscious
• preconscious - currently unaware of
• unconscious / subconscious - thoughts that have been repressed

Question 27

Freud on Instinct

Answer 27

• instinct - inate psychological representation og a biological need
• propelling aspects of Freud’s dynamic theory of personality
• life instincts - quest for survival (thirst, hunger, sex)
• death instincts - unconscious wish for death and destruction
  
  • response to his observations of victims of trauma reenacting or focusing on the experience

Question 28

Defense Mechanisms

Answer 28

• egos attempt to releive anxiety from clash of id and superego
• deny, falsify, or distort reality
• operate unconsciously
  
  • repression, suppression, regression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization, displacement, sublimation

Question 29

Defense mechanisms (list)

Answer 29

• repression - mostly unconscious forgetting and forcing undesired thoughts and urges into the unconscious. Disguise threatening impulses
• suppression - deliberate and conscious forgetting
• regression - reversion to earlier developmental state
• reaction formation - suppress urge by converting it into the oppose. ex. hating a celebrity because you will never get to meet them
• projection - attribute undesired feelings to others
  
  • Rorschach inkblot test - client project unconscious feeligns onto the shape
  • thematic apperception test - series of images and client makes a story
• rationalization - justify behavior in a way that is acceptable to self and society
• displacement - transference of undesired urge from one person to another
  
  • ex. snap at husband becuase mad at boss but doesnt want to yell at boss
• sublimation - transform unacceptable behavior into socially acceptable behaviors

Question 30

Carl Jung

Answer 30

• psychoanalytical theory
• libido as psychic general energy and not sexual energy
• ego is the conscious mind
  
  • personal unconscious
  • collective unconscious - shared among all humans and residue of ancestors
    
    • archetypes - underlying forms or concepts
      
      • persona - personality we present to the world
      • anima (feminine) and animus (masculine) - sex-inappropriate qualities
      • ex. anima is the emotion in men, animus is power seeking women
      • shadow - appearance of unpleasant and socially reprehensible thoughts, feelings, actions

Question 31

Jung defines “Self”

Answer 31

self - intersection of collective unconsciousness, personal unconscious, and conscious mind

• strive for unity
• mandala is symbol of self

Question 32

Jung’s Dichotomy

Answer 32

• Extraversion versus introversion
• sensing versus intuiting
• thinking versus feeling
• these 3 dichotomies used in Myers-Briggs Type Inventory personality test
• Fourth added : judging (orderly) versus perceiving (spontaneous)

Question 33

inferiority complex

Answer 33

• alfred adler
• individuals sense of incompleteness, imperfection, and inferiority both physically and socially
• superiority drives personality, yields selfishness when not driven towards bettering society

Question 34

Alfred Adler

Answer 34

• Overall about striving for superiority
• inferiority complex
• creative self - individual shapes uniqueness and establishes personality
• style of life - manifestation of creative self and person’s unique way of acheiving superiority
  
  • family environment is important
• fictional finalism - motivated more by expectations of the future than by past experiences

Question 35

Karen Horney

Answer 35

• neurotic personalities are governed by one of ten neurotic needs
• neurotic needs - make life anf interactions bearable
• needs are problematic if they meet one of four characteristics
  
  • too intense
  • indisciminate in application
  • partially diregard reality
  • provoke intense anxiety
• basic anxiety - caused by inadequate parenting. cause vulnerability and helplessness
• basic hostility - caused by neglect and rejection that create anger
• use 3 strategies to deal with anxiety or hostility -
  
  • move toward people to obtain security
  • fight them to get upper hand
  • move away and withdrawal

Question 36

object relations theory

Answer 36

• psychodynamic theories
• objects are parents/caregivers based on subjective experiences during infancy
• persist into adulthood and impact interactiosn

Question 37

humanistic theorists

Answer 37

• aka phenomenological theorists
• person centered approach
• Gestalt therapy - holistic view of self, dont reduce to behaviors or drives
• personality is result of conscious feelings we have for ourselves as we attempt to attain our needs and goals

Question 38

force field theory

Answer 38

• Kurt Lewin
• little constraints on personality
• focus on present situations and not past or future
• forces/influences are either assisting or blocking the path to the goal

Question 39

peak experiences

Answer 39

• profound and deeply moving experiences that have long lasting effects
• people with these experiences are more likely to reach self actualization
• common traits in people that reach self actualization (5 on Maslows needs)
  
  • nonhostile sense of humor, originiality, creativity, spontaneity, need for some privacy

Question 40

personal construct psychology

Answer 40

• George Kelly
• does not use motivation, reinforcement, or unconscious emotion
• devises and tests predictions about behavior of significant people in their lives
  
  • scheme of anticipation of what they will do
  • anxiety stems from not being able to predict
• psychotherapy - acquire new contructs to better predict future events

Question 41

Client centered therapy

Answer 41

• Carl Rogers
• aka person centered or nondirective therapy
• people control their own behavior and are not slaves to the unconscious (psychoanalysts) or faulty learning (behaviorists)
• solution is to reflect on problem, make a choice, generate solution, positive action, determine own destiny
• reconcile difference between real and ideal selves which reduces stress
• unconditional positive regard - therapist completely accepts client and expresses empathy in order to promote positive environment

Question 42

Personality types

Answer 42

• type theorists - create taxonomy of personality types
• Greeks used to base it off of the 4 humors/body fluids
  
  • blood, yellow bile, phlegm, black bile
• 20th century - somatotypes - body type
• type A and B
  
  • A - competitive, compulsive
  • B - laid back and relaxed
• Myers Briggs

Question 43

Trait theorist

Answer 43

• trait theorists - personality as sum of characteristic behaviors
• PEN model - Hans and Sybil Eysenck
• Gordan Allport - cardinal, central, secondary
• David McClelland - identidied a trait that is “the need for achievement”
  
  • N - Ach is high in people that have pride in accomplishments, they avoid failing by not taking risks, also avoid low risk tasks because they do not create a sense of achievement

Question 44

PEN model

Answer 44

• PEN model - Hans and Sybil Eysenck
  
  • psychoticism - measure of social deviance / nonconformity
  • extraversion - measure tolerance for social interaction and stimulation
  • neuroticism - measure emotional arousal in stressful situations
• PEN model expanded to big 5 traits (OCEAN)
  
  • openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Question 45

Gordan Allport - Trait theorist

Answer 45

• 3 basic traits
  
  • cardinal - trait that person organizes life around
  • central - major characteristics of personality
  • secondary - more limited in occurence
• functional autonomy - behavior continues despite satisfaction of the drive that created the behavior
  
  • ex. hunter that hunts for fun even after obtaining enough food

Question 46

other theories on personality

Answer 46

• behaviorist - personality reflects behaviors that have been conditioned over time
  
  • therapy - learn skills and change behavior using operant conditioning
    
    • token economies - give tokens as reward, exchange tokens for privileges or reinforcers
• social cognitive - how we interact with the environment
  
  • reciprocal determinism - thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and environment interact to determine action in a situation
  • locus of control is also important
  • best predictor of behavior is behavior from past similar experiences
• biological perspective - personality as a result of gene expression