Ch. 8 - Personality Flashcards
Personality
Enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize a person’s response to situations
What 3 behaviours are attributed to personality?
Components of identity
Perceived internal cause
Perceived organization and structure
Conscious
A person’s immediate awareness of their current environment
Preconscious
Available to awareness (things that aren’t always in our awareness, but they can be easily recalled)
Unconscious
Unavailable to awareness (repressed wishes and conflicts)
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Human behaviour is influenced by unconscious memories, thoughts, and urges. Freud used techniques such as hypnosis, free association, and dream analysis to try to access people’s unconscious minds
Name the 3 components of the mind according to Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Id
Ego
Superego
Id
Unconscious mind only
Believed to be the only structure present at birth
Operates under the pleasure principle
Ego
Primarily functions at conscious level, but also within preconscious level
A mediator between Id and Superego
Operates under the reality principle
Superego
Involved in morals of our personality
Permanently blocks gratification of the id
Typically develops by age of 5 years old
Pleasure Principle
Seeking immediate gratification/release (or avoiding pain) regardless of ethical/rational concerns, and environmental realities
Reality Principle
Assessing the reality of the external world, and acting upon it accordingly rather than acting on the pleasure principle (only give into unconscious desires when it makes sense)
Name the 7 common defence mechanisms
Displacement
Repression
Sublimation
Regression
Denial
Projection
Rationalization
Displacement
Dangerous impulse is repressed, but redirected to a less threatening target
Defence Mechanisms
Common reactions that help us cope with stressful situations. These mechanisms usually operate on an unconscious level and they distort/deny reality
Repression
Ego uses its energy to prevent anxiety-arousing thoughts from entering one’s consciousness. Thus, one has no memory of traumatic events, but the events influence their actions and behaviours
Sublimation
Transforming socially unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable actions or behaviours (a mature defence mechanism)
Regression
Person retreats to a child-like state so they do not have to deal with their anxiety
Denial
Person does not acknowledge reality or denies the consequences of their reality
Projection
Rather than acting on a socially unacceptable impulse, a person attributes their unacceptable impulse onto other people
Rationalization
Person creates false explanations for their anxiety-arousing behaviour. This protects themselves from feelings of guilt, disappointment, and anxiety
Freud’s Psychosexual Development Theory
Personalities are moulded by early life experiences. At each stage of life, a key task centred around a particular erogenous zone needs to be accomplished before the next stage to avoid fixation
Stages of Psychosexual Development
- Oral
- Anal
- Phallic
- Latency
- Genital
Oral Stage of Psychosexual Development
Occurs at 0-2 years of age
Erogenous Zone: Mouth
Key Task: Weaning (transition from breastfeeding to other foods and fluids)
Anal Stage of Psychosexual Development
Occurs at 2-3 years old
Erogenous Zone: Anus
Key Task: Toilet training
Phallic Stage of Psychosexual Development
Occurs at 4-6 years of age
Erogenous Zone: Genitals
Key Task: Resolving Oedipus complex
Oedipus Complex
Desire for sexual involvement with parent of the opposite gender and jealousy towards parent of the same sex
Latency Stage of Psychosexual Development
Occurs starting at age of 7 up to puberty
No erogenous zone
Key Task: Developing social relationships
Genital Stage of Psychosexual Development
Starts when a child hits puberty
Erogenous Zone: Genitals
Key Task: Developing mature social and sexual relationships
Neoanalytic Approaches (Psychodynamic Perspective on Personality)
Emphasized social-cultural influences on personality
According to Adler, what motivates humans?
Humans are social creatures that are motivated by social interest. We have the desire to improve other people’s well-being. People also strive for superiority
Striving for superiority
An inferiority complex leads to people attempting to compensate for real or imagined deficits
Humanistic Approach to Personality
Emphasize the good in humans and the human spirit
Belief that the consciousness plays a role in changing things we are aware of
Self-actualization
The ultimate human need; the realization of a person’s full potential
George Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory
Primary goal of life is to make sense out of the world. We do this by finding personal meaning in the world.
Personal Constructs
Cognitive categories which sort the people and events in one’s life. Can be used to predict a person’s behaviour to understand their personality
Fixed-role Therapy
Therapist writes role descriptions that challenge a client’s personal constructs to get clients to adopt a new construct in their lives
Carl Rogers Self Theory
Behaviour is a response to our immediate conscious experience of self and environment. Forces that direct our behaviours are within us