Ch.14 Personality Flashcards
Nomothetic approach
Approach to personality that focuses on identifying general laws that govern the behavior of all behaviors
Idiographic approach
Approach to personality that focuses on identifying the unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within an individual
Shared environmental factors
Experiences that make individuals within the same family more alike
Nonshared environmental factors
Experiences that make individuals in a family less alike
Molecular genetic study
Investigation that allows researchers to pinpoint genes associated with specific characteristics, including personality traits
Repression
Motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses
Denial
Motivated forgetting of distressing experiences
Regression
Returning psychologically to a younger and safer time
Reaction formation
Transforming an anxiety producing experience into its opposite
Projection
Unconscious attribution of our negative qualities onto others
Displacement
Directing an impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a more acceptable one
Rationalization
Providing reasonable sounding explanations for unreasonable behaviors or failures
Intellectualization
Avoiding the emotions associated with anxiety provoking experiences by focusing on abstract and impersonal thoughts
Identifying with the aggressor
Adopting the psychological characteristics of people we find threatening
Sublimation
Transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired and socially valued goal
Neo Freudian theories
Derived from Freud model but with less emphasis on sexuality as a driving force in personality and more optimism regarding the prospects for long term personality growth
Style of life
according to Alfred Adler each person’s distinctive way of achieving superiority
Inferiority complex
Feelings of low self esteem that can lead to overcompensation for such feelings
Alfred Adler the striving for superiority
The principle motive in human personality is striving for superiority. Our overall goal in life is to be better than others.
Carl Jung collective unconscious
Our shared storehouse of memories that ancestors have passed down to us across generations. It’s our shared storehouse ancestral memories that accounts for cultural similarities in myths and legends.
Archetypes
Cross culturally universal symbol
Karen horney: feminist psychology
Women’s sense of inferiority stems not from anatomy but from their excessive dependency on men, which can society has ingrained in them from an early age.
Behavioral theories of personality
Reject notion that the first few years of life are not especially critical in personality development. Personality consists of behaviors doesn’t cause them. Personality under control of genetic factors and contingencies in the environment that is reinforcers and punishers
Behavioral views of determinism
All our actions are products of preexisting causal influences. Free will is an illusion.
Behavioral views of unconscious processing
Don’t understand the reasons of our behavior often. We are unconscious or many things because we are often unaware of immediate situational influences on our behaviors.
Locus of control
Extent to which people believe that reinforcers and punishers lie inside or outside their control
Trait model: the big five
- Extroversion- tend to be social and lively
- Neuroticism- neurotic people tend to be tense and moody
- Agreeableness- sociable and easy to get along with
- Conscientiousness- people tend to be careful and responsible
- Openness to experience- intellectually curious and unconventional in their interests and outlook on the world.
Structured personality test
Paper and pencil measure consisting of questions that respondents answer in on of a few fixed ways.
Minnesota Multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI)
Widely used structured personality test designed to assess symptoms of mental disorders
Empirical method of test construction
Approach to building tests in which researches begin with two or more criterion groups and examine which items best differentiate them.
Face validity
Extent to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring
Rational/ theoretical method of test construction
Approach to building tests that requires test developers to begin with a clear cut conceptualization of a trait and then write items to assess that conceptualization.
Projective hypothesis
Hypothesis that in the process of interpreting ambiguous stimuli, examinees project aspects of their personality onto the stimulus.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Projective test consisting of 10 symmetrical ink blots
Incremental validity
Extent to which a test contributes information beyond other more easily collected measures
Thematic Appreciation Test TAT
Projective Test requiring examinees to tell a story in response to ambiguous pictures
Graphology
Psychological interpretations of handwriting
