chap 13 guide from slide Flashcards
Definition of personality (from lecture & text)
“An individual’s pattern of thinking, feeling, and
behaving” (your text book p. 506)
“the psychological qualities of an individual that influence a variety of characteristic behavior patterns across different situations and over time” (a different textbook)
Temperament and traits: how is each studied, and with which age groups? (observation vs. self-report tests)
Temperament: observed in infancy
ex: sensitive/shy OR easy-going/bold
• Enduring personal quality or attribute that
influences behavior across situations
• Usually on a continuum
Age that traits tend to stabilize
Some findings with the Big 5
• Scores tend to stabilize by age 30 and show
moderate stability across lifespan
• Extraversion & Neuroticism are the most stable
across the lifespan; also the easiest to “see”
Big 5: names of dimensions (lecture),
the 2 most stable traits (lecture),
critique of Big 5 (lecture)
- Open to experience Conservative
- Conscientious Spontaneous
- Extraverted Introverted
- Agreeable Quarrelsome
- Neurotic (anxious) Emotionally stable
OCEAN
• Extraversion & Neuroticism are the most stable
across the lifespan; also the easiest to “see”
• Are they culturally universal?
• Is Big 5 too reductionistic? (Is 5 all there is?)
• Researcher bias toward one end of each pole?
• No real theory – just descriptive?
• Too static? Where is the person as agent in trait
psychology?
Also, it traits are accurate, hard to explain why there
isn’t more cross-situational consistency
• Consistency Paradox (Walter Mischel)
People think personality is consistent BUT it turns out that
behaviors are not consistent
• Traits can create situations (Avril Thorne)
eg: press of extraversion & introversion
And some complain about reliance on self-report tests
Temperament studies with monkeys, with human babies
bby monkey given an outgoing stepmom… she receives him and nutures him blah blah blah… he exhibits outgoing-ness now more…. but when seperated again in older age… (bc he was seperated when bby he was very anxious and crying) … he became super anxious and couldnt do the tests like when he was a bby.
Biological approaches
Psychodynamic Theory: Freud: inner conflict; conscious vs. unconscious; libido, anxiety, defense mechanisms
id, ego, superego;
• Id = primitive, unconscious, governed by pleasure
principle
• Superego = internalized morals, values, conscience,
governed by “perfection principle”
• Ego = moderates id vs superego, interacts with
conscious reality, finds appropriate channels for
impulses, governed by “reality principle”
driven by inner conflict:
unconscious nasty
wishes try to move into
consciousness,
creating ego anxiety,
so ego marshals
• Compromises = defense mechanism defense mechanism (unconscious arrangements that the ego uses to satisfy iD instincts indirectly.
, defense mechanisms
Denial :A psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which a person fails to accept a reality.
Displacement: A psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an impulse is unconsciously directed to a substitute object or person
IdentificationThe unconscious process of copying the behaviors of a person.
Projection: A defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously attribute their threading impulse to another person.
Rationalization: a defense mechanism in which an irrational behavior is unconsciously explained as acceptable in order to reduce anxiety.
Reaction formation: a defense mechanism where a person will unconsciously replace a feeling.
Regression: a defense mechanism in which a person reverts to an earlier age of functioning.
Repression: a defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously forces a threading experience form their awareness.
Sublimation: a defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously redirects an iD instinct in a socially acceptable way.
method: projective tests
Assume that persons
presented with a
vague stimulus will
“project” their own
impulses and desires
into a description of
the stimulus
“tell me a story about
this picture”
But, questions about
validity
yeah b they really don’t say anything about personality
Freud’s legacy,
Jung and other psychodynamic theories
• Continues to drive some research on memory
& motivation; and still used in psychotherapy
• Problems regarding empirical evidence
• Many concepts vague, not operationally defined
• Some aspects of the theory are clearly wrong, others
untestable (defy the principle of “falsifiability” see p. 513)
JUNG
• Called his version of psychoanalytic theory analytical psychology
• Psyche divided into 3 realms
◦ Ego - conscious mind what u were aware of at any given moment
◦ Personal unconsciousness: contains info that can be made conscious
◦ Collective unconscious: all personal unconscious from everyone who has ever lived
▸ Has collection of thought : archetypes (wise man, trickster, persona, the shadow,
ADLER’S
• Adler believed the major drive of personality to be striving for superiority
• His theory of personality. : individual psychology
◦ Striving for superiority : attempting to overcome feelings of inferiority by being a better person
▸ Suggests that when we are young, we sense that we are less than or inferior to others for the simple reason that we are.
◦ Inferiority : aka organ inferiority . Inadequate at something
▸ Being kids, we were always incapable of doing things bc of our hight, age, etc.
◦ lifestyle: aka Style of life. Trying to overcome this inferiority when we start growing up
▸ Unhealthy lifestyle : aka mistaken life:: when ppl were beating down others to feel better
▸ Healthy lifestyle : when ur the best person u can be
• Ex: her friend had a hard time losing weight after having a bby .. So her plan was to make a bunch of cookies n cakes n make all her friends gain weight… Her way of striving for superiority would be mistaken.
falsifiability principle?
Principle of falsifiability: the notion that a theory must be able to be disproved in order to be testable and scientific.
• Most of theories don’t pass scientifically . They defy principle of falsifiability
◦ Can’t prove ego or superego since by definition they are outside of ur awareness..
Humanistic theories;
Rogers:
phenomenal experience;
ideal vs. real self,
unconditional positive regard
Carl Rogers: Personality = Becoming oneself
Self-actualization = realize one’s full potential
Unconditional positive regard = complete love & acceptance
• Humans differ from other species: can self reflect, change
one’s personality
• Human nature is basically good (vs. Freud)
• Reject study of people as objects;
focus on “phenomenal experience” (1 st person view)
• Reject idea of list of traits, instead “holistic” personalities
- Real self:::: internal GPS that guides u by means of the actualizing tendency
- Ideal self::: internal ideal .. Can possibly me all the conditions of worth we discern from other.
◦ Incongruency:::: the difference between real self ad artificial ideal self … More of this u have the more miserable u are !!!
Maslow: self-actualization
• Abraham Maslow a simple theory …. Some needs take precedence over others…
• Hierarchy of needs
• U thirsty and are cold… U probably gonna drink water first n then out on a sweater .
• 5 levels higher level needs are less important bc we can survive without them
◦ Physiological needs: biological drives and survival
◦ Safety and security needs: stability and well-being
◦ Love and belonging needs: relationships and sense of purpose
◦ Esteem needs: being valued by others.
◦ Actualization needs: being the best version of yourself possible.
• D needs::: aka deficit needs … U really feel that need when your running low on it
◦ Lacking D need will stunt ur growth
• B needs:::: aka being need… Actualization. We all growth toward that! …
◦ The more energy the more u growth .
• Self-actualization ppl accept others.Self-actualization: the motivation to be the best version of yourself possible.
◦ Peak experiences :::aka transient moments of self actualization … Associated with feelings of harmony, interconnectedness and joy.
Bandura: self-efficacy, reciprocal determinism, how different from learning theory?
Not driven by inner forces,
Not helpless pawns of environment…
reciprocal interaction of thoughts, behavior, &
environment
• “reciprocal determinism”
SELF EFFICACY: belief that one can perform
adequately in a particular situation
“self efficacy” à behavior à personality
Mischel: consistency paradox
soci-cognitive theory
- He (Walter Mischel) discovered that personality is not consistent across different situations and across time
- He thinks a persons behavior depend on situational cues rather than being consistent across situations
- Consistency paradox : personality is not constant
