Chapter 10: Personality Flashcards
Personality
A pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individuals adapts to the world
Psychodynamic perspectives
Theoretical views emphasizing that personality is primarily unconscious (beyond awareness)
I’d
The part of the person that Freud called the “it”. Consisting of unconscious drives; the individuals reservoir of sexual energy
Ego
The Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality
Superego
The Freudian structure of personality that serves as the harsh internal judge of the individual’s behavior, what is often referred to as conscious
Defense mechanism
Tactics the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Denial
The ego simply refuses to acknowledge anxiety-producing realities
Displacement
Directing unacceptable impulses at a less threatening target
Repression
The most powerful and persuasive defense mechanism. Repression pushes unacceptable impulses into the unconscious mind
Psychosexual stages of development
Freud thought that our adult persons abilities are developed by the way we resolve conflicts between these early sources of pleasure- the mouth, the anus, and then the genitals and the demands of reality
Oral stage
First 18 months. The infants pleasure centered on the mouth. Chewing, sucking, and biting are the chiefs sources of pleasure that reduce tension in the infant
Anal stage
18-36 months during a time when most children are experiencing toilet training, the child’s greatest pleasure involves the anus and the urethra and their functions. Freud recognized that there is pleasure in “going” and “holding it” as well as in the experience of control over one’s parents in deciding when to do either
Phallic stage
3 to 6 years. The name of Frued’s third stage comes from the Latin word phallus, which means penis. Pleasure focuses on the genitals as the child discovers self stimulation is enjoyable
Latency period
6 years to puberty. This phase is not a developmental stage, but rather a kind of psychic timeout. After the drama of the phallic stage, the child sets aside all interest in sexuality. Although we now consider these years extremely important to development. Freud felt that this time in which no psychosexual development occurred.
Genital stage
Adolescence to adulthood. The genital stage is the time of sexual reawakening. A point when the source of sexual pleasure shifts to somebody outside of the family. Freud believed in adulthood the individual becomes capable of two hallmarks of maturity: love and work. However Freud felt that people are inevitably subject to intense conflict, reasoning that everyone, no matter how healthy or well adjusted, still has an id pressing for expression. Adulthood, even in the best of circumstances, still involves that unconscious conflicts of childhood
Humanistic perspectives
Theoretical views stressing a person’s capacity for personal growth and positive human qualities
Unconditional positive regard
Roger’s construct referring to the individual’s need to be accepted, valued, and treated positively regardless of their behavior
Conditions of worth
The standards that the individual must live up to in order to receive positive regard from others
Self-concept
Our conscious representation of who we are and what we wish to become, which is formed during childhood. Optimally this self-concept reflects our genuine, innate desires, but it may be influenced by conditions of worth
Trait theories
Theoretically views stressing that personality consists of broad, enduring dispositions (traits) that tend to lead to characteristic responses
Big five factors of personality
The five broad traits that are thought to describe the main dimensions of personality: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (emotional instability)
Neuroticism
Related to feeling negative emotions more often than positive emotions in day to day life and experiencing more lingering negative states. Those who are high in neuroticism are susceptible to a variety of psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety. Also poses higher risk for cognitive decline with age
Extraversion
Outgoing, social, and lively. A person high in extraversion tends not to be shy and is enthusiastic with others
Openness to experience
Imaginative and intrested in cognitively engaging with abstract ideas as well as perceptions, nature, and the arts. Someone high in openness enjoys thinking about issues from all sides and is not interested in conventional ways of doing things. Also associated with creativity, tolerance, capacity to experience awe, and producing actually funny jokes.
Agreeableness
Kind, nice, and trusting. A person high in agreeableness is likely to gentle and helpful to others. Agreeableness is related to generosity and altruism. Agreeable people are more likely to be organ donors, and less likely to bully/cyberbully others, or lie on dating profiles
Conscientiousness
Reliable, hard working, and dependable. Someone high in conscientiousness is disciplined, goal oriented, and organized. Conscientiousness is a key predictor of positive outcomes in a variety of life domains. (Ex. Higher GPA in college, and better work performance, higher salaries, more friendships)
Social cognitive perspectives
Theoretical views emphasizing conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations, and goals.
Bandura’s social cognitive theory
This theory states that behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors are all important in understanding personality
Reciprocal determinism
Bandura’s term to describe the way behavior, the environment, and the person/cognitive factors can influence one another. The environment can determine a person’s behavior and the person can act to change the environment. Similarly person/cognitive factors can also influence behavior, or be influenced by behavior. From this perspective behavior is a product of a variety of forces, some of which come from the situation, and some of which the person brings to the situation
Internal locus of control
A sense of behavioral control coming from inside the person
External locus of control
A sense of behavioral control coming from outside the person
Self efficacy
The belief that one can master a situation and produce positive change
Self report test
Also called an objective test or an inventory, a method of measuring personality characteristics that directly ask people whether specific items describe their personality traits.
Empirically keyed tests
A type of self report tests that presents many question are items to two groups that are known to be different in some central way
Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI)
The most widely used and researched empirically keyed self report personality test
Face validity
The extent to which a test items appears to fit the particular trait it is measuring
Projective test
A personality assessment test that presents individuals with an ambiguous stimuli and asks them to describe it or tell a story about it- to project their own meaning onto the stimulus
Rorschach ink blot test
A famous projective test that uses and individual’s perception of ink blots to determine their personality
Thematic apperception test (TAT)
A projective test that is designed to elicit stories that reveal something about an individual’s personality
