Chapter 11: Personality Flashcards
Personality
an individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling
prior events
past events that has shaped an individual’s personality
anticipated events
future events that motivate the person to reveal particular personality characteristics
self report
a method in which people provide subjective information about their own thoughts, feelings, or behaviors typically via questionnaire or interview
- more reliable
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
a clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems
projective techniques
designed to reveal inner aspects of individuals’ personalities by analysis of their responses to a standard series of ambiguous stimuli
- issues with reliability and validity
Rorschach Inkblot Test
a projective technique in which respondents’ inner thoughts and feelings are believed to be revealed by analysis of their responses to a set of unstructured inkblots
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
a projective technique in which respondents’ underlying motives and concerns and the way they see the social world are believed to be revealed through analysis of the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people
trait
a relatively stable deposition to behave in a certain way
highest level traits
- dimensions or factors of personality
- the most general traits at higher levels
hierarchical structure of traits
traits organized in a hierarchy in which specific behavioral tendencies are associated with higher order trait
The Big Five
the traits of the five-factor personality model: OCEAN
- openness to experience
- conscientiousness
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- neuroticism
do men and women have similar or different personalities?
men and women seem to be far more similar in personality than they are different
differences in men and women’s personalities
men - assertive, self-esteem, sensation seeking
women - neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness
brains of extraverts
reticular formation not easily stimulated
brains of introverts
cortex is easily stimulated
behavioral activation system (BAS)
activates approach behavior in response to the anticipation of reward
- highly active in extraverts
behavioral inhibition system (BIS)
inhibits behavior in response to stimuli signaling punishment
- highly active in introverts
psychodynamic approach
personality ais formed by needs, strivings, and desires outside of awareness
id
the part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives
- source of psychic energy that drives personality
superego
the mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority
ego
try to satisfy primitive urgers from id but in ways that will not cause problems
- reality principal
- between superego and id
defense mechanisms
unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce the anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses
types of defense mechanisms
repression, rationalization, reaction formation, projection, regression, displacement, identification, sublimation
Humanistic approaches
believe humans have an innate drive to fulfill their potential and have the desire to grow
- self-actualization, congruence, and self concept
Existentialist psychologists
focused on the individual as a responsible agent who is free to create and live his or her life while negotiating the issue of meaning and the reality of death
self-actualizing tendency
the human motive toward realizing our inner potential
existential approach
personality determined by an individual’s ongoing choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life and death
social–cognitive approach
personality in terms of how a person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them
- our behavior is a function of our environment and thoughts
person–situation controversy
the question of whether behavior is caused more by personality or by situational factors
- correlations between personality and behavior are low
personal constructs
dimensions people use in making sense of their experiences
outcome expectations
a person’s assumptions about the likely consequences of a future behavior
locus of control
person’s tendency to perceive the control of rewards as internal to the self or external in the environment
- internal: control your own destiny
- external: determined by luck
self-concept
a person’s explicit knowledge of his or her own behaviors, traits, and other personal characteristics
self-narrative
a story that we tell about ourselves
self-verification
the tendency to seek evidence to confirm the self-concept
Self-esteem
the extent to which an individual likes, values, and accepts the self
benefits of self esteem
social status, belonging, security
self-serving bias
people tend to take credit for their successes but downplay responsibility for their failures
Father of psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud
What two things is the superego composed of
ego-ideal: what we should be
conscience: rule for how we should behave
erogenous zones/Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
Oral stage fixation
0 to 12/18 months
- oral aggression: verbally abusive, biting, sarcasm
- oral indulgence: naive, optimistic, gullible
Anal stage fixation
12/18 months to 3 years
- anal retentive: hold onto shit, tight, emotionally closed off, neat orderly
- anal expulsive: throw shit all over place, messy
phallic stage
3 to 5/6 years
- Oedipus complex
- Electra complex
latency stage
5/6 years to puberty
the stage in which the primary focus is on the further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal, and athletic skills
genital stage
puberty forward
- the time for the coming together of the mature adult personality with a capacity to love, work, and relate to others in a mutually satisfying and reciprocal manner
repression
do not think about what makes us uncomfortable
denial
does not exist
projection
it’s not us, it’s the other person
reaction formation
when our way of coping is doing the complete opposite of what we are feeling
regression
we regress and act childish
rationalization
make excuses and explain away our disappointments with shortcomings
displacement
taking out feelings at a different target
identification
act like someone who is more successful when we feel inferior
sublimation
channel impulses into behaviors that are societally acceptable
Karen Horney
- power envy not penis envy
- basic anxiety
Carl Jung
collective unconscious, archetypes, extroversion/introversion
collective unconscious
unconscious shared across members of a society
archetypes
a generic, idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated
Alfred Adler
striving for superiority
- we struggle with an inferiority complex
how do we cope with basic anxiety
- we turn against people
- we move towards people
- we isolate from people
libido
physic energy, sexual drive
Which psychologist were Humanistic Psychologists?
Maslow
deficiency orientation
focus on satisfying needs
growth orientation
being satisfied with things we do have
Gordon Allport
Trait theory
central trait
the 5 to 10 traits that describe ourselves
secondary traits
minor traits
cardinal trait
the single dominate trait that defines a person; explains all behavior
- not everyone has a cardinal trait
Raymond Cattel
used factor analysis to analyze Allport’s 200 traits
source traits
underlying fundamental dimensions of personality
surface traits
superficial traits, based on combinations of source traits
openness to experience
imaginative vs practical
conscientiousness
organized/hard working vs disorganized/unreliable
extraversion
outgoing/assertive vs passive/reserved
agreeable
compassion vs hostility
neuroticism
anxious/worry vs calm/easy going
Hans Eysenck
3 dimensions to describe personality: extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism (impulsivity)
Jeffrey Gray
BAS/BIS
twins and traits
- MZ twins more similar than DZ twins
- MZ twins reared apart just as similar as MZ twins reared together
temperament
characteristic pattern of emotional reactivity
Mischel
person-situation controversy
Bandura
self system and reciprocal feedback loop
reciprocal feedback
how we think about ourselves, situations, and our expectations affect our behavior
Rotter
Locus of control, expectancies
flow
a mental state of energized focus when engagement in tasks match one’s abilities
when do humans recognize themselves in the mirror?
18 months
Which personality instrument is also called the Big Five Inventory
NEO-PI
What does the MMPI-2 measure?
wide range of psychological constructs: clinical problems, somatic problems, internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and interpersonal problems
functional autonomy
the motives for a certain behavior of a person in a certain situation are independent of their origins
No matter how long and hard Oprah studies, she always feels she hasn’t studied as much as she should have. A Freudian psychologist would suggest that Oprah shows signs of a
strong superego
According to Freud, _____ largely governs the dynamics among the id, ego, and superego
anxiety
Horney identifies three patterns in ways people use to deal with anxiety: moving towards others in a(n) __________ fashion, against others in a(n) __________ fashion, or away from others in a self-protective fashion
neurotic; aggressive
