Chapter 11 - Personality Flashcards
personality
- the long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways
- thought to be long term, stable, and not easily changed
conscious
- according to Freud, only about 10% of our brain
- mental active we are aware of an able to access
unconscious
- mental activity of which we are unaware and are unable to access
- according to Freud, 90% of our brain, where unacceptable urges and desires are kept
Id
- Freudian concept: contains our most primitive drives or urges, present from birth
- part of unconscious
- directs impulses for hunger, thirst, and sex, seeks immediate gratification
superego
- Freudian concept: acts as our conscience (moral compass that tells us how we should behave)
- strives for perfection and judges our behavior, leading to feelings of pride or guilt
- always in conflict with the Id
ego
- Freudian concept: the rational part of our personality
- considered to be the self, part of our personality that is seen by others - balances demands of the id and superego in the context of reality
-helps the id satisfy its desires in a realistic way
neurosis
- Freudian concept: causes by imbalances in the system
- can lead to anxiety disorders or unhealthy behaviors
defense mechanisms
- unconscious protective behaviors that aim to reduce anxiety
- ego resorts to unconscious strivings to protect the ego from being overwhelmed by anxiety
repressed
- Freudian concept: if a memory is too overwhelming to deal with, it might be repressed and thus removed from conscious awareness
- might cause symptoms in other areas
reaction formation
- Freudian concept, defense mechanism
- which someone expresses feelings, thoughts, and behaviors opposite to their inclinations
regression
- Freudian concept, defense mechanism
- an individual acts much younger than their age
projection
- Freudian concept, defense mechanism
- a person refuses to acknowledge her own unconscious feelings and instead sees those feelings in someone else.
rationalization
- Freudian concept, defense mechanism
- justifying behaviors by substituting acceptable reasons for less-acceptable real reasons
displacement
- Freudian concept, defense mechanism
- transferring inappropriate urges or behaviors onto a more acceptable or less threatening target
sublimation
- Freudian concept, defense mechanism
- redirecting unacceptable desires through socially acceptable channels
psychosexual stage of development
- Freudian concept, believed personality develops entirely in childhood
- the child’s pleasure-seeking urges, coming from the id, are focused on a different area of the body, called an erogenous zone
oral stage
- Freudian stage of development (birth to 1 year)
- pleasure is focused on the mouth, sucking breasts are big part of life, must be waned off properly
- adult that bites fingers, smokes, etc. wasn’t waned off properly (still fixated)
anal stage
- Freudian stage of development (1-3yrs)
- children experience pleasure in bowel/bladder movements, work to control themselves
- parents must handle toilet training properly or person may not have self-control
phallic stage
- Freudian stage of development (3yrs- 6yrs)
- children become aware of their genitals, boy/girl differentiation
- child feels a desire for the opposite-sex parent, and jealousy and hatred toward the same-sex parent (boys is oedipus complex, girls penis envy)
- ppl fail at this stage are vain
latency period
- Freudian stage of development (6yrs to puberty)
- not considered a stage, because sexual feelings are dormant as children focus on other pursuits
- engage in activities with peers of the same sex, which serves to consolidate a child’s gender-role identity
genital stage
- Freudian stage of development (puberty onwards)
- sexual reawakening as the incestuous urges resurface
- young person redirects urges to socially acceptable partners (resemble the other-sex parent)
- if got through all stages, well functioning adult
individual psychology
- focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority
- invented by Alfred Adler, branched off of Freud’s theory of personality
inferiority complex
- a person’s feelings that they lack worth and don’t measure up to the standards of others or of society
- according to Alfred Adler this drives all of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
analytical psychology
- working to balance opposing forces of conscious and unconscious thought and experience within one’s personality
- created by Carl Jung
collective unconscious
- a universal version of the personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or memory traces, which are common to all of us
archetypes
- represented by universal themes in various cultures, as expressed through literature, art, and dreams
- themes reflect common experiences of people the world over
- coined by Carl Jung
social-cognitive theory
- emphasizes both learning and cognition as sources of individual differences in personality
- personality comes partially from learning and from thinking
reciprocal determinism
- part of social cognitive theory
- cognitive processes, behavior, and context all interact, each factor influencing and being influenced by the others simultaneously
self-efficacy
- our level of confidence in our own abilities, developed through our social experiences
- a cognitive factor that affects which behaviors we imitate and success in doing those behaviors
locus of control
- refers to our beliefs about the power we have over our lives
- either internal (you have control) or external (world has control) mindset
self-concept
- our thoughts and feelings about ourselves
- coined by humanist Carl Roger
ideal self
- the person that you would like to be
- coined by humanist Carl Rogers, part of self-concept
real self
- the person you actually are
- coined by humanist Carl Rogers, part of self-concept
congruence
- when our thoughts about our real ideal self are very similar (when our self-concept is accurate)
- leads to a greater sense of self-worth and a healthy, productive life
incongruence
- when there is a great discrepancy between our ideal and actual selves
- coined by humanist Carl Rogers
heritability
- the proportion of difference among people that is attributed to genetics
- implication is that some aspects of our personalities are largely controlled by combinations of genes
traits
- characteristic ways of behaving
- can help w/understanding someones personality
- can be broken up into different categories
temperament
- the inborn, genetically based personality differences
- belief that personality is largely influenced by biology
- categories people by extra/introverted, neurotic/stable
five factor model
- the most popular theory in personality psychology today, approximation of personality dimensions
- OCEAN (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism)
- spectrum of these traits changes with age
culture
- all of the beliefs, customs, art, and traditions of a particular society
- have a big effect on your personality
selective migration
- the concept that people choose to move to places that are compatible with their personalities and needs
- suggests that the psychological profile of a region is closely related to that of its residents
Minnesota multiphase personality inventory (MMPI)
- One of the most widely used personality inventories
- made up of true/false questions, screens for several factors, including if person is telling the truth in self reporting
projective testing
- kind of test relies on defense mechanisms proposed by Freud (projection) as way to assess unconscious processes
- series of ambiguous cards is shown to the person tested, encouraged to project their feelings, impulses, and desires onto the card
Rorschach Inkblot Test
- a series of symmetrical inkblot cards that are presented to a client by a psychologist
- what the test-taker sees reveals unconscious feelings and struggles
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- A person taking the TAT is shown 8–12 ambiguous pictures and is asked to tell a story about each picture
- stories give insight into their social world, revealing hopes, fears, interests, and goals
Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB)
- projective test, includes 40 incomplete sentences that people are asked to complete as quickly as possible
- used to determine people’s personality
Contemporized-Themes Concerning Blacks Test (C-TCB)
- updated version of the RISB test, includes culturally specific ties for African Americans
- found that people were more culturally connected by this
TEMAS Multicultural Thematic Apperception Test
- updated version of the RISB test
- another tool designed to be culturally relevant to minority groups, especially Hispanic youths
Erik Erikson
- psychologist who made own theory of development/personality based off of social relationships rather than Freud’s sex
- made 8 stage model of development/personality
things invented by Carl Jung
the persona, extroversion and introversion
Karen Horney
- female psychologist, focused on role of unconscious anxiety in our lives
- can move toward people, against people, or away from people to cope
behaviorist perspective on personality
- personality only comes from punishments/reinforcements
- can change all throughout life depending on what is punished/reinforced