Chapter 11 - Personality: Theory & Measurement Flashcards
What is the distinct patterns of behavior, thoughts & feelings that characterize a person’s adaptation to life?
Personality
What states that no two persons are ever exactly alike?
Personality
What type of theories propose that personality and behaviour are shaped and influenced by external and internal conflicts?
Psychodynamic theories
What type of theory is Sigmund Freud’s perspective?
Psychoanalytic
What does the psychoanalytic theory emphasize?
Importance of unconscious motives and conflicts as forces that determine behavior
Who is the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology?
Sigmund Freud
Who theorized that the mind is like an iceberg with 3 levels of awareness?
Sigmund Freud
What are Sigmund Freud’s three levels of consciousness?
1) conscious
2) preconscious
3) unconscious
Which level of consciousness is all the thoughts, feelings, sensations, and memories which we are aware of at any given time?
Conscious
Which level of awareness are the thoughts, feelings and memories that we aren’t consciously aware of at the moment?
Preconscious
Which level of awareness contains thoughts that can be brought to mind?
Preconscious
Which level of awareness is one’s primary motivating force of behavior?
Unconscious
Which level of awareness contains all of one’s earliest and repressed memories?
Unconscious
What are psychic structures?
Describe the clashing forces of personality
What are Sigmund Freud’s 3 psychic structures of personality?
1) ID
2) superego
3) ego
Which psychic structure contains life instincts and operates on the pleasure principle?
ID
Which psychic structure functions as a moral guardian, setting forth high standards for behaviour?
Superego
Which psychic structure develops during the 1st year of life?
Ego
Which psychic structure resides at conscious, preconscious and conscious?
Ego
Which psychic structure has a role to satisfy the urges of the ID?
Ego
What is the psychoanalytic theory’s idea of identification?
Unconscious adoption of mother person’s behavior
Why did Sigmund Freud identify defense mechanisms in humans?
The ego needs some way to deal with conflict between the ID and the superego or reality?
What are the 8 defense mechanisms identified by Sigmund Freud?
1) repression
2) projection
3) denial
4) rationalization
5) regression
6) reaction
7) displacement
8) sublimation
What is the act of removing unpleasant memories from one’s consciousness so that one is not aware of the painful event?
Repression
What is the act of attributing our own undesirable thoughts, impulses, personality traits or behaviours to others?
Projection
What is the act of refusing to consciously acknowledge the existence of a range of a threatening condition?
Denial
What is the act of supplying a logical, rational, socially acceptable reason for an unacceptable thought or action?
Rationalization
What is the act of reverting to a behaviour that might have reduced anxiety at an earlier stage of development?
Regression
What is the process of denying an unacceptable impulse, usually sexual or aggressive, by giving strong conscious expression to its opposite?
Reaction formation
What is the substitution of a less threatening object for the original object of an impulse?
Displacement
What is the rechanneling of sexual or aggressive energy to pursuits or accomplishments that society considers acceptable or even praiseworthy?
Sublimation
What are the stages of psychosexual development?
1) oral (0-1yrs)
2) anal (2-3yrs)
3) phallic (3-6yrs)
4) latency (6-puberty)
5) genital (puberty)
What is the major instinct that preserves and perpetuates life?
Eros
What is expressed through different pleasure - experiencing erogenous zones of the body?
Libido
What is Eros fuelled by?
Libido
Which complex involving child’s libidinal attachment to the opposite-sex parent is in the boy?
Oedipal
Which complex involving child’s libidinal attachment to the opposite-sex parent is in the girl?
Electra
What does the resolution of the Oedipal and Electra complex result in?
Child identifying with the same-sex parent
Which stage of psychosexual development has no erogenous zones?
Latency
Which stage of psychosexual development happens between zero and one years?
Oral
Which stage of psychosexual development happens between 3 to 6 years old?
Phallic
Which stage of psychosexual development happens between 2 to 3 years old?
Anal
Which stage of psychosexual development happens at puberty?
Genital
Who is the founder of analytical psychology?
Carl Jung
What did Carl Jung develop his theory around the notion of?
Personal unconscious
What is the idea of personal unconscious?
Depository of primitive images called archetypes to reflect human history. It’s the layer of the unconscious containing all the experiences thoughts and perceptions
What does the personal unconscious develop from?
One’s own experience
What is the most inaccessible layer of the unconsciousness, containing the universal experiences of humankind transmitted to each individual?
Collective unconscious
What is the phrase coined by Carl Jung?
Archetypes
What are archetypes?
Existing and collective conscious, and inherent tendency to respond in particular ways to Universal situations
Who is the founder of individual psychology?
Alfred Adler
Who thought that a self-aware aspect of personality or creative self strives to overcome obstacles and develop the persons potential?
Alfred Adler
What theory emphasizes feelings of inferiority and the creative self?
Individual psychology
According to individual psychology, what is more motivated by the conscious than unconscious, influenced by future goals rather than early childhood experiences?
Behavior
What complex proposes that we’re driven by our need to compensate for our inferiority or sense of lack of achievement?
Inferiority complex
What complex proposes that we strive for superiority, or personal significance, and project our feelings onto others we perceive as inferior?
Superiority complex
What is Alfred Adler’s style of life?
An individual’s unique, unconscious, and repetitive way of responding to the three main tasks of living
What are the 3 main tasks of living according to Alfred Adler?
Friendship, love and work
What kind of analysis was Karen Horney?
Neo-Freudian psychoanalyst
Who believed that social relationships were more important to one’s development than the unconscious sexual impulses?
Karen Horney
Who proposed that genuine and consistent love can alleviate the effects of a traumatic childhood?
Karen Horney
What two main themes was Karen Horney’s work centered on?
Neurotic personality and feminine psychology
Who believed that one must learn to overcome the irrational belief about the need for perfection?
Karen Horney
Who proposed the psychosocial theory of personality and development?
Erik Erikson
What does Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development of personality emphasize?
Social relationships and eight stages of growth
Who proposed that the resolution of each crisis leads to the development of positive age-appropriate traits and a healthy individual?
Erik Erikson
What is a relatively stable aspect of personality that can be inferred from behavior?
Trait
Who was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study of the personality?
Gordon Allport
What is a personal quality that is so strong a part of a person’s personality that they may become identified with that trait?
Cardinal Trait
What is the type of trait you would mention in writing a letter of recommendation?
Central trait
What are the different things that the trait theory asks if our behavior is a result of?
Trait vs State
Nature vs Nurture
Innate vs Environmental
Disposition vs Situation
What is a statistical technique used to tease out clusters of variables that seem to reflect a more basic or underlying variable?
Factor analysis
Who was a proponent of factor analysis methods, in place of verbal theorizing?
Raymond Cattell
How many factors did Cattell suggest support human personality source traits?
16
According to Cattell, what are the observable qualities of a personality?
Surface traits
According to Cattell, what are traits that underlie the surface traits, make up the most basic personality structure, and cause behavior?
Source traits
What was most of Hans J. Eysenck’s personality research focused on?
Relationships between introversion and extroversion
What is a trait characterized by intense imagination and the tendency to inhibit impulses?
Introversion
What is a trait characterized by tendencies to be socially outgoing and to express feelings and impulses freely?
Extroversion
What is emotional stability-instability?
Neuroticism
What is the most efficient way to measure personality according to McCrae and Costa, called the “Big Five”?
1) openness to experience
2) conscientiousness
3) extroversion
4) agreeableness
5) neuroticism
In the Big Five, what is the degree of dependability?
Conscientiousness
In the Big Five, what is the degree of friendliness?
Agreeableness
In the Big Five, what is the degree of open-mindedness?
Openness to experience
What is the idea of personality genetics?
Building blocks of personality may be written into DNA. Optimism and self-esteem are predicted by a portion of the third chromosome associated with the greater utilization of oxytocin
What is the heritability of an extroverted personality?
40-60%
What levels are higher in the brains of extroverts than those of introverts?
Dopamine
What personalities are the ones with the most connects and friends on Facebook?
Extroverted
What do learning theorists say about personality?
Personality consists of patterns of behavior that are learned and unlearned
What did John Watson and B.F. Skinner find out about personality?
Personality is plastic and shaped by situational and environmental factors
Who believed that personality is a collection of learned behaviours or habits that have been reinforced in the past?
B. F. Skinner
What is Reciprocal Determinism by Albert Bandura?
How people are influenced by their environment
What are the 3 parts of reciprocal determinism?
1) one’s environment
2) one’s behaviour
3) one’s personal cognitive factors
What theory suggests that knowledge is acquired by observing others?
Observational learning
What is the belief that you can accomplish certain things?
Self-efficacy
What refers to a person’s sense of self-worth?
Self-esteem
What theory suggests that there is observational learning of male and female behaviours?
Social-cognitive theory
Who identified the locus of control?
Julian Rotter
What is the idea of the Locus of Control?
Represents how a person’s decision making ability is influenced
What type of Loci are people that are generally more apt to be stressed and suffers from depression?
External Loci
What type of Loci are people that make decisions or choices primarily on their own?
Internal Loci
What do Humanists believe about personality?
People are capable of free-choice, self-fulfillment and ethical behavior
Who contended that motivational factors are at the root of personality?
Abram Maslow
What is at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
Self-actualization
People who have a sense of mission, peacefulness, simplicity, humour and comfort are considered what?
Self-actualizers
Who viewed human nature as basically good and developed his theory of personality through insights gained from patients in therapy?
Carl Rogers
Who suggested that each individual has a private subjective reality?
Carl Rogers
What theory focuses on the nature of the self and the conditions that allow the self to develop freely?
Self theory
What is unconditional positive regard?
Involves accepting individuals as having intrinsic merit, regardless of present behavior
With is accepting individuals only when they behave in a desired manner?
Conditional positive regard
What perspective focuses on the roles of ethnicity, gender, culture and socioeconomic status in personality formation, behavior and mental processes?
Sociocultural perspective
How do individualists define self?
In terms of personal traits, gives priority to personal goals
How do collectivists define self?
In terms of groups, gives priority to the group’s goals
