Chapter 11 - Theories of Personality and Intelligence Flashcards
What is personality?
Unique way individual thinks, feels, and acts throughout lifespan
What is character?
Value judgments on moral and ethical behavior
What is temperament?
Based in biology, innate rather than learned, i.e., introversion, extraversion
Genetic and prenatal influences
What movement did Freud found?
Psychoanalytic movement
How did Freud divide the mind?
Preconscious - Information available but not currently conscious
Conscious - Aware of immediate surroundings and perceptions
Unconscious - Thoughts, feelings, and memories not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness, Unconscious content revealed in dreams, slips of the tongue
How did Freud divide personality?
Id:
- Present at birth, completely unconscious
- Libido - Instinctual energy, conflict with society’s standards
- Pleasure principle - Immediate satisfaction, no regard for consequences
Ego
- Deals with reality; conscious, rational, logical
- Reality principle - Satisfy demands of id when no negative consequences exist
Superego
- Moral center; source of pride or guilt
- Ego ideal - Standards for moral behavior
What are the psychological defense mechanisms?
Denial: Refusing to recognize or acknowledge a threatening situation
Repression: “Pushing” threatening or conflicting events or situations out of conscious memory
Rationalization: Making up acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior
Projection: Placing one’s own unacceptable thoughts onto others, as if the thoughts belonged to them and not to oneself
Reaction Formation: Forming an emotional reaction or attitude that is the opposite of one’s threatening or unacceptable actual thoughts.
Displacement: Expressing feelings that would be threatening if directed at the real target onto a less threatening substitute target
Regression: Falling back on childlike patterns as a way of coping with stressful situations
Identification: Trying to become like someone else to deal with one’s anxiety.
Compensation: Trying to make up for areas in which a lack is perceived by becoming superior in some other area
Sublimation: Turning socially unacceptable urges into socially acceptable behavior.
What is fixation?
Unresolved conflict in psychosexual stage
Results in personality traits and behavior associated with that earlier stage
What are the stages of psychosexual development according to Freud?
Oral stage
- Occurs during first year of life
- Mouth is erogenous zone
- Weaning is primary conflict
- Id dominated stage
Anal stage
- 1 to 3 years of age
- Anus is erogenous zone
- Toilet training is source of conflict
- Ego develops
- Anal expulsive personality - Fixated personality, messy, destructive, and hostile
- Anal retentive personality - Fixated, neat, fussy, stingy, and stubborn
Phallic stage
- 3 to 6 years of age
- Child discovers sexual feelings
- Superego develops
- Oedipus complex - Child develops sexual attraction to opposite-sex parent. Jealousy of the same-sex parent
- Identification - Defense mechanism. Child identifies with same sex parent to deal with anxiety
Latency
- Age 6 to puberty
- Sexual feelings of the child are repressed
- Child grows socially, intellectually, physically
Genital
- Puberty
- Sexual feelings reawaken
- Parents are no longer target of attraction
Who were some Neo-Freudians?
Jung
- De-emphasized Freud’s focus on biology and sexuality
- Unconscious more complex than suggested by Freud
- Collective unconscious - Memories of ancient fears. Themes common in folktales and cultures
- Archetypes - Collective, universal human memories
Adler
- Conflicts rooted in feelings of inferiority
- Driving force is pursuit of superiority
Horney
- Theory based on anxiety
- Rejected concept of penis envy
- Basic anxiety - Struggle with powerful world of older children and adults
Erikson
- Theory based on social rather than sexual relationships
- Covers entire life span
What has lasted from the Psychoanalytic theory to modern psychology today?
- Defense mechanisms to explain irrational behavior
- Concept of an unconscious mind that can influence conscious behavior
What is Behaviorism/The Social cognitive view on personality?
- Defines personality as a set of learned responses or habits (Well-learned, automatic responses)
- Emphasis on influences of other’s behavior and own expectancies on learning
- Includes cognitive processes
- Anticipating, judging, memory, and imitation of models
What is Reciprocal Determinism?
Environment, personal characteristics, and behavior interact to determine future behavior
What is self-efficacy?
- Perception of how effective behavior will be
- Not the same as self-esteem
What is a Locus of control? What are the kinds?
Degree one assumesto have control or not have control over consequences in life
Internal - Assume personal actions control events
External - Assume results are beyond personal control
How do Humanists explain personality?
- Focuses on aspects of personality that make people uniquely human
- Subjective feelings, freedom of choice
- Developed as a reaction against: Negativity of psychoanalysis. Deterministic nature of behaviorism
What is a self-actualizing tendency?
-Humans strive to reach unique potential
What is self-concept?
Self-concept is a tool for self-actualization and consists of your perception of your:
- Real self
- Actual perception of characteristics, traits, abilities
- Forms basis of striving for self-actualization - Ideal self
- Perception of what one should or would like to be
What is positive regard? What are the kinds of positive regard?
Positive regard
- Warmth, affection, love, respect
- Comes from significant others in one’s life
Unconditional positive regard
-Regard given without conditions or strings attached
Conditional positive regard
-Given only when doing what providers of positive regard wish
What is a fully functioning person?
In touch with and trusting deepest, innermost urges and feelings
What is a trait?
Consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving
What is trait theory?
Describes characteristics or traits that make up human personality in an attempt to predict future behavior
Who was Allport?
Developed a list of 200 traits
Believed traits were literally “wired” into nervous system
Who was Cattell?
Defined traits as surface and source
Based personality questionnaire on 16 source traits
What was the Big Five?
5 most important traits from Cattell’s 16 traits.
-Openness - Willingness to try new things, open to new experiences
-Conscientiousness - Organization, thoughtfulness of others; dependability
-Extraversion - Refers to need to be with other people
Extraverts - Outgoing and sociable
Introverts - Prefer solitude, dislike being the center of
attention
-Agreeableness - Emotional style range. Easygoing, friendly, and likeable to grumpy, crabby, and unpleasant
-Neuroticism - Degree of emotional instability or stability
How do you measure personality, what are the problems with each method?
Interviews:
-Professional asks questions of the client and client answers
-May be a structured or unstructured fashion
-Interview is not like a job interview, naturally flowing dialogue
-Problems:
-Can be biased and prejudiced
-Halo effect - Interviewer is affected by first
impression, subsequent interviews are influenced by
this, may be positive or negative
Projective Tests:
- Client projects unconscious concerns and fears onto ambiguous visual stimuli
- Tests are commonly used as a diagnostic tool. uncover problems in personality
- Rorschach inkblot test - uses 10 inkblots as the ambiguous stimuli
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): 20 pictures of people in ambiguous situations are visual stimuli
- Problems:
- Test interpretation can be very subjective
- Not scientific or necessarily accurate
Behavioral Assessments:
-Direct observation
-Professional observes client engaged in day-to-day
behavior
-Seen in either a clinical or natural setting
-Rating scale
-Numerical value is assigned to specific behavior
listed in the scale
-Frequency count
-Frequency of a particular behavior is counted
Personality Inventory:
-Paper and pencil or computerized test
-Consists of statements requiring specific, standardized responses
-NEO-PI - Neuroticism/Extraversion/Openness
Personality Inventory, Based on the five-factor model
-Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - Uses Jung’s theory of
personality types
MMPI-2 - Clinical test, assesses abnormal personality
traits
What is intelligence defined as?
The ability to:
- Learn from one’s experiences
- Acquire knowledge
- Use resources effectively in adapting to new situations or solving problems
-Characteristics individual needs to survive in his or her culture
What is emotional intelligence?
- Awareness of and ability to manage one’s own emotions
- Ability to be self-motivated
- Able to feel what others feel, and socially skilled
- Viewed as a powerful influence on success in life
