Chapter 12 Flashcards
The Individual Mind: Personality and the Self
1
Q
reciprocal determinism
A
- an aspect of the social-cognitive approach
- the influence of others plays an important role in the development of personality
- self-efficacy: confidence in your abilities to gain reinforcement
2
Q
the single largest factor contributing to where traits come from
A
genetics
3
Q
the anal psychosexual stage
A
- the second psychosexual stage
- 18 months to 3 years
- the primary conflict is bowel control; conflict between immediate gratification (id) and the need to comply with parental expectations (ego)
- significant disruptions can lead to anal fixations; potty training that is too strict can lead to an anal retentive personality (i.e. excessive orderliness, strong need for control, possible psychosis), whereas potty training that is too lax can lead to an anal expulsive personality (i.e. disorganized, rebellious)
4
Q
the only factor of the Big Five initially linked to negative emotions
A
neuroticism
5
Q
response tendencies
A
- development of stable responses can appear as traits
- e.g. strict parents who enforced you doing your chores can lead to you seeming like a conscientous person
6
Q
intraindividual change
A
rarer, more significant changes in a person’s personality over time due to life-changing experiences (e.g. trauma)
7
Q
components of well-designed personality inventories (high validity and reliability)
A
-
true/false/can’t answer questions: these types of questions force the test-taker to think critically; people often answer in the average, rather than the extremes, with Likert scales (e.g. strongly disagree to strongly agree)
large number of questions: many versions of the same question (e.g. “I wish I could be more happy,” AS WELL AS, “I wish i could be less sad.”)
validity scales: tests ask questions with an expected answer to ensure validity (e.g. “I something get frustrated at people” is a question everyone should say yes to”); answering incorrectly to too many validity checks would result in unusable data as the test taker is either lying or not paying attention
8
Q
Freud and interactions between parts of our unconscious
A
- Freud believed that our personality is determined by interactions between parts of our unconscious
- conflicts between the three parts causes anxiety
- “defense mechanisms” resolves anxiety
9
Q
Freud’s defense mechanisms
A
- denial
- repression
- projection
- displacement
- regression
- sublimation
- rationalization
- reaction
- introjection
- identification
10
Q
three things Sigmund Freud did
A
- practiced neurology
- treated “hysteria”
- developed psychoanalysis based on patients’ free associations, fantasies, and dreams
11
Q
drawbacks to projective techniques
A
- results are difficult to interpret: a list of common results are linked to specific psychopathologies, however the human imagination is infinite, and responses may not be linked to said commonalities
- interpretations are too subjective: the clinician must interpret the patient’s responses, which can lead to them project their own personality traits on the patient
12
Q
hysteria
A
- derived from the Greek “hystera”, meaning “uterus”; Freud believed it was mostly common in females
- exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement
- not a modern psychological disorder
13
Q
reaction defense mechanism
A
- behaving oppositely to the way you truly feel
- e.g. a homosexual acting homophobic to convince them of their “heterosexuality”
14
Q
somatic symptom disorder
A
physical symptoms without medical cause
15
Q
these three things make up an individual’s personality
A
behaviours, thoughts, and feelings
16
Q
projection defense mechanism
A
- putting own thoughts or feelings on others
- e.g. believing someone hates you because you hate them
17
Q
repression defense mechanism
A
- blocking disturbing thoughts from consciousness
- e.g. a child gets bitten by a dog, and develops a phobia of dogs, but doesn’t remember where it arose from; the memory of getting bitten by a dog is repressed
18
Q
psychodynamic theory
A
- a personality theory extending from Freud’s psychoanalytic approach
- personality is formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness (“dynamic unconscious”)
19
Q
ways to measure personality
A
- observing an individual’s behaviour (often children)
- personality inventories (personality tests)
- projective techniques
20
Q
identification defense mechanism
A
- adopting behaviours of an aggressor to avoid abuse
- e.g. Stockholm syndrome
21
Q
the trait approach and rank-order stability
A
- personality traits are relatively stable; this stability increases across the lifespan
- our rank-order in the population for personality traits stays mostly the same, especially as we get older
22
Q
Approximately 50% of variability in personality is due to…
A
life experience
23
Q
regression defense mechanism
A
- reverting to an earlier stage of development
- e.g. a stressed 12 year old sucking on their thumb
24
Q
Jeffrey Alan Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST)
A
the reinforcement sensitivity theory describes individual difference in approach, avoidance, and inhibition using three brain networks:
- the behavioural approach system (BAS): variations in BAS activity predict a person’s response to reward
- the fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS): variations in FFFS activity predict reactivity; the FFFS is active when you experience an unexpected punishment
- the behavioural inhibition system (BIS): variations in BIS activity predict neuroticism and anxiety; the BIS is active when you learn signals for punishments
25
examples of traits with a heritability factor of 0.00
virtually nothing in psychology exists with this
26
two approaches to the study of personality
**the idiographic approach:** studying unique individuals (more subjective)
**the nomothetic approach:** studying trends within the population (more objective)
27
A heratibility factor of 0.00 means...
genetics plays no role
28
Infants' temperaments are highly predictive of...
adult personalities
29
the latency psychosexual stage
* the fourth psychosexual stage
* 6 years to the onset of puberty (11-13 years)
* less influence by sexual and aggressive instincts, due to the superego
* children identify with the same-sex parent and focus on developing identities through friends, school, and hobbies
* libido is transferred from parents to friends, clubs, and role models
* significant disruptions can lead to latency fixations (i.e. a disgust in sex)
30
the trait approach
personalities are described as a series of stable personality characteristics known as "traits"
31
personal constructs
social-cognitive theorists argue that behaviours are based on personal constructs
Make a list of 10 important people in your life, and number each person 1-10. How are people #3 and #6 psychologically similar to each other, but different from person #10? The dimension of which we answer this question can tell us about our own personalities (e.g. if #3 and #6 are selfless, but #10 is selfish, that must mean you care about selflessness).
32
Personality inventories rely on...
**self-report:** subjective answers about one's behaviours, thoughts, and feelings often administered via interviews or written questionnaires
33
The Big Five traits have a heritability factor between...
0.35-0.49
34
projective techniques
* psychodynamic tests designed to reveal inner aspects of individuals' personalities by analyzing their responses to certain stimuli
* pictures of people, objects, events, or abstract stimuli are shown to subjects, who report what they see
* quite controversial
35
Freud's five psychosexual stages
according to Freud, personality is the product of conflict occurring during these psychosexual stages (driven by the sexual impulses of the id)
1. oral
2. anal
3. phillic
4. latency
5. genital
36
factor analysis and personality traits
researchers use factor analysis to reduce the practically infinite list of personality traits to a smaller subset
1. Individuals rate themselves on hundreds of traits.
2. Traits that are highly correlated (positive/negative correlation) are combined into factors.
3. Traits with no correlation to one another are considered parts of separate factors.
4. Most researchers agree upon a five-factor model of personality.
37
problems with personality inventories
* tests often have very low reliability and validity, especially free/online personality tests
* test takers can be biased (over-report socially desirable traits and/or under-report socially undesirable traits)
* test takers may not know everything about themselves
38
the Austrian physician criticized for his controversial psychological experiments
Sigmund Freud
39
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
40
mean-level changes
although our rank-order remains fairly consistent, the mean levels of traits in our cohort change
41
the genital psychosexual stage
* the fifth and final psychosexual stage
* begins with puberty
* sexual impulses directed towards intimate relationships, and aggressive impulses directed through competition and exercise
* the highest level of maturity; earlier psychosexual conflits are resolved and individuals develop a healthy sense of self
* disruptions in earlier stages can lead to struggling to form healthy relationships
42
the humanistic approach
* a positive, optimistic view of human nature in which humans seek out self-actualization (e.g. pursuit of knowledge, expression of creativity, quest for spiritual enlightenment, desire to give back to the society)
* emphasis on free will separates the humanistic approach from the psychodynamic and trait approaches
* Maslow's needs hierarchy; personality differences arise from environmental factors that affect us from climbing up the needs hierarchy
43
the developmental period in which one's personality begins to shapen
in *utero*
44
the three parts of the dynamic unconscious
* **id:** present at birth and contains the primitive desires that serve as a source of energy (e.g. hunger, thirst, sex); seeks immediate gratification, but as the child begins to interact with parents and other social influences, the ego and supergo control it
* **ego:** readily seen by others, acting as one's "self"; seeks delayed gratification, and coordinates the needs of the id with reality
* **superego:** develops when a child begins to internalize society's rules for right and wrong, acting as one's "conscience"
45
the oral psychosexual stage
* the first psychosexual stage
* birth to 18 months
* focuses on oral satisfaction (e.g. sucking, chewing, teething)
* the primary conflict is **weaning** an infant off of breastfeeding
* significant disruptions can lead to oral fixations (e.g. smoking, nail biting)
46
temperament
* a person's inborn pattern of mood, activity, or emotional responsiveness
* biological in origin, but interacts with the social and physical environments
* includes **reactivity** (differences in people's responses to stimuli) and **self-regulation** (the ability to control attention)
47
the Big Five personality traits
* **openness:** high openness includes curiousity, unconvention, and imagination, whereas low openness includes practicality, tradition, and conformation
* **conscientiousness:** high openness includes competence, order, and self-discipline, whereas low openness includes a lack of reliability, laziness, and a lack of dependabilitiy
* **extraversion:** high extraversion includes warmth, assertiveness, and activity, whereas low extraversion (introversion) includes coolness, reserve, and passivity
* **agreeableness:** high agreeableness includes trust, altruism, and modesty, whereas low agreeableness includes cynicism, lack of cooperativeness, and rudeness
* **neuroticism:** high neuroticism includes anxiety, hostility, depression, and impulsivity, whereas low neuroticism is emotional stabilitiy
48
the MMPI
**the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory;** a widely reliable, clinically valid personality test
49
outcome expectancies
* social-cognitive theorists believe that our personalities differ from how we expect a behaviour to bring us closer to/further from our goals
* by asking yourself what behaviours will lead you toward or detract you from certain goals, you can learn more about your personality
50
free associations
quick responses given to a visual stimulus, without thinking (e.g. "What do you think of when you see this picture?"
51
traits of softheartedness, trust, helpfulness, ruthlessness, suspicious, and a lack of cooperativeness relate to this factor of the Big Five
agreeableness
52
two famous projective techniques
* Rorschach inkblot test
* thematic apperception test (TAT)
53
neurology
the study of disorders of the nervous system
54
thematic apperception test (TAT)
* patients are shown a card with an ambiguous scene, and they are asked to make up a story about said scene
* many of the scenes elicit common themes from many respondents
55
locus of control
* an aspect of the social-cognitive approach
* an external locus of control sees outcomes as resulting from luck or chance
* an internal locus of control sees outcomes as the result of individual effort (better performance, less sympathy)
56
the four personality traits, based on the Big Five
* average
* self-centred
* reserved
* role model
57
downsides of observing behaviour
* the Hawthorne effect: acting differently (i.e. more appropriately) when knowing you're being watched
* observer bias
* inability to know true inner thoughts/feelings
* slow and expensive
* only observable in certain situations (e.g. not possible when the observed is with lovers)
58
A perfect correlation has a value of ____, whereas no correlation has a value of ____.
1, 0
59
displacement defense mechanism
* satisfying impulses onto substitute objects
* e.g. kicking a dog because you're frustrated at your boss
60
the two main components of the study of personality
* **measuring personality:** What are the characteristics of an individual's personality?
* **explaining personality:** Why does an individual have the personality that they do? How does personality affect behaviour?
61
Emotional stability is the reverse code of...
neuroticism *(reverse code = opposite)*
62
denial defense mechanism
* refusing to accept reality or fact
* e.g. smokers refuse to believe smoking is bad
63
reliability vs. validity
* **reliability** is when a test produces the same results each time
* **validity** is when a test measures what it's supposed to (e.g. a test on extraversion should show higher scores for more extraverted people)
64
Heritability is used on... (individuals/populations)
populations
65
four personality theories
* trait approach (the Big Five)
* social-cognitive approach
* psychodynamic approach
* humanist approach
66
the social-cognitive approach
* emerges from a behaviourist approach
* behaviours with positive outcomes are reinforced, whereas behaviours with negative outcomes are lessened
* the same person may act differently around different people, due to past experiences (gaining good/bad feedback from different types of people after saying different things)
* personality is how a person constructs and responds to situations in daily life
67
sublimation defense mechanism
* channelling impulses into socially accepted behaviours
* e.g. playing piano to funnel emotions (e.g. sadness, anger) into something constrictive
68
introjection defense mechanism
* taking on behaviours of someone else to avoid distress
* e.g. a child who is left alone roleplays as a parent to lessen their fears
69
the phallic psychosexual stage
* the third psychosexual stage
* 3 years to 6 years
* focuses on genital satisfaction (i.e. exploring genitals and learning physical differences between sexes)
* may develop an Oedipus complex (desiring your mother and wanting to kill your father), or an Electra complex (desiring your father and wanting to kill your mother)
* significant disruptions can lead to phallic fixations (e.g. vain, sexually aggressive adults)
70
A heratibility factor of 1.00 means...
genetics is completely responsible (e.g. eye colour)
71
rationalization defense mechanism
* making excuses for unacceptable behaviour
* e.g. blaming a bad exam grade on a confusing teacher
