Chapter 12 Flashcards
personality
A pattern of enduring and distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviours that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world.
psychodynamic perspectives
Theoretical views emphasizing that personality is primarily unconscious (beyond awareness)
Freud and psychoanalysis
Developed psychoanalysis, his approach to personality through his work from patients suffering from hysteria
Freud’s structures of personality
ID: The Freudian structure of personality consisting of unconscious drives; the individual’s reservoir of sexual energy.
Ego: The Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality.
superego: The Freudian structure of personality that serves as the harsh internal judge of our behaviour; what we often call conscience.
defence mechanisms
The Freudian term for tactics the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Examples of defence mechanisms
Repression: Ego pushes unacceptable impulses out of awareness
Rationalization: Ego distorts facts to make an experience less life threatening
Displacement: The ego shifts feelings toward an unacceptable object to another more acceptable one (women can’t take anger out on boss so does it on husband)
Sublimation: The ego replaces an unacceptable impulse with a socially acceptable one (man with strong urges becomes a nude painter)
Projection: The ego attributes personal short comings, problems and faults to others (Man desiring an affair accuses wife of sleeping)
Reaction formation: The ego transforms an unacceptable motive into its opposite
Denial: The ego refuses to acknowledge anxiety producing realities
Regression: Ego seeks the security of an earlier developmental period in the face of stress
Freud’s psychosexual stages of personality development
Oral stage: Infant’s pleasure focuses around mouth (18 months)
Anal stage: Having control over the anus/urethra and its functions during toilet training (18 to 36 months)
Phallic stage: Focuses on genitals and self stimulation (3 to 6 years)
Latency period (6 to puberty): Child sets aside all interest in sexuality
Genital stage (adolescence and adulthood): Time of sexual reawakening, sexual pleasure shifts to someone out of the family
Oedipus complex
According to Freud, a boy’s intense desire to replace his father and enjoy the affections of his mother.
Horney’s sociocultural approach
Argued that sociocultural influences on personality development should be investigated, pointed out women might want a penis because of the status that society bestows on the ones that have it. Believed the need for security and not sex is the prime motive in human existence
Jung’s analytical theory
collective unconscious: Jung’s term for the impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind, shared by all human beings because of their common ancestral past.
Collective unconscious contains
archetypes: Jung’s term for emotionally laden ideas and images in the collective unconscious that have rich and symbolic meaning for all people - emerge in dreams, religion
Two common types of archetypes
Anima: Passive feminine side
Animus: Assertive masculine side
Believed everyone has both
individual psychology
Adler’s view that people are motivated by purposes and goals and that perfection, not pleasure, is thus the key motivator in human life
Core principles of psychodynamic theories
- Personality is determined by both current and early life experiences
- Personality can be better understood by examining it developmentally
- We mentally transform our experiences and give it meaning
- The mind is not all conscious
- Individual’s inner world conflicts with the demands of the outer world
- Personality and adjustment are important topics
humanistic perspectives
Theoretical views stressing a person’s capacity for personal growth and positive human qualities
Maslow’s approach
Believed that we can learn the most about human personality by focusing on the very best examples of humans - self actualizers
Roger’s approach
Believed that we are all born with the “raw ingredients of a fulfilling life” we need the right conditions to thrive
unconditional positive regard
Rogers’s construct referring to the individual’s need to be accepted, valued, and treated positively regardless of the person’s behaviour
Rogers noted that often others value us only when we behave in particular ways
conditions of worth: The standards that the individual must live up to in order to receive positive regard from others.
How does rogers promote optimal functioning
- Regardless of what people do, they need unconditional positive regard
- Individuals can become more fulfilled by interacting with people who are empathetic toward them
- Genuineness (being open with one’s feelings) is a third requirement to become fully functioning
trait theories
Theoretical views stressing that personality consists of broad, enduring dispositions (traits) that tend to lead to characteristic responses.
We can describe people in terms of friendly, hostile
How does allport describe healthy mature people as
- A positive but objective sense of self and others
- Interest in issues beyond their own experience
- A sense of humour
- Common sense
- A unifying philosophy of life - typically but not always provided by religious faith
big five factors of personality
The five broad traits that are thought to describe the main dimensions of personality: neuroticism (emotional instability), extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
List all 5 factors of personality
Openness: Imaginative vs practical
Conscientiousness (organized vs disorganized, careful vs careless)
Extroversion (Sociable vs retiring)
Agreeableness (softhearted v ruthless)
Neuroticism (emotional instability) Calm vs anxious
Neuroticism is related to feeling
Negative emotions more often than positive emotions
HEXACO model of personality
Honesty-humility
Emotionality (fearfulness, anxiety)
Extroversion (social self esteem)
Agreeableness (forgivingness)
Conscientiousness (organization)
Openness to experience
One goal of personality psychology
To understand how each of us is unique
Personological and life story perspectives:Theoretical views stressing that the way to understand a person is to focus on their life history and life story.
Murray’s personological approach
Personology: Refer to the study of the whole person such as the physical, psychological aspects of the person’s life
Thematic apperception test
A person looks at an ambiguous picture and writes or tells a story… A variety of scoring procedures have been devised for analyzing the unconscious motives revealed in imaginative stories
3 different unconscious needs
Need for achievement: attaining excellence
Need for affiliation: Establishing and maintaining interpersonal connections
Need for power: For having impact on social world
Life story approach to identity
McAdams - centres on the idea that each of us has a unique life story representing our memories of what makes us who we are
Introduced concept of intimacy motivation - concern for warm personal encounters
Psychobiography
Type of inquiry in which personality psychologists attempt to apply personality theory to one person’s life
social cognitive perspectives
Theoretical views emphasizing conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations, and goals
Bandura’s social cognitive theory
States that behavioural, environmental and personal/cognitive factors in understanding personality
Bandura term: reciprocal determinism
means that the relationships among the person, their behaviour and the environment are all two way streets; environment can determine a person’s behaviour but person can act to change environment
Observational learning
Bandura’s belief that this is key aspect of how we learn - noticing others behaviours and consequences
Psychologists commonly describe a sense of behavioural control as coming from
Inside the person (internal locus of control)
Outside the person (external locus of control)
self-efficacy
The belief that one can accomplish a given goal or task and produce positive change
Mischel’s critique of consistency
Said personality often changes according to a given situation - view is called situationism, idea that personality and behaviour often vary from one context to another
Mischel’s CAPS theory
Mischel’s theoretical model for describing how individuals’ thoughts and emotions about themselves and the world affect their behaviour and become linked in ways that matter to that behaviour. Involves information processing (cognitive) and emotional experience (affective) Cognitive affective processing system
Eyensck’s reticular activation system theory
States that all of us share an optimal arousal level, a level where we feel comfortable engaged with the world. According to eyensck’s behavioural differences between introverts and extroverts reflects different arousal regulation strategies
Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory
Two neurological systems: Behavioural activation system (BAS) and the behavioural inhibition system (BIS)
Describe BAS
Sensitive to environmental reward
Behaviour: seek positive, consequences/rewards
Character of emotion: Positive
Personality trait: Extroversion
The BAS is associated with the drive for rewards, motivation to pursue goals, and seeking out pleasurable experiences. It is a system that energizes behaviors when there are cues for potential rewards or positive outcomes
Describe BIS
Sensitive to environmental punishment
Behaviour: Avoid negative, consequences/punishments
Character of emotion: Negative
Personality trait: Neuroticism
is associated with avoidance of punishment or negative outcomes. It motivates people to withdraw from threats, punishments, or situations that might cause discomfort or harm. The BIS is thought to be activated in response to cues that signal danger, conflict, or uncertainty
behavioural genetics
The study of the inherited underpinnings of behavioural characteristics
self-report test
A method of measuring personality characteristics that directly asks people whether specific items describe their personality traits; also called an objective test or an inventory
One problem with self report tests
Social desirability: Individuals choose answers that make themselves look good
empirically keyed test
A type of self-report test that presents many questionnaire items to two groups that are known to be different in some central way
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
The most widely used and researched empirically keyed self-report personality test
face validity
The extent to which a test item appears to fit the particular trait it is measuring
projective test
A personality assessment test that presents individuals with an ambiguous stimulus and asks them to describe it or tell a story about it—to project their own meaning onto the stimulus
Rorschach inkblot test
A famous projective test that uses an individual’s perception of inkblots to determine their personality
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
A projective test that is designed to elicit stories that reveal something about an individual’s personality
Type A behaviour pattern
A cluster of characteristics—including being excessively competitive, hard-driven, impatient, and hostile—related to a higher incidence of heart disease.
Type B behaviour pattern
A cluster of characteristics—including being relaxed and easygoing—related to a lower incidence of heart disease.
Type C behaviour pattern
A cluster of characteristics including being very detail-oriented, wanting to be in control, and enjoying stability; individuals with this personality type are interested in accuracy, rationality, and logic.
Type D behaviour pattern
A cluster of characteristics—including being generally distressed, having negative emotions, and being socially inhibited—related to adverse cardiovascular outcomes
subjective well-being
A person’s assessment of their own level of positive affect relative to negative affect and an evaluation of their life in general
