Chapter 12: Personality (3A) Flashcards
Psychodynamic Perspective
Personality and behaviour is shaped by interacting, or dynamic, underlying forces
What is the Conscious?
The thoughts and feelings that we are aware of at any given moment
What is the preconscious?
Holds thoughts, memories, and ideas that we aren’t consciously thinking about, but cause be brought to consciousness if attended to.
What is the unconscious?
We are unaware of this content and cannot become aware of it except in special circumstances
What is the ID?
It is the basic instinctual drive:
- eating,sleeping,sex, and comfort
- it is present at brith and largely unconscious
What is the pleasure principle?
It is the strive to gratification present in the Id.
What is the ego?
It strives to satisfy the id while complying with constraints on behaviour.
- Develops due to behaviour
- Rational, problem-solving force
- Works consciously and unconsciously
- Mediator between the id and the superego
What is the reality principle?
Te awareness that os to not always possible or acceptable to have all wants met - connected to the ego.
What is the superego?
The personality element in charge of determine which imputes are acceptable to express openly and which are unacceptable.
- Develops as we observe and internalize the behaviours of others in our culture
- Forms during childhood
- We internalize, or unconsciously adopt, the values and norms of others. Our conscience leads us to feel guilds and anxious.
What are the psychosexual stages?
During each stage the id’s pleasure-seeking tendencies focus on one area of the body.
- primarily influenced by sexuality and aggression that cause internal conflict.
- Named after specific ergo us zones, or pleasure-producing areas of the body.
What are defence mechanism?
Unconscious tactics employed by the ego to protect the individual from anxiety
What is repression?
Basic defence mechanism that keeps unpleasant thoughts buried deeply in unconscious mind.
What is denial?
Refusal to recognize and existing situation
What is rationalization?
Creating a socially acceptable excuse to justify unacceptable behaviour
What is reaction formation?
Not acknowledging unacceptable impulses and overemphasizing their opposite
EX: praising a sibling when resenting their success in reality
What is projection?
Transferring one’s unacceptable quialities or impulses onto others.
EX: not trusting someone but accusing them of not trusting you
What is dsplacement?
Diverting one’s impulses to a more acceptable target
EX: Being mad at friend from school, yelling at the cat
what is sublimation?
Channeling socially unacceptable impulses into acceptable activities
EX: redirecting aggressive behaviour into becoming a boxer
What is regression?
reverting to immature ways of responding
EX: throwing a tantrum when frustrated
What is identification?
Enhancing self-esteem by imaging or forming alliances with others
EX: joining groups for their prestige value
What intellectualization?
Ignoring troubling emotional aspects by focusing on abstract ideas or thoughts
EX: discussing the economy by ignoring the pain of a lost job
What are some ‘evaluations’ of freuds theories?
- inadequate evidence
- cannot be directly tested by scientific methods
- lack of predictive power
What are some relevant aspects of Freud’s theory?
- Parental influence on relationships in adulthood
- defence mechanisms serve a function in development and psycologcial disorders
- continued study of unconscious mind
What did new-freudians belive?
that human functioning is shaped by interacting, or dynamic, psychological forces
What did Alfred Adler believe?
Social, not sexual, needs and conscious thoughts are critical in the development of behaviour
- Feelings of inferiority motivate a quest for superiority
What did Carl Jung believe?
Unconscious also drives toward joy, creativity, and internal harmony.
- everyone seeks to integrate the minds various conscious and unconscious elements o into coherent whole, which he termed as the self
According to Carl Jung, what were the two parts of the unconscious?
Personal unconscious - formed through individual experiences
Collective unconscious - inherited memories shared by all humankind,which he called archetypes
What did Karen Hornet belive?
- Basic anxiety develops in children who experience extreme feelings of isolations and helplessness; sets the stage for later neurosis
- culture has a role in development
What did Abraham Maslow believe?
- Humans are basically good and have an urge to grow and fulfil their potential
- personality arises from striving to meet needs
- Hierarchy of needs including self-actualization
What is positive psychology?
an area of psychology focusing on positive experiences and healthy mental functioning
What did carl rogers belive?
Humans are fundamentally positive and strive for self-actual inaction
What is self-concept?
A pattern of self-perception that remains consistent over time and can be used to characterize and individual
What is unconditional positive regard?
acceptance without terms or conditions - Carl Rogers
What are personality traits?
Tendencies to behave in certain ways that remain relatively consistent across situations
What is the personality trait model?
A mini-theory about the structure of personality traits
What is lexical hypotheses
Gordon all port - the idea that our language contains the important was in which people Can differ
What did Hans Eysenck belive
Used factor analysis to create super factors
What is a super factor?
a fundamental dimension of personality made up of a related cluster of personality traits
- developed three independent super-factors called primary dimensions of personality
- Extroversion (sociable)
- Neuroticism (worries)
- Psychoticism (nasty)
What are some strengths of the Trait theories
- Traits become increasingly stable across the adult years
- Relatively stable across many situations and cultures
- Traits predict other personal attributes and often other behaviour
- there are appears to be strong genetic contribution to personality traits
What are some criticisms of the trait theory?
- Oversimplifies the complexity of personality
- Traits can become labels that people then adhere too (shy)
- Portrays personality as fixed ranger than changing
