Chapter 12: Personality Flashcards
Personality
A person’s unique and relatively stable behavior patterns; the consistency of who you are, have been, and will become
Personality psychologists aim to understand
the ways in which, and reasons why, people differ
—— Swiss psychiatrist, believed that we are one of two personality types (I/E) and there are four basic ways that we deal with the world (S/N/T/J)
Carl Jung
introverts
people who prefer their internal world of thoughts, feelings,
fantasies, dreams
extroverts
prefer the external world of things and people and activities.
Sensing
getting information by means of the senses.
Intuiting
getting information from the patterns and possibilities in the information they receiv
Thinking
making decisions by evaluating information or ideas rationally, logically
Feeling
making decisions by evaluating information by weighing one’s overall, emotional response.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
one of the most popular, and most studied personality tests is based off of Jung’s typology
Extroversion - Introversion (E-I)
“favorite world”
– 75 % of the population is extroverted.
Sensing - Intuiting (S-N)
information – About 75 % of the population sensing
Thinking - Feeling (T-F)
decisions
– Two-thirds of men are thinkers, two-thirds of women are feelers.
Judging - Perceiving (J-P)
Structure
• not one of Jung’s original dimensions. • J and P are equally distributed in the population.
Judging
prefer a planned or orderly way of life, like to have things settled and organized.
Perceiving
prefer a flexible and spontaneous way of life, and like to understand and adapt to the world rather than organize it
Trait Approach
Holds that people have traits that can be measured and studied
Trait
durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations
Common Traits
Characteristics shared by most members of a culture
Cardinal Traits
So basic that all of a person’s activities can be traced back to the trait
Central Traits
Core qualities of a personality
Secondary Traits
Inconsistent or superficial aspects of a person
The —— of personality by McCrae and Costa (1997) is the most recent addition to trait theory
five-factor theory
“Big Five” Personality Factors
Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (OCEAN)
Openness to Experience
creative & willing to try new thing
Conscientiousness
reliable, responsible, thorough, dependable, hard-working
Extraversion
outgoing, social, active, talkative
Agreeableness
easy to get along with, pleasant, sympathetic, warm, cooperative
Neuroticism
emotional stability
Cross-Cultural Differences in Personality
• “Describe yourself briefly”
• Americans respond confidently and elaborate
– individualistic conception of self. • Japanese give more tentative responses.
– collectivist / interdependent conception of self.
• The older a person is, the more consistent his or her personality is over time.
– observed cross-culturally.
Correlation of Traits
- Larger correlations between the extraversion levels of monozygotic (MZ) twins (identical) than those of dizygotic (DZ) (fraternal) twins.
- Moderate positive correlations between parents and their biological children and between pairs of biologically related brothers and sisters •Low or even negative correlations between parents and adopted children and among adopted children living in the same family
Psychoanalytic theory
Freudian theory of personality that emphasizes unconscious forces and conflicts
According to Freud, ——– force thoughts into our ——–.
traumatic experiences;
unconscious
Psychoanalysis could bring such thoughts into the conscious mind.
Freud asked patients to say ——— in order to tap the unconscious.
whatever came to their minds (free association)
The Id
Innate biological instincts and urges; self-serving, irrational, and totally unconscious
works on Pleasure Principle
The Id
Pleasure Principle
Wishes to have its desires (pleasurable) satisfied NOW, without waiting and regardless of the consequences
The Ego
Executive; directs id energies
The ego has the power to
direct behavior by relating the desires of the id to external reality.
works on the Reality Principle
The Ego
Reality Principle
Delays action until it is practical and/or appropriate
The Superego
Judge or censor for thoughts and actions of the ego
Two parts of Superego
Conscience and Ego Ideal
Conscience
Reflects actions for which a
person has been punished
Ego Ideal
Second part of the superego; reflects behavior one’s parents approved of or rewarded
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages (description)
- Our personality develops through a series of 5 psychosexual stages.
- If blocked / frustrated or overly gratified at any stage, we become fixated at that stage.
- We remain preoccupied with the pleasure area associated with the stage
Oral Stage
Ages 0-1. Most of infant’s pleasure comes from stimulation of the mouth.
If a child is overfed or frustrated
oral traits will develop.
Fixation in oral stage
leads to eating, drinking, and smoking
Anal Stage
Ages 1-3
Child can gain approval or express aggression by letting go or holding on.
Harsh or lenient toilet training can make a child:
Anal Retentive: Stubborn, stingy, orderly,
and compulsively clean
– Anal Expulsive: Disorderly, messy, destructive, or cruel
Anal Retentive
Stubborn, stingy, orderly,
and compulsively clean
Anal Expulsive
Disorderly, messy, destructive, or cruel
Phallic Stage
Ages 3-6. Child now notices and is physically attracted to opposite sex paren
Phallic Stage Can lead to
Oedipus Conflict: For boys only. Boy feels rivalry with his father for his mother’s
affection.
– Electra Conflict: Girl loves her father and competes with her mother
Oedipus Conflict
For boys only. Boy feels rivalry with his father for his mother’s
affection.
Electra Conflict
Girl loves her father and competes with her mother
[Phallic Stage] Children cope with threatening feelings by repressing them and by ——with the rival parent.o
identifying
Latency Stage
Ages 6-Puberty. Psychosexual development is dormant. Same sex friendships and play occur here.
Genital Stage
Puberty-on. Realization of full adult sexuality occurs here; sexual urges re-awaken.
Defense Mechanisms
The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Repression
banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from
consciousness
Regression
leads an individual faced with anxiety to retreat to a more infantile
psychosexual stage.
Reaction Formation
causes the ego to
unconsciously switch unacceptable impulses into their opposites.
Projection
leads people to disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to
others.
Rationalization
offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more
threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions.
Displacement
shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less
threatening object or person, redirecting anger toward a safer outlet.
Denial
blocking external events from
awareness. If a situation is too much to handle, the person refuses to experience it.
Sublimation
the transforming of a socially unacceptable behavior, whether it be sex, anger, or fear, into a socially acceptable and
productive form.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
- The most widely used projective test uses a set of 10 inkblots and was designed by Hermann Rorschach.
- It seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Developed by Henry Murray, the TAT is a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.
EX: to tuck away memories
Repression
EX: child acts younger when baby sibling arrives
Regression
EX: think about sex inside but act and speak about purity outside
Reaction Formation
EX: “Emma, you should really not eat in bed.”
Projection
EX: “I failed because my teacher hates me.”
Rationalization
EX: yell at husband instead of boss
Displacement
EX: “I really don’t need to study.”
Denial
EX: playing football instead of beating people
Sublimation
