Chapter 12: What is personality and how do we measure it Flashcards
Personality
The unique collection of attitudes, emotions, thoughts, habits, impulses, and behaviors that define how a person typically behaves across situations.
- Psychoanalytic Perspective (IMPORTANT!)
A personality approach developed by Sigmund Freud that sees personality as the product of driving forces within a person that are often conflicting and sometimes unconscious.
- Freud Proposes 3 levels of awareness for the human personality:
a. Conscious Level: The level of consciousness that holds all the thoughts, perceptions, and impulses of which we are aware. b. Preconscious Level: The level of consciousness that holds thoughts, perceptions, and impulses of which we could potentially be aware. c. Unconscious Level: The level of awareness that contains the thoughts, perceptions, and impulses of which we are unaware.
Id
The unconscious part of the personality that seeks pleasure and gratification.
Pleasure Principle:
The basis on which the id operates; the urge to feel good and maximize gratification.
Ego
The conscious part of the personality that attempts to meet the demands of the id in a socially appropriate way.
Reality Principle
The basis on which the ego operates; finding socially appropriate means to fulfill id demands.
Superego
The part of the personality that represents your moral conscience.
Defense Mechanism:
A process used to protect the ego by reducing the anxiety it feels when faced with the conflicting demands of the id and the superego.
Oral Stage
First stage of development, lasting from birth to roughly 18 months of age. The handling of the child’s feeding experiences affects personality development.
Anal Stage
Freud’s second psychosexual stage, which occurs from approximately 18 months to 3 years of age, in which the parents regulation of the child’s urge to expel or retain feces affects personality development.
Phallic Stage
Freud’s third psychosexual stage of development, which occurs between 3 years and 6 years of age, in which little boys experience the Oedipus complex and little girls experience the Electra complex.
Oedipus Complex
In the male, an unconscious sexual urge for the mother that develops during the phallic psychosexual stage.
Electra Complex
In the female an unconscious sexual urge for the father that develops during the phallic psychosexual stage.
Latency Stage
Freud’s 4th psychosexual stage of development which occurs from around age 6 to puberty, in which the child’s sexuality is suppressed due to widening social contacts with school, peers, and family.
Genital Stage
Freud’s final psychosexual stage of development which begins at puberty, in which sexual energy is transferred toward peers of the other sex (heterosexual orientation) or same sex (homosexual orientation).
Neo-Freudians
Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney
Personal Unconsciousness:
According to Jung, the part of the unconscious that consists of forgotten memories and repressed experiences from one’s past.
Collective Unconscious:
According to Jung, the part of the unconscious that contains images and material universal to people of all time periods and cultures.
Archetypes:
According to Jung, mental representations or symbols of themes and predispositions to respond to the world in a certain way that are contained in the collective unconscious.
Basic Anxiety
According to Horney, the feeling of helplessness that develops in children from early relationships.
Trait Approach (Gordon Allport):
A personality perspective that attempts to describe personality by emphasizing internal, biological aspects of personality called traits.
Trait:
Tendency to behave in a certain way across most situations.
Central Traits:
According to Allport, the tendencies we have to behave in certain ways across most situations.
Secondary Traits:
According to Allport, the tendencies we have that are less consistent and describe how we behave in certain situations.
Cardinal Traits
According to Allport, those dominant elements of our personalities that drive all of our behaviors.
Surface Traits
Basic traits that describe people’s personalities, according to Cattell.
Source Traits
Universal tendencies that underlie and are at the core of surface traits, according to Cattell.
Introversion
Personality traits that involve energy directed inward, such as being calm or peaceful.
Extraversion
Personality traits that involve energy being directed outwards, such as being easygoing, lively, or excitable.
Emotional Stability
Having control over one’s emotions.
Neuroticism
The degree to which one is emotionally unstable.
Psychoticism
The degree to which one is hostile, nonconforming, impulsive, and aggressive.
5 Factor Trait Theory
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
Openness
The degree to which one is thoughtful and rational in considering new ideas.
Conscientiousness:
The degree to which one is aware of and attentive to other people, to the details of a task, or to both.
Extraversion
The degree to which one’s energy is directed inward or outward.
Agreeableness
The degree to which one gets along well with others.
Neuroticism
The degree to which one is emotionally stable or unstable.
Behavioral Genetics:
Field of study that examines the influence of genetics and hereditary factors on personality traits.
Humanistic Approach:
A personality perspective that emphasizes the individual, personal choice, and free will in shaping personality; assumes that humans have a built-in drive toward fulfilling their own natural potential.
Self-Actualization:
The fulfillment of one’s natural potential. Maslow believed that only 1 out of 10 people had enough of their other needs met that they could focus on self-actualization needs.
Actualizing Tendency:
According to Rogers, the natural drive in humans to strive for fulfillment and enhancement.
Self-Concept
One’s perception or image of his or her abilities and uniqueness.
Unconditional Positive Regard:
Acceptance and love of another’s thoughts and feelings without expecting anything in return.
Reliability:
The degree to which a test yields consistent measurements of a trait.
Validity:
The degree to which a test measures the trait that it was designed to measure.
Personality Inventory:
An objective paper-and-pencil or computerized report forms that measures personality on several dimensions.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2):
A personality inventory that is designed to identify problems areas of functioning in an individual’s personality.
Projective Test:
A less structured and subjective personality test in which an individual is shown an ambiguous stimulus and is asked to describe what he or she sees.
Rorschach Inkblot Test:
A projective personality test consisting of 10 ambiguous inkblots in which a person is asked to describe what he or she sees; the person’s responses are then coded for consistent themes and issues.
Thematic Apperception Test:
A projective personality test consisting of a series of pictures in which the respondent is asked to tell a story about each scene; the responses are then coded for consistent themes and issues.
Clinical Interview:
The initial meeting between a client and a clinician in which the clinician asks questions to identify the difficulty in functioning that the person is experiencing.
