Chapter 13 - Personality

Question 1

Define personality.

Answer 1

An individual’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, persisting across time and across situations.

Question 2

Sigmund Freud’s Path to Developing Psychoanalysis.

Answer 2

1856 - 1939: Vienna physician.

“Discovered” the unconscious.
Free association.
He didn’t study normal people, just his patients and had no research / evidence / studies.

Question 3

Freud: Could physical symptoms be caused purely by psychological factors?

Answer 3

If there’s nothing physically wrong with his patients, it must be a mental issue causing the physical pain. Something must be happening in the unconscious mind , but how could Freud help them if they were unconscious of the problem?

Question 4

What did Freud think a Freudian slip of the tongue meant?

Answer 4

Clues leaking from the unconscious.

Question 5

What are Feud’s three levels of consciousness?

Answer 5

Id - pleasure.
Ego - reality.
Superego - moral compass.

The ego is the mediator and negotiates compromises between the id and superego.

Personality arises from a conflict between impulse and restraint.

Question 6

Describe Freud’s mind ice berg.

Answer 6

The mind is mostly hidden, like an ice berg. Unacceptable thoughts and passions are repressed.

Ego - mostly conscious ideas.
Preconscious - ideas outside awareness, but accessible.
Superego - internalized ideas. Ideas unacceptable to express in society.

Question 7

What is Freud’s theory of the psychosexual stages of development?

Answer 7

The id is focused on the needs of the erogenous zones - sensitive areas of the body.

People can get fixed at one stage, each associated with a different erogenous zone.

Question 8

Freud: What are the different stages of the erogenous zones?

Answer 8

Oral (0 - 18 months)
Anal (18 - 36 months)
Phallic (3 - 6 years)
Latency (6 - puberty)
Genital (puberty onward)

Ex. If someone did not get over the oral stage as a child, he might smoke to fulfill the need of always having something in the mouth.

Question 9

Freud: What is the Oedipus Complex?

Answer 9

Boys in the phallic stage develop unconscious sexual desires for their mothers and view their fathers as rivals.

Resolution: boys identify with their fathers rather than seeing them as rivals.

Question 10

Define defense mechanism.

Answer 10

Unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses - EGO.

Question 11

What are some defense mechanisms for repressing unacceptable impulses?

Answer 11

Regression, denial, rationalization, displacement, progression, reaction formation.

Question 12

How did Freud attempt to assess the unconscious?

Answer 12

Freud tried to get unconscious themes to be projected into the conscious world through free association and dream analysis.

Projection tests: ambiguous prompts that reveal the inner workings on one’s mind.

Question 13

What is the Rorschach test?

Answer 13

Ink blot test. Results don’t link well to traits (low validity) and different raters get different results (low reliability).

Question 14

What are some critiques of Freud’s ideas?

Answer 14

Development is lifelong.
Peers have more influence on personality.
Dreams don’t necessarily mean anything.
Traumatic memories are not repressed, but usually intensely remembered.
Gender and sexual identity seem to be more a function of genetics.
Few objective observations, few testable hypotheses, as Freud did no research.

Question 15

What is Maslow’s “the self actualizing person?”

Answer 15

People are motivated to keep moving up a hierarchy of needs.
Self-transcendence - meaning / purpose beyond the self.
Self-actualization - realizing one’s full potential.

Question 16

What is Roger’s person centered perspective?

Answer 16

Three conditions that facilitate growth and fulfillment: genuineness, acceptance (unconditional positive regard), and empathy.

If our self-concept is positive, we tend to act and perceive the world positively.

Question 17

What are some critiques of Roger’s person centered perspective?

Answer 17

It encourages self-indulgence, self-centeredness.
Human capacity for evil.

Humanists say self-acceptance is not the end; it then allows us to move on from defending our own needs to loving and caring for others.

Question 18

What is the trait theory of personality?

Answer 18

We are made up of a collection of traits that can be identified and measured. Traits differ from person to person.

Question 19

What is a trait?

Answer 19

A characteristic pattern of behavior of a predisposition to feel and act a certain way.

Ex. “honest” or “shy.”

Question 20

What is factor analysis?

Answer 20

Traits can be put into two groups / dimensions: introverted and extroverted (stable and unstable).

Two basic dimensions along which we all vary.

Question 21

Are traits rooted in biology?

Answer 21

Brain: extroverts seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal is relatively low.

Body: the trait of shyness appears to be related to high autonomic system reactivity, an easily triggered alarm system.

Genes: traits can be selected through selective breeding of animals, suggesting genetic roots for these traits. Ex. domesticating foxes through breeding.

Question 22

What are the “Big Five” personality dimensions?

Answer 22

WHERE YOU FALL ALONG SPECTRUM.

Openness [to new experiences]. (imaginative - conforming)
Conscientiousness. (organized - not)
Extraversion. (sociable - shy)
Agreeableness. (trusting - suspicious)
Neuroticism. (emotional stability - instability)

Acronym: OCEAN.

Question 23

How stable are our personality traits?

Answer 23

Personality traits don’t change much over the lifespan and usually become more stable with age.

In adulthood, however, everyone becomes more conscientious and agreeable, less extraverted, neurotic, and open (imaginative and flexible).

Question 24

How heritable are our personality traits?

Answer 24

In general, genes account for 50% of the variation of most traits. As always, identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins.

Question 25

Can traits predict behavior?

Answer 25

Conscientiousness can predict grades and lifestyle behaviors.

Extraversion can predict social activities.

Happiness is linked to low neuroticism and high extraversion and agreeableness.

Marital satisfaction is higher if you marry someone like you because we are more attracted to people similar to us. The Big Five personality traits must be similar, aside from introversion / extraversion.

Question 26

What is person-situation controversy?

Answer 26

Specific behaviors can vary in different situations.

We change interests, careers, and relationships, but averaging behavior across time reveals traits that can be used to predict future behaviors.

Question 27

What is the cognitive perspective?

Answer 27

Albert Bandura.

Personality is a result of an interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context (conditioning / observing others).

How do we interpret / respond to events and how do our responses shape us?

Question 28

Define reciprocal determinism.

Answer 28

A person’s behavior both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the social environment.

A back and forth influence with no primary cause.

Ex. feelings of academic inferiority <> don’t bother trying hard in school <> poor grades.

Question 29

What is the internal locus of control?

Answer 29

You control your environment. People who perceive that they control their own environment tend to achieve more in school and work, are better at coping with stress, and are at a lower risk for depression.

Question 30

What is the external locus of control?

Answer 30

You are controlled by your environment. People who perceive that they are controlled by their environment have less motivation to succeed and anxiety about what might happen.

Question 31

What is self-control?

Answer 31

It is the ability to control impulses and delay gratification. It uses brain energy and with practice, one can improve their self-control.

Ex. Marshmallow study - kids who resisted the temptation to eat marshmallows later had more success socially and in school.

Question 32

Discuss learned helplessness versus personal control.

Answer 32

Uncontrollable bad events > perceived lack of control > generalized helpless behavior.

Learned helplessness: declining to help oneself after repeated attempts to do so have failed.

Personal control: when people are given some choices, they thrive.