Chapter 13 - Theories of Personality Flashcards
Temperament
Enduring characteristics with which we are born
Types of temperaments
Easy
Hard
Slow to warm up
Same as baby temperaments
Character
Value judgements of moral and ethical behavior
Four Perspectives in Study of Personality
Psychodynamic (Freud)
Behaviorist
Humanistic
Trait
Psychodynamic perspective
Freud
Focused on role of unconscious’s effect on daily behavior
Believes subconscious controls most actions, personality traits, and behaviors
Behaviorist perspective
Skinner and Watson
Learn personality entirely from environment (no nature)
Humanistic perspective
Middle ground between Psychodynamic and Behaviorist
Both are depressing because personality is determined solely by the uncontrollable
Explain personality development from individual choices
Trait perspective
Does not explain personality formation
Describe personality with adjectives (traits)
E.g., describe person as extrovert and use it to predict behavior
Conscious mind
Individual in current, working moment
Immediate
Preconscious mind
Anything accessible but not currently thought about (LTM memories)
Unconscious mind
“Black box” of brain
Freud’s 3 parts of the mind
Conscious mind
Preconscious mind
Unconscious mind
Freud’s 3 parts of personality
Id
Ego
Superego
Id
Born with this
Mostly present in babies
Individual does what it wants, when it wants (cries, poops, etc.)
Uses pleasure principle
Pleasure principle
Anything instinctual an id-creature does
“Just do it” and ignore consequences
Uses instinctual energy (libido)
Libido
Related to id
Instinctual energy
Ego
Develops from need to deal with reality
Starts “reality principle”
Reality principle
Related to ego
Develops around 2
Takes into account consequences of actions
E.g., child won’t steal from the cookie jar to avoid punishment
Superego
Starts “ego ideal” and “conscience”
Ego Ideal
Related to superego
?Develops standards
e.g., Child asks: “Will I get caught, and is it worth the cookie?”
Conscience
Related to superego
Makes one proud/guilty when doing the right/wrong thing
Freud’s Psycose**al Stages
5 of them; only 1-3 are useful
Each stage related to se**al/physical development of the child
Erogenous zone
Where child experiences conflict
Fixation
If erogenous zone conflict is not resolved, child remains fixated on this stage
(Similar to Erikson’s stages)
Stage 1 of Freud’s Stages
Oral stage
1st year of life - Id dominated
Erogenous zone (Stage 1)
Mouth
Primary conflict (Stage 1)
Weaning
Child hates it
Effect on personality (Stage 1)
Too much weaning - dependent, optimistic
Too little weaning - aggressive, pessimistic
Stage 2 of Freud’s Stages
Anal stage
1-3 years of age
Ego begins to develop
Erogenous zone (Stage 2)
Anus
Conflict (Stage 2)
Toilet training (where to toilet)
Effect on personality (Stage 2)
Too harshly toilet trained - anal expulsive personality
Too leniently toilet trained - anal retentive personality
Anal expulsive personality
Destructive, hostile, messy, rebellious
Anal retentive personality
Excessively neat, stingy, and stubborn
Stage 3 of Freud’s Stages
Phallic stage
3-6 years of age
Superego begins to develop
Erogenous zone (Stage 3)
Genitals
Conflict (Stage 3)
Oedipus complex (Societal norms) Resolved by identification with same-gender parent
Oedipus complex
Associated with Freud Stage 3 conflict
Se**al attraction to one of parents
Effect on personality (Stage 3)
If unresolved, mommy’s boys and daddy’s girls
3 competing Freudian theorists
Jung, Adler, Horney
Jung
Developed theory of collective unconscious
Claims deja vu occurs from universally shared human memories
Adler
Developed inferiority complex and birth order theory
Inferiority complex
Developed by Adler
Failing Erikson’s stages makes one always need to prove themselves
Birth order theory
Developed by Adler
Unscientific
Claims that personalities are different depending on order of birth in nuclear families
Horney
Developed basic anxiety principle
All people must resolve conflict from “basic anxiety” at birth or become neurotic
Cognitive Behaviorism
Personality defined as a set of learned responses or habits (developed by environment)
Social Cognitive Learning Theory
Emphasis on observational learning/expectations
Bandura’s Theory of Reciprocal Determinism
Environment, personal factors, and behavior interact to determine future personality
E.g., child who is extroverted becomes introverted after schoolmates (the environment) bully him for being extroverted
Self-esteem
Overall confidence in oneself
Self-efficacy
Confidence in one’s ability to do a task
Humanistic perspective
Emphasizes free will and self-development in personality formation
Freudian and Behavioral approaches are depressing because there is no free choice
Carl Roger’s Theory of Personality
Humanistic
Argues that personality is mostly formed from self-concept given by others
?All humans born with tendency to self-actualize
Self-concept
Individual’s understanding of themselves based on others’ input
E.g., kids will tend to become smart/stupid if they are told they are smart/stupid, respectively
Real self
Carl Roger’s theory
How one perceives oneself
Ideal self
Carl Roger’s theory
How one wishes they should be
Often defined by self-concept defined by others
Mismatch between real and ideal selves
Causes neurotic behavior and anxiety
Becoming a Fully Functioning Person
Carl Roger’s theory
Needs unconditional positive regard (unconditional love) to develop
Can get it in therapy if not gotten as a child
Fully Functioning Person
“in touch with & trusting of deep, innermost desires & feelings, continually working toward actualization”
Trait Theory of Personality
Describe characteristics of an individual to predict their behavior
Gordon Allport
First to attempt Trait Theory
Asked his grad students to pick out dictionary words to describe people
Narrowed down to 200 words
Cattell
Trait theorist
Developed 16 PF (Personality Factors)
Sparsely used
Proposed 8 continuums of 2 opposing traits
Source Traits
Label
E.g., extrovert, introvert, openness
Surface Traits
Description of behavior
E.g., describe the label of extrovert as happy, friendly, etc.
The Big Five Model
Trait theory model inspired by Cattell
Spells OCEAN
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Openness (Big 5)
High - Open to new things, independent, like variety
Low - Routine, practical
Conscientiousness (Big 5)
High - Good roommate, organized
Low - Late, disorganized, careless
Extraversion (Big 5)
Extrovert - Prefers center of attention
Introvert - Prefer solitude, dislike center of attention
Agreeableness (Big 5)
High - Happy, trusting
Low - Difficult, uncooperative, hard to get along with, disagreeable (e.g., Uma Ramamurthy)
Neuroticism (Big 5)
Neurotic - anxiety, insecurity, low self-esteem, victim complex
Emotional stability - Calm, secure, high self-esteem, capable
Trait-situation interaction
Personality manifests itself slightly differently depending on the situation
E.g., disagreeable person will hide this during job interview
Genetics and personality
Personality is largely genetically defined
E.g., identical twins share personalities, even if separated at birth and unaware of the other’s existence
Gemm Twins
Famous identical twins that matched everything
Individualism (cultural personality)
US
Capitalism, free will, individual rights
Collectivism (cultural personality)
More socialist
Concern for group over self
Asian/Hispanic/Native American
Power distance (cultural personality)
Degree to which peons accept lack of social mobility and powerlessness relative to elites
Masculine/feminine (cultural personality)
Masculine/feminine depending on whether males/females are treated better
No cultures are feminine, but some are less masculine than others
Uncertainty avoidance
High - Low in tolerance for different opinions (e.g., North Korea, Russia)
Low - High in tolerance (e.g., US)
Structured Interview
Interview cannot deviate from assigned questions
Unstructured interview
Interview can deviate from assigned questions and explore more topics
Halo effect
Interview allows first impression of candidate to influence assessment
Projective tests
Freudian
Person gives description of imaginary story based on ambiguous visual stimulus
Person’s thoughts measures personality
Not used frequently
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Type of projection test
Show 20 pictures of people in ambiguous situations
Average individual’s thoughts of 20 different situations to determine their personality
Rorschach
Just like TAT but with Stranger Things-looking diagrams
Rorschach EC question:
Professor sees two wizards high-fiving
Personality Inventory (PI)
Survey-like instruments wit statements of standardized resposne
E.g., OCEAN (Big 5), Myers-Briggs
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Pseudoscience, unreliable Sensing v. intuition Thinking v. feeling Extroversion v. introversion Judging vs. perceiving
Sensing v. intuition
Sensing - feel, hear, touch stuff; see the evidence
Intuition - use hunches, gut feeling, patterns, etc.
Thinking v. feeling
Thinking - value the mind
Feeling - disvalue the mind
Judging v. perceiving
Judging - decisive, action-loving
Perceiving - reads directions, needs more information, more flexible, annoying to eat with because they are indecisive
