Chapter 6 - Identity and Personality

Question 1

Self-Concept

Answer 1

• The sum of the ways in which we describe ourselves: in the present, who we used to be, and who we might be in the future.

Question 2

Self-Schema

Answer 2

• A self-given label that carries with it a set of qualities

Question 3

Identity

Answer 3

• The individual components of our self-concept related to the groups to which we belong.

Question 4

Types of Identity

Answer 4

• Gender Identity: describes a persons appraisal of him or herself on scales of masculinity and femininity. Gender identity is not necessarily tied to biological sex or sexual orientation.
• Ethnic Identity: refers to one’s ethnic group, in which members typically share a common ancestry, cultural heritage, and language.
• National Identity: the result of shared history, media, cuisine, and national symbols such as a country’s flag.

Question 5

Androgyny and Gender Schema

Answer 5

• Androgyny is defined as the state of being simultaneously very masculine and very feminine, while those who achieve low scores on both scales are referred to as undifferentiated.
• The theory of gender schema holds that key components of gender identity are transmitted through cultural and societal means.

Question 6

Hierarchy of Salience

Answer 6

• It is believed that our identities are organized according to a hierarchy of salience, such that we let the situation dictate which identity holds the most importance for us at any given moment.
• The more salient the identity, the more we conform to the role expectations of the identities.
• Salience is determined by the amount of work we have invested into the identity, the rewards and gratification associated with the identity, and the amount of self-esteem we have associated with the identity.

Question 7

Self-Discrepancy Theory

Answer 7

• Maintains that each of us has 3 selves
• Our self-concept makes up our actual self, the way we see ourselves as we currently are.
• Our ideal self is the person we would like to be, and our ought self is our representation of the way others think we should be.
• Generally, the closer these 3 selves are to one another, the higher our self-esteem or self-worth will be.

Question 8

Self-Efficacy

Answer 8

• While self-esteem is the measure of how we feel about ourselves, self-efficacy is our belief in our ability to succeed.
• It is the degree to which we see ourselves as being capable at a given skill or in a given situation.

Question 9

Learned Helplessness

Answer 9

• Occurs when a person or animal is repeatedly subjected to an aversive stimulus that it cannot escape.
• Eventually, the person or animal will stop trying to avoid the stimulus and behave as if it is utterly helpless to change the situation. Even when opportunities to escape are presented, this learned helplessness will prevent any action.

Question 10

Locus of Control

Answer 10

• Refers to the way we characterize the influences in our lives.
• People with an internal locus of control view themselves of controlling their own fate, whereas those with an external locus of control feel that the events in their lives are caused by luck or outside influences.

Question 11

Libido and Fixation

Answer 11

• Libido: sex drive
• Fixation: occurs when a child is overindulged or overly frustrated during a stage of development. In response to the anxiety caused by fixation, the child forms a personality pattern based on that particular stage, which persists into adulthood as a functional mental disorder known as a neurosis.

Question 12

Erkison: Psychosocial Development

Answer 12

• Based on a series of crises that derive from conflicts between needs and social demands.
• Emphasizes emotional development and interactions with the social environment.
• It is possible to fail at resolving the conflict central to any given stage of development, but this does not mean that mastery of each stage is required to move on to the next.

Question 13

Kohlberg: Moral Reasoning

Answer 13

• Focuses on the development of moral thinking
• As our cognitive abilities grow, we are able to think about the world in more complex and nuanced ways, and this directly affects the ways in which we resolve moral dilemmas and perceive the notion of right and wrong.

Question 14

Vygotsky: Cultural and Biosocial Development

Answer 14

• Focused on understanding cognitive development
• The engine driving cognitive development was the child’s internalization of various aspects of the culture: rules, symbols, language, etc. As the child internalized these various interpersonal and cultural rules, her cognitive activity developed accordingly.

Question 15

Vygotsky: Zone of Proximal Development

Answer 15

• Refers to those skills and abilities that have not yet fully developed but are in the process of development
• Gaining these skills successfully requires the help of a “more knowledgeable other”, typically an adult.

Question 16

Looking-Glass Self

Answer 16

• People’s perceptions of who they are manifest from how society views them.
• It also emphasizes that people’s social interactions help to sculpt their selves

Question 17

Reference Group

Answer 17

• Our self-concept depends in part on our reference group, or the group to which we compare ourselves.
• Two individuals with the same qualities might see themselves differently depending on how those qualities compare to their reference groups.

Question 18

Personality

Answer 18

• Describes the set of thoughts, feelings, traits, and behaviors that are characteristic of an individual across time and different locations.
• How we act and react to the world around us.

Question 19

The Psychoanalytic Perspective of Personality

Answer 19

• Assume that unconscious internal states motivate the overt actions of individuals and determine personality.
• Freud and Jung

Question 20

Defense Mechanisms

Answer 20

• The ego’s recourse for relieving anxiety caused by the clash of the id and superego is through defense mechanisms.
• All defense mechanisms have 2 common characteristics: first, they deny, falsify, or distort reality; second, they operate unconsciously.
• 8 main defense mechanisms: repression, suppression, regression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization, displacement, and sublimation.

Question 21

Carl Jung: Psychoanalytic Perspective

Answer 21

• Identified the ego as the conscious mind, and he divided the unconscious into 2 parts: the personal unconscious, similar to Freud’s notion of the unconscious, and the collective unconscious.
• The collective unconscious is a powerful system that is shared among all humans and considered to be a residue of the experiences of our early ancestors.
• Personality is influenced by archetypes.

Question 22

Jung described 3 dichotomies of personality:

Answer 22

• Extraversion (E, orientation toward the external world) vs. Introversion (I, orientation toward the inner, personal world)
• Sensing (S, obtaining objective information about the world) vs. Intuiting (N, working with information abstractly)
• Thinking (T, using logic and reason) vs. Feeling (F, using a value system or personal beliefs)

Question 23

The Humanistic Perspective of Personality

Answer 23

• Focus on the value of individuals and take a more person centered approach, describing those ways in which healthy people strive toward self-realization
• Focuses on the complete person
• Our personality is the result of the conscious feelings we have for ourselves as we attempt to attain our needs and goals
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Roger’s therapeutic approach of unconditional positive regard

Question 24

The Type and Trait Perspectives of Personality

Answer 24

• Believe that personality can be described as a number of identifiable traits that carry characteristic behaviors.
• Somatotypes, Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, PEN Model

Question 25

Type A vs. Type B

Answer 25

• Type A: characterized by behavior that tends to be competitive and compulsive
• Type B: generally laid-back and relaxed

Question 26

PEN Model

Answer 26

• 3 traits:
• Psychoticism is a measure of noncomformity or social deviance
• Extraversion is a measure of tolerance for social interaction and stimulation
• Neuroticism is a measure of emotional arousal in stressful situations

Question 27

Big Five

Answer 27

• PEN theory expanded to Big Five
• Big Five traits of personality: OCEAN
  
  • Openness
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extraversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Neuroticism

Question 28

Allport: 3 types of traits and Functional Autonomy

Answer 28

1. Cardinal traits are traits around which a person organizes his or her life. While not everyone develops a cardinal trait, everyone does have central and secondary traits.
2. Central traits represent major characteristics of the personality that are easy to infer, such as honesty or charisma.
3. Secondary traits are other personal characteristics that are more limited in occurrence: aspects of one’s personality that only appear in close groups or specific social situations.

• Functional Autonomy: in which a behavior continues despite satisfaction of the drive that originally created the behavior.