Chapter 6: Personality, Motivation, Attitude, Psychological Disorders Flashcards
Psychoanalytic theory
Sigmund Freud - two instinctual drives motivate human behavior - the libido or life instinct (drives behaviors focused on survival, growth, creativity etc) and the death instinct (drive aggression behaviors fueled by unconscious wish to die or harm people)
personality is shaped by a person’s unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories which are derived from a person’s past experiences
Id, Ego, Superego
Id- what we want to do, seek to reduce tension and avoid pain and gain pleasure
Ego- what we actually do; uses logical planning to balance the Id desires and Superego morals
Superego- what we should do, follow moralistic and idealistic goals and strive for higher purpose
Five psychosexual stages
Freud suggested that each person matures through stages that correspond to which part of the body is the focus of sensual pleasure
- Oral - a child seeks sensual pleasure through oral activities such as sucking and chewing
- Anal - the child seeks sensual pleasure through control of elimination
- Phallic - the child seeks sensual pleasure through the genitals
- Latency - sexual interests subside and are replaced by interests in other areas such as school, friends, sports
- Genital - in adolescence when sexual themes resurface and a person’s life/sexual energy fuels activities such as friendship, sports, careers
Erikson’s Eight Psychosocial stages
- Trust vs. mistrust - if an infant’s physical and emotional needs are not met, as an adult he/she may mistrust the world and interpersonal relationships
- Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt - if a toddler’s need to explore, make mistakes, test limits are not met, as an adult he/she may be dependent rather than autonomous
- Initiative vs. Guilt - young child’s need to make decisions is not met, as an adult he/she may feel guilty taking initiative
- Industry vs. Inferiority - if a child’s needs to understand the world, develop a gender-role identity, succeed in school are not met, as an adult he/she may feel inadequate
- Identity vs. Role Confusion - if adolescent does not test limits and clarify identity, goals, he/she may develop role confusion
- Intimacy vs. Isolation - if young adult does not form intimate relationships, he/she may become alienated
- Generativity vs. Stagnation - if person doesn’t feel productive by helping next generation and resolving differences between actual accomplishments and earlier dreams, he/she may become stuck in psychological stagnation
- Integrity vs. Despair - if a person looks back with regrets and lack of personal worth, he/she may feel hopeless, guilty, resentful, and self-rejecting
Psychoanalytic therapy
uses various methods to help a patient become aware of his or her unconscious motives, and to gain insight into the emotional issues and conflicts that are presenting difficulties
Humanistic theory
Carl Rogers; humans are seen as inherently good and as having free will; the most basic motive of all people is the actualizing tendency - the innate drive to maintain and enhance the organism and to grow toward self-actualization
Self-concept
made up of the child’s conscious, subjective perceptions and beliefs about himself
Humanistic therapy (person-centered therapy)
provide an environment that will help clients trust and accept themselves and emotional reactions, so they can learn and grow from their experiences; providing unconditional positive regard and empathy
Behaviorist Perspective
personality is the result of learned behavior patterns based on a person’s environment; it is deterministic and people start as a blank slate, with environmental reinforcement and punishment determining behavior and personality
Classical conditioning
a person acquires a certain response to a stimulus after that stimulus is repeatedly paired with a second, different stimulus that already produces the desired response
Operant conditioning
behaviors are influenced by the consequences that follow them, either reinforcements or punishments;
Positive reinforcement - presence of rewarding stimulus
Positive punishment - presence of aversive stimulus
Negative reinforcement - absence of aversive stimulus
Negative punishment - absence of rewarding stimulus
Behavioral therapy
uses conditioning to shape a client’s behaviors in the desired direction
Ego defense mechanisms
Repression - lack of recall of an emotionally painful memory
Denial - forceful refusal to acknowledge an emotionally painful memory
Reaction formation - expressing the opposite of what one really feels, when it would feel too dangerous to express the real feeling
Projection - attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts or feeling to another person
Displacement - redirecting aggressive or sexual impulses from a forbidden action of object onto a less dangerous one
Rationalization - explaining and intellectually justifying one’s impulsive behavior
Regression - reverting to an earlier, less sophisticated behavior
Sublimation - channeling aggressive or sexual energy into positive, constructive activities, such as producing art
Social cognitive perspective
personality is formed by a reciprocal interaction among behavioral, cognitive, and environmental factors
Cognitive behavioral therapy
behavioral therapy (conditioning) is combined with a cognitive approach - a person’s feelings and behaviors are seen as reactions not to actual events, but to the person’s thoughts about those events
Personality trait
a generally stable predisposition toward a certain behavior
Surface traits
evident from a person’s behavior
Source traits
factors underlying human personality and behavior
Five-factor model
Openness, Conscientiousness, open to Experience, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
Hans Eysenck
biological perspective of personality; said that a person’s level of extroversion is based on individual differences in the reticular formation, which mediates arousal and consciousness; a person’s level of neuroticism is based on differences in the limbic system, which mediates emotion and memory
Jeffrey Alan Gray
biological perspective of personality; personality is governed by interactions among 3 brain systems (sympathetic nervous system, behavioral inhibition system, behavioral approach system) that respond to rewarding and punishing stimuli
C. Robert Cloninger
biological perspective of personality; personality is linked to the level of activity of certain neurotransmitters in 3 interacting systems
Person-situation controversy
similar to attribution theory; considers the degree to which a person’s reaction in a given situation is due to their personality or is due to the situation itself - trait vs. state
Instinct
behaviors that are unlearned and present in fixed patterns throughout a species
Drive
an urge originating from a physiological discomfort such as hunger, thirst, or sleepiness; alert an organism that it is no longer in a state of homeostasis; work through negative feedback systems
Arousal
some behaviors are motivated by a desire to achieve an optimum level of arousal; either seeking relaxation when overstimulated, or exploring surrounding when under-stimulated
Needs
includes basic biological needs and also higher-level needs that are not explained through instincts, drive, or arousal
Drive-reduction theory
suggests that a physiological need creates an aroused state that drives the organism to reduce that need by engaging in some behavior
Incentives
external stimuli, objects, and events in the environment that either help induce or discourage certain behaviors
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
base of the pyramid is physiological needs and elements for survival, then safety needs, love and belongingness, esteem needs, and at the top is self-actualization
suggests that not all needs are created equally, some take priority over others
Psychological disorder
a set of behavioral and/or psychological symptoms that are not in keeping with cultural norms, and that are severe enough to cause significant personal distress and/or significant impairment to social, occupational, or personal functioning
Anxiety disorders
characterized by excessive worry, uneasiness, apprehension and fear with both physiological and psychological symptoms
ex. GAD, phobias, panic disorder, OCD, PTSD
Mood disorders
characterized by a disturbance in mood or affect; two broad categories are distinguished by the presence or absence of a manic or hypomanic episode
ex. Major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder, cyclothymic disorder
Personality disorders
characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior and cognition that depart from social norms and are displayed across a variety of contexts
ex. paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, histrionic, borderline, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent personality disorders
Psychotic disorders
characterized by a general “loss of contact with reality” which can include delusions, hallucinations, and psychosis
ex. schizophrenia and delusional disorder
Dissociative disorders
characterized by disruptions in memory, awareness, identity, or perception
ex. dissociative identity disorder, dissociative amnesia, depersonalization disorder
Eating disorders
characterized by disruptive eating patterns that negatively impact physical and mental health
ex. anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, pica
Neurocognitive disorders
characterized by cognitive decline in memory, problem-solving, and perception
ex. alzheimer’s, delirium, dementia, amnesia
Sleep disorders
characterized by interruption in sleep patterns
ex. insomnia, narcolepsy, sleepwalking disorder
Somatoform disorder
characterized by symptoms that cannot be explained by a medical condition, substance use, and are not attributable to another mental disorder
ex. conversion disorder, somatization, hypochondriasis, body dysmorphic disorder, pain disorder
Substance related disorders
characterized substance abuse and physical and mental dependence
ex. alcohol abuse, drug abuse
Panic disorder (anxiety)
suffered at least 1 panic attack and worried about having more of them; during a panic attack, a person experiences intense dread, along with shortness of breath, chest pain, a choking sensation, cardiac symptoms
Generalized Anxiety disorder (GAD) (anxiety)
feels tense or anxious much of the time about many issues, but does not experience panic attacks
Phobias (anxiety)
feels a strong fear that he/she recognizes as unreasonable, almost always experiences general anxiety or a full panic attack when confronted with a feared object/situation;
specific phobia - fear of a certain object or situation
social phobia - unreasonable fear of feeling embarrassed or humiliated while one is watched by others, even while performing routine activities
Post-traumatic stress disorder (anxiety)
arises when a person feels intense fear, horror, or helplessness while experiencing, witnessing, or otherwise confronting an extremely traumatic event; symptoms are present for more than a month
Acute stress disorder (anxiety)
similar to PTSD, but symptoms are present for a month or less
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (anxiety)
has obsessions (repeated, intrusive, uncontrollable thoughts or impulses that cause distress or anxiety), compulsions (repeated physical or mental behaviors), or both
Conversion disorder (somatoform)
experiences a change in sensory or motor function that has no discernible physical or physiological cause
Pain disorder (somatoform)
suffers clinically important pain whose onset or severity seems significantly affected by psychological factors
Somatization disorder (somatoform)
experiences a variety of physical symptoms over an extended time period, has at least 8 physical symptoms that began before age 30
Body dysmorphic disorder
preoccupied with a slight physical anomaly or imagined defect in appearance which causes significant distress or impairment
Hypochondriasis
preoccupied with fears of having a serious illness for at least 6 months
Schizophrenia (psychotic)
chronic, incapacitating disorder by which a person is out of touch with reality and suffers material impairment in social, occupational, or personal functioning;
Positive symptoms of psychosis - something is added, delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech
Negative - something is taken away, reduced or absent emotional expression, catatonic behavior, reduced quantity or fluency of speech, reduced initiative or abolition
hypothesis that dopamine pathway is hyperactive
Paranoid-type schizophrenia
psychosis in the form of hallucinations and/or delusions, usually relating to a certain theme
negative symptoms not prominent
Disorganized-type schizophrenia
psychosis is in the form of flat or inappropriate affect, disorganized speech disorganized behavior
delusions and hallucinations not prominent
Catatonic-type schizophrenia
psychosis in the form of catatonic behavior, which can include retarded or excited motor activity, stupor, freezing, or purposeless hyperactivity
positive symptoms not prominent
Undifferentiated-type schizophrenia
meets basic criteria for schizophrenia, but not for the other subtypes
Residual-type schizophrenia
previously met criteria for schizophrenia, but symptoms are now milder
Major depressive disorder (mood)
suffered one of more major depressive episodes - felt worse than usual for most of the day, nearly everyday for 2 weeks; depressed mood, change in weight, too much or too little sleep, loss of energy, thought of suicide
Dysthymic disorder (mood)
less intense, chronic form of depression; milder symptoms felt for at least 2 years
Bipolar disorder (mood)
experiences cyclic mood episodes at both extremes, depression and mania
bipolar I - experienced at least 1 manic or mixed episode
bipolar II - manic phases are less extreme, at least 1 major depressive episode and 1 hypomanic episode
Cyclothymic disorder
similar to bipolar disorder but the moods are less extreme; experienced cyclic moods including hypomanic episodes and depressive episodes but less intense
Dissociative amnesia (dissociative)
had at least one episode of suddenly forgetting some important personal information
Dissociative fugue
a person suddenly goes on a journey, during which he or she cannot recall personal history prior to the journey
Dissociative identity disorder
alternates among two or more distinct personality states or identities, only one of which interacts with other people at any one time
Depersonalization disorder (dissociative)
recurring or persistent feeling of being cut off or detached from his or her body or mental process, as if observing themselves from the outside; may also think the external world is unreal
Cluster A personality disorders
Paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal
Cluster B personality disorders
antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic
Cluster C personality disorders
avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive
Paranoid personality disorder
cluster A, mistrusts and misinterprets others’ motives and actions without sufficient cause, suspecting them of deceiving, harming, betraying, or attacking himself
Schizoid personality disorder
cluster A, a loner with little interest or involvement in close relationships, even those with family members; unaffected emotionally by interactions with other people, appearing detached or cold
Schizotypal personality disorder
cluster A, constricted or inappropriate emotion, magical or paranoid thinking, odd beliefs, speech, behavior, appearance, and perceptions; no confidant other than close relatives; eventually develop into schizophrenia
Antisocial personality disorder
cluster B, history of serious behavior problems beginning as a teen, aggression, property destruction, lying or theft, serious rule violation; repeatedly disregarding the rights of others
Borderline personality disorder
cluster B, enduring or recurrent instability in his or her impulse control, mood, and image of self and others; reckless behavior with extreme mood swings, reactivity, anger lead to unstable relationships; terrified of abandonment
Histrionic personality disorder
cluster B, desires to be center of attention, and often seeks to attract attention through personal appearance and seductive behavior; dramatic emotional expression yet the emotions are shallow and shifting
Narcissistic personality disorder
cluster B, feels self-important, fantasies of beauty, brilliance, and power; person feels a desperate need for admiration in variety of contexts and feels envy toward and from others
Avoidant personality disorder
cluster C, feels inadequate, inferior, and undesirable and is preoccupied with fears of criticism; feels ashamed and avoids interpersonal contact, risks, and new activities unless he/she is certain of being liked
Dependent personality disorder
cluster C, feels a need to be taken care of by others and an unrealistic fear of being unable to take care of himself; has trouble assuming responsibility and making decisions, preferring to gain approval by making others responsible
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
cluster C, may not have true obsessions or compulsions, but may accumulate money or worthless objects; perfectionistic, rigid, stubborn, with a need for control interpersonally and mentally; resists other’s authority and will not cooperate or delegate to others unless things are done his way
Alzheimer’s disease (neurocognitive)
most prevalent form of dementia; inability to form new memories - anterograde amnesia; formation of neuritic plaques, also evidence of abnormal activity in acetylcholine in the hippocampus
Parkinson’s disease
movement disorder characterized by death of cells that generate dopamine in the basal ganglia and substantia nigra; symptoms are a resting tremor, slowed movement, shuffling gait, rigid movement of the face
Attitude
a person’s feelings and beliefs about other people or events around them, and their tendency to react behaviorally based on those underlying evaluations
3 main components (ABCs): affect (emotion), behavior tendencies, cognition (thought)
Attitudes can better predict behavior
When social influences are reduced
When general patterns of behavior rather than specific are observed - principle of aggregation
When specific, rather than general, attitudes are considered
When attitudes are made more powerful through self-reflection
Principle of aggregation
an attitude affects a person’s aggregate or average behavior, but not necessarily each isolated act
James-Lange theory of emotion
behaviors may precede and influence emotions
Behaviors that are likely to influence attitudes
Role-playing - Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment
Public declarations - saying something publicly can turn into believing it
Justification of effort - modifying attitude to match behavior
Foot in the door phenomenon
enticing people to take small actions, and then after obtaining this involvement, raise the stakes; people will experience internal pressure to consent to larger requests to justify their acceptance of smaller requests
Cognitive dissonance theory
we feel tension whenever we hold two thoughts or beliefs that are incompatible, or when attitudes and behaviors don’t match; in order to reduce this tension, we make our views of the world match how we feel or what we’ve done
