Chapter Fourteen Flashcards
True or False: Personality growth is static.
False, personality growth is continuous.
Define Personality.
The distinctive and relatively stable pattern of behaviours, motives, and emotions that characterized an individual throughout life.
Define Trait.
A characteristic of an individual, describing a habitual way of behaving, thinking, and feeling.
What is the Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory?
(20th Century) That a person’s conflicts, guilts, defences, and ways of dealing with others come from unconscious dynamics that developed in early childhood.
It states that the structure and conflicts in the human mind shape personality.
What is Behaviourism?
(20th Century) The idea that personality is an illusion - a convenient fiction to satisfy the ‘self’; there are no internal traits. Consistency was a result of reinforcement over time (reinforcers can change from time to time and event to event).
What is Humanistic/Existentialism?
(20th Century) It rejected psychoanalytic and behaviourist theories of human nature, and focused on individual’s strengths and free will.
Personality is the private self - the ‘true self’ behind the many faces that people wear in daily life. They are understood by others to be a genuine expression of who you are.
What is the Behavioural-Genetic Revolution?
(20th Century) Research showed that 50% of variation in personality is due to genetic variation; it is no longer though that you are what your parent and environment makes you. The other 50% of variation is due to interactions with peers, parents, culture, and the unconscious. Gene are not more fundamental that environment.
What are the Big Five Factors of Personality?
- Openness/Intellect/Culture
- Conscientiousness/Dependability
- Extroversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism/Emotional Stability
What are Temperaments?
Physiological dispositions to respond to the environment in certain ways; present in infancy and assumed to be innate. They are usually stable over time, and include reactivity, soothability, and positive and negative emotionality.
What is Heritability?
A statistical estimations of the proportion of the total variance in some trait that is attributable to genetic differences among individuals within a group. Genetic predisposition is not genetic inevitability.
What amount of personality is attributed to heritability?
About 50% of the variation within a given trait is attributed to genetic differences.
What are Central Traits?
Aspects of personality that reflect a characteristic way of behaving, dealing with others, and reacting to new situations.
What are Secondary Traits?
Changeable aspects of personality.
What power do parents have over personality?
The shared environment of the home has little influence on personality (non-shared environment more important).
What power do peers have over personality?
Peer acceptance is so important to children and adolescents that being bullied, victimized, or rejected by peers is far more traumatic than punitive treatment by parents.
What is Reciprocal Determinism?
The two-way interaction between aspects of the environment and aspects of the individual in the shaping of personality traits.
What do cultural influences on personality develop from?
From the shared space; anything from our clothing outward.
What is Culture?
A program of shared rules that govern the behaviour of members of a community or society. A set of values, beliefs, and attitudes shared by most members of that community.
What is Individualistic Culture?
Cultures in which the self is regarded as autonomous, and individual goals and wishes are prized above duty and relations with others. Colder climates and wealthy cultures tend to be individualistic.
What is Collectivistic Culture?
Cultures in which the self is regarded as embedded in relationships, and harmony with one’s group is prized above individual goals and wishes. Poor cultures and warmer climates.
What happens when culture isn’t appropriately considered?
People will attribute unusual behaviour to personality.
What is the difference between timeliness in monochronic and polychronic cultures?
Monochronic: time is ordered sequentially, schedules and deadlines are values over people
Polychronic: time is ordered horizontally, people are valued over schedules and deadlines.
What does Aggressiveness have to do with cultures?
Male aggression results from more cultural factors than biological ones, but the difference between genders is not well understood. Men can be ‘toughed up’ to fight for resources.
Direct aggression is more common than indirect aggression for both genders.
What is Altruism and Culture?
Culture has a strong influence on moral behaviour.
Freud and Psychoanalysis.
A structure of the personality. Intrapsychic (all is within the mind, and can be accessed). It is almost entirely based in Libido (the psychic energy that fuels the life, or sexual instincts, of the id; essential energy for survival and determines who we are).
Freud’s Structure of Personality
Id: operates according to the pleasure principle (primitive and unconscious part of personality)
Ego: operates according to the reality principle (mediated between id and superego)
Superego: moral ideals and conscience.
What Defence Mechanisms do humans have?
Repression Projection Displacement (sublimation) Reaction formation (opposite feelings) Regression Denial
What is Jung’s Psychodynamic Approach?
Theory - collective unconscious (universal memories, symbols, experiences of the human kind represented in archetypes in art, myths, stories, dreams). Two important archetypes are maleness and femaleness.
What is the problem with psychodynamic theories?
They violate the principle of falsifiability, draw universal principles from atypical patients, and base theories on retrospective accounts.
Define Cognitive Unconscious
Non-Freudian Unconscious; mental processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that influence judgements, feelings, or behaviours.
What psychologists were involved in the humanistic approach?
Abraham Maslow, Carl Rodgers, and Rollo May.
What is Humanist Psychology?
(Maslow) An approach that emphasizes personal growth, resilience, and the achievement of human potential.
There are peak experiences, which are rare moments of rapture caused by the attainment of excellence or the experience of beauty.
Positive psychology.
What is the order of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
Physiological -> safety -> belongingness -> esteem -> self-actualization
What did Carl Rogers believe?
Unconditional Positive Regard - a situation in which the acceptance and love one receives from significant others is unqualified.
Conditional Positive Regard - a situation in which the acceptance and love one receives from significant others is contingent upon one’s behaviour.
What is the Self-Discrepancy Theory?
The idea that self-esteem is defined by the match between how we see ourselves and how we want to see ourselves. When our self doesn’t equal our ideals, we feel sad. When our self doesn’t equal our ‘oughts’, we feel shame.
What did Rollo May believe?
He shared the humanist belief in free will and freedom of choice, but also emphasized loneliness, anxiety, and alienation.
Existentialism - free will confers on us responsibility for our actions.
How can you measure personality?
Objective Tests (inventories) [standardized questions requiring written responses; they typically include scales for rating] Factor analysis is used to examine the underlying characteristics.
Are the Big Five Personality Dimensions stable or changing?
Stable over a lifetime.
What is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory?
A personality test for clinical and employment settings that measures problem personalities.
What are examples of Projective Tests?
Thematic Apperception Test and the Rorshach.
