Chapter One - Personality Theory

Question 1

Define

Personality

Answer 1

Those characteristics of the person that account for the consistent patterns of experience and action.

Question 2

Define:

Process

Answer 2

In persnality theory, the concept that refers to the motivational aspects of personality.

Question 3

Define:

Structure:

Answer 3

In personality theory, the concept that refers to the more enduring and stable aspcts of personality.
- Stable, enduring aspects of personality.
- Qualities that endure from day to day and from year to year.
- Comparable to concepts such as atoms and molecules in physics.

Question 4

Define:

System:

Answer 4

A collection of highly interconnected parts that function together; in the study of personality, distinct psychological mechanism may function together as a system that produced the psychological phenomena of personality

Question 5

Define:

Temperature:

Answer 5

Biologically based emotional and behavioral tendencies that are evident in early childhood.

Question 6

Define:

Trait:

Answer 6

An enduring psychoogical characteristic of an individual; or a type of psychological construct that refers to such characteristics.

Question 7

Define:

Type

Answer 7

A cluster of personality traits that may constitute a qualitively distinct category of persons [ie. a personality trait].

Question 8

Define:

Units of Analysis:

Answer 8

A concept that refers to the basic variables of a theory; different personality theories invoke different types of variables ,or diffeent basic units of analysis, in conceptualizing personality structure.

Question 9

Defing Personality: Three Issues that are Difficult to Reconcile?

Answer 9

1. Human universals.
2. Individual Differences.
3. Individual Uniqueness.

Question 10

Psychological Quality:

Enduring?

Answer 10

• Consistent across time and across different situations.

Question 11

Psychological Quality:

Distinctive?

Answer 11

• Features that differentiate people from one another.

Question 12

Psychological Quality:

Contributes to?

Answer 12

• Factors that casually influence, and thus at least partly explain, an individual’s tendencies.

Question 13

Systematic Theory?

Answer 13

• Systematic [if/then statements].
• Testable.
• Comprehensive.
  **How do we take out observations and put them into practice? **

Question 14

Compete Theory of Personality Answers:

What, How, and Why?

Answer 14

• What = characteristics of a person and how they are organized in relation to one another.
• How = determinants of someone’s personality.
• Why = causes of and reasons behind an individual’s behaviour.

Question 15

Personality as a Hierarchy?

Answer 15

• Different theories differ in the way in which they view the structures of personality hierarchically.
• Trait focus = a small set of basic traits organises the lower level.
• Other approaches = personality is fluid, with little to none fixed hierarchically structure.

Question 16

Process?

Answer 16

• Psychoogical reactions that change dynamically; over relatively brief periods of time.
• Rapid, dynamic flow of motivation, emotion, and action.

Question 17

Growth and Development Challenges?

Answer 17

Two challenges:
1. To characterize patterns of development that are experienced by most people.
2. To understand developmental factors that contribute to individual differences.

Question 18

Genetic Determinants?

Answer 18

• Genetic factors contribute strongly to personality and individual differences.
• ie. IQ.

Question 19

Steven Pinker?

Answer 19

• He brought many issues to large.
• Argues that there might be features of human psychology that are difficult to change because they are products of our evolution.

Question 20

Environmental Determinants?

Answer 20

• Culture = individualism vs. collectivism.
• Social Class = upper vs. lower.
• Family = emphasis on parenting, reward & punishment.
• Peers = peer pressure.

Question 21

Nature vs. Nurture?

Answer 21

• It should be nature x nurture, not vs.
• Cannot say one or the other influened personality, it is a combo.

Question 22

The Concept of ‘Self’?

Answer 22

• There is unity to our experience and action.
• Patterns of interconnections enable the system to function in a smooth coherent manner.
• So, despite that we share experiences and life events the same as others, we have a consistent perspective, being our sense of self.

Question 23

States of Awareness?

Answer 23

• There are varying states of awareness and the concept of the unconscious.

Question 24

Psychoanalytical Theory?

Answer 24

• Suggests that we are primarily prisoners of our past.
• Freud suggested personality is pretty much set in stone by the time we are five.

Question 25

3 Key Functions of Peronality Theories?

Answer 25

1. Organize existing information.
2. Generate new knowledge about important issues.
3. Identify entirely new issues that are deserving of study.

Question 26

Key Function of Peronality Theory?

Organize Existing Information?

Answer 26

• A logical, systematic ordering of facts would enable one to keep track of what scientists know about personality.
• Easier to put knowledge to use, and build upon past work and such.

Question 27

Key Function of Peronality Theory?

Generate New Knowledge about Important Issues?

Answer 27

• A good theory is generative.
• Helps to generate new knowledge about important topics to the field.

Question 28

Key Function of Peronality Theory?

Identify Entirely New Issues that are Deserving of Study?

Answer 28

• A theory may identify areas of study that might have never have been known.

Question 29

Define:

Psychodynamic Theory?

Answer 29

• Freud.
• Views the mind as an energy system.
• Mental energies.
• Id, ego, and superego.

Question 30

3 Indications of the Influence of Personality Psychology?

Answer 30

1. End of 20th century, scholars identifies the most influential psychologists of 20th century.
2. The end of the century was also end of millennium, and Freud was annouced on a list of most influential people of the past 1000 years.
3. In 2007, stat analysis identiied the highest impact book in social sciences and Albert Bandura was the most cited.

Question 31

Scientific Observation?

Answer 31

• Study diverse groups of people.
• Ensure that observations of people are object.
• Use specialized tools to study thinking, emotion, and neurobilogical systems.

Question 32

Scientific Theory?

Answer 32

• Systematic.
• Testable.
• Comprehensive.

Question 33

Application [Theories to Practice]?

Answer 33

• Aims are to (1) observe people scientifically, (2) develop theories that are systematic, testable, & comphrensive, and (3) to turn the research findings and theoretical concepts into practical applications.

Question 34

Dynamics?

Answer 34

• Refers to psychological processes that change over time.

Question 35

3 Ways in Which Parent’s Influence Their Children?

Answer 35

1. Through their own behaviour.
2. Role models for identification.
3. Selectively rewarding certain behaviours.

Question 36

Internal vs. External Determinants of Behavior?

Answer 36

• According to Freud we are controlled by internal forces, impulses and emotions in our unconscious mind.
• Skinner said we are controlled by our external forces, environmental rewards and punishments that govern actions.

Question 37

How do people develop a consist, unified sense of self?

Answer 37

1. Multiple components of the mind function as a complex system, the parts that are interconnected, and the patterns of interconnection enable the multipart system to function smoothly.
2. The concept of self. Although we may experience a potentially bewildering diverstiy of life events, we do expereinece them from a consistent perspective, being our own.