Current - personality Flashcards
What is personality?
An individual’s typical pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours
* a stable component of the self that consists of thoughts, emotions, and behaviour
* These are states that are composed of traits (however, these things do not fully determine these factors but are just thought to be a marker)
Personality is comprised of different traits.
Define trait.
A relatively enduring predisposition that influences behaviour across many situations.
What are the major perspectives in personality psychology?
- Psychoanalytic Theory
- Humanistic Theory
- Behaviourism
- Social-Cognitive Theory
- Trait Theories (e.g., Big 5 Model)
What are the three parts of personality according to Freud?
- Id (the pure motivation of pain avoidence and pleasure seeking (this is the thing that wants))
- Ego (the goal is to the Id within the standards of society)
- Superego
What does the Id represent in Freud’s theory?
The part of the personality that comprises a person’s basic sexual and aggressive impulses; motivation to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
What is the role of the Ego in Freud’s personality theory?
The part of the personality that is conscious/thinking; satisfies demands of the Id in accordance with reality.
What does the Superego act as in Freud’s theory?
The part of the personality that acts as a moral judge and contains the rules of society.
What are defense mechanisms?
Strategies for reducing conflict and anxiety, such as repression, denial, or projection.
* these are methods in which ego balances the components of personality
What are the five psychosexual stages according to Freud?
- Oral Stage
- Anal Stage
- Phallic Stage
- Latency Stage
- Genital Stage
What is the focus of the Oral Stage?
Pleasure through oral behaviours; birth to 1 year old (or 18 months)
* this is mainly displayed through infants putting things in their mouths and forming teething and sucking behaviours
What can unmet needs in the Anal Stage lead to?
Cleanliness, perfectionism, disorder, problems with rules.
* This happens from ages 1 to 3
What is the Oedipus/Electra complex associated with? What is the basis behind this complex?
The Phallic Stage (3-6 years).
* Electra complex - this is the tendency to fight with the same sex parents
*Oedipus complex - this is the tendency to become more interested in the opposite sex parents
What characterizes the Latency Stage?
Pleasure/sexual instincts die down; superego development; 6-12 years.
What does the Genital Stage represent?
Sexual impulses reappear; proper development in earlier stages results in healthy adulthood; 12+ years.
What is a critical evaluation point of Freud’s Psychosexual Theory? Briefly describe them
- Unfalsifiability (very much relied on the uses of ad hoc reasoning which prevented his facts from being incorrect)
- Failed Predictions (this is the idea that two things are not actually linked together)
- Questionable Conception of the Unconscious (non-conscious forces do drive us and influence our lives however he thought that it was mainly just our unconscious sex drive)
- Reliance on unrepresentative samples ( he studied one particular group and took those conclusions and tried to generalize these findings outside the group)
- Flawed Assumption of Shared Environmental Influence (suggests that children adopt different characteristics from their same sex parent and that shared environmental influences do not fully link the characteristics)
What is behaviourism?
The scientific study of observable behaviour.
* However in this process, personality was just a byproduct of the same processes that produced our behaviours)
What is the view of radical behaviourism on thinking?
Rejected any role of ‘thinking’ in producing behaviour.
How do individual differences arise in behaviourism?
From differences in personal histories.
What is social-cognitive theory?
Emphasizes the role of observation and modelling in shaping thoughts, emotions, and behaviour.
* It is from this that we tend to copy behaviour based on the observation of other individuals behaviours
What is observational learning?
Learning by watching models who are reinforced or punished for a behaviour.
What does reciprocal determinism refer to?
A process of human development based on the interaction between personal, behavioural, and environmental factors.
* This focuses on how we are rewarded in each factor to develop a repeat of personalities
What does humanistic theory emphasize?
Internal drives and emotions motivate people; free will.
* This also focuses on the idea of innate goodness
Define self-actualization.
Each individual is motivated to achieve their full potential.
What does Carl Rogers’ theory include? Briefly describe these aspects of his theory
- Organism
- Self-concept (this is how we view ourselves and the relationships between how we see ourselves and how we think other people see us)
- Conditions of worth (this is the expectation that we place on ourselves based off of how we think other people should make us out to be)
What is unconditional positive regard?
Acceptance without conditions that leads to flourishing human beings.
What characterizes self-actualized individuals according to Maslow?
- Basic needs met
- Creative
- Self-confident
- Focus on real-world problems
- Empathetic and moral
- Peak experiences
- This is the pyramid model
What is the Big 5 Model in trait theories? Describe each model type.
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
What is associated with higher conscientiousness and lower neuroticism?
More health behaviours, better health, and longevity.
What does the Dark Tetrad consist of? Briefly describe these traits.
- Narcissism (seeks attention and are self focused)
- Machiavellianism (manipulation and deception)
- Psychopathy (subclinical) (this is thought to be linked to criminals)
- Sadism (enjoyment of cruelty and suffering)
What is a shared feature of the traits in the Dark Tetrad?
Callousness – lack of empathy.
What is the relationship between Dark Tetrad traits and Big 5 traits?
Associated with lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness.
What is the basis behind Freud’s theories?
- This is the thought that our personality takes place across 5 stages and a fundemental sexual drive is thought to be a driving factor
- Sexuality motivates all individuals (even infants)
Briefly describe the behaviour that is developed in the Anal stage of life
- Children get pleasure through holding and releasing bodily waste
What is the basis behind Maslows theories?
- Self actualized individuals will have all their basic needs met
- However this theory suffered from the conservation bias as he foucused on historic and a certain group to study
- He thought that self-actualization was the main driver in society
What is thought to be considered a peak experience?
- This is the idea that when we have an intense engagement and excitement with a little bit of tranquility at the time
- It was thought that individuals that met these standards held the ability to challenge authority figures
What are trait theories?
- They think that personality is developed based off of little units called traits
- These traits allows for correlation among items to find underlying factors that are applied to the measurements (this allows for the specific correlation between different items on a scale between +/1)
What are the characteristics of the section of openness in the big 5 model
- these individuals tend to have low inhabitation
- imaginative
- Intelelectually curious
What are the characteristics of the section of Conscientiousness in the big 5 model
- mindful of details
- reliable
- Time managment and efficient
- more focused on reliability
What are the characteristics of the section of extraversion in the big 5 model
*These people get energy from interpersonal interactions
What are the characteristics of the section of agreeableness in the big 5 model
- tend to be trusting of others
- tend to get along easier with other people
What are the characteristics of the section of Neuroticism in the big 5 model
*struggle to bounce back after experiencing something negative
What is the basis behind the Dark Tetrad?
- This are traits that are focused on anti-social personality traits
- all the traits share the trait of callous (the lack of empathy)
How are culture and the big 5 correspond with eachother?
- the openiness portion do not show up in all cultures
- Interpersonal relatedness are equal to group harmony andtrying to avoid embarrassment
- it was thought that the big 5 was rooted from the within the western society
What is the hexico model?
this model takes the big five model and adds the idea of morality
What is an alternative to the Big 5 model
- the two and three factor model
What is the role of classical conditioning in personality
- this forms an assoication between different things and that non-conscious processes drive us
What is the role of operant conditioning in personality development
- these are patterns of reinforcement
- this process teaches us what is favoured by society through an award system
- these rewards are enduced by our biological processes
What is the key take away about personality?
- This does not cause behaviour
- They think that people engage in behaviours based on learning experiences that they have been rewarded from
- Free will is an illusion and that unconscious powers drive us
