exam 2 - personality Flashcards
3 levels of focus on personality
1) societal: general trends in behavior (crime, unemployment, marriage); sociology
2) individual: one’s unique life history and psychological characteristics compared to others; how is a person dif from avg; clinical/personality psychologists
3) interpersonal
define personality
an individual’s pattern of thinking, feeling, acting
what are the three perspectives on personality
1) freud’s psychodynamic
2) neo freudians
3) trait perspective
according to freud, what caused personality
peoples unconscious motives and conflicts between aggressive pleasure seeking impulses/the social restraints against them
what was freud’s idea of the unconscious
part of our mind not accessible through conscious thought
according to freud how do we access our unconscious
free association, dream analysis, paraphraxes (freudian slips)
freud’s 3 parts of the mind
id (it), ego (I), superego (over I)
freud’s id
controls basic drives; most primitive innate part of the mind; controls aggression, lust, sexuality, death; primarily unconscious; primary process thinking/pleasure principle (wish fulfillment; doing whatever you need to get what you want)
freud’s ego
reality check; constrains id to reality; develops around 2-3 yrs old; all levels of consciousness; secondary process thinking (what’s reasonable and realistic); mediator btwn id/superego, id/reality
freud’s superego
morality; internalizes societal values, norms, morals; develops around age 5; all levels of consciousness; perfection principle (ideal image); conscious interjects and tells us when we’re doing something wrong/immoral
conscious
part of the mind that holds what we’re currently aware of
preconscious
normal memory that can easily be brought into awareness
unconscious
part of the mind not directly accessible to awareness
concept of freud’s psychosexual stages of development
go through fixed sequence of psychosexual development stages; each stage focuses on pleasure in a dif area (doesn’t need to be sexual); if conflict is not resolved at a stage, one becomes fixated (emotionally stuck at that stage)
freud’s psychosexual stages of development
1) oral
2) anal
3) phallic
4) latency
5) genital
oral stage
- 0-18 mos
- pleasure of mouth, lips, tongue
- conflict: weaning/biting
- key aspect: idea of dependency
- fixation when overindulged/reluctant to leave stage or under gratified/can’t move on until needs are met
- fixated in oral receptive: dependent, talkative, overeating, smoking
- fixated in oral aggressive: pleasure from biting/chewing; verbal aggression
anal stage
- 18 mos-3yrs
- pleasure/anal stim while defecating
- key aspect: self control
- conflict comes from toilet training
- praised by parents: kids grow up to like creativity
- shamed by parents: become fixated as anal expulsive (messy, destructive) or anal retentive (anxious, neat, stingy)
phallic stage
- 3-5yrs
- pleasure from exploring/stim genitals
- key aspect: kids identify with same sex parent
- oedipal complex: boys love mom; realize dad is competition bc he has a bigger penis
- electra complex/penis envy: girls fall in love with dad; think dad is mad at mom bc she doesn’t have a penis; girl wants to grow up and have a penis like her mom (share with a man)
- beginning of superego
- fixated men: aggressive sexuality; competitive
- fixated women: flirtatious but no actual sex
latency stage
- 6yrs old until puberty
- lack of specific sexual conflicts
- consolidation of superego; focus on intellectual/social dev
genital stage
- puberty to end of life
- only reach if get past all other conflicts
- focus on mutually beneficial sex
according to freud where does anxiety come from
ego battles id, superego, and outside world –> creates conflict felt as anxiety –> activate defense mechanisms
purpose of defense mechanisms according to freud
unconscious cognitive function to protect from disruption from excessive anxiety/unacceptable unconscious thoughts; things you do w/o realizing to feel better
what are freud’s defense mechanisms
- repression: pushing threatening thoughts into unconscious
- reaction formation: acting opposite of unconscious desires
- denial: don’t acknowledge root of anxiety
- projection: attribute anxious impulses/thoughts onto other people/things
- sublimation: dangerous urges –> socially acceptable behaviors
- regression: mentally returning to earlier “safer” time
- rationalization: making logical explanation/excuse for impulsive behavior
- displacement: shift rxn from real source of anxiety to a safer person/thing
how did freud measure the unconscious
projective tests: rorschach, thematic apperception, sentence completion, drawings
what does rorschach test/consider
what do you see, where do you see it, what features of blot are used in the response (determinants)
thematic apperception test
reveals “unconscious fantasies”; come up w/ story about what’s happening in the picture
advocate opinion for projective tests
- allow psychoanalyst to peel back layers of psyche
- provides info you can’t get from self-reports
- useful when pt doesn’t want to volunteer negative info
draw a person test
assess QUALITY of drawing (shows cognitive maturity, neuro deficit, impulsiveness); MOOD (shows person’s worldview, self-concept, relationships); DETAILS (sizes, missing parts, organization)
critic opinion for projective tests
long time to score; subjective; potential bias; low validity and reliability
freud cons
- pessimistic (focus on unconscious conflict)
- emphasizes early experiences; doesn’t consider lifetime development
- hard to study empirically/falsify
- deviation from straight cis male is bad
freud pros
- first to explore personality scientifically
- beginning of talking about sex openly
- importance of early childhood’s effect on personality
- importance of the unconscious; there’s a part of the mind we can’t access
3 neo freudians and what they studied
1) carl jung (selfhood)
2) alfred adler (inferior and goals)
3) karen horney (new concept of women)
what’s the neo freudian ego; how is it dif from freud’s ego
sense of self that arises though life’s conflict and interactions with others; more broad and defines core individuality of a person; less biological (more social and optimistic)
effects of neo freud ego-centered approaches
discarding of freuds id; emphasized motivations and social interactions; gave more importance to social variables
2 key aspects of carl jung’s breakup with frued
1) too sexual; carl jung liked spirituality too
2) didn’t like freud’s structure of the mind; jung cane up w/ new idea of the unconscious (divided into personal and collective)
carl jung’s 3 parts of the mind
1) conscious ego
2) personal unconscious (freud id)
3) collective unconscious
whats the collective unconscious
- unique to jung
- collective memory shared with all people
- made of emotional symbols (archetypes)
what are archetypes
- emotional symbols common among all ppl that predispose us to act in predetermined ways
What did jung think were the causes of mental disorders
- repressed traumas
- conflicts in personal unconscious
- failure to acknowledge unacceptable archetypes in the collective unconscious
examples of archetypes
- animus (masc) and anima (fem) sides of personality
- mother and father
birth and death - persona (self )and shadow (self’s destructive tendencies we don’t want to acknowledge)
- hero and demon
what did jung think personality was
overall pattern of which trait is favored in opposing pairs of tendencies
what are jung’s pairs of opposites
- conscious vs unconscious
- introvert vs extravert
- rational vs irrational
- thinking vs feeling
- good vs bad
- intuition vs sensation
- masculine vs feminine
cons to jung’s work
theories weren’t testable
jung’s contributions
1) challenged freud; new personality theories
2) idea of personality types (INTROVERTS AND EXTRAVERTS); trait type approach (personality determined by consistent traits over time)
4 key aspects of adler’s fight with freud
1) developmental stages are based on goal directedness not sexual urges
2) fictional finalism; adler was future oriented
3) inferiority complex; inferior feelings drive our personalities; may develop false feelings of power (superiority complex) to conceal feelings of inferiority
4) birth order; sibling and parent interactions impact personality
what’s fictional finalism?
adler believed people are less happy because we move our goals as soon as we get close to achieving them; we are guided by our self-ideal (what we ideally want to achieve)
adler’s birth order personalities
- first born: exaggerated sense of independence; had 100% of parents’ attention; has performance anxiety if there’s a second child (worry abt being ourperformed)
- second born: less sensitive to power issues, higher achiever
- youngest: spoiled; low desire to strive
- only child: like a non-dethroned first born; less performance anxiety
limitations of using birth order to determine personality
is it birth order or genetics?
cons of adler’s work
not all of his hypotheses have been supported by later research (first borns/only children have higher levels of goals/achievements)
pros of adler’s work
emphasized how the need for power influences behavior
key aspect of karen horney’s fight w freud
WOMEN DON’T HAVE PENIS ENVY; felt inferior to men bc of real life social position; female personality if a function of how we’re raised (always put others first); men might have unconscious womb envy
karen horney’s agreement with frued
ppl are driven by unconscious motivations developed in childhood; BUT they’re from societal conflict w/ family and society
horney’s discovery about anxiety
child realizing their own helplessness (like adler); basic anxiety –> can be directed inward or outward; neuroticism when anxiety gets out of control; manifests as neurotic needs (extremes of normal desires); 3 main coping styles for neurotic needs
horney’s neurotic coping strategies (personalities)
1) moving toward others: neurotic need = constant love/approval; people pleasers
2) moving against others: neurotic need = power/social recognition; aggressive, don’t trust others
3) moving away from others: neurotic need = perfection; disengage/withdraw from others/fear rejection for imperfections
cons of horney’s work
weak scientific foundation; lack of operational terms/hard to test
pros of horney’s work
revolutionary; new concept of women
what’s the trait perspective
- using personality inventories to objectively score a wide range of behaviors/feelings
- people usually have a personality type influenced by genes/enviro
what does it mean that people are consistently inconsistent
people act inconsistently between different types of scenarios but consistently within each type
goal of personality inventories
- measure broad personality characteristics
- focus on behaviors, beliefs, feelings
- usually self reported
3 most popular personality inventories
1) MMPI
2) esenk’s introversion/extroversion
3) the big 5
MMPI
- 550 self-statements
- reply w/ true, false, cannot say
- assesses carelessness and lying
- 10 clinical scales
- score range 0-120 on each scale
- score above 70 is abnormal
- scores are graphed
10 MMPI scales (name: description of high score)
1) Hypochondriasis (Hs): excessive bodily concerns, ailments, complaining
2) Depression (D): depressed, low confidence, pessimistic
3) hysteria (Hy): vague medical rxns to stress, physical symptoms, denial of conflict/anger
4) Psychopathic deviate (Pd): antisocial, rebellious, blaming, poor consideration of consequences
5) masculinity-femininity (Mf): reject traditional gender roles
6) Paranoia (Pa): suspicious that others intend to harm, hypersensitive
7) Psychasthemia (Pt): anxious, tense, obsessive
8) Schizophrenia (Sc): psychotic, disorganized thought process, hallucinations, alienated
9) Mania (Ma): elevated mood, accelerated movement/speech, lots of ideas
10) social introversion (Si): introverted, more comfortable alone
4 MMPI-2 Validity scales
L (infrequency/lie), K (defensiveness), F (infrequency), VRIN/TRIN (see if they’re paying attention)
L scale
- faking good
- trying to appear socially desirable
K scale
- defensiveness
- trying to hide their problems
F scale
- faking bad
-people trying to seem abnormal
VRIN/TRIN scales
- is the person paying attention?
- asks same question in dif ways –> should answer the same if paying attention
2 dimensions of personality according to eyesenck
1) extraversion - introversion
2) emotional stability - instability
what do introverts like
routine, small groups, quiet; re-energize by being alone
what do extraverts like
talking, new people/places, dislike routine; re-energize by being w/ other people
eyesenck’s theory of introversion and extraversion
which one a person is depends on activity level of their ascending reticular activating system –> controls their arousal levels
eyesenck’s explanation of arousal
introverts baseline higher arousal –> need little more to reach optimal level; extraverts baseline lower arousal –> need more to reach optimal level
revisions to eyesenck’s theory
Es/Is don’t start at different levels, Is are just more sensitive to arousal/stimulation
myers brigg personality test
- theory of psychological types (which were developed by carl jung)
- 2 key dimensions: perceiving vs judging / extraversion vs introversion
- mother/daughter wanted to find easier way to identify their psychological type –> made myers brigg questionnaire
the big five
1) openness
2) conscientiousness (staying true to your word; following through)
3) extraversion
4) agreeableness
5) neuroticism (anxiety)
- traits generally stable over lifetime, can predict other traits, are consistent across cultures
Trait
- description of high score
- description of low score
Openness
- curious, imaginative
- conservative, traditional
conscientiousness
- organized, disciplined, carry out plans
- easygoing, disorganized, spontaneous
extraversion
- sociable, talkative
- reserved, shy
agreeableness
-sympathetic, accommodating, like to avoid conflict
- competitive, egocentric, uncooperative
neuroticism
- prone to emotional distress, anxiety, sadness
- emotionally stable, secure under stress
pros of the big 5
- EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE (TESTED) for five factor model of personalities
- lots of research and applications
cons of the big five
- openness factor is troublesome; what exactly does it mean?
- some talk about adding/removing factors
life outcomes predicted by the big 5: good grades
high C
low N
life outcomes predicted by the big 5: risky sexual behavior
high A
low C, N
life outcomes predicted by the big 5: drinking
high E
low C
life outcomes predicted by the big 5: happiness
High E
low N
life outcomes predicted by the big 5: leadership effectiveness
high E, A, C
low N
pros of personality inventories
- easier, cheaper, faster, more reliable than projective tests
- objective
cons of personality inventories
- measures traits that can’t be directly examined; how can we know if the assessment is correct?
- often fail to allow for cultural variation in responses
