Exam prep Flashcards
What are Individual Differences?
‘Individual Differences’ refers to how people differ
psychologically from one another
How do individuals differ?
Personality
Intelligence and mental abilities
Definition of Personality ?
The consistencies within individuals that lead to the
differences between people
Key components of personality?
Consistency
- across time
- across similar situations
- across different situations
Within individuals: Indicates intrapersonal processes:
- Thoughts
- Feelings
- Motive
What are the 5 approaches to personality?
- Psychodynamic
- Humanistic
- Trait
- Behavioural/Social learning
- Cognitive
- Biological
Who came up with the psychodynamic theory of personality?
Freud
List some aspects of the psychodynamic theory?
- The topographic model (or levels of consciousness).
- The structural model of personality.
- Drive (instinct model)
- Defense mechanisms.
- Psychosexual development.
- Assessment – projective testing.
- The therapeutic process.
What is the Psychodynamic Approach?
The psychodynamic approach includes all the theories in psychology that see human functioning based upon the interaction of drives and forces within the person, particularly unconscious, and between the different structures of the personality.
What is the the topographic model?
Freud’s Iceberg Model for Unconscious. According to Freud, there are three levels of consciousness. Freud believed that the majority of what we experience in our lives, the underlying emotions, beliefs, feelings, and impulses are not available to us at a conscious level. He believed that most of what drives us is buried in our unconscious.
- Conscious - in awareness.
- Preconscious - not in current thoughts but easily brought to
mind. - Unconscious - out of awareness, contains primitive
instincts and anxiety-laden memori
What is the structural model?
Personality is the dynamic interplay between three mental structures:
Id:
-Strives to satisfy drives without consideration - pleasure
principle
-present at birth
Ego:
- Operates on the reality principle. Satisfying id’s desires but without penalty- delayed gratification
- Developes early childhood
Superego:
- Operates according to the morality principle
- moderatore
What is the drive (Instinct) Model ?
Human behavior is motivated by two drives
- The life or sexual drive – eros
- The death or aggressive drive – thanaton
What are defense mechanisms? What are the types of anxietys that create defense mechanisms?
n When ego is unable to mediate id and superego = anxiety (uncomfortable)
Reality anxiety - threats from environment
Moral anxiety - threatened by punishment from the superego
Neurotic anxiety - ego overwhelmed by id’s unacceptable impulses
The ego reduces anxiety though defense mechanisms – but these ‘distort’ reality
What is Repression?
Preventing painful or dangerous thoughts from
entering consciousness
What is Denial?
Protecting oneself from an unpleasant reality by simply
refusing to perceive or acknowledge it
What is sublmination?
Channelling unacceptable impulses into
constructive/socially acceptable activities
What is Rationalization?
: Socially acceptable reasons are substituted for
thoughts or actions based on unacceptable motives
What is Intellectualization?
Ignoring the emotional aspects of a painful experience by focusing on abstract thoughts, words or ideas
What is Projection?
Transferring unacceptable motives or impulses onto others
What is reaction formation?
Refusing to acknowledge unacceptable urges, thoughts or feelings by exaggerating the opposite state
What is regrassion?
Responding to a threatening situation in a way that
is appropriate to an earlier age or level of development
What is displacement?
Channeling threatening impulses onto
unthreatening objects
Denial is used more by
A) young children
B) Teenagers
C) Older Children
D) Adults
A) young children
Projection is used more by
A) young children
B) Teenagers
C) Older Children
D) Adults
C) Older Children
The use of f sublimation is a mark of _____.
Maturity
Explain what the psychosexual stages of
development theory is?
- Childhood experiences predict adult personality
- Emphasis on infantile sexuality
- Identified stages of development based on source of sexual pleasure
- May fixate at any stage if a child was either over-frustrated or over-gratified
- Personality reflects the long-term effects of this fixation
What are the stages in the Psychosexual Stages of
Development?
Oral Stage (0-18 months) -Pleasure centres on the mouth: sucking, biting, chewing
Anal Stage (18-36 months) -Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control
Phallic Stage (3-6 years) -Pleasure zone: genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings
Latency Stage (6 to puberty) - Dormant sexual feelings
Genital Stage (puberty onwards) -Maturation of sexual interests
What is Psychoanalytic Therapy?
Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight. The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences
-Free association
-Person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind.
-Aim is to raise conflicts from unconscious to conscious
through exploring themes and resistance- emotional
release
-Interpretation and insight
-Dream analysis
What are some strengths of Freuds psychodynamic theory?
- Enormous impact historically
- First system of therapy – basis of current
approaches such as “self psychology” - Many ideas live on - defense
mechanisms, fixation, unconscious, - Freudian slips etc.
Limitations of Freud’s Theory?
- Difficult to test
- No development after 5-6 years
- Overemphasis on sexuality at expense of social and cultural forces
- Emphasis on the negative
- Derived from limited population
- Sexism
- Lack of cross-cultural support
- Projective tests – highly subjective; problems with reliability and validity
- Therapy based on this theory (psychoanalysis) is not effectivecost!
Describe neofreudians and list 2 important ones?
agreed with Freud that childhood experiences matter; however, they expanded on Freud’s ideas by focusing on the importance of sociological and cultural influences in addition to biological influences
Alfred Adler
Carl Jung:
Karen Horney
Erik Erikson
What did Erik Erikson do? (neofreudian)
n Ego’s main function is establish and maintain sense of identity
Reformulated psychosexual stages according to the
interpersonal and intrapsychic challenges of each phase
Resolution of psychosocial crises determines personality
What did Heinz Kohut do? (neofreudian)
Healthy and unhealthy forms of narcissism.
First psychodynamic theory to recognise importance of empathy in human development- to admire and be admired.
Self- object needs affecting personality:
- Mirroring
- Idealising
What is Object Relations?
Focus on early childhood experience in terms of relationships with significant others rather than drive satisfaction
Emphasis on what main objects in the child’s world had been like, how they had been experienced, and unconscious representation of significant people
This internalised image forms the basis of later relationships
What is the Attachment Theory ?
Emerged from Object Relations theory.
Working models of attachment
-Early parent-child relationships serve as prototypes for later close relationships
What is humanistic psychology? and 2 key theorest of this?
The humanistic theory is a psychology perspective that considers that all people are inherently good. To reach the level of ‘goodness’ every person must go through certain phases in life
Carl Rodgers
Abraham Maslow
Key Concepts of Carl Rodgers?
The fully functioning person is ( is open to experience
, strives to experience life to the fullest and lives each moment as it comes)
Need for positive regard
Conditions of worth
- Conditions under which the person is deemed to be worthy of positive regard
Actual self versus ideal self
Two basic motivations according to maslow?
Deficiency
- lack of needed object e.g. food, water, shelter
- satisfied when need met
Growth
-not satisfied in attainment but in attaining
What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs?
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. Maslow (1943, 1954) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others.
What are the needs in Maslow’s hierarchy ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
Similarities between maslow and rodgers?
- Deal with higher human functions
- Personality after basic needs met
- Assume rationality and awareness
- Active agent - life is a flowing process
- Present oriented
- Striving toward potential
Differences between maslow and rodgers?
- Unique or hierarchy of needs
- Esteem needs - different emphasis
What are the different types of Humanistic Assessment ?
- Interview to explore phenomenological world
- Q-sort
- Scales of self-actualisation
What is Loneliness ?
- Perception of quantity and quality of social interaction
- Trait-like characteristic
Strengths of Humanistic Approach?
- Intuitively appealing
- Client centred approach, individually tailored treatment
- Unconditional positive regard
- Optimistic view
- Focus on higher human functions
- Application in work-place and educational settings
Limitations of humanistic approach?
- Can we test free will?
- Key concepts that are unmeasurable ->
Untestable theory - Universal applicability of therapeutic approach
- Romantic, naïve view
What are Sheldon: Somatotypes
Sheldon proposed a theory about how there are certain body types (“somatotypes”) that are associated with certain personality characteristics
List and breify describe the Somatotypes types?
Endomorph: Relaxed, easy going - FAT
Mesomorph: bold, assertive, Action-oriented - MUSCLEY
Ectomorph: inhibited, restrained apprehensive -SKINNY
Problems with Typologies?
imited by discrete categories
Homogeneity within categories
People in one category = different from people in other
categories
Behaviour explained by too few, simple variables
What is a trait?
- a dimension of personality used to categorise people according
to the degree to which they manifest that particular
characteristic - Any person can be placed on a continuum
- Scores are normally distributed
Major Assumptions of the trait theory?
Temporal consistency
- Traits are relatively stable and enduring across time
Situational consistency
- Traits show stability across situations
Main people involved in the trait theory?
- Allport & Cattell
- Eysenck & The Big 5
