Exam Review: Short Answer A Flashcards
List and define the three levels of personality as defined by McAdams and Pals (2006), and provide an example of a personality construct measured at each level.
Dispositional traits: broad dimensions of personality that describe individual differences in tendencies; stable, and account for person’s consistency across situations and time (e.g., conscientiousness, where a person is consistently punctual and organized).
Characteristic adaptations: particular facets that describe a person’s adaptations to motivational, cognitive, and developmental challenges and tasks; contextualized in time, place, situation (e.g., self-esteem, which is malleable and varies across situations).
Life stories: internalised narratives that integrate one’s past, present, and future to give life a sense of meaning, unity, and purpose (e.g., redemption themes signify a shift from negative scenes in one’s life to positive scenes).
What is meant by the lexical hypothesis, and which major personality measures are derived from it?
Lexical hypothesis: posits the most important individual differences in people will come to be encoded as single words in language.
16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, where Cattell drew from Allport’s list of trait items; revision of the Five Factor Model; major foundation for Big Five and HEXACO.
What is personology and how does it differ from traditional personality psychology?
The study of individual human lives in as much detail as possible. Takes a holistic approach, suggesting an individual’s thoughts, feelings, behaviour only understood in terms of the whole person.
Primarily ideographic vs. nomothetic (large sample), accepts idea of incommensurability - that there are multiple, equally valid ways of seeing the world. Generalists, drawing from multiple domains to form composites of people, and value complexity over parsimony.
What is meant by the “incompatibility thesis” and how have mixed methods researchers sought to overcome it?
Quantitative approaches post-positivist: assume objective reality exists, rejects idea multiple explanations can be there, seeks to find truth within constraints of measurement error.
Qualitative approaches constructivist - assume reality outside our senses unknowable, multiple valid ways to see the world, no absolute truth and researchers should focus on how arguments are created, and to what end.
Resolved by pragmatism: doesn’t care to debate issues of objective reality and social constriction. Proposes science is supposed to be useful for people, thus focuses on practical, real-world utility of science.
What is meant by a “possible self” and what does self-discrepancy theory predict regarding self-discrepancies and negative emotion?
Relates to the FEARED SELF: the future self you never wish to be; the IDEAL SELF: the kind of person you wish you were and the OUGHT SELF: the kind of person you think others expect you to be. Compared to ACTUAL SELF: kind of person you are in reality.
SDT suggests large differences between actual and ought self result in agitation-related emotions (fear, anxiety, guilt), whereas discrepancy between actual and ideal selves result in dejection-related emotions (sadness, disappointment, shame).
Identify the core features of Tompkins’ Script Theory, and be able to provide examples of analogs, variants, and common scripts.
Emphasizes affects (emotions) over needs and drives, as proposed respectively by Murray and Freud, as underlying force driving motivation.
Scenes, memories of specific events in one’s life that contain at least one affect and one object of that affect, and scripts, set of rules for interpreting family of related scenes and how we organize our life scenes. Psychological magnification - cognitive-affective processes through which scenes become interconnected and expanded upon - influence long-term significance of scenes.
Analogs emphasize similarity between scenes; negative-affect scenes tend to be magnified (e.g., same basic conflicts in different relationships).
Variants focus on differences, uniqueness between scenes; positive-affect scenes tend to be magnified (e.g., focusing on specific and unique events with your partner).
Commitment scripts bind a person to a life program or goal with reward of intense positive affect (e.g., trying to become a doctor from a young age). Nuclear scripts involve confusion and ambivalence about life goals, organized around nuclear scene, positive childhood event gone bad (e.g., young gymnastics prodigy breaks their leg, unable to continue with life goal of being successful gymnast).
Compare and contrast psychodynamic theories of motivation with humanistic / positive psychology theories of motivation. In your answer, make sure to clearly describe (a) Freud’s theory of personality and (b) the core tenets of self-determination theory as exemplars of the two approaches, respectively.
Psychodynamic theories: sexuality, aggression, and pleasure-seeking motivate most behaviour. Focuses on the unconscious.
Freud: Id, source of unconscious energy, sexual and aggressive urges; Superego, sense of morality, internalized cultural values of right and wrong; Ego, conscious aspect that attempts to balance demands of Superego and Id.
Humanistic theories: people motivated to achieve happiness and self-actualization through conscious experience.
SDT: people motivated extrinsically (i.e., performing actions for external reinforcement or to avoid punishment) and intrinsically (i.e., self-reinforcing experiences independent of external motivation/incentive). Intrinsic motivation forms energizing basis for natural organismic well-being.
