GTPSY, EST Flashcards
What is a psychological definition of personality?
Personality means the characteristic ways of thinking, feeling and acting that make a person an individual.
What is a personality theory?
An approach to describing and explaining the origins of personality, and why they can be both similar and different and what makes every individual unique.
What is a trait theory?
The trait theory of personality suggests that people develop their personality from a series of specific traits instead of having a base personality that is present.
Explain and describe Eysenck’s trait theory of personality.
Eysenck proposed that there were 3 factors to personality, which he referred to as “Dimensions of Personality”. These dimensions of personality are:
Extraversion-intraversion
Neurotism- emotional stability
Psychotism
Explain and describe Costa and McCrae’s trait theory of personality.
Their theory states that personality can be boiled down to five core factors, known as The Big Five Model, also known as the Five-Factor Model. These 5 are - Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
What is a humanistic theory of personality?
They focus on personal responsibility, free will and the individual’s striving for personal growth and development. We start good and then we grow depending on our environment and decisions.
Explain and describe Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and its relationship to personality.
Maslow introduced this theory, which is the “Hierarchy of needs”. This theory states that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs. The 5 levels from bottom to top are psychological, safety, belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization.
Explain and describe Roger’s humanistic theory of personality.
He believed that the object of humans is to become self-actualized. He said that in order to grow into healthy humans we need:
Genuineness
Acceptance (Unconditional Positive Regard)
Empathy
What is a learning theory?
A learning theory attempts to understand what influences knowledge accumulation, retention, and development over time.
Describe Pavlov’s theory/experiment on Classical Conditioning.
Pavlov showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time that they were given food.
First the dogs were presented with the food, they salivated.
Then Pavlov sounded the bell before giving the food.
After a few pairings the dogs salivated when they heard the bell even when no food was given.
The dogs had learnt to associate the bell with the food and the sound of the bell and salivation was triggered by the sound of the bell.
Describe Watson’s theory/experiment in relation to “Little Albert”.
Watson exposed Albert to a white rat, and Albert showed no fear. The next time he showed Albert the rat, he made a loud sound, which made Albert cry. He did this repeatedly, and eventually Albert started expecting to hear a loud sound and would cry when seeing the rat. This is because Albert had been conditioned to be afraid of white rats.
Describe Skinner’s theory/experiment on Operant Conditioning.
Operant conditioning is referred to as instrumental conditioning and is a method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behaviour. The Skinner experiment involved a hungry rat being placed in a box and rewarded with food or water. After receiving the reward, the rat continued its activity, but eventually pressed the bar to receive the reward. When placed in Skinner’s box again, the rat pressed the bar immediately to get the reward and continued until satisfied.
What is Bandura’s Social Learning Theory?
It proposes that learning occurs through observation, imitation, and modeling and is influenced by factors such as attention, motivation, attitudes, and emotions.
What is persuasive communication?
Persuasive communication is presenting an argument or message in a way designed to convince the listener or audience to take a particular action or believe a specific idea.
Explain what “source of message” means in relation to persuasive communication.
The source of the message is the person sending the message. Certain traits and aspects of the speaker are useful in persuading the listener, such as fast speaking or expert’s opinion.
Explain what “nature of the communication” means in relation to persuasive communication.
The nature of the communication refers to how the message is coming across. For example, if it evokes a feeling of happiness, the viewer/listener is more likely to be persuaded.
