Identity And Personality Flashcards
Self concept
Who am I?
Self schema
Self given label that carries with it a set of qualities
Identity
The individual components of our self concept related to the groups to which we belong
Gender identity
Describes a person’a appraisal of the person on the scale of masculinity and femininity.
Androgyny
The state of being simultaneously very masculine and very feminine.
Undifferentiated
Low scores on both scales of gender identity
Ethnic identity
Refer’s ethnicity group, in which members typically share a common ancestry, cultural heritage, and language.
Nationality
Based on political borders. Result of shared history, media, cuisine, and nation symbol such as a national flag.
Hierarchy of salience
Letting the situation dictate which identity holds the most importance for us at any given moment.
Self discrepancy theory
Everyone has 3 selves:
1) Actual self
2) Ideal self
3) Ought self
Actual self
The way we see ourselves as we currently are
Ideal self
The person we would like to be.
Ought self
Representation of the way others think we should be.
Self esteem
Self worth
Self efficacy
Our belief in our ability to succeed
Overconfidence
Can lead to taking on tasks for which we are jot ready, leading to frustration, humiliation, or personal injury.
Learned helplessness
Model for clinical depression. Willingly refuse opportunities for avoidance due to feeling helpless
Locus of control
The way we characterize the influence in our lives.
Libido
Sex drive
Fixation
Occurs when a child is over indulged or overly frustrated during a stage of development.
Neurosis
Mental disorder by forming a personality pattern based on the particular stage of development. In response to the anxiety caused by fixation
Sigmund freud theory (identity)
Human psychology and human sexuality were inextricably linked. He believed that libidinal energy and the drive to reduce libidinal tension were the underlying dynamic forces that accounted for human psychological processes
Oral stage
(0 to 1 year) gratification is obtained primarily through putting objects into mouth, biting, and sucking. Libidinal energy is centered on the mouth. Orally fixates adult exhibit excessive dependency.
Anal stage
(1 to 3 years) libido is centered on the anus and gratification is gained through the elimination and retention of waste materials. Toilet training occurs. Fixation here leads to either excessive orderliness (anal retentive) or sloppiness in the adult.
Phallic or Oedipal stage
(3 to 5 years) Centers on the resolution of the Oedipal conflict for male children or the analogous Electra conflict for female children. Male envies father’s relationship with mother, and vice versa for female. To deal with it, children identity with their enemy (father/mother) and internalize moral values. Child sublimates (de-eroticize) the libidinal energy.
Latency
Libido is eliminated stage that lasts until puberty.
Genital stage
Beginning puberty and lasting through adulthood. If previous development was successful, the person should enter into healthy heterosexual relationships at this point. Traumas, however, leads to homosexuality, a sexuality, or fetishism.
Erik Erikson
Stages are based on series of crises that derive from conflicts between need and social demands. It is possible to fail as resolving the conflict central to any stage.
Trust vs. mistrust
(0 to 1 year) If trust wins, child will true this environment as well as himself. If mistrust wins, child will often be suspicious of the world.
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
(1 to 3 years) favorable outcome is feeling able to exert control over the world and to exercise choices and self restraint. Unfavorable outcome is a sense of doubt and a persistent external locus of control.
Initiative vs. guilt
(3 to 6 years) Favorable outcome is a sense of purpose, ability to initiate activities, and ability to enjoy accomplishment. If guilt wins, child will be overcome by the fear of punishment that the child may either unduly restrict himself, or overcompensate by showing off.
Industry vs. inferiority
(6 to 12 years) Favorable outcome is the child will feel competent, able to exercise abilities and intelligence in the world, and affect the world in the way the child desires. Unfavorable outcome results in a sense of inadequacy, sense of inability to act in a competent manner and low self esteem
Identity vs. role confusion
(12 to 20 years) physiological revolution: favorable outcome is fidelity (faithfulness to something), able to see oneself as a unique and integrated person with sustained loyalties. Unfavorable outcome is confusion about one’s identity and an amorphous personality that shifts from day to day.
Intimacy vs. isolation
(20 to 40 years) favorable outcomes are love, having intimate relationships, and committing oneself to another person and to one’s goals. Unfavorable outcome results in avoidance to commitment, distancing oneself from others and one’s ideals.
Generativity vs. stagnation
(40 to 65 years) Favorable outcome results in an individual capable of being productive, caring and contributing member of society. Unfavorable outcome results in sense of stagnation and mnemonic self-indulgent, bores, and self centered with little care of others.
Integrity vs. despair
(Above 65 years) Favorable outcome results in wisdom (defined as detached concern with life itself) with assurance in the meaning of life, dignity, and acceptance of the fact that one’s life has been worthwhile, alone with readiness to face death. Unfavorable outcome is the feeling of bitterness about one’s life, a feeling that life has been worthless, and fear over one’s own impending death.
Lawrence Kohlberg theory
Focuses on the development of moral thinking, in that as our cognitive abilities grow, we are able to think about the world in more complex and nuanced ways, directly affecting ways we resolve moral dilemmas and perceive the notion of right and wrong.
Preconventional morality
Pre-adolescent thinking. Stage 1: obedience is concerned with avoiding punishment.
Stage 2: self interest is about gaining rewards (called instrumental relativist stage: I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine).
Conventional morality
Develops in early adolescence during relationship wi h others.
Stage 3: conformity places emphasis on the “good boy, nice girl” orientation thru seeking approval of others.
Stage 4: law and order maintains the social order in the highest regard.
Postconventional morality
Not everyone is capable of and is based on mores that conflict with laws.
Stage 5: social contract views moral rules as conventions that are designed to ensure greater good, focusing on individual rights.
Stage 6: universal human ethics reasons that decisions should be made in consideration of abstract principles.
Lev Vygotsky theory
Focuses on understanding cognitive development based on child’s internalization of various aspects of the culture: rules, symbols, language, and so on.
Zone of proximal development
Refers to those skills and abilities that have not yet fully developed, but are in the process of development.
More knowledgeable other
Typically an adult, someone who helps another gain skills successfully.
Role taking
When a child begins to understand the perspectives and roles of others.
Theory of mind
Ability to sense how another’s mind works.
Example: understanding how a friend is interpreting a story while you tell it.
Reference group
Whom we are comparing ourselves to.
Personality
Describes the set of thoughts, feelings, traits, and behaviors that are characteristic of an individual across time and different locations.
Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
Assumption of unconscious internal states that motivate the overt actions of individuals and determine personality.
Id
Consists of basic, primal, inborn surges to survive and reproduce, functioning according to the pleasure principle (achieving immediate gratification to relieve tension). Primary process is the Id’s response to frustration. Wish fulfillment is having mental imagery that fulfills need for satisfaction.
Ego
Operates according to reality principle by taking into account the objective reality as it guides (secondary process) or inhibits the activity of the id and the id’s pleasure principle.
Ego suspends workings of the primary process to meet the demands of objective reality, promoting growth of perception, memory, problem solving, thinking and reality testing.
Superego
Ego moderates desires of superego. The personality’s perfectionist. 2 subsystems:
Conscience: collection of the improper actions for which a child is punished.
Ego-ideal: consists of proper actions for which a child is rewarded.
Instinct
An innate psychological representation of a biological need.
Eros
Life instinct. Promotes an individual’s quest for survival through thirst, hunger, and sexual needs.
Thanatos
Death instinct. Represents an unconscious wish for death and destruction.
Defense mechanism
Relieving anxiety caused by clash of id and superego thru 2 characteristics:
1) deny, falsify, or distort reality
2) operate unconsciously
Repression
Ego’s way of forcing undesired thoughts and urges to the unconscious, and underlies many of the other defense mechanisms by disguising threatening impulses that may find their way back from the unconsciousness.
Suppression
A deliberate, conscious form of forgetting.
Regression
Reversion to an earlier developmental state.
Example: faced with stress, older children may return to earlier behaviors such as thumb-sucking, tantrum, or cling to mother.
Reaction formation
Suppressing urges by unconsciously converting them j to their exact opposite.
Example: a man lining after a female celebrity he knows he will never meet may outwardly express hatred for the celebrity as a way of reducing the stress caused by he unrequited feelings.
Projection
Individuals attribute their undesired feelings to others.
Example: “I hate my parents” turns into “my parents hate me.”
Rorschach ink blot test relies on the assumption that the client projects his unconscious feelings into shape.
Thematic apperception test
Series of pictures that are presented to the client, who is asked to make up a story about each one.
Elucidates the client’s own unconscious thoughts and feelings.
Rationalization
Justification of behaviors in manner that is acceptable to the self and society.
Example: there are plenty of dangerous drivers on the road, what difference will one more make?
Displacement
The transference is an undesired urge from one person or object to another.
Example: pent up sexual urges may be sublimated into a drive for business success or artistic creativity.
Carl jung
Thought libido as psychic energy in general, not just psychic energy rooted in sexuality. Defined ego as the conscious mind and divided the unconscious into 2 parts: personal unconscious and collective unconscious.
Personal unconscious
Similar to Freud’s notion of unconscious.
Collective unconscious
Powerful system that is shared among all humans and considered to be a residue of the experiences (archetypes) of our early ancestors.
Archetypes
Building blocks that are images of common experiences (I.e. having a mother and father), containing an emotional element. Several types:
1) persona
2) anima
3) animus
4) shadow
Persona
Likened to a mask that we wear in public, and is part of our personality that we present to the world by emphasizing qualities that improve our social standing and suppress lower qualities.
Anima
(Feminine) describes sex-inappropriate qualities (as in male behaviors in females).
Example: power-seeking behavior (woman’s inner man)
Animus
(Masculine) describes sex-inappropriate qualities (as in female behaviors in male).
Example: anima is suppressed female quality in males that explains emotional behavior (man’s inner woman).
Shadow
Appearance of unpleasant and socially reprehensible thoughts, feelings, and actions in our consciousness.
Self: point of intersection between the collective unconscious, personal unconscious and the conscious mind. (Strives for unity) symbolizing as a mandala (circle, reconciler of opposites and promoter of harmony).
Jung’s 3 dichotomies
1) Extraversion (E, orientation toward the external world) vs. introversion (I, orientation toward the inner, personal world).
2) Sensing (S, obtaining objective information about the world) vs. intuiting (N, working with information abstractly).
3) Thinking (T, using logic and reason) vs. feeling (F, using a value system or personal beliefs).
Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI)
Personality test of jung’s 3 dichotomies and a fourth:
Judging (J, preferring orderliness) vs. perceiving (P, preferring spontaneity).
Alfred Adler
Inferiority complex: an individual’s sense of incompleteness, imperfection, and inferiority both physically and socially.
According to Adler, striving for superiority drives personality.
Creative self
The force by which each individual shapes his uniqueness and established his personality.
Style of life
Represents the manifestation of the creative self and describes a person’s unique way of achieving superiority. (Family environment is crucial in molding the person’s style of life).
Fictional finalism
Notion that an individual is motivated more by his expectations of the future than by his past experiences.
Karen Horney
Personality is a result of interpersonal relationships a. Individuals governed by neurotic needs.
Neurotic Needs: needs directed toward making life and interactions bearable.
Horney’s Primary concept is based on basic anxiety.
Basic anxiety and basic hostility
Basic anxiety: inadequate parenting causing vulnerability and helplessness.
Basic hostility: neglect and rejection causing anger.
To overcome both, there are 3 ways:
1) moving toward people to obtain goodwill of people who provide security.
2) moving against people (Fighting them)
3) moving away from people.
Object relations theory
Object refers to the representation of parents or other caregivers based on subjunctive experiences during early infancy. These objects then persist into adulthood and impact our interactions with others.
Humanistic or phenomenological theorists
Focus on the value of individuals and take a more person-centered approach, describing ways healthy people strive toward self-realization.
Gestalt therapy
Practitioners tend to take a holistic view of self, seeing each individual as a complete person rather than reducing him to individual behaviors or drives.
Personality is the result of the conscious feelings we have for ourselves as we attempt to attain our needs and goals.
Kurt Lewin’s Force Field theory
Defined the field as one’s current state of mind (sum of the forces, or influences, on the individual at that time).
Peak experiences
Profound and deeply moving experiences in a person’s life which have important and lasting effects on the individual.
George Kelly
Personal construct psychology: using himself as a model to theorize about human nature.
Believed psychotherapy is a process of insight whereby the individual acquires new constructs that will allow her to successfully predict troublesome events. (Precedents)
Carl Rogers
Client-centered, person-centered, or nondirective therapy. People have the freedom to control their own behavior and are neither slaves to the unconscious nor subjects of faulty learning. Person-centered therapists helps clients reflect on problems, make choices, generate solutions, take positive action and determine his own destiny.
Unconditioned positive regard
A therapeutic technique by which the therapist accepts the client completely and expresses empathy in order to promote a positive therapeutic environment.
Type theorists
Attempt to create a taxonomy of personality types
Trait theorists
Prefer to describe individual personality as the sum of a person’s characteristic behaviors.
William Sheldon
Somatotypes: personality types based on body type.
Type A personality
Characterized by behavior that tends to be competitive and compulsive.
Type B
Laid-back and relaxed.
PEN Model
Psychoticism: measure of nonconformity or social deviance.
Extraversion: measure of tolerance for social interaction and stimulation.
Neuroticism: a measure of emotional arousal in stressful situations.
Big Five
Openness Consciousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism
Gordon Allport
Cardinal traits: traits around which a person organizes her life.
Central traits: major characteristics of the personality that are easy to infer (honesty or charisma).
Secondary traits: other personal characteristics that are more limited in occurrence (I.e. appears in close groups or specific social situations).
Functional autonomy
A behavior continues despite satisfaction of the drive that originally created the behavior.
Behaviorist Perspective
(B.F. Skinner) based on concepts of operant conditioning. Personality is simply a reflection of behaviors that have been reinforced over time.
Token economies: positive behavior is rewarded with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges, treats, or other reinforcers.
Social Cognitive perspective
Takes behaviorism one step further, focusing on how we interact with the environment.
Albert Bandura’s Reciprocal Determinism: the idea that our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and environment all interact with each other to determine our actions in a given situation.
Biological perspective
Personality can be explained as a result of genetic expression in the brain.
