Identity and personality (BS 6)

Question 1

self-concept

Answer 1

the sum of the thoughts and feelings about oneself including past an future selves

Question 2

androgyny

Answer 2

a state of being simultaneously very masculine and very feminine

Question 3

ethnic identity

Answer 3

referring to one’s ethnic group where members share common ancestry, cultural heritage, and language; typically born into

Question 4

nationality

Answer 4

result of shared history, media, cuisine, and symbols (ex. country flag)

Question 5

hierarchy of salience

Answer 5

the situation dictates which identity holds the most importance at any given moment; the more salient the identity the more we conform

Question 6

self-discrepancy theory

Answer 6

each of us has three selves: actual (how we see ourselves), ideal (who we want to be), and ought (what others think we should be); the closer these relate the higher the self esteem

Question 7

self-efficacy

Answer 7

our belief in our ability to succeed

Question 8

learned helplessness

Answer 8

a state of hopelessness and resignation resulting from being unable to avoid repeated negative stimuli; used as a model of depression

Question 9

locus of control

Answer 9

how we characterize the influences in our lives; internal locus vs external locus (things happen by luck)

Question 10

psychosexual development of personality

Freud

Answer 10

links psychology with sexuality and is divided into 5 stages: oral (0-1yr), anal (1-3yrs), phallic/Oedipal (3-5yrs), latency (until puberty), and genital (puberty and on)

Question 11

Erikson’s psychosocial development of personality

Answer 11

posits that personality is developed based on a series of crises deriving from conflicts between needs and social demands (ex. autonomy vs shame)

Question 12

Kohlberg’s moral reasoning

Answer 12

theory of personality focused on the development of moral thinking, made up of 3 stages: preconventional (avoid punishment, gain rewards), conventional (approval and social order), and postconventional (greater good)

Question 13

zone of proximal development

Answer 13

concept developed by Vygotsky; skills a child has not yet mastered but can accomplish with the help of a more knowledgable other

Question 14

psychoanalytic perspective of personality

Freud and Jung

Answer 14

assumption of unconscious internal states that motivate the overt actions of individuals

Question 15

id

Answer 15

contains basic, primal, inborn urges to survive and reproduce; functions according to the pleasure principle (aims to achieve immediate gratification)

Question 16

ego

Answer 16

mediates between id and superego; operates according to the reality principle (postpone pleasure until satisfaction can actually be obtained)

Question 17

superego

Answer 17

personality’s perfectionist, judging our actions and responding with pride or guilt; contains ego ideal (actions we are rewarded for), and the

Question 18

defense mechanisms

Answer 18

used by ego to relieve anxiety caused by clash of id and superego; includes repression (forcing undesired thoughts ton unconscious), suppression (unconscious forgetting), and regression (reversion to earlier developmental state)

Question 19

projection

Answer 19

a defense mechanism by which individuals attribute undesired feelings to other; most easily tested using the Rorschach inkblot test

Question 20

sublimation

Answer 20

the transformation of unacceptable urges into socially acceptable behaviors

Question 21

Jung’s theory of the unconscious

Answer 21

divided the unconscious into two: personal unconscious and the collective unconscious (shared by all humans as a result of common ancestry) based in archetypes

Question 22

Jungian archetypes

Answer 22

the persona (the mask we wear in public), the anima (feminine), the animus (masculine), the shadow (unpleasant thoughts or actions in our consciousness); the self is the intersection between the personal unconscious and conscious mind

Question 23

Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI)

Answer 23

based on dichotomies of personality proposed by Jung (E/I, S/N, T/F, J/P)

Question 24

inferiority complex

Answer 24

Adler believed striving for superiority drives the personality; refers to an individual’s sense of incompleteness, imperfection, and inferiority physically and socially

Question 25

creative self

Answer 25

Adler believed in a force by which each individual shapes uniqueness and personality; style of life represents manifestation of creative self

Question 26

fictional finalism

Answer 26

Adler belief that individuals are motivated more by expectations of the future than by past experiences

Question 27

object relations theory

Answer 27

the way adults relate to others is shaped by their relationships to parents/caregivers in infancy; indicates a need for social contact

Question 28

humanistic theory

Answer 28

focus on the value of individuals taking a person-centered approach; associated with Gestalt therapy: therapists take a holistic view of the self

Question 29

force field theory

Answer 29

Lewin’s focus on individuals in the present with little constraint on personality traits; field refers to one’s current state of mind which is the sum of forces on the individual; forces either assist in attainment of goals or block paths

Question 30

peak experiences

Answer 30

profound/deeply moving experiences in a person’s life that have important and lasting effects on the individual

Question 31

personal construct psychology

Answer 31

Kelly believed individuals construct schemes of anticipation of what others will do; individuals integrate new constructs into existing ones to understand their environment

Question 32

type and trait theorists

Answer 32

type theorists create a scheme of personality types, trait theorists describe individual personality based on a cluster of behaviors (ex. type A and type B personality)

Question 33

PEN model

Answer 33

model under trait theory involving Psychoticism (nonconformity), Extraversion (tolerance for social interaction, Neuroticism (measure of emotional arousal in stressful situations)

Question 34

Big Five

Answer 34

expansion of PEN model; includes openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN)

Question 35

cardinal, central, and secondary traits

Answer 35

cardinal are traits which a person organizes their life (not everyone has these), central traits are major characteristics of personality, secondary traits are characteristics that have a limited occurrence

Question 36

functional autonomy

Answer 36

when a behavior continues despite satisfaction of the drive that originally created the behavior (ex. hunting to eat vs hunting for sport)

Question 37

behaviorist theory of personality

Answer 37

based on concepts of operant conditioning; personality is a reflection of behaviors that have been reinforced over time

Question 38

social cognitive theory of personality

Answer 38

focuses on how our environment influences behavior and how we interact within that environment; past behavior dictates future behavior; reciprocal determinism is a central idea

Question 39

reciprocal determinism

Answer 39

Bandura’s idea that our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and environment all interact with each other to determine our actions in a given situation (part of social cog perspective)

Question 40

biological theory of personality

Answer 40

personality can be explained as a result of genetic expression in the brain