individual differences Flashcards
what is differntial psychology
study of how people differ from each other in terms of behaviour, thoughts and feelings
what is psychodynamic psychology
the study of the mental and emotional processes that influence behavior.
what did freud treat?
conversion hysteria
whats conversion hysteria
migraine, seiuzres, paralysis
what was conversion hysteria said to be caused by?
-painful memories that had been repressed or pushed out of awareness
what did freud say made people better from conversion hysteria? and why
-when patients experienced the traumatic memory
- he believed that an unconcious part of the mind plays an important role in influencing behaviour
what are the 3 techniques used by freud to get patients to re experience the painful memories?
-hypnosis
-free association; when patients could say anything that came to mind without consequences
-dream analysis
what did freud conclude about personality
-a system of energy
-constantly presses for release
what did freud label the instinctual drive to generate psychic energy as
libido
what are the three different levels of awareness?
conscious, preconscious, unconcious
what does preconcious mean
-stuff your currently aware of but can be recalled
- recalling info into awareness
what is unconcious
beyond awareness
- have no idea theyre there
what did freud theorise 3 structures of personality as
ego,supergo, ID
what does ID mean
-all psychic energy
-exists in concious mind
-no contact with reality
-libido
-irrational; doesnt consider environmental realities- cake example
-wants to meet its urges
-pleasure principle
whats the ego
-follows reality principal
-decides what conditions ID can discharge impulses
-functions primarily at a concious level
-undersrand which circumstances to use ID
-develops by age 3
whats superego
-moral arm
-relies on traditional values, with society and expectations
-tries to block gratification( tries to block ID completely)
-moralistic goals over realistic goals
-develops by age 4/5
what is personailty in terms of the three egos
the struggle between the ID striving for release and superego trying to contain them
what did freud believe the egos had on anxiety?
-thought anxiety was a danger signal, feelings of anxiety was to tell ego it needs to act in some way to contain the id.
what strategy does ego use to protect anxiety thoughts
-pushes anxiety arousing memories, feelings and impulses into unconcious
-they remain in unconcious striving for release, can be expressed indeirectly in dreams
what happens in denial
ego reguses to acknowledge anxiety, feelings, impulses
what happens in displacement
dangerous impulses repressed and then directed at a safer target
- e.g when your boss is horrible you cant say anything so you take it out on a friend instead
what did freud believe about psychosexual development
-children pass through 4 psychosexual stages
- drives from id pleasure, seeking tendecies on specific areas of the body
(erogenous zones)
whats the first psychosexual stage
-oral
-satisfaction from sucking and food
-too much/too little sucking showed self indulgence or dependecny in adulthood
what the second psychosexual stage
-anal
-pleasure from process of elimination
-controlling biological urges
-harsh toilet training associated with fixations in obsessive cleaning or orderliness in later life- anally retentive
-lack in toilet training leads to fixations of being messy, negative and dominant adult personality - anally expulsive
whats the third psychosexual stage
-phallic
- 4-5
-pleasure from sexual organs
-boys: sexual feelings towards their mothers, fear father will catch him and castrate him
-oedipus complex, feelings of love to mother and hostility to father
-girls: electra complex, discover they dont have penis, blame mother for lack of desirable sexual organ
-penis envy; desire to have their fathers child as a substitute
-resolve impulses by repressing sexual impulses
-helps to develop suger ego
whats the fourth psychosexual stage
-sexuality becomes dormant till adolescence
-once re emerged genital stage is lifelong
why is freud work unreliable?
-used a small number of cases, needs huge samples to understand normal functioning
-cultural and gender bias
-emphasis on white eu male, others seen as less superior
what was important about freuds work
-frist to highlight mental processes can happen without awareness
what does congruence mean
self perceptions and experience are consistent
what does incongruence mean
self perceptions and experience are not consistent
-e.g anxiety
what does phenomenology mean
-emphasises how we experience the world now
-importance of the present
what do trait theoriests do?
define personality in terms of the degree to which a person possesses a personality characteristic
what did allport and odbert 1936 find
17,953 words describing personalty traits
what statistical technique is used to find highly correlated personal characteristics
- factor analysis
-uses clusters
what did raymond cattell 1965 do
-recruited a long list of people to give adjectives that described themselves
-also got someone else who knows them well tp identify their clusters
cattell found 16 different personality clusters that was thorough throughout
what was Hans Eysenck 1916-97
-2 basic dimension of personality
-introversion to extraversion
-stability to instability
- said these 2 different traits can account for differences in personality
what did mccrae and costa 2003 study
-fice factor model
-five higher order factors capture basic structure of differences
-big 5
-most common for identifying personality
what are the big 5
-openness
-conscientiousness
-extraversion
-agreeableness
-neuroticism
for the big 5 how many facets was there?
-30 facets
-6 scales in each
what model did ashton and lee 2007 make
-hexaco
-added humility traits, being modest, fair,sincere etc
what have twin studies shown in bioligical foundations of personality
differences in our genetic makeup contribute to differences in personality
what does heritability of big 5 assess?
- the degree of variation in a trait due to genetic differences between people
-found 40 to 50% is due to diffs in genetic makeup
what did church and katigbak 2000 find
-evidence showed personality traits do not predict behaviour swell in collectivistic compared to individual cultures
what did raad et al 2010 study find
-examined if big 5 present in 12 diff languages
-consciousnetness
-extraversion
-agreeablness
all found
-less support for neuroticism and openness-may be more open in diff cultures
what is the study of developing, administering and scoring measures assesing psychological traits called
psychometrics
what happens in interviews when people asked about feelings etc in psychodynamics
-interviewer tailors questions to a specific person
-allow participant to respond in their own words
how to observe behaviour
- dont ask observe
-must create a thorough coding system to score behaviours
-observer may influence behaviour
whats personality scale
-standard sets of questions
-eceryone selects from the same list of answer options
-usually require how accurately each phrase describes you
what are advatages and limitations to personality scales
- a:
-can collect data from many people at same time
-all participants under similar conditions
-standard scoring, differences wont impact the score
l:
-lengthy, get bored
-may not be honest, answer in socially desirable way
-participants cant respond in their own words
what is psychometrics
developing and scoring of psychological assessments
