L011 - Personality Flashcards
What is Personality ?
Isn’t anything concrete, it is what you think it is.
Stable way of thinking, feeling and acting
Ex. Stable cognitions, emotions and behaviors
Stable = across time, place and situations
Ex. Extroversion or introversion
What is Reification ?
Occurs when abstract constructs [someone having depression, someone being extrovert] are treated as if they are real or tangible
They are not
Extraversion is not likely like your liver or your occipital cortex
It is not located in one place in the brain/body
Cannot be directly measured
Is not objectively defined
We can disagree on the shape of the extroversion
What it is, if it counts or not, how to measure it
What is Phrenology?
Judging a person’s character by reading the “bumps” on one’s head
What is the Gall?
Argued that skull bumps were a sign of specific brain enlargements
What is a Psychograph?
A machine meant to measure the bumps on your head and give a rating for each of the 35 personality categories from the brain map
What are blot tests?
In contrast to objective traits, which are obvious about what is being studied, projective tests were used to uncover hidden thought processes
Examples
Rorschach’s ink blot
Draw a person, person-house-tree - is it has a big head it means xxx, if he has a wide neck it means xxx…
Thematic apperception test
What are the bodily type theories?
Fluid types and Body somatotypes
What is the fluid bodily types theory?
Galen; temperament related to four bodily fluids
Sanguine – excess of blood =vigor and athleticism
Choleric – excess of urine = easily angered
Melancholic – excess of feces = depressed or sad
Phlegmatic – excess of mucus = tired or lazy
What is the body somatotypes bodily type theory?
Endomorph – overweight = jolly, extraverted, slow
Mesomorph – muscular = athletic, aggressive
Ectomorph – skinny = thinking, withdrawn, fearful
What is the psychoanalytic theory?
Freud’s theory
The conscious mind is what you are presently aware of, what you are thinking about right now
The preconscious mind is stored in your memory that you are not presently aware of but can gain access to
Contains:
Ego
Develops in the first year of life
OPERATES ON THE REALITY PRINCIPLE
“Adult” - middle ground
Super ego
Represents one’s conscience and idealized standards
MORALITY PRINCIPLE
“Parent”
The unconscious mind is the part of the mind that we cannot become aware
It contains however, the primary motivations doe all of our actions and feelings – our biological, instinctual drive (like food and sex)and repressed unacceptable thoughts, memories and feelings, especially unresolved conflicts from our early childhood experiences
Contains the Id – the original personality (only part present at birth)
Unconscious
Biological instinctual drives
OPERATES ON THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE
“Child”
What are unhealthy personalities?
Develop when we become too dependent on defense mechanisms
When the id or the supego are too strong (overly hedonic or moralistic)
When the ego is too weak – bad mediator
What are Freud’s psychosexual stages?
The erogenous zone and fixation
What is the erogenous zone stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages?
Area if the body where the Id’s pleasure-seeking psychic energy is focused during a particular stage of psychosexual development
a change in erogenous zones designates the beginning of a new stage - fixation
What is the fixation stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages?
Occurs when a portion of the Id’s pleasure-seeking energy remains in a stage because of excessive gratification or frustration
What are Freud’s psychosocial states of personality development? Hint - sensory input is larger from these areas at specific ages.
Birth-1 and a half years – ORAL = mouth, lips, tongue
Sucking and biting and chewing
1 and a half years-3 years – ANUS
Bowel retention and elimination
3-6 years – GENITALS
Identifying with same sex parent to learn gender roles and sense of morality
6 years-puberty – NO EROGENOUS ZONE
Cognitive and social development
Puberty-adulthood – GENITALS
Development of sexual relationships, moving towards intimate adult relationship
What are the Phallic Stage Conflict types?
Oedipus conflict and Electra conflict
What is the Oedipus conflict?
The little boy becomes sexually attracted to his mother and fears that his father (his rival) will find out and castrate him
What is the Electra conflict?
The little girl is attracted to her father because he has a penis; she wants one of her own and feels inferior without one
What are the three Neo-Freudian theories of personality?
Carl Jung’s Collective unconsciousness
Alfred Adler’s striving for superiority
Karen Horney and the need for security
What is Carl Jung’s theory of Collective unconsciousness?
The collective unconsciousness represents the universal human experiences that we all share
Manifested in archetypes which are images and symbols of all the important themes in the history of humankind (ex. explorer, mother, hero)
What is Alfred Adler’s theory of striving for superiority?
Striving for superiority to overcome the sense of inferiority that we feel as infants given our totally helpless and dependent state.
A healthy person learns to cope with these feelings, becomes competent, and develops a sense of self-esteem
Inferiority complex is the strong feeling of inferiority felt by those who never overcome this initial feeling of inferiority
What is Karen Horney’s theory and the need for security?
Focused on dealing with our need for security, rather than a sense of inferiority
The closest of the three Neo-Freudian theories to being true.
A child’s caregivers must provide a sense of security for a healthy personality to develop or else neurotic personality types will develop
What are archetypes?
Archetypes represent personality styles – each one has a primary desire (ex. To connect with others)
What are notions of collective unconsciousness?
Notions of collective unconsciousness and archetypes are more mystical than scientific and cannot be empirically tested.
According to Karen Horney’s theory and the need for security, what are the three neurotic personality patterns?
Moving toward people
Moving against people
Moving away from people
What is moving towards people according to the three neurotic personality patterns?
A compliant, submissive person
What is moving against people according to the three neurotic personality patterns?
An aggressive, domineering person