L10: Personality Flashcards
Personality (def)
Consistent, stable behaviour patterns & intrapersonal processes originating within the individual
Humourism Theory
There are 4 vital humours (Galen)
1) Phlegm: calm, reserved
2) Blood: social, optimistic
3) Yellow bile: short tempered, ambitious
4) Black bile: fearful, introspective
Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud: There are three levels of consciousness, and the three parts of personality function within these levels. (unconscious, preconscious, conscious)
Freud’s 3 levels of awareness
Unconscious mind
Preconscious mind
Conscious mind
Unconscious Mind
The part of our mental life that influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions that we cannot directly observe and of which we are unaware
Preconscious Mind
Thoughts and motives have the potential to become consciously accessible if they are cued
Conscious Mind
Thoughts, goals, and motivations that we are aware of
Id
- the manifestation of unconscious and instinctual drives and needs
- governed by the pleasure-pain principle
Ego
- Represents the largely conscious awareness of reality and the ability to mediate the needs of the id within the constraints of reality
- governed by the reality principle
- Reason & self-control
Superego
- Represents the internalized cultural and social rules and ideals that guide our moral conscience
- governed by the morality principle
- Morality & ideals
Pleasure-pain principle
increase pleasure & reduce pain
id
Reality principle
the ego tries to mediate compromises of need fulfillment versus current constraints
Morality principle
interested in conforming to whatever standards of right and wrong it has been taught (superego)
Defence Mechanisms of the Ego
the ways in which the ego copes with conflict between the unconscious desires of the id and the moral constraints of society
includes: repression, denial, displacement, projection, and reaction formation
Repression
Global strategy the ego uses to keep unacceptable/unwanted feelings, thoughts, and memories below the level of conscious awareness
Critiques of Psychoanalytic Theory
1) Not based on scientific methodology
2) Lack of empirical support
Contribution of Psychoanalytic Theory
1) Existence of unconscious thought
2) Importance of early development
3) Influence of mind on body
4) The talking cure
Trait approach (Allport)
Gordon Allport classified traits into 3 categories:
1) Cardinal traits -those that dominant a personality.
2) Central traits -general dispositions that describe a person
3) Secondary traits -relevant in only certain contexts; preferences; more modified
Measurement Approaches
1) Assessing traits (accurate measurement w/ tools)
2) Self-reports (people describe about themselves)
3) Informant reports (rating by friends & family)
4) Behavioural data (direct observation)
5) Life data (publicly accessible data)
Lexical Hypothesis
Allport & Cattell
Traits that provide useful ways to differentiate among people’s characteristics are necessarily encoded in language
Trait Approach (Cattell)
- Traits are relatively permanent broad reaction tendencies and serves as building blocks of personality
- There are 16 primary traits
Big Five Theory
The dominant model in the trait approach to personality, which posits five key dimensions along which humans vary
1) Openness to experience
2) Conscientiousness
3) Extraversion
4) Agreeableness
5) Neuroticism
Openness to Experience
Extent to which a person is imaginative, independent, and prefers variety.
Lower: Preference for known
Higher: Creative, curious, preference for unknown
Conscientiousness
Extent to which a person is organized, careful, and responsible
Lower: Disorganized, impulsive
Higher: Thorough, dependable, organized
Extraversion
Extent to which a person is energetic and outgoing
Lower: reserved, quiet
Higher: Energetic, outgoing
Agreeableness
Extent to which a person is good-natured, helpful, and trusting
Lower: critical, uncooperative
Higher: kind, helpful, cooperative
Neuroticism
Extent to which a person is calm and secure
Lower: emotionally stable, clam
Higher: anxious, worried, and moody
Ways to measure personality stability
1) Rank-order stability: Change relative to others in the same group overtime
2) Mean Level changes: average shifts in personality over the lifespan
Change in the big five over time
1) Increase in a
2) Increase in c
3) Decrease in N
4) Increase in O in early adulthood, then stabilizes and reduces in later adulthood
5) E is mixed: social vitality stays the same, but social dominance increases
Heritability of personality
Significant, approx 0.5
Behavioural activation system (BAS)
The general tendency toward approach
Behaviour inhibition system (BIS)
The general tendency toward avoidance
Person by situation debate
traits can be context-specific
Person by situation interactions (behavioural signatures)
it is necessary to account for both personal dispositions and the situation people find themselves in, as well as the interaction between the two
If Person X is in situation Y, then they do Z
Reciprocal determinism
A cyclical process of personal and environmental factors influencing each other
Locus of Control
the degree to which people believe that they, as opposed to external forces (beyond their influence), have control over the outcome of events in their lives
Internal locus of control: they can control their own fate
External locus of control: chance or outside forces determine what happens to them
Self-efficacy
The belief that one can successfully execute a behavior required by a particular situation (I can do it; I am capable of doing
Outcome efficacy
The belief that if a person can perform a behavior, a desired outcome will result
Learned helplessness
A state of passive resignation to an aversive situation that one has come to believe is outside of one’s control
Social role theory
the roles that we find ourselves in can shape our personality
Roger’s Self Theory
- Natural human state is to be a fully functioning person
- The self is an integrated whole organism that interprets the world
- He focused on ways to foster and attain self-actualization
Unconditional Positive Regard
being accepted/valued without condition
Peak experiences/ flow
The present moment is experienced fully during an activity of intrinsic value
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
1) Physiological Needs
2) Safety Needs
3) Social Needs
4) Esteem Needs
5) Self Actualization
Self- Actualization
- Acceptance of self, others, and nature
- Problem-focused
- Independent from culture/environment
- Democratic values
- Deep ties with relatively few people
Self- Concept
- The broad dynamic network of mental representations that a person has of him or herself; self-knowledge structure
- Includes network of possible selves which motivate our behaviour
Working self-concept
the most salient concepts of the self in brought to mind in a given context
Self-esteem
Our general attitude toward ourselves; self-worth
- people are motivated to view themselves positively
- people tend to see themselves positively
Sociometer Theory
people use self-esteem, a judgement of self-worth, to assess the degree to which they are accepted by others
Terror Management Theory
self-esteem allows people to cope with existential terror stemming from their awareness of their own mortality
Narcissism
the tendency to have unrealistic and self-aggrandizing views of one’s self
Independent self-construal
- individuals are valued for what they can do on their own.
- we conceive the self as a bounded and stable entity
Interdependent self-construal
- who we are as individuals makes sense only in the context of those around us, as a part of a larger unit
- the self can be defined quite differently from one context to the next
Humanistic Theory
- one’s inner psychological experiences as perceived by the person
- human beings are inherently good and seek to reach their full potential
- people have free will and are responsible for themselves
Social Learning Theory
- Julian Rotter
- we have expectations about reinforcements
- consistent behaviour patterns are learned by experience and observation of the social environment
Social-Cognitive Approach
Walter Mischel
- Consistency across situations is lower than imagined
- Traits can be reframed as templates
- We should search for mechanisms that explain a trait’s behaviour
Biological Approach
physiological systems, genes
