L11: Personality Flashcards

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1
Q

Definition of personality

A

Consistent, stable behaviour patterns & intrapersonal processes originating within the individual

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2
Q

historical approaches: bumps

A
  • Phrenology: judging character by reading “bumps” on the head
  • Gall argued that skill bumps were a sign of specific brain enlargements
  • measured by a psychograph
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3
Q

historical approaches: blots

A
  • projective tests were used to uncover hidden
    thought processes.
  • Rorschach Ink blot test
  • draw a person test
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4
Q

historical approchaes: bodies

A
  • body type theories
  • fluid types: temperament related to four body fluids: blood, urine, feces, mucus
  • somatotypes: overweight, muscular, skinny
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5
Q

Humanistic theories

A
  • 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
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6
Q

Critiques of psychoanalytic theory

A

1) Not based on scientific methodology
2) Lack of empirical support

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7
Q

Contribution of Psychoanalytic Theory

A

1) Existence of unconscious thought
2) Importance of early development
3) Influence of mind on body
4) The talking cure

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8
Q

freud’s theory: three levels of awareness

A

conscious mind, preconscious mind, unconscious mind

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9
Q

Id, Ego, Superego

A

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

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10
Q

Pleasure-pain principle of Id

A

increase pleasure & reduce pain

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11
Q

Unhealthy personalities

A

develops when:
- we become too dependent upon defense mechanisms
- when the id or superego is too strong (overly hedonic or moralistic)
- when the ego is too weak (bad mediator)

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12
Q

Frued’s psychosocial states of personality development

A

oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

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13
Q

Anal-retentive personality

A

If the child reacts to harsh toilet training by trying to get even with the parents by withholding bowel movements, an anal-retentive personality with the traits of orderliness, neatness, stinginess, and stubbornness develops

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14
Q

Anal-expulsive personality

A

The anal-expulsive personality develops when the child rebels against the harsh training and has bowel movements whenever and wherever he desires

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15
Q

Phallic stage conflicts

A

oedipus conflict - young boy becomes sexually attracted to his mother and fears his father will find out and castrate him
electra conflict - young girl is attracted to her father because he has a penis; she wants one of her own and feels inferior without one (penis envy)

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16
Q

Carl Jung’s collective unconscious

A
  • represents universal human experiences that we all share
  • manifested in archetypes, which represent personality styles, each one has a primary desire
  • this theory is more mystical than scientific and cannot be empirically tested
17
Q

Alfred Adler’s striving for superiority

A
  • main motivation is striving for superiority, overcoming the sense of inferiority we feel as infants
  • a healthy person learns to cope with these feelings, becomes confident, and develops a sense of self-esteem
  • inferiority complex is the strong feeling of inferiority felt by those who never overcome this
18
Q

Karen Horney and the need for security

A
  • Focused on dealing with our need for security, rather than a sense of inferiority
  • A child’s caregivers must provide a sense of security for a healthy personality to develop or else neurotic personality types will develop
  • three neurotic personality patterns: moving toward people, moving against people, moving away from people
19
Q

Trait theories of personality

A
  • Personality traits are individual dimensions, a continuum ranging from extremely low to extremely high
  • Trait theorists use factor analysis and other statistical techniques to tell them the number and kind of traits
20
Q

self-concept

A
  • 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
21
Q

Working self-concept

A

the most salient concepts of the self in brought to mind in a given context

22
Q

Locus of control

A
  • 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
23
Q

Learned helplessness

A

A state of passive resignation to an aversive situation that one has come to believe is outside of one’s control

24
Q

Lexical hypothesis

A

Traits that provide useful ways to differentiate among people’s characteristics are necessarily encoded in language

25
Q

Big 5 Theory

A

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

26
Q

Personality Disorders: Prevalence

A
  • Around 9-15% of the general population (rates much higher in psychiatric hospitals, outpatient clinics)
  • Prevalence of individual PDs is around 1-5%
27
Q

Personality Disorders: Comorbidity

A
  • Comorbidity among PDs very high –> People with a PD have an average of 6 comorbid PDs
  • Comorbidity with other disorders is also very high
28
Q

Personality Disorders: Sex / Age difference

A
  • generally higher prevalence in women and early / midlife
  • women and men roughly equal in older age
  • higher in men: antisocial and narcissistic PD
  • higher in women: dependent, histrionic, borderline
29
Q

Personality Disorders: General criteria

A
  1. pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from expectations of the individual’s culture in at least two of the following:
    - cognition
    - affect
    - social
    - impulse control
  2. this pattern is inflexible and pervasive across different situations
  3. it causes clinically significant distress or impairment
  4. the pattern is stable and it has early onset (traced back to at least adolescence or early adulthood)
    - note that PDs are ego-syntonic
30
Q

Personality Disorders: DSM disorders

A

Cluster A - odd / eccentric
- paranoid
- schizoid
- schizotypical
Cluster B - dramatic / erratic
- antisocial
- borderline
- histrionic
- narcissistic
Cluser C - anxious / fearful
- avoidant
- dependent
- obsessive-compulsive

31
Q

Personality Disorders: Diagnostic problems

A
  • is it right to say who someone is is “disordered”?
  • culture and norms
  • are PDs even distinct constructs?
  • PDs end up on permanent record
  • problems with coverage
  • polythetic criteria
32
Q

Psychopathy checklist (factor 1 and 2)

A

Factor 1 - affective / interpersonal components, eg pathological lying, promiscuity, failure to accept responsibility
Factor 2 - impulsive / antisocial components, eg parasitic lifestyle, impulsivity, juvenile delinquency

33
Q

Psychopathy / ASPD relationship

A

Factor 1: sometimes referred to as the primary essence of psychopathy
Factor 2: ASPD

34
Q

Roger’s self theory

A
  • 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
35
Q

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

A

1) Physiological Needs
2) Safety Needs
3) Social Needs
4) Esteem Needs
5) Self Actualization

36
Q

Self-actualization

A
  • Acceptance of self, others, and nature
  • Problem-focused
  • Independent from culture / environment
  • Democratic values
  • Deep ties with relatively few people
37
Q

Narcissism

A

the tendency to have unrealistic and self-aggrandizing views of one’s self