Lecture 8

Question 1

Define Personality

Answer 1

Refers to enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed in different circumstances.

Question 2

What is the aim of personality research?

Answer 2

Construct general theories that describe the structure and development of personality.
To assess individual differences in personality.

Question 3

What is the topographical model?

Answer 3

Put forth by Freud, identifying 3 levels of consciousness (Conscious, pre-conscious, unconscious).
Conflict occurs between these different aspects of consciousness (opposing motives).
Successful resolution requires compromise formation.

Question 4

What is the developmental model? (The drive/instinct model )

Answer 4

Boils down the motives underlying the unconscious into either sex and/or aggression. Libido;

• stages of psychosexual development
• fixed progression of change from stage to stage
• notion of fixation at a particular libidinal stage.

Question 5

What are the psychsexual stages of Freud’s developmental model?

Answer 5

Oral stage (0-2)
Anal Stage (2-3) 
Phallic stage (3-5): Boys - Oedipal complex. Girls - Electra complex 
Latency Period (5 - 
adolescence)
Genital Age: Begins during adolescence.

Question 6

What is Freud;s structural model of personality?

Answer 6

ID > Superego (unconscious ) > ego (preconscious).

Question 7

What is the ID?

Answer 7

Unconscious Innate sexual drives present at birth. Demands immediate gratification in any way. Not until ID discovers that it cannot impulsively gratify = ego development.

Question 8

What is the superego?

Answer 8

The moral guardian of the unconscious. Acts as the conscience and perfect ideal world, which we strive. Usually in direct contrast to ID.

Question 9

What is the ego?

Answer 9

Balances what the ID wants and what it can realistically get. Rational, logical and goal oriented.

Question 10

What are the explicit defence mechanisms, in which are prevalent in humans?

Answer 10

Repression: Prevents desires coming into conscious mind.
Denial: Discounting the existence of threatening impulses.
Projection: Unconsciously attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts or impulses to another person.
Reaction formation: Defending against unacceptable impulses by acting opposite to them.
Compensation: Striving to make up for unconscious impulses or fears.
Rationalisation: Make actions or mistakes reasonable/justify them.
Displacement: Deflecting an impulse from original target to a less threatening one.
Sublimation: Converting unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable actions/expressing them symbolically.

Question 11

What are object relations?

Answer 11

Enduring patterns of behaviour in intimate relationships and also the motivational, cognitive and effective processes that produce these patterns.

Question 12

What are object relations theories?

Answer 12

Focus on interpersonal disturbances and capacity for relatedness to others.

Question 13

What does relational theories entail?

Answer 13

Argues that adaptation is primary adaptation to others. A person’s central drive is their need for relatedness to others. They will distort their personalities to maintain bonds with important people.

Question 14

Assessing personality: Life history methods

Answer 14

Aims to understand whole person in the context of life experiences

Question 15

Assessing personality: Projective tests:

Answer 15

Person is presented with vague stimulus, and their answer will project their own impulses and desires into a description of the stimulus. Based on idea that you will exhibit your unconscious response.

Question 16

What is the cognitive social theories of personality?

Answer 16

Emphasis on learned aspects of personality as well as expectations, beliefs and info processing. Constant interplay between the environment and how people subjectively process it and project it the world.

Question 17

Walter Mischel

Answer 17

If/then learned behavioural signatures

Question 18

Julian Rotter

Answer 18

Internal vs external expectancies

Question 19

Albert Bandura

Answer 19

Reciprocal determinism

Question 20

What are behaviour outcome expectancies?

Answer 20

Belief that a behaviour will lead to an outcome

Question 21

Self efficacy expectancies?

Answer 21

Belief that the person can perform the behaviour

Question 22

Competencies?

Answer 22

Skills used for problem solving

Question 23

Self regulation

Answer 23

Setting goals, evaluating performance and responding to feedback

Question 24

What are the main criticisms of social cognitive theory?

Answer 24

No role for unconscious contents
No explanations for why specific situations bring out certain behaviours
Not a general theory of behaviour
Fails to capture, complexities, richness and uniqueness of our personalities.

Question 25

What are humanistic theories? Carl rogers

Answer 25

In opposition to behaviourist or psychodynamic. Focus’ on the notion of each person having a potential for creative growth. Focuses on how people find meaning in their lives and how they are true to themselves and their personal beliefs.

Question 26

What does Roger’s person-centred approach entail?

Answer 26

That human beings are good by nature, but personality become distorted by interpersonal experiences; phenomenal experience.
Each person has multiple selves;
True self: the core aspect of being
False self: the self that is created by distortions from interpersonal experiences.
Ideal self: what the person would like to be.

Question 27

Main contributions of the humanistic theory?

Answer 27

How many people see themselves.
Central roles for immediate experience and individuals’ uniqueness.
Promoted research in positive psychology.
Inspired forms of psychotherapy.

Question 28

Main criticisms of humanistic theory?

Answer 28

Viewed as naive, romantic, unrealistic.
Too simple - too little attention to other possible factors.
Too vague to be tested empirically.

Question 29

What are trait theories of personality?

Answer 29

Refers to emotional, cognitive and behavioural tendencies, that constitute underlying personality dimensions on which individuals vary. Can be measured by asking the self or another to rate the self.

Question 30

How many traits did Allport note?

Answer 30

18,000 traits

Question 31

How many traits did Cattell note?

Answer 31

16 distinct traits

Question 32

What does the big 5 factor model comprise of?

Answer 32

Neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness.

Question 33

What does Mischel argue about personality traits?

Answer 33

That there’s consistency across situations. He argues that situational variables largely determine behaviour.

Question 34

What is the principle of aggregation?

Answer 34

Esptein found average traits across a range of situations. A class of behaviours over a range of situations.

Question 35

What is the consistency across time phenomenon?>

Answer 35

A person’s innate temperament i.e shyness and anxiety to the unfamiliar. Largely influenced by genes.

Question 36

What is the person-by-situation interactions phenomenon?

Answer 36

People expressing traits is specific situations.

Question 37

Main criticisms of trait theory?

Answer 37

Doesn’t describe the relationship among traits, thoughts and feelings.
Fails to capture how traits combine to form complex and dynamic individual.
Perhaps more than five dimensions.
May not hold across all cultures.
Situational variables also affect personality.

Question 38

Heritability (personality)

Answer 38

Refers to the proportion of variance in a particular trait that is due to genetic influences. Supporting evidence comes from twin studies.

Question 39

What percentage of the big 5 personality traits are heritable?

Answer 39

40-60%

Question 40

What percentage of most personality variables are heritable?

Answer 40

15-50%

Question 41

What does the culture pattern approach entail?

Answer 41

Sees culture as an organised set of beliefs, rituals and institutions that shape individuals to fit its patterns.

Question 42

What does the interactionists approach entail?

Answer 42

Suggests that personality, economics and culture mutually influence one another.

Question 43

How did Freud interpret the phenomenology of culture?

Answer 43

Through the essence of individual psychology projected through the cultural sphere. They abide by traditional patterns and standards of their culture which shapes an individual from birth.