Personality 1 Flashcards
How do we define personality?
A set of stable characteristics of how we interact with the world, interpret the world, and how we behave.
Who defined the early approaches to personality? What was it?
Hippocrates defined the early “medical model” of personality.
He based four personality types on four fluids, or “humors”
What are the four fluids to the “Early Approaches” to personality? What personality corresponds to each fluid?
Choleric: Someone who is passionate, ambitious, and bold
Sanguine: Someone who is joyful, eager, and optimistic
Phlegmatic: Someone who is calm, reliable, and thoughtful
Melancholic: Someone who is reserved and unhappy
According to the “Early Approaches” to personality, what could the 4 types of fluid cause? Who thought this?
Personality and disease were thought to be caused by imbalances of the humors (fluids).
This was thought by Galen (Greek philosopher/physician)
What is phrenology? Who made it?
Phrenology: Your brain would develop in certain areas (a bump) and that would lead into that personality trait.
Thought of by Gall
Ex/ If you had a bump above your ear, you’d have a destructive personality
What did Kant and Wundt do?
Kant and Wundt redesigned Hippocrates’s “Humor-based” personality chart.
They put the chart around an axis.
- Left side was unchangeable, right was changeable
- top was strong emotions, while bottom was weak emotions
Starting from top right to bottom right:
- Choleric: Excitable, exocentric…
- Sanguine: Sociable, carefree, hopeful…
- Phlegmatic: Reasonable, principled…
- melancholic: Unhappy, anxious…
What was the first comprehensive theory of personality called/by?
It was Freud’s Triarchic Personality Theory (think of it as a tug-of-war between Id Vs. Super-ego. Ego is the judge)
The theory states that you have an:
Id: the unconscious
- primitive drives (food, water, sex)
- pleasure principle: What I want, I want it now
Ego: Unconscious/conscious
- reality principle: Looks for the id’s desires in reality
- rational part of our personality
Superego: unconscious/conscious
- Moral compass (socialized)
You have one foot in the unconscious and one foot in the conscious.
Ex/ Id says, “I’m thirsty, I want something to drink”. Ego would want to carry out the wants of the Id, but also wants to listen to the superego.
We’re born with ego and Id, but superego is societal norms, or what’s normalized
HOW THE EGO REGULATES THE TUG OF WAR BETWEEN ID AND SUPER-EGO IS HOW WE DEVELOP OUR PERSONALITIES AND BEHAVIOURS!
What does imbalances in the Id-Superego system lead to?
It can lead to:
- Neurosis (tendency to experience negative emotions)
- Anxiety disorders
- Unhealthy behaviours
What happens when the Super-ego wins the tug-of-war? How about the Id?
When the super ego wins:
- You experience guilt to deny simple pleasures
When the Id wins:
- You feel narcissistic and impulsive
What are defense mechanisms for Freud’s Theory?
Defense mechanisms are the Ego’s attempts to restore balance to the system.
- They’re enacted by the unconscious mind
- we’re unaware that we’re using them
- they serve a protective function
Name the four Neo-Freudians
Alfred Adler
Erik Erikson
Carl Jung
Karen Horney
Who is Alfred Adler?
He is one of the 4 Neo-Freudians.
- He founded individual psychology
- he discovered inferiority complex during childhood experiences
Who is Erik Erikson?
he is one of the 4 Neo-Freudians.
- Anna Freuid convinced him to study psychanalysis
- his main motivator was social development
- claims that personality develops over the life span, not just in childhood
Who is Carl Jung?
He is one of the 4 Neo-Freudians.
- Studied Analytical Psychology
- claims that there are 2 approaches to life: Extroversion and introversion
- Motivation: Integral unconscious experience into consciousness
Jung believed that Id=personal unconscious (collective unconscious)
- he believed that experiences are common to all of humanity and that ancestral memories = archetypes, expressed in literature, art and dreams
- these archetypes are handed down genetically
- integrating these archetypes into personality = self realization
Who is Karen Horney?
She is one of the 4 Neo-Freudians.
- Similar to Jung: Self-realization and human growth
- she disagreed with “penis envy”
Motivator: Unconscious anxiety
- It stems from childhood experiences
- Ways to cope included: Moving towards/away/against from people
