Personality (13)

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

A person’s characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviour.

Question 2

Personality trait

Answer 2

A patter of thought, emotion and behaviour that is relatively consistent over time and across situations.

Question 3

Trait

Answer 3

Disposition to think, feel, or act in predictable ways in certain situations.

Question 4

Biological factors

Answer 4

Genes, brain structure, and neurochemistry. All affected by experience. Play important role in determining personality.

Question 5

Gene expression

Answer 5

Affected by epigenetic factors. Underlines all psychological activity. Whether it occurs or not depends on the unique circumstances of the individual.

Question 6

Genetic component

Answer 6

Nearly all personality traits do have a genetic component.

Evidence:

• Identical twin studies. Identical twins have a stronger correlation of personality than fraternal twins.
• twin studies found that genetic influence accounts for 40-60% of variance between individuals for all personality traits.

Question 7

Parenting style

Answer 7

Parenting style has less influence on personality than was previously thought. However, parents do play a role in children’s development.

• Adoption studies: two adopted siblings are as alike to each other as strangers. Same for their similarity to their adopted parents.
• some genetic component between biological siblings and biological children with their biological parents.
• lives of siblings diverge as they establish friendships outside the home (types of peers diverge).
• home environment between siblings diverge as a function of age (relationship with parents diverge).
• Development: parents select where family lives – determines the environment that shapes children’s personalities.

Question 8

Genes

Answer 8

Dispose us to certain personality traits, associated with behavioural, cognitive or emotional tendencies –> Dispositions.

Question 9

Personality characteristics

Answer 9

Influenced by multiple genes, which interact with the environment to produce general dispositions.

*any link between specific genes and specific traits is very small.

Question 10

Experiences

Answer 10

Different circumstances can produce epigenetic changes (environment affecting gene expression) and selective expression of certain genes.

Question 11

Temperaments

Answer 11

The innate biological structures of personality. Biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways. Broader than personality traits. More stable. Influenced by genes.

Question 12

3 basic temperaments

Answer 12

Buss and Plomin

1. activity level – overall amount of energy and of behaviour a person exhibits.
2. emotionality – intensity of emotional response
3. sociability – general tendency to affiliate with others

*others identified include extent to which children are able to control their behaviours and emotions.

Question 13

Sex differences

Answer 13

Girls are more able to control attention and impulses, boys are more active and gain more pleasure from physical activity.

Question 14

Behavioural approach system (BAS)

Answer 14

The brain system involved in the pursuit of incentives or rewards. “Go” system. Linked to extraversion.

Question 15

Behavioural inhibition system (BIS)

Answer 15

The brain system that is sensitive to punishment and therefore inhibits behaviour that might lead to danger or pain. “Stop” system. Linked to neuroticism.

Question 16

Defence mechanism

Answer 16

Unconscious mental strategy the mind uses to protect itself from distress (e.g. rationalising).

• For Freud: results from the unconscious conflict between id and superego.
• For contemporary psychologists: these strategies protect self-esteem.

Question 17

Ego

Answer 17

Partially conscious. Operates according to the reality principle – rational thought and problem-solving. The component of personality that tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while being responsive to the dictates of the superego.

Question 18

Five-factor theory

Answer 18

Idea that personality can be described using five factors: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. For each factor, there is a continuum from low to high. Each factor is a higher-order trait that is made up of interrelated lower-order traits (e.g. conscientiousness determined by how careful and organised a person is; agreeableness reflects the extent to which a person is trusting and helpful).

Question 19

Humanistic approaches

Answer 19

Approaches to studying personality that emphasise how people seek to fulfil their potential through greater self-understanding (self-actualisation). Emphasises personal experience, belief systems, the uniqueness of the human condition, inherent goodness of individuals.

Question 20

Id

Answer 20

Component of personality that is completely submerged in the unconscious. Operates according to the pleasure principle (seek pleasure, avoid pain; libido).

Question 21

Idiographic approaches

Answer 21

A person-centred approach to assessing personality. Focuses on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons.

Assumes each individual is unique.
People like to be unique, tend to choose traits that distinguish themselves from others – central traits = important for how they define themselves; secondary traits less so. Those are different for each individual.

Question 22

Interactionists

Answer 22

The theory that behaviour is determined jointly by situations and underlying dispositions. Favoured by most trait theorists.

(strong vs. weak situations). Strong situations mask differences in personality, whereas weak ones reveal differences in personality.

Question 23

Nomothetic approaches

Answer 23

Approaches to studying personality that focus on how common characteristics vary from person to person.

• individuals are unique because of their unique combinations of common traits.
• e.g. five-factor theory.

Question 24

Projective measures

Answer 24

Personality tests that examine unconscious processes by having people interpret ambiguous stimuli, e.g. the Rorschach inkblot test or the Thematic Apperception Test (shows ambiguous picture and asks people to tell a story about it).

Question 25

Psychodynamic theory

Answer 25

(of personality) unconscious forces (wishes, desires, and hidden memories) determine behaviour.
-> Freud.

Question 26

Psychosexual stages

Answer 26

5 stages.

1. oral stage (0-18 months)
2. anal stage (2-3)
3. phallic stage. Here where conflict with opposite-sex parent beings (Oedipus complex). (3-5)
4. latency stage
5. genital stage.

Developmental stages that correspond to distinct libidinal urges; the progression through these stages profoundly affects personality.

Question 27

Self-esteem

Answer 27

The evaluative component of self-concept in which people feel worthy or unworthy. Indicates a person’s emotional response to contemplating personal characteristics.

Question 28

Self-serving bias

Answer 28

The tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame external factors for failure.

Question 29

Situationism

Answer 29

The theory that behaviour is determined more by situations than by personality traits. Triggered the person/situation debate. Proposed by Mischel.

Question 30

Sociometer

Answer 30

An internal monitor of social acceptance or rejection. E.g. self-esteem.

Question 31

Super-ego

Answer 31

Develops with childhood. Rigid structure of morality, conscience. The internalisation of societal and parental standards of conduct. A brake on the id. Largely unconscious.

Question 32

Trait approach

Answer 32

An approach to studying personality that focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions.