Personality Flashcards
What is personality?
An enduring set of internally-based characteristics that create uniqueness and consistency in a person’s thoughts and behaviour
What is a personality trait?
Internally-based characteristic that make up one’s personality
What are three distinct elements to personality?
1) Uniqueness - personality traits are specific to each person
2) Consistency - how an individual behaves over time in similar situations
3) Explanation - personality provides an explanation to account for the expression of the behaviour
What is the psychodynamic perspective?
Psychodynamic theorists look for the causes of behaviour in a dynamic interplay of inner forces that often conflict with one another
What does Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory focus on?
Focused on early childhood experiences, unconscious conflicts, and sexual and aggressive urges
What is psychic energy?
Generated by instinctual drives and discharged directly or indirectly
What are three mental events?
Conscious: things we are aware of
Preconscious: things we are unaware of but that can be easily recalled
Unconscious: things we are unaware of
What is included in the ID portion of the structure of personality?
- Exists within the unconscious mind and is the innermost core of the personality
- It is the source of all psychic energy
- Only structure present at birth with no direct contact with reality and functions in totally irrational manner
- Controlled by pleasure principle
When someone seeks immediate gratification or release, regardless of rational considerations and environmental realities, they are representing what principle?
Pleasure Principle
What is included in the Ego portion of the structure of personality?
- Functions primarily at a conscious level
- Functions to keep impulses of ID in control
- Decision making component
- Operates according to the Reality Principle
When someone tests reality to decide when (and under what conditions) the ID can safely discharge its impulses and satisfy its needs is a display of what principle?
Reality Principle
What is secondary-process thinking?
How we can maximize gratification without the negative consequences of acting against society’s expectations
What is included in the Superego portion of the structure of personality?
- The last personality structure to develop
- The moral aspect of personality
- Controls impulses of ID with external control
- Develops by the age of four or five
- Repository for the values and ideals of society
What are the four elements of defence mechanism?
- Weapon of ego
- Are distortions of reality
- Operate unconsciously
4) Cause of maladaptive behaviour
What is repression and what is an example of this?
Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious
Eg. A traumatized soldier has no recollection of the details of a close brush with death
What is projection and what is an example of this?
Attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another
Eg. A woman who dislikes her boss thinks she likes her boss but feels that the boss doesn’t like her
What is displacement and what is an example of this?
Diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target
Eg. After parental scolding, a young girl takes her anger out on her little brother
What is reaction information and what is an example of this?
Behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite of one’s true feelings
Eg. A parent who unconsciously resents a child spoils the child with outlandish gifts
What is regression and what is an example of this?
A reversion to immature patterns of behaviour
Eg. An adult has a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get his way
What is rationilzation and what is an example of this?
Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behaviour
Eg. A student watches TV instead of studying, saying that “additional study wouldn’t do any good anyway”
What is indentification and what is an example of this?
Bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group
Eg. An insecure young man joins a fraternity to boost his self-esteem
What is sublimation and what is an example of this?
Occurs when unconscious, unacceptable impulses are channelled into socially acceptable, perhaps even admirable, behaviours
Eg. A young man’s lounging for intimacy is channelled into his creative artwork
What is a collective unconscious?
Unconscious store of the experiences of past generations of different people throughout the world (ie. ancestral knowledge)
What was Jung’s vision of the collective unconscious?
Theorized that each person has conscious and unconscious levels of awareness, proposing that the entire human race shares a collective unconscious which exists in the deepest reaches of everyone’s awareness. He argued that remarkable resemblences among symbols from disparate cultures are evidence of the collective unconscious.
Universal thought patterns, images, and behaviour rituals triggered by specific situations, symbols, and images representing certain people, ideas, or beliefs are what?
Archetypes
In Adler’s Individual Perspective, striving for superiority involves what?
The universal drive to adapt, improve oneself, and master life’s challenges. Feelings of inferiority push us to better ourselves.
What is the inferiority complex?
When feelings of inferiority are extreme
In Adler’s Individual Perspective, what is compensation?
The efforts to overcome imagined or real inferiorities by developing your abilities
What is overcompensation?
To hide inferiority complex
In Horney’s Interpersonal Perspective, what does social security entail?
A sense of feeling safe and loved in our relationships with others - the motivational force underlying expression of personality
What are the three strategies to seek social security?
- Moving toward people - Cooperating to obtain affection and protection from others
- Moving against people - Aggressive behaviour to obtain power over others
- Moving away from people - Social and emotional withdrawal from others
What are the strengths based off the evaluation of the Neo-Freudian Perspectives Perspective?
- Jung’s expanded emphasis on influence of the importance of the unconscious mind
- Adler and Horney’s expanded emphasis on the importance of social relationships in the expression of personality
What are the limitations of the Neo-Freudian Perspectives Perspective?
- These persepctives are based on vague concepts that are difficult to measure objectively 2. These persepctives are based on biased samples of clinical on observations
A form of learning where liklihood of a behaviours is determined by the concequences of engaging in that behaviour is defined as?
Operant conditioning
An individual’s personality is a collection of _____________ that are tied to various environmental stimuli.
Response tendencies
The stimulus being at a large party where they only know relatively few people, the following responses would be the operant tendencies:
R1: Circulate, speaking to others only if they approach you first
R2: Stick close to the people you already know
R3: Politely withdraw getting wrapped up in host’s collection book
R4: Leave at the first opportunity
What is reciprocal determinism
A person’s behavior both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the social environment
What is observational learning?
When an organism’s responding is influenced by observing others
What is self-efficacy? What is the difference between high and low self-efficacy?
Your beliefs about your ability to perform behaviours that should lead to expected outcomes
High - Confident in your ability to execute the responses necessary to get reinforcers
Low - Concern that necessary responses are beyond your abilities
What is the consistency paradox?
Consistency in behaviour is low
How much a person perceives an outcome as being contingent on their own actions rather than on external forces is defined as?
Locus of Control
What is internal locus of control?
Events unders personal control:
Self-determined with sense of personal effectiveness; seeking out information and to become involved
What is external focis of control?
External forces like luck, chance, powerful others:
Less resistant to social pressures
Skinner stressed the role of:
Environment
Bandura stressed importance of:
Learning from others
Mischel stressed importance of:
Situational factors
What is self-concept?
Organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself - our own mental pciture of our nature, our unique qualities, our behavioural tendencies
In Roger’s Person-Centered Theory, what is self-consistency?
Matching among components
In Roger’s Person-Centered Theory, what is congruence?
Consistency between self-concept and experience
In Roger’s Person-Centered Theory, what is incongruence?
Disparity between self-concept and experience
In Roger’s Person-Centered Theory, what is threat?
Occurs when experience is inconsistent with self-concept, leading to anxiety
In response to anxiety, individuals can:
Modify self-concept to match experience
Distort reality to match self-concept
In Roger’s Person-Centered Theory, what is self-verfication?
- Motivated to confirm self-concept
- Better recall for more consistent self-descriptions
- Seek out self-confirming relationships
In Roger’s Person-Centered Theory, what is self-enhancement?
- Strong tendency to gain and preserve positive self-image
- Contributes to psychological well-being
How is positive self-regard important when trying to self-develop?
Experience of being understood and valued gives us freedom to grow
What is unconditional positive regard?
Independent of behaviour
What is conditional positive regard?
Dependent upon behaviour
In Maslow’s Self-Actualization Thoery, what is defined as self-actualization?
Total realization of one’s human potential
Describe the two categories of needs:
1) Deficiency Needs: things concerned with physical and social survival
2) Growth Needs: unique to humans; push us to develop our potential
What is the factor analysis?
Statistical approach where the goal is to find correlations among many measured variables
- Analyzed to identify closely related clusters of behaviours
- Each cluster, or factor, reflects a basic dimension of behaviour or trait
What are the characteristics of ‘neuroticism’ from the five factor model?
Worried VS Calm
Insecure VS Secure
Self-Pitying VS Self-Satisfied
What are the characteristics of ‘extraversion’ from the five factor model?
Sociable VS Retiring
Fun-Loving VS Sober
Affectionate VS Reserved
What are the characteristics of ‘openness to experience’ from the five factor model?
Imaginative VS Down-to-Earth
Preference for Variety VS Preference for Routine
Independence VS Conforming
What are the characteristics of ‘agreeableness’ from the five factor model?
Softhearted VS Ruthless
Trusting VS Suspiscious
Helpful VS Uncooperative
What are the characteristics of ‘conscientiousness’ from the five factor model?
Well Organized VS Disorganized
Careful VS Suspicious
Self-Disciplined VS Weak Willed
What is Eysenck’s Thoery?
Personality is structured from a hierarchy of traits
1) Extraversion - Introversion
2) Neuroticism - Stability
3) Psychoticism - Self-Control
- Strong genetic influence
Tor F: The five factor model and eysenck’s three trait model is good at predicting behaviour across broad range
True
TorF: Cattels 16 factors are not good for predicting behaviour
False. The 16 factors are good at predicting behaviour, especially to predict more specfically
What is concordance rate?
The degree to which a characterstic, trait, or disease that occurs in one twin similarily occurs in the second twin
What about extreme introverted brains in important in personality?
That the brains of extreme introverts are over-aroused which causes people to seek minimization of stimulation
What about extreme extroverted brains in important in personality?
That the brains of extreme extroverts are under-aroused which causes people to seek maximization of stimulation
What is neurological perspective?
Examines the extent to which various physiological factors (eg. hormones and neurotransmitters) and brain activity (eg. arousal and inhibition) determine the expression of certain personality characteristics
What is seratonin?
Inhibitory neurotransmitter; low levels associated with greater willingness to engage in thrill-seeking activities
What is the ascending reticular activating system?
Acts as a filler, regulates arousal in the brain - linked with introversion and extraversion
What is reliability?
The consistency of a measure
