Personality

Question 1

What is personality?

Answer 1

the long-standing trait and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways

Question 2

what are the 4 fluids (humors) of the body according to hippocrates?

Answer 2

Hippocrates theorized traits and human behaviours are based on four separate temperaments associated with the 4 fluids (humors) of the body

1- choleric - yellow bile from the liver
2- melancholic - black bile from kidneys
3- sanguine - red blood from heart
4- phlegmatic - white phlegm from the lungs

Question 3

What did Galen think of the 4 humors?

Answer 3

Galen believed that both diseases and personality differences could be explained by imbalances in the humors and that each person exhibits one of the 4 temperaments
-> prevalent view for 1000 years and through middle ages

1- choleric - passionate, ambitious, bold
2- melancholic - reserved, anxious, unhappy
3- sanguine - joyful, eager, optimistic
4- phlegmatic - calm, reliable, thoughtful

Question 4

What is Phrenology?

Answer 4

Franz Gall proposed that the distances between bumps on the skull reveal a person’s personality traits, character and mental abilities -> discredited for lack of empirical support

• Gall developed a chart that depicted which areas of the skull corresponded to particular personality traits or characteristics

Question 5

What did Immanuel Kant believe?

Answer 5

Kant agreed with Galen that individuals could be categorized into one of the 4 temperaments
- developed a list of traits to describe the personality of each of the 4 temperaments

Question 6

What did Wilhelm Wundt believe about personality?

Answer 6

Wundt suggested that personality could be described using two axes

1- Emotional / non-emotional
separated strong emotions (melancholic, choleric) from the weak emotions (sanguine, phlegmatic)

2- Changeable / unchangeable
divided the changeable (choleric, sanguine) from the unchangeable (melancholig, phlegmatic)

Question 7

What did Sigmund Freud think about personality traits?
What did the Neo-Freudians think?

Answer 7

• first comprehensive theory of personality explaining both normal and abnormal behaviour
• proposed that unconscious drives influenced by sex, aggression and childhood sexuality influence personality

-> Neo-Freundians:
- agreed that childhood experiences matter
- less emphasis on sex
- focused on the social environment and effects of culture on personality

Question 8

What is the unconscious?

Answer 8

Unconscious:
=mental activity that we are unaware of or unable to access
Freud said:
- we are only aware of a small amount of our mind’s activities and most remain hidden from us
- unacceptable urges and desired are kept in our unconscious through repression
- the info in our unconscious affect our behaviour, although unaware

Question 9

What are freudian slips?

Answer 9

Freud suggested that slips of the tongue are sexual/aggressive urges accidentally slipping out of our unconscious

-> saying a word you did not intend to say

Question 10

What are the Id, Ego and Superego?

Answer 10

Freud: personality results from efforts to balance two competing forces:
1- biological aggressive and pleasure seeking drives
2- internal (sozialised) control over the pleasure seeking drives

-> this process is an interaction between id, ego and superego

Question 11

what is Id (freud)?

Answer 11

• primitive urges (hunger, thirst, sex)
• impulsive, instinctual
• operates on the pleasure principle - seeks immediate gratification

Question 12

What is the superego?

Answer 12

• develops through interactions with others, learning social rules for right and wrong
• moral compass -> how we should behave
• strives for perfection
• judges behaviour- leads to feelings of pride or guilt

Question 13

What is the ego (self)?

Answer 13

• attempts to balance the id with the superego
• rational
• operates on the reality principle - helps id satisfy desires in a realistic way
• the part of personality seen by others

Question 14

What is the effect of balanced or unbalanced interaction between id, superego and ego?

Answer 14

unbalanced id and superego:
- neurosis (tendency to experience negative emotions)
- anxiety
- unhealthy behaviours

balanced id and superego:
- healthy personality

Question 15

What are defence mechanisms?

Answer 15

= unconscious protective behaviours that work to reduce anxiety

• used by the ego to restore balance between id and superego
• freud believed them to be used by everyone but that overuse would be problematic

Question 16

What is denial?

Answer 16

refusing to accept real event because theyre unpleasant

• she refuses to admit she has an alcohol problem although she is unable to go a singe day without drinking

Question 17

What is displacement?

Answer 17

transferring inappropriate urges or behaviour onto a more acceptable or less threatening target

• during lunch, mark is angry at his older brother, but does not express it and instead is verbally abusive to the server

Question 18

What is projection?

Answer 18

attributing unacceptable desires to others

• chris often cheats on her boyfriend because she suspects he is already cheating

Question 19

What is rationalization?

Answer 19

justifying behaviours by substituting acceptable reasons for less-acceptable reasons

• kim failed a test because he did not study but blames the teacher because he didnt like him

Question 20

What is reaction formation?

Answer 20

reducing anxiety by adopting beliefs contrary to your own beliefs

• nadia is angry with her coworker for always arriving late after a night of partying, but she is nice and agreeable to the coworker and affirms that partying is cool

Question 21

what is regression?

Answer 21

returning to coping strategies for less mature stages of development

• after failing to pass his doctoral examinations, giorgio spends days in bed cuddling his favorite childhood toy

Question 22

What is Repression?§

Answer 22

supressing painful memories and thought

Question 23

What is Sublimation?

Answer 23

redirecting unacceptable desires through socially acceptable channels

• jeromes desire for revenge on the drunk driver is channeled into a community support group

Question 24

What are the staged of psychosexual development? Freud

Answer 24

• Freud theorized that children pass through 5 psychosexual stages
  -> pleasure seeking urges (Id) are focused on different erogenous zones
  lack of proper nurturing and parenting during conflicts results in the person becoming stuck/fixated in that stage

1- Oral Stage (birth-1year)
erogenous zone - mouth
pleasure- eating and sucking
major conflict - being weaned from bottle or breast
adult fixation - smoking, overeating, nail biting

2- anal stage (1-3years)
erogenous zone - anus
pleasure - from bowel and bladder movements
major conflict - toilet training
adult fixation - anal retentive personality (stingy, stubborn), anal expulsive personality (messy, careless,disorganised)

3- phallic stage (3-6years)
erogenous - genitals
major conflict - child feels desire for opposite sex parent, jealousy toward same sex parent
- oedipus complex in boys: desires mothers attention, urge to replace father , afraid of being punished by father (castration anxiety)
- electra complex in girls: desires fathers attention, urge to replace mother, angry at mother for not providing them with a penis (penis envy)

adult fixation - vanity, overambition

4- latency stage (6-12 years)
erogenous zone - none
sexual feelings are dormant as children focus on school, friends, hobbies and engage with peers of same sex

5- genital stage (12+)
erogenous - genitals
sexual reawakening - urges are redirected from parents to other partners

Question 25

What is individual psychology?

Answer 25

Alfred Adler
- focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority
- inferiority complex = a person’s feelings that they lack worth and dont measure up to the standard of others or society
- social motives thought to be the force behind thought, emotions and behaviour
- focused on social connections during childhood development
- believed happiness can be found in working together for the betterment of all
- main goal of psychology: to recognise the equal rights and equality of others
- saw conscious processes as more important
- theorized that birth order shapes our personality

Adler identified 3 fundamental social tasks all individuals must experience:
- occupational tasks - career
- societal tasks - friendship
- love tasks - finding a partner

Question 26

What is the psychosocial theory of developmend?

Answer 26

Erik Erikson
- personality develops throughout the lifespan
- emphasizes importance of social relationships at each stage
- development of healthy personality and sense of competence depend on successfully completing each of the 8 stages

Question 27

What is Carl jung’s analytal Psychology?

Answer 27

• focused on working to balance conscious and unconscious thoughts
• jung acknowledged the concept of a personal unconscious but was also interested in exploring the collective unconscious

Question 28

What is the collective unconscious?

Answer 28

universal version of personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or memory traces, which are common to all of us

Question 29

What are archetypes?

Answer 29

patterns that exists in our collective unconscious across cultures and societies

• represented by universal themes in various cultures reflecting common experiences of people around the world
• integration of unconscious archetypal aspects of the self seen as part of self-realisation process

Question 30

What is a persona?

Answer 30

a mask that we consciously adopt

• derived from conscious experiences and our collective unconscious
• a compromise between our true self and the self that society expects from us -> hiding parts that do not align with socities expectations

Question 31

Who came up with the idea of extroversion, introversion?

Answer 31

Carl Jung

Introverts:
- energized by being alone
- avoids attention
- speaks slow and soft
- thinks before speaking
- stays on one topic
- prefers written communication
- pays attention easily
- cautious

Extroverts:
- energized by being with others
- seeks attention
- speaks quickly and loudly
- thinks out loud
- jumps from topic to topic
- prefers verbal communication
- distractible
- acts first, thinks later

Question 32

Who is Karen Horney?

Answer 32

• agreed with Jung that individuals have the potential for self-realisation and believed the goal of psychoanalysis should move towards a healthy self
• disagreed with the idea of penis envy- suggested that any jealousy is culturally based
• differences in personality between men and women are culturally based
• men have womb envy because they cannot give birth
• theories focused on unconscious anxiety

Question 33

What are the 3 styles of coping used by children to relieve anxiety by Karen Horney?

Answer 33

1. moving toward people - affiliation and dependence
   (adults: likely to have an intense need for love and acceptance)
2. moving against people - aggression and assertiveness
   (adult: likely to lash out and exploit others)
3. moving away from people - detachment and isolation
   (adults: likely to avoid friendship/love and avoid interactions with others)

Question 34

What is the behavioural perspective?

Answer 34

skinner
= learning approaches to personality focus on observable, measurable phenomena

• we learn to behave in particular ways
• personality is shaped by reinforcement and consequences in the environment
• personality develops over our entire life
• personality can vary as we experience new situations

Question 35

What is the social-cognitive perspective?

Answer 35

Bandura
- agreed that personality develops through learning but disagreed with the behaviourist approach because thinking and reasoning are important parts of learning

factors in personality development:
- reciprocal determinism = cognitive processes (beliefs, expectations, etc) behaviour, and context (environment, situation) all interact
- observationsal learning = learning by observing someone’s behaviour and its consequences
-> which behaviours are acceptable/unacceptable in our culture or society
- self efficacy = level of confidence in our own abilities
-> affects how we approach challenges

Question 36

What is the locus of control?

Answer 36

Julian Rotter
= beliefs about the power we have over our lives

• proposed as a cognitive factor that affects learning and personality development
• internal locus of control - tend to believe that most of our outcomes are the direct results of our efforts
  -> perform better academically, achieve more, more independent, healthier
• external locus of control - tend to believe that our outcomes are outside of our control
  -> believe lives are controlled by other people, luck or chance.

-> locus of control occurs on a continuum from internal to external

Question 37

What are Mischel’s Findings on the person-situation debate?

Answer 37

• behaviour was inconsistent across different situation but more consistent within situations
• behaviour is consistent in equivalent situations across time
• this data did not support the theory that a person’s personality traits are consistent across situations - triggered the person-situation debate!

Question 38

What is the Marshmallow study?

Answer 38

• study on self-regulation (will power) - ability to relay gratification
• children were placed in a room with a marshmallow (if they wait, then they’ll get two )
• revealed that children differ in level of self control
• children with more selfcontrol in preschool were more successful in highschool
• children with poor self control in preschool were more likely to have academic and behavioural problems

Mischel’s approach to personality -> people use cognitive processes to assess the situation in their own way and behave in accordance with that interpretation

Question 39

What are the humanistic approaches for personality?

Answer 39

• focuses on how healthy people develop

Abraham Maslow:
- studied people who were healthy, creative, and productive
- found that they share similar characteristics - open creative, loving, spontaneous, compassionate, concerned for others, accepting of themselves

Carl Rogers:
- linked personality to self-concepts (thoughts and feelings about ourselves)
- divided the self into the ideal self and the real self
-> Ideal self = person you would like to be
-> real self = person you actually are

• believed we needed to find congruence between ideal and real self
  -> high congruence: greater sense of self-worth, health, productive life
  -> low congruence: maladjustment

Question 40

What are the biological approaches to personality?

Answer 40

perspective that differences in our personalities can be explained by inherited predispositions and physiological processes

heritable traits :
- Minnesota study of twins reared apart
- found that identical twins, raised apart or together, have very similar personalities
- suggest heritability in personality traits

• traits with more than 0.5 heritability ratio: leadership, obedience to authority, sense of wellbeing, alienation, resistance to stress, fearfulness

temperament:
- appears very early in life (suggests biological basis)
- babies can be categorized into 3 temperaments: easy, difficult or slow to warm up

• environment and maturation can affect expression of personality

Question 41

What are the two dimensions of temperament important to adult personality?

Answer 41

• Reactivity : how we respond to new or challenging environmental stimuli
• self- regulation : ability to control responses

Question 42

What are somatotypes?

Answer 42

William H Sheldon believed body type could be linked to personality

• Endomorphs: relaxed, comfortable, good-humored, even-tempered, sociable
• Mesomorphs: adventurous, assertive, competitive, fearless
• ectomorphs: anxious, self-conscious, artistic, thoughful, quiet, private

Question 43

What are Trait theorists?

Answer 43

believe that people have certain traits

Gordon Allport:
- found 4.500 words to describe people and organised them into 3 categories:
cardinal traits - dominates entire personality
central traits - make up our personality
secondary traits - less obvious or consistent

Raymond Cattell:
- narrowed allport’s list to 171 traits
- identified 16 dimensions of personality - people are scored on a continuum

Question 44

What was Hans and Sybil Eysenck’s work?

Answer 44

• focused on temperament and believed that our personality traits are influenced by our genetic inhertitance

2 specific personality dimensions:

1- extroversion / introversion

2- neuroticism / stability

Question 45

What is the 5 factor model?

Answer 45

each person has 5 traits -> the big 5 personality traits
- each trait is scored on a continuum from high to low

OCEAN

• openness
• conscientiousness
  -extroversion
• agreeableness
• neuroticism

Question 46

What are the HEXACO traits?

Answer 46

H - Honesty-humility
E- Emotionality
X - Extraversion
A - Agreeableness
C - Conscientiousness
O- Openness

Question 47

What are the cultural understandings of personality?

Answer 47

culture as one of the most important environmental factors that influences personality.

Culture = beliefs, customs, art, traditions of a particular society

• there are both universal and culture-specific aspects that account for variation in personalities

-> asian cultures - more collectivists, less extroverted
-> central and south american - score higher on openness to experience
-> europeans - score higher on neuroticism

Question 48

Why are there regional differences in personality clusters?

Answer 48

selective migration

people choose to move to places that are compatible with their personalities and needs

Question 49

What is the individualist culture?

Answer 49

• value independence, competition, personal achievement
• western nations
• people display more personally oriented personality traits

Question 50

What is the collectivist culture?

Answer 50

• value social harmony, respectfulness and group need over individual needs
• asia, africa, south america
• people display more socially oriented personality traits

Question 51

Why is personality testing used?

Answer 51

• to screen applicants for employment and job training
• in criminal cases and custody battles
• to assess psychological disorders

Question 52

‘What are self report inventories?

Answer 52

• objective test to assess personality
• often use multiple-choice items or numbered scales

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI):
- widely used
- originally developed to assist in diagnosing psychological disorders
- newest version with 338 questions
- scored on 10 scales
- use true/false questions

Question 53

What are projective tests?

Answer 53

• relies on projections (defense mechanism) to assess unconscious processes
• ambigous cards to tell a story, interpret an image or complete a sentence -> individuals will project feelings, impulses and desires onto cards

Question 54

What is the Rorschach Inkblot Test?

Answer 54

individual interprets a series of symmetrical inkblot cards, revealing unconscious feelings and struggles

projective test

Question 55

What is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)?

Answer 55

projection test

individual tells a story about 8-12 cards, giving insight into their social world, revealing hopes, fears, interests and goals

Question 56

What is the Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB)?

Answer 56

projection test

individual is asked to complete 40 incomplete sentences as quickly as possible to reveal desires, fears and struggles