Personality Flashcards
Define personality.
“The unique pattern of enduring thoughts, feelings and actions that characterise a person”
In what context does personality shows consistency?
Across time, situations and predictions
What are the 4 ways to explain or study “personality”
1) Psychoanalytic approach
2) Humanistic approach
3) Trait approach
4) The social learning/cognitive approach
How do you assess if a personality test is reliable and perform consistently?
1) Test-retest reliability (testing at different time to test consistency, cos personality should not change)
2) Internal consistency: if the questions that are based on the same personality, bring similar outcome. E.g. “I am outgoing”, “I enjoy social interaction” should both score similarly as they both measure extraversion.
3) Inter-rater reliability: rated by multiple observers on a certain personality
How do you assess if a personality test is valid? (i.e. it measures characteristics it claims to measure, scores are used appropriately)
1) Face validity: easy to fake depending on context, i.e. at interview for job, people can answer different from truth to make them more favourable for their wanted outcome
2) Content validity: measure of holisticness of the questionnaire about a certain personality…e.g. asking many extraversion related questions that should derive similar answer to judge if this person is really extroverted or not.
3) Criterion validity: How accurate is the answers of the questionnaires to inform the personality.
4) Construct validity:
- convergent validity = comparing answers from questionnaire to questionnaire that measures the same thing
- discriminant validity = opposite to convergent validity, the questionnaire measuring extraversion should not clash with one that measure introversion.
Can measures be valid but not reliable?
No, but it can be reliable and invalid.
What are the 4 aspects of Freudian psychoanalytic approach theory?
1) Levels of consciousness
2) structural model of personality
3) defense mechanisms
4) psychosexual development
What are the 3 levels of consciousness in Freudian theory?
Conscious, preconscious (your memory), and unconscious
What are the 3 structural model of personality according to Freudian theory？
Id, Ego and Super Ego
What is Id in Freudian theory?
The innermost core of the personality, the only structure present at birth and the source of all psychic energy.
Operate under pleasure principle.
Seeks immediate gratification or release, regardless of rational considerations and environmental realities
What is “ego” in Freudian theory?
It directly contact with reality and functions primarily at a conscious level.
Operate under the reality principle.
Testing reality to decide when and under what conditions the id can safely discharge its impulses and satisfy its needs.
What is “superego” in Freudian theory?
The moral arm of the personality, developed by the age 4 or 5.
Contains the traditional values and ideals of family and society.
What happen to the id, ego and superego that makes us feel anxious ?
When the ego fails to negotiate the intra-psychic conflicts between id and superego.
How does ego reduce anxiety in Freudian theory? ?
Unconsciously distorting reality using defense mechanism.
What are the 8 types of psychoanalytic ego defense mechanism?
Repression, denial, displacement, intellectualisation, projection, rationalisation, reaction formation, sublimation
What does “repression” mean as a psychoanalytic ego defense mechanism?
Pushing anxiety-arousing impulses or memories into the unconscious mind.
What does “denial” mean as a psychoanalytic ego defense mechanism?
Refusing to acknowledge anxiety-arousing aspects of the environment. The denial may involve either the emotions connected with the event or the event itself.
What does “displacement” mean as a psychoanalytic ego defense mechanism?
An unacceptable or dangerous impulse is repressed, then directed at a safer substitute target
What does “intellectualisation” mean as a psychoanalytic ego defense mechanism?
The emotion connected with an upsetting event is repressed and the situation is dealt with intellectually.
What does “projection” mean as a psychoanalytic ego defense mechanism?
An unacceptable impulse is repressed, then attributed to (projected onto) other people.
What does “rationalisation” mean as a psychoanalytic ego defense mechanism?
A person constructs a false but plausible
explanation or excuse for an anxiety-arousing behaviour or event that has already occurred.
What does “reaction formation” mean as a psychoanalytic ego defense mechanism?
An anxiety-arousing impulse is repressed and its psychic energy finds release in an exaggerated expression of the opposite behaviour.
What does “sublimation” mean as a psychoanalytic ego defense mechanism?
A repressed impulse is released in the form of a socially acceptable or even admired behaviour.
What are psychosexual stages that children pass through according to Freudian theory?
Id’s pleasure seeking tendencies are focused on specific pleasure-sensitive areas of the body—the erogenous zones
If there’s deprivations or overindulgences arised during the “psychosexual stages” what can happen?
Fixation: a state of arrested psychosexual development in which instincts are focused on a particular psychic theme.
What does “regression” mean during a psychosexual development according to Freud?
A psychological retreat to an earlier psychosexual stage, can occur in the face of stressful demands that exceed one’s coping capabilities
What are the psychosexual stages according to Freud? What stage does it start at and end?
Oral stage: infancy, gain satisfaction on sucking on breast, taking food, thumb, other objects. Excessive oral needs can result in fixation on oral themes of self-indulgence/dependency as adult.
Anal stage: 2-3 y.o. pleasure focuses on process of elimination. Harsh toilet train = obsessive with orderliness and cleanliness; Lax toilet train = messy, negative and dominant adult personality.
Phallic stage: 4-5 y.o. pleasure from sexual organs. Boy’s conflictual situation involving love for mum and hostility for dad = Oedipus complex. Girls blame on mum for penis-less = Electra complex.
Latency stage: 6 y.o. sexuality becomes dormant.
Genital stage: adolescence, erotic impulses finding direct expression in sexual relationships.
What are the critiques that the neoanalysts gave to Freud?
- Did not give enough consideration of social and cultural factors on dynamic personality developments.
- Too much emphasis on infantile sexuality
- Too much emphasis on childhood events as determinants of adult personality
What theory is this definition of personality based on?
“The integration of the id, ego and superego”
Freudian
What theory is this definition of personality based on?
“The integration of the ego, the personal and collective unconscious, the complexes, the archetypes…”
Neo-Freudian
What theory is this definition of personality based on?
“an organised, permanent, subjectively perceived entity that is at the very heart of all our experiences”
Humanistic
What theory is this definition of personality based on?
“A person’s unique pattern of traits”
Trait approach personality
What is a phrenology test?
Measuring personality based on shape of scalp.
What are the 3 levels of consciousness based on Freud?
Conscious, preconscious, unconscious
What are Eros and Thanatos in Id?
Eros = sex drive
Thanatos = aggressive drive
What does Ego start developing?
Early childhood
Critiques on repressed memory.
Freud said ego represses it to protect us, but in modern research it says memory can’t be repressed. Hypnotizing can actually implant fake memory.
It is still a debate but it’s evident memory can’t be repressed and there are legal issues around about hypnotizing.
Why is Freud’s theory not scientific?
It can’t be measured.
What are neo-Freudians up to?
- More focus on conscious mind
- Less emphasis on sex and aggression
- More focus on social and cultural influences
- Personality develop beyond childhood
What is Carl Roger’s view on personality, what does it made of?
Personality = self-actualisation + conditions of worth
Which of psychoanalysis, humanistic, trait approach, social/cognitive approach are more scientific?
Trait approach and social/cognitive approach.
What kind of personality does Rorschach Inkblot Test is trying to analyse?
Unconscious thoughts
What does humanistic approach believes in our personality?
We all take charge of our personal responsibility and have free will.
Phenomenology of the individual (a person’s unique world view) shapes personality and guides behavior.
What are the driving force of humanistic approach in fulfilling the unique potential of a person?
Self-actualization; the patterns of thoughts, feeling and behaving that develop a personality.
What is Carl Rogers’ 3 conditions to actualising growth and fulfilment in humanistic approach?
Genuineness, empathy, acceptance (unconditional positive regard)
What does “unconditional positive regard” mean?
An attitude of total acceptance toward another person.
Explain conditions of worth
It dictates the circumstances under which we approve or disapprove of ourselves.
Personality = self-actualization + conditions of worth
Describe Maslow’s view on achieving self-actualisation.
Need to fulfil other needs before self-actualisation.
What are the contributions of the Humanistic approach?
- Focus on ‘higher’ human functioning, innate growth potential
- Impact popular ideas about education and management
- Successful therapeutic techniques
What are the limitation of Humanistic approach?
- Limited in scope
- Genetics, situational/environmental factors
- Concepts are vague and difficult to examine empirically
What are the characteristics of trait approach of personality?
Relatively stable over time, and across situations
Hypocrates typologies
Melancholic (black bile), choleric (yellow bile), phlegmatic (phelgm), sanguine (blood)
What is Sheldon’s three main somatotypes?
People’s personalities based on 3 body types.
Endomorph=Plump: easy-going, happy
Mesomorph=Muscular: action oriented
Ectomorph=Skinny: anxious and frail
What 3 categories of traits do Gordon All port group them in?
- Cardinal: it governs your personality all the time, i.e. disorder. Most people don’t possess it.
- Central: very consistent in every situation, i.e. being reliable
- Secondary: only happens at certain situation, i.e. disliking crowds
How many dimensions of personality does Eysenck believes in?
2, introversion-extraversion and stability-instability.
What does NEO-PI-R stands for?
Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Personality Inventory, Revise
What does NEO-PI-R measures?
The big 5 personality factors + six traits or facets that define each domain. 240 items in total.
Limitations of trait approach.
- Self-report, objective measures
- Descriptive rather than explanatory
- no accounting for change
- traits can be expressed in different ways
- not great predictors of behaviours in specific situations
What does social learning approach not consider at all in predicting personality?
Not internally driven at all. It believes personality is a learned patterns of thinking and behaviour.
We learn from observation.
What is Bandura’s reciprocal determinism?
Focus on how we shape and are shaped by our environment.
Describe Rotter’s Expectancy Theory in the Social Learning approach.
- Behaviour is guided by learned expectancies
- Behaviour potential = expectancy x reinforcement value (we behave in ways we expect to produce favourable outcomes)
- Expectancies result from prior learning, it also is influenced by locus of control.
What is the internal locus of control according to Rotter’s expectancy theory?
The perception that one controls one’s fate.
What is the external locus of control according to Rotter’s expectancy theory?
The perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s control determine one’s fate.
In what way does a social cognitive assessment better than trait assessment ?
It’s more objective and involve behavioural observation at different situations.
Strengths/contributions of social-cognitive approach.
- Good grounding in scientific method
- recognition of importance of “situations” in shaping behaviour and personality
- basis for cognitive-behavioural treatments for a range of psychological disorders
Limitations of social-cognitive approach in analysing personality.
- Fails to consider unconscious motives and minimises the role of traits, may be overly rational
- limited in scope, fails to capture the complexities, richness and uniqueness of personality.
