Personality Flashcards
Personality Trait
a pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that is relatively consistent over time and across situations
Temperaments
biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways
Temperament qualities
activity level
emotionality
sociability
Freud’s Structural Model of Personality
Id
Superego
Ego
Id
completely unconsious
Superego
social and parental standards
Ego
the mixture of id and superego
Trait approach
an approach to studying personality that focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions
Five factor theory of personality
openness to experience
conscientiousness
extraversion
agreeableness
neuroticism
Behavioral Approach System
the brain system involved in the pursuit of incentives or rewards, the “go” system. Sensitivity to rewards.
Behavioral Inhibition System
the brain system that is sensitive to punishment and therefore inhibits behavior that might lead to danger or paint; the “stop” system. Sensitivity to punishment or rejection.
Expectancy-value approach
internal/external locus of control
Locus of control
personal beliefs about how much control people have over outcomes in their lives
Internal locus of control
believe they bring about their own rewards
External locus of reward
rewards and their personal fates result from forces beyond their control
Humanistic Approaches
emphasize personal experience, belief systems, the uniqueness of the narrative of each human life, and the inherent goodness of each person
Reciprocal Determinism
the theory that the expression of personality can be explained by the interaction of environment, personal factors and behavior itself
The factors that influence behavior (Bandura)
- The person’s environment
- Multiple person factors (characteristics, self-confidence, expectations)
- Behavior
Situationism
the theory that behavior is determined more by situations than by personality traits
Person/situation debate
is personality based on situation or traits
How much traits predict behavior depends on 3 factors
- the centrality (importance) of the trait
- the aggregation of behaviors over time
- the type of trait being evaluated
Self-monitoring
how much a particular person tends to change to the situation
Cognitive affective processing system
people react in predictable ways to specific conditions
Strong situations
tend to mask differences in personality because of their power of the social environment
Weak situations
tend to reveal differences in personality
Interactionism
the theory that behavior is determined jointly by situations and underlying dispositions
Basic tendencies
dispositional traits determined largely by biological processes; very stable
Characteristic adaptations
adjustments to situational demands; tend to be somewhat consistent because they are based on skills, habits, roles, etc.
Rank-order stability
stability in personality refers to a lack of change in where a person stands on the trait relative to other people
Idiographic Approaches
person-centered approaches to studying personality; focus in on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons
Nomothetic approaches
approaches to assessing personality that focus on how common characteristics vary from person to person (the five factor theory)
Projective measures
personality tests that examine unconscious processes by having people interpret ambiguous stimuli
Rorschach Inkblot Test (RIT)
a person looks at an apparently meaningless inkblot and describes what it appears to be
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
a person is shown an ambiguous picture and is asked to tell a story about it
Social Comparison
the tendency for people to evaluate their own actions, abilities, and beliefs by contrasting them with other peoples’
Self-serving Bias
the tendency for people to take personal credit success but blame failure on external factors
Self-concept
a web of information that you know and believe about yourself
Self-schema
a knowledge structure that contains memories, beliefs, and generalizations about the self and the helps people efficiently perceive, organize, interpret, and use information related to themselves
Working self-concept
the part of the self-concept that is available during immediate experience
Self-esteem
the evaluative aspect of the self-concept in which people feel worthy or unworthy
Reflected- appraisal
the process of learning about oneself through the eyes of others
Sociometer
an internal monitor of social acceptance or rejection
