Personality

Question 1

What are the different issues in personality theory?

Answer 1

1. free will or determination
2. nature or nurture
3. past, present, or future
4. uniqueness or universality
5. equilibrium or growth
6. optimism or pessimism

Question 2

What is personality?

Answer 2

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting that ensures over time and across situations

Question 3

What are the different perspectives of personality?

Answer 3

psychoanalytic, trait, humanistic, and social-cognitive

Question 4

Psychoanalytic perspectives emphasizes what?

Answer 4

childhood experiences and the unconscious mind

Question 5

What is the difference between conscious and unconscious thoughts?

Answer 5

conscious = AWARE of thoughts, feeling, beliefs, and processes

unconscious = UNAWARE of thoughts, feeling, beliefs, and processes
- childhood experiences, unconscious motives, and sexual instincts

Question 6

What were the main points of Freud’s psychodynamic theory?

Answer 6

• humans are naturally uncivilized and ruled by sexual instincts
• behavior motivated by unconscious processes
• symbols have meaning
• adult personality is heavily influenced by issues in childhood

Question 7

What is the freudian personality structure?

Answer 7

there are three systems in the mind that forms personality: Id, ego, and superego

Question 8

What are the characteristics of the three systems of the Freudian personality structure?

Answer 8

1. Id = strives to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress
   - pleasure principle
   - present at birth
2. Ego = understands reality and logic
   - develops out of Id in infancy
   - mediator between Id and Superego = fears losing control of them
   - reality principle
3. Superego = internalization of society’s moral standards
   - responsible for guilt
   - moral principle

Question 9

How does the proportions of the three systems affect personality development?

Answer 9

balanced = healthy development
imbalance = unhealthy behavior
- overly dominant Id and antisocial
- overly dominant superego and too much guilt

Question 10

What are the levels of awareness for the three systems of the Freudian personality structure?

Answer 10

Id = unconscious
- repression of unwanted impulses or thoughts (Id) are unconsciously pushed away from awareness

ego and superego = conscious and unconscious

Question 11

What are the two defense mechanisms for Ego?

Answer 11

1. reaction formation = act opposite to what you actually feel (unacceptable impulses)
2. projection = disguising our impulses by attributing them to others

Question 12

What are defense mechanisms for Ego?

Answer 12

reduces anxiety by unconsciously/ indirectly denying, falsifying, or distorting reality
- displayed by everyone to some degree
- underlies all other defense mechanisms
- particular set up defense mechanisms = personality

Question 13

How are defense mechanism measured?

Answer 13

1. free associations = when a person relaxes and says what comes to mind to reveal the connection between a person’s hidden past and their present
2. dreams
3. freudian slips = activation of neural networks when a person is a bit distrcted
4. projective tests = ambiguous stimuli that trigger projection of unconscious thoughts + motives

Question 14

What are the different types of projective tests?

Answer 14

Rorschbach inkblot tests = seeks to identify inner feelings through interpretations of 10 blots
- low reliability and validity

thematic approach test = people express inner feelings and interests through stories they make up about ambiguous scenes/ photos

Question 15

What is the evaluation of Freudian theory?

Answer 15

research ≠ support main points because of no testable hypotheses and predictions

accept core insight of unconscious intact
- unconsciousness = process info without awareness
- includes schemas, priming, right hemisphere activity, implicit + explicit memories, emotions, and stereotypes

Question 16

What are humanistic theories?

Answer 16

how healthy people strive for self-actualization = fulfilling potential and personal growth
- studied by self-reported experiences
- emphases = conscious awareness, the self, and subjective feelings
- growth promoting climates = genuineness, acceptance, and empathy

Question 17

What does Maslow think about humanistic theory?

Answer 17

people are motivated by the hierarchy of needs
- personality develops through:
1. self actualization
2. self-transcendence = meaning, purpose, and identity beyond self

Question 18

What is the evaluation of the humanistic approach?

Answer 18

influenced: counseling, education, child rearing, management; positive psychology and renewed concept of self

criticisms = concepts and value are subjective; encourages individualism and self-indulgence, and fails to acknowledge human capacity for evil

Question 19

What is trait perspective?

Answer 19

focused on describing people’s characteristic behaviors and conscious motives = identifying traits and not describing them

• drawbacks = doesn’t explain traits
• benefits = link between personality, ability, and interest guides career, and can compare

Question 20

What is a trait?

Answer 20

stable quality of a person that shows in most situations

Question 21

How are traits measured?

Answer 21

others’ reports, behaviors, and questionnaire

Question 22

What is trait approach?

Answer 22

factor analysis to reduce to core factors = group of related traits

Question 23

What is Eysenck’s biological trait theory?

Answer 23

Eysenck’s biological trait theory = reduced to extraversion + introversion and emotional stability + instability

1. assessed personality traits in empirically derived tests (MBTI)

Question 24

What are the BIG FIVE of Eysenck’s biological trait theory?

Answer 24

1. openness = how willing to try things
2. conscientiousness - organization + dependability
3. extraversion = how much E directed outward and inward
4. agreeableness = emotional style
5. neuroticism = emotional stability

Question 25

Can Eysenck’s theory state how stable, heritable, how much is it in other cultures, and can it predict personal attributes?

Answer 25

stable = adulthood
heritable = genetic basis = 0.4 - 0.6
cultures = common
personal attributes = yes

Question 26

What are the evaluations of trait theory?

Answer 26

overemphasizes stable personality characteristics, underemphasizes effect of situation
- self report limited

Question 27

What is the person situation controversy?

Answer 27

stable at adulthood personality BUT varies in each situation
- personality reflects AVERAGE behaviors more than specific behaviors

Question 28

What is the social-cognitive perspective?

Answer 28

focuses on how behavior is influenced by the interaction between traits and social contexts
- personal goals and outcomes contribute to the characteristic style of behavior

Question 29

What is reciprocal determinism?

Answer 29

personality is shaped by interaction fo traits, environment, and behaviors
- choose environments to fit personalities = schools, friends, music, etc
- interpret and react to events
- create situation to which we react

Question 30

What was the honesty study?

Answer 30

experimented how honest children were in different situations
1. result = consistent within situations
2. evaluation
- critiques = distract from individual feelings and qualities + more a function of genetics and upbringing