Personality Flashcards
1
Q
What is personality?
A
The psychological qualities that bring continuity to an individual’s behaviour in different situations at different times
2
Q
Personality is the psychology of ________ _________
A
individual differences
3
Q
What theory is suited for a snapshot of a person’s current personality characteristics?
A
Theory of temperaments, traits, or types
4
Q
What is a theory suited to understand someone as a developing, changing being?
A
Psychodynamic, humanistic, or social-cognitive theories of personality
5
Q
What theory is suited to knowing how people understand each other?
A
Implicit theories of personality
6
Q
What is a theory about whether people understand each other in the same ways the world around?
A
Cross-cultural work in personality
7
Q
Personality is shaped by the combined forces of ______, ______ and _____ processes - all embedded in a _____ and _____ context
A
biological; situational; mental; sociocultural; developmental
8
Q
Heredity accounts for only roughly ____ our characteristics
A
half
9
Q
Personality psychologist _________ suggests that environmental influences overwhelm all other effects
A
Walter Mischel
10
Q
What is disposition?
A
Relatively stable personality pattern, including temperaments, traits, and personality types
11
Q
Disposition is the ________ approach to personality
A
descriptive
12
Q
What is a personality process?
A
The internal working of the personality, involving motivation, emotion, perception and learning, as well as unconscious processes
13
Q
Personality processes explain personality using the _______ approach
A
process theories
14
Q
What is individualism?
A
The view, common in the Euro-American world, that places a high value on individual achievement and distinction
15
Q
What is collectivism?
A
The view, common in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, that values group loyalty and pride over individual distinction
16
Q
The fact that displacement of aggression is found in humans everywhere, as well as in animals, suggests that it is rooted in _______
A
our biological nature
17
Q
Give an example that shows the influence of nurture on personality
A
An example given in the text involves the influence of birth order on personality. There are many others, including perhaps, examples from your own experience. And in the news we read of “child soldiers” who are caught in the civil wars of the world’s poorest countries and are trained as hardened killers
18
Q
What is the distinction between trait and temperament personalities and the process theories of personality?
A
The dispositional theories describe personality in terms of characteristics (traits, temperaments or types), while the process theories describe personality in terms of internal processes (e.g. motivation, learning or perception) and social interactions
19
Q
A person from a collectivist culture is more likely than one from an individualist culture to emphasise
A
the importance of the group and harmonious relationships within the group
20
Q
What are the major factors that affect the formation of the personality?
A
Personality is shaped by biology, the environment (situational pressures), mental processes, development and the sociocultural context
21
Q
Who suggested that a person’s temperament resulted from the balance of the four humors?
A
Hippocrates
22
Q
Hippocrates suggested that a person’s temperament resulted from the balance of four _____
A
humors
23
Q
What are humors?
A
Four body fluids – bloods, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile – that, according to an ancient theory, control personality by their relative abundance
24
Q
Temperaments are thought of as _________ ____________ of personality, that have a strong biological basis
A
global dispositions
25
Traits are thought of as ______________ (i.e. can have a degree on the scale), and considered to be more influenced by experiences than temperaments
multiple dimensions of personality
26
Personality types are thought of ____ rather than dimensions: you either fit the pattern for a type or you do not
categories
27
The ______ theories all suggest a small set of personality characteristics, known as temperaments, traits, or types, that provide consistency to the individual's personality over time
dispositional
28
What is dispositional theory?
A general term that includes the temperament, trait, and type approaches to personality
29
What is temperament?
Biologically based personality dispositions that are usually apparent in early childhood and that establish the foundation of the personality and the mood of an individual's approach to life
30
The _________ in the brain is responsible for regulating one's basic disposition
frontal lobes
31
Biological psychologists also think that some individual differences in temperament arise from the balance (or imbalance) of _____, aka _______ in the brain
chemicals; neurotransmitters
32
What are traits?
Multiple stable personality characteristics that are presumed to exist within the individual and guide his or her thoughts and actions under various conditions
33
Traits are built on the foundation of ______ but also influenced by ______
temperament; experience
34
Trait theorists focus primarily on the _____ and _____ components of personality, excluding other attributes such as IQ and creativity
motivational; emotional
35
What is the five-factor theory? (OCEAN)
A trait perspective suggesting that personality is composed of five fundamental personality dimensions (aka the Big Five):
1. openness to experience
2. conscientiousness
3. extraversion
4. agreeableness
5. neuroticism
36
The Big Five traits are ______ dimensions, meaning they exist on a _____
Most people fall near the middle
bipolar; continuum
37
The Big Five can be measured using a paper-and-pencil instrument called the ______
NEO Personality Inventory (or NEO-PI)
NEO --> Neuroticism, extraversion, openness
38
An instrument that measures clinical traits (i.e. signs of mental disorder) is the _________
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2)
39
What is reliability?
An attribute of a psychological test that gives consistent results
40
What is validity?
An attribute of a psychological test that actually measures what it is being used to measure
41
What is a personality type?
Similar to a trait, but instead of being a dimension, a type is a category that is believed to represent a common cluster of personality characteristics
42
What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)?
A widely used personality test based on Jungian types
43
_______ has suggested that the biological basis for different temperaments may come from each person's unique mix of neurotransmitters
Jerome Kagan
44
The MMPI-2 does not assess conventional personality traits. Instead, its 10 clinical scales assess ___________
tendencies toward serious mental problems
45
The limits to applying the big five trait scale to non-Western cultures may be due, in part, to differences in the importance of
social roles and family structure patterns
46
Temperament, trait, and type theories describe the differences among people in terms of ____ but not ____
personality characteristics; personality processes
47
What are the 3 kinds of process theories?
1. Psychodynamic
2. Humanistic
3. Cognitive
48
While each of the process theories see different forces at work in personality, all portray personality as the result of both ______ and ______
internal mental processes; social interactions
49
What is the psychodynamic theory?
A group of theories that originated with Freud
All emphasise motivation, often unconscious motivation, and the influence of the past on the development of mental disorders
50
What are humanistic theories?
A group of personality theories that focus on human growth and potential rather than on mental disorder
All emphasise the functioning of the individual in the present rather than on the influence of past events
51
What are social-cognitive theories?
A group of theories that involve explanations of limited but important aspects of personality (e.g. locus of control)
All grew out of experimental psychology
52
What is hypnotizability?
The ability to follow suggestions offered by a hypnotic agent
53
The first comprehensive theory of personality, created by Freud, was known as ______
psychoanalysis
54
Psychoanalysis was created by ____
Sigmund Freud
55
What is another name for psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalytic theory
56
What is psychoanalysis?
A method of treating mental disorders that is based on Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory.
The goal of psychoanalysis is to release unacknowledged conflicts, urges, and memories from the unconscious
57
What is the unconscious (Freudian theory)?
In Freudian theory, this is the psychic domain of which the individual is not aware but that is the storehouse of repressed impulses, drives and conflicts unavailable to consciousness
58
What is libido (Freudian theory)?
The Freudian concept of psychic energy that drives individuals to experience sensual pleasure
Latin for "lust"
59
Freud named the unconscious sex drive ____ after the Greek god of passionate love
Eros
60
Freud named the unconscious "death instinct" _______ from the Greek word for "death"
Thanatos
61
He thought Thanatos drove the_______ that humans commit against each other and even against themselves (e.g. smoking, compulsive gambling, reckless driving, drug abuse)
aggressive and destructive acts
62
Freud pictured the personality as a trinity composed of the ____, the ____ and the ____, which together form a mind continually at war within itself
ego; id; superego
63
What is the id (Freudian theory)?
The primitive, unconscious portion of the personality that houses the most basic drives and stores repressed memories
64
What is the superego (Freudian theory)?
The mind's storehouse of values, including moral attitudes learned from parents and from society; roughly the same as the common notion of the conscience
65
What is the ego (Freudian theory)?
The conscious, rational part of the personality, charged with keeping peace between the superego and the id
66
He believed that the sexual and aggressive forces of the _____ wage a continuous battle against the moralistic forces of the _____
id; superego
67
Freud thought the id contained the drives ____ and ____
Eros; Thanatos
68
Freud thought the id _____ all three parts of the personality, acts on _____ and pushes for immediate ____, without concern for consequences
energises; impulse; gratification
69
The superego also includes the _________, an individual's view of the kind of person he or she should strive to become
ego ideal
70
What are psychosexual stages?
Successive, instinctive developmental phases in which pleasure is associated with stimulation of different bodily areas at different times of life
71
What are the stages of the psychosexual stages?
Oral (suckling, crying, spewing)
Anal (associated with elimination, eg sharing bad/dirty words)
Phallic (immature sexual expression)
Latency
Genital
72
What is the Oedipus complex?
According to Freud, a largely unconscious process whereby young males displace an erotic attraction toward their mother to females of their own age and, at the same time, identify with their fathers
73
What is identification?
The mental process by which an individual tries to become like another person, especially the same-sex parent
74
What is the Electra complex?
Concept advanced by Carl Jung, highlighting a girl's psychosexual competition with mother for the father's love, which is resolved in psychoanalytic theory when girl comes to identify with same-sex adult
Equivalent to Oedipus complex in males
75
What leads to fixation?
Occurs when psychosexual development is arrested at an immature stage
76
What is the ego defense mechanism?
A largely unconscious mental strategy employed to reduce the experience of conflict or anxiety
77
Freud said ego defense mechanisms operate at the ________ level
preconscious
78
What is repression?
An unconscious process that excludes unacceptable thoughts and feelings from awareness and memory
79
What are common ego defense mechanisms?
1. Fantasy
2. Rationalisation
3. Repression
4. Denial
5. Reaction formation
6. Displacement
7. Regression
8. Sublimation
9. Projection
80
What is a projective test?
A personality assessment instrument which is based on Freud's ego defense mechanism of projection
81
What is the Rorschach Inkblot Technique?
A projective test requiring subjects to describe what they see in a series of 10 inkblots
82
What is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)?
A projective test requiring subjects to make up stories that explain ambiguous pictures
83
Who developed the TAT?
Henry Murray
84
What is psychic determinism?
Freud's assumption that all our mental and behavioural responses are caused by unconscious traumas, desires, or conflict
85
What is a Freudian slip?
When "accidental" speech or behaviour belies an unconscious conflict or desire
86
Cognitive psychologists today believe that most slips of the tongues are mix-ups in the ________ we use to produce language and have no relationship to unconscious intentions
brain mechanisms
87
What is a neo-Freudian?
Literally "new Freudian"; refers to theorists who broke with Freud but whose theories retain a psychodynamic aspect, especially a focus on motivation as the source of energy for the personality
88
Who installed the theory of the two-part unconscious?
Carl Jung
89
What is the Jungian personal unconscious?
Jung's term for that portion of the unconscious corresponding roughly to the Freudian id
90
What is the Jungian collective unconscious?
Jung's addition to the unconscious, involving a reservoir for instinctive "memories", including the archetypes, which exist in all people
91
What is an archetype?
One of the ancient memory images in the collective unconscious. Archetypes appear and reappear in art, literature, and folktales around the world
92
Among archetypal memories, the animus represent the _____ side while the anima represents the ____ side of our personalities
masculine; feminine
93
The _____ archetype represents the destructive and aggressive tendencies (similar to Freud's Thanatos)
shadow
94
What is Jung's principle of opposites?
His principle of opposites portrays each personality as a balance between opposing pairs of tendencies or dispositions
95
Jung's __________ portrays each personality as a balance between opposing pairs of tendencies or dispositions
Principle of opposites
96
The overall pattern of tendencies was termed a __________
personality type
97
What is introversion?
The Jungian dimension that focuses on inner experience -- one's own thoughts and feelings -- making the introvert less outgoing and sociable than the extravert
98
What is extraversion?
The Jungian personality dimension that involves turning one's attention outward, toward others
99
Horney said that women want the same opportunities and rights that men enjoy, and many personality differences between males and females result from _________
learned social roles
100
Horney thinks normal growth involves the full development of __________ and of one's _________
social relationships; potential
101
What is basic anxiety as proposed by Horney?
An emotion that gives a sense of uncertainty and loneliness in a hostile world and can lead to maladjustment
102
Who suggested the concept of basic anxiety?
Karen Horney
103
When basic anxiety gets out of control, people become _______
neurotic
104
What are neurotic needs?
Signs of neurosis in Horney's theory, the ten needs are normal desires carried to a neurotic extreme
105
What are Horney's 3 common patterns of attitudes and behaviours that people use to deal with basic anxiety?
1. Move towards others
- need for love and approval and dependency
2. Move against others
- earn power and respect by competing
- risk being feared and alone at the top
3. Move away from others
- protect themselves from imagined hurt
- close themselves off from intimacy and support
106
To humanistic psychologists, personality is driven by _________
positive needs to adapt, learn, grow and thrive
107
Humanistic psychologists see mental disorders as stemming from unhealthy _________ rather than from unhealthy _________
situations; individuals
108
What is a self-actualizing personality?
A healthy individual who has met his or her basic needs and is free to be creative and fulfil his or her potentialities
109
According to Maslow, what are the characteristics of self-actualizers? (4)
1. Creative
2. Full of good humor
3. Given to spontaneity
4. Accepting of their own limitations and those of others
110
Who proposed the hierarchy of needs?
Maslow
111
Who is Carl Rogers's fully functioning person?
Carl Rogers's term for a healthy, self-actualizing individual who has a self-concept that is both positive and congruent with reality
112
According to Carl Rogers, negative experiences can produce ______
incongruence, a threat to one's self-esteem
113
What is the phenomenal field?
One's psychological reality, composed of one's perceptions and feelings
114
Rogers, Maslow, Rollo May, believe that our most basic motives are for _______
positive growth
115
What is positive psychology?
A recent movement within psychology, focusing on desirable aspects of human functioning, as opposed to an emphasis on psychopathology
116
Who pioneered postive psychology?
Martin Seligman
117
Albert Bandura maintains that we are driven not just by inner motivational forces or external rewards or punishments but by our _______ of how our actions might gain us rewards or cost us pains
expectations
118
According to Bandura, a distinctive feature of the human personality is the ability to _______________
foresee the consequences of actions, particularly in learning what happens to others when they behave in certain ways
119
What is observational learning?
A form of cognitive learning in which new responses are acquired after watching others' behaviour and the consequences of their behaviour
120
According to Bandura, personality is a collection of _________
learned behaviour patterns
121
What is reciprocal determinism?
The process in which cognitions, behaviour, and the environment mutually influence each other
122
In reciprocal determinism, each of the three elements __________ the others
reinforces
(behaviour, cognition, and the environment)
123
What is locus of control?
An individual's sense of whether control over his or her life is internal or external
124
Who developed the theory on locus of control?
Julian Rotter
125
Rotter's theory of _______ is both a trait and a "process" theory of personality
locus of control
126
To measure locus of control, Rotter uses the ____________
Internal-External Locus of Control Scale
127
What is the family systems theory?
A perspective on personality and treatment that emphasises the family rather than the individual as the basic unit of analysis
128
What are the 3 new trends in our thinking about personality?
1. Family systems theory
2. Increasing awareness of cultural differences
3. Increasing appreciation of gender influences
129
What was Sigmund Freud's greatest discovery, and the concept that distinguishes psychoanalysis from the humanistic and social-cognitive theories?
Freud's discovery of the unconscious mind
130
What is the ego defense mechanism on which the Rorschach and TAT are based?
Projection
131
If you react strongly to angry outbursts in others, you may be struggling with which Jungian archetype?
The shadow archetype
132
In contrast with Freud, Karen Horney believed that the forces behind our behaviours are
social
133
The humanists theorists were very different from the psychodynamic theorists because of their emphasis on ________
the healthy personality and human potential
134
You try to understand people based on the role models they follow. What kind of personality theorist are you?
A social-cognitive theorist
135
What do the psychodynamic, humanistic, and cognitive theories of personality have in common?
They all acknowledge the importance of internal mental processes
136
What is implicit personality theory?
A person's set of unquestioned assumptions about personality, used to simplify the task of understanding others
137
People usually see assertive or argumentative behaviour as a sign of _________ in men but ________ in women
emotional stability; emotional instability
138
Implicit theories have blind spots because they rely on __________ and ________ about traits and physical characteristics
naive assumptions; stereotypes
139
Implicit theories may also give bad predictions when people's ___________ influence their judgement of others' personalities
motives and feelings
similar to projection
140
What is a mindset?
The extent to which one believes abilities and talents are fixed by nature or can change and grow through practice and that experience influence successes that require hard work and effort, and also one's reactions to failure
141
What is a self-narrative? What is its function?
The "stories" one tells about oneself
Self-narratives help people sense a thread of consistency through their personalities over time
142
What is the redemptive self?
A common self-narrative identified by McAdams in generative Americans
The redemptive self involves a self of being called to overcome obstacles in the effort to help others
143
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The dual tendency to overemphasise internal, dispositional causes and minimise external, situational pressures
144
The fundamental attribution error (FAE) is less common in __________ cultures than in __________ cultures
collectivistic; individualistic
145
What are 3 ways people use to make decisions?
1. Stimulation in the immediate situation: sensory, biological, social
-> present-oriented
2. Revisit similar situations in the past
-> past-oriented
3. Cost-benefit estimations about future consequences
-> future-oriented
146
One reliable scale to measure time decisions is _________
Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)
147
In what important respect have people's implicit theories of personality been found to differ?
People's implicit theories differ on whether personality traits are fixed or changeable
148
What is the term that best describes the dynamic relationship between culture and personality?
Interaction
149
People's implicit personality theories involve
the assumptions that they make about each other's motives, intentions and behaviours
150
What is the person-situation controversy?
Debate over the relative contributions to understanding human behaviour from personality processes, like traits, versus social psychological processes, like the power of situational variables
151
_________, which we are born with, is the basis upon which one’s personality is built
Temperament
152
A _______ is a relatively stable personality tendency that guides one’s thoughts and actions across various conditions
trait
153
If you are completing a paper/pencil test that requires you to read statements and indicate “true” or “false” as to whether or not they apply to you, then you are likely taking a _____
personality inventory
154
A serious criticism of trait theories is that these believe personality is _____ and _____
fixed; static
155
Conversion disorder was referred to as _____ in the 1800s
hysteria
156
_______ demonstrated that hysteria could be treated using hypnosis
Jean Charcot
157
Freud believed that the ________ was the most important determining factor in human behaviour and personality
unconscious mind
158
In psychoanalytic theory, _______ is the energy behind our sex drive
libido
159
A personality that consisted of only the ego and the id would be completely _____
amoral (no sense of right or wrong)
160
The ______ is the part of personality that most people think of as the conscience
superego
161
When Freud referred to the sexual drive of babies and young children, he was referring to the fact that children focus on their bodies to give them ______
physical pleasure
162
According to Freud’s theory of personality development, there are ____ stages that each person must pass through
5
163
The correct sequence of Freud’s psychosexual stages is:
oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
164
According to Freud, the stage in which children develop a marked attachment to the parent of the opposite sex and become jealous of the same-sex parent is the ____
phallic stage
165
Freud believed that people who are focused on doing things with their mouth are fixated in the ____ stage
oral
166
Freud believed that people who are uptight and compulsively neat are fixated in the ___ stage
anal
167
Freud believed that we could become _____ at a stage if our needs were delayed at a particular psychosexual stage
fixated
168
Assessment instruments in which individuals are asked to describe ambiguous stimuli are called ______ tests
projective
169
A person’s responses to a projective test are thought to reflect _________
unconscious thoughts and feelings
170
One criticism of Rorschach tests is that they have _________
low validity and reliability
171
Freudian theory is ________ of a person
poor at predicting the future behaviour
172
The main problem with Freud’s theory is _______
lack of testability; Freudian concepts are difficult to test
173
Freud’s influence is still evident today in ________
advertising and marketing
174
Freud is to sexuality as Jung is to _______
spirituality
(Jung felt that spirituality was a driving force behind behaviour)
175
The neo-Freudian Carl Jung suggested the existence of a collective unconscious that contains images shared by all people called _______
archetypes
(eg "anima", "trickster", "mother")
176
Horney believed that _____ may block the normal development of a personality
basic anxiety
177
Theorists such as ______ and ______ placed greater importance on social factors than did Freud
Erik Erikson; Alfred Adler
178
Humanistic theories are ____ about the nature of human personality
optimistic
179
Carl Rogers would say that students are experiencing __________ when they view themselves as brilliants, but earn Cs in all their classes
incongruence
(when we do not see ourselves as we actually are)
180
A key criticism of the humanistic approach is that it has concepts which are ________
difficult to define
