personality

Question 1

Freud

Answer 1

developed the first psychodynamic theory, most contemporary psychologists are skeptical of his beliefs

Question 2

Psychodynamic theory

Answer 2

a theory relating personality to the inter play of conflicting forces, including unconscious ones, within the individual

Question 3

Freud’s psychosexual stages

Answer 3

oral stage: birth to 1 year
erogenous zone: mouth

anal stage: 1 to 3 year
erogenous zone: bowel and bladder control

phallic stage: 3 to 6 year
erogenous zone: genitals

latent stage: 6 to puberty
libido inactive

genital stage: puberty to death
maturing sexual interests

Question 4

Id

Answer 4

doing what you want to do, ex: “I need to eat right this second!”

Question 5

ego

Answer 5

negotiations between Id and superego

Question 6

superego

Answer 6

behaving a certain way due to societal norms, ex: “You can’t do that because you’re in the middle of an important meeting.”

Question 7

ego defense mechanisms

Answer 7

repression: removal of something to the unconscious

denial: refusal to believe unpleasant information

rationalization: attempt to show that actions are justifiable

displacement: diverting a behavior or thought away from its natural target and toward a less threatening target

regression: return to a more immature level of functioning

projection: attributing one’s own undesirable characteristics to others

reaction formation: presenting as the opposite of you true self

sublimation: transforming sexual/aggressive energies into culturally acceptable behaviors

Question 8

Jung

Answer 8

-1875-1961
-follower of Freud
-collective unconscious
-certain concepts relating to humanity are innate, process of learning

Question 9

collective unconscious

Answer 9

the cumulative experience of the preceding generation

Question 10

Adler

Answer 10

-1870-1937
-believed that Freud overemphasized the sex drive
-founded individual psychology
-major contribution = inferiority complex

Question 11

individual psychology

Answer 11

a psychology of the person as a whole rather than parts such as id/ego/superego

Question 12

inferiority complex

Answer 12

an exaggerated feeling of weakness, inadequacy, and helplessness

Question 13

learning approach

Answer 13

much of what we think of as personality is actually the result of social learning

Question 14

humanistic psychology

Answer 14

-deals with consciousness, values, and abstract beliefs
-personality depends on beliefs and perceptions of the world (if you believe something was meaningful, then it was!)

Question 15

Rogers

Answer 15

-1902-1987
-most influential humanistic psychologist

His ideas:
-we evaluate ourselves/our actions, beginning in childhood
-we develop a self-concept
-we develop an ideal self
-psychologists can help people to improve their self-concepts and/or revise their ideal selves

Question 16

self-concept

Answer 16

an image of who we really are

Question 17

ideal self

Answer 17

an image of who we want to be

Question 18

traits

Answer 18

consistent tendencies in behavior, such as shyness, hostility, or talkativeness

Question 19

states

Answer 19

temporary activations of a particular behavior (ex: being annoyed, waking up on the wrong side of the bed, or being hungover)

Question 20

trait approach to personality

Answer 20

people have consistent characteristics in their behavior

Question 21

The Big 5

Answer 21

Openness- how open you are to trying new things

Conscientiousness- how organized, neat, clean, and meticulous you are

Extraversion- how outgoing and social you are

Agreeableness- getting along with others easily/often. being a people person

Neuroticism- proneness of experiencing anxiety and depression which is something everyone experiences as some point in their lives

*all of these are in a spectrum from low to high

Question 22

origins of personality

Answer 22

-clearly, there is a genetic component
-what gene(s) control personality? answers to this question is very complicated/poorly understood!

Question 23

MMPI

Answer 23

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
-devised empirically (i.e. based on evidence rather than theory)
-mainly used to identify clinical problems
-example items: I have chest pains several times a week (hypochondria), There are evil people trying to influence my mind (paranoia), I see, hear, ans smell things that no one else known about (schizophrenia).

Question 24

NEO-PI-R

Answer 24

NEO Personality Inventory-Revised
-mainly used to assess normal aspects of personality
-example items: am the life of the party (extraversion), sympathize with others’ feelings (agreeableness), get chores done right away (conscientiousness)

Question 25

Myers-Briggs

Answer 25

test of normal personality, loosely based on Carl Jung’s theories
-extraversion vs. introversion
-sensing vs. intuitive
-thinking vs. feeling
-judging vs. perceiving
little proven scientific merit

Question 26

projective techniques

Answer 26

designed to encourage people to project their personality characteristics onto ambiguous stimuli

Question 27

Rorschach inkbolts

Answer 27

-projective technique based on people’s interpretations of 10 ambiguous inkblots
-can reliably detect thought disorders
-low to moderate validity for detecting suicidality and personality