Personality Flashcards
Personality
Pattern of psychological characteristics that differentiates us from others and leads us to act consistently across situations.
What causes personality differences?
- Genetics r/t
- Non-Shared Environment r/t Birth-Order
- Shared Environment
Twins Reared-Together
There is a higher correlation of a trait similarities among IT than FT, indicating the role of genetics. However, the correlations among IT are considerably less than 1.0. This indicates that non-shared environment must play a role in personality.
Identical Twins R-Apart vs. Twins R-Together
According to a Minnesota study, the correlation between personality of IT(T) and IT(A) were similar. This remarkable finding suggests that shared environment plays little or no role in the causes of adult personality.
Adoption
The correlation between biological parents and their adopted-away children in neuroticism and sociability
levels were slightly higher than the correlations between adoptive parents and their adopted
children. This indicates the role of genetics in personality.
How is personality developed?
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
This theory rests on 3 core assumptions:
- Psychic Determinism
- Symbolic Meaning
- Unconscious Motivation
It was hypothesized that the human psych was composed of 3 agencies:
Id -The Pleasure Principle
Irrational, illogical, and impulsive dimension of [P].
Superego -The Idealistic Principle
Moralistic, judgmental, perfectionist dimension of [P].
Ego -The Reality Principle
Rational, planful, mediating dimension of [P].
A principal function of the Ego is to contend with threats from the outside world. Any form of danger causes the Ego to experience anxiety, signalling it to undertake corrective actions. The Ego engages defence mechanisms as a way of warding off this anxiety.
Also, he theorized psychosexual development. He hypothesized that conflicts, memories, urges in unconscious mind come from experiences in childhood –emphasizing one’s emerging sexuality or pleasure. The failure to move through a stage properly leads to fixation.
Defence Mechanisms
Denial
Refusal to believe information that leads to anxiety.
Displacement
Shift aggressive impulses to a more acceptable or less threatening target.
Repression
Bury anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings in the unconscious.
Projection
Deal with unacceptable feelings/wishes by attributing them to others.
Reaction Formation
Transform an anxiety-producing wish into a kind of opposite, or behaving opposite to how you really feel.
Sublimation
Channel unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities.
Regression
Return psychologically to a younger, and typically simpler and safer age.
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Oral Stage (0-1)
Sucking and putting things in mouth. Fixation? Overeating, smoking, nail biting.
Anal Stage (1-3)
Retaining or passing feces (i.e., potty-training). Fixation? Excessive neatness or messiness.
Phallic Stage (3-6)
Self-stimulation of genitals (i.e. oedipus [boys romantically love their mother] or electra complex [girls romantically love their father]). Fixation? Sexual or relational problems.
Latent Stage (6-puberty)
Sexuality is suppressed/rechanneled.
Genital Stage (puberty-death)
Mature sexual relationships.
What are traits?
Stable predispositions for one to act or behave in a certain way.
How do we determine unique traits of personality?
Trait Taxonomy
Are systems or frameworks used to organize and categorize the various traits that contribute to human personality. The Big 5 Personalities were developed based on factor analysis.
It predict real-world behaviours as ‘The Big Five’ personalities are identifiable in many cultures. Also, most traits don’t change much after age 30.
The Big 5
O.C.E.A.N
Openness to Experience
Nonconforming, showing unusually broad interests, imaginative.
Conscientiousness
Ethical, dependable, productive, purposeful.
Extroversion
Talkative, sociable, fun-loving, affectionate.
Agreeableness
Sympathetic, warm, trusting, cooperative.
Neuroticism
Anxious, insecure, guilt-prone, self-conscious.
What are some historical personality assessment?
Realize, all lacked reliability and validity!
Phrenology
The bumps, indentation, and overall head shape can be used to identify one’s personality.
Physiognomy
One’s facial features can be used to identify one’s personality.
Is there some truth…? A study was conducted to determine if facial width-to-height ratio predicts dominance and aggression. Result? Hockey players with larger facial width-to-height ratio had more penalty minutes per game, indicating more aggression in games.
Sheldon’s Body Type
An ectomorph’s (skinny) personality included quiet, fragile, restrained, non-assertive, sensitive.
An endomorph’s (obese) personality included relaxed, sociable, tolerant, comfort-loving, peaceful.
An mesomorph’s (muscular) personality included active, assertive, vigorous, combative.
What are some projective personality assessments?
It involved asking people to interpret unstructured or ambiguous stimuli.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Participants were asked “What might this be?” to 10 symmetrical inkblots.
Thematic Apperception Test
Participants were asked to construct a story for different pictures.
Graphology
Draw-A-Person Test (DAP)
What are some structured personality assessments?
It focused on a paper-and-pencil self-report questionnaires, typically used for hiring, diagnosis, and legal cases.
MMPI-2
567 T/F questions.
10 clinical scales.
MMPI-2 scores of 50 are average, and scores of 65 or above are abnormally high.
