Personality Flashcards
Nomothetic approach
understanding personality by identifying rules that govern behaviour of all individuals
Idiographic approach
Understanding personality by identifying unique characteristics and life history within the individual
3 factors that cause personality
- Genetics
- Shared environment (house)
- Non-shared environment (different schools)
What was the correlation of personality factors between identical twins
Moderate correlation
What fraction of personality is shared via genetics in twin studies
1/3
When genetic similarity was low between mother and child but environmental similarity was high,
Correlation between personality was weak - suggesting genes play more of a role in personality than environment
3 core aspects of psychoanalytic theory
- Psychic determinism: idea we are not free to choose our own level of awareness
- Symbolic meaning: idea that no action, however trivial, is meaningless and that we can come up with a meaning for most behaviours
- Unconscious motivation: We rarely understand what we do e.g. like an iceberg that we can only see the tip of.
What/where is the Id
Pleasure principle (unconscious level)
What/where is the ego
Decision making component (Conscious and preconscious)
What/where is the superego
Moral component (all levels of awareness)
What did Freud think psychological distress was a result of?
Conflict between id and superego
Stages of psychosexual theory
Oral phase (biting)
Anal
Phallic (genitals)
Latency (suppressed or latent sexuality)
Genital (sexual drive)
Purpose of psychosexual theory
Freud would interpret clients distress on where he thought they got fixated e.g. excessive eating, would believe they are stuck at oral stage
Behavioural theory of personality
Personality is in terms of behaviour rather than just their thoughts since we can measure behaviour
Social learning theory
Personality is an interaction between person’s traits, their thoughts and environment
Reciprocal determinism
Apart of social learning theory
Refers to the idea that behavioural, cognitition and environment play together to form personality e.g. expectancy (cognition) to do well in an exam, environment is going to library to study, you see people study so you your behaviour is you then start to study more which then leads to your expectancy to do well.
What did Carl Rogers say about personality in the humanistic theory
That is a function of an organism, the self and conditions of worth (the rules that society puts on our behaviour)
What did Abraham Maslow say about personality in the humanistic theory
That is created by a tendency to strive for self-actualisation: to achieve full potential
Humoral theory
Characterise a persons personality based on what humour or fluid they had in their body
Choleric people (Yellow bile): bad tempered and irritable
Melancholic (black bile): gloomy and pessimistic
Phlegmatic (Phelgm): sluggish, calm, unexcitable
Sanguine (blood): Cheerful, passionate
Big 5 for personality
- Neuroticism
- Extraversion
- Openness
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
How do you measure the Big 5 for personality
NEOPI (PI means personality inventory)
Consists of 181 items
Self-report
What was Cattell’s theory
That there were 16 source traits that produce what we observe through behaviour (16PF)
Eysenck’s theory
There are 3 bipolar dimensions to explain personality:
1. Extraversion to introversion
2. Neuroticism to emotional stability
3. Psychoticism to self control
What did Eysenck think temperament was a cause of?
Combination of the 3 dimensions
2 systems in the biopsychological theory of personality
- Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) - punishments and avoidance
- Behavioural Approach System (BAS) - sensitive to reward
How was personality previously measured?
Phrenology - bumps on brain
Physiognomy - facial features
2 approaches to measuring personality now
- Objective tests: 16PF, NEOPI, MMPI
- Projective tests: Thematic Apperception Test, Rorschach Inkblot (really only used for rapport)
What is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)?
Designed for a clinical setting like secure mental health facilities. Diagnoses psychological disorders. Designed to track deception since mental people are likely to deceive.
What is the Thematic Apperception Test
Present ambiguous stimuli and ask people to describe what they see.
