Personality Flashcards
Which aspect of personality operates outside a person’s awareness?
The unconscious.
(Freud believed the unconscious operated completely outside a person’s awareness.)
What is a characteristic of PERSONALITY TYPES as an approach to describing personality?
Personality types use qualitative groupings to categorize people with similar characteristics.
(The type approach proposes that there are a limited number of distinct categories of personality.)
What does VALIDITY measure in a research study?
Whether a study assesses the intended outcomes.
(Validity means intended outcomes can be measured and studied.)
What does a correlational study examine?
The potential relationship (aka correlation) between factors.
(A correlational study is one in which a relationship is developed among multiple factors.)
What is a characteristic of the scientific culture of psychology?
Laboratory research settings.
(Laboratory research provides information about individuals through an objective, scientific lens.)
Which cognitive component significantly affects personality dynamics (according to modern theories)?
How people label their experiences.
What is a common theme among modern personality theories related to culture?
Motivations that direct personality are related to culture.
(Cultural factors, such as individualistic and collectivistic cultural differences, shape the motivations that are related to personality dynamics.)
What is the difference between verifiability and disconfirmation?
They are opposites.
Verifiability refers to the ability to find supporting evidence for a theory.
Disconfirmation involves finding evidence to refute or contradict a theory.
What kind of approach to personality development does the following question correspond with?
“Can personality change in adulthood?”
An experiential approach.
(This explores how experiences can be related to personality changes.)
What is a major focus of personality development theories?
How life experiences influence personality.
What is one factor related to personality development?
How personality is influenced by heredity.
(Heredity, or genetics, can influence personality traits by passing down physiological and psychological traits from parents to their children through genes. These traits include behaviors, cognition, emotional patterns, and body parts’ shape.)
What is a common theme among modern theories of personality dynamics?
How a person thinks is an important aspect of personality.
(Personality involves both inborn traits and the development of cognitive and behavioral patterns that influence how we think and act.)
What is a characteristic of experimentation as a method for researching personality?
Experimentation puts cause-effect relationships to a direct test amongst personality variables.
What term refers to the sum of observed characteristics, according to biological theories of personality?
Phenotype.
Which factor plays the largest role in personality heritability, according to theories of gene-environment interaction?
Evolution.
(Theories of evolution are within the biological perspective but do not discuss the interaction between genes and contemporary environmental factors.)
How are rewards important in the concept of extinction?
Removal of a reward will reduce a behavior, leading to extinction.
What is the significance of discrimination in adaptive behavior?
Discrimination helps one adjust their behavior to fit a specific setting.
(The process of discriminative learning allows one to distinguish between situations and adapt their behavior accordingly.)
What did B.F. Skinner propose about personality?
Environmental consequences impact behavior.
(Skinner conceived operant conditioning, which essentially states our behaviors are shaped by the consequences of our actions.)
What is the model of personality that includes 5 major dimensions, and what are those dimensions?
Big Five (OCEAN)
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
What are the quantitative dimensions called that are used to describe personality?
(These encompass a broad range of behaviors and often have underlying biological variables.)
Factors.
(Example: “Extraversion” is a FACTOR in the Big 5 personality model, & it encompasses various related traits, like sociability, assertiveness, energy, & outgoingness.)
What are categories of people (e.g., introverts) with similar characteristics that are used to describe personality; each person belongs to one category, and there are no partial memberships within a category?
Types.
What are enduring traits and behaviors that define individuals and contribute to their uniqueness?
Personality.
What are specific, observable personality characteristics or patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are relatively stable & consistent across contexts?
Traits.
(Example: “Outgoing” is a TRAIT that falls under the “Extraversion” factor.)
Which psychological approach to personality suggests that personality is divided into distinct categories and that individuals belong to one specific category with no partial memberships?
The type approach.
(Carl Jung… aka Myers-Briggs)
Which approach involves comparing many individuals based on numerical scores, which can limit the understanding of an individual’s unique characteristics?
Nomothetic approach.
Which approach involves comparing many people and their behaviors based on a few numerical scores?
The nomothetic approach.
(This approach can make it difficult to understand one whole person by limiting the understanding of the individual’s unique characteristics.)
What is the process of adjusting and dealing with the external world and its demands to effectively function in different situations?
Adaptation.
Which term best describes consistent styles of behavior and emotional reactions present from infancy onward, presumably due to biological influences?
Temperament.
Which term refers to a set of enduring traits and patterns that shape an individual’s behavior, thoughts, and emotions?
Personality.
What are the fundamental aspects that all theories of personality must address?
((Hint: The 3 D’s))
Description, dynamics, and development.
What are the processes that reveal a person’s personality, specifically on how their motivations drive their actions?
Personality dynamics.
(These are shaped by cognitive processes such as conscious & unconscious thought.)
What does motivation provide to shape a person’s behavior?
Direction.
(Motivation shapes behavior by creating direction.)
Which factor is a prominent role in personality dynamics, according to Sigmund Freud?
Unconscious dynamics.
(Freud believed that conscious dynamics were limited, but unconscious dynamics were key in shaping personality dynamics.)
What was an important premise of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Maslow emphasized self-actualization & achievement with regard to human motivation.
Which concept delves into how experiences, interactions, and environmental factors shape individuals’ personalities over time?
How personality is influenced by LEARNING.
(Learning considers mechanisms such as conditioning, observational learning, and socialization processes, providing valuable insights into the dynamic nature of personality development.)
What are the 2 primary components of personality development, based on modern theories?
Genetics/Heredity
AND
Environment/Life Experiences
Which Big 5 personality factor is associated with trust, kindness, affection, & altruism?
Agreeableness.
Which Big 5 personality factor is associated with imagination & insight?
Openness.
Which Big Five personality factor is associated with energy & outgoingness?
Extraversion.
Which Big Five personality factor is associated with orderliness and self-discipline?
Conscientiousness.
Describe the 3 D’s of how personality theories explain personality.
Description
(explaining differences)
Dynamics
(how we interact & adapt)
Development
(changes over time)
During which years is a person’s personality thought to be primarily developed?
The preschool years.
(Theorists in the psychoanalytic tradition proposed that early learning can significantly influence personality development throughout life because of the essential skills that are developed during this period.)
What is a common theme among modern theories of personality dynamics?
How a person thinks (processes information aka cognitive processes) is an important aspect of personality.
Which method of measuring personality provides the most precise description of characteristics?
Which approach involves making theoretical constructs testable through operational definitions and hypotheses, allowing for systematic observation and empirical testing?
The scientific approach.
What is a research method in which scientists study how two or more things are connected to each other?
Correlational research.
What is a research method where researchers carefully design and control experiments to understand how changes in one thing (the independent variable) affect another thing (the dependent variable)?
Experimental research.
What is research that is conducted to add to the scientific body of knowledge?
Basic research.
What is research that is conducted to solve real-world problems?
Applied research.
What is a concept that pertains to the consistency of a scientific instrument’s (e.g., survey, questionnaire, test) measurements?
Reliability.
What is a concept that indicates that a test accurately measures what it claims to measure?
Validity.
What is the requirement that a theory can be tested through observable, measurable methods?
Verifiability.
What is the benefit of experimental research in psychology?
It enables researchers to draw cause-effect conclusions (by manipulating independent variables and observing differences in dependent variables between groups).
Which subject would be the focus of a case study examination?
An individual person.
(Case studies typically focus on analyzing and understanding the unique characteristics, experiences, and behaviors of an individual person in-depth.)
What assumption is central to the scientific method?
Determinism.
(Determinism asserts that phenomena have causes & that empirical research can uncover these causes.)
