Personality Flashcards
personality
the unique attitudes, behaviors, and emotions that characterize a person
stage theories
theories in which development is thought to be discontinuous
penis envy
part of Freud’s psychosexual stage theory
castration anxiety
part of Freud’s psychosexual stage theory
idenitification
part of Freud’s psychosexual stage theory
id
contains instincts and psychic energy, called Eros and Thanatos
pleasure principle
followed by id
ego
follows the reality principle
reality principle
followed by ego
superego
exists in both the unconscious mind and the conscious mind
repression
pushing thoughts out of conscious awareness
denial
not accepting the ego-threatening truth
displacement
redirecting one’s feelings towards another person or object. When people displace negative emotions like anger, they often displace them onto people whoa re less threatening than the source of the emotion
projection
believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself
reaction formation
expressing the opposite of how one truly feels
regression
returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior
rationalization
coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable occurrence
intellectualization
undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic
sublimation
channeling one’s frustration toward a different goal
criticisms of Freud
NAME?
psychodynamic theorists
Carl Jung and Alfred Adler
Jung’s unconscious
consists of collective unconscious and personal unconscious
collective unconscious
unconscious passed down through the species; explains the similarities across cultures
archetypes
universal concepts we all share as part of the human species
personal unconscious
resembles Freud’s view of the unconscious; contains the painful or threatening memories and thoughts the person does not wish to confront; called complexes
Freudian ego psychologist
a Freudian psychologist who downplays the importance of the unconscious and focuses on the conscious role of the ego
Alfred Adler
a Freudian psychologist who downplays the importance of the unconscious and focuses on the conscious role of the ego who also believed people were motivated by inferiority and superiority
inferiority
the fear of failure
superiority
the desire to achieve
nomothetic
the belief taht the same basic set of traits can be used to describe all people’s personalities
Hans Eyesenck
introversion-extroversion scale and stable-unstable scale
Raymond Cattel
16 PF (personalty factor)
big five personality traits
extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and emotional stability (or neuroticism)
factor analysis
a statistical technique used to reduce the vast number of different terms we use to describe people to 16 or five basic traits
idiographic theorists
oppose nomothetic theorists
Gordon Allport
theorized that in order to have a full understanding of someone’s personality, you needed to look at their personal traits
cardinal dispositions
one trait that plays a pivotal role in virtually everything a small number of people do
central dispositions
more apparent than secondary dispositions, but less so than cardinal dispositions
secondary dispositions
less apparent than central dispositions
criticism of trait theories
underestimate importance of the situation
heritability
the measure of the percentage of a trait that is inherited
temperaments
heritable
somatotype theory
William Sheldon
endomorphs (fat)
according to William Sheldon
mesomorphs (muscular)
according to William Sheldon
ectomorphs (thin)
according to William Sheldon
Albert Bandura
believed that personality is created by an interaction between the person (traits), the environment, and the person’s behavior
triadic reciprocality/reciprocal determinism
the person (traits), the environment, and the person’s behavior each influence both of the other two in a constant looplike fashion
self-efficacy
Refers to one’s belief about one’s ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes. Those with high levels for a particular task are more likely to succeed than those with low levels
George Kelley
proposed personal-construct theory of personality
personal-construct theory of personality
George Kelley
locus of control
Julian Rotter
determinism
the belief that what happens is dictated by what has happened in the past
free will
an individual’s ability to choose his or her own destiny
humanistic psychology
also called the third force
self-concept
a person’s global feeling about himself and herself
self-esteem
A measure of how much you value and respect yourself
self-actualize
to reach one’s full potential
self-theory
created by Carl Rogers
unconditional positive regard
a kind of blanket acceptance important in Carl Rogers’ self-theory
projective tests
used by psychoanalysts
self-report inventories
questionnaires that ask people to provide information about themselves
Barnum effect
the tendency for people to see themselves in vague, stock descriptions of personality
metacognition
thinking about thinking
criticisms of Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory
NAME?
information processing model
a continuous alternative of Piaget’s stage theory
Lawrence Kohlberg
NAME?
Heinz dilemma
stealing a drug he cannot afford in order to save his wife’s life
preconventional
reasoning limited to how things affect themselves
conventional
choice based on how others will view them
postconventional
examines rights and values involved in choice
Criticisms of Lawrence Kohlberg
Carol Gilligan noted that his research was based on boys, her research showed that boys and girls had different moral attitudes, but was later disproved
biopsychological (neuropsychological) theory of gender development
studies demonstrate that biological differences do exist between the sexes
psychodynamic theory of gender development
gender development is a competition for your opposite sex parent, when you realize you can’t win, you imitate your same-sex parent
social-cognitive theory of gender development
effects of society and thoughs about gender on role development
