Personality Flashcards
Dispositional trait
Aspects of personality that are stable and enduring across different contexts and can be compared across a group along a continuum
Androgyny
Gender role reflecting the most adaptive aspects of the traditional masculine and feminine roles
Ego development
The fundamental changes in the ways in which our thoughts, values, morals, and god are organized. Transitions from one stage to another depend on both internal biological changes and external social changes to which the person must adapt
Epigenetic principle
In Erikson’s theory, the notion that development is guided by an underlying plan in which certain psychosocial issues have their own particular time of importance
5 factor model
A model of dispositional traits with the independent dimensions of neuroticism, extroversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and agreeableness
Hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) method
Creates a growth curve for each individual in a study and pieces the curves together to create an overall age trend
Life narrative
The aspects of personality that pull everything together. The integrative aspects that give a person an identity or sense of self
Life span construct
In whitbourne’s theory of identity, the way in which people build a view of who they are. The person’s unified sense of past, present, and future
Midlife correction
Re-evaluating one’a roles and dreams and making the necessary corrections
Personal concerns
Things that are important to people, their goals, and their major concerns in life
Possible selves
Aspects of the self-concept involving oneself in the future in both positive and negative ways
Self-concept
The organized, coherent, integrated pattern of self perceptions, which includes the notions of self esteem and self imagine
Spiritual support
The value of seeking pastoral care, participating in organized and non-organized religious activities, and expressing faith in a god who cares for people as a key coping strategy
3 assumptions about traits
- Traits are based on comparisons of people bc there are no absolute quantitative standards of concepts such as friendliness.
- The qualities or behaviours making up a particular trait must be distinctive enough to avoid confusion
- The traits attributed to a specific person are assumed to be stable characteristics
5 traits that are part of the big 5
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
6 facets of neuroticism
- Anxiety
- Hostility
- Self consciousness
- Depression
- Impulsiveness
- Vulnerability
Anxiety + hostility =
Fear and anger emotions
Self consciousness + depression =
Shame and sorrow emotions
Impulsiveness + vulnerability =
Impulsive behaviours
High anxiety
Nervous, high strung, tense, worried, pessimistic
High hostility
Prone to anger, irritable, hard to get along with
High self consciousness
Sensitive to criticism and teasing and to feelings of inferiority
Trait depression
Feelings of sadness, hopelessness, loneliness, guilt, and low self worth
Impulsiveness
A tendency to give in to temptation and desires bc of lack of willpower and self control
Vulnerability
Lowered ability to deal effectively with stress. Tend to panic in a crisis or emergency and to be highly dependent on others for help
In general, people high in neuroticism tend to be ____ in each of the traits
High
The 6 facets of extroversion can be grouped into 3 _____ traits and 3 _____ traits
Interpersonal
Temperamental
3 interpersonal traits of extroversion
- Warmth
- Gregariousness
- Assertiveness
3 temperamental traits of Extraversion
- Activity
- Excitement seeking
- Positive emotions
Warmth + gregariousness =
Sociability
Warmth
Aka attachment. Friendly, compassionate, intimately involved style of interacting with other people
Gregariousness
Thrive on crowds. The more social interaction, the better
Assertiveness
Make natural leaders. Take charge easily. Make up own minds. Readily express thoughts and feelings
The 6 facets of open was represent what 3 areas
- Fantasy
- Aesthetics
- Openness to action
Fantasy
Having a vivid imagination and active dream life
Aesthetics
Appreciation for art and beauty. Sensitivity to pure experience for its own sake
Openness to action
Willingness to try something new, whether it’s a new kind of cuisine, a new movie, or a new travel destination
Describe an antagonistic person
Sets themselves against others Skeptical Distrustful Callous Unsympathetic Stubborn Rude Have defective sense of attachment
High conscientiousness
Hard working Ambitious Energetic Scrupulous Persevering
Describe the criticisms leveled at the 5 factor model
Certain personality traits show change and are not stable
Methodological problems
Any model of dispositional traits says nothing about the core or essential aspects of human nature
Don’t allow you to predict how people will behave in a particular situation
Ignored the sociocultural context of human development
Reduces person to a set of scores on a series of linear continua anchored by terms that are assumed to be both meaningful and opposite
Assumes that respondent is able to take an objective, evaluative stance about his or her personal characteristics
Understand the concept of personal concerns
Conscious descriptions of what a person is trying to accompanied during a given period of life and what goals and goal-based concerns a person has
When people talk about themselves, don’t just use dispositional trait terms but provide narrative descriptions that rely on their life
Examine the main elements of Jung’s theory
Each aspect of a person’s personality must be in balance with all others. Each part is expressed in some way, whether through neurotic means or neurotic symptoms.
The 2 dimensions are introversion vs Extraversion and masculinity vs femininity
What happens to masculinity vs femininity as we get older
Young adults act in accordance with gender stereotypes appropriate to their culture. As they grow older, people begin to allow the suppressed parts of their personality out
What did Erikson’s theory call attention to
The cultural mechanisms involved in personality development
Explain Erikson’s theory
Personality is determined by the interaction bw an inner maturational plan and external societal demands. Each stage is marked by a struggle bw 2 opposing tendencies. The names of the stages reflect the issue that from the struggles. Resolution can be achieved through an interactive process involving both the inner psychological and outer social influences.
8 stages of Erikson’s theory
- Infancy
- Early childhood
- Play age
- School age
- Adolescence
- Young adulthood
- Adulthood
- Old age
Erikson’s infancy stage
Crisis - trust vs mistrust
Sig relations - maternal psn
Basic strength - hope
Developing trust in a works the infant knows nothing about. With trust comes security and comfort
Erikson’s early childhood stage
Crisis - autonomy vs shame and doubt
Sig relations - paternal people
Basic strength - will
Budding understanding that they are in charge of their own actions. Changes them from reactive beings to ones that can act on the world intentionally. Autonomy threatened by inclinations to avoid responsibility for their actions and to go back to the security of their first stage
Erikson’s play age
Crisis - initiative vs guilt
Sig relations - basic family
Basic strength - purpose
Once kids discover they can act on the world and are somebody, they begin to discover who they are. Take advantage of wider experience to explore environment on own, ask questions, and imagine possibilities about themselves.
Erikson’s school age
Crisis - industry vs inferiority
Sig relations - neighbourhood, school
Basic strength - competence
Children’s increasing interests in interacting with peers. Need for acceptance. Need to develop competencies. Manifested by desire to accomplish tasks by working hard. Failure results in feelings of inferiority
Erikson’s adolescence stage
Crisis - identity vs role confusion
Sig relations - peer groups and out groups; models of leadership
Basic strength - fidelity
The choice we make is about who we can become. Choosing among a multitude of possible selves the one we will become. Identity confusion results when we’re torn over the possibilities. Struggle involves trying to balance our need to choose a possible self and the desire to try out many possible selves
Erikson’s young adulthood stage
Crisis - identity vs isolation
Sig relations - partners in friendship, sex, competition, cooperation
Basic strength - love
Establishing a fully intimate relationship with another. Intimacy means sharing all aspects of oneself without fearing the loss of identity. One way to assist development of intimacy is to choose mate who represents the ideal of all one’s past experiences
Erikson’s adulthood stage
Crisis - Generativity vs stagnation
Sig relations - divided labour and shared household
Basic strength - care
Generativity is the feeling that people must maintain and perpetuate society. Stagnation is the feeling of self absorption. Generativity is seen in parenthood, teaching, etc.
Erikson’s old age stage
Crisis - integrity vs despair
Sig relations - humankind, “my kind”
Basic strength - wisdom
Growing awareness of the nearness of the end of life. But actually completed by only a small number of people. Task to examine and evaluate one’s life and accomplishments to make sense of them. Involves reminiscing with others and actively seeking reassurance that one had accomplished something in life. Those who progress successfully through other stages feel their lives have
Logan’s extension to Erikson’s theory
Erikson’s theory can be considered a cycle that repeats from basic trust to identity and from identity to integrity. The developmental progression is trust/achievement/wholeness.
Throughout life, we establish that we can trust others and ourselves. Initially, learning about selves and others through first 2 stages. After, struggle to find a person with whom we can form a very close friendship yet not lose our own sense of self
We also have a need for achievement. First reflected in first 2 stages, whereas in adulthood represented by Generativity vs stagnation.
Does Logan think that we come to a single resolution of our issues
No. We struggle with them throughout our lives
Van Geert’s extension to Erikson’s theory
Erikson doesn’t make clear why certain issues are dealt with early in development and others are delayed. Erikson also doesn’t explain why transitions from one stage to the next happen. Can Geert fills these gaps.
Sequence of stages guided by 3 developmental trends:
- Inward orientation to the self gradually replaces an outward orientation to the world
- We move from using very general categories in understanding the world to more specific ones
- We move from operating with limited ideas of social and emotional experiences to more inclusive ideas
Kotre’s extension to Erikson’s theory
Erikson’s theory is too broad to capture the essence of adulthood. Adults experience many opportunities to express Generativity that are not equivalent and don’t lead to a general stage. Sees Generativity as a set of impulses felt at different times in different settings.
5 types of Generativity:
- Bio and parental Generativity
- Technical Generativity
- Cultural Generativity
- Agentic Generativity
- Communal Generativity
Biological and parental generativity
Raising children
Technical Generativity
Passing on specific skills from one generation to another
Cultural Generativity
Being a mentor
Agentic Generativity
Desire to do something that transcends death
Communal Generativity
Participation in mutual, interpersonal reality
Himacheck’s extensjon to Erikson’s theory
Provides behavioural and attitudinal descriptors of Erikson’s last 3 stages. The descriptors are meant to create a series of continua of possibilities for individual development. This reflects the fact that few people have an exclusive orientation to either intimacy or isolation, but more commonly show some combo of the two. These behavioural and attitudinal descriptors provide a framework for researchers who need to operationalize Erikson’s concepts
McAdams’ model
One of the best empirically based efforts to describe Generativity. Shows how Generativity results from the complex interconnections bw societal and inner forces.
These interconnections create concern for the next generation and a belief in the goodness of the human enterprise, leading to generative commitment, which includes generative actions.
Person derives personal meaning from being generative by constructing a life story or narration, which helps create the person’s identity.
Includes generative concern and generative action.
Although they can be expressed by adults of all ages, certain types of Generativity are more common at some ages. Middle aged show greater preoccupation with Generativity and have more generative commitments. This is associated with effective parenting and socialization of adolescents.
There is emerging evidence of Generativity in teenagers and young adults and the important role that adults have in fostering this development.
According to mcadams, more generative themes in 20 year olds were associated with their parents’ what 3 things?
- Autonomy-encouraging practices
- Their emphasis on caring in family stories
- Their authoritative parenting style
According to mcadams, what individual factors were associated with generative theme usage at age 20?
- Prosocial reasoning
2, volunteering behaviour
Loevinger’s theory (stages not included)
The ego is the chief organizer. The ego integrates our morals, values, goals and thought processes. Because this integration is so complex and influenced by personal experiences, it’s the primary resource of individual differences of all ages beyond jnfancy. Includes ego development
Loevinger’s 6 stages of ego development
- Conformist
- Conscientious-conformist
- Conscientious
- Individualistic
- Autonomous
- Integrated
Conformist stage of ego development
Obedience of external social rules
Conscientious conformist stage of ego development
Separation from norms and goals. Realization that acts affect others.
Conscientious stage of ego development
Beginning of self-evaluated standards
Individualistic stage of ego development
Recognition that the process of acting is more important than the outcome
Autonomous stage of ego development
Respect for each person’s individuality, tolerance for ambiguity
Integrated stage of ego development
Resolution of inner conflicts
At each stage of ego development, Loevinger’s identified what 4 areas important to developmental progression?
- Character development
- Interpersonal style
- Conscious preoccupations
- Cognitive style
Character development
Reflecting a person’s standards and goals
Interpersonal style
Reflecting a oerson’s pattern of relations with others
Conscious preoccupations
Reflecting the most important things on the person’s mind
Cognitive style
Reflecting the characteristic way in which the person thinks
Sentence completion test
Developed by Loevinger to provide a measure of her ideas about ego development. Consists of sentence fragments that respondents complete. Scored in terms of the ego developmental level they represent
Examine the research evidence for Loevinger’s stages
Ego level was the best predictor of social judgments by adolescents and young, middle aged, and older adults about negative outcomes in interpersonal relationships
Ego level was strong predictor of coping strategies used across life span from childhood to old age.
Are related increases in ego level associated with higher levels of social reasoning or with more mature coping styles
Evidence for midlife crisis
Difficult issues like one’a own mortality and inevitable aging are supposed to be faced. BehVioural changes like buying sports car. Middle aged men reported intense internal struggles like depression
Evidence against midlife crisis
May be the case that those who experience crisis may be those who are suffering from general problems of psychopathology.
Women in their 20s were more likely to be uncertain and dissatisfied than women in midlife. Middle aged women rarely mentioned normative developmental milestones, but instead events like divorce and job transfers.
Berkeley studies found that middle aged men said their careers were more satisfying. Men and women more confident, insightful, introspective, open, and better equipped to handle stressful situations
Midlife crisis accepted bc of mass media.
Labuvie and Diehl’s view of midlife crisis
There is a reorganization of the self and values across the adult life span. People in middle adulthood show the most complex understanding of self, emotions, and motivations.
Thus, a midlife crisis may be the result of general gains in cognitive complexity from early to middle adulthood.
Well educated women who reported regrets about adopting traditional feminine role and subsequently made adjustments in midlife better off than those who didn’t make adjustments.
Rather than midlife crisis, more appropriate to think of it as a midlife correction
McAdams’ life story model (don’t include the stages)
Person’s sense of identity can’t be understood using the language of dispositional traits or personal concerns. People create life story that is an internalized narrative. The life story has it’s roots in the development of one’a earliest attachments in infancy
7 essential features of the life story
- Narrative tone
- Image
- Theme
- Ideological setting
- Nuclear episodes
- Character
- Ending
Narrative tone
Emotional feel of the story. Ranges from bleak pessimism to blithe optimism
Image
Characteristic sights, sounds, and emotionally charged pictures, symbols and metaphors that a person incorporates
Theme
Recurrent patterns of motivational content, reflected in terms of the person repeatedly trying to attain his or her goals over time
The 2 most common themes in life stories
- Agency (power, achievement, autonomy)
2. Communion (love, intimacy, belongingness)
Ideological setting
The backdrop of beliefs and values, or the ideology a person uses to set the context for his or her actions
Nuclear episodes
Key scenes involving high symbolic high points, low points, and turning points. These episodes provide insight into scenes involving perceived change and continuity in life. People prove to themselves or others that they have either changed or remained the same by pointing to specific events that support the appropriate claim
Character
Idealizations of the self, such as dutiful mother or reliable worker.
Ending
Self is able to leave a legacy that creates new beginnings. Life stories of middle aged and old have a clear quality of giving birth to a new generation, a notion essentially identical to Generativity
Elements of family stories in childhood
Medium - reminiscence
Meaning - sharing everyday memories is relational
Metaphor - how do I behave
Coherence - narrative and social competence
Elements of family stories in adolescence
Medium - dialogue
Meaning - synthesizing different experience lays foundation for coherence
Metaphor - who am I
Coherence - coherence of identity
Elements of family stories in adulthood
Medium - prosaic (everyday events)
Meaning - relationship histories
Metaphor - what do others mean to me
Coherence - coherence across relationships
Elements of family stories in older adulthood
Medium - epochal (family history)
Meaning - family reservation
Metaphor - what does my life mean to others
Coherence - coherence across generations
Whitbourne’s identity theory
People build their own conceptions of how their lives should proceed. The result of this process is the life span construct.
2 structural components of whitbourne’s identity theory
- Scenario
2. Life story
Scenario
First structural component of whitbourne’s identity theory. Expectations for the future. Strongly influenced by age norms that define key transition points. Tagging certain expected events with a particular age or time by which we expect to complete them creates a social clock. Once you move into the positions laid out in the scenario, you begin to create a second component - life story
Life story
Second structural component of whitbourne’s identity theory. Give events personal meaning and a sense of continuity. Becomes our autobiography. What we tell others when they ask about our past. Eventually becomes over rehearsed and crystallized. Distortions occur with time and retellings which allow the person to feel that he or she was on time, rather than off time, in terms of past events in the scenario. That way, people feel better about their plans and goals and are less likely to feel a sense of failure
Assimilation
Using existing aspects of identity to handle present situations
Accommodation
Person’s willingness to let the situation determine what he or she will do
What is a negative consequence of over reliance on assimilation
Makes the person resistant to change
2 major sources of identity for whitbourne’s participants
- Loving
2. Work
Identity and experiences scale - general
Measures identity processes in adults. Whitbourne’s model has been expanded to incorporate how people adapt more generally to middle age and the aging processes. Assesses people’s use of assimilation and accommodation in forming identity in a general sense and is based on her earlier work
Kegan’s work on the development of the self-concept during adulthood
Emphasizes that personality development doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Understanding of self concept is enhanced by understanding of how it related to other dimensions of development. Extended his thinking to include mechanisms of change such as the language we use to understand or social lives. His 6 stages of development of the self correspond to the 6 stages of cognitive development
Kegan’s 6 stages of self-concept development
- Incorporative
- Impulsive
- Imperial
- Interpersonal
- Institutional
- Inter individual
How long does significant growth of the representation of the self last
Lifelong. Continues throughout adulthood
Mortimer found that self image consisted of what 4 dimensions? What do each of them mean?
- Well being (self perceptions of happiness, lack of tension and confidence)
- Interpersonal qualities (self perceptions of sociability, interest in others, openness, and warmth)
- Activity component (self perceptions of strength, competence, success, and activity)
- Unconventionality dimension (self perceptions of self as impulsive, unconventional and dreamy)
Selves that we would like to become for adults of varying ages
Young adults listed family concerns and getting started in an occupation.
Middle adults listed family concerns last. Their main issues concerned personal things like being a more loving and caring person
By ages 40-59, family issues again became most common, like being a parent who can let go of children and reaching satisfactory performance in one’s career.
For adults 60+, personal issues were most prominent, like being active and healthy for another decade and establishing satisfactory living arrangements and adjusting to retirement
Feared possible selves for adults of varying ages
All age groups listed physical issues as their most common fear.
For the younger groups, being overweight and for women, being wrinkled and unattractive when old were common mentioned.
For middle aged, fear if having Alzheimer’s disease or becoming unable to care for self were common responses.
Who is more like to have multiple possible selves - old or young?
Young
How do people see themselves as changing over time
Young and middle aged see themselves as improving with age and expecting to continue getting better in the future.
Old see themselves as having remained stable over time, but they for see decline in their future.
Describe the role of religion in the developing self
When faced with daily problems of living, old use their faith more than anything else, including family and friends, as a coping mechanism
What did older adults with little religious commitment experience
The lowest feelings of self worth
What % of people remain in the same gender role category over a 10 year period
54
