Personality Flashcards
Personality
Thoughts behaviors emotions that are stable over time and across circumstances
Personality traits
Characteristics of a person
- sub categories
- dispositional tendency to act a certain way over time
- motivatiob
- pre-existing disposition
Pre-existing disposition
- causes of behavior that reliably trigger that behavior
- traits are an inner property
- personality tests
Self report
Questions that help determine a persons own behavior or mental state
Studying Personality
- psychodynamic theories
- humanistic approach
- social cognitive approach
- type and trait approach
Components of the psychodynamic approach
- Freud
- unconscious influence on personality
- Id=pleasure center
- super ego=dictates from society; tension between seeking pleasure and harsh judgement of society
- ego=mediates between the 2
- conscious defense mechanism
Minnesota multiphastic personality inventory (MMPI-2)
- Clinical questionnaire
- Assess personality and psychological problems
- measures tendency towards clinical problems
- type of self report
Evaluating personality
- MMPI-2
- self report
- Rorschach ink blot test
- TAT
Projective techniques
- ambiguous stimuli
- less censored responses
- reveal more about life than direct questioning of fear
- ie Rorschach anD TAT
Rorschach ink blot test
- person interprets ink blot
- reveal inner feelings
- interpret personality structure
Thematic apperception test (TAT)
- create stories about pictures of ambiguous people
- reveal underlying motives
Controversy with projective tests
- are they reliable?
- examiner add interpretation
Motivation
- traits reflect motives
- ie hunger motive, go to snack bar
- issue projective tests
Search for core traits
- traits classified using adjectives-organized in heirarchal power
- factor analysis
- big 5
Factor analysis
Sort traits items into small dimensions
- based on how people use traits to rate themselves
- detect similarities and differences
Big 5 dimensions of personality; 5 factor model
CANOE
- conscientiousness
- agreeableness
- neuroticism
- openness to experience
- extroversion
- universal
Biological basis of personality
- rooted in genetics
- temperament evident in infancy
- twin study
- adoption
Twin study
-identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins
-heritability
C 44%
A 41%
N 41%
O 61%
E 53%
Adoption
- personalities are unrelated to parents
- behaviors are shaped by environment
Temperments evident in infancy
- activity level
- emotional level
- sociability
- shy children are “inhibited”
Traits in the brain
-2 theories: eynsek and gray
Eynsek’s theory about extraversion/intraversion and beyroticism
- extroversion is most related to neurophysiological mechanisms
- variation in alertness (ie extroverts seek out social interaction, introverts avoid)
- over/under stimulation of reticular formation
Grays theory for extroversion/intraversion an neuroticism
- 2 brain systems are responsible for extraversion and neuroticism
- behavioral activation system: go system seeking social reinforcement
- behavioral inhibition system: stop system; focus on negative outcomes
Arousal and extroversion/intraversion
-theory: diffs I cortical arousal
Psychodynamic approach
- personality is formed by needs, strivings and desires that the person is unaware of -motives that can produce emotional disorders
- dynamic unconscious
Dynamic unconscious
- active system
- lifetime of hidden memories
- deepest instincts and desires
- persons inner struggle to control these forces
Memory suppression-brain activity
Decreased hippocampal activity
Defense mechanisms
Unconscious coping mechs that reduce anxiety
- rationalization
- reaction formation
- projection
- regression
- displacement
- identification
- sublimation
- denial
- repression
Rationalization
Find reason for feelings
-conceal oneself from underlying feelings
Reaction formation
Express exaggerate version of opposite of unconformtable thoughts (ie homosexual)
Projection
Projecting our own dislikes about ourselves on other people
ie people who think they are dishonest judge other people as having those qualities
Regression
Reverting to immature behavior or earlier stage of development
-ie whining, baby talk
Displacement
Shift negative emotion to something else
-ie slam door
Identification
Take on characteristics of someone who is better able to cope
-ie child bullying other people if parent bullies them
Sublimation
Channeling socially unacceptable desires into enhancing activities
-ie football to channel aggression
Denial
It’s not happening
Repression
Trying not to remember unpleasant things
Topographical model of the mind
- Freud
- bottom to top: unconscious–>pre conscious–>conscious
- psychotherapist retrieves unconscious via hypnosis and dream analysis
Freud decreases in popularity
-coined term “penis envy”
That’s why women were coming to see him
-social status, inferiority
-penis as a phallic symbol
Psychosexual stages and devel of personality
Early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasures from specific body areas
- Oral
- Anal
- Phallic
- Oedipus
- Latency
- Genital
Fixation
Pleasure seeking drive gets stuck at psychosexual phase
Oral stage
Pleasure centers in mouth
- 0-18 mo
- areas of conflict with caregiver: feeding, weaning
- personality features: talkative, needy
Anal stage
- 2-3 years
- anus/urethra
- conflict: toileting
- personality: orderly, controlled, sloppy
Phallic stage
- 3-5 years
- penis/clitoris
- masturbation; Oedipus conflict
- personality: flirtatious; vain, jealous, competitive
Humanistic-existential approach
“you are your own expert”
- focus on how healthy choices create personality
- positive view of human nature
- goodness and potential for growth
- individual negotiates meaning and reality of life and death
Latency
- 5-13 yrs
- further development
Self actualization tendency
Motivation to realize their inner potential
- flow: only focus on this one activity and lose focus on everything else
- we are motivated to be in a positive flow state
- existential approach
Genital stage
- adulthood
- penis, vagina
- conflict: adult responsibilities
- personality: investments in love and work; adult relationships
Existential approach
- personality is governed by someone’s choices and decisions in the context of realities of life and death
- angst: find meaning of life and death
- deal with issues instead of using defenses
Narrative approach
Understanding people’s Personalities through their life stories
Hierarchy of needs
- Maslow
- basic needs satisfied, then pursue higher needs, culminate in self-actualization
Self actualization
The need to be good, fully alive and to find the meaning of life
Social cognitive approach
- views personality in terms of how person thinks about situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them
- person situation controversy
Person situation controversy
Is behavior caused by situational factors or personality?
Eynsek 3 “super ordinate” personality traits
- Emotional stability vs instability (neuroticism)
- Extroversion vs intraversion
- Psyhoticism (impulsivity/aggression)
Sensation seeking scale
Getting a sense of what people enjoy/what they are willing to do
Personal constructs
Dimensions people use to make sense of experiences
Outcome expectancies
A persons assumptions about the likely consequences of a future behavior
Locus of control
Questionnaire that measures a persons tendency to perceive the control of rewards as internal to the self or external in the environment
- control own destiny: internal locus
- outcomes are random: external locus
Sensation seeking (zuckerman)
- correlated with extraversion
- compulsion component
- dopamine might be involved
Self concept
A persons explicit knowledge of his or her own behaviors, traits and other personal characteristics
- develops from social experiences
- profound effect on persons behavior
- autobiographical memory
- self-narrative
- self schemas
- self relevance
Self verification
Tendency to seek evidence that confirms self concept
-it’s uncomfortable when people see us differently than we see purselves
Causes and effects of self concept
- interacting with others
- ie young children interacting with parents
- over time we become less impressed with what others have to say about us
- main idea: promote consistency in behavior
- self verification
Self esteem
Extent to which the individual likes/accepts the self
-rosenberg self esteem scale
Self-serving bias
People taking credit for their success but downplay responsibility for their failures
Narcissism
Grandiose view of the self combined with tendency to seek admiration and exploit others
Name-letter effect
People’s favorite letter tends to be the first letter of their name
-bias is called implicit egotism
Examples of traits
- self efficacy-effective in our own environment
- optimism/pessimism-glass full/empty
- type A (organized, motivated); type B (laid back, relaxed)
- neuroticism
- hardiness-strong rebound
- shyness
- narcissism
- stress-reactiity
Filtering personality traits
External stress–>filter stress through personality
- some traits are health promoting, others are health inhibiting
- reaction depends on personality
