Personality

Question 1

Personality refers to:

Answer 1

the enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed by a person in different circumstances

Question 2

Freud’s biggest contribution:

Answer 2

is the introduction of the idea that many of our wishes are UNCONSCIOUS

Question 3

Freud’s theories of personality fit four types of models:

Answer 3

(i) topographic, (ii) drive, (iii) developmental and (iv) structural model

Question 4

The topographic model argues that there are three types of mental processes:

Answer 4

(i) conscious (those that are rational, and goal directed thoughts at the centre of conscious awareness), (ii) preconscious (those that are not conscious but they can become conscious at any point in time) and (iii) unconscious (those that are irrational because they are organised around associative lines rather than by logic and outside of our conscious awareness because they have been repressed)

Question 5

Repression is useful and important because

Answer 5

because it helps avoid the emotional distress we would feel if we were consciously aware of the conflict between our wishes or psychological forces

Question 6

slips

Answer 6

Unconscious mental processes are active and so they can ‘leak’ or slip into consciousness (e.g. ‘Freudian slip’)

Question 7

The drive (or instinct) model of personality asserts that

Answer 7

there are two basic instinctual drives that motivate us to behave in the ways that we do: libido and aggression

Question 8

The developmental model states that children pass through five stages of psychosexual development:

Answer 8

i) oral, (ii) anal, (iii) phallic, (iv) latency and (v) genital

Question 9

As children pass through each of the five stages they develop both:

Answer 9

their libidinal drive as well as a realisation that there are social expectations and limits of pleasure seeking; and it is the combined development of libido and its regulation that is said to underpin the development of personality, sexuality and motivations

Question 10

libido

Answer 10

In each psychosexual stage, libido is focused on a particular part of the body known as the ‘erogenous zone’ (a region of the body that generates sexual pleasure)

Question 11

If difficulties (e.g. chronic dissatisfaction or discomfort) are experienced while a child is passing through a stage

Answer 11

they can become fixated at that stage demonstrating ‘fixations’ in adulthood (conflicts or concerns that have developed and persist beyond the psychosexual stage of development in which they difficulty initially arose)

Question 12

Stage 1

Answer 12

is the oral stage (0 – 18 months approx.); the erogenous zone is the mouth; the pleasure obtained is warmth, comfort, closeness, intimacy, etc.; attitudes about dependency on others develop during this time; fixations in adulthood manifest either as clinginess/dependency or exaggerated need for approval, nurturance and love

Question 13

Stage 2

Answer 13

is the anal stage (2 – 3 years old approx.); the erogenous zone is the anus; the pleasure obtained is warm, tactile pleasure; attitudes toward authority and compliance, order, cleanliness, control, and giving and receiving develop during this time because they begin to receive rules and message about the appropriateness of their pleasure seeking; fixations in adulthood most often manifest as being overly ordered, neat and punctual or overly messy, stubborn, and late

Question 14

Stage 3

Answer 14

is the phallic stage (4 – 6 years old approx.); the erogenous zone is the penis (but more generally, the genitals); the pleasure obtained is from touching genitals and masturbation; attitudes about one’s self (i.e. ‘self concept’) develop during this time through the process of identification (esp. with the same-sex parent); fixations in adulthood manifest as the Oedipus complex (for males) and the Electra complex and penis envy (for females)

Question 15

The Oedipus complex refers to

Answer 15

feelings of jealousy of his father because his father has an exclusive relationship with his mother (which he desires) and feelings of inferiority to the father (who’s penis is larger than his); combined with the internalised prohibition that it is ‘immoral’ to have feelings for one’s mother (incest), the boy then identifies with the father (‘to be like him’) in the hope that he will find a partner like his mother

Question 16

The Electra complex is similar to the Oedipus complex

Answer 16

in that a girl’s desires for her father are learned as ‘immoral’ and so become repressed; instead, identification with the mother occurs out of fear that she will lose her mother’s love if she expresses desires for her father

Question 17

Penis envy refers to

Answer 17

the realisation among girls that they do not have a penis like boys and as a result feel inferior to boys; it is symbolic that (gender-stereotypic) boys’ activities are more interesting and more valued than (gender-stereotypic) girls’ activities

Question 18

Stage 4

Answer 18

is the latency stage (7 – 11 years old approx.); there is no erogenous zone in this stage; the pleasure obtained is reward in the form of social approval from others for engaging in ‘asexual’ activities (e.g. school sports arts, etc.); attitudes about self-presentation in sexualised ways and interest in the pursuit of a sexual mate develop during this time; fixations in adulthood manifest as lack of gender-stereotypic self-presentation and/or lack of interest in pursuing a sexual mate

Question 19

Stage 5

Answer 19

is the genital stage (12+ years old approx.); the erogenous zone is the genitals; the pleasure obtained is genital sex; attitudes about sexuality and mature, intimate relationships develop during this time as conscious sexuality resurfaces after years of repression during the latency stage; no fixations in adulthood manifest in this stage because personality is said to have completed development by this stage; if a person has successfully passed through the other stages, they will be balanced in their love and work patterns, and they will be warm and caring people

Question 20

the structural model

Answer 20

describes conflict in terms of tension between desires (‘what we want’) and the constraints of reality (‘what we believe is moral’)

Question 21

According to the structural model, there are three mental forces or mental structures that represent the conflict:

Answer 21

(i) id (represents our desires/instinctual impulses/drive to seek pleasure; is the reservoir of our basic drives [aggression and libido]; it operates according to the ‘pleasure principle’ [seeking immediate satisfaction without consideration of the longer term ramifications]; it is characterised by primary process thinking [wishful, illogical and associative thought]); (ii) ego (represents the agent that balances our desires and morals in line with what it sees to be reality or the external world; works according to the ‘reality principle’ [the immediate desire for pleasure is counterbalanced against the reality of what the consequences might be]; is capable of secondary process thinking [rational, logical and goal directed thinking] and so is responsible for cognition, problem solving, decision making, managing emotions and finding compromises between competing demands); and (iii) super ego (represents our conscience or morals internalised from the morals of our parents during the process of identification; represents our ideals; exists to counterbalance the ‘untamed passions’ of the id)

Question 22

Defence mechanisms are

Answer 22

unconscious mental processes used during times of stress; they are a form of emotional problem-solving; they have the purpose of protecting us from unpleasant emotions (esp. anxiety) and increasing or bolstering pleasant emotions; they are common and useful

Question 23

Some of the most common defence mechanism include

Answer 23

(i) Repression (A person keeps thoughts or memories that would be too threatening to acknowledge from conscious awareness); (ii) Denial (A person refuses to acknowledge external realities or emotions e.g. anxiety); (iii) Projection (A person attributes their own unacknowledged feelings or impulses to other people); (iv) Reaction formation (A person turns unacceptable feelings or impulses into their exact opposite); (v) Sublimation (Converting sexual/aggressive impulses into socially acceptable activities); (vi) Rationalisation (A person explains away actions in a seemingly logical way to avoid uncomfortable feelings); (vii) Displacement (Directing emotions (especially anger) away from the real target and towards a substitute when the real target is too threatening or upsetting to confront directly); (viii) Regression (When a person reverts back to an earlier stage of psychological development); (ix) Passive aggression (The indirect expression of anger towards others)

Question 24

Psychodynamic theorists and psychologists have developed indirect methods of assessing the contents of the conscious; two common methods include:

Answer 24

(i) life history methods and (ii) projective tests
Life history methods are essentially in-depth and long-term case studies of a person during clinical sessions; they aim to understand the whole person in the context of their life experience and environment; one main therapeutic goal of the clinical sessions is to attain ‘insight’ into the unconscious, which occurs through dream analysis and free association
In projective tests, a person is given an ambiguous stimulus and then asked to give (or project) a meaning onto it; in providing a definition where none exists in reality, it is assumed that people will express characteristics or aspects of their (unconscious) personality
One type of projective test is the Rorschach inkblot test, where a person views a set of inkblots and is asked what they think each inkblot looks like or resembles; another type is the thematic apperception test (TAT), where participants are shown a series of ambiguous drawings with people interacting and they have to make up a story about the drawings [this test works off the assumption that the individual will eliminate the ambiguity in the pictures in ways that reflect or project their own recurring wishes, fears and ways of experiencing relationships]

Question 25

Some of the main strengths of psychodynamic theory is that it has shown the importance of:

Answer 25

(i) unconscious cognitive, emotional and motivational processes, (ii) ambivalence, conflict and compromise, (iii) childhood experiences in shaping adult interpersonal patterns, (iv) mental representations of the self, others and relationships, and (v) the development of the capacity to regulate impulses and shift from an immature dependent state in childhood to a mutually caring, interdependent stance in adulthood

Question 26

Some of the main weaknesses of psychodynamic theory is that:

Answer 26

i) there is an inadequate ability to test hypotheses about the structure of personality because the testing procedures (e.g. projective tests) are most appropriate for understanding the unconscious processes of one individual but not necessarily for predicting the behaviour of all individuals, and because of subjectivity of both the respondent and interpreter (i.e. responses can be highly variable across time) – because of this, the ‘unconscious patterns’ uncovered by projective tests cannot be easily observed by other psychologists (NB: case studies may not allow sufficient prediction of the structure of personality but they are still useful for generating hypotheses about the structure of personality); (ii) it is sexist (it reflects the view that females are seen as inferior; (iii) the role of both aggression and libido in personality development and formation may be over-emphasised; (iv) too much attention may be paid to childhood experiences over adult learning; (v) terminology is dated (so psychologists no longer think in terms of id, ego and superego, or sexual and aggressive drives, instead they think in terms of conflict, compromise, mental representation and self-esteem, and wishes and fears, respectively); and (vi) any insight obtained during therapy is not always sufficient for changing their behaviour, which questions the effectiveness of the treatment

Question 27

Cognitive-social theory

Answer 27

sees behaviour and cognition to be central components of personality, rather than instinct (or drives) and unconscious (and irrational) mental processes; thus, it is the most comprehensive alternative to psychodynamic theory because it developed from behaviourism (with an emphasis on learning over instinct) and cognitive psychology (with an emphasis on more rational thoughts such as beliefs and expectations of the self, others and the external world)

Question 28

Some of the main strengths of social-cognitive theory are

Answer 28

that it is testable through experimentation (minimising subjectivity), it is non-sexist and it accounts for learning acquired in adulthood

Question 29

Some of the main weaknesses of social-cognitive theory are

Answer 29

that it underestimates the emotional, motivational and irrational forces that contribute to behaviour and beliefs/expectations because it overestimates the tendency for people to know what they want, feel and think

Question 30

Trait theories are:

Answer 30

(i) descriptions of the characteristics of individual people and (ii) descriptions of the underlying disposition of characteristics on which all people can vary (in other words: traits are the emotional, cognitive and behavioral tendencies of individual people that have arisen from an underlying personality dimension that people can vary on)

Question 31

Two important trait theories are:

Answer 31

(i) Eysenck’s theory and (ii) the five factor model
Eysenck’s theory asserts that individuals produce specific behaviours; some of these behaviours are habitual; some habits can be grouped into traits if they are similar to (or correlated with) one another; some traits can be grouped into super-traits (or types) if they are similar to (or correlated with) one another; there are only three super-traits or types of personality dimensions on which all people can vary (these cannot be grouped together): (i) extroversion-introversion (extroversion –the tendency for people to appear sociable, active and willing to take risks; introversion – the tendency for people to appear socially inhibited, serious and cautious); (ii) neuroticism-emotional stability (neuroticism – the tendency for people to appear anxious, guilty, tense, moody and low self esteem; emotional stability is the opposite of neuroticism); and (iii) psychoticism-impulse control (psychoticism – the tendency for people to appear aggressive, egocentric, impulsive and anti social; impulse control – the tendency for people to appear empathic and able to control their impulses)
The five factor model asserts that there are five (rather than three) basic dimensions (‘superordinate’ traits) along which people vary, and which are associated with correlated ‘facets’ (or specific traits): OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism)

Question 32

Strength of Trait Theory

Answer 32

Research shows substantial evidence to suggest that the five factors occur cross-culturally

Question 33

One main problem with trait theories is that

Answer 33

our traits (i.e. emotional, cognitive and behavioural tendencies) are not always consistent over time and in different situations; thus, trait theories at best predict what some people will do some of the time. This is because traits interact with situational factors so that particular traits are expressed in particular situations

Question 34

(i) id

Answer 34

(represents our desires/instinctual impulses/drive to seek pleasure; is the reservoir of our basic drives [aggression and libido]; it operates according to the ‘pleasure principle’ [seeking immediate satisfaction without consideration of the longer term ramifications]; it is characterised by primary process thinking [wishful, illogical and associative thought]);

Question 35

(ii) ego

Answer 35

(represents the agent that balances our desires and morals in line with what it sees to be reality or the external world; works according to the ‘reality principle’ [the immediate desire for pleasure is counterbalanced against the reality of what the consequences might be]; is capable of secondary process thinking [rational, logical and goal directed thinking] and so is responsible for cognition, problem solving, decision making, managing emotions and finding compromises between competing demands);

Question 36

(iii) super ego

Answer 36

(represents our conscience or morals internalised from the morals of our parents during the process of identification; represents our ideals; exists to counterbalance the ‘untamed passions’ of the id)