Personality

Question 1

What is Personality?

Answer 1

• consistent set of characteristics displayed over time and across situations
• characteristics that make them unique
• behavioral, emotional, and cognitive tendencies
• distinguish individuals from eachother

Question 2

What theories shape our personalities?

Answer 2

Psychodynamic
-Freud, unconscious motives
Biological
-genetic programming
Social Cognitive
-learning and social interaction

Question 3

Psychoanalytical Perspective

Answer 3

Sigmund Freud

• Discovered the unconsciousness
• Free association: give person a word and they say first thing that comes to mind, those words eventually form from unconsciousness
• Dreams and Freudian slips: go to say something neutral and say something sexual
• Iceberg analogy

Question 4

Freudian Mind

Answer 4

ID: pleasure principle, baby cries to get food
Ego: realistic principle, can’t always get what they want and realize this so try to get what they want and satisfy an urge w/o punishment
Superego: ego ideal, black and white with no middleground b/c want to be perfect

Question 5

Oral Stage

Answer 5

infancy-18m

• smoking, nail biting, talkativeness
• babies eating: if not enough food then they will form an oral fixation

Question 6

Anal Stage

Answer 6

18m-3yrs

• excessive cleanliness, cruelty, messiness
• Babies liked gaining control over bowels and bladder (potty training)
• if start training too early or are too strict about it then they become anal retentive
• if start training too late or are too lenient then they become anal expulsive

Question 7

Phallic stage

Answer 7

3-6 years

• oedipus complex: boys had castration anxiety
• electra complex/jealousy: girls had penis envy

Question 8

Latent stage

Answer 8

6yrs-puberty

• focus more on social or intellectual pursuits
• go to school

Question 9

Genital stage

Answer 9

puberty-death

• sexual relationships
• diff than phallic stage

Question 10

Defense Mechanisms

Answer 10

Repression, Regression, Projection, Displacement

Question 11

Repression

Answer 11

Urge or any anxiety that is socially unacceptable–push it down into our unconsciousness

Question 12

Regression

Answer 12

Regress to an earlier stage

Homesicknesses: want to regress to a simpler time

Question 13

Projection

Answer 13

Don’t like characteristic about yourself so push it onto someone else
Ex) cheating: if you’re cheating you lash out on partner and accuse them of cheating

Question 14

Displacement

Answer 14

Take urge and find way to satisfy it in a more socially acceptable way
Ex) get yelled at by boss- can’t yell back so you yell at family at home

Question 15

Model of the Jungian Psyche

Answer 15

Ego (more complex than Freud)
-personality: thinking, feeling, intuition, sensation
Unconscious broken into 2 parts:
-personal unconscious, similar to ID
-collective unconscious, innate tendencies that influence behavior

Question 16

Jung: Archetypes

Answer 16

Anima/animus: representations of personality come through dreams
Shadow: characteristics we hide
Self: characteristics coming together
Personal: characteristics you show people as a mask
-Mother,father,hero,trickster,child,wise old man
-Represented in many myths, legends, fairytales

Question 17

Jung & Personality

Answer 17

"Principle of opposites"
-each pair are opposites and we favor one over the other
  intro/extroversion
  thinking/feeling
  sensing/intuition
  judging/perceiving
  rational/irrational
  masculine/feminine

Question 18

Birth Order & Personality

Answer 18

Sulloway
1st born: high level of responsibility, more dominant
Mid-born: “black sheep”, misfit, more likely to get into trouble
Later-born: social, outgoing, self-conscious

Question 19

Gender & Personality

Answer 19

Women
-higher social conectedness
-more empathic and nurturing
-higher score of neuroticism (measures anxiety and depression)
Men
-higher individuality
-lower neuroticism (social pressure stunted men into not having emotions)

Question 20

Culture & Personality

Answer 20

• each culture may praise or condemn diff characteristics
• individualists: competition
• Collectivists: cooperation
• are national character stereotypes accurate?

Question 21

Rorchadch inkblot test

Answer 21

• tells a little bit about your personality or if you have a psychological disorder
• ambiguous figures + clinical interview

Question 22

NEO-PI

Answer 22

Measures the big 5

Question 23

MMPI-2

Answer 23

• tests psychological/personality disorder

- used on police officers

Question 24

Myer-Briggs Type indicator

Answer 24

• more simple

- careers based on personality

Question 25

The Big 5 Personality Traits

Answer 25

1. Openness to experience
   - imagination and insight
2. Conscientiousness
   - thoughtfulness, impulse control, goals, civic duties
3. Extraversion
   - excitability, sociability, talkativeness, outgoing
4. Agreeableness
   - trust, altruism, prosocial behaviors, compliance & modesty
5. Neuroticism
   - emotional stability, mood, irritability, anxiety, depression

Question 26

Temperament

Answer 26

• earliest personality: either stay or change depending on how they are raised
• based on irritability, mood, attention, activity, intensity, rhythm

Question 27

What personality genes are inherited

Answer 27

Neuroticism and extroversion

Question 28

Shyness

Answer 28

10-15% of children born shy or introverted

40% of college-age students report being shy