Personality Flashcards
Define personality
Personality is a unique and consistent group of attributes that determines how a person will think, feel and behave, alone and with others
They are a relatively consistent group of characteristics that grow from birth to adulthood
Name three different theories
Sigmund Freud’s theory
Carl rogers’ humanistic theory
Hans Eysenck theory
Other: Type theories
Freud’s theory
He believed that personality is created due to internal conflicts in the mind and how a person resolves this.
3 components of the brain (Freud’s theory)
Conscious mental processes:
- thoughts that we are aware of
- ideas and thoughts are constantly flowing in and out of our conscious minds
Preconscious mental processes:
- not conscious thoughts but they can become conscious when accessed in response to cues
Unconscious mental processes
- inaccessible to our consciousness and we cannot become aware of them
- these have been repressed as they are too upsetting
Structure of personality
The 3 parts are in constant conflict with each other and determine all human behaviour and shapes our personality.
Id (pleasure principle):
Biological need to help us survive (eg. Hunger, sleep etc…)
Ego (reality principle): mediator
Develops through growing up
Understand how the real world operates
Superego (moral principle):
- our conscience
- judges our thoughts, feelings and actions according to morals and ideals of the society
- aims for perfection
What are Defence mechanisms
Defence mechanisms are used to act against anxiety
Eg. Denial
Refusing to believe whatever that is causing the anxiety
Repression
Preventing unacceptable thoughts from entering conscious awareness, therefore preventing anxiety
Rationalisation
Making up a socially acceptable explanation to justify unacceptable thoughts, feelings or behaviours
Fantasy
Fulfilling unconscious wishes or impulse by imagining them in activities
5 Psychosexual stages
Oral Anal Phallic Latent Genetial
- Personality is virtually formed by the age of 5 or 6
- Personality development is sequential and progresses through 5 stages
What are some strengths of freud’s theory
Some agree that adult personality is significantly influence by experiences in early life
What are some criticisms of freud’s theory.
- Personality development does not proceed in age stages
- Freud focused too much on the road of sexuality in personality
What is Rogers humanistic theory?
He believed we are all born good and people strive to reach their full potential throughout their lives (self actualising)
Strengths of rogers theory
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Gives a complete, but not accurate picture of how the healthy personality develops, which fills in the gaps of other theories
Criticisms of rogers theory
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- It encourages self fulfilment
- unrealistic in its view of the world as it doesn’t recognise the capacity for someone to be evil
What is Eysenck trait theory?
He believed that learned habits were important but he also believed that personality differences are based on our genetics.
His theory suggests that we have dimensions to our personality and that some people have ‘more’ or ‘less’ of each trait than others.
What does PEN stand for?
P- psychoticism: personality that is prone engage in psychopathic behaviour
E- extraversion: outgoing and very social behaviour
N- neuroticism : nervous or anxious behaviour
Criticisms of trait theory
Eysenck’s theory states personality traits remain constant- it does not explain why traits change over time
