Personality Flashcards
Personality
Enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behavior that are expressed in different circumstances
What do the different perspectives on personality all highlight
what is thought to be the central components of personality, motives, thoughts, feelings, traits, and behavior
What are the three types of mental processes in Freud’s topographical model?
Conscious processes, pre conscious processes, unconscious processes
What are conscious processes?
goal directed thoughts (Self awareness)
What are pre conscious processes?
Those that are under the threshold of consciousness though can be called upon by awareness.
What are unconscious processes?
irrational thoughts that are not logical though organized by associations, not accessible by consciousness. Have been supressed by consciousness to avoid distress.
What is ambivalence?
conflicting feelings or motives that can play an important part in out lives.
What is Freud’s Drive Model
Humans are motivated by two drives:
Aggressive drive
Sexual (libido) drive
Libido has a wider meaning according to Freud - Pleasure seeking and sensuality as well as desire for intercourse
What is conflict?
A battle between conflicting motives that plays out in our lives.
What are the stages of Freud’s Developmental Model?
Oral stage - 0-18 months - world explored through infants mouths
Anal stage - 2-3 years - conflicts with parents - association of pleasure with the anus
Phallic stage - 4-6 years - interest develops in the genitals - Oedipus complex - penis envy
Latency stage - 7-11 years - repression of sexual impulses - identification with same sex parent - asexual state
Genital stage - 12 - beyond - conscious sexuality returns after years of supression
What is the Oedipus complex
Boys want an exclusive relationship with their mothers and girls want an exclusive relationship with their fathers.
What comprises the structural model?
id - instinctive desires, store of sexual and aggressive energy, primary process thinking, ruled by pleasure principle
ego - balances what the id wants with what it can realistically get, juggles conflict between id and superego.
superego - the parent or moral guardian, in conflict with the id,
What is a defence mechanism?
An unconscious mental process that protects a conscious person from unpleasant emotions
Repression
a mechanism that prevents desires getting into our conscious mind
Denial
the unconscious mind refuses to acknowledge the reality of something
Projection
Where you don’t acknowledge one aspect of yourself though see the same desire in another person
Reaction formation
Where you go to extreme lengths to engage in the opposite behaviour to what you really desire yourself
Sublimation
converting sexual or aggressive impulses into socially acceptable activities
Ratiionalisation
Explaining actions in a logical way to avoid uncomfortable feelings like guilt or shame
Displacement
The direction of emotions away from the real target to another object or person.
Regression
When under considerable stress an individual may revert to an earlier psychological state
Passive aggression
the indirect expression of anger directed towards others
Object Relations Theories
Enduring patterns of behaviour in intimate relationships and the motivational, cognitive, and affective processes that produce those patterns
Major tests to asses unconscious patterns?
Life history methods
Projective tests
What are the processes in the cognitive-social model?
Encoding Personal Values and Goals Expectancies Competences Self regulation
Encoding
The personal constructs of individuals, experiencing the world differently
Personal value and goals
The importance that we attach to outcomes or potential outcomes
Expectancies
Behaviour outcome expectancy, a specific behaviour will lead to a specific outcome
Competences
Skills and abilities to solve problems
What is a trait?
emotional, cognitive, and behavioural tendencies that constitute underlying personality dimensions on which individuals can vary
What are the three overreaching psychological traits according to Eysenck?
Extroversion - Introversion
Neuroticism - emotional stability
Psychoticism - Impulse Control
What traits make up the big five?
Openness Conscientiousness Extroversion Agreeableness Neuroticism
What are the core assumptions of Rogers person cantered approach?
Humans are good by nature
Self concept - organised patterns of thought about oneself that can diverge from the ideal self
Humans have multiple selves, true, false, ideal
What is existentialism?
Philosophy that focused on the subjective experience - systematic investigation of the nature of human existence with priority to the experiences of aloneness, death, and moral responcibility - humans create there world
Heritabiility
The proportion of variance in a particular trait that is due to genetic influences - some traits have a greater heritability that others.
