Personality Flashcards
1
Q
Personality
A
describes the set of thoughts, feelings, traits, and behaviors that are characteristic of an individual across time and different locations
2
Q
What are the 4 categories that personality theories fall into?
A
- psychoanalytic (psychodynamic)
- humanistic (phenomenological)
- type and trait
- behaviorist
3
Q
Psychoanalytic Perspective of Personality
A
- share common assumption of unconscious internal states that motivate the overt actions of individuals and determine personality
- includes theories from: Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney
4
Q
Freud’s Theory
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- Behavior is motivated by inborn instincts*
- theory of personality included 3 major entities: id, ego, superego
5
Q
Id
A
- consists of all the basic + primal + inborn urges to survive and reproduce
- functions according to pleasure principle – aim is to achieve immediate gratification to relieve any pent-up tension
6
Q
Primary Process
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- id’s response to frustration
- decides if going to obtain satisfaction now or later
7
Q
Wish Fulfillment
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- part of Id
- mental imagery (daydreaming, fantasy) that fulfills the need for satisfaction
8
Q
Ego
A
- helps reduce tension on a permanent basis
- organizer of the mind – receives its power from the id
- responsible for moderating the desires of the superego
- operates according to the reality principle – takes objective reality into account to guide the activity of the id
9
Q
Secondary Process
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- part of ego
- postpones the pleasure principle until satisfaction can be obtained
10
Q
Superego
A
- ideal self, personality’s perfectionist
- judging actions and responding with pride at accomplishments and guilt at failures
- divided into 2 subsystems
11
Q
What are the two subsystems of the superego?
A
- conscious: collection of improper actions for which a child is punished
- ego-ideal: proper actions for which a child is rewarded
12
Q
What are the 3 categories that the id, ego, and superego fall into?
A
- conscious: thoughts to which we have conscious access
- preconscious: thoughts we aren’t currently aware of
- unconscious: thoughts that have been repressed
13
Q
Instincts
A
- innate psychological representation of a biological need
- propelling aspects of Freud’s theory of personality and fall into 2 categories
14
Q
What are Freud’s two categories of instinct?
A
- Eros: life instincts that promote individuals quest for survival
- Thanatos: death instincts that represent unconscious wish for death and destruction
15
Q
Defense Mechanisms
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- ego’s recourse for relieving anxiety caused by the clash of the id and superego
- all share 2 common characteristics: deny/falsify/distort reality, operate unconsciously
16
Q
What are Freud’s 8 defense mechanisms?
A
- repression
- suppression
- regression
- reaction formation
- projection
- rationalization
- displacement
- sublimation
17
Q
Repression
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- unconsciously removing an idea or feeling from consciousness
- Ex. man survived 6 months in concentration camp but cannot recall anything about his life during that period
18
Q
Suppression
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- consciously removing an idea or feeling from consciousness
- Ex. terminally ill cancer patient puts aside his anxiety to enjoy time with family
19
Q
Regression
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- returning to an earlier stage of development
- Ex. husband speaks to wife in a baby talk when telling her bad news
20
Q
Reaction Formation
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- an unacceptable impulse is transformed into its opposite
- Ex. two coworkers fight all the time because they are actually very attracted to each other; a man who is secretly gay acts extremely homophobic when he is with others
21
Q
Projection
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- attribution of wishes, desires, thoughts, or emotions to someone else
- Ex. man who committed adultery is convinced his wife i cheating on him despite no evidence
22
Q
Rationalization
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- justification of attitudes, beliefs or behaviors
- Ex. murderer claims that while killing is wrong, his victim deserved it
23
Q
Displacement
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- changing the target of an emotion, while the feelings remain the same
- Ex. child sent to his room as a punishment and begins to kick his pillow
24
Q
Sublimation
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- channeling of an unacceptable impulse in a socially acceptable direction
- managing your urges by doing something productive
- Ex. boss who is attracted to his employee becomes her mentor and advisor; sports put our emotions (ex. aggression) into something constructive
25
Carl Jung
* Person's conduct is governed by inborn archetypes*
- emphasized interpersonal, sociological, and cultural influences while maintaining their link with psychoanalytic tradition
- identified the ego as the conscious mind and dived the unconscious mind into two types
26
What are Carl Jung's two types of unconscious?
- personal unconscious: like Freud's unconscious
| - collective unconscious: residue of the experiences of early ancestors
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Archetypes
- underlying forms/concepts that give rise to archetypal images which may differ between cultures
- includes: persona, anima, animus, shadow
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Persona
- the aspect of our personality that we present to the world
| - adaptive to social interactions
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Anima
- feminine behaviors in men
| - a man's "inner woman"
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Animus
- masculine behaviors in women
| - a woman's "inner man"
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Shadow
responsible for appearance of unpleasant and socially reprehensible thoughts/feelings/actions in our consciousness
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Self
- part of Jung's theory
- point of intersection between the collective conscious, personal unconscious, and conscious mind
- reconciler of opposites and promoter of harmony
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What are Jung's 3 dichotomies of personality?
- extraversion vs intraversion
- sensing (obtaining objective information about the world) vs intuiting (working with information abstractly)
- thinking vs feeling
34
What did Jung's work lay the foundation for?
-Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (contains Jung's 3 dichotomies of personality in addition to judging vs perceiving)
35
Alfred Adler
* Striving for superiority drives personality*
| - theory focused on immediate social imperatives of family and society and their effects on unconscious factors
36
Inferiority Compelx
- part of Adler's theory
| - individual's sense of incompleteness/imperfection/inferiority both physically and socially
37
Creative Self
- part of Adler's theory
| - force by which each individual shapes their uniqueness and establishes their personality
38
Style of Life
- part of Adler's theory
| - represents manifestations of the creative self and describes a person's unique way of achieving superiority
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Fictional Finalism
- part of Adler's theory
- human goals are based on the subjective/fictional estimate of life's values rather than objective data from the past
- "Life would be perfect if only..."
40
Karen Horney
personality is a result of interpersonal relationships
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Neurotic Needs
- part of Horney's theory
- there are 10 needs that govern individuals with neurotic personalities (people with this personality have mood disorders)
- directed towards making life and interactions bearable
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Basic Anxiety
- Horney's primary concept
| - inadequate parenting causes vulnerability and helplessness
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Basic Hostility
- one of Horney's concepts
| - created when parents neglect and reject child
44
Object Relations Theory
- falls under realm of psychodynamic theories of personality
- object refers to representation of parents/caregivers based on subjective experiences during early infancy
- objects persist into adulthood and impact our interactions with others
45
Humanistic Perspective of Personality
- perspective that focuses on the value of individuals and takes a person-centered approach
- personality is the result of the conscious feelings we have for ourselves as we attempt to attain our needs/goals
46
Gestalt Therapy
- comes from humanistic perspective
- practitioners take a holistic view of the self and see each individual as a complete person not just their behaviors/drives
47
Kurt Lewin's Force Field Theory
- humanistic perspective
- doesn't focus on constraints in personalities (fixed traits, habits, structures) or the past/future, but instead focused on situations in the present
- defined the field as one's current state of mind which was the sum of the forces on the individual at that time
48
What perspective does Maslow fall under?
humanistic perspective
49
Peak Experiences
- defined by Maslow
- found in individuals that are self-actualized
- profound and deeply moving experiences in a person's life that have important and lasting effects to that individual
50
George Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology
- humanistic perspective
- set aside traditional concepts of motivation, unconscious emotion, and reinforcement
- though of individual as a scientist --person who devises and tests predictions about the behavior of significant people in their life
- said an anxious person has difficulty constructing and understanding variables in the environment
- believed psychotherapy was a processes where an individual acquires new constructs that will allow them to predict troublesome events
51
Carl Roger's Person-Centered/Nondirective Therapy
- humanistic perspective
- believed people have freedom to control their own behavior and are not slaves to the unconscious nor subjects of faulty learning
- therapist helps client reflect on problems, make choices, generate solutions, take positive action and determine their own destiny
- pioneered the concept of unconditional positive regard
52
Unconditional Positive Regard
- pioneered by Carl Roger
- therapeutic technique by which the therapist accepts the client completely and expresses empathy in order to promote a positive environment
53
Type Theorists Perspective of Personality
-attempt to create a taxonomy of personality
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Trait Theorists Perspective of Personality
- describe individual personality as the sum of a person's characteristic behaviors
- use clusters of behaviors to describe individuals
55
Ancient Greek Personality Types
- personality types based on humors (body fluids)
- each humor was correlated with an element, an imbalance could lead to different personalities: blood (impulsive and charismatic), bile (aggressive and dominant), black bile (depressive and cautious), phlegm (relaxed and affectionate)
56
What personality perspective does the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory fall under?
type theory
57
Eysencks PEN Model
- falls under trait theory
- grouped behaviors into 3 groups (PEN):
(1) Psychoticism: measure of nonconformity of social deviance
(2) Extraversion: measure of tolerance for social interaction/stimulation
(3) Neuroticism: measure of emotional arousal in stressful situations
58
What are the Big Five Traits of Personality?
* OCEAN*
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
59
Gordon Allport
- trait theorist
| - listed 3 basic types of traits: cardinal, central, secondary
60
Cardinal Traits
- traits around which a person organizes their life
| - Ex. mother teresa's cardinal trait would be self-sacrifice
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Central Traits
- represent major characteristics of the personality that are easy to infer
- Ex. honesty, charisma
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Secondary Traits
- other personal characteristics that are more limited in occurrence
- aspects of one's personality that only appear in close groups or specific social situations
63
Functional Autonomy
- major part of Allport's theory
- behavior continues despite satisfaction of the drive that originally created the behavior
- Ex. hunter began hunting to obtain food to eat but even when there was enough food the hunter continued to hunt for the enjoyment of it -- that which began as a means to obtain a goal became the goal itself
64
David McClelland
- identified a personality trait that is referred to as the need for achievement (N-Ach)
- people with high N-Ach are concerned with achievement and have pride in their accomplishments; they avoid high risks and low risks; set realistic goals
65
Behaviorist Perspective of Personality
- championed by B.F. Skinner
- based heavily on concepts of operant conditioning
- personality is a reflection of behaviors that have been reinforced over time
- therapy focuses on learning skills and changing behaviors via operant conditioning
- use of token economies during therapy (exchange tokens for prize)
66
Social Cognitive Perspective of Personality
- focuses on how our environment influences behavior and on how we interact with that environment
- central idea to this perspective is Reciprocal Determinism
- locus of control is another important concept of this theory
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Reciprocal Determinism
- the idea that our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and environment interact with each other to determine our actions in a given situation
- people choose environments that suit their personalities and their personalities determine how they will feel about/react to events in that environment
68
What is a social cognitive theorist's best predictor of future behavior?
past behavior in similar situations
69
Biological Perspective of Personality
- personality is explained as a result of genetic expression in the brain
- closely linked to trait perspectives --believe many traits can be shown to result from genes or differences in brain anatomy
