Personality Flashcards
What is personality
Often conceptualised as a cluster of traits
What are traits?
Relatively stable and long-lasting tendencies that influence behaviour across environments
What does nomothetic mean?
Understanding individual differences in particular personality characteristics
What does ideographic mean?
Understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole
What was Freuds psychodynamic Approach to personality
There were three core assumptions:
- Psychic determinism: our underlying drives and complex shape our behaviour
- Symbolic meaning: our actions reveal our underlying drives
- Unconscious motivation: we are mostly unaware of our motivations
What are Freudian slip’s
Parapraxis: error in speech memory or physical action believed to be caused by the unconscious mind
Psychological conflict bubbling to the surface: thoughts are unconsciously repressed and then unconsciously released
What is Freuds topographic model?
Iceberg analogy
There are three main types of mental processes
1. Conscious: rational, goal directed, centre of awareness
2. Preconscious: could become conscious at any given time
3. Unconscious: irrational, not based in logic, repressed and thus in accessible however still plays a role in governing behaviour
What is freuds drive (instinct) model?
Based on Darwin’s work - suggests human behaviour is motivated by 2 drives
- aggressive drive
- sexual drive
What is freuds psychosexual-developmental model?
Suggested that sexuality begins in infancy. He further maintain that the extent to which we resolve each stage successfully bears crucial implications for later personality development it is a five stage theory
What is the oral stage? (Psychosexual theory)
Birth-18m
Focuses on the mouth.
Sexual pleasure from sucking and drinking.
If they obtain either too much or too little gratification they will become fixated or psychologically stuck in this stage.
As adults orally fixated persons tend to react to stress by becoming intensely dependent on others for reassurance just as infants depend on their mother’s breast as a source of satisfaction
What is the anal stage (psychosexual)?
18m-3y
During this stage children have increasing control over their bodies but they learn that they are not always permitted to do what they want conflict arises over toilet training.
They have to learn that they are only able to use the bathroom in socially appropriate places
Freud believes that anally fixated individuals or anal personalities are prone to excessive neatness stinginess and stubbornness in adult hood and these traits presumably reflect a preoccupation with retaining control
What is the phallic stage? (Psychosexual)
3y-6y
During this stage the penis and the clitoris become primary sexual zones for pleasure.
Love triangle with parents.
The child wants the opposite sex parent all for him or herself and wants to eliminate the same-sex parent, when reality sets in children abandon their love the opposite sex parent and then identify with the same-sex parent and adopt their characteristics
What is the latency stage (psychosexual)
The fourth stage is the latency stage it is a period of calm following the stormy phallic stage it lasts from about 6 to 12 years sexual impulses are submerged into the unconscious
Why is the general stage (psychosexual)
Begins around the age of 12
Sexual impulses reawaken if development up to this point has proceeded without major glitches this is the stage of mature romantic relationships however if serious problems were not resolved earlier stages difficulties with establishing intimate love attachments are likely
What are the three main components to freuds structural model?
Id: biological component. our basic desires and drives (thought to operate by means of pleasure) UNCONSCIOUS
Ego: psychological component. interacts with the real world and makes decisions. The boss. (reality principle) conscious
Balances the superego and Id
Superego: social component. sense of right and wrong, directing us to behave morally. CONSCIOUS
The interplay among these three agencies gives rise to our personalities and differences in the strength of these agencies help to account the individual differences in personalities
How do the ID the ego and the super ego interact?
The interaction among the psychic agencies is occurring within all of us all the time
When they are in conflict it causes psychological distress
What are defence mechanisms?
People regulate their emotions and deal with conflicts by employing defence mechanisms
Are healthy as a temporary coping mechanism Freud claims a person lacking any defence mechanisms would be at the mercy of uncontrollable anxiety
What is the repression defence mechanism?
Memories or thoughts that are kept out of conscious awareness
What is the denial defence mechanism?
Refuse to acknowledge external reality
What is the displacement defence mechanism?
Emotions are directed towards a substitute target
What is the regression defence mechanism?
Return to an earlier stage of psychosexual development
What is the reaction formation of defence mechanisms?
Unacceptable feelings or impulses turned into opposites
Eg. Parent unconsciously resents child and spoils them
What is the rationalisation defence mechanism
Actions are explained away to avoid uncomfortable feelings
What did neo-freudians do?
Shifted the focus from sexual drives to social drives.
Suggests that personality is malleable and can change overtime.
What are behavioural approaches to personality
Differences in our personalities stem largely from learning histories
Personalities are bundles of habits acquired by classical and operant conditioning
What are cognitive-social theories?
The way people encode, process and think about information determines their personality
Social learning theory in relation to personality?
Bandura claims that we learn to be the person we are by watching other people and seeing who or what gets rewarded and what doesn’t
Internal/external locus of control
Describes the extent to which people believe that reinforces or punishers lie inside or outside of their control
Internal:
Life outcomes are under personal control
Positively correlates with self-esteem
Internals use more problem focussed coping
External:
Luck, chance and powerful others control behaviour
What are behaviour outcome expectancies?
Belief that a certain behaviour will lead to a certain outcome
What is self efficacy expectancy
Individual conviction that necessary actions can be performed to produce the desired outcome
What are competencies?
Possession of skills and abilities for solving particular problems
What is self-regulation?
Setting goals, evaluating performance and adjusting behaviour
What are humanistic approaches to personality?
Focus on aspects that are distinctly human (trying to find the meaning of life and being true to the self)
What does Maslow say about self actualisation
These people tend to be creative, spontaneous and accepting of themselves and others
Prone to peak experiences
Carl Rogers proposed self actualisation as core motive in personality
What are the major components of Rogers model of personality?
- The organism (innate)
- The self (set of beliefs around who we are)
- Conditions of worth (expectations we place on ourselves for appropriate and inappropriate behaviour they come from our parents and society and eventually we internalise them)
Can lead to incongruence between the self and the organism this means that our personalities are inconsistent with our innate dispositions we are not our true selves because we are acting in ways that are inconsistent with our genuine potential
What does Rogers model of personality say about incongruence?
Incongruence between the ideal and self concept can lead to distortions in behaviour or in the way one sees themselves
What does Rogers person centred approach attempt to do?
Attempts to understand individual phenomenological experience - the way they conceive reality and think of the world.
How were the big five personality traits uncovered
Uncovered using a lexical approach. And lexical approach proposes that the most crucial features of human personality are in bedded in our language.
Logic here is that if a personality trait is important in our daily lives it is likely that language has developed a word for it
What are the big 5 personality traits?
OCEAN
Extraversion: tend to be more social and lively
Neuroticism: tend to be tense and moody
Conscientiousness: tend to be careful and responsible
Agreeableness: tend to be friendly and easy to get along with
Openness to experience: tend to be intellectually curious and unconventional
Big 5 and cultural differences?
The factors are generally culturally universal
However open this to experiences is not supported in some Asian countries
Big 5 and gender?
Women tend to be higher than men in neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness
HEXACO?
Six dimensional model
- Honesty-humility
- Emotionality
- eXtraversion
- Agreeableness
- consciousness
- openness to experience
What is the dark triad/tetrad?
Socially undesirable traits
Narcissism -Entitlement, superiority, dominance
Machiavellianism- cynical, unprincipled, manipulative
Psychopathy -Impulsivity, thrill seeking, low empathy
Sadism - gaining pleasure or satisfaction from others misfortune/suffering, and or engaging in behaviour that harms others (added later)
Scoring her on the dark tetrad is associated with a wide range of antisocial behaviour what are some examples
Reduced empathy, sexual harassment, bullying, prejudice and aggression
Why do the traits of the dark tetrad exist
And evolutionary theory suggests that individuals make a trade off to improve survival and mating chances
Psychopathy in the workplace?
They often engage in behaviours that will promote their own success at the expense of others
For example claiming credit for others work and taking advantage of others. They are also superficially pleasant so they do well in the interview processes and don’t mind firing or making ruthless decisions
Which traits of the big five personality theory has been found in chimpanzees
Extroversion, neuroticism and agreeableness all have cross species generality
Controversy about genes and personality?
It is highly controversial and behavioural geneticists attempt to determine the degree to which individual differences in personality are caused by genetic and environmental factors
Behavioural genetics methods?
- Selective breeding
- Family studies
- Twin studies
- Adoption studies
What is selective breeding?
Studies on dogs.
Can only occur if a desired trait is heritable. Can we make a dog aggressive, friendly etc
What have twin, family and adoption studies found
A lot of personalities are genetically influenced
Identical twin correlations in personalities are a lot higher than fraternal twins even when reared apart
What did Markus and Kitayama state about cultural task fundamentals?
Each person has two fundamental cultural tasks that have to be confronted
- Communion or interdependence: concerns how you’re affiliated with, attached to or engaged in the large group of which you are a member
- Agency or Independence: how do you differentiate yourself from the larger group
Cultures seem to be different and how they balance these two tasks
What are some beliefs about the personality characteristics of men and women
Men are thought to have more active personalities that are loud, adventurous, obnoxious, aggressive, opinionated, arrogant, coarse and conceited
Women in contrast are regarded as having personalities are affectionate modest nervous appreciative patient changeable charming and fearful
MMPI?
Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory.
It’s a structured personality test used to detect symptoms of mental disorders
MMPI-2?
A revised version of MMPI. Consists of 10 basic scales that assess mental disorders such as paranoia, depression and schizophrenia they were developed by using empirical method of test construction
Face validity in MMPI?
Face validity is very low in MMPI. This refers to the extent to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring.
This is beneficial due to responders not being able to fake their answers and can also address unconscious traits
What are the 10 clinical scales on the MMPI?
Hs - hypochondriasis D - depression Hy- hysteria Pd- psychopathic deviate Mf- masculinity-femininity Pa- paranoia Pt- psychasthenia Sc- schizophrenia Mn- mania Si- social introversion
What are the 3 validity scales of the MMPI?
L- lie
F- frequency
K- correction.
Who is Hippocrates
A Greek physician who proposed the four temperaments based on the excess of specific bodily fluid
What are the 4 temperaments Hippocrates proposed?
Sanguine (blood)
Choleric (yellow bile)
Melancholic (black bile)
Phlegmatic (phlegm)
What is sanguine personality?
Good natured
Sociable
Easy going
What are the traits of too much sanguine?
Insensitive or vague
Choleric personality traits?
Quick tempered, decisive, fast thinking
Too much yellow bile?
Bouts of rage
Melancholic personality?
Intellectual, pragmatic, contemplative
Too much black bile?
Depression
Antisocial
Phlegmatic personality?
Calm
Stable
Rational
Overly phlegmatic personality?
Apathetic
Lack of drive
What are surface traits?
Obvious individual characteristics that are easily identifiable
What are source traits?
Deep, less obvious mental structures that give rise to surface traits
Who is Alfred Adler?
Primary motive is not sex or aggression but superiority
Who is Carl Jung
Collective unconscious
Ancestral memory that explains similarities in belief across cultures
Who is Karen Horney?
Feminist perspective
Penis envy is the reason for enforced dependency on men
Who is Erich Fromm?
Increasing technology means humans are able to live independently of others but we crave a closer connection. Leaving us vulnerable and making bad choices in relationships and leaders
Object relations theory?
Focus on interpersonal disturbances and capacity for relatedness to others
What is the broad idea of object relation theorists?
We form mental representations of people who are the target of our impulse driven desired
What is reciprocal determinism?
Personality is a constant interplay between environment behaviour and beliefs
What are personal constructs? (Kelly)
Mental representations that are individually significant
What do personal constructs and information processing theory say is central to who we are?
Conception of self, others and the way info is encoded, interpreted and remembered
What are the two humanistic approaches to personality?
Rogers person centred approach
Maslows hierarchy of needs
Unconditional positive regard?
Self actualisation
Conditional positive regard?
Self discrepancy (emotional discomfort)
What traits did Allport suggest?
Cardinal traits
Central traits
Secondary traits
How do we assess unconscious patterns?
Life history methods
Projective tasks
What are life history methods?
Aim to understand the whole life in context of life experiences
Projective tasks?
assume that persons presented with a vague stimulus will project their own impulses and desired into a description of the stimulus
