Personality Flashcards
Personality
- Refers to the long-standing traits and pattern that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways
- Each person has an idiosyncratic pattern of enduring, long-term characteristics and a manner in which he or she interacts with other individuals and the world around them
Hippocrates - Greek physician
•Theorized that personality traits and human behaviors are based on four separate temperaments associated with four fluids of the body
Hippocrates and the Four Fluids (“humors”) of the Body
- Choleric temperament – yellow bile from the liver
- Melancholic temperament – black bile from the kidneys
- Sanguine temperament – red blood from the heart
- Phlegmatic temperament – white phlegm from the lungs
Galen - Greek physician and philosopher
•Built on Hippocrates’s theory, suggesting that both diseases and personality differences that could be explained by imbalances in the humors and that each person exhibits one of the four temperaments
Franz Gall - German physician
- Proposed that the distances between bumps on the skull reveal a person’s personality traits, character and mental abilities
- According to Gall, measuring these distances revealed the sizes of the brain areas underneath, providing information that could be used to determine an individual’s personality
Immanuel Kant - German philosopher
- Agreed with Galen that everyone could be sorted into one of the four temperaments and that there was no overlap between the four categories
- Proposed trait words to describe each temperament
Wilhelm Wundt
•Suggested that a better description of personality could be achieved using two major axes: emotional/non-emotional and changeable/unchangeable
Sigmund Freud’s Psychodynamic Perspective
- First comprehensive theory of personality, explaining a wide variety of both normal and abnormal behaviors
- According to Freud, unconscious drives influenced by sex and aggression, along with childhood sexuality, are the forces that influence personality
Unconscious
•Refers to that mental activity of which we are unaware and are unable to access
Conscious
•Individual’s awareness of their own internal states as well as the events going on around them
Freud and Repression
•According to Freud, unacceptable urges and desires are kept in our unconscious through this process
E.g., we sometimes say things that we don’t intend to say by
unintentionally substituting another word for the one we meant
Freudian Slip
- An error in speech, memory, or physical action that occurs due to the interference of an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought
- Freud suggested that this slips of the tongue are actually sexual or aggressive urges, accidentally slipping out of unconscious
According to Freud, our personality develops from a conflict between two forces: _______ and _______ versus our _______ control over these drives.
Biological aggressive; pleasure-seeking drives; internal (socialized)
ID
- The unconscious id contains our most primitive drives or urges, and is present from birth
- Directs impulses for hunger, thirst, and sex
- Operates on “pleasure principle,” in which the id seeks gratification
Superego
- Acts as our conscience; it is our moral compass that tells us how we should behave
- Strives for perfection and judges our behavior, leading to feelings of pride or – when we fall short of the ideal – feelings of guilt
Ego
- Refers to the rational part of our personality
- Balance the demands of the id and superego in the context of reality – operates on what Freud called the “reality principle”
- Helps the id satisfy its desires in a realistic way
The _____ and _____ are in constant conflict, because _____ wants instant gratification regardless of the consequences, but the ______ tells us that we must behave in socially acceptable ways. Thus, the _____ job is to find the middle ground. It helps satisfy the id’s desires in a rational way that will not lead us to feelings of guilt
id; superego; superego
ego
Neurosis
•Refers to the tendency to experience negative emotions – anxiety disorders, or unhealthy behaviors
Defense Mechanism
•Refers to the unconscious protective behaviors designed to reduce ego anxiety
Denial
•Refusing to accept real events because they are unpleasant
Displacement
•Transferring inappropriate urges or behaviors onto a more acceptable or less threatening target
Projection
•Attributing unacceptable desires to others
Rationalization
•Justifying behaviors by substituting acceptable reasons for less-acceptable real reasons
Reaction Formation
•Reducing anxiety by adopting beliefs contrary to your own beliefs
Regression
•Returning to coping strategies for less mature stages of development
Sublimation
•Redirecting unacceptable desires through socially acceptable channels
Freud’s Psychosexual Stage of Development
•Oral (0-1 years old)
Erogenous Zone – mouth
Major Conflict – weaning off breast or bottle
Adult Fixation Example – smoking, overeating
•Anal (1-3 years old)
Erogenous Zone – anus
Major Conflict – toilet training
Adult Fixation Example – neatness, messiness
•Phallic (3-6 years old)
Erogenous Zone – genitals
Major Conflict – oedipus/electra complex
Adult Fixation Example – vanity, overambitious
•Latency (6-12 years old)
Erogenous Zone – none
Major Conflict – none
Adult Fixation Example – none
•Genital (12+ years old)
Erogenous Zone – genitals
Major Conflict – none
Adult Fixation Example – none
Anal-retentive Personality
•Compulsive need for order and neatness; might be considered a perfectionist
Anal-expulsive Personality
•This personality is messy, careless, disorganized, and prone to emotional outbursts
Alfred Alder
- Subsequently founded a school of psychology called individual psychology, which focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority
- Proposed the concept of inferiority complex
Inferiority Complex
•Refers to a person’s feelings that they lack worth and don’t measure up to the standards of others or of society
Alder’s Three Fundamental Social Tasks
- Occupational tasks – careers
- Societal tasks – friendship
- Love tasks – finding an intimate partner for a long-term relationship)
Erik Erikson
•Proposed a psychosocial theory of development, suggesting that an individual’s personality develops throughout the lifespan – a departure from Freud’s view that personality is fixed in early life
Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development
•Stage 1 (0-1 years old)
Developmental tasks – Trust vs Mistrust
Description – trust (or mistrust) that basic needs, such as nourishment and affection, will be met
•Stage 2 (1-3 years old)
Developmental tasks – Autonomy vs Shame/doubt
Description – sense of independence in many tasks develops
•Stage 3 (3-6 years old)
Developmental tasks – Initiative vs Guilt
Description – take initiative on some activities, may develop guilt when success not meet or boundaries overstepped
•Stage 4 (7-11 years old)
Developmental tasks – Industry vs Inferiority
Description – develop self-confidence in abilities when competent or sense of inferiority when not
•Stage 5 (12-18 years old)
Developmental tasks – Identity vs Confusion
Description – experiment with and develop identity and roles
•Stage 6 (19-29 years old)
Developmental tasks – Intimacy vs Isolation
Description – establish intimacy and relationships with others
•Stage 7 (30-64 years old)
Developmental tasks – Generativity vs Stagnation
Description – contribute to society and be part of a family
•Stage 8 (65- years old)
Developmental tasks – Integrity vs Despair
Description – access and make sense of life and meaning to contributions
Carl Jung and Analytical Psychology
•Developed his own theory, which he called analytical psychology – working to balance opposing forces of conscious and unconscious thought, and experience within one’s personality
Collective Unconscious
•Common psychological tendencies that have been passed down from one generation to the next
Archetypes
•Pattern that exists in our collective unconscious across cultures and societies
Jung’s Two Attitudes or Approach to Life
- Introvert – quiet and reserved: may be social, but energy is derived from your inner psychic activity
- Extrovert – energized by being outgoing and socially oriented: derive energy from being around others
Persona
•Refers to the personality that an individual projects to others, as differentiated from the authentic self
Karen Horney
- First woman trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst
- Like Jung, Horney believed that each individual has the potential for self-realization
- Believed that psychoanalysis should be moving toward a healthy self rather than exploring early childhood patterns of dysfunction
Horney’s Three Styles of Coping
•Moving towards people
Description – affiliation and dependence
Example – child seeking positive attention and affection from parent; adult needing love
•Moving against people
Description – aggression and manipulation
Example – child fighting or bullying other children; adult who is abrasive and verbally hurtful, or who exploits others
•Moving away from people
Description – detachment and isolation
Example – child withdrawn from the world and isolated; adult loner
Albert Bandura’s Social-cognitive Theory of Personality
- Emphasizes on both learning and cognition as sources of individual differences in personality
- The concepts of reciprocal determinism, observational learning, and self-efficacy all play a part in personality development
Albert Bandura’s Concept of Reciprocal Determinism
•Cognitive processes, behavior, and context all interact, each factor influencing and being influenced by the others simultaneously
Cognitive Processes
•Refers to all characteristics previously learned, including beliefs, expectations, and personality characteristics
Behavior
•Refers to anything that we do that may be rewarded or punished
Context
•The behavior occurs refers to the environment or situation, which includes rewarding or punishing stimuli
Albert Bandura and Observational Learning
•Suggested that whether we choose to imitate a model’s behavior depends on whether we see the model reinforced or punished
Self-Efficacy
- Refers to our levels of confidence in our own abilities, developed through our social experiences
- Affects how we approach challenges and reach goals
- Feelings of self-efficacy can be specific to certain situations
Julian Rotter and Locus of Control
- Proposed the concept of locus of control, another cognitive factor that affects learning and personality development
- Locus of Control – refers to our beliefs about the power we have over our inner lives
Internal Locus of Control
•Tendency to believe that most of our outcomes are the direct result of our efforts
External Locus of Control
- Tendency to believe that our outcomes are outside of our control
- Individuals see their lives as being controlled by other people, luck, or chance
Walter Mischel and the Person-situation Debate
•Surveyed several decades of empirical psychological literature regarding trait
prediction of behavior
- His report triggered a decade-long period of self-examination, known as the person-situation debate, among personality psychologists
- Found that although behavior was inconsistent across different situations, it was much more consistent within situations – so that a person’s behavior in one situation would likely be repeated in a similar one
Self-regulation
•The process of identifying a goal or set of goals and, in pursuing these goals, using both internal (e.g., thoughts and affect) and external (e.g., responses of anything or anyone in the environment) feedback to maximize goal attainment
Mischel and Marshmallow Test
- Placed a preschool child in a room with one marshmallow on the table; told that he could either eat now, or wait until the the researcher returned to the room and then he could have two marshmallow
- Young children differ in their degree of self-control
- Children who had more self-control in preschool, were more successful in high school – better grades, positive peer relationships, less likely to have substance abuse
- Children who had poor self-control in preschool, were not as successful in high school – found to have academic and behavioral problems
Humanistic Approaches
- A perspective that emphasizes looking at the whole individual and stresses concepts such as free will, self-efficacy, and self-actualization.
- Rather than concentrating on dysfunction, it strives to help people fulfill their potential and maximize their well-being.
Self-concept
•Refers to our thoughts and feelings about ourselves
Ideal Self and Real Self
- Ideal – the person you would like to be
* Real – the person you actually are
Congruence
•Refers to when our thoughts about our real self and ideal self are very similar – in other words, when our self-concept is accurate
*High congruence leads to a greater sense of self-worth and a healthy, productive life
Incongruence
•Refers to when there is a great discrepancy between our ideal and actual selves – lead to maladjustment
Biological Approaches
•Psychologists who favor the biological approach believe that inherited
predispositions as well as physiological processes can be used to explain differences in our personalities
Heritability
•Refers to the proportion of difference among people that is attributed to genetics
Temperament
•Refers to how a person reactions to the world, including their activity level, starting when they are very young
Reactivity and Self-regulation
- Reactivity – refers to how we respond to new or challenging environmental stimuli
- Self-regulation – refers to our ability to control that response
*These 2 dimensions of our temperament that are important parts of our adult personality
William H. Sheldon’s Body Types and Temperament
•Ectomorphs – thin, with a small bone structure and very little fat on their bodies;
anxious, self-conscious, artistic, thoughtful, quiet and private; enjoy intellectual stimulation and feel uncomfortable in social situations
•Endomorphs – narrow shoulders and wide hips, carry extra fats on their round bodies;
relaxed, good-humored, even-tempered, sociable and tolerant; enjoy affection and detest disapproval
•Mesomorphs – large bone structure, well-define muscles, broad shoulders, narrow waists, and attractive strong bodies;
adventurous, assertive, competitive, and fearless; curious and enjoy trying new things; obnoxious and aggressive
Gordon Allport and Three Categories of Personality Traits
•Cardinal Traits – dominates the entire personality, and hence your life
*uncommon: few people have personalities dominated by a single trait; our personalities are typically composed by multiple traits
- Central Traits – those that make up our personalities (such as loyal, kind, agreeable, sneaky and wild)
- Secondary Traits – not as obvious or as consistent as central traits; present under specific circumstances and include preferences and attitude
Raymond Cattell
- Identified 16 factors or dimensions of personality:
- warmth
- reasoning
- emotional stability
- dominance
- liveliness
- rule-consciousness
- social-boldness
- sensitivity
- vigilance
- abstractedness
- privateness
- apprehension
- openness to change
- self-reliance
- perfectionism
- tension
*Each dimension is scored over a continuum, from high to low
Hans and Sybil Eysenck - two personality dimensions
- Personality theorists; focused on temperament, the inborn, genetically based personality
- Viewed people as having two specific personality dimensions:
Extroversion – sociable and outgoing; readily connect with others
Introversion – higher need to be alone, engage in solitary behaviors, and limit their interactions with others
Neuroticism – tend to be anxious; overactive sympathetic nervous system and, even with low stress, their bodies and emotional state tend to go into a flight-or-fight reaction
Stability – need more stimulation to activate their flight-or-fight reactions; more emotionally stable
Eysencks and Third dimension of Personality Traits
- Psychoticism – tend to be independent thinkers, cold, non-conformists, impulsive, antisocial, and hostile
- Superego Control – tend to have high impulse control; more altruistic, empathetic, cooperative, and conventional
Five Factor Model
•Openness to Experience: imagination, feelings, actions, ideas
Low score – practical, conventional, prefers routine
High score – curious, wide range of interests, independent
•Conscientiousness: competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven
Low score – impulsive, careless, disorganized
High score – hardworking, dependable, organized
•Extroversion: sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression
Low score – quiet, reserved, withdrawn
High score – outgoing, warm, seeks adventure
•Agreeableness: cooperative, trustworthy, good-nature
Low score – critical, uncooperative, suspicious
High score – helpful, trusting, empathetic
•Neuroticism: tendency toward unstable emotions
Low score – calm, even-tempered, secure
High score – anxious, unhappy, prone to negative emotions
Cultures
- Refers to all of the beliefs, customs, art and traditions of a particular society
- Transmitted to people through language as well as through the modeling of culturally acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors that are either rewarded or punished
Selective Migration
•The concept that people choose to move to places that are compatible with their personalities and needs
Individualist Cultures
•Individuals tend to believe that independence, competition, and personal achievement are important
Collectivist Cultures
•Individuals value social harmony, respectfulness, and group needs over individual needs
What are the Three Approaches to Studying Personality in a Cultural Context?
- Cultural-comparative approach
- Indigenous Approach
- Combined Approach
Self-report Inventories or Likert Scales
- A kind of objective test used to assess personality
- Typically use multiple-choice items or numbered scales, which represent a range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
MMPI-2
MMPI-2-RF
MMPI-A
- A psychological test that assesses personality traits and psychopathology
- Intended to test people who are suspected of having mental health or other clinical issues
- MMPI-2 – has 567 true/false questions
- MMPI-2-RF – published in 2008 and containing only 338 true/false items
- MMPI-A – designed exclusively for teenagers
MMPI-2
•Designed with 10 clinical scales which assess 10 major categories of abnormal human behavior and four validity scales
10 scales: •Hypochondriasis (Hs) •Depression (D) •Hysteria (Hy) •Psychopathic Deviance (pd) •Masculinity vs Femininity (Mf) •Paranoia (Pa) •Psychasthenia (Pt) •Schizophrenia (Sc) •Hypomania (Ma) •Social Introversion (Si)
Projective Testing
- Relies on one of the defense mechanism proposed by Freud – projection – as a way to assess unconscious processes
- Series of ambiguous cards is shown to the person being tested, who then is encouraged to project his feelings, impulses, and desires onto the cards – by telling a story, interpreting and image, or completing a sentence
Rorschach Inkblot Test
- Developed in 1921; Hermann Rorschach
- Series of symmetrical inkblot cards are presented to a client; what the taker sees reveals the unconscious feelings and struggles
- Examine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional functioning
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- Developed in 1930s; Henry Murray, and Christiana Morgan
- An individual will be shown 8-12 ambiguous pictures and will be asked to tell a story about each picture – lower a person’s resistance divulging unconscious personal disorders
- Stories give insight into their social world, revealing fears, hopes, interests, and goals
- Help clients gain a better understanding of themselves and achieve personal growth
Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB)
- Developed in 1950; Julian Rotter
- Three forms of use with different age groups: school form, college form, adult form
- Include 40 incomplete sentences; approximately 20 minutes
- Presumed that responses will reveal desires, fears, and struggles
Contemporized-Themes Concerning Blacks Test (C-TCB)
- Contains 20 colored images that show scenes of African-American lifestyles
- C-TCB led to increased story length, higher degrees of positive feelings, and stronger identification as compared with TAT for African-American
TEMAS Multicultural Thematic Apperception Test
•Designed to be culturally relevant to minority groups, especially Hispanic youths
