personality and motivation

Question 1

personality

Answer 1

a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behaviour

Question 2

HANS EYSNECK’S TRAIT THEORY

Answer 2

argued that brain systems were directly linked to personality traits (eg intraversion was caused by high cortical arousal => introverted people avoid extra stimulation)

Question 3

CATTELL’S 16 PERSONALITY FACTORS (TRAIT)

Answer 3

he identified over 170 personality traits and then reduced the list to 16 main personality dimensions.

Question 4

EYSENCK’S 3 DIMENSIONS OF PERSONALITY (TRAIT)

Answer 4

introversion/extraversion
neuroticism/emotional stability
psychoticism

Question 5

PAUL COSTA’S AND ROBERT MCCRAE’S 5 FACTOR THEORY OF PERSONALITY (TRAIT)

Answer 5

openness: how open a person is to new ideas
consciensciousness: how dutiful a person is
extraversion
agreeableness
neuroticism

Question 6

FREUD’S PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES

Answer 6

personality is driven by several factors:
instinctual drives
unconscious processes
early childhood influences

Question 7

FREUD’S TRIPARTITE THEORY OF PERSONALITY (PSYCHODYNAMIC)

Answer 7

the id: all inherited/biological components of personality. its driven by the pleasure principle, and demands immediate gratification
the ego: the decision making part of personality. tries to satisfy the needs of the id without bad consequences
the superego: acts as a conscience by incorporating values and morals that are learned from others
> it acts on the ego through the use of GUILT

Question 8

ANNA FREUD’S DEFENSE MECHANISMS (PSYCHODYNAMIC)

Answer 8

repression
projection
reaction formation - a person might attempt to distance themselves from bad thoughts/feelings by behaving opposite to their real inclinations
rationalisation: an attempt to use incorrect explanations to rationalise bad behaviour
displacement: transfering the feelings about an event to someone/something else
denial
regression: person reverts to an immature state that is less emotionally demanding
sublimation: channeling unacceptable thoughts into acceptable behaviour

Question 9

CARL JUNG’S PSYCH. TYPES (PSYCHODYNAMIC)

Answer 9

extraversion vs introversion
sensation vs intuition
thinking vs feeling
judging vs perceiving
[inspiration for MBTI test]

Question 10

SKINNER AND ROTTER’S BEHAVIOURAL THEORIES

Answer 10

• personality develops as result of interaction with environment
• individuals develop consistent behaviour patterns because of pos/neg consequence
• personality develops over ones lifetime
• social learning

Question 11

BANDURA’S SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORIES

Answer 11

argued that cognitive ability affects personality
reciprocal determinism
observational learning

Question 12

MASLOW’S HUMANISTIC THEORIES

Answer 12

argued that free will and individual experiences affect personality
- “only a self - actualising individual could have a healthy personality”
he found that successful people are
aware/accepting of themselves
open/spontaneous
enjoy work/find it fulfilling
develop close friendships
have a good sense of humour
tend to seek enriching experiences

Question 13

CARL ROGERS’ PERSON CENTERED THEORY (HUMANISTIC)

Answer 13

self concept - who we are + who we want to be + what we believe in
incongruence - skewed self awareness
> develops when person’s self esteem is threatened, causes anxiety

Question 14

ASSESSMENTS OF PERSONALITY

Answer 14

OCCUPATIONAL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE
- 32 facets of temperament, grouped into relationships, thinking style. feelings, each domain split into subdomains
16PF
- 16 personality factors (Cattell)
EPQ
- scores on psychoticism, extroversion, neuroticism, and a lie scale
- 100 yes/no questions
NEO-FFI
- analyses the Big Five, further divided in some cases
MMPI:
- 567 questions, developed to diagnose psych disorders
MBTI:

Question 15

CONTENT THEORIES

Answer 15

attempt to explain things that that motivate people in different situations

Question 16

PROCESS THEORIES

Answer 16

try to identify relationships among variables that motivate us

Question 17

MASLOWS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Answer 17

• needs are psychological/physiological deficiencies that a person wants to satisfy
  deficit principle: a satisfied need no longer motivates behaviour
  progression principle: the previous lvl on the hierarchy needs to be satisfied before the next one can be addressed

Question 18

HERZBERG’S TWO-FACTOR THEORY

Answer 18

motivators/satisfiers: really motivate people (achievement, recognition), needed for higher performance
hygiene factors/dissatisfiers: can cause dissatisfaction if missing (salary, working conditions), needed to ensure satisfaction

Question 19

VICTOR VROOM’S EXPECTANCY-VALENCY THEORY

Answer 19

expectancy: belief that effort will lead to a level of performance necessary to obtain rewards
- depends on lvl of confidence in the skills required
- availability of resources to achieve
- previous successes in the task
instrumentality: belief that if you reach that lvl of performance, the reward will be forthcoming
valence: the value that is placed on obtaining that reward