Personality (Ch. 12) Flashcards
personality
consistent ways of thinking, feeling, behaving, which explains why people react differently to the same situation.
what was Freud’s belief when it came to personality?
believed unconscious thoughts helped with psychological disorders
“Freudian slips”
unconscious thoughts that slipped out with humor/ stream of consciousness
Anna Freud
daughter of Sigmund Freud, she studied defense mechanisms
defense mechanisms
ways ego copes with conflict between unconscious desires of id and moral constraints of society
what are some disproven aspects that came out of Freud’s research on defense mechanisms?
displacement, projection, depression, denial
what are some proven aspects that came out of Freud’s research on defense mechanisms?
redirect, reappraise, react
displacement
response to anger, ego redirects aggression from id on intended target, usually a defenseless target (using someone as a scapegoat)
projection
instead of acknowledging internal feelings/ traits, think you see it in others (project)
ex. saw someone as dishonest so rated themselves as more honest
repression
ego’s effort at keeping unwanted feelings, thoughts, and memories from conscious awareness
denial
ego’s refusal to perceive painful/ threatening reality as it is occurring
why is denial disproven?
the studies used to justify mostly included leading questions where patients were baited into remembering some false aspect of their past. It usually happens because you don’t know how to define it (ex. as a child, didn’t know what abuse was, so couldn’t define it)
what were the contributions of psychoanalysis and Freud’s research?
- the existence of unconscious thought
- the importance early development
- the influence of mind on body
- the talking cure
how did Freud contribute to current psychoanalysis thought?
he originally theorized unconscious thought and established the talking cure
why is psychoanalysis bad?
not represented of population (upperclass women)
didn’t use quantitative measures
based on first hand observation
Gordon Allport vs. Freud
Allport spoke to Freud, interested in his work, but found Freud psychoanalyzing him and trying to uncover his childhood to dictate his understanding of Allport’s actions. Allport used this as a reminder that psychoanalysis digs too deeply
Freud: “self as an active knower,” psychoanalysis is how personality colors our view of daily experiences
Allport: “self as something to be known”
Cardinal traits
(Allport)
those that dominate someone’s personality
(ex. Dalai Lama’s cardinal trait is compassion)
central traits
(Allport)
traits that are relevant only in certain contexts
(ex. Joe is not talkative but when he’s with his high school friends he can’t shut up)
functional equivalent
situations where someone of behave in similar ways despite the situations being very different.
(ex. in a plane or in a coffee shop, an extrovert may see it as a time to talk to the person next to them and meet someone new, similarly an introvert may see the places as a time for quiet reflection. The places are functionally equivalent because it elicits the same response in someone despite different contexts)
different stimuli –> same interpretation –> same behavior response
lexical hypothesis vs. factor analysis
lexical hypothesis assumes every descriptive word has a distinct trait linked to it, but factor analysis is more accurate bc it groups descriptors along the lines of a larger category to describe someone
what are the drawbacks of self-report? and how can they be addressed?
people don’t always describe themselves accurately (can sometimes have people’s families report on them too (informant reporters) to compare and get more accurate info)
why is personality perceived as consistent across time?
bc people change relative to each other. Your relative rank stays fairly consistent while your personal growth occurs. (ex. if you are the tallest person in MS, likely be big basketball player, not bc everyone hasn’t grown but bc you’ve grown too and it seems consistent)
how does agreeableness change with time?
increases with age (become more conscientious and emotionally stable)
how does openmindedness change with time?
increases in adulthood and decreases as you become an older adult (less cognitive flexibility with age)
how does extraversion change with time?
social vitality: (how socially active someone is) stays pretty constant, and decreases only slightly with adulthood
social dominance: (how assertive/ dominant someone is) become more dominant until middle age, when it levels off
how do findings about growth in personality measure up to Freud’s findings?
Freud theorized that personality is fixed, this is wrong. personality develops with time and increases as you become socially mature with age, therapy, and new roles
are the BIG 5 replicable across cultures?
Yes, although it was mostly done with WEIRD samples it has fairly high replicability
what causes some discrepancies in the BIG 5 across countries?
cultural norms can impact the distribution of personality traits, norms that can vary between countries, however how we perceive ourselves isn’t always true
(ex. Americans believe themselves as more neurotic and less agreeable with emphasis on the free market system, while Canadians see themselves as more agreeable because of their free healthcare system. However both are actually very similar)
Rosenthal study on perceiving personality
within 6 seconds of a lecture, college students could accurately rate professors’ teaching ability
PERSON model of how we perceive others
- Personality (reflection of someone’s disposition)
- Error (errors in judgment)
- Residual (our idiosyncratic biases about people)
- Stereotypes (expectations of traits we expect people to possess)
- Opinion (idiosyncratic biases about behavior)
- Norms (norms of how we perceive behavior)
an accurate impression also requires that we pick up on cues (ex. clothes we wear, pets we own, etc.)
is one trait harder to discern than others?
hard to asses neuroticism
behavioral genetics
statistics comparing patterns of similar behavior and personality of people with different genetic relatedness
how heritable are traits?
most traits are between 40-60% heritable with 61% openness and 41% agreeableness and neuroticism
how can heritability explain personalities?
it can explain variability in a sample of people but not the personality of a single person
heritability of twins reared apart of different sexes?
still debate on this, not sure whether the personality differences and similarities are because of a shared environment or shared personality
genetic essentialism
the assumption that just because something has a genetic basis, it is unchangeable.
(ex. identical twins who share the same niches, do they have the same personality bc they’re identical twins or because they spend a lot of time in the same sport?
best way to explain internal and external factors in personality?
gene x environment interactions
(ex. having certain kind of gene predicts juvenile delinquency but only in boys who are abused on childhood)
Behavioral Activation System (BAS)
(theory of approach)
pushing pedal towards rewarding stimuli
- react more to positive cues
- seek out positive experiences that increase happiness
Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)
(theory of avoidance)
tendency to avoid threatening things, riding the brakes
- react more to negative cues
- experience more negative emotion and react more negatively to bad things
comparing BIS and BAS and their outcomes
people lower in BAS and higher in BIS tend to suffer from depression
what part of the brain is associated with BAS
left frontal cortical activity
what part of the brain is associated with BIS
right frontal cortical activity (associated with lower impulsivity)
how can personality dispositions and their relation to brain structure be identified?
using fMRI, it can ID how they relate and the interaction between genes and the impact of the environment on the wiring of the brain
neuroscience of neuroticism
- brooding tendencies because of smaller dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and posterior hippocampus and larger midcingulate gyrus (regulates emotion and response to negative emotion)
- negative emotional tendencies because variation in serotonin transporter gene (esp linked with depression) a specific segment of this has been identified
neuroscience of agreeableness
(perceiving social cues)
- smaller superior temporal sulcus and larger cingulate cortex and fusiform gyrus and related to perceiving faces and decoding intentions
neuroscience of conscientiousness
(goal-related actions)
- larger frontal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
neuroscience of extraversion and openness?
mixed research, no conclusive answer
Walter Mischel
challenged the trait approach an in a controversial book: “Social-cognitive approach” to personality
Walter’s 3 arguments and their pushbacks
- correlations between traits and behaviors is minimal (r=.30) some have an impact but not as large as advertised
NO BC: personality traits predict behavior just as well as situations do (Milgram ex. more likely to administer if in diff rooms) - traits approach assumes someone with a given trait will behave consistently across situations (ex. close-minded in political beliefs not necessarily close-minded in music taste)
NO BC: on avg. traits on consistent with a few exceptions (treat disposition doesn’t mean continuous behavior, just that you respond in a consistent way) - suggest traits aren’t internal but templates we use to perceive others (two people who are neurotic aren’t necessarily equal)
NO BC: howe we perceive others, usually some aspect is true (Sellers study, men and women who self-reported more dominance were also high in testosterone)
how do trait and social-cognitive approach reconcile?
person x situation interactions (accounts for both)
social learning theory
(Albert Bandura) imitation can shape cognition and thus personality
reciprocal determinism
<–behavior<–>cognition<–>environmental factors–>
personality guides cognition about the world and shapes environments we chose and their impact on us (ex. aggressive people would prefer violent videogames and would take an offhand comment as an insult)
*we prefer choices that reinforces those preferences
Bandura study
children enter a room full of toys, one child is sent in to act aggressively and other children imitate behavior, but don’t act violently if they saw the other child get punished
(children raised around violence are more likely to be violent, similar to exposure to violent media)
locus of control
someone’s perceptions of what determines their outcomes
(low) internal ———locus of control—–external (high)
*scale from Rotter
internal locus of control
perceive they can control their own fate
- predicts greater success in school and work and lower levels of depression
external locus of control
perceive change is determined by outside forces which impacts what happens to them
outcome efficacy
belief that you can perform a behavior
self-efficacy
belief that you can successfully execute that behavior
(need this to achieve outcome efficacy)
Seligman and Maier study
dogs who received shocks without any control over them (seemed random) exhibited conditions similar to depression in humans (shows intrinsic and extrinsic locus’ of control)
learned helplessness
when someone develops passive resignation to an averse situation because of past experiences where they couldn’t change the situation
continuation of Seligman study for learned helplessness
2 halves of cage with barricade in between, one half is electrified. Some dogs that learn to push the lever down to stop the shock and jump over, but those that don’t learn to push the lever are less likely to jump even if they had an opportunity to
healthy people’s sense of control
overly optimistic about the things we can control
(ex. thinking I could run 8 miles)
depressive realism
painful awareness of things outside of our control and the inability to change them –> depression
redefining masculinity and femininity
masculinity –> agency
femininity –> communion
evolutionary pressures on sexual selection
thought to have produced average differences between agency and communion in men and women bc preference for mate personality
(previous unit, men –> spread DNA, women caring for newborn, needed protector)
biological underpinnings of (M) and (F) traits
testosterone linked to aggression, dominance, status-seeking behavior
oxytocin (from childbirth, breastfeeding, lovemaking, etc.) est. strong bond between infant and mother –> trust and social bonding
social role theory
roles we’re in can shape our personality, sometimes they can be reinforced because careers men and women are predominately a part of, could shift and society and culture shifts
humanist perspective
we can achieve our potential when accepted by others (reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism)
humanist perspective: self-actualization
fulfilling out true potential, sense of personal autonomy, accepting ourselves and people around us
- Carl Rodgers –> unconditional positive regard approach to therapy
critique of self-actualization motivation
W-centered
self-determination theory
well-being requires support for key motivations: competence (opportunity to demonstrate our strengths), relatedness (opportunity to feel affiliated with others), autonomy (sense that our behavior is motivated internally)
self-concept
broad network of mental representations someone has about themselves
reflected appraisals
gather info about ourselves through interactions with other and their reaction to us (ex. “you are so funny” –> someone laughs at our jokes)
social comparison
sizing ourselves to people around us
self-perception
observing our own behavior
how we experience self-concept
broad system of mental representations associated with the self
traits most important to self-definition and most frequently defined
representations of possible selves (good or bad ones) motivates behavior
schematic traits
traits consistently activated in a specific context (ex. people always think your gorgeous so you believe your pretty, becomes hard to believe when someone thinks you’re not)
self-selving bias
processing information to maintain a positive view of ourselves
self-serving attributions
tendency to attribute good outcomes to something about us but bad outcomes to the situation or bad luck
above-average effect
like to think of ourselves as above average, average scale of smth is likely higher than accurate (faces study, chose face degree or two more attractive)
idiosyncratic trat definitions
define traits in a way that seems true to us to maintain a positive new of ourselves
overestimating our contributions
as it says lmao
sociometer theory of self-esteem
self-esteem is a by-product of human sociality and a gauge of social inclusion or exclusion.
terror management theory of self-esteem
self-esteem helps people cope with the terror of mortality and death
narcissism
tendency to have unrealistic, self-aggrandizing views –> unstable self-esteem and aggression if self-esteem is threatened
independent self-construal
individualist cultures
interdependent self-construal
collectivist cultures
- self is defined in relation to others
- interest of the group is valued over self-agency
relationship between self-esteem and life satisfaction
going from collectivist to individualistic
relationship between self-esteem and life-satisfaction increases
