Personality (CH12)

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

An individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling

Question 2

Self-report

Answer 2

A series of answers to a questionnaire that asks people to indicate the extent to which sets of statements or adjectives accurately describe their own behaviour or mental state

Question 3

Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI-2)

Answer 3

A well-researched clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems

Question 4

Projective techniques

Answer 4

A standard sereis of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique responses that reveal inner aspects of an individual’s personality
(ex. Rorschach Inkblot Test; Thematic Apperception Test)

Question 5

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Answer 5

A projective personality test in which individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondent’s inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure

Question 6

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Answer 6

A projective personality test in which respondents reveal underlying motives, concerns and the way they see the social world through stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people

Question 7

Big 5 dimensions of personality

Answer 7

1. Openness to experience: appreciation for imagination, curiosity & variety of experiences (imaginative, down-to-earth; variety, routine; independent, conforming)
2. Conscientiousness: tendency for self-discipline and aim for achievement (organized, disorganized; careful, careless; self-disciplined, weak-willed)
3. Extraversion: tendency to seek out stimulation, company of others
   (social, retiring; fun-loving, sober; affectionate, reserved)
4. Agreeableness: tendency for compassion and cooperation, social harmony
   (softhearted, ruthless; trusting, suspicious; helpful, uncooperative)
5. Neuroticism: emotional stability
   (worried, calm; insecure, secure; self-pitying, self-satisfied)

Question 8

Psychodynamic approach

Answer 8

States that personality is formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness -motives that can produce emotional disorders

Question 9

Dynamic unconscious

Answer 9

An active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the person’s deepest instincts and desires, and the person’s inner struggle to control these forces

Question 10

Id

Answer 10

The part of mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of out bodily needs, wants, desires and impulses -particularly our sexual and aggressive drives
*Pleasure principle -psychic force that motivates the tendency to seek immediate gratification of any impulse

Question 11

Ego

Answer 11

The component of personality developed through contact with the external world that enables us to deal with life’s practical demands
*Reality principle -regulating mechanism that enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate needs and function effectively in the real world

Question 12

Superego

Answer 12

The mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority
*Conscious: consists of a set of guidelines, internal standards and other codes of conduct that regulate and control our behaviours, thoughts and fantasies (guilt & reward)

Question 13

Defense mechanisms (DM)

Answer 13

Unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses

Question 14

DM1: Repression

Answer 14

Mental process that removes painful experiences & unacceptable impulses from the conscious mind
ex. topic of death, traumatic childhood

Question 15

DM2: Denial

Answer 15

Refuse to believe/accept that something happened

Question 16

DM3: Rationalization

Answer 16

Involves supplying a reasonable-sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behaviour to conceal one’s underlying motives/feelings (blame consequence on something/someone else)
ex. Received bad grades b/c “prof is stupid”

Question 17

DM4: Reaction formation

Answer 17

Involves unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of the opposite
ex. Johnny likes Sally so he kicks Sally; acting pleasant to boss when you hate him/her

Question 18

DM5: Projection

Answer 18

Involves attributing one’s own threatening feelings, motives or impulses to another person/group
ex. Husband cheats of wife and say that “you thought about cheating on me as well” -thinks if she is on his level, it makes his actions acceptable

Question 19

DM6: Regression

Answer 19

Ego deals with internal conflict and perceived by threat by reverting to an immature behaviour or earlier stage of development
ex. feel safer/secure; use baby talk/whining; watch cartoons; teddy bear cuddling; thumb sucking

Question 20

DM7: Displacement

Answer 20

Involves shifting unacceptable wishes of drives to a neutral or less threatening alternative (take out negative energy on something/someone else that is more acceptable)
ex. kicking garbage can; yelling at someone else that is not the target source

Question 21

DM8: Identification

Answer 21

Helps deal with feelings of threat and anxiety by enabling us unconsciously to take on characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or better able to cope
ex. child becomes a bully because was bullied before

Question 22

DM9: Intellectualization

Answer 22

Focuses on facts, no emotional bonds

ex. separated couple reassure themselves that 59% of people who marry divorce

Question 23

DM10: Sublimation

Answer 23

Involves channeling unacceptable sexual/ aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities
ex. football, rugby, other contact sports

Question 24

Psychosexual stages

Answer 24

Distinct early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasure from specific body areas and caregivers redirect or interfere with those pleasures

Question 25

Fixation

Answer 25

Person’s pleasure-seeking drives become stuck, or arrested, at that psychosexual stage

Question 26

Oral stage

Answer 26

1st psychosexual stage: centres on the pleasures and frustrations associated with mouth, sucking and being fed
Fixation: chew gum, smoking (mouth constantly active)

Question 27

Anal stage

Answer 27

2nd psychosexual stage: dominated by pleasures and frustrations associated with the anus, retention and expulsion of feces and urine, and toilet training
Fixation: anal expulsive (messy, disorganized); anal retentive (nit-picky)

Question 28

Phallic stage

Answer 28

3rd psychosexual stage: dominated by pleasures, conflict and frustration associated with the phallic-genital region as well as coping with powerful incestuous feelings of love, hate, jealousy and conflict
Fixation: overly masculine/feminine to compete with same-sex parent

Question 29

Oedipus/Electra conflict

Answer 29

Developmental experience in which a child’s conflicting feelings toward the opposite-sex parent are usually resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent

Question 30

Latency stage

Answer 30

4th psychosexual stage: primary focus is on further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal and athletic skills

Question 31

Genital stage

Answer 31

Final psychosexual stage: time for the coming together of the mature adult personality with a capacity to love, work and relate to others in a mutually satisfying and reciprocal manner

Question 32

Self-actualizing tendency

Answer 32

Human motive toward realizing out inner potential; the need to be good, to be fully alive and find meaning to life
(Recall: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)

Question 33

Humanistic existential approach

Answer 33

Humanistic: inherent goodness and growth of potential, selfactualization, unconditional positive regard (behaviour is bad, not the individual), flow
Existential: regards personality as governed by an individual’s ongoing choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life and death (appreciate life, productive)

Question 34

Social cognitive approach

Answer 34

Views personality in terms of how the person think about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them

Question 35

Person-situation controversy

Answer 35

The question of whether behaviour is caused more by personality or by situational factors

Question 36

Personal constructs

Answer 36

Dimensions people use in making sense of their experiences
ex. exams are an opportunity for demonstrations or a time of anxiety; clowns are a source of fun or a frightening stimuli

Question 37

Outcome expectancies

Answer 37

Person’s assumptions about the likely consequences of a future behaviour
ex. “if I’m friendly towards people, they will also be friendly in return”

Question 38

Locus of control

Answer 38

Person’s tendency to perceive the control of rewards as internal to the self or external in the environment

• Internal: believe they control their own destiny
• External: believe outcomes are random, by luck, or controlled by other people

Question 39

Self-esteem

Answer 39

Extent to which an individual likes, values and accepts the self

Question 40

Self-serving bias

Answer 40

People tend to take credit for their successes but downplay responsibilities for their failures

Question 41

Narcissism

Answer 41

Trait that reflects a grandiose view of the self combined with the tendency to seek admiration from and exploit others