Personality (Chapter 13)

Question 1

What does personality mean?

Answer 1

characteristics thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors that are mostly stable over time and circumstances

Question 2

What is a personality trait?

Answer 2

a dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time and across circumstances

Question 3

What is the psycho dynamic theory?

Answer 3

unconscious controlled personality (Sigmund Freud)

Question 4

Explain the iceberg model

Answer 4

o Conscious: aware of your thoughts
o Pre-conscious: not aware but could be brought to awareness
o Unconscious: contains what the mind can’t easily retrieve like memories, wishes, and desires that are conflicting with each other. The conflicts would cause us anxiety which is why it is hidden away to protect us.

Question 5

What is the difference between the ID, superego, and ego?

Answer 5

o ID: in the unconscious which is the pleasure and desire seeking of our minds
o Superego: Develops in childhood and gives us morals and societal rules
o Ego: tries to satisfy the ID while abiding the rules of the superego

Question 6

Explain the different defense mechanisms

Answer 6

 Denial: doesn’t acknowledge anxiety (ignore)
 Repression: blocks out source of anxiety (forgets a traumatic event)
 Projection: Gives qualities that are unacceptable in society to someone else (competitive person describes others as super competitive)
 Reaction formation: A person wants do something but since its really unacceptable so then they do the opposite of what they wanted to do (person that doesn’t think they’re gay (but they are) calls someone gay)
 Rationalization: uses seemingly logical reason or excuse for behavior that is shameful (person cheats on test because “everyone else does it”
 Displacement: shifting your emotion from one thing to another (dad yells at kids because he was fired)
 Sublimation: channeling socially unacceptable impulses into constructive behavior (sadist, or person that receives gratification from pain, becomes a doctor or surgeon)

Question 7

What are the 5 psychosexual stages? Explain them

Answer 7

 Oral stage: from birth to 1-2yrs old when babies get relief on sucking
 Anal stage: 2-3yrs old because they enter toilet training and they learn how to control their bowels and focus on their anus
 Phallic stage: 3-5yrs old because kids discover pleasure when they touch their genitals but don’t have sexual intent
 Latency stage: right after the phallic stage, kids suppress their libidinal urges and focus them on schoolwork or friends
 Genital stage: preteens and adults have mature attitudes about sexuality and adulthood and focus on having sex to reproduce and contribute to society

Question 8

What are key points in the Humanist theory of personality?

Answer 8

Values human beings individually as well as collectively. Personal growth and self-understanding and full potential.

Question 9

What is the Behaviorist theory of personality?

Answer 9

Learned responses due to interactions between an individual and the environment. There are external stimuli that effect the behavior.

Question 10

What is the Cognitive theory of personality?

Answer 10

Thought processes affecting personality. How we understand the world. Our experiences change views.

Question 11

What is the difference between Internal locus and External locus of control?

Answer 11

Internal: they bring about their own rewards.
External: their fates are from forces out of their control.

Question 12

What are self-regulatory responses?

Answer 12

Our ability to set goals, our progress, and adjust our behaviors accordingly

Question 13

What are Personality types?

Answer 13

We categorize people based on their behaviors and dispositions (Becky is an introvert)

Question 14

What is the Implicit personality theory?

Answer 14

We tend to assume that two personality characteristics go together and this leads to predictions about people based on minimal evidence (introverts hate parties, like reading, and are sensitive… not all true)

Question 15

What is Eysenck’s hierarchical

Answer 15

o There are 3 superordinate levels: intro/extraversion (how shy or outgoing someone is), emotional stability (how much a person’s mood changes; low stability= neurotic), psychoticism/ constraint (aggression, impulse control, and empathy).

Question 16

What is the Big Five?

Answer 16

A test to measure openness to experience (try new things/independent), conscientiousness (thoughtful/organized), extraversion (social/ fun loving), agreeableness (friendly/trusting), and neuroticism (worried/anxious)
 Then you factor how low or high something is and the scores can predict different behaviors, jobs, marriages, etc.

Question 17

What is a Idiographic approach?

Answer 17

focus on individuals and how their characteristic made them into a unique person. They usually look at biographies or interviews or someone’s whole life to understand their personality.

Question 18

What is the Nomothetic approach?

Answer 18

look at characteristics that are common in most people but study how they vary from person to person. Example is the five-factor theory.

Question 19

What is the difference between Projective and Objective measures?

Answer 19

Projective: a test to uncover the unconscious by having a patient look at a picture and have them say a description about it to reveal their wishes/dreams/motives. (Inkblot test/TAT test)
Objective: a test that the subject fills out on what they think of themselves (questionnaires/ personal assesments are mostly objective, but they can be subjective if the subject doesn’t want to look bad)

Question 20

How do situations affect our behaviors?

Answer 20

o There is a person/situation debate: the centrality of the trait, the aggregation of the behaviors over time, and the types of trait being evaluated determines how much a trait predicts a situation.
• Situations can also make you behave in a way that you wouldn’t normally behave, if John was outgoing and aggressive and Mike was shy and careful, they would act the same during a funeral (quiet/solemn)

Question 21

What is the difference between Strong and Weak situations?

Answer 21

o Strong situations: like church or job interview cause people to hide their true personalities
o Weak situations: like parties or bars or your house reveal differences in personality

Question 22

How can we prove that Genetics plays into personality?

Answer 22

This can be seen by studying identical twins. Researchers found that identical twins were similar even if they weren’t raised together. In contrast, siblings and fraternal twins do not become similar as they grow older.

Question 23

What are Temperaments and what do they predict about newborns?

Answer 23

Temperaments:a tendency to feel or act a certain way, it represents biological structures of personality and do not usually change
Predict:
o Activity level (energy of a person), Emotionality (how intense is the person’s emotion), and Sociability (tendency to affiliate with other people)
o Childhood temperaments can predict how the child grows up and the behavior/personality of that adult

Question 24

What does ARAS mean?

Answer 24

How stimulated/aroused someone is (introverts need a lot of stimulation while extroverts only need a low amount)

Question 25

What is the difference between BAS and BIS?

Answer 25

• Behavioral approach system (BAS): the brain wants to approach a stimuli so it gets rewards
• Behavioral inhibition system (BIS): the brain tells the body to stop because there might be pain or danger

Question 26

What does Objectified self mean?

Answer 26

The subject knows its best and worst qualities about itself. People who are self-aware then act in accordance with their values and beliefs. They realize how they are wrong/right by looking back at themselves

Question 27

What does Self-awareness mean?

Answer 27

The sense of self as the object of attention. The “I” thinks about the “me”

Question 28

What is Self-discrepancy?

Answer 28

an individual’s awareness of differences between personal standards and goals leading to strong emotions

Question 29

What does Self-schema mean?

Answer 29

a description of oneself (that one relates to or think is something describes them)

Question 30

Explain Self-concept

Answer 30

when you are in a certain situation then your views about yourself can change (a black guy in a group with all women will say that he is a man, a black guy with a group of all whites will say he is black)

Question 31

What is Self-esteem?

Answer 31

A person’s emotional response to a situation
• It protects people from being scared all the time that they will die
• There is some correlation between high self-esteem =success and success could = high self-esteem