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spring psyc 1F90 > Personality Lectures ch 12 > Flashcards

Personality Lectures ch 12 Flashcards

1
Q

Personality

A

is a person’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, emotions and behaviour.

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2
Q

Personality traits

A

are differences among individuals in their thoughts, feelings and behaviour that are stable over a variety of situations and a fairly long period of time.

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3
Q

Discuss evidence showing that personality traits are indeed stable over a fairly long period of time.

A

Did a study where individuals were asked personality-related questions, and were assessed again 4-10 years later; found evidence of stability

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4
Q

Conversely, is there any evidence that personality can change?

A

Review papers of clinical interventions, like therapy; saw evidence of personality changing as a function of those interventions

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5
Q

Personality traits have also been described as automatic tendencies. What does this mean?

A
  • Personality is how you naturally or automatically respond to in situations: do you get upset/mad/sad easily?
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6
Q

What are some psychological concepts that would not be considered personality traits?

A
  • Beliefs and values
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7
Q

A lexical approach

A

is the first step used to find a small set of personality traits that can provide a complete description of the key aspects of our personalities. Lexical means relating to the words or vocabulary of a language

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8
Q

Using a lexical approach, how do researchers identify and study words, that people use to describe their personalities?

A
  • Identify common personality descriptive adjectives in language
  • Ppts rate how well they are described by the adjectives
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9
Q

Factor Analysis

A

is a statistical technique that places specific personality traits into a small number of general categories, depending on how the traits correlate with one another.

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10
Q

Source traits/personality factors

A

Basic, underlying traits

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11
Q

Surface traits

A

Specific traits

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12
Q

Hans Eysenck used factor analysis to develop a personality theory with two basic, underlying personality traits. Describe the two basic, underlying traits and the specific traits that make up these personality traits.

A
  • Extraversion vs. introversion
  • Emotional stability vs. instability
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13
Q

Big-5 and HEXACO models of personality, as shown in the Figure below. What traits do these two models have in common, and what is he major difference between them?

A
  • Big five: 5 factor model
  • Hexaco: six factor model
  • Both have 5 personality traits in common: openness to experience, emotionality/neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness
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14
Q

Personality Inventories

A

Personality traits and factors are measured using personality inventories

  • Standardized questionnaires: Ask the questions in the same way for all respondents
  • Likert scales: Given several ratings that are then summed up for each question/item that pertains to a personality trait
  • Self-report or other-report inventories: Either you or someone who knows you well rates your personality
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15
Q

MMPI-2 : Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2nd edition

A

is used to measure problematic personality traits that are relevant to clinical psychology and psychiatry, on 10 clinical scales.

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16
Q

details about the 10 clinical scales.

A
  1. Hypochondriasis (HI-po-kon-DRY-uh-sis). Exaggerated
    concern about one’s physical health
  2. Depression. Feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, and
    pessimism
  3. Hysteria. The presence of physical complaints for which
    no physical basis can be established
  4. Psychopathic Deviate. Emotional shallowness in
    relationships and a disregard for social and moral standards
  5. Masculinity/Femininity. One’s degree of traditional
    “masculine” aggressiveness or “feminine” sensitivity
  6. Paranoia. Extreme suspiciousness and feelings of
    persecution
  7. Psychasthenia (sike-as-THEE-nee-ah). The presence
    of obsessive worries, irrational fears (phobias), and
    compulsive (ritualistic) actions
  8. Schizophrenia. Emotional withdrawal and unusual or
    bizarre thinking and actions
  9. Hypomania. Emotional excitability, manic moods or
    behaviour, and excessive activity
  10. Social Introversion. One’s tendency to be socially
    withdrawn
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17
Q

Describe how a pool of possible items for the MMPI-2 were selected for clinical content

A
  • Items are selected for clinical content from clinical sources
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18
Q

Explain how an empirical strategy, rather than factor analysis, was used to select the specific items on each clinical scale

A
  • Looked at which of the of the items best differentiate people with a high level of a particular clinical trait vs a low level
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19
Q

explain how statistics can be used to make clinical decisions on personality inventories like the MMPI-2.

A

Norms : The distribution of scores obtained by a normative group, a large demographically representative group of individuals who previously completed the personality inventory

Clinical cutoff score : The threshold on personality inventories that divides scores in the normal range from those that are exceptionally high compared to the scores obtained by the normative group

Clinically significant scores : Score above cutoff; only 6%

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20
Q

Personality Disorders

A
  • an enduring pattern of emotions, thoughts, behaviour, and interpersonal functioning that deviates from cultural norms and expectations, and causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning
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21
Q

Personality Traits

A
  • Differences among individuals in their thoughts, feelings and behaviour that are stable over a variety of situations and a fairly long period of time
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22
Q

Which part of the definition of personality disorders distinguishes them from personality traits? Explain why this is so.

A

“that deviates from cultural norms and expectations, and causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning

Personality traits do not impair functioning, or deviate from norms

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23
Q

How are personality disorders assessed differently than traits on personality inventories that reflect personality problems (e.g., Paranoia on MMPI-2)?

A
  • Personality disorder diagnosis is not based on filling out a questionnaire; instead, use DSM-5 (basing diagnosis on the symptoms described)
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24
Q

There are 10 different personality disorders in three clusters

A

A. Odd or eccentric behaviour

B. Dramatic, erratic, emotional behaviour

C. Anxious or fearful behaviour

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25
Q

give examples of personality disorders in each cluster.

A

A Paranoid PD Deeply distrusting and being suspicious of others, perceiving their motives as insulting or threatening

B Borderline PD extreme sensitivity to the possibility of criticism, rejection or abandonment; unstable relationships, moods and self-image

C Obsessive compulsive PD preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and control, at the expense of flexibility and efficiency, so they are rigid and stubborn.

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26
Q

Which personality traits predict the real-life outcomes in the table below?

A

Compatibility with romantic partner: Small positive correlation between spouses personality traits

Relationship satisfaction: Greater marital satisfaction when spouse is low in emotionality, and high in agreeableness and conscientiousness

Overall job performance: High conscientiousness

Happiness and well-being : High extraversion

Longevity : High conscientiousness

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27
Q

How do the links between personality traits and relevant behaviours support the validity of personality models like the HEXACO?

A
  • Items used to define personality traits actually predict theoretically relevant behaviours
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28
Q

Define validity

A

Does an item actually measure what its supposed to?

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29
Q

Describe twin study evidence that shows genes influence the development of personality traits.

A
  • Average correlation of twins personality traits
  • Identical / MZ twins: r=.54
  • Fraternal / DZ twins: r = .27
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30
Q

Natural selection:

A

traits that helped our ancestors to survive and reproduce would be more likely to be passed to later generations through inherited genes.

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31
Q

adaptive trade-offs

A

so that there is no such thing as personality trait that is all good or bad

Honesty-Humility; Agreeablenes: Cooperation: Vulnerable to exploitation

Emotionality/Neuroticism: Survival of self and kin: Loss of potential gains due to avoiding risks

Extroversion; Conscientiousness : Social and material gains : Takes time and energy

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32
Q

psychoanalytic

A

psychoanalytic view is that personality is shaped by unconscious forces

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33
Q

levels of awareness psychoanalytic theory

A

Conscious : everything of which you are aware at a given time

Preconscious : Not consciously thinking about it but can easily think about it when needed

Unconscious : Desires and thoughts that you feel are forbidden/unacceptable and keep it out of thoughts because of shame.

34
Q

Intrapsychic conflicts

A

personality is determined by these conflicts and they are unconscious

35
Q

Id

A

generates unconscious, innate drives (born with these desires). Not conscious of Id’s influence

36
Q

Eros is an Id drive that operates according to the pleasure principle. What does the pleasure principle mean?

A

Unconscious innate drive that pushes you to pursue pleasurable things (eg. Sexual desire)

37
Q

Explain how Eros is a life instinct.

A

Push/drive you do things that increase your chances of survival (eg. Biological instinct for food)

38
Q

What is the psychic energy or force generated by Eros called?

A

Libido-drives/motivates you to pursue pleasure

39
Q

How is the drive called Thanatos different from Eros?

A

Death instinct, aggressive or self-destructive urges (eg. Soldiers talking about war – Freud thought this is because we have a death wish) – outdated idea

40
Q

The drives of the Id demand immediate gratification. Explain what this means

A

The desires, impulses and urges of the Id insists that you satisfy them immediately, no concern for practical or moral implications, selfish, irrational, impulsive

41
Q

The Id can only form mental images of its desires and wishes. What are the implications for the dynamics between the Id and the other personality structures?

A

Id requires the Ego to fulfill the desires

42
Q

The Superego operates according to moral principles. Where do these come from?

A

The Superego operates according to moral principles. Where do these come from? Internalized values, societally/culturally learned values, often learned from parents
Conscious and unconscious (emotion)

43
Q

The Superego acts as our Conscience. explain how the Superego influences behaviour through guilt and pride.

A

Guilt Tells you your actions don’t fit with your moral values

Pride Tells you your actions fit with your moral values

44
Q

Explain why there are often conflicts between the Superego and the Id.

A

Impulsively doing impulsive things (Id) often conflicts with your morality (superego), makes the ego act as a mediator between the two.

45
Q

The Ego mediates intrapsychic conflicts between the Id and the Superego by acting as an executive operating according to the reality principle. Explain how it does so.

A

Makes decisions.
Delays gratification of the Id to avoid punishment.
Minimizes guilt from the superego.
Mediates to satisify life instincts
Conscious (makes decisions) and unconscious (through unconscious ego defense mechanisms)

46
Q

Ego Defence Mechanisms

A

The ego also employs unconscious defence mechanisms to manage conflict between the Id and the Superego

It receives two kinds of alerts in the form of anxiety that indicate there is an intrapsychic conflict between the Id and the Superego that it needs to mediate:

Moral anxiety Desires of Id conflict with moral standards of Superego

Neurotic anxiety Results when Ego cannot gratify Id drives due to reality principle.

47
Q

How do unconscious ego defence mechanisms, which shape our personalities, help to manage anxiety?

A

Unconscious ego defense mechanisms distort, deny or block reality to lessen anxiety.

Characteristic defense mechanisms shape personality

48
Q

Examples of Defence Mechanisms

A

Denial- Refusing to believe reality that makes you anxious:
Ignore evidence of a romantic partner cheating

Displacement- Shifting unacceptable urges to less threatening person or object
Yelling at spouse/children after a bad day at work

Rationalization- Reasonable explanation to hide unacceptable feelings or motives
Disguise sexual attraction by saying we’re just friends

Sublimation Channel unacceptable urges into socially acceptable activities
Channel anger into hockey or football

Reaction Formation Changing unacceptable desires in their opposites
Being mean to someone you are attracted to

Projection Disguising unacceptable impulses by attributing them to others
You don’t like your friend’s boyfriend so you convince yourself he doesn’t like you

49
Q

psychosexual stages

A

are developmental periods in which different areas of the body called erogenous zones are primary sources of Id drives.

Oral stage:
Birth to 18 months
Eating/breast feeding

Anal stage:
18 months to 3 years
Eliminating waste (toilet training)

Phallic stage:
3 to 6 years
Boys’ “sexual” desire

50
Q

Children experience conflict that prevents the gratification of the Id at each psychosexual stage. Problems with resolving those conflicts at each state can affect the development of adult personality. Give an example with reference to the Anal stage.

A

The Id’s desire is to eliminate waste – kids go to the bathroom whenever wherever, but the parent insists on toilet training which interferes with the Id’s desire. Reality principle comes in – Ego needs to delay Id gratification to avoid parental punishment.

51
Q

explain the intrapsychic conflict that children experience at the Phallic stage, which is called the Oedipus Complex.

A

Castration anxiety (type of neurotic anxiety): Reality principle causes the Ego to delay gratification of the Id’s desire for the mother, due to fear of punishment from the father

Identification : Alliance with a powerful person (real or imagined, eg, Movie star, athlete), In this case it is with the father

Internalizing moral values: Child internalizes father’s moral values and develops superego

52
Q

Fixation

A

occurs when there is unresolved conflict in one of the psychosexual stages of development.

53
Q

describe two problems that can lead to unresolved conflict in the psychosexual stages of development.

A

Frustration Conflict between parent and child, due to parental interference with, or redirection of, the child’s gratification of the Id

Overindulgence Parents don’t attempt to redirect or interfere with the child’s Id during development

54
Q

What happens when development is arrested in one of these stages due to the unresolved conflict?

A

Arrested development in the stage where unresolved conflict occurred.
Adult personality shaped by unconscious striving to gratify Id drives from this developmental period (eg, anal retentive personality)

55
Q

Fixation in the different psychosexual stages can lead to different personality types with various problems. Explain how fixation can lead to the development of an anal-retentive personality.

A

Person has personality problems due to being stubborn, stingy with money, and compulsively clean and orderely.

56
Q

Projective measures of personality require respondents to describe ambiguous stimuli like the inkblot above from the Rorschach test, instead answering direct questions.

Explain the theoretical reason for this approach to personality assessment.

A

Projection of unconscious thoughts and desires onto ambigious stimuli.
Benefit – people say what’s on the top of their mind without context so they will be more honest and less defensive.

57
Q

how is the Rorschach test scored?

A

You ask them what does this look like, and why?
Computer scoring reflects parts of figure used and content, after showing 10 pictures, get narrative and quantitative report
E.g., do you tend to see people vs. objects?

58
Q

Do projective measures of personality like the Rorschach have any validity, e.g., evidence that it assesses what it was designed to assess?

A

Limited validity (validity – does it measure what it is supposed to measure), good for distinguishing people with thought disorders.
Questionable use with personality

59
Q

Describe another kind of projective measure, the Thematic Apperception Test shown below, and explain how it is administered and interpreted to provide information about personality?

A

Ambigious social situations, you ask someone to tell you a story of what they see.
Use with personality inventories to see how people read social situations.

60
Q

Explain why psychoanalytic theory is difficult to evaluate empirically and scientifically.

A

No testable predicitions – hard to operationalize and study Id, Ego, and Superego

61
Q

What are some of the lasting influences that psychoanalytic theories have had on contemporary psychology?

A

Unconscious forces recognized and studied today – low road/fast pathway of emotions – came from Freud’s work
Clinical impact – projective measures
Therapeutic measures – psychoanalysis of psychodynamic theory

62
Q

Provide some examples to illustrate the role of situational determinants

A

Behavioural psychologists observed that behaviour is often better predicted by situational factors than by individuals’ personality traits. They referred to these influences as situational determinants, external conditions that strongly influence behaviour.

Walter Mischel – behavioural psychologist
Situational determinant – stopping at red lights, being quiet at funerals

63
Q

Behavioural Perspective

A

B.F. Skinner, a behavioural psychologist, proposed that consistent behavioural tendencies could be explained better by learning that occurs in various situations rather than by personality traits.

64
Q

what learning processes could explain personality tendencies?

A

Personality differences are due to operant conditioning (reinforcement and punishment)
Explains why all personality types would be quiet at funerals

65
Q

How does social learning theory build upon behavioural perspectives on personality?

A

Social learning theories build on behavioural perspectives by combining behavioural learning principles such as reinforcement and punishment with cognitive processes to explain behaviour and personality development.

Social learning theorists noted that personality is not just due to our history of reinforcement and punishment in a situation, but how we interpret the situation. Because people can interpret the same situation differently, we need to know how they perceive the situation to predict behaviour.

66
Q

Three social learning concepts proposed by Julian Rotter highlight cognitive interpretations of situational factors in the learning process. explain the three social learning terms below.

A

Psychological situation How the person defines or interprets a situation.

Expectancies People who expect to be reinforced/rewarded for a behaviour are more likely to do it, and vice versa

Reinforcement value The subjective value that reinforcement has for a particular person.

67
Q

Reciprocal determinism

A

means that personality traits affect the situations we get ourselves into and how we react to them, which in turn influences learning.

68
Q

reciprocal determinism, there are three ways that personality traits can influence peoples’ experiences in situations

A

People with different personalities may choose to get involved in different situations.
People who are extroverted are more likely to go to parties than introverts; more likely to go to a party because they are more likely to be rewarded at party for making jokes than an introvert

Personalities affect how we are treated by others.
Two people making same joke at different parties, one extroverted and one intro, extrovert is more likely to laugh and less likely to get a negative response than an introvert

Personalities affect how we interpret and react to events.
Someone high in neuroticism and emotionally might be more likely to see the joke negatively

68
Q

Situational testing

A

is used to assess personality from a behavioural/social learning perspective

69
Q

Explain how Situational testing works and the rationale

A

Observe behaviour in simulations of real-life situations, eg, WW2 simulated spy training – fake capture and interrogation. Why seek spy who could withstand interrogation without giving up secrets.
E..\g. police training, judgemental firearms training whre they have to make split second decisions where they either have to shoot or not shoot, want people to remain calm.

70
Q

What is the humanistic perspective on personality?

A

Psychologists viewing personality from a humanistic perspective rejected the idea that our personalities are determined by forces beyond our control, such as the dark, unconscious forces posited by psychoanalytic theory, or the mechanistic operant conditioning proposed by behavioural theorists stating that our personalities are shaped by the reinforcement and punishment provided others.

71
Q

to explain the humanist view of personality with reference to the following terms

A

Free will
We can choose the person we want to be

Self-actualization After we have basic needs met, we are motivated to focus on the things we find meaningful, using free will to become who want to be and undergo personal growth

Subjective experiences Subjective view of the world and of self

72
Q

Carl Roger’s Self Theory

A

which views personality as the product of one’s self-concept. He identified three different aspects or views of the self that affect personality

Self-image Subjective perceptions of who you think you are

Ideal self Person you would like to be

True self Person you actually are

73
Q

Congruence versus Incongruence

A

According to Rogers, personality problems result from incongruence, big differences between 3 different versions of the self overlapping

74
Q

What kind of personality problems can result from incongruence?

A

Discrepancy between self-image and true self or ideal self
Low self-esteem, anxiety and defensiveness.

75
Q

How and why are defence mechanisms used to address anxiety due to incongruence?

A

Distort reality to product self-image, causing maladjustment

76
Q

congruence

A

Selves are aligned, better path to self-actualization

in one bubble aligned

77
Q

How does incongruence or congruence develop?

A

Unconditional positive regard
Love is unconditional (eg. Parents) for you truly are, not who you want to be

Organismic valuing Genuine and authentic life (not distorted), you can be yourself because you have experienced unconditional positive regard

Self-actualization Permitted by your ‘selves’

78
Q

Carl Rogers’s explanation for the development of incongruence

A

Conditional positive regard Only experience love from parents for example under specific criteria/conditions

Positive self-regard Thinking of yourself as a good and loveable person – hard to do if you have only experienced conditional love

Conditions of worth Can’t be authentically yourself because you will not meet those conditions of worth

79
Q

What methods do humanist psychologists often use to assess personality and emphasize each individual’s subjective experience?

A

Case studies and qualitative interviews, standardized personality inventories or other report questionnaires miss subjective details

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