Personality Midterm 1 Flashcards
What was Carl Rogers’ Theory?
Unconditional Positive Regard
Parents withheld their love when their children disobeyed.
What were Sigmund Freud’s Theories?
Sex Theories
Was raised in a time where sexuality was repressed. Was treated better than his siblings.
What was Alfred Adler’s Theory?
Striving for Superiority
Sickly, near-blind, hit by a car twice.
What was Abraham Maslow’s Theory?
Hierarchy of Needs
Abusive parents and bullied by neighbourhood gang, felt physically unsafe.
What do Personality Psychologists Study?
Psychological Triad
The ‘Whole’ Person
Overlap with Clinical Psychology
Definition of Personality
An individuals pattern of thought, emotion and behaviour + the psychological mechanisms behind them.
What does the Trait Approach focus on?
How people differ psychologically.
What does the Biological Approach focus on?
The mind, based on the body.
What does the Psychoanalytic Approach focus on?
Focus on the unconscious mind.
What is the Phenomenological (Humanistic) Approach ?
How conscious awareness creates human attributes.
Understanding the meaning/basis of happiness.
What is the Phenomenological (Cross-Cultural) Approach?
Seeing how the experience of reality affects different cultures.
What is learning?
How behaviour changes based on experiences.
What does Classic Behaviourism focus on?
Focuses on overt behaviour.
What does Social Learning focus on?
How observation and Self-Evaluation determine behaviour.
What does Cognitive Personality focus on?
Focuses on cognitive processes.
ie. memory, perception, etc.
Personality Psychologists emphasize individual differences. True or False?
True.
What is Personality Data?
Thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
Personality “clues”.
What is Funder’s Second Law?
There are no perfect indicators of personality, only ambiguous clues.
What is a Personality Psychologist’s Job?
To gather and put together as many personality clues as possible.
What is Funder’s Third Law?
Something beats nothing, two times out of three.
What is S. Data?
(Self-Report Data)
Data the individual reports about themselves.
What are the pros of S. Data?
– large amount of data (you are always with yourself)
– access to thoughts, feelings, and intentions
– face validity (measures what it is supposed to measure)
What are the cons of S. Data?
– personal bias (overly negative, overly positive)
– dishonesty / faking and active distortion of memory
– fish and water effect
What is I. Data?
(Informant Data?)
Data received from other people, about the individual.
What are the pros of I. Data?
– large amount of data (many behaviours, many situations, many informants)
– not from controlled environments (real world basis)
– definitional truth
What are the cons of I. Data?
– lack of private experience
– more likely to remember extreme/unusual behaviour
– letter of recommendation effect (+ & - biases)
What are Life Outcomes?
Real life facts with psychological significance.
Pros and Cons of Life Outcomes?
pros: less prone to bias
cons: may violate privacy / be difficult to access
What is Behavioural Data?
Observations of behaviour in a lab.
(can come from personality tests)
What is Natural B. Data?
Observations of behaviour in real life.
(body cams, written/audio diaries, social media)
Pros and Cons of Natural B. Data?
pros: realistic
cons: desired context uncommon
What is Lab B. Data?
Controlled environments and situations, representing real life conditions otherwise difficult to observe.
Pros and Cons of Lab B. Data?
pros: range of contexts, appearance of objectivity
cons: difficult and expensive
Pros and Cons of Lab B. Data?
pros: range of contexts, appearance of objectivity
cons: difficult and expensive
What is Mixed Data?
Data that does not always fit into one category.
What is Reliability?
The tendency for a measurement to provide the same result (always wrong or always right) on repeated occasions.
What is Measurement Error?
The effect multiple influences have on a test score.
Explain State vs. Trait.
Trait is when a person has a behavioural tendency at all times. State is when a person exhibits that behaviour for a specific reason (typically a short time).
What are some things that can undermine Quality of Data?
– low precision of measurement
– state of participants or examiner
– variation in environment
What are some things that can enhance Quality of Data?
– being careful
– following a procedure
– aggregation
What is Validity?
How true the test/measurements are.
What is Generalizability?
How accurate the results of a study will be when applied to a broad group of people.
Purpose, pros, and cons of Case Method/Case Study?
purpose: explain events, general lessons, science principals
pros: source for ideas, helps to understand individuals
cons: unknown generalizability
Purpose of Experimental Method?
purpose: establish causal relationship between dependent and independent variables
(requires random assignment to control and experimental groups)
What is the Correlation Coefficient?
A measure of how strong the correlation between two variables is.
!correlation ≠ causation!
What is Behavioural Observation?
Recording the behaviour of a person.
What are Unstructured vs. Structured Interviews?
unstructured: typically client led “conversation” (questionable validity)
structured: strict question and answer (move valid)
What is Document Analysis/Life Stories?
Analysis of client’s writings (letters, diaries, etc.)
What are Projective Tests?
Unstructured/Ambiguous task or situation, where the client projects their fears, hopes, dreams, etc.
ie. Rorschach Ink Blot Test
What is Personality tied to?
(Henry Stack Sullivan)
Personality is tied to social situations.
What is the Illusion of Individuality?
We become “different” people in different social situations.
What is Henry S. Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry?
Psychological development is based in the reactions of our peers.
What is Situationism?
The belief that behaviour is driven by situation, and personality is pretty much irrelevant.
What is a Behavioural Signature?
The commonality of a relationship between situation and a person’s behaviour.
(can make their behaviour/personality seem more consistent)
What is an Expectancy?
What we expect the outcome of our behaviours will be. A factor believed to determine behaviour.
What did Mischel believe?
Behaviour is MOSTLY due to situational or environmental factors.
How can Personality Psychologists increase their ability to predict behaviour?
– move out of labs
– focus on behavioural trends
– try better methodology
What is Interactionism?
The idea that people’s personalities depend on a situation and vice versa.
What does O.C.E.A.N. stand for?
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
