Personality Psych Flashcards
the Self
part of brain that makes us who we are, smaller than personality
personality psych definiton
scientific study of psych sources that make people uniquely themselves
what can change personality
- traumatic events
- head trauma
what does personality consist of
- traits
- behaviours
- thoughts
- past experiences
- motivations
personality definition
set of stable + interrelated psych characteristics and mechanisms in person that influence their interaction with environment and adaptation to physical, social and intrapsychic environment
intrapsychic environment definition
internal characteristics
- gender
- worldview etc
personality both congenital and acquired
temperament is congenital
personality made by experiences
8 aspects of personality
- unconscious aspect
- ego forces
- biological being
- aspects shaped by culture + time
- cognitive dimension
- skills + predispositions
- spiritual dimension
- interaction between person and specific environment
logic / deductive approach
theory -> collecting info to support theory
inductive approach
- collecting data and drawing conclusions,
- qualitative
Gordon Allport
- uniqueness and dignity of individual
nomothetic approach
generalise people from objective knowledge
idiographic approach
recognising uniqueness from subjective knowledge
Barnum Effect
vague generalisations such as star signs
8 perspectives of personality
- unconscious aspects
- ego forces
- biological being
- environmental influence
- cog dimension
- collection of traits, skills, predispositions
- spiritual dimension
- specific environment-person interaction
reliability definiton
error variance / precision
internal consistency reliability
halves of tests should be correlated
test-retest reliability
same test different occasions
patterns (Allport)
basic underlying mechanisms that remain stable
construct validity definition
how well the test measures the concept it intends to measure
convergent validity
subtype of construct validity
tests whether construts that should be related are related
e.g.: new intelligence test correlates highly with pre-established intelligence tests
discriminant validity
different constructs are distinct and not highly correlated with other constructs
job satisfaction shouldn’t directly correlate to job performance
acquiescence response set (Bias)
people rather agree than disagree
response set (bias)
a trait that isn’t being measured leads to the responses is being measured
e.g. people choosing neutral ratings
Galton’s experience sampling method of assessment
record current activity or thought process
3 types of correlational research
- naturalistic observation
- archival
- survey method
experiment defintion
careful manipulation of IV to see effects
diff between quasi and true experiment
quasi does not do random assortment of participants
what did Breur study
free associations/ dreams -> influenced freud
Charcot what did he study
hysteria in women -> influence on Freud
Freud’s unconsciousness
threatening thoughts + urges put there which are turned into non-threatening symbols of dreams
manifest content definition
what dreams are literally about
latent content definiton
what the literal dreams actually mean
principle that guides ego
reality principle
principle that guides id
pleasure principle -> satisfy pleasure and reduce pain
Freud’s mind categories in modern neurobiology
- id: primal -> brainstem
- ego: emo + motivations -> limbic system
- superego: higher intelligence -> neocortex
hydraulic displacement model
emo energy needs to be released but we can choose context (redirect E)
neoanalytic psychology
ego is the core of personality
- arises from interactions/ conflict with others
- more social less bio
archetype definition
cumulative experience of ancestors make up personality
Jung’s psyche categories
- concsious ego -> sense of self
- personal unconscious -> thoughts accessible but not relevant in the moment
- collective unconscious -> archetypes, predispositions etc
Jung’s animus/anima
animus = male element of woman
anima = female element of man
Jung’s libido
emotionally charged feelings/thoughts related to particular theme
Jung’s word association test
find theme of associations in words to then work on if weird
-more scientific than Freud
Jung’s functions of mind
- thinking (rational)
- sensing (rational)
- feeling (irrational)
- intuition (irrational)
Alfred Adler Neoanalytic appraoch
individual psychology
- finding perceived niche in society
- individualised motivations
Adler’s complexes
- inferiority
- superiority
- organ inferiority
Adler’s drives
- aggression drive -> to perceived helplessness
- masculine drive -> for autonomy
- perfection striving -> of fictional goals for self-improvement
Adler’s social issues
- occupational task
- societal tasks
- love tasks
adler’s typology
- ruling dominant = low social interst, high activity
- getting-learning = low social interest, low activity
- avoiding = v low social interest, low activity
- socially useful = high social interest, high activity
Horney’s theory of children
basic anxiety = being alone and helpless
passive style -> compliance
aggressive style -> fighting
avoidant style -> don’t engage emotionally
Horney’s theory of self
- real self -> core of personality, potential for self-realisation
- despised self -> from other’s negative evaluations
- ideal self -> what we should be
horney: what makes a neurotic person
alienation from real self
diff between Horney and Freud
- id,ego,superego
- importance of unconsious
- shaping personality in childhood
- dynamics of anxiety and defense mechanism
Horney neurotic coping strats
- moving towards -> looking for approval schema
- moving against -> over ID with ideal self -> entitlement schema
- moving away -> shame schema
Anna Freud
psychoanalysis applied to kids
id,ego, superego but environment emphasised
Heinz Hartmann
id and ego work in compensatory mechanisms
ego as self-preservation (not pleasure-seeking)
Object Relations Theories Self
socially constructed as a function of specific interpersonal interactions
- kids learns about self through interaction with significant people
Margaret Mahler and kids
- symbiotic psychotic child = overly dependent + protected by mother so there is no way they can for sense of self
- normal symbiotic child = healthy ties with other, allowing to form sense of self + autonomy
Otto Kernberg
- relations with others matter most in personality development
- Kernberg’s I = integrated self
Melanie Klein
- play therapy
- love-hate paradigm = towards sig objects (mothers)
- kids seek mother for dependence but also have a drive towards being independent
Heinz Kohut
father of dynamic therapy
strongest fear -> loss of loved object
idealising transference = therapist as alternative paternal love object
Mark Snyder’s Self monitoring
people adjust behaviour to fit social situations
self-presentation -> doing what is socially expected
psyschology - functionalists
what purpose emotions and behaviours have
personal projects definiton
motivations
personal strivings
more general motivators
Cantor’s life tasks definitions
age-determined issues people are currently concentrating on
neo-analytics on therapy
- early fears
- faulty patterns to be discussed
- poor early relations, complexes etc
evolutionary personality theory
primary function of personality is survival
Genes and Personality
- Angelmann syndrome -> good humour + cheerful
- Williams -> social + friendly
behavioural genomics
how individual differences (genes) affect behaviour
quantitative genetics definition
nature or nurture? compare twins separated at birth
molecular genetics definition
correlates of specific gene
temperament definition
stable, individual differences in emotional reactivity
4 aspects of temperament
- activity
- emotional
- sociability
- aggressiveness/impulsivity
FCZ-KT - what is it
temperament questionnaire, revised version
FCZ-KT temperament scales
- alertness
- perserverance
- sensory sensitivity
- endurance
- emotional reactivity
- activity
- rhythmicity = biological functions, sleep etc
Eysenck’s Model of Nervous System Temperament -> Extroverts
- low level of brain arousal
- seeking stimulus
- well modulated nervous system
Eysenck’s Model of Nervous System Temperament -> introverts
- high level of CNS arousal
- shying away from stimulus
- highly reactive nervous system
problems with Eysenck’s model
- hard to measure
- body tries to be in equilibrium so v hard to see differences
Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory
observation and learning are key to survival (reward,, danger, punishment)
BIS and BAS
Gray’s behavioural inhibition system (BIS)
- orienting and punishing responses
- anxiety, alert worrying
- avoidance pattern to avoid punishment + discomfort
Gray’s behavioural activation system (BAS)
- rewards
- impulsiveness, seeking rewards
- looking for gratification
Correlation of sensation seeking and addiction?
- low level of natural activation -> seeking external arousal
- high serotonin levels -> impulsivity
- dopamine regulation
- hemispheric activities -> right side overreaction to negative
do peers and parents shape personality?
- more observable when older
- bio predispositions influence diff depending on environment
diff hereditary psych issues
- schizophrenia
- bipolar
- depression
poisoning on personality
- lead -> anitsocial behaviour in kids
- manganese -> compulsiveness
- mercury
Cloninger’s Neurotransmitter Theory
low levels dopamine = sensation seeking
no researhc to back this yet
tropism defintion
- tendency to seek out specific types of environment
- temperamental differences that rise from genetics
Kretschmer’s somatotypes
- endomorph = good natured
- mesomorph = prone to be athletes
- ectomorph (skinny) = bookworm
reactions of others on personality
- halo effect
- social expectations
sociobiology definition + examples
social behaviour evolution
human courtship -> mating
cinderella effect: real or fake?
when stepparents care more about own kids
NOT scientifically proven
bio aspects of personality implications on psych therpy
- bio interventions
- gene therapies
- plastic surgery
- hormones
social darwinism
cultures also compete (survival of fittest -> superior race)
eugenics definition
sterilization of the poor and unwanted
generlisation + discrimination definiton for conditioning
generalisation = having same conditioned response to a stimulus that is similar to conditioned stimulus
discrimination = learn to tell dif between stimulus to only react to conditioned stim
behaviourism defintion
learned, observed, conditioned
systematic desensitisation (Watson)
stop phobia by dissociating stimulus from fear response (instead combining it with pleasurable stimulus)
Watson’s 3 main ideas
- environment key to understanding personality
- altering undesired behaviour rather than figuring out what caused it
- personality as function of environment
E- Thorndike Law of Effect
if something good happens after behaviour you’re more likely to do it again
operant conditioning - shaping definition
getting desired behaviour
radical deterministic theory defintion
there is no free will because emotions + thoughts all caused by environment
every behaviour you do is guided by operant conditioning
most effective reinforcement?
partial reinforcement -> never knowing if behaviour will be rewarded (gambling)
Skinner’s ideas:
Walden II -> behaviourism as tool for society
token economy -> rewards for desired behaviour
Skinner believed psychopathology (maladaptive personality) came from 3 things
- wrong response
- deficit
- right response never learned
Behaviourists Reinterpretation of Neo-Analytics
id
ego
superego
defence mechanism
archetype
- id → innate susceptibility to reinforcement
- ego → learned responses to practical contingencies of everyday life
- superego → behaviour from punitive practices of soceity
- also can be learned by observation or talk
- defence mechanism → avoid conditioned aversive stimulation
- archetypes → certain universal characteristics
Clark Hull
habits
primary drive
hab it = simple association between stim and response
primary drive = fundamental innate motivator of behaviour
*hunger, pain, sex
social learning theory
situation -> primary rxn -> secondary rxn (acquired) -> motivation for new behaviour
habit hierarchy defintion
which response is more important to us
* behave in way most rewarding to us (individual differences)
extroverts find social interaction highly rewarding so will make it a habit to go to spritzer standl
Harlow rhesus monke study
attachment higher in hierarchy than food
behaviourist reinterpretation of Freud
psychosexual stages as criticial dev stages -> more vulnerable to learn secondary behaviours
parents (environmental) rxn cause dev issues
approach avoidance conflict definition
when primary drives (sex) in opposition to conditioned response (punishment)
Miller’s frustration aggression hypthesis
aggression a result of blocking or frustrating someone from reaching goal
behaviourism (spears) on child rearing
personality as potential for action
- don’t punish kids for dependency
- motivations, expectations + habits
reinforcement sensitivity theory
diff people react better to diff reinforcements
act frequency approach definition
assess personality through observing frequency of observable actions
perception- gestalt psychology
- see environment -> seek meaning -> org sensations
individual differences bc our perceptions differ
Kurt Lewin on personality
personality influenced by:
- internal psychological structure
- forces of external environment
- relationship between them
life space definition
internal and external forces acting upon an individual
Lewin - contemporaneous causation
thoughts based on our momentary conditions