Personality Psychology Flashcards
Personality psychology
is the study of why people act the way they do and why different people act differently.
William Sheldon
Created an early theory of personality. Defined physical/biological variables that related to human behaviors. Characterized people by body type, relating body type (somatotypes) to personality type.
endomorphy
body type that is soft, short and spherical -> pleasure seeking, social behavior
mesomorphy
body type that is hard, muscular, athletic and rectangular -> energetic, aggressive behavior
ectomorphy
body type thin, fragile and lightly muscled -> inhibited, intellectual behavior
list the 3 body types according to William Sheldon
- Endomorphy
- Mesomorphy
- Ectomorphy
How was abnormal behavior seen before renaissance?
It was seen as evidence of demonic possession or even witchcraft.
E.G. Boring
Suggested that the development of psychology is due not primarily to the efforts o great people, but to the Zeitgeist or the changing spirit of the times.
Edward Titchener
created the method of introspection and structuralism with it. It was the first major system if psychology
Mention the major systems of psychology (7)
1) Structuralism
2) Functionalism
3) Behaviorism
4) Gestalt psychology
5) Cognitive psychology
6) Psychoanalysis
7) Humanism
Which was the first comprehensive theory on personality and abnormal psychology
Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality. He pioneered the psychoanalytic system of thought.
When did humanism develop?
Mid 20th century. In opposition to both psychoanalysis and behaviorism.
Believes in the notion of free will and the idea that people should be considered as wholes rather than in terms of stimuli and responses (behaviorism) or instincts (psychoanalysis)
describe the conditions of early asylums for mentally ill (5)
1) Patients were treated like animals
2) Cells were dark with no provisions of heat for the winter
3) Hands and feet were chained
4) Patients slept on straw rather than in beds.
5) Patients were shackled to the wall forced to sit on their own filth
Philippe Pinel
Paris
Believed that people in asylums should be treated with consideration and kindness. Removed shackles, put beds, and treated them humanely. This change spread to other asylums.
Dorothea Lynde Dix
She was a zealous advocate of treating hospitalized mentally ill with humanity. One of the founders of the American Movement to provide better care for the mentally ill.
Etiology
cause
General paresis (4)
disorder characterized by:
1) delusions of grandeur
2) mental deterioration
3) eventual paralysis
4) death
What causes general paresis and why it is important?
It is due brain deterioration caused by syphilis (untreatable until 1909). The mental disorder was caused by organic brain pathology ->mental disorders could be caused by physiological causes and not necessarily by demons.
Cerletti and Bini
Introduced the use of the electroshock for the artificial production of convulsive seizures in psychiatric patients. Convulsions were so violent that they could cause fractures.
What did Cerletti and Bini thought about electroshock?
they thought epileptic-like convulsions could cure schizophrenia. (they were wrong)
Prefrontal lobotomies
The frontal lobes of the brain were severed from the brain tissue in order to treat schizophrenia. Tens of thousands of patients were subjected to it. This procedure didn’t cure schizophrenia, it made patients more calm and without feelings at the same time that it withdrew form patients the lob responsible for most human traits.
What was the effect of introducing antipsychotic drugs in mental hospitals? (3)
1) Many patients were completely released from mental hospitals
2) Electroshock were not performed
3) Lobotomies were not performed
Emil Kraepelin
Described and classified mental disorders by seeing patterns of symptoms. Precursor of DSM-IV
What are the types of theories of personality? (4)
1) psychodynamic (psychoanalitic)
2) behaviorist
3) phenomenological
4) type and trait