Personality Psychology Flashcards
1
Q
Who was Phineas Gage?
A
He was a railroad worker in the late 1800s who sustained a major injury in which a metal rod when through his cheek and skull. He survived but his personality was irreparably changed. He lost everything.
2
Q
Are all psychological individual differences permanent?
A
No
3
Q
What are state differences?
A
temporary differences in people’s psychology . These differences are fundamentally temporary
4
Q
What are trait differences?
A
Semi-Permanent, enduring differences between people’s psychology
5
Q
What are examples of state differences?
A
(e.g hunger, anger)
6
Q
What are examples of Trait Differences?
A
Shyness, friendliness, courage
7
Q
What is the definition of Personality?
A
A person’s characteristic and enduring style of behaving, thinking, and feeling. (i.e traits, not states)
8
Q
What is the first problem in trying to identify how many distinct personality traits there are?
A
If you conclude too many, the ability to generate predictions and test them becomes near-impossible. If the number was too high we could never have a scientific theory. It would be way too difficult
9
Q
What is the second problem in trying to identify how many distinct personality traits there are?
A
If you make too few, prediction is trivial but your theory has not explained anything at all about how people are actually different.
10
Q
What are the two measures we would use for personality?
A
Self-report and Observation
11
Q
What is the problem with self report?
A
- People may not tell you how they actually act but instead tell you how they wish they acted. (people aren’t always truthful)
12
Q
What is the problem with Observation?
A
- researcher may not be able to reliably infer the causes of behaviour because of their biases.
- If people know they are being observed, they may not act naturally.
13
Q
What are the 4 approaches to discovering where distinct personalities come from?
A
- Heredity and Evolution
- Early developmental Experiences
- Socio-Cognitive approach
- Humanistic Approach
14
Q
What is the perspective on the role of heredity and evolution on personality?
A
The theory is that personality is a genetic trait that allows for variable adaptations to changing environments. They believe that we need balances/ different personalities in order to have people act differently and be adaptable to different environments.
15
Q
What is the perspective on the role of Early Developmental experiences on personality? What approach is this most associated with?
A
theory is that personality comes from positive and negative experiences we have in our childhood and youth (most associated w/ Psychodynamic approach of Sigmund Freud).
16
Q
What is the social-cognitive approach on personality? Do they believe that personality is permanent?
A
theory is that personality comes about from our history of reward and punishment in various social situations. They believe that personality is not permanent and that it can be changed based on our lives.
17
Q
What is the Humanistic Approach to Personality?
A
theory is that personality comes about as we try to maximize our well-being and autonomy.
18
Q
What is a self-report measure?
A
any test in which a person is asked to evaluate themselves on questions, which often rank on scales from “not at all like me” to “very much like of me”.
19
Q
What happens when self-report measures are made poorly? Why?
A
they are prone to extreme bias
that makes them invalid measures.
20
Q
What is the Barnum/Forer effect?
A
a common phenomenon whereby people take extremely general descriptions to be highly specific to them and their personality.
21
Q
What effect do self report measures suffer from?
A
The Barnum/Forer effect
22
Q
What are some examples of phrases that show the Barnum effect?
A
“you have a great need for others to like and admire you, but you tend to be critical of yourself.”
“at times you are extroverted and sociable, while at other times you are introverted and reserved”
23
Q
why would most psychologists reject the Myers Briggs test?
A
because the research behind this test was done by people with vested interests. This research has actually been proven to be false. Statements are too general.
24
Q
what are the 3 things we can do to make a good personality test?
A
- Indirect self reporting
- Measure tendency to bias
- Converge Multiple Methods
25
What is an indirect self report?
ask a question about behaviours without signalling that you are asking about a personality trait (e.g., ask about likeability to test narcissism).
26
Why do we use indirect self-report?
A direct personality test gives you direct info on a personality trait. This allows you to cheat the system. Like “are you a narcissist”, people know thats bad so they say no even if they are.
27
How do we measure tendency to bias?
good personality tests have “catch items” that can tell us if the participant is likely to be biased or not.
28
What is converging multiple methods?
a good test was built by comparing the self-report measure to observable behaviour, asking friends and family, and other objective measurements.
29
Why is converging multiple methods useful?
its not actually the case that the people taking the test tell us if the test is good. We go out into the world to find other sources if the results of this test are actually valid. This bi-passes the Feror effect but produces tests that tend to be substantially less problematic.
30
What was the scenario provided in class regarding factor analysis?
Imagine that personality is made up of, say, 3 traits: sociality, curiosity, and empathy.
If each of these is a factor, then every person would have all three and would independently vary on them.
The traits would, in turn, lead to “clusters” of correlated behaviours.
We could pick up on these clusters by asking thousands of self-report questions, and then examining which ones correlate together (factor analysis – see textbook for details).
31
What is the currently accepted theory of personality and it's factors?
The Five Factor Theory "Big Five"
32
What are the five factors of personality?
Openness, conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
33
What is the Acronym for the five factors?
OCEAN
34
What is believed to be the case about the five factors? (Three things)
- Every person’s personality is thought to be fully captured by these traits.
- Each person varies along each factor’s full continuum and the factors are independent (e.g., a person can be high in Openness and Extraversion, medium in Agreeableness and low in Conscientiousness and Neuroticism).
- The factors predict behaviour in almost most situations.
35
What is openness? (or openness to experience)? What is it strongly related to?
the factor describing a person’s curiosity for experiencing new and varied things. It is strongly related to one’s intellect and imagination/creativity.
36
How are people high on openness often described?
as creative, dreamers, idealists, with a need to learn.
37
What is true of people low on openness?
People low in openness prefer concrete facts rather than ideals; they are traditional, down-to-earth, practical, and prefer routines.
38
What is conscientiousness?
the factor describing a person’s degree of thoughtfulness, organization, and responsibility. Strongly related to orderliness and industriousness.
39
What is true of people high on consientiousness?
People high in conscientiousness typically do very well in school and are described as self-disciplined, exacting, focused and responsible.
40
What is true of people low on conscientousness?
People low in conscientiousness are more laid-back, and less goal and success oriented.
41
What is extraversion?
the factor describing a person’s preference for social activities, including feeling energized from interacting with others. Is related to both enthusiasm for social situations and to assertiveness in social situations.
42
What is true of people high on extraversion?
People high in extraversion “recharge” by hanging out with others; they are described as very social and fun-loving.
43
What is true of people low on extraversion?
People low in extraversion (i.e., introverts) are not low in social skills, but instead “recharge” by being by themselves.
44
What is agreeableness? What is it related to?
the Big Five factor describing the person’s degree of kindness and need for social harmony as opposed to conflict. Related to one’s compassion, empathy, and politeness.
45
What is true of people high on agreeableness?
People high in agreeableness are described as considerate, kind, empathetic, and willing to compromise for others.
46
What is true of people low on agreeableness?
People low in agreeableness are typically sceptical and distrustful of other people and their motives and are not compromising in social situations.
47
What is Neuroticism?
the factor describing a person’s tendency to have negative, pessimistic, or unstable emotions. Related to emotional volatility and social withdrawal.
48
What is true of people high on neuroticism?
People high in neuroticism experience a lot of anxiety and stress, and are usually very self-conscious and shy.
49
What is true of people low on Neuroticism?
People low in neuroticism are typically emotionally stable and not as affected by stressful situations.
50
How did psychologists come up with the 5 factors?
through factor analysis
51
How do we measure personality?
we use standardized measures that contain indirect questions, “catch” items, and cross-validated questions to help with self- report biases.
52
Why is the Big Five the accepted theory of Personality?
because it has strong prediction to various real-life outcomes
53
What is evolutionary Psychology?
an approach to studying psychological processes by understanding why and how they might be universal adaptations shaped by principles of evolution. It tries to answer why our psychology is the way that it is.
54
How are adaptations thought to emerge?
Natural selection and Sexual Selection
55
What is natural selection?
selection of traits that support adaptive survival and procreation (e.g., walking on two legs).
56
What is sexual selection?
selection of traits that promote adaptive reproduction by advertising a mate as eligible and unique (e.g., feathers on a peacock). Sometimes these traits actually decrease fitness
57
What do evolutionary psychologists believe?
evolutionary psychologist believe that almost all of our psychological traits and mechanisms are a reaction to an adaptive pressure.
58
What does evolutionary try to understand? And why are adaptations important for this?
why we are the way that we are. Important becuase it has a commitment that these adaptations are universal. As a result of that, they are present within every person (within a narrow band).
59
What is the most intuitive way that personality exists the way it does? Example?
we want people to be adaptable to changing environments. Or personality promotes or decreases sexual selection. Imagine someone who is high on openness. If we imagine that everybody was high on openness this would mean that if the environment was ever dangerous, curiosity would kill us. So many people think that within this perspective we should have multiple personalities.
60
Why do many people view evolutionary psychology as being deeply flawed?
Because of Just So Stories
61
What are Just-So Stories?
an unverifiable and unfalsifiable narrative explanation for a cultural practice, a biological trait, or behavior of humans or other animals.
62
Why are Just-So Stories so bad?
Adaptations can exist even without evolutionary pressures (e.g., the usage of fire is extremely common in all human cultures, but we did not evolve with that knowledge).
The environment is not static: humans have significantly changed the
environmental pressures that acted on us thousands of years ago through
domestication, building of cities, medicine, etc.
63
What is an example of an evolution that can exist without an evolutionary pressure?
They can look like universal adaptations. Ex: knowing how to use fire is helpful to survival it looks like a universal adaptation but it is just a product of culture converging on similar solutions. Its not biologically driven
64
How do evolutionary psychologists provide more than just plausible stories of how trait may have emerged?
alongside behavioural geneticists.
65
What would we generally expect if genes bias towards one personality or another?
heritability
ability Manipulate genes
Ability to manipulate environment
66
What do we mean by heritability?
high correlations in personality traits for identical vs. fraternal twins.
67
What do we mean by Manipulate genes?
personality should be changed by genetic manipulations.
68
What do we mean by manipulate environment?
the environment in which you grow up (and especially the way your parents raise you) should not change your personality very much.
69
What is the effect of the BIG FIVE on dizygotic twins compared to monozygotic twins?
All Big Five factors show small-to-moderate, positive effects when dizygotic twins are compared to monozygotic twins. (AKA the correlations are stronger btwn monozygotic twins)
70
What is the relationship between personality and gender?
no differences by gender
71
How do genes predict more about your personality as you age (if you are a twin)?
The ability to predict your traits based on your twins traits increases with age
72
What 3 traits are the effects of heritabiltiy particularly strong for?
extraversion, Oppeness and Neuroticism
73
What does evidence show about genes and personality?
Overall, good evidence that genetic heritability has a small-to-moderate
predictive role, though not as much as they do in intelligence. (about 50% of personality can be predicted by genes)
74
What was the silver Fox Experiment?
an influential experiment in which wild foxes were domesticated within eight generations by only those with a calm personality to have cubs.
75
What did the silver fox experiment try to emulate? How?
a kind of selective pressure. Only those who had particular personality traits were allowed to reproduce. Overtime, these foxes (through artificial selection) essentially because domesticated.
76
How did the silver fox experiment manipulate the environment?
The Silver Fox Experiment also manipulated the environment: tame foxes were embryonically implanted into wombs of aggressive mothers. And yet, when born and raised, they remained calm (and vice-versa).
77
What did the silver fox experiment show?
we have evidence that aggression vs non-aggression can be genetic because changing their environment doesn’t change their personality.
78
What is the Social Cognitive Approach to personality?
a theory arguing that personality is dynamic and changing, and dependent on outcome expectancies – our expectations about reward and punishment in a given social situation.
79
According to the Socio cognitive model, why does personality shift?
our expectations about reward and punishment in a given social situation which either come from direct experience, or from us interpreting novel situations to try and predict what will happen. Because of this, personality may shift throughout one’s life, and especially when our environments change.
80
According to the Socio Cognitive model why do some people shut down in social situations?
The idea here is this reward and punishment can come form experience or prediction of novel situations. Some people have difficulty predicting so they just shut down.
81
What is the social Cognitive approach doubtful of?
The BIG FIVE model
82
What is locus of control?
the tendency to perceive outcomes of a situation as Internal (controlled by yourself) or External (not controlled by you).
83
What is true of people with a high internal locus of control?
People with a high internal locus of control tend to be more organized, friendly, healthy, and social (i.e., high in conscientiousness and agreeableness).
84
What is true of people with a high external locus of control?
People with high external locus of control leads to anxiety (high neuroticism).
85
How do we define culture?
the system of shared beliefs, traditions, and values by a group or society. Culture in part defines what is good/desirable and bad/undesirable behavior and personality.
86
What is cross-cultural psychology?
subfield of psychology concerned with documenting similarities and differences in psychology in people from different cultures.
87
What do cross cultural psychologists spend lots of time thinking about?
cross cultural psychologists spend lots of time thinking about behavioural adaptations and they’re very aware of genetics
88
Why is cross-cultural work difficult?
cross cultural work is difficult. We have to be careful that when measuring these things we use the appropriate tools
89
Why is culture an important consideration in the study of personality?
A very important issue in the study of personality is the study of culture. There are cultures where high agreeableness is placed above everything else and there are other cultures where it is frowned upon.
90
What does WEIRD stand for?
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic.
91
What does the weird acronym mean?
Western: almost all participants are from Europe, Canada or USA. Educated: on average, 12-16 years of schooling.
Industrialized: city-dwelling, non-traditional occupations.
Rich: access to health care, roads, etc.
Democratic: growing up in a society valuing individual expression.
92
What does WEIRD make us question?
How many of our findings are, then, truly universal?
93
What is one major difference not tested for in the BIg Five?
individualistic vs collectivist cultures
94
What is an individualistic culture?
(e.g., Canada, Western Europe, USA): cultures in which the uniqueness of each individual person is strongly esteemed; individuals of this
society feel that they, first and foremost, belong to themselves and can live and act in any way that they see fit.
95
What is a collectivist culture?
(e.g., China, India, Brazil): cultures in which social harmony outweighs the importance of each individual person; individuals of this society feel that they, first and foremost, belong to a group to which they must contribute
to and compromise for.
96
What does individualistic vs collectivist make a difference for in terms of personality?
This has impacts on which personality traits we emphasis and de-emphasize these traits.
97
how does culture lead to differences in?
how personality is conceptualized
98
What is more likely of members of an individualistic culture?
Members of individualistic cultures are more likely to attribute to people an enduring and unchanging personality that is characteristic of a person (“essentialism”).
99
What is more likely of members in a collectivist culture?
Members of collectivist cultures are more likely to evaluate the social situation in which the person found themselves, and hence the personality characteristic of the situation.
100
Why is personality especially valued in individualistic cultures?
They put such a strong emphasis on self-worth and self-esteem. they really elevate this notion. this is another notable difference in how people use thier personality and behaviours that htey believe they hold as unique individuals.
101
What is Self-Narrative?
a narrative we tell about ourselves (to ourselves and others) by both assimilating and contrasting to others.
102
What is Downward Comparison?
the act of comparing yourself to somebody you believe is worse off than you to boost your self-worth.
103
Which of the following assumptions do we have to make in order for the study of “personality” to be rigorous and scientific?
A-to-be studied aspect of personality must consist of characteristics that are both measurable and stable over time.
104
What is the unconscious?
Thoughts and feelings that fall below the threshold of our awareness but can guide thought and behaviour
105
what is the id?
The component of personality in Freuds psychoanalytic theory that is the manifestation of the unconscious and instinctual drives and needs.
106
What does the id operate in accordance to?
The pleasure principle
107
What is the pleasure principle?
where behavior is driven purely by what feels good, with no real filter or concern about what is polite or possible
108
What is responsible for tantrums?
The id
109
What is the ego?
The component of personality In Freuds psychoanalytic theory that represents the largely conscious awareness of reality and the ability to mediate the need of the id within the constraints of reality.
110
What principle does the ego operate according to?
The reality principle
111
What is the preconscious?
where thoughts and motives have the potential to become consciously accessible if they are cued.
112
What is the superego? When does it develop?
The component of personality in Freuds psychoanalytic theory that represents internalized cultural rules and ideals to guide our moral conscience. Develops at 5 or 6
113
What was frueds primary goal of psychoanalytic theory?
to access these buried thoughts and bring them to consciousness
114
What are defence mechanisms?
the various ways in which the ego is thought to cope with conflict between the unconscious desires of the id and the moral constraints of society.
115
What is displacement?
a response to anger that can flare up when we feel mistreated, insulted, or ignored. The id’s knee-jerk response to anger is attack, punishment, and retaliation
116
What is projection?
a defense mechanism in which people, instead of acknowledging it in themselves, see others as possessing a disliked trait or feeling.
117
What is repression?
the ego keeps unwanted feelings, thoughts and memories below the level of conscious awareness.
118
What is denial?
ego prevents the perception of a painful or threatening reality as it occurring
119
What are 4 things freud discovered that we still stick to today?
- The existence of unconscious thought
- The importance of early childhood development
- The influence of mind on body
- the talking cure
120
What was a key outcome of Freud suggesting the importance of early childhood development?
Erik Erikson's psychosocial stages of development emerged from this idea
121
What are some examples of psycho somatic symptoms?
headaches, sleep disruption, chest pains, shortness of breath, back pain, appetite disruption, stomach or bowel problems, sex drive disruption, weakened immune system
122
Why did Freud originally develop psychoanalysis?
he thought the psychological processes of the mind could account for medically inexplicable disorders of the body.
123
What is the talking cure?
Freuds Basic proposition that people could be cured of psychological disorders or relieve their symptoms by talking to someone about their experience
124
Why isn't psychoanalysis a dominant theoretical perspective?
It is not empirically verifiable
125
What were the three types of traits distinguished by Allport?
Cardinal traits (the traits that dominate ones personality)
- Central traits
- secondary traits
126
Do most of us have cardinal traits? Who does?
Most of us do not have a cardinal trait, but someone like Dalai Lama might be seen as possessing the cardinal trait of compassion as it was a trait that seemed to direct his every behaviour
127
What are central traits?
more general dispositions used to describe someone (i.e neurotic and outgoing). Does not define the person but provides insight into how they behave
128
What are secondary traits?
Traits that are relevant only in certain contexts
129
What did Allport believe about personality?
personality provides the diversity in human behavior by intervening between stimulus and response.
130
What is functional equivelence?
A given trait might lead us to behave in a similar way in what seem like very different situations, rendering those situations "functionally equivelent"
131
Can personality traits change how we interprate situations?
yes. Different personality traits can make certain situations seem functionally equivalent and cue a similar response.
132
What are the 4 general classes of personality that can be used to describe a person?
traits, temporary states, moods, physical characteristics and talents
133
What does the lexical hypothesis assume?
Any trait that is a useful way to characterize a personality should become a word
134
What is factor analysis?
A statistical technique that groups a large set of variables into a smaller set of constructs based on how that correlate with one another
135
What are correlations?
a way to quantify an association between two variables
136
What is the definition of assessment?
the process of developing and validating tools to accurately measure and quantify traits and other features of personality
137
What is a key assumption of Self- report measures?
that people are willing and able to describe themselves accurately
138
What are informant reports?
a rating report made by a family member of close friend.
139
What is it called when broader personality traits can be combined to identify more nuanced descriptions?
facets
140
What are the facets of open-mindedness?
intellectual, curiosity, aesthetic, sensitivity, creative, imagination
141
What are the facets of conscientiousness?
organization, productiveness, responsibility
142
What are the facets of extraversion?
sociability, energy level, assertiveness
143
What are the facets of agreeableness?
compassionate, respectfulness, trust
144
What are the facets of neuroticism?
anxiety, emotional, volatility, depression
145
Which type of people are at higher risk of juvenile delinquency and are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease?
People that are low on agreeableness
146
Which of the BIG Five traits is the best predictor of success on the job and at school?
conscientiousness
147
What political views are people high in open-mindedness likely to have?
not conservative
148
As we get older do we generally become more or less agreeable?
more
149
As we get older do we generally become more or less open to experience?
less
150
What can extraversion be subdivided into?
social vitality and social dominance
151
What is social vitality? Does it increase or decrease with age?
how socially active on is. Stays the same.
152
what is social dominance? does it increase or decrease with age?
how socially dominant or assertive one is. It increases
153
Can formal counselling or therapy lead to long term changes in personality?
yes
154
Does the relative rank of our personality scores change?
no. We may increase our individual scores but if we are low on something compared to others we will still be relatively low compared to normal even with improvements.
155
What is one way in which personality researchers have tried to test personality cross culturally?
One strategy is to have people in different countries complete the Big Five Inventory, translated into their native language, and factor analyze the results in each location to see if the same five traits replicate across culture
156
Why might simply translating the big Five not be sufficient for cross cultural testing?
developing the survey from one cultural perspective (in the United States) misses important variability that might be out there in another cultural context.
157
What is a suggestion on how to improve cross cultural testing?
starting from the ground up. Looking through the dictionary of every language.
158
Which languages adhere to the big Five when starting from the ground up?
Western, Germanic, Slavic Languages like English, German, Polish, Croatian and Turkish
159
Which of the Big five in particular does not seem to remain consistent cross culturally? Why?
open-mindedness. This factor has been called different things by different theorists leaving some ambiguity about its universality
160
Which personality trait was found in other cultures that are not western. What country was it found in?
interpersonal relatedness (emphasizing social harmony and tradition). Found in Chinese cultures.
161
In terms of cultural personality, what does research show about personality?
being in sync with your culture might be better for well being.
162
How long does research show it takes for us to size up someone's personality?
less than a minute.
163
Why is it unlikely that personality is controlled by a variant of a single gene?
It is too complex
164
What is interpersonal relatedness?
emphasizing social harmony and tradition
165
What is behavioural genetics?
An approach that estimates the heritability of a trait by statistically comparing patterns of similarity in the behavioural or personality profiles of people who differ in their genetic relatedness.
166
What is the prototypical study method used in behavioural genetics?
Twin study
167
How have researchers been able to draw influences about heritability?
having pairs of monozygotic and fraternal twins take the same personality measures and then correlating their scores
168
In what circumstance would we say hat a trait is partly heritable?
if identical twins show greater similarity in their traits than fraternal twins do
169
How can we demonstrate heritability?
the difference between the r for monozygotic twins and the r for dizygotic twins, times two (or [rMZ — rDZ] × 2 = h)
170
What is the agreed upon level of variability in traits that are due to genetic factors?
40-50 %
171
What do heritability studies show us?
people share the same trait, in part, because they share the same genes. This can typically only be true for the specific SAMPLE and will not necessarily generalize to any other individuals.
172
What do heritability studies not show us?
They can only explain personality variability in a SAMPLE of people. Not any one individual.
173
What assumption of heritability studies is up for some critique? Why?
Because identical twins are of the same sex and likely to look the same, people will be more likely to confuse them and treat them in the same manner. This experience alone could funnel twins into a more similar personalities than fraternal twins. The calculation of heritability does not rule out the effects of this.
174
What is genetic essentialism?
the tendency to assume that just because something has a genetic basis it is natural and unchangeable
175
What is an environmental reason that identical twins may share similar traits?
they both pick the same niches
176
How is personality best explained?
gene x environment interactions
177
What assumption do we make when we define personality in terms of traits?
that those traits help us predict behaviour
178
What was Walter michell's critique of personality research?
He pointed out that traits can be context specific. Traits may not be consistent across different situations
179
What do social cognitive theorists emphasize?
The role that the immediate environement can play in shaping who people are.
180
What were personality psychologists retort to Walter Mischel? Example?
some of the classic social psychology experiments show that personality traits predict behavior just as well as situations do. An Exam of this is Milgram's experiement
181
What are social perceivers guilty of in terms of Personality psych?
magnify the meaning of behavior when we diagnose people’s traits
182
What is meant by person x situation interactions?
model positing that in order to understand and predict behaviour, it is necessary to account for both personal dispositions and the situations people find themselves in, as well as the interactions between the 2.
183
What is Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory?
a theory of how people’s cognitions, behaviours, and dispositions are shaped by observing and imitating the actions of others.
184
What was Albert Bandura a part of in the 1970's?
The cognitive revolution
185
What did Bandura suspect?
cognitions play an intermediary role between context and behavior
186
What is reciprocal determinism?
The idea that personality guides cognition about the world in ways that can shape the environments people choose, serving to reinforce or amplify their personality. Reciprocal determinism is a cyclical process of personal and environmental factors influencing each other. Two people with different personalities might respond to the same situations in different ways that enhance and reinforce their dispositions.
187
What is the hallmark of the social cognitive approach?
its focus not only on how the environment shapes who we are, but also on how we construe, or interpret, what a situation means and how we will respond to it
188
What do those high in an internal locus of control think?
They can control their own fate
189
How do people high on external locus of control think?
They think that they arne't in control of their own fate.
190
What does an internal locus of control predict?
greater success at school and work and better physical health and lower levels of depression
191
What is outcome efficacy?
The belief that if a person can perform a behaviour, a desired outcome will result.
192
What is self-efficacy?
The belief that one can successfully execute a behaviour linked to a desired outcome.
193
What is learned helplessness?
a state of passive resignation to an aversive situation that one has come to believe is out of one’s control.
194
What is depressive realism?
The painful awareness of personal limitations that render outcomes uncontrollable, in contrast to more commonly held illusions of control for those who are not depressed.
195
What is sex?
Biological and anatomical differences that makes us male or female
196
What is gender identity?
refers to the psychological identity we have as being male or female, or nonbinary
197
What is the concept of agency? What does it involve?
used to be called masculinity. High agency involves an orientation toward the self and being assertive, dominant, competitive, and independent.
198
What is the concept of communion?
used to be called femininity. High communion involves an orientation toward others and being gentle, cooperative, caring, and aware of other’s feelings.
199
What are the 2 dimensions of gender expression?
Agency and communion
200
What is sexual selection?
An evolutionary perspective positing that men and women develop distinct profiles of personality traits because of the different reproductive challenges they face.
201
What might have lead to higher Agency in men and higher communion in women?
sexual selection
202
What behaviours are testosterone accountable for?
status-seeking behavior, dominance, and extraversion. Testosterone may be accountable for agression and status seeking hormone
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what might increased oxytocin in women lead to?
higher communal traits
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What is social role theory?
A theory positing that the roles people find themselves in can profoundly shape their personality.
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What is the humanist perspective in psychology? when did it emerge?
a school of thought that emphasizes the intrinsic value of human nature. It emerged in the 1950s
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What was humanism a reaction against?
psyhoanalysis and behaviourism
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What is humanism sometimes called?
The third force perspective
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What was the message of humanism?
we can achieve our potential when we are accepted by others
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What is the central concept in humanism?
the fundamental motivation to achieve self-acutalization.
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What is self actualization?
The process of fulfilling one’s true potential by gaining a sense of personal autonomy, accepting oneself, and accepting other people.
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Who is the main person in humanism?
Carl Rogers
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What did Carl Rogers believe?
he believed that self-actualization was the ultimate human goal
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What did Carl Rogers advocate for?
a more person centred style of therapy where people are guided to true acceptance of themselves by a therapist who provides unconditional positive regard
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What did Abraham Maslow believe about Self-Actualization?
The path to self-actualization was reached from climbing up a heir-archy of needs. Specifically, he thought that in order to acquire this, you first needed to fulfill other fundamental needs.
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How do self-actualized people view themselves?
as one with others and the universe as a whole
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What study design did Malsow and Rogers use?
case study
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What does Mihalyi believe about self-actualized people?
that they are have more experiences of flow.
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when can a person be described as experiencing flow?
When your body seems to move automatically, without conscious effort, exertion, or evaluation from your mind, you are experiencing flow.
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What is the problem with humanism?
relies too much on self-report and is not easily proven through scientific methodology
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Why is humanism seen as Western?
the seemingly self-indulgent and predominantly Western view of promoting self-actualization over the need for belonging and community
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What is self-determination theory?
A theory positing that well-being and success are most likely to be achieved when a person’s environments support three key motivations: autonomy, competence and relatedness.
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What is autonomy?
a sense that our behaviour is motivated from within
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What is competence?
the opportunity to demonstrate our strengths
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What is relatedness?
the opportunity to feel affiliated with others
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According to self-determination theory when can someone maximize their potential?
when environments provide basic needs for the three key motivations
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What does cross cultural work show about self-determinism?
autonomy predicts well-being both in cultures that emphasize independence and in those that stress interdependence.
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What do self-actualized people do?
accept both those around them and themselves for who they are.
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What are self-thoerists interested in?
people's own perceptions of personality traits and characteristics
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What is self-concept?
The broad network of mental representations that a person has of him or herself.
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How do we gather information about ourselves through our interactions with others?
reflected appraisals (The way people treat us) and social comparison (sizing ourselves up to people around us)
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How do we develop our self-concept?
a collection of self-knowledge, roles, traits, and attributes (it is our largest mental schema)
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What is the working self-concept?
The part of our personality that is activated in a particular situation that guides our behaviour.
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What can role models do?
positive and negative possibilities for our future selves can be shaped by our exposure to role models
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What is self-esteem?
our general attitude towards oursleves
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What is self-serving bias?
Characteristic ways of processing information to maintain a positive attitude toward the self.
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What are the 4 self-serving biases?
self-serving attributions
Above average effect
Idiosyncratic trait definitions
Overestimating our contributions
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What are self-serving attributions?
The tendency to attribute good outcomes to something about us, but to discount bad outcomes as due to the situation or bad luck.
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What is an example of a self-serving attribution?
I got an A in this class because I'm smart, I got an F in that class because the professor was unfair.
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What is the Above Average effect?
Whenever a group of people rate themselves on just about any positive dimension (sense of humor, intelligence, friendliness), the “average” score is above average. We hate to think that we are average or below.
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What are idiosyncratic trait definition?
defining traits in a way that seems true to us
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What is an example of an idiosyncratic trait definition?
a straight A student and street hustler may both describe themselves as intelligent but their definitions may be drastically different.
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What is overestimating our contributions?
people have a tendency to think they are contributing more than they actually are
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What is sociometer theory?
A theory positing that people use self-esteem, a judgment of self-worth, to access the degree to which they are accepted by others.
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What is terror management theory?
A theory positing that self-esteem allows people to cope with existential terror stemming from the awareness of their own mortality.
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How is self-esteem determined by terror management theory?
derived from the feeling that we are living up to the standards dictated by our own prefferred cultural worldview.
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What is narcissism?
The tendency to have unrealistic and self-aggrandizing views of the self
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What is the connection between narcissism and self-esteem?
Narcissists often have less stable sense of self. They will self-report positive views of themselves but their implicit tendency is to associate themselves with bad
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What is independent self-construal? What cultures promote this?
a notion of the self as a bounded and stable entity that is distinct from others. Individualst cultures (Western cultures)
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What is interdependent self-construal? What cultures promote this?
a notion of the self that is defined by one’s connection to other people. Collectivist cultures (Asian cultures)
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What is common of people from individualistic cultures?
thinking that individuals have agency, and blame their personal character when they behave badly
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What motivation takes precedence in collectivist cultures.
the motivation to fit in, to belong, and to maintain group harmony seems to take precedence.
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Do people from collectivist cultures show the same self serving bias as those rom individualistic cultures?
no
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Freud a psychologist?
no. He was a neurologist
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did freud align himself with empirical psychology?
no
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Why was Freud important?
Despite the fact that his theories have been universally objected by psychologists. His influence on the field is unquestionable. Most of the work he did was the scaffold for many of the theories we have today. Modern theories of personality, clinical disorders, and development are a reaction to his
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What is unconscious cognition?
automatic parts of psychology that we have no conscious awareness of.
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Why is having unconscious cognition a good thing?
it removes the need to think and make decisions about everything, everywhere, all at once. (imagine how difficult it would be to have to think about making your heart beat)
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How did Freud re-conceptualize and extend the idea of unconscious cognition?
1. Unconscious cognition is richer than we think:
2. Unconscious cognition drives all behaviour:
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How is Unconscious cognition is richer than we think?
unconscious isn’t just an “autopilot” but actively thinks, learns, feels, and wants, just like conscious cognition. It’s a whole “self” that we are not aware of.
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How does unconscious cognition drive all behaviour?
most of what we are aware of is just a byproduct of what happens in our unconscious.He believed that what we think about why we do certain things is an allusion. He believes that there is actually an unconsciosu agent who has done all of the reasoning etc. and your opinions are just a biproduct of that. If he is right this is a radical idea about what it is to be human. If Freud is right it means that we are all automatically self-decieving and that we don’t even really know ourselves.
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How many systems did Freud think our minds have? How did they work?
Our mind is made up of three separate “systems” that work independently
and according to their own special, irrational set of rules:
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What were the three systems of the mind that Freud believed?
the id, the ego, and the superego
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What is the id?
the unconscious system present at birth that is the source of our bodily needs, desires, and impulses (especially aggression and sex).
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What is the superego?
the unconscious system that develops through punishment and cultural experience and tells us what we cannot do, operating primarily through guilt and shame. This is the internalization of the parent.
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What is the ego?
the third system – and the only one that we have any conscious access
to – that is in contact with the real world and tries to find a balance between the
id’s wants and the superego’s rules.
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What are psycho sexual stages?
developmental stages that form personality and lead to the emergence of ego and superego; in each stage, the child experiences pleasure for specific body areas and caregivers either provide or interfere with those pleasures.
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What three things did freud believe about the psychosexual stages?
Every person goes through all the stages in the same order.
A stage is successfully completed if the child receives the kind of pleasure
demanded by that stage.
A delayed or incomplete stage makes a fixation: a slowing down of development and obsession with receiving pleasure through that body area.
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What is the first stage?
the oral stage
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What is the oral stage?
the first psychosexual stage that focuses on pleasures of
the mouth (e.g., sucking, chewing). We are born into this stage.
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What mind structure exists in the oral stage?
the id, the ego will emerge (through babies contact with world) at some point before the stage is complete
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what is oral fixation? How does it happen?
Not gaining enough oral pleasure (e.g., if your mother stopped breastfeeding you too early) results in an oral fixation (e.g., too much eating, thumb sucking, smoking, constant need for affection, etc.)
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What is the second Freudian developmental stage?
Anal Stage
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What is the Anal Stage?
the second psychosexual stage that focuses on
pleasures of the anus (e.g., toilet training). Centred around toilet training.
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What structure of the mind exists during the anal stage?
the id and the ego (no superego yet)
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What is anal fixation? What causes it?
Not getting adequate pleasure from this stage (e.g., if a child is delayed in toilet training) results in an anal fixation (e.g., overly rigid and controlling personality, obsessed with material possessions).
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What is the third freudian stage?
The phallic stage
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What is the phallic stage?
the third psychosexual stage, focusing on the phallic- genital region (i.e., on the child’s penis, or lack thereof)
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What structures of the mind exist in the phallic stage?
id, ego, (superego developes)
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What does a boy discover in the phallic stage?
In this stage, the boy discovers that he has a penis and wishes to receive
pleasure from it.
he believed that one day a young boy wakes up and discovers that he has a penis and this is the most important day in a boys life. For freuds theory, the symbol of the penis is very important. He believed that fundamentally power is the masculin, he thought that being male, having a penis means ultimately having power. So when the boy discovers this it is something that is etched so deeply in his psyche because he thinks hes one of the chosen ones.
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What is the conflict in the Phallic stage?
In a typical nuclear family, the only available person for this source of pleasure is the mother. But – there is somebody who stands in the way: the father
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What is the sequence of progression through the phallic stage?
In a typical family. The child recieves pleasure previosuly fro mtheir care giver. So he thinks that a child wishes to recieve pleasure by having sex with his mother.Freud thinks that the boy needs to recieve pleasure from the mother but the father stands in the way. This leads to the development of the eodipus conflict where the child is in a conflict. He needs pleasure, needs it from his mother, but father will be upset if this happens. He thinks that his id is telling child to constantly have sex with the child but the ego knows thats not possible. But the ego can’t fully control the id. The ego says we need to start identifying with our father. We must internalize the father which leads to the development of the superego. he thinks that the superego is the harsh, judging, punishing father. Now the ego can rely on the superego to control the ids impulses. Now the ego has a partner to control the id. Now the child feels free from the pressure of the id. Ultimately the superego is now there to make you feel bad about everything.
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What is the Oedipus complex?
a developmental experience during the phallic stage in which the (male) child experiences love towards their mother and fear of their father.
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How is the oedipus complex resolved?
a) The child identifying with the father’s strict rule-based role.
b) This leads to the development of the superego (the internalized father)
c) This leads to a guilt and shame about the desire to be with one’s mother, and the ego + superego win against the id, alleviating the complex.
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Who was Freuds theory originally aimed at?
men
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What part of freuds work was considered the weakest?
his ideas about females
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What did freud believe about women's stages?
Girls go through oral and anal stages normally, and then reach the phallic stage. Girls then discover that they don’t have a penis.
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What is the electra complex?
the id deeply desires a penis (a state called “penis envy”), so girls become strongly attracted to their father and very angry at their mother, who they see as weak for lacking a penis. In an effort for their father to love them, girls act more and more like their mothers, developing the superego and entering the latency stage. Later, they generalize their desire from their father onto other men.
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What does the phallic stage imply about the superego?
The superego for boys and girls is different – each is the internalization of the same-sex parent.
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What are mother/father fixations?
Any delays or failures to resolve them lead to mother/father fixations: a lifelong fear, distrust, or dislike of one’s same-sex parent and deep love for the opposite-sex parent.
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What did Freud believe the mother/father fixation manifests into?
Freud believed that this manifests as a lifelong obsession with finding more appropriate and loving father/mother figures in other people.
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What is the fourth stage of Freuds theory?
The latency stage
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What is the latency stage?
the fourth psychosexual stage in which the child’s repressed conflicts lead to seeking friendship in non-erotic activities developing intellectual, creative, and interpersonal skills.
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What is the fifth stage?
the Genital Stage
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What is the genital stage?
the fifth (andfinal) psychosexual stage in which the adult, mature personality emerges; people become capable of love and friendship and sexual desire, and become capable of dealing with the repressed conflicts of their childhood.
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What does fried say about what will happen if the ego fails to control the superego and the id after these stages?
So if the ego fails to control these two, then either you have inappropriate impulses, or you feel deep shame and guilt. Which would lead to depression, anxiety and overall psychological suffering
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What are defence mechanisms?
unconscious tactics the ego uses to cope and reduce anxiety.
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What is repression?
purposefully forgetting something (e.g., that you were once in love with your mother and jealous of your father).
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What is reaction formation?
replacing your desire with strongly opposite feeling (e.g., yelling at somebody you like).
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What is projection?
attributing your shame or desires to somebody else (e.g., thinking somebody is attracted to you because you are actually and secretly attracted to them).
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What is displacement?
shifting impulses to more neutral targets (e.g., yelling at your friend
instead of your dad).
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According to Freud, where does personality emerge form?
1. The perpetual unconscious conflict between your id, ego, and superego.
2. Any unresolved fixations.
3. From defense mechanisms that emerge when your ego is trying to prevent shame or impulses from reaching your consciousness.
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Why is Freud wrong about the id, ego, and superego?
we have not found any evidence for the three systems (though unconscious cognition is richer than expected).
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Why is freud wrong about the psychosexual stages?
while childhood trauma undoubtedly affects us later in life, there is no evidence of the Freudian conceptualization of stages.
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Why does Freuds theory have cross culturally poor effects?
Freud’s patterns of development are, at best, descriptive of a highly specific time and place (late 19th century Europe).
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Why is Freuds theory unverifiable?
perhaps worst of all, Freud’s theory cannot be proven false,
because one can always claim that it’s our ego preventing us from seeing the truth
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What was Freud's historical impact?
many people think that Freud is psychology, and many theories were made to counter his. Knowing his theory is to know how to articulate why this is not true.
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What was Freud's influence on clincial psychology?
Freud’s therapy is still a very important part of Clinical Psychology, as we’ll learn later in the course.
