personality psychology Flashcards
relatively enduring
refers to the consistent, long-term characteristics that define a person’s thought, feelings, behavior pattern, and interaction with environment and others. These traits, such as those in the Five Factor Model, remain stable over a lifetime and across generations.
Personality
the enduring characteristics and behavior that comprise a person’s unique adjustment to life, including major traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities, and emotional patterns.
psychoanalytical approach
personality revolves heavily around the influence our past experiences have on shaping our unconscious minds, which in turn impacts the development of our personalities.
Deterministic
It refers to the idea that free will is an illusion, and we have little to no control over the way we act.
Conflict fixation
characterized by the conflict’s ongoing symbolic manifestation, results from a failure to find a solution. A fixation is defined as an individual’s persistent and obsessive focus on pleasure-seeking that is seen at an early stage of psychosexual development.
Understanding Personality
Personality encompasses traits and patterns influencing how individuals think, feel, and behave.
Personality is the collection of unique traits shaping how individuals perceive and interact with their world.
It significantly influences personal and professional relationships, emotional responses, and behaviors.
fixation
Failure to resolve conflicts leads to fixation, resulting in persistent pleasure-seeking behaviors linked to early developmental stages.
Id
Unconscious and instinctual desires (selfish impulses).
Superego
Conscience and morality.
Ego
Mediator between id and superego, balancing internal conflicts and external demands.
Conscious
Present thoughts and awareness.
Preconcious
Thoughts that can be recalled.
Unconcious
Drives and memories outside of awareness.
neurosis
A coping strategy to manage unresolved, repressed emotions from past experiences
Psychosocial Development
Personality develops through social conflicts at various life stages.
Emphasized lifelong personality changes shaped by social interactions rather than sexual origins.
Object-Relations Theory
Internalized representations of human interactions.
Humanistic Approach
Emerged in the 1950s as a response to psychoanalytic theories that disregarded positive human traits like self-determination and self-actualization.
Founders include Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
Focuses on conscious, reasoned thought and the capacity to self-regulate biological desires while striving to realize full potential.
Self-Actualization
Traits: Self-awareness, compassion, intelligence, and a focus on problem-solving.
Characteristics: Acceptance of flaws, a childlike sense of awe, and an ability to see life as an adventure.
Only 1% of people truly achieve self-actualization.
Client-Centered Therapy
Based on unconditional positive regard.
Encourages clients to express themselves openly without judgment.
Therapists respect clients’ histories and offer empathy and support.
Self-Concept
Consists of the real self (actual experience) and the ideal self (aspirations).
Conngruence
Harmony between the real self and ideal self leads to well-being.
incongruence
A mismatch between self-concept and reality causes anxiety.
Social Learning Theory
Emphasizes interdependence of environment, cognition, and behavior.
Behavioral patterns are developed through observation and reciprocal interactions.
Emphasizes that individuals learn by observing others’ behavior and the consequences of that behavior, not just through direct experience
Attribution Theory
Describes how people interpret events and how these interpretations affect their reactions and personality
Epictetus (Stoicism):
Feelings like joy and suffering stem from rational judgment.
Moral judgment and choices result from interpretations of events, not the events themselves.
Cognitive theory extends this, focusing on information encoding, retrieval, and belief formation as foundations of personality.
Social Desirability Bias
Participants may give favorable responses (e.g., denying drinking and driving).
Acquiescent Responding
Participants agree without considering the question.
Extreme Responding
Overuse of high or low ends of scales undermines validity (e.g., overly extreme ratings on controversial topics like abortion).
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
Developed by Hathaway & McKinley (1942) to measure adult personality and psychopathology.
Consists of 567 true/false questions.
Revised as MMPI-2 in 1989 to address biases and improve accuracy.
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Created by Myers (1962) to categorize individuals into one of 16 personality types.
Based on four dichotomies:
Extraversion vs. Introversion
Sensing vs. Intuition
Thinking vs. Feeling
Judging vs. Perceiving.
Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)
Developed by Raymond Cattell (1949), with several revisions over time.
Measures 16 traits, such as dominance, emotional stability, and openness to change.
Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI)
Created by Costa & McCrae (2008) to measure the Big Five personality traits:
Neuroticism
Extraversion
Openness to Experience
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness.
Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI)
Developed by Eysenck & Sybil (1964) to measure two primary dimensions of personality:
Neuroticism vs. Stability
Extraversion vs. Introversion.
Behavioral Observation
Involves direct recording of observable behaviors at specific times or settings.
Data collection is statistical, focusing on the frequency, duration, or intensity of behaviors.
Useful for identifying patterns associated with conditions like OCD or ADHD
Behavioral Assessment
A structured approach to evaluating a person’s behavior in various settings.
Combines direct observation with subjective data (e.g., thoughts, feelings, anxieties).
Aims to understand the interaction between behavior, thoughts, and environment.
Critical Episodes
Focuses on documenting key instances of behavior to support specific assessments.
Example:
A supervisor might label an employee as melancholy based on observed incidents of crying.
Frequency and Consistency Monitoring
Tracks how often certain behaviors occur over a specified period.
Example:
Monitoring how often an individual washes their hands after a handshake.
Hawthorne Effect
Subjects may alter their behavior if they know they’re being observed.
Bias:
Observers may unintentionally influence or misinterpret behaviors.
