Personality Psychology Flashcards
What is the id?
Reservoir of all psychic energy and consists of everything psychological that’s present at birth; functions according to the pleasure principle (opposite of delayed gratification); imagining what the body wants = wish fulfillment
What is the ego?
operates according to the reality principle (called secondary process); the aim of the reality principle is to postpone the pleasure principle until the actual object that will satisfy the need has been discovered or produced; interrupts the id, but in the service of the id; their interaction encourages the growth of perception, memory
What is the superego?
not directly in touch with reality (like id) but strives for the ideal rather than the real
a. conscience: whatever a child is punished for is incorporated here
b. ego-ideal: whatever a child is rewarded for is incorporated here
Ultimately, a system of right and wrong is subbed for parents’ reward/punishment system
What are instincts according to Freud?
Instinct: an innate psychological representation (wish) of a bodily (biological) excitation (need)
Instincts are the propelling aspects of Freud’s dynamic theory of personality
Two types of instincts: life (Eros) and death (Thanatos)
What are defense mechanisms according to Freud?
- The ego’s recourse to releasing excessive pressure due to anxiety is referred to as defense mechanisms: all deny, falsify, or distort reality; and all operate subconsciously
1. repression
2. suppression
3. projection
4. reaction formation
5. rationalization
6. regression
7. sublimation
8. displacement
What was Carl Jung’s theory of personality?
psycholoanalytic + interpersonal, sociological and cultural influences
ego = conscious mind;
ego – personal unconscious (painful or threatening memories) + collective unconscious (archetypes; explain similarities between cultures)
major archetypes:
- Persona: mask
- Anima: feminine
- Animus: masculine
- Shadow
Distinguished between two major personality orientations:
- introversion
- extroversion
Four psychological functions:
- thinking
- feeling
- sensing
- intuiting
What was Alfred Adler’s theory of personality?
downplayed the importance of the unconscious and focused on the role of the ego
believed people motivated by fear of failure and desire to be superior to others; coined the term “inferiority complex”
also known for his work about the importance of birth order in shaping personality
creative self and style of life enable individuals to developed their uniqueness; family environment crucial for this; coined the term lifestyle
fictional finalism: individuals motivated ore by expectations of future than data from past
What was Karen Horney’s theory of personality?
believed that the neurotic personality is governed by one of ten needs; ex: need for affection/approval; exploit others; self-sufficiency/independence
difference between healthy and neurotic:
- disproportionate in intensity
- indiscriminate in application
- partially disregard reality
- tendency to provoke anxiety
child seeks to overcome anxiety and achieve basic security
- move toward others to obtain good will of those who provide security
- moving against others to achieve the upper hand
- moving away/withdrawing
basic concept: primary anxiety; strategies carry over into adulthood
What was Anna Freud’s contribution to psychology?
extended Freud’s theories through work with children
augmented understandings of defense mechanisms
considered founder of ego psychology
What is the behaviorist’s theory of personality?
the reinforcement contingencies to which one is exposed creates one’s personality; by changing the environment, can change personality
What is the social-cognitive theory of personality?
Meld behaviorism and cognitive psychology; personality is created by an interaction between the person (traits), the environment, and the person’s behavior: triadic reciprocality/reciprocal determinism
What is the theory of triadic reciprocality/reciprocal determinism?
personality is created by an interaction between the person (traits), the environment, and the person’s behavior
Bandura
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Learning occurs not only by having behavior enforced (Skinner), but also by having others’ behavior enforced
What is the main approach of cognitive behavioral therapy?
tries to change/restructure distorted/irrational thoughts; do not believe symptom relief is adequate therapy; new symptoms will develop to replace old ones: called symptom substitution (ex: replacing alcohol with exercise)
What is the theory of hierarchy of needs?
People strive for higher-level needs only when lower-level needs are met; Highest order: self-actualization – more likely to have peak experiences – profound experiences with lasting impacts (compare with Levine)
Maslow
Kay Deaux
found that women’s successes at stereotypical “male” tasks are attributed to luck, while men’s successes are attributed to skill
Sandra Bem
studied androgeny; created that Bem Sex Role Inventory
Matina Horner
suggested that females shunned masculine-type successes not because of fear of failure or lack of interested, but because they feared success and its negative repercussions, such as resentment and rejection
Alice Eagly
found an interaction between gender and social status with regard to how easily an individual might be influence or swayed
Eleanor Macoby and Carol Jacklin
scrutinized studies of sex differences and found that relatively few existed that could not be explained away by simple social learning; most consistent difference: women – verbal; men – spatial/visual
Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman
studied Type A personality
Grant Dahlstrom
linked Type A to heart disease
Barnum effect
tendency to agree with and accept personality interpretations that are provided
Hans Eyesneck
phlegmatic; melancholic; choleric; sanguine
Henry Murray
developed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT); consists of ambiguous story cards; tell story; project their own “needs”
Objective personality inventories:
o Objective tests do not allow subjects to make up their own answers
• Structure: often seen as more objectively scored than projective tests
Q-sort or Q-measure: technique of sorting cards into a normal distribution
Each card is a statement about personality
One side: not at all like me
Other: very much like me
Center: neutral
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
550 true/false/not sure
Able to discriminate between different disorders
California Personality Inventory (CPI)
Used for more “normal” less clinical groups than MMPI
Myers-Briggs
- Introverted vs. Extroverted
- Sensing vs. Intuition
- Feeling vs. Thinking
- Judgment vs. Perception
Julian Rotter
• Internal Locus of Control Scale
Projective personality test
Projective tests allow the subject to create his own answer, thus facilitating the expression of conflicts, needs, impulses
Content interpreted by test administrator
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
31 cards – 30 with scenarios; 1 blank
Subject – story
Project needs; for example, nACH
Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study
Cartoons – 1 person frustrating another – subject describes how the frustrated person responds
Zajonc
Birth order
Psychoanalysis
Freud: desire to gain insight into repressed matieral so energy could be freed up/used elsewhere
1. hypnosis 2. free association 3. dream interpretation 4. transference (countertransference)
Behaviorism
behavior is learned as people interact with the environment
• rather than focus on unconscious, look at behavior patters
• John Dollard
• Neal Miller
• B.F. Skinner
• the reinforcement contingencies to which one is exposed creates one’s personality
• by changing the environment, can change personality
• -Radical behaviorists criticized for not recognizing the importance of cognition
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- tries to change/restructure distorted/irrational thoughts
- Beck
- Ellis
- do not believe symptom relief is adequate therapy
- new symptoms will develop to replace old ones: called symptom substitution (ex: replacing alcohol with exercise)
Kurt Lewin
Field therapy: personality is always changing
Divided personality into every changing systems
Under optimal conditions – well integrated
Under stress – articulation between various regions is diffused
Abraham Maslow
hierarchy of needs
People strive for higher-level needs only when lower-level needs are met
Highest order: self-actualization – more likely to have peak experiences – profound experiences with lasting impacts (compare with Levine)
George Kelly
set aside traditional ideas re: motivation, drive, unconscious, emotions, and reinforcement
Instead: individual as scientist – devise and test predictions about the behavior of significant people in our lives
Anxious person: has trouble doing this
Psychotherapy helps to develop this capacity
In their attempt to understand the world, people develop their own personal constructs; use these constructs to evaluate the world; pairs of opposites: fair/unfair; smart/dumb/exciting/dull
People’s behavior determines how they interpret the world
Humanism-Phenomenonological - name 3
Kurt Lewin
Abraham Maslow
George Kelly
Human-Existential
emphasize the process of finding meaning in one’s life by making one’s own choices
mental disorders stem from alienation, depersonalization, loneliness, lack of meaningful existence
Carl Rogers
client-centered therapy/person-centered therapy/nondirective therapy
Unconditional positive regard
People not slaves to unconscious (psychoanalysts) nor subject to faulty learning (behaviorists)
Victor Frankl
survivor of Nazi concentration camps
Mental illness stems from meaningless life
Type theorists
attempt to characterized people according to specific types of personality
Trait theorists
attempt to ascertain the fundamental dimensions of personality
Nomothetic Approach
trait theories
same basic set of characteristics can be used to describe all people’s personalities
Cattel
Eysenck
Costa & McCrae
Raymond Cattell
- identified 16 different traits to account for the underlying factors that determine personality
Hans Eysenck
- tried to use scientific methodology to test Jung’s division of introversion/extroversion
- “Confirmed”
1. introversion vs. extroversion
2. emotional stability vs. neuroticism
3. psychoticism
Paul Costa and Robert McCrae
big 5
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Emotional stability (or neuroticism)
- Agreeableness
- iNtroversion/extroversion
Factor Analysis
Trait theorists use factor analysis to find correlations (ex: punctuality, diligence, neatness correlate together – cluster as “conscientiousness”
Idiographic Approach
Trait theories
impossible to use the same set of terms for all people; each person needs to be seen in terms of which few traits characterize his/her unique self
Gordon Allport
listed 3 basic types of traits or dispositions
- cardinal – organize life around (only some)
- central – major characteristics (everyone)
- secondary – limited (everyone)
functional autonomy: a given activity or form of behavior may become an end/goal itself; allows for many types of motives
distinguished between idiographic approach to personality and nomothetic
- idiographic (morphogenic): case studies
- nomothetic (dimensional): commonalities among groups
Allport thought we should pursue idiographic and avoid nomothetic
David McClelland
identified a personality trait referred to as the need for achievement (nAch)
Avoid high risk (fear of failure) and low risks (no achievement)
Stop striving toward goals if outcome seems unlikely
Herman Witkin
- Field independence: capacity to make specific responses to perceived specific stimuli
Field dependence: more diffuse response to a perceived mass of somewhat undifferentiated stimuli
Classified people according to their degree of field dependence
Ex: people who are field dependent will be more influenced by opinions of others
Julian Rotter
- Internal locus of control: believe that they can control their own destiny
External locus of control: situational influence – luck or task ease used to explain success
Sandra Bem
Androgyny
Masculine and feminine must be distinct if someone can have both
Walter Mischel
Criticized explaining personality via type/trait
Believed human behavior largely determined by the power of the situation (Stanford Prison Experiment)
Psychic Determinism
pathological behavior, dreams, and unconscious behavior are all symptoms of underlying, unresolved conflict, which are manifested when the ego does not find acceptable ways to express conflict
Abreaction
Another word for catharsis; discharge of repressed emotion
Undoing
performing an often ritualistic activity in order to relieve anxiety about unconscious drives
Dreams (Frued)
manifest content (the actual content of the dream); latent content (the unconscious forces the dreams are trying to express)
Screen memory
memories that serve as representations of important childhood experiences
Aaron Beck
Beck Depression Inventory (Aaron beck): most frequently used as a research tool to determine the number of depressive symptoms a particular person has
Maladaptive cognitions: lead to abnormal behavior or disturbed affect • Arbitrary inference (no evidence) • Overgeneralization (forever) • Magnifying/minimizing • Personalizing (all my fault) • Dichotomous thinking (black-or-white)
Criticisms: removing the symptoms (maladaptive cognitions) may not cure the problem
Albert Ellis
rational-emotive theory (thing Cites does – argue with yourself, etc.)
o Activating event
o Belief about event
o Consequences
o Directive therapy leads to disputing irrational beliefs
o Effective rational beliefs = goal
Rollo May
contributer to existential therapy (along with Frankl)
Melanie Klein
pioneered object-relations therapy with children
Third force
• Humanistic therapy also called “third force” in response to psychoanalysis and behavioralism
Stress-inoculation training
developed by Donald Meichenbaum – prepares people for foreseeable stressors
Neil Miller
proved experimentally that abnormal behavior can be learned
