Personality Psychology Flashcards
What is personality?
Set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that is organised and relatively enduring and that influences a persons interactions with and adaptations to the environment.
What are the domains of knowledge?
- Dispositional
- Biological
- Intrapsychic
- Cognitive Experiential
- Social and Cultural
- Adjustment
Describe the dispositional domain of knowledge
- Deals in ways which individuals differ from one another
- Focus on number and nature of fundamental dispositions
- Identify and measure most important ways which individuals differ
- Origin of individual differences and how these develop over time
Describe the biological domain of knowledge
- Humans are collections of biological systems and provide building blocks for behaviour, thought and emotion
- Behavioural
- Psychophysiology
- Evolutionary Personality
Describe the intrapsychic domain of knowledge
- Deals with mental mechanisms, operate outside conscious awareness
- Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis
Describe the cognitive-experiential domain of knowledge
- Cognition and subjective experience (conscious thoughts, feelings, beliefs, desires)
- Self and self concept
- Goals we set and strive to meet
- Emotional experiences`
Describe the social and cultural domain of knowledge
- Personality affects by cultural and social context
- Individual differences within cultures
- All humans have common set of concerns they struggle within the social space
Describe the adjustment domain of knowledge
- Personality plays key role in how we cope, adapt and adjusts to events in daily life
- Personality linked with important health outcomes and problems in coping and adjustments
What is the person-situation interaction?
2 possible explanation interaction
1) Function of personality traits
2) Function of situations
- Other ways which personality and situation react to produce behaviour
What is evolutionary psychology?
- Humans face same problems as all other living organisms
- Survival, reproduction
- Cognitive mechanisms evolved overtime to help solve our various adaptive problems
What are psychodynamic theories?
Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences.
What is free association?
A method of exploring the unconscious which person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how embarrassing.
What is the unconscious mind?
Thoughts, wishes, feelings, memories
What is the conscious mind?
Iceberg that floats above the surface
What is the preconscious mind?
Thoughts we store temporarily which we retrieve them from conscious awareness
What is the id?
Strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. Operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.
What is the ego?
Reality principle. Satisfying the id’s desires in way that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.
What is the superego?
Represents internalised ideas and provides standards judgment and future aspirations
What are Freud’s Psychosexual Stages?
- Oral (0-19 months)
- Anal (18-36 months)
- Phallic (3-6 years)
- Latency (6 to puberty)
- Genital (Puberty on)
What is compensation?
The development of a personal talent as a response to a personal deficiency.
What is denial?
The refusal to admit an aspect of reality relevant to oneself, for example, that I missed a class that was important.
What is displacement?
Discharging of pent-up feelings, usually of hostility, on objects less dangerous than those that initially aroused the emotion.
What is fantasy?
Gratifying frustrated desires in imaginary achievements.
What is identification?
Increasing one’s feelings of worth by identifying self with another person or institution, often of illustrious standing.
What is isolation?
Cutting off emotional charge from hurtful situations or separating incompatible attitudes into logic-tight compartments .
What is projection?
The attribution of one’s undesirable feelings to someone else or something else; placing blame for one’s difficulties upon others or attributing one’s own “forbidden” desires to others.
What is rationalisation?
- Attempting to prove that one’s behaviour is “rational” and justifiable and thus worthy of the approval of self and others
- The providing of socially acceptable reasons for one’s inappropriate behaviour.
- A distortion of reality in which a person justifies what has happened to minimise their involvement.
What is reaction formation?
Preventing dangerous desires from being expressed by endorsing the opposite attitudes and types of behaviour and using them as “barriers”.
What is regression?
The displaying of immature behaviours that have relieved anxiety in the past, or when you were in an earlier stage of development.
What is repression?
The banishment of threatening thoughts, feelings, and memories to the unconscious mind.
What is sublimation?
The expression of sexual or aggressive impulses through indirect or socially acceptable means.
Describe humanistic theories
- View personality with a focus on potential for healthy personal growth
- Ways people strive for self determination and self realisation
What is a hierachy of needs?
Beginning at base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher level safety needs and then psychological needs become active.
What is self-actualisation?
The motivation to fulfil one’s potential.
What is transcendence?
Striving for identity, meaning, purpose beyond self
What is Carl Roger’s Person-Centered Perspective?
- People are basically good and are endowed with self actualising tendencies
- Acceptance
- Genuineness
- Empathy
What is unconditional positive regard?
Caring, accepting, non-judgmental attitude which develops self awareness.
What is self-concept?
All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves to answer “who am I”.
What is a trait?
Characteristic pattern of behaviour or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.
What are the Big 5 Personality Factors?
- Openess
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
What is the social cognitive perspective?
Views behaviour as influenced by interaction between people’s traits and their social context
What is reciprocal determinism?
The interacting influences of behaviour, internal cognition and environment
What is the spotlight effect?
Overestimating others noticing and evaluating our appearance/performance/blunders
What is self-serving bias?
Readiness to perceive oneself favourably
