Personality Pt. 1 Flashcards
Personality
Refers to an individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling.
In measuring personality, we try and see how and why individuals differ ___.
Psychologically.
We can measure personality in two ways; by examining ___ ___ and ___ ___.
Prior events, anticipated events.
Prior Events
How prior events (genes) shape an individual.
Anticipated Events
How past and present interact.
Self-Report
Refers to a series of answers to a questionnaire that asks people to indicate the extent to which sets of statements or adjectives accurately describe their own behaviour or mental state.
What does MMPI-2 stand for?
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
What is the MMPI-2?
A well researched clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems.
MMPI-2 is based upon the ___ method.
Actuarial.
MMPI-2 has __ main subscales.
10.
MMPI-2 measures tendencies towards ___ concerns.
Clinical.
MMPI-2 has ___ scales to assess attitudes toward test taking and tendency to distort results.
Validity.
Projection Techniques
Consist of a standard series of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique responses that reveal inner aspects of an individual’s personality.
What is the idea of Projection Techniques based upon?
People will project personality factors unconsciously onto ambiguous stimuli without censoring.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
A projective personality test in which individual interpretation of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots is analyzed to identify a respondent’s inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure.
Thematic Apperception Test
A projective personality test in which respondents reveal underlying motives, concerns, and the way they see the social world through the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people.
Criticism of Projection Techniques:
There is sparse evidence of predictive value, the tests are open to examiner’s subjective interpretation and theoretic bias, and the interpretations could be examiner’s own projections.
Prior events approach was used by ___ ___.
Gordon Allport.
Gordon Allport believed that…
People can be described in terms of traits just as an object can be described in terms of its properties.
Trait
Refers to a relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way.
Anticipated events approach was used by ___ ___.
Henry Murray.
Henry Murray suggested that…
Traits reflect motives.
Personality represented in language suggests ___ potential traits.
18 000.
In personality represented in language, ___ and ___ are at higher levels, making up the core of the personality, while ___ and ___ are at lower levels, making up the rest of personality.
General and abstract, specific and concrete.
Cattell came up with the ___ ___ theory of personality
16-factor.
Eysenck came up with the ___ ___ theory of personality.
Two-factor.
What are the two dimensions of personality in the Two-factor theory of personality?
Extrovert/introvert and emotionally stable/unstable.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality is accepted as it accounts for ___ in personality without overlapping traits.
Variation.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality is accepted as there have been a large number of ___ conducted on it using different kinds of data.
Studies.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality is accepted as it holds across ___ ___. This suggests ___.
Different participants. Universality.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality is accepted as it can be associated with predictable patterns of ___ and ___ outcomes.
Behaviours, social.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality is accepted as it remains ___ with age.
Stable.
Evidence that traits are biological:
Brain damage or changes in brain chemistry can trigger personality changes.
Using heritability coefficients, the average genetic components of personality range from ___ to ___.
0.40-0.60.
Growing up in the same environment does/doesn’t appear to make people more similar.
Doesn’t.
Who made humans observe hyenas and use personality scales to rate them?
Gosling.
What was significant about Gosling’s findings?
He found five dimensions that resembled the Big Five traits.
Eysenck speculated that extroversion and introversion arrises from differences in ___.
Alertness.
Extroverts seek ___ ___, and their reticular formation which controls arousal and alertness is/isn’t easily stimulated.
Social interaction, isn’t.
Introverts seek to avoid ___ ___, and their reticular formation which controls arousal and alertness is/isn’t easily stimulated.
Social interaction, is.
Extroverts perform tasks well in…
Noisy and loud environments.
Introverts perform tasks well in…
Tranquil environments.
What did Gray propose?
The dimensions of extroversion and introversion, as well as neuroticism reflect two basic brain waves.
What are the two basic brain waves proposed by Gray?
Behavioural Activation System (BAS) and Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS).
What did Freud do?
Approached the study of personality by examining the meanings and insights revealed by careful analysis of the blemishes in person’s thought and behaviour (example Freudian slips).
According to Freud, personality is understood as a ___ to the person who owns it because we cannot know our deepest ___.
Mystery, motives.
Psychodynamic Approach
An approach that regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness- motives that can also produce emotional disorders.
Dynamic Unconscious
An active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the person’s deepest instincts and desires, and the person’s inner struggle to control these factors.
Experiences shape the ___ before we can even put thoughts and feelings into words.
Mind.
Id
The part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives.
Ego
The component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life’s practical demand.
Superego
The mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercize their authority.
The three systems of mind in Freud’s theory interact and create constant controversy. The dominant system equals the ___ ___.
Personality structure.
Ego and Superego are governed by ___.
Anxiety.
Anxiety is a defense position that keeps unacceptable drives from entering ___.
Consciousness.
Repression
Motivated forgetting.
fMRI has found decreased activity in ___ during repression.
Hippocampus.
Defense Mechanisms
Unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce activity generated by threats from unacceptable impulses.
Example of defense mechanisms.
Rationalization, reaction formation, projection, regression, displacement, identification, and sublimation.
