Personality Retest Edition!!

Question 1

What is personality? What are some things included in personality?

Answer 1

The accumulation of characteristics a behaviors that make up an individual’s unique adjustment to life.

This includes major traits, interests, drives, values, self concept, abilities, and emotional patterns.

Question 2

Case studies are effective for what three types of personality theories? What are the strengths and weaknesses of?

Answer 2

Psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, and humanistic

Pros- in depth studies of a small group or individual, makes good source for hypothesis

Cons- participants’ memories may be inaccurate or incomplete, cannot generalize findings

Question 3

Surveys are effective for what two types of personality theories? What are the strengths and weaknesses?

Answer 3

Trait and social cognitive

Pros- findings can be generalizable if data is gathered from random sample

Cons- self reporting may be inaccurate

Question 4

Personally inventories are effective for what type of personality theory? What are the strengths and weaknesses?

Answer 4

Trait

Pros- more valid and reliable than projective tests (describing an ambiguous image)

Cons- self reporting may be inaccurate

Question 5

What does the psychoanalytic approach say about personality? What is it a struggle between? Who are the four key figures involved in it?

Answer 5

Personality stems from a conflict between our aggressive pleasure seeking biological impulses & internalized social restraints against them. It is a way of expressing impulses that brings satisfaction without guilt or punishment

-It is a struggle between our id and superego

Key figures- Freud, Jung, Adler, Horney

Question 6

What are some strengths and weaknesses of the psychoanalytical approach?

Answer 6

Importance of childhood
Power of the unconscious
Struggles with inner conflict
Provides building blocks

Development is lifelong process, focus on childhood is limiting
Underestimate peer influence
Superiority of men belief
Dream theories
Lack of scientific methodology

Question 7

What is the unconscious? Can it still dictate some of your behaviors?

Answer 7

The unconscious pertains to things that are completely out of your awareness

Yes

Question 8

What is the conscious? What is the preconscious?

Answer 8

It pertains to things that we are currently aware of.

Things you are not conscious of at the moment, but are able to be retrieved easily, unlike the unconscious

Ex.: if I just blurted out Abraham Lincoln, you would retrieve that from your preconscious because he wasn’t in your mind rn until I said it.

Question 9

What are Freud’s three components of personality?

Answer 9

Id- our pleasure principle, our unconscious impulses that want instant gratification, doesn’t care about punishments, it is like our inner child

Ego- deals with conflicts of the id and super ego, it is our reality principle

Super ego- our moral principle, tells us right vs wrong, it is our inner parent

Question 10

In Freud’s defense mechanisms, what is repression?

Answer 10

It is when you avoid painful or uncomfortable thoughts and push them back into your unconscious

Question 11

In Freud’s defense mechanisms, what is regression?

Answer 11

It is when you retreat to a previous or earlier stage in your life

Ex.: you thro a tantrum as an adult

Question 12

In Freud’s defense mechanisms, what is reaction formation?

Answer 12

It is when you take an unacceptable impulse and turn it into the opposite

Ex.: when you really like rap music but tell everyone that u hate it

Question 13

In Freud’s defense mechanisms, what is projection?

Answer 13

It is when you project your feelings/actions, that you are guilty of yourself, onto others

Ex.: you aren’t happy how your relationship is going with your boyfriend, so you accuse them of wanting to break up with you. You are the one who is upset and has that thought, and you project the idea onto them

Question 14

In Freud’s defense mechanisms, what is rationalization?

Answer 14

It is when you try and create a logical explanation to justify your behavior

Question 15

In Freud’s defense mechanisms, what is displacement?

Answer 15

When you place your feelings of anger, frustration, or whatever, onto someone or something else

Ex.: you are upset after having an argument with your friend so you throw a plate at the wall

Question 16

In Freud’s defense mechanisms, what is sublimation?

Answer 16

It when you expend energy on a prosocial activity (positive, helpful behavior that promotes social acceptance and friendship).

Ex.: if you hit things or people when you get mad, that is not a socially acceptable behavior, so you take up the hobby of boxing

Question 17

In Freud’s defense mechanisms, what is denial?

Answer 17

You are refusing to believe or accept reality in order to protect yourself

Question 18

What are Freud’s 5 stages of psychosexual development? What happens if there is a conflict resolution at any of these stages?

Answer 18

Oral- from birth to 1, use of mouth

Anal- from 1-3, focus of potty training, controlling bodily waste

Phallic- from 3-5, child is curious about their genitalia and conflict of incestuos feelings.

This stage also includes the oedipus complex (unconscious desire of a boy to want his mom, but dad is in the way). There is also the Electra Complex (similar idea but for girls; girl want the dad, but mom is in the way). This is solved by identifying, or wanting to be like their rival parent.

Latency- from 5-12, suppressed all sexual impulses, only hang out with same sex peers

Genital- from 12-adulthood, expressing your sexual feelings towards others

You can become fixated at it;basically means your conflict is not resolved and you are stuck at that stage

Question 19

What are the differing and same beliefs of psychodynamic theory or Neo-Freudians? What did Adler state about childhood tensions and what a child struggles with?

Answer 19

They do believe in the unconscious, and childhood tensions! However..:

Adler stated that childhood tensions were social in nature, not sexual

He also said that a child struggles with the inferiority complex during growth and strives for superiority and power

Question 20

What did Neo-Freudian, Karen Horney, like Adler, believe children were trying to overcome? What assumptions of Freud did she counter pertaining to women?

Answer 20

Horney believed children were trying to overcome a sense of helplessness

She countered Freud’s assumption that women have weaker superegos and suffer “penis envy”

Question 21

What was Neo-Freudian Carl Jung’s proposal of the collective unconscious?

Answer 21

The collective unconscious contained a common reservoir of images derived from our species’ past

This leads to the idea of archetypes, which are universal, symbolic images that appear across cultures in myths, art, stories, and dreams

Question 22

What are the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approaches to measuring personality? What are some weaknesses to these approaches/tests?

Answer 22

Freudian treatment approaches- dream analysis (look at latent, symbolicness from these dreams), hypnosis, free association

Projective tests- TAT (thematic apperception test) and Rorschach inkblot test

TAT shows you an ambiguous image which you begin to form a story about, which displays your feelings that are deep inside of you

Rorschach inkblot test; You describe what you see from inkblots and someone interprets your responses

Too subjective, potentially unreliable or not valid, misdiagnosis

Question 23

What is the behavioristic belief/definition of personality? What BF Skinner say personality is under the control of?

Answer 23

Personality is a set of learned responses or habits

Personality is predictable- inconsistencies reflect specific circumstances

Personality is under the control of reinforcement and punishment: if you tell jokes, and your friends laugh, that is reinforcing you to tell jokes more

Question 24

What is the social cognitive belief/definition of personality? Who is a key figure? What term did this key figure coin?

Answer 24

Personality is a result of external events and how we interpret them. They believe we learn behaviors from conditioning, modeling, and mental processing

Alfred Bandura (Bobo doll)

Reciprocal determinism: the process of interacting with our environment

Question 25

How do we assess personality through the social cognitive perspective?

Answer 25

Observation or a correlational study (when you put people into situations and measure their behavior)

Question 26

What is reciprocal determinism?

Answer 26

Our environment, cognition, and our behavior all influence each other

Question 27

What is self efficacy? How does the past influence self efficacy? How is it different from self esteem?

Answer 27

It is a person’s expectation of how effective efforts will be be to accomplish a goal

Feedback from the past can determine if a person’s self efficacy is high or low

Self esteem is how a person feels about their worth as whole; do I like who I am?

Question 28

In the social cognitive perspective, what is an external locus of control? What figure came up with idea? What is internal locus control? What might we suffer from if we don’t have an internal locus of control?

Answer 28

You believe that chance determines your fate

Rotter

You believe you hold the power in determining your fate

A sense of control is a human necessity; without it, we may likely suffer from learned helplessness

Question 29

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the social cognitive perspective?

Answer 29

Strengths:

Notes the importance of interaction between the person and situation

Builds on research of learning and cognition

Weaknesses:

Too much focus on the situation and not the individual’s traits

Question 30

What is the humanistic theory/definition of personality? What can having knowledge of one’s personality help a person achieve? What are the two key figures of humanistic theory? How do they assess personality? What is important for humanistic therapists to provide to their clients?

Answer 30

Personality is our sense of self and should be viewed through the eyes of the subject, not the researcher.

Having knowledge of one’s personality can help a person reach their fullest potential

Maslow and Carl Rogers

It can subjective (based on personal opinion, feelings, etc) or objective (facts and evidence)

They also compare the ideal vs the actual. When these two things are very similar, it is considered positive self concept

Unconditional positive regard

Question 31

What are the strengths and weaknesses of humanistic theory?

Answer 31

Strengths:

The importance of self
Emphasis on the individual reinforces western values

Weaknesses:

Is self esteem a cause of personality or an effect of events?
Self serving bias (the tendency to perceive ourselves more favorably, adaptively)
Vague and subjective
Too much focus on self
Naively optimistic

Question 32

When comparing individualistic and collectivistic societies, how is priority to goal oriented? What cultures fall into each society? Who values group harmony?

Answer 32

Individualistic- give priority to one’s own goals over the group, defines one’s own identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

American, Western European, Australian, and New Zealand culture

Join groups, but not as focused on group harmony

Collectivistic- give priority to the goals of the group and defines one’s identity accordingly

Eastern cultures (China, Japan, SE Asia)

Group harmony and connections to extended family are highly valued

Question 33

What is a trait?

Answer 33

It is a tendency to respond in a certain way in many different situations

Question 34

What is the trait theory definition of personality? What are the four key figures? How do they assess personality?

Answer 34

Personality is identifiable and measurable behavior patterns that are to be described, labeled, and categorized

Allport, Myers & Briggs, Eysenck, Costa & McCrae

Type A: organized, driven by deadline , ambitious, aggressive, competitive
Type B: laid back, flexible, patient, unorganized

Myers Briggs test, Keirsey test

MMPI (Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory): determines what careers or jobs you may be best suited for

Eysenck: introvert/extrovert, stable/unstable

Costa & McCrae: The big 5; CANOE
-conscientiousness
-agreeableness
-neuroticism
-openness
-extraversion

Question 35

What was the MMPI (Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory) originally used for?

Answer 35

It was originally used to diagnose mental disorders

Question 36

What are the strengths and weaknesses of trait theory?

Answer 36

Strengths:

Objective tests
-averaging our behaviors reveals distinct personality traits

Weaknesses:
-self reports are ok, but peer reports seem better

-person situation controversy: do personality traits persist over time & across situations or do situations influence us more than we like to admit

-personality scores do not strongly predict behaviors; it really depends on the situation