Personality Theories

Question 1

Topographic model

Answer 1

Freud’s topographic model divided mental processes into conscious mental processes (rational, goal-directed thoughts at the centre of awareness), preconscious mental processes (not conscious but could become conscious at any point) and unconscious mental processes (irrational, organised along associative lines and repressed).

Question 2

Psychodynamic theories of personality

Answer 2

Psychological forces such as wishes, fears and intentions determine behaviour.

Question 3

Freud’s theories

Answer 3

Instinct model
Drive model- Psychosexual stages
Topographic model (influences of unconscious)
Structural model
Defence mechanisms

Question 4

Libido

Answer 4

According to Freud is the ‘life force’ and includes pleasure-seeking, sensuality, and desire for sexual intercourse.

Question 5

Thantos

Answer 5

The opposite to libido (opposed to self-preservation instinct and sexual instincts).

Question 6

Freud’s psychosexual stages

Answer 6

Oral (0-18 months) pleasure is focused on the mouth, and children wrestle with dependence. Fixations may be extremely clingy and dependent, with an exaggerated need for approval, nurturance and love. The soothing and pleasure associated with mouthing and sucking during this stage may lead to fixated behaviour such as thumb sucking, nail biting, chewing gum, or smoking.

Anal (2-3 years) children derive pleasure from the anus and wrestle with issues of compliance, orderliness and cleanliness. Toilet training too early or harsh, or too late and careless can create overly overly orderly, neat and punctual or extremely messy or disorganised, stubborn, or constantly late personalities.

Phallic (4-6 years) children enjoy the pleasure they can obtain from touching their genitals and even from masturbating. Children also become very aware of biological sex differences. The child identifies with significant others (same-sex parent). Identification means making another person part of oneself: imitating the person’s behaviour, changing the self-concept to see oneself as like the person and trying to become more like the person by adopting their values and attitudes. Much of adult personality is built through identification. Must overcome Oedipus complex/ Electra complex or fixations of poor relations with parents will occur. Girls develop penis envy. Super ego or conscience is developed.

Latency (7-11 years) children repress their sexual impulses and continue to identify with their same-sex parent. They also learn to channel their sexual and aggressive drives into socially acceptable activities such as school, sports and art. Fixation leads to repressed sexual impulses or seem asexual.

Genital (12+ years) conscious sexuality resurfaces after years of repression, and genital sex becomes the primary goal of sexual activity. At this stage, people become capable of relating to and loving others on a mature level and carrying out adult responsibilities such as work and parenting.

Question 7

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 7

Physiological needs

Safety needs

Love and belonging

Esteem

Self-actualization

Question 8

Self-concept

Answer 8

According to Carl Rogers is an organized pattern of thought and perception about oneself.

Question 9

Actualising tendency

Answer 9

Aspect of the humanistic approach to personality that relates to a human’s desire to fulfill the full needs of human experience (e.g. all the hierarchy of needs). Growth Promoting requires: Genuine (be true to self and others true to them) and Acceptance (unconditional positive regard and no judgement, important to receive from parents or therapist to be true self and not impact relationships).

Question 10

Self-efficacy expectancy

Answer 10

According to Bandura is a person’s idea that they can perform the required actions to get the desired outcome.

Question 11

Compromise formations

Answer 11

A single behaviour, or a complex pattern of thought and action, which typically reflects compromises among multiple (and often conflicting) forces. The solutions people develop in an effort to maximise fulfilment against internal conflict and ambivalence.

Question 12

Freud’s drive or instinct model

Answer 12

Libido and aggression are the basic motives of human behaviour. Contemporary theorists view fears and wishes as basic motives of human behaviour.

Question 13

Fixations

Answer 13

Prominent conflicts and concerns that are focused on wishes from a particular period. Conflicts or concerns that may persist beyond the developmental period in which they arise.

Question 14

Regressions

Answer 14

Reverting to conflicts or modes of managing emotion characteristic of an earlier particular stage.

Question 15

Oedipus complex/ Electra complex

Answer 15

Freud’s hypothesis that little boys want an exclusive relationship with their mothers, and little girls want an exclusive relationship with their fathers. these wishes are so threatening that they are quickly repressed or renounced (consciously given up). Boys unconsciously fear that their father, their ultimate rival, will castrate them because of their desires for their mother (the castration complex). The fear is so threatening that they repress their Oedipal wishes and identify with their father in the hope of someday obtaining someone like their mother.

Question 16

Penis envy

Answer 16

The belief that because they lack a penis, they are inferior to boys. Taken on a metaphorical level, penis envy refers to the envy a girl develops in a society in which men’s activities seem more interesting and valued.

Question 17

Structural model

Answer 17

Distinguished among:

id (the reservoir of sexual and aggressive energy, instinctive and illogical, short term pleasure),

superego (conscience, behave morally)

ego (the rational part of the mind that must somehow balance desire, reality and morality, problem solving and considering long term consequences).

Unconscious strategies aimed at minimising unpleasant emotions or maximising pleasant emotions are called defence mechanisms. Conflicts between what we want and what we believe is moral lead to most psychological distress.

Question 18

Defence mechanisms

Answer 18

Repression- Unpleasant or threatening memories are kept out of awareness. Victims of abuse not remembering any details.

Denial- Refuses to recognise reality. Denies partner is cheating or ignores growth on skin.

Projection- Attributes feelings or impulses onto others. Telling yourself someone else dislikes you when you dislike them.

Reaction formation- Thinking or feeling the opposite to how you actually think or feel. Being overly nice to someone you actually dislike.

Sublimation- Converting impulses into socisally acceptable behaviours. Kick boxing when angry.

Rationalisation- Finding acceptable excuses for unacceptable behaviours. Using going for a run as excuse to eat an entire packet of tim tams.

Displacement- is a defence that involves people directing their emotions, especially anger, away from the real target to a substitute. People may choose to vent their emotions on another object, animal or person instead of the real target of their feelings. This defence is often used when the real target is seen as too threatening or upsetting to confront directly.

Regression- Reverting back to an earlier stage of psychological development, typically when under a period of great stress or hardship. Revert to name calling in response to taunts or throwing tantrum.

Passive aggression- The indirect expression of anger towards others.

Question 19

Analytical psychology or Jungian psychology

Answer 19

Based on experience, incorporating both experience from the outer world and from the inner world of fantasies, symbols and dreams. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of the extroverted and introverted personality, archetypes and the collective unconscious. The aim of Jungian psychotherapy is to focus on the relationship between the unconscious and the conscious, while incorporating what is happening in everyday life.

Question 20

Jungian ego

Answer 20

Represents the conscious mind. It comprises an individual’s conscious thoughts, memories, and emotions and reflects how one views oneself. The ego is like the internal command centre that carries the consciousness, our identity and existence. The role of the ego is to develop an effective relationship with the Self — the overarching, central principle that is an essential factor for personality, providing meaning and purpose to the psyche as a whole.

Question 21

Jungian the self

Answer 21

Represents experiences of wholeness, is forward-looking and seeks fulfilment. Jungian theory is organised from the point of view of the Self, with individuals aiming to discover that they are unique individuals, while being no more unique than one another; this is known as individuation.

Question 22

Jungian Archetype concepts

Answer 22

Archetypes represent universal, archaic patterns and images (including fantasies, dreams, cultural practices, magic and beliefs) that reside within the collective and personal unconscious and are actualised when they enter consciousness or are manifested in behaviour upon interaction with the outside world.

Question 23

Jungian collective unconscious

Answer 23

Represents a form of the unconscious comprising memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware and represents those structures of the unconscious mind that are common to humans. For example, it comprises latent memories from our ancestral and evolutionary past.

Question 24

Jungian personal unconscious

Answer 24

Represents a repressed unconscious, and develops during childhood when aspects of personality may not be congruent with the morals, culture, parental attitudes and context in which a child lives. However, if those repressions are not effective, neurosis can develop, requiring therapy to bring the repression into awareness.

Question 25

The Shadow archetype

Answer 25

Situated close to the ego and personal unconscious. The Shadow contains the negative aspects of personality that are collected through interactions with society.

Question 26

Anima / Animus archetype

Answer 26

Anima- refers to the contrasexual factor for a male’s psyche, involving the image that a man has developed to represent a woman. This is strongly based on culture and experience, such as the image of a man’s mother and other females in his life.

Animus is opposite for a female.

Question 27

Jungian complexes

Answer 27

Represent a distinct part of personality comprising the living aspects of the psyche. Complexes refer to clusters of feelings, memories, thoughts and ideas that guide behaviour and perceptions.

Question 28

Jungian persona

Answer 28

Represents the aspects of personality that people reveal or hide from others.

Question 29

Jungian extrovert and introvert

Answer 29

Energised more from the external world. Energised more from the internal world.

Question 30

Jungian four essential psychological functions

Answer 30

Thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition. We experience all four functions although one function is usually more dominant than the others.

Question 31

Object relations theory

Answer 31

Focus on interpersonal disturbances and the mental processes that underlie the capacity for relatedness to others.

Question 32

Relational theories

Answer 32

Argue that for all individuals adaptation is primarily adaptation to other people.

Question 33

Assessing unconscious patterns with life history methods

Answer 33

(qualitative methods) aim to understand the whole person in the context of life experience and environment. Typically involving case studies in which the psychologist studies an individual in depth over an extended time. Information may be gathered through psychotherapy, historical or biographical sources, or research interviews.

Question 34

Assessing unconscious patterns with Projective tests

Answer 34

Present participants with an ambiguous stimulus and ask them to give some kind of definition to it, to ‘project’ a meaning into it. The assumption is that in providing definition where none exists in reality, people will fill in the gaps in a way that expresses some of their characteristic ways of thinking, feeling and regulating emotions — that is, aspects of their personalities. (Rorschach inkblot test).

Question 35

Assessing unconscious patterns with TAT- Thematic Apperception Tests

Answer 35

The participant is asked to make up a story about each of a series of ambiguous drawings, most of which depict people interacting. The assumption is that in eliminating the ambiguity, the individual will create a story that reflects their own recurring wishes, fears and ways of experiencing relationships.

Question 36

Cognitive-social theories of personality

Answer 36

Influenced by behaviourist and cognitive theories. Argue for the importance of encoding, personal value, expectancies, competencies, and self-regulation in personality. The schemas people use to encode and retrieve social information play an important role in personality. Personality shaped by:
1) Schemas used to understand the world
2) Expectations
3) Belief they can obtain their goals

Question 37

The cognitive-social model of behaviour. The process and conditions that must be met.

Answer 37

The person must encode the current situation as relevant, endow the situation with personal meaning or value, believe performing the behaviour will lead to the desired outcome, believe they have the ability to perform it, have the ability to carry out the behaviour, and regulate ongoing activity in a way that leads towards fulfilling the goal.

Question 38

Personal constructs

Answer 38

Mental representations of the people, places, things, and events that are significant to a person — substantially influence their behaviour.

Question 38

Personal value

Answer 38

Refers to the importance individuals attach to various outcomes or potential outcomes. Whether a situation or anticipated action has a positive or negative value for an individual often depends on the person’s goals.

Question 39

Life tasks

Answer 39

Conscious, self-defined problems people try to solve.

Question 40

Humanistic theories of personality

Answer 40

Focus on distinctively human aspects of personality, such as how to find meaning in life or be true to oneself.

Question 41

Carl Rogers’ person-centred approach

Answer 41

Aims at understanding individuals’ phenomenal experience — that is, how they conceive of reality and experience themselves and their world. According to Rogers, individuals have a true self (a core aspect of being, untainted by the demands of those around them), which is often distorted into a false self by the desire to conform to social demands. When the self-concept diverges too much from the individual’s ideal self (the person’s view of what they should be like), they may distort the way they behave or the way they see themselves to avoid this painful state of affairs. Psychological understanding requires empathy (the capacity to understand another person’s experience, both cognitively and emotionally).

Question 42

Existential personality theories

Answer 42

People have no fixed nature and must essentially create themselves. Sartre argued that people must find meaning in their lives by making commitments while also recognising that these commitments have no intrinsic meaning. Stresses the importance of subjective experience and the individual’s quest for meaning in life.

Question 43

Becker’s theory

Answer 43

An unfortunate by-product of the evolution of human intelligence is that people can imagine their own death and the death of those they love. To avoid the anxiety that would result from facing this tragic reality, we create and embrace cultural beliefs and values that symbolically deny death and allow hope in the face of mortality and meaninglessness. (People deny death by committing to cultural worldviews that give them a sense of meaning and immortality.)

Question 44

Existential dread

Answer 44

The recognition that life has no absolute value or meaning and that death is inevitable. The ways people handle issues of meaning, mortality and existential dread are central aspects of personality.

Question 45

Positive regard

Answer 45

Acceptance and support of a person regardless of what the person does.