personality theory Flashcards
Neurosis
a mental condition that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (depression, anxiety, obsessive behaviour, hypochondria) but not a radical loss of touch with reality.
Womb Envy:
Envy males feel toward females due to her capacity for motherhood.
Flight from Womanhood
Women deny their femininity; unconsciously wish they were men.
Oedipus Complex:
Conflict between dependence and hostility; not sexual.
Motherhood or Career:
Conflict many women have difficulty resolving.
Optimism
biological forces do not condemn us.
Needs that move people toward others
These neurotic needs cause individuals to seek affirmation and acceptance from others. People with these needs are often described as needy or clingy as they seek out approval and love.
Needs that move people away from others:
These neurotic needs create hostility and antisocial behavior. These individuals are often described as cold, indifferent, and aloof.
Needs that move people against others:
These neurotic needs result in hostility and a need to control other people. These individuals are often described as difficult, domineering, and unkind.
The Need for Affection and Approval
Horney labeled the first need as the neurotic need for affection and approval. This need includes the desire to be liked, to please other people, and meet the expectations of others. People with this type of need are extremely sensitive to rejection and criticism and fear the anger or hostility of others.
The Need for a Partner
The second need is known as the neurotic need for a partner who will take over one’s life. This involves the need to be centered on a partner. People with this need have an extreme fear of being abandoned by their partner. Oftentimes, these individuals place an exaggerated importance on love and believe that having a partner will resolve all of life’s troubles.
The Need to Restrict One’s Life
The third need centers on the neurotic need to restrict one’s life within narrow borders. Individuals with this need prefer to remain inconspicuous and unnoticed. They are undemanding and content with little. They avoid wishing for material things, often making their own needs secondary and undervaluing their own talents and abilities.
The Need for Power
The fourth need Horney described is known as a neurotic need for power. Individuals with this need seek power for its own sake. They usually praise strength, despise weakness, and will exploit or dominate other people. These people fear personal limitations, helplessness, and uncontrollable situations.
The Need to Exploit Others
People with a neurotic need to exploit others view others in terms of what can be gained through association with them. People with this need generally pride themselves on their ability to exploit other people and are often focused on manipulating others to obtain desired objectives, including such things as ideas, power, money, or sex.
The Need for Prestige
Individuals with a need for prestige value themselves in terms of public recognition and acclaim. Material possessions, personality characteristics, professional accomplishments, and loved ones are evaluated based on prestige value. These individuals often fear public embarrassment and loss of social status.
The Need for Personal Admiration
Individuals with a neurotic need for personal admiration are narcissistic and have an exaggerated self-perception. They want to be admired based on this imagined self-view, not upon how they really are.
The Need for Personal Achievement
According to Horney, people push themselves to achieve greater and greater things as a result of basic insecurity. These individuals fear failure and feel a constant need to accomplish more than other people and to top even their own earlier successes.
The Need for Independence
This need is described as a neurotic need for self-sufficiency and independence. These individuals exhibit a “loner” mentality, distancing themselves from others in order to avoid being tied down or dependent on other people.
Trait
Distinguishing characteristic that guides behavior.
Personal Dispositions
Traits that are particular to an individual.
Cardinal Traits
Most pervasive and powerful traits; a ruling passion.
- Allport suggested that cardinal traits are rare and dominating, usually developing later in life. They tend to define a person to such an extent that their names become synonymous with their personality. Examples of this include the following descriptive terms: Machiavellian, narcissistic, Don Juan, and Christ-like.
Central Traits
5 to 10 themes that best describe one’s behavior.
- These general characteristics form basic personality foundations. While central traits are not as dominating as cardinal traits, they describe the major characteristics you might use to describe another person. Descriptions such as “intelligent,” “honest,” “shy,” and “anxious” are considered central traits.
Secondary Traits
Least important traits; displayed inconspicuously and inconsistently.
Habits
Specific, inflexible responses to specific stimuli.
Attitudes
Similar to traits, but with specific objects of reference and positive or negative evaluation.
Functional Autonomy of Motives
adult motives independent of childhood experiences.
Perseverative Functional Autonomy
Relates to low-level behaviors.
Propriate Functional Autonomy
Relates to values, self-image, lifestyle.
Erg
Permanent, constitutional source traits that provide energy for goal-directed behavior.
Sentiment
environmental-mold traits that motivate behavior.
Superfactors
combinations of traits or factors; stable from child to adult
Humanistic psychology
a perspective that emphasizes looking at the whole individual and stresses concepts such as free will, self-efficacy, and self-actualization.
Actualization tendency
basic human motivation to actualize, maintain, and enhance the self. Process involves difficult growth.
Organismic valuing process
process of judging based on value for actualization and growth.
Phenomenology
ultimate source of all meaning and value is the lived experience of human beings.
Incongruence
discrepancy between self-concept and experience.
-occurs when the ideal self does not align with the real self
Modeling
Observing the behavior of a model and repeating the behavior
