Psych 3 personality Flashcards
what are some factors that influence personality?
- unconscious aspects
- sense of ‘self’
- Biological factors
- environmental forces
- cognitive factors
- traits or pre-dispositions
- philosophical/spiritual factors
- interaction effects
What is meant by the term “conversion disorder”?
aka somatisation. it is when there is a presentation of physical symptoms where there is no obvious cause.
What is the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind?
conscious - that which we are aware of
preconscious - memories which we can access
unconscious - that of which we are unaware of
What are the functions of the id, the ego and the superego?
apart of frueds theory of mind “the iceberg theory”
ID - unconscious - pleasure principle (the baby in your mind, wants stuff straight away, the real ooga booga)
Ego - seeks to gratify the ID whilst managing the demands of the super ego = reality principle (considers the risks and requirements reasons with the ID to come to a middle ground)
superego - conscience and ego ideal = morality principle (nothing but the person, the ability to distinguish between right and wrong)
what are defence mechanisms?
used by the ego to manage the competing demand of the id and the superego
they distort reality in some way
for all of them the ego is attempting to maintain equilibrium to reduce anxiety
defence mechanisms include repression, displacement and denial.
What is phenomenology?
is the study of experience and consciousness
best way to understand human behaviour is to understand things from the others point of view their “subjective reality”
What is the “self” in Rogerian theory?
the self is an aspect of phenomenological experience.
part of our conscious experience is our experience of ourselves, our self-concept
there are two aspects to the self the actual and the ideal (The actual self is defined as an individual’s perception of who he or she actually is, while the ideal self is based on hopes and aspirations related to who a person ideally would like to be)
What is “client centred therapy”?
client feels listened to and is in control of there own treatment. therapist is non directive and supportive
What is meant by the term “self-actualisation”?
a fundamental personality process
a forward looking tendency toward personality growth
protect our self concept e.g distortion or denial
What is meant by the term “self-consistency”?
avoid psychic conflict by behaving in ways consistent with our sense of self = self-consistency
because inconsistency can create anxiety = in-congruence
What is a mechanism by which anxiety can be resolved, in Rogerian theory?
by using defence mechanisms like denial or distortion
this is to keep the self consistency in check and reduce any anxiety.
How might the need for “positive regard” shape personality?
whether we get positive regard from peers, teachers or parents from a young age may shape a persons personality.
What are personality traits?
traits that can accurately describe personality.
traits are words that describe personality.
What sorts of methods are employed in the trait approach?
the trait approach is a data driven, scientific approach to studying personality
What is the Five-Factor Model?
5 personality factors that are comprised of six behavioral facets
in each case we conceptualise it as a continuum from low to high
each individual personality profile is a set of scores along each of the facets
what are the five factors?
OCEAN
Openess
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
What is the fundamental claim made by social learning theories?
that much of our behaviour is learned, therefore personality = a set of learned tendencies accumulated and reinforced over time
What did Bandura mean by reciprocal determinism?
that there are 3 factors that influence behaviour,
1 traits
2 environment
3 behaviour
they all effect each other
What did Mischel conclude about the relation between traits and behaviour?
our schemas are conditional upon the interaction between trains and situation e.g “i am aggressive but only in situations that encourage aggression or where aggression would be relevant) different situations activate different traits
What are the four methods of assessment covered in the lecture?
- behavioural observation
- interviews
- protective tests
- personality scales
Name some examples of each of these approaches
behavioural observation - observing a child’s behaviour on a play ground maybe using behaviour counts
interviews - interviewing a person and asking a range of questions
protective tests - showing someone an ink splatter and asking them what they see
personality scales - asking questions focusing on behaviours and attitudes or other things regarding personality.
What are the strengths of each approach?
behavioural observation - not self reported so no bias by participant, can be done in a natural environment, can be measured remotely.
interview - can provide deep insight into numerous aspects of personality
projective tests - may give insight to unconscious (but not much evidence)
personality scales - easy to collect large amounts of data, can be quite fast to do, can be administered to individuals or groups, quantifiable therefore east to compare across individual and population norms, objective so not subject to interpretive bias
What are the weaknesses of each approach?
behavioural observation - researcher bias because it is subjective, time consuming.
interview - relies on self report - open to social desirability biases, etc, subjective interview biases and time consuming
projective tests - relies on subjective info, weak validity and reliability, time consuming
personality scales - false answering by participants , (social norms etc) data collected is only as good as the scale its self, bad questions get you bad answers
