Psych/Soc: Personality, motivation, emotion, stress Flashcards
*Name 5 personality traits
OCEAN
Openness to experience -> High = embrace new ideas, experiences, values, differences in ppl.
Conscientiousness -> High = values competence and order; organized ; manages time well, strives to achieve; thoughtfulness and consideration of others’ states
Extraversion -> High = outgoing, energized
Agreeableness -> High = Thinks of others; goes with the flow; does not demand attention
Neuroticism -> High = high levels of negative emotions (anxiety, anger); can be impulsive
What is life course perspective?
*There are different perspectives on personality:
Holistic approach, our life structured by societal factors like fam structure, SES, demographics
A multidisciplinary approach developed to understand individual lives from a cultural, social, and structural perspective
*Psychoanalytic perspective
Who is associated with this? And what did he suggest human behavior is motivated by?
What is the therapy?
Psychoanalytic theory asserts that personality is shaped largely by the unconscious. Mental illness, or neurosis, is the result of unconscious conflicts which often stem from childhood
Sigmund Freud suggested human behavior is motivated by: the *libido, or life drive, which drives behaviors focused on pleasure, survival , and avoidance of pain and the *death drive, which drives dangerous or destructive behaviors, and underlies the desire to hurt oneself or others (this death instinct drives aggressive behaviors fueled by an unconscious wish to die or to hurt oneself or others)
Root of conflicts: unconscious
General method -> bring more psychic facts into conscious awareness
*Freud divided the human psyche into three components
Id -> unconscious and responsible for desire to avoid pain and seek pleasure (inner child “let’s party!”) pleasure principle
Ego -> responsible for logical thinking and planning as we deal with reality (adult with desire and responsibility attempts to compromise) reality principle, logical thinking and planning to control conscious and Id
Superego -> responsible for our moral judgments of right and wrong and strives for perfection ( inner parent “study for the MCAT”)
*Freud’s psychosexual stages and years
What can happen at each stage (what does success and failure look like)?
**Erik Erikson and Sigmund Freud two most important psychoanalytic thinkers for MCAT
1) oral 0-1
Mouth (sucking, chewing, eating, biting, vocalizing)
success: weaning (eating)
failure: oral aggression (verbally abusive) or oral passivity (smoking, kissing a lot, overeating)
2) anal 1-3
bowel and bladder control
success: toilet training
failure: Anal retention (overly neat/tidy) or anal expulsion (disorganized)
3) phallic 3-6
Genitals, child seeks sensual pleasure through genitals (presence/absence of penis) Oedipus complex (males) Electra complex (females), Identify with what it means to be their sex, for women desire to have penis replaces with desire to have a child
success: gender identification
failure: difficulty with intimate relationships
4) Latency 6-12
sexual interests subside and are replaced by interests in other areas such as school, friends, and sports (sexual feelings dormant/inactive during this stage), Understanding of sexuality
success: social interaction
Failure: arrested development (fixation -> asexual, not social)
5) genital 12+
When sexual themes resurface and a person’s life/sexual energy fuels activities such as friendships, art, sports, and careers.
Other people’s genitals (reproduction and pleasure)
Success: intimate relationship, focus on genitals for reproduction and pleasure
failure: fixation in prior stage could result in sexual and intimacy issues (voyerism, exhibitionism, bad relationships)
*Erik Erikson
Psychosocial stages of development, ages, and outcomes
What did Erik and Freud agree upon?
What stages b/w freud and Erikson represent the same period of life?
Erik Erikson extended Freud’s ideas:
Included social and interpersonal factors, added additional stages through adulthood
See diagram to test if you know stages
Erik’s and Freud agreed that one doesn’t need to successfully resolve a conflict in one stage in order to move to next, early experiences shape personality, development in stages
*Behaviorist perspective
What therapy is used with it
Personality is a result of learned behavior patterns based on our environment
Environment provides an opportunity for punishment and reward and bc of this our behavior is shaped and this dictates personality
Behaviorism is deterministic, proposing that people begin as blank slates and that environmental reinforcement and punishment completely determine an individual’s subsequent behavior and personalities
According to behaviorism, learning (and thus development of personality) occurs through two forms of conditioning, classical conditioning (acquires response to a stimulus after that stimulus is repeatedly paired with a second, diff stim that already produces desires response) or operant conditioning (pos or neg reinforcement/punishment)
Behavioral Therapy
Root conflicts -> reinforcement and punishment
General method -> uses conditioning to reinforce better behaviors/shape a client’s behaviors in the desired direction
ex. relaxation training and systematic desensitization to help clients manage fear and anxiety
*B.F. Skinner -> what is he one of the founders of?
One of the founders of behaviorist perspective
- > born a blank slate
- > personality is a result of interaction b/w the individual and the environment
- > Only observable/measurable behaviors are of interest
- > Personality is deterministic; people begin as blank slates, then reinforcement and punishment COMPLETELY DETERMINE subsequent behavior and personalities.
*Humanist Perspective
Who is associated with this?
What is therapy like/what does it tackle?
Humanistic psychology asserts that humans are driven by an actualizing tendency to realize their highest potential, and personality conflicts arise when this is somehow thwarted
Carl Rogers
assumed problem: barriers to self-understanding and self-acceptance
Therapy goals: personal growth through self-insight
General method -> let client guide process while providing unconditional positive regard, active listening
*Carl Rogers -> what perspective is he associated with?
What is the main goal of development according to this perspective?
Associated with Humanist perspective
Instead of stages, human development progresses from undifferentiated to differentiated:
- The main goal of development is the establishment of a differentiated self-concept (Class 3)
- **Self-actualization (fulfill goals) is accomplished when parents exhibit unconditional positive regard. Those raised with conditional positive regard will only feel worthy when they’ve met certain conditions (ex. aced a test, won an award)
Goal of healthy self concept want client to believe that they realized their highest potential and psychologist accomplish this bc client is given a lot of positive regard, that they have value for existing, THEY MATTER and don’t need to do something to prove it Bad with conditional value regard -> only value when valedictorian, win something, etc Self actualization (say they have reached their potential) when parents give them unconditional pos regard so basically praise them for being them/they matter no matter what, don’t need to win everything to have value
If these ppl encounter experiences in life that contradict their self-concept, they feel uncomfortable incongruence
*Social Cognitive Perspective
Who is associated with this?
What is the therapy like?
Personality is a result of reciprocal interactions among behavioral, cognitive, and environmental factors.
The behavioral component includes patterns of behavior learned through classical and operant conditioning, as well as observational learning. observational/vicarious learning
Albert Bandura
Cognitive behavioral therapy
-> root conflict = behaviorism + cognition and observation, maladaptive behavior
-> reinforce better thoughts, provide better models, reconditioning, desensitization, reversal of self-blame
goal is to help the client become aware of subconscious beliefs and substitute rational or accurate beliefs and thoughts, which will lead to more functional feelings and behaviors
*Albert Bandura
Patterns of behavior are learned not just through classical and operant conditioning, but also through *observational learning Cognitive processes are involved in both observational learning and the development of beliefs about *self-efficacy (class 3)
*Observational learning
Another name? What theory is a fundamental tenet of this? Who is related to this? What was his experiment?
Social learning; learning that occurs through modeling, when we observe behavior of another and learn to imitate it. Observational learning is a fundamental tenet of the Social Learning Theory that Albert Bandura later renamed Social Cognitive Theory
*Observational learning experiment? Who did it? What theory?
Albert Bandura credited as the first to demonstrate observational learning experimentally in his famous Bobo doll experiments
- Objective: behaviorist paradigms did not account for observational learning; social cognitive theorists needed to prove its existence
-Groups: children either saw an adult being aggressive against Bobo or an adult calmly playing with other toys
children in both groups were then frustrated and angry children copied angry dude’s behavior
Later experiments also demonstrated vicarious reinforcement, in which children were more likely to imitate behaviors that others were rewarded for
*Trait perspective
Personality made up of certain traits (only 5 main traits OCEAN)
Personality is a result of traits, which are habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion that are relatively stable over time
*Cardinal traits
Cardinal traits are rare and develop an individual’s whole life, often to the point that the person becomes known for specifically for that trait (ex. can describe someone as Ghandi-like)
*Secondary trait
Personality change across different situations ex. ppl super nice but angry in traffic
Secondary traits are sometimes related to attitudes or preferences. These characteristics are dependent on the situation
*Central traits
More core personality and consistent in variety of situations
Central traits are general characteristics that form the basic foundations of personality and describe ppl across different situations
*Hans Eysenck:
What theory and personality perspective?
Associated with trait theory and also proposed that genetics primary determine personality so proponent of biological perspective
-personality traits are hierarchal, a few foundational traits giving rise to a large array of superficial traits
genetic differences determine personality traits
variations in extraversion and neuroticism give rise to personality types
*Biological perspective
Personality is the result of individual differences in brain biology
ex. amygdala size correlates with characteristics related to neuroticism
Anterior cingulate cortex density and connections correlate with delay of gratification and long term planning
Pre-frontal cortex damage can cause a seeming lack of morality
