Psych1011 WEEKS 11+12 Flashcards
Personality
PERSONAILITY
Peoples typical ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
TRAIT
Relatively enduring predisposition that influences our behaviour across many situations. - Gordon Allport
→ introversion, aggressiveness.
Relatively stable after 30, more so after 50.
NOMOTHETIC APPROACH
Approach to personality that focuses on identifying general laws that govern the behaviour of all individuals.
→ most modern personality research.
→ Nomos = law
About what we share with others.
IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH
Approach to personality that focuses on identifying the unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person.
“Letters to Jenny”
→ Idios = own, or private.
What makes us unique.
PSYCHIC DETERMINISM
Freud.
The assumption that all psychological events have a cause.
Like Freudian slip.
ID
Freud
Reservoir of our most primitive impulses, including sex and aggression.
Entirely unconsicous
→ bit of the iceberg that is underwater.
→ pleasure principle.
PLEASURE PRINCIPLE
Freud
Tendency of the id to strive for immediate gratification.
EGO
Freud
Psyche’s executive and principal decision maker.
→ reality principle
REALITY PRINCIPLE
Freud
Tendency of the ego to postpone gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet.
SUPEREGO
Freud
Our sense of morality.
Increased = guilt prone
Decreased = risk of psychopathic personality
DREAMS (FREUD)
Freud All dreams are wish fulfillment. → expressing id's impulses → but disguised by superego Day residue - from that day. Symbolism not universal.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Freud
- Ego
- Unconscious maneuvers intended to minimise anxiety.
Repression, denial, regression, reaction-formation, projection, displacement, rationalisation, sublimination, identifying with the aggressor.
REPRESSION
Freud. Defense mechanism.
Motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses (internal).
- triggered by anxiety
We forget because we want to forget.
- infantile amnesia not true. Other species also have no memories under about 3 years old.
DENIAL
Freud. Defense mechanism.
Motivated forgetting of distressing external experiences.
REGRESSION
Freud. Defense mechanism.
The act of returning psychologically to a younger and typically safer age.
→ usually regress to early childhood, thumb sucking.
REACTION - FORMATION
Freud. Defense mechanism.
Transformation of an anxiety provoking emotion into it’s opposite.
eg. Married woman who is sexually attacted to a coworker experiences hatred and revulsion towards him.
PROJECTION
Freud. Defense mechanism.
Related to displacement.
Unconscious attribution of our negative characteristics to others.
eg. Paranoid people want to harm others, but can’t, so perceive others as wanting to harm them.
DISPLACEMENT
Freud. Defense mechanism.
Directing an impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a safer and more socially acceptable target.
→ throwing a golf club, not bashing opponent.
RATIONALISATION
Freud. Defense mechanism.
Providing a reasonable - sounding explanation for unreasonable behaviour or failures.
→ after a loss, say never really wanted it.
SUBLIMATION
Freud. Defense mechanism.
Transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired goal.
→ enjoy bashing people, become a boxer.
STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT.
Freud.
Each stage focuses on an erogenous zone.
Can become fixated (stuck) in an early stage.
- too much or too little gratification in that stage.
Sexuality begins in infancy.
Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital.
ORAL STAGE
Freud.
Psychosexual stage of development that focuses on the mouth.
Birth to 12-18 months.
Sucking and drinking.
Orally fixated: intensely dependent on others and prone to over eating and drinking.
ANAL STAGE
Freud.
Psychosexual stage of development that focuses on toilet training.
18 months to 3 years.
Can’t crap anywhere, have to inhibit urges.
Anal personalities: excessive neatness, stinginess, stubbornness.
PHALLIC STAGE
Freud. Psychosexual stage of development that focuses on the genitals. Important stage. 3-6 years Boys - oedipus complex Girls - electra complex
OEDIPUS COMPLEX
Freud.
Conflict during phallic stage in which boys love their mother romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals.
ELECTRA COMPLEX
Freud.
Phallic stage.
Girls love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals.
LATENCY STAGE
Freud.
Psychosexual stage of development in which sexual impulses are submerged into the unconscious.
6-12 years.
Find to opposite sex unappealing in this stage.
GENITAL STAGE
Freud.
Psychosexual stage where sexual impulses awaken and typically begin to mature into romantic attraction towards others.
12+ years.
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
Jung.
Shared storehouse of memories that ancestors have passed down to us across generations.
ARCHETYPE
Jung.
Cross-culturally universal symbols.
Mother, goddess, hero, mandala, etc.
KAREN HORNEY
German physician - 1st major feminist personality theorist.
Freud’s theories, but less sexist. No penis envy, no oedipus complex.
RADICAL BEHAVOURIST
Determinist. All our actions are the products of pre-existing casual influences.
→ no free will.
Unconscious of processing (external to us)
- unaware of external causes.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORISTS
Also called social cognitive theorists.
- emphasis is thinking as a cause of personality.
- conditioning is cognitively mediated.
RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM
Social learning, but highlighted by behaviourists. .
Tendency for people to mutually influence each other’s behaviour.
LOCUS OF CONTROL
Social learning.
Julian Rotter (1966).
Extend to which people believe that reinforcers and punishers lie inside or outside of their control.
Internal = own efforts
External = chance and fate. Can lead to depression and anxiety.
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGISTS
50s and 60s.
Free will.
Can choose socially constructive or destructive paths in life.
Carl Rogers.
SELF ACTUALISATION
Carl Rodgers.
Drive to develop our innate potential to the fullest possible extend.
ROGER’S MODEL OF PERSONALITY
Carl Rogers.
The “organism” is our innate blueprint.
The “self” is our self concept.
Conditions of worth.
CONDITIONS OF WORTH
Carl Rogers.
Expectations we place on ourselves for appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.
Explain differences in personality.
Arise in childhood when we are accepted for some behaviours but not others.
INCONGRUENCE
Carl Rogers.
Inconsistency between our ideal self and self image.
ABRAHAM MASLOW
Humanist.
Focused on self actualised individuals, esp. historic.
Spontaneous, creative, accepting, self confident, not self-centered.
Prone to peak experiences.
PEAK EXPERIENCE
Maslow.
Transcendent moment of intense excitement and tranquility marked by a profound sense of connection to the world.
NEO-FREUDIAN THEORISTS
Adler, Jung, Horney. Like Freud - unconscious influences - importance of early experiences Different: - less sexuality, more social drives. - more optimistic about personality change in adulthood.
STYLE OF LIFE
Alfred Adler
- follower of Freud.
- not sex or aggression but striving for superiority.
Crafting a style of life, each person’s distinctive way of achieving superiority.
INFERIORITY COMPLEX
Adler.
Feelings of low self-esteem that can lead to overcompensation for such feelings.
FREE WILL
We can consciously make decisions that are not determined by the physics and biology of our brains.
Not supported by science.
SELF MONITORING
Personality trait that assesses the extent to which people’s behaviour reflects their true feelings and attitudes.
High = care about what other people think and will modify behaviour accordingly.
Low = care less, less like to change behaviour.
INTROJECTION
Freud.
Occurs when a person internalizes ideas or voices of other people. It is commonly associated with the internalization of external authority, particularly of parents.
eg. using same phrases, same beliefs
Opposite of projection.
LIBIDO
Freud.
The energy created by the survival and sexual instincts. According to Sigmund Freud, the libido is part of the id and is the driving force of all behavior.
CATHEXIS
An investment of mental or emotional energy put into a person, object, or idea. For example, when you have a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend and it is on your mind, you are stressed out about it, keep going over it, thinking about the other person, what will happen to the relationship, etc., you are investing mental and emotional energy in that situation, event, and person.
EROGENOUS ZONE
An area or part of the body sensitive to stimulation that is a sexual or erotic feling of pleasure.
Freud: oral, anal, etc.
SELF-EFFICACY
Bandura
The belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.
- a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. Bandura described these beliefs as determinants of how people think, behave, and feel
IDEAL SELF & REAL SELF
According the Humanistic Psychologist Carl Rogers, the personality is composed of the Real Self and the Ideal Self. Your
Rogers.
Real Self is who you actually are, while your Ideal Self is the person you want to be.
The Ideal Self is an idealized version of yourself created out of what you have learned from your life experiences, the demands of society, and what you admire in your role models.
DEFICIT NEEDS (D-NEEDS)
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Bottom 4 of the pyramid.
-physiological needs
- safety needs
- belonging needs (love and acceptance)
- esteem needs (self esteem and respect of others)
If not met, we will be driven to meet them.
BEING NEEDS (OR GROWTH NEEDS, B VALUES)
Can never be satisfied.
B-needs include truth, goodness, and beauty. Maslow also included unity, perfection, completion or finality, aliveness, process, uniqueness, self-sufficiency.
JONAH COMPLEX
Maslow
Fear of success which prevents self actualization.
DESACRALISATION
Maslow.
Can be used as a defense against being flooded by emotion, especially the emotions of humility, reverence, mystery, wonder, and awe
PROJECTIVE TEST
Type of personality test in which the individual offers responses to ambiguous scenes, words or images.
Rorschach
Emerged from psychoanalysis.
Reveals unconscious motivations.
RORSCHACH INKBLOT TEST
Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach in 1921
Inkblots on cards. Responses recorded.
THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST
Projective test.
Series of ambiguous scenes. Subjects make up a story. Shows their history and unconscious, etc.
RELIABILITY
Low internal consistency for projective tests.
Measures the same thing consistently.
VALIDITY
Projective test. Maybe doesn’t measure what it is supposed to measure.
Has to measure what it is supposed to measure.
STANDARDISATION
Consistency and objectivity of how tests are administered and scored.
TEST NORMS
Test norms consist of data that make it possible to determine the relative standing of an individual who has taken a test. By itself, a subject’s raw score (e.g., the number of answers that agree with the scoring key) has little meaning. Almost always, a test score must be interpreted as indicating the subject’s position relative to others in some group. Norms provide a basis for comparing the individual with a group.
SOCIAL DESIRABILITY SCALES
Social desirability scales are widely used by researchers and practitioners to screen individuals who bias self-reports in a self-favoring manner. These scales also serve to identify individuals at risk for psychological and health problems.
PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES
Field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement. The field is primarily concerned with the construction and validation of measurement instruments such as questionnaires, tests, and personality assessments.
- reliability
- validitiy
PT BARNUM EFFECT
The Forer effect (also called the Barnum effect after P. T. Barnum’s observation that “we’ve got something for everyone”) is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, graphology, and some types of personality test.
FACTOR ANALYSIS
Statistical technique that analyses the correlations among responses on personality inventories and other measures.
Identifies clusters or groups of related items.
BIG FIVE
Five traits that have surfaced repeatedly in factor analyses of personality measures.
- Openness (to experience). Intellectually curious and unconventional.
- Conscientiousness. Careful and responsible.
- Extraversion. Social and lively.
- Agreeableness. Sociable and easy to get along with.
- Neuroticism. Tense and moody.
OCEAN, or CANOE.
LEXICAL APPROACH
Proposes that the most crucial features of personality are embedded in language.
EXTRAVERSION
Personality trait. Seek out social contact and opportunities to engage with others. Warm, assertive, talkative.
Opposite of introversion.
INTROVERSION
Personality trait. Inward turning. More focused on internal thoughts. Less need for social contact.
Not the same as shy.
On the same scale as extraversion. Opposite ends of spectrum, most people are in the middle.
AGREEABLENESS
Personality trait.
Tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. The trait reflects individual differences in general concern for social harmony. Agreeable individuals value getting along with others. They are generally considerate, friendly, generous, helpful, and willing to compromise their interests with others. Agreeable people also have an optimistic view of human natur
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
Personality trait.
Tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement against measures or outside expectations. The trait shows a preference for planned rather than spontaneous behavior. It influences the way in which we control, regulate, and direct our impulses
NEUROTICISM
Personality trait.
Tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or depression. It is sometimes called emotional instability, or is reversed and referred to as emotional stability. According to Eysenck’s (1967) theory of personality, neuroticism is interlinked with low tolerance for stress or aversive stimuli.
JUNG VS FREUD
Jung believed that Freud was too focused on sexuality as a motivating force. He also felt that Freud’s concept of the unconscious was limited and overly negative. Instead of simply being a reservoir of repressed thoughts and motivations, as Freud believed, Jung argued that the unconscious could also be a source of creativity.
OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY
Object relations theory is an offshoot of psychoanalytic theory that emphasizes interpersonal relations, primarily in the family and especially between mother and child. “Object” actually means person and especially the significant person that is the object or target of another’s feelings or intentions. “Relations” refers to interpersonal relatios and suggests the residues of past relationships that affect a person in the present. Object relations theorists are interested in inner images of the self and other and how they manifest themselves in interpersonal situations.
OBJECTIVE INVENTORIES
Also self report inventory.
eg. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI -2)
Usually reliable and can test a large number of subjects.
But people can lie and takes ages.
JOB SUCCESS TRAITS
High agreeable
Low neurotic.
UNCONDITIONAL VS CONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD
Rogers.
Unconditional = love and acceptance for who the person is, despite mistakes. People who experience this more likely to self actualise.
Conditional = regard and praise only when the person does what is considered correct. Can lead to constantly seeking approval.
