Psychology Unit 7 Part Two Flashcards
Personality
An individual’s characteristic patten of thinking, feeling, and acting
Sigmund Freud Psychoanalytic Theory
Childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality
Psychodynamic theories
Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences
Psychoanalysis
Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
Freud believed that psychological troubles came from
Men’s and women’s unresolved conflicts regarding their expected roles
Unconscious
According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories. According to contemporary psychologists information processing of which we are unaware
Free Association
In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing
Preconscious area
Freud’s idea of unconscious thoughts that can be retrieved into conscious
Id
A reservoir of unconscious psych energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification
Ego
The largely conscious “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain
Superego
The part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations
Psychosexual stages
The childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones
Phallic stage
Boys develop both unconsious sexual desires for their mother and jealousy and hatred for their father
Oedipus Complex
According to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
Ages for Freud’s psychosexual stages
Oral - 0-18 months
Anal - 18-36 months
Phallic - 3-6 years
Latency - 6 to puberty
Genital - Puberty and on
Freud’s psychosexual stages: oral
Pleasure centers on the mouth: sucking, biting, chewing
Freud’s psychosexual stages: Anal
Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control
Freud’s psychosexual stages: Phallic
Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings
Freud’s psychosexual stages: Latency
A phase of dormant sexual feelings
Freud’s psychosexual stages: Genital
Maturation of sexual interests
Identification
The process by which Freud says children incorporate their parents values into their developing superego
Gave them gender identity and alignment with parent’s values
Fixation
Freud says that a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage in which conflicts were unresolved
Freud thinks anxiety
is the minds way to protect others, by inflicting impulses on itself
id vs. superego war
Defense mechanisms
The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
For Freud, all defense mechanisms function
indirectly and unconsciously
Repression
The basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories
Underlies all other defense mechanisms says freud
Ways neo-freudians broke off from him
- placed more emphasis on the conscious minds role in interpreting experience and in coping with the environment
- Doubted that sex and aggression where all consuming motivations
Carl Jung
Neo-freudian that suggested the collective unconscious
Collective Unconscious
Carl Jungs concept of a shared inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species history
Led to connection to epigenetics
Projective Tests
A personality test such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics
Thematic Association Test (TAT)
A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Pros of TAT testing
- Can assess achievement and affiliation motivation
- Consistent over time by each patient
Rorschach inkblot test
The most widely used projective test; a set of 10 inkblots, seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
Modern critiques of Freud’s work
- Development is lifelong, not just childhood
- Infant neural networks may not be able to sustain emotional trauma as well as Freud thought
- Overestimates peer and family influence
- Gender identity is gained earlier
BIGGEST PROBLEM: It provides an after the fact explanation rather than a predictable theory
Critiques on Repression
While we many preserve our self-esteem by neglecting threatening information, but repression is a rare mental response
High stress and associated stress hormones enhance memory
Which three Freudian defense mechanisms do modern scientists currently support?
Reaction Formation, Projection and Terror-Management Theory
What do researchers now call projection?
False Consensus Effect
False Consensus Effect
Tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors
Defense mechanisms seem motivated less by the sexual and aggressive undercurrents that Freud imagined than by our need to protect our ______
self image
Terror-Management Theory
A theory of death-related anxiety; explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Sigmund Freud are
Humanistic theorists
Humanistic Theories
Theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth
Humanistic theorists went against science by
studying people through their own self-reported experiences and feelings
Self-actualization
According to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one’s potential
Self-transcendence
According to Maslow; the striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self
Peak experiences
Carl Rogers
Person-centered perspective
Person-centered perspective
Carl’s Rogers theory that people are basically good and are endowed with self-actualizing tendencies
Carl Rogers believes that growth-promoting social climate provides
Acceptance, Genuineness, and empathy
Unconditional positive regard
A caring, accepting, non judgmental attitude which Carl Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance
Self-Concept
All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question “Who am I?”
Negative vs. Positive Self Regard
Positive: We tend to act and perceive the world positively
Negative: We fall short of our ideal self
Humanistic Psychologists dislike personality questionaries because they think it
Categorizes people’s unique experiences into rigid boxes
Criticism of Humanistic psychology
- Vague and subjective: is there a scientific definition of open people?
- Emphasis on individualism could promote self-indulgence
- Does not acknowledge the human capacity for evil
Traits
A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports
Factor Analysis
A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of test items that tap basic components of a trait
Hans and Sybil Eysenck
We can reduce many of our normal individual variations into two dimensions: extraversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability
Biopsychosocial: Personality
Bio:
- Extraverts have low brain arousal thus seek stimulation (frontal lobe area involved in behavior inhibition is less active)
- Selective breeding can concentrate personality traits in animals
Psycho:
Personality Inventory
A questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes
Empirically Derived
A test (such as the MMPI) created by selecting from a pool of items those that discriminate between groups
Robert McCraw and Paul Costa
Made the Big Five Traits
Big Five Personality Factors
CANOE:
Conscientiousness:
Agreeableness:
Neuroticism:
Openness:
Extraversion
Big Five Traits: stability
Maturity principle: We become more conscientious, agreeable and less neurotic as we age
Big Five Traits: Heritability
Heritability runs about 40 percent for each dimension
Big Five Traits: Brain structure
High on conscientiousness have larger frontal lobe areas (aid in planning and controlling behavior)
High in neuroticism have brains wires to experience stress intensity
Big Five Traits: Birth Order
No association
Big Five Traits: Culture
Aligns in all human groups
Big Five Traits: predictability
Yes
Person-Situation Controversy
is our personality based more on inner disposition or from our environment
With age, personality traits become more
stable
A person’s average traits persist over time and are predictable over many different situations but
traits cannot predict behavior in any one particular situation
Social-cognitive perspective
Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context
Albert Bandura
Social-cognitive perspective
Behavioral Approach
Focuses on the effects of learning on our personality development
Reciprocal determinism
The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment
Self
In contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings and actions
Spotlight Effect
Overestimating others noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)
Self-esteem
One’s feelings of high or low self-worth
Self-efficacy
One’s sense of competence and effectiveness
Dunning-Kruger Effect
Ignorance of one’s own incompetence
Self-Serving Bias
A readiness to perceive oneself favorably
Narcissism
Excessive self-love and self-absoption
Individualism
Giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications
Collectivism
Giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly
