Q4: Personality Flashcards
personality
the affects, behavior, and cognitions of people that characterize them in a number of situations over time
personality theory
organized collection of testable ideas used to describe and explain personality
-psychoanalytic, behavioral-learning, cognitive, humanistic, trait
Psychoanalytic approach
baes on frued’s ideas. innate drives explain much of human behavior, unconscious molds and shapes it.
-3 parts of personality: Id, Ego, Superego
-defense mechanisms
-psychosexual developmental stages
goal: gain insights into a patient’s problems, resolution of repressed conflict.
positives: comprehensive theory, focuses on childhood, introduced defense mechanisms
negatives: key ideas can’t be tested, not based on evidence, doesn’t account for environment
Id
innate biological instincts and urges. born with it. operates on pleasure principle.
pleasure principle
biological urges and instincts
Ego
attempts to balance demands of id with the social world, uses defense mechanisms to prevent anxiety. developed in childhood.
operates on reality principle.
Superego
moral guard or conscience. develops in childhood.
operates on idealistic principle.
defense mechanisms
unconsciously applied techniques that protect the conscious self against strong feelings of anxiety. used by the Ego to satisfy the Id. all have evidence except for sublimation.
sublimation
no evidence: changes a desire to be socially acceptable. ex: pedophile becomes a teacher.
denial
denying that it happened
repression
removing/hiding things we want to forget
rationalization
“it’s not that bad”
fantasy
daydreaming
projection
thematic apperception test, putting your unconscious onto something else.
regression
go back in developmental stages
displacement
taking frustration and placing it someplace else ex: slamming the door
psychosexual development stages
oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
oral stage
pleasure and satisfaction from oral activities.
-crisis: weaning
-fixation: leads to an excessive need for oral stimulation and gratification
anal stage
pleasure and satisfaction from control of bladder and bowels
-crisis: toilet training
-fixation: leads to becoming overly neat or overly disorganized
anal-retentive
overly neat
anal-expulsive
overly disorganized
phallic stage
pleasure and satisfaction from genitals.
development of superego
-crisis: oedipus/electra complex
-fixation: leads to crisis with sexuality/gender, penis envy in girls
oedipus/electra complex
little boys sexually attracted to their moms, results in mimicking dad (vice versa in girls).
latency period
development of ego. focus on learning about the world.
-crisis: none, sexual development is on hold
genital stage
pleasure and satisfaction from genitals
-crisis: relating to the opposite sex
behavioral learning approach
emphasized that personality is a collection of relatively stable learned behavior patterns.
classical and operant conditioning, observational learning
rejects idea that personality is made up of traits, focuses on situational determinants
-positives: emphasis on experimentation, development of therapy
-negatives: dehumanizes personality, not theoretical, more application of learning principles
watson
learning in shaping behavior
skinner
conditioning and consequences influencing
bandura
observational/social learning
neal miller
explained personality as habits
habits
learned behavior patterns made of drives, responses, cues, and rewards
cognitive approach
argued that personality is determined by one’s coping mechanisms, what you think, how you process info, and how you self regulate to attain goals.
everything builds from thoughts.
-positives: explains observations about personality, blends well with the trait approach
-negatives: hard to directly evaluate cognition
humanistic approach
optimistic, claims that people have the ability to shape their destiny and biological, instinctive and environmental influences can be overcome. emphasizes wholeness or completeness rather than structural parts
-positives: reminds us of wholeness of personality, points out dangers of analyzing personality in small units, positive and optimistic
-negatives: many principles are untestable, striving to become fully functioning or self actualized are not universal goals
maslow’s hierarchy of needs
physiological, safety, belonging/love, self esteem, self-actualization
trait approach
empirically based.
gordon allport, raymond cattell, hans eysenck.
four basic temperaments: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic
the big five model
-positives: provides a way to measure the important dimensions of personality, shows how measured traits are related.
-negatives: disagreement on number of traits needed to define personality
trait
any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from others. biological predispositions.
empirically based
relied on research using carefully constructed tests
gordon allport
claimed traits could be ranked in a hierarchy in terms of degree to which they influence behavior:
cardinal traits, central traits, secondary traits
raymond cattell
attributed surface traits to the existence of 16 underlying source traits: 16 Personality Factor (16PF)
Hans Eysench
claimed personality related mostly to whether you are introverted/extroverted and whether your are stable/unstable
the big five model
identifies five universal dimensions of personality that have the most research support.
extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience.
personality assessment
goals: diagnosis, theory building, behavioral prediction.
techniques: behavioral observations, interviews, projection techniques, paper and pencil tests
holland code
choosing a career that fits your personality is a vital step toward success.
-lists activities that could be performed, gives personality types
