Test 3: Personality Flashcards
Personality
a distinctive pattern of behaving, mannerisms, thoughts, motives, and emotions that characterize an individual over time and across different situations.
Freud: The Psychodynamic Approach
personality is primarily formed by early childhood experiences, and shaped by unconscious processes.
Id
-present at birth, operates under “pleasure principle”=seek immediate gratification, our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses (especially sexual and aggressive drives)
Ego
referee between Id and Superego to meet demands of society, hold back impulses until appropriate, operates under “reality principle” = delay gratifying immediate needs to function in real world.
Superego
represents morality and parental authority, delivers feelings of pride, satisfaction OR guilt and shame
Defense Mechanisms
unconscious coping mechanisms (used by ego) that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses.
Repression
a mental process that removes painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from the conscious mind.
Projection
involves attributing one’s own threatening feelings, motives, or impulses or another person or group.
-people who think they’re dishonest will think other people are dishonest also
Rationalization
involves supplying a reasonable-sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behavior to conceal (mostly from oneself) one's underlying motives or feelings. -you dropped the class because the classroom was uncomfortable not because you failed a test
Displacement
involves shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less threatening alternative
-slamming a door
Sublimation
involves channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities
-channeling anger into football
Reaction Formation
involves unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of their opposite.
-being excessively nice to someone you dislike
Regression
the ego deals with internal conflict and perceived threat by reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development.
-adult cuddling with teddy bear when stressed
Denial
Denial is the refusal to accept reality or fact, acting as if a painful event, thought or feeling did not exist.
-Alcoholic saying he doesn’t have a drinking problem
Identification
helps deal with feelings of threat and anxiety by enabling us unconsciously to take on the characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or better able to cope.
-A child whose parent severely punishes them may later be a bully
Psychosexual Stages
Distinct early life stages through which sexual energy takes on different forms as child matures. Each stage associated with conflict to be resolved, otherwise child is fixated. Which stage the child gets stuck in forms personality.
Oral stage
The first psychosexual stage, in which experience centers on the pleasures and frustrations associated with the mouth, sucking, and being fed.
Anal Stage
The second psychosexual stage, which is dominated by the pleasures and frustrations associated with the anus, retention and expulsion of feces and urine, and toilet training.
Phallic Stage
The third psychosexual stage, during which experience is dominated by the pleasure, conflict, and frustration associated with the phallic-genital region as well as coping with powerful incestuous feelings of love, hate, jealousy, and conflict.
Latency Stage
The fourth psychosexual stage, during which the primary focus is on the further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal, and athletic skills.
Genital Stage
The final psychosexual stage, a time for the coming together of the mature adult personality with a capacity to love, work, and relate to others in a mutually satisfying and reciprocal manner.
Oedipus conflict
A developmental experience in which a child’s conflicting feelings toward the opposite-sex parent are (usually) resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent
Fixation
a person’s pleasure-seeking drives become stuck or arrested at that psychosexual stage.
Myers-Briggs Type indicator
predict how people will do at work, get along with others, succeed as leaders, low reliability but still used often. extroverted-introverted sensing-intuitive thinking-feeling judging-perceiving
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI):
a well-researched clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems. 567 questions
- Depression, anxiety, paranoia, sociable, impulsive, hypochondriasis, schizophrenia…etc.
- Validity scales: faking good, faking bad
Projective techniques
a standard series of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique responses that reveal inner aspects of an individuals’ personality. (Psychodynamic)
Rorschach Inkblot Test
a projective personality test in which individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondent’s inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure
Thematic Apperception Test
a projective personality test in which respondent’s reveal underlying motives, concerns, and the way they see the social world through the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people
Trait
a relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way.
The Big Five
traits of the five-factor model include: extroversion – introversion neuroticism – emotional stability agreeableness – antagonism conscientiousness -- impulsive openness to experience – resistance to new experiences
Which type of twins have more similar personalities regardless of whether they were raised together or separately?
Identical Twins because they share most of their genes
Environmental impact on personality
People act differently in different situations
Different behaviors are rewarded, punished, ignored in different contexts
Experience matters
Peer influence on personality
Cornell Study of “secret lives”
Value placed on academic success of peer group shapes students’ academic success
Individualist Cultures
Self is regarded as autonomous, individual goals and wishes are prized above duty and relations with others
US, Western Europe
Collective Cultures
Self is regarded as embedded in relationships, harmony with one’s group is prized above individual goals and wishes.
Japan, China, Korea
Aggression is _____ bound
culturally
_____ kids are the least altruistic
American
Humanistic Psychologists
emphasize a positive, optimistic view of human nature that highlights people’s inherent goodness and their potential for personal growth and resilience.
Carl Rogers
- Unconditional positive regard
- Can correct someone’s behavior (discipline a child) without withdrawing love.
Abraham Maslow
- Hierarchy of Needs
- self-actualization
Self-actualizing tendency
The human motive to realize our inner potential
Existentialist Psychologists
emphasize the individual as a responsible agent who is free to create and live his or her life while negotiating the issue of meaning and the reality of death.
Existential approach
regards personality as governed by an individual’s ongoing choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life and death
