Theories of personality Flashcards
Personality
the unique way in which each individual thinks, acts and feels throughout life
character
value judgements made about a person’s morals, or ethical behaviour
temperament
the enduring characteristics with which each person is born
e.g irritability
adaptability
based on biology
psychodynamic perspective
focuses on role of the subconscious mind
focuses heavily of biological causes
behaviourist perspective
based on theories of learning
focuses on the effect of the environment
humanistic perspective
first rose as a reaction against the psychoanalytic and behaviourist perspective
focuses on the role of each person’s conscious life experiences and choices in personality development
trait perspective
more concerned with the personality traits themselves
some trait theorists (but not all) assume that traits are biologically determined
Freud’s divisions of the personality
id
ego
superego
id
completely unconscious
pleasure seeking
amoral
part of the personality that exists at birth
contains all basic biological drive
eg. hunger, thirst, self-preservation and sex
ego
executive director
far more rational, logical and cunning than the id
considers the consequences of the id’s desires
superego
the moral watchdog
contains the conscience
moral anxiety + guilt
defence mechanisms
ways of dealing with anxiety through subconsciously distorting one’s perception of reality
list of defence mechanisms
repression denial regression reaction formation project displacement rationalisation intellectualisation identification sublimation compensation
repression
motivated forgetting of of emotionally threatening memories or impulses
denial
motivated forgetting of distressing experiences
regression
falling back on child-like patterns as a way of coping with stressful situations
reaction formation
forming an emotional reaction or attitude that is the opposite of one’s threatening or unacceptable thoughts
projection
unconscious attribution of our negative qualities unto others
displacement
directing an impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a more acceptable one
rationalisation
making up acceptable excuses for unacceptable behaviour
intellectualisation
avoiding the emotions associated with anxiety-provoking experiences by focusing one abstract and impersonal thoughts
identification
adopting the psychological characteristics of someone else to deal with own anxiety
sublimation
transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into Ann admired and socially valued goal
compensation
trying to make up for areas a lack is perceived by becoming superior in some other area
stages of personality development
oral stage - first 18 months anal stage - 18 to 36 months phallic stage - 3 to 6 years latency stage - 6 years to puberty genital stage - puberty on
neo-freudians
Jung
Adler
Horney
Erikson
Jung
archetypes
collective unconscious
Adler
driving force behind all human action = emotion
defence mechanism of compensation
Horney
focused on basic anxiety created in children
children growing up in unaffectionate homes will grow up to be neurotic
Erikson
focused on social relationships at every phase in life
behaviourist and cognitive view
learning theories
social cognitive learning theorists
these theorists who emphasise importance of other peoples behaviour and person’s own expectations of learning believe that observational learning, modelling and other learning techniques could be involved I personality formation
social cognitive view
believe that personality is to just influenced by external stimuli and response patterns but also cognitive processes such as anticipating judging memory learning through imitation
reciprocal determinism and self efficacy
Bandura
believes that 3 factors influence one another inn determine the patterns of behaviour that make up personality
this relationship is called reciprocal determinism
1. environment (reinforcers)
2. personal/cognitive factors (beliefs, expectancies, personal dispositions)
3. behaviour
bandora also speaks of self-efficacy
self-efficacy
a person’s expectancy of how effective his or her efforts to accomplish a goal will be in a particular circumstance
can be affected by
past experience
what others tell them about their competence
their own assessment of their abilities
Expectancies
Julian Rotter's social learning theory based on core theory of motivation people are motivated to seek reinforcement and avoid punishment speaks about locus of control expectancies reinforcement value
locus of control
tendency for people to assume that the either do or do’t have control of the events and consequences in their lives
internal locus of control =
they think they have control
high achievement motivation
external locus of control =
they leave it up to fate or luck or assume they are controlled by powerful others
can fall into habits of helplessness or depression
give up easily
expectancy
refers to the person’s subjective feeling that a particular behaviour will lead to a reinforcing consequence
reinforcement value
a person’s preference for a particular reinforcer over other reinforcers
humanism and personalities
Carl Rodgers
Abraham Maslow
believe that humans are striving for fulfilment of their innate capabilities
self-actualisation tendency
speak about
real and ideal self
conditional and unconditional positive regard
fully functioning person
self-concept, real and ideal self
self concept = based on what people are told by others as well as how the sense of self is is reflected in the words and actions of the important people in one’s life
real self = one’s actual perception of characteristics traits and abilities that form the basis of striving for self-actualisation
ideal self = perception of what one should be and would like to be
Rodgers believed that when the real and ideal self and close together then a person felt capable and competent
positive regard
warmth, affection, love and respect from important people in one’s life
essential in order to achieve self actualisation
conditional and unconditional positive regard
unconditional - no strings attached
necessary for people to explore all that they can achieve and become
conditional - positive regard is dependent (or seemingly dependent) on doing what those people want
fully functioning person
these people are in touch with their own feelings and abilities
and they are able to trust their innermost urges and intuitions
a person requires unconditional positive regard I order to become a fully functioning person
only these people can achieve self-actualisation
current thoughts on humanistic perspective
idealistic
ignores negative aspects of human nature
cannot explain sociopathy
difficult to test scientifically
Big 5 test
openness - willingness to try new things
conscientiousness - a person’s organisation and motivation
extraversion - level of sociability and outgoingness
agreeableness - basic emotional style of a person (how easy-going they are)
neuroticism - emotional stability/instability
biological perspective
behavioural genetics
devoted to the study of how much genes influence personality traits
twin studies suggest that Gennes play a large role in forming personality
read slides
types of personality assessment
interviews - psychoanalysts, humanists
projective tests - psychoanalysts
behavioural assessments - behavioural and social-cognitive therapists
personality inventories - trait theorists
The MBTI
Myers-Briggs type indicator based on ideas of Carl Jung looked at: sensing/intuition thinking/feeling intraversion/extraversion perceiving/judging
projective tests
psychoanalysts show clients ambiguous visual stimuli and ask clients to tell them what they see
the hope is that the client will project unconscious concerns onto the visual stimulus, revealing them to the examiner
e.g. Rorschach Inkblot test
TAT - Thematic Apperception Test
unreliable tests - unable to produce same results each time
