Theories of Personality Flashcards
Different Theories of Personality
Psychodynamic theory
Trait theory
Social cognitive theories
Humanistic theories
Psychodynamic theory
- Freud, levels of consciousness, structure of personality, Pleasure principle and reality principle, Defense mechanisms.
- Stages of psychosexual development. Greater emphasis on the ego and social relationships, and lesser emphasis on sexual and aggressive motivation
Trait theory
trait theorists look within the personality to explain behavior. But the structures of personality they bring into focus are not opposing mental states or entities. Rather, they believe that personality consists of a distinctive set of relatively stable or enduring characteristics or dispositions called traits. They use personality traits to predict how people are likely to behave in different situations.
Social cognitive theories
Emphasizes the roles of cognitive and environmental factors in determining behavior.
Humanistic theories
- proposing that conscious choice and personal freedom are central features of what it means to be a human being
- To humanistic psychologists, we are not puppets whose movements are controlled by strings pulled by the unconscious mind or the environment; rather, we are endowed with the ability to make free choices that give meaning and personal direction to our lives.
Personality
It is a stable pattern of psychological characteristics and behavioral patterns that accounts for our individuality and consistency over time.
Psychoanalytic theory
Freud’s theory of personality that holds that personality and behavior are shaped by unconscious forces and conflicts
Levels of consciousness
- Conscious
- Unconscious
- Preconscious
Conscious
To Freud, the part of the mind corresponding to the state of present awareness
Unconscious
To Freud, the part of the mind that lies outside the range of ordinary awareness and that holds troubling or unacceptable urges, impulses, memories, and ideas.
Preconscious
To Freud, the part of the mind whose contents can be brought into awareness through focused attention.
The structure of Personality
- Id
- Ego
- Superego
Id
Freud’s term for the psychic structure existing in the unconscious that contains our baser animal drives and instinctual impulses.
Ego
Freud’s term for the psychic structure that attempts to balance the instinctual demands of the id with social realities and expectations
Superego
Freud’s term for the psychic structure that corresponds to an internal moral guardian or conscience.
Pleasure Principle
In Freudian theory, a governing principle of the id that is based on demand for instant gratification without regard to social rules or customs.
Reality principle
In Freudian theory, the governing principle of the ego that takes into account what is practical and acceptable in satisfying basic needs.
Freud’s theory of personality
- Freud proposed that personality consists of three mental entities called id, ego, and superego.
- The balance and interactions of these three parts of the personality largely determine our behavior and our ability to function effectively in meeting the life challenges we face.
- Freud did not consider these mental entities to be actual structures we could locate in the brain. Rather, he conceived of them as hypothetical concepts that represent the opposing forces within the personality.
- Our behavior is a product of the dynamic struggles among the id, ego, and superego
Defense Mechanisms
In Freudian theory, the reality-distorting strategies of the ego to prevent awareness of anxiety-evoking or troubling ideas or impulses.
6 Defense Mechanisms
- Repression
- Denial
- Regression
- Projection
- Displacement
- Reaction Formation
2 extra Defense Mechanisms
- Rationalization
2. Sublimation
Repression
In Freudian theory, a type of defense mechanism involving motivated forgetting of anxiety-evoking material. Banishment to the unconscious of unacceptable wishes, fantasies, urges, and impulses. Yet repressed desires or memories may become revealed in disguised forms, such as in dream symbols and in slips of the tongue (so-called Freudian slips)
Projection
In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving the projection of one’s own unacceptable impulses, wishes, or urges onto another person.
Displacement
In Freudian Theory, a defense mechanism in which an unacceptable sexual or aggressive impulse is transferred to an object or person that is safer or less threatening than the original object of the impulse.
Reaction formation
In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving behavior that stands in opposition to one’s true motives and desires so as to prevent conscious awareness of them. Behaving in a way that is the opposite of one’s true wishes or desires in order to keep these repressed
Regression
In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism in which an individual, usually under high levels of stress, reverts to a behavior characteristic of an earlier stage of development
Denial
In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving the failure to recognize a threatening impulse or urge. Refusal to recognize a threatening impulse or desire
Rationalization
In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving the use of self-justification to explain away unacceptable behavior, impulses, or ideas.
Sublimation
In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving the channeling of unacceptable impulses into socially sanctioned behaviors or interests.
The Development of Personality
- Psychosexual Stages, development of erogenous zones.
Erogenous zones
Parts of the body that are especially sensitive to sexual or pleasurable stimulation.
Fixations
Constellations of personality traits characteristic of a particular stage of psychosexual development, resulting from either excessive or inadequate gratification at that stage.
Psychosexual Stages
- Oral Stage
- Anal Stage
- Phallic Stage
- Latency Stage
- Genital Stage
Oral stage
In Freudian theory, the first stage of psychosexual development, during which the infant seeks sexual gratification through oral stimulation (sucking, mouthing, and biting). Spans the period of birth through about 12 to 18 months of age.
Anal stage
In Freudian theory, the second stage of psychosexual development, during which sexual gratification is centered on processes of elimination (retention and release of bowel contents). This stage lasts until about age 3
Phallic stage
In Freudian theory, the third stage of psychosexual development, marked by erotic attention on the phallic region (penis in boys, clitoris in girls) and the development of the Oedipus complex. Roughly spans the ages of 3 to 6.
anal-retentive personality
In Freudian theory, a personality type characterized by perfectionism and excessive needs for self-control as expressed through extreme neatness and punctuality
anal-expulsive personality
In Freudian theory, a personality type characterized by messiness, lack of self-discipline, and carelessness.
Castration anxiety
In Freudian theory, unconscious fear of removal of the penis as punishment for having unacceptable sexual impulses.
Latency stage
In Freudian theory, the fourth stage of psychosexual development, during which sexual impulses remain latent or dormant. Spanning the years between about 6 and 12.
Genital stage
In Freudian theory, the fifth and final stage of psychosexual development, which begins around puberty and corresponds to the development of mature sexuality and emphasis on procreation. Puberty to adulthood.
Carl Jung (Collective Unconsciousness
believed that people possess both a personal unconscious, which consists of repressed memories and impulses, and a collective unconscious, or repository of accumulated ideas and images in the unconscious mind that is shared among all humans and passed down genetically through the generations.
The collective unconscious
contains primitive images called archetypes that reflect ancestral or universal human experiences, including images such as an omniscient and all-powerful God, the young hero, and the fertile and nurturing mother figure.
Karen Horney (basic evil)
- accepted Freud’s belief that unconscious conflicts shape personality, but she focused less on sexual and aggressive drives and more on the roles of social and cultural forces.
- She also emphasized the importance of parent–child relation- ships.
believed, as did Freud, that children repress their hostility toward their parents out of fear of losing them or suffering their reprisals. Yet repressed hostility generates more anxiety and insecurity. - She argued that if women feel inferior, it is because they envy men their social power and authority, not their penises
- Horney even raised the possibility that men may experience “womb envy” over the obvious “physiological superiority” of women with respect to their biological capacity for creating and bringing life into the world.
Adler (inferiority complex):
- called his theory individual psychology because of its emphasis on the unique potential of each individual.
- He believed that conscious experience plays a greater role in our personalities than Freud had believed.
- The creative self is what he called the part of the personality that is aware of itself and organizes goal-seeking behavior.
- is perhaps best known for his concept of the inferiority complex.
- He believed that because of their small size and limited abilities, all children harbor feelings of inferiority to some degree. How they compensate for these feelings influences their emerging personalities.
- Feelings of inferiority lead to a desire to compensate, which Adler called the drive for superiority or will-to-power.
Trait
A relatively enduring personal characteristic
Five Factor Model
the dominant contemporary trait model of personality, consisting of five broad personality factors: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
FIVE TRAIT FACTORS
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Openness
Being curious, original, intellectual, and open to new ideas.
FIVE TRAIT FACTORS (OCEAN)
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Extraversion
Being outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoying social situations.
Agreeableness
Being affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind and warm.
Neuroticism
Being anxious, irritable, temperamental, and moody.
Reciprocal Determinism (Albert Bandura)
Bandura’s model in which cognitions, behaviors, and environmental factors influence and are influenced by each other
Humanistic Perspective
An approach that emphasizes personal growth, resilience, and the achievement of human potential
Carl Rogers
believed that each of us possesses an inner drive that leads us to strive toward self-actualization—toward realizing our own unique potentials.
Self-theory
Rogers’s model of personality, which focuses on the importance of the self.
Unconditional positive regard
Valuing another person as having intrinsic worth, regardless of the person’s behavior at the particular time.
Conditional positive regard
Valuing a person only when the person’s behavior meets certain expectations or standards
Personality tests
Structured psychological tests that use formal methods of assessing personality
Types of personality tests
- Objective
- Projective
Self report personality inventories
- set of questions to answer about themselves in the form of “yes–no,” “true–false,” or “agree–disagree” types of response formats.
- Self-report personality inventories are also called objective tests.
- The tests are objective in the sense that they can be scored objectively because the responses they require are limited to a few choices, such as true or false. They are also considered objective because they were constructed from evidence gathered from research studies.
objective tests
Tests of personality that can be scored objectively and that are based on a research foundation.
MMPI
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
- The MMPI was constructed to help clinicians diagnose mental disorders.
- Items are grouped on particular scales if they tend to be answered differently by particular diagnostic groups than by normal reference groups
- provides a wealth of information about a person’s interests, areas of concern, needs, and ways of relating to others, and assists therapists in making diagnoses of psychological or mental disorders. However, it should not be used by itself to make a diagnosis.
Projective tests
Personality tests in which ambiguous or vague test materials are used to elicit responses that are believed to reveal a person’s unconscious needs, drives, and motives
Thematic Apperception test (TAT)
- The test consists of a set of pictures depicting ambiguous scenes that may be interpreted differently. - The subject is asked to tell a story about the scene, what led up to these events, and what the eventual outcome will be.
- Murray believed that the stories people tell reveal aspects of their own personalities, or projections of their own psychological needs and conflicts into the events they describe.
Hans Eysenck
created a trait model that involved 3 major traits.
- Introversion- extroversion
- Neuroticism
- Psychoticism
Introversion- extroversion
- Tendencies toward being solitary and reserved on the one end or outgoing and sociable on the other end
- People who are introverted are solitary, reserved, and unsociable, whereas those who are extraverted are outgoing, talkative, cheerful, friendly, and people oriented.
Neuroticism
- Tendencies toward emotional instability, anxiety, and worry.
- People who are high on neuroticism, or emotional instability, tend to be tense, anxious, worrisome, restless, and moody. Those who are low on neuroticism tend to be relaxed, calm, stable, and even-tempered
Psychoticism
- Tendencies to be perceived as cold and antisocial.
- People who are high on psychoticism are perceived as cold, antisocial, hostile, and insensitive. Those who are low on psychoticism are described as warm, sensitive, and concerned about other
