Understanding Personality, The Self, SOGIE 101 Flashcards
Best asset, helps shape life, can limit or expand to your options and choices in life
Personality
Personality sums up everything about yourself - your:
Likes and dislikes, fears and virtues, strengths and weaknesses
Latin word of personality which refers to a mask used by actors in a play
Persona
Persona came to refer to __________
Outward appearance
Assume that personality is relatively stable and predictable
Enduring characteristics
May also include the idea of human uniqueness
Unique characteristics
Refers to a person’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions
Personality
Personality is an interaction between _____ and _____
Biology, environment
Suggested by genetic studies
Heritability of personality
Suggested by other studies
Components of personality
Limited the experimental method, studied only those mental processes that might be affected by some external stimulus that could be manipulated and controlled by the experimenter
Wilhelm Wundt and the Study of Consciousness
To focus on the tangible aspects of human nature; mechanistic picture of human being
John B. Watson and the Study of Behavior
Psychoanalysis, neopsychoanalysts, criticism
Sigmund Freud and the Study of the Unconscious
Interpretation to what patients told him about their feelings and past experiences, both actual and fantasized
Psychoanalysis
Focused on the whole person as he or she functions in the real world, not on elements of behavior of stimulus-response units
Neopsychoanalysts
Were speculative in work, relying more on inferences based on observations of their patients’ behavior than on the quantitative analysis
Criticism
Approaches in the study of personality formalized and systematized by Gordon Allport
Life-span approach, trait approach, humanistic approach, cognitive approach
Argues that personality continues to develop throughout the course of our life
Life-span approach
Contends that much of our personality is inherited
Trait approach
Emphasizes human strengths, virtues, aspirations, and the fulfillment of our potential
Humanistic approach
Deals with conscious mental activities
Cognitive approach
First comprehensive theory of personality
Psychoanalytic perspective
Founded the Psychodynamic Theory
Signmund Freud
Techniques used in psychoanalytic perspective:
Hypnosis, catharsis, dream-analysis, free-association, parapraxes
Everything we do and say, even by accident, has hidden meaning
Freudian slips or parapraxes
View personality as being primarily unconscious; emphasize that early experiences with parents play an important role in sculpting the individual’s personality
Psychodynamic perspective
Assumes that people can be compelled to do things without knowing the reason for their actions
Unconscious motivation
Unconscious motivation explains:
Nonverbal expressions, dreams, Freudian slips
It is unconscious and has no contact with reality; referred to by Freud as the true psychic reality; the original system of the personality; provides drive and direction of behavior
Id
Means sexual
Eros
Means death or aggression
Thantos
Principle that always seeks pleasure and avoids pain
Pleasure principle
The structure that deals with the demands of reality; abides by the reality principle; partly conscious
Ego
Ego houses higher mental functions:
Reasoning, problem solving, decision making
Moral branch of our personality; often referred as our “conscience”; represents the ideal rather than the reality
Superego
The development of an individual revolves around _________
Psychosexual concerns
The psychoanalytic defense mechanism that occurs when the individual remains locked in an earlier developmental stage
Fixation
Freud believed that we go through _____ stages of personality development.
5
Are parts of the body that have especially strong pleasure-giving qualities at particular stages of development
Erogenous zones
Different parts of the body are used to fuel the id with pleasure; hence, energy source = _____
Libido
Birth to 1 1/2 years; gratification is gained by oral stimulation (breastfeeding)
Oral stage
1 1/2 to 3 years old; pleasure is gained by being able to control feces (potty-training)
Anal stage
3 to 6 years; oedipus complex for boys and electra complex for girls = awakening of sexuality
Phallic stage
When a male child wants to kill his father so he can have sex with his mother
Oedipus complex
Girls are jealous of their father because they don’t have a penis.
Electra complex
6 to 12 yo; pleasure is gained through same-sex peer friendships
Latency stage
12 + yo; pleasure is gained through sexual intercourse with non-relatives
Genital stage
Examples are nail biters, gum chewers, smokers, etc.; overly optimistic, dependent, and passive
Oral fixation
Excessive need for order, control, and neatness (modern day OCD)
Anal retentive
Emotionally volatile, unstable, spiteful and vindictive
Anal expulsive
Neo-Freudian of individual psychology
Alfred Adler
Neo-Freudian of analytical/depth psychology
Carl Jung
Neo-Freudian of feminine psychology
Karen Horney
“Healthy” rather than “Sick”; focused on uniquely human issues such as: the self, health, hope, love, creativity, nature, and individuality
Humanistic perspective
A strong belief in free will and conscious rational decision-making
Existentialism
Wrote his first book Counseling and Psychotherapy in 1942
Carl Rogers
People are basically good with actualizing tendencies; genuineness, acceptance, empathy
Roger’s Person-centered perspective
Central feature of personality
Self concept
Proposed the Self-actualization principle
Abraham Maslow
The process of fulfilling our potential
Self-Actualization (The Apex of the Hierarchy of Needs)
Considers the apparent stability and consistency of personality; basic personality dimensions
The Trait Approach: The Genetics of Personality
The building blocks of personality, or dispositions
Traits
Distinguished four types of people: happy, unhappy, temperamental, and apathetic
Hippocrates
A distinguishable personal characteristic or quality
Trait
The body types and personality characteristics
Somatotype Theory by William Sheldon
The dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine characteristic behavior and thought
Personality
Growth is organized, not random
Dynamic organization
Personality is composed of mind and body functioning together as a unit
Psychophysical
Everything we think and do is characteristic, or typical, of us; unique
Characteristic behavior and thought
Provides the personality with raw materials (physique, intelligence, temperament)
Heredity
Responsible for the major portion of our uniqueness
Genetic background
Personality traits:
are real and exist within each of us, determine or cause behavior, can be demonstrated empirically, are interrelated, vary with the situation
Traits unique to a person and define his or her character
Individual traits (personal dispositions)
Shared by a number of people
Common traits