Unit 2 Flashcards
What is personality thought to be in regards to its stability over time?
long term and stable
What are the five approaches to personality?
-psychoanalytic (Freud’s original work)/psychodynamic (those who came after Freud)
-humanistic (how can we help people be their best selves)
-trait (how do we define people)
-social-cognitive (all about interactions)
-self-based (how we think about ourselves)
What are the basic questions that underlie the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic personality approach?
-What are the real motives that underlie behavior? (everyone does something for a reason)
-Why do people do things that are irrational or puzzling? (getting to the bottom of explaining why people do strange things)
-How much of what people do is subconsciously motivated? (outside of our awareness or control)
What is something to take note of when evaluating the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach?
-most of the scientific community only appreciates the most basic, fundamental contributions of the psychodynamic theory
Who was Sigmund Freud?
-a medically trained neurologist who began receiving cases that lacked plausible clinical explanations
What was Sigmund Freud’s relation to glove anesthesia?
-glove anesthesia - patients cannot feel completely below the wrist even though you would lose feeling on either your radial or ulnar side
-began talking to his patients and realized their symptoms would disappear once they revealed a personally traumatic event
-as a result he formulated an entire theory on human nature that suggests that personality is entirely determined by forced outside of one’s awareness or control
What did Freud view dreams as?
gateway to the unconscious
What is manifest content?
content we’re able to directly experience
What is latent content?
the actual wishes and desires that are symbolically expressed through the manifest content (i.e. what you were really dreaming about)
What are Freudian slips?
errors in speech that unwittingly reveal our true motives
What is meant but the unconscious mind?
-the mind is mostly hidden
What are the three parts if the mind that are constantly at war with each other?
-ego (mostly conscious makes peace between the id and the superego)
-id (unconscious energy our basic sexual and aggressive urges)
-superego (internalized ideals) mind’s moral compass and represents society’s morals that we have internalized (part of preconscious ming which is outside awareness but accessible)
What are Freud’s psychosexual stages?
What are erogenous zones?
distinct pleasure-sensitive areas of the body; Id’s psychic energy focused on a different zone during each stage
What is fixation?
a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at a given psychosexual stage in which conflicts were unresolved
What is the Oedipus Conflict and when does it occur?
-when a boy develops unconscious sexual desires for his mother and feelings of jealousy towards his father who is now his rival
-these feelings lead to castration anxiety
-they resolve these feelings by repressing them and identifying with the rival parent
-occurs during the phallic stage
Does the oedipus conflict only apply to boys?
Freud believed it did, but other theorists believed that girls experienced a parallel “Electra complex”
What are the 7 Freudian Defense Mechanisms?
-Regression
-Reaction Formation
-Projection
-Rationalization
-Displacement
-Denial
-Sublimation
What is the unconscious process behind regression?
-retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated
What is the unconscious process behind reaction formation?
-switching unacceptable impulses to their opposites
What is the unconscious process behind projection?
-disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
What is the unconscious process behind rationalization?
-offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions
What is the unconscious process behind displacement?
-shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person
What is the unconscious process behind denial?
-refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities
What is the unconscious process behind sublimation?
-modifying unacceptable impulses or urges so that they can be expressed in more socially appropriate ways
Which of Freud’s basic ideas do psychodynamic or (Neo-Freudian) theorists agree with?
-id, ego, superego
-importance of the unconscious
-childhood as a critical period of personality development (formative years)
-role of defense mechanisms in coping with anxiety
Which of Freud’s basic ideas do psychodynamic or (Neo-Freudian) theorists disagree with?
-emphasized loftier motives as opposed to sex and aggression
-more emphasis on the conscious mind (the ego and superego) in interpreting experience (also placed emphasis on how conscious mind interprets experience)
What tests are used to assess unconscious processes and what do they do?
-projective tests
-personality tests that purport to reveal a person’s inner unconscious desires based on their responses to ambiguous stimuli
What is an example of a projective test and what does it do?
-Rorschach inkblot test
-they seek to identify people’s inner feelings based on their interpretations of inkblots
What can you tell about a person’s personality based on projective tests?
-you cannot really tell a whole lot about someone based on these tests
-if a pattern of a consistent type of answer emerges around these tests then yes you could deduce something
-however if the responses are fairly random you cannot make too many conclusions about a person
What are the 6 major critiques the developmental psychologists, cognitive psychologists, sex researchers, and sleep researchers critique of Freud’s ideas?
-development is lifelong, not fixed in childhood
-infants’ brains can’t sustain Freudian levels of trauma (or else it would be picked up on a neurological brain scan structurally speaking)
-gender identity formed earlier in life than 5-6 years old
-“Freudian slips” don’t really reflect suppressed sexual desires
-suppressed sexuality doesn’t cause psychological disorders
-BIGGEST PROBLEM: His theory offers post-hoc explanations for behavior rather than predictive hypotheses of what might cause it (offering after the fact explanations for behavior rather than predicting what might happen next)
What did the humanistic approach form in response to?
To Freudian psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach
What are the three basic questions that underlie the humanistic approach?
-What am I feeling?
-How do I see myself?
-How can I achieve my full potential?
What is Abraham Maslow most widely known for?
-developing the hierarchy of needs (stolen from indigenous peoples)
What is self-actualization and where does it lie on the hierarchy of needs?
-the ultimate psychological need: entails realizing and maximizing one’s full potential as a human being
-at the top of the hierarchy of needs
What is the ranking of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? (top to bottom)
- self-actualization
- aesthetic
- cognitive
- esteem
- belonging
- safety
- physiological
(satisfy going from the bottom up)
Who was Carl Rogers and what did he believe in regards to everyone achieving their highest potential?
-a humanistic approach
-given an environment that promotes personal growth, we can all achieve our highest potential
What four things believed by Carl Rogers was needed for us to achieve our highest potential in a given environment?
-genuineness (being open and honest)
-empathy (putting yourself in someone else’s shoes)
-acceptance (regarded by Rogers as “unconditional positive regard”)
What did Carl Rogers believe was the self-concept?
-all of our thoughts and feelings about ourselves (how can we be the best version of ourselves)
What are the three multiple selves Carl Rogers believed we had and what are they?
-ideal (your vision of who you want to be)
-ought (who you believe you out to be through society’s cues)
-actual/real (who you are right now)
When did Carl Rogers believe we are content when these two types of our multiple selves align?
-when our ideal and actual/real selves align with one another
What did Carl Rogers believe Person-centered therapy was?
-emphasizes a non-evaluative accepting atmosphere (being accepted by your therapist)
