Unit 2

Question 1

What is personality thought to be in regards to its stability over time?

Answer 1

long term and stable

Question 2

What are the five approaches to personality?

Answer 2

-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)

Question 3

What are the basic questions that underlie the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic personality approach?

Answer 3

-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)

Question 4

What is something to take note of when evaluating the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach?

Answer 4

-most of the scientific community only appreciates the most basic, fundamental contributions of the psychodynamic theory

Question 5

Who was Sigmund Freud?

Answer 5

-a medically trained neurologist who began receiving cases that lacked plausible clinical explanations

Question 6

What was Sigmund Freud’s relation to glove anesthesia?

Answer 6

-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

Question 7

What did Freud view dreams as?

Answer 7

gateway to the unconscious

Question 8

What is manifest content?

Answer 8

content we’re able to directly experience

Question 9

What is latent content?

Answer 9

the actual wishes and desires that are symbolically expressed through the manifest content (i.e. what you were really dreaming about)

Question 10

What are Freudian slips?

Answer 10

errors in speech that unwittingly reveal our true motives

Question 11

What is meant but the unconscious mind?

Answer 11

-the mind is mostly hidden

Question 12

What are the three parts if the mind that are constantly at war with each other?

Answer 12

-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)

Question 13

What are Freud’s psychosexual stages?

Answer 13

Question 14

What are erogenous zones?

Answer 14

distinct pleasure-sensitive areas of the body; Id’s psychic energy focused on a different zone during each stage

Question 15

What is fixation?

Answer 15

a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at a given psychosexual stage in which conflicts were unresolved

Question 16

What is the Oedipus Conflict and when does it occur?

Answer 16

-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

Question 17

Does the oedipus conflict only apply to boys?

Answer 17

Freud believed it did, but other theorists believed that girls experienced a parallel “Electra complex”

Question 18

What are the 7 Freudian Defense Mechanisms?

Answer 18

-Regression
-Reaction Formation
-Projection
-Rationalization
-Displacement
-Denial
-Sublimation

Question 19

What is the unconscious process behind regression?

Answer 19

-retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated

Question 20

What is the unconscious process behind reaction formation?

Answer 20

-switching unacceptable impulses to their opposites

Question 21

What is the unconscious process behind projection?

Answer 21

-disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Question 22

What is the unconscious process behind rationalization?

Answer 22

-offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions

Question 23

What is the unconscious process behind displacement?

Answer 23

-shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

Question 24

What is the unconscious process behind denial?

Answer 24

-refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities

Question 25

What is the unconscious process behind sublimation?

Answer 25

-modifying unacceptable impulses or urges so that they can be expressed in more socially appropriate ways

Question 26

Which of Freud's basic ideas do psychodynamic or (Neo-Freudian) theorists agree with?

Answer 26

-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

Question 27

Which of Freud's basic ideas do psychodynamic or (Neo-Freudian) theorists disagree with?

Answer 27

-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)

Question 28

What tests are used to assess unconscious processes and what do they do?

Answer 28

-projective tests -personality tests that purport to reveal a person's inner unconscious desires based on their responses to ambiguous stimuli

Question 29

What is an example of a projective test and what does it do?

Answer 29

-Rorschach inkblot test -they seek to identify people's inner feelings based on their interpretations of inkblots

Question 30

What can you tell about a person's personality based on projective tests?

Answer 30

-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

Question 31

What are the 6 major critiques the developmental psychologists, cognitive psychologists, sex researchers, and sleep researchers critique of Freud's ideas?

Answer 31

-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)

Question 32

What did the humanistic approach form in response to?

Answer 32

To Freudian psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach

Question 33

What are the three basic questions that underlie the humanistic approach?

Answer 33

-What am I feeling? -How do I see myself? -How can I achieve my full potential?

Question 34

What is Abraham Maslow most widely known for?

Answer 34

-developing the hierarchy of needs (stolen from indigenous peoples)

Question 35

What is self-actualization and where does it lie on the hierarchy of needs?

Answer 35

-the ultimate psychological need: entails realizing and maximizing one's full potential as a human being -at the top of the hierarchy of needs

Question 36

What is the ranking of Maslow's hierarchy of needs? (top to bottom)

Answer 36

1. self-actualization 2. aesthetic 3. cognitive 4. esteem 5. belonging 6. safety 7. physiological (satisfy going from the bottom up)

Question 37

Who was Carl Rogers and what did he believe in regards to everyone achieving their highest potential?

Answer 37

-a humanistic approach -given an environment that promotes personal growth, we can all achieve our highest potential

Question 38

What four things believed by Carl Rogers was needed for us to achieve our highest potential in a given environment?

Answer 38

-genuineness (being open and honest) -empathy (putting yourself in someone else's shoes) -acceptance (regarded by Rogers as "unconditional positive regard")

Question 39

What did Carl Rogers believe was the self-concept?

Answer 39

-all of our thoughts and feelings about ourselves (how can we be the best version of ourselves)

Question 40

What are the three multiple selves Carl Rogers believed we had and what are they?

Answer 40

-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)

Question 41

When did Carl Rogers believe we are content when these two types of our multiple selves align?

Answer 41

-when our ideal and actual/real selves align with one another

Question 42

What did Carl Rogers believe Person-centered therapy was?

Answer 42

-emphasizes a non-evaluative accepting atmosphere (being accepted by your therapist)