Unit 4- Personality Flashcards
personality
an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
psychoanalytic theory
Freud; proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality.
humanistic theories
focused on our inner capacities for growth and self-fufillment
trait theories
examine characteristic patterns of behavior (traits)
social-cognitive theories
explore the interaction between people’s traits (Including their thinking) and their social context.
psychodynamic theories
Alder, Horney, Jung; theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences
psychoanalysis
Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.
Freud’s therapeutic technique. He believed the patients free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences- and the analyst’s interpretations of them- released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.
Freudian slip
“slips of the tongue” where unconscious desires sneak out in speaking
unconscious
according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.
according to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.
free association
in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrasing.
we store some of the unconscious thoughts temporarily in…
how does this relate to the iceburg
a preconscious area/subconscious mind
can hide or reveal waterline of iceburg
3 parts of personality
Id: unconscious energy, instinct, aggressive and sexual drives
“pleasure principle”
ego: mostly conscious, mediator, compromises between id and superego
superego: internalized ideals, conscience, gives you pride or guilt
shoulds and should nots of society
defense mechanisms
in psychoanalysic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
NeoFreudians
Alder, Horney, Jung
emphasized the conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience and coping with the environment, and doubted that sex and aggression were all-consuming motivations. emphasized lofiter motices and social interactions instead.
Alder
believed that much of our behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood inferiority feelings that trigger out strivings for superiority and power.
Horney
said childhood anxiety triggers our desire for love and security. She also opposed Freud’s assumptions that women have weak superegos and suffer “penis envy”, and she attempted to balance his masculine bias
Jung
placed less emphasis on social factors and agreed with Freud that the unconscious exerts a powerful influence. But to Jung, the unconscious contains more than our repressed thoughts and feelings. He believed we also have a
collective unconscious: concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history. explains why spiritua concerns are deeply rooted and why people in different cultures share certain myths and images.
research supports two of Freud’s defense mechanisms…
reaction formation
projection (now called false consensus effect)
terror-management theory
a theory of death-related anxiety and explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
projective test
a personality test, such as the TAT or Rorshach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics and explore the preconscious and unsonscious mind.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Rorschach inkblot test
a projective tests that seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing how they interpret 10 ink blots.
humanistic theorists
theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth
hierarchy of needs
maslow’s levels of human needs, beginning at the base with psysiological needs. often visualized as a pyramid, with needs nearer the base taking priority until they are satisfied.
self-actualization
according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs thatarises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved: the motivation to fufill one’s potential
self-transcendence
according to Maslow, the striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self.
person-centered perspective
Rogers, people are basically good and are endowed with self-actualizing tendencies.
life-story approach
collecting a narrative detailing each person’s unique life story
traits
a characteristic patterns of behavior or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as addressed by self-report inventories and peer reports
factor analysis
a statistical procedure that identifies clusters (factors) of test items that tap basic components of a trait
two-dimensional theory of personality/personality questionnaire
Eysenck(s) believed that we can reduce many of our normal individual variations to two dimensions: extraversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability
personality inventories
a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range or feelings and behaviors: used to assess selected personality traits
minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (mmpi)
the most widely researches and clinically used of all personality tests. originally developed to identify emotional disorders
empirically derived
a test (such as the mmpi) created by selecting from a pool of items, those that discriminate between groups.
person-situation controversy
look for genuine personality traits that persist over time and across situations
personality traits are ___ over time
stable
trait-consistent actions
people’s average outgoingness, happiness, or carelessness over many situations is predictable.
learned helplessness
hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated bad events.
ex) dog being shocked
internal locus of control
we control our fate
external locus of control
outside of my control
social-cognitive perspective
Bandura-
a view of behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits and their social context
behavioral approach
focuses on the effects of learning on our personality development
reciprocal determinism
the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.
behavior emerges from the interplay of external and internal influences
person- psychoanalytic
Freud
person- humanistic
Maslow and Rogers
person- social-cognitive
Bandura
person- psychodynamic
Alder, Horney, Jung
person- trait
Allport, Eyesenck(s)
5-factor theory: McCrae and Costa
self
assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions
possible selves
your possible selves include your visions of the self you dream of becoming, and also the self you fear becoming.
spotlight effect
overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performing, and blunders
self-esteem
our feelings of high or low self-esteem
self-efficacy
our sense of competence and effectiveness
Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations or tasks, rather than a general belief in one’s abilities.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
a cognitive bias where individuals with low competence in a specific area tend to overestimate their abilities, while those with high competence often underestimate their skills.
self-serving bias
a readiness to precieve ourselves favorably
group-serving bias
“my group is better” nazis
narcissism
excessive self-love and self-absorption
defensive self-esteem
fragile, focuses on sustaining itself, which makes failure and criticism feel threatening.
secure self-esteem
less fragile, because it is less contingent on external evaulations. feeling accepted for who we are, and not for our looks, wealth, or acclaim, relieves pressures to succeed and enables us to focus beyond ourselves.
