Unit 7 - Personality Flashcards
personality
unique way in which each individual thinks, acts, and feels throughout life
character
value judgements made about a person’s morals or ethical behavior
temperament
enduring characteristics with which each person is born, such as irritability or adaptability
psychodynamic perspective
Freud; focuses on role of unconscious mind in the development of personality; heavily focuses on biological causes of personality differences
behaviorist perspective
based on theories of learning; focuses on effect of environment on behavior and includes aspects of social cognitive theory in that interactions with others and personal thought processes also influence learning and personality
humanistic perspective
reaction against psychoanalytic and behaviorist perspectives; focuses on the role of each person’s conscious life experiences and choices in personality development
trait perspective
concerned with the end result (opposite of other perspectives)
Freud’s 3 parts of the mind
preconscious
conscious
unconscious (most important)
Freud’s 3 parts of personality
id
ego
superego
id
nature, biological drives/desires; completely unconscious; pleasure principle
ego
peacemaker between id and superego; reality principle; conscious and unconscious
superego
nurture, rules, society; morality principle; both conscious and unconscious
pleasure principle
desire for immediate gratification of needs with no regard for the consequences
reality principle
need to satisfy the demands of the id only in ways that won’t lead to negative consequences
conscience
part of personality that makes people feel guilt/moral anxiety when they do the wrong thing
psychosexual stages
at each stage a different erogenous zone becomes important and can become the source of conflicts
fixation
getting stuck to some degree in a stage of development
oral stage
birth to 18 months
mouth
weaning
fixation –> dependent, optimistic, gullible, passive
–> aggressive, pessimistic, sarcastic, hostile
oral stage
birth to 18 months
mouth
weaning
fixation –> overindulged: dependent, optimistic, gullible, passive
–> underindulged: aggressive, pessimistic, sarcastic, hostile
phallic stage
3 to 6 years
genitals
oedipus/electra complexes: gender roles due to copying same-sex parent
fixation –> boys: reckless, overly self-assured, vain, proud, guilty, relationship problems, homosexual
–> girls: feel inferior to men
phallic stage
3 to 6 years
genitals
oedipus/electra complexes: gender roles due to copying same-sex parent
castration anxiety
penis envy
fixation –> boys: reckless, overly self-assured, vain, proud, guilty, relationship problems, homosexual
–> girls: feel inferior to men
genital stage
puberty on
genital
goal is to find a significant other –> if can’t find one then have fixation somewhere
castration anxiety
boys develop fear of losing penis
penis envy
girls want penis
Carl Jung
neo-Freudian
believed collective unconscious contained memories of ancient fears
Alfred Alder
neo-Freudian
believed that driving force of humans was seeking superiority
Karen Horney
neo-Freudian
womb envy (men feel need to compensate for lack of child-bearing ability by striving for success in other areas)
basic anxiety
Erik Erikson
emphasized social relationships that are important at every stage of life (8 psychological stages)
pros and cons of Freud’s ideas
pros: - focuses on childhood experience impact cons: - confirmation bias - no experiments - limited group of clients (sample bias) - overly sexual
behaviorists
researchers who use principles of conditioning to explain actions and reactions of animals and humans
social cognitive theorists
researchers who emphasize influence of social and cognitive factors on learning
habits
set of learned experiences
social cognitive view
behavior’s governed not only by influence of external stimuli/response patterns but also by cognitive processes such as anticipating, judging, memory, and learning through imitation of models
Bandura’s 3 factors affecting personality
environment
behavior
personal/cognitive factors
reciprocal determination
3 factors of environment, behavior, and personal/cognitive factors affect the other 2 in a reciprocal relationship
self-efficacy
a person’s expectancy of how effective his/her efforts to accomplish a goal will be in any particular circumstance
self-esteem
the positive values a person places on his/her sense of worth
Julian Rotter
viewed personality as relatively stable set of potential responses to various situations
locus of control
believed expectancy and reinforcement value influenced a person’s decision to act in a certain way given a particular situation
locus of control
tendency for people to assume that they either have control or don’t have control over events and consequences in their lives
internal - you have control
external - you don’t have control
expectancy
refers to person’s subjective feeling that a particular behavior will lead to a reinforcing consequence
reinforcement value
refers to individual’s preference for a particular reinforcer over all other possible reinforcing consequences
self-actualizing tendency
human beings are always striving to fulfill their innate capacities and capabilities to become everything that their genetic potential will allow them to become
self-concept
development of an image of oneself
made up of:
- real self –> one’s actual perception of characteristics and traits and abilities that form the basis of the striving for self-actualization
- ideal self –> the perception of what one should be or would like to be
Carl Rogers
believed in self-actualizing tendency
self-concept congruence
ideal self and real self match = harmony
self-concept incongruence
ideal self and real self don’t match = anxiety
positive regard
warmth, affection, love, and respect that come from the significant others in people’s experiences
unconditional positive regard
love, affection, and respect with no strings attached
conditional positive regard
love, affection, respect, and warmth that depend (or seem to) on doing what those people want
fully functioning person
a person who’s in the process of self-actualizing,
fully functioning person
a person who’s in the process of self-actualizing, actively exploring potentials, abilities, and experiencing a match between the real and ideal selves
trait theories
concerned with describing personality and predicting behavior based on description of explanation for personality development and changing personality
trait
consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving
Gordon Allport
believed in 200 traits
trait hierarchy
Raymond Cattell
2 types of traits:
- surface traits –> represent personality characteristics seen by other people
- source traits –> basic traits that underlie surface traits
16 source traits (16PF)
used factor analysis
Robert McCrae + Paul Costa
created 5 factor model/big 5
big five/five factor model
Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neurocitism
Openness
how you respond to new experiences
Conscientiousness
how you focus on work/goals
Extraversion
how you tolerate sensory stimuli
Agreeableness
how you defer to others
Neuroticism
how you respond to stress
Walter Mischel
created trait-situation interaction
trait-situation interaction
particular circumstances of any given situation are assumed to influence the way in which a trait is expressed
heritability
how much some trait within a population can be attributed to genetic influences and the extent individual genetic variation impacts differences in observed behavior
Geert Hofstede’s 4 dimensions of cultural personality
individualism/collectivism
power distance
masculinity/femininity
uncertainty avoidance
Hans Eysenk
extroversion, emotionally
interview
therapists ask questions and note down answers in survey process; unstructured and flows naturally from beginning dialogue between client and psychologist
halo effect
tendency to remember favorable/unfavorable impression of someone at first meeting so all person’s comments and behavior after are interpreted to agree with the impression
projective tests
show client ambiguous visual stimuli and ask clients to tell them what they see; hope is that client projects unconscious concerns onto visual stimulus
e.g. rorschach inkblot, TAT, etc.
behavioral assessments
direct observation, rating scale, frequency count
direct observation
psychologist observes client engaging in ordinary/everyday behavior in natural settings
rating scale
numerical rating is assigned for specific behaviors
frequency count
assessor counts frequency of behaviors within time limit
personality inventory/objective test
questionnaire that has standard list of questions and only requires certain specific answers
e.g. 16PF, MMPI, Myers-Briggs, etc.
validity scales
intended to indicate whether or not a person taking the inventory is responding honestly
compensation
emphasizing personal strengths in one area to shift focus from failure in another area
denial
refusing to accept an obvious situation because of the emotional pain it causes
displacement
taking out one’s anger or frustration on a person or object that is not the cause of the offense
identification
associating with people or groups that are of higher status in order to increase your own status
intellectualization
describing painful or emotional personal events in abstract academic or philosophical terms
Projection
casting the feelings you have onto another person; blaming another person for the feelings you have
Rationalization
making logical excuses for illogical or unacceptable behavior
Reaction Formation
replacing feelings that are socially or personally unacceptable with opposing emotions that are acceptable
Regression
reverting to childlike behavior to get the attention you got when you were younger or to get your way
Repression
unconsciously forgetting information that is too painful to recall
Sublimation
using acceptable activities such as exercise as a substitute for sexual energies
Passive Aggressiveness
“unassertive” expression of negative sentiments
barnum effect
if you give someone a description that is a little positive and you tell them it was made specifically for them, they will believe it
