Week 1 Flashcards
Describe the trait approach to personality
Stable inner qualities
Continuions dimensions if variability
The same for everyone
Nomothetic (defined by science)
Describe the Type approach to personality
Discontinuous categories in personality
Idiographic (emphases the uniqueness rather than a continuions and broadly applicable model ie trait)
What is factor analysis
An analysis of relationships between interconnected variables that reveals deeper substructures which explain the relationship
Reduces dimensionality (5 observable traits to 2 unobserved factors)
Tests theories
Ie: low conscientious and high neuroticism = poor outcomes in relationships
What is a Shared Factor and Variant Commonality in Factor Analysis
A Shared Factor explains correlations between observed variables to unobserved factors.
Ie: FA finds a relationship between depression and insomnia. FA finds a correlation of 45%. Further analysis of insomnia in the community finds 55% of insomnia which is not correlated with depression and so is a Unique Factor
What are the 5 Factors
Even Apes Can Eat Oreos
- Extraversion
- agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
- Emotionality
- Openness
Situationism
A theory that behaviour is a response to situations not inherent traits
Disproven
Interactionism
That circumstances and personality interact in certain ways to determine behaviour
According to Gordon Allport, What is personality
A dynamic organisation of internal psychophysical systems
It has processes - it is not static
Is a psychological concept but it is tied to the body
Causal force to determine how the person will relate in the world
Personality shows up in patterns and consistencies
Is displayed in a multitude of ways
Intrapersonal functioning
The dynamic and unique processes that go to make up a persons personality. Different organisations of different factors functioning at different times.
Motive perspective
That motives are a causal force for behaviour
Differences in the core motivations explains differences in personality in this model
Inheritance and Evolution perspective
Dispositions are inherited
Emphasis on genes/biology in personality
Traits have evolved over time as they have served a function in survival
Biological process perspective
That hormones and the nervous system interact to create causal factors for behaviour.
Differences in biological systems define different behaviour (Alex Honnold has very low amygdala function - low fear response)
Psychoanalytic perspective
That there are forces and conflits in the psyche which are causal factors for behaviour (Freud - I want mummy’s teet so I am angry at women who feed their children in public)
Psychosocial perspective
That interactions with other people are a causal force for personality
Evolved from psychoanalytic theory, often called neoanalytic)
Learning perspective
That experience is a causal factor for behaviour.
A person’s personality is the result of learnings to that point
Self-actualisation / self-determination perspective (also known as organismic perspective
That each person has a potential to grow into a valuable human being if provided the environment to do so (Maslow)
People can move themselves in that direction through freewill if provided the environment to do so.
Personality is that uniqueness expressing itself
Cognitive perspective
Personality is defined by deriving meaning from experiences.
Explores the cognitive function in construing meaning.
Self-regulation perpective
People are complex psychological systems seeking homeostasis. Personality is the expression of these systems seeking to attain homeostasis.
What are the 10 personality perspectives? Pope Cameron Sexted Stacey Entirely/Inappropriate Lecherous Pictures Behind the Monastery Tower
1 Psychoanalytic
2 cognitive
3 self-regulation
4 self-determination
5 evolutionary / inheritance
6 learning
7 psychosocial
8 biological
9 motive
10 trait
Pope Cameron Sexted Stacey Entirely/inappropriate Lecherous Pictures Behind the Monastery Tower
What is needed for good theory
Parsimony (simplicity)
What theme important for personality psychology does George Allport (1961) call “dynamic organisation”
Intrapersonal functioning
Who suggested the theory of personology?
Henry Murray 1938
A long in-depth observation of a person as a form of research
Case study
A form of personality data gathering where a subject is prompted to record their internal thoughts/experiences
Experience sampling, diary studies
A research method that focuses on a person’s uniqueness?
Idiographic
What is the difference between clinical significance and statistical significance
Clinical - the affect accounts for changed behaviour
Statistical - there is a less than 5% chance the correlation would have occurred randomly
Which theorist used factor analysis to determine the major traits used today?
Raymond Cattell
Who proposed the two super traits
Extraversion - Introversion
Emotionality - stability
Hans Eysenck
In the dimensional approach to trait theory, are measurements qualitative or quantitative
Quantitive - how much of a trait do you have
What is the difference between a continuous and discontinuous model of personality
Continuous - Quantitive - how much of a certain train do you have. Two ends of the spectrum with different traits eg extroverted/ introverted
Discontinuous - seperate, essential traits that cannot overlap - extrovert OR introvert
In factor loadings, what would a 0.73 mean?
That there is a strong relationship between the question and the factor.
Once you have completed a Correlational Matrix, what is the name given to the categories of correlations used to simplify the model?
Factor loadings
When psychologists try to determine the personality traits that exists by assessing language?
Lexical criterion
What are Eysenck’s levels of personality hierarchy?
1 supertrait
2 trait
3 habit/habitual response
4 specific stimulus response
What is Jerry Woggins’ theoretical approach to personality?
Interpersonal circle
What is the vertical dimension of Wiggins’ interpersonal circle?
Assured - Dominant
Unassured - Submissive
What is the horizontal dimension of Wiggins’ interpersonal circle?
Love
Cold hearted — warm-agreeable
A study in 2009 suggested that imaginative processes and logic are processed in different parts of the brain - what did this mean for one of the BIG 5?
That Openness to experience may be referring to something other than intellect
Who made this definition of NEEE: need is an internal state that is less than satisfactory, a lack of something necessary for well-being
Henry Murray 1938
Who said? Motives are clusters of cognitions with affective overtones organised around preferred experiences and goals
David McClelland 1984
What distinguishes a need from a motive?
A motive has a subjective experience
Eg
NEED for food/ hunger MOTIVE
NEED for sex/ horniness MOTIVE
NEED for affiliation/loneliness MOTIVE
What did Murray (1938) name the external stimuli that affect motive strength
Press
Who created the TAT?
Murray and Morgan 1935
When you project your motives into a fantasy?
Apperception
When you attach a narrative to an image, and that narrative is analysed for patterns that may suggest underlying motives?
TAT - Thematic Apperception Test
In motive study - what did McClelland discover about deprivation?
Deprivation is not the only way to create a stronger motive for an object or experience. Increased experienced may indicate the importance/relevance of the motive
What is the broader name for the testing occurring in the TAT?
Picture story exercise
In McClelland and Atkinson’s study of the need for achievement - who would be more likely to choose an extremely difficult task?
People with low need for achievement- the cost of failure is lower so they may as well try.
What style of questions would a person with a high need for a achievement want to answer?
Moderate level questions - McClelland and Atkinson found that people with high need for achievement worked harder on moderate level questions
Who tested the types of problems people with various levels of achievement would be attracted to answering? And what is the theory behind the choice of people with a high need for achievement?
Trope (1975)
People with high need for achievement may chose questions of moderate difficulty because it provides useful feedback about their ability, which an easy or very hard question would not do
In Elder and Maclnnis’ 1983 study, what did they find about how need for achievement manifested in women?
Achievement was measured by how they saw themselves in the world. Mother/carrer/etc.
More diverse than men
David Winter (1974) studied what?
Motive - need for power
What happens to estradiol levels in women with high power motivation post-win? What veritable mitigates the effect?
Similar to testosterone in men with high need for power, estradiol increases after a win in women with high need for power.
This effect is lower if they are taking oral contraceptives
What variable affects the pro-social effects of Need for Power
Levels of responsibility-
high responsibility + NFP = conscientious
Low responsibility + NFP = anti social behaviour
In the list of needs in the Motive Theory, What two are closely related?
Studied by Dan McAdams
Need for intimacy
Need for affiliation
What Need does the need for intimacy not co-function well with?
Need for power - people high in both are often poorly adjusted
What is a the hybrid need called combining low need for affiliation and high need for power?
Inhibited power motivation
Which combination of traits (hybrid trait) is associated with going to war?
Low agreeableness, high Need for power
Inhibited power motivation
What did McClelland say was the difference between need and incentive
Need strength related to the long-term frequencies of need-relevant actions of any type
Incentive values…relate to choices within that domain of action
I.e a need for power may be found in the home or workplace.
What happens to cortisol levels in people with low need for power after success?
Cortisol (stress) levels increase.
According to McAdams and Constanian, what level of correlation is there between need for affiliation and need for intimacy
0.58
Why did the PSE test not correlate well with self report tests?
Because there are two types of motives:
Implicit motives - which are unconscious and captured by PSE
And self-reported (explicit) motives - which are what people project about themselves
In Woike’s study (1995) reporting experiences over 60 days, what did strength of implicit motives (PSE) correlate with? What did the self repot motive correlate with?
Reports of feelings that correlate with the implicit motive
Stories of motive-related events.
Endomorphy
Mésomorphy
Ectomorphy
- plump - soft and round
- muscular - rectangular
- think - delicate - frail
Who used the categories of Endo, Mésom, and Ectomorphy to create a theory of personality?
W H Sheldon 1942
Who created the term “temperament” in 1984 to refer to inherited personality trait present at birth?
Arnold Buss & Robert Plomin
Which 3 temperaments did Arnold Buss and Robert Plomin identify in their studies?
Activity level
Sociability
Emotionality
What did Mary Rothbart argue for in the late 90s?
That temperament was best thought of along the dimensions of approach rewards and avoid threats
What is the name of the “3rd” temperament?
Effortful control
Is there evidence the big 5 are heritable?
Yes, consistent evidence of heritability
Which temperaments do Extraversion and Neuroticism pair with?
Approach temperament
Avoidance temperament
When there are differences in monoZ twins due to different experiences?
Non-shared environment effect
What are the different patterns of DNA called?
Alleles
What is the existence of a difference in DNA at an Allele called?
Polymorphism
What is it called when different people have the same allele patters?
Genotype
What is the difference between Quantitive Genetics and Molecular Genetics?
QG- twin studies, trying to establish heritability based on variation in behaviour independent of shared environment
MG- the study of location of a particular gene and associated mesurable differences
What is Candidate Gene Strategy in the Molecular Genetic study of personality?
The identification of a series of genes for investigation based on the assumed relationship with biological functions which have an assumed relationship with personality
Why are Candidate Gene Studies being rejected in favour of other research methods? What research method is being favoured?
Single genes are seldom responsible for a behaviour. More often, it is multiple genes that have an affect.
Researching single genes has been shown to produce false positives.
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in which the entire genome is studied for patterns is now favoured.
What is GxE?
Gene x environment
A formulation of how genes and environment interact differently
What is methylation?
The attachment of methyl chemicals to the promoter region (the ON switch)
More methylation means LESS gene expression.
Methylation gums up the ON switch.
What term is given to the shift of gene expression due to environment? Ie methylation?
Epigenetics
Evolution in which one extreme of a dimension is more adaptive than the other
Directional selection
What theory of evolution maintains genetic variability?
Stabilising selection
Stebelising selection
When behaviours are selected that are more moderate
What is the term given for the evolutionary imputes to select for the gene pool and not the individual?
Inclusive fitness
What was Rushton known for?
Genetic similarity theory
When people select their mates based on particular characteristics (often suggesting genetic similarity) is called?
Assortative mating
Ego work on which principle?
Reality principle
Id works on which principle?
Pleasure principle
What process does the ID use?
Primary-process (primitive and seperate from reality)
What process does the Ego use?
Secondary-process (reality principle)
Adaptive to reality
What are the two facets of the Superego?
Ego ideal - moral perfection
Conscience - behaviours that are considered bad
Which of Freud’s topographical facets manages the others?
Ego - once the Superego develops, the Ego manages the ID, superego and reality
What are the two instincts of the ID
Life instincts - sexual pleasure and self-preservation
Death instincts - self-destructive often agressive
What are the differences between reality anxiety, Neurotic Anxiety and Moral anxiety?
Reality - fear of a threat in the world
neurotic - fear the impulses of the ID will get out of control
moral anxiety - fear of violating the superego’s moral code
What are the classic defence mechanisms? RPRIDS
Repression - forcing Id instincts out of consciousness
Projection - attributing an unacceptable impulse to someone else
Rationalisation- developing a rational but incorrect explanation for your action
Intellectualisation - separating thoughts and feeling, only allowing thoughts into consciousness
Displacement - shifting an impulse from one target to another (usually a safer one)
Sublimation - transforming an unacceptable impulse into an acceptable one
What are the psychosexual stages and their anxieties?
Oral - weaning
Anal - toilet training
Phallic - Oedipal and Electra - sexual attraction to parent
Latent - no anxiety
genital - sexuality shifts from selfish narcissism to mutual sharing
What did Freud call memory?
Preconscious
According to Freud, what principle, and system govern the need for food and sex
Pleasure principle.
ID - structural model
What would the Freud’s Primary Process create in response to being hungry?
An image of food
In Freud’s Primary Process, an image is created in the mind to satisfy a need, say, a BBC, what it the term for this image?
Wish fulfilment
Which of Freud’s system navigates reality and the primarily desires?
The reality principle - EGO
When the ego works to control the impulses of the ID and find an appropriate object/circumstance to meet the need in accordance with social/reality demands?
Secondary Process
What is the process of internalising the desires of parents, society in the development of the superego
Introjection
What are the two facets of the superego?
Ego Ideal - best possible performace - the things your strive for
Conscience - what your parents/society would punish - the things you avoid
What is the second and important function of the superego?
To force the ego to act morally, not rationally
What is the term used to describe the ego’s ability to manage conflicting impulses from the Id and superego
Ego strength
What model of motives describes the building up of a need, such as thirst, until it must be met?
Hydraulic
What is the name for one of the two drives which combines life and sexual instincts?
Eros
What is Thanatos?
Death drive - we all want to return to death - Freud
What is the biological correlate for Thanatos?
The gene-directed suicide process called apoptosis.
Designed to kill cancer cells, skin cells etc
In Freud’s theory of defence mechanisms, X deals with threat from within the mind
Y deals with threat form external circumstances
Repression
Denial
Which if Freud’s defence mechanisms is applied here:
You didn’t get a part in a movie and felt a sense of failure
You say to yourself “the acting world is so superficial. It’s not for me…”
Rationalisation
Which defence mechanism?
A person is diagnosed with cancer and they focus all of their attention on new research and possible cures
Intellectualisation
Which defence mechanism?
Sarah Silverman: “you just need to refocus the addiction… there is this cheese…”
Displacement
Which defence mechanism:
The psychopath become a surgeon
The colonialist becomes a psychologist
Sublimation
What happens when a child doesn’t overcome the conflict of some of the psychosexual stages?
Thé become fixated with the corresponding erogenous zone
During the Oedipal stage, the fear of the father’s retaliation is called?
Castration Anxiety
What do girls and boys do in response to either castration anxiety or penis envy?
Identification with the person they fear (father for boys, mother for girls)
To display behaviours that will be inline with the threatening person
What is the “plot” of the dream?
What is the “meaning” of the dream?
Manifest Content
Latent Content
What did John Exner produce?
The most used Rorschach test assessment
Part of the Neoanalyitic group, Robert white proposed the Efectance Motivation - what part of Freud’s model did this address, and what was the motive it adresses?
Ego
Motive to have an effect on your surroundings
Robert White’s Effectance Motive evolves into _________ motive after early childhood. It represents a desire not only to have an impact, but to be______?
A. Competence
B. Effectual
Alfred Alder (another ego psychologist) thought there was a push and pull between feelings of _______ and ______. This struggle created the Great _____ ______
A.inferiority
B. Superiority
C. Great upward drive
According to Block & Block, what is ego control and ego resiliency
Ego control - either under control/over control
Ego resiliency - the ability to shift levels of control depending on the situation
According to Margret Mahler - and object relation theorists - what is the period called when the child is fused with the mother
Symbiosis
According to Mahler - the object relation theorist - what is the period called when the child begins to draw distinction between their own body and their mother’s?
Separation-individuation
In Mahler’s object relation theory, what happens if the mother does not provide enough attention during the separation-individuation phase?
Separation anxiety
Object relation - the establishing of a schéma of relation with another person - occurs with the mother at what age?
Approx. 3 yo
An object relation theorist - Heinz Kohut - developed which theory which posits that the self is developed by relationships with others?
Self Psychology
Kohut - the object relation neoanalyist - thinks that a person thinks about an object in narcissistic terms, particularly children who are made to feel like they are the centre of the universe. What is the term given to the object in this theory?
Selfobject
How does object relation theory differ from Freuds theory of impulses?
That people are primarily motivated by need to relate to others - not satisfaction of sexual drives
What need does Kohut’s Mirroring satisfy in the child
The child’s narcissistic need - it makes the child temporarily the centre of the universe
In object relation theory, what is Transference
The application of the model of object relations established with parents to new object (people)
What are the three defining features of attachment?
Proximity maintenance - stay close
Safe heaven - comfort
Secure base - from which to explore
Mary Ainsworth created a procedure to test attachment style - what is it called and what were the displays of the versions attachement styles
Strange Situation
Secure - sad when mother left - happy when it returned
Ambivalent- clingy very upset when she left - angry when mother returned
Avoidant - call when mother left, ignored her when she returned
What is the AAI and how does it differ from self-report in results
Adult Attachment Interview
Self-report thought to indicate quality of relationship in high stress
AAI Is thought to indicate quality of relationship in low or high stress
Bartholomew & Horowitz extended Bowlby’s notion of attachment style - what model did they create. What were the measurements
Model
(Horizontal)
positive self vs negative self
(Vertical)
Positive view others vs negative view of others
The outcomes are called Anxiety & avoidance
While Freud proposed that personality was related to childhood development, Erik Erickson favoured a longer model called__________ ?
Life-span development
What is the central theme to Erik Ericsson’s theory?
Ego identity - the consciously experienced sense of self derived from transactions with social reality
If one fails a period of Erickson’s developmental stages they feel _______
If they succeed they feel _________
Inadequacy
Competence
What does Erik Erickson think is experienced at each stage of development?
Psychosocial Crisis or Conflict
What were the three terms Erickson used to an orientation to a positive outcome after negotiating one of the “crises” during one of the stages of development?
Ego strength
Ego quality
Virtue
What are Erickson’s first four stages and the associated crises?
Infancy - trust vs mistrust
Early childhood (2-3) - autonomy vs doubt and shame
Preschool (3-5) - initiate vs guilt
School age (6-11) - industry vs inferiority
In the first of Erickson’s stages, developing trust creates the ego strength _____
Hope
What is the ego strength of successful negotiation of the second stage - early childhood - autonomy vs shame and guilt
Will
Preschool (3-5 yo) is Erickson’s third stage, the successful negotiation of this stage tending towards initiative rather than guilt will create the ego strength________?
Purpose
Successfully negotiating Erickson’s 4th stage - school age (5-11) - industry vs inferiority - creates the ego strength______?
Competence
What is the crisis of the adolescent stage?
Identity vs role confusion
What is the virtue to emerge if one is able to negotiate the identity/role confusion crisis of adolescence?
Fidelity
What is the crisis of young adulthood (20s)? Erik Erickson
Intimacy/isolation
What is the ego quality associated with negotiation of the crisis intimacy/isolation in young adulthood?
Love
What is the crisis of adulthood (late 20s - 60s) Erik Erickson
Generativity/stagnation
Ego quality/strength/virtue to emerge from the successful negotiation of Erickson’s adult-stage crisis, generativity/stagnation?
Care
What is the crisis for Erickson’s final stage, old age? (60s plus)
Integrity vs despair
What is the ego quality/strength/virtue to arise from a successful negotiation of Erickson’s final stage, old age and the crisis integrity vs despair
Wisdom
Erickson arranged his theory according to a principle that, thanks to a blueprint, a single cell can be come complex organism ie all of the necessary information for the evolution and growth exists within the cell - he applied this to his theory of personality development. What was it called?
Epigenesis
Apart from Erickson, there was another theorist, Dan McAdams whofocused on the idea that one event led to another as if a blueprint was created by experiences - what was the model he used?
Narratives - every life has a story, and like a books early chapters foreshadow later events
McAdams Narrative theory has identified two patterns related to success or contentment in later life - what were they?
Commitment stories - often of people acknowledging their advantages and working towards pro social goals
Redemption themes - in which a bad situation turns out well
Contamination themes - in which a good situation turns out badly
Atikison ans Birch suggested that motives are dynamic, in that they change, can be exhausted, and so will have varying effect on behaviour. I.e someone with a high need for achievement may be in a situation which satisfies the need, the theory goes that the next time they are presented with an opportunity for achievement, their motive intensity would be reduced and not cross the threshold for behaviour. When viewing this phenomenon on a serious Of responses, when the behavioural reaction (TAT -fantasy perhaps) it looks like a __________
Sawtooth
A theory for why the TAT doesnt l provide consistant results is that motives are not expressed uniformly, that many stories (30% according to Murray) are “chaff” unrelated to motive and psychologically irrelevant.
This theory is called the Stochastic _____-____ Apperception Theory
Drop-out
Is there evidence for the validity of TAT
Yes - William Spangler completed a meta analysis and found correlation with Achievement behaviours - career success etc. With TAT scores
