WEEK 7

Question 1

Psychodynamic approach…

Answer 1

a view developed by Freud that emphasises the interplay of unconscious mental processes in determining human thought, feelings and behaviour.
Assumes that our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are determined by various unconscious psychological processes

Question 2

id…

Answer 2

the unconscious portion of personality that contains basic impulses and urges. Operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate satisfaction of both kinds of instincts, regardless of society’s rules or the rights and feelings of others.

e.g. seeking immediate gratification, sexual impulses

Question 3

Pleasure principle…

Answer 3

the id’s operating principle, which guides people towards whatever feels good

Question 4

Ego…

Answer 4

the part of the personality that mediates conflicts between
and among the demands of the id, the superego and the real world. The ego is responsible for organising ways to get what a person wants in the real world, as opposed to the fantasy world of the id.
Operates on the reality principle

Question 5

Reality principle

Answer 5

the operating principle of the ego that creates compromises between the id’s demands and those of the real world

The reality principle, influences that hungry person at a cafe to wait in line and think about what to order rather than risk punishment by pushing ahead.

Question 6

Superego…

Answer 6

the component of personality that tells people what they should and should not do.

Question 7

Defence mechanisms…

Answer 7

Psychological responses that help protect people from anxiety and guilt

Question 8

Clashes among the three personality components were referred to as…

Answer 8

Intrapsychic, or psychodynamic conflictsW

Question 9

List the types of defence mechanisms

Answer 9

Repression
Rationalisation
Projection
Reaction formation
Sublimation
Displacement
Denial
Compensation

Question 10

Repression…

Answer 10

unconsciously pushing threatening memories, urges or ideas from conscious awareness

e.g. Loss of memory of an unpleasant event

Question 11

Rationalisation…

Answer 11

attempting to make actions or mistakes seem reaonsable

e.g. the reasons given for behaviour (e.g. I hit my kids because it’s good for them) sound rational, but may not be the real reason

Question 12

Projection…

Answer 12

unconsciously attributing one’s unacceptable thoughts or impulses to another person

e.g. Instead of recognising ones own dislike of someone, feeling as though that person dislikes them

Question 13

Reaction formation…

Answer 13

Defending against unacceptable impulses by acting opposite to them

e.g. sexual interest in a married co-worker may appear as a strong dislike

Question 14

Sublimation…

Answer 14

converting unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable actions and perhaps expressing them symbolically

e.g. sexual or aggressive desires may appear as artistic creativity or devotion to athletic excellence

Question 15

Displacement…

Answer 15

Deflecting an impulse from its original target to a less threatening one

e.g. directing anger felt towards your wife onto your co-workers

Question 16

Denial…

Answer 16

Simply discounting the existence of threatening impulses

e.g. vehemently denying having even the slightest attraction to a member of the same sex

Question 17

Compensation…

Answer 17

Striving to make up for undesirable impulses or fears

e.g. extreme competitiveness may be compensating for feeling of inferiority

Question 18

Psychosexual development

Answer 18

periods of personality development in which, according to Freud, conflicts focus on particular issues

Question 19

Fixation…

Answer 19

occurs when Failure to resolve the problems and conflicts that appear at a given stage can leave a person fixated; that is, unconsciously preoccupied with the area of pleasure associated with that stage. Freud believed that the stage at which a person became fixated in childhood can be seen in adult personality characteristics.

Question 20

Oral stage…

Answer 20

the first of Freud’s psychosexual stages of personality development, in which the mouth is the centre
of pleasure and conflict

Freud said fixation at the oral stage can stem from weaning that is too early or too late and may result in adult characteristics ranging from overeating or childlike dependence (late weaning) to the use of ‘biting’ sarcasm (early weaning).

Question 21

Anal stage…

Answer 21

the second of Freud’s psychosexual stages of personality development, in which the focus of pleasure and conflict shifts from the mouth to the anus

Freud said that if toilet training is too harsh or begins too early, it can produce an anal fixation that leads, in adulthood, to stinginess or excessive neatness (symbolically withholding faeces). If toilet training is too late or too lax, however, the result could be a kind of anal fixation that is reflected in adults who are disorganised or impulsive

Question 22

Phallic stage…

Answer 22

the third of Freud’s psychosexual stages of personality development, in which the focus of pleasure and conflict shifts to the genital area

During this stage, (according to Freud) the male is said to develop sexual desires towards his mother, and the urge to slay his father- know as the Oedipal Complex

(Freud) A girl is said to begin her phallic phase with a strong attachment to her mother. When she
realises that boys have penises and girls do not, though, she supposedly develops penis envy and transfers her love to her father. This pattern has become known as the Electra complex

Freud believed that unresolved conflicts from the phallic stage can lead to many problems in
adulthood, including difficulties in dealing with authority figures and an inability to maintain a stable love relationship.

Question 23

Oedipal Complex…

Answer 23

a pattern described by Freud in which a boy has sexual desire for his mother and wants to eliminate his father’s competition for her attention
The boy’s fantasies make him fear that his powerful ‘rival’ (his father) will castrate him. To reduce this fear, the boy’s ego represses his incestuous desires and leads him to ‘identify’ with his father and try to be like him. It is during this stage that the male’s superego begins to develop.

Question 24

Electra complex…

Answer 24

a pattern described by Freud in which a young girl develops an attachment to her father and competes with her mother for attention.
To avoid her mother’s disapproval, the girl identifies with and imitates her, thus forming the basis for her own superego

Question 25

Latency period…

Answer 25

the fourth of Freud’s psychosexual stages of personality development, in which sexual impulses lie dormant
lasting through childhood, sexual impulses stay in the background as the youngster focuses on education, same-sex peer play, and the development of social skills.

Question 26

Genital stage…

Answer 26

genital stage the last of Freud’s psychosexual stages of personality development, which begins during adolescence, when sexual impulses appear at the conscious level
The quality of relationships and the degree of fulfilment experienced during this final stage, he claimed, are influenced by how intrapsychic conflicts were resolved during the earlier stages.

Question 27

Carl Jung…

Answer 27

Argued for libido (psychic energy) as a life force
Collective unconscious (memories) is responsible for our innate tendencies
We develop degrees of introversion (own experiences) and extraversion (social experiences)

Question 28

Social-cognitive approach…

Answer 28

the view that personality reflects learnt patterns of thinking and behaviour
social-cognitive approach did not grow out of clinical cases or other descriptions of people’s personalities. It was based instead on the principles of animal and human learning

Question 29

Functional analysis

Answer 29

analysing behaviour by studying what responses occur under what conditions of operant reward and punishment (Skinner)

For example, if observations show that a schoolboy’s aggressive behaviour occurs mainly when a certain teacher is present, it may be that aggression is tolerated by that teacher and may even be rewarded with special attention.

Question 30

Self-efficacy…

Answer 30

according to Albert Bandura, the learnt expectation about the probability of success in given situations
The higher our perceived self-efficacy in relation to a particular situation or task, the greater our actual accomplishments in that situation or task

Question 31

Humanistic approach..

Answer 31

focuses on mental capabilities that set humans apart – self-awareness, creativity, planning, decision-making and responsibility.

Those who adopt the humanistic approach see human behaviour as motivated mainly by an innate drive toward growth that prompts each of us to fulfil a unique potential and thus achieve an ideal state known as self-actualisation

Question 32

Deficiency motivation…

Answer 32

the preoccupation with perceived needs for material things, especially things they do not have.

Question 33

Growth motivation…

Answer 33

according to Abraham Maslow, a tendency to draw satisfaction from what is available in life, rather than to focus on what is missing

Question 34

Trait approach…

Answer 34

the view that personality is a combination of characteristics that people display over time and across situations

Question 35

What are the three basic assumptions made by the trait approach?

Answer 35

1 Personality traits are relatively stable and therefore predictable over time; for example, a gentle person tends to stay that way day after day, year after year (Cervone & Pervin, 2008).

2 Personality traits are relatively stable across situations, and they can explain why people act in predictable ways in many different situations; for example, a person who is competitive at work will probably also be competitive in sports or at a party (Roberts, Wood, & Caspi, 2008).

3 People differ in how much of a particular personality trait they possess, and no two people are exactly alike on all traits. The result is an endless variety of unique human personalities

Question 36

Five-factor personality model…

Answer 36

a view based on factor-analytic studies suggesting the existence of five basic components of human personality: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism

NEO-PI-R

Question 37

Projective personality measures…

Answer 37

personality assessments made up of ambiguous stimuli that can be perceived and responded to in many different ways.
Advantages include: ‘correct’ answers not obvious; designed to tap unconscious impulses; flexible use
Disadvantages include, less statistical validity and reliability than non-projective tests.

e.g. People taking projective tests might be asked to draw a house, a person, a family or a tree; to fill in the missing parts of incomplete pictures or sentences; to say what they associate with particular words; or to report what they see in a drawing or picture.

Rorshach test

Question 38

Non-projective personality measures…

Answer 38

paper-and-pencil tests containing direct, unambiguous items relating to the personality of the individual being assessed.
Efficiency and standardisation are some advantages;
a disadvantage, is that they are subject to deliberate distortion

MMPI

Question 39

Alport’s trait theory…

Answer 39

• believed that the set of labels chosen to describe a particular person reflects that person’s central traits – characteristics that are usually obvious to others and that organise and control behaviour in many different situations.

-Central traits are roughly equivalent to the descriptive terms used in letters of recommendation (e.g., reliable or distractible) that are meant to convey what can be expected from a person most of the time

• Allport also believed that people possess secondary traits – characteristics that are more specific to certain situations and control far less behaviour; for example, a secondary trait might be ‘dislikes crowds’. Allport’s research helped lay the foundation for modern research on personality traits.

-Though his emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual personality made it difficult to draw conclusions about the structure of human personality in general, some researchers today continue to employ a modern version of Allport’s approach

Question 40

Conditions of worth…

Answer 40

according to Carl Rogers, the feelings an individual experiences when an evaluation is applied to the person rather than to the person’s behaviour

e.g. believing if you perform well academically, you are more valuable as a person