Week7/8/9-Unit 6 Flashcards
Personality
Individuals characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting
1 of 5 Personality Theories:
Pyschoanalytic Theory?
SIGMUND FREUD
Personality theory that emphasizes unconscious conflicts stemming from childhood sexuality and relationships with parents
Pyschoanalysis
techniques to expose and interpret unconscious intentions and treat psychological disorders
Freud’s theory of personality: thoughts and feelings and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts
WORDS popularized by Freud: Libido, Oedipus Complex, Anal Retentive, Neurosis, Denial, Penis Envy, Id/Ego/Superego, Projection, Castration Anxiety, Repression, the Unconscious.
psychoanalytic perspective: popularized by Salvador Dali & Woody Allen
Freuds Depth Model ?
3 regions in mind:
The unconscious (bottom) section holds the sexual & aggressive parts of ourselves – we have strangulators or censors in-place to keep this info buried or else we’d have extreme anxiety from these thoughts. These are located in the preconscious section (middle).
Progression of Excitation: unconscious thoughts come to the conscious, experienced as an internal stimulus.
Regression of Excitation : with repeated censoring by the censors though, a piece of threatening info may ‘burst’ through into the conscious, experienced as an external stimulus, such as a hallucination.
Freud’s Topographical Model?
Id = primitive, instincts. PLEASURE PRINCIPLE (seek out pleasure to avoid pain, and immediate gratification of sexual/aggressive urges). Engages in primary-process thinking which is primitive, illogical, irrational, fantasy- based. “I want it now!”
Ego = executive, decision-making, in the conscious primarily (with a bit in the other 2 centres). REALITY PRINCIPLE (delays gratification of id’s urges until appropriate outlets and situations can be found). Engages in secondary-process thinking which is rational, realistic, problem-solving. “the negotiator between external world, SuperEgo, and Id”
SuperEgo = moral component, resides in unconscious (with a bit in the other two centres). MORAL PRINCIPLE (social standards about right/wrong, how we should behave. “You can never have it!”
Has conscious set of ideas – pattern that someone tries to consciously adapt their life.
Has unconscious set of prohibitions – pattern that someone attempts to prevent the Id expressions and impulses.
ex: if virtuous yet guilt-ridden, then strong superego
ex: if self-indulgent and remorseless, then weak superego.
Freud’s 3 tyrannical masters?
Each pressure the Ego to do it’s bidding, and subsequently, create anxieties:
-
External World : creates realistic objective anxiety (because this is a real threat to well-being)
ex: anxiety before test, before battle, before moving. -
Id : creates neurotic anxiety(because stems from unacceptable Id impulses that threaten to go to conscious)
ex: sexual feeling to someone not married to, violent thoughts towards one’s parents. -
SuperEgo : creates moral anxiety (because not living up to standards of conduct embodied by SuperEgo)
ex: when a religious person breaks a commandment, if an exercise addict misses a day of exercise, telling a boss a lie to get off early.
THERFORE, the Ego has created ‘defense mechanisms’ tp protect itself.
Freud’s Defence Mechanisms ?
Carl Rogers ALSO believed in these DF’s
-
Repression : (aka denial) burying distressing thoughts and feelings in unconscious (putting on a fake smile). Carl Rogers thought we do this to keep our self-concept consistent.
ex : soldier doesn’t remember traumatic events of near-death experience -
Identification : taking on identifying characteristics of another person or group as his own
ex : teenager who joins goth group and starts dressing/acting like them -
Projection : attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, motives to another
ex: strongly dislike someone but claim to like them…but claims it’s them that dislikes you -
Rationalization : (aka distorted symbolization, an interpretation) creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behaviour
ex : student watches TV when should be studying, but says studying won’t help anyways. -
Reaction Formation : behaving in a way exactly opposite of your true feelings
ex : girl acts like she hates a boy, but really does like him -
Displacement : process of diverting negative feelings from their original source to another target
ex: someone gets scolded. takes out anger on someone else. -
Sublimation : transforming unacceptable behaviours into socially acceptable behaviours
ex: aggressive feelings into abstract art -
Denial - the refusal to believe in some upsetting reality
ex : denial of spouse having an affair, despite there being evidence
Freud’s Concepts of Instincts?
-
Basic Instinct : arises from bodily source (like genitals) to satisfy a need (reproduction), and it exerts a pressure towards some object (a spouse), then a need is attained (reproduction)
– return to homeostatis. Basis of PLEASURE PRINCIPLE (aim is pleasure, for the Id) - Life & Death Instincts : oppositional instincts, life (Eros) is for basic survival, sex, cooperation, love, and the death (Thanatos) is for self-destructive behaviours, suicide, violence, aggression.
What is Cathexis?
to enter, fill-up, occupy, to explian this psychic energy might work to motivate behaviour (the energy of the death instincts)
PsychoSexual development in kids (Freudian View)
The 5 stages of development:
What is (Freud’s) libido view?
the ‘life force’ or ‘psychic energy’ that drives human behaviour
At each of the 5 stages, libido is focused on a specific area of the body, erogenous or pleasure zones. Child must learn to deal with these issues in childhood, or will become fixed to the erogenous zone. Personality doesn’t fully develop then. Adult personality will reflect on this fixed part.
ex: Orally fixated man – turns to drinking in difficulty
ex: Orally fixated woman – turns to ending relationships early with any difficulty because learned earlier that others were undependable
ex: anally fixated teenager – lashes out with any provocation
Oedipus & Electra Complex?
Phallic Stage (3-6 yrs)
Focus on genitals. Dealing with incestuous feelings.
OEDIPUS COMPLEX: Boy desires mother. Develops castration anxiety (dad will cut his penis off). Boy learns to repress feelings and identifies with Dad, develops sexual feelings for women later on.
ELECTRA COMPLEX : girl develops penis envy, desires Dad. Sees mother as rival. Learns to repress these feelings. Desire for a baby replaces desire for a penis. Identifies with mother instead.
Failure to resolve leads to identity crisis and relationship problems
Freud’s followers:
* Yes to Id, Ego, SuperEgo
* Yes to importance of Unconscious
* Yes to shaping of personality in childhood
* Yes to defense and fear mechanisms
Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Carl Jung
Freud’s followers:
* No to sex and aggression being all consuming motivators
* Unconscious being more important than Conscious mind
WHY IS PSYCHOANALSIS STILL VERY IMPORTANT?
1. Psychoanalytic ideas strongly influence psychotherapy
2. His ideas shape research (unconscious & defence mechanisms)
3. Continue to shape theory in Psychology (personality, stages of growth, concepts of mind)
4. Still** socially and culturally **relevant, especially on artists Dali and Woody Allen.
WHY IS PSYCHOANALYSIS CRITICISED?
1. Evidence comes from too few research studies (wealthy, highly educated, highly verbal woman)
2. Aspects of theory haven’t held up to further scrutiny
3. These shortcoming does not directly inform modern research (historical value only)
What has changed with Freud’s initial concepts of development?
Freud thought == personality fixed
Reality is that yes, personality stable, but continues to slightly change over time
Freud thought == parental shaping most important factor for personality development
Reality is that yes, important, but peer influence is on par with importance.
Freud thought == dreams reflect wish fulfillment
Reality is that there are many potential reasons for dreaming
Freud thought == ‘verbal slips’ (freudian slips) - “please don’t give me any more bills. I can’t swallow any more”
Reality is that could be competition between different verbal choices - words that sound or look the same.
Freud thought == suppressed sexuality leads to psychological disorders
Reality yes, sexual inhibition has decreased, psychological disorders haven’t.
Freud Thought == gender identity forms as a child resolves Oedipus complex at age 5-6 yrs.
Reality is yes, gender identity may form before 5-6 yrs, and become strongly feminine or masculine even without a same-sex parent
Freud Thought == mind unconscious filled with sexual and aggressive urges
Reality is yes, consists of this and many other unconscious thoughts that are dealt with outside of the conscious awareness
2 of 5 Personality Theory:
Humanistic Theory?
MASLOW & CARL ROGERS
Definition: focuses on a person’s conscious experience of the self (self-concept) and the natural progression toward achieving one’s full potential (self-actualization)
Focus is on how healthy people strive for self-determination and self-realization, instead of pessimistic view from psychoanalysts & behaviourists.
Maslow & Carl Rogers
Humanistic:
Carl Roger’s ‘Organismic Self & Self-Concept’?
Maslow & Carl Rogers
A)ORGANISMIC SELF : raw perceptions, thoughts, feelings, wishes, intuitions, gut reactions. OUR ‘REAL’ SELF.
B)SELF-CONCEPT : the way in which a person thinks about himself and the kind of person he is. WHO WE ‘THINK’ WE ARE.
There can be incongruencies between these two concepts! TO RESOLVE THIS ‘TENSION’ IN US, DEFENSE MECHANISMS ARE PUT UP.
PHENOMENAL FIELD : consists of all that we are aware of, including mental processes (sensations, perception, thoughts, images) and bodily processes (feelings, bodily fxns, values)
CHARACTERISTICS:
Open to new experiences
Enjoy diversity & novelty
Trust themselves, feelings, their own judgements
Centred in the Present (not in the past, nor the future)
Accountable to themselves
Set their own responsibilities
Humanistic:
Carl Roger’s ‘Organismic Enhancement’?
All organisms strive for this enhancment, in order to maintain, further & actualize their experience.
Seek to enhance their ‘phenomenal field’ : includes mental processes (sensations, perceptions, thoughts, images) and bodily processes (feelings, bodily functions, values). basically everything we are aware of, people and objects, AND our own thoughts/feelings
Humanistic:
Carl Roger on the use of Defense Mechanisms:
We live by a distorted perception of ourselves and rely on these defenses:
- External Locus of Evaluation – living by values of others
- Internal Locus of Evaluation – living by values of our organismic experience
Humanistic:
Carl Rogers: What is the ‘fully functioning’ person?
we need to turn to our FEELINGS, TO BE HONEST WITH OURSELVES, & SYMBOLIZE (interpret) THEM ACCURATELY
This is an ‘organic process’. To be psychologically adjusted, self-concept & organismic self need to be in congruence. Also, positive self-regard, self-worthiness, feel as ourselves without regret, have ‘conditional positive regard’. Therefore, we try to keep our self-concept & organismic self in harmony and fail to be fully functioning, and therefore, not self actualizing. What do we need then? Unconditional Positive Regard from parents/others/friends where others accept who we are, not who they wished we were (feelings + thoughts).
Empathy: a process not a state of being, that takes time to achieve
Humanistic:
Client-centred Therapy?
CARL ROGERS
Form of therapy created by CARL ROGERS whereby focus is on creating conditions that enables client to explore themselves and become fully functioning (Rogerian principles)
The ‘therapeutic alliance’ is critical for therapeutic outcomes.
Criticisms of HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE?
- it’s vague, subjective, lack of scientific basis
- individualism encouraged can lead to self-indulgence, selfishness, erosion of moral restraints
- fails to appreciate capacity of evil we can do
3 of 5 Personality Theories:
Psychodynamic Theory?
CARL JUNG, KAREN HORNEY, ALFRED ADLER
Personality theory that builds on Freud’s ideas and focuses on the conscious and unconscious foces that control behaviour
Kept basic ideas from Freud, but shifted emphasis away from sexuality to child’s entire social world.
Adler proposed the idea that an inferiority complex based on childhood insecurities can influence adult behavior.
Jung proposed that humanity shared dream images flow from a collective unconscious, shaped by early humans.
4 of 5 Personality Theory:
Trait Theory?
THE BIG ‘5’
GORDON ALLPORT, HENRY ODBERT, HANS EYSENCK, PAUL COSTA, ROBERT MCRAE
Personality theory that emphasizes enduring characteristics of a person’s bahaviour, thoughts, emotions across situations called TRAITS.
The ‘Big 5’ (5-Factor Model of Personality):
1. Extraversion
2. Agreeableness
3. Neuroticism
4. Openness
5. Conscientiousness
Gorden Allport was the 1st to determine that -certain consistencies in a person’s behaviour may reflect some sort of inner psychological quality.
Trait Theory:
Fundamental Lexical Hypothesis?
“The most important individual differences in human transactions will come to be encoded as single terms in some or all of the world’s languages”
The idea is that the trait terms that exist, due so because we want to make sense of ourselves and others.
Language is good place to start to study traits that differentiate people. We have 17,953 personality words in the Webster’s dictionary! Even with removing the fluff and unnecessary terms, there are still 4504 terms that refer to the stable traits that objectively describe people.
Trait Theory:
RAYMOND CATTELL: the 16 Source Traits
He took all the 4504 words and reduced them to ‘clusters’ – 12 in all. Then added another 4 clusters, and today there are 16 personality clusters
Trait Theory:
TUPES & CHRISTAL: Air Force Base research psychologists in the 50’s
Five-Factor Model
They reanalyzed the data and reduced it down to 5 FACTOR clusters Then others came in and came to the same conclusion and that’s how the Big Five came about
- SURGENCY
- AGREEABLENESS
- DEPENDABILITY
- EMOTIONAL STABLITY
- CULTURE
Big Five Model = Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, EMOTIONAL STABILITY, INTELLECT
Has 45 facets (more detailed measurements)
Five-Factor Model = O.C.E.A.N.( OPENNESS, concientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, NEUROTICISM
Has 30 facets.
Five-Factor Model (Acronym: O.C.E.A.N.)
Trait Theory:
The Big Five have been shown to be quite valid. Along with IQ, the Big Five and their ‘facets’ are some of the best predictors of life outcomes we have. See below for predictions:
Trait Theory:
Factor Analysis?
to examine intercorrelations among various measures (scores on traits)
Clusters of measures that are found to be highly correlated are assumed to be measuring the same characteristic or factor AND to be different from others.
Trait Theory:
What is Neuroticism?
Personality tendency toward negative emotionality (anger, anxiety, depession), emotional instability, along with an inability to cope with stress.
trait Theory
Represents a ‘continuum’ with (+) traits at one end and (-) traits at the other.
the Neurotiscism trait is undesirable though, so is referred to as the emotional stability factor
Trait Theory:
On-going debates with the Trait Theory?
- Should there be more than 5 traits?
- Does it give a complete picture of our personality?
- Only describes personality, doesn‘t explain it.
- underestimates power of a situation to shape behaviour
Think of personality traits as AVERAGE tendencies to behave in certain ways. If a kid cheats on every test, it doesn’t mean they cheat on everything else in life. – very situational.
“Studies find that though traits may be fairly stable within situations, they are not very stable across situations”
5 of 5 Personality Theory:
Social-Cognitive Theory?
GEORGE KELLY, ALBERT BANDURA, WALTER MISCHEL
Emphasizes the interaction between a person’s individual characteristic and the social environment
Reciprocal Determinism: our personal tendencies/thinking interact with the enviroment to produce behaviour….then behaviour changes our environment.
This MEANS our personality is FLEXIBLE.
To measure Narcissism…
Scientists use the
NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY
social-cog theory:
GEORGE KELLY’S Personal Construct Theory?
All human beings are motivated to understand their circumstances. To find meaning in life. AND to predict circumstances in the future.
(started cognitive tradition within personality psychology)
We make constructs to do this : words to summarize a set of observations. They convey meaning to those observations.
We use our personal constructs to construe (interpret and predict events). WE ALL HAVE DIFFERENT CONSTRUCTS, so we all view the world differently
Person 1: rich-poor construct
Person 2: smart-dumb
ex: shy , smart, outgoing, dependable, crazy etc.
social-cog theory:
Difference between peripheral & core constructs
- PERIPHERAL: we use these constructs generally to make sense of events
- CORE : most significant to us & define us
Ex: if we primarily see the world as poor vs rich, dumb vs smart, these are core constructs.
Soc-Cog Theory:
GEORGE KELLY’s Fundamental Postulate?
Person’s processes are psychologically channelled by the way they anticipate events
ex: a war victim will see the world as hostile
Soc-Cog Theory:
GEORGE KELLY’s Constructive Alternativism?
AND PSYCHO-PATHOLOGY?
Many ways to construe an event and many constructs to construe an event.
Which construct we choose to view the world, determines our experience of the event.
Has 3 things::
1. ANXIETY : construct can’t understand something
2. GUILT : acting in a way that is not in alignment with construct
3. HOSTILITY : person tries to change outcome that wasn’t predicted by construct (ex: even though person meets mostly friendly person, he will still view them with hostile construct. So he will try to ‘rationalize’ away these outcomes. Maladaptive = Changing data to suit their construct! (see below)
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: “any personal construction that is used repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation”
KELLY believed that changing Personal Construct system, we can change our personality, so we change our interpretation of events (learn from experiences and update…to be more accurate in our lives)
Soc-Cog Theory:
GEORGE KELLY still: Role Construct Repertory Test?
a system used by psychologists to better understand how a patient sees the world.
– asks patient to choose 2 things that are similar. Then pick a 3rd thing that is opposite of the first 2 things. The words the person uses will tell the doctor how they see the world. “Oh, these two people were hard-working, but the 3rd person was lazy” HARDWORKING — LAZY. (the construct)
Soc-Cog Theory:
2nd man: ALBERT BANDURA : Reciprocal Determinism?
CANADIAN PSYCHOLOGIST
Behaviourists viewed all behavior as being determined by environment. (you tell a joke, ppl laugh, you tell more jokes)
Bandura believed:
1. Behaviour Factor: our actions
2. Environment : the norms (inappropriate/appropriate behaviours) and rewards & punishments
3. Person Factor : biologically based personality traits, BUT emphasizes COGNITION (memories, thinking, reasoning, values, beliefs)
Soc-Cog Theory:
BANDURA : Self-Efficacy?
belief that individuals can influence outcomes
“Peoples beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities. Ability is not a fixed property”
Soc-Cog Theory:
3rd man : WALTER MISCHEL : Cognitive-Affective Personality System?
CAPS
He was an early/outspoke proponent of SITUATIONISM – situations are stronger determinants of behaviour than are traits.
He still recognized Person + Situation = behaviour and this led to CAPS
CAPS = a system with constructs for making sense of people, events and yourself, moods, emotions, affects, goals, values, scripts for actions. Like IF this occurs, THEN this will occur…
Remember these 7 traits from Unit 5?
Heritability?
Environmentality?
HERITABILITY : the proportion of variation of a phenotypic trait in a population that is due to genetic variation (between individuals in a whole population)
ENVIRONMENTALITY : the proportion of variation in a phenotypic trait in a population that is due to environmental variation between individuals in a whole population.
- refers to populations, not just 1 individual
- heritablity estimates are changeable
- heritablity is just an estimate, not precise calculations
Shared and Non-Shared environmental Influences?
If two kids have shared (same experiences, same parents, same schools, etc) and non-shared (unique experiences, different friends, different sports, different music),
BUT the shared environment has little influence on them, this means their environment had little influence on their personality.
THEREFORE, non-shared environmental influences are most important for shaping personality
…and what would these be?…chance, unpredictable events. but they don’t always have long-lasting effects.
MAOA gene?
located on X chromosome. Encodes MAOA enzyme, which metabolizes neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, rendering them inactive.
If there is a mutation, aggression is observed.
Maltreatment as a child + high MAOA = less likelyhood of antisocial behaviour
Maltreatment as a child + low MAOA = more antisocial
(Results were consistent with boys, but not girls) SO ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IS BOTH NATURE + NURTURE!
EPIGENETICS?
Epigenetic molecules alter gene expression
If we get bad drugs in prenatal environment, get maltreatment from parents as babies, have poor nutrition, these actions affect genes later on for gene expression.
