Psychology 102 Ch 14 – Flashcards

a. Personality consists of a person's unique and relatively stable behavior patterns b. TB: an individuals characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting c. it involves your talents, interests, values, hopes, likes and dislikes d. No two personalities are alike, there are similarities, but no one has identical personalities e. Your personality is what makes you unique; it sets you apart from the rest

_: the personal characteristics that have been judged or evaluated; it consists of a person's desirable or undesirable qualities

: hereditary aspects of personality including sensitivity, activity levels, mood, irritability and adaptability

refer to stable qualities that a person shows in many situations

style of personality definded by a group of related traits

a. Our personality begins to show between the ages of 2-4 yrs and it becomes more stable in life by about age30 yrs old b. Terms proposed by Carl Jung that relates to personality i. Introverts: these individuals are shy, egocentric individuals whose attention is focused more inward ii. Extroverts: are more bold and outgoing and tend to direct their attention more outwardly c. We have tendencies to be both due to circumstances, but we are dominated by one or the other

Introverts: these individuals are shy, egocentric individuals whose attention is focused more inward

Extroverts: are more bold and outgoing and tend to direct their attention more outwardly

i. quite ii. Dislike crowds iii. Enjoy talking one on one iv. Enjoy alone time v. Entertain close friends at home vi. Keep thoughts private vii. Focus on ideas viii. Recharge their batteries through quite or alone time

i. sociable ii. Outgoing iii. Expressive iv. Think out loud v. Enjoy parties and gatherings vi. Like people interaction vii. Get a "buzz" from being around people

There are ways you can subjectively analyze someone's personality and that is by looking at their level of self esteem or their self concept. -Self esteem- refers to all of your ideas, perceptions and feelings about who you are...it's our own subjective perception of our own personality traits

There are ways you can subjectively analyze someone's personality and that is by looking at their level of self esteem or their self concept. -Self concept-refers to all of your ideas, perceptions and feelings about who you are...it's our own subjective perception of our own personality traits

1) you will look positively on yourself and consider yourself worthy 2) Those with Low self esteem will look more negatively on themselves and deem themselves as unworthy

a. Trait theories b. The big 5 c. Psychoanalytic perspective d. Psychodynamic e. Karen Horney f. Carl Jung g. Learning theories h. Behaviorist i. Humanistic

a. Trait theorists are interested in learning what traits make up a personality and how they relate to an individuals actual behavior. b. Trait theorists are psychologist interested in classifying, analyzing and interrelating traits to understand personality c. Catell & Allport are trait theorists

a. The 5 factor model is another method of getting a glimpse into an individuals personality and is often used to predict future behavior b. The 5 factor model proposes that there are only 5 universal dimensions of personality: i. Extroversion/introversion ii. Agreeableness/disagreeableness iii. Conscientious vs. careless and irresponsible iv. Neurotic (which means you are emotionally stable or unstable) v. And openness to experience, which relates to whether you are smart or unintelligent

a. The bedrock of Freud's conceptualization and the human mind is his "Structural theory" which states that the mind or psychic apparatus consists of 3 parts; the ID, EGO and SUPEREGO b. Freud believed that most behavior involves activity of all 3 of these systems c. He also believed that these structures are conflicting mental processes that occur in our everyday existence and the internal struggles that occur b/w and amongst these structures characterize much of our personality functioning.

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a. Is an ego psychologist and stresses ego functions that are not derived from the Id i. The emphasis is on man as a social being and believed that Freudians placed too little emphasis on social factors ii. Broke from Freud b/c disagreed with Freud's biological and instinctive ideas iii. Didn't believe that males were dominant or superior to females iv. Was the first to challenge this bias in Freud's theory v. Believes that at the core of our personality is basic anxiety, which results from a lack of love in childhood that leads to insecurity in our lives vi. When we experience basic anxiety, we feel isolated and helpless and we run into difficulties when we try to control this basic anxiety by interacting with others b. Horney believed to overcome feelings of insecurity, there are 3 dysfunctional trends we use to interact with others i. Moving towards others: characterized by making excessive demands for love ii. Moving against others by exaggerating your own power, dominance and prestige iii. Moving away from others by withdrawing 1. Believed that in order to improve our emotional health, we need a balance of moving toward, away from and against others and emotional problems lock people into overusing one of the trends of interacting with others

a. Broke away from Freud bc he overemphasized the sexual nature of the libido b. Believes we all have a collective unconscious mind, which is universal to all creatures and it is filled with Archetypes i. Archetypes are universal ideas, images or patterns found in the collective unconscious and enable us to respond emotionally to events that occur in our life c. States that we have a personal unconscious level of repressed materials...if we are exposed to something early in our lives that is so detrimental, we will repress those events in our unconscious d. He also believed that the human psyche or mind has a personal persona, which is a _social mask that hides deep feelings and we have a shadow, which hides behind the mask and consists of hidden personal characteristics e. Jung also believed that we are androgynous, meaning we have both male and female traits within us f. He is also known for coming up with the terms introversion and extroversion

a. Behaviorists are much more straight-forward and easier to understand when it comes to personality b. Interests lie in situational determintes or external causes of our actions c. Believe that situations have an impact on us, which in turn has a bearing on our behavior d. Each of our personalities will create a different behavioral reaction depending on the situation i. Ex Lorena Bobbit-cut off penis thru out window acted crazy. ii. Learning theorists also believe that our habits or learned behavior patterns make up the structure of our personality e. State that our personality dynamics are governed by 4 elements of learning: drive, cue, response and reward 1. A drive: any stimulus strong enough to entice a person into action 2. cues a signals from the environment that guide our responses or actions as a means to bring about reward 3. Learning theorists also take into consideration our perceptions, thinking, expectations and other mental abilities when they consider the structure of our personality

a. Put importance on the external environment and on the effects of conditioning and learning..emphasis is placed on internal conflicts and struggles b. Believe our personality is formed from a collection of learned behavior patterns c. Emphasize structural reinforcement

e. Humanistic viewpoint on the structure of our personality a. Focuses on human experiences, problems, potentials and ideals b. Rejected Freud b/c of his emphasis on the unconscious c. Views individuals as basically good: does not believe that people possess negative qualities d. Believes that the person you are today is due to all of the choices you have made in your life e. Emphasizes subjective experiences we encounter in our lives f. Emphasizes free choice

are trait theorists

a. common traits: are characteristics shared by most members of a culture i. These traits tell us how individuals from a particular nation or culture are similar, or which traits a culture emphasizes b. For example: c. individual traits are those traits which define a person's unique personal qualities 9.) Allports traits continued... a. Cardinal traits: are fairly rare in individuals i. They are defined by trait theorists as a personality trait that is so basic that all of a person's activities relate to it For ex: what was Abraham Lincoln known for?honest Abe b. Central traits: are the core traits that characterize an individuals personality i. central traits are known as the basic building blocks of personality 1. examples of central traits would be happy, intelligent,pessimist/optimist c. Secondary Traits: i. those traits that are less consistent or superficial a. some examples of secondary traits would be choosing where to eat,various music tastes ect

those traits that are less consistent or superficial a. some examples of secondary traits would be choosing where to eat,various music tastes ect

are the core traits that characterize an individuals personality i. central traits are known as the basic building blocks of personality 1. examples of central traits would be happy, intelligent,pessimist/optimist

are fairly rare in individuals i. They are defined by trait theorists as a personality trait that is so basic that all of a person's activities relate to it For ex: what was Abraham Lincoln known for?honest Abe

are characteristics shared by most members of a culture i. These traits tell us how individuals from a particular nation or culture are similar, or which traits a culture emphasizes b. For example: c. individual traits are those traits which define a person's unique personal qualities

a. Catell wanted to learn how traits were interlinked b. to understand our personality, Catell made use of questionnaires, observation and journals to study the features that make up the visible areas of our personality c. After analysis of these methods he noted certain features, which he called surface traits i. Surface traits are visible or observable in an individuals personality

are visible or observable in an individuals personality

a. If a person scores high on the dimension of agreeableness, they are friendly, caring and warm...if they are low on agreeableness, they are indifferent, self centered or spiteful b. A person who scores high on the dimension of conscientiousness is said to be self disciplined, responsible and achieving. Those who are low on this dimension are often irresponsible, careless and not dependable c. Someone who scores high on the dimension of neuroticism are usually anxious, irritable and unhappy...those who score low on neuroticism are more calm or stable emotionally and are relatively happy d. Those scoring high on openness to experience are often intelligent and open to new ideas and the reverse is true if they score low on this dimension.

a. The 5 factor model allows trait factor psychologists to compare the personalities of 2 or more different people to see if there is an interconnectedness b/w them

15.) The ID a. Acts as a wall of energy for the entire psyche or personality b. This energy is known as the libido, which is said to energize the personality and the libido flows from the Eros or life instincts c. Freud also believed that the libido underlies our efforts to survive, which is also known as a death instinct, which he called THANOS, which produces aggressive and destructive urges brought on by our instinct to survive 16.) Characteristics of the ID a. It is dominated by the pleasure principle...it seeks to freely express pleasure-seeking urges of all kinds b. It includes all of the instincts inherited at birth c. The id has no morals, no organization and no sense of time d. It houses the biological drives e. It seeks satisfaction of instinctual needs f. It is chaotic g. The id processes are unconscious but come out in our dreams, "slips of the tongue" (a.k.a. paraphraxis), neurotic symptoms and free association

17.) The ego a. Is sometimes described as the "executive" branch of our personality bc it directs energies supplied by the id b. The ego unlike the id is guided by the reality principle...meaning that the ego acts to delay action until it is practical or appropriate c. The ego is said to be the system of thinking, planning, problem solving, and deciding and it is also in conscious control of the personality d. The ego is reasonable and logical, it uses judgment to suspend the pleasure principle e. It tends to balance our forces of the id and superego and mediates between the person and reality f. The ego is liken to a see saw analogy where the balance point is the ego is because it is trying to balance the superego and the id

18.) The superego a. Acts as a judge or censor for the thoughts and actions of the ego b. The superego contains the ego ideal...which is a set of moral standards that the person strives to reach...the perfect person c. It acts as the conscience d. It evolves as a result of the child successfully passing through the oedipus complex (we will get to this later in lecture) e. It contains a persons moral code of right and wrong and its formed by parental messages about what one should and should not do i. More info: i. The ego is like the middle child, it is always caught in the middle and it tries its best to meet the conflicting demands of the id and superego ii. According to Freud, the internal struggles that occur b/w and among these structures characterize much of our personality functioning

oral anal phallic latency genital

a. The oral stage: occurs during the first year of life and most of the infants pleasure is said to come from stimulation of the mouth i. According to Freud, if one has too much of this oral pleasure, say by overfeeding, it will come out in adult habits like nail biting, smoking, overeating and alcoholism

Anal stage: occurs b/w ages 1 & 3 during potty training. i. Freud believed that harsh toilet training led to a fixation that is attributed to the anal retentive personality 1. Those who are anal retentive tend to be _obstinate_, stingy, very orderly and perform compulsive acts such as cleaning 2. If an individual is given too lenient toilet training, they will develop an anal expulsive personality whereby the adult will be disorderly_, destructive, cruel, disorganized and messy

The phallic stage: very CONTROVERSIAL. It is said to occur b/w the ages of 3 and 6 b. Freud believed that during this time, increased sexual interest causes the child to be physically attracted to the parent of the opposite sex. i. In males, this attraction leads to an oedipus complex and in females it leads to the electra complex c. According to Freudian theory, the child's libido or sex energy is directed toward the parent of the opposite sex d. The child realizes that retaliation would result if he or she in the case of the Electra complex would act on these impulses e. The child thus strives for identification with the parent of the same sex to achieve vicarious sexual satisfaction. f. Freud felt that successful resolution of the Oedipus complex led to the development of the superego, which is accomplished by identification with the aggressor, the parent of the same sex.

a. The latency stage: occurs from age 6 to puberty and during this stage, psychosexual development is "on hold" for the time being

b. The genital stage: sexual energies reappear and all of the unresolved conflicts of earlier years emerge i. Freud believed that this emergence of sexual energies and "_unresolved_ conflicts that occur in puberty is the reason why adolescents are generally emotional and experience turmoil in their lives" ii. Freud contends that the genital stage ends with a mature capacity for love and the realization of full adult sexuality

a. Defense mechanism: the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality Another way of looking at it would be any mental process used to avoid, deny or distort sources of threat or anxiety including our self image Denial Repression Regression Reaction formation Projection Rationalization Displacement Intellectualization Identification with the aggressor Sublimation

arguing against an anxiety provoking stimuli by stating it doesn't exist

burying unpleasant memories; forgetting willingly

retreating to an earlier time period in our lives

when an unpleasant idea, feeling or impulse is turned into its opposite .Taking the opposite belief b/c the true belief causes anxiety

you feel threatened, therefore you project/attribute your threats onto others...you feel weak in performing a position but instead of admitting it, you tell others that another individual is weak and not able to perform their job

you unconsciously generate self justifying explanations to hide from the real reasons for our actions...alcoholics not willing to admit they have a problem may say I don't have a drinking problem...I only drink in social atmospheres

directing your actions toward others when you can't take them out on the source of your aggravation...bad day at work? Come home and kick the dog

avoiding unacceptable emotions by focusing on the intellectual aspects

adopting the characteristics of individuals we find threatening

acting out unacceptable impulses in a socially acceptable way

a. Founded the Society for individual Psychology in 1911 b. Adler believed that we are social creatures governed by social urges rather than biological instincts c. He felt that the "will to power" or "the striving or superiority" are the major sources of motivating humans d. He believed that we struggle to overcome our imperfections, which leads us to an upward drive for competence and mastery of our shortcomings e. According to Adler, what motivates us is our drive to compensate for our limitations, which leads us to choose other means to gain our superiority f. Adler believed that when we compensate for our shortcomings, we create a unique style of life or personality pattern to overcompensate for our limited abilities

i. Moving towards others: characterized by making excessive demands for love ii. Moving against others by exaggerating your own power, dominance and prestige iii. Moving away from others by withdrawing

a) Julian Rotter: 3 concepts to the structure of our personality b) Bandura: believes that one of the most important expectancies we develop concerns

i) How a person interprets or defines the situation we are in helps to define our personality (aka...the psychological situation) ii) The concept of expectancy_, which refers to our anticipation that making a response will lead to reinforcement and that helps to define our personality iii) And the concept of reinforcement values_, which states that humans attach different subjective values to various activities or rewards and that is what helps define our personality as well. (1) According to Rotter, all of these factors must be taken into account to understand the structure of personality

b) Bandura: believes that one of the most important expectancies we develop concerns self efficacy or a belief in your ability to produce a desired result i) Self efficacy plays a key role in shaping our lives by influencing the activities and environment ii) He emphasizes the interaction of individuals and their situations iii) We learn much of our behavior by observing and modeling others as well as emphasizing mental processes such as what we think about our situations and how it affects our behavior 29.) Social/cognitive learning theorists continued 1) Self reinforcement is also emphasized: self reinforcement is closely related to high self esteem and refers to praising or rewarding yourself for having made a particular response 2) Proponents of reciprocal determinism: the interacting influences b/w personality and environmental factors 3) Emphasizes personal control: our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless in it (do we control the environment or do we allow the environment to control us?)

external locus of control refers to individuals perception that chance or outside forces determine their fate.

Internal locus of control refers to our perception that we control our own destiny

c. The concept of Learned helplessness: the hopelessness and passive resignation of an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events d. Ex: if you were told you were stupid repeatedly, you soon come to believe it.

b. Emphasized that we as individuals have the capacity for inner peace and happiness c. Is known for the term fully functioning person, which refers to a person living in harmony with his or her deepest feelings, impulses and intuitions d. To increase our functioning as a person, we need to receive ample amounts of love and acceptance from others e. Emphasized the self as a continuously evolving conception of one's personal identity and believed that our behavior can be understood by balancing our self image with our actions f. Experiences that match the self image are what Rogers called symbolized or brought to our awareness and this is what Rogers believed enabled us to make changes in our lives g. In contrast, experiences that do not match our self image are said to be incongruent or not genuine due to the discrepancy that exists b/w one's self image and their ideal self h. Incongruence can distort our self image into a very unrealistic ideal self, which in turn can cause us to become confused, vulnerable and dissatified with life or very maladjusted. i. In contrast, individuals whose self image are consistent with what you really think, feel, do and experience are termed the ideal self which is essential to normal functioning of our lives according to Rogers. j. A key term Rogers coined was unconditional positive regard, which is the ability to accept all individuals with love and approval.

A key term Rogers coined was unconditional positive regard, which is the ability to accept all individuals with love and approval. Ability to except others as they are.

i. Believed our personalities are comprised of 3 major components 1. the Organism: our innate genetic makeup a. Similar to Freud's ID but Maslow saw this side of personality as more positive 2. The Self: our self concept; beliefs about who we are 3. Conditions of worth: expectations we place on ourselves for appropriate and inappropriate behavior a. Similar to Freud's Superego in that they come from our families, society and we then internalize them b. incongruence: inconsistencies between our self and the organism...meaning our personalities are not consistent; we are not our true selves ii. Belief in our ability to become self-actualized (a need to live up to one's fullest and unique potential) 1. .def: to be self actualized means you have reached a level of wholeness, completion, goodness, truth, autonomy etc...Maslow believed very few_ individuals reach this level

(a need to live up to one's fullest and unique potential) 1. .def: to be self actualized means you have reached a level of wholeness, completion, goodness, truth, autonomy etc...Maslow believed very few_ individuals reach this level

a. 4 methods psychologists use to measure and study personality i. Behavioral observation ii. Interviewing iii. Projective tests iv. Questionnaires

a. The most direct and objective method for gathering personality data. b. The validity of the data is difficult c. If you were observing "aggression" would prove to be difficult if it were not specifically defined. i. What specific observable behaviors would count as aggression? ii. How would the researcher quantify each behavior...on a continuum from none to a great deal or simply on the basis of whether or not it is present when observing iii. How long will you observe the behavior? iv. Will the people being observed see those observing them? If so, will this affect their behavior? d. All of these questions are addressed by having more than one person observing the behavior and using a process called _inter-rater reliability i. Def: a measure of how much agreement there is in ratings when using 2 or more raters to rate personality or other behaviors.

a. Occurs when you sit down with another person face to _face b. This is the most natural and comfortable of all personality assessment techniques. c. It is an ideal way to gather important information about a persons life. It is more engaging

a. 2 types: i. Rorschach inkblot test ii. Thematic apperception test

a. Is a series of ambiguous inkblots presented one at a time. b. The participant is asked to say what he or she sees in each one. c. Responses are recorded then coded by a trained psychologist or psychotherapist. d. The test measures unconscious motives but also the responses can help them diagnose various psychological disorders such as depression, suicidal thoughts, pedophilia, post-traumatic stress disorder, or anxiety disorders. m. Rorschach inkblot test cont... a. The Rorschach test is supposed to be administered in a very rigid way with a particular "format" or protocol in order to minimize variances in the results. b. The test giver will rarely if ever give you any guidance; they will instead tell you that you're free to do whatever you like with the card (flip it, tilt it, lay it down, etc). c. About 50% of people who take the test do flip or rotate the cards, and the psychologist is supposed to note anything and everything you do with them.

i. Consists of a series of hand-drawn cards depicting simple scenes that are ambiguous. ii. Participant's task is to make up a story about what he or she thinks is going on in the scene. iii. Like Rorschach responses, TAT answers are scored by trained raters. iv. No interpretation of personality is EVER based on just one inkblot or one TAT story; over a series of inkblots or TAT cards, a set of themes start emerging and assessment is made on that basis.

a. Def: self report instruments on which respondents indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with a series of statements as they apply to their personality. b. Consists of individual statements, or items and respondents indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with each statement as it applies to their personality. c. Example of a personality questionnaire: Minnesota multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI II)

a. This is used by psychotherapists to assess the degree and kind of a persons psychiatric personality traits such as depression, paranoia or psychopathic deviance (antisocial personality) b. The most widely used personality tests in Mental health r. MMPI scales a. Scale 1 - hypochondriasis i. Neurotic concern over bodily functioning. b. Scale 2 - depression i. Poor morale, lack of hope in the future, and a general dissatisfaction with one's own life situation. High scores are clinical depression whilst lower scores are more general unhappiness with life. c. Scale 3 - hysteria i. Hysterical reaction to stressful situations. Often have 'normal' facade and then go to pieces when faced with a 'trigger' level of stress. ii. People who tend to score higher include brighter, better educated and from higher social classes. Women score higher too. d. Scale 4 -psychopathic deviate i. Measures social deviation, lack of acceptance of authority, amorality. Adolescents tend to score higher. e. Scale 5 - Masculinity-Femininity i. Tests for homosexual tendencies. Men tend to get higher scores. It is also related to intelligence, education, and socioeconomic status. f. Scale 6 - Paranoia i. Paranoid symptoms such as ideas of reference, feelings of persecution, grandiose self-concepts, suspiciousness, excessive sensitivity, and rigid opinions and attitudes. s. MMPI scales continued a. Scale 7 - Psychasthenia i. Originally characterized by excessive doubts, compulsions, obsessions, and unreasonable fears, it now indicates conditions such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It also shows abnormal fears, self-criticism, difficulties in concentration, and guilt feelings. b. Scale 8 - Schizophrenia i. Assesses a wide variety of content areas, including bizarre thought processes and peculiar perceptions, social alienation, poor familial relationships, difficulties in concentration and impulse control, lack of deep interests, disturbing questions of self-worth and self-identity, and sexual difficulties. c. Scale 9 -hypomania i. Tests for elevated mood, accelerated speech and motor activity, irritability, flight of ideas, and brief periods of depression. d. Scale 0 - Social introversion i. Tests for a person's tendency to withdraw from social contacts and responsibilities.