UNIT 6 PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Neo Freudians

placed less emphasis on libido

Inferiority complex

Alfred alders idea that children strive for power and superiority

Karen Horney

Believed in social aspects of childhood growth and development

Collective unconscious

One of Carl Jung’s beliefs which contained a common reservoir of images derived from our species past

Projective tests

Psychological instrument that reveals the hidden unconscious mind. The most popular is the Rorschach 10 inkblot test

Criticisms of projective tests

Lack reliability and validity

False consensus effect

you believe something and assume others have those same beliefs as you

Person centered perspective

Idea by Carl rogers that people are innately good and to belief in our self actualization tendencies

Unconditional positive regard

An acceptance of others despite their feelings

Self-concept

All of our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to the question who am I?

Criticisms of humanistic perspective on personality

1. Concepts are vague and lack scientific basis

2. Encouraged individualism can lead to selfishness and an erosion of moral restraints

3. Fail to recognize human capacity for evil

Reciprocal determination

A persons behavior both influences and is influences by personal and environmental factors

Self efficacy

A persons belief in his or her ability to succeed

External locus of control

Perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate

Internal locus of control

Perception that we control our own fate (people are typically more successful)

Spotlight effect

We overestimate our concern that others evaluate our appearance, performance, mistakes

Self serving bias

Our readiness to perceive ourselves favorably

Defense self esteem

Fragile and egotistic

Secure self esteem

Less fragile and less dependent on external evaluation

Stereotype threat

self concern that we will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype

Fluid intelligence

Ability to reason speedily and abstractly - declines with age

Crystalline intelligence

Accumulated knowledge reflected in vocabulary and analogies - stays the same as you get older

Down syndrome

A condition of intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21

Autism spectrum disorder

A neurodeveloping disorder in various degrees by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal behaviors, and repetitive behaviors.

Mesolithic pathway

Brain circuit that helps take pleasure in social interaction

Twin/Adoption studies show

Significant genetic contribution to intelligence

heritability

Extent to which a trait is explained by genetics - the variation in intelligence test scores are attributable to genetics (about 50% difference)

Personality

An individuals characteristic pattern of thinking feeling and acting

The Barnum effect/forer effect

When individuals read generic personality statements and believe they specially apply to us

Freud believed

Our personality is the result of our efforts to resolve this conflict and bring satisfaction without guilt or punishment

erogenous zones

Pleasure seeking zones

Freuds psychosexual stages

Old (oral)

Age (anal)

People (phalic)

Love (latency)

Gambling (genital)

Oral

Pleasure centers on the mouth through sucking biting etc

Anal

Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination

Phallic

Pleasure zone is the genitals coping with incestuous sexual feelings

Latency

Dormant sexual feelings

Opedius complex / Electra complex

Boys desire for mother and anger towards father / same but for girls

Identification

Process where superego gains strength that incorporates parents values

Defense mechanisms

Egos protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Repression

Banished anxiety arousing thoughts and underlies all other defense mechanisms

Projection

Disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Displacement

Shifts sexual/aggression towards more acceptable people/objects

Reaction formation

Switch unacceptable impulses into their opposites feelings

regression

Retreat to a more infantile psychosexual stage

Rationalization

Self justifying explanations in place of real unconscious reasons for one’s actions

Identification

Bolstering self esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with same person or group

denial

Denying the truth exists despite evidence

Sublimation

Transferring unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives

Gordon Allports trait perspective

An individual’s unique constellation of consistent ways of behaving constitutes his or her personality

Factor analysis

Statistical approach used to identify personality traits

Hans and Sybil Eysenck

Focuses on two factors extroversion and introversion and emotional stability and instability

Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI)

Assesses abnormal personality tendency’s and is the most widely researched and clinically used personality test

The big 5 factors

Consciousness

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Openness to experience

Extroversion

High conscientiousness

Organized careful disciplined

High Agreeableness

Soft hearted trusting helpful

Neuroticism

Anxious insecure self pitying

High Openness to experience

Imaginative independent prefer variety

High extroversion

Sociable fun loving affectionate

Free association

Form of psycho analysis

Emotional intelligence

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

Walter mischel marshmallow challenge

Tested children’s delayed gratification/impulse control

Robert sternbergs Analytic intelligence

Intelligence assessed by single answer tests

Sternbergs creative intelligence

Makes us adapt to novel situations generating novel ideas

Sternbergs Practical intelligence

required for every day tasks. Depend less on academic skills than on an ability to manage one’s self (street smarts)

Existential intelligence

Ability to think about the question of life death and existence

Naturalistic intelligence

Understanding nature, making distinctions

Intrapersonal intelligence

Leading, organizing, understanding, communicating

Musical intelligence

Singing, remembering sounds, rhythms

Bodily ministration intelligence

Athletics, dancing, crafts, acting

Mathematical/logical intelligence

Math, logic, problem solving, reasoning

Visual/spatial intelligence

Maps, drawing, mazes, puzzles

Verbal/linguistic intelligence

Writing,reading,memorizing, telling storyiss

Savant syndrome

A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill

Howard Gardner

Multiple intelligence theory (8 types)

Charles spearman general intelligence

Uses factor analysis and identifies clusters of related intelligence scores

General intelligence

Underlies specific mental ability’s and if therefore measures by every task on an intelligence test

Intelligence

The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

Alfred binetd mental age

Chronological age that corresponds to a given level of performance

Lewis German

iq formula mental age/chronological age x100

Eugenics

social movement aimed at selective breeding to get a species to turn out a certain way

The Flynn effect

Getting gradually smarter on iq tests as a species

Standardization

Administering test to representative sample beforehand so you can establish a basis for meaningful comparison

Reliability

Extent to which a test yield consistent results

Split half reliability

Dividing test into two equal halves

Test retest reliability

Using the same test in two occasions

Validity

What the test is supposed to measure/predict

Content validity

Test measures a particular behavior/trait

Predictive validity

Fiction of test in predicting a particular behavior/trait