Chapter 12-Elementary Psych

Personality

Individual’s characteristic pattern of behaving, thinking, and feeling

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s therapy and theory of personality

Three interacting systems

Id, ego, superego

free association

uncovers repressed childhood memories

Regression

Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

Reaction formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites

Projection

Disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions

Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive

Six defense Mechanisms

Regression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization, displacement, denial

Projective Unconscious Processes

Standard series of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unconscious thoughts or feelings

Rorschach Inkblot Test

individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots (form, color, movement/shading)

Thematic Apperception Test

Ambiguous pictures of people shown to individuals who make up stories about them

Self-actualizing tendency

Human motive toward realizing our inner potential

Self-concept

An individual’s central feature of personality

How to help people realize their potential

Acceptance, genuineness, empathy

Trait

relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way

Big five

Traits of a five-factor model: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism (OCEAN)

Self report

Series of answer to a questionnaire, survey

Openness (big five)

Left (practical, prefers routine, conforming) → Right (imaginative, prefers variety, independent)

Conscientiousness (big five)

Left (Disorganized, careless, impulsive) → Right (organized, careful, disciplined)

Extraversion (Big five)

Left (Retiring, sober, reserved) → Right (Sociable, fun-loving, affectionate)

Agreeableness

Left (ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative) → Right (soft-hearted, trusting, helpful)

Neuroticism (emotional stability v. instability)

Left (Calm, secure, self-satisfied) → Right (Anxious, insecure, self-pitying)

MMPI-3

clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problem

Factors

Clusters of behavior tendencies that occur together

Hans and Sybli Eysenck

Reduce individual variability to:

• extraversion-introversion

• stability-instability

Extraversion-introversion

Related to neurophysiology—over/under stimulation of the reticular formation (arousal)

____ influence the behavioral style and temperament that mark personality

genes

Temperament is related to _____ and _____

reactivity; arousal → autonomic nervous system

Monozygotic twins

Identical

Dizygotic twins

Fraternal

Big Five Factor Question: How stable are these traits?

we also see a shift in relation to maturity.. Where up in con and down in neuro

Big Five Factor Question: How well do these traits apply to various cultures?

It aligns with the characteristic w behavior and traits that we see in individuals.. High on agreement

Person-Situation Controversy

Question of whether behavior is caused more by personality or by situational factors

Evaluating Trait Theories

Weak prediction of a person’s behavior in any one situation

Predict a person’s average behavior over many situations

Remain hidden in unfamiliar, formal situations

Social cognitive approach

Focuses on how individual traits and thoughts interact with social situations

Outside influences on behavior

Social psychology

Inner influences

personality psychology

Reciprocal determinism

Interacting influences of behavior, cognition, and environment

internal personal factors → environmental factors → behavior

Biological influences

• genetically determined temperament

• autonomic nervous system reactivity

• brain activity

psychological influences

• learned responses

• unconscious thought processes

• expectations and interpretations

Evaluating social-cognitive theories

Emphasize how situations affect, and are affected by, individuals

BUT: theories focus so much on the situation that they fail to appreciate the person’s inner traits

Self

In the modern psychology, assumed to be the center of personality

Possible selves

include visions of the self-one dreams of becoming and the self one fears becoming

Self-esteem

feelings of high or low self-worth

Self-efficacy

Sense of competence on a task

Narcissistic

People with inflated self-esteem

Self-serving bias

People’s tendency to take credit for their successes but downplay responsibility for their failures

• People are most overconfident when most incompetent

Dunning-Kruger effect

Ignorance of one’s own incompetence

Individalism

• Emphasizes people’s individual goals over group goals

• Defines identity mainly in terms of unique personal traits

Collectivism

• Prioritizes the goals of the group (extended family or work group) and defines identity accordingly

• Varies across and within cultures

Self (Individualism)

Independent (identity from internal, individual traits)

Self (collectivism)

Interdependent (identity from group roles)

Life task (individualism)

Discover and express your own uniqueness

Life task (collectivism)

Maintain connections, fit in, perform your role

What matters (individualism)

Me—personal achievement and fulfillment, rights and liberties, self-esteem

What matters (collectivism)

Us—group goals and solidarity; social responsibilities and relationships; family duty

Coping method (individualism)

change reality

Coping method (collectivism)

adjust to reality

Morality (individualism)

Defined by the individual (choice based)

Morality (collectivism)

Defined by social networks (duty-based)

Relationships (individualism)

Easier to enter and leave relationships

Relationships (collectivism)

Fewer but closer and more stable relationships

Attributing behavior (individualism)

Behavior reflects the individual’s personality and attitudes

Attributing behavior (collectivism)

Behavior also reflects social norms and roles