Psyc 203-2

What is personality?

What is personality?

A collection of a person’s consistent behavioural traits

What is OCEAN?

Openness to experience

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

What is openness to experience?

Curiosity, flexibility, imaginativeness, artistic, tolerant of ambiguity, unconventional attitudes

What is conscientiousness?

Disciplined, well-organized, punctual, dependable

What is extraversion?

Outgoing, sociable, friendly, assertive

What is agreeableness?

Sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest

What is neuroticism?

Anxious, insecure, impulsive, emotionally unstable, hostile, vulnerable

What are psychodynamic theories?

Includes all the theories descended from the work of Freud, focuses on unconscious mental forces

Who was Freud?

Physician specializing in neurology, used psychoanalysis to treat patients suffering from anxiety, obsessions, and irrational fears. Treatment included lengthy interactions, delved into people’s pasts

What is the pleasure principle?

Seeking immediate gratification

What is the reality principle?

Negotiates between id and real world

What is the morality principle?

Sense of right and wrong, begins between ages 3 and 5

What is the conscious?

Whatever one is aware of at a particular point in time

What is the preconscious?

Contains material just below the consciousness that can be easily retrieved

What is the unconscious?

Contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are not easily accessible to the consciousness, but exert great influence on one’s behaviour/personality

What level does the id operate at?

Unconscious

What are defence mechanisms?

Largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety or guilt, they deny or distort reality

What is repression?

Keeping distressing thoughts buried in the unconscious

What is projection?

Attributing one’s thoughts to another person

What is displacement?

Diverting emotional feelings from original source to substitute target

What is reaction formation?

Behaving in a way that is opposite of one’s true feelings

What is rationalization?

The creation of false, yet plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behaviour

What is denial?

Refusing to accept the reality of a situation

When does reliance on defence mechanisms increase?

When people experience stress or a threat to their sense of self

What are Freud’s psychosexual stages?

Developmental periods with a characteristic sexual focus that impacts adult personality

When does fixation occur, and what does it cause?

If the child fails to move forward from one stage to another, their development stalls for a while. This can impact adult personality and cause psychological disorders

What did Jung theorize the unconscious consists of?

The personal and collective unconcious

What is the personal unconscious?

Repressed material from one’s past

What is collective unconcious?

Storehouse of memory traces inherited from people’s ancestral past, shared with the entire human race

What are archetypes?

Emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meaning; often show up in dreams, used in art, literature, religion, influence personality

What is introversion?

Energy directed inward, prefer being alone

What is extroversion?

Energy directed outward, prefer social contact

What is Adler’s individual psychology?

Most important human drive was not sexuality, but striving for superiority; universal drive to adapt, improve oneself, and master life’s challenges. Feelings of inferiority in young children motivate them to learn and acquire new skills

What is compensation?

Efforts to overcome real or imagines inferiorities by developing one’s abilities

What is an inferiority complex?

Exaggerated feelings of weakness and inadequacy

What are the contributions of psychodynamic theory?

Unconscious forces can influence behaviour, internal conflict may play key role in psychological distress, early childhood experiences can influence adult personality, people use defence mechanisms

What are criticisms of psychodynamic theory?

Poor testability (depends too much on clinical case studies), many hypotheses challenged by empirical evidence, male centred and sexist view of personality

What is behaviourism?

Theoretical orientation based on the premise that psychology should only study overt behaviour

What does personality a result of?

Response tendencies: observable reactions in certain situations which develop from learning

What are children’s response tendencies shaped by?

Classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning

What is classical conditioning?

Type of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus, first described by Pavlov

What is unconditioned stimulus?

A stimulus that evokes a natural response, no conditioning or learning needed)

What is an unconditioned response?

The unlearned natural response to a US

What is a neutral stimulus?

A stimulus that does not elicit a response

What is a conditioned stimulus?

A previously neutral stimulus that has acquired the capacity to evoke a response through conditioning

What is a conditioned response?

A response to a stimulus that occurs because of conditioning

In the Little Albert video, what was the neutral stimulus, and what was the unconditioned stimulus?

When the white rat was first introduced it was a neutral stimulus, the loud noise was an unconditioned stimulus

In the Little Albert video, what was the unconditioned response?

Him crying in response to the loud noise

In the Little Albert video, what was the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response?

The rat became a conditioned stimulus once being associated with the loud noise, and the crying was a conditioned response

What is Skinner’s operant conditioning?

A form of learning in which rewards and punishments act to modify voluntary behaviours

What principle is operant conditioning based on?

The principle that organisms tend to repeat behaviours followed by favourable consequences, and tend to not repeat behaviours followed by unfavourable consequences

What is reinforcement?

A consequence that strengthens a response; makes a response more frequent

What is positive reinforcement?

A response is strengthened because it is followed by a pleasant stimulus, making you do it more

What is negative reinforcement?

A response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an unpleasant stimulus

What is punishment?

A response is weakened because it is followed by an unpleasant stimulus

What is Bandura’s social cognitive theory?

In addition to learning through classical and operant conditioning, we also learn through imitation

What is observational learning?

Occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by the observations of others

What is the cognitive process of observational learning?

Attention, Memory, Ability, Motivation

When are models more influential regarding imitation?

It’s a person that the subject likes, respects, considers attractive or powerful, is seen as similar to themselves, or if the behaviour leads to positive outcomes

What is self efficacy?

A person’s belief in their ability to complete a task or achieve a goal

What is high/low self-efficacy?

Confidence/doubt in one’s abilities

What are some contributions of behavioural perspective?

It’s rooted in empirical research rather than clinical intuition, explains why people aren’t always consistent in their behaviour

What are some criticisms of behavioural perspectives?

Neglected cognitive processes, has been overly dependent on animal research

What is humanism?

A theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their free will and their potential for personal growth

What do humanistic theorists believe?

People have an innate drive towards personal growth, people have freedom to decide how they behave and are not controlled by their environment, people are largely conscious and rational beings that are not dominated by unconscious needs and conflicts

What is Roger’s person-centred theory?

Focused on a person’s subjective point of view, was based on extensive therapeutic interactions with clients, goal was to get the person back in touch with their true self, personality was defined by the self

What is incongruence?

The disparity between one’s self-concept and one’s actual experience; everyone experiences some

What does extreme incongruence cause?

Psychological maladjustment

What is congruence?

When one’s self-concept reflects one’s experience/ is reasonably accurate

What is conditional love?

Dependent on the child meeting behavioural expectations, fosters incongruence

What is unconditional love?

No dependent conditions, fosters congruence

What are the contributions of humanistic perspectives?

Identified the self-concept as a key element of personality, highlighted the importance of psychological health, put down the foundations for positive psychology

What are the criticisms of humanistic perspectives?

Concepts are difficult to test scientifically, has an unrealistic view of human nature, inadequate evidence to support theories

Why does personality have a biological basis?

Because natural selection has favoured certain personality traits over the course of human history

What did David Buss theorize?

That Big 5 personality traits are present across cultures because they have significant adaptive value. Humans have depended on groups for survival, so they need to judge each other based on personality characteristics representative of the big 5

What is an example of a personality trait that would be evolutionary beneficial?

Extroversion- ability to bond, be dependable, and work hard

What is the contribution of biological perspectives?

Genetics and hereditary perspectives are well-supported by research

What is the criticism of biological perspectives?

Evolutionary theories have hindsight bias

What is narcissism?

Inflated sense of importance, a need for attention and admiration, a sense of entitlement, and a tendency to exploit others

What is collective narcissism?

Inflated belief in the greatness of one’s own group coupled with resentment about one’s group not being sufficiently appreciated by others

What is perfectionism?

Deeply ingrained concern and need to attain perfection in a wide range of endeavours

What are the 3 dimensions of perfectionism?

Self-oriented: high standards for oneself and making overly critical evaluations of oneself

Other-oriented: imposing demands for perfection on others, domineering, hypocritical, hostile in interpersonal relationships

Socially-prescribed: others require perfection from them, pursue high standards to meet perceived demands of others

How do asian cultures score in extraversion?

Lower

How do southern and eastern european cultures score in neuroticism?

Higher

How do central and south american cultures score in openness to experience?

Higher

How does a sense of self develop?

First understanding: based on a baby’s ability to make things happen

Second understanding: based on a baby’s ability to think about themselves

What is the mirror self-recognition test?

A test to determine if a child has developed self awareness. A dot is placed on the forehead, they look in a mirror, and if they recognize it’s themselves they will reach for the dot

At what age do children develop self-recognition?

18-24 months

What is the shopping cart test?

Babies have to have a sense of self to move the cart, young babies don’t realize their own bodies are preventing the cart from moving

What is the self-concept?

A collection of beliefs about one’s own basic nature, unique qualities, and typical behaviours

What are self-schemas?

Beliefs about the self

What is Higgins’ 3 types of selves?

Actual self: qualities you believe you actually posses

Ideal self: qualities you would like to possess

Ought self: qualities you believe you should possess

What is self-discrepancy?

Occurs when there is a mismatch between the self-perceptions that make up the actual self and the ideal self/ought self

What are some ways to cope with self-discrepancies?

Change behaviour to make your actual self reflect your ideal/ought self, or alter your ideal self to be more reflective of your actual self

What is the self-reference effect?

Information that is related to the self is remembered better than non-related information, we are good at retaining and organizing information relevant to our identities

What is the social comparison theory?

Proposes that individuals compare themselves with others in order to assess their abilities and opinions

What is the purpose of social comparison?

Accurately assessing abilities, improve skills, maintain self image

What is a reference group?

A set of people who are used as a gauge in making social comparisons

What are upward social comparisons?

Can be motivating and help you improve skills and reach your goals

What are downward social comparisons?

Can enable you to feel better about yourself