PSYC 100 Chapter 14 Personality

What is personality?

Characteristics, traits, and behaviors that are consistent across time and situations.

What are psychogenic causes of illness?

Illnesses caused by the mind, not the body.

Who believed in the unconscious mind and psychogenic causes of illness?

Sigmund Freud.

What does the Id represent?

Primitive urges.

What does the Superego represent?

Sense of morality.

What is the Ego?

The main decision maker of the personality.

What is repression?

Memory is driven into the unconscious.

What is denial?

Refusal to admit or remember something.

What is regression?

Acting out qualities of a younger age.

What is reaction formation?

Reversing an anxiety-causing emotion.

What is projection?

Attributing negative qualities to others.

What is rationalization?

Twisting the unreasonable to sound reasonable.

What is intellectualization?

Focusing on facts or impersonal thoughts.

What is displacement?

Redirecting emotions to a safer outlet.

What is sublimation?

Transforming socially unacceptable impulse into an admired goal.

What is identification with the aggressor?

Taking on characteristics of or sympathizing with a threatening person.

What are Freud's psychosexual stages?

Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital.

What is fixation in Freud's theory?

A person stuck in a stage due to over- or under-satisfaction.

What happens in the oral stage?

Focus on mouth; fixation leads to stress regression, reassurance need, and bad habits.

What happens in the anal stage?

Focus on toilet training; fixation leads to anal personality.

What happens in the phallic stage?

Children attracted to opposite-sex parent; involves Oedipus/Electra complex.

What happens in the latency stage?

Sexual impulses are submerged; no sexual interest.

What happens in the genital stage?

Sexual impulses reawaken; leads to healthy relationships if no fixation occurred.

What are criticisms of Freud's theory?

Unfalsifiability, failed predictions, weak evidence, flawed sample, questionable unconscious.

What are traits?

Consistent predispositions that influence behavior across situations.

What influences trait development?

Interplay between genes and environment.

What are shared environmental factors?

Experiences shared by individuals that make them more alike.

What are non-shared environmental factors?

Experiences not shared that make individuals less alike.

How might birth order affect personality?

Early borns: achievement; middle: diplomacy; late: rebellious, risk-taking.

What do twin studies examine?

Genetic contributions to personality by comparing identical and fraternal twins.

How much do identical twins' personalities correlate?

Roughly 50%, indicating genetic and environmental roles.

Does shared environment influence personality?

Very little, according to twin studies.

What do adoption studies show?

Adopted children's personalities resemble biological parents more than adoptive ones.

What do comparisons of separated biological vs. adopted siblings show?

Biological siblings are more alike than adopted siblings.

Does genetics determine personality?

Genes influence but do not fully determine personality; multiple factors involved.