Chapter 6 - Identity and Personality

Self concept

sum of the ways in which we describe ourseles in the present, past, and future

identities

individual components of our self concept related to the groups to which we belong

self esteem

describes our evaluation of ourselves, the closer actual to ideal self and our ought self the higher the self esteem

self eficacy

degree to which we see ourselves as being capable at a given skill or in a given situation

learned helplessness

when placed in a consistently hopeless scenario

locus of control

self evaluation that refers to the way we characterize the influence in our lives

freud’s psychosexual stages of personality development are based on

tension cause by libido, failures at any stage leads to fixation that causes personality disorder

freud’s phases

oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital are based on the erogenous zones that are the focus of each phase of development

erikson’s stages of psychosocial development stem from

conflicts that occur throughout life and are the result of decisions we are forced to make

kohlberg’s stages of moral development describe

the approaches of individuals to resolving moral dilemma, divided into: preconventional, conventional, postconventional

vygotsky described development of culture through

the idea of the zone of proximal development which describes skills that a child has not yet mastered and require knowledgeable other to accomplish

imitation and role taking are

common ways children learn from others

our self concept depends in part on

our reference group to which we compare ourselves

the psychoanalytic perspective views

personality as resulting from unconscious urges and desires

freud’s theories are based on

the id (base urges of survival), the superego (idealist and perfectionist) and the ego (the mediator between the 2 and the mind)

the ego makes use of

defense mechanisms to reduce stress caused by the urges of id and superego

jung assumed

a collective unconscious that links all humans together

the humanistic perspective emphasizes

the internal feelings of healthy individuals as they strive toward happiness and realization

type and trait theorists believe

that personality can be described as a number of identifiable traits that carry behaviors

type theories include

ancient Greek notion of humors, Sheldon’s somatotypes, division into types A and B, and the Myers-Briggs Type inventory

the eysencks identified 3 major traits that can be used to describe all individual

psychoticism (nonconformity), extraversion (tolerance for social interaction), neuroticism (arousal in stressful sitiation)

trait theorists expanded the 3 traits into

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

Allport identified 3 basic traits

cardinal, central, and secondary

cardinal trait

traits around which a person organizes their life

central traits

represent major characteristics of personality

secondary traits

more personal characteristics and are limited to occurrence

the social cognitive perspective holds that

individuals interact with their environments in a cycle called reciprocal determinism where people mold their environments according to their beliefs

the behaviorist perspective based

operant conditioning holds that personality can be described as the behaviors one has learned from prior rewards

biological theorists claim

behavior can be explained as a result of genetic expression