PSCI 11C Personality Psychology

What are the elements of personality theory?

Motivation, structure, growth & development , and psychopathology & therapy.

Ernest Burke's conservation of energy said what?

Energy can't be created or destroyed; only change form

What is hysteria?

A disorder characterized by neurological symptoms often accompanied by exaggerated emotional behavior.

Freud was convinced that symptoms were what?

Psychogenic and treatable by hypnosis and therapy

Freud split the mind into what three parts?

Conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. He used an iceberg to display this depiction.

What is the id?

The basic instinct principle in Freudian theory. It is the seat of aggression and sexual impulse. It is devoid of logic and time orientation. It is chaotic and bodily focused.

What is libido?

Sensual vs. sexual

What is the pleasure principle?

the instinctive drive to seek pleasure and avoid pain, expressed by the id as a basic motivating force that reduces psychic tension.

What is primary process thinking?

Thinking without logical rules of conscious thought or an anchor in reality

What is the ego?

This is the reality principle in Freudian theory. It indicates power of reasoning and control over behavior. It helps keep the impulses of the id in check.

When does the ego emerge?

With the first frustration

What is secondary process thinking?

A compromise or development of strategies for solving problems and obtaining satisfaction

What is the superego?

Our moral conscience, and morally, the opposite of the id.

A structural model is what?

Dynamic. 3 forces in conflict, behavior results from ego finding compromise to satisfy id and superego

What is a signal of id impulses getting like a pressure cooker?

Anxiety

What are parapraxes?

Slips of the tongue (Freudian slips)

Freud said kids have polymorphous perversity which is…

A general sexual desire primarily in children

What are erogenous zones?

Focus on libidinal (id) energy changes over development

Oral stage timeline, erogenous zone, and typical outcomes

Takes place birth-18 months, erogenous zone is mouth (sucking), outcomes are habits like thumb sucking, fingernail biting, eating, and smoking.

Anal stage timeline, erogenous zone, and typical outcomes

Ages 18 months-4 years, erogenous zone is anus (production), outcome are traits like orderly, thrifty, stubborn, and controlling.

Phallic stage timeline, erogenous zone, and typical outcomes

Takes place 4-6 years, the erogenous zone is genitals (masturbation) and this is a crucial stage in development of superego and sex roles.

What is the Oedipus complex?

For both sexes, conflict begins with attraction to the mom. Boys begin to hate their father and fear him which is called castration anxiety.

What is the Electra complex?

The unconscious desire of girls to replace their mother and win their father's romantic love, penis envy

What is the latency stage?

Takes place ages 6 years - puberty with little libidinal activity or conflict

What is the genital stage?

Takes place from puberty onward and entails more mature sexual interests, no longer autoerotic, and less guilt and shame regarding sexuality.

What are Neo-Freudians?

Followers of Freud who developed their own competing theories of psychoanalysis

What is ego psychology?

Emphasize on ego drives rather than id drives

What did Alfred Adler say in ego psychology?

We strive for superiority and have inferiority complex

What did Karen Horney believe?

Moving toward, against, or away. Childhood anxiety triggers our desire for love and security

What did Erik Erickson look for?

Striving for identity

What are Erikson's psychological stages?

Infancy (trust vs mistrust), early childhood (autonomy vs. shame & doubt), play age (initiative vs. guilt), school age (industry vs. inferiority)

How do humanistic psychologists view human nature?

They believe humans are selfless, optimistic, and essentially positive.

True or false, we can't meet higher level needs unless lower level needs

are met on Maslow's hierarchy of needs

True

Carl Rogers called his client/person centered approach what?

Phenomenological theory, focuses on self-actualization and a heavy focus on the self

What is organismic experience?

How we really feel: objective and unconscious

What is phenomenal experience?

How we say we feel: subjective and conscious

What is incongruent and congruent?

Incongruent is when phenomenal and organismic experience disagree, congruent is when they agree.

What is the difference between unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard?

Conditional positive regard determines on the person, unconditional is not dependent on behavior.

What is positive regard

Positive regard is liking, loving, or respecting another person or yourself.

True or false, psychoanalytic and humanistic psychology is based on lots of data

False

What views are considered classic views?

Psychoanalytical & humanistic

What views are considered contemporary views?

Trait & social-cognitive

Explain classic views

Emerged from clinical work with patients, broad expiatory theories, historical and dynamic

Explain contemporary views

Emerged from experimental psychological research & statistical analysis, more focused & specific, ahistorical, descriptive, and predictive

What is the trait approach?

The trait approach is a common sense view of personality, there are thousands of terms and language to describe personality.

States vs. Traits

Traits = stable characteristics of the individual (cannot change, or don't tend to change) States = dynamics attributes of the individual (can change and will often)

Traits vs types

traits involve quantitative differences among people (how much of a certain characteristic they possess) while types involve qualitative differences (whether someone possesses a certain characteristic at all)

What is temperament?

A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

What are inhibited people like?

Shy, anxious, fearful of novel situations

What are uninhibited people like?

Outgoing, calm, and more likely to more novel situations.

Eysenck's extraversion/introversion dimension says

Introverts have a higher central nervous system reactivity, lower pain tolerance, and prefer less noice while studying.

Zuckerman's sensation seeking dimension says what?

Sensation seeking is the tendency to seek novelty excitement, low tolerance for boredom. Chronically underaroused people have issues linked to neurotransmitters in the brain.

Cattle began with 4500 trait terms and used factor analysis to distill it to how many dimensions

16

The big 5 consists of what?

OCEAN!

Openness to experience

Carefulness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Define Conscientiousness

How dependable, responsible, achievement-oriented, and persistent one is

Define neuroticism

Tendency to experience negative moods characterized by anxiety, depression, and hostility

What is the social cognitive approach?

Interaction between personality, thinking, behavior, and the situation

Define behavior

A function of the interaction of personality and situation

When does personality reveal itself?

In weak situations

What is reciprocal determinism?

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

What is delay of gratification?

The ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and wait for a later reward

What are the different attributional styles?

Internal-external, stable-unstable, and global-specific

What's the difference between optimistic, attribution style, and pessimistic attribution style?

Optimistic attributional style views negative events in an external unstable and specific way. Pessimistic attribution style views negative events in an intentional stable and global way.

What is depressive realism?

The fact that depressed people have a more accurate perception of how they are viewed by others

What approach focus on individual cases?

Ideographic (the study of specific specific facts)

What concept suggests that behavior is determined by personality and situations?

Interactionism (refers to the idea that meaning is produced via interactions of individuals)

What does the term "locus of control" mean?

The belief about how much control one has over outcomes

What is the approach that identifies general laws applying to everyone?

Nomothetic (relating to the study of general scientific laws)

What are projective measures?

Assessments that show unconscious process via ambiguous stimuli

What is the sociometer theory?

How people gage their self-esteem based off of how other people view them

True or false, self esteem is NOT a characteristic of temperament.

True

What is reaction formation in Freud's defense mechanism

Acting in the opposite manner of one's true feelings to hide uncomfortable emotions

What is sublimation in Freud's defense mechanism

Channeling negative emotions or instincts into socially acceptable behaviors.

Are Western (individualist) or Eastern (collectivist) cultures more likely to exhibit self-serving bias?

Western

What are the 3 elements of temperament

Activity levels, emotionability, sociability

What is the dark triad?

Narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism (anti-social behavior)

What is the light triad?

Kantianism (not using or manipulating people), humanism, faith in humanity

What is the thematic appearance test?

Telling a story using a photo

What is factor analysis?

Clustering similar things together