Chapter 12 - Personality

what is personality?

a person’s general way of interacting with the world

what is personality consistancy?

stability of the behaviour over time and across situations

what is personality distinctiveness?

different people react to the same situation in different ways

what is a personality trait?

durable disposition to behave in a particular way

what is the five-factor model of personality traits (big five personality factors)

• openness to experience

• conscientiousness

• extraversion

• agreeableness

• neuroticism

(OCEAN)

who made the five factor model of personality traits

mccrae and costa

what big five personality factor tends to be more politcally liberal

openness to experience

what big five personality factor tends to live longer

conscientiousness

what big five personality factor is less likely to be divorced

conscientiousness

what is uncontrollable stigma?

when we attach negative correlation (judgement) to people who we think have a “controllable fault”

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aka, judging people for smoking because it’s a behaviour that they can control

what was freud’s theories focused on? (3)

• early childhood experiences

• unconcious motives and conflicts

• inhibited sexual and aggresive urges

what are the three levels of awareness (freud)

• conscious

• unconcious

• presconcious

according to freud, what is the structure of personality? (3)

• id

• ego

• superego

what is id?

raw biological urges, innate drives we are born with

(eating, sleeping, bathroom, sex)

id operates according to what principle?

pleasure principle

what principle does superego operate according to?

idealistic principle

what is superego?

moral guide / conscience influenced by internalizing parents’ values and the voice of society

what works against id by inflicting guilt?

superego

what is ego?

assesses what is realistically possible in satisfying the id and/or superego

what principle does ego operate according to?

reality principle

what is consciousness?

acute awareness, things you are thinking about right now

what is preconsciousness?

just under awareness, easily known

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ex. accessing the answer to the question “what are you having for dinner tonight?”

what is unconciousness?

well below awareness, difficult to know but very influential

according to freud, personality is the result of the battle for control between what? (3)

id, ego, and superego

what is repression?

ego keeps threatening impulses out of awareness

what is denial?

ego refuses to acknowledge anxiety-producing realities

what is projection?

ego attributes personal shortcomings, problems, and faults to others

what is reaction formation?

ego transforms an unacceptable motive into its opposite

(we form a reaction that’s more socially acceptable)

what is regression?

ego seeks the security of an earlier developmental period in the face of stress

what is displacement?

ego shifts feelings toward an unnacceptable object to another more acceptable object

(taking out anger on someone/something else)

what is sublimation?

ego replaces an unacceptable impulse with a socially acceptable one

(ex. wanting to punch someone but instead you lift weights)

what is rationalization?

ego replaces a less acceptable unconcious thought or impulse with a more acceptable concious one

(ex. making excuses for failure, “i did bad on that test because the test was unfair”)

what is the oedipus complex?

desire to replace the same-sex parent and enjoy the affections of the opposite parent

what is the electra complex?

the oedipus complex but for girls idk why its different lmaoo

what are the main criticisms of psychoanalytical theory? (4)

• sexist against women

• unverifiable concepts

• inadequate empirical base (description rather than prediction)

• too many hypotheses for reactions to anxiety

what is the collective unconscious?

deepest layer of the unconcious mind, shared by all human beings because of their common ancestral past

what did carl jung propose?

that the unconscious consists of two layers: the personal unconscious and collective unconscious

what is the personal unconscious?

it houses material that is not within one’s concious awareness because it has been repressed or forgotten

what are archetypes?

ancestral memories, emotionally charged images and thoughts that have universal meaning

what did adler argue that the foremost source of human motivation was?

striving for superiority

what is adler’s idea of compensation?

efforts to overcome imagined or real inferiorities by developing one’s abilities

what is an inferiority complex?

excessive feelings of inferiority, exaggerated feelings of weakness and inadequacy

what is adler’s idea of overcompensation?

working to aquire status and power, especially from material things like fancy cars and expensive clothesl to conceal feelings of inferiority

who first gave attention to the possible importance of birth order as a factor governing personality?

adler

what did karen horney contribute to psychoanalysis?

she broadened the perspective of psychoanalysis to consider childhood, environment, and interpersonal relationships

what was karen horney’s most important criticism of freud’s idea?

she criticized his emphasis on the central role played by infantile sexuality on personality development.

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she believed that an infants need for a sense of security was more important

what did b.f. skinner contribute to personality psychology?

* behavioural perspective

focused on how the external environment could change behaviour, thought that people have consistant behaviour because they aquired them through situations (skinner viewed an individual’s personality as a collection of response tendencies tied to various situations)

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theorized that environmental consequences (reinforcement, punishment) determine people’s patterns of responding

what did b.f skinner use in his research?

rats and pigeons

what is a reinforcer?

anything that makes a behaviour more likely to occur again in the future

what is positive reinforcement?

something has been __added__ to make the behaviour more likely

what is negative reinforcement?

something has been __taken away__ to make the behaviour more likely

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ex. taking advil REMOVES the headache, making you more likely to take advil in the future

what did albert bandura contribute to personality psychology?

* social-cognitive perspective

theorized that our environment determines behaviour, but we can learn through observational learning

what is reciprocal determinism?

the back and forth relationship between our behaviour and our environment, and our internal cognitive factors (beliefs, expectations, etc.)

what is self-efficacy?

our belief of whether or not we can do something right now

* our belief makes it more likely we will do that thing

what did water mischel contribute to personality psychology?

• social-cognitive perspective

he theorized that behaviour depends on the situation (interactionist - to understand someone’s behaviour you must understand the situation they were in)

(ex. quiet in class, loud at hockey game)

• person x situation interaction

what are the pros of behavioural and social cognitive perspectives of personality? (2)

• based on rigorous research

• insights into effects of learning and environmental factors

what are the cons of behavioural and social cognitive perspectives of personality? (3)

• over-dependence on animal research

• fragmented view of personality

• dehumanizing views

what is the humanistic perspective of personality?

stress the person’s capacity for personal growth, freedom to choose destiny, and positive qualities

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contrasts behavioural perspective

what did carl rogers contribute to personality psychology?

* humanistic perspective

believed that people are free to choose their own actions, and are not governed by their environments

what is incongruence?

the degree of disparity between one’s self-concept and actual experience

what is self-concept?

a collection of beliefs about our own nature, unique qualities, and typical behaviour

what did abraham maslow contribute to personality psychology?

* humanistic perspective

created the hierarchy of needs, with self-actualization being the highest need

what are pros of the humanistic perspective to personality psychology? (2)

• importance of a person’s subjective view of reality

• attention to the issue of what constitiutes a healthy personality

what are cons of the humanistic perspective to personality psychology? (4)

• too optimistic

• lacking a strong research base

• may encourage excessive self-love

• hard to test empirically

what did eysenck contribute to personality psychology?

* biological perspective

theorized that behaviour is determined by evolutionary adaptations, the wiring of the brain, and heredity

(nature is more influencial than nurture)

what 3 “higher-order” traits did eysenck believe all aspects of personality emerge from?

• extraversion

• neuroticism

• psychoticism

what is the terror management theory?

we have a biological drive to stay alive but we have a psychological awareness of our vunerability and mortality

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our self-esteem and cultural belief systems reduce existential anxiety

what are immortality projects?

project to continue on after our life ends (big families, writing books, fame, etc.)

what is mortality salience?

the awareness by individuals that their death is inevitable, which leads to defending our own cultural world views and self-esteem (ex. increased nationalism after 9/11)

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what demographic is most research based on? (WEIRD)

\-Westernized

\-Educated

\-Industrialized

\-Rich

\-Democratic

what are individualistic cultures?

• industrialized western cultures

• individualism

• tendency to view self in terms of personality traits, ability, and values

what are collectivistic cultures?

• cultures native to asia, africa, and central + south america

• collectivism

• tendency to define self in terms of group identity and relation to others

what are projective personality tests?

what are their assumptions?

what is the problem with this test?

tests that provide ambiguous stimulus (ex. ink blot tests, showing images)

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assumption: the abiguity of the stimulus allows projection of personality

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problem: lacks reliability and validity

what are self-report tests?

what are their assumptions?

what are the problems with this test? (2)

directly ask people whether items describe them

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assumption: individuals are able to report how they feel, think, and have insight into their own inner state

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problem: social desirability, response set (tendency to answer questions in ways that are the most complimentary or flattering)

what are behavioural assessments?

what is the problem with this test?

directly observe a person’s behaviour

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problem: hard to develop objectivity