Psychology of Personality Exam 1

Personality

a dynamic organization inside the person that create (“your own unique pattern”) the person’s characteristics patterns of behavior,, thoughts, and feelings.

Types of psychology connected to personality:

• development psychology

• cognition psychology

• biology psychology

• evolutionary psychology

• social psychology

Freud Patient:  Anna O 

hysteria: physical problem but no reason for the issue

symptoms: could not feel legs 

treatment: hypnosis - attached emotions with trauma and began to feel legs again 

ID (freud)

Biology:

• Drives - food, water, sex

• “I want it and I want it now” mentality 

• 1st year of life 

Ego (freud)

Reality:

• End of first year

• Mediates between the id and external world 

Superego (freud)

Society:

• “What has society told you to be or do?” 

• Age 2 

Libido

Freud’s Definition of Life

• “I desire”

• drive for life and maintaining life

Thanatos

Freud’s Definition of Death

• Death instinct 

• “nirvana principle” might make you feel “alive” but you are taking a risk with death. 

ex: skydiving, motorcycle riding, bungy jumping

Freud’s 3 kinds of Anxiety:

• Realistic Anxiety

• Moral Anxiety

• Neurotic (Nervous) Anxiety

Realistic Anxiety

fear

Moral Anxiety

guilt, shame, embarrassment

Neurotic Anxiety

overwhelming, distressing, pathological anxiety

Ego Defense Mechanisms

• Denial 

• Repression 

• Asceticism 

• Isolation 

• Displacement/Turning against the self/Projection 

• Reaction Formation 

 Denial 

unconscious refusal to accept a reality that is too painful or overwhelming 

• will not influence outward behavior

Repression

unconscious blockage of distressing memories and thoughts to prevent anxiety and emotional pain 

• will influence dreams and subconscious

• slowly influence outward behavior 

Asceticism

denying ones self of from a basic biological need

Isolation

can discuss trauma and scary situations but cannot express emotional aspect

•  repression of emotions

• experience dreams and nightmares (subconscious)

Displacement

emotion targets people that are not responsible to get emotion out

Turning Against the Self

outward negative emotion onto oneself (ex: “I suck” or self harm) 

Projection

thinking and feelings a certain way about oneself and going outward and projecting those feeling unconsciously onto other people

Reaction Formation

has a wish or desire that is too threatening that gets pushed to the subconscious and you begin to see that wish or desire everywhere

Psychosexual stages of development

• oral stage

• anal stage

• latent stage

• genital stage

Oral stage

• Lasts birth -18 months

• focuses on pleasure from the mouth

• stage caused by breast feeding as a baby

Oral Passive 

enjoy eating, smoking, drinking 

passive with communication 

oral agressive

chew nails, smacking gum

verbally aggressive

Anal Stage

• lasts from 18 months - 3 or 4 years old

• the focus of pleasure is the anus (holding it in and letting it go) 

• developed during potty training 

Anal retentive

perfectionist, tidy, controlled

ex: OCPD

anal expulsive

generous, messy, cluttered, relaxed

Phallic Stage

Lasts from 5 years old - puberty (12 yrs)

sexual impulse suppressed

Genital Stage 

begins at puberty 

represents the resurgence of the sex drive in adolescence

theory

a large scale map with different areas representing general principles and connections between them defined by set of logical rules

Trait

a stable and long lasting attribute of personality

State

a temporary emotion, thought, or perception

Validity

Does it measure what it intends to?

Reliability

if you use the same measure with the same participant repeatedly, do you get the same results?

Content Validity 

Extent to which test items are a representative sample of the behavioral domain measured

Face Validity

Extent to which test appears on the surface to measure what it intends to measure

External Validity

Extent to which an effect or its underlying processes demonstrated in one setting can be obtained in another setting with different participants and different procedures. 

Internal validity

the extent to which the relationship in the data actually reflect the intended relationship between our variables 

reactivity 

effects of knowledge of being observed (Hawthorne effect)

experimenter bias

any intentional or unintentional influence that the experimenter exerts that causes the participant to confirm the hypothesis being tested (double blind solution)

Demand characteristics

any feature of the experiment that might give away the purpose of the study

subject attrition

differential dropping out of either experimental of control conditions may bias results

Types of Validity

• content validity

• face validity

• external validity

• internal validity

Type of Research Design 

• Descriptive research 

• case study 

• correlation design 

Limitations of Correlation Designs

• directionality problem 

• third variable problem 

Directionality problem

because by design it CANNOT show the relationship between two correlated variables

Third variable problem

the possibility that the correlational relationships result from the action of an unobserved variable 

Carl Rogers

Humanistic Theory

Otto Rank

Carl Rogers

The Will (Willpower): 

• adapted type 

• neurotic type 

• productive type 

Adapted type

these people learn to “will” what they’ve been forced to do. a passive, duty bound creature that rank suggests is, in fact, the average person

Neurotic Type

These people have a much stronger “will” than the average person, but it is totally engaged in the fight against external and intense domination. They worry and feel guilty about being so “willful.”

Productive Type

Which rank also refers to as the artist, the genius, the creative type, the self conscious type, and, simply, the human being. 

The actualizing tendency 

“I AM” 

Universal drive in all living organisms to maintain and enhance their existence by developing their capacities and moving towards fulfilling their full potential

Incongruity

the difference between the real self and the ideal self (the “I AM” and “I SHOULD”)

Fully functioning person

Characteristics: 

• openness to experience

• existential divining (excited about life) 

• organismic trusting (not downplaying emotions) 

• experiential freedom 

• creativity 

Abraham Maslow

• Crusade for a humanistic psychology 

• Hierarchy of Needs 

Hierarchy of Needs

1. psychological needs

2. safety and security needs 

3. belonging needs 

4. esteem needs 

5. self actualization 

Psychological needs

Maslow: 

food and water

Safety and Security Needs 

Maslow:

shelter, health, job security

Belonging Needs

Maslow

Community and Social connection

Esteem Needs 

Maslow:

others opinions and your own opinions on oneself 

Self Actualization

Maslow: 

the desire to become the most that one can be and to fulfill one's full potential

Metapathology 

a state of frustration, discontent, or a loss of meaning that occurs when an individual is unable to satisfy their higher-level psychological needs 

ex: 

• depression 

• despair 

• disgust 

• alienation

• cynicism 

Driving needs of self actualizers 

Drives: 

• truth 

• goodness 

• beauty 

• unity 

• aliveness

• uniqueness

Characteristics of Self Actualizers 

• reality centered, problem centered, different perception of means and ends 

• solitude, deep personal relationships 

• autonomy, resisted enculturation

• unhostile sense of humor

• freshness of appreciation, peak (mystical) experiences

• imperfections?

Terrance takes self monitoring scale and receives a score of 49, he takes it again on Tuesday and receives a score of 28 

reliability 

Carl rogers says that human’s one basic tendency is to 

maintain and advance life