AP Psychology: Personality Unit

Free Association (Freud)

a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Psychoanalysis (Freud)

Our thoughts and actions are derived from unconscious motives

ego

the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. It operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Id

a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. It operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification, and is childlike. "devil on your shoulder"

Superego

the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations. It is mostly unconscious.

Stages of Psychosexual Development (Freud)

oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, genital stage. Each stage of development is marked by conflicts that can help build growth or stifle development, depending upon how they are resolved. If these stages are completed successfully, a healthy personality is the result. If certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixations can occur. Until this conflict is resolved, the individual will remain "stuck" in this stage.

Oral Stage (0-18 months)

Freud's first stage of psychosexual development during which pleasure is centered in the mouth

Anal Stage (18-36 months)

pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

Phallic Stage (3-6 years)

pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings

Latency Stage (6-puberty)

A phase of dormant sexual feelings

Genital Stage (puberty on)

stage focuses on maturation of sexual interests

Oedipus complex

according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father

Electra complex

the unconscious desire of girls to replace their mother and win their father's romantic love

fixation

according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

Personality

an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

nature

genetics determine behavior, personality is fixed at birth

nurture

environment and upbringing are combined with one's experiences and then determine personality

Heritability

ability of a trait to be passed from one generation to the next, doesn't reflect proportion of a trait to nature/nurture or reflect the extent to which traits are passed down, does indicate variability is due to genetic differences and is often estimated by twin studies

Objective Personality Tests

Personality tests characterized by unambiguous test items, a limited range of client responses, and objective scoring- more reliable. Ex: MMPI & MTBI

Subjective Personality Tests

Unstructured/ ambiguous stimulus (impose one's own structure); indirect (client may not be aware of purpose of test); freedom of response; interpretation takes into account more variables- less reliable. Ex: Rorschach Inkblots & TAT

Big 5 Personality Traits (OCEAN)

Openness to experience

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Openness

The degree to which a person is curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas.

Conscientiousness

the care a person gives to organization and thoughtfulness of others; dependability

Extraversion

dimension of personality referring to one's need to be with other people

Agreeableness

A personality dimension that describes someone who is good natured, cooperative, and trusting.

Neuroticism

degree of emotional instability or stability

rank-order consistency

people tend to maintain the ways in which they are different from other people the same age

objective personality tests

Personality tests characterized by unambiguous test items, a limited range of client responses, and objective scoring

projective personality tests

Assessments that present stimuli without a specified meaning to test takers, whose responses can then be interpreted to uncover underlying personality characteristics

Minnestoa Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

a well-researched, clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

psychological test that identifies individuals' preferences for source of energy, means of information gathering, way of decision making, and lifestyle, providing information for team building and leadership development

Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Personality Inventory (NEO-PI)

designed to assess big 5 traits, fairly reliable

Rorschach inkblot test

A projective personality test in which individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondent's inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

projective test requiring examinees to tell a story in response to ambiguous pictures

Humanistic theory of personality

theories of motivation which focus on human potential and the drive to be the best a person can be- Carl Rodgers & Abraham Maslow

unconditional positive regard

according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person

self-concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?"

Trait theory of personality

we are made up of a collection of traits, behavioral predispositions that can be identified and measured, traits that differ from person to person

Traits

characteristic patterns of behavior or a disposition to feel and act

factor analysis

correlations among many variables are analyzed to identify closely related clusters of variables- statistically correlated clusters of behavior reflect basic traits (big 5)

influence of biology on personality

genetic predispositions, brain structure, and neurotransmitter activity, impact personality, meaning that our genes and physiological processes play a substantial role in shaping our personality traits, though environmental factors also interact to determine our final personality expression

Social-Cognitive Theory of personality (So-Co)

behavior is influenced by the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context

reciprocal determinism

the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

self-esteem

one's feelings of high or low self-worth

self-efficacy

one's sense of competence and effectiveness

self-serving bias

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

individualist vs collectivist theories of personality

individualist theory of personality emphasizes the importance of personal autonomy, independence, and self-reliance, where individuals prioritize their own goals and needs above the group, while a collectivist theory focuses on the interconnectedness of the self within a group, prioritizing the needs and harmony of the collective over individual desires

Birth Order Theory (Adler)

Adler's theory that states that the birth order of a child affected personality because of the amount of attention given to certain children depending on the order in which they are born.

defense mechanisms

in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality- repression

compensation (defense mechanism)

doing well in one area to make up for doing poorly in another area

Denial (defense mechanism)

refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities

displacement (defense mechanism)

discharging impulses from a threatening object to a safer object

identification with the agressor (defense mechanism)

taking on the characteristics of those who mistreat you

projection (defense mechanism)

disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

rationalization (defense mechanism)

psychoanalytic defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions.

reaction formation (defense mechanism)

switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites

Regression (defense mechanism)

retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

repression (defense mechanism)

Banishes anxiety-arousing wishes and feelings from consciousness

sublimation (defense mechanism)

channeling socially unacceptable impulses into constructive, even admirable, behavior

locus of control

a person's tendency to perceive the control of rewards as internal to the self or external in the environment

cardinal traits

Traits that are characteristics that direct most of the person's activities (the person's dominant traits that influence all of our behaviors)- very rare

central traits

traits that exert a powerful influence on overall impressions

secondary traits

Traits that are more preferences/attitudes, they show up only in particular circumstances or dependent on context

learned helplessness

A condition that occurs after a period of negative consequences where the person begins to believe they have no control.

set point

baseline or equilibrium level of functioning, particularly in relation to happiness or well-being

Bandura

Observational learning; Bobo dolls; social-cognitive theory

explanatory style

a person's habitual way of explaining events, typically assessed along three dimensions: internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific

actor-observer bias

the tendency to blame our actions on the situation and blame the actions of others on their personalities

Projective Tests

personality assessments that present ambiguous visual stimuli to the client and ask the client to respond with whatever comes to mind

Preconscious

in Freud's theory, the level of consciousness in which thoughts and feelings are not conscious but are readily retrieveable to consciousness

Unconscious

according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.

Self-Actualizing Tendency

the striving to fulfill one's innate capacities and capabilities

Empirically Derived Test

a test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups

Facial-Feedback Hypothesis

emotional expressions can cause the emotional experiences they signify