chapter 6: identity and personality

Individuals interact with their environment in a cycle called reciprocal determinism; people mold environments according to their personalities, and environments shape thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Social cognitive perspective

Personality described as behaviors learned from prior rewards and punishments

Behaviorist perspective

Behavior explained as a result of genetic expression

Biological perspective

Imitation and role-taking are common ways children learn from others; first reproduce behaviors of role models, then learn perspectives of others

Imitation and role-taking

Group to which we compare ourselves; influences self-concept

Reference group

Personality results from unconscious urges and desires

Psychoanalytic perspective

Base urges of survival and reproduction

Id

Idealist and perfectionist

Superego

Mediator between id and superego and conscious mind; uses defense mechanisms to reduce stress

Ego

Links all humans together; personality influenced by archetypes

Collective unconscious (Jung)

Unconscious motivated by social rather than sexual urges

Adler and Horney's view

Emphasizes internal feelings of healthy individuals striving toward happiness and self-realization

Humanistic perspective

Hierarchy of needs and unconditional positive regard flow from this perspective

Humanistic perspective (Maslow and Rogers)

Personality described as identifiable traits that carry characteristic behaviors

Type and trait theories

Ancient Greek humors, Sheldon's somatotypes, Types A and B, Myers-Briggs

Type theories of personality

Three major traits: psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism (PEN); later expanded to Big Five

Eysenck's traits

Big Five traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Big Five

Cardinal traits organize lives; central traits are major characteristics; secondary traits are more personal and limited in occurrence

Allport's trait theory

Personality trait of need for achievement (N-Ach)

McClelland's theory

Sum of ways we describe ourselves: present, past, and future

Self-concept

Individual components of self-concept related to groups we belong to

Identities

Evaluation of ourselves; higher when actual self is close to ideal and ought selves

Self-esteem

Degree to which we see ourselves as capable at a given skill or situation

Self-efficacy

Self-evaluation referring to how we characterize influences in our lives; internal vs. external

Locus of control

Stages of personality development based on libido tensions; failure leads to fixation and disorders

Freud's psychosexual stages

Conflicts throughout life; trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, integrity vs. despair

Erikson's psychosocial stages

Approaches to resolving moral dilemmas; six stages in three phases: preconventional, conventional, postconventional

Kohlberg's stages of moral development

Development of language, culture, and skills; zone of proximal development describes skills needing guidance

Vygotsky's theory