Psychology of Personality and Individual Differences Flashcards

Flashcards covering core vocabulary, theoretical models, assessment tools, and psychological constructs from the course text in Psychology of Personality and Individual Differences.

Ship of Theseus Paradox

A philosophical paradox applied to personality psychology to explain how an individual maintains a continuous identity and sense of self despite constant physical, psychological, and social changes throughout life.

Temperament

The biologically determined component of personality that encompasses stable, innate emotional responses and physiological reactions to the environment.

Character

The plastic component of personality that develops, adapts, and modifies through life experiences, learning, and continuous interaction with the socio-cultural environment.

Pleiotropy

A genetic mechanism in personality genetics where the exact same genes are involved in the expression of multiple distinct personality traits.

Passive Gene-Environment Correlation

A genetic-environmental interaction where parents pass on both their genetic predispositions and a home environment structured in alignment with those same genetic traits.

Reactive Interaction

A person-environment interaction in which different individuals exposed to the exact same objective environment experience, interpret, and react to it differently based on their internal psychological filters.

Proactive Interaction (Niche Picking)

The active process through which growing individuals intentionally choose and construct social and physical environments compatible with their genotype.

Nomothetic Approach

A methodological orientation focused on analyzing dimensions and factors across populations to establish universal psychological laws and differentiate individuals.

Idiographic Approach

A methodological orientation that emphasizes the uniqueness, singularity, and irrepeatable nature of the individual person.

MMPI-2

An empirically constructed clinical questionnaire using criterion-keying and true/false items to assess psychiatric diagnoses and personality functioning, featuring validity scales ($L$, $F$, $K$).

Q-Sort Technique

A phenomenological assessment method requiring an individual to sort descriptive card items along a forced quasi-normal continuum (from $-4$ to $+4$) to evaluate intra-individual self-concepts.

Role Construct Repertory Test (REP Test)

An assessment tool developed within George Kelly's personal construct theory that uses triads of role figures to elicit an individual's personal, idiosyncratic bipolar constructs.

Latent Learning

Edward Tolman's behavioral concept demonstrating that organisms acquire unreinforced cognitive spatial maps of environments that remain latent until activated by incentives.

Allport's Trait Theory

A personality model defining traits as generalized, personalized neuropsychic structures that guide consistent adaptive behavior, initially investigated through a psycholexical dictionary search.

Eysenck's Superfactors

A hierarchical, biologically grounded personality framework consisting of three orthogonal and bipolar superfactors: Extraversion vs. Introversion, Neuroticism vs. Emotional Stability, and Psychoticism.

HEXACO Model

A six-factor personality model developed by Ashton and Lee that introduces Honesty-Humility ($H$) as a distinct seth trait alongside the Big Five framework.

Big Two Model

A higher-order hierarchical personality model isolating two superfactors: Alpha (Stability, linked to the serotonergic system) and Beta (Plasticity, linked to the dopaminergic system).

Reciprocal Triadic Determinism

Albert Bandura's model proposing a continuous, bidirectional causal interaction between environmental influences, internal cognitive/affective personal factors, and overt behavior.

Perceived Self-Efficacy

Bandura's construct defining an individual's task-specific beliefs in their capacity to execute actions required to produce given attainments, built from mastery, vicarious experience, persuasion, and physiological states.

Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS)

Mischel and Shoda's dynamic personality model where situation-triggered activations of five cognitive-affective units generate stable, conditional 'If… then…' behavioral signatures.

Constructive Alternativism

George Kelly's epistemological principle stating that there is no single objective reality, but rather infinite alternative mental constructions available to interpret any given event.

Actualizing Tendency

Carl Rogers' concept of an intrinsic, positive directional drive within every human organism to realize, develop, and maintain all capacities of the Self, guided by the Organismic Valuing Process.

BIS (Behavioral Inhibition System)

A neurobiological system governing avoidance behaviors in individuals sensitive to punishment and threat, providing the physiological foundation for anxiety states.

BAS (Behavioral Activation System)

A dopaminergic neurobiological system regulating approach behaviors in individuals sensitive to rewards, underlying impulsivity and goal-directed actions.

Sensation Seeking

An implicit motive driven by pronounced BAS activation that leads individuals to seek out and master high-risk activities for the intrinsic thrill of controlling danger.

Mindset Theory

Carol Dweck's motivational framework contrasting an Entity Mindset (viewing abilities/personality as fixed traits) with an Incremental Mindset (viewing abilities as developable through effort and learning).

Self-Determination Theory

A framework mapping motivation along a continuum from external regulation to intrinsic motivation based on satisfying three basic psychological needs: Competence, Autonomy, and Relatedness.

Flow Experience

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept describing a state of deep immersion and optimal performance when an individual engages in a challenge that perfectly matches their skill level.

Testing Effect (Retrieval Practice)

An empirical phenomenon demonstrated by Roediger and Karpicke showing that active self-testing produces significantly superior long-term retention compared to passive re-reading.

Spacing Effect (Distributed Practice)

The learning principle where distributing study sessions across multiple organized time intervals produces vastly superior memory consolidation compared to massed study.

Achievement Emotions

Pekrun's taxonomy categorizing learning-related emotions along two dimensions: valence (positive vs. negative) and arousal (activating vs. deactivating).

Academic Procrastination

The voluntary, repetitive delay of important study or work activities despite full awareness of the resulting negative consequences and performance decline.

Socially Prescribed Perfectionism

A maladaptive dimension of perfectionism stemming from perceived unrealistic external expectations and a need for approval, associated with high anxiety and performance avoidance.

General Intelligence Factor ($g$)

Charles Spearman's single underlying latent variable that accounts for the common variance observed across all performance measures in cognitive tests.

Deviation IQ

A standardized intelligence score measuring an individual's performance distance from the population mean of their specific age group, set with a Mean of 100 and a Standard Deviation of 15.

Fluid Intelligence ($G_f$)

Raymond Cattell's concept representing the innate biological capacity to reason, solve novel problems, and identify abstract patterns independently of prior learning, which declines across adulthood.

Crystallized Intelligence ($G_c$)

Raymond Cattell's concept encompassing acquired cultural knowledge, vocabulary, and educational skills, which continues to expand throughout the entire lifespan.

Flynn Effect

The secular trend observed by James Flynn showing a steady increase of roughly 3 raw IQ points per decade throughout the 20th century due to environmental, educational, and nutritional advancements.

Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE)

A personality scale created by Ackerman and Goff to quantify an individual's typical effort, curiosity, and persistence invested in intellectually demanding daily tasks.

SEB Skills Model

A framework distinguishing functional Social, Emotional, and Behavioral skill capacity ('what one can do') from traditional personality traits ('what one tends to do').

Autonoetic Consciousness

Endel Tulving's concept of self-aware mental time travel, allowing individuals to consciously relive past personal experiences and project themselves into future scenarios.

Self-Memory System

Conway and Pleydell-Pearce's memory model illustrating the interaction between the autobiographical knowledge base (Lifetime periods, General events, Event-specific knowledge) and the Working Self.

Self-Reference Effect

A cognitive processing advantage wherein information processed in relation to an individual's self-schema is encoded faster and remembered with greater accuracy.

Double Representation Theory

Chris Brewin's clinical trauma model contrasting Verbally Accessible Memory (VAM; integrated, narrative) with Situationally Accessible Memory (SAM; automatic, intrusive sensory flashbacks).

White Bear Paradigm

Daniel Wegner's experimental demonstration of the rebound effect, wherein deliberate efforts to suppress a specific thought paradoxically increase its intrusive frequency.

Fading Affect Bias

An autobiographical memory phenomenon where the emotional intensity associated with negative memories fades significantly faster over time than the intensity of positive memories.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

Laura Carstensen's theory stating that as perceived time horizons shrink with age, older adults selectively prioritize positive emotional well-being over novel information seeking.

Sensibility to Memory (Leopardism)

A metacognitive construct defined by Cornoldi and De Beni describing an individual's conscious inclination to value, cherish, and frequently reflect upon autobiographical memories.

Perspective-Taking Ability

An extrinsic-dynamic spatial ability in Uttal's matrix defined as the capacity to mentally project oneself into a different location and imagine an environment from that new perspective.

Survey Representation Style

The most advanced spatial orientation style in Siegel and White's hierarchy, characterized by a top-down, allocentric 2D cognitive map incorporating metric relationships and flexible route planning.