AP Psych Unit 7b

Personality

Personality

Unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, interact, and behave

Character

Value judgements of a persons moral and ethical behavior

Psychoanalytical Approach

Emphasizes the role of the unconcious on behavior and motivation. Divides the mind into three segments, and three parts of personality

ID

Instinctual and present and birth, contains the sexual and aggresive parts of the personality that don’t distinguish between reality and fantasy

Pleasure Principle

Immediate gratification; governs the ID

Ego

The practical and rational; mediates between the ID and SuperEgo

Reality Principle

Satisfies the ID’s desires in a realistic, long term manner; governs the Ego

SuperEgo

Focuses on the ideal and how one is supposed to behave; acts as a moral concious

Concious Mind

Immediate awareness of surroundings and perceptions

Preconsious Mind

Outisde of awareness but can be accessed if needed

Unconcious Mind

Thoughts, feelings, and memories that are kept and not easily brought into conciousness

Free Assosiation

Method of exploring the unconcious mind by having the patient relax and say what comes to mind

Oral Stage (0-18 Months)

Pleasure centers on the mouth-biting, sucking, chewing

Anal Stage (18-36 months)

Bowl/Bladder elimination- coping with control

Phallic Stage (3-6 Years)

Pleasure one in the genetals-coping with feelings of incest

Latency Stage (6 Years-Puberty)

Phase of dormant sexual feelings; development begins in other ways such as friendships

Genetial Stage (Puberty-Rest of LIfe)

Maturation of sexual interests

Identification

Process of children incoporating their parent’s values into their superegos

Fixation

Lingering focus of pleasure seeking behavior from unresolved conflicts in earlier stages

Defense Mechanisms

The ego’s means of reducing anxiety by distorting reality

Repression

Basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety inducing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Regression

Retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage

Reaction Formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites

Projection

Disguising one’s impulses by attributing them to others

Rationalization

Offering self justifying explanations to hide unconcious desires

Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggresive impulses towards more accemptable or less dangerous objects

Denial

Resuring to believe or percieve painful realities

Sublimation

Transfering unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives

Undoing

Doing something good to “make up for” a bad deed

Evaluating Freud’s perspective

Credit for drawing awareness to the unconcious, sexuality, defense mecahnisms, and the ID/Superego, but is not scientific

Neofreudians

Disagreed with freud on the role of the concious and sex/aggression

Carl Jung

Placed less emphasis on social factors and more on the collective unconcious and complexes

Alfred Adler

Developed the idea of an inferiority complex

Karen Horney

Emphasized social interactions in childhood, not sexual ones. Also believed anxiety is created by children being born into a complex world

Collective Unconcious

Shared, inherited resivor of memory traces from human history

Projective Tests

A personality test that provides ambiguous stimulus in order to trigger the projection of inner dynamics

Henry Murray

Developed the Thematic Apperception Test which people express the inner feeling and interest through made up stories about ambigulous stimulus

Herman Rorschach

Developed the Inkblot Test in which people identify inner feeling by how they interpret ink blobs

False Consensus Effect

The tendancy to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs

Terror Managment Theory

Thinking about mortality causes one to react with anxiety; during times of crisis people are drawn to ideology which give life meaning

Humanistic Theories

Views personality with a focus on potential for healthy personal growth, uniqueness, and freedom of choice

Self Actualization (Mazlow)

The motivation to fulfill one’s potential. People who are self actualized are self aware, open, and don’t worry about how others view them

Person Centered Perspective (Rogers)

Each of us are good unless we lack genuineness, acceptance, and empathy

Unconditional Positive Regard

An attitude of grace towards one and others despite personal faults or failings

Self Concept

Thoughts and feelings about oneself that is developed from interactions with others

Traits

Pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act a certain way

Type

A group of characteristics shared by a group of people

Barnum Effect

The tendency to accept stock, positive descriptions of oneself

Personality Inventories

A questionnaire in which individuals respond to items in order to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors

Empirically Derived

Tests are developed by testing a pool of items and selecting those which differ among respondants

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Most widely used to researched and used test; originally for emotional disorders but now has several uses

The Big Five Factors

Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openess, and Extraversion

Halo Effect

Bias in which a first impression influences one’s assesment

Raymond Cattell

Source Traits which are common to everyone

Hans and Sybil Eysneck

Personality can be mapped on Extroverted/Introverted and Stable/Unstable

Social Cognitive Perspective (Albert Bandura)

Views behavior as influenced by one’s traits, thinking, and social context. Focuses on interactions between nature and nurture

Behavioral Approach

Focuses on the effects of learning on personalitydevelopment; believes personality is made up of learned behaviors/habits

Reciprocal Determinism

The interactions of Interpersonal Factors, Behavior, and Enviornment

Self

The center of personality organized through thoughts, feeling, and behaviors

Spotlight Effect

Overestimating how often others notice and evaluate our appearance, performance, and mistakes

Self Esteem

One’s sense of worth

Self Efficacy

One’s sense of competance and effectiveness

Self Serving Bias

A readiness of perceive oneself favorably; most people view themselves as above average and only accept responsibility for good things and not bad ones

Narcissim

Escessive self love and self absorbtion

Defensive Self Esteem

Fragile and feeds anger. Is Threatened by Criticism

Secure Self Esteem

Less reliant on external evaluation and focuses on being accepted for who we are

Individualism

Gives priority to their own goals, views themselves through personal attributes, and don’tcare as much about group harmony

Collectivism

Gives priority to the groups goals, defines themselves through groups, and tend to be more reserved and people pleasers

Jullian rotter and the Social Learning Theory

People are motivated to seek reinforcement and avoid punishment. Personality changes because of consequences of a behavior