Chapter 15: Personality

**Personality**

can be defined as a person’s enduring general style of dealing with others and with the world around them

**Sigmund Freud**

those who followed his basic beliefs and practices typify **psychoanalytic** theories of personality.

**psychodynamic**

means a psychological approach based on a marriage of Freudian concepts, such as the unconscious, with more modern ideas.

**free association**

a therapist actively listens, while the patient relaxes and reports anything that comes into his mind, no matter how absurd it might seem.

**id**

is the source of mental energy and drive.

**pleasure principle**

which is the desire to maximize pleasure while minimizing pain.

**superego**

is the internal representation of all of society’s rules, morals, and obligations.

**ego**

according to Freud, is the part of the mind that allows a person to function in the environment and to be logical.

**Repression**

is the process by which memories or desires that provoke too much anxiety to deal with are pushed into the unconscious

**Displacement**

is a defense mechanism that directs anger away from the source of the anger to a less threatening person or object.

**Reaction formation**

is another defense mechanism by which the ego reverses the direction of a disturbing desire to make that desire safer or more socially acceptable.

**Compensation**

making up for failures in one area through success in others

**Rationalization**

creating logical excuses for emotional or irrational behavior

**Regression**

reverting to childish behaviors

**Denial**

the refusal to acknowledge or accept unwanted beliefs or actions

**Sublimation**

the channeling or redirecting of sexual or aggressive feelings into a more socially acceptable outlet

**basic anxiety**

or the feeling of being alone in an unfamiliar or hostile world, is a central theme in childhood.

**Carl Jung**

formulated another theory of personality that was, in part, a response to Freud’s theory.

**Self**

Jung believed that all of the opposing forces and desires of the mind were balanced by a force called the

**personal unconscious**

comprised of repressed memories

**collective unconscious**

of behavior and memory common to all humans and passed down from our ancient and common ancestors.

**Archetypes**

are the behaviors and memories in the collective unconscious.

**Alfred Adler**

like other psychoanalytic psychologists, believed that childhood is the crucial formative period.

**Humanistic**

theories of personality emphasize the uniqueness and richness of being human.

**Self-actualization**

is becoming, in a creative way, the person you are capable of being.

**self-concept**

is our mental representation of who we feel we truly are

**conditions of worth**

other people’s evaluations of our worth, distort our self-concept.

**collectivistic** and **individualistic cultures**

Humanistic theories also address the distinction between

**Social-cognitive theories**

of personality are based on the assumption that cognitive constructs are the basis for personality.

**Albert Bandura**

A representative example of a social-cognitive theory of personality was developed by

**Self-efficacy**

refers to a person’s beliefs about his or her own abilities in a given situation.

**explanatory styles**

ways in which people explain themselves or react in different situations.

**Julian Rotter**

proposed that the extent to which people believe that their successes or failures are due to their own efforts plays a major role in personality.

**internal locus of control**

believe that successes or failures are a direct result of their efforts

**external locus of control**

are more likely to attribute success or failure to luck or chance.

**Trait Theories**

personality provide quantitative systems for describing and comparing traits or stable predispositions to behave in a certain way.

**nomothetic**

traits such as the Big Five are thought to be universal.

Idiographic trait

are those that are unique to the individual, such as openness or curiosity.

**Gordon Alport**

Trait theories

**Cardinal**

traits that override a person’s whole being

**central**

the primary characteristics of the person

**secondary**

traits that constitute interests

**Raymond Cattell**

saw traits differently because he believed that 16 **source traits** were the basis of personality.

**Walter Mischel**

recognized that traits are not necessarily consistent across various situations but often vary depending upon the circumstances.

**Eysenck Personality Inventory**

a questionnaire designed to examine people’s personalities based on their traits.

**(Personality Factor) Questionnaire**

signifying the 16 traits or personality factors it measures.

**Self-concept**

refers to how we view ourselves

**self-esteem**

refers to how much we value ourselves.

**The physical self**

our bodies, names, and the like

**The active self**

how we behave

**The social self**

how we interact with others

**The psychological self**

our feelings and personalities

**halo effect**

which refers to the error by which we generalize a high self-evaluation from one domain to another.

**Temperament**

is the early appearing set of individual differences in reaction and regulation that form the “nucleus” of personality.

**Mary Rothbart**

temperament is generally assessed on three scales: **surgency** (amount of positive affect and activity level), **negative affect** (amount of frustration and sadness), and **effortful control** (ability of a child to self-regulate moods and behavior).

**Jerome Kagan**

work on the physiology of young children showed that children classified as low in effortful control were more likely to have higher baseline heart rates, more muscle tension, and greater pupil dilation.