AP Psychology Unit 4 Test: Personality

Personality

Personality is a person’s pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving

Psychoanalytic theory

Freud’s theory in which he thought that childhood sexuality and other unconscious motivations affected personality

Humanistic theories were…

Focused on capacity for growth and self-fulfillment internally

Trait theories are…

Based on traits (characteristic patterns of behaviors)

Social-cognitive theories are…

About interaction between a person’s traits (including thinking), and the social context of it

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

Psychodynamic theories

Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences.

Six terms Myers mentions that originated in Freud’s writings and that have filtered down into everyday language

Ego, repression, projection, sibling rivalry, Freudian slips, and fixation

Free association

Freud came up with the technique of free association in which he told his patients to relax and say what came to mind even if it was embarrassing or trivial.

Id

The unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress, operating on the pleasure principle that wants instant gratification. The libido is a life energy force that fuels the pleasure-seeking of humans.

(A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.)

Ego

The ego operates on the reality principle and seeks to gratify the impulses of the id in ways that are realistic and will bring long-term pleasure. It is the “executive” that mediates risks and rewards.

(the partly conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.)

Superego

The superego is the partly conscious part of our moral compass (conscience) that makes the ego weigh the real and ideal, and thinks about how one should behave. It strives for perfection, judges actions, producing positive feelings such as pride or negative feelings such as guilt.

(The partly conscious part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations.)

Freud’s psychosexual stages

Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital

What did Freud call the “distinct pleasure-sensitive areas of the body”?

The erogenous zones

Oedipus / Electra complex

Freud’s idea of the Oedipus complex (boys) and Electra complex (girls) was that during the Phallic stage, children developed unconscious sexual desires for their parent of the opposite sex and jealousy and hatred for their parent of the same sex, which they eventually repress, leading them to try and become like their “rival” parent.

Regression

Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage (such as when children begin sucking their thumbs again a year after they have already abandoned this habit).

Reaction formation

Turning unacceptable feelings into their opposite (such as becoming angry with a friend that you’re secretly in love with).

Projection

Attributing one’s negative habits or personality traits to another person / other people (such as when people with big egos accuse other people of having big egos) (this defense mechanism is basically synonymous with hypocrisy).

Rationalization

Offering unconvincing explanations to justify a certain behavior (such as suggesting that kicking your dog had the positive effect of making it love you more).

Displacement

Shifting aggressive impulses onto a more acceptable object (such as when teachers angry with their students’ behavior go home and yell at their own children instead).

Sublimation

The idea that much of what we “repress” gets stored as energy that allows people to be productive as adults. You could say that “sublimation” is the positive side of repression. As an example, many have suggested that Beethoven’s musical masterpieces “sublimated” (that is, channeled unconsciously and in a positive direction) the immense anger he felt against his father for having physically and psychologically abused him as a child.

Denial

Refusal to believe in a painful reality (such as refusing to acknowledge that the lung cancer your doctor just diagnosed may have been caused by chain smoking for the past twenty years).

Freudian slip

A Freudian slip is when someone says something that lets their unconscious thoughts come out through their speech on accident.

Manifest content of a dream

The manifest content of a dream is the parts of dreams that a person remembers

Latent content of a dream

The censored expression of the dreamer’s unconscious wishes.

Neo-Freudians

Freud’s first generation of followers who were pioneering psychoanalysts. They accepted his basic ideas and broke away with 2 original theories.

The two ways neo-Freudians broke away from Freud’s original theories

1. They put emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience and coping with the environment

2. They placed doubt on the idea that sex and aggression were all-consuming motivations. They emphasized loftier motives and social interactions more.

Popular idea/concept originated by Alfred Adler

Inferiority complex idea

What is the notorious idea of Freud’s that Karen Horney opposed?

the idea that women have weak superegos and suffer from “penis envy”

What is Carl Jung’s most famous idea: the collective unconscious

The collective unconscious was the idea that everyone has a common reservoir of images, or archetypes, and this idea explains why spiritual concerns are deeply rooted for most people, and why people of different cultures share some myths and images.

(Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history.)

Three ways in which our contemporary understanding of the unconscious differs from that of Freud

1. Modern research psychologists see the unconscious mind as a form of information processing that happens without our awareness, instead of a mass of passion and repressive censoring.

2. Humans are on autopilot with unconscious information processing similar to the pre-Freudian idea of information processing

3. We understand that dreams don’t disguise and fulfill wishes as Freud believed.

False consensus effect

When people see their own traits, attitudes, and goals in other people. It is the tendency to overestimate how much others share the same beliefs and behaviors as us.

Terror-management theory

A theory of death-related anxiety, exploring people’s different emotional and behavioral responses to death.

Projective tests

Projective test are ones in which people will view ambiguous pictures and make up stories about them, such as the Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT).

(Projective test is a personality test, such as the TAT or Rorschach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics and explore the preconscious and unconscious mind.)

Two major psychologists associated with Humanistic Psychology, who offered the three-force perspective

Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

Third-force perspective

Emphasized the potential for healthy personal growth. Emphasized how people strive for self-determination and self-actualization, in contrast to the objectivity of behaviorists and Freudians. They studied the experiences and feelings that they self-reported.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Ranking of human motivations in a five-level pyramid, moving from basic survival needs to personal growth.

Top of Hierarchy of Needs: Self-transcendence needs

The need to find meaning and identity beyond self

Second of Hierarchy of Needs: Self-actualization needs

The need to live up to the fullest and unique potential

Esteem needs: Third of Hierarchy of Needs

The need for self-esteem, achievement, competence, independence; The need for recognition and respect from others

Fourth of Hierarchy of Needs: Belongingness and love needs

The need to love and to be loved, to belong and to be accepted; The need to avoid loneliness and separation

Fifth of Hiearchy of Needs: Safety Needs

The need to feel that the world is organized and predictable; the need to feel safe, secure, and stable

Sixth of Hierarchy of Needs: Psychological needs

The need to satisfy hunger and thirst

3 factors a “growth-promoting social climate” provides

Acceptance, genuineness, and empathy

Unconditional positive regard (one of the most famous concepts within Humanistic Psychology)

An attitude that is caring, accepting, and non judgemental that helps to foster self-awareness and self-acceptance for people.

When is a person’s self-concept positive?

When people act and perceive the world positively, feeling satisfied

What approach do some psychologists use to help reveal a person’s identity?

The approach of using questionnaires that would evaluate the self-concept/personality of people, asking people to describe their ideal self and how they actually are. If the ideal and actual are similar, their self-concept is positive.

What is the life story approach that some humanistic psychologists use?

A way to understand identity better by having interviews and intimate conversations, and collecting a narrative with details about a person’s life.

Some criticisms of Humanistic Psychology

It is too vague and subjective, too much emphasis on individualism which could lead to self-indulgence and selfishness, it is naive.

The first psychologist who was eager to discover the traits that made up human personality

Gordon Allport

The popular personality test, questioned by psychologists today

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

How many words were found by Allport and Ogbert in an unabridged dictionary pertaining to personality?

Almost 18,000 words that could be used to describe people.

Factor analysis

The name for the statistical procedure used to describe a cluster of related personality traits

The two dimensions that the Eysencks (Hans and Sybil) discovered in the 1960s as central to personality

Extroversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability are central to personality

3 psychological characteristics that people high in extraversion possess

1. They have relatively low brain arousal

2. Their behavior inhibition is less active

3. Dopamine and dopamine-related neural activity are higher

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

The name of the classic personality inventory that is used to assess personality traits and to identify emotional disorders

What does it mean to say something is empirically derived?

The tests such as the MMPI were empirically derived, which means that they are selected from a large pool of items.

Big Five Personality Traits

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (OCEAN)

Maturity principle associated with the Big Five

From adolescence and on, people become more conscientious and more agreeable, and less neurotic or emotionally unstable.

the Person-Situation Controversy

Term used to describe the Nature-Nurture debate within the context of personality theory

Personality traits are ______, but specific behaviors are not as _______.

Stable!

Social-cognitive perspective

Focuses on the interaction between traits and situations.

(Social-cognitive perspective is a view of behavior as 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 (mutual influences)

What other approach do social-cognitive psychologists often interact with?

Behavioral approach which emphasizes the effects of learning.

(Focuses on the effects of learning on our personality development.)

Major understanding about future behavior that guides the assessment center approach

The understanding about future behavior that the person’s patterns of their past behavior in similar situations is the best predictor of future behavior.

Criticisms of social-cognitive theories

Focus too much on the situation, not appreciating the person’s traits and personality.

Self

Self is the center of personality that organizes our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Possible selves

The concept of possible selves are the visions of the self that you want to become and the visions of the self you fear to become. These possible selves can motivate us to accomplish goals and direct energy towards them.

Spotlight effect

The spotlight effect is when a person’s self-focus is too much and they worry that other people notice them and evaluate them.

(Overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us).)

Self-esteem

Self-esteem is people’s feelings of high or low self-worth

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is our sense of competence and effectiveness on tasks.

Duning-Kruger effect

The Duning-Kruger effect is when a person is unaware of their own incompetence. Justin Kruger and David Dunning observed in 1999 that people were the most overconfident when they were the most incompetent

The two major aspects of Self-serving bias

1. People accept more responsibility for good deeds than bad deeds

2. People accept more responsibility for success rather than for failures

(A readiness to perceive ourselves favorably.)

Narcissism

Narcissism is when a person has too much self-love and self-focus, and it can lead to increased aggression.

(Excessive self-love and self-absorption)

Defensive self-esteem

It is fragile and wants to sustain itself, so when it receives failure and criticism, it can be threatening and can lead to aggression.

Secure self-esteem

It is not as fragile, because it does not rely on external evaluations as much. People who feel accepted and self secure are able to focus on things beyond themself and can accept not only their own but also other people’s flaws.

Individualism

Places high value on independence, freedom, and moral worth of each single person over any group or government.

Collectivism

View that prioritizes the needs, goals, and well-being of a group over individual desires.