Personality Psychology Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes for Personality Psychology.

Personality

Long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways.

Heritability of Personality

Determined by a combination of many genes and epigenetic factors; temperament appears very early in our lives, suggesting a biological basis.

Reactivity (in temperament)

How we respond to our environment.

Self-Regulation (in temperament)

Our ability to control our response.

Reliability (in self-report measures)

Scores on a test today are close to scores of the test taken again days, weeks, or months later.

Validity (in self-report measures)

The test measures what we think it should measure.

Barnum Effect

People tend to believe in descriptions of their personality that could, in fact, describe almost anyone.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

A personality test composed of a series of true/false questions in order to establish a clinical profile of an individual.

Projective Tests

Personality assessment in which a person responds to ambiguous stimuli, revealing hidden feelings, impulses, and desires.

Culture

All of the beliefs, customs, art, and traditions of a particular society; a key environmental factor shaping personality.

Cultural-Comparative Approach

Compares assessments developed in one culture to another culture.

Indigenous Approach

Develops tools for each culture individually, more inclusive, and can highlight unique diversities of different cultures.

Combined Approach (to studying culture and personality)

Integrates the strengths of both cultural-comparative and indigenous approaches, identifying both the universal and unique aspects of personality.

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious protective behaviors that reduce anxiety.

Inferiority Complex

Proposed by Adler, it refers to a person’s feelings that they lack worth and don’t measure up to others’ or to society’s standards.

Collective Unconscious

Common psychological tendencies that have been passed down from one generation to the next.

Archetype

Pattern that exists in our collective unconscious across cultures and societies.

Reciprocal Determinism

Proposed by Bandura; our behavior, cognitive processes, and situational context all influence each other.

Self-Efficacy

Someone’s level of confidence in their own abilities.

Locus of Control

Our beliefs about the power we have over our lives, occurring on a continuum from internal to external.

Self-Actualization

The achievement of our fullest potential, according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Self-Concept

Our understanding and evaluation of who we are.

Traits

Relatively enduring characteristics that influence our behavior across many situations.

Five Factor Model (The Big 5)

OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. A widely accepted model of personality traits.

HEXACO Model

An extension of the Big Five model, adding a sixth dimension: Honesty-Humility.