[Final] AP Psychology: Personality

Sigmund Freud’s studies in personality

typify psychoanalytic theories of personality.

Psychodynamic studies in psychology

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 a patient sits and reports anything that comes to mind, anything at all

id

the source of mental energy and drive. Encompasses all the basic needs. Operates on the pleasure principle, which is the desire to maximize plreasure while minimizing pain.

superego

the internal represenation of all of society’s rules, morals, and obligations

ego

the part of the mind that allows a person to function on the enviornment and to be logical. Operates on the reality principle, and also works as on intermediary between the id and the superego

the reality principle

sets of desires that can be satisfied only if the means to satisfy them exists and is available.

repression

the process of which memories that are tramautic or invoke too many negative emotions are pushed into the uncounciousness

displacement

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

reaction formation

another defense mechanismny which the ego reverses the direction of a distubing desire to make that desiore safer or more socally acceptable

compensation

making up for failures in one area through success in others

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

Karen Horney

pointed out the inherent male bias in Freud’s work

basic anxiety

the feeling of being alone in an unfamiliar or hostile world.

Carl Jung

formulated another theory of personality that was, in part, a response to Freud’s theory. Jung believed that the mind comprises pairs of opposing forces, like Yin and Yang

persona

the mask the person presents to the outside world

shadow

the deep, passionate, inner person (the person’s “dark side”)

anima

the male side to our personality

animus

the female side to our personality

self

the idea that all the opposing forces and desires of Carl Jung’s theory of personality were balanced by

personal uncounscious

repressed memories and clusters of thought

collective unconscious

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

Archetypes

the behavoirs and memoioes in the collective unconscious

Alfred Alder

believed that childhood is the crucial formative period, and also belived that all children develop feelings of inferiority because of their size and level of competence

inferiority complex

beliving that you are worse than everyone around you at something or everything (!!)

humanistic theories of personality

they focus on each person’s mental journey, and see humans as whole parts, that can’t be divided.

self-actualization

finding your true purpose and the things you bring to society

Carl Rogers

believed that the Self constitues the most important aspect of personality.

self-concept

our mental representantion of who we feel we truly are

incongruence

discrepancies between our self-concpet and our actual thoughts and behavoir

conditions of worth

other people’s evaluations of our worth: distorts our self-concept

unconditional posititive regard

everyone should be loved, dispite failures

Social-cognitive theories of personality

are based on the assumption that coginitive constructs are the basis for personality

Albert Bandura

Focuses on the concept of self-efficacy as central to personality

Self-efficacy

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

exaplnatory styles

ways in which people exaplin themselves or react in different situations

locus of control

proposed by Julian Rotter, it argued taht the extent to which people believe that their succeses or failures are due to their own efforts plays a major role in personality

an internal locus of control

are people who claim that successes and faiures are due to their own actions

an external locus of control

are people who believe their success and efforts are due to chance or luck, or even the actions of other people

Big Five personality traits

introversion-extroversion, neuroticism-stability, agreeableness-antagonism, conscientiousness-undirectedness, and openness-nonopenness

nomothetic analysis

the study of “universal” traits, like the Big Five

idiographic analysis

are traits that are unique to the individual, such as curiosity and love of music.

Gordon Allport

discovered three types of traits

cardinal traits

traits the override a person’s whole being

central traits

the primary characteristics of the personse

condary traits

traits that constitute interests

Raymond Cattell

saw traits differently than Gordon Allport, and believed there were 16 source traits that were universal, and the basis of personality

surface traits

traits that are very easy to spot

Walter Mischel

recognized that traits are not necerssarily consists across various situations but often vary depending upon the circumstances

Hans Eysnck

developed the Eysnck Personality Inventory, a questionnaire designed to examine people’s personalities based on their traits

MMPI-2-RF

this personality test is frequently used as a prepackaged assessment tool, measuring everything from traits to mental disorders

self-esteem

refers to how much we value ourselves

the physical self

our name, bodies, and physical things

the active self

how we behave

the social self

how we interact with others

the psychological self

our feelings and emotions

halo effect

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

social comparison theory

people’s self esteem is influenced by whom we compare ourselves to

temperament

the early appearing set of individual differences in reaction and regulation that form the nucleus of personality

Mary Rothbert

made a test that studied temperament; generally assessed on three scales: Surgency, Negative affect, and effortful control

surgency

amount of positive effect and activity level

negative affect

amount of frustration and sadness

effortful control

ability of a child to self-regulate moods and behaviour

Jerome Kagan

found that children with low effortful control would have higher baseline heart rates and more muscle tension