PSYC1101 - Chapter 14 - Personality

Personality

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Objective tests

Highly structured, standardized personality tests which are easy to analyze

The big five personality test

An objective personality test that measures five major traits

Neuroticism

Worry, insecurity, nervousness
Declines with age

Extraversion

In the Big 5: sociability, talkativeness, affection
In Eysenck's model: an outward orientation
Declines with age

Openness

Originality, independence, creativity, daring
Declines with age

Agreeableness

Good-naturedness, soft-heartedness, courtesy, trust
Increases with age

Conscientiousness

Caution, reliability, organization, dedication, hard-working-ness

Myers-Briggs personality test

An objective personality test which measures personality with regards to 4 dichotomies (extraversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, judging/perception)

Projective tests

Personality tests with unstructured stimuli which are more challenging to analyze

Hermann Rorschach

A Swiss psychologist who invented the inkblot test

Rorschach inkblot test

A projective personality test which uses 10 inkblots to gain insight about a person's cognition and personality

Thematic Apperception Test

A projective personality test which uses provocative yet ambiguous images to reveal a person's underlying motives, concerns, and personality dynamics

Psychodynamic theories

Theories which view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences

Psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts

Unconscious

According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories

Ego

The part of the mind that is mostly conscious and seeks to make peace between the id and the superego

Superego

The part of the mind that consists of internalized ideals, society's rules, and constraints

Id

The part of the mind that consists of unconscious energy and biological drives

Carl Jung

A Swiss psychologist who founded analytical psychology and believed our unconscious was a source of creativity and insight

Alfred Adler

An Austrian psychologist who founded the school of individual psychology and focused on the fight against feelings of inferiority as the core of personality

Karen Horney

A German psychologist who criticized Freud's portrayal of women as weak and subordinate to men and highlighted the need to feel secure in relationships

B.F. Skinner

An American psychologist who believed that personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns (as through operant conditioning and classical conditioning)

Reciprocal determinism

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

Carl Rogers

An American psychologist and one of the founders of the humanistic approach

Humanistic approach

An approach to psychology which emphasizes the process of realizing and expressing one's own capabilities and creativity

Abraham Maslow

An American psychologist best known for creating his heirarchy of needs

Maslow's heirarchy of needs

A theory about how to reach self-actualization which is based on the idea that there are different levels of needs

Self-actualization

The need to fulfill one's potential

Esteem needs

The need to feel respected and valued

Belonging needs

The need for relationships

Safety needs

The need to live in a predictable environment

Physiological needs

The need for food, shelter, and sleep

Genuineness

Being honest and direct and not using a facade

Unconditional positive regard

Acknowledging feelings without judgement

Empathy

Tuning into the feelings of others, listening well, and showing your efforts to understand

Trait

A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act

Gordon Allport

An American psychologist who studied how traits combine to form personality

Central traits

Traits which are a basic part of an individual's personality (e.g. reliable, kind, considerate)

Secondary traits

Traits which are specific to a particular situation (e.g. hates salad bars)

Cardinal traits

Traits by which a person may be recognized (e.g. kindness for Mother Teresa)

Hans and Sybil Eysenck

German psychologists who believed that we could reduce many of our normal individual variations to two dimensions

Unstable

People with this trait tend to be more anxious, depressed, tense, irrational, moody, guilty, and shy

Stable

People with this trait tend to keep the same mood all day, are more confident, and have higher self-esteem and life satisfaction