Identity and Personality (6)

Self-concept

the sum of the ways in which we describe ourselves: in the present, who we used to be, and who we might be in the future.

Identities

individual components of our self-concept related to the groups to which we belong. Religious affiliation, sexual orientation, and ethnic and national affiliations are examples of this.

Self-esteem

describes our evaluation of ourselves. Generally, the closer our actual self is to our ideal self (who we want to be) and our ought self (who others want us to be), the higher this will be.

Self-efficacy

the degree to which we see ourselves as being capable at a given skill or in a given situation. When placed in a consistently hopeless scenario, this can be diminished to the point where learned helplessness results.

Locus of control

a self-evaluation that refers to the way we characterize the influences in our lives.

Internal locus of control

People with this see their successes and failures as a result of their own characteristics and actions.

External locus of control

People with this perceive outside factors as having more of an influence in their lives.

Libido

Freud's psychosexual stages of personality development are based on the tensions caused by this. Failure at any given stage leads to fixation that causes personality disorders. Freud's phases (oral, anal, phallic [Oedipal], latent, and genital) are based on the erogenous zones that are the focus of each phase of development.

Erikson’s

________ stages of psychosocial development stem from conflicts that occur throughout life (trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, integrity vs. despair). These conflicts are the result of decisions we are forced to make about ourselves and the environment around us at each phase of our lives.

Kohlberg’s

________ stages of moral development describe the approaches of individuals to resolving moral dilemmas. ______ believed that we progress through six stages divided into three main phases: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.

Vygotsky

________ described development of language, culture, and skills. He proposed the idea of the zone of proximal development, which describes those skills that a child has not yet mastered and require a more knowledgeable other to accomplish.

Imitation and role-taking

common ways children learn from others.
Children first reproduce the behaviors of role models, and later learn to see the perspectives of others and practice taking on new roles.

Reference group

Our self-concept depends in part on our _______, or the group to which we compare ourselves. Two individuals with the same qualities might see themselves differently depending on how those qualities compare to their _________.

Psychoanalytic perspective

views personality as resulting from unconscious urges and desires.

Freud’s

________ theories are based on the id, the superego, and the ego. The ego makes use of defense mechanisms to reduce stress caused by the urges of the id and the superego.

Id

base urges of survival and reproduction

Superego

the idealist and perfectionist

Ego

the mediator between the two and the conscious mind

Jung

assumed a collective unconscious that links all humans together. He viewed the personality as being influenced by archetypes.

Social

Other psychoanalysts such as Adler and Horney have distanced themselves from Freuds theories, claiming that the unconscious is motivated by _____ rather than sexual urges.

Humanistic perspective

emphasizes the internal feelings of healthy individuals as they strive toward happiness and self-realization. Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Roger's therapeutic approach of unconditional positive regard flow from this view of personality.

Type and trait theories

believe that personality can be described as a number of identifiable traits that carry characteristic behaviors.

Type theories of personality

include the ancient Greek notion of humors, Sheldon's somatotypes, division into Types A and B, and the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory.

Eysencks

identified three major traits which could be used to describe all individuals. The acronym for these traits is PEN: psychoticism (nonconformity, extraversion (tolerance for social interaction and stimulation), and neuroticism (arousal in stressful situations). Later trait theorists expanded these traits to the Big Five: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agree-ableness, and neuroticism.

Psychoticism

nonconformity

Extraversion

tolerance for social interaction and stimulation

Neuroticism

arousal in stressful situations

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Big Five personality traits

Allport

identified three basic types of traits: cardinal, central, and secondary.

Cardinal traits

the traits around which people organize their lives; not everyone develops this.

Central traits

represent major characteristics of the personality

Secondary traits

are more personal characteristics and are limited in occurrence.

McClelland

identified the personality trait of the need for achievement (N-Ach).

Social cognitive perspective

holds that individuals interact with their environment in a cycle called reciprocal determinism.

Reciprocal determinism

People mold their environments according to their personalities, and those environments in turn shape our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Behaviorist perspective

based on the concept of operant conditioning, holds that personality can be described as the behaviors one has learned from prior rewards and punishments.

Biological theory

claim that behavior can be explained as a result of genetic expression.