PP: Lectures

Personality

Refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, focusing on understanding individual differences and how different parts of a person come together as a whole.

Central Theories

Refers to the main theories within personality psychology that help understand human behavior, including key concepts, scientific theory, methods, and measures.

Biological Basis

Personality has a biological foundation, where biological factors influence personality outcomes, alongside the impact of genes and the environment.

Cognitive Elements

Personality is influenced by various cognitive components, highlighting that cognition forms the building blocks of personality.

Five Factor Theory

A modern theory identifying five dimensions that people differ in, providing a comprehensive and empirically supported model of personality traits.

Reliability

Refers to the consistency of personality measurement over time or among different parts of a test, ensuring that the results are stable and reproducible.

Validity

Indicates whether a personality test measures what it is supposed to measure, including content, construct, and criterion-related validity.

Response Sets

Biases in personality measurement, such as social desirability, acquiescence, and random responses, affecting the accuracy of self-report measures like questionnaires.

Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)

Activated in times of punishment, negative events, associated with sensitivity to punishment, novelty, and uncertainty.

Behavioral Activation System (BAS)

Triggered by cues corresponding to getting/finding reward, associated with sensitivity and pursuit of goals.

BIS Brain Structures

Mediated by the frontal cortex and limbic system, especially the amygdala.

BAS Brain Structures

Mediated by the basal ganglia, disinhibits other structures, related to reward-seeking.

Heritability Estimates

Measure genetic influence, calculated based on differences in correlation between identical and fraternal twins.

Defense Mechanisms

Psychological processes like repression, reaction formation, denial, projection, displacement, regression, rationalization, and sublimation.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud's theory of personality, including Id, ego, superego, psychosexual stages, and defense mechanisms.

Neoanalytic Perspectives

Focus on the individual's sense of self/ego, Carl Jung's collective unconscious, archetypes, anima/animus, persona/shadow, and mother/hero/demon symbols.

Adler's Individual Psychology

Stresses unique motivation, striving for superiority, inferiority complex, superiority complex, and personality typology.

Horney's Culture and Feminism

Emphasizes self-realization, basic anxiety, neurotic coping strategies, and object relation theories like Mahler's symbiosis.

Melanie Klein's Play Therapy

Resolving love-hate conflicts through deeper comprehension of the 'object', popular in working with children.

Heinz Kohut's Therapist Strategy

Fostering a healthy self-concept by simulating the therapist-parent relationship.

Erikson's Lifespan Approach

Eight stages of development focusing on ego skills and virtues.

Behavioristic Perspective

Emphasizes environment as a cause of behavior, learning through reinforcement and punishment.

John B

Founder of behaviorism, emphasized control of human behavior through rewards and punishments.

Learning Theory

Acquiring knowledge or skill through experience, optimistic view of human adaptability.

Classical Conditioning

Pairing two stimuli to evoke a response, learning through association.

Operant Conditioning

Learning through consequences of behavior, reinforcement and punishment principles.

Shaping

Gradual development of complex behaviors through operant conditioning.

Systematic Desensitization

Decreasing unwanted stimuli response through exposure hierarchy.

Stimulus Discrimination

Differentiating responses to specific stimuli, applied in clinical settings.

Trait Perspective

Personality as a combination of stable traits, focusing on individual differences and inherent biological bases.

Dynamic organization

Personality is not static but continuously evolving.

Psychophysical systems

Personality involves both mental and physical aspects.

Determine

Behavior is not solely reactive but also internally generated.

Idiographic approach

Allport's view that each person possesses unique key qualities.

Big Five

Five major dimensions of human personality - Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.

Eysenck's personality theory

Three core dimensions - Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism.

Factor analysis

Statistical technique to identify basic traits and cluster data.

16 PF

Cattell's 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire based on factor analysis.

Existentialism

Philosophy addressing human existence and the importance of personal choice.

Humanism

Emphasizes individual worth, free will, self-fulfillment, and relationships.

Personal Responsibility

Emphasized by Carl Rogers in humanistic psychology, it highlights that individuals are accountable for their own lives and growth.

Maturity Principle

Adults tend to become more conscientious and less neurotic as they age, aligning with Rogers' belief in positive development unless thwarted.

Person-Centered Therapy

Also known as Rogerian therapy, it focuses on patients taking an active role in their healing process, with therapists providing empathy and reflection.

Self-Actualization

Coined by Abraham Maslow, it refers to the realization of one's full potential, often seen as an exception rather than a rule in human development.

Peak Experiences

Powerful moments of self-transcendence described by Maslow and Csikszentmihalyi, where individuals feel completely self-fulfilled and at one with the world.

Positive Psychology

A branch focusing on positive attributes like joy and hope, examining optimal human functioning and well-being promotion.

Cognitivism

Psychological study centered on mental processes such as perception, memory, and problem-solving, viewing humans as information processing devices akin to computers.

Schemas

Mental structures organizing information and influencing perception, attention, and response, proposed by Piaget and Warden as underlying frameworks for understanding the world.

Personal Construct Theory

Introduced by George Kelly, it emphasizes the development of personal constructs to interpret events actively, allowing for adaptability and change.

Field Dependence

Refers to an individual's tendency to be influenced by external conditions, as seen in the Rod and Frame Test, impacting social behavior and occupational preferences.

Behavior potential

Likelihood that a particular behavior will occur in a specific situation based on outcome expectancy

Generalized versus specific expectancies

Specific outcomes follow a behavior in familiar situations, while generalized outcomes follow a behavior across similar situations

Primary reinforcer

Individual's values leading to secondary reinforcers like money or prestige

Psychological needs

Six needs including recognition, dominance, independence, protection-dependency, love and affection, physical comfort

Locus of control

Internal (individual's actions lead to outcomes) vs. external (outcomes determined by external factors)

Observational Learning

Learning without performing the behavior, influenced by behaviorist and cognitive perspectives

Self-efficacy

Belief about competently enacting behavior in a specific situation

Cognitive complexity

Need for pursuing complex problems and seeking closure

Learned helplessness

Reluctance to perform a behavior due to past failures

Interpersonal perspective

Personality as a social product of interactions with significant others

Emotions and personality

Functions, components, relevance, and theories of emotions in relation to personality

Personality traits and emotions

Association between personality traits like neuroticism and extraversion with emotional patterns

Diathesis-stress model

A model proposing that individuals may have a genetic predisposition to certain diseases, but the manifestation of symptoms is influenced by exposure to stress.

Sick role and illness

Cultural expectations and behaviors associated with being sick, such as staying at home from school or visiting a doctor.

Personality disorders

Conditions characterized by distorted thinking patterns, problematic emotional responses, impulse control issues, and interpersonal difficulties.

Links between personality and health

Various connections between personality traits and health outcomes, including biological predispositions, habits, stress reactions, and somatopsychic influences.

Terman studies

Longitudinal research examining the relationship between personality traits, stress, and mortality, highlighting the impact of factors like conscientiousness on health and longevity.

Time personality

The way individuals perceive and relate to temporal frames (past, present, future), which can influence behaviors and mental health outcomes.

Meta-synthesis of Big-5 & Health

Research exploring the associations between personality traits (e.g., extraversion, neuroticism) and different health outcomes, emphasizing the impact of traits like conscientiousness on health.