personality psych test 2

data consists of personal concerns or adaptations

McAdams level 2

McAdams level 2

• attachment style

• defense mechanisms

• current concerns

• long-term goals

• skills and talents

• coping styles

• roles played

the life story

McAdams level 3

McAdams level 3

• narrative framework

• way in which a person finds unity, purpose, meaning in life

• generally in late teens/early adulthood

• way of explaining contradictions in identity

• continually created and revised. Personal myth

life story method

• life story interview

• qualitative approach

• people describes chapters of life

• describes crucial scenes in detail

• high points

• low points

• turning points

• main themes

• identity is necessary

• to integrate roles

• to integrate conflicts over time and at the same time

what can the life story approach tell us that traits arguably cannot?

relationships between themes/story structured and important outcomes

victorious battle

sign of post-therapeutic recovery (precedes symptom reduction)

contamination sequence

good memories tainted by a bad detail. Sign of mood problems

redemptive sequence

sign of generativity recovery from loss

• personality is due to internal forces of which you are largely unaware

• psychic determinism

• intrapsychic conflict

• our key motivation is to avoid anxiety

• realistic threats/challenges

intrapsychic domain key ideas

psychic determinism

• everything has a cause

• no room for free will, accidents

• the trick is finding the cause

intrapsychic conflict

parts of the mind are in direct, constant conflict

internal structures of consciousness

id, ego, superego

the ______ used defense mechanisms to keep anxiety--producing thoughts and impulses hidden

ego

developmental model

• sexual focus

• implications for adult personality

• fixation

ages: 0 to 1

focus on libido: mouth, tongue, lips

major development: weaning off of breast feeding or formula

adult fixation: smoking or overeating

oral

• ages: 1 to 3

• focus of libido: anus

• major development: toilet training

• adult fixation: orderliness, messiness

anal

• ages: 3 to 6

• focus of libido: genitals

• major development: resolving Oedipus/Electra complex

• adult fixation: deviancy, sexual dysfunction

phalic

• ages: 6 to 12

• focus of libido: none

• major development: developing defense mechanisms

• adult fixation: none

latency

• ages: 12+

• focus of libido: genitals

• major development: reaching full sexual maturity

• adult fixation: if all stages were successfully completed then the person should be sexually mature and mentally healthy

genital

controversy over Freud

• pessimism about human nature

• sex and aggression-primary motivations

• misogynistic

• personality fixed in childhood

• focus on sex

• at an early age

• lack of focus on social factors

• not parsimonious

• lack of scientific evidence

• case study method

• hard to operationalize

• unfalsifiable ideas

Freud’s influence

• dream analysis

• talking cure

• unconscious motivations

• father of psychotherapy

• first all-encompassing theory of personality, influenced many

• unconscious state

• childhood plays an important role in shaping relationship styles

techniques for delving into the unconscious

• psychoanalysis

• dream analysis

• free association

• Freudian slips

defense mechanisms

require psychic energy—over—reliance can be draining

refuse to acknowledge source of anxiety

denial

you just dont think about it

repression

keep anxiety-producing thoughts out of awareness by adopting opposite viewpoint

reaction formation

attributing to someone else a thought or impulse that is feared in oneself

projection

coming up with a seemingly reasonable explanation for why you did what you did

rationalization

taking emotional responses out on a safer target

displacement

taking forbidden impulses and channeling them into constructive behaviors

sublimation

Carl Jung’a conflict with Freud

collective unconscious

species-specific memories

expressed in archetypes

Carl Jung

understand the person through art, religion, dreams, mythology

idea of the persona

inspired Myers Briggs

Horney’s conflict with Freud

view of women

penis envy

Karen Horney

first feminist psychologist

overcoming basic anxiety stemming from childhood, too much of this

self-analysis can work

Erikson’s conflict with Freud

conscious, social life is important too

personality is not fixed in childhood

ego psychology—focus on reality, constructive adaptations to reality

identity achievement

exploration + commitment

identity moratorium

exploration + no commitment

identity foreclosure

no exploration + commitment

identity diffusion

no exploration + no commitment

object relations

objects: emotionally important people

focus on relationships

early relationships serve as prototypes

attachment theory

early attachment experiences form working models for later adult relationships

These are internalized in the form of unconscious expectations about relationships

pros of attachment theory

focused on ideas that are underemphasized elsewhere

conflicting motives are a source of anxiety

importance of childhood experiences

can lead to empirically testable questions

unconscious processes can impact personality and behavior

influence on the practice of psychotherapy

McClelland’s three key motives

focused on three primary needs

implicit motivations

McClelland’s key motives are measured by

the TAT

people high on this prefer activities that offer some challenge

enjoy tasks where they are personally responsible for the outcome

prefer tasks where feedback on their performance is available

need for achievement (nAch)

preference for warm, close social interactions

spend more time thinking about relationships

smile, laugh, make more eye contact, feel better when around people

start more conversations

women are higher in this

need for intimacy (nlnt)

readiness or preference for having an impact on people

want to control situations and people

sex differences: largest is that men with high ___ more impulsive and aggressive behaviors

do not feal well with frustration and conflict—show strong stress responses

need for power (nPow)

assumptions of humanism

the need to be better (from clinical tradition)

built off of ideas of free will and personal consciousness

assumes people are essentially good and want to improve themselves and the world

positive psychology—modern version

Carl Rogers

actualizing tendency

goal: become a fully-functioning person

if people do badly, goals are being thwarted

-limited by conditions of worth

-need unconditional positive regard-rare

-client-centered therapy

actualizing tendency

maintaining and enhancing life is goal of existence

Maslow

similar to Rogers, but assumes that needs must be met in order

ultimate goal: self actualization

pros of motive approach

can be used to explain why people do what they do

explanations imply a goal that pulls people to think, act and feel in certain ways

often unconscious

cognitive experiential domain

focuses on differences in how people process info

processes can be implicit or explicit

perception, interpretation, beliefs and desires

perception field (in)dependence as an example of

taking in and imposing order on info from the sense organs

field independent

field dependent

field independent

people have the ability to focus on details despite the clutter of background info

favor stem

field dependent

favor social sciences and education

more interpersonally detached

better at simulated shooting tasks

may be better at multitasking

interpretation

making sense of, explaining, events in the world

construal

Kelly’s personal constructs

each person constructs the world in his or her own way

personal constructs—paired opposites of all sorts; come from past experience

anxiety: when your constructs fail you and you can’t predict

socially corollary: to understand someone, you need to understand their personal constructs

Rotter’s LOC

who is responsible for the events in your life

rooted in learning theory

internal vs external

internal predicts lower obesity, on-time graduation, better credit ratings but also more self-blame

learned helplessness

after a series of failed attempts, learning to not even bother trying to change things

explanatory style (internal vs external)