Chapter 13 - Personality

Exam 3

personality

• an individual’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors 

  • it is a process, it is dynamic (always changing), way of being 

what makes up personality

• character

• temperament

character

• value judgements made about a person’s morals of ethical behavior

temperament

• biologically innate characteristics you’re born with

• ex. irritability, being adaptable

Freud’s psychodynamic perspective

• focuses on role of unconscious mind in the development of personality

• mind is divided into three parts

preconscious

• contains memories and events you can become easily aware of

• not thinking about them right now but I can easily

conscious

current awareness

unconscious mind

• remains hidden at all times

  • only seen when you don’t realize it (like in dreams)

• most important part to personality and human development (according to Freud)

Id

• if it feels good, do it

• present in the infant

• completely unconscious 

  • completely buried

• pleasure seeking

• pleasure principle

• necessary for life

pleasure principle

• the desire for immediate gratification of needs with no regard for the consequences

ego

• executive director

• develops as grow older to deal with reality

• rational and logical

• reality principle

reality principle

• need to satisfy the id only if it won’t bring negative consequences

  • will deny the id if it isn’t pleasant

• needs to remember the real world when the id is being obnoxious

superego

• moral watchdog

• develops as preschool age child learns the rules and expectations of society

• has the conscience

• created by learned experiences and norms

  • ex. remember how you got a sticker for potty training? yes okay so wait to use the bathroom

conscience

• makes people feel guilty when they do the wrong thing

  • sense of wrong

• memories of things for which we have been punished or felt guilt about

  • has useful information it can give to the id

moral anixety

• when facing a moral dilemma and have to make a decision

psychological defense mechanism 

• way of dealing with anxiety through unconsciously distorting one’s perception of reality 

• important when dealing with the conflict that arises with the id, ego, and superego

• when the superego and ego aren’t enough to do the job of controlling the id 

denial

• refusing to acknowledge a threatening situation

repression

• pushing threatening events out of conscious memory

• push the id thoughts down

• not effective because it takes a lot of energy for ego to constantly push the id down 

rationalization

• making up acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior 

projection

• placing one’s own unacceptable thoughts onto others, as if the thoughts belonged to them and not to oneself.

• ex. you are attracted to your cousin but say that it actually is your cousin being attracted to you

reaction formation

• forming an emotional reaction or attitude that is opposite of one’s threatening or unacceptable actual thoughts

• gaslighting

• ex. someone makes themselves appear open-minded even though they hate one religion

displacement

• expressing feels that would be threatening if directed at the real target so you go to someone else

• ex. yelling at husband not boss

regression

• falling back on childlike patterns as a way of coping with stressful situations

• ex. 4 year old starts wetting bed when he has a new sister

identification

• trying to be like someone else to battle with your anxiety

• ex. trying to be like the popular girl at school

compensation (substitution)

• trying to make up for an area that you are lacking in by exceling at another

• ex. not good at sports so put all into academics

sublimation

• turning socially unacceptable urges into socially acceptable behavior

• ex. you are really aggressive so you do wrestling

• ex. date someone who looks like your cousin to get that feeling

Freud says personality development occurs in a series of…

psychosexual stages

• determined by developing sexuality of the child

erogenous zone

• are of the body that produces pleasurable feelings

fixation

• getting stuck in a stage of development

oral stage

• first 18 months

• EZ

  • mouth

• primary conflict: weaning of breast that occurs too soon or too late can result in little or too much satisfaction of the child’s oral needs

orally fixated adult

• overeats

• drinks a lot

• nail bites

anal stage

• 18 - 36 months

• EZ

  • the anus

• get pleasure from withholding and releasing poop at their own will

• main conflict: toilet training

  • this invasion of reality stimulates the development of the ego during this stage

fixation in the anal stage

• child who doesn’t go to the toilet (openly rebels)

  • becomes anal expulsive personality

• scared to make a mess and don’t go and retain it

  • anal retentive personality

anal expulsive personality

1. child who refuses to go to toilet (openly rebels) 

   1. will be an anal expulsive personality as an adult (sees messiness as personal control)

anal retentive personality

• those who are scared to make a mess and don’t go or retain their poop

  1. as adults: stingy, stubborn, neat

phallic stage

• 3 to 6 yrs

• EZ

  • genitals

• phallic

  • discovers sexual feelings

• castration anxiety

• penis envy

• main conflict

  • new sexual feelings of the child

• Oedipus complex

• end

  • sexual feelings are in the unconscious using repression

castration anxiety

• fear of losing penis 

penis envy

girls are jealous that they don’t have a penis

Oedipus complex

• boys are attracted to mom and jealous of Dad

• sexual curiosity mixed in with love for mother

2 things that have to happen to deal with anxiety before end of phallic stage

1. boy represses feelings for mom

2. identifies with dad and acts like him

electra complex

• girls attracted to father and mom is the rival

when does fixation occur for phallic stage

• when attraction is encouraged or don’t have same-sex parent to identify with 

• immature sexual attitudes as an adult 

• boys become mama’s boy and girls find sugar daddy 

• lack of moral sexual behavior

result of what is development of superego

• identification

  • identifying with the mom or dad in the phallic stage

latency stage 

• 6 yrs to puberty

• hidden (latent) sexual feelings

• grow intellectually and physically and socially but not sexually

  • boys play with boys and girls with girls

genital stage

• puberty onward

• sexual feelings can’t be ignored 

  • now they are back into the conscious

• now adult social and sexual behavior

neo-freudians

• went away from psychoanalysis 

• psychoanalysis

  • freud’s term for both his explanation of the workings of the unconscious mind and the development of personality and the therapy he based on that theory

Carl Gustav Jung

• Neo-Freudian 

• unconscious is more than personal fears and urges

• we don’t just have a personal unconscious but a collective unconscious

collective unconscious

• memories shared by all humans

  • culture and folktales

archtypes

• make up the collective unconscious

• anima/animus

  • anima

    • feminine side of a man

  • animus

    • masculine side of a female

• shadow

  • dark side of personality

persona

• side of one’s personality shown to the world

Alfred Alder

• Neo-Freudian

• we don’t seek pleasure like Freud said but superiority is the driving force behind all human endeavors 

• focused on compensation defense mechanism 

• said birth order affects personality

  •  older: feel inferior so overcompensate and be overachievers

  • middle: feel superior over dethroned older child and dominate of younger sibling

  • younger: feel inferior because don’t have freedom, protected and pampered

Karen Horney

• Neo-Freudian

• disagreed with Freud’s penis envy

  • countered with womb envy

• focused on basic anxiety

• neurotic personalities

womb envy 

men try to succeed in other areas because they can’t have kids like woman can 

basic anxiety 

• fear created when child is created into a bigger and more powerful world of older children and adults

neurotic personalities

• parents who don’t give love and can’t overcome basic anxiety

• don’t deal with relationships well because didn’t have that secure upbringing

  • might isolate, might be too clingy, might withdraw

Erik Erikson

• 8 stages that focused on social relationships in each stage in life

what was the concern with Freud

1. non-falsifiable

   1. can’t design studies for it

2. he didn’t use experiments but rather case studies

3. inherent sexism

   1. thought best woman couldn’t be like the best man (because penis envy)

4. diagnosed people based on interpretations of dreams and them just ranting

   1. which isn’t reliable

5. Said major development happened before 6 yrs

   1. how can a significant part of identity be done by 6?

6. All his patients were rich girls

7. focused on sex

   1. is that really the motivating factor of primal behavior?

free association

• just ranting without any fear of feedback

how did behaviorists see personality?

saw it as habits

habit

set of learned responses

social cognitive learning theorists

• emphasize importance of both the influences of other people’s behavior and of a person’s own experiences on learning

• believe observational learning and modeling lead to the formation of pattern s of personality

social cognitive view

• behavior is governed by influence of external stimuli and response patterns but also anticipating, judging, and memory, imitation

reciprocal determinism

• Bandura’s explanation on how environment, personal characteristics (if you are reinforced or not), and behavior (intensity and frequency) can interact to determine future behavior

self efficacy

• a person’s expectancy of how effective their efforts to accomplish a goal will be in any particular circumstance

• belief in myself

• ex. i have gotten a good grade before so I know I can again

Julian rotter

• social learning theorist

• locus of control

locus of control

• tendency for people to assume they either have control or don’t over events

internal locus of control

• my own actions affect the consequences I experience

• more likely to succeed

external locus of control

• life is controlled by powerful others

• fate controls my life 

expectancy

• person thinks a particular behavior will lead to reinforcing consequences

• ex. if i run a marathon i will feel accomplished

reinforcement value

• an individual’s preference for a particular reinforcer over other possible reinforcing consequences

• if it is more appealing to me it will have a high reinforcement value

humanism

• focus on the uniquely human aspects of personality

self-actualizing tendency

• humans always strive to reach full potential

self-concept

image of oneself (comes from interactions w/ others)

sense of self

• individuals awareness of their own characteristics and level of functioning

real self

• one’s actual perception of characteristics that form the basis of the striving for self actualization

• more about a process

ideal self

• what you would like to be

  • comes from those around you

• more about a process

positive regard

• warmth/love that comes from significant others

unconditional positive regard

• positive regard without strings attached

  • allow you to explore what you can achieve

conditional positive regard

• positive regard only given when you are doing what the providers of the positive regard want

fully functioning person

• are in touch with themselves and can trust their innermost urges

• they need unconditional positive regard though

which (id, ego, or superego) is both conscious and unconscious

• superego and ego

what does the id create

• libido

  • sexual desires

• drives our personality

ego ideal

• memories of things for which we have been praised for or made us proud

• sense of right

how is a unique personality created

by all the interactions of the superego, id, and ego

trait theories

• personality is a series of stable characteristics 

• not a process, in terms of traits

• theories that want to describe the characteristics that make up human personality in an effort to predict future behavior

• attempt to describe personality by traits

  • less concerned about changing personality but predicting it

trait

• stable characteristics

surface trait

• a trait that can be easily seen by others

source trait

• internal characteristics

  • ex. hate crowds, shy

• core of personality

introversion

• you withdraw from excessive stimulation

what is the big five/five factor model? what acronym can you use to remember the Big Five

• source traits

  • is 2 really enough? so do 5

• OCEAN

openness

• high scorer

  • like trying new things

  • imaginative

• low scorer

  • resistant to change

  • uncreative

conscientiousness

• high scorer

  • organized

  • reliable

• low scorer

  • lazy

  • careless

extraversion

• high scorer

  • extrovert

  • outgoing

  • sociable

• low scorer

  • reserved

  • introvert

  • like being alone

agreeableness

• high scorer

  • good natured

  • trusting

  • helpful

• low scorer

  • rude

  • uncooperative

  • aggressive

neuroticism

• high scorer

  • really anxious

  • insecure

• low scorer

  • calm

  • secure

  • relaxed

  • stable

trait-situation interaction

• certain situations will influence the way in which a trait might be expressed

• ex. you are usually loud but a funeral you stay quiet

genetic nuture

• when traits that are genetic but not inherited influence the child

behavioral genetics

• how much our traits are inherited or genetic

genetic nuture

• traits that are genetic but not inherited can still impact a child

what influences personality more genetics or the environment

genetics