Lecture 6 - Personality (Start of exam 2)

Personality

• the long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in certain ways

Sanguine - Hippocrates:Historical Perspectives

• red blood from the heart

Phlegmatic - Hippocrates:Historical Perspectives

• white phlegm from the lungs

Choleric - Hippocrates:Historical Perspectives

• yellow bile from the liver

Melancholic - Hippocrates:Historical Perspectives

• black bile from the kidneys

Phrenology - Franz Gall:Historical Perspectives

• the idea that the distances between bumps on the skull reveal a person’s traits, character, and mental abilities

Id - Sigmund Freud:Psychodynamic Theory

• primitive urges

• impulsive instinctual

• the pleasure principle

Superegeo - Sigmund Freud:Psychodynamic Theory

• learned social rules for right and wrong

• moral compass → pride/guilt

Ego (self) - Sigmund Freud:Psychodynamic Theory

• attempts to balance the id with the superego

• the reality principle

• the part of personality seen by others

Repressions - Defense mechanisms

• unpleasant thoughts and feelings are pushed out of awareness

Denial - Defense mechanisms

• refusal to accept reality

Displacement - Defense mechanisms

• threatening impluse/desire is redirected elsewhere

Rationalization - Defense mechanisms

• generating logical reasons for outcomes that otherwise would not be acceptable

Regression - Defense mechanisms

• returning to coping strategies from less mature stages of development

Reaction formation - Defense mechanisms

• to block an impulse

• the exact opposite behaviors/desires are displayed

Projection - Defense mechanisms

• projecting one’s own unacceptable qualities onto others

Sublimation - Defense mechanisms

• convert unacceptable desire into acceptable behavior

Intellectualization - Defense mechanisms

• translates anxieties into theories or jargon that put emotions at a distance

Collective unconscious - Carl Jung:Analytical Psychology

• universal version of personal unconscious, holding mental patterns or memory traces, which are common to all of us

Archetypes - Carl Jung:Analytical Psychology

• patterns that exist in our collective unconscious across cultures/societies

Persona - Carl Jung:Analytical Psychology

• a mask we consciously adopt

• a compromise between our true self that society expects us to be

Assessing personality

• thematic apperception test

Social cognitive approaches

• emphasize the influence of a person’s cognitions (thoughts, feelings, expectations, values)

Self-efficacy - Social cognitive approaches

• belief in one’s personal capabilities

Self-esteem - Social cognitive approaches

• our positive and negative evaluations of ourselves

Trait approaches: MBTI

• 16 personalities

• not scientifically based

Trait approaches: The big five

• openness

• conscientiousness

• extraversion

• agreeableness

• neuroticism

Personality approach

• factor analysis