AP Psychology Unit 8 -> Personality

Personality

* A person’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
* Our sense of “self”

Objective Tests (MMPI)

* Typically written & scored in a standardized way
* Yes/no questions

Objective Tests (MMPI-2)

* True/false/cannot say questions
* Checks for consistency
* Useful in diagnosing psychiatric disorders

Projective Tests

Unlimited # of responses to ambiguous stimuli

Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT)

* involves describing scenes to learn more about a person’s emotions, interpretation, and personality

Rationalization

* Substituting a more acceptable but false reason for one’s behavior
* Ex: “The teacher hates me, that’s why I failed”

Denial

* Refusing to acknowledge an intolerable reality
* Ex: “I’m gonna pass my test even though I didn’t study or do any of my hw”

Repression

* Forgetting situations that would cause painful emotions
* Ex: Being afraid of cats but doesn’t remember why (reason is that they were scratched by a cat in their childhood)

Regression

Retreating to an earlier developmental level involving less mature responses

Ex: When you’re sick you want to be taken care of like a child

Projection

* Seeing one’s personality traits, attitudes, or faults in others but not in oneself
* Ex: You tell your friend that they suck at video games but in reality you also suck

Displacement

* Shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward more acceptable or less threatening object or person
* Ex: You’re really mad at your teacher but you take it out on your dog when you get home

Sublimation

* People re-channel their unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities
* Ex: You’re pissed that you got a 55% on the math test, but you use that anger towards your basketball game

Reaction Formation

* Modifying an anxiety-causing impulse by performing in ways opposite to one’s true feelings
* Ex: You hate a certain person but to their face you act like their best friend

ID

* Freud -Unconscious desires
* Operates under pleasure principle
* Present at birth

Ego

* Operates in conscious and preconscious
* Controls thinking and reasoning
* Guided by the reality principle

Superego

* Moral watchdog
* Compares egos’ actions with the go ideal

Anal Stage

* Freud; ages 1.5 - 3.5
* Pleasure center in anus and elimination
* Concerned with toilet training
* Fixation:
* Anal Retentive
* Anal Expulsive

Phallic Stage

* Freud; ages 3.5 - 6
* Pleasure center in genitals
* Jealousy of same sex parent

Oedipus Complex

* Boys sexual desire for their mother
* Wish to replace father

Electra Complex

* Girls sexual desire for their father
* Wish to replace mother

Penis Envy

Women’s envy of not having a penis

Latency Stage

* Freud; ages 6-12
* Lost interest towards opposite sex
* “Cootie” period

Genital Stage

* Freud; (around time of puberty)
* Full adult sexuality

Reality Principle

* The ego satisfies the id without compromising values of the superego

Personal unconscious

* Own repressed thoughts and feelings

Collective Unconscious

* Common collection of knowledge & experiences humans share as a species
* Ex: Many people are afraid of snakes & spiders

Archetyupes

Universal patterns that symbolize basic human motivations, values, and personalities

Karen Horney

* Gives women a voice in personality
* Discredits Freud’s views that women have weak superegos and suffer from penis envy
* Created womb envy to replace Freud’s penis envy

Basic Anxiety

* Feelings of loneliness & isolation from childhood that leads to feelings of insecurity later in life

Compliant

* Neurotic trend
* Submitting to what others want (“Moving towards”)

Agressive

* Neurotic trend
* Hostile to others (“Moving against”)

Detached

* Neurotic trend
* Withdraw from others (“moving away”)

Alfred Alder

* Believes problems stem from tensions in childhood social situations & feelings of inferiority
* Developed birth order theory

Birth order theory

* The order in which a child is born shapes their personality

Social Self

* Rogers; How others perceive you

Inner Self (Self concept)

* Rogers; Mental pictures of yourself that you carry around

Abraham Maslow

* Created Hierarchy of Needs

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Self-Actualization (Top of pyramid)

Esteem

Love/Belonging

Safety

Physiological (Bottom of pyramid)

Carl Rogers

* Unconditional positive regard
* Significant others value you for who you are
* Fully Functioning person
* Mind and body are 1
* Open to all feelings and experiences
* Therapy leads to personal completion & perfection

Martin Seligman

* Created learned helplessness

Julian Rotter

* Locus of control
* External → Other people control your stuff
* Internal → You control your own stuff

Self-Efficacy

* Belief in our own abilities to be successful

Traits

* Relatively stable and consistent personality characteristics

Openness Trait

* Imagination, feelings, actions, ideas

Conscientiousness Trait

* Competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven

Extroversion Trait

* Sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression

Agreeableness Trait

* Cooperative, trustworthy, good-natured

Neuroticism

* Tendency towards unstable emotions

Anal Retentive

* Paying such attention to detail that it becomes an obsession
* Toilet train → obsessed with being neat

Anal Expulsive

* A person who exhibits cruelty, emotional outbursts, disorganization, etc.
* Toilet Train → Very messy