Personality Psychology Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for reviewing key concepts in personality psychology.

Trait Perspective

Focuses on individual differences in personality, viewing it as a pattern of stable traits that vary between people.

Types vs. Traits

Types are distinct, discontinuous categories, while Traits are continuous dimensions representing quantitative differences.

Nomothetic Approach

Views traits as universal dimensions for comparison.

Idiographic Approach

Emphasizes individual uniqueness in personality.

Factor Analysis

A statistical method to identify underlying personality dimensions.

Big Five

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.

Context-Dependent Traits

Traits manifest in specific situations.

Interactionism

Behavior results from the interplay between personality and the situation.

Personality Disorders

Extreme manifestations of Big Five traits.

Biological Perspective

Human behavior and personality are generated by complex biological systems and are, in part, genetically determined.

Behavioural Genetics

Explores how personality is inherited through twin and adoption studies.

Heritability Coefficient

Around 40% for personality.

Temperaments

Inherited traits present at birth, e.g., Activity, Sociability, Emotionality.

Non-Shared Environments

Have a greater impact on personality than shared environments.

Evolutionary theory

Applies natural and sexual selection to understand the adaptive value of psychological mechanisms.

Neuroscience and Personality

Uses brain imaging to study the role of neurotransmitters and hormones in influencing behavior.

Sensation Seeking

Linked to low MAO levels and a drive for novel experiences.

Behavioral Approach System (BAS)

Regulates reward-seeking and positive emotions, linked to extraversion.

Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)

Regulates punishment avoidance and anxiety, linked to neuroticism.

Learning Perspective

Views personality as a relatively stable set of learned behaviors and tendencies.

Behaviorism

Focuses on observable, quantifiable behavior as accumulated learned tendencies.

Classical Conditioning

A neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally produces a response.

Operant Conditioning

Behavior is shaped by its consequences. Reinforcement increases behavior, while punishment decreases it.

Social Learning Theory

Emphasizes reciprocal determinism, outcome expectancies, self-efficacy, and observational learning.

Reciprocal Determinism

A dynamic interaction between internal thoughts, external environment, and overt behavior.

Self-Efficacy

Belief in one's ability to successfully perform a behavior.

Motive Perspective

Focuses on the underlying reasons or causes that drive a person's actions and behavior.

Dispositional Motives

Needs such as the need for achievement, power, affiliation, and intimacy.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Personality is a dynamic result of ever-changing forces, largely operating beyond conscious awareness.

Topographical Model of the Mind

Divides the mind into conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

Id

The primitive, inherited, instinctual part, operating on the Pleasure Principle.

Ego

Develops to deal with reality, operating on the Reality Principle.

Superego

Embodies parental and societal values, striving for moral perfection.

Ego Strength

The ability to effectively balance the demands of the Id, Superego, and reality.

Cognitive Perspective

Focuses on how individuals organize, use, and process information to make sense of the world.

Schema Development

Cognitive structures that organize memories and knowledge.

Self-Regulation Perspective

Explores how individuals set, pursue, and manage their goals.

Goal Intentions

The intent to reach an outcome, influenced by attitudes and social norms.

Implementation Intentions

Specific plans linking situations to actions to facilitate automatic, goal-aligned behavior.

Humanistic Perspective

Emphasizes personal growth, self-actualization, and the importance of individual subjective experiences.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A pyramid where lower-level deficit needs must be met before higher-level growth needs can be pursued.

Psychosocial Theories Development

Focuses on the ego (self) and the centrality of social relationships in personality development.

Attachment Perspective

Emphasizes the centrality of early relationships and the development of enduring emotional bonds.

Secure Attachment

Infant seeks comfort from caregiver when distressed, readily soothed upon reunion.

Internal Working Models (IWMs)

Mental models of self and others based on repeated interactive experiences.They are relatively fixed, but can be dynamic serving as prototypes for future relationships

Inter-generational transmission

Parents' IWMs about their own childhood relationships influence their parenting behavior, which in turn shapes the child's IWMs.

What are the three central features of attachment

Proximity seeking, secure base effect and separation protest

Proximity

Desire for closeness to the caregiver

Secure base effect

Using the caregiver as a base for exploration

Separation Protest

Distress at potential loss of the caregiver

Adult attachment patterns

The idea that childhood working models carry into adulthood, influencing romantic and other relationships

Secure adults

More happy, friendly, trusting. and have longer-lasting relationships

Avoidant adults

Less accepting of imperfections, cynical about romantic love

Ambivalent adults

Obsessive, preoccupied, experience emotional extremes and jealousy

Alternate conceptualisation (Bartholomew & Horowitz)

Focuses on models of “self” (positive vs negative) and “other” (trustworthy vs not trustworthy)

Implications of adult attachment

Different attachment styles correlate with varying social behaviours, work patterns, coping strategies, and relationship stability (e.g. secure-secure pairings are most stable)

Links with the Five Factor Model (FFM)

Strong associations exist, with avoidants tending towards introversion, secures towards extraversion, and ambivalent towards high neuroticism