Chapter 10-Personality

personality

a pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world

psychodynamic theory of personality

States that personality is influenced by unconscious motives and past experiences

unconscious

the part of the mind that operates below the level of conscious awareness and influences thoughts and behaviors

Id

the part of the person that Freud called the “it,” consisting of unconscious drives; the individual’s reservoir of sexual energy. (The part that wants what is wants)

Ego

the Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality. It is the rational mind, thoughts, and behaviors

Superego

the Freudian structure of personality that serves as the harsh internal judge of the individual’s behavior; what is often referred to as conscience. This is the part that wants to be good and meet expectations

repression

when one attempts to forget the experience altogether

denial

when one does not accept that they have a problem

displacement

when one takes their emotion out on something or someone else

sublimation

when you take your emotion and throw it into something positive such as working out

humanistic theory of personality

personality is influenced by one’s understanding of self and the world. The idea that humans seek to better themselves

unconditional positive regard

the individual’s need to be accepted, valued, and treated positively regardless of their behavior

conditions of worth

the standards that the individual must live up to to receive positive regard from others

real self

the conscious representation of one’s true identity, including thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

ideal self

a person’s ultimate aspirations, embodying the attributes, achievements, and character traits they wish to possess

self-concept

our conscious representation of who we are and who we wish to become during childhood

Social-cognitive theory of personality

how you think about yourself and your relationships

reciprocal determinism

the way behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors interact to create personality

self-efficacy

the belief that one can master a situation and produce positive change

internal locus of control

when we ourselves are controlling our choices and behaviors

external locus of control

when outside sources are controlling our choices and behaviors

trait theory of personality

theoretical views stressing that personality consists of broad, enduring dispositions (traits) that tend to lead to characteristic responses

Five-Factor Model of Personality

O: Openness to experience

C: Conscientiousness

E: extraversion

A: agreeableness

N: neuroticism

HEXACO Model of Personality

H: Honesty-Humility

E: Emotionality

X: Extraversion

A: Agreeableness

C: Conscientiousness

O: openness

MMPI-2

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, which is the most widely used and research empirically keyed self-report personality test. The test contains 335 items and provides information on a variety of personality characteristics

Objective test

a test that can also be defined as a self-report test or an inventory, which is a method of measuring personality characteristics that directly asks people whether specific items describe their personality traits

projective test

a personality assessment test that presents individuals with an ambiguous stimulus and asks them to describe it or tell a story about it—to project their own meaning onto the stimulus

Rorschach inkblot test

a famous projective test that uses an individual’s perception of inkblots to determine their personality

Fanny M. Cheung

Born in British Honk Kong, China. She earned her PhD in the United States but went back to China to start her professional career. Cheung took one women’s rights issue in Honk Kong because she saw how female victims of sexual assaults were treated by the police, the media, and their family and friends. She led the Women Protection Movement to support survivors of sexual assault with medical care, counseling, legal help, and with the goal of establishing new police procedures for interacting with victims. Her research focuses on cross-cultural personality assessment, psychopathology among the Chinese, gender equality, and women’s leadership. She contributed a Chinese version of the MMPI.