(3) Theories of Personality (app)

Flashcards for reviewing key concepts in personality psychology, covering personality definition, psychodynamic perspectives (Freud and Neo-Freudians), behavioral and social cognitive views, humanism, trait theories, and assessment methods.

Personality

The unique way in which each individual thinks, acts, and feels throughout life.

Character

Value judgments made about a person's morals or ethical behavior.

Temperament

Biologically innate and enduring characteristics with which each person is born, such as irritability or adaptability.

Victorian Age Influence on Freud

Sexual repression and unfulfilled sexual desires.

Preconscious

Memories, information, and events of which one can easily become aware.

Conscious

One's current awareness.

Unconscious

Part of the mind that remains hidden at all times, surfacing only in symbolic form in dreams and some behaviors.

Id

Most primitive part of the personality, present in the infant, completely unconscious, pleasure-seeking, and amoral.

Pleasure principle

Desire for immediate gratification of needs with no regard for the consequences

Ego

Part of the personality that develops to deal with reality, mostly conscious, rational, and logical.

Reality princess

Need to satisfy the demands of the id only in ways that will not lead to negative consequences

Superego

Moral center of personality that develops as a child learns the rules and expectations of society.

Psychological Defense Mechanisms

Unconsciously distorting one’s perception of reality to deal with anxiety.

Denial

Refusal to recognize or acknowledge a threatening situation.

Repression

Pushing threatening or conflicting events out of conscious memory.

Rationalization

Making up acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior.

Projection

Placing one's unacceptable thoughts onto others.

Reaction Formation

Forming an emotional reaction that is the opposite of one's threatening thoughts.

Displacement

Expressing threatening feelings onto a less threatening target.

Regression

Falling back on childlike patterns to cope with stress.

Identification

Trying to become like someone else to deal with anxiety.

Compensation (Substitution)

Trying to make up for perceived lacks by becoming superior in another area.

Sublimation

Turning socially unacceptable urges into socially acceptable behavior.

Erogenous Zone

Area of the body that produces pleasurable feelings; source of conflicts in psychosexual stages.

Fixation

Being 'stuck' to some degree in a stage of development.

Oral Stage

First 18mos

Erogenous zone: mouth; conflict: weaning; fixation leads to oral habits or dependency/aggression.

Anal Stage

18-36mos

Erogenous zone: anus; conflict: toilet training; fixation leads to anal retentive or expulsive personalities.

Phallic Stage

3-6yrs

Erogenous zone: genitals; conflict: Oedipus/Electra complex; identification with same-sex parent.

Castration Anxiety

Boys fear of losing the penis.

Penis Envy

Girls feeling of envy because they were missing a penis.

Oedipus Complex/Electra Complex

Sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent and jealousy of the same-sex parent.

Latency Stage

6yrs to Puberty

Children push sexual feelings into the unconscious and focus on intellectual, physical, and social development.

Genital Stage

Puberty onwards

Sexual urges are allowed into consciousness, targeting appropriate partners.

Neo-Freudian Perspective

Emphasis on the impact of the social environment on personality development.

Collective Unconscious

Contains a kind of “species” memory, memories of ancient fears and themes that seem to occur in many folktales and cultures.

Anima/Animus

Feminine side of a man/masculine side of a woman.

Shadow

Dark side of personality, called the “devil” in Western cultures.

Persona

Side of one’s personality that is shown to the world.

Inferiority Complex

People all develop feelings of inferiority when comparing themselves to the more powerful, superior adults in their world.

Compensation

People try to overcome feelings of inferiority in one area of life by striving to be superior in another area

Alfred Adler's Belief

Birth order affects personality.

Womb Envy

Men compensate for lack of child-bearing ability.

Karen Horney's Focus

Basic anxiety and neurotic personalities.

Erik Erikson's Focus

Emphasis on social relationships at every stage of life.

Behaviorist View of Personality

Personality is a set of learned responses or habits.

Social Cognitive Learning Theory

Emphasizes the influences of other people’s behavior and a person’s own expectancies on learning.

Social Cognitive View

Includes cognitive processes such as anticipating, judging, memory, and imitation of models.

Reciprocal Determinism

Environment, behavior, and personal/cognitive factors influence one another in determining behavior patterns.

Self-Efficacy

A person’s expectancy of how effective their efforts to accomplish a goal will be.

Locus of Control

The tendency for people to assume that they either have control or do not have control over events and consequences in their lives.

Internal Locus of Control

People assume their actions affect consequences.

External Locus of Control

People assume their lives are controlled by external factors.

Expectancy

A person’s subjective feeling that a particular behavior will lead to a reinforcing consequence.

Reinforcement Value

Individual’s preference for a particular reinforcer over all other possible reinforcing consequences.

Humanism

Focus on subjective emotions and freedom to choose one’s destiny.

Self-Actualizing Tendency

Striving to fulfill innate capacities and capabilities.

Self-Concept

The image of oneself that develops from interactions with significant people.

Real Self

One’s actual perception of characteristics, traits, and abilities.

Ideal Self

Perception of what one should be or would like to be.

Positive Regard

Warmth, affection, love, and respect that come from significant others.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Love, affection, and respect with no strings attached.

Conditional Positive Regard

Love, affection, respect, and warmth that depend on doing what others want.

Fully Functioning Person

A person who actively explores potentials and experiences a match between their real and ideal self.

Trait

A consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving.

Surface Traits

Personality characteristics easily seen by other people.

Source Traits

More basic traits that underlie the surface traits.

Five-Factor Model (Big Five)

Five broad trait dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Trait-Situation Interaction

The particular circumstances of any given situation influence the way in which a trait is expressed.

Behavioral Genetics

The study of how much of an individual’s personality is due to inherited traits.

Heritability

The degree to which some of our personality is linked to our parents and close relations.

Direct Observation

Psychologist observes the client engaging in ordinary, everyday behavior, prefrably in the natural setting of home, school, or workplace

Rating Scale

A numerical rating is assigned, either by the assessor or by the client, for specific behaviors.

Unstructured Interview

Client and the psychologist engage in dialogue, flowing naturally from the beginning

Semi-Structured Interview

Has specific questions, and, based on the individual’s responses, guidance for follow-up items, similar to a decision tree or flow diagram

Personality Inventory

Paper-and-pencil or computerized test consisting of statements requiring a standardized response.

Validity Scales

Scales intended to indicate whether a person is responding honestly on a personality inventory.

MMPI-2-RF

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; used for assessing abnormal behavior and thinking patterns.

Halo Effect

Tendency to form a favorable or unfavorable impression of someone at the first meeting.

Observer bias

Bias introduced by an observer which may skew the results of an observation.

Projective Tests

Personality assessments that present ambiguous visual stimuli to the client.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Inkblot test that uses predetermined categories and responses to score and describe personality.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Client tells a story about ambiguous people in pictures, interpreted by a psychoanalyst.