psych chapter 14 personality

what is personality?

refers to the distinctive and relatively enduring patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize how an individual responds to life situations

what are the two key observations underlying personality?

• individual differences → people differ meaningfully in thoughts, emotions, and behaviours

• consistency of behaviour → people show stable behaviour across time and situations (with some situational variation)

why is behavioural consistency important in personality?

• allows prediction of behaviour

• sudden changes suggest unusual circumstances

• even with social influence, personality shows baseline stability

what are the 3 criteria for evaluating personality theories?

• comprehensive → integrates known facts

• predictive → forecasts behaviour

• heuristic → stimulates new research

what are the 3 characteristics of personality-related behaviour?

• identity components → distinguish individuals

• internal causes → originate from within

• organization/structure → coherent behavioural patterns

what are the key assumptions of the humanistic perspective?

• humans are inherently good

• emphasis on free will, conscious experience, growth, and potential

• focus on self-actualization

what is self-actualization?

the full realization of one’s potential, considered the highest human need (Maslow)

how do humanistic theories differ from Freud?

• Freud → behaviour driven by unconscious conflict + impulses

• Humanists → behaviours driven by growth, creativity, fulfillment

what is personal construct theory? (George Kelly)

• people act like scientists, trying to predict and interpret events

• personal constructs → cognitive categories (ex: good vs bad) used to interpret the world

• how personal constructs shape personality:

  • organize experience

  • guide behaviour

  • explain individual differences

• therapeutic goal: help clients see interpretations as hypotheses, not absolute truths

• fixed-role therapy: clients act out a new personality role to explore new behaviours and perspectives

what is self theory? (Carl Rogers)

• “self” → an organized, consistent set of beliefs and perceptions about oneself

• develops:

  • infants initially lack self-awareness

  • develop through experience and interaction

  • becomes relatively stable over time

• self-consistency → the need for consistent self-perceptions

• congruence → match between self-concept and experience

• incongruence → conflict between self-concept and reality, leads to anxiety and defensive processes

  • people can either: adapt (change self-concept) or defend (distort or deny reality)

what is self-esteem?

• emotional evaluation of one’s self-concept

• high: happiness, persistence, strong relationships

• low: anxiety, depression, poor relationships

what is unconditional positive regard?

love and acceptance regardless of behaviour → promotes healthy development

what is conditional positive regard?

• love only when meeting expectations → leads to conditions of worth

• conditions of worth: standards that determine when a person feels worthy of love

what is a fully-functioning person?

• open to experience

• authentic

• self-accepting

• guided by inner values

what is self-verification?

desire to confirm existing self-beliefs (even negative ones)

what is self-enhancement?

• motivation to maintain a positive self-image

• strategies:

  • attribute success internally

  • blame failure externally

  • rate oneself above average

how do cultures differ in self-concept?

• individualistic: independent self

• collectivist: relational/connected self

what are gender schemas?

cultural beliefs about appropriate traits for men and women

what is factor analysis?

statistical method to identify clusters of related traits

what are the big five traits (OCEAN)?

• openness

• conscientiousness → better health

• extraversion → well-being

• agreeableness

• neuroticism → mental health risk

what biological factors influence personality?

• genetics

• brain functioning

• evolution

how did Eysenck explain introversion vs extraversion?

• introverts → over-aroused → avoid stimulation

• extraverts → under-aroused → seek stimulation

what is reciprocal determinism?

• behaviour results from interaction between:

  • person

  • behaviour

  • environment

• example: confidence → participation → success → increased confidence

what determines behaviour in the social learning theory (Rotter)?

• expectancy (likelihood of outcome)

• reinforcement value (importance of outcome)

what is locus of control (Rotter)?

• belief about control over life outcomes

• internal → outcomes depend on self

• external → outcomes depend on luck/others

what is self-efficacy? (Bandura)

• belief in one’s ability to achieve goals

• four sources:

  • performance experiences

  • observational learning

  • verbal persuasion

  • emotional arousal

• human agency: ability to control and direct one’s life, essential for self-efficacy

what is Cognitive Affective Processing System? (CAPS, Mischel)

• emphasizes that behaviour is driven by the interaction between stable cognitive affective units and specific situations

• consistency paradox: behaviour varies across situations, despite expectations of consistency

• “if…then” patterns: behaviour is situation-specific but predictable (ex: if X → then Y)

what does delay of gratification predict?

• academic success

• emotional control

• better life outcomes

what are the 6 methods of personality assessment?

• interviews

• behavioural observation

• experience sampling

• personality tests

• projective tests

• physiological measures

what is reliability and validity?

• reliability → consistency

• validity → accuracy

what are the 3 parts of personality in Freud’s psychodynamic theory?

• id (unconscious): present from birth, contains sexual and aggressive drives, seeks immediate gratification of basic needs without regard for consequences

• ego (conscious/rational): develops from id to deal with reality, acts as rational mediator that balances the unrealistic demands of the id with the realities of the world

• superego (moral compass): around age 5, acts as a moral component of personality, holding internalized standards, ideals, and values, wants perfection → guilt when violated

what are the 3 types of anxiety (Freud)?

• reality anxiety - fear of real world dangers

• neurotic anxiety - unconscious fear that ego will lose control over the id’s irrational impulses → punishment

• moral anxiety - fear of violating moral codes/values → guilt from superego

what are defence mechanisms?

• unconscious strategies to reduce anxiety

• examples:

  • repression - blocks unacceptable thoughts or painful memories

  • projection - attributing one’s own unacknowledged, unacceptable impulses/desire to someone else

  • displacement - redirecting emotions (aggression) from the real, threatening target to a safer, less threatening substitute

  • sublimation - channelling socially unacceptable impulses into acceptable behaviours (ex: aggression into sports)

  • regression - reverting to an earlier, more infantile stage of development when faced with unacceptable stress

  • rationalization - creating logical, acceptable justifications for behaviour or decisions

what is Freud’s theory of dreams?

• dreams = wish fulfillment

• latent content = hidden meaning

• manifest content = disguised version

key criticisms of Freud?

• lack of scientific evidence

• biased sample

• concepts hard to test

how do all personality perspectives differ?

• psychodynamic: unconscious conflict

• humanistic: growth and self

• trait: stable characteristics

• social-cognitive: interaction of person + environment