AP Psych - 4.4 - 4.6

Personality

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting.

What is a psychodynamic perspective on personality?

Sigmund Freud - personality is influenced by childhood sexuality and unconscious motives.

What is a humanistic perspective on personality?

personality is from self-fulfillment and getting to that point. Our goal is to be the best self we can be, always looking to improve.

What is a trait theory?

Psychologists look at our personality and try to find patterns = traits.

What is the social cognitive theory?

Situation and/or culture makes a large impact on our personality.

What are Psychodynamic theories?

Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences.

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to conscious motives and conflicts. Techniques that are used treat psychological disorders - seek to expose and interpret conscious thoughts.

Unconscious

Sigmund Freud says its a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.

Free association

A type of psychoanalysis where we explore the unconscious mind in which the patient relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.

Id

a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual aggressive drives. Operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

Ego

the partly conscious part of personality that, according to Freud mediates amoung the demands of the id, superego and the reality. operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Superego

the partly conscious part of personality that, according to Freud, represents moral standards and ideals, acting as a guide for right and wrong. It controls impulses and strives for perfection, often causes guilt when we do something wrong. Operates on the Moral principle

Manifest content

What you remember from your dreams

Latent content

when the brain ‘hides’. What the dream actually means.

Freudian Slip

In the past, Freud would go back and forth with patients using random words until they slip and reveal something from their unconscious. Now, it’s used in pop culture, when someone says something by mistake that you mean.

TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) Test

Take a neutral image and ask the client to reflect on it.

Rorschach InkBlot Test

A type of TAT test. Presents patients with ink blots, ask them what they see.

Hypnosis

Get patient into a lulled state to uncover unconscious. Freudian method to uncover the unconscious.

Freud’s Oral Stage

0-18 months. Pleasure centers on the mouth, sucking, biting, chewing. Problems in adulthood (smoking, excessive eating, talking alot)

Freud’s Anal Stage

18-36 months, pleasure focuses on bowl and bladder elimination, coping with demands for control. Learn to control bowls. Trauma in this stage resulted in homosexuality in males, according to Freud.

Freud’s Phallic Stage

3-6 Years, pleasure zone in the genitals, coping with incestuous sexual feelings. Children realize their gender + pleasure. At this age boys resent their fathers, girls their mothers. Oedipus complex, and electra complex.

Oedipus Complex

In Freud’s Phallic stage. Feelings of desire for oppostie sex parent, competition with same sex parent.

If there is trauma in the phallic stage then boys look for gf like their mom.

Electra complex

In freud’s phallic stage, girls are attracted to their dad.

Freud’s latency stage

6- puberty. a phase of dominant sexual feelings.

Freud’s genital stage

maturation of sexual interests. if you worked through the stages, you will be normal.

Fixation

unhealthy obsession - when we don’t correctly pass through the stages - unconscious has to protect us, we create tactics and techniques.

Repression

bury our trauma in the Id - banishes wishes and feelings from consciousness, underlies all other defense mechanisms.

Defense machanism

Psychoanalytic theory - the egos protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

Regression

act younger than really are, peter pan syndrome. Watch cartoons for comfort, hold onto stuffed animal.

Reaction formation

switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Ex: feeling the urge to cry with disappointment, instead declares loudly that “getting cut from the soccer team was the best thing that happened to me.”

Projection

disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. (tells everyone how mad his parents are at the coach)

Rationalization

offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real-, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions. (ex: explains that he wasn’t working very hard at tryouts and could have made the team if he really wanted to.)

Displacement

shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person. (ex: yells at his little brother for no reason, or mad at your dad, take it out on sports opponents)

Sublimation

Transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives. (ex: feels an urge to go to a practice and yell at the coach; instead offers to teach his little brother soccer that day.) (ex: a person with aggressive tendencies channels their impulses into boxing. Transforming their unconscious urges into constructive behavior.)

Denial

refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities. (ex: insists there was an error on the team list and he’s going to set things right with the coach.)

Alfred Adler

NEO-FREUDIAN —> copied and liked almost all of Freud’s work, created the Inferiority complex - believed children need to feel superior and if they do not, they form the complex.

Karen Horney

NEO-FREUDIAN —> focused on women and the need for love and security in childhood. Opposed idea of Penis envy and the Phallic Stage

Carl Jung

NEO-FREUDIAN —> created the collective unconscious.

Collective unconscious

Carl jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species history. (ex: some people across culture have similar myths, dreams, and instincts, like the idea of a hero or mother figure.) Thought that biologically we are designed by birth.

Terror-Management Theory

a theory of death-related anxiety; people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death.

Humanistic theories

theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth. Traumas don’t matter.

Hierarchy of needs

(HUMANISTIC) Abraham Maslow — level of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs. visualized as a pyramid.

Order of Hierarchy of needs

Bottom Physiological Needs (air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing), Safety (personal security, employment, health), love and belonging (friendships, intimacy , family), esteem (respect, self-esteem, status), self-actualization (desire to become most that one can be), self-transcendence (need to find meaning and purpose beyond the self.

Self-Actualization

Hierarchy of needs, 2nd highest. Abraham Maslow —+ one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychoological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved.

Self-transcendence

Hierarchy of needs - Abraham Maslow - Top level. striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self.

Carl Rogers

Humanistic thinker - created the unconditional positive regard. Thought that people are basically good and endowed with self-actualizing tendencies.

Unconditional Positive regard

Humanistic — Carl Rogers! —> a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitud, which carl Rogers believed would help develop self-awareness and self-acceptance. Also known as unconditional regard. Thought that people needed a growth-promoting social climate, feel valued.

Self-Concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves (Humanistic). Key to Maslow and Rogers theories, when we have positive self-concepts we see the world positively and if we fall short of this idea self, we can feel unhappy and dissatisfied.

Traits

A characteristic pattern of behavior or disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.

Gordon Allport

Trait theorist — began to identify traits based on observable behavior.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test

Trait theorist — has been used to sort people into personality types based on CARL JUNGS archetypes.

Eyseneck Personality Inventory

(TRAIT THEORY) boiled it down to two trait dimensions (extroversion—introversion) and (emotional stability—instability) Genetically influenced

Personality inventory

(TRAIT THEORY) a questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

(TRAIT THEORY) the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally used to find emotional disorders- this test is now used for many screening purposes.

Empirically derived test

(TRAIT THEORY) a test such as the MMPI, created by selecting from a pool of items that discriminate between groups

Big Five Factors

Made from ROBERT McCREA and PAUL COSTA —> TRAITS — openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

Conscientiousness

Organized, careful disciplined, or not organized, careless or impulsive.

Social-cognitive perspective

a view of behaviors — thinking that they are influenced by the interaction between people’s traits and their social context.

Albert Bandura

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THINKER - emphasized the interaction between traits and situations.

Reciprosal determinism

ALBERT BANDURA’s idea that we act the way we do due to 3 interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition and environment. 1) internal personal factors 2) behavior 3)environmental factors

Martin Seligman

A SOCIAL COGNITIVIST- Father of the positivist psychology.

Positivist Psychology

Social Cognitive + Humanistic (Martin Seligman) - Took humanistic approach to behavior — we work toward making ourselves better people and said that we also become better citizens for those around us.

Spotlight effect

overestimating others noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders. Studied by Thomas Gilovich - had students wear embarrasing shirt, many other students didn’t even notice.

Self-esteem

our feelings of high or low self-worth. inflated self-esteem = act violently when the self esteem is threatened.

self-efficacy

our sense of competence and effectiveness.

Self serving bias

a readiness to perceive ourselves favorably. (90% of students think they are above average)

Narcissism

excessive self-love and self-absorption. More overconfident = usually the most incompetent. Dunning Kruger effect

Dunning Kruger effect

ignorance of one’s own ignorance.

Individualism

a cultural pattern that emphasizes people’s own goals over group goals and defines identity mainly in terms of unique personal attributes.

Collectivism

A cultural pattern that prioritizes the goals of important goals (often one’s own extended family or work group)