AP Psychology - Chapter 12: Personality

Darling 22-23

personality

individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling

Concept of personality is used to explain:

consistency and distinctiveness

consistency

the stability of a person’s behavior over time and across situations

distinctiveness

the behavioral differences among people reacting to the same situation

psychodynamic theories

posit that behavior is dynamic interaction between conscious and unconscious mind

humanistic approach

focus on inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment

trait theories

examine characteristic patterns of behavior

social-cognitive theories

explore interaction between traits and social context

self-report

series of answers to a questionnaire that asks people to indicate the extent to which sets of statements or adjectives accurately describe their own behavior or mental state

MMPI-2-RF

well-researched clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems

first published in 1940  — most widely used self-report tool for assessing personality.  Broad applications across a range of mental health, medical, substance abuse, forensic, and personnel screening settings as a measure of psychological maladjustment

The Barnum Effect/Forer Effect

a cognitive bias that occurs when individuals believe that generic personality descriptions and statements apply to themselves

projective tests

assessments made up of ambiguous stimuli that can be perceived and responded to in many different ways

Popular among psychodynamically oriented psychologists (i.e. Rorschach Inkblot Test and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT))

traits

habitual ways of behaving, thinking, and feeling

Gordon Allport

one of the founders of Personality Psychology — 18,000 words to describe people

* Cardinal, Central, Secondary traits
* Met Freud in 1922 “psychoanalysis tends to dig too deeply”

Raymond Cattell

used factor analysis to identify clusters of behavior tendencies that occur together \[16PF inventory\]

Theory of Hans & Sybil Eysenck

Personality is largely governed by biology. 

Focused on temperament

Personality is dependent on the balance between excitation and inhibition process of the autonomic nervous system (ANS)

Paul Costa & Robert McCrae

the primary developers of the five-factor model of personality traits

five-factor model

most popular theory in personality psychology today and most accurate approximation of the basic trait dimensions, \[OCEAN\]

Big Five

OCEAN

Openness

Conscientiousness

Extroversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

psychodynamic approach

regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness—motives that can also produce emotional disorders; developed by Freud

Freud’s personality structure

a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that exist outside of conscious awareness

Freud’s theory of the the mind’s three systems/structural entities

Id, ego, and superego

Id

operates on pleasure principle

pleasure principle

unconsciously strives to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress

ego

operates on reality principle

reality principle

seeks to realistically gratify id’s impulses to bring long-term pleasure; contains perceptions, thoughts, judgments and memories \[moderator/referee\]

superego

focuses on ideal behavior; strives for perfections; acts as moral conscience \[last system of personality to develop\]

defense mechanisms

unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses

Freud’s six defense mechanisms

regression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization, displacement, and denial

repression

acts to keep information out of conscious awareness, memories don't disappear they continue to influence our behavior

sublimation

which unacceptable urges are transformed/channeled into more productive and acceptable behaviors

Freud’s psychosexual stages

idea that sexual energy takes different forms as the child matures

 

Oral (0–18 months): pleasure centers on the mouth—sucking, biting, chewing

Anal (18–36 months): pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

Phallic (3–6 years): pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings            __[ Oedipus / Electra Complex]__

Latency (6 to puberty): phase of dormant sexual feelings

Genital (puberty on): maturation of sexual interests

fixation (according to Freud)

a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

Neo-Freudian disagreements

Freud's emphasis on sexual urges as a primary motivator. 

Freud's lack of emphasis on social and cultural influences on behavior and personality. 

Freud's negative view of human nature.

Carl Jung’s theory

A person’s interior life merited not just attention, but dedicated exploration.

Psyche is a spiritual and fluid space. An ocean to be fished for enlightenment and healing.

Alfred Adler

believed that birth order had a significant and predictable impact on a child's **personality**, and their feeling of inferiority. All human behavior is goal oriented and motivated by striving for superiority \[Individual Psychology\]

Karen Horney

believed that neurosis resulted from basic anxiety caused by interpersonal relationships.Ideal self & despised self —’tyranny of the shoulds’\[Neurotic Needs\]

Carl Jung

believed that unconscious has two levels — personal and collective unconscious

* collective unconscious reservoir of psychological predispositions, structures and memories

archetype

in Jung’s theory, shared motifs, symbols and themes were expressions of the various psychic structures consistent across humanity

humanistic psychology

psychological approach that emphasizes personal growth, resilience, and the achievement of human potential, launched in 1960s

Abraham Maslow

believed that personality development could be viewed as gradual progression toward self-actualization

self-actualization

defined by Maslow as person’s “full use and exploitation of talents, capacities, and potentialities” – he later added “self-transcendence” as top level

conditions of positive growth

genuineness, empathy, and acceptance

genuineness

open with feelings, transparent and self-disclosing

empathy

sharing and mirroring others’ feelings, relaxing and fully expressing one’s true self

acceptance

offering *unconditional positive regard*  — an attitude of *total acceptance* toward another person

Carl Rogers

American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach in psychology

self concept

a collection of beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities, and typical behavior

reciprocal determinism

two-way interaction between aspects of the environment and aspects of the individual in the shaping of personality traits

self-efficacy

refers to one’s belief about one’s ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes

aspects of individual

temperament, learned habits, perceptions, and beliefs

aspects of situation

opportunities, rewards, punishments, and chance events

social-cognitive approach

Views personality in terms of how the person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them

Emphasizes a person’s perception of the environment

Brings together insights from

* Social psychology
* Cognitive psychology
* Learning theory

person-situation controversy

Question of whether behavior is caused more by personality or by situational factors

* The situation and learning history are key determinants of behavior but are open to interpretation; how people perceive their environments

Walter Mischel

psychologist who argued that personality traits do little to predict behavior