Psych 101 - Chapter 13: Self and Personality

personality

the stable, enduring pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make you unique

self-concept

the beliefs, attitudes, and mental pictures that you hold about yourself

self-schema

summarizes and organizes relevant past information about yourself

middle of the frontal lobes

where researches typically observe brain activity when people process information about themselves

working self-concept

the immediate experience of the self in the here and now

self-esteem

how you feel about your sense of self; tends to decrease during adolescence, then increase across the lifespan until declining toward the end of life

narcissism

often associated with inflated but fragile self-esteem; gradiosity, entitlement, vanity, lack of empathy

narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism

three negative personality traits that make up a dark triad

psychopathy

cynicism, strategic calculation, a willingness to manipulate, deceive, or exploit others for personal gain

machiavellianism

high impulsivity, antisocial behavior, shallow affect, complete lack of remote or empathy

the better-than-average effect

the tendency for people to describe themselves as above average in many ways (being more intelligent, friendly, honest, reliable, lucky, etc)’ people with high self-esteem are especially likely to exhibit this effect

social comparison theory

states that humans have an innate drive to evaluate their own actions, abilities, and beliefs by comparing themselves to others

upward, downward, and temporal comparison

types of comparison

upward comparison

comparing yourself to someone who is perceived as better, smarter, wealthier, or more successful

downward comparison

comparing yourself to someone who is perceived as worse off or less capable

temporal comparison

a type of downward comparison between your current self and past self

collectivist cultures

emphasize connections to family, social groups, ethnic groups, and conformity to societal norms (includes Japan, Greece, China)l reflects an interdependent self-concept

individualist cultures

emphasize rights and freedoms, self-expression, and diversity (includes northern and western Europe, Canada, the US); reflects an independent self-concept

social cognitive approaches

describes personality as being based on how a person thinks

psychodynamic theories

describe personality as being shaped by unconscious forces and early social experiences, especially emotional bonds with caregivers

humanistic approaches

describe personality being based on the tendency to fulfill potential through personal growth

trait approaches

describe personality as the individual’s characteristics

the psychoanalytic theory

developed by Sigmund Freud; focuses on the unconscious and the role of early childhood experiences on personality (psychodynamic theories are best understood as a collective of evolving ideas inspired by Freud but significantly modified over time

conscious, preconscious, and unconscious

types of mental processes believed by Freud to happen outside of conscious awareness

conscious

current thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that we are aware of (top of the iceberg)

preconscious

material that is outside of awareness but easily accessible (middle of the iceberg)

unconscious

material that the mind cannot easily retrieve (bottom of the iceberg)

id, superego, and ego

believed by Freud that personality consists of these three interacting systems

id

operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification

superego

operates on the morality principle as our conscience

ego

operates on the reality principle, involving rational thought and problem solving

anxiety

according to freud, conflicts between the i’d and superego cause ___, which the ego copes with through defense mechanisms

denial

refusing to acknowledge source of anxiety

repression

excluding source of anxiety from awareness

projection

attributing unacceptable qualities of the self to someone else

reaction formation

warding off an uncomfortable thought by overemphasizing its opposite

rationalization

creating a seemingly logical reason or excuse for behavior that might otherwise be shameful

displacement

shifting the attention of emotion from one object to another, easier target

sublimation

channeling socially unacceptable impulses into constructive, even admirable, behavior

Neo-Freudians

refers to psychologists who revised but did not entirely reject the basic premises of Freud’s original psychoanalytic theory

humanistic psychology

emerged in the 1950s as a reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism; focused on what motivates people to grow and reach their potential; emphasizes free will, personal growth, and human potential

Carl Rogers

known for his person-centered approach to understanding personality

self-concept and how others evaluate you

Rogers emphasized two issues as crucial in the development of personality:

the social cognitive approach to personality

emphasizes the interaction of environment, thought processes, and social factors

expectancy theory

developed by Julian Rotter, who proposed that our behaviors are influenced by how we think about expectancy for reinforcement and values placed on particular reinforcers

locus of control (LOC)

how strongly people believe they have control over the events and outcomes in their lives

internal LOC

the belief that you control what happens in your life

external LOC

the belief that outside forces control what happens in your life

reciprocal determinism

a concept developed by Albert Bandura, explains how three interacting factors continuously influence one another and shape a person’s behavior

environment, person factors, and behavior

three interacting factors involved in reciprocal determinism

environment

the people, situations, and circumstances surrounding us

person factors

our individual characteristics, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, self-confidence, and expectations

behavior

our actions, choices, and responses to different situations

reciprocal

the idea that each factor influences the other two

traits

our behavioral tendencies that are generally consistent over time and across most situations; exist on a continuum, where most people fall somewhere in the middle

the PEN model

proposed in the 1960s by Hans Eysenck; the idea that personality is composed of traits that have three major dimensions

psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism

dimensions included in the PEN model

psychoticism

how well a person controlled their emotions, now called constraint

extraversion

how outgoing a person is

neuroticism

how stable or unstable a person’s emotions are

the five-factor trait theory (the Big Five)

the most widely accepted and scientifically validated trait model

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

the personality traits included in the five-factor trait theory

situationism

proposed by Walter Mischel in 1968, meaning that behaviors are determined more by situations than personality traits

the person/situation debate

the controversy of situationism; arguing that behaviors are determined more by personality traits than situations

interactionism

the idea that behavior is shaped by both personality traits and situational influences

strong situations

environments with clear rules and expectations that limit the influence of personality differences on behavior

weak situations

ambiguous environments with few rules or expectations, allowing personality traits to have greater influence

the reticular activating system (RAS)

proposed by Eysenck; affects alertness and arousal and is different in extraverts and introverts

personality neuroscience

the study of how brain structures, neutral activity, and neurotransmitters contribute to personality traits

gene-environment correlation

the process in which genes interact with the environment to influence personality

temperament

the biologically based tendency to feel or act in certain ways

the EAS temperament model

proposed by Arnold Buss and Robert Plomin, which identifies emotionality, activity level, and sociality as the three aspects of temperament

emotionality, activity level, and sociability

the three aspects of temperament

emotionality

the intensity of the child’s emotional reactions

activity level

the overall amount of energy the child exhibits

sociability

the child’s tendency to affiliate with others

personality changes

occur as a result of the expectations and experiences associated with age-related roles, as life’s circumstances generally produce changes in personlity, especially during emerging adulthood

projective measures

use ambiguous stimuli to uncover unconscious thoughts and fellings (the Rorschach Inklblot Test and the Themative Apperception Test); criticized for being too subjective and infficiently validated

narrative measures

explore how people construct and interpret their life stories; compliment trait theories by capturing the evolving nature of personality

subjective methods

rely on interpretation, but objective measures provide more standardized ways to assess personality

self-report measures

most common method of assessing personality and involve people answering questions about themselves

observational methods

used to assess behavior in real-world or controlled settings, like the naturally occurring assessment which allows observes to unobtrusively track behavior in everyday environments