Lecture 2 Personality Theories

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts from the lecture notes on personality theories.

Personality

An individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits that are relatively stable over time and across situations.

Personality trait

A durable disposition to behave in a particular way across a variety of situations.

The Big Five (Five-Factor Model)

Five higher-order personality traits: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness.

Extraversion

Tendency to be sociable, outgoing, and energized by social interaction.

Introversion

Tendency to be more reserved, less aroused by social stimulation, and prefer solitary activities.

Neuroticism

Tendency toward emotional instability, anxiety, and moodiness.

Openness to Experience

Creativity, curiosity, and openness to new experiences.

Agreeableness

Tendency to be cooperative, warm, and trusting.

Conscientiousness

Tendency to be organized, responsible, and goal-oriented.

Psychodynamic Perspective

Approach that emphasizes unconscious forces and early experiences in shaping personality.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Theory that personality is shaped by unconscious processes and internal conflicts among the id, ego, and superego.

Id

Instinctual, primitive part of personality that operates on the pleasure principle.

Ego

Decision-making component that operates on the reality principle.

Superego

Moral component that internalizes social standards of right and wrong.

Defense mechanisms

Unconscious strategies to reduce anxiety from conflicts among the id, ego, and superego.

Rationalization

Justifying unacceptable thoughts or feelings with socially acceptable reasons.

Repression

Motivated forgetting of painful or unacceptable memories.

Projection

Attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts to others.

Displacement

Taking out emotions on a substitute target.

Reaction formation

Behaving in a way that is opposite to one’s true feelings.

Regression

Reverting to immature behaviors in the face of stress.

Identification

Forming an alliance with a person or group to bolster self-esteem.

Sublimation

Turning unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable or admirable activities.

Psychosexual stages

Freud’s stage theory of personality development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) with potential fixation.

Fixation

Partial or complete stoppage of normal development at a particular psychosexual stage.

Jung’s Analytical Psychology

Theory including concepts like archetypes and the collective unconscious.

Adler’s Individual Psychology

Theory emphasizing striving for superiority and social interest.

Strengths of psychodynamic theory

Highlights unconscious influences and early experiences in shaping personality.

Behaviorism

Psychology focused on observable behavior; views personality as a set of learned responses to stimuli.

Classical Conditioning

Learning where a neutral stimulus becomes capable of eliciting a response after being paired with a stimulus that already elicits that response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

Stimulus that naturally elicits a response without conditioning.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

Natural, unlearned reaction to the UCS.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

Stimulus that initially elicits no specific response.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response after conditioning.

Conditioned Response (CR)

Learned response to the conditioned stimulus.

Extinction (conditioning)

Gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response when the CS is no longer paired with the UCS.

Pavlov

Pioneer of classical conditioning in dogs; demonstrated how stimuli become associated.

Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

Learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences (reinforcement or punishment).

Positive Reinforcement

A stimulus following a response that increases the likelihood of that response.

Negative Reinforcement

Removal of an unpleasant stimulus following a response, increasing its frequency.

Positive Punishment

Introduction of an unpleasant stimulus following a response, reducing its frequency.

Negative Punishment

Removal of a pleasant stimulus following a response, reducing its frequency.

Observational Learning

Learning by observing and imitating others’ behaviors and the consequences they receive.

Major types of behavioral learning

Classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.

Humanistic Perspective

Emphasizes free will, personal growth, and the value of subjective experience.

Self-concept

Collection of beliefs about one’s own qualities and typical behavior.

Incongruence

Disparity between one’s self-concept and actual growth experiences.

Self-actualization

Need to fulfill one’s potential and achieve personal growth.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Pyramid of needs in which basic needs must be satisfied before higher needs become active.

Maslow’s healthy personality

Maslow’s view of what constitutes a well-adjusted personality through self-actualization.

Biological Perspective

Views personality as largely determined by genetics and biological processes.

Eysenck’s Theory

Proposes personality is largely determined by genes, with hierarchy of traits and dimensions like extraversion–introversion.

Hierarchy of traits

Idea that superficial traits are derived from a smaller set of basic, higher-order traits.

Twin studies

Research comparing identical and fraternal twins to estimate genetic influence on traits.

Heritability

Estimated proportion of trait variability in a population due to genetic differences.

Evolutionary psychology

Examines behavior through the lens of adaptive value and evolution across generations.

Adaptive value

Benefit a trait provides for survival or reproduction.