PSYC 1010 - Personality

Personality

Unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel, and behave.

Id

The part of the personality that contains innate drives and is guided by the pleasure principle.

Ego

The component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality and mediating between the Id and the Superego.

Superego

The part of the personality that represents moral conscience and the societal standards imposed on an individual.

Character

Value Judgements of a perosn’s moral and ethical behavior

Temperament

biologically innate and enduring characteristics that each person is born

Different psychology perspectives

Psychodynamic , behavioral, humanistic, trait

Psychodynamic perspective

Sigmund Freud focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in the development of personality. Heavily focused on biological causes of personality differences

Behavioral perspective

focuses on the effect of the environment on behavior, aspects of social cognitive theory, and interactions with others

Humanistic perspective

A reaction against psychoanalytic and behaviorist perspectives, focuses on the role of each person’s conscious life experiences and choices in personality development

Trait perspective

Focuses on the end result rather than the characteristics themselves

The structure of the mind

the preconscious, conscious and unconscious

Unconscious mind

Level of mind in which thoughts, feelings, memories, and other thoughts are not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness

Parts of personality

Id, ego, superego

Pleasure principle

principle by which the ID functions, the desire for the immediate satisfaction of needs without regard for the consequences

Reality principle

principle by which the ego functions, the satisfaction of demands of the id only when negative consequences will not result

Conscience

part of the superego that produces guilt, depending on how acceptable the behavior is

Psychological defense mechanisms

unconscious distortions of a person’s perception of reality that reduces stress and anxiety, when the ego & super-ego just aren’t enough to do the job

Psychosexual stages

five stages of personality development proposed by Freud and tied to the sexual development of a child

Erogenous zones

area of the body that produces pleasurable feelings

Fixation

disorder in which a person does not fully resolve a conflict in a particular psychosexual stage, resulting in personality traits and behavior associated with that earlier stage

Oral Stage

The mouth is the erogenous zone, and weaning is the primary conflict, first 18 months

Anal Stage

The anus is the erogenous zone, and toilet training is the primary conflict, 18-36 months

Phallic Stage

Erogenic zone shifts to the genitals, the child discovers sexual awareness, 3-6 years

Castration anxiety

Developing a fear of losing the penis (males)

Penis envy

missing a penis (females)

Oedipus/Electra complex

believed that boys develop both sexual attraction to their mothers and jealousy of their fathers during this age, attracted to the opposite sex parent, jealous of same-sex parent (vice versa for girls)

Latency Stage

Occurring in school years, in which sexual feelings are repressed while the child develops in other ways, 6 years to puberty

Genital Stage

From puberty on, sexual urges are allowed back into consciousness, and the individual moves toward adult social and sexual behavior, Puberty on

Carl Jung

Disagreed with Freud, believed there was not only a personal unconscious but also a collective unconscious

Personal unconscious

Jung’s name of the unconscious mind described by freud

Collective unconscious

Memories shared by all human species

Archetypes

Jung’s universal memories

Alfred Alder

developed the theory that young, helpless, children all develop feelings of inferiority when comparing themselves to more powerful adults in their world, believed that birth order affected personality

Compensation

defense mechanism in which people try to overcome their feelings of inferiority in one area of life, striving to be superior in another area of life

Karen Horney

disagreed with differences between males and females, most notably penis envy

Womb envy

men feel the need to compensate for their lack of child-bearing ability, striving for success in other areas

Basic anxiety

states that anxiety created when a child is born into a world with powerful older children and adults

Neurotic personalities

personalities typified by maladaptive ways of dealing with relationships

Erik Erikson

Broke away from Freud’s emphasis on sex, instead emphaszing social relationships that are important at every stage of life

Habits

in behavior, sets of well-learned responses that become automatic

The Social Cognitive View: Albert Bandura

learning theory that includes cognitive processes such as anticipating, judging, memory, and initiation of models

Reciprocal Determinism

How factors can interact to determine future behavior: environment, behavior itself, personal/cognitive factors

Self-efficacy

an individual’s expectancy on how effective his or her efforts to accomplish a goal will be in any particular circumstance

Locus of control

tendency for people to assume they have or don’t have control over events and consequences in their lives

Internal locus of control

people who assume their own actions and decisions directly affect the consequences

External locus of control

people who assume their lives are more controlled by powerful others, luck, or fate

Expectancy

A person’s subjective feeling that a particular behavior will lead to a reinforcing consequence

Reinforcement value

an individual’s preference for a particular reinforcer over all other possible reinforcing consequences

Maslow & Roger’s Humanistic Perspective

focuses on things that make people uniquely human, such as subjective emotions and the freedom to choose one’s destiny

Self-actualizing tendency

Striving to fill one’s innate capacities and capabilities

Real self

one’s actual perception of characteristics, traits, and abilities

Ideal self

 perception of what one should be or would like to be

Positive regard

warmth, affection, love, and respect from a significant other

Unconditional positive regard

warm atmosphere with no strings attached

Conditional positive regard

a warm atmosphere that depends on doing what people want

Fully functioning person

a person who is in touch with and trusting of their deepest, innermost urges and feelings

Self-actualization

a goal that people are always striving to reach

Positive psychology

Maslow needed psychology to focus on human potential rather than problems

Trait theories

Describes the characteristics that make up human personality, in order to predict future behavior

Trait

 a consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving

Gordon Allport

Scanned dictionaries for traits that were wired to the nervous system, guiding one’s behavior in many different situations of traits, 200+ traits

Raymond Cattell

defined two types of traits as surface traits and source traits, created the 16 source traits

Source traits

basic traits that underlie surface traits, forming the core of personality

Surface traits

aspects of personality that ca easily be seen by other people by their actions

Five-Factor Model

a model of personality traits that describes five basic trait dimensions

OCEAN

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

Openness

willing to try new things and people who are open to new experiences, Creative, artistic v. Conventional, resistant to change

Conscientiousness

a person’s organization and motivation, Organized, reliable v. Lazy, carelessness

Extraversion

extroverts are more outgoing while introverts are solitary Talkative, optimistic v. Reserved, stays in the backgrounds

Agreeableness

the basic emotional style of a person, Trusting, helpful v. Rude, uncooperative

Neuroticism

emotional instability or stability, Worrying, insecure v. Calm, secure

Geographical psychology

how local environments and regions can affect individual behavior

Trait situation interaction

particular circumstances will influence the way that a trait is expressed

Behavioral genetics

study devoted to discovering the genetic bases for personality characteristics

Genetic nurture

The genetics of a child’s parents, even those that are not inherited, can impact the family and child’s environment

Adoption studies

Genetic influences account for a great deal of personality development, regardless of shared/nonshared environments

Phrenology

 Certain areas of the brain were responsible for certain aspects of personality, the skull would bulge out if these traits were more dominant

Personality neuroscience

aspects of our personality must be related to consistent patterns of functioning in the brain

Eclectic view

choosing parts of different theories that seem to best fit a particular situation, rather than using only one theory to explain a phenomenon

Direct Observation

A professional observes a client engaged in ordinary, day-to-day behavior in either a clinical or natural setting

Rating scale

a numerical value is assigned to a specific behavior that is listed on the scale

Frequency count

assessment in which the frequency of a particular behavior is counted

Interview

Professional asks clients questions and allows the client to answer in either a structured or constructed manner

Personality inventory

computerized test that requires a specific standardized response from the person taking the test

Validity scales

intended to indicate whether a person taking the inventory is responding honestly

Halo effect

the tendency of an interviewer to allow positive characteristics of a client to influence the assessment of the client’s behavior and statements

Projection

 putting one’s own unpleasant impulses “onto” someone else; they’re not your thoughts

Repression

Keeping unpleasant or threatening impulses/events from consciousness

Reaction formation

having a reaction the extreme opposite of unacceptable impulses/thoughts

Sublimation

turning a socially unacceptable impulse into an acceptable one; bets of a bad lot