Chapter 11

What is personality?
Personality refers to the individual differences in characteristics, behaviors, thoughts, and emotional responses that make someone unique.

Measuring Personality

• What is self-report?
  Self-report is a method of gathering information about an individual's personality traits through their own responses, typically via questionnaires or surveys.

• What is the MMPI?
  The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a standardized psychometric test used to assess personality traits and psychopathology.

• What are the MMPI’s validity scales designed to assess?
  The validity scales of the MMPI assess the truthfulness and consistency of responses, identifying potential distortions in self-reports.

• What are some strengths and weaknesses of using self-report?
  Strengths include ease of administration and cost-effectiveness. Weaknesses involve potential biases such as social desirability and lack of insight.

• What are projective tests?
  Projective tests are psychological assessments that use ambiguous stimuli to elicit responses that reveal an individual’s personality, motivations, and desires.

• What is the Rorschach Inkblot Test?
  The Rorschach Inkblot Test is a projective test that asks individuals to interpret inkblots to assess their personality and emotional functioning.

• What are the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)?
  The TAT is a projective test that involves telling stories about ambiguous pictures, revealing underlying motives, concerns, and the social world of the individual.

• What are some criticisms of projective tests of personality?
  Criticisms include a lack of scientific reliability and validity, subjectivity in interpretation, and limited predictive power.

Trait Approach

• What is a trait?
  A trait is a stable characteristic or quality that influences the way an individual behaves across various situations.

• What is the goal of the trait approach?
  The goal of the trait approach is to describe and measure individual differences in personality traits.

• What are the trait dimensions that make up the Big Five (Table 11.1)?
  The Big Five dimensions include:

  1. Openness to Experience

  2. Conscientiousness

  3. Extraversion

  4. Agreeableness

  5. Neuroticism

• What do twin studies, especially of twins raised apart, tell us about the heritability of personality traits?
  Twin studies indicate that many personality traits are heritable, demonstrating significant genetic contributions even when twins are raised in different environments.

Psychodynamic Approach

• What does the psychodynamic approach propose about personality?
  The psychodynamic approach suggests that personality is largely shaped by unconscious motives, conflicts, and childhood experiences.

• What are the id, ego, and superego?
  The id is the primal part of personality driven by basic desires. The ego is the realistic part that mediates between desires and reality. The superego is the moral conscience that dictates right from wrong.

• What arises when there are unwanted thoughts or feelings?
  When unwanted thoughts or feelings arise, they can result in anxiety or distress, which may be managed through defense mechanisms.

• What is repression?
  Repression is a defense mechanism that involves unconsciously blocking unwanted memories or feelings from consciousness.

• What are defense mechanisms?
  Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies employed by the ego to manage anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings.

• Be familiar with the following defense mechanisms:

  • Rationalization: Justifying behaviors with logical reasons instead of emotional ones.

  • Reaction Formation: Converting unwanted or dangerous thoughts into their opposites.

  • Projection: Attributing one's own undesirable thoughts to others.

  • Regression: Retreating to an earlier stage of development in response to stress.

  • Displacement: Redirecting emotions from a dangerous object to a safer one.

  • Identification: Associating with a group to boost self-esteem.

  • Sublimation: Transforming unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable actions.

• What are the psychosexual stages of development, in order?

  1. Oral Stage

  2. Anal Stage

  3. Phallic Stage

  4. Latency Stage

  5. Genital Stage
     (Identify a stage given an example with a person’s age and a description)

• What is the Oedipus complex?
  The Oedipus complex is a psychoanalytic theory proposed by Freud, in which a child has feelings of desire for the opposite-sex parent and jealousy toward the same-sex parent.

Humanistic - Existential Approach

• How do the humanistic and existential approaches to personality differ from the trait and psychodynamic approach?
  Humanistic and existential approaches focus on personal growth, free will, and the individual's subjective experience, contrasting with the deterministic views of traits and psychodynamics.

• What is a self-actualizing tendency?
  The self-actualizing tendency refers to the inherent drive to realize one's potential and achieve personal growth.

• Review Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
  Maslow's hierarchy outlines five levels of needs: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, depicting a motivational theory where higher needs emerge only after lower needs are satisfied.

• What is flow?
  Flow is a psychological state of being fully immersed and engaged in an activity, resulting in a sense of enjoyment and loss of time awareness.

• What is the existential approach?
  The existential approach emphasizes individual existence, freedom, and choice, focusing on the human condition and the quest for meaning.

Social-Cognitive Approach

• What is the social cognitive approach to personality?
  The social cognitive approach emphasizes the role of observational learning, social experiences, and personal factors in shaping personality.

• What is the person-situation controversy?
  The person-situation controversy examines the influence of situational factors versus personality traits in determining behavior.

• When can we see personality consistency?
  Personality consistency can be observed when individuals respond similarly across different situations that evoke similar traits or behaviors.

• What is the difference between an internal and external locus of control?
  An internal locus of control refers to the belief that one has personal control over their life events, while an external locus of control reflects a belief that fate, luck, or external forces dictate one's circumstances.

The Self

• What is the self-concept?
  The self-concept is a collection of beliefs about oneself, encompassing self-identity, attributes, and roles.

• What are the two ways the self-concept is organized?
  The self-concept is organized through self-schemas and the social identity associated with group memberships.

• What is self-verification?
  Self-verification is the process of seeking confirmation of one's self-concept through interactions with others.

• What is self-esteem?
  Self-esteem refers to an individual’s evaluation of their own worth, influenced by feelings of self-respect and personal value.

• What level of self-esteem is related to being happier and healthier?
  Moderately high self-esteem is associated with greater happiness and better mental health outcomes.

• What is the self-serving bias?
  The self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors, protecting self-esteem.

• What is narcissism?
  Narcissism is characterized by excessive self-love, vanity, and a need for admiration, often at the expense of empathy for others.