PSYC 201 Unit 11

Unit 11: Personality & Psychology03/02/2023 ^^Psychic energy (not very reputable)^^

Finite level to expel everyday -get it out somehow * Survival form and sex form
Eros (libido)-sexual energy * Can’t get rid of in socially acceptable way—get rid of through painting or poetry * Desire for creation and beauty * Online example * Porn, painting apps, TikTok
Thanatos-death and destruction * Innate psychic energy for destruction * Desire to be aggressive * Survival/competitive side * Sports or argumentative politics * Holocaust was an example of this potential for destruction * Online examples * Twitter, random comment ranter

^^Parts of the mind (more entertaining than science)^^

3 motivators-what you should be doing, what you want to do
Id * Animalistic part * Primitive (sex/wants) * Pleasure loving * Impulsive * Short-term gain * No impulse-control
Ego * Reality based * Pragmatic/practical * Rational * Balances
Superego * Angelic * Morals, ideas of society * Parents, school, organized religion * Extremely high expectations * Against our biological nature * As maladaptive as an id * Worried and anxious-leads to burnout and stress

^^Defence mechanisms (techniques to minimize anxiety and stress/defend self-esteem)^^

Universal characteristics of humans

Denial * Refuse to accept something * Refuse to pay attention to obvious facts * May occur in people questioning sexual orientation * Bad long term
Repression * Bury into unconsciousness * Unable to remember * So anxiety provoking to the point you don’t know its there anymore * Helpful short term but comes with maladaptive side effects
Suppression * Keeping ideas in the preconscious * Effortful blocking * Rise to the surface * Can be adaptive in the short term * Long term can shorten your life span * Pop up as soon as you relax
Displacement * Always maladaptive * Transferring negative emotions * Accessible targets * Not safe to yell back at your boss, so get mad at someone else or yourself (hurting yourself, eat your feelings, glass of wine) * Abusive parents leads to children who are bullies
Projection * Attributing your own flaws to others * Accusing others of your views * May combine with denial * Don’t accept it in yourself but you see it in others * Cheating partner gets paranoid their partner is cheating
Reaction formation * Adopting beliefs contrary to your own * Appearance of more social acceptance * Punishing others for your flaws that you don’t acknowledge * Politicians opposing gay marriage when they’re having same-sex affairs * “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks”
Rationalization * Swapping truth for a socially desirable excuse * To manipulate others * I was late because… (other person you can’t control) * Could be gaslighting * “Its your fault I had an affair” * Can fully believe their own gaslighting, can convince themselves of it
Regression * Less mature emotional response * Accept it * Less mature for context and age * Start sucking your thumb * Child may start wetting themselves * Makes a very clear beacon that you need support
Anticipation * Anxious preparation and preoccupation * Relatively adaptive because it protects you from the threat * Self-rewarding * Reinforcing behaviour * Run on a full time fear circuit
Humour * Self depreciation * Dark humour * Many professional comedians come from a lot of trauma * Serves a functional purpose * Takes the edge off
Sublimation * Most adaptive and best defense mechanism * Redirect energy and emotion * Constructive * Go to the gym if you had a bad day at work * Opposite of displacement * Is it making you better (sublimation) or worse (displacement)

^^Personality Types^^

Cluster individuals in groups
One group per person
Historical types * Ayurveda * Type on body type * Vata-tall and thin, air element * Pitta-passionate, fire, strong * Hippocrates humors * 4 humors-phlegm (water), blood (air), yellow bile (fire), black bile (earth) * Astrology-based on Hippocrates
Jungian types-NOT scientific * Sensing-earth * Feel grass, breath air and see the sun * Intuition-fire * Passionate, gut-instinct, “third eye”, regardless of practicality * Feeling-water * Emotional, meditative, * Thinking-air * Rational, logical
Myers-Briggs type indicator-no science * Mother-daughter team * Magazine writers-“buzzfeed quizzes” * 1940s * 4 dimensions-scales and 16 types * Extraversion-introversion * Sensing-intuition (sense vs gut) * Feeling-thinking * Judging-perceiving (critique vs enjoy) * Criticisms * Not empirically supported * Not on either end-follows normal curve-70% in the middle * Forced choice-empirically bad * Choose between two statements * Could be equally endorsed/not endorsed * Ignores magnitude * Categories vs distribution * High, low, medium? * Type vs trait * Considers the extreme the same in the middle
Barnum effect * Broad statements * Could apply to anyone * Difficult to disprove * Keeps things addictive * Confirmation bias-you realize the things that are true and ignore the rest
Eysenck-problematic * Biology based personality * Measure as trait NOT type * Extraversion * Arousal, sociability, talkativeness, energy, assertiveness * Blood brain barrier * Neuroticism * Stress&anxiety, frustration, wary, loneliness * Fear circuit is more active * Psychoticism-less reputable * Testosterone, aggressiveness, risk-taking, manipulative, creativity * Element of creativity to break social norms and rhetoric * Based on testosterone levels (not true)
Cattell-good amount of scientific rigor * Lexical approach-20000 words * Read dictionaries to find words that describe differences between people * Looked at synonyms and clusters according to dictionaries * A-theoretically-to such an extreme that it was a weakness * Statistical approach-16 factors * Put math to a survey * Factor analysis between words * If correlated they went together * Missed if they were overlapping
The Big Five factor model-most scientifically reputable * Changed one thing in the math to make it 5 traits * Replicated across cultures and ages groups * Extraversion vs introversion * More energy for social things—being alone is draining * Leader/loud * Energize from alone time—being around people is draining * Shy/quiet * No gender effects-talkative vs dominance * Agreeable vs disagreeable * Willing to stop and listen * Deprioritize themselves * Not an asshole, just prioritize themselves * Gender effects (group averages)—women=more agreeable vs men=disagreeable * Agreeableness vs apathy * Apathy=slightly disagreeable * Conscientious vs casual * Orderly/perfectionist/attention to detail * Big picture/ideas over grammar * Emotionally stable vs neurotic * Emotions don’t get “bouncy” out of control * Simmer vs rage of anger * Winnie the Pooh=emotionally stable * Tiger=neurotic * Open vs closed * Open to new experiences * Learn the perspectives of others * More tolerant of those who are different * Does not mean they will vote that way * Tendency towards intellect * Conservative in taking on perspectives * Narrow-minded but just like what works
Dark Triad (Paulhus) * Narcissism * Inflated importance * Machiavellianism * Manipulative * False promises * Self-perseverance * Gaslight/emotionally abusive * Psychopathy * Lack empathy * Sense of cruelty * Enjoy the destruction of others * Don’t feel remorse * Low in dark triad answered by HEXACO
HEXACO (Lee and Ashton) * Lexical in non-English language * Honesty-humility=low dark triad * Sincerity, fairness, greed-avoidance, modesty * Can be an honest jerk or can be fake * More culturally robust * A concept that struggled to be described in English dictionaries used * Could correlate to morality