personality Flashcards
life course perspective
approach to understanding individuals that examines them from cultural, social factors, as well as big events (child, marriage). It is the belief that big events can be formative to personality
psychoanalytic perspective
theory of personality, that it is shaped by unconscious mind. Mental illness or neurosis stems from childhood traumas. Freud champions this view.
libido
life drive, the drive for pleasure-seeking behaviours, including avoidance of pain
death drive
drive for dangerous or self destructive behaviours
id
ruled by the PLEASURE PRINCIPLE: avoid pain, seek pleasure.
Young children function entirely from the id.
largely unconscious, responds to life drive
ego
the rational adult
responsible for thinking and planning to control the id and satisfy its desires
superego
inhibits the id, influences the ego to strive for higher, moralistic goals
responsible for our moral judgments, strives for perfection
psychosexual stages of development
posited by Freud
0-1 Oral stage
1-3 Anal stage - if not resolved well, can lead to being overly neat or disorganized
3-6 Phallic stage where you want to connect with opposite sex parent
6-12 Latency stage of dormant sexual feelings
12+ Genital stage where you focus on intimate relationships
Erik Erikson
His own psychosocial stages of development:
Trust vs mistrust - infant learns to trust needs are met
Autonomy vs shame - children learn self control
initiative vs guilt - children achieve purpose
industry vs inferiority - children gain competence
identity vs role confusion - teens gain identity
intimacy vs isolation - young adults develop mature relationships
generativity vs stagnation - adults contribute to others/society
integrity vs despair - adults develop wisdom
Freud and Erikson agree that
devlopment is in stages
early experiences shape personality
behaviorist theory
B. F. Skinner founded behaviorist perspective - actions are the only measure of personality. Furthermore, people begin as blank slates and environment alone (via punishment and rewards) sets their personality (deterministic)
Gives rise to BEHAVIORAL THERAPY
humanistic theory
Carl Rogers proposed humanistic perspective - humans driven to actualize their fullest potential (called SELF CONCEPT). Self-actualization (desire to achieve fullest potential) is something accomplished when parents exhibit unconditional support
Opposite of actualization is INCONGRUENCE
Gives rise to HUMANISTIC THERAPY (talk approach)
social cognitive theory (also social learning theory)
theory of personality posited by Albert Bandura - personality results from interactions btw behaviour, environment. Contrary to behaviorism which only has reward + punishment, this theory says kids learn through observational learning.
Gives rise to CBT
observational learning
learning without reward or punishment, simply imitation of others
Bobo doll experiment
done by Albert Bandura where kids learned to hit a doll by watching adults do the same
trait perspective
Hans Eysenck posited theory of 5 personality traits, which says it is merely a combination of traits that are quite static - don’t ask WHY someone is that way, it’s just describing their actions according to their traits
OCEAN traits
these are the big 5 SOURCE TRAITS (deeply ingrained)
whereas SURFACE TRAITS are superficial ones evident from a person’s behavior
cardinal traits
rare traits that develop late in life and dominate (such as evangelical zeal)
central traits
traits that describe you across different situations