Chapter 10: Personality

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

A pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individuals adapts to the world

Question 2

Psychodynamic perspectives

Answer 2

Theoretical views emphasizing that personality is primarily unconscious (beyond awareness)

Question 3

I’d

Answer 3

The part of the person that Freud called the “it”. Consisting of unconscious drives; the individuals reservoir of sexual energy

Question 4

Ego

Answer 4

The Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality

Question 5

Superego

Answer 5

The Freudian structure of personality that serves as the harsh internal judge of the individual’s behavior, what is often referred to as conscious

Question 6

Defense mechanism

Answer 6

Tactics the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Question 7

Denial

Answer 7

The ego simply refuses to acknowledge anxiety-producing realities

Question 8

Displacement

Answer 8

Directing unacceptable impulses at a less threatening target

Question 9

Repression

Answer 9

The most powerful and persuasive defense mechanism. Repression pushes unacceptable impulses into the unconscious mind

Question 10

Psychosexual stages of development

Answer 10

Freud thought that our adult persons abilities are developed by the way we resolve conflicts between these early sources of pleasure- the mouth, the anus, and then the genitals and the demands of reality

Question 11

Oral stage

Answer 11

First 18 months. The infants pleasure centered on the mouth. Chewing, sucking, and biting are the chiefs sources of pleasure that reduce tension in the infant

Question 12

Anal stage

Answer 12

18-36 months during a time when most children are experiencing toilet training, the child’s greatest pleasure involves the anus and the urethra and their functions. Freud recognized that there is pleasure in “going” and “holding it” as well as in the experience of control over one’s parents in deciding when to do either

Question 13

Phallic stage

Answer 13

3 to 6 years. The name of Frued’s third stage comes from the Latin word phallus, which means penis. Pleasure focuses on the genitals as the child discovers self stimulation is enjoyable

Question 14

Latency period

Answer 14

6 years to puberty. This phase is not a developmental stage, but rather a kind of psychic timeout. After the drama of the phallic stage, the child sets aside all interest in sexuality. Although we now consider these years extremely important to development. Freud felt that this time in which no psychosexual development occurred.

Question 15

Genital stage

Answer 15

Adolescence to adulthood. The genital stage is the time of sexual reawakening. A point when the source of sexual pleasure shifts to somebody outside of the family. Freud believed in adulthood the individual becomes capable of two hallmarks of maturity: love and work. However Freud felt that people are inevitably subject to intense conflict, reasoning that everyone, no matter how healthy or well adjusted, still has an id pressing for expression. Adulthood, even in the best of circumstances, still involves that unconscious conflicts of childhood

Question 16

Humanistic perspectives

Answer 16

Theoretical views stressing a person’s capacity for personal growth and positive human qualities

Question 17

Unconditional positive regard

Answer 17

Roger’s construct referring to the individual’s need to be accepted, valued, and treated positively regardless of their behavior

Question 18

Conditions of worth

Answer 18

The standards that the individual must live up to in order to receive positive regard from others

Question 19

Self-concept

Answer 19

Our conscious representation of who we are and what we wish to become, which is formed during childhood. Optimally this self-concept reflects our genuine, innate desires, but it may be influenced by conditions of worth

Question 20

Trait theories

Answer 20

Theoretically views stressing that personality consists of broad, enduring dispositions (traits) that tend to lead to characteristic responses

Question 21

Big five factors of personality

Answer 21

The five broad traits that are thought to describe the main dimensions of personality: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (emotional instability)

Question 22

Neuroticism

Answer 22

Related to feeling negative emotions more often than positive emotions in day to day life and experiencing more lingering negative states. Those who are high in neuroticism are susceptible to a variety of psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety. Also poses higher risk for cognitive decline with age

Question 23

Extraversion

Answer 23

Outgoing, social, and lively. A person high in extraversion tends not to be shy and is enthusiastic with others

Question 24

Openness to experience

Answer 24

Imaginative and intrested in cognitively engaging with abstract ideas as well as perceptions, nature, and the arts. Someone high in openness enjoys thinking about issues from all sides and is not interested in conventional ways of doing things. Also associated with creativity, tolerance, capacity to experience awe, and producing actually funny jokes.

Question 25

Agreeableness

Answer 25

Kind, nice, and trusting. A person high in agreeableness is likely to gentle and helpful to others. Agreeableness is related to generosity and altruism. Agreeable people are more likely to be organ donors, and less likely to bully/cyberbully others, or lie on dating profiles

Question 26

Conscientiousness

Answer 26

Reliable, hard working, and dependable. Someone high in conscientiousness is disciplined, goal oriented, and organized. Conscientiousness is a key predictor of positive outcomes in a variety of life domains. (Ex. Higher GPA in college, and better work performance, higher salaries, more friendships)

Question 27

Social cognitive perspectives

Answer 27

Theoretical views emphasizing conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations, and goals.

Question 28

Bandura’s social cognitive theory

Answer 28

This theory states that behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors are all important in understanding personality

Question 29

Reciprocal determinism

Answer 29

Bandura’s term to describe the way behavior, the environment, and the person/cognitive factors can influence one another. The environment can determine a person’s behavior and the person can act to change the environment. Similarly person/cognitive factors can also influence behavior, or be influenced by behavior. From this perspective behavior is a product of a variety of forces, some of which come from the situation, and some of which the person brings to the situation

Question 30

Internal locus of control

Answer 30

A sense of behavioral control coming from inside the person

Question 31

External locus of control

Answer 31

A sense of behavioral control coming from outside the person

Question 32

Self efficacy

Answer 32

The belief that one can master a situation and produce positive change

Question 33

Self report test

Answer 33

Also called an objective test or an inventory, a method of measuring personality characteristics that directly ask people whether specific items describe their personality traits.

Question 34

Empirically keyed tests

Answer 34

A type of self report tests that presents many question are items to two groups that are known to be different in some central way

Question 35

Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI)

Answer 35

The most widely used and researched empirically keyed self report personality test

Question 36

Face validity

Answer 36

The extent to which a test items appears to fit the particular trait it is measuring

Question 37

Projective test

Answer 37

A personality assessment test that presents individuals with an ambiguous stimuli and asks them to describe it or tell a story about it- to project their own meaning onto the stimulus

Question 38

Rorschach ink blot test

Answer 38

A famous projective test that uses and individual’s perception of ink blots to determine their personality

Question 39

Thematic apperception test (TAT)

Answer 39

A projective test that is designed to elicit stories that reveal something about an individual’s personality