Personality

Question 1

What are three main theories of personality?

Answer 1

Psychodynamic theories
Cognitive-social theories
Trait theories

Question 2

What is the definition of Personality?

Answer 2

Refers to the enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed in different circumstances

Question 3

Psychologists studying personality aim to:

Answer 3

(i) construct a theory describing the central elements of personality that would applicable to all people
and
(ii) explore individual differences in those central structures and processes of personality

Question 4

The most fundamental or key contribution of all of Freud’s work is:

Answer 4

the introduction of the idea that many of our wishes are unconscious

Question 5

Freud’s theories of personality fit four types of models

Answer 5

(i) topographic,
(ii) drive,
(iii) developmental and
(iv) structural model

Question 6

The topographic model argues that there are three types of mental processes

Answer 6

(i) conscious (those that are rational, and goal directed thoughts at the centre of conscious awareness),
(ii) preconscious (those that are not conscious but they can become conscious at any point in time) and
(iii) unconscious (those that are irrational because they are organised around associative lines rather than by logic and outside of our conscious awareness because they have been repressed)

Question 7

Repression is useful and important because

Answer 7

it helps avoid the emotional distress we would feel if we were consciously aware of the conflict between our wishes or psychological forces

Question 8

Unconscious mental processes are active and so they can ‘leak’ or slip into consciousness

Answer 8

Freudian slip

Question 9

Much of our psychological experience is unconscious (or underwater) and what we consciously know is like ‘the tip of an iceberg’

Answer 9

True

Question 10

The drive (or instinct) model of personality asserts that there are two basic instinctual drives that motivate us to behave in the ways that we do

Answer 10

libido and aggression

Question 11

Libido most directly refers to

Answer 11

any form of pleasure seeking, sensuality and love

Question 12

The developmental model states that children pass through five stages of psychosexual development:

Answer 12

(i) oral,
(ii) anal,
(iii) phallic,
(iv) latency and
(v) genital

Question 13

The Oedipus complex refers to

Answer 13

feelings of jealousy of his father because his father has an exclusive relationship with his mother (which he desires) and feelings of inferiority to the father

Question 14

The Electra complex is

Answer 14

that a girl’s desires for her father are learned as ‘immoral’ and so become repressed; instead, identification with the mother occurs out of fear that she will lose her mother’s love if she expresses desires for her father

Question 15

Penis envy refers to

Answer 15

the realisation among girls that they do not have a penis like boys and as a result feel inferior to boys; it is symbolic that (gender-stereotypic) boys’ activities are more interesting and more valued than (gender-stereotypic) girls’ activities

Question 16

the topographical model describes

Answer 16

conflict in terms of tension between the conscious and unconscious

Question 17

the structural model describes

Answer 17

conflict in terms of tension between desires (‘what we want’) and the constraints of reality (‘what we believe is moral’)

Question 18

the structural model, there are ______ mental forces or mental structures that represent the conflict:

Answer 18

three

Question 19

(i) id

Answer 19

(represents our desires/instinctual impulses/drive to seek pleasure; is the reservoir of our basic drives [aggression and libido]; it operates according to the ‘pleasure principle’ [seeking immediate satisfaction without consideration of the longer term ramifications]; it is characterised by primary process thinking [wishful, illogical and associative thought]);

Question 20

(ii) ego

Answer 20

(represents the agent that balances our desires and morals in line with what it sees to be reality or the external world; works according to the ‘reality principle’ [the immediate desire for pleasure is counterbalanced against the reality of what the consequences might be]; is capable of secondary process thinking [rational, logical and goal directed thinking] and so is responsible for cognition, problem solving, decision making, managing emotions and finding compromises between competing demands);

Question 21

(iii) super ego

Answer 21

(represents our conscience or morals internalised from the morals of our parents during the process of identification; represents our ideals; exists to counterbalance the ‘untamed passions’ of the id)

Question 22

Defence mechanisms are

Answer 22

unconscious mental processes used during times of stress; they are a form of emotional problem-solving; they have the purpose of protecting us from unpleasant emotions (esp. anxiety) and increasing or bolstering pleasant emotions; they are common and useful

Question 23

Repression

Answer 23

A person keeps thoughts or memories that would be too threatening to acknowledge from conscious awareness)

Question 24

Denial

Answer 24

A person refuses to acknowledge external realities or emotions e.g. anxiety

Question 25

Projection

Answer 25

A person attributes their own unacknowledged feelings or impulses to other people

Question 26

Reaction formation

Answer 26

A person turns unacceptable feelings or impulses into their exact opposite

Question 27

Sublimation

Answer 27

Converting sexual/aggressive impulses into socially acceptable activities

Question 28

Rationalisation

Answer 28

A person explains away actions in a seemingly logical way to avoid uncomfortable feelings

Question 29

Displacement

Answer 29

Directing emotions (especially anger) away from the real target and towards a substitute when the real target is too threatening or upsetting to confront directly

Question 30

Regression

Answer 30

When a person reverts back to an earlier stage of psychological development

Question 31

Passive aggression

Answer 31

The indirect expression of anger towards others

Question 32

Psychodynamic theorists and psychologists have developed indirect methods of assessing the contents of the conscious; two common methods include:

Answer 32

(i) life history methods and

(ii) projective tests

Question 33

Life history methods are

Answer 33

essentially in-depth and long-term case studies of a person during clinical sessions; they aim to understand the whole person in the context of their life experience and environment; one main therapeutic goal of the clinical sessions is to attain ‘insight’ into the unconscious, which occurs through dream analysis and free association

Question 34

In projective tests a person

Answer 34

is given an ambiguous stimulus and then asked to give (or project) a meaning onto it; in providing a definition where none exists in reality, it is assumed that people will express characteristics or aspects of their (unconscious) personality

Question 35

Some of the main strengths of psychodynamic theory is that it has shown the importance of:

Answer 35

(i) unconscious cognitive, emotional and motivational processes, (ii) ambivalence, conflict and compromise, (iii) childhood experiences in shaping adult interpersonal patterns, (iv) mental representations of the self, others and relationships, and (v) the development of the capacity to regulate impulses and shift from an immature dependent state in childhood to a mutually caring, interdependent stance in adulthood

Question 36

of the main weaknesses of psychodynamic theory is that:

Answer 36

(i) there is an inadequate ability to test hypotheses about the structure of personality because the testing procedures (e.g. projective tests) are most appropriate for understanding the unconscious processes of one individual but not necessarily for predicting the behaviour of all individuals, and because of subjectivity of both the respondent and interpreter (i.e. responses can be highly variable across time) – because of this, the ‘unconscious patterns’ uncovered by projective tests cannot be easily observed by other psychologists (NB: case studies may not allow sufficient prediction of the structure of personality but they are still useful for generating hypotheses about the structure of personality); (ii) it is sexist (it reflects the view that females are seen as inferior; (iii) the role of both aggression and libido in personality development and formation may be over-emphasised; (iv) too much attention may be paid to childhood experiences over adult learning; (v) terminology is dated (so psychologists no longer think in terms of id, ego and superego, or sexual and aggressive drives, instead they think in terms of conflict, compromise, mental representation and self-esteem, and wishes and fears, respectively); and (vi) any insight obtained during therapy is not always sufficient for changing their behaviour, which questions the effectiveness of the treatment

Question 37

Cognitive-social theory sees

Answer 37

behaviour and cognition to be central components of personality, rather than instinct (or drives) and unconscious (and irrational) mental processes

Question 38

of the main strengths of social-cognitive theory are that

Answer 38

it is testable through experimentation (minimising subjectivity), it is non-sexist and it accounts for learning acquired in adulthood

Question 39

Some of the main weaknesses of social-cognitive theory are that

Answer 39

it underestimates the emotional, motivational and irrational forces that contribute to behaviour and beliefs/expectations because it overestimates the tendency for people to know what they want, feel and think

Question 40

Trait theories are:

Answer 40

(i) descriptions of the characteristics of individual people and (ii) descriptions of the underlying disposition of characteristics on which all people can vary (in other words: traits are the emotional, cognitive and behavioural tendencies of individual people that have arisen from an underlying personality dimension that people can vary on)

Question 41

Two important trait theories are:

Answer 41

(i) Eysenck’s theory and (ii) the five factor model

Question 42

Eysenck’s theory asserts that

Answer 42

individuals produce specific behaviours; some of these behaviours are habitual; some habits can be grouped into traits if they are similar to (or correlated with) one another; some traits can be grouped into super-traits (or types) if they are similar to (or correlated with) one another

Question 43

there are only three super-traits or types of personality dimensions on which all people can vary (these cannot be grouped together):

Answer 43

(i) extroversion-introversion (extroversion –the tendency for people to appear sociable, active and willing to take risks; introversion – the tendency for people to appear socially inhibited, serious and cautious); (ii) neuroticism-emotional stability (neuroticism – the tendency for people to appear anxious, guilty, tense, moody and low self esteem; emotional stability is the opposite of neuroticism); and (iii) psychoticism-impulse control (psychoticism – the tendency for people to appear aggressive, egocentric, impulsive and anti social; impulse control – the tendency for people to appear empathic and able to control their impulses)

Question 44

The five factor model asserts that there are five (rather than three) basic dimensions (‘superordinate’ traits) along which people vary, and which are associated with correlated ‘facets’ (or specific traits)

Answer 44

OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism)

Question 45

One main problem with trait theories is that

Answer 45

our traits (i.e. emotional, cognitive and behavioural tendencies) are not always consistent over time and in different situations