7. PERSONALITY

Question 1

What is a lay definition of personality?

Answer 1

Personality judged based on social attractiveness, like appearance or style.

Question 2

What is Allport’s (1961) definition of personality?

Answer 2

A dynamic organization inside the person of psychophysical systems that create characteristic behavior, thought, and feelings.

Question 3

How do psychologists define personality?

Answer 3

As characteristics or typical qualities that make an individual unique.

Question 4

What is Weinberg & Gould’s (1999) definition of personality?

Answer 4

The characteristics or blend of characteristics that make a person unique.

Question 5

What are the aims of studying personality?

Answer 5

Explain behavior motivation, describe/categorize behavior, measure personality, understand development, assist interventions, assess heredity vs environment.

Question 6

What is the idiographic approach to studying personality?

Answer 6

Focuses on individual uniqueness using qualitative methods (interviews, diaries).

Question 7

What is the goal of idiographic research?

Answer 7

In-depth understanding of the individual.

Question 8

What are the advantages and disadvantages of idiographic approach?

Answer 8

Advantage: Depth of understanding. Disadvantage: Hard to generalize findings.

Question 9

What is the nomothetic approach to studying personality?

Answer 9

Focuses on general laws using quantitative methods and trait structures.

Question 10

What is the goal of nomothetic research?

Answer 10

Discover general principles with predictive function.

Question 11

What are the advantages and disadvantages of nomothetic approach?

Answer 11

Advantage: Predictive principles. Disadvantage: Superficial understanding of individuals.

Question 12

What are the two strands of personality theorizing?

Answer 12

Clinical strand and Individual differences strand.

Question 13

Who founded the clinical strand of personality theory?

Answer 13

Sigmund Freud.

Question 14

Who majorly advanced research in individual differences?

Answer 14

Francis Galton.

Question 15

Who was Sigmund Freud?

Answer 15

Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis, interested in hysteria and hypnosis.

Question 16

How did Freud develop psychoanalysis?

Answer 16

Encouraged patients to talk about problems; treated patients extensively and wrote about findings.

Question 17

What are the levels of consciousness according to Freud?

Answer 17

Conscious, Preconscious, Unconscious.

Question 18

What is repression according to Freud?

Answer 18

The active process of keeping unacceptable material in the unconscious.

Question 19

What are manifest and latent contents of dreams?

Answer 19

Manifest: dream recalled by the dreamer. Latent: true hidden meaning identified by analyst.

Question 20

What are Freud’s three biological drives?

Answer 20

Sexual drives (libido), Life-preserving drives, Death instinct (Thanatos).

Question 21

What are the three structures of personality according to Freud?

Answer 21

Id, Ego, Superego.

Question 22

What principle does the Id operate on?

Answer 22

The Pleasure Principle.

Question 23

What principle does the Ego operate on?

Answer 23

The Reality Principle.

Question 24

What is intra-psychic conflict?

Answer 24

Ongoing conflict between id, ego, and superego.

Question 25

What are Freud’s psychosexual stages?

Answer 25

Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital.

Question 26

What happens in the Oral stage?

Answer 26

Focus on mouth; fixation causes oral receptive or aggressive personality types.

Question 27

What happens in the Anal stage?

Answer 27

Focus on bowel/bladder control; fixation causes anal-retentive or anal-expulsive types.

Question 28

What happens in the Phallic stage?

Answer 28

Focus on genitals; Oedipal/Electra complex develops.

Question 29

What happens in the Latency stage?

Answer 29

Period of socialization and development of defense mechanisms.

Question 30

What happens in the Genital stage?

Answer 30

Puberty and mature sexual interest; unresolved conflicts from earlier stages may reappear.

Question 31

What causes anxiety according to Freud?

Answer 31

Conflict between id, ego, and superego.

Question 32

What is the purpose of defense mechanisms?

Answer 32

Protect individuals from pain and anxiety.

Question 33

Name six of Freud’s defense mechanisms.

Answer 33

Repression, Regression, Denial, Displacement, Reaction Formation, Conversion Reaction.

Question 34

Name six more of Freud’s defense mechanisms.

Answer 34

Rationalization, Intellectualization/Isolation, Phobic Avoidance, Projection, Sublimation, Undoing.

Question 35

What evidence supports Freud’s concept of unconscious processes?

Answer 35

Subliminal perception studies (Patton, 1992; Norman, 2010

Question 36

What evidence supports Freud’s structures of personality?

Answer 36

Studies on ego strength, ego control, and ego resilience (Barron, 1953; Block, 1993).

Question 37

What evidence supports Freud’s defense mechanisms?

Answer 37

Studies support reaction formation, isolation, denial, projection, and repression (Baumeister et al., 1998).

Question 38

What criticisms are made of Freud’s theory?

Answer 38

Lacks empirical support, unfalsifiable, overemphasis on sexuality, deterministic, outdated, problematic views on women and sexuality.

Question 39

Who created the Rorschach test?

Answer 39

Hermann Rorschach in 1921.

Question 40

What does the Rorschach test involve?

Answer 40

Participants view 10 inkblots and describe what they see; responses are scored systematically (Exner’s system).

Question 41

What are criticisms of the Rorschach test?

Answer 41

Poor validity and reliability for psychiatric diagnosis (Wood et al., 2000, 2011); demographic biases.