Theories of personality

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

the unique way in which each individual thinks, acts and feels throughout life

Question 2

character

Answer 2

value judgements made about a person’s morals, or ethical behaviour

Question 3

temperament

Answer 3

the enduring characteristics with which each person is born
e.g irritability
adaptability
based on biology

Question 4

psychodynamic perspective

Answer 4

focuses on role of the subconscious mind

focuses heavily of biological causes

Question 5

behaviourist perspective

Answer 5

based on theories of learning

focuses on the effect of the environment

Question 6

humanistic perspective

Answer 6

first rose as a reaction against the psychoanalytic and behaviourist perspective
focuses on the role of each person’s conscious life experiences and choices in personality development

Question 7

trait perspective

Answer 7

more concerned with the personality traits themselves

some trait theorists (but not all) assume that traits are biologically determined

Question 8

Freud’s divisions of the personality

Answer 8

id
ego
superego

Question 9

id

Answer 9

completely unconscious
pleasure seeking
amoral
part of the personality that exists at birth
contains all basic biological drive
eg. hunger, thirst, self-preservation and sex

Question 10

ego

Answer 10

executive director
far more rational, logical and cunning than the id
considers the consequences of the id’s desires

Question 11

superego

Answer 11

the moral watchdog
contains the conscience
moral anxiety + guilt

Question 12

defence mechanisms

Answer 12

ways of dealing with anxiety through subconsciously distorting one’s perception of reality

Question 13

list of defence mechanisms

Answer 13

repression
denial
regression
reaction formation
project
displacement 
rationalisation
intellectualisation
identification
sublimation
compensation

Question 14

repression

Answer 14

motivated forgetting of of emotionally threatening memories or impulses

Question 15

denial

Answer 15

motivated forgetting of distressing experiences

Question 16

regression

Answer 16

falling back on child-like patterns as a way of coping with stressful situations

Question 17

reaction formation

Answer 17

forming an emotional reaction or attitude that is the opposite of one’s threatening or unacceptable thoughts

Question 18

projection

Answer 18

unconscious attribution of our negative qualities unto others

Question 19

displacement

Answer 19

directing an impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a more acceptable one

Question 20

rationalisation

Answer 20

making up acceptable excuses for unacceptable behaviour

Question 21

intellectualisation

Answer 21

avoiding the emotions associated with anxiety-provoking experiences by focusing one abstract and impersonal thoughts

Question 22

identification

Answer 22

adopting the psychological characteristics of someone else to deal with own anxiety

Question 23

sublimation

Answer 23

transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into Ann admired and socially valued goal

Question 24

compensation

Answer 24

trying to make up for areas a lack is perceived by becoming superior in some other area

Question 25

stages of personality development

Answer 25

``` oral stage - first 18 months anal stage - 18 to 36 months phallic stage - 3 to 6 years latency stage - 6 years to puberty genital stage - puberty on ```

Question 26

neo-freudians

Answer 26

Jung Adler Horney Erikson

Question 27

Jung

Answer 27

archetypes | collective unconscious

Question 28

Adler

Answer 28

driving force behind all human action = emotion | defence mechanism of compensation

Question 29

Horney

Answer 29

focused on basic anxiety created in children | children growing up in unaffectionate homes will grow up to be neurotic

Question 30

Erikson

Answer 30

focused on social relationships at every phase in life

Question 31

behaviourist and cognitive view

Answer 31

learning theories

Question 32

social cognitive learning theorists

Answer 32

these theorists who emphasise importance of other peoples behaviour and person's own expectations of learning believe that observational learning, modelling and other learning techniques could be involved I personality formation

Question 33

social cognitive view

Answer 33

``` believe that personality is to just influenced by external stimuli and response patterns but also cognitive processes such as anticipating judging memory learning through imitation ```

Question 34

reciprocal determinism and self efficacy

Answer 34

Bandura believes that 3 factors influence one another inn determine the patterns of behaviour that make up personality this relationship is called reciprocal determinism 1. environment (reinforcers) 2. personal/cognitive factors (beliefs, expectancies, personal dispositions) 3. behaviour bandora also speaks of self-efficacy

Question 35

self-efficacy

Answer 35

a person's expectancy of how effective his or her efforts to accomplish a goal will be in a particular circumstance can be affected by past experience what others tell them about their competence their own assessment of their abilities

Question 36

Expectancies

Answer 36

``` Julian Rotter's social learning theory based on core theory of motivation people are motivated to seek reinforcement and avoid punishment speaks about locus of control expectancies reinforcement value ```

Question 37

locus of control

Answer 37

tendency for people to assume that the either do or do't have control of the events and consequences in their lives internal locus of control = they think they have control high achievement motivation external locus of control = they leave it up to fate or luck or assume they are controlled by powerful others can fall into habits of helplessness or depression give up easily

Question 38

expectancy

Answer 38

refers to the person's subjective feeling that a particular behaviour will lead to a reinforcing consequence

Question 39

reinforcement value

Answer 39

a person's preference for a particular reinforcer over other reinforcers

Question 40

humanism and personalities

Answer 40

Carl Rodgers Abraham Maslow believe that humans are striving for fulfilment of their innate capabilities self-actualisation tendency speak about real and ideal self conditional and unconditional positive regard fully functioning person

Question 41

self-concept, real and ideal self

Answer 41

self concept = based on what people are told by others as well as how the sense of self is is reflected in the words and actions of the important people in one's life real self = one's actual perception of characteristics traits and abilities that form the basis of striving for self-actualisation ideal self = perception of what one should be and would like to be Rodgers believed that when the real and ideal self and close together then a person felt capable and competent

Question 42

positive regard

Answer 42

warmth, affection, love and respect from important people in one's life essential in order to achieve self actualisation

Question 43

conditional and unconditional positive regard

Answer 43

unconditional - no strings attached necessary for people to explore all that they can achieve and become conditional - positive regard is dependent (or seemingly dependent) on doing what those people want

Question 44

fully functioning person

Answer 44

these people are in touch with their own feelings and abilities and they are able to trust their innermost urges and intuitions a person requires unconditional positive regard I order to become a fully functioning person only these people can achieve self-actualisation

Question 45

current thoughts on humanistic perspective

Answer 45

idealistic ignores negative aspects of human nature cannot explain sociopathy difficult to test scientifically

Question 46

Big 5 test

Answer 46

openness - willingness to try new things conscientiousness - a person's organisation and motivation extraversion - level of sociability and outgoingness agreeableness - basic emotional style of a person (how easy-going they are) neuroticism - emotional stability/instability

Question 47

biological perspective

Answer 47

behavioural genetics devoted to the study of how much genes influence personality traits twin studies suggest that Gennes play a large role in forming personality read slides

Question 48

types of personality assessment

Answer 48

interviews - psychoanalysts, humanists projective tests - psychoanalysts behavioural assessments - behavioural and social-cognitive therapists personality inventories - trait theorists

Question 49

The MBTI

Answer 49

``` Myers-Briggs type indicator based on ideas of Carl Jung looked at: sensing/intuition thinking/feeling intraversion/extraversion perceiving/judging ```

Question 50

projective tests

Answer 50

psychoanalysts show clients ambiguous visual stimuli and ask clients to tell them what they see the hope is that the client will project unconscious concerns onto the visual stimulus, revealing them to the examiner e.g. Rorschach Inkblot test TAT - Thematic Apperception Test unreliable tests - unable to produce same results each time