Chapter 12 - Personality

Question 1

what is personality?

Answer 1

an individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling

Question 2

what are the four main approaches to understanding personality?

Answer 2

1) trait-biological
2) psychodynamic
3) humanistic-existential
4) social-cognitive

Question 3

personality inventories rely on:

Answer 3

self-reporting

Question 4

a series of answers to a questionnaire that asks people to indicate the extent to which sets of statements or adjectives accurately describe their behaviour or mental state

Answer 4

self-reporting

Question 5

a standard series of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique responses that reveal inner aspects of an individual’s personality

Answer 5

projective techniques

Question 6

respondants reveal underlying motives, concerns, and the way they see the social world through the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people

Answer 6

thematic appreciation test (TAT)

Question 7

uses trait terms to categorize differences among individuals

Answer 7

trait approach to personality

Question 8

what are the two key challenges to the trait approach to personality?

Answer 8

• narrowing the most infinite set of adjectives
• discovering whether or not traits have biological or hereditary foundations

Question 9

what is a trait?

Answer 9

a relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way and reflects motives

Question 10

traits can be classified using ________, which may be organized in a hierarchical pattern

Answer 10

adjectives

Question 11

items sorted into small dimensions; researchers have argued about how many core factors exist

Answer 11

factor analysis

Question 12

what are the big five dimensions of personality traits?

Answer 12

• openness to experience
• conscientiousness
• extraversion
• agreeableness
• neuroticism

Question 13

what are some phsyiological causes to personality changes?

Answer 13

• brain damage
• brain pathologies
• pharmaceutical treatments

Question 14

looks for correlations between monozygotic and dizygotic twins

Answer 14

behavioural genetics

Question 15

associations between conservatism-liberalism and chromosomal regions are linked to:

Answer 15

mental flexibility

Question 16

compared to men, women are more:

Answer 16

• verbally aggressive
• sensitive to nonverbal cues
• nurturing
• likely to engage in relational aggression

Question 17

compared to women, men are more:

Answer 17

• physically aggressive
• assertive
• likely to have slightly higher self-esteem

Question 18

differences between men and women can be attributed to:

Answer 18

culture and sex hormones

Question 19

the theory that personality characteristics result from different cultural standards and expectations between the genders

Answer 19

social role theory

Question 20

who postulated the idea that extraversion is most relevant to neurophysiological mehcanisms

Answer 20

Hans Eysenck

Question 21

who proposed the two brain systems (behavioural activation system and behavioural inhibition system) that are responsible for extraversion and neuroticism?

Answer 21

Jeffrey Gray

Question 22

do animals have personalities?

Answer 22

yup

Question 23

views personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness - motives that can also produce emotional disorders

Answer 23

the psychodynamic approach to personality

Question 24

who developed the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 24

Sigmund Freud

Question 25

Freud proposed that the mind consists of these three independent systems that determine the personality's structure:

Answer 25

- Id - ego - superego

Question 26

unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses

Answer 26

defense mechanisms

Question 27

what are the three main categories of defense mechanisms?

Answer 27

- rationalization - reaction formation - projection

Question 28

distinct early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasures from specific body areas (erotogenic zones), and caregivers redirest or interfere with those pleasures

Answer 28

psychosexual stages

Question 29

the psychosexual stage in which experiences centres on the peasures and frustrations associated with the mouth, sucking, and being fed

Answer 29

oral

Question 30

the psychosexual stage in which experience is dominated by the pleasures and frustrations associated with the anus, retention and expulsion of feces and urine, and toilet training

Answer 30

anal

Question 31

the psychosexual stage in which experience is dominated by the pleasures and frustrations associated with the genital region, as well as coping with powerful incestuous feelings of love, hate, jealousy, and conflict

Answer 31

phallic

Question 32

the psychosexual stage in which the primary focus is on the further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal, and athletic skills

Answer 32

latency

Question 33

the psychosexual stage which is the time for coming together of the mature adult personality with a capacity to love, work, and relate to others in a mutually satisfying and reciprocal manner

Answer 33

genital

Question 34

emphasize a positive, optimistic view of human nature; emphasize goodness and potential for growth

Answer 34

humanistic psychologists

Question 35

focus on individuals as responsible agents, free to create their life while negotiating the issue of meaning and the reality of death

Answer 35

existentialist psychologists

Question 36

decades of research have shown that growing up in a distressed neighbourhood is associated with:

Answer 36

worse educational, occupational, and health outcomes than growing up in healthier neighbourhoods

Question 37

the human motive towrds realizing our inner potantial

Answer 37

self-actualizing tendency

Question 38

recognizes self-actualization as a higher need after basic needs are met

Answer 38

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Question 39

who found that engagement in tasks that match our abilities causes a state of focus called flow

Answer 39

Mihaly Csikszenthalyi

Question 39

the feeling between boredom and anxiety during a task as the:

Answer 39

flow experience

Question 40

regards personality as governed by an individual's ongoing choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life and death

Answer 40

existential approach

Question 41

anxiety of full being

Answer 41

angst

Question 42

can occur as we face difficulties finding meaning in life and death and taking responsibility for making free choices

Answer 42

angst

Question 43

the approach which views personality in terms of how the person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them

Answer 43

social-cognitive approach

Question 44

how people perceive their environments will influence how they behave

Answer 44

person-situation controversy

Question 45

argued that personality traits do little to predict behaviour

Answer 45

Walter Mischel

Question 46

dimensions people used in making sense of their experience

Answer 46

social constructs

Question 47

who proposed the idea of personal contructs?

Answer 47

George Kelly

Question 48

a person's assumptions about the likely consequences of a future behaviour

Answer 48

outcome expectancies

Question 49

a person's tendency to percieve the control of rewards as internal to the self or external in the environment

Answer 49

locus of control

Question 50

who proposed the idea of locus of control?

Answer 50

Julian Rotter

Question 51

the ability to recognize ourselves in the mirror occurs by what age?

Answer 51

18 months old

Question 52

a person's explicit knowledge of their own behaviours, traits, and other personal charactersitics

Answer 52

self-concept

Question 53

sets of traits we use to define ourselves

Answer 53

self-schemas

Question 54

- each person finds certain unique personality traits, particularly important self-conceptualization - traits people use to judge the self tend to stick in memory these ideas were proposed by:

Answer 54

Hazel Markus

Question 55

true or false: self-narratives, traits, and behaviour don't always match up

Answer 55

false

Question 56

the sense of self is primarily constructed through:

Answer 56

relationships with others

Question 57

the tendency to seek evidence that confirms the self-concept

Answer 57

self-verification

Question 58

the extent to which an individual likes, values, and accepts the self

Answer 58

self-esteem

Question 59

how is self-esteem measured?

Answer 59

questionnaires

Question 60

what are some sources of self-esteem?

Answer 60

- value and significance from significant others - specific self-evaluations - standard of comparison - choices

Question 61

people are generally unaware of their preference for things similar to themselves

Answer 61

implicit egotism

Question 62

shows how people prefer letters that are the same as the letter starting their first name

Answer 62

name-letter effect