Personality Flashcards
(148 cards)
1
Q
Definition of personality
A
- Individual difference in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour
- Determines subjective adaptation to situations in life
2
Q
Hippocrates’ type theory
A
Sanguine - cheerful, optimistic, confident
Melancholic - depressed, morose
Phlegmatic - slow, unexcitable
Choleric - hot tempered
3
Q
Allport’s trait theory
A
Cardinal traits - so dominant that all of individual’s behaviour can be traced back to it [‘Christlike’]
Central traits - General characteristics that form the foundation, or most descriptive trait of an individual’s personality
Secondary traits - Often appear only in certain situations or under specific circumstances, like attitudes and preferences
4
Q
Definition of a trait
A
Characteristics that lead people to behave in more or less distinctive and consistent ways across situations
5
Q
Locus of control
A
Julian Rotter - questionnaire to measure locus of control
Degree to which we believe that we cause / control the events in our life
Relation between LOC and self-esteem
People who score high in the internal locus of control seek out learning experience relevant to life circumstances.
6
Q
Difference between type & trait approach and dynamic approach
A
T&T - search for components of personality that ultimately fit together to form a personality structure
D - search of internal motives and impulses that are hidden from view that drive person’s behaviour
7
Q
Freud’s structure of personality
A
Id - functions on pleasure principle; most primitive part, storehouse of biological urges; no regard for rules or morals
Ego - functions on reality principle; the behaviour and thinking that is executed by the individual; tries to satisfy id’s urges in realistic ways possible in the world
Superego - functions on the morality principle; influenced by messages from authority figures when young; aka conscience; ego ideal
8
Q
Freud’s level’s consciousness
A
Conscious - complete awareness of things around us and thoughts
Preconscious - memories and thoughts that are available on reflection; those thoughts that are unconscious at the particular moment in question, but that are not repressed so can be easily accessed
Unconscious - consists of those things that are outside of conscious awareness, including many memories, thoughts, and urges of which we are not aware; thought to contain things that are uncomfortable or anxiety-inducing
9
Q
Freud’s psychosexual stages
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Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
10
Q
Repression
A
Unconscious forgetting of anxiety-producing memories to keep them come becoming conscious
Eg: not being able to remember abuser’s face
11
Q
Suppression
A
More conscious form of forgetting
12
Q
Projection
A
An individual attributes unwanted thoughts, feelings and motives onto another person
Eg: if you have a strong dislike for someone, you might instead believe that they do not like you
13
Q
Displacement
A
Redirection of an impulse (usually aggression) onto a powerless substitute target that serves a symbolic substitute
Eg: Frustrated by their superiors, someone may go home and kick the dog
14
Q
Regression
A
The ego reverts to an earlier stage of development usually in response to stressful situations
Eg: Nail biting, going into fetal position
15
Q
Sublimation
A
Displacing our unacceptable emotions into behaviors which are constructive and socially acceptable, rather than destructive activities
Eg: Redirecting anger to sport or music or art
16
Q
Rationalization
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Cognitive distortion of “the facts” to make an event or an impulse less threatening
Eg: Student might blame a poor exam score on the instructor rather than their own lack of preparation
17
Q
Reaction Formation
A
A person goes beyond denial and behaves in the opposite way to which he or she thinks or feels
Eg: Being really nice to someone you don’t like
18
Q
Denial
A
A refusal to accept reality, thus blocking external events from awareness
Eg: a husband may refuse to recognise obvious signs of his wife’s infidelity
19
Q
Humanistic perspective of personality
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Focussed on internal motives rather than overt behaviour. Focussed on aspects that differentiated humans from animals.
20
Q
George Kelly theory of personality
A
Humanist approach
Viewed the individual as a scientist who tested the variables in their environment and made predictions of people’s behavior based on their existing knowledge.
An anxious person was one who had difficulty constructing and understanding the variables of their environment.
21
Q
Kurt Lewin theory of personality
A
Humanist approach
Theorised that personality could be divided into systems that functioned in an integrated fashion
In anxiety or stress, the articulation between these systems was affected
22
Q
Sources for personality data
A
- Self Report Data (S-Data)
- Questionnaires, interviews, diaries (structured or unstructured)
23
Q
Forms of S-data
A
- Twenty Statements Tests (TSC): measures self-concept
- Adjective Checklist (ACL): contains 300 person-descriptive adjectives and adjectival phrases such as “absent-minded”, “active”, “dominant”
- Likert Rating Scale
- Neo Personality Inventory, California Personality Inventory
24
Q
Types of O-data
A
Naturalistic observation - field study
Artificial observation - carried out in labs
25
Self-inventory assessment
A personality assessment technique in which subjects answer questions about their behaviors and feelings.
Eg: MMPI
26
MMPI
Covers physical and psychological health; political and social attitudes; educational, occupational, family, and marital factors; and neurotic and psychotic behavior tendencies
Measures such personality characteristics as gender role, defensiveness, depression, hysteria, paranoia, hypochondriasis, and schizophrenia
Translated into more than 140 languages; 550-567 question statements
27
Projective test
Personality assessment - Subjects are presumed to project personal needs, fears, and values onto their interpretation or description of an ambiguous stimulus.
Eg: Rorschach Inkblot, TAT, word association, sentence completion
28
TAT
19 ambiguous pictures, showing one or more persons, and 1 blank card
Ppl asked to tell a story about the people and objects in the picture, describing what led up to the situation shown, what the people are thinking and feeling, and what the outcome is likely to be.
Proven useful for research purposes, and scoring systems to measure needs for achievement, affiliation, and power.
29
Freud's first career choice was _____.
Medicine
30
Freud moved from ____ to ____ where he spent 80 years of his life.
Leipzig, Vienna
31
Neurasthenia
Acc. to Freud, a neurotic condition characterized by weakness, worry, and disturbances of digestion and circulation
32
Basic element of personality according to Freud
Instinct
Motivating forces that drive behavior; transformed physiological energy
33
Two types of instincts acc. to Freud
Life instincts: The drive for ensuring survival of the individual and the species by satisfying the needs for food, water, air, and sex.
Death instincts: The unconscious drive toward decay, destruction, and aggression.
34
Cathexis
An investment of psychic energy in an object or person.
Eg: If you like your best friend, your libido is cathected to them
35
Libido
To Freud, the form of psychic energy, manifested by the life instincts, that drives a person toward pleasurable behaviors and thoughts.
36
Freud's idea of sex
Defined in broad terms
Not referring exclusively to the erotic, but also included almost all pleasurable behaviors and thoughts.
Extending the accepted concept of sexuality; considered the sexual impulses to include “all of those merely affectionate and friendly impulses to which usage applies the exceedingly ambiguous word ‘love’ ”
Sex as primary motivation; and humans beings are pleasure seeking
37
Death instinct
Freud believed that people have an unconscious wish to die.
Aggressive drive was the wish to die turned against objects other than the self; compels us to destroy, conquer, and kill.
38
Acc. to Freud, ____ is the storehouse of all our memories, perceptions, and thoughts of which we are not consciously aware at the moment but that we can easily summon into consciousness
Preconscious / subconscious
39
Primary-process thought
Acc. to Freud, childlike thinking by which the id attempts to satisfy the instinctual drives.
40
Secondary-process thought
Acc. to Freud, mature thought processes needed to deal rationally with the external world.
41
Reality anxiety
Fear of real dangers in the real world; guides our behavior to escape or protect ourselves from actual dangers
42
Neurotic anxiety
Basis in childhood; conflict between the id and the ego, and its origin has some basis in reality.
43
Moral anxiety
Conflict between the id and the superego
[When you are motivated to express an instinctual impulse that is contrary to your moral code, your superego retaliates by causing you to feel shame or guilt.]
44
Acc. to Freud- oral incorporative behavior
Occurs first and involves the pleasurable stimulation of the mouth by other people and by food
Adults fixated at the oral incorporative stage become excessively concerned with oral activities, like eating, drinking, smoking, and kissing.
45
Oral passive personality type
If adults as infants were overindulged during oral stage, their adult oral personality will be predisposed to a high degree of optimism and dependency.
Continue to depend on and expect others to gratify their needs
Overly gullible, swallow or believe anything they are told, and trust other people inordinately
46
Acc. to Freud- oral aggressive/sadistic behavior
Occurs during the painful, frustrating eruption of teeth
Fixated at this level - excessive pessimism, hostility, and aggressiveness. Argumentative and sarcastic, making so-called biting remarks and displaying cruelty toward others. Envious of other people and try to exploit and manipulate them in an effort to dominate them.
47
Acc. to Freud- anal retentive personality
Stubborn and stingy, hoards or retains things because feelings of security depend on what is saved and possessed, Likely to be rigid, compulsively neat, obstinate, and overly conscientious.
48
Acc. to Freud- anal aggressive personality
Basis for many forms of hostile and sadistic behavior in adult life, including cruelty, destructiveness, and temper tantrums. Likely to be disorderly and to consider other people as objects to be possessed.
49
Phallic personality type
Continually acting in ways to try to attract the opposite sex, have difficulty establishing mature heterosexual relationships, need constant recognition and appreciation of what they see as their attractive and unique qualities.
As long as they receive such support they function well, but when it is lacking they feel inadequate and inferior.
50
Acc. to Freud- genital personality type
Able to find satisfaction in love and work (being an acceptable outlet for sublimation of the id impulses)
51
Subliminal perception
Stimuli are presented to people below their level of conscious awareness
52
Ego control
The amount of control we are able to exert over our impulses and feelings
Under-controlled to over-controlled
53
Ego resiliency
Flexibility in adjusting or changing our typical level of ego control to meet the daily changes in our environment.
Ppl high in ego resiliency are flexible and adaptable
54
______ substantially revised orthodox psychoanalysis by greatly expanding the role of the ego, arguing that the ego operates independently of the id. Major extension of the Freudian system that involved a fundamental and radical change.
Anna Freud
55
The standard defense mechanisms owe their full development and articulation to ______.
Anna Freud
56
______ extended psychoanalysis to children.
Anna Freud
57
Anna Freud provided clear explanations of the ego's defense mechanisms in her book ____.
The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense [1936]
58
Freud had a ____ view of human nature.
Deterministic
59
Memories, Dreams, Reflections is the autobiography of _____.
Carl Jung
60
_____ coined the term schizophrenia.
Eugen Bleuler
61
Jung's term for personality
Psyche
62
Libido acc. to Jung
General life force, more generalized form of psychic energy
63
Opposition principle
Jung’s idea that conflict between opposing processes or tendencies is necessary to generate psychic energy.
64
Equivalence principle
Conservation of energy put into psych by Jung
The continuing redistribution of energy within a personality; if the energy expended on certain conditions or activities weakens or disappears, that energy is transferred elsewhere in the personality.
65
Entropy principle
(Acc. to Jung who borrowed from physics) Equalization of energy differences
A tendency toward balance or equilibrium within the personality; the ideal is an equal distribution of psychic energy over all structures of the personality.
66
Acc. to Jung, ____ is the center of consciousness.
Ego
67
Jung's psychological types
Extraverted thinking: Logical, objective
Extraverted feeling: Emotional, sensitive sociable [more amongst women]
Extraverted intuiting: Creative, motivational, seize opportunity
Extraverted sensing: Outgoing, pleasure seeking, adaptable
Introverted thinking: More interested in ideas than people
Introverted feeling: Reserved undemonstrative yet capable of deep emotion
Introverted intuiting: Concerned with unconscious over everyday reality [visionaries/daydreamers]
Introverted sensing: Outwardly detached, expressing themselves in aesthetic pursuits [art/music]
68
Complex acc. to Jung
A core or pattern of emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes in the personal unconscious organized around a common theme, such as power or status.
69
Collective unconscious
The deepest level of the psyche containing the accumulation of inherited experiences of human and pre-human species.
70
Persona archetype
Acc. to Jung, a mask/public face we wear to present ourselves as someone different from who we really are.
71
The psyche of the woman contains masculine aspects _____, and the psyche of the man contains feminine aspects ______.
The animus archetype, the anima archetype
Both the anima and the animus must be expressed otherwise they remain dormant and underdeveloped = one sided personality
72
Shadow archetype
The dark side of the personality; the archetype that contains primitive animal instincts
Not only is the shadow the source of evil, it is also the source of vitality, spontaneity, creativity, and emotion.
73
Self archetype
To Jung, the archetype that represents the unity, integration, and harmony of the total personality.
74
Individuation
A condition of psychological health resulting from the integration of all conscious and unconscious facets of the personality.
Becoming an individual, developing one's self
75
Jung's steps to individuation
```
Confront unconscious
Remove persona
Accept shadows
Accept anima & animus
Transcend
```
76
An assessment instrument related to Jung’s personality theory is the ______.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
77
Acc. to Adler, ____ was the core of the personality.
Conscious
78
Acc. to Adler, ____ was the normal condition of all people; the source of all human striving.
Feelings of inferiority
79
Compensation
Acc. to Adler, a motivation to overcome inferiority, to strive for higher levels of development.
80
Inferiority complex
A condition that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings
81
Superiority complex
A condition that develops when a person overcompensates for normal inferiority feelings.
82
Striving for superiority, acc. to Adler
The urge toward perfection or completion that motivates each of us; strive to make ourselves whole
83
Fictional finalism
Concept by Adler, the notion that fictional ideas guide our behavior as we strive toward a complete or whole state of being; guiding self-ideal
84
Style of life
A unique character structure or pattern of personal behaviors and characteristics by which each of us strives for perfection. Basic styles of life include the dominant, getting, avoiding, and socially useful types.
85
Creative power of the self
Acc to Adler, the ability to create an appropriate style of life.
We are not passively shaped by childhood experiences; not as important as our conscious attitude toward them. Existence of individual free will
86
Four basic styles of life acc. to Adler
Dominant type: Behaves without any regard for other people; sadists, delinquents, or sociopaths
Getting type: Expects to receive satisfaction from other people and so becomes dependent on them [most common]
Avoiding type: Avoiding difficulties to avoid any possibility of failure
Socially useful type: Cooperates with others and acts in accordance with their needs
87
Characteristics of first borns acc. to Adler
Very happy and secure existence, until the second-born child appears.
Dethronement
Often oriented toward the past, locked in nostalgia, and pessimistic about the future. Mature intellectually to a higher degree. Prefer maintaining order and authority.
88
Characteristics of second borns acc. to Adler
Do not suffer the sense of dethronement felt by the first-borns.
More optimistic about the future and are likely to be competitive and ambitious. May try to catch up to and surpass the older sibling.
89
Characteristics of youngest child acc. to Adler
Become the pet of the family
Driven by the need to surpass older siblings, they develop at a remarkably fast rate; high achievers in whatever work they undertake as adults.
Opposite side - excessively pampered, may retain the helplessness and dependency of childhood, difficulty in adjusting with adulthood
90
Characteristics of only child acc. to Adler
Remain the focus and center of attention. Mature early and manifest adult behaviors and attitudes.
May experience problems in areas of life outside the home, such as school, where they are not the center of attention.
91
Basic anxiety
Acc. to Karen Horney
A pervasive feeling of loneliness and helplessness; the foundation of neurosis.
92
4 ways of securing affection acc. to Horney
Securing affection and love, being submissive, attaining power, or withdrawing
93
Neurotic needs acc. to Horney
1. Affection and approval
2. A dominant partner
3. Power
4. Exploitation
5. Prestige
6. Admiration
7. Achievement or ambition
8. Self-sufficiency
9. Perfection
10. Narrow limits to life
94
Horney's neurotic trends
Three categories of behaviors and attitudes toward oneself and others that express a person’s needs
Movement toward ppl [compliant]
Movement away from ppl [detached]
Movement against ppl [aggressive]
95
Horney's compliant personality
The neurotic trend of moving toward people, such as a need for affection and approval.
Behave in ways others find attractive or endearing; living up to others ideal; manipulate to get their goals; subordinate their personal desires to others'; not demanding or assertive
Source of behavior - repressed defiance and vindictiveness
96
Horney's aggressive personality
The neurotic trend of moving against people, such as a domineering and controlling manner.
Act tough and domineering and have no regard for others; never display fear of rejection; must consistently perform at a high level; feel satisfaction in superiority being affirmed
Source - Driven by insecurity, anxiety, and hostility
97
Horney's detached personality
The neurotic trend of moving away from people, such as an intense need for privacy.
Need for independence makes them sensitive to any attempt to influence or coerce them.
Suppress or deny all feelings toward other people, particularly feelings of love and hate. Place great stress on reason, logic, and intelligence.
98
____ distinguished types of people based on internal bodily fluids, or “humors.”
Hippocrates
99
_____ offered a personality typology based on body build: endomorph, mesomorph & ectomorph
William Sheldon
100
Acc. to Allport, _____ traits are shared by a number of people, such as the members of a culture.
Common traits
- subject to social, environmental, and cultural influences.
101
Allport's personal dispositions
Cardinal traits - The most pervasive and powerful human traits.
Central traits - The handful of outstanding traits that describe a person’s behavior.
Secondary traits - The least important traits, which a person may display inconspicuously and inconsistently.
102
Functional autonomy of motives
The idea that motives in the normal, mature adult are independent of the childhood experiences in which they originally appeared.
103
Perseverative functional autonomy
The level of functional autonomy that relates to low-level and routine behaviors.
Concerned with behaviors as addictions and repetitive physical actions like performing some routine, everyday task.
104
Propriate functional autonomy
The level of functional autonomy that relates to our values, self-image, and lifestyle.
Unique to each individual; ego determines which motives will be maintained or discarded.
105
Allport's terms for ego / self
Proprium
106
Allport's definition of personality
Personality is defined as the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine characteristic behavior and thought. It is a product of heredity and environment and divorced from childhood experiences.
107
Factor analysis was created by ____
Raymond Cattell
- A statistical technique based on correlations between several measures, which may be explained in terms of underlying factors.
108
Ability, temperament & dynamic traits
Acc. to Allport
Ability traits - Traits that describe our skills and how efficiently we will be able to work toward our goals.
Temperament traits - Traits that describe our general behavioral style in responding to our environment.
Dynamic traits - Traits that describe our motivations and interests.
109
16PF was introduced by _____.
Cattell
110
Eysenck’s personality dimensions
Extraversion vs introversion
Neuroticism vs emotionally stable
Psychoticism vs impulse control
111
L-data, Q-data, T-data
L-data - Life-record ratings of behaviors observed in real-life situations, such as the classroom or office.
Q-data - Self-report questionnaire ratings of our characteristics, attitudes, and interests.
T-data - Data derived from 'objective' personality tests that are resistant to faking.
112
Big Five factors
Introduced by McCrae & Costa
Neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
113
Traits of the Big Five factors
Neuroticism: Worried, insecure, nervous, highly strung
Extraversion: Sociable, talkative, fun-loving, affectionate
Openness: Original, independent, creative, daring
Agreeableness: Good-natured, softhearted, trusting, courteous
Conscientiousness: Careful, reliable, hardworking, organized
114
Dark triad of personality
Narcissism: extreme selfishness, an inflated sense of one’s abilities and talents, and the constant need for admiration and attention.
Machiavellianism: the need to manipulate others, characterized by cunning, deceit, and unscrupulous behaviors.
Psychopathy: callous, insensitive, egocentric, antisocial, takes advantage of other people, using great charm and often violence.
115
Founder of humanist psychology
Maslow
116
Metamotivation
The motivation of self- actualizers, which involves maximizing personal potential rather than striving for a particular goal object
117
Jonah complex
The fear that maximizing our potential will lead to a situation with which we will be unable to cope.
118
Organismic valuing process
The process by which we judge experiences in terms of their value for fostering or hindering our actualization and growth.
Experiences that we perceive as promoting actualization are evaluated as good and desirable; vice versa
119
Positive self-regard
The condition under which we grant ourselves acceptance and approval
120
Characteristics of fully functioning persons
Awareness of all experience; open to positive as well as negative feelings
Freshness of appreciation for all experiences
Trust in one’s own behavior and feelings
Freedom of choice, without inhibitions
Creativity and spontaneity
Continual need to grow, to strive to maximize one’s potential
121
Kelly’s personal construct theory
Kelly’s description of personality in terms of cognitive processes: We are capable of interpreting behaviors and events and of using this understanding to guide our behavior and to predict the behavior of other people.
122
Construct acc. to Kelly
An intellectual hypothesis that we devise and use to interpret or explain life events. Constructs are bipolar, or dichotomous, such as tall versus short or honest versus dishonest.
123
Constructive alternativism
The idea that we are free to revise or replace our constructs with alternatives as needed to cope with new situations.
124
Skinner's four self-control techniques
- Aversion stimulation
- Stimulus avoidance
- Self-reinforcement
- Self-administered satiation
125
Difference between negative reinforcement & punishment
Punishment: The application of an aversive stimulus following a response in an effort to decrease the likelihood that the response will recur.
Neg reinforcement: The strengthening of a response by the removal of an aversive stimulus. Eg: Students won't get homework if they study hard in class.
126
Functional analysis
Acc. to Skinner, an approach to the study of behavior that involves assessing the frequency of a behavior, the situation in which it occurs, and the reinforcers associated with it.
127
Instinctive drift
The substitution of instinctive behaviors for behaviors that had been reinforced.
128
Who wrote 'The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis'?
Skinner
- also wrote 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity'
129
Bandura’s approach is also called _____.
Observational learning
- indicating the importance in the learning process of observing other people’s behavior.
130
Disinhibition
The weakening of inhibitions or constraints by observing the behavior of a model.
Eg: People in a crowd may start a riot, exhibiting physical and verbal behaviors they would never perform when alone.
Eg: Trolling
131
Three factors found to influence modeling
- Character of model
- Character of observer
- Reward consequence
132
By about age of ____, children have developed sufficient attentional, retention, and production processes to begin imitating behavior some time after the observation.
2
133
Character of model in influencing modeling
- Model is like us
- Type of behaviour: simpler ones are imitated quicker
- Same sex and age
- Status of model
134
Character of observer in influencing modeling
- Age of observer
| - Attributes of observer: low self-confidence would imitate more
135
Guided participation
Watching a live model and then participating with the model.
Eg: To treat a snake phobia, subjects watch through an observation window while a live model handles a snake. The subjects then enter the room with the model and observe the handling of the snake at close range.
136
Covert modeling
Subjects are instructed to imagine a model coping with a feared or threatening situation; they do not actually see a model.
137
Reciprocal determinism
The idea that behavior is con- trolled or determined by the individual, through cognitive processes, and by the environment, through external social stimulus events.
138
Who came up with the concept of 'locus of control'?
Julian Rotter
139
What scale was developed to assess locus of control?
The Internal-External (I-E) Scale
- Consists of 23 forced-choice alternatives. From each pair of items, subjects select the one that best describes their beliefs
140
Another scale to assess locus of control other than the IE scale.
Children’s Nowicki-Strickland Internal- External Scale
141
_____ conducted research on a limited-domain aspect of personality he called sensation seeking.
Marvin Zuckerman
142
Sensation seeking
The need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences.
143
Four components of sensation seeking
1. Thrill and adventure seeking
2. Experience seeking
3. Disinhibition
4. Boredom susceptibility
144
_____ began research on a limited-domain facet of personality called learned helplessness.
Martin Seligman
145
Seligman's learned helplessness experiment on dogs
Dogs were being conditioned to associate a high-pitched sound with an electric shock
In the second part, the dogs were placed one at a time in a large box that contained two compartments divided by a low wall.
The dogs did not jump over the barrier to escape the shock. They lay down, whimpered, and made no effort to escape.
146
Seligman's learned helplessness experiment on humans
People in an experimental group were exposed to a loud, irritating noise and told they could turn it off if they pressed a series of buttons in the correct sequence.
There was no correct sequence so the noise persisted despite their efforts.
Control group had an easy sequence.
In the next step, the experimental subjects were asked to stop the noise by moving their hand from one side of a box to the other in response to a light signal. Control-group subjects rapidly learned this behavior but experimental-group subjects could not. They sat passively, making no effort to deal with the irritating noise.
147
Other areas learned helplessness is applied
Torture chambers by CIA
148
Seligman distinguished different kinds of happiness and he proposed three distinct types
Pleasant life - satisfaction, job contentment, serenity, and optimism
Engaged life - involvement, purpose, commitment, and absorption in work
Meaningful life - using one’s talents, abilities, and strengths to belong to, serve, or commit to some enterprise larger than the self.
