Personality Flashcards
(17 cards)
what is personality
personality is a pattern of psychological characteristics that differentiate us from others and leads us to act consistently across situations
what are the causes of personality differences
behavioural genetics approach
- genetic factors
- shared environmental factors
- non-shared environmental factors
what is the personality difference life between twins who are raised together
twins raised together have greater similarity between identical twins than fraternal twins
meaning there is a role of genetics*
what is the personality difference like between twins reared apart
Identical twins reared apart are about as similar in personality as identical twins reared together
meaning that a shared environment plays little role*
what is the personality difference like between twins who are raised together
twins raised together have greater similarity between identical twins than fraternal twins
meaning there is a role of genetics*
what do adoption studies say about the causes of personality differences
neuroticism and sociability: there is a stronger correlation between adopted children and their biological parents than between their adoptive parents
meaning there is relative importance of genetic factors*
what are the 3 core assumptions of psychoanalytic theory
- psychic determinism
- symbolic meaning
- unconscious motivation
what is manifest vs. latent content in dreams
manifest is the intended function
latent is the unintended function
what are the 3 agencies of psyche
- id: basic instincts; the pleasure principle
- superego: sense of morality; the idealistic principle
- ego: principle decision maker; the reality principles
what are the defence mechanisms
- denial
- displacement
- repression
- projection
- reaction formation
- sublimation
- regression
what are traits
stable predisposition to act or behave in a certain way
factor analysis is what
Factor analysis is a term used to refer to a set of statistical procedures designed to determine the number of distinct unobservable constructs needed to account for the pattern of correlations among a set of measures
what are the big 5 personality dimensions
- openness to experience
- conscientiousness
- extroversion
- agreeableness
- neuroticism
what is trait taxonomy
- predict real-world behaviours
- the big five are identifiable in many cultures
- most traits don’t change much after age 30
- description, rather than explanation
what is trait taxonomy
- predict real-world behaviours
- the big five are identifiable in many cultures
- most traits don’t change much after age 30
- description, rather than explanation
the history of personality assessment involved phrenology, physiognomy, and Sheldon’s body types. What were these
They all lacked reliability and validity
- phrenology looked at the head shape, bumps/indentations
- physiognomy looked at facial characteristics
- Sheldon’s body types: body types matched a certain persona
what are the cons of freud’s theory
- unfalsifiable
- questionable conception of the unconscious
- failed predictions
- reliance on unrepresentative samples
- flawed assumption of shared environmental influence
