Personality

Question 1

What Is Personality?

Answer 1

Pattern of psychological characteristics that differentiates us from others and leads us to act consistently across situations

Question 2

What are the 4 aspects to Personality?

Answer 2

Causes, Development, Traits, and Assessment

Question 3

What is trait?

Answer 3

The relatively enduring predisposition that influences our behaviour across many situations

Question 4

What are the Causes of Personality?

Answer 4

1. Twin Studies & Adoption Studies
2. Genetic Factors
3. Shared Environmental Factors
4. Nonshared Environmental Factors

Question 4

Twin Studies: Twins Raised Together in a Non-shared Environment

Answer 4

Greater similarity between identical twins than between fraternal twins - a
role of genetics

Correlations between identical twins are substantially less than 1.00 because of the role of non-shared environment

Question 5

Twin Studies: Twins Reared Apart, Shared Environment

Answer 5

Identical twins reared apart are about as similar in personality as identical twins reared together - shared environment plays little role

Question 6

Shared Environment

Answer 6

Experiences that make individuals within the same family more alike. If parents try to make all of their children more outgoing by reinforcing them with attention and succeed in doing so, their parenting in this case is a shared environmental factor.

Question 6

Non-shared Environment

Answer 6

Experiences that make individuals within the same family less alike. If a parent treats one child more affectionately than another and as a consequence this child ends up with higher self-esteem than the other child, the parenting in this case is a non-shared environmental factor.

Question 7

Adoption Studies

Answer 7

Stronger correlation between adopted children and their biological parents than their adoptive parents

**relative importance of genetics

Question 8

What is Psychoanalytic Theory? And Who Came Up with it?

Answer 8

Psychoanalytic Theory was invented by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalytic Theory rests on 3 core assumptions.

Question 9

What are the 3 core assumptions of Psychoanalytic Theory?

Answer 9

1. Psychic Determinism
2. Symbolic Meaning
3. Unconscious Motivation

Question 10

What is Psychic Determinism?

Answer 10

The assumption that all psychological events have a cause

Question 10

What is Symbolic Meaning

Answer 10

For Freudians, no action, no matter how trivial it may seem, is meaningless…everything has a symbolic meaning!

Question 11

What is Unconscious Motivation?

Answer 11

Freud believes we rarely understand why we do what we do, although we quite readily cook up explanations for our actions after the fact…

Question 11

What are the 3 agencies of psyche?

Answer 11

1. Id
2. Superego
3. Ego

Question 12

What is Id?

Answer 12

Basic instincts; the pleasure principle

• The pleasure principle strives for immediate gratification: The word ‘no’ isn’t in the id’s vocabulary.

Question 13

What is Superego?

Answer 13

Sense of morality; the idealistic principle

• Knowing the difference between right and wrong

Question 14

What is Ego?

Answer 14

Principal decision maker; the reality principle

• Also known as the BOSS

Question 15

What is the unconscious mind?

Answer 15

It contains memories & urges that
are forbidden or dangerous

• Kept from consciousness, but
  can still cause problems
• Dreams
  • Manifest vs. Latent content

Question 16

What are defense mechanisms?

Answer 16

Some personalities are always in constant conflict, defense mechanisms ward off the resulting anxiety from
this conflict

Question 17

What are sone examples of defence mechanisms?

Answer 17

Denial - Refusal to believe information that leads to anxiety

Displacement - Shift aggressive impulses to a more acceptable or less threatening target

Repression - Bury anxiety, producing thoughts and feelings in the unconscious

Projection - Deal with unacceptable feelings or wishes by attributing them to
others

Reaction formation - Transform an anxiety-producing wish into a kind of opposite, or behaving opposite to how you really feel

Sublimation - Channel unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities

Regression - Return psychologically to a younger, and typically simpler and safer, age.

Question 18

What is Psychosexual Development?

Answer 18

This concept was introduced by Freud, he believes that conflicts, memories, urges in unconscious mind come from
experiences in childhood. He termed these stages psychosexual because each focuses on a different sexually arousing zone of the body

***Failure to move through a stage properly leads to fixation

Question 19

Which defines mechanism is the most critical in psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 19

Repression. - is the motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses. Unlike the types of forgetting, repression is presumably triggered by anxiety: We forget because we want to forget. According to Freud, we repress unhappy memories of early childhood to avoid the pain they produce.

Question 20

What are the 5 stages in Psychosexual Development?

Answer 20

1. Anal stage - psychosexual stage that focuses on toilet training
2. Phallic stage - psychosexual stage that focuses on the genitals
3. Oedipus complex - conflict during phallic stage in which boys supposedly love their mothers romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals
4. Latency stage - psychosexual stage in which sexual impulses are submerged into the unconscious
5. Genital stage - psychosexual stage in which sexual impulses awaken and typically begin to mature into romantic attraction toward others

Question 21

Which culture was Freuds Psychosexual Stages extremely influential?

Answer 21

Westurn Cultures

Question 22

What were the criticisms on his Psychosexual Stages?

Answer 22

* Unfalsifiable * Questionable conception of the unconscious * Failed predictions * Reliance on unrepresentative samples * Flawed assumption of shared environmental influence

Question 23

What is factor analysis?

Answer 23

A statistical technique that analyzes the correlations among responses on personality inventories and other measures

Question 24

What is the big 5?

Answer 24

Five traits that have surfaced repeatedly in factor analyses of personality measures

Question 25

What are the big 5 traits?

Answer 25

* Openness to experience * Conscientiousness * Extroversion * Agreeableness * Neuroticism

Question 26

What is Openness to experience?

Answer 26

Nonconforming, showing unusually broad interests, imaginative...people tend to be intellectually curious and unconventional in their interests and out- look on the world.

Question 27

What is Conscientiousness?

Answer 27

Ethical, dependable, productive, purposeful..people tend to be careful and responsible.

Question 28

What is Extroversion?

Answer 28

Talkative, sociable, fun-loving, affectionate..people tend to be social and lively

Question 29

What is Agreeableness?

Answer 29

Sympathetic, warm, trusting, cooperative..people tend to be sociable and easy to get along with.

Question 30

What is Neuroticism?

Answer 30

Anxious, insecure, guilt-prone, self conscious...people tend to be tense and moody.

Question 31

At what age do most traits stop changing?

Answer 31

Age 30

Question 32

What were the the 3 personality assessments that lacked reliability and validity?

Answer 32

1. Phrenology 2. Physiognomy 3. Sheldon’s Body Type

Question 33

What is Phrenology?

Answer 33

PHRENOLOGY: AN INCORRECT MAP OF THE MIND.... It involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits..called bumpology.

Question 34

What is Physiognomy?

Answer 34

This assessment claimed to detect people’s personality traits from their facial characteristics. Example; features that are widely vs closely spaced Example; facial width-to-height ratio predicts dominance and aggression

Question 35

Sheldon's Body Types

Answer 35

According to William Sheldon, three major body types are associated with different personality traits. Yet research hasn’t borne out most of Sheldon’s claims. Because Sheldon wasn’t blind to body type when rating people’s personality traits, his findings may have been due largely to confirmation bias.

Question 36

What were the 3 body types in Sheldon's Claim and what were their personalities?

Answer 36

1. Ectomorph; quiet, fragile, restrained, non-assertive, sensitive 2. Mesomorph; active, assertive, vigorous, combative 3. Endomorph; relaxed, sociable, tolerant, comfort- loving, peaceful

Question 37

What are projective personality tests?

Answer 37

Idea is that you “project” your true thoughts and feelings into the interpretation, revealing your personality

Question 38

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Answer 38

This projective personality test consists of 10 symmetrical inkblots, five in black and white and five containing colour. **For example, people who focus on tiny details in the inkblots presumably have many obsessive-compulsive tendencies, people who respond to colour in the inkblots are presumably emotional; and people who see reflections in the blots tend to be narcissistic (self-centered)

Question 39

What are the problems with Rorschach Inkblot Test

Answer 39

1. Problematic reliability 2. Little evidence for detecting mental disorders 3. Lack of incremental validity

Question 40

Thematic Apperception Test

Answer 40

This projective personality test requiring examinees to tell a story in response to ambiguous pictures.. For example; The TAT consists of 31 cards depicting ambiguous situations, most of them interpersonal in nature. One of these cards is the epitome of ambiguity: It’s entirely blank. As a mnemonic device, we can think of the TAT as the “Tell a Tale” test, because examinees construct a story based on each card.

Question 41

Graphology

Answer 41

A projective personality test that psychological interprets handwriting

Question 42

Draw-A-Person Test (DAP)

Answer 42

A projective personality test that examines the correlations between human figure drawing signs and personality traits.. For example; large eyes in drawings presumably reflect suspiciousness, whereas large genitalia in drawings presumably reflect concerns about sexuality.

Question 43

What is MMPI-2?

Answer 43

A widely used structured personality test designed to assess symptoms of mental disorders. The MMPI-2, like its predecessor, consists of 10 basic scales, 8 of which are designed to detect symptoms of several major mental disorders, such as paranoia, depression, and schizophrenia.

Question 44

What are structured personality tests?

Answer 44

Paper-and-pencil measure consisting of questions that respondents answer in one of a few fixed ways

Question 45

MMPI - 2 Clinical Scale

Answer 45

Hypochondriasis - Concern with bodily symptoms especially when accompanied by delusions of physical disease Depression - Depressive symptoms Hysteria - Awareness of problems and vulnerabilities Psychopathic Deviate - Conflict, struggle, anger, respect for society's rules Masculinity vs. femininity - Stereotypical masculine or feminine interests/behaviours Paranoia - Level of trust, suspiciousness, sensitivity Psychasthenia - Worry, Anxiety, tension, doubts, obsessiveness, phobias Schizophrenia - Odd thinking and social alienation Hypomania - Level of excitability (e.g., mental and physical hyperactivity, elevation of mood) Social introversion - People orientation

Question 46

What are some problems with MMPI?

Answer 46

1. Redundant scales 2. Not used for formal diagnosis 3. Scales can be misused

Question 47

NEO-PI-R

Answer 47

A structured personality test used to measure the big 5

Question 48

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Answer 48

A structured personality test that sorts respondents into one of four categories: 1. introversion–extraversion, 2. sensing–intuiting, 3. thinking–feeling, 4. judging–perceiving —yielding a total of 16 personality types.