Personality

Question 1

What is the psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory of personality

Answer 1

Source of problems stems from the unconscious. The mind is a place of conflict

Question 2

What is the humanist theory of personality

Answer 2

Focus on individual experiences, becoming our best self. Phenomenology

Question 3

What is the genetic theory of personality

Answer 3

We inherit part of our personality. Genes and environment interact to produce out personality

Question 4

What did Freud discover when assessing Anna O

Answer 4

Anna had hysteria. Through talk therapy, he discovered that she had repressed childhood emotions that were influencing her physiologically. He reasoned that unresolved conflicts can manifest themselves by impacting the body.

Question 5

What was Freud’s Topographic model of personality

Answer 5

Concerned with the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. He believed that unconscious emotions are only exposed when we are asleep. Manifest content is what we actually dream and latent content is the hidden meaning.

Question 6

What was Freud’s Structural model of personality

Answer 6

Id - pleasure principle. Desires immediate gratification
Ego - self-control principle. Uses Projection, Displacement, Sublimation and Reaction formation as defence mechanisms to control Id.
Superego - moral voice and idealism

Question 7

What was Freud’s Developmental model of personality

Answer 7

Sexuality is focussed at different areas of the body during development
Oral (0-2), Anal (2-4), Phallic (4-5), Latency (6-puberty), Genital (puberty +)

Question 8

Describe radical and moderate behaviourism

Answer 8

Radical (Waston and Skinner): contents of organisms is not necessary to explain behaviour. Stimulus, response, reinforcement/punishment
Moderate: contents of organism is important

Question 9

Describe classical conditioning

Answer 9

Unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response. Cured by extinction learning and systematic observation

Question 10

Describe operant conditioning

Answer 10

Learn behaviour be reward or punishment.

Reinforcement increases behaviour whilst punishment decreases.

Question 11

What is the two state theory of a phobia?

Answer 11

Phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and is maintained by operant conditioning

Question 12

Define humanism

Answer 12

System of beliefs that people are inherently good.

Question 13

What are the theories of personality from a humanist perspective?

Answer 13

Actualising tendency
Organismic valuing process
Positive regard and self-regard

Question 14

What are the characteristics of a fully functioning person?

Answer 14

Openness to experience
Existential living
Organismic trusting
Experiential freedom 
Creativity

Question 15

What are the conditions for therapeutic change?

Answer 15

Therapist congruence
Empathetic understanding
Unconditional positive regard

Question 16

What are the 5 levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Answer 16

Physiological 
Safety and Security
Love and Belonging
Self-Esteem
Self-Actualisation

Question 17

What is epigenetics?

Answer 17

Our environment influences how genes are expressed

Question 18

What percentage of personality is genetically influenced?

Answer 18

15-50%

Question 19

What are the public policy implications of genetic approaches to personality

Answer 19

Social dwarfism and eugenics

Question 20

What are the four body humours and what do they represent?

Answer 20

Sanguine (Blood) - vigorous and athletic
Chloric (Yellow Bile) - angered
Melancholic (Black Bile) - depressed and sad
Phlegmatic (Phlegm) - lazy, fatigued

Question 21

What are Sheldon’s body types?

Answer 21

Endomorphy (fat)
Mesomorrphy (fit)
Ectomorphy (thin)

Question 22

What are the Big 5 Personality Traits?

Answer 22

Openness
Conscientiousness 
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism