Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM


Top Flashcards (Certified)
All Flashcards

PSYC10004 > Personality Psychology > Flashcards

Personality Psychology Flashcards

(72 cards)

Start Studying
1
Q

what is personality

A

= enduring, relatively broad psychological differences between people excluding cognitive abilities

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

person perception

A

= Person perception is judging other people’s personalities

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

stereotypes

A

= Stereotypes are largely made up of personality traits believed (rightly or wrongly) to be associated with social groups

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Personality traits

A

= A trait is a consistent pattern of behaviour, thinking or feeling
- Relatively stable over time
- Relatively consistent across situations
- Varying between people
- Dispositional

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

big 5 traits

A
  • Openness to experience
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extraversion
  • Agreeableness
    Neuroticism
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

extraversion

A

sociable, energetic enthusiastic, assertive

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

agreeableness

A

warm
modest
kind
helpful
trusting

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

conscientiousness

A

efficient
organised
thorough
self-controlled

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

neuroticism

A

tense
irritable
moody
nervous
high strung

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

openness to experience

A

imaginative
intelligent
original
sophisticated

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

3 factor model for trait psychology

A

extraversion
neuroticism
psychoticism

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

psychoticism

A

aggressiveness
coldness
antisocial tendencies
egocentricity
vulnerability to psychotic disorders

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

family studies

A

examines resemblance between family members as a function of genetic relatedness
BUT genetic contributions are confounded with shared environmental contributions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

twin studies

A

= compared resemblance between mono and dizygotic twins
- environments are the same for twins so not confounding
- greater MZ resemblance implies genetic contribution
BUT twins and twin studies
can be unrepresentative

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Adoptive Studies

A

= compare resemblance of adopted children to adoptive parents and biological parents
- Degree of resemblance to AP’s and BP’s shows environmental and genetic contributions
- BUT adoption must occur early, problems with selective placement, biological mother provides prenatal environment as well as genes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Heritability

A

= behavioural genetic studies yield estimates of heritability = proportion of variance in the trait accounted for by genes
- Most attributes show heritability from 0.3-0.5
- This is true for apparently learned attributes e.g. political views and vocational interests

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Role of the environment

A

= one outcome of behavioural genetic research is the awareness of the role of the environment
- Shared environment = parental education , class, ethnicity, diet
- Nonshared environment = illnesses, friends, differential treatment by parents

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Brain functioning
Systems

A

Eysenck’s theory
Gray’s theory

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Eysenck’s theory

A
  • Extraversion and low cortical arousal leads to desire for excitement
    • Neuroticism and limbic system reactivity leads to greater autonomic NS arousal to threat and stress
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Gray’s theory

A
  • Impulsivity and ‘behavioural activation system ‘ links with sensitivity to rewards and pleasure and associated with a tendency to approach rewards
    • Anxiety and behavioural inhibition systems links with sensitivity to punishment and pain and associated with a tendency to avoid punishment
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Neuroticism
structures

A
  • Associated with high resting activity of amygdala
    • Greater neural response to errors in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Extraversion
structures

A
  • Greater neural response to experiences of reward in frontal brain lobes
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Chemicals
personality

A

= personality factors may be associated with neurotransmitter activity in the brain

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Extraversion and dopamine

A
  • Exploration, approach and incentive motivation
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Neuroticism and norepinephrine
- Negative emotion, vigilance for threat, cautiousness
26
Agreeability and opioids
- Attachments processes
27
Constraint and serotonin
- Inhibition of emotional response, low impulsiveness, low serotonin,
28
Hormonal factors
Evidence that personality is influences by prenatal exposure to sex hormones - Ratio of index to ring finger is associated with testosterone exposure - E.g. men tend to have a longer ring finger than index
29
Personal constructs
= proposes that humans are primarily driven to understand, predict and control their environment - We construct a sense of the world from these theories - We use them to construe that world - Human cognition is contrastive : bipolar and categorical - Each person has a system of constructs in terms of which they perceive the world - The system of constructs is personality
30
3 Construct systems
- Simplicity v complexity - Rigidity - Internal conflict
31
Attributions
about how we explain the world - People aim to determine the causes of events and experiences
32
Attribution dimensions
- Internal v external - Stable v unstable - Global v specific
33
Attributional style
- Focused on negative events - 'pessimism' = disposition to explain negative events with internal, stable and global causes
34
Emotional intelligence (EI)
- Different from general intelligence - Measure by performance on tests with correct and incorrect answers - Many correlates e.g. academic performance, job performance, social sensitivity, less antisocial behaviour
35
Perceiving emotion
= accurate recognition of own emotions and non-verbal perception of other peoples
36
Using emotion
= use of own emotions to guide and plan behaviour
37
Understanding emotion
= predicting others' emotional states and reasoning about them
38
Managing emotion
= ability to control and regulate emotion
39
The self
a mental representation of one's personal attributes
40
1. Self complexity
= number of self aspects and degree if distinctness of them - Greater self complexity buffers people against negative life events but is associated with depression - 'self complex clarity' is more important than self complexity
41
Self esteem
- Stability or consistency of self-esteem may matter more than the level of self esteem itself - 'fragile' self esteem fluctuates in response to life events - Narcissism = sense of superiority, entitlement for special treatment, need for admiration, sensitivity to criticism
42
Reliability
= does the measurement yield consistent dependable and error-free information High reliability = high consistency = low measurement error
43
Internal consistency
- Do all the components of the test all cohere? All test items should correlate with one another
44
Inter-rater reliability
- Does the test provide the same information about the person when different people administer it?
45
Re-test reliability
- Does the test yield similar scores when it is administered to the same person on different occasions ?
46
47
Validity
= does the measurement assess what it is intended to assess and is it useful 1. Does it measure what it is intended to measure? - Content validity - Convergent validity - Discriminant validity 2. Does the test provided useful information? Predictive validity
48
Interviews pros
- Useful for assessing attributes where the person may to be a reliable informant e.g. personality disorders
49
interviews cons
- Time consuming and labour intensive - Subjective - Prone to biases e.g. halo effect, self-fulfilling prophecy, confirmation bias
50
types of interviews
- Structured - Unstructured - Semi-structured - Provocative
51
Item form scale
- Omnibus test with many scales - Single-scale test - Generally at least 10 items per scale
52
Variety of response scales
- True or false - Likert scales
53
self report Cons
- Vulnerable to biases and limitation of self-knowledge - Lie scales , faking good - Infrequency scales, faking bad, random responding - Defensiveness scales, subtle guardedness - Inconsistency scales, carelessness and random responding
54
Projective tests What
- Aims to penetrate to deeper levels of personality - Allied with psychoanalytic approach Involves deliberate ambiguity and open ended Ness
55
Thematic apperception test
- Idiographic approach - Series of monochromatic images - Person tells an extended story about what is happening in the picture - Responses coded for repeated themes in the stories
56
Rorschach Test
- Symmetrical inkblots - person says what object they see and what aspects of the blot lead them to see that ' - Responses are scored on many dimensions
57
Critiques of projective tests
- Time consuming - Low inter-scorer reliability - Predictive validity is generally weak compared to self-report tests - Often there is little 'incremental validity' beyond self report test
58
Implicit tests What?
- New form of testing based on rapid 'automatic' responses - In principle different to fake and less susceptible to bias
59
Implicit association test
- 4 sets of words - Self, not-self, extraversion, introversion Two 'blocks' of trials were person must rapidly classify words into different pairings of words
60
Trait theory
= traits are stable by definition
61
Biological approach to personality change
= heritability may imply stability, but maturational change can also be genetically programmed
62
Psychoanalysis to personality change
= childhood determinism
63
Cognitive approaches to personality change
= if personality is made up of cognitions and cognitions can change, then personality is malleable
64
Evidence for stability
- Longitudinal studies of personality - Correlating personality scales across time allows a measure of 'rank order stability' - If someone is above average on a factor at 30, they have an 83% chance of being above at 50
65
What causes stability
- Genetics - Environmental channelling - Environmental selection - Freedom from disruptive life changes - Psychological resources - Identity formation
66
Correlational rank order
= people's personality is or isn't highly correlated over time
67
Mean level meaning
= peoples average level of personality isn't stable over time - These two kinds of stability/change can co-occur in any combination
68
Evidence for mean level change
- Neuroticism declines - Extraversion declines - Openness declines - Conscientiousness declines - Agreeableness is stable
69
What causes mean level change?
- Young people become more agreeable and conscientious and less neurotic during the transition to adulthood - Educational challenges in transition from school to university are associated with rise is conscientiousness - Work attainment from age 18-26 is associated with increased self confidence and sociability - Transition to first intimate partner relationships is associated with lasting drops of neuroticism and shyness - International sojourns in university students raise agreeableness and openness
70
Historical change
- Might personality change over historical eras? - Self esteem increased - Extraversion increased - Neuroticism/ anxiousness increased - External attribution increased
71
Erikson's life stages
1. Trust v mistrust - Infancy 2. Autonomy v shame and guilt - toddlerhood 3. Initiative v guilt - preschool 4. Industry v inferiority - school years 5. Identity v identity confusion - university 6. Intimacy v isolation - young adulthood 7. Generativity v stagnation - mid-life 8. Integrity v despair - old age
72
Life narratives
= express sequences of personal change - 'hero's journey' correlates with greater meaning in life and well being - 're-storying' intervention increased life meaning and resilience

PSYC10004 (4 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2025 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions