Psych ch.12

Terms in this set (69)

Set of characteristics (thinking, feeling, behaving) that differentiates us from others and leads us to act consistently across situations

a stable predisposition to act or behave in a certain way

The Person-Situation Controversy

Trait theorists argue that behaviors across situations may differ, but average behavior remains the same.

Reciprocal Determinism

The idea that beliefs, behavior, and the environment interact to shape what is learned from experience

How does personality develop?

Heritability (Nature)
Environment (Nurture)

unconsciously strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives, demanding immediate gratification (Pleasure Principle)

-provides standards for judgment (the conscience)
-Moral compass, moral customs
-Focuses on how we ought to behave
- Obeys the idealistic principle

functions as the "executive" and mediates the demands of the id and superego (Reality Principle).
- Induces people to act with reason and deliberation, conform to outside world
-Seeks to gratify the id's impulses in realistic ways

Personality development (Psychodynamic approach)

-personality formed during the first few years of life = psychosexual stages.
-During these stages the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on pleasure sensitive body areas called erogenous zones.
- Failure to move through a stage leads to fixation (continue to act in ways appropriate for earlier stage)

flaws of Psychodynamic theory

- Extremely Influential but not widely accepted by many modern psychologists
- Lack of scientific evidence
- Most evidence from clinical case studies
- Biased against women
- Pessimistic view of human nature

The Trait Approach (psychology of the stranger)

-Raymond Cattell, Gordon Allport, Hans Eysenck
-Traits are both a commonsense concept and a scientific concept
-Focus on identifying which traits are fundamental
-Tries to synthesize traits (as described by language) in order to explain and predict behavior

Lexical Hypothesis

All important individual differences have become encoded in natural language
-The more important an attribute is, the more words there are to describe it

Factor Analysis

Identifies groups of items that covary with each other but tend not to covary with other groups of items

Allport & Odell-Basic idea:

Individual differences that are most noticeable and socially relevant in people's lives will eventually become encoded into their language
-the more important the difference, the more likely it is to be expressed as a single word.

Extraversion-Introversion (E)

Heritability: .60
-Degree of outward vs. inward focus

Neuroticism-Emotional Stability

Heritability: .54
-Tendency to experience negative emotions

Characterized by degree of impulsivity and detachment from others

Strengths and Criticisms of Eysenck's model

Empirically studied
Research suggests three factors are probably too few to describe personality

Intellectually curious
Nonconforming
Daring
Appreciative of art
Aware of feelings

Conscientiousness

Tendency to show a preference for planned behavior; influences control, regulation, and direction of impulses
-Dependable
-Productive
-Purposeful
-High achievement
-Persistent

Characterized by positive emotions and the tendency to seek out stimulation and the company of others
-Talkative
-Sociable
-Affectionate
-High energy/activity levels

Tendency to be compassionate and cooperative; desire to maintain positive interpersonal relationships
-Sympathetic
-Warm
-Trusting
-Cooperative
-Generous
-Helpful
-Optimistic view of human nature

Tendency to experience negative emotions; "emotional instability"
-Emotionally reactive
-Vulnerable to stress
-Interpret ordinary situations as threatening
-Anxious
-Insecure
-Self-conscious

Summary of Trait Theory

-Cattell: 16 Personality Factors (Factor Analysis)
-Eysenck: 3 Personality Factors (P-E-N)
-Five Factor ("Big Five"): O-C-E-A-N

Humanistic Approach to Personality

-Focuses on people's unique capacity for choice, responsibility, and growth

Humanistic Psychologists

Carl Rogers
Abraham Maslow

Believed personality comes from self-concept
- Problems arise from incongruence between self-concept and experiences "conditions of worth"

Conditions of worth

Expectations or standards we believe others place on us

Discrepancy between one's self-concept and one's experiences

Personality characteristics reflect where a person is in the hierarchy of needs

Self-actualization

The ingrained desire to reach one's true potential as a human being

Strengths of Humanistic Approach

-Considerable influence in psychology
-Balances the pessimism of Freud (personal choice and responsibility)

Criticisms of Humanistic Approach

-Concepts are vague
-Subjective, depends too much on self-reports
-Too optimistic view of human nature?

Social-Cognitive Approach to personality

Suggests human experiences, and interpretations of those experiences, determine personality growth and development
- emphasizes learned behaviors over innate ones

Locus of Control

The amount of control that a person feels he or she has over the environment

The beliefs one holds about their own ability to perform a task or accomplish a goal

strengths of social-cognitive approach

-Most psychologists believe learning plays a role in personality development
-Belief that cognitive factors help determine what is learned is also widely accepted

- Overemphasizes how a person responds in particular situations rather than on traits of person as a whole
-Doesn't recognize role of biological and genetic factors

Personality Assessment

Systematic measurement of the different aspects of personality
-Self-Report Inventories (Objective Tests)
-Projective Personality Tests

Single-Dimension Personality Test

-Measures only one dimension of personality
-Examples:
California F-Scale (measures authoritarianism)
Self-Monitoring Scale (Measures the extent to which you monitor or regulate your behavior/appearance when interacting with others)

Multiple-Dimension Personality Tests

Measure more than one dimension of personality at a time
-MMPI (Classifies individuals with psychiatric disorders)
-IPIP-NEO
-Big 5 Personality Index (BFI)

Big 5 Personality Index (BFI)

Openness, Concientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

Self-Report Inventories strengths and limitations

-Standardized (treat everyone the same); minimizes subjectivity of experimenter
-Lack of objectivity on behalf of person reporting

Projective Personality Tests strengths

-Freedom of response minimizes socially desirable responding
-Provides global and meaningful assessment of personality

Projective Personality Tests criticisms

Validity (does it actually measure what it says it does)
Reliability (over time and between raters)
Subjectivity

The Person-Situation Debate

Do people really behave consistently across situations, or is behavior just determined by the situation
- Evidence suggests there's more consistency within the same kind of situation, less across different situations
- Most psychologists believe that personality and situation interact

Factor Analytic Approach

Takes a large number of traits and clusters them into smaller groups that are closely related(i.e. which traits go together?)
-Used to identify global traits that define the nature of personality and predict behavior
Ex: asking how well a particular term "friendly, kind, loving, etc." describes them

Raymond Cattell's 16 Personality Factors

- Utilized factor analysis
- Used thousands of terms and eventually produced 16 primary personality factors

Eysenck's Hierarchical Model of Personality

Three main traits:
-Extraversion
-Neuroticism
-Psychoticism

Five-Factor Model (The Big Five)

-Most widely accepted contemporary factor analytic theory
- The 5 Personality Domains are: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and
Neuroticism
- Seems to be universal rather than dependent on cultural background. Can predict many behaviors

Allport's Trait Theory

Focus is idiographic: On individuals not on group averages
- Central traits: 5-10 descriptive traits that describe a person
- Secondary traits: Less obvious characteristics that appear only under certain circumstances

Self-Report Inventories (SRIs)

Individuals provide information about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors which are then compared to averages compiled from prior test takers
- Main uses include hiring decisions, diagnosing psychological disorders
Ex: MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)

Projective Personality Tests

-Measures aspects of personality by asking individuals to respond to ambiguous stimuli
-Assumes that the meaning the person projects onto the ambiguous stimuli reflects unconscious core aspects of personality
- Most widely used
- Ex: Thematic Apperception Test: ambiguous pictures of people, situations

The Psychodynamic Approach

Freud
- Holds that much of behavior is governed by unconscious forces
- Mind is divided into three parts
- Conscious Mind
- Preconscious Mind
- Unconscious Mind

Conscious Mind (Freud)

Contains things that occupy one's current attention

Preconscious Mind (Freud)

Contains things that are not currently in consciousness but can be accessed

Unconscious Mind (Freud)

Contains memories, urges, and conflicts that are beyond awareness
- Dreams express contents of unconscious mind.
- Manifest Content: What you remember
- Latent Content: True meaning

The arsenal of Defense Mechanisms (much in regard to the id)

- Denial
- Rationalization
- Projection
- Reaction Formation
- Sublimation

5 Psychosexual stages

- oral
- anal
- phallic
- latency
- genital

- First year
- Pleasure comes from sucking, putting things in mouth
- Fixation can cause overeating, smoking, nail-biting

- Second year
- Pleasure comes from obtaining or passing feces
- Fixation can cause excessive neatness or messiness

- Ages 3-5
- Pleasure comes from self stimulation of genitals
- Fixation can cause relationship, sexual problems

- Ages 5 to puberty
- Sexual feelings suppressed

- Puberty to adulthood
- Mature sexual relationships

Adler, Jung, Horney

- Emphasized sexuality less than Freud did
- Adler: emphasized the role of a sense of inferiority
- Jung: emphasized creative life force, collective unconscious, and archetypes
Horney: rebelled against Freud's male dominant views

Cardinal traits

Allport's term to describe personality traits that dominate an individual's life
Ex: passion to serve others, to accumulate wealth

Defense mechanisms

According to Freud, unconscious processes used by the ego to ward off anxiety that comes from confrontation, usually with the demands of the id

An organized set of perceptions that we hold about our abilities and characteristics

Positive regard

The idea that we value what others think of us and that we constantly seek others' approval, love and companioship

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