Unit 7 Personality

central dispositions

Those qualities about a person that you would mention in a letter of recommendation; the 5-10 characteristics that summarize a particular person's personality; have a larger influence on personality than secondary dispositions; often more apparent and describe more significant aspects of personality

Determinism

What happens is dictated by what happened in the past

oral fixation

a child who was not fed regularly or who was over indulged may develop this

idiographic theorists

assert that using the same set of terms to classify all people is impossible

adult genital stage

at puberty; people remain in this stage for the rest of their lives and seek sexual pleasure through sexual relationships with others

identification

to protect them against the fear of castration, boys used this defense mechanism; in phallic stage

self actualize

to reach one's full potential believed by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

secondary dispositions

traits that manifest themselves only on rare occasions, and play a minimal role in one's life

Carl Jung and Alfred Adler

two best-known creators of psychodynamic theories

intellectualization

undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic; Biff embarks on an in-depth research project about failed teen romances

archetypes

universal concepts we all share as part of the human species; ex) shadow represents evil side of personality, persona is people's creation of a public image

George kelly

proposed personal-construct theory of personality

Paul Costa and Robert McCrae

proposed that personality can be described using the big five personality traits

B. F. Skinner

radical behaviorist that argued that behavior is personality and that the way most people think of the term personality is meaningless; according to this theory, personality is determined by the environment

displacement

redirecting one's feelings toward another person or object; Biff could displace his anger and resentment over the breakup onto his little brother, pet hamster, or football.

fixation

result from being undergratified or overgratified

regression

returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior; Biff begins to sleep with his favorite childhood stuffed animal, Fuzzy Kitten.

Rorschach inkblot test

A projective personality test in which individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondent's inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure

Sociocognitive theory

Bandura, triadic reciprocality, ways of thinking

Trait

Costa/McCrae, big five/factor analysis, established patterns of behavior

unconscious

Freud believed that this region of the mind controls people's behavior

Psychoanalytic

Freud, Psychosexual stages, unconscious

Humanisitic

Rogers/Maslow, Free will/self actualization, subjective feelings about self

personal unconscious

Jung's name for the unconscious mind as described by Freud; contains the painful or threatening memories and thoughts the person does not wish to confront

Third Force

Maslow's term for his theory, emphasizing its opposition to psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Restoring force, when something good happens, something bad might happen following it

Reliability

Measures yield consistent, similar results even if the results are not accurate

self-efficacy

One's belief in his or her own ability.

Barnum effect

People have the tendency to see themselves in vague, stock descriptions of personality

personal construct theory

People, in their attempts to understand their world, develop their own, individual systems of personal constructs

fundamental postulate

States that people's behavior is influenced by their cognitions and that by knowing how people have behaved in the past, we can predict how they will act in the future

Albert Bandura

Suggested that personality is created by an interaction between person, environment, and the person's behavior

Type B

Tend to be relaxed and easygoing.

free will

The idea that human beings are free to make their own choices

Type A

These type if people tend to feel a sense of time pressure and are easily angered. Competitive and ambitious, work hard and play hard. Higher risk for heart disease

anal expulsive personality

a person fixated in the anal stage who is messy, destructive, and hostile; due to traumatic toilet training

anal rententive personality

a person fixated in the anal stage who is meticulously neat, hyperorganized, and a bit compulsive; due to traumatic toilet training

self concept

a person's global feeling about himself or herself, develops through a person's involvement with others, especially parents

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

factor analysis

a statistical technique that explains how psychologists can reduce the vast number of different terms we used to describe people to 16 or 15 basic traits

unconditional positive regard

according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person (parents making their kid feel loved no matter what)

Gordon Allport

believed that although there were common traits useful in describing all people, a full understanding of someone's personality was impossible without looking at their personal traits

Hans Eysenck

believed that by classifying all people along an introversion-extraversion scale and a stable-unstable scale, we could describe their personalities

Sigmund Freud

believed that one's personality was essentially set in early childhood

Hippocrates

believed that personality was determined by relative levels of four humors (fluids) in the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phegm

projection

believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself; Biff insists that Muffy still cares for him.

oral stage

birth to one year; children enjoy sucking and biting because it gives them a form of sexual pleasure

repression

blocking thoughts out from conscious awareness; ex) when asked how he feels about the breakup with Muffy, Biff replies, "Who? Oh, yeah, I haven't thought about her in a while."

Oedipus crisis

boys sexually desire their mothers and view their fathers as rivals for their mother's love; in phallic stage

Julian rotter

came up with locus of control

sublimation

channeling one's frustration toward a different goal, viewed as a particularly healthy defense mechanism; Biff devotes himself to writing poetry and publishes a small volume before he graduates high school

rationalization

coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable occurrence; Biff believes her can now find a better girlfriend. Muffy is not really all that pretty, smart, and fun to be with.

nomothetic

concepts or rules that can be applied universally.

conscious

contains thoughts, feelings, and images about which you are presently aware; contains everything we are thinking about at any one moment

trait theories

describe people's personalities by specifying their main characteristics, or traits; traits (ex: honesty, laziness, ambition) are thought to be stable and motivate behavior in keeping with the trait; ex) when we describe someone as friendly, we mean that the person acts in a friendly manner across different situations and times

Raymond Cattell

developed the 16 PF (personality factor) test to measure what he believed were the 16 basic traits present in all people, albeit to different degrees

stage theories

development is thought to be discontinuous

reaction formation

expressing the opposite of how one truly feels; Biff claims he loathes Muffy.

big five personality traits

extraversion (how outgoing or shy someone is), agreeableness (how easy to get along with someone), conscientiousness (people on high conscientiousness dimension tend to be hardworking, responsible, and organized aka me :), emotional stability (or neuroticism; how consistent one's mood is), and openness to experience (related to one's creativity, curiosity, and willingness to try new things)

William Sheldon's somatotype theory

identified three body types: endomorphs (fat), mesomorphs (muscular), and ectomorphs (thin); argues that certain personality traits were associated with each of the body types

Karen Horney and Nancy Chodorow

feminists that believe "penis envy" grew out of Freud's assumption that men were superior to women rather than from empirical observations; suggested that if women were jealous of men, it was due to all the advantages man enjoyed in society; also take issue with Freud's assertion that men have stronger superegos than women

id

first part of personality, entirely in the unconscious mind; follows the pleasure principle (wants immediate gratification); exists from birth (babies are propelled solely by this); ex) tells you to go to sleep because you are tired or to go to that party because it will be fun

temperaments

genes' emotional style and characteristic way of dealing with the world; a person's temperament; short, patient, etc

Electra crisis

girls desire their fathers and see their mothers as competition for his love; in phallic stage

projective tests

how psychoanalytic analyze people. asking people to interpret ambiguous stimuli

preconscious

in Freud's theory, the level of consciousness in which thoughts and feelings are not conscious but are readily retrievable to consciousness; contains everything that we could potentially summon to conscious awareness with ease

criticisms of Freud

little empirical evidence supports his theories; Freudian theory has little predictive power; criticized for overestimating the importance of early childhood and of sex

heritability

measure of the amount of variation in a trait in a given population that is due to genetics

validity

measures accuracy

denial

not accepting the ego-threatening truth; Biff continues to act as if he and Muffy are still together. He waits by her locker, calls her every night, and plans their future dates.

womb envy

posited by Horney; jealousy of a women's reproductive capabilities

anal stage

one to three years; children are sexually gratified by the act of elimination (toilet training)

cardinal dispositions

one trait that plays a pivotal role in virtually everything a small number of people do

self esteem

one's feelings of high or low self-worth. High self concept= likely to have high self esteem

complexes

painful or threatening memories and thoughts the person does not wish to confront, stated by Jung

collective unconscious

passed down through the species and explains certain similarities we see between cultures, stated by Jung; contains archetypes

superiority

people are motivated by the desire to achieve, theorized by Adler

inferiority

people are motivated by the fear of failure, theorized by Adler

impact of Freudian theory

people now think children's behavior is shaped by unconscious thoughts; invented many terms now in common language; have been paintings and dramas based on Freud's theories

self report inventories

personality tests that ask individuals to answer a series of questions about their characteristic behavior, humanistic approach

ego

second part of personality, partly in conscious and partly in unconscious mind; uses defense mechanisms and follows reality principle (negotiate between the desires of the id and the limitations of the environment); emerges around ages 2 or 3; ex) mediates between id and superego with a compromise: study for two hours, go to the party briefly, then go to sleep

latency

six years to puberty; children push their sexual feelings out of conscious awareness (repression); turn to other issues

penis envy

the desire for a penis; in phallic stage

castration anxiety

the fear boys have that if they misbehave, they will be castrated; in phallic stage; specifically fear fathers will castrate them to eliminate them as rivals for their mothers

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes.

external locus of control

the perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate.

internal locus of control

the perception that you control your own fate (positive outcomes associated with this one)

triadic reciprocality (reciprocal determinism)

the person (traits), the environment, and the person's behavior each influence both of the other two in a constant looplike fashion (Brad is a friendly person, goes to a lot of parties, and keeps the party alive, so he keeps being friendly since he likes it)

Personality

the unique attitudes, behaviors, and emotions that characterize a person

psychodynamic (neo-Freudian)

theories created by Freud's early followers that are offshoots of psychoanalytic theory; a term generally given to any theory in which there is unconscious conflict.

superego

third part of personality, operates on both conscious and unconscious level; acts as a conscious (think about what is right and right); develops around age 5; ex) tells you to study because it is the right thing to do

libido

this psychic energy gets stuck in one of the psychosexual stages and results in anal expulsive and anal retentive fixations

phallic stage

three to five years; sexual gratification moved to the genitalia