Psychology Chapter 12: Personality

reaction formation

a defense mechanism by which a person behaves in a manner opposite to their true feelings, such as an angry person who acts excessively cheerful, switching unacceptable impulses into their opposite overly cheerful when mad at professor

displacement

a defense mechanism in which unacceptable thoughts or feelings about a person or thing are shifted to a more acceptable person or thing (displacing your feelings about the course onto your roommates or other safer targets. Instead of telling your instructor what you feel about the course workload, you may choose to yell at your younger brother, a coworker, or a pet. While they may be slightly annoying, the true cause of the anger and frustration is what is at school, not home) [change]

How did Freud conceptualize the structure and development of personality?

as a series of psychosexual stages

(switching to behavioral and cognitive views)Freud focus on inner, unobservable processes has often been labeled

unscientific

(humanistic theories section) humanistic theorists, known as the "third force" in American psychology

psychologists who choose to focus on the potential for positive growth and achievement in an individual rather than the individual's deficits (By the 1960s, some personality psychologists were dissatisfied with the focus on the often-negative unconscious drives and conflicts of Freud's theory of personality. They were no happier with the theory advocated by the behaviorists, as it essentially boiled personality down to a series of learned responses.)

defense mechanisms

reaction formation, projection, repression, displacement

A fundamental question asked by personality psychologists is, "Why do people act the way they do—what creates that characteristic way of interacting with the world?" Bandura says it lies in the idea of

reciprocal determinism

Despite many differences in cultural factors like language, religion, political systems, sociocultural values, historic impacts,,, McCrae undertook one of the most extensive tests of this hypothesis, called

the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project, or PPOC

Extraversion and introversion

(Eddie Murphy, outgoing, fun-loving, affectionate)one of the Big Five personality characteristics indicating where a person gets his or her energy; an extrovert feels 'recharged' by social interaction, whereas an introvert feels recharged by being alone An extravert draws energy from social interactions and being engaged with other people. An introvert draws energy from inside. Introverts are recharged by time spent in personal reflection and thinking.

Freud thought many cases of hysteria

(when psychological conflict manifests in physical symptoms) stemmed from childhood incest The reaction among his peers was so negative that he retracted this idea and attributed most cases to the complexes described above (oedipus, electra). Some have said this set the field of trauma psychology back decades, Even therapists in the Freudian tradition dispute Freud's strong focus on sexuality

Hans Eysenck just two dimensions instead of 4000 and 16

1. introversion/extraversion 2. stability/instability dimensions are perpendicular to each other "+" we can plot our "personality" as the intersection of our score on the two axes of "introversion/extraversion" and "stability/ instability."

Allport came up with ---- traits

4,000 traits and then grouped them into 1. central traits, which combine to dominate behavior 2. secondary traits, which may be more limited or situational. 3. He also thought that there could occasionally be a single, or cardinal, trait that so dominates a personality that the person and the trait are viewed as one and the same. A good example of this is honesty in Abraham Lincoln, a trait so evident that the moniker "Honest Abe" was given to him in early adulthood and remained past his death.

McCrae and others composed a group of college students from

50 distinct cultures and identified 11,985 individual "targets"—defined in the study as adult or college-age females or males—and rated them using a version of the NEO Personality Inventory, which takes the Big Five personality traits and breaks them down with six subcategories under each, creating 30 traits. The study revealed that the American self-report structure that influenced the development of the Big Five was replicated in most cultures and was at least recognizable in all of them. With few exceptions, the PPOC Project proved the existing hypothesis that personality traits across cultures are not only consistent across like cultures, i.e. Western or Eastern groups, but also are common to all human groups.

More on structure of mind and personality

According to Freud, you are only aware of those things that you are willing to acknowledge; the remainder is pushed down into your unconscious mind. In understanding Freud, remember that Freud's ideaswere a product of his time, and the Victorian era in which he lived was known for an emphasis on good manners and emotional restraint. He hypothesized that human personality is the product of conflict between impulses and restraint. In other words, our aggressive, pleasure-seeking biological urges constantly strive to express themselves while our internalized social controls try to stop them, or at least appropriately channel them.

Psychodynamic theorists like Freud and Carl Jung have placed a good deal of significance on dreams as a means of understanding our unconscious and therefore our personalities

Also Native American and African cultures, Islam, Hindu, and Christianity are among the groups that view dreams as a way to understand ourselves and the world. But does science support this? Generally not. Many researchers think dreaming is a sort of side effect of REM sleep, which has a physiological function, perhaps to regenerate the oxygen in our corneas (Maurice, 1998), rather than a psychological one. So why the often bizarre images? According to HOBSON 7 McCARLEY (1977), this is merely our brain trying to make sense of random sensory stimuli.

Figure for Cattell

Figure 12.1 illustrates Cattell's sixteen personality dimensions along with the hypothetical profiles for two occupations, Career A and Career B. As illustrated in this figure, completing a 16PF assessment provides a score for each of the 16 dimensions. The patterns of scores create a "profile" of the client's personality. Scores on these dimensions should not be thought of as "good" or "bad." For instance, consider the score on the dimensions of "private" to "forthright." Is it better to be more private or more forthright? It really depends. People who are very forthright probably don't make very good espionage agents, but they likely make great television hosts.

Hippocrates discredited but left modern imprint

First, there remains an echo of the humors in the English language, so a melancholy (from the Greek for black bile) person is depressed, a phlegmatic person is calm, and a sanguine (Latin for blood) person is optimistic. And second, there remains the idea that at least part of personality is biologically based.

Other viewpoints speak more to how our personalities are formed and why

For example, the psychodynamic viewpoint looks at our internal psychological workings, particularly the unconscious and basic drives that fuel personality development quite early. The psychodynamic views of the mind constitute the classic Freudian concepts of id, ego, and superego.

Structure of mind and personality

Freud believed that what goes on in our minds is mostly hidden, or outside of our awareness conscious - the part of Freud's structure of mind that is currently accessible preconscious - the part of Freud's structure of mind that is accessible but not currently conscious Security questions, weren't thinking but then rose from below waterline

Psi Chi

Greek International Honor Society in Psychology

Maslow developed his ideas through his study of healthy, creative people rather than troubled clinical cases.

He looked at people like Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as the healthiest one percent of college students (Smith, 1978). These people shared characteristics, such as being self-aware and self-accepting, open and spontaneous, loving and caring, and not paralyzed by others' opinions. Because such people are secure in who they are (and likely have strong self-efficacy in several areas), they are problem-centered and outward-focused, often contributing to the world in a positive way by focusing their energy on accomplishing great things. While Maslow believed that we all have a need to achieve self-actualization, he recognized that not everyone manages to meet this need because many people are not fortunate enough to have the resources to meet all their lower-level needs. People who wonder where their next meal is coming from or who don't feel safe can hardly be expected to turn their attention to reaching higher levels.

A couple Neo-Freudians

Karen Horney and Carl Jung did believe that personality is, at least initially, shaped in childhood, and also accepted the unconscious as a key structure of personality. However, they felt that SOCIAL, rather than SEXUAL tensions are what drive personality development.

Jung opinions on Freud

Like Horney, Jung agreed with Freud on the existence and importance of the unconscious and disagreed with him on the role of sexuality, though Jung focused more on CREATIVITY AND SPIRITUALITY as our driving forces, rather than GENDER differences. Jung also agreed with Horney that our adult experiences and ambitions influence personality development as much as our early experiences.One of the main things Jung is known for is his emphasis on the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS, so called because we share our ancestral and evolutionary past with others, through LATENT memories, at this level. It should also be noted that Jung's written speculations on introversion and extraversion led to their use by trait theorists, as well as a popular assessment measure to be discussed shortly.

Male and Female with Freud

Male and female children subsequently have feelings of guilt about the desire toward the opposite-sex parent, jealousy toward the same-sex parent, and often use the defense mechanism of repression to cope. The feelings of guilt also push the child to identify with the same-sex parent, which, Freud theorized, is how we develop our gender identity.

OCEAN

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

more on LOC

Some people have an internal LOC and believe they can influence what happens to them through skill and ability. If you have an internal LOC, you will likely apply for jobs that are directly related to your major as well as gather background on the companies and practice answering interview questions. Others have a more external LOC and believe that what happens to them is due to chance or fate. If you have an external LOC, you are less likely to do these things (related to major, gather background info, practice interview questions) and may instead check your horoscope before you schedule your interviews.

At present, consensus favors an approach that lies between Cattell's sixteen factors and Eysenchk's two factors

The Big Five theory of personality (OCEAN)

Iceberg again just in case

The id is purely unconscious, forever hidden below the water's surface. The ego and superego are spread across all three levels of the iceberg, including aspects of the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The id represents the biological side of our personality.

Iceberg

The three parts of personality (id, ego, and superego) do not directly map on to the three parts of mind (conscious, preconscious, and unconscious). As with an iceberg, most of the mind is unconscious, under the water, with a small portion in the conscious, above the water, and the preconscious, at the waterline, often underwater (consciously inaccessible), can rise above the waterline. The ego and superego occupy the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious minds, but the id is consigned to the unconscious.

Freud psycho-sexual stages

These stages are called psychosexual because each stage is characterized by efforts to achieve pleasure centered on various parts of the body. babies like to suck on toys, pacifiers, or thumbs, while teenagers may experiment with sex. Freud believed that if someone did not achieve satisfactory pleasure in a particular stage, they would get stuck, or become fixated, in that stage, which could surface as maladaptive behavior in adulthood. If you are a heavy smoker, the Freudian explanation is that during the oral stage you were denied the pleasurable outlet of sucking your thumb, so you got stuck in the oral stage. Toddlers who are toilet trained before they're ready can get stuck in the anal stage and become fussy about neatness; this is why adults that obsess over details are sometimes called ANALLY FIXATED

repression

a defense mechanism in which unwanted thoughts and feelings are pushed out of the conscious into the unconscious (Repression occurs when the unwanted feeling or thought is pushed entirely out of consciousness. You might be repressing your feelings toward the instructor if you are constantly forgetting about the reading assignments, course, and other details that you find frustrating. Freud believed that repression underlies all the other defense mechanisms and that it is often incomplete). [ignore]

projection

a defense mechanism in which unwanted thoughts or feelings are assigned to another person (if you decided to talk about how upset your friend from class is about the amount of reading assigned by the teacher. By projecting feelings onto another person, it is possible to address the topic without the personal threat. Projection is a favorite strategy for adolescents who wish to talk about their attraction for another person)

Carl Rogers agreed with Maslow's claim that people are innately good and are driven toward fulfilling their potential, given the right environment, but Rogers's clinical work convinced him that many people don't have

a healthy environment from the start

the humanistic viewpoint focuses on

a more positive drive to fulfill our potential as the source for personality development.

person-situation controversy

a person's behavior is different in different situations We change in less extreme circumstances as well: in familiar, less formal situations, we are more likely to "be ourselves," or allow our traits to emerge, while others will see less of who we are in unfamiliar or more formal situations

From a modern viewpoint, how does biology influence personality?

a person's general level of neural arousal influences personality

Personality (Shawn reserved and quiet vs Ken outgoing and socially engaged)

a person's relatively consistent pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving (The elements of our personalities tend to remain very stable from situation to situation and across our life spans).

reciprocal determinism

a personality model that posits that an individual's behavior is the result of the interaction between an individual's cognition and the environment within which the individual resides (This model suggests that a person's behavior is both influenced by and influences our cognitions and the environment in which we exist). Imagine a child doesn't like going to school because it is difficult, but doesn't want others to know because he or she fears being seen as stupid. As a result, the child acts out in class. This leads to teachers and administrators in the school disciplining the child and even disliking having him or her in class. The child feels ashamed and unwelcome and acts out further, forcing the adults in the school to administer more discipline, creating a restrictive environment.

How would you describe personality from a trait perspective?

a set of stable characteristics that influence how a person responds to the world around them

Rogers and Maslow believed that genuineness, acceptance, and empathy create a core part of our personality called self-concept

an individual's perception of his or her abilities, behaviors, and characteristics

Ultimately, situations do influence

and even change our behavior

An element of accomplishment leading to self-actualization is the process of

applying for college and eventually graduating, achieving one's potential of receiving a college degree. While Maslow believed most humans rarely achieve self-actualization, he believed qualities such as AUTONOMY, DEFINED MORAL VALUES, AND AN APPRECIATION OF LIFE could lead to self-actualization

Jerome Kagan

attributed differences in children's shyness and inhibition to their autonomic nervous system (ANS) sensitivity, the ANS controls organ activities, such as heart rate, breathing, and digestion. A child with a more sensitive ANS reacts to stressful situations with greater anxiety and inhibition

ages of id, ego, superego

babies our personalities were dominated by the id; at about age 2/3, however, the ego develops, to help gratify the id's impulses in ways that will not get us in trouble with the world, superego develops at about age 4 and is essentially our conscience or set of ethics, ways we are proud of

Strict behaviorists vs social learning theorists

believe that our personalities are shaped through direct experience vs argue that we also learn through watching others

If we average our behavior across many situations

clear personality patterns do emerge (similarly to what happens with general intelligence if you average people's mental performance across many different situations and activities). The trait perspective has also been challenged on the basis that it describes behavior but does not explain behavior. In other words, the trait perspective may tell us what people do but not why they do it. For that perspective on personality, we need to look at approaches that have been around for a while: psychodynamic, behavioral, social cognitive, and humanistic.

Extraversion and introversion confusion

confused with being shy or outgoing. Introverts are not necessarily fearful, anxious, or hesitant to engage in social situations. Extraverts can be socially awkward, fearful of social interaction, or plagued by social anxiety. The stereotype of the extraverts in the middle of the dance floor and the introverts sitting along the walls is correct

Albert Bandura

contributed to the idea that our personalities are a combination of experience and cognitions about that experience, known for work on observational learning, also did work on personality

LOC we develop is tied to our

cultural background as well as our learning history. Countries such as the United States, which hold taking the initiative in high regard and positively reinforce it when people do, tend to produce more people with internal LOC. Internal LOC has been associated with more participation in the American civil rights movement, better physical health, higher academic performance, and less anxiety This is not to say that an internal LOC is always the better one. In fact, there are many situations, such as natural disasters, that are outside of our control, and people who recognize that will have a healthier, more productive attitude in such circumstances than those who believe they should be able to control everything.

Watson and Skinner held that we develop distinct personalities because

each person experiences different histories of learned associations, reinforcements, and punishments

Freud says anxiety results when

ego cannot find the middle ground

What impact do experiences have on personality?

experiences can alter a person's typical response that is based on traits

psychologists spell extra like

extraversion (Carl Jung original work) but most Americans spell extroversion

To explain conflict, Freud made a three-part structure of personality

id - the part of Freud's structure of personality that houses primitive desires ego - the part of Freud's structure of personality that must find a way to act that satisfies basic desires without violating social constraints superego - the part of Freud's structure of personality that is the conscience, or set of ethics do not map directly onto the three levels of consciousness

What are the three basic elements of personality, according to Freud?

id, ego, superego

Horney opinions on Freud

felt that Freud's emphasis on penis envy was much more a reflection of the higher status and privilege males held in the family and society at that time than a biologically driven phenomenon. She even countered that men's desire for professional success and legacy sprung from WOMB ENVY—their inability to carry and bear children. Horney also argued that women's emphasis on charm, beauty, and measuring their value through their relationships with others rather than their own accomplishments was the result of their imposed dependence on men rather than a desire to be in that role. Another key point on which Horney parted ways with Freud involved when PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT STOPS. Freud theorized that personality is almost fully formed when we exit childhood. In contrast, Horney posited that personality has the potential to grow and develop throughout our lives, an idea that influenced the humanistic theorists we discuss a bit later

Where the first three views tend to focus on the nature of personality and conceptualize personality as having discrete elements and discontinuous stages, the behavioral and social cognitive perspectives and humanistic

focus more on personality development and how our environment and our responses to it drive our personality development, The latter three describe a more continuous process (remember these themes from our discussion of how to conceptualize development at the beginning of Chapter 5)

Ancient approaches to studying personality

focused on the nature side of "nature vs. nurture," exploring its connection to human biology. Hippocrates developed the biological theory that humans' four bodily fluids, or "humors," and their proportions determined a person's personality. In fact, the word "humor," in the sense of something being funny, has its origins in Hippocrates's theory. While the biological view of personality still carries modern significance, personality theory is now more focused on psychological and environmental factors.

Earliest Greek physician approach to personality description was Hippocrates

four bodily "humors," or fluids: black bile, phlegm (mucous), blood, and yellow bile. According to Hippocrates, the humor that predominated in an individual determined that person's characteristics. For example, a person with a predominance of black bile was quiet and prone to depression, with a predominance of phlegm was calm and relaxed, of blood was optimistic, and yellow bile was energetic.

Much of our personality is tied to our

genes, which help determine our temperament, Our genes influence our temperament, which then influences the behaviors that help define our personality for example with Jerome Kagan

The "right" environment to Rogers contained three elements (Maslow agreed with these)

genuineness - Genuineness consists of honesty and openness acceptance - acceptance involves valuing people and even knowing their failings empathy - empathy is understanding others' feelings and reflecting their meaning

Was Freud considered dirty minded in his time

hell yea

Big Five Traits on predicting behavioral attributes

highly conscientious people earn better grades in high school and college, couples who are about the same on openness, agreeableness, and neuroticism experience greater sexual and marital satisfaction, conscientious are more cautious regarding what they present about themselves on Facebook, while those higher in neuroticism, extraversion and agreeableness are more open about presenting their actual self

Sheldon shape did not hold up

in subsequent research. While the scientific evidence does not support the view that body shape and personality are connected, there are social stereotypes that suggest different body shapes are associated with expected behavior patterns. In most cases, the way we "see" people of different body shapes acting is not a part of their personality, but their behavioral reactions to the attitudes and actions of others toward them based on cultural and social stereotypes and prejudices tied to body shape.

Maslow and self-actualization, at the top is self-actualization

involves making "the full use and exploitation of talents, capacities, potentialities" Examples of self-actualized individuals are kids who dream of athletic or intellectual or musical glory, then grow up to be stars on the playing field, or build rockets to explore alien worlds, or perform songs that become worldwide hits one of the first humanist theorists

Observational learning

learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others; modeling

Cattell and Mead

listed the 16PF as being used in employee selection, promotion, development, coaching, outplacement counseling, and career exploration. Extensive research of literature has correlated scores on the sixteen dimensions with performance in different work responsibilities, settings, and roles, With a growing emphasis on career planning during high school in the United States

Jacquelyn Smith writer for business insider (qualitative assessments)

modern employer isn't necessarily looking for abundant technical skills and experience as much as a strong set of "soft" skills—or those related to personality. She quotes Edward Fleischman, CEO of recruitment firm Execu|Search: "If [an employer finds] a candidate who has less experience than [his or her] competition, but has stronger growth potential and seems to be a better cultural fit, the employer may feel encouraged to hire that person." Smith notes a number of questions interviewers ask specifically to assess personality, such as, "If your best friend was sitting here, what would he or she say is the best part about being your friend?" Smith also suggests a question such as, "If you were an animal, what would you be, and why?" reveals how well applicants can think on their feet and apply some creativity in a short amount of time.

ancient nature vs nurture (biology) like Hippocrates four bodily fluids (humors) and body shape Sheldon and Jerome Kagan genes, modern trait perspective Gordon Allport (descriptive, aims to provide information on how behavior looks in form and over time), psychodynamic viewpoint like Freud id, ego, superego behavioral, social cognitive, humanistic

nature of personality and conceptualize personality as having discrete elements and discontinuous stages vs focus more on personality development and how our environment and our responses to it drive our personality development, and the humanistic viewpoint focuses on a more positive drive to fulfill our potential as the source for personality development,,, more continuous process (remember these themes from our discussion of how to conceptualize development at the beginning of Chapter 5).

Susan Cain

not always better to be extraverted

Big Five and other trait theories do have this but not that

predictive validity, infallible (error-free)

Julian Rotter

notes that most of the reinforcers we seek are social (e.g., attention, praise, hugs), and that most learning takes place in social situations. Rotter developed a social learning theory of personality in which cognitive factors, particularly our expectancies, play a role. The applicability of your major and your preparation are examples of things you can influence, the interviewer's day and your horoscope are things you can't. We all have expectations regarding how much control we have over situations. Further, we have expectations regarding whether that control extends across settings.

Conscientious

one of the Big Five personality characteristics indicating a tendency to be organized, careful, and disciplined like Michelle Obama lawyer and First Lady

Neuroticism

one of the Big Five personality characteristics indicating a tendency toward anxiety and insecurity like Marlin, Nemo's dad, in Finding Nemo, also used as comedic affect Rex in Toy Story

Openness

one of the Big Five personality characteristics indicating a willingness to try new experiences imaginative, original, accepting of new ideas, independent, Leonardo da Vinci

Agreeableness

one of the Big Five personality characteristics indicating helpfulness, empathy, and trust like Fred Rogers (neighborhood)

Five psychosexual stages, ages, and fixations in adulthood

oral - birth to age 1, smoking, overeating anal - 1 to 3, fussy about neatness phallic - 3 to 6, sexual deviancy latent - 6 to 12, none (sexual urges are mostly absent "gross") genital - 12 and up, if all stages were completed successfully, the person should be sexually mature (and interested)

Stanley Milgram study

participants were asked to administer painful electric shocks to another person (or so they thought—the shocks were faked). It is highly unlikely that the participants in Milgram's study would be described by their friends and family as cruel or unfeeling, but many participants behaved that way in the experiment known as person-situation controversy

Although there is little research to support the idea that body type is related to personality, researchers continue to investigate the influence of other biological factors. One of these factors is a person's general level of neural arousal.

personality characteristic, extraversion , is associated with lower levels of brain arousal than its opposite, introversion introversion more inhibited and less sensation-seeking, frontal lobe area involved in behavior inhibition is more active in introverts

Psychodynamic View, Sigmund Freud father of psychotherapy, was a neurologist

physical symptoms might have a psychological cause, unexplained blindness might be due to desire to avoid seeing something that provokes anxiety, explore world underneath behavior unconscious - the part of Freud's structure of mind that remains constantly inaccessible to the conscious mind (underwater constantly)

Freud said nothing is accidental - psychic determinism

point of view stating that past experiences influence the present state of mind and that nothing happens by chance (means that our past influences our present, whether we are aware of it or not. In addition, our urges, when not fully repressed, will pop up in dreams or as slips of the tongue. An example of such a Freudian slip is the woman hosting a cookout, who said, "I'll be right back. I'm just going to get the condoms," as she went in for the ketchup, mustard, and relish (condiments). Freudian slips, dream imagery, fixations, and other unconscious influences on our behavior, thoughts, and language are, according to Freud, reflections of thoughts, wants, and desires that we are not consciously willing to accept or address.)

The Big Five have been found to be

stable in adulthood, with three (openness, extraversion, and neuroticism) waning a bit during early and middle adulthood and the other two (conscientiousness and agreeableness) rising Biologically: the evidence suggests that these traits are about 50 percent heritable across countries, associated with identified brain areas

how we can describe and assess personality through

standardized, agreed-upon means, rather than through observation. Personality assessment is an important psychological area and widely used in employment as well as mental health arenas.

Cross-cultural psychology

subfield of psychological study that considers the impact of cultural influence on personality and psychopathology, big five made comparison across cultures feasible, apply dimensions to anyone

traits (The trait view of personality can be traced back to Gordon Allport)

summary terms that capture an individual's stable and enduring tendency to respond in a certain way like shy, outgoing, kind, aggressive he was influenced by Sigmund freud, though freud not exploring traits, Allport's experience with Freud actually moved him toward trying to describe people's consistent behavior rather than trying to understand what was underneath it, as Freud aimed to do.

Another important component of Bandura's theory is self-efficacy

the beliefs an individual holds concerning his or her skills and ability to perform certain acts (significant impact on his or her behavior, but it is not considered a personality trait because self-efficacy varies by behavior and situation, whereas personality traits are the characteristics that remain consistent across situations. Self-efficacy is influenced by a person's own experience with success and failure, as well as observing others' experiences, verbal persuasion can also impact like a personal trainer, and physiological arousal, as we may associate unpleasant emotional states with poor performance and translate that as failure or incompetence)

ego operates on the reality principle

the driving force of the ego, or its attempts to meet basic needs without violating social constraints

pleasure principle

the driving force of the id, which constantly seeks gratification of basic desires, immediate gratification without regard to future consequences

Freud considered defense mechanisms

the ego's way of reducing anxiety

Id would most closely correspond with the functions of

the lower and middle brains—the parts that push us to survive and reproduce through eating, mating, and if we must, fighting. The id operates on the pleasure principle

(experiential and social influences section) locus of control

the perceived source of control in an individual's life that results in the attribution of events to circumstances either within or beyond the individual's control (LOC)

How are self-concept and the process of self-actualization important to personality development, according to the humanistic view?

the process of achieving self-actualization, and our perception of ourselves as we do so, leads to the development of optimal personality traits

Rogers viewed the self as having two sides:

the real self - the product of our experiences the ideal self - the self we would like to be The real and ideal selves are a closer match in persons with a positive self-concept

Freud's girls developed "penis envy"

the realization that boys get more sexual pleasure from their penises that girls do from their vaginas. He believed that it manifested in girls' love for their fathers and their wish to produce sons.

A more modern view

the trait perspective on personality first theorized by Gordon Allport, is primarily descriptive—referencing the goal of science (Chapter 2), which aims to provide information on how behavior looks in form and over time—giving us a way to understand the characteristics people exhibit through recognizing patterns. This view attempts to capture the major patterns of personality using several key traits and their corresponding characteristics.

The humanistic approach focuses on

the ways in which people try to achieve self-determination and -realization. Its early practitioners also differed from the behaviorists in the way they studied people's development. Rather than observing behavior, they learned about people through self-reported feelings and experiences.

Another biological approach personality being connected to body shape William Sheldon

three basic body types, or somatotypes: endomorphs are round, mesomorphs are rectangular, and ectomorphs are thin. Endomorphs are outgoing and love comfort, mesomorphs are energetic and assertive, and ectomorphs are restrained and lonely.

Freud's Oedipus complex (girls called Electra complex)

tied to personality development: he believed that during the third, or phallic, psychosexual stage, boys develop unconscious sexual desires for their mothers and jealousy of their fathers.

What is the purpose of defense mechanisms?

to allow the ego to reduce anxiety produced by the id

While Allport's theories remain influential, later researchers narrowed down the number of personality traits. Raymond Cattell

used factor analysis to reduce the number of traits to sixteen; he theorized that we all have these traits to varying degrees. He developed the 16PF (Personality Factors) questionnaire, an assessment instrument used in a variety of areas, from career selection to couples' counseling