Unit 10: Personality
Regarding the self-serving bias, psychologists who study the self have found that self-affirming thinking
is generally adaptive to the individual because it reduces shyness, anxiety and loneliness
People given little control over their world in prisons, factories, schools, and nursing homes experience
learned helplessness.
regression
nail biting or thumb sucking in an anxiety-producing situation
Which of the following is the correct order of psychosexual stages proposed by Freud?
oral; anal; phallic; latency; genital
a major criticism of trait theory is that it
overestimates the consistency of behavior in different situations.
reaction formation
overzealous crusaders against "immoral behaviors," who don't want to acknowledge their own sexual desires
Questionnaires covering a wide range of feelings and behaviors designed to assess several traits at once are called
personality inventories.
MMPI
personality inventory
Superego
personality structure that correspons to a person's conscience
Id is to ego as ________ is to ________.
pleasure principle; reality principle
Some contemporary researchers are focusing their work on
promoting positive aspects of life
Rationalization
providing self-justifying explanations for an action
Sigmund Freud called his theory of personality and the associated treatment techniques
psychoanalysis
rationalization
saying you drink "just to be sociable" when in reality you have a drinking problem
Our______ consists of all the thoughts and feelings we have in response to the question, "Who am I?"
self-concept
For humanistic psychologists, many of our behaviors and perceptions are ultimately shaped by whether our ________ is ________ or ________.
self-concept; positive; negative
Athletes who often privately credit their victories to their own prowess, and their losses to bad breaks, lousy officiating, or the other team's exceptional performance are exhibiting
the self-serving bias.
Our self-focused perspective may motivate us, but it can also lead us to presume too readily that others are noticing and evaluating us. This is called
the spotlight effect.
Id
the unconscious repository of instictual drives
With regard to personality, it appears that
there is little consistency of behavior from one situation to the next but significant consistency of traits over the life span
Projective tests such as the Rorschach inkblot test have been criticized because
they have low reliability and low validity.
projection
thinking someone hates you when in reality you hate the person
denial
thinking your child could not possibly be taking drugs
TAT
a projective test consisting of a set of ambiguous pictures
Factor analysis
a statistical technique that identifies clusters of personality traits
The text defines personality as
an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
According to Freud, defense mechanisms are methods of reducing
anxiety.
Projection
disguising an impulse by imputing it to another person
The humanistic perspective on personality
emphasizes the growth potential of "healthy" individuals.
Albert Bandura proposed the social-cognitive perspective, which
emphasizes the interaction of our traits with our situations.
Critics of humanistic psychology have suggested that this theory fails to appreciate the reality of our human capacity for
evil.
Which two dimensions of personality have the Eysencks emphasized?
extroversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability
According to Rogers, three conditions are necessary to promote growth in personality. These are
genuineness, acceptance, and empathy.
collectivist cultures
give priority to the goals of their groups
Collectivist cultures are characterized by members
giving priority to group goals.
Reaction formation
switching an unacceptable impulse into its opposite
Rorschach
test consisting of a series of inkblots
Ego
the conscious executive of personality
Which of the following places the greatest emphasis on the unconscious mind?
the psychoanalytic perspective
Brad Bushman and Roy Baumeister found that when criticized, people with unrealistically high self-esteem
worked harder to do better the next time.
Which of Freud's ideas would not be accepted by most contemporary psychologists?
Development is essentially fixed in childhood
Neo-Freudians such as Adler and Horney believed that
Freud placed too great an emphasis on sexual and aggressive instincts.
Which of the following is a major criticism of the social-cognitive perspective?
It focuses too little on the inner traits of a person.
According to Sigmund Freud, which of the following defense mechanisms buries threatening or upsetting events outside of consciousness?
Repression
What did Abraham Maslow call the process of fulfilling our potential?
Self-actualization
What do we call the ability to control impulses and delay gratification?
Self-control
displacement
a child who is angry at his parents and vents this anger on the family pet
Research on locus of control indicates that internals are ________ than externals.
better able to cope with stress
Recent research has provided more support for defense mechanisms such as ________ than for defense mechanisms such as ________.
reaction formation; displacement
Children's TV-viewing habits (past behavior) influence their viewing preferences (internal personal factor), which influences how television (environmental factor) affects their current behavior. This is an example of
reciprocal determinism.
Displacement
redirecting impulses to a less threatening object
According to Carl Rogers, when we are in a good marriage, a close family, or an intimate friendship, we are free to be spontaneous without fearing the loss of others' esteem. He called the accepting attitude that enables this freedom
unconditional positive regard.
In studying personality, a trait theorist would most likely
use a personality inventory.