Chapter 14: Personality
Weak Situations
(ex. bus stop) - DO NOT provide client cues to guide behavior - LOW degree of structure and definition - allow for different interpretations and responses - FEW incentives to perform responses Allow opportunities for personality to manifest itself ("be yourself")
Strong Situations
(ex. jury setting) - provide salient cues to guide behavior - high degree of structure and definition - induce uniform interpretations and responses - sufficient incentives to perform responses Constrain the influence of personality; situations are the stronger influence ("follow the rules")
Identity Claims
(ex. with Facebook profiles) symbolic declarations that individuals make to convey how they want to be seen (e.g., the "About You" section) - without me it's just aweso - I'm Mr. Bad Example, Intruder in the dirt, I'm Mr. Bad Example, I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt
Neo-Freudians
- Accepted many of Freud's ideas - Placed more emphasis on conscious mind and on social motives than sexual or aggression related ones
How do the other four personality traits of the Big 5 relate to intimacy, passion, and commitment?
- Agreeableness is positively related to all three - Conscientiousness is positively related to intimacy and commitment - Extraversion is related to passion
Extraversion
- Assertiveness (dominant, outspoken, active) - Enthusiasm (sociable, playful, fun-loving)
Agreeableness
- Compassion (warm, empathic, kind) - Politeness (considerate, unaggressive, compliant)
How does modern research contradict Freud's ideas?
- Development is lifelong, not fixed in childhood - Parental influence is overestimated and peer influence is underestimated - Oedipus complex questioned - Freud's scientific methodology is criticized - Defense mechanisms are not supported! - Except reaction formation and projection. - After-the-fact explanations of characteristics fail to predict behaviors and traits - Hindsight bias in action!
Empirical Strategy
- Identify individuals with important features - Ask them lots of questions, about anything and everything - Identify patterns of responses characteristic of the groups of interest • Schizophrenics and "I like to read mechanics magazines"
Conscientiousness
- Industriousness (hard-working, self-disciplined) - Orderliness (neat, careful, punctual, thrifty)
Openness/Intellect
- Openness (artistic, creative, perceptive) - Intellect (smart, intellectual, philosophical)
Factor-Analytic Strategy
- Provide subjects with a broad set of questions • Fewer questions than for the empirical strategy • Also, questions will generally have obvious relevance to personality, like the rational strategy • However, questions will be appear to be related to several different traits - Identify multiple groupings of items that each hang together. These are factors.
Contemporary Psychodynamic Theorists
- Reject Freud's emphasis on sexual motivation - View mental life as primarily unconscious
Neuroticism
- Volatility (temperamental, irritable, easily upset) - Withdrawal (anxious, depressed, vulnerable)
Rational Strategy
- Write questions that appear related to the trait you want to measure (have face validity) - Select items that correlate with each other
Does research support the consistency of personality traits over time and across situations?
A person's average traits persist over time and are predictable over many different situations. But traits cannot predict behavior in any one particular situation.
How do social-cognitive theorists view personality development, and how do they explore behavior?
Albert Bandura first proposed the social-cognitive perspective, which emphasizes the interaction of our traits with our situations. Social-cognitive researchers apply principles of learning, cognition, and social behavior to personality. Reciprocal determinism is a term describing the interaction and mutual influence of behavior, internal personal factors, and environmental factors.
Collective Unconscious
Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history
What is the most consistent personality correlate of educational performance?
Conscientiousness (Neuroticism is often detrimental to academic performance; Openness is related to curiosity and interest in many topics)
How has modern research developed our understanding of the unconscious?
Current research confirms that we do not have full access to all that goes on in our mind, but the current view of the unconscious is that it is a separate and parallel track of information processing that occurs outside our awareness. This processing includes schemas that control our perceptions; priming; implicit memories of learned skills; instantly activated emotions, and stereotypes that filter our information processing of others' traits and characteristics.
Reality Principle
Ego
How did Sigmund Freud's treatment of psychological disorders lead to his view of the unconscious mind?
In treating patients whose disorders had no clear physical explanation, Freud concluded that these problems reflected unacceptable thoughts and feelings, hidden away in the unconscious mind. To explore this hidden part of a patient's mind, Freud used free association and dream analysis.
Which Big 5 personality trait is most related to marital (dis)satisfaction?
NEUROTICISM
Big 5 Personality Factors
OCEAN • Openness to Experience - novelty seeking (curious, artistic, intellectual) • Conscientiousness - impulse control, delay of gratification (organized, self-disciplined, punctual) • Extraversion - sensitivity to reward (assertive, energetic, sociable) • Agreeableness - tendency toward altruism rather than exploitation of others (empathic, warm, unaggressive) • Neuroticism - sensitivity to punishment (temperamental, anxious, emotionally unstable)
What are personality inventories, and what are their strengths and weaknesses as trait-assessment tools?
Personality inventories (such as the MMPI) are questionnaires on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors. Test items are empirically derived, and the tests are objectively scored. But people can fake their answers to create a good impression, and the ease of computerized testing may lead to misuse of the tests.
What historically significant and current theories inform our understanding of personality?
Personality is an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting. Psychodymanic theories view personality from the perspective that behavior is a dynamic interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind. These theories trace their origin to Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis. The humanistic approach focused on our inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment. Trait theories examine characteristic patterns of behavior (traits). Social-cognitive theories explore the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking and their social context).
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization
What are projective tests, how are they used, and what are some criticisms of them?
Projective tests attempt to assess personality by showing people ambiguous stimuli (open to many possible interpretations) and treating their answers as revelations of unconscious motives. One such test, the Rorschach inkblot test, has low reliability and validity except in a few areas, such as hostility and anxiety.
What criticisms have social-cognitive theories faced?
Social-cognitive theorists build on well-established concepts of learning and cognition. They tend to believe that the best way to predict someone's behavior in a given situation is to observe that person's behavior in similar situations. They have been faulted for underemphasizing the importance of unconscious motives, emotions, and biologically influenced traits.
How did humanistic psychologists assess a person's sense of self?
Some rejected any standardized assessments and relied on interviews and conversations. Rogers sometimes used questionnaires in which people described their ideal and actual selves, which he later used to judge progress during therapy.
Which traits seem to provide the most useful information about personality variation?
The Big Five personality factors - conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion (CANOE) - currently offer the clearest picture of personality. These factors are quite stable and appear to be found in all cultures.
How did humanistic psychologists view personality, and what was their goal in studying personality?
The humanistic psychologists' view of personality focused on the potential for healthy personal growth and people's striving for self-determination and self-realization. Abraham Maslow proposed that human motivations form a hierarchy of needs; if basic needs are fulfilled, people will strive toward self-actualization and self-transcendence. Carl Rogers believed that the ingredients of a growth-promoting environment are genuineness, acceptance (including unconditional positive regard), and empathy. Self-concept was a central feature of personality for both Maslow and Rogers.
Dichotomous Trait Prediction
_____
Oedipus Complex
a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings
Trait
a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports
Fixation
a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
Projective Test
a personality test, such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics
Thematic Apperception Test
a projective test designed to reveal a person's social drives or needs by their interpretation of a series of pictures of emotionally ambiguous situations
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
Personality Inventory
a questionnaire (often true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits
Self-Serving Bias
a readiness to perceive oneself favorably
Id
a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives; operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification
Empirically Derived Test
a test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups
Terror-Management Theory
a theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
Unconscious
according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware
Self-Actualization
according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential • Maslow focused on potential for healthy personal growth and people's striving for self- determination and self-realization • People motivated by hierarchy of needs and strive toward self- actualization and self- transcendence
Unconditional Positive Regard
according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person
Self-Concept
all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?"
Personality
an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
Preconscious Mind
contains thoughts that are unconscious but can easily be recalled
Narcissism
excessive self-love and self-absorption
Self
in contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings and actions
Free Association
in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing
Repression
in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories
Defense Mechanisms
in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Behavioral Residue
inadvertent clues left by one's behavior (e.g., the person who updates their status everyday or posts a picture of every meal they cook)
Self-Esteem
one's feelings of high or low self-worth
Self-Efficacy
one's sense of competence and effectiveness
Spotlight Effect
overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)
Pleasure Principle
present in free association
Person Centered Psychology
relationship between empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard
Psychosexual Stages
the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones
Reciprocal Determinism
the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment
Ego
the largely conscious "executive" part of personality, that mediates among the demands of the id, superego and reality - operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain
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
Rorschach Inkblot Test
the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
Superego
the part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations
Identification
the process by which children incorporate their parents' values into their developing superegos
Humanistic Theories
view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth
Psychodynamic Theories
view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences
Social-Cognitive Perspective
views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context
Dispositional Approach
views personality in terms of consistent and unchanging dispositions to act, think and feel, regardless of context
Situational Approach
views personality in terms of unrelated states or behaviors determined by situational factors
Carl Rogers' Person-Centered Perspective
• Roger posited that growth- promoting environment characteristics are genuineness, acceptance, and empathy. • Unconditional positive regard and self-concept are key components of theory
How do excessive optimism, blindness to one's own incompetence, and self-serving bias reveal the costs of self-esteem, and how do defensive and secure self-esteem differ?
Excessive optimism can lead to complacency and prevent us foreseeing real risks, while blindness to one's own incompetence may may lead us to make the same mistakes repeatedly. Self-serving bias is our tendency to perceive ourselves favorably, as when viewing ourselves as better than average or when accepting credit for our successes but not blame for our failures. Narcissism is excessive self-love and self-absorption. Defensive self-esteem is fragile, focuses on sustaining itself, and views failure or criticism as a threat. Secure self-esteem enables us to feel accepted for who we are.
How did Freud think people defended themselves against anxiety?
For Freud, anxiety was the product of tensions between the demands of the id and superego. The ego copes by using unconscious defense mechanisms, such as repression, which he viewed as the basic mechanism underlying and enabling all others.
What was Freud's view of personality?
Freud believed that personality results from conflict arising from the interaction among the mind's three systems: the id (pleasure-seeking impulses), ego (reality-oriented executive), and superego (internalized set of ideals, or conscience).
Which of Freud's ideas did his followers accept or reject?
Freud's early followers, the neo-freudians, accepted many of his ideas. They differed in placing more emphasis on the conscious mind and in stressing social motives more than sex or aggression. Most contemporary psychodynamic theorists and therapists reject Freud's emphasis on sexual motivation. They stress, with support from modern research findings, the view that much of our mental life is unconscious, and they believe that our childhood experiences influence our adult personality and attachment patterns. Many also believe that our species' shared evolutionary history shaped some universal predispositions.
Psychoanalysis
Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
What developmental stages did Freud propose?
He believed children pass through 5 psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital). Unresolved conflicts at any stage can leave a person's pleasure-seeking impulses fixated (stalled) at this stage.
How have humanistic theories influenced psychology? What criticisms have they faced?
Humanistic psychology helped renew interests in the concept of self. Critics have said that humanistic psychology's concepts were vague and subjective, its values self-centered, and its assumptions naively optimistic.
Why has psychology generated so much research on the self? How important is self-esteem to psychology and to human well-being?
The self is the center of personality, organizing our thoughts, feelings and actions. Considering the possible selves helps motivate us toward positive development, but focusing too intensely on ourselves can lead to the spotlight effect. Self-esteem is our feeling of self-worth; self-efficacy is our sense of competence on a task. High self-esteem correlates with less pressure to conform, with persistence at difficult tasks, and with happiness. But the direction of the correlation is not clear. Psychologists caution against unrealistically promoting children's feelings of self-worth. It's better to reward their achievements, which leads to feelings of competence.
How do contemporary psychologists view Freud's psychoanalysis?
They give Freud credit for drawing attention the the vast unconscious, to the struggle to cope with our sexuality, to the conflict between biological impulses and social restraints, and for some forms of defense mechanisms (false consensus effect/projection; reaction formation) and unconscious terror-management defenses. But his concept of repression and his view of the unconscious as a collection of repressed and unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories, cannot survive scientific scrutiny. Freud offered after-the-fact explanations, which are hard to test scientifically. Research does not support many of Freud's specific ideas, such as the view that development is fixed in childhood. (We now know it is lifelong).
How do psychologists use traits to describe personality?
Trait theorists see personality as a stable and enduring pattern of behavior. They describe our differences rather than trying to explain them. Using factor analysis,s they identify clusters of behavior tendencies that occur together. Genetic predispositions influence many traits. • Trait theorists - See personality as a stable and enduring pattern of behavior - Describe differences rather than trying to explain them - Use factor analysis to identify clusters of behavior tendencies that occur together - Suggest genetic predispositions influence many traits
Evolutionary Psychology
Try to identify why individual differences on a trait helped an individual's genes to survive/reproduce - they would ask: what is adaptive about jealousy? or some individuals being higher in trait anger?
Rationalization
Unconscious process employed: Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions. (ex. A habitual drinker says she drinks with her friends "just to be sociable.")
Denial
Unconscious process employed: Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities. (ex. A partner denies evidence of his loved one's affair.)
Displacement
Unconscious process employed: Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person. (ex. A little girl kicks the family dog after her mother sends her to her room.)
Projection
Unconscious process employed: disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. (ex. "The thief thinks everyone else is a thief" (an El Salvadoran saying).)
Regression
Unconscious process employed: retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated (ex. A little boy reverts to the oral comfort of thumb sucking in the car on the way to his first day of school.)
Reaction Formation
Unconscious process employed: switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites. (ex. repressing angry feelings, a person displays exaggerated friendliness.)
