Personality Final
doctrine of opposites
everything implies, even requires, its opposite; life requires death - extremes may be more similar to one another than to middle
criticism of psychoanalytic theory
excessive complexity (occam's razor), case study method (data not public, uncheckable), vague definitions, untestable (you can't really disprove it like religion), sexism
dream studies
explanation of abnormal behaviors to explanation of normal behavior - we dream in the literal sense, fantasize about what we want
fish and water effect
fish are not aware they are wet; people may be so used to behavior that they don't find it remarkable/unusual
cognitive personality psychology
focus on cognitive processes, applying insights and methods derived from the study of perception, memory and thought
trait approach
focus on how people differ and how these differences can be conceptualized and measured
self verification
people will work to make others treat them in a way that confirms their self-conceptions
phenomenological approach
people's conscious experience of the world - two roots (humanistic and cross cultural psych)
biological approach
physical perspective of personality
humanistic psychology
pursues how conscious awareness can produce such uniquely human attributes (anxiety, creativity) and tries to understand the basis of happiness
denial
refusal to acknowledge source of anxiety or failure to perceive it in the first place; usually just temporary, shock absorber - persistent denial is a symptom of psychopathology as well as addiction
displacement
replace one idea or image with another
intentionalism
- need psych to explain physical symptoms; the way we think of our physicalness - we are complex enough to have out own believes and intentions
materialism
- nothing in the world except matter
parapaxis
"Freudian slip" manifesting as a mistake, accident, omission, or memory lapse; failure of defense, can be harmful - Freud says slips never happen at random
hysteria
"abnormal congestion of the genitals" treated with massage leading to paroxysm leading to invention of vibrator
dispositional traits
(first level) relatively non conditional, decontextualized, generally linear, implicitly comparative dimensions of personality such as "extraversion" and "dominance" - good first read
personal concerns
(second level) typically couched in motivational, developmental or strategic terms; they speak to what people want and methods/strategies used to get them - contextualization
identity as a life story
(third level) forever changing/evolving with now setting the stage for the future self - extent to which a person can find unity, purpose and meaning in life = identity - difficult to obtain
Anna O
- Breur and Freud's hysteria patient one sided paralysis - hypnosis worked briefly - chimney sweeping (explained a symptom, and it would go away) - intimate conversation was effective in making problems go away
oral stage
- a newborn baby has only the ability to suck to seek pleasure from the world, also necessary for survival; mouth is the place he can meaningfully interact (babies put things in their mouths often) - theme: dependency, passive - sarcasm as a metaphor of biting
latency
- after phallic - period of learning such as in elementary schools, ending with puberty
what does personality theory do
- analyze why we are the way we are - simplify -small set of characteristics that composes more complex characteristics - predict future behavior - assess/quantify personality - describe and determine terms for description - narrate lives
S DATA (self reports)
- ask the individual for his/her own evaluation of his/her personality - usually match other's description of you - based on idea you know yourself best - face validity
psychological theories
- assumptions and conventions, create/verify/organize empirical hypotheses
oral character type
- baby's needs not fulfilled: distrust of others, inability to deal adequately with dependency relationships: independent, refuse help - baby's needs always immediately fulfilled, never occurs that this may not always be the case: passive, waiting for things to be done yet get angry when they don't achieve what they want (think of what they want not how to get it) - addiction, eating disorders
phallic stage
- begins with realizations of the difference between boys and girls (the penis) - oedipal complex - gender identity and sexuality - sum of identifications makes up the superego
therapeutic alliance
- bond between patient and therapist strengthened by transference (bringing ways of thinking, feeling and behaving toward one person to another - emotional response of therapist=countertransference
topographic model:
- conscious mind; preconscious mind; unconscious mind
ego
- driven by id, confined by superego
no conscious (lack of one)
- ego's triumph over superego, blissful state of intoxication of ego, proud it may have done wrong
Alfred Adler (late 1800 early 1900s)
- first major disciple of Freud to disagree with Freud - felt too much emphasis on sex as the ultimate motivator and organizer of thought and behavior - greater importance of social interest
stages of development
- focal points of psychic energy - oral, anal, phallic, genital
dualism
- how is it that certain things can be alive and/or conscious? - physical stuff and mental stuff
methods for bring unconscious into conscious
- hypnosis - psychoanalytic therapy
personality psyc
- identification of human universals - nomothetic about groups, idiographic about individual differences - multidimensional; therefor characteristic patterns of the dimensions - argues there are internal insistent behaviors
advantages of I data
- large amount of info easy to attain - common sense- utilizes fact that informants can filter observations through common sense and pick up context and determine what is relative to personality - definitional truth - casual force: represent a person's reputation which affects the opportunities and expectancies (even if false) -expectancy effect
advantages of s data
- large amounts esp considering only we see ourselves in all contexts and behave differently depending on context - access to thoughts, feelings and intentions that are otherwise invisible - definitional truth - casual force - simple, easy and cost effective
psychoanalytical fundamental motives
- life: impels to live; libido - death: impels to die; thanatos
disadvantages of i data
- limited to behavioral info bc a great amount of info on one person cannot be known by informant bc not present in all situations - lack of access to private experiences - error- unusual or extreme behaviors stand out and people apply just these instances to person - bias
disadvantages of s data
- may not fully disclose - distortion - person may not be able to disclose (flailing self-judgement) fish and water effect - active repression, lack of insight - too simple and too easy- overused when other methods should be implemented
unconscious mind (topographic)
- most important; third layer; includes all of id and superego, most of ego deep
disadvantages of L data
- multidetermination-L-Data has many causes so trying to establish direct connections between specific attributes of personality and life outcomes can be difficult - may not actually be determined by personality at all
advantages of L data
- objective and verifiable, specific - intrinsic importance - constitutes what people need to know - psychological relevance- strongly affected by and uniquely informative about psychological variables
Freud study path
- physician to neurology to psychiatry, neuroses - progressed from physical to dualism to materialism to realize a more complex view, intentionalism
genital character
- psychologically well adjusted and balance - mental health: ability to love and work
advantages of b data
- range of contexts; create desired situation and provoke normally hidden aspects - appearance of objectivity, not taking someone else's word for personality
preconscious mind
- second layer; consists of ideas you are not thinking about at that moment but could easily be brought into consciousness
common deviations of Neo-freudians from Freud
- sex is less important; reinterpretation of libido as general motivation toward life and creativity - less emphasis on unconscious mental processes and more emphasis on conscious thought; ego psych - less emphasis on instinctual drives and mental life as the source of psychological difficulties; instead focuses on interpersonal relationships
definitional truth
- some data is true by definition, if an individual reports having high self-esteem, than it must be true regardless of other's reports
social interest
- the desire to positively and productively relate with other people - motivated to attain equality with or superiority over other people
primary process thinking
- the way the unconscious mind operates (id) - does not contain the idea of 'no'- thinking without negatives, qualifications, sense of time or any necessities, practicalities, and dangers of life - goal: immediate gratification of every desire - uses displacement, condensation, symbolization
conscious mind (topographic model)
- top most, least important; part of mental functioning you can observe when you turn attention inward
disadvantages of b data
- uncertain interpretation - ambiguous and misleading - conclusions too easy (smokers may cough and so might you but that doesn't mean you are a smoker)
anal character type
- unreasonable expectations which can be traumatic: obsessive compulsive, stingy, orderly, rigid and subservient to authority - never demanding control: little or no self control, unable to do anything on time or because it is necessary, chaotic, disorganized, compulsive need to defy authority - can flip flop between extremes - issues with cleanliness and filth, control and letting go, autonomy and control, anal eroticism
anal stage
-child begins to develop the ego which mediates between what it wants and what is actually possible - anus is physical focus - self control and obedience, controlling urges - authorities insist child uses self-control while child tests boundaries (terrible two's)
behavioroid data
S and B data where participants report what they think they would do under various circumstances (what they think and what they actually do are not always the same)
genital stage
development of a mature attitude about sexuality and other aspects of adulthood - focus on genitals (not just organs, but process of reproduction or giving life) - creation and enhancement of life
secondary process thinking
conscious thoughts; rational and practical like ego, prudent, can delay or redirect gratification (secondary in that it develops only as ego begins to and Freud believed that it played less important of a role than primary)
cross cultural psychology
degree to which psych and the very experience of reality very across cultures
forgetting
a manifestation of an unconscious conflict revealing itself in your behavior, failure to recall something you needed to remember - can produce serious problems in the long run
death instinct
accepting what the body does as natural we live our lives as if we aren't going to die with a price
slips
also called parapraxes, thoughts and words that occasionally get out; provide important cues about the activities of the unconscious part of the mind - humor can be a form of venting - often occur in speech; can occur in action as well
social learning
attempts to draw inferences about the ways mental processes such as observation and self-evaluation determine how behaviors are learned and performed
projection
attributing a thought or impulse feared by oneself onto someone else - seeing one's own poor traits in another
repression
banishing the past from present awareness; less negation of the events than denial - may also bar any reminders from consciousness - every bit of forbidden info requires psychic energy to repress in id and an equal amount in ego to help keep it in
sublimation
base and forbidden impulses are transformed into constructive behaviors - Freud saw this as a positive process; no downfall; producing something constructive out of our primitive urges
condensation
can compress several ideas into one
vitalism
central force inside the body that is activated to give body its drive etc (physiology proved there is nothing special about human tissue)
rationalization
concocting a seemingly rational case for why we have done something that would otherwise cause shame - they are obviously rationalizations but people who use them seem completely sincere - trivialization: convincing yourself that your shortcomings or regrettable actions don't matter (antisocials do this_
psychic conflict and compromise
conflict between structures; compromise formation: the ego's main job is to find a balance between competing demands of motivation, morality and practicality
neuroses
connections between the brain and nerves -hysteria, wondering womb -unexplainable physical symptoms
ego psychology
focus on processes driving the perception and conscious comprehension of reality - instead of focusing on sexuality, psychic conflict and the unconscious, focus on perception, memory, learning and rational conscious thinking - in response to Freud's lack of account for normalcy, how normal people cope with world)
psych theory as art
idea of individuals with reality separate from social and religious context - not right or wrong but grows
fixation
if the battle at each stage is not one, libidinal energy will get left behind; the individual will struggle with issues under that stage and retreat there under stress - the more libidinal left behind, the less available to achieve maturity - refusal to grow up, drug abuse, fetishism
B Data (behavior data)
information recorded from direct observation; natural (in real world, diaries, EAR, experience) and laboratory (experiments, personality tests, physiological measures) - if question asked to know than s data (assume true response), if question designed to see how you will respond than b data (response may be indicator of something and not taken as true)
reaction formatin
instigation of opposites of forbidden feelings and impulses to keep them out of awareness
free association
instructing patients to sat whatever comes to mind in an effort to provoke the unconscious (get insight)
face validity
intended to measure what they actually appear to measure; direct, obvious, no hidden meanings
I Data (informants)
judgements by knowledgable informants about general attributes of the individuals personality
infantilism
must reach compromise in development stage before you can move to the next stage or it will effect your future; stuck replaying forming the compromise
cognitive dissonance
negative emotion experienced when forced/asked to express an opinion that one does not find true - often feel need change our opinions or explain that these aren't our real beliefs
symbolization
one thing might stand for another
efficacy expectations
one's belief that one can perform a given goal or expectation
phallic character
over/underdeveloped superego - develop completely rigid moral codes with no gray area or expectations - lack moral code all together
classic behaviorist
overt behavior it can be affected by rewards
displacement
replacing one object of emotion with another; relocated the object of emotional response from an unsafe target to a safe one (which resembles unsafe one) - generally ineffective
regression
retreat to prior stage under stress
basic approach
self-imposed limitation, systematic look for basic specific patterns through particular observations
defense mechanisms
techniques the ego uses to keep certain thoughts and impulses to avoid anxiety - not used consciously
expectancy effect
tendency to become what others expect one to be (behavioral confirmation)
personality
the configuration of an individual's stable adaptations to multiply realizable universal human problems
psychic determinism
the idea that everything happens has a cause that in principle (not always in practice) can be identified - no miracles, free will or random accidents - thus many important mental processes are unconscious
internal structure
the mind gas an internal structure made of parts that can function independently and which, in some cases, conflict with each other - id (irrational), ego (rational), superego (moral)
mental energy
the mind needs energy to make it go: Libido - energy powering one part of mind is not available to other - fixed, finite amount available
intellectualization
turning a feeling into a thought; can turn anxiety into abstract analytical
psychoanalytic
unconscious mind and internal conflict resolution
L Data (life data)
verifiable, concrete, real-life outcomes that may hold psychological significance -manifestations of how what a person has done has affected her world
learning approach
ways people change their behavior as a result of rewards, punishments and other experiences in live (classical behaviorists, social learning, cognitive personality psych)
casual force
what you think of yourself may be the cause of what you do (efficacy expectations, self verification)