Psychology chapter 10

Social-Cognitive Theory Focused on

learning by observation and on cognitive processes that underlie personal differences

Observational learning involves

observing others to acquire knowledge

Evaluation of the Humanistic-Existential Perspective focuses

on personal and conscious experiences

Neo-Freudians - Karen Horney

Agreed with Freud that childhood experiences are important Believed that social relationships are more important than sexual and aggressive impulses Denied that girls feel inferior to boys

Sigmund Freud theory of personality is also referred to

Also known as psychoanalytic theory

Neo-Freudians - Carl Jung

Developed analytical psychology

Validity

Extent to which the test measures what it is supposed to measure

The "Big Five": The Five-Factor Model

Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness to experience

Genital stage

Feelings of incest taboo persist •Causes displacement of sexual feeling onto other adults or adolescents of the opposite gender

Objective Tests

Items must be answered in a limited and specified manner •Forced-choice format

Stages of Psychosexual Development

oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, genital stage

Self-esteem is connected with

patterns of acculturation among immigrants Complete assimilation, biculturalism, and complete separation

Reliability

Stability of one's test results from one testing to another

Evaluation of the Sociocultural Perspective Considers

roles of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status in personality formation

Maslow's hierarchy of needs argued that people have a conscious need for

self-actualization

Evaluation of the Sociocultural Perspective enhances

sensitivity to cultural differences and expectations

Social-Cognitive Theory Asserts

the importance of person variables•Behavior cannot be predicted with situational variables alone

Neo-Freudians - Carl Jung Downplayed

the importance of sexual instinct

Self-esteem is highest among

those who do not surrender their culture

true

There is a psychological test made up of inkblots, and test-takers are asked to say what the blots look like to them

Projective Tests

There is no one correct response •Individuals project their personalities into their responses

true

Twenty-five hundred years ago, a Greek physician devised a way of looking at personality that remains in use today

Criticism of Watson and skinner behaviorism

Watson and Skinner ignored the notions of choice, personal freedom, and self-direction

Neo-Freudians - Alfred Adler Believed that people are motivated by

an inferiority complex •Feelings of inferiority elicit a drive for superiority

Evaluation of the Sociocultural Perspective Enables

appreciation of the richness of human behavior and mental processes

false

Actually, there are no basic personality traits We are all conditioned by society to behave in certain ways

Collective unconscious

Contains archetypes that affect one's thoughts and feelings

B. F. Skinner

•Emphasized the effects of reinforcement on behavior

Insufficient gratification

-Leads to fixation

Conditional positive regard:

Accepting a person only when they behave in a desired manner -May lead to the development of conditions of worth

Unconditional positive regard:

Accepting that one has intrinsic merit regardless of present behavior

Humanism:

Argues that people are capable of free choice, self-fulfillment, and ethical behavior •Places more importance on self-awareness

Behavior-rating scales

Assess behaviors in classrooms or mental hospitals

Contemporary Trait Theories

Assumed that traits are heritable and are embedded in the nervous system

Existentialism

Based on the view that people are free and responsible for their own behavior •Psychological salvation requires giving personal meaning to things and making personal choices

Learning-Theory Perspectives

Behaviorism Social-cognitive theory

Neo-Freudians - Erik Erikson

Believed Freud placed too much emphasis on sex Spoke of psychosocial development, not psychosexual development Labeled stages of development according to traits, not erogenous zones Argued that ego identity, not genital sexuality, was key goal of adolescence

Neo-Freudians - Carl Jung believed

Believed that people have a personal and a collective unconscious

Neo-Freudians - Alfred Adler Believed that self-awareness

Believed that self-awareness plays a major role in the formation of personality•Concept of the creative self

false

Biting one's fingernails or smoking cigarettes is a sign of conflict experienced during early childhood

true

Bloodletting and vomiting were once recommended as ways of coping with depression

Latency

Characterized by unconscious sexual feelings

Oral stage

Conflict centers on the nature and extent of oral gratification •Activities involve sucking and biting •Excessive gratification -Leads to a tendency for the infant to expect to get anything it wants

Anal stage

Focuses on the control of elimination of waste •Children learn to delay gratification •Self-control issues could lead to anal fixations

Self theory

Focuses on the nature of the self and the conditions that allow the self to develop freely

The Trait Perspective

Freud linked development of certain traits to children's experiences in each stage of psychosexual development

The Structure of Personality

Id •Pleasure principle Ego •Reality principle Superego •Moral principle

Sigmund Freud's Theory of Psychosexual Development

Levels of awareness• Conscious-Region that pokes into the light of awareness •Preconscious-Contains ideas outside one's awareness •Unconscious-Contains primitive instincts -Some urges are kept below the surface via repression Psychoanalysis •Method of investigation used to explore the unconscious mind •Encourages individuals to speak freely about anything that comes to their mind

Observational learning occurs

Occurs even when the learner does not perform the observed behavior •Does not require direct reinforcement

Self-Esteem and Positive Regard

One is motivated to reduce the difference between one's self-concepts and self-ideals

Abraham Maslow and the Challenge of Self-Actualization

People follow unique paths to self-actualization •Major threat to individual personality development - Control by others

Standardization

Process to check out scores, validity, and reliability of a test with people of various ages and from various groups

false

Psychologists can determine whether a person has told the truth on a personality test

Traits

Reasonably stable elements of personality that are inferred from behavior •Account for consistent behavior in different situations

Personality

Reasonably stable patterns of emotions, motives, and behavior that distinguish one person from another

Phallic stage

Shift of libido to the phallic region •Could lead to the Oedipus or Electra complex

Evaluation of the Psychodynamic Perspective

Shifted focus to examine problems as having a psychological source •Helped focus attention on far-reaching effects of childhood experiences

Psychodynamic Theory was Proposed by

Sigmund Freud

Psychodynamic Theory

States that personality is characterized by conflict •Conflict is initially external, and then it is internalized •Behavior is the result of conflict between opposing inner forces

false

The most well-adjusted immigrants are those who abandon the language and customs of their country of origin and become like members of the dominant culture in their new host country

Rogers assumed thar we all

develop a need for self-esteem

Hans Eysenck's Trait Theory Organized personality traits according to

where they were situated along these dimensions

Client-centered therapy

•Aims at getting in touch with genuine feelings, accepting them, and acting on them

Making important decisions

•Aptitude and interest scales are used to gain insights on whether a person issuited for certain occupations

Self-efficacy expectations

•Belief that one can accomplish certain things •Positive self-efficacy results in high self-esteem and achievement motivation

Gordon Allport

•Catalogued 18,000 human traits -Served as a basis for personality research

Gender-schema theory

•Children develop a gender schema in order to organize their perceptions of the world

Evaluation of the Humanistic-Existential Perspective drawbacks

•Conscious experience is private and subjective •Does not address development of traits and personality types

Individualist

•Defines self in terms of personal identities •Gives priority to personal goals

Collectivist

•Defines self in terms of the groups to which one belongs •Gives priority to a group's goals

Social-Cognitive Theory

•Developed by Albert Bandura

Charles Spearman

•Developed factor analysis -Mathematical technique to study intelligence and determine which traits are basic to others

Neo-Freudians - Alfred Adler

•Developed individual psychology

Social-cognitive theory:

•Does not account for self-awareness •Does not pay enough attention to genetic variations in explaining individual differences

Learning perspectives:

•Emphasize observable behaviors and environmental conditions as determinants of behavior •Elaborate on conditions that foster learning

Prediction of behavior is based on:

•Expectancies about the outcome •Subjective value of the outcome

John B. Watson

•Focused on observed and measurable behavior and not undetectable mental structures

Hans Eysenck's Trait Theory

•Focused on the relationship between two dimensions •Introversion-extraversion •Emotional stability-instability (neuroticism)

The Sociocultural Perspective

•Focuses on the roles of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status in: •Personality formation •Behavior •Mental processes

evolutionary perspective on cognition

•Gender differences are shaped by natural selection

Biological perspective

•Gender differences may be related to prenatal levels of sex hormones

Social-cognitive perspective

•Gender-typing is the result of observational learning

Biological factors and temperament

•Genetic factors are involved in shyness and behavioral inhibition in children •Children with antisocial personality exhibit low responses to threats and stressors

Cross-cultural applications

•Helps define personality structures of people from varying cultures

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

•Helps diagnose psychological disorders •Contains empirically constructed scales

Biological factors and traits

•Heritability of extraverted personality is estimated to be 40%-60% •Brain levels of dopamine are involved with extraversion

History of the Trait Perspective

•Hippocrates •Personality depends on the balance of four basic fluids (humors) in the body •Disease reflected imbalance in fluids •Balance was restored through bloodletting and vomiting

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

•Individuals are asked to make up stories about drawings that are open to various interpretations

Observational learning•

•Known as modeling or cognitive learning

Self-ideals

•Mental images of what one is capable of becoming

Limitations of the Evaluation of the Trait Model

•More descriptive than explanatory

Self-concept

•One's impressions of the self and evaluations of his/her adequacy

Self

•Ongoing sense of who and what one is •Sense of how and why one reacts to the environment •How one chooses to act on the environment

Relationship with inborn temperament

•Personality matures over time

Approaches to personality include:

•Psychodynamic perspective •Trait perspective •Learning-theory perspectives •Humanistic-existential perspective •Sociocultural perspective

Rorschach Inkblot Test

•Respondents are given inkblots and asked what they look like •Response that reflects the shape of the inkblot is considered a sign of adequate reality testing •Response that integrates several features of the blot is considered a sign of high intellectual functioning

types of projective tests

•Rorschach inkblot test •Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Evaluation of the Trait Model

•Tests have been developed to assess the fit between personalities and certain jobs •Expressed in terms of abilities, personality traits, and interests

Frames of reference

•Unique way in which one looks at the self and the world

Evaluation of the Psychodynamic Perspective criticisms

•Vagueness of psychic structures •Suspicion regarding Freud's clinical method for