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