Chapter 12 Review
A) Personality: used to explain the
stability durable disposition to behave
in a particular way in a variety of
situations. (individuals consistent
behaviors)
- Critics of psychologists who
emphasize the importance of
personality disorders say they
underestimate the behavior from
situation to situation
1. Five- factor model (McCrae & Costa)
a. Openness to experience: curiosity,
flexibility, vivid fantasy,
imaginativeness, artistic
sensitivity
b. Conscientiousness: diligent,
disciplined, well organized,
punctual and dependable.
c. Extraversion: outgoing, friend,
upbeat, assertive and social
(positive psychology)
d. Agreeableness: sympathetic,
trusting, cooperative, modest,
straightforward
e. Neuroticism: hostile, vulnerable,
self-conscious, insecure, anxious.
(negative psychology)
*Women score higher in
extraversion, conscientiousness
and agreeableness
2. Type A personality
- competitive, multitask,
aggressive, time urgent
- higher risk of heart disease
3. Type B personality
- relaxed, one thing at a time,
express feelings.
4. Factor analysis
- method for reducing correlational data
to a smaller number of factors or
dimensions
- cluster traits instead of listing each
individually
5. Altruism
- Benefiting others, even to her own
detriment
- Example: mother Teresa
6. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI) Test: use for what?
- Most widely used objective test of
personality, originally designed to
distinguished individuals with
different psychological problems from
normal individuals; today used to
identify personality characteristics.
7. Rorschach test
- a personality test in which a subject
interprets inkblot designs in terms that
reveal intellectual & emotional factors
B) Freuds perspective: divided personality into
three
1. psychoanalytic theory
- ID: instinctive component of
personality. Demands immediate
gratification. (operates only on the
unconscious level)
- Ego: decision making component
to reality. Delayed gratification.
Ensures that impulses of the ID
can be expressed in a manner that
is acceptable (allow the action @
appropriate time or place) role is
to mediate among the id, the
superego, and reality (operates on
all three levels; conscious,
preconscious, and unconscious)
- Superego: moral component that
incorporates social standards
about what is right and what is
wrong. (emerges at 3-5) (operates
on all three levels; conscious,
preconscious, and unconscious)
- Levels of awareness
a. Conscious: what we know is
going on
b. Preconscious: underlying
thoughts right under conscious
c. Unconscious: deep rooted,
repressed feelings most likely
from childhood
- Conflict: Freud claims behavior is
outcome of an ongoing series of
internal conflicts that center
around sex and aggression.
Conflicts lead to anxiety which
causes ego to construct defense
mechanisms.
2. Psychosexual stages`
a. Oral: birth to 1 yrs. Primary source
of interaction is eating or sucking.
If child does not become less
dependent upon care takers then
they will have issues w/
dependency and or aggression.
May also cause issues with
drinking, eating, nail biting and
smoking. May also cause low selfesteem which leads to sarcasm
b. Anal: 1 to 3 yrs old. Emphasizes on
potty training. If parents are too
lenient or too strict then it could
affect you as an adult. (Lenient:
messy, wasteful, and disorganized.
Strict: rigid, obsessive)
c. Phallic: 3 to 6 yrs. Learn the
difference b/w girls and boys.
Oedipal conflict is formed…Boys
feel rivalry with father over
mothers attention (Oedipus
complex). Females feel penis envy.
Eventual identify with same sex
parent but girls always have penis
envy (Electra complex).
d. Latency: 6 to puberty. Sexual
energy is directed into other areas
such as social interactions.
Important in social,
communication skills and selfconfidence.
3.
4.
5.
6.
e. Genital: puberty to death.
Develops strong sexual interest in
the opposite sex.
f. Fixation: Failure to resolve a
conflict at a particular stage of
psychosexual development may
lead to failure to move forward
Carl Jung: Analytical psychology:
unconscious is broken up into two
personal unconscious (houses
material that is not within ones
conscious awareness because it is
repressed or forgotten) and the
collective unconscious (houses latent
memories traces inherited from
peoples ancestral past.)
Alfred Adler: Individual psychology:
striving for superiority which is our
drive to adapt, improve one’s self &
master life’s challenges. Here we feel
the need to compensate (working to
overcome some inferiority)
- When inferiority feeling are
excessive and we cannot
compensate for them we tend to
overcompensate (seek status and
power and flaunt success to cover
inferiority)
Pros of psychodynamic perspective:
insights on how the unconscious, the
role of internal conflict and childhood
experiences affect personality
development.
Cons of psychodynamic perspective:
poor testability (how can we test the
unconscious?), Freud did not test a
random sample and sexiest views.
C) Defense Mechanisms
1. Denial: protecting oneself from
unpleasant reality by refusing to
perceive or face it.
2. Fantasy: gratifying frustrated desires
by imaginary achievements
3. Isolation: cutting off emotion from
hurtful situations or separating
incompatible attitudes
4. Undoing: trying to magically dispel
unacceptable desires or acts
5. Overcompensation: covering up felt
weaknesses by emphasizing some
desirable characteristics
6. Rationalization: creating false but
plausible excuses to justify
unacceptable behavior
7. Repression: keeping distressed
thoughts & feeling or motives on
someone else
8. Projection: blaming, or motives on
someone else
9. Displacement: diverting emotional
feelings (usually anger) from their
original source to a substitute target
10. Reaction formation: behaving in a way
that’s exactly the opposite of ones true
feelings
11. Regression: reverting to immature
patterns of behavior
12. Identification: bolstering self-esteem
by forming an imaginary or real
alliance w/ some person or group
13. Sublimation: converting unacceptable
impulses into acceptable behaviors.
D) Behavioral perspective
1. Skinners views: thoughts are not
observable. Personality is learned
through environmental stimuli
(reinforcement) over the course of
one’s life span. Traits that are
punished will eventually stop.
2. Banduras views: claims skinner skips
the most important human behavior
which is thinking. Believed in “social
learning theory”. Environment and
behavior influence each other
(reciprocal determinism). Also
cognitive factors determine and are
-
3.
4.
5.
6.
determined by both behavior and
environment. Also emphasizes
observable learning (holds that
behavior is shaped by exposure to
models which are people whose
behavior you observe. Also placed an
emphasis on self-efficacy which is
ones belief about one’s ability to
perform behaviors that should lead to
expected outcomes.
Claims that there are four key crucial
processes in motivational learning
1. Attention
2. Retention
3. Reproduction
4. Motivation
Mischels views: advocated social
learning as well as focuses on
“situational factors” instead of
behavior. Claims personality is
actually inconsistent. You behave a
certain way because of situation.
Modeling
- A person whose behavior is observed
by another.
- used in observational learning
- Causes imitation of a certain model
or figure
- Some models are more influential
than others
- Both children and adults tend to
imitate people they respect.
Pros of behavioral perspective: lots of
research and show how learning &
environment effect personality
Cons of behavioral perspective: deny
free will & the importance of the
cognitive process. Also criticized for
the social learning theory bringing in
cognition when behavioral is
supposed to only emphasize the
observable. Also cuts up personality
into pieces based on situations with
no unifying concept that ties them
together (no consistency). Criticized
also for too much animal research
E) Humanistic Perspective
1. Person centered theory: emphasizes
subjective view point.
- Carl rogers: person centered
theory
- Self-concept: I am funny…I am
smart etc. What you think about
yourself
- This may affect your personality
- Sometimes your self-concept is not
on point with reality, this is called
incongruence
2. Self-actualization theory
- Abraham Maslow
- reaching ones full potential
- Hierarchy of needs: in order to
reach the top or your full potential
(self-actualization) you must work
your way up the hierarchy
pyramid
3. Pros of humanistic perspective:
- Focus on healthy personality
- Role of one’s subjective view
4. Cons of humanistic
- Lack of research
- Overly optimistic
- Poor testability
F) Biological Perspective
1. Eysenks theory
Stressed 3 higher order traits:
extraversion, neuroticism,
psychoticism
2. Evolutionary approach
- Certain traits may contribute to
reproductive fitness
3. Pros of biological perspective
- Convincing evidence for genetic
influence
4. Cons of biological perspective
- Conceptual problems with
heritability estimates
- Artificial carving apart of nature
and nurture
- No comprehensive biological
theory
-
G) Contemporary
1. Terror management theory
- Self-preservation: humans have
cognitive abilities that allow us to
be self-aware that animals do not
have b/c of this we know that life
can be taken away at any time
- Since we know we can die at any
moment we feel anxiety and terror
is developed
- Culture gives us a sense of
belonging, gives us a sense of
meaning that can soothe their fear
of death
2. Anxiety buffer
- Self-esteem and culture decrease
anxiety
3. What happens when you increase
subjects mortality salience
- Punish more harshly
- Be less tolerant of criticism of their
country
- Give greater rewards to those who
uphold cultural standards
- Respect cultural icons