Psychology 155: Personality Study Guide: Test 1
Chapter 1
Idiographic – Involved in the study of individual cases (Particular Instances)
Nomothetic – Seeking to formulate laws (Generalizations)
Deductive Approach – An approach to psychology in which the conclusions follow logically from the
premises or assumptions (Laws and Principles of Personality (Generalizations) → Behaviors and
Characteristics of Individual (Particular Instances))
Inductive Approach – An approach to psychology in which observations are systematically collected
and concepts are developed based on what the date reveal (Behaviors and Characteristics of Individual
(Particular Instances) → Laws and Principles of Personality (Generalizations))
The Eight Basic Aspects of Personality
1. Psychoanalytic – Attention to unconscious influences; importance of sexual drives even in
nonsexual spheres
2. Neo-Analytic/Ego – Emphasis on the self as it struggles to cope with emotions and dries on the
inside and the demands of others on the outside
3. Biological – Focus on tendencies and limits imposed by biological inheritance; easily combined with
most other approaches
4. Behaviorist – Emphasis on a more scientific analysis of the learning experiences that shape
personality
5. Cognitive – Emphasis on active nature of human thoughts; uses modern knowledge from cognitive
psychology
6. Trait – Focus on good individual assessment techniques
7. Humanistic/Existential – Appreciation of the spiritual nature of a person; emphasizes struggles for
self-fulfillment and dignity
8. Interactionist – Understanding that we are different selves in different situations
Relative Self – The philosophical idea that there is no underlying self but that the true self is composed
merely of masks
Barnum Effect – The tendency to believe in the accuracy of vague generalities about one's personality
Key Theorists
1. Gordon Allport – Examined the underlying organization of each individual's personality
2. Kurt Lewin - Personology
3. Henry Murray – Longitudinal designs
4. Clark Hull – Learning theorist
5. B.F. Skinner – Behaviorist
6. Margaret Mead – Anthropologist who highlighted the importance of cross-cultural comparison
Chapter 2
Reliability
1. Test-retest reliability – Measure consistency over time
2. Cronbach's coefficient alpha – The average of all possible split-half correlations
Validity
1. Construct validity – The extent to which a test truly measure a theoretical construct
2. Convergent validity – A measure is related to what it should be related to
3. Discriminant validity – A measure is NOT related to what it should be related to
4. Criterion-related validity – The measure can predict important outcome criteria
5. Content validity – The measure contains items that represent the entire domain of the
theoretical construct
Careful when choosing word choices to make sure no bias
Self -Report Test – ie. Minnesota Multiphasic Personal Inventory, Big-Five Inventory, Affective
Communication Test
Q-Sort Tests – ie. Testing the individual about themselves
Asking Other about the individual being tested
Biological Measures – ie. Electroencephlogram, Positron emission tomography scan, Magnetic
resonance imagery, Functional magnetic resonance imagery
Unstructured Interviews – Typically yield rich informations, but validity is questionable
Structure Interviews – More valid, but usually do not reveal individual nuances
Expressive Behavior – The analysis of how people stand, move, speak, etc.
Projective Tests – Present an unstructured or ambiguous stimulus, task, or situation
Chapter 3
The Unconscious – The portion of the mind that is not accessible to conscious thought
Manifest Content – The part of dreams or other aspects of psychological experience that is
remembered and consciously considered
Latent Content – The part of dreams or other aspects of psychological experience that underlies the
conscious portion and reveals hidden meaning
Structure of the Mind
Structure
Contents
Principle of Operation
ID
Primitive drives and
emotions
Pleasure
Ego
Balances ID, Superego, Reality
and reality
Superego
Internalized social
norms
Morality
Pleasure Principles – The operating principle of the id to satisfy pleasure and reduce inner tension
Reality Principles – In Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the operating force of the ego to solve real
problems
Freudian Slip – A psychological error in speaking or writing that reveals something about the
persons's unconscious
Psychosexual Development
Age
Definition
Oral Stage
Age < 1
Driven to satisfy their drives of
hunger and thirst
Anal Stage
~2
Toilet trained
Phallic Stage
~4
Sexual energy is focused on the
genitals
Castration Anxiety –
unconscious fear of castration
that results from a boy's struggle
to deal with his love for his
mother while knowing that he
cannot overcome his father
Oedipus Complex – A term use
to describe a boy's sexual
feelings for his mother and
rivaries with his father
(Latency Period
~5 =< ~11
Genital Stage
11<
No important psychosexual
developments take place and
during which sexual urges are
not directly expressed but instead
are channeled into other
activities
Libido – In Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory, the sexual energy that underlies psychological
tension; in Carl Jung's neo-analytic theory, the term is used to describe a general psychic energy that is
not necessarily sexual in nature.
Definition
Example
Defense Mechanisms
Repression
Pushes threatening thoughts into A 5 year old kid saw his mom
the unconscious
being murder, and as an adult
can't remembered what happen
when he was 5
Reaction Formation
Pushes away threatening
To hide the fact that Bob is gay,
impulses by overemphasizing the he pretend to be straight and hate
opposite in one's thoughts and
on gay
actions
Denial
Refuses to acknowledge anxiety Was involved in an accident and
provoking stimuli
believe everything is just fine
Projection
Anxiety-arousing impulses are
externalized by placing them
onto others
A robber scared of being robbed
therefore buying security
systems for his house
Displacement
The target of one's unconscious
fears or desires is shifted away
from the true cause
Corporate yells at your boss →
boss yells at you → you yell at
your children
Sublimation
Dangerous urges are transformed Aggressive kid joining the
into positive, socially acceptable school football team rather than
motivations
picking on other
Regression
One returns to earlier, safer
stages of one's life in order to
escape present threats
Rationalization
Post-hoc logical explanations are Arriving late to a meeting and
given for behaviors that were
creating a lie for the reason
actually driven by internal
unconscious motives
How I Met Your Mother,
Marshall father died and so he
moved back home and play
video games
Explicit Memories – Memories that may be recalled
Implicit Memories – Memories that may not be recalled nevertheless influences behavior and thoughts
(Early memories from adolescence/early years)
Chapter 4
The Mind has 3 part:
1. Ego
1. The conscious part of personality/embodies the sense of self
2. The Personal unconscious
1. All non-conscious materials of an individual
3. The Collective unconscious
1. Shared with the rest of humanity containing archetypes; basic foundation for ALL
Archetypes
Animus/Anima
Male element in a woman/female element in a
man
Persona and Shadow
Socially acceptable front vs. dark and
unacceptable side of personality
Mother
Embodiment of generativity and fertility
Hero and Demon
Strong force for good vs. cruelty and evil
Complex – A group of emotionally charged thoughts, feelings and ideas that are related to a particular
theme
Two Attitudes
1. Extroversion – Direct psychic energy toward things in the external world
2. Introversion – Direct psychic energy inward
Four Functions of the Mind
1. Sensing
2. Thinking
3. Feeling
4. Intuiting
Aggression drive – The drive to lash out against the inability to achieve something
Masculine protest – The individual's attempt to be competent and independent (boys and girls)
Superiority striving – Striving to obtain power and superiority over one's own inferiorty
Perfection striving – Striving to meet fictional goals
Frank Sulloway – First born: success and achievement → Second born: ~ → Last born:
revoluntionary and creative – Birth order has behavior influences
Karen Horney – Rejects Freudian notion of penis envy and envy of masculine freedoms and privileges
Basic anxiety – A child's fear of being alone, helpless, and insecure and 3 styles of coping is:
1. Passive (complying)
2. Aggressive (fighting)
3. Withdrawn (disengaging)
Three Selfs
1. Real self – Inner core of personality; if alienated, 3 neurotic coping strategies:
1. Moving toward – Striving to make other happy and gain love
2. Moving against – Striving for power and recognition
3. Moving away – Withdrawal of emotional investment
2. Despised self – Feelings of inferiority and shortcomings
3. Ideal self – One's view of perfection
Anna Freud – Emphasized social influences on the ego and giving it more power
Heinz Hartmann – Ego more autonomy, ID and ego are in compensatory relationship
Margaret Mahler – Theory of symbiosis (mother-child)
1. Symbiotic psychotic (no sense of self)
2. Normal symbiotic (healthy ego)
Melanie Klein – Developed technique of play therapy
Heinz Kohut – Fear of loss and narcissistic personalty disorder
Jonathan Cheek – Personal vs. social self
Mark Snyder – Self-monitoring: Dispositional and situational orientations
Eirk Erikson's Stage Theory
Ego Crisis
Ego Skill Gained
Age
Trust vs. Mistrust
Hope
Infancy
Autonomy vs. Shame
Will
Early childhood
Initiative vs. Guilt
Purpose
Early to mid- childhood
Industry vs. Inferiority
Competence
Mid- to late childhood
Identity vs. Role Confusion
Loyalty
Teenage
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Love
Early adulthood
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Caring
Middle adulthood
Ego Integrity vs. Despair
Wisdom
Late adulthood
Adler's type
Personality Typology
Social Interest
Activity
Greek Humor
Ruling-Dominant
Low
High
Yellow bile
Getting-Leaning
Low
Low
Phlegm
Avoiding
Very Low
Low
Black bile
Socially Useful
High
High
Blood