Personality Study Guide
Superfast Summary of Perspectives
Psychoanalytic – personality is determined by how our ego mediates unconscious conflicts between pleasureseeking impulses and social restraints
Trait – Personality is the expression of biologically influenced dispositions.
Humanistic – Personality is how each person attempts to meet their needs, especially the need for selfactualization.
Social-cognitive – Personality is influenced by how we interpret external events.
Behavioral – Personality is learned through rewards and punishments.
Terms associated with each perspective. Do you know these?
Psychoanalytic
Freud
Id, ego, superego
Defense mechanisms
Psychosexual stages
Fixation
Projective tests
Adlerinferiority/superio
r-ity complex
Horney- basic anxiety,
womb envy
Jung-collective
unconscious
Matching:
1. oral stage
2. anal stage
3. phallic stage
4. identification
5. id
6. ego
7. latency period
8. superego
9. genital stage
Trait
Allport
Eysenck
Jung
The Big Five
Heritability
Personality
inventories
MMPI
Myers-Briggs
Inborn temperament
Conscious awareness
Factor analysis
Enduring
characteristics
Humanism
Maslow
Rogers
Hierarch of needs
Self-actualization
Self-esteem
Self-concept
Fixation
Subjective feelings
Unconditioned positive
regard
Conditioned positive
regard
Genuineness, empathy,
and acceptance
Self-serving bias
Real vs. ideal self
Individualism vs.
collectivism
Free will
Social-Cogntive
Bandura
Reciprocal
determinism
Self-efficacy
Internal locus of
control
External locus of
control
Learned helplessness
Overconfidence
A. A child’s attempt to be similar to a same sex parent.
B. Fixation here may cause one to be overly dependent
on others as an adult
C. Children’s sexual concerns are temporarily put aside.
D. Marked by mature sexual behavior.
E. This is a period of learning to cope with natural
incestuous feelings
F. Fixation at this stage may lead to one being overly
controlling as an adult.
G. Operates on the pleasure principle (immediate
gratification)
H. Operates on the reality principle
I. Provides standards and judgments for future
aspirations
Matching
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
repression
regression
displacement
rationalization
project
reaction formation
sublimation
A. Directing an unwanted feeling or thought toward a
weaker person or object instead of the one who elicited
the feeling.
B. Justifying a negative thought, feeling, or behavior to
protect self-esteem.
C. Unacceptable or unpleasant id impulses are pushed
back into the unconscious.
D. Attribute one’s own inadequacies or faults to someone
else.
E. Exhibiting behavior reminiscent of an earlier stage of
development.
F. Adopting behaviors that are opposite of your true (but
unwanted) feelings.
G. The diversion of unwanted impulses into socially
acceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.
Examine the inkblot below and describe what you see.
What type of test is this (don’t answer “inkblot test”? ______________________
Which personality theory would use a test like this? _____________________
Why are such tests rarely used anymore?
What is Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious?
Matching:
1. Allport
2. Freud
3. Jung
4. Rogers
5. Skinner
6. Maslow
7. Bandura
A
B
C
D
E
Psychoanalytic
Trait
Behavioralist
Humanist
Social-cognitive
The Grinch
Do you remember the Grinch? He lives alone on top of Mt. Crumpit and hates Christmas (all the “noise, noise, noise,
NOISE!”). He has a dog (Max) that he treats cruelly. His heart and his shoes are too small. He pretended to be Santa
(and disguised Max as a reindeer) and stole all the presents (and trimmings and trappings, shoving trees up the
“chimbly”). He even took the last can of who-hash and left crumbs too small for the Who’s mouses. He lied to poor
Cindy-Lou Who when she caught him taking her Xmas tree. Despite his efforts to ruin Christmas, the Who’s woke up
Christmas morning and sang (“Fah who for-aze!Dah who dor-aze!”) and held hands in a big circle, clearly undetered
by the Grinch’s efforts. When the Grinch heard this, his heart grew three sizes and he pulled the sleigh bearing gifts
from the edge of the cliff and carried them down to the Who’s who accepted him and let him carve the roast beast.
Analyze the Grinch from the various perspectives. For each perspective, explain 1) why the Grinch is so neurotic, and
2) how the Grinch is healed.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Freud
Allport
Adler
Maslow
E. Rogers
F. Skinner
G. Bandura