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Define personality and identify the central goal of personality theories.
“Personality gives order and congruence to all the different kinds of behavior in which the individual engages” (Hall & Lindzey, 1958, p.9).
Personality is “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment” (Allport, 1937, p.48).
◦ “Personality is what a man really is”
A complex set of unique psychological qualities that influence an individual’s characteristic pattern of behavior across different situations and over time
The central goal of theories of personality is to specify the differences among people that allow predictions to be made about their course of life.
Summarize the impact of culture on personality.
Culture: The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, beliefs, values, norms, and traditions shared by a large group of people.
◦ Influences how an individual makes sense of the world.
Behaviors that seem natural and normal to one culture can often only be identified as culture-specific through comparison with other cultures.
Individuals are shaped by their cultures and in many ways are like others in the same culture, but different than those in other cultures.
Summarize gender difference in personality.
Obvious difference in physical development and physiological functioning.
◦ Often leads “to a simple biological justification for all personality differences between men and women”.
◦ Biological differences exist in the context of the social world.
◦ “Whether or not gender discrepancies in personality actually exist, many people perceive significant differences between men’s and women’s personalities, and these perceptions influence their attitudes about and behavior toward others, thereby influencing personality”.
Identify and describe the three components of Freud’s structure of personality.
ID: storehouse of fundamental drives, operating irrationally on impulse, pushing for expression and immediate gratification (Pleasure Principle)
SUPEREGO: Storehouse of values, including morals.
◦ The “oughts and “should nots”
◦ The individuals view of the kind of person he/she should strive to become.
◦ Often in conflict with the ID.
EGO: Reality based aspect of the self.
◦ Director between ID impulses and SUPEREGO demands.
◦ Reality Principle.
With regard to Psychodynamic theory, define intrapsychic
The core of personality is events within the mind (Intrapsychic).
These intrapsychic events motivate our behavior.
◦ Operate consciously and unconsciously
All behavior is motivated. NO chance or accidental happenings cause behavior; all acts are determined by motives.
With regard to Psychodynamic theory, define psychic determinism.
Psychic Determinism: all the mental and behavioral reactions are determined by earlier experience.
These Earlier experiences are buried in the unconscious.
◦ Behaviors are motivated by drives in our unconscious and all behavior has a manifest and latent content.
Define fixation and regression
◦ Fixation (an inability to progress normally to the next stage of development) at different stages can produce a variety of adult traits.
◦ “used to describe individuals who have never matured beyond a certain point of psychosocial development and are unable, in many ways, to mature further” (Strean, 1994, pgs. 19-20).
◦ Regression: “implies that the individual has successfully mastered certain psychosocial tasks but he or she returns to previous, less mature gratifications when certain demands in the present induce anxiety” (Strean, 1994, p.19)
Identify and briefly describe the 5 needs that make up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
1. Physiological needs
2. safety needs
3. belongingness & love needs
4. esteem needs
5. self-actualization
With regard to Psychodynamic theory, define drives and the 3 tension systems
Drives: The source of motivation for human actions is psychic energy found within each individual.
Each person has inborn instincts or drives that are tension systems. When activated, these energy sources can be expressed in many different ways:
◦ Self-preservation: meeting basic needs (ex. hunger).
◦ Eros: sexual urges and preservation of the species.
◦ Libido: the sexual energy that underlies psychological tension.
Describe the unconscious as it relates to Freud’s theory of personality.
The portion of the mind that is inaccessible to usual conscious thought.
◦ “Thoughts, feelings, and desires of which we are not aware but which very much influence our behavior” (Strean, 1994, p.16).
◦ According to Freud, the unconscious is the “depository of sexual and aggressive drives, defenses, superego mandates, memories, and feelings, that have been repressed” (Strean, 1994, p. 16).
Freud believed that the gateways to the unconscious were free association and dreams.
Explain defense mechanisms.
HINT : repression - define
Repression: the psychological process that protects an individual from experiencing extreme anxiety or guilt about impulses, ideas, or memories.
◦ Most basic defense
Defense mechanisms help a person to maintain a favorable self-image and to sustain an acceptable social image.
When overused, they create more problems than they solve.
◦ Unhealthy to spend too much time and psychic energy in defense mechanisms.
Leaves little energy for productive living or satisfying human relationships.
Define Unconditional Positive Regard. How does Unconditional Positive Regard relate to Self-actualization?
Unconditional Positive Regard: complete love and acceptance of an individual by another person, such as parents for a child, with no conditions attached.
◦ Is stressed because worrying about seeking approval interferes with self-actualization.
◦ Needs to be given and received by those you are close to.
◦ Also need to feel it for yourself.
The “real self” requires favorable environmental circumstances to be self-actualized (parental love, warmth, friendship)
Anxiety develops in the absence of these, which stifles the spontaneity of the expression of real feelings and prevents effective relations with others.
To cope with basic anxiety people resort to interpersonal and intrapsychic defenses.
Briefly explain evolutionary personality theory.
Individual differences are due to either adaptive strategies or random variations.
◦ Difficult to determine the precise cause of any behavior or personality characteristic (Nature vs. Nurture).
◦ Still do not know the extent to which genes affect personality in normal development.
Describe B.F. Skinner’s theory of personality.
The term “personality” is meaningless.
◦ There is no place for internal components of personality, psychical structures (id, ego, superego), traits, self-actualization, needs, or instincts.
What is labeled “personality” is merely a group of responses to the environment.
Operant behaviors taken together = personality.
The universal laws of behavior acquisition resulted in what we know as personality, which operates in the same manner as humans and (although more simply) in nonhuman animals.
What is the central idea of Humanistic Theory?
The motivation for behavior comes from a person’s unique tendency to develop and change in positive directions toward the goal of self-actualization (striving for inherent potential).
◦ Sometimes conflicts with the need for approval from the self and others, especially when the individual feels certain obligations or conditions must be met to gain approval.
Identify and define the four characteristics of Humanistic theory.
Holistic: explain an individual’s acts in terms of their whole personality.
Dispositional: focus on innate qualities that exert a major influence over the direction behavior will take.
Subjective: emphasize the individual’s frame of reference.
Existential: focus on higher mental processes.
Explain cognitive approaches to personality.
Focuses on ways in which individuals come to know their environment and themselves.
◦ How they perceive, evaluate, learn, think, make decisions, and solve problems.
View human perception and human cognition as the core of what it means to be a person.
The way we interpret the environment is central to our humanness, and the way we differ from one another.
Schema: a cognitive structure that organizes knowledge and expectations about one’s environment.
◦ The schema activated in a given situation is a major determinant of a person’s expectations, inferences, and actions in that situation.
Explain Reciprocal Determinism. (HINT: social learning theory)
Reciprocal Determinism: Your behavior can be influenced by your attitudes, beliefs, or prior history of reinforcement as well as by environmental influences.
Observational Learning is a critical component.
Models
◦ The basis of observational learning.
◦ Learning can occur through observation or example rather than only by direct reinforcement.
◦ We learn by observing other people and modeling our behavior after theirs.
◦ By observing the behavior of a model and repeating that behavior, it is possible to acquire
responses that we have not performed previously and/or to strengthen or weaken existing
responses.
Define self-efficacy and describe the aspects of self-efficacy judgments presented in this chapter. (social-learning theory)
Self-Efficacy: the belief that one can perform adequately in a particular situation. Self-efficacy judgments include:
◦ Vicarious experience: your observations of the performance of others
◦ Persuasions: others convincing you that you can do something, you convincing yourself.
◦ Monitoring emotional arousal when thinking about a task (ex. Anxiety suggests low expectations)
Influences how much effort you expand and how long you persist when faced with difficulty.
Behavioral outcomes depend both on people’s perceptions of their own abilities and their perceptions of the environment.
Explain trait approaches to personality.
Trait: a distinguishing personality characteristic or quality.
Trait Approach: uses a basic, limited set of adjectives or adjective dimensions to describe and scale individuals.
◦ Much about an individual’s consistent reaction patterns can be predicted from knowing his/her core personality traits.
◦ Frequently utilized in our daily lives to describe the personality of people we know.
◦ Generally rely on outstanding characteristics or features to summarize what a person is like.