What is personality?
an organized combination of attributes, motives, values, and behaviors unique to each individual.
What are dispositional traits?
used to describe personalities
ex. extraversion and introversion
What are characteristic adaptations?
situation specific and changeable ways in which people adapt to their roles and environments
What are narrative identities?
unique and integrative life stories that we construct about our pasts and futures to give ourselves an identity and our lives meaning
What is self-concept?
your perceptions, positive or negative, of your unique attributes and traits as a person
What is self esteem?
your overall evaluation of your worth as a person, high or low, based on all the positive and negative self-perceptions that make up your self-concept
What is identity?
an overall sense of who they are, where they are heading, and where they fit into society
What do psychoanalytic theorists agree upon regarding personality development?
personal growth and change throughout the life span
How do trait theorists define and measure personality?
personality is a set of dispositional trait dimensions or continua along which people can differ
personality scales
What do we know about the Big Five personality traits?
appear to be genetically influenced and emerge fairly early in life
universal
How do social cognitive theorists view personality?
set of behavioral tendencies shaped by interactions with other people in specific social situations
At what age do infants recognize themselves visually as distinct individuals?
18 months
How can we test for infant self-recognition?
put a dot on their nose and let them look in the mirror, if they touch themselves then they have self recognition
What two things contribute to the development of self-awareness in infancy?
cognitive development and requires maturation of certain areas of the brain.
social interaction.
What is temperament?
early, genetically based but also enviromentally influenced tendencies to respond in predicatable ways to events that serves as the building blocks of later personality
What is Thomas and Chess's system for temperament?
most infants could be placed in three categories:
easy temperament
difficult temperament
slow-to-warm-up temperament
How do behaviorally inhibited 21-month-olds, children and adolescents respond differently to novelty?
at 21 months they take a long time to warm up to a strange examiner, retreat from large robot and fret and cling to their mothers.
As children they are shy in a group of strange peers and afraid to try a balance beam.
As adolescents they continue to be wa
What does Kagan mean by behavioral inhibition?
the tendency to be extremely shy, restrained and distressed in response to unfamiliar people and situations
Define the three elements of Rothbart's approach to temperament.
surgency/extraversion- the tendency to actively, confidently, and energetically approach new experiences in an emotionally positive way
negative affectivity- the tendency to be sad, fearful, easily frustrated and irritable
effortful control- the ability t
What is goodness-of-fit?
the extent to which the child's temperament is compatible with the demands and expectations of the social world to which she must adapt
How can parents help provide goodness-of-fit with their child?
get to know their babies as an individual and allow for his personality quirks
How do preschoolers describe themselves?
physical characteristics, possessions, physical activities and accomplishments, and preferences.
By 3rd grade what are the five aspects of self-worth?
scholastic competences.
social acceptance.
behavioral conduct.
athletic competence.
physical appearance.
By 3rd grade how accurate are children's self-evaluations?
more consistent with objective indicators
How does the relationship between real self and ideal self evaluations change in childhood?
a widening gap b/t the real self and the ideal self
How do parents and teachers potentially contribute to a decrease in self-esteem across childhood?
parents and teachers raise the bar and give older children more critical feedback than they give younger children
What parental behaviors are associated with higher child self-esteem?
warm and democratic
What does Damon (1994) think about child self-esteem?
that American parents and educators go overboard in trying to make all children feel good about themselves, giving them stickers, stars, and well-meaning should of good job at every turn
What did Caspi et al. (2003) find about the stability of temperament?
inhibited, overcontrolled 3-year-olds who are shy and fearful tend to become teenagers who are cautious and unassertive and later become young adults who have little social support, tend to be depressed, and are not very engaged in life.
How does the text summarize the relationship between personality traits and later personality and adjustment?
correlations b/t early personality traits and adult traits are usually quite small
How do self-conceptions change from childhood to adolescence?
become less physical and more psychological.
become less concrete and more abstract thanks to cognitive development.
become more differentiated.
become more integrated and choerent
reflect greater self-awareness as adolescents think more about the self an
How does self-esteem change from childhood to early adolescence and why?
adolescents become more knowledgeable and realistic about their strengths and weaknesses.
can become temporarily unsure of themselves when they move from elementary school to middle school or junior high and often become unhappy with their changing bodies
Who is most likely to experience a decrease in self-esteem?
white females especially those facing multiple stressors at once
What is the big-fish�little-pond effect on academic self-concept?
that a student will have a lower academic self-concept in an academically selective school than in a nonselective school
How can moving from a regular class to gifted or advanced class affect self-esteem?
can depress self-esteem
Why might adolescents experience a serious "identity crisis"?
their bodies are changing and they must revise their body images and adjust to being sexual beings.
cognitive growth allows adolescents to think systematically about hyopthetical possibilities, including ideal selves and possible future selves.
social dem
How does a moratorium period help support adolescents during identity development?
a time during high school and college years where they are relatively free of responsibilities and can experiment with different roles to find themselves
What are Marcia's (1966) four identity statuses?
diffusion status
moratorium status
foreclosure status
identity achievement status
What occupational identity status did Meilman (1979) find most 12-15 year old boys to be in?
identity diffusion status or identity foreclosure status
Why is it a good thing to move into moratorium status?
able to explore and eventually move into the identity achievement status
At what age does identity status stop changing?
...
When are youth most likely to form a positive ethnic identity?
...
What is the main developmental trend evident in vocational choice?
increasing realism with age
What did Bright, Pryor and Harpham (2005) find about occupations?
many teenagers simply do not explore a range of possible occupations and then make informed choices.
Briefly explain the five influences on identity formation.
cognitive development- adolescents who have achieved solid mastery of formal-operational thought, who think in complex and abstract ways, and who are self-directed and actively seek relevant info when they face decisions are more likely than other adolesc
What did Robins et al. (2002) find?
...
What did Ryff (1991) find was related to maintaining a positive self-image until late adulthood?
our sense of falling short closes later in life
What did Hausdorff, Levy and Wei (1999) find about negative aging stereotypes?
that negative sterotypes can hurt the performance of elderly adults
How early can cultural differences in self-descriptions of individuals living in collectivistic vs. individualistic societies be detected?
3 or 4
What did Pomerantz, Qin, Wang and Chen (2009) find regarding adolescent self-descriptions?
As American children become adolescents, they put less emphasis on their relationship with their parents in their self-definitions, whereas Chinese students continue to keep their parents in a prominent role.
Describe the conflict or "crisis" at each of the 8 Eriksonian stages.
trust vs. mistrust- can i trust others?
autonomy vs. shame and doubt- can i act on my own?
initiative vs. guilt- can i carry out my plans successfully?
industry vs. inferiority- am i competent compared to tohers?
identity vs. role confusion- who am i and
Is Levinson's theory of a midlife crisis well supported?
no
What is selective optimization with compensation?
a strategy for improving health and wellbeing in older adults and a model for successful ageing. It is recommended that seniors select and optimize their best abilities and most intact functions while compensating for declines and losses.
For example, an
What makes for a favorable adjustment to retirement?
retire voluntary rather than involuntary and feel in control of their retirement decision.
enjoy good physical and mental health.
have positive personality traits such as agreeableness and emotional stability.
have the financial resources to live comforta
Which successful aging theory is right, activity or disengagement?
a combo of both