Personality
A person's thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors
Personality Trait
A pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that is relatively consistent over time and across situations
---traits are dispositions to think, act, or feel in predictable ways in certain situations
Twin's and Siblings
Twin's: identical twins more alike than fraternal; Personality of those raised apart more different than those raised together; genes account for half of variance in personality
Siblings: differences could be because of peers, function of age; parents aff
Temperaments
Biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways
--broader than personality traits, represent biological structures of personality and are more stable
--infant temperaments may predict adult personality and later behaviors according to evidenc
3 Main temperament styles are the main personality factors influence by genes
Activity level: overall amount of energy and of behavior a person exhibits
Emotionality: describes the intensity of emotional reactions
Sociability: refers to the general tendency to affiliate with others
Inhibited Characteristic
Biological, amygdaloid linked; shyness persists throughout unless parents modulate environment
Psychodynamic Theory
The Freudian theory that unconscious forces determine behavior
Consciousness Level
Consists of thoughts that people are aware of
Preconscious Level
Consists of content that is not currently in awareness but could be brought to awareness (analogous to LTM)
Unconscious Level
Contains material that the mind cannot easily retrieve, including hidden memories, wishes, desires, and motivds
Freud
Proposed model of how personalty is organized.
According to psycho-dynamic theory, unique interactions of the id, ego, and superego produce individual differences in personality
Id
The component of personality that is completely submerged in the unconscious and operates according to the pleasure principle (seek pleasure and avoid pain)(force that drives pleasure principle: libido)
Ego
Mediates between the id and the superego.
The ego tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while being responsive to the dictates of the superego.
Operates on Reality Principle: which involves rational thought and problem solving.
Conscious: allows for delay
Superego
The internalization of societal and parental standards of conduct.
It is a rigid structure of morality or conscience.
Defense Mechanisms (Anna Freud)
Conflicts between the id and superego lead to anxiety. The ego then copes with anxiety through various defense mechanisms.
--are unconscious mental strategies that the mind uses to protect itself (self esteem) from distress
Denial
refusing to acknowledge source of anxiety
Ex: ill person ignores medical advice
Repression
excluding source of anxiety from awareness
Ex: person fails to remember an unpleasant event
Projection
attributing unacceptable qualities of the self to someone else
Ex: competitive person describes others as super competitive
Reaction formation
warding off an uncomfortable thought by overemphasizing its opposite
Ex: Person w/ acknowledged homosexual desires makes homophobic remarks
Rationalization
concocting a seemingly logical reason or excuse for behavior that might otherwise be shameful
Ex: person cheats on taxes because "everyone does it
Displacement
shifting the attention of emotion from one object to another
Ex: person yells at children after a bad day at work
Sublimation
channeling socially unacceptable impulses into constructive, even admirable, behavior
Ex: sadist becomes a surgeon or dentist
Psychosexual Stges
according to Freud, developmental stages that correspond to distinct libidinal urges; progression through these stages profoundly affects personality
-In each stage, libido is focused on one of the erogenous zones: mouth, the anus, or the genitals
-some p
Oral Stage
Birth to approx. 18 months
-seek pleasure from mouth (suckling)
-stuck here develop oral personalities, seek pleasure through mouth (like smoking), excessively needy
Anal Stage
2 to 3 years old
-toilet training, learning to control bowels leads them to focus on the anus
-stuck here develop anal-retentive personalities, stubborn and highly regulating, may rise from overly strict toilet training or excessively rule-based child rea
Phallic Stage
3 to 5 years old
-they direct their libidinal energies toward the genitals
-children desire an exclusive relationship with the opposite-sex parent, develop rival with same-sex parent
-----Known as Oedipus Complex in Boys
-children develop unconscious wish
Latency Stage
follows phallic stage
-children suppress libidinal urges or channel them into doing schoolwork or building friendships
Genital Stage
adolescents and adults
-attain mature attitudes about sexuality and adulthood. they center their libidinal urges on the capacities to reproduce and to contribute to society.
Adler
thought Freud was misogynistic.
-viewed the ri mary conflict as based on fears of inadequacy, which he called the inferiority complex.
Horney
Also thought Freud was misogynistic.
-fear of abandonment (basic insecurity).
--thought this resulted from child's relationship with mother
Objects relations theory
A person's mind and sense of self develop in relation to others in a particular environment
--in reference to children's emotional attachments to their parents or primary caregivers
Rotter
Behavior is a function of two things: the person's expectancies for reinforcement and the values the person ascribes to particular reinforcers
People differ in how much they believe their efforts will lead to positive outcomes
-internal locus of control:
Kelly
Personal constructs are personal theories of how the world works
--they develop through experiences and represent each individual's interpretations and explanations of events in his or her social world
Cognitive social theories of perpersonality
These theories emphasize how personal beliefs expectancies and interpretations of social situations shape behavior and personality
Bandura
Argued that people's beliefs, thoughts, and expectations interact with their environment influence their behavior
---important determinant of behavior is: self-efficacy: refers to how much people believe they can achieve specific outcomes (through observa
Mischel
CAPS (cognitive affective personality system: people's personalities often fail to predict their behavior across different circumstances, instead responses are influenced by how they perceive a given situation, their affective (emotional) responses to the
Self-regulatory capacities
Refers to individual's relative ability to set personal goals, evaluate their progress, and adjust their behavior accordingly
What is personality?
Represents behavior that emerges from the interaction of 3 factors:
1. People's interpretations of their social worlds
2. Their beliefs about how they will affect their social situations
3. Their beliefs about how they will be affected by their social sit
Humanistic approaches
Approaches to studying personality that emphasize how people seek to fulfill their potential through greater self-understanding
---self-actualization
Rogers
Person-centered approach: emphasized people's subjective understandings of their lives
Unconditional positive regard
Parents should accept and prize their children no matter how they behave. May voice disapproval but should also express their love for their children.
Trait approach
An approach to studying personality that focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions
Cattel 16 basic dimensions of personality
Came from Alpert and Odbert 18,000 dictionary words
Five factor theory (tested and proven to predict behavior)
The idea that personality can be described using 5 factors: openness to experience, conscientious, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism
---correspond to activity in different brain regions
Eysenck
Biological trait theory: personality is composed of traits that occur in three dimensions: extraversion/introversion, emotionally stable/neurotic, and high constraint/low constraint (paychoticism)
--based on biological processes that produce behaviors, th
Arousal
Reticular Activating System: affects alertness, regulates arousal. Is also involved in inducing and terminating the different stages of sleep.
---resting levels of RAS higher in introverts
Gray
Personality is rooted in two motivational functions: the behavioral approach system and the behavioral inhibition system
Behavioral approach system
The Brian system involved in the pursuit of incentives or rewards
Behavioral inhibition system
The brain system that is sensitive to punishment and therefore inhibits behavior that might lead to danger or pain.
Mischel: situationism
The theory that behavior is determined more by situations than by personality traits
person/situation debate
Personality researchers argues that how much a trait predict behavior depends on 3 factors:
1. Centrality of trait
2. Aggregation of behaviors over time
3. The type of trait being evaluated
---people tend to be more consistent in their central traits than
Strong situations
Tend to mask differences in personality because of the power of the social environment
Weak situations
Tend to reveal differences in personality
Intersectionists
Theorists who believe that behavior is determined jointly by situations and underlying dispositions
McCrae and Costa Model of Personality
They separate basic tendencies of personality form characteristic adaptations.
-Basic Tendencies: are dispositions traits determined largely by biological processes (very stable)
****openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism
-C
When do personality changes occur?
They occur generally as a consequence of the expectations and experiences associated with age-related roles, such as becoming a spouse, a parent, or an employee.
Idiographic
Person-centered approaches to assessing personality; they focus on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons
Nomothetic
Approaches to assessing personality that focus on how common characteristics vary from person to person
Ex: five factor theory
Central traits
Important for how individuals define themselves
Secondary traits
Less personally descriptive or not applicable
Projective measures (psychodynamic theory)
Explore the unconscious by having people describe or tell stories about ambiguous stimulus items
---people will project their mental contents onto the ambiguous items
Ex: Rorschach Inkblot test
Thematic Apperception Test
Used by personality psychologists to study various types of motivation
---can reliably predict how interpersonally dependent people are. Can predict how likely people are to seek approval and support from others
MMPI
Was used for psychopathology but now for personality
---distortion of truth is an issue in self-reporting tests
California Q Short
Is an objective measure: Can be used by observers, sorting cards to describe person being evaluated
Murray
Hitler; idiographic approaches often examine case studies of individuals through interviews or biographical information
McAdams
life story; each person weaves it, which integrates self-knowledge into a coherent whole.
In other words: the individual creates personal myths that bind together past events and future possibilities into one life story
EAR
Records conversation and other auditory info, women don't talk more than men and the happiest people have the most social interaction and more substantive conversations
Vazire: Observers
Close friends can be more accurate for trait judgments
--judgment of self-evaluation depends on whether or not trait is observable or if person has reason to rank themselves positively
---people are biased on highly evaluative traits (those they care abou
Markus: self-schema
Consists of an integrated set of memories, beliefs, and generalizations about the self
Rogers
Showed that when a person processes trait adjectives self-referentially, the person is likely to recall the words better than comparable words processed only for their general meaning
Working self-concept
Immediate experience of the self, is limited to the amount of personal information that can be processed cognitively at any given time
Self-esteem
The evaluative aspect of the self-concept in which people feel worthy or unworthy
Reflective Appraisal
People self-esteem is based on how they believe others perceive them
Leary
Self-esteem as a mechanism for monitoring the likelihood of Sofia exclusion
Sociometer
An internal monitor of social acceptance or rejection
Greenberg: terror management theory
Self-esteem gives meaning to people's lives, protects people from the horror associated with knowing they eventually will die; people create a sense of symbolic immortality through contributions to their culture and upholding its values
Better-than-average-effect
Most people describe themselves as above average in nearly every way
Taylor and Brown
Most people have positive illusions:
1. Better than average effect
2. They unrealistically perceive their personal control over events
3. Most people are unrealistically optimistic about their personal futures
Social comparisons
When people evaluate their own actions, abilities, and beliefs by contrasting them with other people's
Self-serving biases
The tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors
Interdependet self-construals
Happens in collectivist cultures; these people's self-concepts are determined to a large extent by their social roles and personal relationships
Independent self-construals
In individualist cultures; self-reliance, pursue personal success even at the expense of interpersonal relationships; sense of self is based on their feelings of being distinct from others