Personality

1. Personality Chapter 11

2. What is Personality? The pattern of psychological and behavioral characteristics by which each person can be compared and contrasted with other people.

3. Psychodynamic Approach A view developed by Freud emphasizing unconscious mental processes in explaining human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Freud believed that we are all born with basic needs and instincts. Each person has the task of figuring out how to meet these needs. According to Freud the personality develops out of each person�s struggle with this task.

4. The Structure of Personality Id: A personality component containing basic instincts, desires, and impulses with which all people are born. Contained in the Id is the Pleasure Principle, the operating principle of the id which guides people toward whatever feels good regardless of society�s rules or the rights and feelings of others. EX: the hungry person who pushes to the front of the line at Burger King would be satisfying an id driven instinct.

5. Ego: The part of the personality that makes compromises and mediates conflicts between and among the demands of the id, the super ego, and the real world. The ego is responsible for organizing ways to get what a person wants in the real world, as opposed to the fantasy world of the id. Operates on the Reality Principle, the operating principle of the ego, which takes into account the constraints of the social world. EX: the ego would influence the hungry person at Burger King to wait in line and think about what to order rather than risk punishment by pushing ahead.

6. Superego: the component of the personality that tells people what they should or should not do. Represents our sense of morality. The process of internalizing parental and societal values creates the superego. EX: would make the pushy person at Burger King feel guilty for even thinking about violating culturally approved rules about standing in line and taking turns.

7. Defense Mechanisms: Unconscious tactics that either prevent threatening material from surfacing or disguise it when it does. Repression Rationalization Projection Reaction Formation Sublimation Displacement Denial Compensation

8. Freud�s Stages of Personality Development Psychosexual Stages: periods of personality development in which internal and external conflicts focus on particular issues. Failure to resolve the conflicts that appear at any of these stages can leave a person fixated. Freud believes that these fixations can be seen in an adults personality characteristics.

9. Oral Stage Occurs during the first year of life in which the mouth is the center of pleasure. Freud says that personality problems arise when oral needs are either neglected or overindulged. Early or late weaning from breastfeeding /bottle feeding = an adult who talks too much, overeats, smokes, drinks excessively or uses biting sarcasm.

10. Anal Stage Occurs during the second year of life in which the focus of pleasure shifts from the mouth to the anus and when the child�s ego develops to cope with parental demands for socially appropriate behavior. Toilet Training: too harsh or begins too early = adult who is stingy or preoccupied with neatness; too late or too lax = adults who are disorganized or impulsive.

11. Phallic Stage Ages 3-5 in which the focus of pleasure shifts to the genital area. Oedipus Complex: The notion that young boys impulses involves sexual feelings for the mother and the desire to eliminate the father. Electra Complex: The notion that young girls develop an attachment to the father and compete with the mother for the father�s attention. A child fixated in this stage as an adult can have problems with authority figures and have an inability to maintain a stable love relationship.

12. Latency Period Starts around age 5 through childhood, in which sexual impulses become dormant and the child focuses on education, same sex peer play, and the development of social skills.

13. Genital Stage Begins during adolescence through the rest of a person�s life, when sexual impulses begin to appear at the conscious level. Freud believes the quality of relationships and the degree of fulfillment experienced during this stage are directly affected by how intrapsychic conflicts were resolved during the earlier stages.

14. Trait Approach A perspective on personality that views it as the combination of stable characteristics that people display overtime and across situations. Personality traits remain stable and therefore predictable over time. Personality traits remain stable over situations. People differ from one another in how much of a particular personality trait they possess.

15. The Big 5 Model A view based on factor analytic studies suggesting the existence of 5 basic components of human personality. Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Agreeableness Conscientiousness

16. Social Cognitive Approach An approach to personality that views personality as a label summarizing the unique patterns of thinking and behavior that a person learns. Believes that personality is something we learn through our experiences. Rotter�s Expectancy Theory Bandura and Reciprocal Determinism Mischel�s Cognitive/Affective Theory

17. Humanistic Approach A view of behavior as controlled by the decisions that people make about their lives based on their perceptions of the world. View human behavior as motivated mainly by an innate drive toward growth that prompts people to fill their unique potential. To explain people�s actions, it is more important to understand their view of the world than their instincts, traits, or learning experiences.

18. Roger�s Self Theory Those who accurately experience the self-with all its preferences, abilities, fantasies, shortcomings, and desires-are on the road to self actualization. Actualizing Tendency: an innate inclination toward growth and fulfillment that motivates all human behavior. Self Concept: the way one thinks of oneself. Conditions of Worth: Circumstances in which an individual experiences positive regard from others only when displaying certain behaviors or attitudes. Incongruence is likely when parents and teachers lead children to believe that their worth as a person depends on displaying the �right� attitudes, behaviors, and values.

19. Assessing Personality Objective Personality Test: asks clear questions about a person�s thoughts, feelings, or behavior. A form listing clear, specific questions, statements, or concepts to which people are asked to respond. NEO-PI-R(measure the Big 5 Personality Traits) MMPI(10 clinical scales plotted as a profile)

20. Projective Personality Tests: personality tests made up of relatively unstructured stimuli in which responses are seen as reflecting the individual�s unconscious needs, fantasies, conflicts, thought patterns, and other aspects of personality. Can be interpreted in more than one way. Drawing or word associations TAT Rorschach Inkblot Test