Chapter 14 - Personality

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

Pattern of psychological characteristics
Leads us to act conssistently
Still subject to enviro influences

Question 2

Trait

Answer 2

Stable predisposition (as opposed to being in a state)

Question 3

Two traditions of personality study (and science in general)

Answer 3

1. Nomothetic - seeking out general principles that apply to all people (more common)
2. Idiographic - identifying unique configurations of characteristics and history of a individual (less common)

Question 4

How many english terms describe personality, per Allport and Odbert

Answer 4

17,000

Question 5

Eysenck diagram of 4 traits and combinations

Answer 5

Unstable, Stable
Introverted, Extroverted

Unstable introvert is neurotic
Unstable extrovert is psychotic
Stable extrovert is extroverted
Stable introvert is UNDEFINED

Question 6

Situationism and its rebuttal

Answer 6

Walter Mischel’s Critique of trait/big five
Said behaviour is not consistent across situations and that our behaviour is more a function of the situation not traits

BUT Seymour Epstein found that traits do aggregate (factor analysis) across situations

Question 7

Eros and Thanatos

Answer 7

Victorian era notion of the two instinctual forces, sexuality and aggression

Question 8

Id, Superego, Ego

Answer 8

Id - Reservoir of primitive impulses; obeys pleasure principle (striving immediate gratification)

Superego - Our sense of morality; obeys idealistic principle (striving for perfect moral behaviour)

Ego - Our executive and principal decision maker; obeys reality principle (delaying gratification)

Question 9

Defense Mechanisms

Answer 9

Used by ego to defend itself

1. Repression - buries anxiety (threatening momories) into unconscious; most critical
2. Denial - refusing to acknowledge the anxiety
3. Projection - seeing one’s own unacceptable feelings in others
4. Reaction formation - reversing nature of anxiety
5. Sublimation - channeling anxiety into sociall–acceptable activities

Question 10

Psychosexual Theory

Answer 10

Old Age Pensioners Love Grapes

Oral (birth-1) - Id
Anal (1-3) - Ego
Phallic (3-6) - Superego
Latency (6-11) 
Genital (adolescence)

Question 11

Humanist approach to personality

Answer 11

• Carl Rogers
• Reaction to psychoanalysis
• Rejected determinism; embraced free-will and self-awareness
• Self-actualization is core motive in personality
• Pers. comes from innate self, beliefs about self

Question 12

Behavioural approaches to personality

Answer 12

• Personality based on classical, operant, and observational learning
• Genetic factors plus reinforcers and punishments
• Parents can shape child’s pers. through reward/punishment

Question 13

Cognitive/social learning approach to pers.

Answer 13

Reciprocal determinism - mutual influences: personality, cognition, behaviour, environment