1
Q
What does evolutionary psych have to do with personality psych?
A
- Making & testing predictions about personality from evolutionary psychology
- Core assumption: human traits and personalities have developed because they are adaptive (i.e., helpful) and that is why it has continued over time
2
Q
What is natural selection?
A
- Naturally occurring variation leads to differences in the ability to survive and reproduce (reproductive success. The next generation contains more of the successful.
- Thus, successful variants are selected and unsuccessful variants are weeded out
- Over time, successful variants (i.e., recipes) come to characterized entire species
- Forces in the environment that threaten survival (hostile forces of nature) lead to the weeding out of the unsuccessful variants and the species that are able to survive possess the successful variants.
3
Q
What is adaptation?
A
- Adaptations: inherited solution to survival and reproductive problems posed by hostile forces of nature
- The primary products of selection, defined as “reliably developing structure in the organism which, because it meshes with the recurrent structure of the world, causes the solution to an adaptive problem”
- Adaptive problem: anything that impeded survival or reproduction
4
Q
What are by products of adaptation and noise?
A
- By products of adaptations: incidental byproducts (e.g., a lightbulb produces light but heat is a by product) (a by product of extraversion is sociability). Consequences of adaptations
- Noise or random variation: Introduced through the gene pool through mutations. Do not impede the function of adaptations.
5
Q
Why was the term sexual selection coined?
A
- Many mechanisms seemed to threaten survival (seemed to contradict natural selection; E.g., peacock’s elaborate plumage)
- Evolution by sexual selection as a solution
6
Q
What is sexual selection?
A
Traits that evolved because they contributed to an individual’s mating success
7
Q
Intrasexual selection vs. intersexual selection?
A
- Intrasexual competition: members of the same sex compete with each other for sexual access to members of the other sex (e.g., male-to-male combat)
- Intersexual competition: members of one sex choose a mate based on their preferences for particular qualities in that mate (e.g., peacock mating video, the male had a big and colourful plumage which signals high quality genetics)
8
Q
What did the discovery of genes as a unit of inheritance lead to?
A
- Discovery of the gene as a unit of inheritance led to key discovery, that natural selection and sexual selection are different forms of the same process (in order to reproduce you need to have survived and if you have survived and reproduced you pass on the successful variants for survival)
- Differential gene reproduction- reproductive success relative to others
9
Q
What is the inclusive fitness theory?
A
- Personal reproductive success (number of offspring you produce) plus effects you have on the reproduction of your genetic relatives, weighed by genetic relatedness
- We make these decisions at a subconscious level (we always give priority to a relative with the most reproductive success potential, because it increases our own indirect fitness.
10
Q
What are the 4 components of human nature?
A
- Need to belong: belonging was essential to survival because of shared resources and protection
- Helping and altruism: Some people say there is no such thing as true altruism (we always expect something in return). We are much more helpful to our ingroup than our outgroup, we have preferences. Study found that people were more likely to help people who had similar faces to them, any indication of kinship tends to increase altruism (similar last name)
- Universal emotions: Different emotions serve different purposes. We have primary emotions that are associated with ancient parts of the brain (near the back). Social emotions are helpful as well. Emotions involved to increase survival (love creates bonds, fear signals danger, shame/guilt signals that you’ve done something wrong and need to make amends). Serve adaptive purposes.
- Depression: Different types of depression, depression might have evolved as a useful adaptation. Depression that follows a social loss, bereavement (seek social support), depression that comes from failure (followed by fatigue, pessimism and guilt). The pain from all these types signal that something has gone wrong, it is important then to feel the pain that follows because then we know something has to be fixed. It threatened our reproductive survival and we need to know that and that poses different types of risk on our survival (cue for us to divert energies somewhere else)
11
Q
When will males and females be similar vs. different?
A
- Males and females will be the same or similar in all domains where sexes have faced the same or similar adaptive problems
- Males and females will be different in those domains where sexes recurrently faced different adaptive problems.
- Paternal uncertainty for males and potential lack of resources during pregnancy and infancy for females
12
Q
What are the sex differences in jealousy?
A
- Men over evolutionary history have risked investing in children who were not their own
- Men should be more jealous in response to cues to a sexual infidelity
- Women should become more distressed over a partner’s emotional infidelity (leaving them)
13
Q
What were the results of the study done by Shackleford, Buss & Bennett (2002) on romantic jealousy?
A
- Students 264 completed surveys and faced with several forced-choice dilemmas. E.g., what would upset you more? Sexual infidelity or emotional infidelity?
- Results: Men relative to women, find it more difficult to forgive a sexual infidelity than an emotional infidelity. Men, relative to women, are more likely to terminate a current relationship following a partner’s sexual infidelity than an emotional infidelity.
- The conclusion: we see evidence that based on different adaptive problems that men and women have faced that there are differences in jealousy
14
Q
What did Clark and Hatfield find about desire for sexual activity?
A
- Members of the sex that invests less in offspring, are predicted to be less discriminating in their selection of mates & more inclined to seek out multiple mates
- Evolutionary theory predicts men are more inclined to seek multiple mates to increase their reproductive success
15
Q
What is the relationship between the big 5 and evolutionarily relevant adaptive problems?
A
- Big five personality traits as clusters of key features of “adaptive landscape” of other people
- Humans have evolved “difference detecting mechanisms” designed to notice and remember individual differences that have most relevance for solving social adaptive problems
16
Q
What are the limitations of evolutionary psychology?
A
- Evolution has a large time span
- Can’t go back in time/testability
- Precise selective forces
- Modern conditions does not equal ancestral conditions
17
Q
Who is Freud?
A
most famous psychologist. His worked was based on a lot of misunderstandings, he thought humans were governed by two instincts: sex and aggression (based on the time he lived)
18
Q
What were the key ideas of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis?
A
- Psychic determinism
- Internal structure
- Psychic conflict
- Mental energy
19
Q
What is psychic determinism?
A
- Psychic determinism: the mind has a cause
- Determinism: basic tenet of science
- No room for free will, miracles or accidents
- All contradictions can be resolved
- Purpose of psychoanalysis: dig deep into hidden part of the mind to find answers
- Assumption: unconscious mental processes (people are under the influence of these processes, explanations for behaviour)
20
Q
What is the internal structure of the mind?
A
- Conscious: Contains thoughts, feelings and images about which you are presently aware
- Preconscious: Contains information you are not presently thinking about, but can be easily retrieved and made conscious
- Unconscious: Largest part of the human mind. Holds thoughts and memories about which person is unaware. Includes unacceptable sexual aggressive urges, thoughts and feelings
21
Q
What is psychic conflict?
A
- Mind is divided, Hence, there is conflict between these parts
- Compromise formation
- Result: what individual consciously thinks and does
- Without compromise: Strong and contradictory impulses
22
Q
What is mental energy?
A
- All human activity driven by psychic energy
- Psychic energy:
a. Psychic energy motivates action
b. Amount is constant through lifetime (law of energy)
c. Personality change occurs with redirections of
psychic energy
d. Source of psychic energy = instincts
23
Q
What are the two basic instincts?
A
- Strong innate forces that provide all the energy in the psychic system
1. Life instinct (libido)
i. Sexual and self-preservation instincts
2. Death instinct (Thanatos)
i. Aggressive and destructive instincts - Although Freud initially argued life and death instincts oppose each other, later he argues they could combine (e.g., in eating)
24
Q
What is unconscious motivation?
A
Freud argued that unconscious material can take on a life of its own- Freud called this the motivated unconscious- material can leak into thoughts, feelings and behaviours
25
What is the psychoanalytic theory concerned with?
Psychoanalytic personality theory concerns how people cope with their sexual and aggressive instincts within the constraints
26
What are the three parts of the mind?
- One part of the mind creates these urges (id), another part has a sense of what society expects (superego), and another part tries to satisfy urges within the bounds of reality and society (ego)
- Mind as a plumbing system, which contains water under pressure (need to keep pressure balanced)
- Pressure is a metaphor for energy from instincts (the id), which builds up and demands release
- Regarding this internal pressure, three different schools of plumbing: One plumber suggests we open up all valves (id) at the slightest pressure, another (the superego) wants to keep all the valves closed, another (the ego) offers ways to redirect pressure so that the strain is relieved without making a mess.
27
Describe the Id
- reservoir of psychic energy
- Most primitive part of the mind; source of all drives and urges
- Operates according to the pleasure principle; desire for immediate gratification
- Functions according to primary process thinking: without logical rules of conscious thought or anchor in reality
- Wish fulfillment: something unavailable is conjured up and the image of it is temporarily satisfying
28
Describe the ego
- executive of personality
- Develops within the first 2-3 years of life
- Constrains to id to reality
- Operates according to reality principle:
- Desires of the id must be satisfied in a manner that is socially appropriate and realistic
- Operates according to secondary process thinking: development and devising of strategies for problem solving and obtaining satisfaction
29
Describe the Superego
- Upholder of societal values and ideals (norms)
- Develops around 5 years old and internalizes ideals, values, and moral of society
- What some refer to as the conscience
- Like id, superego is not bound by reality and pushes you to obtain ego ideal (what is right)
- Main tool of the superego in enforcing right and wrong is guilt
30
What is ego depletion and ego strength?
- Notion that psychic energy can be depleted through self control efforts, leaving less energy available for later self control efforts
- Active area of research (people instructed to be hungry. radishes vs. cookies- people in the cookie condition did worse because they had to supress the temptation to eat something delicious vs. radishes)
31
What is anxiety and what does it signal?
- Anxiety is an unpleasant state that signals that things are not right and something must be done
- It signals that control of ego is being threatened by reality, by impulses from id or by harsh control exerted by superego
32
What is the relationship between anxiety and defence mechanisms?
-The ego reduces anxiety through the use of defense mechanisms (developed to manage anxiety)
33
What is repression?
Repression: process of preventing unacceptable thoughts, feelings, memories, urges from reaching conscious awareness (people who use this high in anxiety and defensiveness)
34
What is denial?
Denial: insisting that things are not the way they seem, refusing to see the facts (deny reality)
35
What is displacement?
Threatening or unacceptable impulse is unconsciously redirected to a less threatening target (towards other people or objects, not really the source of your anger)
36
What is rationalization?
- Generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that seem unacceptable
- Most common among college students
37
What is reaction formation?
To silence an unacceptable urge, engage in behaviour of an opposite urge (kill them with kindness)
38
What is projection?
See in others the unwanted traits and desires that we possess
39
What is sublimation?
Channel unacceptable sexual or aggressive instincts into socially desirable activities
40
Describe the psychosexual stages of personality development?
- Freud argued that all people pass through a series of stages in personality development
- At each of the first three stages, young children must face and resolve specific conflicts
- Conflicts revolve around ways of obtaining sexual gratification
- Children seek sexual gratification at each stage by investing libidinal energy in a specific body part
- If a child fails to resolve a conflict at a particular stage, he or she may get stuck in that stage (fixated)
41
What is the Oral stage?
- Oral stage (birth-18months): mouth, lips, tongue
- Where the life force and primary feelings of pleasure are concentrated
- Key conflict: weaning (withdrawing from the breast or bottle)
- Theme: dependency
- Needs met at this stage in life --> next stage
- Fixation: dependent or overly independent
42
What is the anal stage?
- Anal stage (18 months to 3 years): anus & organs of elimination
- Child obtains pleasure from first expelling feces and hen during toilet trainign, from retaining feces
- Key conflict: tension reduction vs. self control
- Theme: self control
- Parental extremes (expect too much or too little) --> fixation
- Fixation: obedient and obsessed with order or anti-authority and chaotic
43
What is the phallic stage?
- Phallic stage (3 to 5 years): sexual organs
- Child discovers that he has (or that she doesn’t have) a penis
- Key conflict: sexual desire directed toward parent of opposite sex
- Produces oedipal (boys) and Electra (girls) conflicts
- Unconscious wish to have opposite sex parent all to self by eliminating same sex parent (thinks the father knows about it and the worst punishment is castration so they abandon this desire to have sex with mother)
- Resolution = development of superego
- Theme: gender identity and sexuality
- Fixation: over or under-sexualized
44
What is the latency stage?
- Latency (6 years to puberty): psychological rest
- Little psychological development occurs
- Focus of child is on learning skills and abilities necessary to succeed as adult
- Theme: cognitive development
45
What is the genital stage?
- Genital stage (puberty through adult life): genitals
- People reach this stage only if conflicts are resolved at previous stages
- Theme: creating and enhancement of life
- Result of reaching this stage --> mature adult (seldom achieved- because everyone encounters issues)
46
What are the goals of psychoanalysis?
- Psychoanalysis is also a method of psychotherapy—a method of deliberately restructuring personality
- Goal is to make the unconscious conscious
- - > First, identify unconscious thoughts and feelings
- - > Second, enable the person to deal with it realistically and maturely
47
What are the different techniques for revealing the unconscious?
- Free association: client is encouraged to let mind wander and is encouraged to say whatever comes to mind
- Dream analysis: Interpretation of content of dreams to uncover the unacceptable urges and impulses. Manifest content: what actually happens in a dream and Latent content: what the elements of the dream represent
- Projective techniques: people project personalities and unconscious thoughts on ambiguous stimuli (inkblot)
48
What is the process of psychoanalysis?
- psychoanalysts offers interpretations of psychodynamic causes of problems
- Through many interpretations, the patient gains insight- an understanding of the unconscious source of problems
- But process is difficult and wrought with roadblocks and challenges
- Resistance: patient unconsciously sets up obstacles as his/her defenses are threatened by psychoanalysis
- Transference: patient reacts to therapist
- Repetition compulsion
49
Why is psychoanalysis important?
- Continuing influence on modern psychotherapy
- Laid foundation for topics/questions that psychologists still interested in today (personality development, structure of personality, importance of unconscious)
- Psychoanalysis has had major impact on psychology, psychiatry, as well as on western thought and culture
50
What are the criticisms of Freud/his theory?
- Freuds theory is primarily of historical value and does not directly inform much current personality research
- Freud did not believe in the value of experimentation or hypothesis testing in establishing the validity in psychoanalysis
- Freud relied on case studies of a select group (educated, wealthy women) to generate theory of human nature
- Some personality psychologists take issue with Freud's view of human nature (and women)
51
What are the 7 types of defence mechanisms?
- Repression
- Denial
- rationalization
- Sublimination
- Reaction Formation
- Projection
- Displacement
PSYC 2600 Midterm 2
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