Personality

Question 1

What is personality?

Answer 1

Individual’s characteristic style of thought, behaviours, and feeling

Question 2

Personality - Idiographic approach

Answer 2

Study of individuals

Question 3

Personality - nomothetic approach

Answer 3

Study of common trends in the population

Question 4

Study of personality has two main components, which are:

Answer 4

• Measuring personality
• Explaining personality

Question 5

2 ways to measure personality?

Answer 5

• Personality inventories
• Personality techniques

Question 6

Measuring personality - personality inventories

Answer 6

Personality tests/scales

Question 7

Criterias of personality inventories

Answer 7

• Rely on self report
• Subjective answers about one’s own behaviours, thoughts, and feelings
• Usually administered in an interview or written questionnaire

Question 8

What is validity?

Answer 8

A test measures what it says it measures

Question 9

What is reliability?

Answer 9

A test produces the same results each time

Question 10

Most online personality tests have…

Answer 10

very low validity and reliability

Question 11

What test is widely regarded as a clinically valid personality test?

Answer 11

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Question 12

Why use true/false/can’t answer questions in personality tests?

Answer 12

• Standardization (easy scoring & comparison)
• Reduces ambiguity
• Detects response patterns
• “Can’t say” prevents forced guessing

Question 13

Some criticisms of personality inventories?

Answer 13

• Test taker can be biased to report socially desirable traits.
• Test taker may not know everything about themselves
• Test may be culturally invalid
• Test interpreter may be biased

Question 14

Examples of personality theories

Answer 14

• Trait-biological approach (Big Five)
• Social-cognitive approach
• Psychodynamic approach
• Humanist approach

Question 15

Personality approach - Trait biological approach

Answer 15

attempts to describe personalities as a series of traits

Question 16

What are traits?

Answer 16

A relatively stable disposition to behave in a
particular and consistent way

Question 17

Steps of trait-biological approach

Answer 17

1. Individuals rate themselves on hundreds of traits
2. Traits that are highly correlated are combined into factors
3. Traits with no correlation to one another are considered parts of separate factors

Question 18

Personality approach - The Big Five (trait-biological approach)

Answer 18

• Openness
• Conscientiousness
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism
• Extraversion

Question 19

Personality traits are…

Answer 19

relatively stable and stability increases across lifespan

Question 20

Stability increases across the lifespan means that…

Answer 20

Our rank-order in personality traits stay mostly the same, especially as we get older –> also called rank-order stability

Question 21

Some change in the Trait-biological approach occurs, such as:

Answer 21

1. Mean-level changes
2. Intraindividual change

Question 22

Changes in trait-biologial approach - Mean-level changes

Answer 22

Although our rank-order remains fairly consistent, the mean levels of traits in our cohort change

Question 23

Changes in trait-biologial approach - Intraindividual change

Answer 23

• Significant changes in a
  A person’s personality from
  one time to the next

Question 24

Intraindividual change is usually more rare, it occurs after … experiences, such as …

Answer 24

life changing experiences, such as trauma

Question 25

What is the largest single factor of traits?

Answer 25

Genetics

Question 26

The big five traits have a heritability factor of between ... and ...

Answer 26

0.35 and 0.49

Question 27

A heritability factor of 0.00 means that genetics...

Answer 27

plays no role in a physical/psychological trait (there are virtually none of these in psychology)

Question 28

A heritability factor of 1.00 means that...

Answer 28

genetics is completely responsible for a trait (e.g., eye colour)

Question 29

Are infants' temperaments predictive of their adult personalities?

Answer 29

Yes

Question 30

What is temperament?

Answer 30

an infant’s characteristic activity level, mood, attention span, and distractibility

Question 31

Who developed psychoanalysis?

Answer 31

Sigmund's freud

Question 32

What does psychodynamic theory states?

Answer 32

Personality is formed by needs, strivings and desires largely operating outside of awareness

Question 33

Dynamic unconcious are...

Answer 33

mental processes that are outside our awareness

Question 34

Dynamic unconscious are divided into three parts, which are...

Answer 34

1. Id 2. Superego 3. Ego

Question 35

Dynamic unconscious - id

Answer 35

- Hedonic principle - Intrinsic motivation

Question 36

Dynamic unconscious - Superego

Answer 36

Internalization of right/wrong, rules

Question 37

Dynamic unconscious - Ego

Answer 37

moderates and controls behaviour ■ Balances id and superego ■ Extrinsic motivation

Question 38

According to freud, the dynamic unconscious is developed in a series of....

Answer 38

psychosexual stages

Question 39

Psychosexual stages

Answer 39

Oral (0–1) – pleasure from mouth (feeding, sucking) Anal (1–3) – control and toilet training Phallic (3–6) – focus on genitals, Oedipus/Electra conflict Latency (6–puberty) – sexual energy quiet, social development Genital (puberty+) – mature sexuality and relationships

Question 40

Freud argues that conflicts between the three dynamic unconscious parts cause...

Answer 40

anxiety

Question 41

To resolve anxiety, freud argues that we rely on..

Answer 41

defence mechanisms

Question 42

Denial

Answer 42

Refusing to accept reality or fact

Question 43

Repression

Answer 43

Blocking disturbing thoughts from consciousness

Question 44

Projection

Answer 44

Putting own thoughts or feelings on others

Question 45

Displacement

Answer 45

Redirecting impulses onto powerless subtitutes

Question 46

Regression

Answer 46

Reverting to an earlier stage of development

Question 47

Sublimation

Answer 47

Channeling impulses into socially accepted behaviors

Question 48

Rationalization

Answer 48

Making excuses for unacceptable behavior

Question 49

Reaction

Answer 49

Behaving in opposite ways to how you feel

Question 50

Introjection

Answer 50

Taking on behaviors of someone else to avoid distress

Question 51

Identification

Answer 51

Adopting behavior of hostile person to avoid abuse

Question 52

Within the psychodynamic approach, another way to measure personality is with...

Answer 52

Projective techniques

Question 53

What is projective technique?

Answer 53

- Tests designed to reveal inner aspects of individuals’ personalities by analysis of their responses to a standard series of ambiguous stimuli - Pictures of people, objects, events or abstract stimuli are shown to subjects, who report what they see

Question 54

The 2 most famous projective technique?

Answer 54

- Rorschach (“roar-shack”) inkblot test – Thematic apperception test (TAT)

Question 55

Rorschach inkblots

Answer 55

A projective technique in which respondents’ inner thoughts and feelings are believed to be revealed by analysis of their responses to a set of unstructured inkblots

Question 56

Thematic apperception tests

Answer 56

- Patients are shown a card with an ambiguous scene ■ They are asked to make up a story about this scene – Many of the scenes elicit common themes from many respondents – Any details that the respondent makes up are thought to be aspects of that respondent’s personality

Question 57

Problems with projective techniques?

Answer 57

1. Results are difficult to interpret 2. Interpretations can be subjective

Question 58

What is the behaviourist approach?

Answer 58

Behaviours with positive outcomes are reinforced

Question 59

According to the behaviourist/social-cognitive approach, personality is..

Answer 59

how a person deals with the situations encountered in daily life

Question 60

Trait theorist argues that...

Answer 60

Individual personalities are similar across situations

Question 61

What are personal constructs?

Answer 61

Social-cognitive theorists argue that we base our behaviour on personal constructs, which we use to make sense of our worlds

Question 61

Social-cognitive theories argues that...

Answer 61

individuals’ personalities depend on the situation

Question 62

Outcome expectancies

Answer 62

Beliefs about how a behaviour will affect your goals — whether it will bring you closer to or further from desired outcomes. Example: Studying → good grades (positive expectancy) Procrastinating → stress and poor performance (negative expectancy)

Question 63

Humanistic approach

Answer 63

Humanistic theories have positive, optimistic view of human nature, believe that humans have free will

Question 64

What separates humanistic approach from the others?

Answer 64

Free will

Question 65

Humanist approach argues that...

Answer 65

humans seek out a realization of their inner potential (self-actualization)

Question 66

Humanists argues that our differences arise from...

Answer 66

environmental constraints against climbing our needs hierarchy