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Define the construct of personality in terms of consistency and distinctiveness.
Personality refers to enduring patterns of thought, feeling, and behaviour (consistency) that differentiate one person from another (distinctiveness).
Explain what is meant by a personality trait. Describe the five-factor model of personality.
A trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way. The Five-Factor Model: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.
Describe the three structures into which Freud divided personality. Explain how his three levels of awareness are superimposed on these psychic structures.
Id (instincts), Ego (reality), Superego (morality). Awareness levels: Conscious, Preconscious, Unconscious—each structure operates across these levels.
Explain the dominance of sexual and aggressive conflicts in Freud’s theory. Describe the operation of defence mechanisms.
Freud believed unconscious sexual/aggressive drives create anxiety. Defence mechanisms unconsciously distort reality to reduce anxiety (e.g., repression, projection).
It has been suggested that age and habit may influence a person’s choice of defence mechanism.
Research suggests younger people use more primitive defences; habitual coping patterns solidify over time into preferred defence styles.
Outline Freud’s psychosexual stages of development and their theorized relations to adult personality.
Stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital. Fixations from conflicts at each stage shape adult traits (e.g., oral dependence, anal orderliness).
Summarize the revisions to Freud’s theory proposed by Jung and by Adler.
Jung: collective unconscious, archetypes. Adler: striving for superiority, importance of social environment and birth order.
Summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach to personality.
Strengths: emphasizes unconscious, early experience. Weaknesses: poor testability, unrepresentative samples, weak empirical evidence.
Explain how Skinner’s principles of operant conditioning can be applied to an understanding of personality.
Personality develops through reinforcement histories; behaviour patterns persist because they have been rewarded or avoided punishment.
Describe Bandura’s social learning theory.
Personality shaped by observational learning, cognitive processes, and reciprocal determinism (interaction of person, behaviour, environment).
Identify Mischel’s major contribution to personality theory. Why have his ideas generated controversy?
He argued behaviour varies by situation rather than stable traits. Controversial because it challenged trait-based consistency assumptions.
Summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the behavioural approach to personality.
Strengths: empirical, measurable. Weaknesses: neglects internal processes, underestimates biological and personal agency.
Explain how humanism was a reaction against behavioural and psychodynamic approaches. Outline the assumptions of the humanistic view.
It emphasized free will, personal growth, and inherent goodness. Assumptions: subjective experience matters; people strive for growth.
Identify the single structural construct in Rogers’s person-centred theory. Summarize his view of personality development.
Self-concept. Development depends on receiving unconditional positive regard, enabling a congruent, healthy self.
Explain what Maslow meant by self-actualization. Summarize his findings on self-actualizing people.
Self-actualization: fulfilling one’s potential. Such people are creative, autonomous, realistic, and problem-centred.
Summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the humanistic approach to personality.
Strengths: focus on growth, positive psychology roots. Weaknesses: vague concepts, limited empirical support.
Describe Eysenck’s biological theory of personality.
Traits arise from biological differences in arousal and conditioning; key dimensions: extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism.
Summarize the evidence regarding personality similarity in twins and other research on the heritability of personality.
Twin studies show moderate to high heritability (approx. 40–60%); identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins.
Summarize the evolutionary approach to personality.
Traits evolved because they solved adaptive problems (e.g., cooperation, mate selection, survival).
Summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the biological approach to personality.
Strengths: strong empirical support; integrates genetics and physiology. Weaknesses: may overemphasize heredity; underplays environment.
Describe the connection between culture and personality
Culture shapes trait expression, self-concept, and social norms; differences seen between individualistic vs collectivistic cultures.
Outline the four principal uses of personality tests.
Clinical diagnosis, counselling, personnel selection, research.
Describe the self-report inventories. Summarize their strengths and weaknesses.
Structured questionnaires. Strengths: efficient, objective. Weaknesses: social desirability, response biases.
