Psychology Is The Science Of Mind And Behaviour Chapter 11

personality a pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world psychodynamic perspecitves the view that personality is primarily unconscious (beyond awareness) and develops in stages. Most psychoanalytic perspectives emphasize that early experiences with parents play a role in sculpting personality Freudian slips misstatements Freud believed to be revealed unconscious thoughts psychoanalysis Freud's approach to personality hysteria physical symptoms that have no physical cause overdetermined had a multitude of causes in the unconscious id consists of unconscious drives and is the individual's reservoir of psychic energy, has no contact with reality, works according to the pleasure principle (seeks pleasure, avoids pain) ego structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality, abides by reality principle (tries to bring the individual pleasure within the norms of society) superego harsh internal judge of our behavior (judges our morality), also only considers reality (considers if the id's impulses can be satisfied in acceptable moral terms) defense mechanisms reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality repression the master defense mechanism; the ego pushes unacceptable impulses out of awareness, back into the unconscious mind rationalization the ego replaces a less acceptable motive with a more acceptable one displacement the ego shifts feelings toward an unacceptable object to another, more acceptable object sublimation the ego replaces an unacceptable impulse with a socially acceptable one projection the ego attributes personal shortcomings, problems and faults to others reaction formation the ego transforms an unacceptable motive into its opposite denial the ego refuses to acknowledge anxiety-producing realities regression to ego seeks the security of an earlier developmental period in the face of stress oral stage occurs in the first 18 months of life, infants pleasure centers on the mouth; chewing, sucking, and biting are chief sources of pleasure and reducing tension anal stage occurs in between the 18-36th months of life, during a time when most children are toilet training, the child's greatest pleasure is through the anus and urethra; pleasure in "going" and "holding it" as well as in control of these functions phallic stage occurs in the first 3-6 years of life, pleasure focuses on the genitals as child discovers self-stimuation is enjoyable, special stage because it triggers the Oedipus Complex Oedipus Complex a boy's intense desire to replace his father and enjoy the affections of his mother (boy recognizes that his father might punish him by cutting off the boy's penis) castration anxiety boy's intense fear of being mutilated by his father (to reduce conflict boy identifies with his father striving to be like him) latency period occurs between 6 years and puberty, psychic time out or intermission, after drama of phallic stage child represses all interest in sexuality (Freud believed no real development occurred in this stage) genital stage occurs during adolescence and adulthood, time of sexual reawakening; source of sexual pleasure now becomes put on a person outside of the family, unresolved conflicts with parents reemerge during adolescence, however once resolved individual is capable of becoming a mature independently functioning adult fixation psychoanalytic defense mechanism that occurs when the individual remains locked in an earlier developmental stage collective unconscious the impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind shared by all humans because of their common ancestral past archetypes emotionally laden ideas and images that have rich and symbolic meaning for all people individual psychology term for Adler's approach, views people as motivated by purposes and goals and as striving for perfection over pleasure compensation Adler's term for the individuals attempt to overcome imagined or real inferiorities or weaknesses by developing one's own abilities humanistic perspectives stress a person's capacity for personal growth, freedom to choose one's own destiny, and positive human qualities self concept a central theme in the views of Carl Rogers and other humanists, in an individual's overall perceptions and assessments of his or her abilities, behavior, and personality unconditional positive regard Roger's term for accepting, valuing, and being positive towards another person regardless of the person's behavior empathic being a sensitive listener and understanding another's true feelings genuine being open with our feelings and dropping our pretenses and facades trait an enduring personality characteristic that tends to lead to certain behaviors trait theories state that personality consists of broad, enduring dispositions (traits) that tend to lead to characteristic responses lexical appraoch method used by Allport where he used a dictionary to find all the way to describe a person 16PF a personality scale that is commonly used big five factors of personality openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (emotionally stability) personological and life story perspectives stress that the way to understand the person is to focus on his or her life story and life history, aspects that distinguish that individual from all others personology the study of the whole person psychobiography a means of inquiry in which the personality psychologist attempts to apply a personality theory to a single person's life social cognitive perspectives emphasize conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations, and goals, it incorporates principles from behaviorism but explore the person's ability to reason; to think about the past, present, future and to reflect on the self reciprocal determinism Bandura's theory that describes the way behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors interact to create personality self efficacy the belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes situationism the idea that personality and behavior often vary considerably from one context to another (Mischel's idea in Personality and Assessment) person vs situation debate debate started after the publishing of Mischel's ideas in Personality and Assessment cognitive affective processing systems (CAPS) Mischel's approach to personality as a set of systems Self Report Tests (also known as objective test or inventory) directly asks people weather specific items describe their personality traits face validity the extent to which a test item appears to be valid to those who are completing it social desirability picking or not picking a trait based on if it is generally socially accepted empirically keyed test a type of test that presents a host of questionnaire items to groups of people who are already known to differ in some central way Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) most widely used and researched empirically keyed self-report personality test projective test personality assessment tool that presents individuals with an ambiguous stimulus and them asks them to describe it or tell a story about it (in other words project their own meaning onto it) Rorschach inkblot test developed in 1921 by the Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach, uses an individual's perception of the inkblots to determine his or her personality Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) developed by Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan in the 1930s designed to elicit stories that reveal something about an individual's personality Psychodynamic personality is characterized by unconscious processes. Personality develops over stages, and childhood experiences are of great importance to adult personality, the most important aspects of personality are unconscious, uses case studies and projective techniques Humanistic personality evolves out of the person's innate, organismic motives to grow and actualize the self. These healthy tendencies can be undermined by social pressure, human nature is basically good by getting in touch with who we really are and what we really want we can lead happier and healthier lives, uses questionnaires and interviews with some observation Social Cognitive personality is the pattern of coherence that characterizes a person's interactions with the situations he or she encounters in life, the individual's beliefs and expectations rather than global traits are the central variables of interest, behavior is best understood as changing across situations to understand personality we must understand what each situation means for a given person, uses multiple observations over different situations and questionnaires Trait personality is characterized by a set of five general traits that are represented in the natural language that everyday people use to describe themselves and others, traits are relatively stable over time and predict behavior, uses questionnaires and observer reports Personology and Life Story to understand personality we must understand the whole person, each person has a unique set of life experiences and the stories we tell about those experiences make up our identities, the life story provides a unique opportunity to examine the personality processes associated with behavior, development, and well being using written narratives, TAT stories, autobiographical memories, interviews and psychobiography Type A Behavior Pattern a cluster of characteristics such as being excessively competitive, hard-driven, impatient and hostile, related to the incidence of heart disease Type B Behavior Pattern a cluster of characteristics such as being relaxed and easy going, related to very good health hardiness a trait characterized by a sense of commitment (rather than alienation) and of control (rather than powerlessness) and a perception of problems as challenges (rather than threats)