PSY 202 CH. 13

traits: characteristics, dispositional tendency to act a certain way over time and across circumstances

• emphasizes unconscious and dynamic processes (such as wishes and motives), posits that they influence behavior
• FREUD!
• instincts are mental representations arising from physical or mental needs
• pleasure principle: people work to increase pleasure and decrease pain (driven by libido)

mind is structured into three zones of mental awareness: conscious, preconscious, unconscious

• Ice Burg:
• Conscious
• ---------------
• Preconscious: Superego & Ego

Unconscious: ID

• id, superego, ego
• id: component of personality that is completely submerged in the unconscious, operates by the pleasure principle (sex, aggression)
• superego: brake on id, internalization of social and parental standards of conduct (morality, conscience)
• ego: mediate between superego and id, tries to satisfy id, but obey superego, operates on reality principle, rational thought and problem solving

Carl Rogersemphasizes patient self understandingexamines impact of conditional parental love vs. unconditional positive regard, the latter thought to lead to a fully functioning person

• Traits: behavioral dispositions that endure over time and across situations
• Typologies: discrete categories in which we place people (Lecture) (“he/she is not my type”)

implicit personality theory is the study of two tendencies related to personality types: We tend to assume that certain personality characteristics go together. Because of that assumption, we tend to make predictions about people based on minimal evidence.

• openness to experience
• conscientiousness
• extraversion
• agreeableness
• neuroticism

• internal locus of control: you control the events that affect you (the person believes they can control their life)
• External locus of control: meaning they believe that their decisions and life are controlled by environmental factors (external) which they cannot influence

These theories emphasize how personal beliefs, expectancies, and interpretations of social situations shape behavior and personality.

• Idiographic Approaches: Person-centered approaches to studying personality that focus on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons.
• Nomothetic Approaches: Approaches to studying personality that focus on how people vary across common traits.

• personality tests that examine unconscious processes by having people interpret ambiguous stimuli
• The Rorschach Inkblot Test: one of the first projective tests and continues to be one of the best-known. Developed by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach in 1921, the test consists of 10 different cards that depict an ambiguous inkblot. The participant is shown one card at a time and asked to describe what he or she sees in the image. The responses are recorded verbatim by the tester. Gestures, tone of voice and other reactions are also noted. The results of the test can vary depending on which of the many existing scoring systems the examiner uses.
• The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): individual is asked to look at a series of ambiguous scenes, asked to tell a story describing the scene, including what is happening, how the characters are feeling and how the story will end. The examiner then scores the test based on the needs, motivations and anxieties of the main character as well as how the story eventually turns out.

personality test in which the individual offers responses to ambiguous scenes, words or images.

relatively direct assessments of personality, usually based on information gathered through self-report questionnaires or observer ratings

• NEO personality inventory
• California Q-Sort

• situationalism: theory that behavior is determined more by situations than by personality traits
• -a “stronger” situation will be more predictive based on centrality, aggregation, and type

• Activity Level: the overall amount of energy and behavior a person exhibits.
• Emotionality: the intensity of emotional reactions
• Sociability: the general tendency to affiliate with others

• -you have an objectified self (object known, “me”) which researchers differentiated from the knower (“I”)
• -people act in accordance with their perceived personal values and beliefs
• -we look for differences in ourselves between behavior and personal standards

• -An internal monitor of social acceptance (high self-esteem) or rejection (low self-esteem)
• -Monitors the likelihood of social exclusion

• Self-evaluative maintenance: People can feel threatened when someone close to them outperforms them on a task that is personally relevant. To maintain self-esteem, you would either distance yourself from the relationship or select a different aspiration
• Social comparisons: People evaluate their own actions, abilities, and beliefs by contrasting them with those of others
• Self-serving biases: People with high self-esteem tend to take credit for success but blame failure on outside factors. Criticism is assumed by those with high self-esteem to be motivated by envy or prejudice

unconscious mental strategies the mind uses to protect itself from conflict and distress

mediates between superego and id, tries to satisfy id but obey superego; operates on reality principle; rational thought and problem solving

the idea that personality can be described using five factors: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

Approaches to studying personality that emphasize personal experience and belief systems; they propose that people seek personal growth to fulfill their human potential.

in psychodynamic theory, the component of personality that is completely submerged in the unconscious and operates according to the pleasure principle.

Person-centered approaches to studying personality that focus on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons.

Theorists who believe that behavior is determined jointly by situations and underlying dispositions. 

Approaches to studying personality that focus on how people vary across common traits.

Relatively direct assessments of personality, usually based on information gathered through self-report questionnaires or observer ratings.

The characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors that are relatively stable in an individual over time and across circumstances.

A characteristic; a dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time and across circumstances.

Discrete categories based on global personality characteristics.

personality tests that examine unconscious processes by having people interpret ambiguous stimuli (Rorsarch, TAT test)

Freudian theory that unconscious forces, such as wishes and motives, influence behavior.

According to Freud, the developmental stages that correspond to the pursuit of satisfaction of libidinal urges.

The tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors.

The theory that behavior is determined more by situations than by personality traits.

An internal monitor of social acceptance or rejection.

internalization of social and parental standards of conduct (morality, conscience)

Biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways.

an approach to studying personality that focuses on the extent to which individuals differ in personality dispositions (ex. socialibility, cheerfulness, and aggression)