Psychology Final Exam Study Guide Personality Personality characteristics emotions thoughts behaviors that are relatively stable over time and across circumstances Personality Trait characteristics of the person a dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time What makes you who you are why you are unique what is the same overtime How have scientists studied personality Psychodynamic Theories Emphasize Unconscious and Dynamic Processes we as people don t understand what influences our behavior Humanistic approaches emphasize integrated personal experience each person is their own best expert Social Cognitive Approach looking at peoples thought processes to understand personality Type and Trait approaches describe behavioral dispositions The Freudian or Psychodynamic Approach The role of unconscious influences on personality Id unconscious pleasure center Superego dictates from society parents Ego mediates between Id and superego Introduced concept of unconscious defense mechanisms Trait a relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way may be a pre existing disposition that causes behavior personality inventories or the motivation that guides the behavior personality test Introversion high stress reactivity neuroticism Extroversion low stress reactivity sensation seeking Penis Envy Theory girls are jealous and acknowledges her own inferiority to males but rebels against this The Humanistic Existential Approach Personality as Choice Humanistic and existential theorists focus on how healthy choices create personality Humanistic psychologists emphasize a positive optimistic view of human nature goodness and potential for growth Existential psychologists focus on the individual negotiating the issue of meaning and the reality of death Human Needs Self Actualization and Personality as Existence Self actualizing tendency the human motive toward realizing our inner potential engagement in tasks that match our abilities cause a state of focus called flow Existential approach regards personality as governed by an individual s ongoing choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life and death angst can arise as we find meaning in life and death and take responsibility for making free choices One must deal with issues head on instead of using defenses The Social Cognitive Approach Personalities in Situations Social cognitive approach an approach that views personality in terms of how the person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them Person situation controversy the question of whether behavior is caused more by personality or by situational factors Rorschach Inkblot Test individual interpretations of meaning of set of inkblots and are analyzed to identify a person s inner feelings Thematic Apperception Test TAT people reveal underlying motives concerns and the way they see the social world through the stories they make up about pictures of people Personality inventories use multiple choice forced choice Validity scales help alleviate response style biases Self Report a series of answers to a questionnaire that asks people to indicate the extent to which sets of statements or adjectives accurately describe their own behavior or mental state MMPI 2 a well researched clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems Dan McAdams personality researcher to understand people need to understand their personal narratives of their whole lives Tell me about your life Traits can be classified using adjectives language which may be organized in a hierarchical pattern factor analysis sorts trait items into small dimensions Researchers have argued about how many core factors exist The Big Five the traits of a five factor model conscientiousness agreeableness neuroticism openness to experience and extraversion examples Accounts for variability without overlap multiple observer agreeability and is reliable across cultures may be universal Several major systems of personality trait test each of which emphasizes different numbers of core traits 1 Eysenk s two factor model 2 The Big Five Eysenck Posits Three Superordinate Personality Traits 1 Emotional Stability vs Emotional instability neuroticism 2 Extraversion Introversion 3 Psychoticism impulsivity and aggression Organize related subordinate traits and habitual and specific response systems The inner quadrant of the Eysenk model shows an Ancient Greek Typology that divided people into four types melancholic moody and withdrawn choleric irritable and outgoing sanguine stable and outgoing phlegmatic stable and withdrawn The Big Five each trait exists on a high low scale is perhaps the most dominant current psychometric measurement perspective in personality psychology What is the biological basis of personality Personality is rooted in genetics Temperaments are evident in infancy Personality is linked to specific neurophysiological mechanisms Personality is adaptive Temperaments are evident in infancy personality is reflected in infant temperament activity level emotionality sociability shy children are inhibited Hans Eysenck postulated that extraversion is most relavant to neurophysiological mechanisms variation in alertness over under stimulation of reticular formation arousal Jeffrey Gray proposed two brain systems responsible for extraversion and neuroticism behavioral activation system BAS and behavioral inhibition system BIS Arousal and Extraversion Intraversion Theory differences in cortical arousal why differences between extraverts and introverts Cortical arousal regulated by Ascending Reticular Activating System ARAS Extraverts underaroused Intraverts hyperaroused Try to get optimal level of arousal Zuckerman s sensation seeking similar to extraversion but with impulsive element neurochemical deficit Examples of some traits self efficiency from Albert Bandura optimism pessimism type A vs type B personalities neuroticism emotional stability introversion extraversion hardiness shyness narcissism stressreactivity External Stressors catastrophes major life events hassles low social rank etc hazardous exposure to environmental toxins psychological and biological poisons Dispositional Filtering Process polygenetically and environmentally determined personality factors 1 Health Promoting factors Positive affective style neural circuitry low stress reactivity dispositional optimism high hardiness high emotional stability non