Foundations of Psychology Review Final Exam Personality Pattern of behavior and thinking Unique to each individual Uniqueness prevails across time and situation Personality tests Designed to identify particular personality characteristics Psychologists study personality to discover causes of individual differences in behavior Personality Research 1 Identification of personality characteristics 2 Factors that produce and control personality characteristics After you identify you try to understand how they combine to produce something Trait theories of personality Gordon Allport o He looks through the dictionary 18000 entries in the dictionary that has to do with the description of an aspect of personality o Human language reflects the extent to which people think about themselves and others o A trait theory may help explain human functioning o Hierarchy Cardinal traits a social construct traits that apparently have some kind of historical power meaning to them associated with one person and they represent part of human history may remind you of Hitler Mandela or Mother Theresa Central traits tendency when you talk about individuals you describe them by central traits supposedly their central traits honest warm strong qualities of a leader Politicians play that game to manipulate your image on them leaders celebrity people dominant in the society life of people in the community Secondary characteristics ordinary people we all give certain description of individuals that we know trait but it is not dominant Raymond Cattell o Factor analysis technique group them based on similarities and managed to reduce the number of traits to 16 Extract 16 traits Hans Eysenck o Identifies 3 personality traits Extract 3 traits 1 Extraversion introversion 2 Neuroticism emotionally unstable emotionally stable 3 Psychoticism self control Personality is shaped by the personal environment not biological B F Skinner Believes that personality is a result of conditioning you receive rewards for certain behaviors and punishment for other behaviors Personality as a behavioral learning process Key idea environment acts on the individual to produce behavior If you behave in a certain way the behavior has known consequences You elicit contingencies with your behavior You behave consistent from one situation to the next if the contingency is positive Your expectations and beliefs about the contingencies become determinants of your behavior your personality They learn vicariously through the experience of parents and others Behaviorism at the core is the idea that you establish behavior by rewarding and punishment Shaped by learning Social Cognitive Theory social learning Personality is determined by consequences Reward punishment Overtime individual builds up their belief about these consequences and start to reflect on the environment you are being raised and it becomes your personality not a biological approach Environment acts on you to produce a behavior Stimulus response o Reward strengthen o Punish diminish Bandura Social learning imitate your parents people in your environment learn about the benefits of behavior from ideas about that Execute that behavior because the environment shapes you by observation contingencies execution Reciprocal determinism behavior environment and cognitive factors determine personality there s a relationship between those factors There is a cognitive process where you evaluate contingencies Self efficacy how successful are you at expressing certain behavior makes you aware Knowing how to act in a given situation and be successful Understand the contingencies and how to elicit them Observational learning process learning by observation consistent Freud s Theory behavior Id Superego Ego Walter Mischel Believes that personality is consistent from situation to situation Situationism traits are revealed by situations in which we find ourselves Depending upon the situation individual is in it will elicit certain aspects of their personality and personality is maintained from situation to situation Reveals traits of individual Emphasizes that situation is important When somebody is behaving differently there is something wrong it should be Consists of 2 major components o Conscious and Unconscious Considers the unconscious is a strong factors in the determination of your personality He makes the unconscious behavior important it drives much of the individual He says that the unconscious tries to take over conscious behavior Psychodynamic theory we attempt to reduce the influence of unconscious constant conflict between the conscious and unconscious o Unconscious represents sexual drive libido unconscious desires that aggressions and others that are inappropriate to express o Uncivilized o Governed by the pleasure principle o Uncontrolled force dark forces aggression dark wishes o Conscience the rules your parents and society have taught you o You know how to behave o Ideals and conscience o Ideals ideals you strive for o Ego is the part of consciousness that thinks and integrates behavior o It is governed by the reality principle o It mediates in the conflict between id and superego o It uses defense mechanisms to 1 Prevent id from intruding into consciousness 2 Prevent superego from dominating consciousness o Id constantly tries to invade consciousness superego tries to dominate conscious behavior o Intrusion of id into consciousness produces anxiety o Superego domination of consciousness causes feelings of guilt o Failure in defense mechanism causes neurosis anxiety insecurity o Ego mobilizes defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety and guilt o Defense Mechanisms Rationalization you find an excuse to engage in certain behaviors you have a good reason for it finding ways to engage in inappropriate behavior but you are excused for it Repression Tendency to suppress things you are not supposed to be involved in Projection project own emotion unto somebody else accuse someone Displacement don t target your boss but someone who is weaker and cannot do anything to you Reaction Formation overly nice to somebody who you don t like you re not supposed to hate that person but hates the person so they become overly nice Fake love Regression You slide back to childlike behavior don t act as an adult so you don t have to take responsibility Identification When somebody is oppressive against you you may decide to be submissive If a person is abused by the spouse but they don t complain there s an
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