General Psych Final Study Guide Chapter 14 Personality Personality People s typical ways of thinking feeling and behaving Trait Relatively enduring predisposition that influences our behavior across many situations Aggressiveness being self conscientiousness etc 2 Major ways to studying a personality o Nomethic Approach Approach to personality that focuses on identifying general laws that govern the behavior of all individuals o Idiographic Approach Approach to personality that focuses on identifying the unique configuration of characteristics life history experiences w in a person Molecular Genetic Study Investigation that allows researchers to pinpoint genes associated w specific personality traits ID Reservoir of our most primitive impulses including sex aggression Ego Psyche s executive principle decision maker Reality Principle Tendency of the ego to postpone gratification until it can find an Superego Our sense of morality Pleasure Principle Tendency of the ID to strive for immediate gratification appropriate outlet Defense Mechanisms Unconscious maneuvers intended to minimize anxiety Repression Motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses Reaction Formation Transformation of an anxiety provoking emotion into its opposite Projection Unconscious attribution of our negative characteristics to others Sublimination Transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired goal Anal Stage Psychosexual stage that focuses on toilet training Reciprocal Determinism Tendency for ppl to mutually influence each other s behavior Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory MMPI Widely used structured Social Learning Theory Theorists who emphasize thinking as a cause of personality personality test designed to assess symptoms of mental disorders Face Validity Extent to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring P T Barnum Effect Tendency of ppl to accept high base rate descriptions as accurate 1 Describe how twin and adoption studies shed light on genetic and environmental influences on personality text p 541 Because identical monozygotic twins are more similar genetically than fraternal dizygotic twins a higher correlation of a trait among identical than fraternal twins assuming that the environmental influences on both sets of twins are comparable suggests a genetic influence Brought up together o From 1 study we can conclude that numerous personality traits anxiety proneness impulse control traditionalism are influenced by genetic factors o In an identical twin study the results say that nonshared environment plays an important role in personality Not brought up together o 1st identical twins not brought up together tend to be strikingly similar in personality traits and also far more similar than fraternal twins that weren t brought up together o According to the results identical twins reared apart were about as similar to o This finding shows that a shared environment plays little or no role in the causes identical twins reared together of adult personality The correlations between biological parents their adopted away children in their sociability levels are slightly higher than the correlations b w adoptive parents their adopted children even though the biological parents had essentially no environmental contact w their children after birth Researchers using twin adoption studies have found that genes influence a variety of behaviors often associated w personality traits divorce religiosity watching TV etc 2 Describe the core assumptions of psychoanalytic theory text p 545 Freud s Psychoanalytic Theory rests on 3 assumptions o Psychic Determinism The assumption that all psychological events have a cause o Symbolic Meaning No action no matter how trivial it seems is meaningless o Unconscious Motivation We rarely understand what we do although we always have explanations for our actions 3 Describe key criticisms of psychoanalytic theory text p 552 Unfalsifiablity Critics have noted that many hypotheses derived from Freudian theory are difficult or impossible to refute Failed Predictions Although much of Freudian theory is difficult to falsify those portions of the theory that can be falsified often have been o Freud said that kids who experienced harsh toilet training would grow up to be rigid perfectionistic but no association b w toilet training practices adult personality has been found Questionable Conception of the Unconscious Research does not support the existence of the Unconsciousness a place where sexual aggressive energies repressed memories let alone tell us where it s located Reliance on Unrepresentative Samples Freud s theories may possess limited generalizability bc most of his patients that he studied were upper class Viennese women Flawed Assumption of Shared Environmental Influence Behavior genetic studies have shown shared environment plays a role in adult personality contradicting a key proposition of Freudian theory 4 Describe trait models of personality including the big five text p 562 Trait theorists aim to understand the structure and major traits of the personality The Big Five model 5 traits that have surfaced repeatedly in factor analyses of personality measures unconventional o Openness to Experience Open ppl tends to be intellectually curious o Conscientiousness Conscientiousness ppl tend to be careful responsible o Extraversion Extraverted ppl tend to be social lively o Agreeableness These ppl then to be sociable easy to get along with o Neuroticism Neurotic ppl tend to be tense moody The Big Five predict important real world behavior o High Conscientiousness low Neuroticism are associated w successful job performance good grades o Extraversion has been positively correlated among salespersons The Big Five has been identified in China Japan Italy Hungary Turkey o Openness to experience doesn t emerge clearly in all cultures o Individualism Collectivism Ppl from largely individualistic cultures like the US tend to focus on themselves their personal goals while those from largely collectivist cultures like Asia tend to focus on their relations w others The Big Three Model can be an alternative to the Big Five given not everyone is aware of all the important features of the personality o Agreeableness Conscientious Openness to Experience 5 Identify key criticisms of trait models text p 565 Low correlations among diff behaviors presumed to reflect the same trait o We see ppls personalities all around us bc we
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