Psych & Personality

• ideographic

  based on small samples; subjective
• Nomothetic

  based on large sample & observation
• necessary charateristics Of personality 


  enduring patterns of being; perception, cognition, emotions, actions in environment
• David Chalmers

  “Easy and hard” problems of consciousness; easy = making progress in explaining functions & how they arise from physical processes; hard = accounting for why these functions are accompanied by conscious exp
• Wilhelm Wundt & Edward Tichner


  structuralism: ‘introspection’ or self-analyze & break down their own bhvrs across intensity, duration, & frequency
• Sigmund Freud

  psychoanalysis: hidden, subconscious conflicts determined by past (historical determinism, trauma, transgressions, etc.); projective techniques
• Neo-psychoanalysis

  conscious vs unconscious
• John Watson


  behaviorism: stimulus-response from environment shapes who you are; nomothetic
• Albert Bandura

  social learning (indirect environment & how we interpret it)
• Gordon Allport

  ANTI-historical determinism, trait theory (predetermined traits from genetics or environment, Big 5), widespread exchange
• standardization


  Uniformity in procedures and version; everyone gets same test in same way
• reliability


  repeatability through varying procedures, retests (problem w/ familiarity), equivalent forms (different phrasing same answer) and split halves
• validity

  precision; reflective of measurement through varying procedures

  • external: predictive (SAT test); test measuring if someone is a good salesperson
  • internal: construct, content; test measuring level of introversion and extroversion
• 3 key goals for assessment

  • Standardization
  • reliability
  • validity
•  Research methodology in personality


  • variation: ideographic (small) or nomothetic (large)
  • measurement: clinical (qualitative), correlational (qualitative & predictive), and experimental (quantitative, cause and effect)
• Key issues of personality

  • Free Will vs Determinism
  • Nature vs Nurture
  • Past vs Present
  • Uniqueness vs Universality
  • Equilibrium vs Growth
  • Optimism vs Pessimism
• free will vs determinism


  are we in charge of our lives? Are we masters of our fate, or are we victims of past experience, biological factors, unconscious forces, or external stimuli
• nature vs nurture


  Which is the more important influence on behavior: inherited traits and attributes (our nature or genetic endowment) or features of our environment (the nurturing influences of our upbring- ing, education, and training)?
• past vs present


  involves the relative importance of our early childhood experiences, com- pared with events that occur later in life; historical determinism
• uniqueness vs universality


  We may think of personality as so individual that each person’s action, each utterance, has no counterpart or equivalent in any other person. Other positions allow for uniqueness but interpret this within overall patterns of behavior accepted as universal, at least within a given culture.
• Equilibrium vs Growth


  Some theorists believe that people are little more than tension-reducing, pleasure-seeking animals. Others consider us to be motivated primarily by the need to grow, to realize our full potential, and to reach for higher levels of self-actualization, development, and fulfillment.
• optimism vs pessimism


  Some theorists’ views of the human personality are more positive and hopeful, depicting us as humanitarian, altruistic, and socially con- scious. Other theorists find few of these qualities in human beings, either individually or collectively.
• Sigmund Freud‘s Background

  • Czech Republic
  • father was cold & distant
  • mother was attractive & doting (heavy favoritism across 5 other sisters)
  • did cocaine, then stopped & became a chain smoker
  • Believed girls fantasized about being raped
  • Studied the possible basis of neurosis with Charcot
  • viewed his life as a reflection of pain and death
• History of Freud‘s psychoanalytic theory

  • private practice for “nervous disorders”
  • discovered unconscious mind
  • used hypnosis method w/ Breur
  • uncovered via free association, slips, dreams, and habits
  • Anna O: relieved blindness through disclosure abt father
  • created “psychoanalytical society”
• Freud’s ‘unconscious iceberg’

  3 parts of conscious

  • conscious - what we know of (Ego & superego)
  • preconscious - things we overlook/glazed over (“What color was his shirt?”) (ego & superego)
  • subconscious - deep-seated thoughts & feelings (id & superego)
• Instincts


  mental representations of internal stimuli (hunger, pain) that drive a person to take certain actions; driving forces of personality

  • homeostatic: “itches” to compensate for perceived missiing traits
  • maintaining equilibrium: driven by libido (life) & Thanatos (death)
• Id 


  Psychic energy & ‘pleasure principles’; biological drives for immediate self-gratification; selfish & primal
• Ego


  mediator in consciousness; “referee” btwn id & superego; anxiety produced when identities conflict w/ each other
• superego


  guilt & moral principle; social restraint for long-term gratification
• 3 types of anxiety

  • reality/objective
  • neurotic
  • moral
• reality/objective anxiety


  survival from danger; when you KNOW you are in danger and MUST get out of it (stranded on a highway)
• neurotic anxiety


  id vs ego; immediate gratification meets reality; fear of punishment; in childhood (giving into peer pressure)
• moral anxiety


  id vs superego; ‘angel vs devil’; when guilt follows your primal actions
• 5 stages of psychosexual development

  • oral
  • anal
  • phallic
  • latency
  • genital
• oral stage


  gratification involving mouth; infant (pacifier, food, nail-biting)
• anal stage

  gratification involving anus; 2-3 years (potty training, pleasure from pooping); retention results from guilt of letting it out (fixations)
• phallic stage


  • gratification involving penis; 3-5 years; where boys and girls deviated; Oedipal (boys & castigation anxiety) & Electra (girls & penis envy); believed personality/ego crystalized at age 5
• latency stage


  ‘hidden’; sexual undertones/differentiation lay dormant (ex: cooties from both genders) social ability begins to develop; 6-11 years
• genital stage


  starts at 11 years; developing physical, emotional, & sexual maturity (puberty) sex becomes big part of motivation; regulating yourself around others (moral anxiety)
• Anxiety defense mechanisms


  • denial
  • repression
  • regression
  • reaction formation
  • projection
  • rationalization
  • displacement
  • sublimation