Chap 13 - Theories of Personality

• Personality


  The unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel, and behave
• Character


  Value judgments made about a person’s moral and ethical behavior
• Temperament


  The enduring characteristics with which each person is born
• Personality is difficult to measure
• Psychological defense mechanisms


  Unconscious distortions of a person’s perception of reality that reduce stress and anxiety
• Id, ego, and superego


  Structure of the mind according to Freud
• 10 Psychological Defense Mechanisms

  • Denial
  • Repression
  • Rationalization
  • Projection
  • Reaction formation
  • Displacement
  • Regression
  • Identification
  • Compensation
  • Sublimation
• Freud's Conception of Personality

  1. Founder of psychoanalytic movement

  2. Divided mind into preconscious, conscious, and unconscious

  3. Believed unconscious mind was most important factor in human behavior and personality
• Freud was the founder of the psychoanalytic movement during the Victorian Age
• Freud believed the unconscious mind was the most important factor in human behavior and personality
• Stages of Personality Development

  • Psychosexual stages
• Erogenous zone


  Area of the body that produces pleasurable feelings
• Fixation


  Disorder in which the person does not fully resolve the conflict in a particular psychosexual stage
• The Neo-Freudians are a group of psychologists influenced by Freud's theories but developed their own ideas
• Psychoanalysis


  An insight therapy based on the theory of Freud, emphasizing the revealing of unconscious conflicts
• Neo-Freudians moved away from psychoanalysis to the impact of social environment
• Carl Jung's Theory


  Developed a theory including both a personal and a collective unconscious
• Collective unconscious


  The memories shared by all members of the human species
• Archetypes


  Collective, universal human memories
• Adler's Theory


  Proposed the driving force behind all human endeavors was the seeking of superiority
• Horney’s Theory


  Developed a theory based on basic anxiety
• Basic anxiety


  Anxiety created when a child is born into the bigger and more powerful world of older children and adults
• Erikson’s Theory


  Developed a theory based on social rather than sexual relationships, covering the entire life span
• Current research has found support for defense mechanisms and the concept of an unconscious mind that can influence conscious behavior
• Some Freudian concepts cannot be scientifically researched
• Theory is based primarily on Freud's work with wealthy Austrian women
• Behaviorists


  Define personality as a set of learned responses or habits
• Habit


  Well-learned response that has become automatic
• Strict, traditional behaviorist views are based on works of Watson and Skinner
• Social cognitive learning theorists

  Emphasize the influences of other people’s behavior and a person’s own expectancies on learning
• Bandura’s reciprocal determinism


  Explanation of how the factors of environment, personal characteristics, and behavior can determine future behavior
• Self-efficacy


  An individual’s belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations
• Perspectives on Personality


  • Psychodynamic Perspectives
  • Trait Perspective
  • Humanistic Perspective
  • Behavioral Perspective
  • Social Learning Perspective
• Id, ego, and superego


  Components of the structure of the mind in psychodynamic theory
• Psychological defense mechanism


  Strategies used by the ego to protect itself from anxiety
• Self-efficacy


  An individual’s perception of how effective a behavior will be in any particular circumstance
• Real self


  One’s perception of actual characteristics, traits, and abilities
• Ideal self


  One’s perception of whom one should be or would like to be
• Self-actualizing tendency


  The striving to fulfill one’s innate capacities and capabilities
• Behaviorists


  • Define personality as a set of learned responses or habits
  • Apply classical and operant conditioning to explain personality development