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Psychology 110: Exam 3 Latest Update
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Personality ✔✔characteristics, emotional responses, ways individual responds to environment; differs across individuals & relatively consistent across time
What are the building blocks of personality? ✔✔Traits!
What are 3 theories of personality? ✔✔1) Biological
Developmental- attachment, Freudian, social learning
Humanist- we differ in our choices, goals, potential
Trait ✔✔characteristic or stable pattern of thought, feeling, behavior; building blocks of personality (structuralist notion)
Trait approach ✔✔approach to studying personality that focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions
Five-factor theory ✔✔-DESCRIPTIVE THEORY!!!!
idea that personality can be described using 5 factors: openness to experience, conscientious, agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism
Big 5: OCEAN of personality ✔✔openness to experience:imaginative vs. down to earth, variety vs routine, independent vs conforming
conscientiousness: organized v disorganized, careful vs careless, self-disciplines vs. weak- willed
agreeableness: softhearted vs ruthless, trusting vs. suspicious, helpful vs. uncooperative
extraversion: social vs retiring, fun-loving vs sober, affectionate vs reserved
neuroticism: worried vs calm, insecure vs secure, self-pitying vs. self-satisfied
When would we use the BIG 5? ✔✔- when describing others-especially those we aren't close to
- when describing ourselves
- these dimensions found across cultures!
What are the 3 basic characteristics that can be considered temperaments? ✔✔1) activity- amount of energy/behavior person exhibits
emotionality- intensity of emotional reactions
sociability- tendency to affiliate with others
Inhibited temperament ✔✔fear/shyness; can be measured in womb
Is one's temperament stable? ✔✔YES, but can also change- inhibited can become uninhibited
Biological trait theory ✔✔Eysenck
- personality traits had 3 major dimensions: introversion/extraversion, emotional stability, constraint
- differences in introversion/extraversion due to AROUSABILITY
Introversion ✔✔-how shy, reserved, quiet a person is
- higher arousability, so they avoid external stimulation (Ex. higher responsiveness in heart rate to same stimulation-seek less)
Extraversion ✔✔-how sociable, outgoing, bold person is
-low arousability, so they seek external stimulation (Ex. lower heart rate reactivity to stimulation-seek more)
Emotional stability ✔✔variability in person's moods & emotions
Constraint ✔✔mix of agression, poor impulse control, self-centeredness, lack of empathy (AKA controlling impulses vs not generally controlling them)
What did Jeffrey Gray say about personality? ✔✔proposed behavioral approach system (BAS) & behavioral inhibition system (BIS)
Behavioral Approach System (BAS) ✔✔brain system involved in pursuit of incentives or rewards
C- anxious/ambivalent: want relationships but insecure w them
What 2 factors can greatly influence one's attachment type? ✔✔1) child temperament
- early caregiver behavior
Freudian Theory of Development ✔✔personality will be determined by how child passes through early psychosexual stages; fixations occur when under STRESS, regress to problematic area
3 stages of Freud's Theory of Development ✔✔1) oral
anal
phallic
Oral stage of Freud's Theory of Development ✔✔gains sensual gratification through the mouth (Ex. the bottle)
-adult with oral fixation- may be prone to excessive eating/drinking (Ex. stress eating)
Anal stage of Freud's Theory of Development ✔✔toilet training important
-adult with anal fixation: may compulsively neat/precise
Phallic stage of Freud's Theory of Development ✔✔-3-6 yrs old
- Oedipal or Electra Complex: fixation (on opposite-sex parent) gives way to identification with same-sex parent
-adult with phallic fixation: may not be comfortable in sex role
Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory 1 ✔✔unconscious motives (sex/aggression) & conflict between ego, id, superego
-most of time, conflicts between all 3 are settled easily & relatively non-consciously
Id ✔✔primitive component, pleasure principle, largely unconscious
Ego ✔✔decision making, reality principle, largely conscious
Superego ✔✔moral, social standards, somewhat conscious
Projection ✔✔attributing one's own state to another (Ex. warn friend to be aware of other people who want her partner)
Displacement ✔✔diversion of state to another substitute target (Ex. become enamored of their roommate)
Reaction formation ✔✔behaving in opposite fashion in an exaggerated way (Ex. I hate him)
Sublimation ✔✔redirecting motive towards desirable social ends (Ex. writing tragic love song, painting, etc)
Why are Freud's theories about development significant? Where do they stand today? ✔✔-no evidence for theories of psychosexual stages
-true that behavior arises from largely non-conscious process
-unconscious- not as lusty/motivated as he thought
-personalities difficult to test bc based on idea that they're unconscious
-psychoanalysis: popular therapeutic approach
Bandura's Social Learning Theory ✔✔personality dispositions are shaped through development by learning & experience
environment influences & observational learning
early experiences shape cognitive expectancies
Modeling ✔✔kids will imitate behaviors (Ex. aggressive, sex-typed) of adults or peers that they like or see rewarded
Locus of control ✔✔extent to which we believe influential forces lie within or outside of individual
-EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL
Internal locus of control ✔✔giving choices & things happen because of one's own choices (Ex. blue shoes or red?)
External locus of control ✔✔accepts that things happen (Ex. you are wearing red shoes)
Self-efficacy ✔✔beliefs about self's ability/competence; can be domain specific (Ex. athletics, academics)
actual-self: who one is right now
Ideal-actual incongruity ✔✔can lead to depression
Ideal-ought incongruity ✔✔can lead to anxiety
Why are people inconsistent in their behavior? ✔✔situationism & interactionism
Situationism ✔✔situational norms determine behavior at any specific time point more strongly than personality traits
Strong situations ✔✔-most likely to determine behavior bc social norms of how we are supposed to behave in that situation are strong (Ex. funerals, job interviews, classrooms
-personality differences have almost no relation to behavior
Weak situations ✔✔fewer norms, so people can behave freely & naturally; personality often predicts behavior (Ex. parties, parks, etc)
Personality predicts _______________ __________________ across time, but for any single instance of behavior, it is better predicted by __________________ ______________________. ✔✔behavioral patterns; social psychology
Interactionism ✔✔behavior is jointly determined by underlying dispositions & situations- B = f (P,E) <- behavior is function of person & environment
Idiographic approaches ✔✔person-centered approaches to assessing personality; focus on individual lives & how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons <- use different metric for each person
Central traits ✔✔traits that distinguish people from others; more predictive of behavior
Secondary traits ✔✔less personally descriptive traits
Nomothetic approaches ✔✔how common characteristics vary from person to person; use SAME metric to compare ALL people
-use common traits (Ex. agreeableness)
-people are unique bc of their unique COMBO of traits
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory ✔✔assess emotions, thoughts, behaviors & measure psychological problems (i.e. depression, mania)
-CON: people distort truths to make favorable impressions ("faking good")
California Q-Sort ✔✔given 100 cards with statements on them; sort into 9 piles according to how accurately describe them -identify most central traits
-can be completed by individual or observers
CON: biased by rater's desire to avoid looking bad
Assessing personality: life history data ✔✔case studies of individuals thru interviews or biological info
-Murray said: personality unfolds over life course as ppl react to their circumstances
-individual creates personal myths that bind together past/future into one life story
Assessing personality: behavioral data ✔✔Electronically activated record (EAR)-tracks person's real-world interactions; picks up snippets of convos
Show self-reports of Big Five traits predict real-world behavior (Ex. extraverts talk more)
Do observers of an individual show accuracy in judgments of their personality? ✔✔YES- person's close acquaintances show surprising degree of accuracy for trait judgments BC friends/family observe how we actually behave
-people are biased on highly evaluative traits-ones they care about
-trait easy to observe & highly meaningful to people (i.e. creativity) is more likely to be judged accurately by friends
Social psychology ✔✔study of how our thoughts, feelings, behaviors are influenced by real, implied, or imagined presence of others
Social facilitation effect ✔✔mere presence of others makes you do something faster
Ex. bikers faster if others were on the track
Social inhibition ✔✔people perform slower in the presence of others
Ex. essay writing-people write more slowly when others in the room
How are both social facilitation & inhibition true? ✔✔-due to AROUSAL ("drive" explanation)
-presence of others increases arousal
-arousal facilitates dominant response
- informational influence
Normative influence ✔✔people conform to fit in with group because we want to be liked & will do what it takes to get along
Ex.
Social norms ✔✔expected standards of conduct which influence behavior; people feel embarrassed when violate social norms
What are 2 factors that can greatly increase conformity? ✔✔1) cohesiveness- liking for a group
- size- increasing numbers
What is 1 HUGE factor that can decrease conformity? ✔✔support-even 1 ally can reduce conformity (Ex. blind guy says 2 or 3, you are more likely to say 2...
even if ally is incompetentor has different view)
Informational influence ✔✔people conform when they assume behavior of others represents correct way to respond
Ex. if 2 restaurants open in Evanston, go to one with more people bc food must be good!
Ex. can cause massive misunderstandings- War of Worlds panic, unresponsive bystander effects, etc
How was Stanley Milgram different as a psychological researcher? ✔✔-tried to explain behavior of Germans in WWII
-others focused on personality features (Ex. authoritarian personality, German parenting styles, etc), but Milgram focused on power of social situation
What was Milgram's experiment? ✔✔teacher/learner studies- teacher has to administer increasingly higher shocks to learner when learner gets questions wrong; even when learner is clearly in pain, teacher continues to go on based on instruction of authority
What was the percentage of people in Milgram's experiment that went all the way in administering electric shocks to the learner? ✔✔65%- people are obedient to authority & power of situation
What are some real-world examples of destructive obedience? ✔✔1) Hofling (1966)- nurses were ordered to administer a non-prescribed drug in DOUBLE maximum dosage to a patient (21/22 of nurses followed doctor's orders)
- US soldiers followed orders to abuse prisoners of war at Abu Ghraib (2003)
