Personality

Personality: the consistent ways in whichone person’s behavior differs from that of others, especially in relation to social contexts.

Personality: the quality of being a person; existence as a human being driven byconscious and unconscious forces within thehuman mind that result in a wide variety ofthoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

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I. Sigmund Freud

A. Psychoanalysis: a method of explaining the workings of personality based on the interplay of conscious and unconscious internal forces.

B. Catharsis: the therapeutic release of pent-up emotional tension.

C. Unconscious Mind: contains memories, emotions and thoughts, some of which are Illogical or socially unacceptable.

D. Oedipus Complex: the belief that boys have a sexual interest in their mother and are therefore competitively aggressive towards their father.

E. Libido: psychosexual energy.

F. Three Component Structure of Personality

1) Id: the part that is comprised of all of our biological drives that demand immediate gratification.

2) Ego: the rational, negotiating, and decision-making component of the personality.

3) Superego: the internalized values and rules we receive from our parents and society.

G. Common Ego Defense Mechanisms:

1) Denial: refusal to acknowledge a problem or believe any information that causes anxiety.

2) Repression: “motivated forgetting” of painful or unacceptable thoughts, feelings or memories.

3) Regression: an apparent return to a more juvenile way of thinking or acting.

4) Displacement: the diversion of an unacceptable thoughtor impulse from its actual target to a less threatening objector person.

5) Reaction Formation: presentation of one’s thoughts or feelings, often through behavior, as the extreme opposite of what they actually are.

6) Projection: attributing one’s own undesirable characteristics or motives to other people.

7) Rationalization: when people “make excuses” and reframe unpleasant events as actually beneficial, or their actions as justifiable or rational (when the actions are arguably not so).

8) Sublimation: the transformation of sexual or aggressive energies into acceptable and pro-social behaviors.

II. Carl Jung

A. Collective Unconscious: part of an individual’s unconsciousthat reflects the cumulative experiences of all of our ancestors.

B. Archetype: a universally inherited, primitive, and symbolicrepresentation of a particular experience or object.

III. The Learning Approach

A. Gender Role: psychological aspect of being male or female (as opposed to your biological sex.)

IV. Humanistic Psychology: deals with values, beliefs, and consciousness, including spirituality & guiding principles by which people live their lives.

C. Analytic Psychology: an area of psychology which positsthat an individual is driven by several compensatory internalforces including the libido, the need to create, and the needto perceive oneself as a holistically complete individual.

B. Self-Actualization: to strive for and to achieve one’sfullest potential.

C. Self-Concept (Real Self): an image of the person that they really are.

D. Ideal Self: an image that represents the person they would like to be.

E. Unconditional Positive Regard: the acceptance of the person as he or she is.

F. Conditional Positive Regard: the person is only held in esteem when they fulfill certain requirements set for them by the other person or society.

A. Peak Experiences: those moments in a person’s life when he or she feels truly fulfilled or content.

V. Personality Traits and Assessment

A. Trait: a consistent, long-lasting behavioral tendency, such as sociability, shyness or assertiveness.

B. State: a temporary activation of particular behavior.

C. Trait Approach to Personality: the idea that people have consistent personality characteristics that can be measured and studied.

D. The Origins of Personality Traits:

1) Heredity Stronger than Environment2) Age3) Historical era

1) Neuroticism: the tendency to experience emotionalinstability: anxiety, hostility, depression, self-consciousness,impulsiveness, and vulnerability very easily.

2) Extraversion: the tendency to seek stimulation and enjoythe company of other people.

3) Agreeableness: the tendency to be trusting andcompassionate rather than distrustful of and antagonistictowards others.

4) Conscientiousness: the tendency to show self-discipline,to be reliable, and to strive for competence and achievement.

5) Openness to Experience: the tendency to enjoy newexperiences and new ideas.

E. Costa and McCrae’s “Big Five” Personality Traits

F. Standardized Personality Tests: carefully designed personality tests administered according to specified rules.

G. Projective Techniques: personality characteristics that can be detected through the process of asking people to interpret ambiguous stimuli.

1) The Rorschach Inkblots: a series of ten ambiguousinkblots. The subject is asked to describe what they see.

2) The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): a series ofmany pictures. The subject is asked to make up a story for each picture.

H. Implicit Personality Tests: personality tests that measure aspects of personality that are beyond a person’s awareness.

1) The Emotional Stroop Test: the task will be more difficult and the pauses of the subject will be longer when trying to say the color of the words that relate to areas of concern.

BALL

TABLE

SHYNESS

SOFA

TRUCK

SADNESS

Personality Psychologyversus

Abnormal Psychology

Personality Psychology: the study ofindividual differences among healthy individuals.

Abnormal Psychology: the study of individual differences among unhealthy individuals.