Chapter 11 Study Guide

11.1 What is Personality?

Personality refers to the __long-standing traits and patterns____ that propel individuals to
consistently __think, feel, and behave in specific way____.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
The study of personality goes back a long way (over 2000 years!) , however who’s theory was
the first comprehensive theory of personality? ____Sigmund Freud__ His theory explained a
wide variety of both normal and abnormal behavior. According to Freud, ___unconscious
conflicts__ influenced by ____sexual and aggressive urges___, along with ____early childhood
experiences____, are the forces that influence personality. He attracted many followers
(referred to as _neo-Freudians__) who modified his ideas. This perspective (called
psychodynamic) dominated the study of personality for the first half of the 20 th century.

11.2 Freud and the Psychodynamic Perspective

Freud, a medical doctor by training, worked with a Viennese physician, Josef Breuer. Freud
became intrigued with one of Breuer’s patients (Anna O.), who displayed a variety of what were
referred to as __hysterical symptoms__. In treating her, Breuer discovered that allowing her to
talk about her experiences brought some relief in her symptoms. Freud concluded that Anna
O’s symptoms were the result of __repressed traumatic experiences_ in childhood and these
traumatic experiences had been __forgotten or pushed into the unconscious___. This became
the basis of Freud’s theory.

LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
To explain the concept of consciousness, Freud used the analogy of an _iceberg_. What
percent of our mind is conscious? _10%_. The rest is unconscious, consisting of mental activity
of which we are unaware and are unable to access. How are unacceptable urges and desires
kept in our unconscious? __Repression__. What are “slips of the tongue”, which according to
Freud are actually sexual or aggressive urges slipping into our consciousness? __Freudian
slip___.
According to Freud, our personality develops from a conflict between two forces: our biological
aggressive and pleasure-seaking drives VS our internal control over these drives__________.
Our personality is a result of our efforts to balance these two competing forces. This can be
conceptualized by imagining three interacting systems, called the __id__, the __ego___, and
the ___superego_____. The unconscious id contains our most _primitive drives or urges___,
and is present from birth. The id operates according to the “_pleasure principle__” and seeks
__immediate gratification__. Through social interactions with parents and others in the child’s
environment, the ego and superego develop to help _control the id__. The superego develops
as a child learns the social rules for ___right or wrong___. It acts as our ___conscience___. It is
our moral compass that tells us how we should behave and is the basis for feelings of pride and
guilt. What is the rational part of our personality? __ego_. Freud considered this the self. Its
job is to __balance_ the demands of the id and the superego in the context of __reality__.
Thus, it operates according to the __reality principle___. The id and superego are in constant
conflict, because the id wants instant gratification regardless of the consequences, but the
superego tells us we must behave in socially acceptable ways. It is the ego’s job to find middle
ground. According to Freud, what reflects a healthy personality? __A balance between the id
and superego__. An imbalance in the system can lead to _neuroticism__ (a tendency to
experience negative emotions), ___anxiety__, or unhealthy behaviors.

DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Anxiety results when our ego is unable to mediate the conflict between the id and superego.
What protective mechanism does the ego use to help restore balance? ___Defend
mechanisms__. Defense mechanisms are unconscious protective behaviors that aim to reduce
anxiety. They protect the ego from being overwhelmed by anxiety. Are we aware we are using
these? Y N Do they also distort reality? Y N But, according to Freud, do we all use them? Y
N However, OVERuse of them can be problematic. Freud outlined several defense
mechanisms, which are presented below:

Defense Definition
Mechanism
Denial Refusing to accept real events because they are unpleasant
Displacement Transferring inappropriate urges or behaviors onto a more
acceptable or less threatening target.
Projection Attributing unacceptable desires to others

Rationalization Justifying behaviors by substituting acceptable reasons for less-

acceptable real reasons
Reaction Formation Reducing anxiety by adopting beliefs contrary to your own beliefs

Regression Returning to coping strategies for less mature stages of

development
Repression Suppressing painful memories and thoughts

Sublimation Redirecting unacceptable desires through socially acceptable

channels
STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
When did Freud believe that personality developed? __During early childhood__. He believed
childhood experiences shape our personalities as well as our behavior as adults. According to
Freud, we develop via a series of __stages_, and if we do not have the proper nurturing and
parenting during a stage we will be stuck, or _fixed__ at that stage. In each _psychosexual
stage of development__ stage of development, the child’s pleasure-seeking urges, coming from
the id, are focused on a different part of the body, called an erogenous zone. The stages are
__oral__, anal, __phallic__, latency, and __genital___. Is this theory quite controversial? Y N.
We need to keep in mind that Freud’s theory was a product of his times…..the repressive and
uninformed understanding of human sexuality in Victorian Europe heavily influenced Freud’s
perspective.

An outline of his psychosexual stages is presented below:

Stage Age Erogenou Major Conflict Adult Fixation
(year s Zone Example
s)
Oral 0-1 Mouth Weaning off breast or Smoking, overeating
bottle
Anal 1–3 Anus Toilet training Neatness, messiness

Phallic 3–6 Genitals Oedipus/Electra complex Vanity, overambition

Latency 6 – 12 None None None

Genital 12+ Genitals None None

Have many of Freud’s idea found support in modern research? Y N Even so, we cannot
discount his contributions to psychology, especially his focus on the unconscious and early
childhood experiences.

11.3 Neo-Freudians: Adler, Erikson, Jung, and Horney

Many of Freud’s followers (referred o as neo-Freudians) agreed with the importance of early
childhood experiences, but tended to deemphasize _sex_, instead focusing more on the
____social environment_____ and effect of ___culture___ on our personality.

ALFRED ADLER
Once such theorist was Alfred Adler. What school of psychology did he found? ___invidual
psychology______. This approach focuses on our drive to compensate for feeling of inferiority.
He proposed the concept of the _inferiority complex___, which is a person’s feelings that they
lack worth and don’t measure up to the standards of others or society. What else did he think
was important? ____social connections____. He viewed childhood development emerging
through social development rather than sexual stages and felt that inter-relatedness and
cooperation was the cornerstone of our common welfare. What are three fundamental social
tasks that all of us must experience: __occupational__ tasks, ___socieal_tasks, and _love_
tasks. Are these tasks pursued at the conscious or unconscious level? __Conscious__. One
additional contribution of Adler was the idea that _birth order___ shapes our personalities.
First born children become __overachievers__, while the youngest child may be __spoiled__.
The middle child has the opportunity to ___minimize the negative dynamics__ of the youngest
and oldest child.

ERIK ERIKSON
Erik Erikson, whose theory we studied in chapter nine (lifespan development) was also a
neoFreudian. Instead of psychosexual stages, his theory was based on _Psychosocial_ stages.

CARL JUNG
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and protégé of Freud. He later split with Freud and
developed his own theory called _analytical_ psychology. What is the focus of analytical
psychology? Working to __balance opposing forces of conscious and unconscious
thought____, and experience within one’s personality. According to Jung, is this an ongoing
process? Y N . In fact, it mainly occurs in the second half of life. It involves becoming aware of
unconscious elements and _intergrating__ them into consciousness. The ___collective
unconscious__ is a universal version of the personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or
memory traces, which are common to all of us. What did he call these ancestral memories?
__archetypes__ These are represented by universal themes (facing death, becoming
independent, etc.) and symbols (the hero, the maiden, the sage, and the trickster) in various
cultures and are expressed through literature, art, and dreams. Are these archetypes handed
down through biology? Y N. The task of integrating these unconscious archetypal aspects of
the self is part of the self-realization process in the second half of the life. Jung also proposed
two attitudes or approaches toward life: ___extroversion and introversion__. Do almost all
models of personality now include these concepts? Y N What did Jung call the mask that we
adopt? _persona__. While we consciously construct our persona, is it derived from both our
conscious experiences and our collective unconscious? Y N .

KAREN HORNEY
Who was one of the first women trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst? __Karen Honey___.
Horney believed that each individual has the potential for self-realization and that the goal of
psychoanalysis should be moving towards a healthy self rather than exploring childhood
dysfunctions. Did she believe girls have penis envy? Y N She believed differences between
men and women are culturally based, not biologically based. What did her theories focus on?
__The role of unconscious anxiety__. Normal growth can be blocked by basic anxiety
stemming from needs not being met. Children learn to handle this anxiety by adopting one of
three coping styles. The first coping style, __moving toward people__, relies on affiliation and
dependence (which can continue into adulthood). The second coping style, ___moving against
people__, relies on aggression and assertiveness. Finally, the third coping style is ____moving
away from people____, which centers on detachment and isolation. Can these styles become
neurotic strategies if they are used rigidly and compulsively? Y N

11.4 Learning Approaches

In contrast to the psychodynamic approaches, the learning approaches only on __observable

behavior_. Since this is so, these approaches can be __scientifically tested__.

THE BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE

Behaviorist do not believe that personality traits are inborn, rather they believe the personality
is shaped by the __reinforcements and consequences__ outside the organism. Consistency in
a person’s behavior is based on prior learning. Responses that lead to positive consequences
will be reinforced and increased, while responses that lead to negative consequences will be
punished and decreased. Did Skinner believe that personality is fixed in childhood? Y N. New
situations and new reinforcement and punishment patterns cause a greater variability in
personality than Freud believed.

THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

Albert Bandura agreed that personality developed through learning, however he disagree with
Skinner’s strict behaviorist approach. He felt __thinking and reasoning____ are important
components of learning.

Reciprocal Determinism
Bandura proposed a social-cognitive theory of personality in which he proposed the concept of
__reciprocal determinism___. Reciprocal determinism is where cognitive processes (beliefs,
expectations personality characteristics), ___behavior___ (anything we do that is rewarded or
punished), and ____context___(the environment or situation) all interact and influence one
another.

Observational Learning
One of Bandura’s key contributions to learning theory is the idea that much learning is
___vicarious__. We learn by ____observing someone else’s behavior and its
consequences____. He called this observational learning. Whether or not we choose to imitate
a model’s behavior depends on whether we see that model be _reinforced_or _punished__.

Self-Efficacy
What is self-efficacy? __Our level of confident in our own abilities__. How is it developed?
____social experiences___. Self-efficacy affects how we approach challenges and reach goals.
If a person has high self-efficacy they believe that their goals are within reach, view challenges
positively, are deeply interested and committed to activities, and recover quickly from setbacks.
Individuals with low self-efficacy demonstrate opposite traits.
JULIAN ROTTER AND LOCUS OF CONTROL
Who proposed the concept of locus of control? _Julian Rotter_. What does this concept refer
to? __beliefs about the power we have over our lives_. According to Rotter, people have
either an __internal_ locus of control (believing that outcomes are the direct result of their own
efforts) or and __external_ locus of control (believing that outcomes are the result of other
people, luck, or chance). What have researchers found about individuals with an internal locus
control (as compared to an external locus of control). They perform _better academically__,
achieve more in their careers, are __more independent_, are __healthier__, are better able to
cope, and are ___less depressed__.

WALTER MISCHEL AND THE PERSON-SITUATION DEBATE

Did Walter Mischel’s (a student of Rotter and a colleague of Bandura) review of the literature
find that that a person’s personality traits are consistent across situations? Y N Mischel’s
ideas (which triggered the _person-situation____debate) suggest that we were looking for
consistency in the wrong places. A person’s behavior in one __situation__ would likely be
repeated in a similar one. Thus a behavior is __consistent_ in __equivalent_situations across
time (but NOT across different situations). One of Mischel’s most notable contributions to
personality is the idea of ___self-regulation__. Self-regulation is the process of “identifying a
goal or set of goals and, in pursuing these goals, using both internal and external feedback to
maximize goal attainment”. It is also known as _will power_ and is often thought of as the
ability to ____delay gratification_. Mischel famously demonstrated this concept in the
marshmallow study. In his longitudinal study of these preschoolers, he found that those
preschoolers who demonstrated higher self-regulation had higher SAT scores, had __positive_
peer relationships, were less likely to have _substance abuse issues ___, and had more
____stable marriages__. Children who did not demonstrate self-regulation were not as
successful in high school, and they were found to have _academic__ and __behavioral__
problems.

Do most psychologists consider both situational and personal factors in understanding

behavior? Y N.

11.5 Humanistic Approaches

As the “third force” in psychology, humanism is touted as a reaction both to the pessimistic
determinism of psychoanalysis and the behaviorists’ views of humans passively reacting to the
environment. Humanism argues that both these perspectives do not recognize the ___depth
and meaning of human experience__ and fail to recognize the __innate capacity for self-
directed change___ and transforming personal experiences. Does this perspective focus on
healthy or unhealthy aspects of personality? __Healthy_. One well known humanistic theorist
is __Abraham Maslow_. He suggested that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, with the
most basic needs (physiological, security) at the base of the pyramid. These needs must be
satisfied before “higher” needs (Social, Esteem) are met. What is the highest need? __self-
actualization_ What is this? __achievement of our fullest potential__. Another prominent
humanistic theorist is Carl Rogers. What is a central aspect of his personality theory? _self-
concept_. He divided self into two categories, the ideal self (_person you would like to be__),
and the _real__ (the person you actually are). If we believe these two selves are similar, then
we experience _congruence_. This, in turn, leads to a high sense of self-worth and a healthy,
productive life. How can parents help develop a congruent sense of self? By giving them
____unconditional positive regard__. By contrast when there is a big disconnect between the
ideal self and the real self, a sense of incongruence will result, which can lead to
__maladjustment___.

11.6 Biological Approaches

How much of your personality is due to nature, and how much is due to nurture? Some
personality psychologists focus on the biological underpinnings of our personality. A very
famous longitudinal study (Minnesota Twin Study) found identical twins, whether raised
together or apart, had very similar __personalities__. What is heritability? The ___proportion
of difference among people that is attributed to genetics__ What are some traits that have
been found to have a heritability ration of 0.50 or more? __Leadership__, obedience to
authority, ___sense of well-being____, alienation, ___resistance to stress____, and
_fearfulness_. But keep in mind that most traits are controlled by multiple genes and that
epigenetic factors control whether the genes are expressed.

TEMPERAMENT
Do most psychologists believe temperament has a biological basis? Y N . Although babies
show three different temperaments (easy, difficult, slow to warm up), ___parenting__ and
maturation can affect the ways in which children’s personalities are expressed. What two
dimensions of temperament are important parts of our adult personalities? __Reactivity__
(how we respond to new or challenging environmental stimuli) and __self-regulation__ (our
ability to control that response).

11.7 Trait Theorists

Trait theorists believe personality can be understood via the approach that all people have
certain _traits_, or characteristic ways of behaving. Early trait theorists tried to describe all
human traits. Gordon Allport organized traits into three categories: cardinal traits (one that
dominates your entire personality – very rare), ___central traits___, (those that make up our
make up most of our personality), and secondary traits, (ones that are manifest only in certain
situations). Raymond Cattell identified 16 ____personality factors___ of personality and
developed a personality assessment based on those factors. Each dimension is scored over a
continuum, from high to low (presence or absence of that trait). Hans and Sybil Eysenk were
personality theorists who focused on ___temperament_. They viewed personality as having
two specific dimensions (which were largely governed by __biology_):
extroversion/introversion and __neuroticism__/__emotional stability_. People are either
outgoing and talkative or shy and reserved. On the other dimension, they tend to have an
overactive sympathetic nervous system and demonstrate the fight or flight response at the
smallest stressor or they show much lower levels of sympathetic nervous system arousal and
are considered more emotionally stable. Thus, according to this theory a person is classified
into one of four quadrants. They later added a third dimension ___psychoticism___ vs.
superego control.

The most popular theory in personality psychology today is the __Five-Factor Model_. It
suggests that most of a person’s personality can be broken do to five dimensions or factors.
They are openness to experience, __conscientiousness__, extraversion, agreeableness, and
___neuroticism__. A useful acronym to remember the “Big 5” is ___OCEAN_. Like Cattel’s
continuum approach, a person’s personality is defined by where they fall along a spectrum for
each of the five factors: A person is either high or low (or somewhere in the middle). Are the
Big Five traits relatively stable over our lifespan? Y N However, some do tend to increase or
decrease slightly over our lifespan. What trait seems to increase through young adulthood into
middle age? Conscientiousness_ What other trait also seems to increase into middle/late
adulthood? __Agreeableness_. What traits seem to decrease with age? __Neuroticism and
Openness_. Have the Big Five traits been shown to exist across ethnicities, cultures, and ages?
Y N .

11.8 Cultural Understandings of Personality

Our personalities do not develop in a vacuum. We are shaped by both __genetic__ and
__environmental_ factors. What does the term culture refer to? _____all of beliefs, customs,
art, and traditions of a particular society___. Personality researchers are interested in the role
of culture in understanding personality. Does the strength of personality traits vary across
cultures? Y N For example, individuals from collectivist cultures (Asian cultures, for example)
tend to be less __extravated_. People in Central and South America tend to be higher in
___openness_. Europeans score higher on neuroticism. Does there even appear to be regional
differences within the U.S.? Y N What is one explanation for these regional differences?
__Selective migration__. People may choose to places that are compatible with their
personalities.

PERSONALITY IN INDIVIDUALIST AND COLLECTIVIST CULTURES

___Individualistic_ cultures and _collectivist__ cultures place emphasis on different basic
values. Individualistic cultures (Western nations such as the U.S, England and Australia) value
independence, _competition_, and personal achievement. Thus, people in these cultures
display more personally oriented traits. Collectivist cultures (Asia, Africa, South America) value
social harmony, _respectfulness_, and __group needs_ over __personal needs_. People in
these cultures display more socially oriented personality traits.

APPROACHES TO STUDYING P RS EONALITY IN A CULTURAL CONTEXT

What are the three approaches that can be used to study personality in a cultural context? The
_etic_ approach (seeks to test Western ideas about personality in other cultures to see if they
are valid and generalizable); the ___emic_ approach (seeks to develop personality assessment
instruments that are based on constructs relevant to the culture being studied); and the
_combined approach__ (serves as a bridge between the two as a way of understanding both
universal and cultural variations in personality).

11.9 Personality Assessment

SELF-REPORT INVENTORIES
There are several ways personality psychologists go about measuring personality. __Self-report
inventories___ are a kind of objective test used to assess personality. They typically use
multiple-choice items or numbered scales (agree, strongly agree, neutral, etc.). What is one of
the most widely used personality inventories? The __Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory__ or MMPI. How many true/false questions does the 1989 version have? __567_.
Does the revised version have better standardization than the earlier version? Y N Responses
are scored to produce a profile which consists of 10 scales. Although it was originally designed
to assist in the clinical diagnosis of psychological disorders, how else is it used? __legal cases_,
and in college, career, and marital counseling. The MMPI also has scales to assess reliability
and validity. Is there also a “lie scale” to detect who is “faking good”? Y N

PROJECTIVE TESTS
Another approach to personality assessment is ___projective tests___. During these tests, a
series of ___ambiguous stimuli__ is shown to the person being tested, who is then encouraged
to project his or her __needs_, __desires_ and __fears_ onto the cards by telling a story,
interpreting an image, or completing a sentence. One of the most well know is the
___Rorschach Inkblot Test_ which was developed in 1921 by Hermann Rorschach. In this test,
a person is presented with a series of inkblots and asked what they see. A second projective
test is the Thematic Apperception Test or TAT. Here a person is shown a series of ambiguous
pictures and is asked to make up a story about what they see. The assumption is that the story
a person makes up is reflective of their __unconscious motives_, revealing hopes, __fears__,
interests, and __conflicts_. Despite the lack of reliability, validity, and standardization, is the
TAT still one of the most widely used projective tests? Y N
Julian Rotter developed a third projective technique, called the Rotter Incomplete Sentence
Blank (RISB). This test (available in various forms depending on the population) includes 40
incomplete sentences that people are asked to complete as quickly as possible. Is this test
similar to a word association test? Y N Like all projective techniques, it is presumed to reveal
___conflicts_, _attitudes, and _desires_.
While projective tests have been used in cross-cultural assessments, has test bias limited their
usefulness? Y N The personality instruments mentioned above were based on data from a
single culture or race, thus their usefulness with widely divergent ethnic/cultural groups was
limited. Other personality researchers have developed culturally specific projective
instruments, such as the Contemporized-Themes Concerning Blacks Test (C-TCB). Has this test
been shown to elicit better responses from African Americans than the TAT? Y N A similar test
has also been developed that is specific to the Hispanic population.