Theories of Personality

Exam 1 Study Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction

Definitions of personality
Three concerns of personality theories
 We are like everyone else
 We are like come people
 We are uniquely different
Nature-nurture controversy of personality theory (also known as the nativism-empiricism controversy)
Where does personality come from?
 Traits
 Genetics
 Sociocultural determinants
 Learning
 Existential-humanistic considerations
 Unconscious mechanisms
Personality paradigms and corresponding theorists
 Psychodynamic paradigm
 Sociocultural paradigm
 Trait paradigm
 Learning paradigm
 Existential-humanistic paradigm
 Also know: Evolutionary paradigm (theorist: David Buss)

Chapter 2: Freud

Instincts
 Four characteristics
 Life instincts (eros) and death instincts (thanatos)
Divisions of the mind
 Id (also know the difference between reflex action and wish fulfillment)
 Superego (also know the difference between conscience and ego ideal
 Ego
Anxiety
 Reality anxiety
 Neurotic anxiety
 Moral anxiety
Ego-defense mechanisms
 Repression (also know primal repression and repression proper)
 Displacement (also know displaced aggression)
 Identification
 Denial of reality
 Projection
 Undoing
 Rationalization
 Regression
Psychosexual stages of development
 Basics
o When is adult personality completely formed?
 o How does fixation occur?
o Erogenous zones for each stage
 Oral stage
o Early oral stage
o Later oral stage
o Oral-incorporative character and oral-sadistic character
 Anal stage
o Early anal stage
o Later anal stage
o Anal-expulsive character and anal-retentive character
 Phallic stage
o Castration anxiety
o Penis envy
 Latency stage
 Genital stage
Methods to tap the unconscious mind
 Free association
o Examples of resistance
 Dream analysis
o Dream work
 Condensation
 Displacement
o Secondary revision
 Manifest content
 Latent content
 Everyday life
o Freudian slips
 Humor
Evaluation
 Major criticisms of theory
o Sexist
o Pessimistic of human nature
o Not testable or falsifiable
 Major contributions
o Ego-defense mechanisms

Chapter 3: Jung

Components of the mind

 Ego
 Personality unconscious (also know complexes)
 Collective unconscious (also know archetypes)
Major archetypes
 Persona
 Anima
 Animus
 Shadow
 Self
Two attitudes (introversion and extroversion) and four functions of thought (sensing, thinking, feeling,
intuiting)
Eight personality types
 Thinking extrovert, feeling extrovert, sensing extrovert, intuiting extrovert
  Thinking introvert, feeling introvert, sensing introvert, intuiting introvert
Also know Jung’s stages of development
Research techniques
 Word-association test
 Studying psychotic patients
 Studying dreams (also know the difference between Jung and Freud in how they analyzed
dreams)
 Studying other cultures for commonalities
Evaluation
 Major criticism
o Too much emphasis on mysticism
o Unclear, inconsistent, contradictory
o Elitist
o Not testable or falsifiable
 Major contributions
o First to propose self-realization (beginnings for the existential-humanistic paradigm)
o Optimistic about human nature
o Popularity in contemporary psychology

Chapter 4: Adler

Feelings of inferiority
 Also know compensation and overcompensation
 Where do they come from?
 Source of motivation
 Superiority
 Inferiority and superiority complexes
How does someone’s worldview relate to fictional finalism and lifestyle?
Social interest (what is it and what’s the purpose?)
 Occupational tasks
 Societal tasks
 Love and marriage tasks
Mistaken lifestyles (lack of social interest)
 Why is this bad?
 Examples of mistaken lifestyles
o People with inferiority and superiority complexes
o Personality types: rule-domineering, getting-leaning, avoiding
 Socially useful types = not a mistaken lifestyle
 Causes of mistaken lifestyles
o Physical inferiority
o Spoiling or pampering
o Neglecting
Safeguarding strategies (protecting a mistaken lifestyle)
 Excuses
 Aggression
o Depreciation
o Accusation (also know idealization and solitude)
o Self-accusation
 Distancing
o Types of distancing (moving backwards, standing still, hesitating, constructing obstacles,
experiencing anxiety, exclusion tendency)
Research techniques
  Birth order (first born, second born, youngest child, only child)
 First memories
 Dream analysis
 Behavioral mannerisms
Evaluation
 Recent findings on birth order research
 Major criticisms
o Not falsifiable
o Overly simplistic
 Major contributions
o Importance of environment or situation on personality development
o Influential (lifestyle, inferiority/superiority complex)