psychology notes
Terms
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- the definition of personality
- an individual's unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits
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definition of personality traits:
why is the concept of personality traits controversial -
a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations
it's controversial because you can't really categorize personality traits - the five-factors of the five factor model of personality traits
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neuroticism
extroversion
agreeable
conscientiousnes
openness to experience - neuroticism
- anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consiousness, impulsiveness, vulnerability
- extroversion
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warmth
gregariousness
assertiveness
activity
excitement seeking
positive emotion - agreeableness
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trust
straightforwardness
altruism
compliance
modesty
tenderness - conscientiousness
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competence
order
dutifulness
achievement striving
self-discipline
deliberation - openness to experience
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fantasy
aesthetics
feelings
actions
ideas
values - the four major issues for personality theory:
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Freedom vs. Determinism
Person=F(heredity) vs. Envir.
Behavior=F(person vs. situation
conciousness vs. unconcious - the five major approaches to personality
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Psychodynamic
behaviorist
humanist
social learning
biological
(see handout) -
Id
(one of Freuds structures of personality) - primative instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle
- Ego
- the decision making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle
- superego
- the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong
- archetypes
- emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meanings
- behaviorism
- a theoretical orientatin based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior
- concious
- whatever one is aware of at a particular time
- defense mechanism
- largely unconcious actions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety or guilt
- displacement
- diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original sourse to a subsititue target
- extraverts
- people who tend to be interested inthe external world of people and things
- factor analysis
- statistic analysis of correlations among many variables to identify closely related clusters of variables
- fixation
- failure to move forward from one psychosexual stage to another as expected
- incongruence
- the degree of disparity between one's self-concept and one's actual experience
- hindisight bias
- the tendance to mold one's interpretation of the past to fit how events actually turned out
- humanism
- theoretical orientation that emaphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth
- identification
- bolstering self-esteem by forming imaginary or real alliances with some person or group
- introverts
- people who tend to be preoccupied with the internal world and their own thougts, feelings and experiences
- model
- a person whose behavior is observed by another
- need for self actualization
- the need to fulfill ones potential
- phenomenological approach
- the assumption that one must appreciate individuals personal subjective experiences to truly understand their behavior
- oedipal complex
- childrens manifestation of erotically tinged desires for their opposite - sex parent, accompanied by feelings of hostility towards their same sex parent
- pleasure principle
- the principle that the ID operates on (demanding immediate gratification of urges)
- preconcious
- the level of awareness that contains material just beneath the surface of conscious awareness that can easily be retrieved
- projection
- attributing ones own thoughts, feelings or motives to another
- projective tests
- a test that asks different types of questions that may reveal the subjects needs feelings and personality traits
- psychodynamic theories
- all the divers theories descend from the words or Freud that focus on unconcious mental forces
- psychosexual stages
- development periods with a characteristic sexual focus that leave their mark on adult personalities
- rationalization
- creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior
- reaction formation
- behaving in a way that the exact opposite of ones true feelings
- reality principle
- the principle of which the ego operates which seeks to delay gratification of the id's urges until appropriate outlets and situations can be found
- reciprocal determinism
- the assumption that internal mental events, external environmental events and overt behavior all influence each other
- regression
- a reversion to immature patterns of behavior
- self-monitoring
- the degree to which people attend to and control the impressions they make on others and in social interactions
- self-actualizing persons
- people with exceptionally healthy personalities marked by continued personal growth
- self-concept
- a collection of beliefs about ones own nature, unique qualities and typical behavior
- self-efficacy
- one's belief about one's ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes
- self-report inventories
- personality tests that ask individuals to answer a series of questions about their characteristic behavior
- sensation seeking
- a generalized preference for high or low levels of sensory stimulation
- striving for superiority
- the universal drive to adapt, improve oneself, and master life's challenges
- unconcious
- thoughts memories and desires that are well below the surface of conciousness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behavior
- adoption studies
- research studies that asses hereditary influence by examining the resemblance between adopted children and both their biological and adoptive parents
- behavioral genetics
- and interdisciplinary field that studies the influence of genetic factors on behavioral traits
- operant conditioning
- a form of learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences
- classic conditioning
- a type of learning where a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus
- gender
- culturally constructed distinctions between masculinity and femininity
- gender differences
- actual disparities between the sexes in typical behavior or average ability
- gender roles
- expectations about what is appropriate behavior for each sex
- gender stereotypes
- widely held beliefs about males and females ablilities, personality traits, and behavior
- conditioned response
- a learned reaction to a conditioned stimuli that occurs because of previous conditioning
- synaptic clef
- microscopic gap between the terminal button of a neuron and the cell membrane of another neuron
- neurotransmitters
- chemicals that transmit information from one to another
- postsynaptic potential
- a voltage change at the receptor site on a postsynaptic cell membrane
- terminal buttons
- small knobs at the end of axons that secrete chemicals called neurotransmitters
- reuptake
- a process in which neurotransmitters are sponged up from the synaptic cleft by the presynaptic membrane
- levels of conciousness according to freud...
- concious, preconcious and the unconcious
- self-efficacy beliefs
- one's belief about one's ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes
- avoidance personality disorder
- excessively sensitive to potential rejection, humiliation, or shame; socially withdrawn in spite of desire for acceptance from others
- obsessive compulsive personality disorder
- preoccupied with oranization, rules, schedules, lists, trivial details; extremely conventional, serious, and formal; unable to express warm emotions
- paranoid personality disorder
- showing pervasive and unwarranted suspiciousness and mistrust of people; overly sensitive; prone to jealousy
- schizoid
- defective in capacity for forming social relationships; showing absense of warm, tender feelings for others
- antisocial personality disorder
- chronically violating the rights of others; failing to accept social norms, to form attachments to others, or to sustain consistent work behavior; exploitive and reckless
- agroaphobia
- a fear of going out in public places
- axiety disorders
- feelings of excessive apprehension and anxiety
- availability heuristic
- basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevance instances come to mind
- bipolar disorder
- mood disorder marked by the experience of both depressed and manic periods
- catatonic schizophrenia
- a type of schizophrenia marked by striking motor disturbances ranging from muscular rigidity to random motor activity
- comorbidity
- the coexistance of two or more disorders
- concordance rate
- the percentage of twin pairs or other pairs of relatives that exhibits the same disorder
- conjuction fallacy
- an error that occurs when people estimate that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happenings alone
- conversion disorder
- a somatoform disorder characterized by a significant loss of physical function usually in a single organ system
- culture-bound disorders
- abnormal syndromes found only in a few cultural groups
- cyclothymic disorder
- exhibiting chronic but relatively mild symptoms of bipolar disturbances
- delusions
- false beliefs that are maintained even though they are clearly out of touch with reality
- diagnosis
- distinguishing one illness from another
- disorganized schizophrenia
- a type of schizophrenia in which particularly severe deterioration of adaptive behavior is seen
- dissociative amnesia
- a sudden loss of memory for important personal information that is too extensive to be due to normal forgetting
- generalized anxiety disorder
- a phsycological disorder marked by a chronic high level of anxiety that is not tied to any specific threat
- etiology
- the apparent causation and development history of an illness
- dissociative identity disorder
- a type of dissociative disorder characterized by the coexistance in one person of two or more largely complete and usually very different personalities (multiple personality disorders)
- dysthymic disorder
- a chronic depression that is sufficient in severity to merit diagnosis of a major depressive episode
- epidemiology
- the study of the distribution of mental or physical disorders in a population
- hypochondriasis
- a somatoform disorder characterized by excessive preoccupation with health concerns and incessant worry about developing physical illness
- involuntary commitment
- a civil proceeding in which people are hospitalized in psychiatric facilities against their will
- major depressive disorder
- persistent feelings of sadness and despair and a loss of interest in previous sources of pleasure
- medical model
- the view that is useful to think of abnormal behavior as a disease
- mood disorders
- a class of disorders marked by emotional disturbances of varied kinds that may spill over to disrupt physical, perceptual, social, and thought process
- negative symtoms
- behavior deficits such as flattened emotions, social withdrawal apathy impaired attention and povery of speech
- panic disorder
- recurrent attacks of overwhelming anxiety that usually occur suddenly and unexpectedly
- paranoid schizophrenia
- dominated by delusions of persecution along with delusions of grandeur
- phobic disorder
- marked by a persistent and irrational fear of an object or situation that presents no realistic danger
- positive symptoms
- involve behavioral excesses or peculiarities such as hallucinations delusions bizzare behavior and wild flight ideas
- prevelance
- percentage of a population that exhibits a disorder during a specified time period
- prognosis
- a forecast about the probabale course of an illness
- representativeness heuristic
- basing the estimated probability of an event on how similiar it is to the tpyical protype of that event
- somatization disorders
- a type of a somatoform disorder marked by a history of diverse physical complaints that appear to be psychological in origin
- somatoform disorders
- physical aliments with no authenitic organic basis that are due to psychological factors
- undiefferentiated schizophrenia
- marked by idiosyncratic mixtures of schizophrenic symptoms