personality

personality

1. trait theories of personality

   • specify set of distinct personality dimensions to summarise psychological differences among indiviuals
   • factor analysis
     • try to find the cause, possibly another factor, for a correlation
   • five-factor model
     • openness
     • conscientiousness
     • extraversion
     • agreeableness
     • neuroticism
   • grit
     • perseverance and passion for long-term goals
   • dark triad
     • narcissism
       • extreme selfishness with grandiose view of oneself
     • machiavellianism
       • person is predisposed to manipulate others
     • psychopathy
       • amoral and antisocial behaviour + lack of empathy + inability to form meaningful relationships

2. influences

   • genes!
     • environment barely changes anything
       • only major life changes
     • influencing neurotransmitters
   • environment
     • orchid children
       • sensitive to environment
     • dandelions children
       • survive an environment
     • family
       • sibling contrast
       • split-parent identification
   • gender
   • culture

3. different views

   • psychodynamic view
     • emphasise interplay of mental forces
       • defence mechanisms
         • keep unacceptable or anxiety-producing motives + thoughts out of consciousness
           • repression
           • displacement
             • focussing attention onto something else
           • sublimation
             • drive converted into socially accepted drive
           • projection
             • ill doers are ill deemers
           • rationalisation
             • making up false, but credible reasons
           • reaction formation
             • doing the exact opposite of what you want to do
     • Freud
     • Adler
       • inferiority complex
         • going through life acting incompetent and dependent
       • superiority complex
         • trying to prove you are better than others as means of masking your inferiority
   • valliant
     • immature defenses
       • distort reality most
         • projection
     • intermediate defenses
       • distort reality less
         • repression + reaction formation
     • mature defenses
       • distorts reality least
         • suppression + humor
   • humanistic view
     • emphasises people's conscious understanding of themselves and their capacity to choose their own paths to fulfillment
       • phenomenological reality
         • person's conscious understanding of their own world
       • self-concept
         • person's understanding of who they are
       • self-actualisation
         • process of becoming one's full self
   • social cognitive view
     • locus of control
       • extent to which someone thinks they have an influence on the environment and their own skills
         • internal locus of control
           • belief that individuals control their own rewards
             • self-efficacy
             • malleable view
               • you're changing, developing and improving
             • adaptive optimism
               • thinking about positive consequences motivates
               • vs. defensive optimism
                 • reduces anxiety by blocking fearful thoughts
             • adaptive pessimism
               • thinking about negative consequences motivates
         • external locus of control
           • belief that external factors control their rewards
             • fixed view