Personality

Main Ideas:
Be able to differentiate perspectives.
Perspectives:
Psychoanalytic
(concepts: id, ego, superego, conflict/tension, unconscious)
Social power & Race
(concepts: how resources and power shape which parts of personality
developed and how they are expressed)

Trait & Behavior Genetic
(concepts: trait, heritable, adoption studies)

Humanistic
(concepts: unconditional positive regard, conditional p.r., self actualization)
Culture & Gender
(concepts: patterns of interaction, e.g. direct/indirect communication)
skip:learning/social cognitive

Example Questions

1. Choose two of the perspectives on personality (see list above), and describe one similarity and one difference between them.

5. Give an example of some anxiety and the defense mechanism used to deal with it. Name the defense mechanism. For the same example, give a second example of a defense mechanism that is likely to be a less healthy way to deal with the same anxiety (you can use same defense mechanism or different one).

3. Give an example of some anxiety and the defense mechanism used to deal with it. Name the defense mechanism. For the same example, give a second example of a defense mechanism that is likely to be a less healthy way to deal with the same anxiety (you can use same defense mechanism or different one).

10. Choose one of Cattell's 16 personality factors. Describe 5 behaviors in a similar situation that would show a range from one end of the scale to other (e.g. from reserved to outgoing). Keep in mind you are focusing on that one and minimizing (as best you can; never perfectly) the other 15.

3. A couple fights all the time, raising voices and saying intense emotional things, sometimes in public places (restaurants, the mall). Match each statement with a perspective of personality.
___ They don't have a strong sense of self control and let things blurt out easily.
___ Some people have a consistent tendency toward more self expression than other (i.e. are extroverted), and thus are more likely to interact that way.
a. Psychoanalytic
b. Social power & Gender & Race
c. Trait & Behavior Genetic
d. Humanistic
e. Culture

4. What question would you need to ask about the situation in the previous question to do a cultural perspective on personality?

5. Give an example of how a person acts in a relationship and how a humanistic theorist would interpret that behavior.

6. Using the same or similar example of how a person acts in a relationship, how might a Psychoanalytic theorist would interpret that behavior?

2. Social power, racial, and gender perspectives on personality are most similar in which of the following ways?

4 & 5. When describing your friend, you say that she is honest. She is willing to say the truth, even at times when it is difficult for her. Match each statement with a perspective of personality.
___ She has internalized a sense of right and wrong that stops the impulse to lie.
___ She has chosen to be honest. She perceives honesty as important in reaching her full potential.
___ Honesty is expressed in different ways in each community. We need to know in what situations and what types of honesty she is talking about.
___ Those who control the rewards have an easier time being honest because they don't have as much to fear from the truth. She may have been different if she had grown up where speaking the truth about reality can get you killed.
a. Psychoanalytic
b. Social power & Gender & Race
c. Trait & Behavior Genetic
d. Humanistic
e. Culture

9. Give an example of some anxiety and the defense mechanism used to deal with it. Name the defense mechanism.