Unit 2 Study Guide

Terms/Matching/Multiple Choice
Section 1: Theories of Personality
Personality – the patterns of feelings, motives, and behavior that set people apart
from one another.
What are the four important areas where personality is developed? Know each one.
Early Childhood is very important time for the development of personality.
During the first 6 months, behavior becomes individualized as they react to different
stimuli.
Many foundations of personality are laid down early in life. Most of a child’s
early life is spent at, or in, the home.
Birth Order is known as care for the first born that’s more nurturing than
care for the 2nd born, unless the 2nd born is a different gender than the first. A
decrease in motherly attention is often noticeable.
Society consists of a large group of people who share common traits, customs
or ways or behaving. In our society, we learn from religious activities, school, work,
and play with other children.

Molar – approach which is concerned with larger, more general units of behavior
and the influence of your goals and the expectations on behavior, like studying how
someone makes friends.
Molecular – approach in which behavior is explained in terms of tiny, very specific
units, like nerve impulses or how specific parts of the brain function.
Section 2: Trait Theories
Trait – aspect of personality that is considered to be reasonably stable. We assume
the person has certain traits depending on how they behave. Traits are also
assumed to be consistent.
Big Five
1. Extraversion/Introversion
a. Outgoing/energetic vs solitary/reserved
2. Agreeableness
a. Friendly/compassionate vs cold/unkind
3. Conscientiousness
a. Efficient/organized vs easy-going/careless
4. Emotional Stability-ness
a. Sensitive/nervous vs secure/confident
5. Openness
a. Inventive/curious vs consistent/cautious
Trait Theory – trait theory describes traits but do not explain where the traits come
from
Section 3: Psychoanalytic Theory
There is an unconscious level that plays a major part in determining behavior. This
behavior in turn will compose our personality.

Pleasure Principle – seeks to keep level of tension low by obtaining pleasure

Super Ego – moral aspects, values and ideas of society learned by individuals, strives
for perfection
Reality Principle – appropriate ways for a person to satisfy needs
Ego – conscious, involves learned ways of behaving, balances the id and superego by
operating on the basis of the reality principle.
Id – the original system of personality, completely unconscious, acts according to the
pleasure principle
Sigmund Freud – believed personality is composed of 3 systems: I, E, SE.
Defense Mechanisms – used by the ego in order to avoid ideas or emotions that may
cause anxiety.
Repression – removing anxiety causing them ideas from the conscious by pushing
them to the unconscious.
Rationalization – use of self-deception to justify unacceptable behaviors or ideas.
Regression – when stress is present, a person returns to behavior that is
characteristic of an earlier stage of development
Projection – dealing with unacceptable impulses by projecting these impulses
outward onto other people.
Personal Unconscious – consists of experiences that were once conscious but have
been forgotten
Collective Unconscious – contains all the memories from our ancestors, universal
Carl Jung – came up with Archetypes, divided the unconscious mind into the
personal unconscious and the collective unconscious which affect our personality
without our knowledge. 2 major attitudes, Intro/Extrospection.
Archetypes – ideas and images of the accumulated experiences of all human beings,
basic/primitive concepts
Introverts – respond to internal stimuli for motivation
Extroverts – respond to external stimuli for motivation
Section 4: Social Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychoanalytic Theory - A broader viewpoint than psychoanalytic ideas. This theory
emphasizes that there are forces outside the person (stressing social and cultural
influences) that will shape our personality.
Erik Erickson – divided personality into 8 stages. A crisis must be solved in each
stage. Personality characteristics are developed with each crisis.
Karen Horney – emphasized the social relationships between young children and
their parents. Actions and personality is formed by how the parents interact or treat
the child
Harry Stack Sullivan – Personality relies on our relationship with other people and
situations. We are all members of a social group. Focuses on 3 processes that occur
in interpersonal relationships: dynamism, personification and cognitive processes.
Alfred Adler – emphasized that people are primarily social creatures and motivated
by a need to overcome feelings of inferiority.
Inferiority Complex – Feelings of inadequacy and insecurity that serve as a central
source of motivation
Erich Fromm – personality is shaped by the interaction between our basic needs
and the opportunity in society for fulfilling them. 5 needs: relatedness,
transcendence, belonging, identity, and frame of reference.
Creative Self – what makes people strive toward complete fulfillment, create goals,
and the means to achieve them
Dynamism – smallest unit that can be studied about an individual, pattern of
behavior that occurs over and over again like a habit
Personification – image people have of themselves or of another person, involves
attitudes, feelings, and ideas, may or may not be correct
Cognitive Processes – consists of ways of thinking, may include symbols, words, or
numbers, enables people to communicate with one another
Acculturation -
Section 5: Behavioristic Theory
Investigates the role of learning in the development of personality. Examines
conditions and situations that affect the learning of behavior.
Reinforcement – Reward behavior to increase the chance of the behavior occurring
again
Punishment – any form of unpleasant or painful stimulation after undesirable
performance
Model – person whose behavior is imitated
B.F. Skinner – defines personality in terms of behavior, have to study what
conditions produce specific behaviors. Examine relationship between cause and
effect – can only analyze external events. Reinforcement does create behavior and to
a certain extent so does punishment.
Albert Bandura – Social Cognitive Theory – personality is shaped and learning is
acquired by personal factors, behavior, and environmental factors. He believes that
behavior is learned mostly through observation and imitation and reinforces these
new behaviors. Models help shape our personalities.
Positive Reinforcement – presentation strengthens response
Reinforcement is given
Negative Reinforcement – if its removal strengthens response
Reinforcement is taken
Positive Punishment – Presentation STOPS behavior
Punishment is given
Negative Punishment – Removal STOPS behavior
Punishment is taken
Section 6: Humanistic Theory
Emphasized the positive aspects of human growth, personality is shaped by an
active drive of an individual towards health, growth, and creativity. The
environment makes us bad.
Self-Actualization – realization of our potentialities as unique human beings, being
responsible, authentic, true to oneself, and be able to grow
Hierarchy – organized into ranks, each subordinate to the one above, an
arrangement
Self-concept – system of attitudes that people have towards themselves
Abraham Maslow – explained personality and human behavior in terms of
motivation. People act certain ways because they are motivated by certain needs.
Maslow created a hierarchy of 5 needs.
Carl Rogers – Also believes in self-actualization but states people will form their
personality even if they don’t become self-actualized. The important part of
personality development is self-concept. We behave in ways that support our self-
concept.
Congruence – consistency between one’s self concept and one’s experience.
Section 7: Psychological Tests
Pigeonholing – categorize someone into a certain type of category
Stereotype – when you expect an individual to have characteristics despite no direct
evidence to support the idea. Applied to an individual on previously formed
judgments. Usually involves races, genders, religions
Over-rating – rating someone higher than you should
Halo Effect – when the presence of a single positive attribute leads you to
unconsciously assume a person has other positive traits
Horn Effect – when the presence of one negative trait leads to further negative
assumptions
Valid – a test needs to measure what it is supposed to.
Reliable – test results need to be similar each time you take that same test.
Psychoanalytic - Freud accepted at face value what patients said. He didn’t fact
check. He also never made clear how he got the information. It’s extremely difficult
for people to repeat their processes. This process also just investigated past events,
not the future.
Social Psychoanalytic - Too idealistic. The execution of the theory, which is to make
the environment better, only leads to more problems. These theories also fail to
state how society molds members.
Behavioristic - They examine behaviors in small bits and don’t relate these
behaviors in a meaningful way. They also put too much emphasis on environmental
forces. Reward isn’t consistent and can be changed from person to person. Same
with punishment. Finding a consistent reward is extremely difficult.
Humanistic - Many ideas in these theories aren’t testable. The only way to actually
analyze a person is through their frame of reference, which you can’t recreate in a
laboratory setting. There is also no evidence that human needs are in a hierarchy,
according to Maslow.

1. Sigmund Freud – The Id is out of control. The pleasure principle demands perfection and the best from
every moment, and the ego and superego aren't taking control.
2. Erick Erickson – This person is stuck at a barrier in one of the 8 steps. Her crisis hasn't been solved,
leading this person to be high-strung. This person needs to overcome this goal and relax.
3. Carl Jung – This person's personality may have been trained and ingrained in her head and be in her
personal unconscious, or maybe her family history is filled with type A people so type A is the only attitude
she knows.
4. B.F. Skinner – Maybe she realized that by being demanding and uptight produces results, and that's the
only way that she knows how to produce results based on past behavior. Maybe her parents reinforced her
type A attitude whether towards school or life.
5. Carl Rogers – Maybe this girl's self-concept reinforces the idea that she is number 1, or important. She
may not be fully self-actualized, leading to her uptight attitude.
6. Albert Bandura – Maybe some of her friends or teachers have a type A attitude that she observes and
imitates. One of her idols in pop culture might be type A as well, and as a model, that celebrity influences
her personality.
7. Harry Stack Sullivan – Maybe the friend group she's in encourages her to be a type A personality.
8. Abraham Maslow – Maybe there is a need for attention or for results that are driving her to act this way.
9. Karen Horney – Maybe her parents were incredibly strict as a 3-year-old and were very cold to her, or
something similar.
10. Erich Fromm – Maybe this girl didn't believe that she was fulfilling one of the 5 needs in society, and the
only way in doing so is to demand the best from yourself or the people around you. She may not belong in a
class where she's too 'dumb' to be in, leading her to demand the best from herself until she's fulfilled that
need to belong.
11. Alfred Adler – Maybe she thinks that she sucks at school, so she pushes herself and demands that she
is perfect, and demands that everyone else is perfect too. Her inferiority complex is pushing her to act that
way.

Essays/Short Answer
1. Summarize each of the four personality theories (psychoanalytic, social
psychoanalytic, behavioristic, and humanist) as to what they believe influences the
development of personality. Pick one person under each theory and give an
example of a personality trait for each theory, explaining how the trait was
developed. Example of a trait would be happiness or hard working.

2. Know the criticisms of each theory.

3. Know the difference between positive and negative punishment/reinforcement.