Study Guide – Test 3 (Depth Approaches)
Personality Psych (255)
Fall, 2009
Material:
Lecture notes (including the second lecture on personality change)
Readings:
Funder – Chapters 10, 11, 12, 13
Topics
Finishing the previous section on personality change….
Change in “rank order” or individual differences
How to examine this question? – study (design, results)
In general, do people individual differences seem to change or remain stable? What does this imply about the
degree to which each person changes in a dramatically unique way?
Why might people change differently?
Study of life events - design, results, implications?
Childhood to adulthood
What do psychologists mean by “temperament”?
Link between childhood temperament and adult personality traits.- study (design, results, implications)
Some key issues in this rest of this section
Motivation & Needs (what drives human behavior and what “needs” must be fulfilled to live a meaningful, healthy
life?)
Conscious vs unconscious processes
Free will vs determinism
Identity & self-concept
Psychological well being & distress
Psychoanalytic Theory (Freud)
Key ideas
Psychic determinism
Internal structure
Psychic conflict
Mental energy
Libido, thantos
Topographical Model of the Mind (levels of awareness)
What is in the unconscious? Why is it there and not in the conscious?
Primary process thinking and secondary process thinking
Structure of Personality (id, ego, superego)
What is each? Rational/irrational, Conscious/unconscious, etc
How are they related to each other?
Personality Development
Stages of development (names, ages)
Three “aspects” of each stage
Fixation & regression
Oedipal crisis, Identification
The line between conscious and unconscious
Anxiety
o And conflict… between????
o Impulses, impulse control, and energy
o Realistic anxiety
Defense Mechanisms
o Defense of what, from what, by what?
o Purposes of Def Mechs?
o Types of Def Mechs (what is each, how does it work, make up your own example to illustrate)
Denial, Repression, Reaction formation, Rationalization, Projection, Intellectualization,
Discplacement, Sublimation
o Defense mechanisms and homophobia
Theory (which DM and why?)
Evidence?
Parapraxes (what are they? Why would they happen?)
Humor
Dreams
o Manifest vs latent content
o Who is most likely to remember his/her dreams, and how do we know this?
Implications of Psychoanalytic theory for Psychotherapy
Controversy/criticisms of Freudian Theory and Contemporary Psychoanalytic theory
Criticisms etc
5 postulates of contemporary psychoanalytic theory (see end of chapter 12)
o Implicit and Explicit knowledge/attitudes/beleifs
o PDP
Be familiar with some of Freud’s biographical info, because he was such a pivotal individual in the evolution of the field.
Some familiarity with Freud and his associations with others can provide a deeper understanding of the field as a whole.
Neoanalytic approaches
What are basic differences between pure Freudian theory and neoanalytic theories?
Jung
Adler
Levels of consciousness
o What are they?
o How is this perspective similar/different from Freud’s
Archetypes
o what are they?
o How are they expressed?
o Examples
Individuation – as a personal process and as an archetype – how is this related to mandalas?
Persona
Introversion/Extroversion and the MBTI
Organ inferiority and masculine protest
Inferiority & compensation
Karen Horney
Penis envy
Basic anxiety
o What is it, why do some people have more of it than others?
o What are its effects?
Neurotic needs
Neurotic coping strategies (trends)
Self-perpetuation of basic anxiety – how does it happen?
Erikson
Psychosocial Theory of Identity Development
o Most important differences between this theory and Freud’s theory of development?
o Stages (names/ages)
Some contemporary research on identity achievement
o 4 types of identity status
o Who seems to develop identity achievement?
Object Relations Theorists
Basic ideas
4 themes
What produces neurotic defenses in relationships?
“Transitional object” and “False self”
Attachment Theory
What are “attachments” and how do they affect relationships?
Three types of childhood attachment
Implications of adult attachments
Humanistic/Existential Theory
Phenomenology
What is it?
Early roots (introspection)
Existentialism
Parts of Experience
Angst, Living in “bad faith”, and living an “authentic existence”
Fromm
5 Existential Needs
Why do we want to escape from freedom?
Evidence regarding Fromm’s predictions
Rogers
Self-actualization
Psychotherapy
Maslow
Hierarchy of needs
What are the needs?
What is “hierarchical” about them?
Self-actualization & “the fully functioning person”
Humanistic therapy
Goal of therapy and strategy to obtain this goal?
What is the therapist’s job?
Self and “ideal self”
Kelly & “Personal Constructs”
What is a “personal construct”?
Where do they come from?
How do they affect us?
Constructive alternativism
“Flow”
Link to phenomenology
Positive Psychology
What is “positive psychology” and oin what way is it an extension of humanistic psychology?
What is it’s “most distinctive feature”?
Virtues
o Core virtues – what are they and where is there cross-cultural convergence?
o Evolutionary explanation
Which “needs” are most strongly related to satisfaction and happiness? Cultural differences?